The Sinclair QL Forum

I find that most BASIC programs listed on Dilwyn Jones's site will not run on my SMSQE set up. If the program is very simple
I am sometimes able to modify the source code such that the program works.

Yesterday I was tempted to download P.I.Cole 2 from DJ's adventure games page. As usual I was unable to get the game to
execute correctly. I am using QPC 4.00 and SMSQE 3.16 at a resolution of 1024 x 768 and the result can be seen in the
following screenshot. (no display in red box and 16 odd bits at the top of screen and executing from RAM disk)
Does P.I.Cole2 run on SMSQE and if it does what am I doing wrong? Is there a way of moving the window so that it is not
displayed in the top left hand corner?

Have you set QPC2 into QL colour mode. There is a command, that I cant remember off hand. Or when you start QPC2, you can set 512x256 and QL colour mode.

This sets QPC2 to use a display file starting at 131072 like a real QL. I expect that PI Cole pokes the screen directly. That's why the red window is empty.

If you don't want to change your QPC setup,

Try
Before starting the program and all should be OK.

Thanks for your replies. As you say it only runs in QPC's QL low resolution mode. It's a shame because I like the game. I am sure you are correct when you say that it pokes to the screen directly.

As a separate problem is there any way of moving a fixed screen display, as, for example, the copy of xchange shown in
my screenshot?

Tinyfpga wrote:Thanks for your replies. As you say it only runs in QPC's QL low resolution mode. It's a shame because I like the game. I am sure you are correct when you say that it pokes to the screen directly.

With QPC_QLSCREMU 4 (or 8) it should run fine in a low-resolution window on a high-resolution screen.

Tinyfpga wrote: As a separate problem is there any way of moving a fixed screen display, as, for example, the copy of xchange shown in
my screenshot?

Only for applications that are prepared to do that. XChange fortunately is: Pressing CTRL+F4 should allow you to move the window around. Typically, other, older applications are not prepared for larger screens and simply have no support for moving their windows around.

Tinyfpga wrote:Does P.I.Cole2 run on SMSQE and if it does what am I doing wrong? Is there a way of moving the window so that it is not
displayed in the top left hand corner?

P.I. COle runs in SMSQE and on QPC
The best way to run the game is to start QPC2 : The game needs the QL resolution and colors in order to display the graphics properly (I used some extension to compress the images and to place the compressed images on screen)

PS if you haven't played PI Cole 1 then maybe you should start with that one - it's shorter and merrier. PI Cole 2 is more difficult and much more darker in the end.

HI,

Most games will run using the QPC2: QPC_QLSCREMU or SMSQmulator: JVA_QLSCREMU commands. Or use the Q68, which is compatible with mist games, does get require screen emulation.

QPC_QLSCREMU half works. The opening screen is correctly displayed but then it all goes wrong. As Andrew (I assume he wrote P.I.Cole) writes, I have to use original QL display characteristics for the game. I will take his advice and start with PIcole1.

How difficult would it be to modify the two games to run in non QL display modes? (I am just curious)

Thanks, tofro, for the CTRL+ 4 tip. It works perfectly for moving Xchange.

Tinyfpga wrote:How difficult would it be to modify the two games to run in non QL display modes? (I am just curious)

It's simple to make the changes, if you no longer use the screen compression and you do not want to scale the images or the text area.
It is a bit of work if you want to.

Anyway, conceptually I think emulators should be able to handle QL software, not the other way around