ZXVGS P3M

Operating system dedicated to PL3MEM interface and upgraded ZX Spectrum +3.

Uses drives of ZX+3 (also 3.5" - see below) and disks in CPM22QED formats. Also can drive a hard disk (e.g. via YAMOD.ATBUS or YAMOD.IDE8255). The original PLUS3DOS is removed (unless PL3MEM has 128kB EPROM).

To run on real hardware some internal changes are required. The original ROMs should be replaced with EPROM and SRAM, each 32kB. As the ULA selects the internal ROMs only for reading, an extra circuit must be build for the SRAM to work properly. It is possible also to install ZXVGS on ZX Spectrum +3 using an external interface (PL3MEM).

To run this ZXVGS version on emulator, the ROM2 and ROM3 banks must be write-enabled. At this moment it is possible only on XZX 2.9.0 emulator that requires some modifications (modified source files are included in the archive). Use the QTRANS.EXE to make a diskimage for emulator. You can pleace in the directory any file you want to be copied onto CPM22QED diskimage file. For real hardware use CPDWRITE.EXE to copy the diskimage on real disk (CPDWRITE.EXE will format it).

The harddisk can be prepared with QDISK or QTRANS.

To upgrade the system on your harddisk, connect the HDD to PC as Secondary Master, unpack the "ZXVGSP3M.SYS" file from recent release, then execute on PC the following command:

QTRANS a IDE2:IDEDOS/ZXVGSP3M.SYS ZXVGSP3M.SYS

Files for download

zx035p3m.zip 54.1kB (2006-04-08 15:22)

ZXVGS release 0.35.

zx35.txt 3.0kB (2004-07-08 16:28)

3.5" drive inside ZX Spectrum +3 - short description.

zx034p3m.zip 91.3kB (2004-05-28 23:35)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.34. Fixed .TAP loading, added Kempston Joystick detection.

zx033p3m.zip 79.5kB (2004-05-14 15:18)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.33. Supports also harddisks that need geometry set. Also 63 sectors per track is driven correctly. Needs new QTRANS.EXE to prepare disk.

zx032p3m.zip 78.1kB (2004-03-07 13:40)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.32.

zx031p3m.zip 92.0kB (2003-05-22 23:12)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.31.

zx030p3m.zip 88.0kB (2003-04-20 01:57)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.30.

zx029p3m.zip 83.1kB (2001-09-28 20:09)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.29.

zx028p3m.zip 75.0kB (2001-06-04 02:27)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.28.

zx022p3m.zip 25.0kB (2000-07-16 03:18)

(old) ZXVGS release 0.22 - the very first.

Links to other pages

http://www.secarica.ro/html/plus3_hardware.html#3and5inchdrive

3.5" drive inside +3 - detailed description.

See also

PL3MEM - ZX Spectrum IDE (ATA)

External box for ZX Spectrum with 128kB EPROM, 32kB SRAM in ZX+3 switching and 16b IDE interface.

QDISK

QDISK is a IDEDOS partition software for many platforms. Also can convert B-DOS RECORDs.

QTRANS

Manages Disk Objects - disk drives, diskimages, files on them, partiton tables, etc. Creates, removes, copies, renames anything you want.