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Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:10 pm
by SinclairSociety
I am having issues with 2 of the 4 freshly refelted Microcarts that were provided to me by a reputable QL company.
These happen to be the 4 Psion apps. I was hoping to explore Quill now but on startup, I keep getting an error towards the end of booting.
"At Line 8 Bad or Changed Medium" message on the screen
Unsure if my Microdrive #1 is having issues but would guess if it was, then the other 2 carts would not work too.
Any advice on the above issue? Common? Even with refelted carts, maybe the tape bad?
Anyway, one tip was to erase the cart and try to recopy Quill onto it.
Do you think if I download Quill 2.35 from Dilwyn's site and place on my vDrive, can I copy those contents over to an erased or new microcart, since I have some blanks, and make a bootable QL Microcart with Quill on it that boots from #1
Any help would be grand.
Thanks
TJ
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 8:04 pm
by Chr$
You can indeed, as they are not copy protected in any way. If you use the version for Microdrive then all the paths will correctly point to mdv1_.
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 8:18 pm
by Cristian
There are so many variables to consider regarding the reliability of Microdrive cartridges.
- the magnetic head may be dirty: try to gently clean it with a cotton stick and some alcohol;
- the tape itself is very old and possibly worn or stretched;
- the capstan roller may be worn;
- the position of the cartridge in the slot: you may try to gently push it down while running, but be careful!
You may try to format the cartridge to see the format report and detect possible problems
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:16 pm
by SinclairSociety
I think I will shake off the vDrive cobwebs to remember how to use it. haha.
Then try to place a copy of Quill on it and see about my 1st copy to mvd1 on a blank cart.
See how that pans out.
Never done a copy before. All new to me.
Hopefully the big user guide I will find helpful for this.
TJ
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:32 pm
by SinclairSociety
hmmm, well I don't see a vDdrive MVD of Quill and I don't have software to create my own MVDs.
I don't see how I can copy Quill to my SD Card then that goes into the vDrive since they need .MVDs, correct?
They can't just read the individual files after unzipping them from my download.
TJ
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:24 pm
by Chr$
Go down the page, there are vDrive versions:
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/psions/index.html
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:45 pm
by bwinkel67
SinclairSociety wrote:hmmm, well I don't see a vDdrive MVD of Quill and I don't have software to create my own MVDs.
I don't see how I can copy Quill to my SD Card then that goes into the vDrive since they need .MVDs, correct?
They can't just read the individual files after unzipping them from my download.
TJ
Also, to create your own vDrive image, you can use the Qlay emulator. I forget which side I formatted on (vDrive or Qlay) or if I just took a working image off of Dilwyn's site and deleted the files, but once you have a blank, call it BLANK.MDV, make a copy, rename that copy, and use Qlay to move files to it. You can actually run Quill, or any of the Psion suite off of any mdv drive, you just have to run the configuration program that comes with it and tell it which drive. So you don't even need vMap to get them to work nicely.
Here is a zip that contains an entire vDrive SD card collection.
- SD.zip
- (393.6 KiB) Downloaded 143 times
It has the four (US version) Psion suite configured for mdv5 through mdv8. I also threw in my ZXSimulator on mdv4 and a blank cart on mdv3. You simply take a formatted empty SD card and copy the contents of the zip onto it (the CFG file and two folders) and it should work for you. The ZXSimulator you run by typing the following on the command line:
exec mdv4_zx
Then within it you type ZX81 BASIC commands. Try some of the following:
- LOAD "MDV4_BATTLESHIP_BAS"
- Game I wrote as a kid and almost published through Gladstone Electronics, one of the big Sinclair distributors in the US back in the early 80's
- LOAD "MDV4_ELITE_BAS"
- Game I wrote during pandemic after the famous Elite game...missing planet hopping which I will do eventually
- LOAD "MDV4_MINESQL_BAS"
- Bodo Wenzel's Minesweeper for ZX81 that I added some configuration options to allow joystick movements (hence the QL in its name since space is not a ZX81 input)
P.S. Take a look at the VDRIVEQL.CFG in a text editor (Notepad) and you see it's a pretty simple format that vDrive uses. I actually never use the vDrive software from the QL to configure my SD card, I just hand edit that config file and it works pretty seamlessly.
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:03 am
by SinclairSociety
Guess I will need to look again.
I thought I downloaded this but they did not unzip as a mdv file, which I thought it how the image is used on Drive.
Been a bit so I will re-read and try again.
TJ
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:04 am
by SinclairSociety
Oh wow, thank you!
Let me print this out and download it, re-read, and see if I can get it to work.
TJ
bwinkel67 wrote:SinclairSociety wrote:hmmm, well I don't see a vDdrive MVD of Quill and I don't have software to create my own MVDs.
I don't see how I can copy Quill to my SD Card then that goes into the vDrive since they need .MVDs, correct?
They can't just read the individual files after unzipping them from my download.
TJ
Also, to create your own vDrive image, you can use the Qlay emulator. I forget which side I formatted on (vDrive or Qlay) or if I just took a working image off of Dilwyn's site and deleted the files, but once you have a blank, call it BLANK.MDV, make a copy, rename that copy, and use Qlay to move files to it. You can actually run Quill, or any of the Psion suite off of any mdv drive, you just have to run the configuration program that comes with it and tell it which drive. So you don't even need vMap to get them to work nicely.
Here is a zip that contains an entire vDrive SD card collection.
SD.zip
It has the four (US version) Psion suite configured for mdv5 through mdv8. I also threw in my ZXSimulator on mdv4 and a blank cart on mdv3. You simply take a formatted empty SD card and copy the contents of the zip onto it (the CFG file and two folders) and it should work for you. The ZXSimulator you run by typing the following on the command line:
exec mdv4_zx
Then within it you type ZX81 BASIC commands. Try some of the following:
- LOAD "MDV4_BATTLESHIP_BAS"
- Game I wrote as a kid and almost published through Gladstone Electronics, one of the big Sinclair distributors in the US back in the early 80's
- LOAD "MDV4_ELITE_BAS"
- Game I wrote during pandemic after the famous Elite game...missing planet hopping which I will do eventually
- LOAD "MDV4_MINESQL_BAS"
- Bodo Wenzel's Minesweeper for ZX81 that I added some configuration options to allow joystick movements (hence the QL in its name since space is not a ZX81 input)
P.S. Take a look at the VDRIVEQL.CFG in a text editor (Notepad) and you see it's a pretty simple format that vDrive uses. I actually never use the vDrive software from the QL to configure my SD card, I just hand edit that config file and it works pretty seamlessly.
Re: Help Copying Quill from vDrive to Microcart
Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:32 am
by bwinkel67
SinclairSociety wrote:Oh wow, thank you!
Let me print this out and download it, re-read, and see if I can get it to work.
TJ
If you get it to work, Game-of-the-week me on Battleship. That would be cool on so many fronts. It can run on an actual ZX81 (or on the Spectrum Next I presume) but having it run on an emulated Sinclair ZX81 (my ZXSimulator) on a Sinclair QL would be kind of Sinclair squared. Not a graphical game, just a plain old battleship variant, but it play pretty well and I recently made it smarter.