To Minerva or not to Minerva...

[t0nyt]

In my opinion, the only essential software, which does not run with Minerva, is the game Vroom.

It seems to run under Minerva in q-emulator, but I’m not able to test on my QL until I make a final decision on whether to switch ROMs

Under q-emulator I’m doing this:
CALL 390,(128+512)*1024+4
Don’t press F1/F2
Launch Vroom

[dex]

In that case, simple ROM switcher seems to be the solution…

[dilwyn]

Yes, one of my QLs has a very old QLEA ROM switcher board where I can switch between a Sinclair and a Minerva internally. It even has different colour LED for both. The Minerva could do with updating at some point, it's not one of the more recent ones.

The other QL has one of Marcel's QL-SD-ROM devices with multiple ROM images on board, but no internal ROM IIRC (shows how long since I last looked inside it!). Sadly, no longer available.

There's also the option of having one of Tetroid's ROM switchers if still available.

And of course EPROMs on plug-in cartridges (a 64K EPROM could hold a Sinclair or Minerva EPROM plus a 16K Toolkit 2), although that ties up the EPROM slot.

[t0nyt]

Yes, one of my QLs has a very old QLEA ROM switcher board where I can switch between a Sinclair and a Minerva internally. It even has different colour LED for both. The Minerva could do with updating at some point, it's not one of the more recent ones.

The other QL has one of Marcel's QL-SD-ROM devices with multiple ROM images on board, but no internal ROM IIRC (shows how long since I last looked inside it!). Sadly, no longer available.

There's also the option of having one of Tetroid's ROM switchers if still available.

And of course EPROMs on plug-in cartridges (a 64K EPROM could hold a Sinclair or Minerva EPROM plus a 16K Toolkit 2), although that ties up the EPROM slot.

May be I could do something with this? Though it would tie up the expansion slot

[dilwyn]

Never seen one of those before - what type is it (or is it homebrew) ?
As you say, ties up the expansion slot.
And depending on where in the memory map that puts the ROMs, might not allow expansions like Trump Card which use space allocated for ROMs to make up the difference between 640K total RAM and the 896K total of Trump Card.
Never tried adding a Minerva via the main expansion port, don't know if all signals needed are present there.

All these things have their merits and drawbacks.

[t0nyt]

Never seen one of those before - what type is it (or is it homebrew) ?
As you say, ties up the expansion slot.
And depending on where in the memory map that puts the ROMs, might not allow expansions like Trump Card which use space allocated for ROMs to make up the difference between 640K total RAM and the 896K total of Trump Card.
Never tried adding a Minerva via the main expansion port, don't know if all signals needed are present there.

All these things have their merits and drawbacks.

I believe it's an in-store Demo board so I guess Sinclair designed. Each screen is a mock-up with info (rather than the actual programs)

It immediately takes full control of the QL on power up

[dilwyn]

Nice! Heard about those instore demo boards, but never seen a real live example. Thanks for the picture.

[t0nyt]

In my opinion, the only essential software, which does not run with Minerva, is the game Vroom.

It seems to run under Minerva in q-emulator, but I’m not able to test on my QL until I make a final decision on whether to switch ROMs

Well I’ve bitten the bullet and installed Minerva (without breaking my JS ROM board this time!)

Many thanks for the various advice/opinions

I can confirm though that Vroom doesn’t work for me either

[t0nyt]

It's odd that it runs in Q-emuLator but not on real QL?

The only difference I can see is Q-emuLator is on 1.98 and my QL is 1.98 a1

[t0nyt]

It's odd that it runs in Q-emuLator but not on real QL?

The only difference I can see is Q-emuLator is on 1.98 and my QL is 1.98 a1

Just loaded 1.98 a1 into Q-emuLator and Vroom doesn't work now