SMSQ/2 on Atari

[RalfR]

Does the emulator board fit the all in one machines, or just the separate case ones? I have an all in one STe.

The Mode 8 emulator, Extended 4 emulator fit into Atari STF(M), Mega ST, not the STE variant.

The emulstor board required soldering wires to the Atari motherboard.

The Extended Mode 4 emulator is not that easy to put in. There are many different variants of a MegaST, Jochen has put nearly 4 different ones into his documents to prepare the board. The most horrible thing is to put out the Glue chip, to put a wire outside and to put the Glue again inside. It sits very strong, it was a real pain for me, but I was lucky.

So if you do not have Jochen's documents, it seems to be not possible (without knowledge) to put the board into a MegaST. Perhaps Jochen has still his documents, but I fear.....

[guibrush]

@Derek
This would be awesome! Well, I'm interested into Atari hardware Do you have by chance a bottable media that you could image?

[Derek_Stewart]

So if you do not have Jochen's documents, it seems to be not possible (without knowledge) to put the board into a MegaST. Perhaps Jochen has still his documents, but I fear.....

I have Jochen's fitting instructions for each emulator board. So I could fit the boards.

[Derek_Stewart]

@Derek
This would be awesome! Well, I'm interested into Atari hardware Do you have by chance a bottable media that you could image?

I think all you need is a bootable Atari Disk withe the SMSQE.PRG file and a QL formatted disk with the QL software on.

I am not sure if the emulator can load the the QL software from an Atari formatted disk.

SMSQ/E can read TOS disk, but there might be issues with QL file headers.

[guibrush]

I think all you need is a bootable Atari Disk withe the SMSQE.PRG file and a QL formatted disk with the QL software on.

I am not sure if the emulator can load the the QL software from an Atari formatted disk.

yes, exactly. I have the Atari bootable disk with SMSQE.PRG, but what I miss is the QL formated disk with the distribution on it. I tried to read the manual, but I have no idea what format has to be used, or if I can do something like a copy of the .win container of the QLE distribution on another partition, this is not mentioned.

[pjw]

<>
I am not sure if the emulator can load the the QL software from an Atari formatted disk.<>

You can partition the Atari's hard disk with a program called fdisk to create some QLWA partitions, which can then be used by SMSQ/E directly.
I had a few Ataris with various "emulators", from the first, original, pre-Jochen bodge running a patched version of Qdos JS, to a switchable one that, IIRC fitted in the Ataris ROM socket, to the gorgeous QVME, which improved even the Atari itself.
During those years things were continuously changing due to the frenetic pace of development towards a legal, non-Alan Sugar, OS for QL computing on non-QL hardware. The end result was SMSQ/E, as we know it today. They were chaotic times, a bit like trying to build an aeroplane while flying it, so Im not sure that anything I learnt then, even if I could remember the details, would be applicable now.
The Atari was my all-time favourite "QL" (MegaST4, QVME, 2 x SyQuest 105Mb swappable HDDs,..) - At least until high colour arrived.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I tried a QVME on a TT030, which worked okay only Mode 4 colours.

Compared to the Q68, which can do 1024x768 Mode 4, looks the same.

[pjw]

<>
yes, exactly. I have the Atari bootable disk with SMSQE.PRG, but what I miss is the QL formated disk with the distribution on it. I tried to read the manual, but I have no idea what format has to be used, or if I can do something like a copy of the .win container of the QLE distribution on another partition, this is not mentioned.

You can only try..
1) Use QPC2 or some other suitable emulator to copy some files to a QL-formatted disk and see if you can load these into the Atari.
2) Try the same with a Windows-formatted floppy, I think SMSQ/E for Atari can read MSDOS-formatted disks natively, nowadays.
3) There is a toolkit (probably on Dilwyn's site, if not I still have it somewhere) called AtariDOS_rext (I think, or maybe Atari_bin) which causes SMSQ/E to read Atari-formatted disks.

If you use non-QL disks you should only transfer programs zipped.

[pjw]

Hi,

I tried a QVME on a TT030, which worked okay only Mode 4 colours.

Compared to the Q68, which can do 1024x768 Mode 4, looks the same.

You may need additional drivers. Its complicated. You had to choose the right driver for your monitor and for the different modes. If you got it wrong, youd go blind..
I cant remember the many different modes, but for example, you could run Atari programs like Calamus (DTP) in hicolor on an ordinary non-Atari monitor.

[RalfR]

I cant remember the many different modes, but for example, you could run Atari programs like Calamus (DTP) in hicolor on an ordinary non-Atari monitor.

More than MODE 4 isn't possible with QVME (as Edwin Holtmann said), because of the QVME hardware. The QVME Atari driver disk, Jochen supplied, is for 1024x768 in b/w under TOS.