The Sinclair QL Forum

I was wondering if there's a way to disable the memory expansion on a Trump Card 768 please?

I have a piece of software that needs > 128kb (so can't use res_128) but it won't run from mdv or vdrive with Trump card installed

The software runs fine from flp1 (gotek) & flp2 (3.5") though (and still runs ok if I flp_use mdv, so not related to device name it seems)

If I remove the Trump card and enable Quintrupler the identical files run fine from mdv and vdrive

The idea would be to disable memory expansion on the Trump card, and use it with Quintrupler enabled instead to see if it will then run from gotek/3.5"/mdv/vdrive with Trump card installed

It's not that I NEED to run it from mdv or vdrive (as it runs fine from gotek/floppy) but I'd like to try and understand what's going on with my QL and/or Trump card

Many thanks

Forgot to say, the software is just a game called The Lost Pharaoh

The version that needs >128kb

I do have an original mdv with the 128 version (I assume) but it’s corrupted

Thanks

If you have Minerva you can use CALL 390,<new RAMTOP>. E.g. CALL 390,(384+128)*1024 gets you 384KB RAM.

janbredenbeek wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 4:59 pm If you have Minerva you can use CALL 390,<new RAMTOP>. E.g. CALL 390,(384+128)*1024 gets you 384KB RAM.

Thanks for the info, good to know, but I don’t use Minerva

There's also a "memory shrink" facility which lets you define any ram size. It's rather old, I don't know if it works on modern systems or not, sorry. Probably worth trying, at least.

v2.60 Variable Memory Shrink. Software reset to any ram size for the Sinclair QL. Useful for older games which only run on 128K RAM, for example, and for testing if software will run on given amount of RAM (e.g. will it work on a 256K RAM system?). Developed on Minerva v1.79 by QView, Compiled with Turbo v2.04 by Digital Precision. (Emmanuel Verbeeck)

https://dilwyn.qlforum.co.uk/tk/Memory_Shrink_v2_60.zip

Another such utility is RES:

RES (2K) - extension to reset expanded memory QL to have a given RAM size, e.g. for testing software in minimal memory or to run programs which will only run in a given amount of memory (Peter Beule)

https://dilwyn.qlforum.co.uk/tk/res.zip

Thanks dilwyn, will look into those thanks

I’ve solved my immediate problem with Pharaoh by editing the boot file and overriding its total memory calculation by adding a line

6 totalMem=256000

And now it runs off vdrive fine, though still seem to have an issue with physical mdv

Many thanks

Changing the value to 260000 lets it run ok on both the physical mdvs and vdrive