Help with a Spectrum game called "They Stole a Million"

[Jarwyn]

Hi. I'm new here - so Hi everyone.

Was a keen Spectrum gamer back in the early 80s and have fond memories of waiting for the tape to 'load'. Back then I played a game called "They Stole a Million" and I got to the very last 'job'. Circumstances conspired against me and I was unable to return to it. I've tried several times to get back to it, including the purchase of an old Spectrum and a tape of the game - but couldn't get it to work. I've now tried several emulators and using a TAP file but all to no avail.

If you are familiar with the game, you will probably know what my problem is going to be - if not, let me explain.

In the game, after each 'Job' - you have to 'press play on the tape' - presumably to load more data. This never works - I do the first job and once it's done - it asks for the tape to be played. If I "play" the TAP file, it just re-loads the game to the start.

I was just wondering if someone else had managed to find a way around this? I'm not technically minded but would it work if the TAP file was split up or something like that?

Many thanks in advance.

[GreenCard]

Hi Jarwyn!

What emulator are you trying to load it in? If you use one that has a tape file browser (e.g. ZXSpin), you can choose exactly which parts of a tape you wish to load.

[Jarwyn]

Thanks - I'll give that a try.

I tried InkSpec, AllSpec, Spectrum4 and EightyOne

I'll see if I can get ZXSpin to work.

Thanks.

[GreenCard]

Once you've installed ZXSpin, go to Tools>Tape Browser. From the window that pops up, you can then "insert" a tape file and it should show you a list of all the data blocks within that file.

[Jarwyn]

Just tried it - no luck. I can see the data blocks and i can see where the tape has loaded to - but after the first 'job' it asks me to play the tape then just loads Map 4 & Map 5 but then doesn't 'exit' back to the screen.

[Morkin]

Just tried it. Initially I couldn't load any of the different maps (including the first), but found it loaded maps fine as long as when prompted to press play, I position the tape at this point:



I didn't go as far as finishing any of the missions though, can't remember what happens when you complete one..!

Great game BTW..

[Jarwyn]

Yeah the problem comes after you complete the first mission.



You are asked if you want to save - I select Exit (No save) and I get this

[Morkin]

What happens if you put the tape position back to the 699 bytes block before selecting 'Exit'?

[Jarwyn]

Tried that - same thing.

[Morkin]

From the Crash review after finishing a mission: "After all this, the dosh is split up, and you load up the first part of the game again, just in time to go for another job".

You have an option to Save at the end of a mission and it gives you save slots. I think if you:
- pick a slot
- when prompted to insert tape & press a key, in ZX Spin leave the "They Stole a Million" .tap file in the tape but press the record button and then press a key in the emulator
- load the entire game again(!)
- load your save (Load Team) and select your slot

You seem to keep the swag gained from the earlier mission.

I think it seemed to work anyway after I tried mission 1 - it recognised my £££ gain and tells me that I've now done mission 1.

[Jarwyn]

OK I'll try that - thanks.

[Jarwyn]

- when prompted to insert tape & press a key, in ZX Spin leave the "They Stole a Million" .tap file in the tape but press the record button and then press a key in the emulator

I don't have a 'record' button on the ZX Spin Tape Browser.

[Morkin]

Gah..! Sorry, I may have been using Spectaculator(!).. Can't remember off the top of my head how to save in Spin now... Is there an option to insert a tape to save on?

[Jarwyn]

OK Here's an update - and thanks to those that are assisting me.

Having established that I HAVE to make a save after each mission, the issue seems to be that I am unable to 'save'. These are the steps I am taking;

After 1st mission I get the message "Do you want to save your team?"and I select Yes (Tape Browser is at MAP2 Block)
Emulator shows SWAG FILE FOLDER and SWAG 1 to 5 and View.
I select View (SWAG 1) and get "Insert Save Cassette"
In Emulator I go to Recording > Tape Recording > Insert Tape for Recording and I get the Windows File Explorer pane.
I enter a filename "TSAM Save.TAP" and click 'save'.
I go back to the Emulator and select Recording > Tape Recording and it's greyed out as expected but so is the "Start Recording" option.
Tape Browser still shows Game TAP filename.
If I try to 'Insert Tape' in the Tape browser and I select the Save 'tape' (file) it says it's already in use.
In the Emulator I click on OKAY (Insert Save Cassette)
Emulator says 'Start Tape then press any key.
In the Emulator I select Recording > Tape Recording > "Start Recording" option is still greyed out.

At this point I can do one of 2 things.

1. If I eject the save tape in the emulator Recording > Tape Recording > Eject Save Tape then I can load it in the browser ... but when I do, the emulator goes blank.

2. If I leave the Tape Browser with the Game Tape in it and in the emulator I do Recording > Tape Recording > Insert Tape for Recording and I get the Windows File Explorer pane. I enter a filename TSAM Save.TAP and click 'save'.
Then in the Emulator (Start Tape and press any key) I press ENTER it tries to load/save (wavy lines around the side of the emulator) and says "Incomplete status load: No Target"
Pressing OKAY sends me back to the SAVE FILE FOLDER Box
If I now select SWAG2 - the emulator loads MAP4 & MAP5 then 'freezes. The Tape Browser runs through all the blocks and returns to the beginning.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in Advance.

[Jarwyn]

Gah..! Sorry, I may have been using Spectaculator(!).. Can't remember off the top of my head how to save in Spin now... Is there an option to insert a tape to save on?

OK Good news. I've started using Speculator as mentioned by Morkin and that seems to work. Fingers crossed.

[GreenCard]

I've tried all manner of things to try and get this working in both ZXSpin and Fuse, tried different .tap and .tzx files, tried loading different parts of it, nothing seems to work (keep getting the "Incomplete status load: No Target" message). I can't figure out how to save to tape in both of these emulators though (I can almost do it in Fuse, but it comes up with an error when I actually save the saved tape, if that makes sense), and I only have Spectaculator on my home PC, not here with me on my work laptop.

It's by no means a solution, but if you haven't already, I highly recommend playing The Clue for the Amiga. It's a very similar game (the planning/robbery parts are almost identical) and it's really easy to get it up and running with WinUAE.

[Morkin]

Spectaculator seems to be OK, but ZX Spin is a bit more fiddly. I guess we're so used to using snapshots and not having to reload a game from scratch, we've forgotten how to do saved games.. Not sure if any other games make you load the entire program again to load a saved game...

I'm sure there's an easier way but this is how I did in ZX Spin:

1. When you get to the end of the mission, pick your slot and insert your C90...



2. In the dialogue box, make up a name ("blank.tap" or "C90.tap") and click Save.

Hopefully this bit will work. The next thing I did was to copy this data onto the actual "They Stole a Million" .tap file, at the end of the tape, as if you were recording your saved games on the end of the program tape itself.

3. So reset your Speccy, and open the saved .tap file. In ZX Spin (I think you may have to turn real tape mode etc. off if you've got it on) - it should hopefully work and just load the data:



4. Now open the tape browser, and use CTRL+click to select the data, and right-click + copy:



4. Load up the "They Stole a Million" .tap again (File > Open) and go to the tape browser for that tape:

5. Right-click at the end of the tape and 'insert'



HOPEFULLY this will append the saved data to the end of the tape. I believe ZX Spin will now only let you save this as a .tzx file (rather than .tap), so:

6. File > Save as - and just call it "TSAM1.tzx" or something. This should effectively create a tape with the original game along with your save at the end.



If you load this .tzx, you should be able to use "Load Team" on the menu to load up your swag save slots.

...I'm convinced there must be a quicker way, but this seemed to work for me.

[GreenCard]

Nice to see you managed to get to the bottom of it, it was driving me slightly crazy! Good work, Morkin!

[Morkin]

One good thing is that I can now give this game a proper go, I forgot how cool it was...

[GreenCard]

Like I said before, if you enjoy this game you really should check out The Clue on the Amiga. It's very much more of the same.