ZX ULAX emulator

[Lethargeek]

Btw i just googled the Vega+ to refresh my memory and almost immediately stumbled upon a very familiar name from these recent events. And next to the words "lies", "paid" and "scam", no less. So it seems i shouldn't have been surprised by the actions and personal qualities of the current WoS staff. Maybe now being a lying crook is even a requirement to be in.

[polomint]

My emulator thread was just closed on the WoS forum after some dirty liar named rich_chandler came there to flood it with off-topic messages and spreading lies about me personally and (after being asked politely to bring any proof of STFU and still continuing it, later with the support of other trolls) his sweet buddy Lee_Fogarty was quick to take his side without even looking into the case (or maybe it was all staged from the start?)

Anyway, why i am writing this here? No, i'm not complaining, i'm wondering if this makes my emulator the first ZX emulator ever banned on ZX Spectrum site? Does anybody know other examples?

In any case, be quick to grab the last version! This might be a rare chance for you to own a "forbidden ZX emulator"

lol

[Lethargeek]

lol

Yes, but somehow at the same time not so funny when recalling the aforementioned dirty little liar was also an emulator threads maintainer. Oh, is he now the first ever emulator threads maintainer directly responsible for intentionally killing an emulator thread on his forum?

With staff like these doing such an excellent work, it's no big wonder once a great forum became a sad and dying place with most activity happening in the chit-chat section and so many productive people left elsewhere.

Also "several complaints" as a reason for the "last warning" is especially precious coming out from someone named Lee Fogarty

[polomint]

lol

Yes, but somehow at the same time not so funny when recalling the aforementioned dirty little liar was also an emulator threads maintainer. Oh, is he now the first ever emulator threads maintainer directly responsible for intentionally killing an emulator thread on his forum?

With staff like these doing such an excellent work, it's no big wonder once a great forum became a sad and dying place with most activity happening in the chit-chat section and so many productive people left elsewhere.

Also "several complaints" as a reason for the "last warning" is especially precious coming out from someone named Lee Fogarty

Ohh, I dunno, I am quite productive, and the guys in the zxasm slack group are too
With the expertise of the emulator authors in the group, I am working on a Windows version of SpectREM by Mike Daley
Great people, fun banter, and plenty of silly stuff

https://join.slack.com/t/zxasm/shared_i ... DI2MGRjYzE

[Lethargeek]

Ohh, I dunno,

the numbers (post counters per section and average users online) speak for themselves

[polomint]

Ohh, I dunno,

the numbers (post counters per section and average users online) speak for themselves

Eh? are you on about post counts on here? If so, then that means that I do nothing through all of my life... In that case, all the apps I write for work, in fact my work in general was all a dream...
My life with my gf, kids, cars, military, troubles, highs were/are all a simulation..

Thank you for notifying me of my mistake, so that my understanding is improved..

If I am wrong in my thinking then please correct me...

[Ast A. Moore]

I am working on a Windows version of SpectREM by Mike Daley

Oh, did he update it beyond v0.9? Cause that’s the latest version I have.

[polomint]

I am working on a Windows version of SpectREM by Mike Daley

Oh, did he update it beyond v0.9? Cause that’s the latest version I have.

It is working.. Nuff said

[Lethargeek]

Eh? are you on about post counts on here?

i'm on about more directly-spectrum-related activity here, counts are just indicators being spot on
many times i was annoyed in that other place clicking "discussions" and getting a list populated with too many "chit-chat" messages

[polomint]

Eh? are you on about post counts on here?

i'm on about more directly-spectrum-related activity here, counts are just indicators being spot on
many times i was annoyed in that other place clicking "discussions" and getting a list populated with too many "chit-chat" messages

In that case, we have 3 emulator authors in that chat,,,,

[Lethargeek]

maybe i will check it later, i don't usually join when i can't see at least some of the content before

[Pegaz]

Btw i just googled the Vega+ to refresh my memory and almost immediately stumbled upon a very familiar name from these recent events. And next to the words "lies", "paid" and "scam", no less. So it seems i shouldn't have been surprised by the actions and personal qualities of the current WoS staff. Maybe now being a lying crook is even a requirement to be in.

Many of us remember well and haven't forgotten the history of censorship and bans of Fogarty's company on wos.
Probably you didn't know it and that was why you were an easy target, but some of us who have spent more than a decade there, know their methods very well.
You reacted impulsively to their provocations, but you were absolutely right, because you noticed what kind of liars and manipulators you were dealing with and you told them straight in the face.
So, relax...and don't pay attention to some wos trolls, this is Spectrum Computing forum.
Their mockery, lol and facepalm performance, simply doesn't bring much success here.

[druellan]

Destiny Mission looks stunning without color clash, and I'm wondering about Arkanoid 2



BTW: is there an English version for the documentation about the format?

[Lethargeek]

One of the oldest ones... it was just a test of full color-per-pixel repaint of something. The background in Destiny Mission was chosen to get most effect for the least amount of work. Usually i prefer to change sprite colors.

Maybe i will do Arkanoid someday. And you people may name other titles you'd like to see improved.

Not even the russian documentation is properly finished, some changes happen time to time and it needs more tutorials. Starting the translation now means more work in the end, and it's hard enough for me to write so much in english already.

[R-Tape]

Destiny Mission looks stunning without color clash, and I'm wondering about Arkanoid 2

This is a hoax. Everyone knows that Destiny Mission doesn't have any sprites.

[druellan]

One of the oldest ones... it was just a test of full color-per-pixel repaint of something. The background in Destiny Mission was chosen to get most effect for the least amount of work. Usually i prefer to change sprite colors.

Those are the ones that really poke my interest, no extra colors but just the lack of colour clash, but I like the other ones also, they are not overdone as most of the Spec256 ones.
Oh, and how you colorized vector games like Total Eclipse and Academy? Are those using the new video mode you mentioned?

Not even the russian documentation is properly finished, some changes happen time to time and it needs more tutorials. Starting the translation now means more work in the end, and it's hard enough for me to write so much in english already.

Haha ok, no pressure then, but I showed your work on a small Spectrum group and some artists are intrigued

[Lethargeek]

Those are the ones that really poke my interest, no extra colors but just the lack of colour clash, but I like the other ones also, they are not overdone as most of the Spec256 ones.

that's mainly because i'm too lazy to make a full repaint
(and an extra reason i dislike xored sprites, as these need it)

Oh, and how you colorized vector games like Total Eclipse and Academy? Are those using the new video mode you mentioned?

no, ZX textures are very similar to sprites - read screen, read texture byte, mask it at the polygon edge, write screen
so recolorable the same way, replacing the corresponding pixels in ULAX memory with solid color or simpler pattern
hardest part is to preserve attribute effects, reloading the (limited) dynamic palette at the right moment
in Academy (as it is a multiload) the palette had to be constructed from any attribute with some tricks

also i recommend playing the freescape games with adapturbo (LAlt+F1 toggle, LAlt+F2/F3 & RAlt+F11/F12 tweak, see emuL-info.txt)

[Pegaz]

I would really like to see Sabre Wulf, Atic Atac and Heartland with colorful main sprites and without color clash.
Just a few questions ...
How difficult is the recoloring process?
I remember the ULA + recoloring was relatively easy and really fun.
Are there any tools, that make this process easier?

[Lethargeek]

How difficult is the recoloring process?

it depends on how well you understand disassembled z80 code and how complicated this code is
easiest ones (like Phantis 2 - 1st tutorial is about it) took less than one hour, hardest ones needed several evenings
and then most of the time went into the actual repaint, finding all the graphics to repaint, and checking after

Are there any tools, that make this process easier?

besides primitive homemade tools to match the colors and to repaint sprites when i have to, i use mostly:
this very emulator for finding the gfx routines and figuring out what these are doing exactly (see pics in the tutorial)
ZXSpin to get nicely formatted disassembly of the aforementioned routines
Xpeccy for finding gfx data and sometimes tracing the code

...and i hope we will have this in working condition before long - viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2155

[druellan]

that's mainly because i'm too lazy to make a full repaint

Hah! Well, call me oldschool because I like that kind of minimalist work. Another one: Chuckie Egg

also i recommend playing the freescape games with adapturbo (LAlt+F1 toggle, LAlt+F2/F3 & RAlt+F11/F12 tweak, see emuL-info.txt)

Oh I did that! In fact, my first gameplay was Red Shift on turbo mode and it is a blast.

[Pegaz]

Definitely, that unpretentious style is great.
For example, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy looks awesome.
At first glance, it looks like nothing has changed and then you realize how bright and polished the game looks with those carefully done enhancements.
Total Eclipse is another such example and it's a real pleasure to play it.
On the other side, I also liked Commando 128 the most, graphically it's a whole different game now.
I haven't tried all the examples yet, but overall this engine are very promising.
I like these recolored games more than the ones in EmuZWin, because the original Spectrum feeling was kept here, much better.
Well done.

[Lethargeek]

oww, commando was a real pita: spaghetti code, different sprite formats, interrupt corrupting sprite data, almost every object has its own output procedure... but i think the end result was worth the effort (even managed to reduce the amount of flicker)

[Pegaz]

I'm assuming this emulator currently only exists in the windows version.
Is there a plan for a Linux port?
It would be really nice to play these recoloring games on Raspberry pi for example.

Also this example with enhanced Spectrum BASIC is great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiRqRV5Cffc
I didn't notice it bundled with games pack, can it be downloaded as well?
Also, Is it possible to do custom Spectrum Rom, with this engine installed (more color, no color clash etc) or any Basic program must be recolored individually, like every other game?

[Lethargeek]

I'm assuming this emulator currently only exists in the windows version.
Is there a plan for a Linux port?
It would be really nice to play these recoloring games on Raspberry pi for example.

not in the near future (at least not by me, maybe some linux emulator author will be interested)

Also this example with enhanced Spectrum BASIC is great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiRqRV5Cffc
I didn't notice it bundled with games pack, can it be downloaded as well?

it is inside "ULAX-emuL\test\" folder named "webas3"

Also, Is it possible to do custom Spectrum Rom, with this engine installed (more color, no color clash etc) or any Basic program must be recolored individually, like every other game?

it would be simpler to make one proper dux for the usual ROM and then edit any BASIC programs wherever you need it
custom ROM is possible, but it would add just some syntactic sugar ("extended" BASIC operators instead of pokes used in this example)

[Lethargeek]

I would really like to see Sabre Wulf, Atic Atac and Heartland with colorful main sprites and without color clash.

you can check the preliminary version of Heartland now
(clash between fore/back objects is still there, but not with sprites)

same folder https://cloud.mail.ru/public/3Rzu/33GtNmUof