Spectrum Computing

And if you want fast instead you can't go much wrong with A*. A* "optimality" makes it faster for large mazes. However Spectrum games don't have large enough maps to compensate it. For smaller mazes, it's probably faster to just solve the entire maze instead of spending time with heuristi...

Another gray area is: should we give Renegade a "end-level boss" tag too? It depends if we consider the last boss in Renegade as yet another end-level boss, or an end-game boss in a separate category from the others.

A single tag for bosses would be much easier...

There's something similar called PATHFINDER : The PATHFINDER library is a small efficient Assembly implementation of the "simplified Dijkstra" algorithm for finding shortest paths in small mazes, that you can freely use in your own programs. It uses 512 bytes as temporary queue and only 89...

ZXSR only has the ones from Crash Annual 2018. You can see them here:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?ye ... award_id=1

But well, we already have tags for filmation and filmation-2 engines that group 2/3 titles only. Features are a very different situation from series and sets. It doesn't make sense to say "there are not many games created with Filmation II engine so let's combine them with something else"

I think the tag itself is a great idea. However we still need to sort out the details. For instance, Castlevania has many bosses but it's a continuous game. Therefore they are neither end-level bosses or end-game bosses. Also if there are too few games in this list, we should probably have a single ...

Steel Force

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 2:31 pm I'm struggling for just one final boss games...

Draconus

StooB wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 6:25 pm based on the cover style and barcode their game actually appears to be from early 1988.

Agreed. The second Bug Byte release was already marked as 1988.

Rorthron wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 5:38 pm To me the graphics look far too similar to be chance resemblances.

Agreed.

Rorthron wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 5:38 pm I might have missed something, but is there actually any material relating to the 1986 Test Cricket game in the archive?

No, we don't have any material from the first Bug Byte release. That's explained here.

A new ZXDB version is now available!

Yes, the code is completely different, but I still suspect the graphics are too similar to be just a coincidence.

Perhaps the same artist created the graphics for both. Or perhaps one of them copied graphics from the other.

These games have similar graphics: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2111/ZX-Spectrum/Graham_Goochs_Test_Cricket https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2500/ZX-Spectrum/Test_Cricket They appear too similar to be just a coincidence... Also both were originally released as "Test Cricket",...

Joefish wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:13 pm Well remembered! But why does the database list it as Test Cricket, when the title International Cricket is all over the loading screen and cassette inlay?

Explained here.

I don't think it's appropriate to mark this title as denied, since nobody denied it.

But when a game is hosted at Itch.io, I agree it's better to ask the author's permission first, because many titles at itch.io are for sale (or asking for a donation).

You can use this:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... um/Usr0x01

Fixed. Thanks for reporting it!

That's explained in the ZXDB documentation under section "ADDITIONAL DETAILS ":

https://github.com/zxdb/ZXDB

Could you add tags for teleports, hyperspace into ZXDB tags table please? I think discussion about game featuring these tags is over and we know lists of games now. druellan is going to add it, he's organizing this list. Let me check with him. BTW could you please explain what are "feature&quo...

No. You have to decompress it to a continuous memory area first, before drawing it to the screen.

i'm trying to use ZX0 compression with prefix, but as far as I can see, the prefix table must be at the beginning of the compressed data (and It Will be skipped when decompressing). Correct. Here's the idea: Suppose a certain game have player sprites stored in memory between address 40,000 and 42,9...

ParadigmShifter wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 12:56 am and it preserves value of A

Macro SETFOUNDMATCHFLAG preserves value of A, but CLRFOUNDMATCHFLAG doesn't.

MACRO SETFOUNDMATCHFLAG ex af, af' ld a, 1 ex af, af' ENDM MACRO CLRFOUNDMATCHFLAG xor a ex af, af' ENDM Notice that: Macro SETFOUNDMATCHFLAG will only set A'=1, preserving A,F,F'. Macro CLRFOUNDMATCHFLAG will set A=A', F=F', A'=0, F'=0x44. That's not the behaviour I would expect when looking at co...

I sometimes comment my code in C-style, like Field[x,y] += c or List[j] = &Array[j] . Agreed! If it's easier to explain your code using a high-level programming language instead of lots of text, by all means use it! I have commented a large part of Complica DX using pseudo-code instead of regul...