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Putting S-C Macro on a QuikLoader Card..........Jan Eugenides

The QuikLoader by Southern California Research Group is one of those rare devices that causes you to wonder how you ever got along without one.  I have had mine for about a year now, and I would never go back to the old way of loading programs!

Briefly, the QuikLoader allows you to put whatever programs you desire on EPROMS, which then plug into the QuikLoader.  EPROMS from 2716-27512 can be used, for a possible 512K bytes of program space on one QuikLoader (equivalent to four Apple floppies!).  You can have more than one card, of course, so there's lots of room available for just about anything.  The QuikLoader also comes with DOS 3.3 already installed, along with FID, and COPYA.  When you turn on your machine, you'll hear a little whoop instead of the familiar beep.  DOS has just been loaded in about 2 seconds.  No more booting!  In fact, I seldom put DOS on a disk anymore, and I can use the space for programs instead.

Programs which are on the QuikLoader can be loaded into RAM and executed in about 2 seconds, with just two keystrokes!  Since they are loaded into their regular RAM locations, they do NOT need to be modified in any way.

You can see a catalog of the QuikLoader by typing "Q" followed by RESET.  The program names appear with letters A-Z next to them.  Then you can select and run the programs by typing the letter corresponding to that program.  Alternatively, if you want to run the primary routine on a chip, just press the number of the socket it is in followed by RESET.  More on this later.

Putting programs on the QuikLoader is somewhat problematical, however.  The manual is STILL in it's draft form, although they have been promising a better one for over a year.  Oh well...a little trial and error is good for the soul.

In order to put the S-C Macro Assembler on the QuikLoader, it is necessary to write what's known as a "primary" routine.  The QuikLoader has a built-in operating system which allows you to move blocks of memory to their RAM locations from the various EPROMS on the QuikLoader card, and then execute them however you wish.  The following program is intended to be used on a 27128 EPROM, which will hold the entire S-C Macro Assembler, with driver (I used the Ultraterm driver for this program) and the Fast Bload patches, which I chose to load between DOS and its buffers, rather than actually patch the DOS.  You can do it either way, it's up to you.

This program is called the "overhead" for the EPROM.  It goes at $FEB0 in the actual chip.  The catalog must appear at $FF00. These are the addresses as the Apple would see them, not the absolute addresses relative to the chip.  A 27128 will address as though it runs from $C000 to $FFFF as far as the Apple is concerned. In other words, the chip's address $0000 equals the Apple's address $C000.  Things are further complicated by the fact that an Apple II+ cannot address the range from $C000 to $C7FF without a small circuit modification.  In this case it's no problem, the space from $C800-$FFFF is more than enough to house the entire assembler.  If you needed more space, you could put your primary routine in the $C000-$C7FF space.

The rest of the EPROM contains the code for the assembler itself, and the fast Bload patch.  The assembler goes from $C800-$EFFF, and the Bload patch from $F000 to $F04D.  You must pack these files together in RAM somewhere prior to burning the chip.  In other words, Bload the assembler at, say, $2800-4FFF.  Put the Bload patch at $5000-504D  Then Bload the overhead program at $5EB0.  The rest of the EPROM doesn't matter.  Then burn all this stuff into the EPROM starting at $800 relative to the chip.  Thus, when you install the chip on the card, it will show up at $C800-FFFF like it should.  If your EPROM burner won't burn partial chips, just start the burn from $2000 and it'll work out.

That's it.  Just install the chip on the QuikLoader in any socket.  To run the assembler just type the socket number followed by RESET.  In two seconds the assembler will load and start!  No more waiting to boot DOS, load the program, etc.  You don't even have to look for a disk! Sure speeds up the work.

This should help augment the information in the manual a little, and get you on your way.  I have installed the S-C assembler, Rak-ware's DISASM, a modified SOURCEROR (it now ouputs S-C format code, heh heh), the S-C Word Processor, a terminal program of my own design (it's capture buffer exactly coincides with the S-C Word Processor buffer!  I can come off-line and begin editing with two keystrokes, and no disk access!), and some other utilities.  All stored inside the Apple, available instantly at any time.  For $170 (the price from S-C Software), the QuikLoader is a MUST.

By the way, for a reasonable fee I will install programs on EPROMS for you.  You supply the programs and EPROMS, and I'll do the rest.  Some programs are not suitable...particularly those which access the disk a lot.  They would require extensive modification and that's best left to the original author.  Also, copy-protected stuff cannot be loaded, because there's no way to ge at the files.  Contact me if you're interested, at 11601 NW 18th St., Pembroke Pines, FL 33026.

[ For $20, S-C Software will send registered owners of version 2.0 a 27128 with the S-C Macro Assembler on it.  This adds five lines to the QuikLoader menu, allowing you to choose the screen driver you wish.  Only the $D000 (language card) version is provided. ]

Here's the overhead program, with GETSLOT overhead taken from the QuikLoader manual.
