Spectrum Computing

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).

Update: I made a fixed TAP file version with music for Top Gun. (Italiano) (English).

The fix for Top Gun has been updated. I made a compatible version with music, in both TZX and TAP format - the former is based on the Erbe re-release, the latter on the file downloadable from the archive.

I've tried the new version of Top Gun on my +3, after a few mins of play it crashes, not sure if it is just my machine or not. The Erbe one is fine though.

TomD

Hi Tom, do you mean the .TAP file? In this case, I played it on SpecEmu, +3 emulated (don't have the real +3 here at the moment) for about half an hour and nothing strange happened. Did you load the file off an interface or played it through another source (PC, multimedia reader etc.)?

The SpecDrum software doesn't work with the 2a. In 128 mode it crashes on load, and in 48k mode no sound comes out of the SpecDrum device.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:35 am
Thanks for the info. However:
- The SpecDrum software is not a game. This is a list for games only;
- There are incompatibilities between the +3/+2A and some older peripherals due to a slightly different design of the multi-purpose edge connector - some of the signals are not placed where they were on the previous models. This might be the case.

No worries. It might be a hardware thing, in which case I'll have to work something out. If it is a software thing, is there a similar list for non-games?

Actually there isn't any, since (almost) no one these days uses real Spectrums other than for playing games, or watching the odd demo. Development of newer software is carried out on PCs so there is really no need to do things the old way.

I'm having a problem getting Gremlin's M.A.S.K to load on a +2A Spectrum. Today I've tried the Byte-Back version which looks to use the same loader as the original Gremlin release. It's the green & black stripey loader, where the loading screen loads line by line from the bottom upwards.

The Byte-Back version crashes/resets on encountering the loading-screen block -- the first of the green & black stripey segments. I vaguely recall the original Gremlin one failing at the same point. The Gremlin one did work on either a toast-rack or Spectrum+.

It’s likely the malformed TZX file. There are a few floating around that prose problems loading on real hardware. Incidentally, M.A.S.K. is one of them.

We get into a long discussion and make a few experiments here (I’m “Nicholas Naime” there). Check it out; it’s quite informative.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:17 pm It’s likely the malformed TZX file. There are a few floating around that prose problems loading on real hardware. Incidentally, M.A.S.K. is one of them.

This is loading the original cassette. I know for sure the original Gremlin cassette fails on the +2A, and worked okay with a Sony TCM 939 cassette recorder on a Spectrum +.

I'm seeing the same issue with the Byte-Back release version on a +2A this weekend. I'll try it on a Spectrum + next time I have it out and see if it works on there.

Thanks for the link to the fuse-emulator thread, it confirms a few observations when loading from cassette too: The rare occasions when the +2A actually loads the first few vertical lines of the loading screen before crashing.

Mike Davies wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 9:52 am This is loading the original cassette. I know for sure the original Gremlin cassette fails on the +2A, and worked okay with a Sony TCM 939 cassette recorder on a Spectrum +.

Right, so the problem lies with the loading scheme itself and the peculiarities of the +2A/+3 hardware. I don’t think there’s an easy way to make it load on these machines aside from reworking the loader completely. That’s a tall order for a multi-load 128K game.

Will test the TZX file on the +2A as soon as possible. Meanwhile, to whom it may concern, here is the Gremlin 2.5 loading scheme source code:

http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/loading/ ... mlin2.html

Newsflash: TheMartian kindly provided two .TAP corrected files for Cobra and Terra Cresta, which will also work with the DivIDE/DivMMC (tested with ESXDOS 0.8.7). Both have been added to the list and can be downloaded from there!

Thanks Allesandro for making these files, as an owner of a +2B with DivMMC Future, it can be so frustrating trying to load a game and BANNNG. Nothing. Just a black screen!

I've made a number of TAP files from re-release TZX games, I'm more than happy to send them over to you if it helps!

How about Prince of Persia?
All the .trd and .tap files I have tested, using DivMMC, crash just after the menu screen.

Match Day 2 suffers also from incompatibility issues on a +3.

Are there any working files for any of these games?

spykoni wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:15 pm Match Day 2 suffers also from incompatibility issues on a +3.

Use the 1990 Hit Squad release. It works fine on the +3/+2A. Alternatively, use the original +3 disk released by Ocean in 1987.

spykoni wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:15 pm How about Prince of Persia?
All the .trd and .tap files I have tested, using DivMMC, crash just after the menu screen.

Use this one. I modified it some years ago, it because the one already available had some blocks in the wrong order. This is complete, working, and can be finished.

Mike Davies wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 9:52 am [quote="Ast A. Moore" post_id=23351 time=<a href="tel:1561238230">1561238230</a> user_id=99]
It’s likely the malformed TZX file. There are a few floating around that prose problems loading on real hardware. Incidentally, M.A.S.K. is one of them.

This is loading the original cassette. I know for sure the original Gremlin cassette fails on the +2A, and worked okay with a Sony TCM 939 cassette recorder on a Spectrum +.

I'm seeing the same issue with the Byte-Back release version on a +2A this weekend. I'll try it on a Spectrum + next time I have it out and see if it works on there.

Thanks for the link to the fuse-emulator thread, it confirms a few observations when loading from cassette too: The rare occasions when the +2A actually loads the first few vertical lines of the loading screen before crashing.
[/quote]

Does the version on 10 Great Games II have the same problem? Might be worth testing as by the time it was released the +2A was out and I don’t remember it having published compatibility problems at the time. I’d check my copy but it’s packed away as I’m shortly moving house!

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:42 am

spykoni wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:15 pm How about Prince of Persia?
All the .trd and .tap files I have tested, using DivMMC, crash just after the menu screen.

Use this one. I modified it some years ago, it because the one already available had some blocks in the wrong order. This is complete, working, and can be finished.

Nice! Thanks a lot. Why not include it in the list?

[mention]spykoni[/mention] You are welcome

Thanks for the suggestion, there are already some titles in the list which require entering USR0 mode on the +2A/+3 before loading the game (not necessary on my tape file because I added Usr0x01 before the game proper, besides rearranging the blocks in the correct order) so I think Prince Of Persia can be added too.