Table of Contents

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 Garry Lancaster wrote ROMcombiner. 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.

Image RemovedImage Added

• Slot 1 needs to have at least 128K and at least enough RAM to store the image to blow. As the size of SpellMaster is 128K and additional space is required to run the application, 512K is the preferred size to work with. In the ROMcombiner instructions show how EPROM cards may be created by blowing the 16K individual image files lengths in several steps, bso it is possible to build one with 128K.
• Slot 2 may have another Flash EPROM card with the Computer Link in it.
• and the following items are required:-

Image AddedImage Modified	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

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To demonstrate how this is done we are using the SpellMaster ROM which needs 128K or space.

Using Rakewell Flash Card with OZ v4.

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The main advantage of using this combination is that it has

• ROMcombiner
• Unzip
• EazylinkEazylink2

already on the Z88. The procedure is as follows;-

• On the Desktop Download the spell.zip file.
• Using EazylinkEazylink2, transfer the file from the Desktop to the Z88.

Using Unzip

This is also covered elsewhere in this manual See Using Unzip.

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Either Download the RomCombiner V2.10zip file from above, or use Flashstore J to fetch Romcombiner to the RAM.

ROMcombiner instructions

The full instructions are found here.

Using ROMcombiner

Tip
title Working with Directories
If the download is used, the file name is longer than 12 characters long. When transferring the file to the Z88, that file name will be truncated. After unzipping the file a ROMCOMBINER-.10 Directory will be formed. The files created in this Directory need to be with the image files in the root directory. Tree Copy TC is used to copy these files. The Source and Destination are entered as follows:- :RAM.1/RomCombiner-.10 :RAM.1/ (no spaces) To ERASE Directories, Files and Directories need to be erased first. In this case, move the cursor over the ROMCOMBINER-.10 and use to select it. Move the cursor over DOC and use again to select it. These files are erased first using ER, at the :Name prompt use the wildcard charater * to select all files. After these files have been deleted, move up to the Directory above with and do this operation again. Finally moving up to the Root Directory above with delete the ROMCOMBINER-.10 by marking it and then ER.

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