Spectrum Computing

GreenCard wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:16 pm

smurphboy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:18 pm That there is a code for the teleport in Starquake that you can see on screen and then type in, to get to that area which is otherwise inaccessible. I just read the list of codes in a mag!

I've played that game to death since I was a kid, and until now I've been totally unaware of this! Any idea what the code is? I must see this inaccessible area! I *must* see it!

AMIGA in the bottom left. There is a sign next to a dead body and you can see the teleport on the next screen but only the code will let you in. You need it if there is a core part in that section.

1) That the ZX Spectrum didn't just arrive on the market and there were loads of games on the shop shelves from day one. It took much of 1982 to go from mail order tapes to actually being commercially available on the high street, and even by the 1982, games were rare for shops.

2) How long the Speccy went on for into the 1990s over in eastern Europe after it was deemed commercially obsolete in the UK.

3) Programmers often slept on office floors and pulled all-nighters to meet deadlines.

4) How close the Spectrum came to be the official computer for UK schools (losing out to Acorn's efforts).

5) Some dickheads will put Hit Squad cassettes up for sale at a three figure sum, FFS.

PeteProdge wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:48 pm3) Programmers often slept on office floors and pulled all-nighters to meet deadlines.

Yes, me too. In my youth I had imagined that a hit game meant instant fame and fortune. In hindsight, I have a better understanding of the pressures and sometimes bad working conditions that some put up with in order to do what they loved. And while there was money to be made, not many became wealthy from it.

PeteProdge wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:48 pm5) Some dickheads will put Hit Squad cassettes up for sale at a three figure sum, FFS.

Weren't they always £1.99 or £2.99?

I'll add one myself. As a youngster I had some disdain for "minority" home computers such as the Oric or Dragon. With the benefit of (a little) maturity, I can now recognise the rich ecosystem we had back then, the variety of machines with different design philosophies and strengths/limitations. Machines that I would have laughed at back then, such as the Jupiter Ace, I now view with a mixture of curiosity and desire. It's never too late to learn.

Since embarking on the world of emulation (circa 1998), I solved a few mysteries and discovered a few tips and tricks that had always baffled me as a nipper:

(1) Where the final piece of the submarine is in Blood & Guts
(2) Blood & Guts was remade as Fantastic Voyage and was a lot harder
(3) That the copy of Arena on the Sinclair Research / Argus Press Games Compilation that steadfastly refused to load wasn't Arena at all, it was Xadom
(4) Issue 2 and Issue 3 keyboards don't work the same way when tested with the IN function
(5) How to POKE the display file
(6) The +3's sound output is ruined harder than the original release of Rush's Vapor Trails
(7) INK/PAPER/BRIGHT 8 is actually useful
(8) My +2 was always slightly defective
(9) I was also always slightly defective...

I never knew that turbo mode in Bomb Jack made you jump higher. I never even bothered to try it because I assumed it made the game run faster.
Therefore I could never pass the 5th level and figured there's some trick to passing the level. Thanks to the HSC contest I found this out.

1) That the IY index register can actually be used without fear if you use it carefully!

2) About RAM contention with the ULA screen refresh. I had no idea at the time why certain sound routines sounded so bad when placed in the lower 32K of RAM

Then again I didn't have any Spectrum books and anything new was gleaned from experimenting or magazine articles. No quick internet searches in the 80s!

Cosmium wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:30 am 2) About RAM contention with the ULA screen refresh. I had no idea at the time why certain sound routines sounded so bad when placed in the lower 32K of RAM

I should probably clarify that I mean addressing RAM in the lower 32K address space

TMD2003 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:43 pm INK/PAPER/BRIGHT 8 is actually useful

Whaddayamean, 8???

That the original Speccy had very crazy contention timings. Until the 2000's, I thought that there were just even T-states (like early "yellow" Scorpion), and you only need to know the number of T-states in a line.

For many years I believed Speccy is prounounced like Lucy, not like Becky With "si" at the end.

This name wasn't used in Poland where I live. I only learnt it through internet and saw it written but never spoken.

I only recently found out that you can throw people in Renegade. 128K only, mind - I only had the 48K version back in the day!

I think it's UP + BACK + FIRE while grabbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZxuIMhj6c4

Rorthron wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:26 am

TMD2003 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:43 pm INK/PAPER/BRIGHT 8 is actually useful

Whaddayamean, 8???

8 is transparent / unchanged - so if you do PRINT INK 7; PAPER 8; "SOMETHING", the text will have white INK but the existing PAPER colour of each cell will remain unchanged

8 is transparent / unchanged - so if you do PRINT INK 7; PAPER 8; "SOMETHING", the text will have white INK but the existing PAPER colour of each cell will remain unchanged

Wouldn't it be the same as simply PRINT INK 7; "SOMETHING" ?

presh wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:32 pm

Rorthron wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:26 am Whaddayamean, 8???

8 is transparent / unchanged - so if you do PRINT INK 7; PAPER 8; "SOMETHING", the text will have white INK but the existing PAPER colour of each cell will remain unchanged

Shh, you'll be giving away the secrets of INK / PAPER 9 next.

You know the first rule of BRIGHT club: "We don't talk about BRIGHT club."

Here are a couple of BASIC things I didn't know 'til recently.

GOTO jumps take longer to execute the further into the program that the line they jump to is located. I read about that on this forum, and went back and changed my 'Physiced' program to put the game loop at the top and it ran notably quicker.


It was only when reading the Next manual, cover to cover a couple of months ago that I found out that Sinclair BASIC could use:
LET A$="ABCDEFGH"

PRINT A$( TO 4) ; giving "ABCD"
PRINT A$(4 TO ) ; giving "DEFGH"

I've spent 38 years not knowing that you didn't need to use both arguments. I'd previously always used:

PRINT A$(0 TO 4)
PRINT A$(4 TO LEN A$)

...for my LEFT$ / RIGHT$ functions.

presh wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:26 pm I only recently found out that you can throw people in Renegade. 128K only, mind - I only had the 48K version back in the day!

Ditto!

That Turbo Esprit had working traffic lights.

I now know games with Kangaroos are bad.

A couple more that spring to mind:

1. Assembly programming - I didn't really get anywhere trying to learn this; coming from a BASIC background I didn't twig that you could just store things directly in the Speccy's memory, like "LD (32768),A". I thought you had to hold all your game variables in the few registers available to you, or use PUSH/POP to store/retrieve them in exactly the right order from the stack.

2. BASIC programming - I never got why people used keywords like "VAL" and "NOT PI" in BASIC rather than 'regular' numbers. When I saw them in programs I thought it just looked a bit bizarre.

presh wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:26 pm I only recently found out that you can throw people in Renegade. 128K only, mind - I only had the 48K version back in the day!

I think it's UP + BACK + FIRE while grabbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZxuIMhj6c4

shock and awe!

For my part, I discovered a few years ago that when you play Exploding Fist with keys, you can make diagonals pressing UP/DOWN + LEFT/RIGHT. That is, you can use 5 keys instead of 9

bluespikey wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:57 pmMy own shocker is that the laser swords on Rebelstar could cut through airlocks.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:25 pm Horace's ponytail.

That was shocking.

I second that. For me, Horace will always have arms.

Ralf wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:48 amFor many years I believed Speccy is prounounced like Lucy, not like Becky With "si" at the end.

When I discovered Spectrum emulation through the Internet in 1997, I was surprised to see this "Speccy" thing popping up everywhere. Nobody here would call the Spectrum that way. Just a few years ago, by casually watching some Youtube video I cannot remember, I found that it was pronounced "Spek-KEE" instead of "Spec-CHEE" as I believed.

I bought the "Automata 10 Pack Volume One" when it was released loved it's quirkiness (with Pi-Balled and New Wheels John being particular favourites of mine). It was only in ~2017 when reading Mel Croucher's book "Deus Ex Machina - The Best Game You Never Played in Your Life" that I came across his company's slogan "There's no blood in our games, it's Automata sauce" and realised the pronunciation of the company name Automata must have intended to be aw'toe'mar'ta which I'd always pronounced aw'tom'uh'ta in my head. That blew my mind!

Another...
Not so many years for the penny to drop with this one, but "NEXT D.A.W." (on the Spectrum Next) the Digital Audio Workstation (well, sequencer). I teach music technology for my job, and I say 'D.A.W.' and 'DAW' a lot. I'm very used to it meaning Digital Audio Workstation. I was very eager to try this Next sequencer when I first saw it mentioned as being in development, but it took me until this summer to get around to buying a physical copy of it. I had owned it for about two months before I said it's name out loud and realised I'd just called it "Next Door". I'd not spotted the pun name until that point.

Ralf wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:48 amFor many years I believed Speccy is prounounced like Lucy, not like Becky With "si" at the end.

What???

Next thing you gonna tell me is that ZX-Spectrum is not spelled with a hyphen!

Ralf wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:48 am For many years I believed Speccy is prounounced like Lucy, not like Becky With "si" at the end.

Cast this scoundrel into the chasm!

I didn't even know Spectrum was called 'Speccy'.

And I don't want to tell you how I prononunce it...