Search found 476 matches
- Tue Jan 30, 2024 11:53 am
- Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
- Topic: ZX Spectrum code on The IT Crowd DVD ?
- Replies: 39
- Views: 1629
Re: ZX Spectrum code on The IT Crowd DVD ?
I know I'm quite late in reporting back on this - in truth I stalled very quickly when I realised that it was going to be tricky to actually extract something from the audio on the disc. The issue is that, through the various filters the loading noise has had applied to it, and then the subsequent a...
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 7:08 pm
- Forum: Hardware
- Topic: One spectrum better at loading than another?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 591
Re: One spectrum better at loading than another?
You can open up the Spectrum and check the writing near the bottom of the PCB (on the component side), which will tell you the issue. Of course, there is the danger when taking the computer apart that you could damage the keyboard ribbons, as these have become brittle with age. You might be able to ...
- Sat Jan 27, 2024 11:40 pm
- Forum: Emulators
- Topic: Exporting videos to YouTube
- Replies: 4
- Views: 513
Re: Exporting videos to YouTube
Fuse can record "Fuse movie files" which can be converted to video using a command-line tool ( fmfconv ) - though this tool can output video files directly, you're better advised to pipe its output directly into a dedicated media encoding tool like ffmpeg . There's some examples of this us...
- Sat Jan 27, 2024 11:08 pm
- Forum: Emulators
- Topic: Exporting videos to YouTube
- Replies: 4
- Views: 513
Re: Exporting videos to YouTube
The problem is two-fold: Spectaculator offers you a choice of different video codecs - unless you use a lossless codec like "Full Frames" or "MS-RLE" then the artefacts will be baked in at the recording stage. Spectaculator records the video at native resolution (something like 2...
- Wed Jan 24, 2024 11:54 pm
- Forum: Music
- Topic: CLEAR command messes with Beepola ROMBeep tunes on a real 48K?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 810
Re: CLEAR command messes with Beepola ROMBeep tunes on a real 48K?
That 74LS157 chip isn't a RAM IC, but it is directly involved in the operation of the RAM - it passes the address from the CPU to the upper RAM chips, so a fault in that (like a dodgy pin) could make the top 32K behave strangely. Since that chip and the three below it are in sockets, I would presume...
- Wed Jan 24, 2024 7:55 pm
- Forum: Hardware
- Topic: Could standard cassette use stereo tracks to double data density ?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1061
Re: Could standard cassette use stereo tracks to double data density ?
Phase shift keying could have made the 0 and 1 the same length without requiring more bandwidth, and still having an edge per bit (allowing for easy timing recovery, and the wide variability of tape recorder speeds). e.g. you encode a 0 as a low to high, and a 1 as a high to low of the same length....
- Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:32 am
- Forum: Games/Software
- Topic: C.S.S.C.G.C 2024 is/will be/has open/ing/ed
- Replies: 102
- Views: 4931
Re: C.S.S.C.G.C 2024 is/will be/has open/ing/ed
Cool little game! What a novel idea it is, but it's quite tricky to see what's going on at that size, even on an emulator at 2x magnification. My first attempt got me a final score of 2242, just going in little circles to draw and then selectively erase parts. The hardest bit is trying to compensate...
- Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:29 pm
- Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
- Topic: Anyone made any 2024 Speccy-related New Year Resolutions?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 767
Re: Anyone made any 2024 Speccy-related New Year Resolutions?
Mine is 256 by 192, same as last year :mrgreen: More seriously, I'd like to get at least one new game out this year. I spent some of 2023 working on porting my Spectrum games over to the PC, so I hope to finish that. In the process, I've had a few PC game ideas that would probably be feasible on the...
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:28 am
- Forum: Hardware
- Topic: Main Screen Scrolling Issue
- Replies: 3
- Views: 310
Re: Main Screen Scrolling Issue
Hello Chooks , welcome to the forum! :) I'm not a hardware expert by any means, but have you checked to make sure it's not the television? The rolling you describe makes it sound like your set can't lock onto the vertical sync (the horizontal black bar in your picture). If your TV has settings for v...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 1:21 pm
- Forum: Emulators
- Topic: BEEP not sounding in ZXSpin
- Replies: 6
- Views: 491
Re: BEEP not sounding in ZXSpin
I've always had this problem with ZX Spin too, in version 0.666, though I've noticed that the ROM beep works when you emulate a 128K Spectrum.
- Sat Dec 30, 2023 4:41 pm
- Forum: Programming
- Topic: getting sound effects out of the beeper
- Replies: 26
- Views: 1254
Re: getting sound effects out of the beeper
Bit 3 controls the MIC output; some emulators will produce sound from both the speaker and MIC. Of course, it's barely audible on a real Spectrum - I need my ear right next to my Issue 2's loudspeaker to hear it.
- Sat Dec 30, 2023 12:15 pm
- Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
- Topic: any idea if this book cover is a real game?
- Replies: 1
- Views: 228
- Sat Dec 23, 2023 2:17 pm
- Forum: Brand new software!
- Topic: WOOT 2023 released!
- Replies: 90
- Views: 6042
Re: WOOT 2023 released!
A fantastic early Christmas present! Of the included programs, I've finished Rosetta (a nice little puzzle), half-way through Roasty (have had a break from it after getting trapped in the bottom-left corner of one screen), and am really enjoying Parsley Sage and the 7 Bins of Sunak - it's like a gre...
- Wed Dec 20, 2023 7:37 pm
- Forum: Other Retro Stuff
- Topic: Just a few barely useful Vic-20 games...
- Replies: 4
- Views: 504
Re: Just a few barely useful Vic-20 games...
Did Vic-20 had something like colour clash? Yep, you either had 2 colours per character in high resolution mode, or 4 colours per character in multicolour mode. However, there's some restrictions on how those colours can be used, and I'd say it's actually stricter than the Spectrum. The Wikipedia p...
- Wed Dec 20, 2023 10:08 am
- Forum: Games/Software
- Topic: Games that made good use of FLASH
- Replies: 26
- Views: 1608
Re: Games that made good use of FLASH
Semi OT: is the FLASH interval immutable or is it possible to speed it up? I have some memory flashes (pun intended) of something blinking at faster speed, but perhaps it was a software flash. The FLASH interval is fixed in the ULA - the paper and ink colours are swapped every 16 frames. Anything w...
- Tue Dec 19, 2023 11:11 pm
- Forum: Programming
- Topic: Rockfall: why does this game crash in 128 mode?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1817
Re: Rockfall: why does this game crash in 128 mode?
[...] There's some strange code which then gets a value from port $38 and then checks the first byte at address 0. If the normal ROM is there this will be $f3. The code returns if this is true or does some other code - which calls $220 which doesn't appear to be a valid ROM address. Maybe some sort...
- Mon Dec 11, 2023 10:00 am
- Forum: Other Retro Stuff
- Topic: Computer Glitch figures
- Replies: 4
- Views: 270
Re: Computer Glitch figures
I'm not sure what the difference between "not enough memory" and "insufficient memory" is, apart from of course it being an excuse to sell more dolls. Perhaps we could have a different "Chuntey Field" figure for each kind of tape loader e.g. a stern looking prison guard...
- Thu Dec 07, 2023 11:41 am
- Forum: Games/Software
- Topic: Games that take place on top of a train
- Replies: 12
- Views: 362
- Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:09 pm
- Forum: Sinclair Miscellaneous
- Topic: UDG advent calendar thread
- Replies: 163
- Views: 5290
Re: UDG advent calendar thread
We need the traditional version of the Xmas tree, where the buyer has once again, for the tenth consecutive year, underestimated the tree height/overestimated their room's ceiling height, when buying the tree. Thus the top of the tree is mashed against the ceiling and teetering to one side. ⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜...
- Thu Nov 23, 2023 8:18 am
- Forum: Games/Software
- Topic: ZX Spectrum game mash-ups that don't currently exist.
- Replies: 40
- Views: 1451
Re: ZX Spectrum game mash-ups that don't currently exist.
I was talking about the ZX Spectrum in the pub last night, and the landlord overheard us and because of his mangled memory, came up with a beauty for this thread: "Do you remember Jet Pac Willy ?!!!" We've already got that: Caves of Doom ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh-dbmx1_t8
- Sun Nov 19, 2023 4:55 pm
- Forum: Programming
- Topic: Can AGD do scrolling?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 644
Re: Can AGD do scrolling?
Could you give a basic explanation how buffering works, or the pros and cons of the two methods? I'm guessing buffering couldn't work for diagonal scrolling? Wikipedia has a nice overview of software and hardware double-buffering. It should be mentioned that the 128K machines are capable of hardwar...
- Sun Nov 19, 2023 2:34 pm
- Forum: Programming
- Topic: Can AGD do scrolling?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 644
Re: Can AGD do scrolling?
Is it dumb of me to ask "Why can't Jonathan Cauldwell just add a scrolling engine to AGD?" :oops: Not at all, it's perfectly reasonable to ask if you haven't the experience to know the answer yourself. We all have to learn somehow :) How hard can it be? Depends on what type of scrolling y...
- Fri Nov 17, 2023 4:19 pm
- Forum: Website
- Topic: UDGs in forum threads?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 714
Re: UDGs in forum threads?
Could use a code block with @ signs (or any similarly "full" character like a hash) and spaces. I'm not sure a whole BBCode plugin for this is a good idea, especially if it ends up breaking in the future. @@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @@@@@@ Perhaps have some reference ...
- Thu Nov 16, 2023 9:43 pm
- Forum: Other Retro Stuff
- Topic: Trying to find old YouTube video of arcade machine restoration
- Replies: 2
- Views: 118
Re: Trying to find old YouTube video of arcade machine restoration
Apparently I hadn't looked hard enough, as I found the video this evening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWYaz1HOkzw I'm still not sure why I had such trouble searching for it earlier, but either way, I'm glad to have the link now :) As for that channel rnhunt , they have some interesting stuff on...
- Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:09 am
- Forum: Other Retro Stuff
- Topic: Trying to find old YouTube video of arcade machine restoration
- Replies: 2
- Views: 118
Trying to find old YouTube video of arcade machine restoration
I've been looking for it but can't seem to remember the title - it might not even be up anymore, but I suppose some members here might have watched it too and may have the link bookmarked. Basically, the video was a slideshow presenting the restoration process of a Radar Scope arcade machine. The ca...