Spectrum Computing

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 5:44 pm I appreciate the effort but I won't update the list further. The original Dinamic version was not incompatible - it loaded and worked without hassle under 48K BASIC.

Not quite. The music stops playing on post–issue 2 48K machines. Also, on a +2A, it goes straight into the game, bypassing the menu altogether.

You’re probably referring to the version that is sometimes known to as the Small Orange Case version, which was released in 1988, as far as I can tell. Most of the keyboard polling routines are indeed fixed there—I just checked. The cheat, however, was missed and left unpatched, so it won’t work on anything but an Issue 1 or 2 of the Spectrum 48K. My version is the only one (of the Spanish-language releases) that re-enables it.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 5:44 pm I am not going to list games which load and work on the +2A/+3 only under 48K mode because - it's the third time I say that - it is the proper way to load software released before the launch of the 128K and newer models.

I don’t insist that you include it in your list. I just put it out here because someone else might be interested in a 100%–Spectrum compatible version. That’s the idea behind the fix, after all.

All right, I guess there is the need for a separate thread for game bugs correction, then By the way, I didn't even know that an in-game cheat was available for Camelot Warriors. The Tipshop does not list it - would it be the case to tell Gerard about this?

On the WOS forum there is a discussion thread about bugs in games and relative fixes. I have some of them in my archive - let's see what I can do, then, since I only collected corrections for those titles I selected for my personal collection. Others will have to be retrieved from the thread.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 6:32 pm By the way, I didn't even know that an in-game cheat was available for Camelot Warriors.

Well, I only learned about it when I decided to fix the Spanish version (as the English version doesn’t seem to have it). The code is slightly different (the Spanish version doesn’t have the Kempston/keyboard selection in the menu), so when I was plowing through the code looking for anything related to keyboard polling, I noticed a completely new—and unnecessarily convoluted—routine. Since it suffered from the same problem of grabbing an entire byte from the keyboard port instead of testing the lowest five bits only, I rewrote it as well. Bingo—a cheat!

I then fired up the original unpatched version under the 48K machine and enabled the Issue 2 keyboard option in the emulator, and sure enough, it worked. So the cheat was intended to be there in the first place.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 6:32 pmOn the WOS forum there is a discussion thread about bugs in games and relative fixes. I have some of them in my archive - let's see what I can do, then, since I only collected corrections for those titles I selected for my personal collection. Others will have to be retrieved from the thread.

Yeah, the versions of Camelot Warriors I worked on were all from my personal archive. That’s why I didn’t know about the almost-fully-patched Small Orange Case version until you said your version worked fine on the +2A. Since mine didn’t, I had to investigate.

Ah, details, details . . .

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 3:39 pm

Pegaz wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 3:31 pm Great job, indeed!
Together with the new Mac loading screen, it's just perfect.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php ... 0130585112

I’ve uploaded the actual Dinamic release as well now (see my post above). That loading screen is more fitting there.

You're right, here's the definitive version, the original Dynamic title with your fix and Mac loading screen.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php ... 4954175155
Btw, this is a really good game, I think there's a chance you like it.

Pegaz wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 10:49 pm

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 3:39 pm I’ve uploaded the actual Dinamic release as well now (see my post above). That loading screen is more fitting there.

You're right, here's the definitive version, the original Dynamic title with your fix and Mac loading screen.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php ... 4954175155
Btw, this is a really good game, I think there's a chance you like it.

Oh, yeah. Now it looks like it belongs.

I’m not much of a gamer, and this kind of a game is not my cup of tea. However, I watched the walkthrough on YouTube, and it does get a better toward the middle. I liked the part where you turn into a frog. That’s kind of cute.

I love this thread and I think Alessandro did such a great job for the community by keeping it up

Another case I found: Batty. In the +2A models it only would work in 48K mode. In the other 128K Spectrum models the game works fine but in the +2A/+3 it needs to be loaded in 48k mode.

Figure that a game getting a patch decades after is something to be celebrated - especially as it fixes some major issues. Makes you wonder what other titles in the archive could use similar love.

Ivanzx wrote: ↑Tue May 08, 2018 11:58 pm Another case I found: Batty. In the +2A models it only would work in 48K mode.

How about now?

Batty (Hit-Pak) (+2A/+3 fix by Ast A. Moore)

Nice job indeed, but I would like to ask everyone taking part in this thread to stick to complete incompatibilities whenever possible, i.e. those cases where there is no way whatsoever to make a software run on a given machine (the +2A/+3 namely), and ask for "partial" fixes in dedicated threads. Thanks!

New issues found.

Blizzard's Rift: Load the game in USR0 mode to make it work correctly.

Rommel's Revenge: The original Crystal release causes the system to reset at game start. The Zeppelin re-release named Tank Busters is fixed.

Xcel: Both original and Mastertronic releases cannot run, the system resets upon loading. I have fixed files for both versions available (must be loaded under 48 BASIC to work), but I cannot make them available due to Activision's denial of distribution.

Grab the fixed version of Rommel’s Revenge from my little den of game fixes.

All right, the list has been updated (Italiano) (English).

New incompatibility (and cure!) found: NATO Assault 128K.

Error C Nonsense in BASIC, 50:1 after the third data block.

Fixed by: Nuggetreggae.

Two small updates:

1) Blasteroids has been moved from section 3 to section 1 because the only compatible version of it is the MCM re-release.

2) The entry for Treasure Island Dizzy has been re-edited and now points to Ast A. Moore's bugfixed/corrected version hosted in the SC archive.

Hi [mention]Alessandro[/mention],

What's your stance on games that expect the keyboard to behave like an issue 2 48k Spectrum? I'm unsure what the difference is exactly but these games tend to not respond to key presses on a +2.

I am aware of at least 2 games that do this but there are surely more

Hi [mention]blueowl0708[/mention],

if the issue is not specific to the +2A/+3, it is not going to be added to the list.

If the issue is related to the +2A/+3 and does not affect any other Spectrum model(*), it is added to the list, according to three cases:
1) there is a historical release of the game available, which works correctly;
2) there is no other issue-free historical version of the game available, but there is a "cure" newly made by a user;
3) none of the above, but the issue can be circumvented somehow, such as loading the game under 48 BASIC (as it should be the norm with everything released before 1987 and not 128K-specific), entering USR0 mode etc.

As far as I know the differences between issue 2/issue 3 and later keyboard management are not specific to the +2A/+3 since they surfaced within the first (i.e. not +) Spectrum production run, well before the Amstrad takeover. (I guess you are referring to this.)

I hope that clarifies it all

(*) Notable exception: Three Weeks In Paradise 128, which also does not work on the +2.

Very clear, thanks

Another suspicious case, Run for Gold, the Alternative Soft version. Owned 4 copies and none loaded, and in the emulator does not work either:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4270

Ivanzx wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:23 am Another suspicious case, Run for Gold, the Alternative Soft version. Owned 4 copies and none loaded, and in the emulator does not work either:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4270

It's already on the list, together with a cure by Nuggetreggae.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:27 pm

Ivanzx wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:23 am Another suspicious case, Run for Gold, the Alternative Soft version. Owned 4 copies and none loaded, and in the emulator does not work either:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4270

It's already on the list, together with a cure by Nuggetreggae.

Oh man sorry, how can I be so dumb... I had not seen it all this time, and I kept buying it once after another time...

Thanks, Alessandro, now I know I can only play it in emulators!

Ivanzx wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:03 pm Thanks, Alessandro, now I know I can only play it in emulators!

De nada Ivan

On the other hand, did you know you can feed TAP and TZX tape images to a real Spectrum, by "playing" them on a PC through an utility like Tapir? I am sure we already exchanged posts about this. Especially after I found that a common cassette adapter for car stereo works wonders on the +2A. (These days you can find such devices in Chinese general stores for about € 2.00.)

This way you can "load" Nuggetreggae's fixed file and play with the real thing

Two recent games for me that don't seem to work on a +2A, but worked fine on a 128k:

• Bedlam Original GO! release: Game loads, but noticeable graphics corruption on the menu, and crashes when starting a new game. I haven't tried the Sinclair User cover-tape version.
• Guerilla War Original Imagine release: End of tape and the loader is still expecting more data. Even replaying the entire tape doesn't pick up a supposedly missing block. There's a block of data immediately after the loading screen that is skipped by both machines (+2A and 128k) -- in that the loading is red+black instead of blue+black of the other data blocks. I haven't tried the "Battle Stations" compilation version.

Mike Davies wrote: ↑Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:00 am Two recent games for me that don't seem to work on a +2A, but worked fine on a 128k:

• Bedlam Original GO! release: Game loads, but noticeable graphics corruption on the menu, and crashes when starting a new game. I haven't tried the Sinclair User cover-tape version.
• Guerilla War Original Imagine release: End of tape and the loader is still expecting more data. Even replaying the entire tape doesn't pick up a supposedly missing block. There's a block of data immediately after the loading screen that is skipped by both machines (+2A and 128k) -- in that the loading is red+black instead of blue+black of the other data blocks. I haven't tried the "Battle Stations" compilation version.

Unless I know for sure there are noticeable differences between releases, I don’t bother re-making fixes for them. That said, Bedlam’s re-release by IBSA works fine on the +2A, so an official fix already exists.

Not sure what you mean by the issue you describe with Guerrilla War. Works fine for me on both machines. I think I needed to reload the last block for the +2A (a tape loading error, clearly), but the loader is self-recovering, so it wasn’t an issue.

Edit: The first block after the loading screen is meant for the 48K version, so the 128K version skips it. Inelegant, I agree, but that’s how they decided to do it.

The list has been updated with the inclusion of Bedlam in group 1 (Italiano) (English).

List updated with no new corrections, but a couple of incorrect links fixed. (Italiano) (English).