Introduction - what is QLAY2 and who is it for?
Files - available packages and their contents
Setting up - configuring QLAY2 for use
Usage - how to use QLAY2
Performance - benchmarks and
tuning tips
Inner workings - inside the emulator
Limitations and plans - known bugs and the future
FAQ - Frequently Asked and Answered Questions
References - where you can find out more
QLAY2 is a Sinclair QL Emulator. It's an update of QLAY (for MSDOS) and
QLAYW (for Windows 3) which were originally developed by Jan A Venema in the
Netherlands. The Sinclair QL - short for Quantum Leap - was a ground-breaking
multi-tasking computer system introduced by Cambridge, UK company Sinclair
Research in 1984.
This specific release has been made for everyone that wants to get a
stable emulation of a regular Sinclair QL system on a 32 bit Windows
platform, quickly and for free. The focus is on compatibility with the
original Sinclair QL, though with the option of extra speed and storage. It
is not intended to be used with systems derived from QDOS, such as SMS/Q, but
it does work well with the enhanced QL-compatible ROM Minerva. As source
files are provided, anyone can use QLAY2 source code to add new features.
QLAY2 is an open source version of QL2K, an earlier and potentially
more extensible port of QLAY to the Win32 platform, which was not strictly
copyleft software in that users were required to register. So unlike QL2K,
QLAY2 is released under the GPL (Gnu Public Licence). Follow
this link for more details of the differences and how they came about.
QLAY2's 68000 processor emulation engine is based on that written by Bernd
Schmidt for UAE (the Commodore Amiga emulator), also used in Basilisk (the
Apple Macintosh emulator written by Christian Bauer). Like them, QLAY2 is
released under the Gnu Public Licence or GPL, so its source code is freely
available and users are obliged to share all changes they make, for the
benefit of others.
This specific release of this Sinclair QL Emulator is designed to work
optimally on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. As there are no calls to specific
Windows NT technology, it may also be used under Windows 98 and Windows
Millennium (ME), and Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 with Microsoft`s current
standard system patches, without any need of add-ons, version-specific
runtime code, or any kind of special compatibility library.
There are two distributions of QLAY2 :
- QLAY2.zip [181
Kb (185 646 bytes)] This provides only ready-to-run programs and
documents. Get this one if you wish to use QLAY2 but have no interest in
details of the code that implements the emulator.
- QLAY2-Full.zip
[1,51 Mb (1 593 422 bytes)] This package provides program binaries,
documents and full source code, organised in a Visual Studio 6.0
Workspace, to make it easy to work with. This package is a superset of
the QLAY2.zip archive.
You will also find the contents of qltoolsq.zip
and qlayt.zip
useful if you wish to transfer files to QLAY2 from a real QL or another emulator.
These are command-line utilities developed for use with earlier versions of QLAY, but
they are also applicable to QLAY2.
QLAY2.zip: Windows 2000/Windows XP Binary distribution
Files provided :
- Qlay2.exe: This is the main QLAY2 program. You start
this executable in order to use the emulator.
Qlay2.htm The document you are reading now.
qlay2.ini QLAY2 configuration
file. All emulator settings are within this file.
Minerva198.rom: The
latest Minerva ROM release.
NFA.rom:
Native File Access ROM. This ROM gives you access to WINx_ drives.
readme.txt:
Jan A Venema's original readme file, with some comments prefixed by
>
- MDV Directory contains:
- Mdv1.mdv
: A microdrive cartridge image that can be used as drive MDV1_
- WIN1 Directory contains:
- qlay.dir: A
special file that contains current Qdos directory metadata in order
to provide it to the NFA driver.
- Qsbb_bas: A
widely-used SuperBASIC benchmark program.
- FT_bas:
A small utility that helps you to find the correct speed settings for
your emulation.
QLAY2-Full.zip: Windows 2000/Windows XP Source and Binary
distribution:
In this distribution you will find all the files listed above, plus
supplementary directories:
- QLAY2-Src
This directory contains all you need to develop and compile QLAY2 source
codes with Microsoft Visual C++ 6, or any compatible development systems.
Just double click on QLAY2.dsw to launch the Visual Studio project.
- Original
This directory contain all the original files from Jan A Venema's
website. These were the starting point for this project.
Memory size:
The original QL shipped with 128 Kb of memory (131072 bytes, when typical
business computers had half that), expandible to 640 Kb by design (like the
original IBM PC) and up to 896 Kb by reallocating space intended for other
hardware expansion. QLAY extends the address space of the QL's 68008 chip to
allow up to 64 times the original amount of memory. Permitted values are:
- 128 Kb
- 640 Kb
- 1Mb
- 2Mb
- 4Mb
- 8Mb
QLAY2 will make use of virtual memory if there is not enough physical
memory to satisfy this setting and the needs of the emulation itself (around
1.5Mb), but this may make the emulation rather slow and erratic, so it's wise
to use a setting that can be fully accommodated by the physical memory free
on your PC.
Screen Size: ((misleading?
rename to window size?))
Sets the width and height of the emulated screen, in units of pixels on
the host screen. Possible values are:
- 512 x 256
- 512 x 341
- 768 x 512
- 1024 x 683
- 1024 x 512
- 1024 x 768
- 1280 x 640
- 1280 x 1024
Whichever you select, the QL system will use its normal resolution of 512
y 256 pixels in MODE 4 and 256x256 in MODE 8. The difference is that QLAY2
may allocate more than one host pixel for each emulated pixel to fill the
screen and preserve the proportions of the original display.
It recommended that you use a smaller resolution than your screen
resolution, i.e: if your resolution is 640*480, use 512*256 for QLAY2, or if
your resolution is 1280*1024, use 1024*768 for QLAY2. This leaves room on the
screen for other windows, icons and the toolbar.
Keyboard country :
You can select the local Keyboard type for QL Emulation, so if you use a
French keyboard select FR (the default as QLAY2 was developed in France ;)
Possible choices are:
- US The original QWERTY PC keyboard layout, closest to that of the
original QL).
- UK Similar to US but with # and " symbols relocated to make room for
the £ currency sign).
- FR The French keyboard layout (AZERTY plus support for accents).
- GE The German QWERTZ keyboard layout with added umlauts and Y and Z
transposed.
- IT The Italian keyboard layout.
Timing:
This tunes the emulation's internal timing. It was formerly known as
'Speed' but this was misleading as it does not change the emulation speed,
but it sets the ratio of the emulated QL speed to that of an original QL so
that processor-timed operations like key repeat are user-friendly on all the
wide range of Windows hosts. The SuperBASIC date and time functions are not
affected, as QLAY uses the PC's clock for those.
Internally this option controls the number of 68K instructions that should
be emulated between internal 'ticks' every millisecond. It should be a
relatively low value on a slow PC and high on a fast one. The exact value
depends upon many details of the host system, but may be around 500 on a
vintage 486 and 10,000 or more on a recent Pentium,
QLAY conducts all timing-sensitive functions with this tick, such as the
frame blanking interrupt, mouse sensitivity, MDV timing and some internal
housekeeping. The effect is easily seen: watch the cursor flash rate and
compare that to a real QL.. If it`s too fast, increase this setting. If it`s
too slow (a real QL blinks the cursor on and off again a couple of times a
second) decrease this setting.
To help you find the right setting for your system, LOAD the mdv1_FT_bas
utility and RUN it from inside the QLAY2 emulator. The program will tell you
how much to multiply or divide the current value by.
Delay:
Emulation delay. This attempts to slow the emulator down to contend with
programs, typically games written for the original hardware, that otherwise
go too fast. Higher values slow down the emulation. It is quite difficult to
set it correctly.
For example on a 1 GHz Pentium 3 you might set this Delay to 100 and
Timing to 1200; those settings should give something near the speed of
original QL. A setting of 0 means no delay; this may make the keyboard hard
to use, because of runaway autorepeat, unless you have already set the Timing
value correctly.
In some cases you may find games run too fast whatever the Delay setting.
This is because the game derives its timing from original processor activity
(which cannot be emulated exactly) rather than external interactions such as
interrupts or key polling. See limitations.
ROMS:
The QL operating system QDOS was supplied in 48K of Read Only Memory (ROM)
chips addressed at the start of QL memory, with provision for extra ROMs to
extend Qdos and control add-on devices at later addresses. These add-on ROMs
included floppy and hard disk control code, SuperBASIC toolkits (typically
SuperToolkit2, sold by QJump and included in some disk system ROMs), compiler
language extensions (for ProPascal, Metacomco C, etc) and Qdos accelerators
like Speedscreen and Lightning.
If you have such a ROM in a cartridge that plugs into the back of a QL you
can transfer the contents to QLAY by copying it to a floppy disk with:
SBYTES FLP1_MY_ROM,49152,16384
then copy that file to your PC hard drive with QLAYT (see Files)
and specify it as one of the QLAY ROMs.
BOOT: is the main operating system, for
example: MINVERVA198.ROM
ROM1: generally TK2.ROM at 0c000 (hex, 49152
decimal)
ROM2: generally NFA.ROM at 10000 (hex, 65536
decimal)
Original QL ROM cartridges were mapped at address 0c000; while most are
relocatable, a few expect to load at just this address, so the load addresses
are shown in the QLAY2 configuration window. If the ROM1 slot is empty please
set the NFA.ROM to address 10000 (hex) in the ROM1 slot.
There's no point running the ROM for a QL disk controller (e.g. Miracle,
CST or Rebel) without the relevant hardware, but it would be needlessly
restrictive to have to use nothing but emulated microdrives and temporary RAM
disks in QLAY2, so the emulator comes with its own host device access
extensions, NFA (short for Native File Access) in a file predictably called
NFA.ROM, which diverts attempts to access QL serial ports to the PC hardware,
adds a PAR device for output to parallel printers, and a WIN device for
access to up to eight simulated Winchester hard disk drives (WIN1_ to
WIN8_).
Files saved from within the emulation to WIN drives are stored in PC
subdirectories,, selected from the QLAY2 configuration window. Since QL
directories contain extra information about file types (e.g. task carapaces)
that Microsoft directories have no space for, an additional file 'qlay.dir'
in each WIN subdirectory contains the extra Qdos directory information. Use
the QLAYT support program to add files to 'qlay.dir' from outside the
emulation (see Usage and files).
Microdrive emulation works differently. Each microdrive cartridge is
emulated with a 128K file that contains all the information that would be on
a real microdrive tape, in 256 half-K sectors (the maximum allowed by the
microdrive format - real tapes had a somewhat lower capacity of around 200 to
220 sectors). There is no need for a separate directory file - the
information is packed, with all the QL files, inside the .MDV file - but
again you need the QLAYT utility (see Usage and
files) if you want
to read or write individual files inside the .MDV image without using the
emulator. Again you can configure up to eight microdrives, MDV1_ to MDV8_, in
the QLAY2 configuration window.
No mouse :
Unchecked by default, I'm still not sure on how to use it properly as I
don't have any QL application to test it. Mouse hiding is toggled by pressing
F12 while the emulator runs.
No ALT Key : (Recommended value is checked
).
This tick box is checked by default. As the AltGr key on the right of the
PC keyboard space bar always emulates the QL ALT key you will not normally
need the other ALT key under emulation, and this setting allows Windows to
interpret ALT shortcuts. Press AltGr for QL ALT key functionality, or
un-check this control to give thee emulated QL exclusive use of ALT as well,
at the expense of Windows shortcuts.
GDI Full screen :
Let you use the emulator in a full-screen mode. This can slow down the
emulation (though not much on a modern PC) and it lets you use the most
screen space for the emulator.
MDV WIN:
This button opens a dialog box to configure the emulated
WIN and MDV drive locations. QLAY2 now lets you use paths which contain
space characters.
SAVE button:
This very useful button saves all your configuration settings in the
QLAY2.INI file.
CANCEL button:
Cancels your most recent modifications to settings or cancels execution of
QLAY2 if emulation is not yet running,
OK button:
This validates any modifications to your settings, and starts the
emulation (unless it is already running).
Launch the emulator by clicking on the QLAY2 icon in Windows. Check the settings and click on OK when you`re happy with them. A
window will appear containing the same display that a real QL with your
chose configuration would show. Press F1 to start in high resolution (QL
Monitor) mode, or F2 for TV mode witth more colours but fewer, larger pixels.
You can now type commands just as you would on a real QL.
DIR MDV1_ will show you the contents of the first microdrive.
If there is a program called BOOT there it will run automatically after you
presss F1 or F2. This is not the place to explain all of SuperBASIC - you
will find copious documentation on-line.
Menus
QLAY2 has menus above the Qdos display which allow you to set the language
for interface messages (in Windows, not inside the emulator), scale the Qdos
display to a different preset size on the fly, call up the configuration
screen, reset or quit the emulator. The menus can also call up help from the
internet, and let you update the record of the contents of the QL's drives,
for when another Windows program has changed them from outside the
emulator.
How to quit
If the emulation is running you can quit QLAY2 by pressing the ALT+F4
keys, or from the menu by clicking on QL/Quit. To reset the emulated
QL, as if you'd pressed the button on the right side of a real QL behind the
microdrives, select Commands/Reset.
QLAYT is one of the QLAY support tools.
This command-line utility provides a set of tools and general support
functions for the QL emulator. The tools are needed because the QL and it's
operating system QDOS have some peculiarities that do not mesh well with
Windows. Most obvious difference is that QDOS files consist of two parts: a
header block and the actual data file. To allow transparent access from the
emulator program to the native file system it's necessary that the file
header be stored separately. The QLAYT program takes care of inserting into
or extracting files from a 'qlay.dir' directory file. It knows about QL file
types and dataspace fields. It will also import and export files from other
QDOS compatible systems and QLAY's MDV file format.
If you copy any file into a microdrive image or WIN directory, or delete
one, while the emulator is running you should select the Commands/Disk
change menu item to flush the emulated QL`s record of the contents of
its drives, so that the change is recognised inside the emulator.
Read more about QLAYT in the file 'qlayt.man', which is part
of the original qlayt.zip archive (see links).
Another option is to use the special QLAY version of QLTOOLS, a portable
utility intended to convert files to and from Qdos floppy format. QLTOOLSQ is
a modified version of the earlier QLTOOLS that allows you to copy all files
from a QL floppy in a PC directory. The files can then be used in QLAY
directly. Read more about QLTOOLS in the manual files in the
qltoolsq.zip archive.
Emulation speed depends on many factors. CPU performance has the biggest
impact, but the special needs of QDOS are also important; for instance memory
access to the emulated screen is slower than normal memory access. Short
loops in the 68000 code are executed much faster than large code segments;
this due to the level 1 and level 2 caches that the CPU of the PC has. A
simple SuperBASIC benchmark (QSBB_BAS) shows how many print, function and
string manipulation loops can be executed within 20 seconds. Higher numbers
indicate faster emulation.
Native 68k computers
System/CPU print function string Configuration
QL original 980 840 1100 128k, JS-ROM
SandyQL 1080 1040 1360 512k, Floppy, Par. Port
GoldCard 2580 4280 5680 16 MHz 68000 QL accelerator
Super GoldCard 5680 10260 13820 24 MHz 68020 QL accelerator
Amiga 68040/25 9480 16540 23000 AmigaQDOS (JS/3.24)
QXL-20 14300 27900 70640 Running SMSQ not QDOS!
Amiga 68060/50 10480 48750 73880 AmigaQdos 3.24 Beta (Blitter)
Older 68K emulators
System/CPU print function string Configuration/Emulator
486/DX2-66 660 980 1300 QLAY081 -d2 (MSDOS)
486/DX2-66 1080 1360 1820 QLAY082-d2 (MSDOS)
486/DX2-66 920 1440 1840 QLAY083 -d2 (Linux)
Amiga A1200 2500 1800 2000 060/50 (UAE emulating 68K!)
Pentium/150 2360 3680 4960 QLAY082 (MSDOS)
PentiumPro/200 6000 8000 11000 QLAY082 -f2900 (MSDOS)
Pentium/200 5260 9340 12660 QLAYW087 size 1, 16k cols
Pentium/150 7120 10840 28120 QPC running SMSQE not Qdos!
QL2K 0.x (the basis for GPL QLAY2) and QPC2
System/CPU print function string Emulator configuration
AMD K6/2-500 7220 9160 13100 QL2K -f2800 Win98, G400 GDI
AMD K6/2-500 7000 9040 13060 QL2K as above via Direct X
PentiumIII/1000 27920 49460 65740 QL2K -f15000, Min 1.98, GDI
PentiumIII/1000 29240 48500 65280 QL2K as above via Direct X
PentiumIII/1000 33040 93620 221680 QPC2 running SMSQE
Notes: The print test timing is dominated by Scrolling. Multi-processor
emulators (e.g. QXL, Amiga Qdos) may save time by not rendering every update
from the QL screen to the host screen memory. SMSQ[E] does not run
interpreted SuperBASIC so its function and string times are for compiled
code. When compiled code is run on both platforms, Qdos performance is
proportionately several times faster. Benchmarks are interesting but the best
tests of usability are to run real programs, not one-dimensionally contrived
ones!
The speed of QLAY2 is also limited by the quality of the C compiler used
to translate its source. An experimental build with the Intel compiler (not
distributable because of licence issues) was 19%, 12% and 26% faster than the
Visual C++ 6 version on the print, functions and strings benchmarks,
respectively. So the speedup on core instruction throughput is only 12%
(FT_BAS also sugested a 13% boost) but the Intel compiler's better cache and
data handling gives a greater boost on the tests with a larger data set (e.g
26% on the string test is probably explained by smarter optimisation and
cache awareness). This was with Minerva 1.98 on a 1600 MHz Pentium IV 1600
with GForce 2ti graphics in a 512 x 256 pixel window on a 32 bit desktop.
QLAY2 comprises three parts: 68000 emulation, QL hardware emulation and
interfaces to the Windows operating system.
After initialization and evaluation of the settings, the 68000 emulation
starts. It will read one instruction, decode and execute it. Part of
execution can be a read or write access to memory. If it is an access to the
QL I/O area starting at 0x18000, QLAY2 will execute the necessary QL hardware
emulation directly. E.g.: read a bit from the IPC (8049). If that implies,
for instance, reading a keyrow, QLAY2 will execute a keyboard request in the
Windows Linux interface part. Accesses to the QL ROM area at lower addresses
are automatically write-protected.
The screen is emulated by detecting changes to the 32K (or 64K, for
Minerva twin-screen mode) area at the beginning of emulated QL RAM and
writing corresponding data to the host window, de-interleaving thee QL colour
data and using Windows routines to convert pixels to the host format.
After each executed 68000 instruction, QLAY2 will check whether there is
internal housekeeping to be done. This is when exceptions, interrupts, and
timing events like the millisecond tick are handled. QLAY2 will then proceed
with the next instruction according current value in the emulated program
counter. QLAY does not patch any ROMs and does not access any of the QDOS
system variables directly.
This way any program, PROM or even a complete QDOS replacement (such as
Minerva or Tyche) can be executed by QLAY2, as long as it assumes the
hardware, I/O and memory map of the original Sinclair QL.
QLAY2 does not currently support QL Sound (either via BEEP or QLSSS
extensions).
The implementation of delay, to make the emulator run at the same speed as
an original QL, is hard to tune and does not work for all programs. It would
be better if the speed could be set as a percentage of that of an original QL
- with other CPU time released to the host - or unlimited with QLAY2
competing with other programs without any arbitrary cap on speed. The US QL
Users Group NASQLUG has offered a small fee to anyone who can solve this
problem. Contact Al Boehm for
details.
This version of QLAY2 is open-source and freely distributable. You are
encouraged to make your own version and to add any features that you wish
for.
The downside of the GPL is that it does not permit the inclusion of
non-free components with a software project, or a registration scheme - such
as cardware. Consequently the original work on QLAY2, first promoted as QL2K
under a non-GPL licence requiring free registration for updates, has spawned
the development of QL2K version 1.0, a new QL emulator with extras beyond
those possible under the GPL ((including custom ROMs and other extensions).
The future of QLAY2 depends on the interest of all users and their
willingness to work together to extend it. Like other projects released under
GPL, it could go anywhere, everywhere, or nowhere. The future of QL2K, by
contrast, depends on its developer, Jimmy Montesinos, and the encouragement
he receives from people who register their interest with him.
QLAY2 does not support SMSQ/E, the operating system developed by Tony
Tebby, author of the original Qdos. Some programs for SMSQ/E may work on
QLAY2, but this is not guaranteed; in many cases they will require extra
files, which may be commercial products. QLAY2 emulates the QL, not later
products billed as 'QL-compatible'. Many of those don't run on a real QL
either, becase they depend on non-Sinclair extensions to the original.
(Q) QLAY2 runs too fast on my machine! How do I slow it
down?
(A) You need to adjust the Delay and Timing settings
to suit your PC and the QL programs you want to run. There are too many
possibilities for this to be done for you automatically, sorry.
(Q) How do I use windows larger than the original QL screen
resolution?
(A) You can't; QLAY2 emulates the graphics of the original QL, in
resolution and colours. Changing this would stop a lot of original QL
software running, and make the output from other programs, such as the Psion
suite, hard to read on a modern display. However there are other emulators
that support larger Qdos windows, such as UQLX (originally for Unix, freely
distributable, now available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows via Cygwin) and
QPC, a commercial Window package, with a free crippled demo available -
though this runs SMSQE rather than the original Qdos, further limiting its
compatibility. You may also be able to track down a QXL card - this is an ISA
card with a genuine 68040 processor to run QL programs, and drivers for
devices on a PC host; however display updates are slow, the operating system
(SMS-Q) is not fully Qdos compatible, and software emulation on modern PCs
may outperform the 20 or 25 MHz 68040.
(Q) How do I transfer programs from my original QL to
QLAY2?
(A) If you have the programs on a QL floppy disk, you need to use QLAYT to read the disk and copy the files to one of the WIN
directories that QLAY2 uses. If your programs are on microdrive cartridge you
need to get them some other way, as only a real QL can read QL tapes. You
could use a serial connection between the QL and PC, running matching
terminal software (e.g. Kermit or Xmodem) at each end, or copy between the
original QL and the emulator; set the transfer speed to 9600 baud (the QL
default, and the highest rate it can comfortably handle even with hardware
handshaking) and connect the serial ports as follows (assuming you use SER1
on the QL and a 9 pin D connector at the PC end):
- RXD QL pin 3 to PC pin 3
- CTS QL pin 5 to PC pin 4
- GND QL pin 1 to PC pin 5
- DTR QL pin 4 to PC pin 8
- TXD QL pin 2 to PC pin 2
(Q) How do I use colours not available on the original
QL?
(A) QLAY2 emulates the graphics of the original QL. Adding more colours
would stop many original QL programs running. However there is a commercial
emulator, QPC, that supports extensions to the original QL colour scheme,
through the Qdos-like (but not fully compatible) SMSQ/E operating system. You
could also run this with original QL hardware and up to 256 colours, using an
QL expansion Aurora card, or replace your x86 PC motherboard with an
ATX-format Q40 or Q60 superQL card, with up to 16 bit high colour support;
both those offer Classic Qdos compatibility in addition to extra colours via
SMSQ/E.
This documentation was written by Simon N Goodwin, based on information
provided by Jimmy Montesinos and Jan A Venema. It was edited in Amaya, the
free HTML editor produced by W3C, the philanthropic consortium that creates
and maintains Web standards.
Thanks are also due to Raphael Zhou for portions of the DirectX/Windows
code, Bernd Schmidt, Giuseppe Zanetti and many others. Feedback is most
welcome - please email all comments about QLAY2 to Jimmy Montesinos
You can write in English, French or Spanish. Bear in mind that since QLAY2 is
open source, requests for new features are likely to gain the time-honoured
riposte, "use the source, Luke." But it is always good to hear from
users of freely-distributed software - without them there would be no point
in sharing such programs and going to the considerable extra effort of
publishing the results.
If you search online for 'Sinclair QL' and 'Qdos' you are likely to find
hundreds of pages of information about the QL and its emulators. Here are a
few links to get you started:
The latest QLAY2, QL2K and related
files
A large collection of QL files
and links
Another large collection
of QL files
Amaya HTML editor and Browser
The Free Software Foundation, home of the
GPL
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