This is a copy of Garry's original document unedited (apart from spelling) but the format changed for this wiki.

(c) Garry Lancaster, 2000-2023

[ Flash Card programming (c) Thierry Peycru, Gunther Strube ]

Introduction

RomCombiner is a BASIC program which allows you to combine several ROM images onto a single card, thus enabling you to use many applications from a single large (eg 128K or 256K) ROM, instead of having to continually swap cards. With the new Flash Cards, you could fit just about every application ever written for the Z88 onto a single card!

Another feature of RomCombiner is that it allows you to modify the letter key assigned to a particular application, change an application's name, alter the order that applications appear in the Index, or even leave out an unwanted application from the Index.

The program also includes facilities for reading ROM images, and for programming standard EPROMs and Flash Cards, and erasing Flash Cards.

 

The latest version of RomCombiner and other free Z88 software is always available from the Z88 Forever! website.

Using the program

RomCombiner is a collection of three files:

• 'romcombiner.bas',

• 'romutil.bas' and

• 'romcombiner.bin'.

Load all three files into your

Z88 in the same directory, start a BBC BASIC application with #B and

RUN "ROMCOMBINER.BAS"

 

The main menu provides eight options, allowing you to create image files from a ROM in the Z88, combine one or more sets of images, and

program a blank EPROM with a set of images. You can also check EPROMs are properly erased, convert emulator files, erase Flash Cards, change

the "wait" mode, and exit the program.

Read ROM card to image files

Upon selecting this option, you are asked for the slot containing the ROM you want to make image files from, and a name for the card (this

can be up to 12 characters long).

Usually, you should type "F" to create images of the full ROM card; in this case, the program will detect the size of the card and create the

appropriate number of images. For example, if you have the PCLink 2 ROMmin slot 2 and answered "2" for the slot number and "pclink" for the

card name, the program will create images called pclink.63 and pclink.62.

Advanced users may like to choose to take an image of a single bank, or range of banks, from a card.

Combine image files of cards

When you have got all the images of the cards you wish to combine, select the "combine" option. This presents you with a further menu

of choices.

The first thing to do is Add a card to the ROM you are creating: just enter A and you will then be asked for the name of a card to add. This

should be entered without an extension - for example, if your images are called pclink.63 and pclink.62, you should just enter pclink.

After successfully adding a card, the display will show the total number of cards, applications and the total ROM size of the new card.

As well as this, there is some information about each application found. eg.

    2. L=PCLink (4)

This shows that PCLink is application number 2, and will be accessed with key L. The number in brackets shows the order that the application

will appear in the Index list (ie 4th on this card).

At this point you can add further cards, or alter the details of the applications loaded so far.

Key

This option lets you specify a different letter for the application to be called by. This is useful if you have several applications using the

same key. If, for example, you had three applications using key W, then only the first would be accessed with

W, the second with

ZW and the

third with

ZZW. So, it might be better to assign an unused letter to one of the applications.

You can also choose 0 in this option, in which case the application will not be given a hotkey, but must be selected from the Index menu.

Order

This lets you change the order of the application list in the Index.

You can enter an application number and a new position for it (entering 0 for the position will leave it out of the application list altogether).

Alternatively, press

, and then enter the numbers of the applications in the order you wish them to appear in the Index. Press

 again when you've listed all the applications you want; any you have not specified will be left out of the Index list.

Leaving applications out of the Index list can be useful if there is an application you never need present on one of your cards (for example,

Diskfiler 2 if you do not have a disk drive!). However, note that doing this does not actually save any space on the new card.

Rename

This lets you change the name of an application. The new name must be the same length or shorter than the original one.

Patch

Some applications are written expecting to be located in specific banks in a certain-sized cards, and do not usually work correctly after

being "combined" into a larger card. This option allows you to select a patch file designed to correct this behaviour for a particular

application, and so allow it to be used in combined cards. If you find an application which does not work properly in a combined

card, you should check if a patch file is available for it. Some patch files are included with this release of RomCombiner, but there may be

others available. These can always be obtained from the Z88 Forever! website.

To use a patch, simply use this option and type in its filename. The patch will then be applied during generation of the new card. Any

application which has a patch assigned to it is marked with an asterisk (*) in the list. To remove a patch from an application, just press

 when asked for the filename.

When combining a card with a patch, you may see some warnings displayed. This could mean you have the wrong patch selected for the application (in which case the application probably won't work correctly). However, it's more likely that the application has been patched previously when combined into another card - in this case the warnings can be ignored.

Info

This displays technical information on the selected application for advanced users.

Disp

This toggles the display mode. When on, you will always see a list of the current applications on the combined card. However, if this list