Preface

When the Z88 came out, there was no facility to 'Blow your own ROM,' This was because the Z88 Application software was supplied on an EPROM card. As larger EPROM cards became available, it was possible to make compilations but there were only a few people around who had the skills to link the applications together, writing addresses on the back of envelopes and using Hex calculators. This all changed when ROMcombiner was written. This allowed users to combine applications themselves. When the Flash cards become available, blowing those were added, so at last, all the applications that were written could be written onto one 1M card.

Now that all the companies that wrote software for the Z88 are no longer marketing their products it is now possible to download the ROM image and blow your own.

Main Prerequisites

The Z88 needs to have the following cards as a minimum configuration.

• Slot 1 needs to have at least 128K and at least enough RAM to store the image to blow
• Slot 2 may have another Flash card with the Computer Link in it.
• and the following items are required:-

	A blank EPROM or Flash Card to store the applications or files.
	(Optional) EPROM Eraser to erase the EPROM card (if required).
	Connecting the Z88 to the Desktop to transfer the programs to the Z88. See Computer Links for more details

Getting the image

There are different ways of obtaining the image of an application.

• Downloading
• Copying
• Writing your own

Download the Application

Unzip Flashtest 32, the file and transfer the five files to the Z88.

The files are shown here displayed in the Filer are:-

• FLASHEPROM.62 &.63 - These are the image files for Flashtest and Flashstore.
• Romcombiner.bas, .bin & RomUtil.bas - These files are required to blow the image to the EPROM card.

Running RomCombiner

To run the program, do the following:-

• Select BBC BASIC B. Type
• RUN "ROMCOMBINER.BAS"

The following screen is displayed.

EPROMs can only be programmed in Slot 3.

Verify EPROM banks properly erased

Press V. followed by

• F
• 32

If the EPROM is properaly erased the following screen is displayed.

If an error message is displayed, the EPROM should be removed and erased again with the EPROM Eraser until it passes this test.

Blow image files to blank EPROM

From the main screen, Select

• B
• 3 and then the Card name
• FLASHEPROM
• F

The screen will flash a few times until the following screen is displayed. If any programming errors are given, the EPROM will need to be erased and this procedure needs to be repeated from Verify EPROM banks properly erased.

• Select
• Open the Card Flap
• Remove the 32K EPROM card from slot 3
• Close the Card Flap
• Open the Card Flap
• Insert the 32K EPROM in slot 2
• Close the Card Flap
• Press the key to display the two new applications at the bottom of the list