ZXDOS+ and gomaDOS+ Manual

In order to use a microSD card, it has to be formatted with, at least, one FAT16 or FAT32 format (depending on the case, one or the other format is recommended for compatibility with different third-party cores). It must be the first partition if there are more than one, except for the Spectrum core wich can have the first partition in +3DOS format, and then the second one in FAT16 or FAT32 format to use with a +3e ROM.

esxdos is a firmware for the DivIDE/DivMMC hardware interfaces (which ZXDOS+ implements). This allows access to storage devices such as a microSD card. It includes commands similar to those of UNIX, although to use them you must precede them with a period, for example .ls,` .cd`, .mv, etc.

For it to work, it is necessary to include the corresponding files in the first partition of the microSD card.

At the time of writing this document, the version included with ZXDOS+ is 0.8.6, and it can be downloaded from the official website at this link.

Once downloaded and extracted, you have to copy the directories BIN, SYS and TMP, and all of their content, to the root of first partition of the microSD card.

If everything has been done correctly, when you turn on the ZXDOS+ Spectrum core, you will see how esxdos detects the card and loads the necessary components to work.

It is also recommended to add the specific esxdos commands for ZXDOS+. These can be obtained from the project source page (here, here and here), and are as follows:

<<#_zxdos+_commands,It is explained later> what each of them does.

In the first configuration screen, in addition to being able to run several tests, you can define the default behavior for the following:

More technical information can be found on de ZX-Uno Wiki.

The second screen shows the installed ZX Spectrum ROMs. You can reorder (Move Up, Move Down), rename or delete each of them, as well as choose the one that will be loaded by default at startup (Set Active ).

Upgrade screen is used to perform the different updates of the Flash memory content: esxdos, BIOS, Cores, etc. (see the section corresponding to updates for more information).

In the Boot screen you can choose which one of the installed cores is loaded by default at startup.

The Advanced configuration screen is used to edit the following settings:

Finally, from the last screen you can:

You can use Windows Disk Management utility. The steps are:

You will have to use the command line. The first task is to find out which device is the disk to format:

For this example, it will be disk 6:

Instruction steps:

You can use the command line. First, find out the device to erase:

For this example, it will be sdc:

Instructions:

Once the microSD card is ready to use, you can start Spectrum core with a +3e ROM and format the IDEDOS part.

The first step is determine the disk geometry. With the cart inserted into the ZXDOS+, type the command:

This will give a result showing the number of cylinders, heads and sectors.

Whith this info, we estimate the size of our partition, using cylinders. For example, if the number of cylinders is 32768, and we want to use 1GB of a 16GB card, the number of cylinders needes would be 32768/16=2048. This way, the IDEDOS partition can be formatted using that number:

The first value (0) is the drive to use (the first one), the second value is the maximum number of IDEDOS partitions, and the third one yis the number of cylinders to use.

Once formatted, you can create new partitions. For example, to create a 16MB partition with the name "Software", another 4GB partition named "Swap" (to use as swap) and another one name "Utils", 8MB in size:

For more information about the different +3e disk commands , you can check this page at World of Spectrum.

DerbyPro or Derby++ is an enhanced firmware ROM for the ZX Spectrum, based on v1.4 of the Derby development ROM. The Spectrum 128 (codename "Derby") was a Spanish machine commissioned by Investronica and launched in 1985. It came with a keypad that provided additional editing keys. In 1986, the UK version came out with a simplified version of 128 BASIC and no keypad. Derby++ is developed from the Spanish ROM to include the benefits of both versions, without the drawbacks, and support for new hardware developments.

You can download the ROM, a user manual and other files from the official Facebook Public Group.

Since it is a 64K ROM with support for new hardware, these flags can be used when adding it to the SPI flash:

CargandoLeches is a set of ZX Spectrum ROMs that startetd as a project to load games in any Spectrum model 15-20x faster. No tape is needed, but a digital audio source, as a computer, mobile device, MP3 player, etc. The new ROM detects the loading method and reverts to the original ROM code if needed. This is handled transparently, with no user or program intervention.

Since version 2.0 the project changed from a single ROM to more, each one with different options. This way, you can choose a different mix of options that may include:

The whole ROM set is available to download from the repository in GitHub here.

Depending on which ROM you choose, the flags when adding to the SPI flash may vary. For example, for the ROM 48le_ea_re_po (with all features enabled), these flags can be used (we cannot enable NMI DivMMC since the POKE editor will use it):

Here are flag settings which work when adding to the SPI flash some other known custom ROMs:

There are two different kind of esxdos commands, the so-called "DOT" commands, which, as the name suggests, begin with a period, and the commands that are extensions to the existing ones in BASIC.

The main "DOT" commands are the following:

Some BASIC extended commands are:

In addition, esxdos also has an NMI manager, an application that loads when NMI (F5 or Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+5 on gomaDOS+) is pressed, and lets you browse the microSD card and load easily files (TAP, Z80, TRD, etc.). Pressing the "H" key invokes a help screen, which shows all the available keys.

As explained in the installation part, there are a series of commands that are exclusive to ZXDOS+:

These are programs, developed by Nihirash and that are available to download from his web.

FTP cliente developed by Yombo, available at GitHub.

Configuration steps:

Program example included with ZXYLib C library, developed by yombo, that let’s you send directly typed characters using the UART, and also see the result. Available to download at this link.

Once the file UARTTERM.tap is in the card and loaded, you can type several specific commands for ESP8266 chip. For example:

You can see all the available commands reading the official documentation.

You need a microSD card with the first partition formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, and inside, the standard esxDOS 0.8.8 (see esxdos corresponding section for more info).

While the core is running:

You have to use a microSD card with the first partition formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, and inside, the standard esxDOS distribution, matching ZXDOS+ BIOS version (see esxdos corresponding section for more info).

Download NextZXOS distribution from the official page.

Extract NextZXOS in the root of the microSD card, and then edit config.ini under c:/machines/next to include the line ps2=0 if it doesn’t exist or edit the existing line from 1 to 0. This effectively switches the dual PS/2 port to keyboard first as the Next Firmware (TBBLUE.FW) switches the primary input to mouse. Also edit the line intbeep=0 to disable the internal beeper (this last step is not necesary on gomaDOS+).

If it wasn’t already, install ZX Spectrum Next core into ZXDOS+.

The following gomaDOS+ key combinations are in ZX keyboard mode. Please check the corresponding section for more information. You can also use PC XT keyboard mode combinations .

Take into account that Ctrl+Alt+backspace does not work with the ZX Spectrum Next core. You have to power cycle if you want to use another core. Also, there is no Reset or Drive button.

While the core is running:

On first boot, some help screens will show up. After pressing Space key, NextZXOS Startup Menu appears.

You can navigate the menu with the cursor keys, 5, 6, 7 and 8 keys, or a joystick (if configured as Kempston, MD or cursor). Enter or the joystick button chooses one element.

More…​ shows a second menu with more options.

If you choose Browser, NextZXOS Browser will start, and then you can see the contents of the microSD card and load a file (TAP, NEX, DSK, SNA, SNX, Z80, Z8, etc.).

For more information, see the official user manual.

You have to use a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format with code 0x06 (16-bit FAT). You can also use a second FAT16 partition for MSX software, and leaving the first one only for the system startup.

You need to get:

Copy the contents of the SD directory in the root of the first partition of the microSD.

Copy NEXTOR.SYS to the same place.

Copy NEXTOR.ROM inside the MSX1FPGA directory.

Copy one MSX1 ROM (MSX_INT.rom, MSX_JP.rom or MSX_USA.rom) inside the MSX1FPGA directory, but renaming it to MSX1BIOS.ROM.

The file /MSX1FPGA/config.txt keeps the core configuration, using this format:

If it wasn’t already, install MSX core into ZXDOS+.

The following gomaDOS+ key combinations are in MSX keyboard mode. Please check the corresponding section for more information. You can also use PC XT keyboard mode combinations .

While running the core:

To go to BASIC from MSX-DOS you must execute BASIC command.

From within BASIC, you can load from a external tape (or other external audio device) with the commansds RUN"CAS:", BLOAD"CAS:",R or CLOAD.

Para acceder a MSX-DOS desde BASIC, ejecutar CALL SYSTEM.

To go to MSX-DOS from BASIC, execute CALL SYSTEM.

You have to use a microSD card with the first partition in FAT32 format, with a maximum of 4GB in size, and 4096 bytes per cluster.

You also need the following ROM files (they are available at the original project Wiki) or from the GitHub repository: - OS6128.ROM - BASIC1-1.ROM - AMSDOS.ROM - MAXAM.ROM

It is also recommended to copy one or more disk image files (DSK) with the software that you want to run.

Copy all ROM and DSK files to the root directory of the FAT32 partition.

The following gomaDOS+ key combinations are in Amstrad CPC keyboard mode. Please check the corresponding section for more information. You can also use PC XT keyboard mode combinations.

During core execution:

Use the CAT command to see the contents of the currently loaded DSK file.

Type the command RUN"<name> to load a program from disk

Press Page Up key to reset and load the next DSK file.

You have to use a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format.

Download the latest version of Atom Software Archive from GitHub.

You can set up the files in the microSD in two different ways:

The following gomaDOS+ key combinations are in Acorn Electron keyboard mode. Please check the corresponding section for more information. You can also use PC XT keyboard mode combinations.

While the core is running:

The keyboard uses the following mapping:

Sometimes, after starting up the core, a screen full of @ appears. Ejecting and inserting, or only inserting, the microSD card will fully start the system.

Once it’s running, press Shift+F10 to show a menu where you can choose and load Atom Software Archive programs from the card.

You can use a microSD card with the first partition formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. Disk image (D64) and tape (TAP) files can be loaded from the SD card.

See the corresponding section for instructions of how to install the Commodore 64 core in ZXDOS+.

The following gomaDOS+ key combinations are in Commodore 64 keyboard mode. Please check the corresponding section for more information. You can also use PC XT keyboard mode combinations.

While the core is running:

After pressing F12 (Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+W on gomaDOS+), the option menu is shown.

The menu offers the following options

After a disk is inserted, normally, you can use LOAD "*",8,1 and press Enter to load the software inside. Once READY is shown on screen, type RUN and press Enter to execute it.

If there was more than one program in the disk, type LOAD "$" and press Enter. Then, type LIST, and press Enter, to see a list with the files in the disk. Now, to load one of them, type LOAD "<name>",8 (where <name> is the name of the file to load) and press Enter. Once READY is shown on screen, type RUN and press Enter to execute it. If this didn’t work try again with the command LOAD "<name>",8,1.

To load from tape, Select "Carga Tap" option from the menu. Then, browse the microSD and select the TAP file to load, press ENTER and close the options menu. After that, type LOAD and press Enter, or press Shift+Esc (Shift+RUN/STOP). Finally, when pressing F9 (Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+9 on gomaDOS+) the tape file will start playing (you can enable the tape loading sound selecting "Sonido Carga Cinta" in the options menu). Once the loading finishes, type RUN and press ENTER if needed.

This core does not use the microSD card.

While the core is running:

By default, the core starts with normal controls, configured for vertical displays. If you have an horizontal display, the image will be rotated. To ease the control, and make it more natural and according to what you see, when typing Tab, up-down directions are switched with left-right. This is both for joystick and keyboard controls.

This core does not use the microSD card.

While the core is running:

Pressing Esc or joystick button 2 (Caps Shift+Space on gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) shows or hides the configuration menu. Cursor keys (Caps Shift+5, Caps Shift+6, Caps Shift+7 and Caps Shift+8 on gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) and Enter to select and choose menu options.

The following options are available:

You need a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format to store ROM image files of the games to load. ROM files can be inside subdirectories.

See the corresponding section for instructions of how to install the NES core in ZXDOS+.

While the core is running:

Pressing Esc or joystick button 2 (Caps Shift+Space on gomaDOS+) shows or hides the configuration menu. To navigate the menu and activate or choose any option, use the cursor keys (Caps Shift+5, Caps Shift+6, Caps Shift+7 and Caps Shift+8 in gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) and Enter.

The following options are available:

You need a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format to store ROM image files of the games to load and other needed files. These can be downloaded from the original project in GitHub.

See the corresponding section for instructions of how to install the ColecoVision core in ZXDOS+.

While the core is running:

On startup, BIOS ROM is loaded from the card, and then the multicart ROM.

At multicart menu, use the directional controls to choose one ROM, and then fire button 1 to load. Pressing 'Esc' (Caps Shift+Space on gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) restarts the core and loads the ROM selection menu again.

You need a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format to store ROM image files of the games to load.

See the corresponding section for instructions of how to install the Atari 2600 core in ZXDOS+.

For gomaDOS+, it is recommended to change the keyboard mode to Atari 800 (Caps Shift + Symbol Shift + U and then 4) o PC XT (Caps Shift + Symbol Shift + U and then 9).

During the core execution:

Pressing Esc or joystick button 2 (Caps Shift+Space on gomaDOS+, Atari800 keyboard mode) shows or hides the configuration menu. Cursor keys (Caps Shift+5, Caps Shift+6, Caps Shift+7 and Caps Shift+8 on gomaDOS+, Atari800 keyboard mode) and Enter to select and choose menu options.

The following options are available:

You need a microSD card with the first partition in FAT16 format to store ROM image files to load.

See the corresponding section for instructions of how to install the Videopac core in ZXDOS+.

For gomaDOS+, it is recommended to change the keyboard mode to PC XT (Caps Shift + Symbol Shift + U and then 9).

During the core execution:

Usually, there is no on-screen display of the game options, so looking at the instruction manuals (for example following this link) may be helpful in selecting a game.

Note also that the system did not have a well defined player 1 or player 2 controller, and some games may alternate on a game-to-game basis. You may need to swap controllers to use the input or (for one player games) use the join joystick option of the menu

Pressing Esc or joystick button 2 (Caps Shift+Space on gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) shows or hides the configuration menu. Cursor keys (Caps Shift+5, Caps Shift+6, Caps Shift+7 and Caps Shift+8 on gomaDOS+, PC XT keyboard mode) and Enter to select and choose menu options.

The following options are available:

Both ZXDOS+ and gomaDOS+ have joystick pin 5 connected to positive VCC, used as main power, and pin 8 as GND. The rotary encoders to use must support voltage from 3,4v to 5v.

A rotary encoder has 5 wires: Earth Ground (not connected), Vcc (+), GND (0V`or `-), A and B.

A y B are connected to pins 1 and 2 for the first encoder, 3 and 4 for the seconde one. This way you can have up to 4 encoders connected using both joystick ports.

This way, the connections should be:

Follow these directions to choose the configuration:

It is recommended to wait, and make the connection after selecting the chosen option, since the encoders interfere with the up/down directions of the joystick, blocking access to the menu. Another option is to add a on/off switch for the encoder that will disable the power.

The use is exactly the same as when using the original computers:

Depending on the operating system (Windows, MacOS, Linux) there are several programs that can either play a tape file (TAP, TZX, PZX, etc.) and output the sound through a headphone output, or create an audio file (WAV, VOC, AU, etc.) that can be played using a music or audio program.

There are a very few apps (or none) that can directly play a tape file on a mobile device so, in many cases, the only option is to convert it to an audio file before playing it.

PlayZX is an App for Android which can play tape files through the headphone output.

Miniduino is a tape file audio player, based on a STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller with 64KB flash memory, and Maxduino firmware preinstalled.

Maxduino plays, in a very similar way to how cassette tape players worked, digital tape files in format as like TAP and TZX (ZX Spectrum), O (ZX80), P (ZX81), CDT (Amstrad CPC), CAS(MSX) TSX (MSX, Acorn, etc). It is also possible to play AY music files as if they were tapes, in order to load the from SpecAY in a ZX Spectrum.

This is a tool to analyze, extract and inject data in SPI flash image files for ZX-Uno, ZXDOS and similar devices.

You need to have Python 3 to use it. Depending on the operating system you may have to install it.

Having Python 3, you only need to download the latest version of the tool from the official repository, following this link.

Once extracted, you have to run from a shell the main script using Python 3. This may change depending on the operating system.

For example, on Windows, it’s usually:

With other operating systems it normally is like:

You also need a SPI flash image file. This can be obtained from within the Spectrum core in "root" mode, with one of the commands back16m, backzx2 or backzxd. Once you have obtained the exteacted file from the microSD, you can "clean" it leaving only the Spectrum core and the first Spectrum ROM with a command like this:

Where FLASH.ZXD is the path to the original file and FLASHempty.ZXD is the path to the new "clean" file.

List the contents of an image

To see the contents of an image file named FLASH.ZXD (installed cores and some configuration info), you can use the command

To show the contents of the same file, including ZX Spectrun ROMs info:

Change the BIOS of an image

To change the BIOS inside a file named FLASH.ZXD, using the BIOS file named FIRMWARE.ZXD

You can, at the same time, modify some of the default parameters. For example, with the options; -m for video mode: 0 (PAL), 1 (NTSC) or 2 (VGA), -k for the keyboard layout: 0 (Auto), 1 (ES), 2 (EN) or 3 (Spectrum).

This way to change the BIOS of a file named FLASH.ZXD, using the BIOS file FIRMWARE.ZXD, and also set the video mode to VGA and the keyboard layout to Spectrum (for gomaDOS`+):

There are also options to set the BIOS boot delay time, the default core or the default Spectrum ROM. See the documentation for more info.

Add a Spectrum ROM to an image

To add a Spectrum ROM file named 48.rom, with the name Spec48 and using the slot number 5, you can use a command like:

See the documentation for all the possible options when adding a Spectrum ROM.

Amongst the information you give when adding a ROM, there are some flags used to tell wich hardware options, etc, you want to have enabled or disabled when loading the ROM, as shown in this table:

Install a Core to an image

For example, to install a core in space 3, from a file named NEXT.ZXD, with the name Spectrum Next, use a command like this:

If you want also to set the core as the default, use a command like:

Change esxdos ROM of an image

Just like the BIOS firmware, you can install a ROM esxdos file, with a command like this:

Mix several actions in one line

Please do note that you can add several actions in one command line. For example, to "clean" an image file named FLASH.ZXD, creating a new one named FLASHnew.ZXD, installing the BIOS from the file FIRMWARE.ZXD, set up video mode to VGA, the keyboard in Spectrum mode, add a Spectrum ROM file 48.rom, with the name Spec48 while ussing slot number 5, install a core at space 3, from a file named NEXT.ZXD, with the name Spectrum Next, as default core:

Later, in some of the recovery steps, when talking about jump wires or USB-Blaster connections to ZXDOS, you can use these images as reference.

Take note, that on some models, the JTAG pins are at the under the board.

Hardware required:

Software required:

Instruction Steps:

Is using a GPIO connection, take note of the chosen pins, making sure that GND is connected with GND.

In this example, the 31, 33, 35, 37 and 39 pins will be used (corresponding to GPIO #6, GPIO #13, GPIO #19, GPIO #26 and GND), like this:

For GPIO connection:

For USB-Blaster connection:

If there is no image on the display, press Scroll Lock (Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+G on gomaDOS+): to switch between RGB and VGA modes, just in case the recovery BIOS did start in the wrong mode for our setup.

Hardware required:

Software required:

Instruction Steps:

If there is no image on the display, press Scroll Lock (Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+G on gomaDOS+): to switch between RGB and VGA modes, just in case the recovery BIOS did start in the wrong mode for our setup.

Hardware required:

Software required:

Instruction Steps:

If there is no image on the display, press Scroll Lock (Caps Shift+Symbol Shift+G on gomaDOS+): to switch between RGB and VGA modes, just in case the recovery BIOS did start in the wrong mode for our setup.