Search found 154 matches

by Cosmium
Wed Dec 27, 2023 7:44 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Which games use teleporting ?
Replies: 103
Views: 3179

Re: Which games use teleporting ?

Video clip of teleporting in Quadron at 7m 7s:

by Cosmium
Mon Dec 25, 2023 8:37 am
Forum: Music
Topic: We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Replies: 31
Views: 1382

Re: We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Yes, Happy Christmas everyone :xmas

Enjoy the day. I'm sure those of you unwrapping your Nexts today are sure to!
by Cosmium
Fri Nov 10, 2023 10:46 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Which year did you get your first Spectrum?
Replies: 44
Views: 1144

Re: Which year did you get your first Spectrum?

Summer 1982, England.
Mail order 16K Spectrum. Fab!
by Cosmium
Tue Nov 07, 2023 1:09 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Which games use teleporting ?
Replies: 103
Views: 3179

Re: Which games use teleporting ?

No no, it has a mushroom head, like Microbot, and lives in a circuit board firing lightning bolts. There are some gates/chips that teleports you away... I found a screenshot from the bootleg "Microdroid" (which is funny because it sounds like Microbot BUT IT'S NOT). https://i.postimg.cc/w...
by Cosmium
Mon Nov 06, 2023 1:24 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Which games use teleporting ?
Replies: 103
Views: 3179

Re: Which games use teleporting ?

Quadron :D
by Cosmium
Fri Jul 28, 2023 4:21 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: How did your ZX Spectrum die?
Replies: 26
Views: 698

Re: How did your ZX Spectrum die?

I hadn't remembered this, but according to my programming notes from the Spectrum era, I'd had the computer replaced or repaired 4 times over a 6 year period... hardly impressive reliability! My first Spectrum was from the early mail order days, so maybe there were more teething problems back then, ...
by Cosmium
Tue Jun 20, 2023 12:22 am
Forum: Emulators
Topic: The Unofficially Official Home of SpecEmu
Replies: 6
Views: 705

Re: The Unofficially Official Home of SpecEmu

After I'd downloaded specemu-3.4.b110623, MalwareBytes warned me it considered one of the zip's contained files " emulib.dll " a threat: Neshta.Virus.FileInfector.DDS Symptoms To gain persistence, Virus.Neshta changes the default value for the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\o...
by Cosmium
Tue Jun 20, 2023 12:14 am
Forum: Other Retro Stuff
Topic: Are amiga games bad?
Replies: 77
Views: 2191

Re: Are amiga games bad?

Late to the discussion with not much new to add - but I just got my old Amiga out the loft and I'm meaning to test it out. Moved to the Amiga from Spectrum + SAM in the late eighties, the OS, the graphics and sound were very impressive but in my opinion fancier graphics are no substitute for gamepl...
by Cosmium
Wed May 24, 2023 4:22 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!
Replies: 16
Views: 613

Re: Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!

Aha! Using some of the neat debugging techniques suggested here I was thankfully able to find and fix the intermittent crash I was experiencing. It was to do with an interaction between my IM2 service routine and code in the main game loop. I'd assumed the interrupt code and the game code operated o...
by Cosmium
Mon May 01, 2023 7:52 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!
Replies: 16
Views: 613

Re: Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!

Some fantastic suggestions, thanks!

And when I track this bug down I'll post back here what it was.
by Cosmium
Sun Apr 30, 2023 8:07 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!
Replies: 16
Views: 613

Debugging an intermittent crash in a sea of code!

Wondered if anyone had a good approach to debugging rare, intermittent crashes in Z80 code. My normal method of debugging is to print expected values on screen and delve deeper if they don't align with my expectations, or use the debugger to step through the recently added code, or add breakpoints (...
by Cosmium
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:04 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Games the Spectrum couldn't quite manage
Replies: 35
Views: 1081

Re: Games the Spectrum couldn't quite manage

They didn't. They just drew sprites from the bottom up, so they wouldn't get into any beam-racing situations. Instead, you just get a single-frame twinkle when a sprite is being drawn across the beam, which isn't very noticeable. One more thing is that they erase and redraw each sprite one by one, ...
by Cosmium
Mon Mar 20, 2023 1:17 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Games the Spectrum couldn't quite manage
Replies: 35
Views: 1081

Re: Games the Spectrum couldn't quite manage

Yes, I made a generalization about most Speccy games being fairly jerky when compared to the arcade "standard" of graphics updating 50 times a second, which you very rarely saw in Speccy games, especially when scrolling was involved (one rare example for a game with scrolling would be the...
by Cosmium
Mon Mar 20, 2023 12:54 am
Forum: ZXDB Discussion
Topic: Number of levels
Replies: 17
Views: 734

Re: Number of levels

Stefan wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:23 pm I’ll see your Psytraxx and raise you an Explorer. :dance
Psytraxx had 1025 screens. Of course they were all rather samey, with some procedural generation cheats, but pretty big for its time in '84!
by Cosmium
Sun Mar 12, 2023 5:42 am
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Did you have your own TV/monitor when you got your Speccy?
Replies: 76
Views: 1087

Re: Did you have your own TV/monitor when you got your Speccy?

You rich kids and your “buttons.” I remember a B&W TV we had (pre-Speccy) with a channel selector knob. The plastic knob had broken off, so we used pliers to grab the metal selector stub and switch channels (thonk-thonk-thonk!). You rich kids with flashy knobs. My old B&W TV was so basic in...
by Cosmium
Sun Mar 12, 2023 5:22 am
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Did you have your own TV/monitor when you got your Speccy?
Replies: 76
Views: 1087

Re: Did you have your own TV/monitor when you got your Speccy?

Initially I was hooking up my ZX81 to the shared (Granada?) family TV in the living room. After about a year I got a small B&W TV for my birthday that I had in my bedroom. I continued using that TV after I'd saved up for the Spectrum, so just shades of grey for me to start with, unless I wanted ...
by Cosmium
Sun Feb 05, 2023 3:02 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Breakpoint on a memory range
Replies: 4
Views: 350

Re: Breakpoint on a memory range

Hi, Sorry for the tardy response! The way to do it with Inkspector (it's easier with the new 2.0.4 release so I'd suggest you upgrade any older version first) is to add a breakpoint with the following settings: ... HTH Inky. Thanks Inky - really helps. Expecially coupled with the debugger's inheren...
by Cosmium
Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:43 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: ChatGPT
Replies: 50
Views: 2177

Re: ChatGPT

What happens if you ask it again, after telling it there is no END. Does it learn fro its mistake? I don't think it does (not yet at least!), because it made exactly the same mistake back in December, as evidenced here where the human points out there isn't an END statement in Spectrum BASIC, it ap...
by Cosmium
Sat Dec 24, 2022 7:01 pm
Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
Topic: Happy Christmas
Replies: 26
Views: 606

Re: Happy Christmas

I'd like to second that.. Happy Christmas to all! :santa
by Cosmium
Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:38 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?
Replies: 22
Views: 844

Re: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?

have you got that piece of code? I might have that little piece of paper somewhere. I remember it was a 1 or 2 line REM statement with a bunch of seemingly random graphic symbols, letters and numbers, ending with a TAN statement (which I would later learn was the ZX81's character code for the Z80's...
by Cosmium
Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:54 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?
Replies: 22
Views: 844

Re: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?

So learning assembler was a gradual process spurned on by the immense speed it offered, together with the allure of being able to write your own "arcade quality" games. Whoops :oops:. I meant to type: So learning assembler was a gradual process spurred on by the immense speed it offered, ...
by Cosmium
Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:06 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?
Replies: 22
Views: 844

Re: How did you learn assembly in the 80s?

A friend passed me a scrap of paper in school during a chemistry lesson. There were some crypric symbols and letters written on it, and he said to type it into the ZX81. It was a REM statement and after typing it all in back at home, and issuing the final command, a USR statement, my mind was blown!...
by Cosmium
Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:00 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Let's settle this once and for all....
Replies: 54
Views: 1317

Re: Let's settle this once and for all....

QAOPM feels pretty natural on the rubber keyed Spectrum. Or equally AZOPM. Right thumb feels just about in the right place for Fire. In a pinch 67890 (using the interface 2 option) works for games with unwieldy key choices and no redefine option. Or even cursor keys! I think that's a throwback from ...
by Cosmium
Mon Oct 17, 2022 6:52 pm
Forum: Website
Topic: CPU Usage & Website Speed
Replies: 8
Views: 220

Re: CPU Usage & Website Speed

+3code wrote: ↑
Wow, a lot of USA viewers
PeterJ wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 5:05 pm That's most likely bots.
Well I gotta say it certainly *feels* like I'm human from over here.

I think.

Beep.
by Cosmium
Thu Oct 13, 2022 3:23 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: my first ASM program lol
Replies: 75
Views: 2252

Re: my first ASM program lol

I think Paul J did a Spectrum Show feature on compilers, and seemed to have about the same success as me (which was reassuring to see after all these years!)... Yeah, it was a really interesting in depth look at the compilers of the time and the difficulties he experienced were typical, I think. I ...