Spectrum Computing

I seem to remember there was a recent game that fit entirely into the screen file (including the code). I think we even had a discussion about it here. @Woodster made a suprisingly decent game that fits in, and executes entirely from, screen memory (as I understand it): https://spectrumcomputing.co...

I seem to remember there was a recent game that fit entirely into the screen file (including the code). I think we even had a discussion about it here.

Awesome news! No, the order in which you solder the leads plays no role whatsoever. Just make sure you don’t accidentally bridge anything else with exposed wire cores (the plastic insulation tends to shrink when you apply heat to it). I haven’t been paying much attention to membrane replacement pric...

Does it matter that the heat sink plate hasn't been reattached yet? Absolutely. You shouldn’t run a 7805 under load for more than a few seconds with the heat sink. It’s designed to convert extra energy (i.e. input voltage) into heat, so when that heat has nowhere to dissipate to, the chip will quit...

zasm

The 48K/128K machines use a different jack wiring. Check out my post here.

Luzie wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 9:07 am Exolon (bug fix)

Hey, it’s nice to get noticed sometimes.

The faulty board is Issue 1 (C)1987. Ah, that confused me, too. I thought you were troubleshooting an Issue 4 board. Yeah, the Z70830 Issue 1 had quite a few factory mods installed. Maybe you inadvertently knocked off one or two? I’d have to dig a little deeper into disassembling the ROM initializa...

It gets through initialisation, will pass all diagnostic tests, RAM is fine, keyboard is OK - It just fails to bring up the Drive M message and the menu doesn't appear. So there must be some test that occurs after the first text string hits the screen and before the menu appears that it is stuck on...

Awesome news!

Egghead 4
Kendo Warrior

(I have bug fixes for both.)

Vectron allegedly uses it as a special effect.

One word: brilliant!

(The redefine keys routines doesn’t display numbers, though. Or maybe the font doesn’t have the bitmaps for them.)

That’s a pretty neat idea, actually! Love it.

MatGubbins wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 10:24 amNetherworld

Bingo! Your turn.

Nope.

I think it’s time for a bigger area of the screen:

spider wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 9:24 pm The floating bus mod may be worth doing too, I'll do this to my black +2 as soon as I have a moment, may improve game compatibility.

Ahem. (see my signature).

Excellent. Glad it all worked out for you!

Vampyre wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 1:59 pmWizball?

Nope.

Hi @kio! Fancy seeing you here.

Awrighty, then:

Behold this pixelated miracle!

Looks awesome! I just had a quick look, and I like it a lot. Just a few (minor) optimizations: 1. This: ld l,a ld h,0 add hl,hl ; x2 add hl,hl ; x4 add hl,hl ; x8 can be replaced with this: ld h,0 add a,a ld l,a add hl,hl add hl,hl making it quite a bit faster. 2. LD H,1/LD L,1 in pltloop could just...

Oh, that’s Thanatos.

Do you think it is the Z80 despite not changing the output to the screen whether it is inserted or not? Yes, the output not changing is what suggests to me that it’s the Z80. Of course, there might be another reason. For example, the gate array not generating the clock signal for the CPU. Could be ...

ManicMiner1977 wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 8:07 pm I don't think it is a problem with the Z80 or ROMs as they have been removed and make no difference to the output.

It does actually suggest to me that it’s probably the dead CPU. If you have a known good spare, try replacing it and putting the original ROMs back in.

spider wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 4:01 pm . . . and before you know where you are you'd end up with a FPGA or something similar aka "Speccy on a chip"

Exactly!