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3eExplorer

3eExplorer is a utility for Windows to allow the examination and manipulation of images of drives used by the +3e. The +3e, as developed by Garry Lancaster, is a modification of the standard ROMs of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2a/+3 to allow them to use large capacity storage interfaces in the same way as a normal 3" floppy disc. There are several storage devices supported, including the DivIDE, ZXCF, ZXATASP, with each device requiring a different set of ROMs. There are additional alterations to the ROMs including bugfixes and "windowed" BASIC text output. It's a really useful modification, and easy to implement (with only two EPROMs).

Currently the +3e uses a custom format for the discs, PLUSIDEDOS, which allows a single disk to be partitioned into several distinct areas conforming to the theoretical +3DOS limit of a 32Mb partition size. Because of this it can be tricky to swap files between the ZX Spectrum and a PC. This is where 3eExplorer comes in. It allows you to open an HDF image file of a PLUSIDEDOS disk and browse the files stored on it. Currently it is read-only, allowing you to extract files from the image into a number of formats on your PC. Importing new files is a planned addition. It is also planned to support more image-types such as .dsk.

History

v0.1.0.2 - 06/08/2007 - non-public beta release
- Fixed reading 16-bit images from 8-bit devices.
v0.1.0.1 - 03/08/2007 - first public beta release
+ Added additional menu items for extraction.
+ Added extract to binary file.
+ Added option to extract with/without +3dos header.
+ Added File Status dialog, allowing you to flush the cache.
+ Added some code that's not complete so you should never see it :]
+ Added an application icon.
+ Much code shuffling.
v0.1.0.0 - 31/07/2007 - non-public beta release
+ First release