Spectrum Computing

I was comparing 128k version running on machines with and without memory contention to estimate the performance cost of running some code in slow memory. I do not see any speed improvements on 48k machine. thealfest : I think I may have stumbled on a workaround to force 48k version to run on 128k m...

Hi @Old-User Glad you have some progress with Outrun. I did some research and found that some code does indeed run in slow memory and it costs up to 20% of performance (I compared the speed of the game running on original 128k machine vs running on pentagon (both emulated)). Hello! :) It was a smal...

This is interesting. :idea: I examined the headers of the game levels (stages) with tapir and found that by changing the value of one byte it is possible to set the paper color of the playing area, with or without bright. This means it's possible to alter the predefined colors of the stages and crea...

Thank you @thealfest.

Amazing work!

"You are a true Ninja Saboteur."

goodboy wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 9:22 am 1. the game only enables demo mode if level data is loaded
2. the sound of the motor seems to be related to the timer (it is not in demo mode)
3. try Poke 30987,24 to disable it

It seems to work too. Thanks!

I think @ParadigmShifter has got so excited about hacking the poor outrun code that by this time tomorrow he will have disassembled the whole game and optimized performance by 200%!

You are probably right, that 1278 was when I took the picture but its not always that same value, it changes.

Success! :D All right people, this little hack for Outrun (disabling the ingame revs sound fx) seems to be working fine. I must thank ParadigmShifter for his invaluable help that allowed this happy development. :P I don't think I could have done this without him. ;) I have been trying this on emulat...

@ParadigmShifter : Thank you for your advice!
I'll take another look and follow your instructions.
Will report back later with the findings.

There is a 128k enhanced version of Space Harrier, but it’s one of those annoying “enhanced” games which basically consist of a crack intro with completely unrelated AY music at the start. The main game is just the normal 48k one. Could anyone hack the original Soace Harrier and add this AY tune in...

I didn't know how to get demo mode to start, but in 48K mode the revs sounds will slow things down because there's no dedicated sound chip. Disabling that sounds interesting! Well, I've been tinkering with the debugger inside the Spin emulator. I can barely understand what I'm looking at but I was ...

I've always wondered how Keith would have tackled the Outrun conversion.
Perhaps smaller sprites but faster gameplay...

Well, I'm definitely impressed!

The games from the book! The book is available in PDF form, but that's not the same as having a proper copy of the games. Adjudicator looks intriguing! I just loved the illustrations of these books when I was younger. :D Sadly, many of them were far better at stirring the imagination than the actua...

Character animation is amazing and suits the game theme very well.

I love these mods they do but at the same time I feel a bit disappointed because rarely you get .tap or .tzx versions, even if that meant something had to be left out.

I use the flamethrower to kill the alien but it seems the alien never dies, so I cannot get the energy pack.

OTOH, I was expecting to "examine Maya" and have her transformed into some lovebug...

I remember something like that happening to me too but I never got to figure out what could be the cause because I play a lot on emulators and real hardware, original and modded versions of the game..

Have you tried the fixed versions?

Wall_Axe wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 2:48 pm I think someone on youtube may have mocked up a tape recorder that simply played its track faster, and loaded the games quicker -lol

I wouldnt know how to search for that on youtube but ill give it a try.

The Philips D6350 player did just that with regular tapes.

I didn't know how to get demo mode to start, but in 48K mode the revs sounds will slow things down because there's no dedicated sound chip. Disabling that sounds interesting! Just press any key other than 1,2,3, or M. Yes, I also speculated that and since it seems to makes things faster in the demo...

I've been playing Super Hang-On and OutRun lately. SHO is one of my favourites and I have a soft spot for OR , in spite of all its flaws. Now, I noticed 2 things that many of you may also have noticed but unfortunately I don't know enough of programming/disassembling to even make a guess if the hack...

... However I cannot find any 3 button joysticks to test it with, so am wondering if these even exist? ... TomD To my knowledge, there are joysticks for the spectrum with 3 buttons but not really wired for having 3 working fire buttons, only 2 actually. You would have to alter them although it can ...

@evapowah :

Thank you for updating the loader!

Andre Leao wrote: ↑Thu Jul 20, 2023 7:58 pm Starting on September 10th, I will make available more than 20 TRD games and demos, some of them controversial / forbidden, converted to tzx. You know where you've heard in first place...

Could you just tell a little bit more about the games...?
It sounds interesting!

At last, I found the missing piece. Bob's suggestion of a POKE at address 43673 led me towards the correct path. The TAP file should now work on all Spectrums and play AY music and sound effects on the 128 and later models without "snow" on the 128/+2. Download link is unchanged (see firs...