My shopping in RWAP: connecting AY to ZXpand

[yerzmyey]

Another thing "from a regular user" about ZXpand. (I hope all of this could be useful for possible further buyers).

As we know, some programs require disabling ZXpand instantly after loading. I mean ";X" command.
Now - what's actually left after the command?
I know - new ROM dissapeares, flash-loading dissapeares.

What about 32Kb of RAM and what about hires and AY? Do they still work after ";X"?

Thanks in advance,
Yerz

[sirmorris]

Hi Yerz,

please keep asking the questions - they are all useful reminders that not everyone should be expected to know these things. Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows the hardware as well as I do

You are right - the only thing that disappears with LOAD "...;x" is the ROM overlay. You can still use all the hardware features of the board. If you have the code to do so then you can still load and save... I'm working on a little library right now which can be loaded and used just like the ROM extensions.

For new programs I recommend copying the character table into high RAM, or loading a custom one. Having the character set available to legacy programs (those that can't be altered) is the only real reason I have found to disable the ZXpand ROM. There may be compatibility issues with older programs which use parts of the ROM that I have changed, but I haven't found any of those yet.

C

[yerzmyey]

Aha, thx a lot. I will remember it.

Meanwhile I was wondering why those games don't work.
http://yerzmyey.republika.pl/hrs.zip

The Pacman starts but it crashes at once. Strange.

[sirmorris]

Where do they come from?

[yerzmyey]

Hm. I will be hones - I have no idea, heh.
Supposedly they're hires.
Ah well, maybe it's not so important.

[sirmorris]

I think they may be UDG. Difficult to tell.

[sascha2000]

>> I 'presume' he would not plan on using the MrX interface and the ZXpand-AY at the same time!

Hmmmm, I will offer another GAL with different Adress decoding for the MrX so that it is possible to use it in conjunction with the ZXpand (or two MrX at the same time).

Alltogether this would make MrX + ZXpand = 6 voices/channels and may be interresting for some artists?

[yerzmyey]

Alltogether this would make MrX + ZXpand = 6 voices/channels and may be interresting for some artists?

Yes, if they sound in perfect tune together, then it could be done.
It is pretty popular on Spectrum to play from 2 AYs.
This is an example song; http://yerzmyey.republika.pl/DiscoHel.$m

There are several editors on Spectrum but actually I made it in two emulators of ZX48 and then I merged both songs in VortexTracker (a cross-platform soft for making ZX songs on PC).

[yerzmyey]

Hello guyz.
Several more questions - maybe somebody would knew.

- Does this game download/file.php?id=375 works with joystick for You ppl? I tested on ZXpand 1.5 and there's no joystick at all. Also "o" key (left direction) doesn't work.

- what is "Error 9" (hmm, it was 9 if memory serves) on ZXpand? I see it all the time. There was nothing like that on 1.3; SirMorris was so kind to change my rom into 1.5 but since then I have Error 9 most of times I enter folders. I ignore it and enter the folder once again - and then it works fine. Strange.

Thx in advance,
Y

[sirmorris]

Hi Yerz, I think you need to execute the following:

CONFIG "C=FF"

Let me know if the error 9s go away.

C