Load-screen games...

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5MinuteRetro
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Load-screen games...

Post by 5MinuteRetro »

There's been plenty of talk on these pages recently of animated counters on loading screens. That has reminded me of the first time I loaded up Joe Blade 2 and saw this:

Image

...which, if it's not obvious, was a basic rendition of Pac-man that could be played as the game proper loaded. I can still remember seeing this for the first time and simply not believing it to be possible. The thought of it impresses me even now.

There must be more like this -- mini-games that are playable during load -- but I'm not sure I ever came across any. Moreover, in these days of emulators and snapshot loads the chances of stumbling upon one accidentally are minimal.

So... anyone remember any others?
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

A.M.C. by Dinamic had a mini-game while loading, but I don't remember it, Tetris maybe?
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Juan F. Ramirez wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:10 am A.M.C. by Dinamic had a mini-game while loading, but I don't remember it, Tetris maybe?
It was a simple clone of Master Mind. (I never saw any Tetris clone as a while-you-wait game anyway.)
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Ralf »

Rescate Atlantida, I don't remember the minigame genre too ;)

General advice - remember using tzx file to watch these minigames. Tap files have these custom loaders replaced byy standard loader and miss these minigames. And of course turn off speed loading in emulator.
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Re: Load-screen games...

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Ralf wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:17 am Rescate Atlantida, I don't remember the minigame genre too ;)

General advice - remember using tzx file to watch these minigames. Tap files have these custom loaders replaced byy standard loader and miss these minigames. And of course turn off speed loading in emulator.
Ah... you've preempted by next question, which is (was): How does one get to watch/play such things now? It hadn't occurred to me that emulators might have options to literally emulate tape-loading! I'm currently using ZXDS on a DS. No idea if that has such a mode, but I'll go take a look now...
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Mike Davies
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Mike Davies »

The Sinclair User megatape 8 version of Players' Deviants has the in-game mini game as the game loads too. Just pressing keys until all the power cylinders are diasabled.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1375
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Ralf »

It hadn't occurred to me that emulators might have options to literally emulate tape-loading!
Of course they have, since about 20 years ;) You usually don't use it as you want your game to load immediately and not wait 5 minutes but in good emulators there is always an option to turn off all acceleration and listen to noise, watch border stripes and admire special border effects.
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Re: Load-screen games...

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Ralf wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:49 pm
It hadn't occurred to me that emulators might have options to literally emulate tape-loading!
Of course they have, since about 20 years ;) You usually don't use it as you want your game to load immediately and not wait 5 minutes but in good emulators there is always an option to turn off all acceleration and listen to noise, watch border stripes and admire special border effects.
Aye. I knew that many of them allow loading from tape; but I just hadn't realised that one could emulate loading from tape *from a file*. As you say, it's not often I'd actually want to do that so I've never investigated. But with these mini-games refreshed in my mind, I want to go looking. Sadly my DS is out of charge and the charger is at home, so it'll have to wait until later...
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Ast A. Moore »

5MinuteRetro wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:23 pm I knew that many of them allow loading from tape; but I just hadn't realised that one could emulate loading from tape *from a file*. As you say, it's not often I'd actually want to do that so I've never investigated.
Curious how sometimes people can be into the same hobby for completely opposite reasons. When I installed my first Spectrum emulator, one of the most thrilling things for me was watching the loading process in real time using TZX files. I think I enjoyed that more than the ability to play my favorite games again. :lol:
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Re: Load-screen games...

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Ast A. Moore wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:36 pm Curious how sometimes people can be into the same hobby for completely opposite reasons. When I installed my first Spectrum emulator, one of the most thrilling things for me was watching the loading process in real time using TZX files. I think I enjoyed that more than the ability to play my favorite games again. :lol:
Indeed. Interestingly, a year or two ago I had to move some boxes out of my mum's house and I found a trove of my old Spectrum gear, including literally hundreds of cassettes. Following this discovery, I bought a cheapo personal stereo and 3.5mm jack lead and duly began loading some of them into an emulator (Spectaculator I think, but can't recall right now). However, while I had a few successes I found the experience frustrating, with very many failures to the few victories -- so I think I soon gave up. Shame really as dozens of these C60/C90 cassettes are unlabelled and certainly contain hundreds of copied games. I'd be surprised if there weren't a few MIA titles in there somewhere!

Still, I'm a bit less busy at work now so perhaps I'll try again soon but suspect I really need something better than a five-quid, no-brand stereo...
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Re: Load-screen games...

Post by Ast A. Moore »

5MinuteRetro wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:51 pm Shame really as dozens of these C60/C90 cassettes are unlabelled and certainly contain hundreds of copied games. I'd be surprised if there weren't a few MIA titles in there somewhere!
That would be great! You’ll get much better results recording those tapes to audio files, digitally massaging them if necessary, and converting them into TZXs, rather than trying to get an emulator to cooperate. Try it with a few more stubborn tapes and you’ll see the difference.
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and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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