The Task Manager is an optional package that you can install on ResiDOS. Note that the current version (v1.00) only operates with 48K tasks, so you cannot save snapshots of 128K games. You should also only attempt to run one 128K game as a task at a time, otherwise the extra Spectrum memory will be overwritten by the 2nd 128K game. This limitation will be removed in a future release.
When you press the NMI button on your interface, the Spectrum immediately stops whatever it was doing (whether you were in BASIC, a word processor, a commercial game or whatever) and enters the Task Manager.
The Task Manager screen shows a list of the current tasks running on your Spectrum, together with the menu options that are available to you. When you first enter the task manager, the task list will consist of just a single task, named "Task 0", which is whatever you were doing at the time. To return to it, simply press ENTER.
Using the RAM in your interface, you can store several tasks at the same time, and switch between them instantly from the task manager screen. The number of tasks you can have running at once depends on the amount of RAM in your interface. Since ZXATASP interfaces have their memory strictly divided between ROM and RAM, they can run fewer tasks than a different interface with an equivalent amount of memory. The maximum number of tasks allowable is 16 (this is only possible on a 1Mb ZXCF interface).
The menu options described below allow you to manage your tasks quickly and easily.
The options available are shown on the task manager screen. Simply press the highlighted letter to select the option.