Spectrum Computing

In theory if you have an original +2A you could populate the missing components on the board, hack a hole in the case to access the floppy connector, and patch the PCB to support twin external drives.
However doing all that would in my opinion ruin what is a relatively rare computer.

Zoran wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 3:59 pm But yes, Fuse might have been fixed after 1.6 got released. This is the version I have.

It's still the same, but lets just say no-one's been desperate to fix things that only affect tests.

I want to know what sort of Meccano models you controlled! I was at a Meccano guild meeting this afternoon and it was disappointingly lacking in wonky old computer interfaces :D Many years ago I built a relay driver interface for my BBC micro, which I used to computerise a Meccano gantry crane. I sh...

Well business logic is going to be pretty similar regardless and it depends how abstracted other functionality is. And if you're given the job of converting a big blob of 6502 to Z80 as quickly as possible, with little care for optimization, then doing the bulk of it with a nasty batch conversion p...

Just open the skool and control files side by side in a split screen editor, and every time you've added your next block of comments to the control file, hit the function key that runs the command to re-generate your skool file and read the beautifully formatted output that appears

There is more than one story of developers writing a quick "6502 to Z80" converter (or the other way around) to do a port quickly, so it's not entirely out of the question. I don't mean the CPU architecture, but the machines are so completely different that I can't imagine much of the hig...

catmeows wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 4:28 pm Looks like direct translantion from 6502 to Z80.

There was a BBC micro version, though I can't imagine there'd be any commonality in the code between the two being such different architectures.

You don't have to rely on the cloud somebody else's computer to still benefit hugely from version control. I have loads of personal projects in git that just live here on my own machines and I'm the only person acessing, but when I do want to collaborate with someone else it takes all of five minute...

SteveSmith wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:08 pm The guy is a legend of course, but this seemed a very strange point of view.

It's also a weak excuse because nothing stops you using and benefitting from all the features of modern version control, while also backing up your working copy to GPOZF

*(Giant Pile Of Zip Files)

is stranger, why not just OR A or CP A unless HL is changed in an interrupt routine (which would be bad). Probably most bad ASM is produced by old compilers which weren't very good at optimising code and such though. You should only have to read (HL) again if the memory is volatile. I should say th...

Still not come to a firm explanation on why the teletext adapter ROM is riddled with relative conditional jumps to other jumps/calls like these

I don't really like all those "routines ... called by other routines". Don't they even get out of sync? I haven't checked. They can be nice in the final ASM output, but I don't like them cluttering the control file. It would be nice if they could be disabled....or can they already? They'r...

I feel I should defend what szelega and I had done as very much a first pass. In some senses we're not much beyond the "identify what is code and what is data" stage. I got carried away making things like the spells table pretty, because that was easy 😄 A lot of it merely describes what th...

lexi wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:45 pm full screen cpu-lite replays would be a nice-to-have feature.

Alas, everything on the spectrum involves the CPU moving bytes around. There's a demo of flinging video frames at the speccy over udp in the spectranet examples.

lexi wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:45 pm [*] ideally <6k init with as close to a ~1k runtime as i can get

library as a ROM module

I was looking more into Spectranet, and want to help add support for it to Chaos and GravityPower+2 - i have some half-baked ideas for how i'd go about that, but can't find much via search and wondered if there are docs/plans already written up somewhere? Spectranet provides a bsd style socket inte...

You must have a load connected when measuring as it forms part of the circuit. It's also a video signal so the only way to sensibly measure it is with an oscilloscope.
The video should be on the order of a volt between the sync tips and peak white but there's probably a large DC offset.

how hands on/off would you like to be? i can take care of hosting the wip git/html elsewhere (github), or i could send you my ssh keys for your zxnet repo and ping you to rebuild the zxnet pages whenever there's a significant update/correction? It lives in my home directory at the moment, so will n...

lexi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 10:11 pm are you *sure* you want to know the answer to those life-long questions? is predictable Chaos really playing with Chaos at all?

Is it really predictable when it's governed by the random number generator?

(Yes, yes it is, especially with the random number generator Gollop wrote )

and it depends how szeliga and guesser want to move forward.. but combined, it would absolutely be the definitive guide until another one-post-wonder drive-bys a fourth Chaos Disassembly :lol: If you want to take the lead, and field the questions from Szeliga on whether it's finished yet, you're mo...

I'm still waiting for the article announcing the 2023 compo...

*refreshes his newsreader again*

firelord wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:41 pm I believe that any porn spectrum title is Safe For Work (SFW).

There's at least one which I believe is currently illegal to possess, though unlikely to be in the public interest to prosecute over.

Don't get me wrong, I think trying to emulate shadow masks and suchlike is a worthy endeavour so that people can see the software the way it was expected to look rather than painfully pure colours and infinite-bandwidth pixel edges. I just think great big scanlines look dumb

To me "scanlines" is about as irritating as all those supposed VHS filters people slap on videos. You know the ones, where the picture's tearing side to side all the time and everything looks like an old 3D movie without the cardboard glasses.

I can't really remember, something like 2003 I think (UK)