Spectrum Computing

Obviously Forth is better than basic ;) no big wonder as almost everything is better than basic :lol: jokes aside, i think it's more correct to say that forth is much more useful for low-performance systems ; even though it's inherently much more unsafe in its simplest form (you can easily screw th...

There's a bunch of toxic anti-Next people out there, and its always like that if you engage with them. Definitely best to ignore. Discussing or refuting doesn't work. there are two types of people: some talk numbers, and others that are calling them trolls if they don't like the numbers who's more ...

I've written and release several games on ZX Spectrum Next which are far superior to the example you gave by sprite count. You're telling me, who knows the ZX Spectrum Next like the back of his hand that it's impossible in principle to do something I done many times before, and will do many times i...

The Next can play Nemesis of The Warlock, exactly as the 48K does. So no, you haven't "lost" anything ...and gained nothing You've gained the ability to have higher colour sprites, with no attribute limits. Those sprites come with their own limitations ...and that means i lose something W...

i use SPiN to make "ideal" snapshots. When it begins the loading of the last block, enter the debugger then keep clicking "exit function" button until it resumes the loading, then it breaks at the next RET when finished. Then i trace until the PC points into the RAM (and for 48K ...

You realise the full beauty of extended instructions only when you write your own game for ZX-Next in assembly language. "Beauty", really? Like, PIXELAD has negligible effect on overall performance as it is a rarely needed op; and who in his sane mind would love ugly monstrosity like PIXE...

You can store many more sprite templates in main RAM, and load them into VRAM as needed. You can't show more than 16kb (32Kpix) of sprites in a single frame at any one time, so there's no point in having more VRAM. Sprites overlap, so it's not about how much to show, it's about how much you can out...

I was referring to the CPC+, which was made in 1990. With 1990's hardware technology. And thus subject to the limitations therein. Sure sprites existed before then but that's not the point. What you could cost-effectively build in the early 90's was different from what the state of the art was. And...

Instructions PIXELAD, PIXELDN are complete nonsense, LD*X aren't much better, as they are focused to improve performance in particular video mode (something like [HL]=([HL] and [DE]) or [BC] would be more general) agreed, it's like "fixing" something that ain't broke improving video acces...

Sure. But that's what makes it authentic , the limitations of trying to extend an existing design using genuine 90s technology and coming in at a reasonable budget. i'm not sure if you're talking about spectrum or cpc+ now anyway, it's early 80s tech, not 90s even a blitter (a much better solution ...

please answer the question: why do you need to store more than 16kb in vram, please pay attention to what i'm saying here and you will find answers without repeating the same questions again as already told, because i may need it to make an "extended" version of any possible standard spec...

Each fixed size 16*16 sprite has its pixels stored in 256 memory mapped registers. You can't repoint it at a different image, to change what, say, sprite 1 looks like you have to overwrite those 256 registers. And yes, that's 1 byte per pixel, even though only 4 bits are used, so you have to write ...

I've coded for the CPC+, where there are just 16 sprites, each of which has it's own graphics definition and the only way to change it is to reload all 256 bytes. It's still perfectly possible to get 50fps gameplay. i'm not that familiar with cpc+ but i suspect that actual pixel source size is not ...

But you don't have to preload every single possible sprite frame in advance. I mean, sure that's the easy way but you can just load what is necessary on the next frame, right? with hw sprites you HAVE to provide for the worst case of the game frame in the worst case there might be ALL the enemy gfx...

In ZX Spectrum Next 16kb of memory for sprites means 128 sprites with 16 colours per point (https://wiki.specnext.dev/Sprites). That is, you can cover 2/3 of the screen with sprites. In Nemesis the Warlock, the game area is 2/3 of the screen. Killed enemies can be moved to the background in layer2....

The reason I ask this is that it's become apparent that NEXT games can lose the 'identity' of the Spectrum by straying outside of classical limitations. removing old limitations is not a problem, adding the new ones is what making the new gfx non-authentic in some respects the new gfx is actually e...

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:21 am In this case, I would consider it a mod.

a mod of what? as nothing was MODified!
and yes, it should be "mod OF", not "mod FROM"
a RIP would be "RIP from"

a mod is when you take a working software and modify it
an it's still working after every modification

i remember a real atari with crt, its visible area (with overscan) was quite wider than 40 columns, maybe even wider than 42

i mean, the one using all the block types (with or without deprecated ones) and giving a message in the end if it was loaded properly

Reusing a few sprites is not taking/ripping SIGNIFICANT chunks of graphics. who said about reusing just a FEW sprites? nobody prevents the author of the said chess game to rip ALL the graphics from Rex and JSW and using it for different sets of pieces, board decorations, popup message backgrounds o...

PQR wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2023 9:47 am Renegade: managing one more flying kick at a storming Big Bertha, and then finishing her off while she's lying on the ground. Instant gratification!

defeating Big Bertha without a single flying kick

is a chess game with Rex and JSW sprites used to represent the pieces a mod of both? by Einar's logic it is

He hacked one base game for graphics, another for code. NO, he either ripped assets from two sources OR modified ONE base with assets ripped from another source. If someone rips all graphics from your game to create their game, it's a MOD. NO. It's just ripped gfx. The original was not MODified . A...

If the author of a game simply copied graphics directly from another game, it would be a "mod", not inspiration. For instance Ku-Ku is a mod of both Project Future (copied code) and Sabre Wulf (copied graphics). it cannot be a 'mod' of both, there must be one base to modify it taking/ripp...

public beta 30
fixed black stripes in fullscreen (when the 'fake border' extension is turned off) suddenly becoming non black
fixed multicolour and border visible state being lost when the emulator is paused
(watching video memory immediate state is still more useful in debugger)