FAQ on echo conference ZX.SPECTRUM

Q: Which Sinclair emulators are the most convenient and to which you can get
toys?
A: Convenience is a rather slippery question... And the most popular among the people
are three types of emulator: Lunter emulator, adapted to work with TR-DOS;
UKV v1.2 emulator (also works with real tr-DOS diskettes);
Shalaev emulator (works with floppy disk images). The last two are our
authors. It was their ability to work with hobet files and tr-dos
that was the impetus for their fairly wide distribution. On them it is quite
easy to process the usual and familiar tr-dos floppy disk.
By the way, the author Nikolay Shalaev has a fidosh address, and even /;)/ reads
echo ZX.SPECTRUM. His address is 2:5020/378.40

Q: People. Help pls. how to read this format .
A: Dmitry Grigoryev (2:5020/689.31):
Yes. Do you have one or more files with a .$ extension? How to launch them
depends on the existing emulator, one way or another supporting
TRDOS format (formats similar to .z80 or .tap will not help - now
most programs have sub-loads, you can’t automatically transfer them to tap)
Let’s say the file name is online80.$b ;-)

Option 1. You need a Z80TRDOS emulator and hobeta and utilities hofrmt.
1) Take a floppy disk, insert it into drive A and format it:
hofrmt a: /80d
2) Launchhobeta - copy online80.$b to this floppy disk with the F5 key.
3) Launch z80trdos.
4) In the menu that appears, select TR-DOS and enter RUN "ONLINE80"
Note: to work with 3-inch disks, you need special versions
of utilities.

Option 2. You need the Shalaev emulator and utility zcop.
1) Create a disk image and copy the program to it:
zcop trdos.trd online80.$b
2) Launch the emulator with the “inserted” image:
spectrum trdos.trd
[or in the emulator using F5 after launch, select the disk image :IG]
3) Click “Launch emulator”
4) Similarly step 4 of option 1

Option 3. You need a UKV emulator and a zcop utility version no lower than 1.0
1) Create a disk image and copy the program to it:
zcop -f trdos.fdi online80.$b
2) Launch the emulator with the “inserted” image:
sp_emu -vatrdos.fdi
3) Similar to step 4 of option 1

If there are several files, you need to copy them all in a logical
order :(
[but this is not always a necessary parameter :IG :)]

Q: Who has a converter for .Z80 files to .$* and vice versa.
A: (Vyacheslav Mednonogov, 2:5030/461.12):
Quick conversion of .z80 to .z80 format magic file is done as follows:
-load UKV 1.x
-press ESC
-select type snapshot = z80 (in the first menu)
-downloadsnapshot name.z80 (in the same menu)
-press F9 to continue working in the emulator
-press F10 (analogous to the magic button)
-all

(I’ll add: if you want to convert to .z80 in particular, then
after downloading UKV 1.x and running it in it (from a floppy disk or disk image)
the desired program is performed in a similar sequence, only after
selecting the type of snapshot and entering the name, you need to save it. Also
the Lunter emulator allows you to save a snapshot. And to convert
hobet - .z80 you need a version of the Lunter emulator with support for tr-dos.)

Q: The UKV emulator (the launched file is named sp_emu) to a floppy disk in the drive
swears, saying no disk, although it sees the hobet. great...
A: (Ilya Vasilyev 2:5030/461.22) It’s just that on fast cars for UKV you need
to make a delay for the promotion of the drive, i.e. you need to launch it with
the -d key (and here you need to enter a number from 1 to 255 - the delay time);
For example, on the 133rd stump of the UKV you can start only with the -d255
key sp_emu.exe -d255
Another problem may be in wIN 95, this is a Mazda controls all direct
access to disks (even if it itself is not loaded, then the enti functions for it
execute dos 7.0, which the above-mentioned Mazda installs instead of others)
Sometimes this option helps: boot from the disk on which
the system from dos 6.22 or similar is installed, bypassingclean all the configs and start
subj with the -d key (see above).

Q: What kind of files are with the extension *.$b, *.$c?
A: Hobet file. That is, a file copied by the hobeta program from a tr-disk floppy disk. The letter most often denotes belonging to some type. (.$w is text in Sinclair's ZX-Word format,
.$s is a picture for a screen printer...) The extension in principle can be
anything. It depends on the authors of the program that uses these files.
A: (Michael Kondratyev 2:5030/362.1) Its (hobet file) structure:
The first 13 bytes are an exact copy of the hardcode header. Next are two bytes of length
in sectors; because it is a multiple of 256, then the first is always zero, and the second is
the number of sectors. And the last two bytes are the checksum. It is calculated
simply - all the previous 15 bytes are summed up, the number is multiplied by
257 and the sum_of_numbers_from_0_to_14 is added, i.e. 105.
In the procedure on the Z80 Asm:
; to input de = header address
ld hl,0
ld b,15
m1: ld a,(de)
add a,l
ld l,a
jr nc,m2
inc h
m2: inc de
djnz m1
add a,h
ld h,a
ld c,105
add hl,bc ; hl = Hobeta sum

Q: And the extension .$z?
A: Hobeta file, packaged on the Spectrum with the zxzip program (by Michael
Kondratyev), which became dein fact, the official packager of programs for ZX.
To unpack it, you need zxunzip. There is an analogue of zxzip on IBM, but in an obscene form. The author still wrote zxunzip for IBM. Well,
we will now wait for the normal version of zxzip for IBM. Better yet
pkzip/pkunzip for speccy. :)

Q: How to get a blank disk image file (.trd) for the Shalaev emulator?
A: Use zcop by Rick Murray. Running with the name of a non-existent
(*)disk image file creates one. Then you can simply copy this file.
There is also a small program from Mikhail Kondratiev (trdisk.com),
which is designed to format a disk image.

Q: We have Shalaev emulator, blank disk image (.trd), how to write a hobet file to it?
A: Use zcop. Namely - zcop name.trd 1.$c 2.$c ... Where name.trd is
(*)the name of the disk image file. 1.$c - names of hobet files.

Q: Is there a utility that does the opposite action - extracts files *.$b, *.$c, etc. from *.trd
?
A: Oh... Use zcop. zcop name.trd extracts all files from the disk image
(*) into the current directory.
Although you can go the other way. Drop the disk imageemulator (until 2.04
this was possible...) to a disk formatted for tr-dos 5'25, then using hobeta
we copy the necessary files to ms-dos

Q: In August 1996, Enlight'96 was held in St. Petersburg - a party of demomakers.
For the first time, the Specrum platform was presented there. The results
shocked the world. :) But where can I get all the works that took part
in zx-compo? Preferably Internet servers...
A: (Peter Sobolev 2:5030/84)
All releases are at ftp.enlight.ru/pub/demos/enlight96/zx
Results and other information - www.enlight.ru

Q: Is there a Russian ZX-oriented FTP or WWW in nature? server?
A: (Sergei Novikov 2:5020/689.1; Dmitry Grigoryev 2:5020/689.31)
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/8003
ftp.ogre2vsk.edu.lv/acid-nature/speccy/
http://www.uniyar.ac.ru/~fantom/museum/zx/

Q: I can't even read a single Spectrum disc. :( Help me!
A: Well, what can I say... A multicard on IBM is not perfect. :(
The recommendations are as follows - use FUT (this is on the Spectrum), do not
format in fast, not in turbo. Or you can use DCU 2.32. It is possible
to also format disks under tr-dos on IBM with hoformat. If this
is not helps, try sealing half of the index
hole on a 5'25 floppy. In some cases it helps.

Q: Is it possible?connect a 3.5" drive to the Speccy? What modifications are needed?
A: (Danil Ermakoff 2:5080/43.30) Yes, a 3.5" drive connects to the Speccy
without any problems, just install the appropriate connectors on the
controller and power cables. Don't forget that you need to use
720kb floppy disks (without the hole on the right side of the floppy disk), or cover
this hole on a 1.44Mb floppy disk. It is possible that you will also need
to ground the 2nd pin in the drive connector (DD/HD switching), but
everything works for me Ok!

Q: HoBeta refuses to read/write 3.5" disks. What should I do?
A: (Danil Ermakoff 2:5080/43.30) Indeed, at the whim of the author, HoBeta
cannot work with disks 3.5". Fortunately, this problem is solvable
not simply, but very simply, just replace one byte, and so:
HoBeta v2.15 unpacked length - 48014. At offset #0000B7C2 we replace
#01 with #04, and that’s it! And remember: for normal operation, HoBet's disks on
Speccy must be formatted with DCU 2.32, FUT or
similar programs, but not with the DOS format"xxxxxxxx" command!

Q: When I assembled the Leningrad version, I have since written quite a large
number of programs for my Speccy, and they all remained on cassettes.
How to process programs on a cassette on IBM feed?
A: (From the docket on Zart by RickMurrey):
ZART allows you to work with a tape recorder connected to the LPT port,
for example, copy from a tape to .tap format. And you can process .tap
on the Lunter emulator or use the same ZART or other
utilities for translation into hobeta. In general, I recommend using ZART
for such purposes.

Tape recorder adapter diagram for IBM PC.
Borrowed from G. A. Lunter.
LPT
Out 10k 120k
<─────██████─────■─────█ █████───────────────────■ PBO (2)
│
═╪═
│ 4n7
─┴─ ┌───────■ +5v (16)
│
To tape recorder 4k7 ▐█▌
▐█▌
│
25k ▐█▌ ____
▐█▌<──■──■ BUSY (11)
In 330 680n │ │
>─────────██████────────Ґ ───────────────┼────┘
│
■───────■ PE (12)
│
│
LPT connector means ■───────■ GND (19)
25-pin, i.e. which sticks out in the │
computer. In and Out ─┴─
with t.z. computer. Those. the output of the tape recorder is connected to In
┌───────■ (1)
│
└───────■ (10)

(*)
Notes: zcop's author Rick Murray has released a new version zcop, which also works
with disk images of the UKV emulator (sp_emu), there are some differences
from the first option. and therefore read the documentation on it, it is a very useful activity. :)

With all kinds of regards and wishes.
Igor.

P.S. Not all the answers have been personally verified by me, because if there is anything, I’m glad to hear
additions/corrections.
... The more confused everything is, the closer the denouement is.