ZX Spectrum Next Discussion

[Alessandro]

BTW—if I wanted to make enhanced ULA "OFF" as the default in the advanced settings, is there a value I can easily change on the SD card? (It's because I'm loading a lot of AGD games, and it automatically triggers ULA+, even though the game usually doesn't have a palette set for it.)

Are you referring to the "ULA Plus AGD bug" Dave?

If so, could you please test my AGD-authored games as well? I cleansed all of them of the bug (*) and under emulation they seem to work OK. But I do not own any ULA Plus compatible hardware and would like some feedback especially from the Next.

(*) Except for Cronopios Y Famas, which will also receive a slight update in the future, and Funky Fungus, because it will be soon superseded by the Reloaded edition.

[Seven.FFF]

BTW—if I wanted to make enhanced ULA "OFF" as the default in the advanced settings, is there a value I can easily change on the SD card? (It's because I'm loading a lot of AGD games, and it automatically triggers ULA+, even though the game usually doesn't have a palette set for it.)

The short answer is no, you can't do a global disable in NextZXOS. In the bleeding edge stuff on gitlab there is a new config.ini option to globally disable it, but that's for the legacy machine personalities, as NextZXOS re-enables it on every boot. If you wanted to load your ULAplus games in legacy personalities, this would be the simplest option.

For NextZXOS you can turn it off in autoexec.bas, but the tap/tzx loaders turn it back on again when they initialise.

You could modify the tap/tzx loaders (they're just BASIC programs) but you will find that some AGD games like Nixy actually require ULAplus because they have carefully defined 64 colour palettes, and look terrible with flashing attributes if you disable ULAplus.

For now, the best thing to do is prepend a short BASIC program to all your dodgy AGD game TAPs, which disables ULAplus and then does LOAD "".

You can disable ULAplus in NextBASIC with:

Code: Select all

REG 133,% REG 133 & @11111110 

Where REG reads and writes nextreg values, % specifies an integer expression (needed because REG returns an integer), & is a bitwise AND, and @ is a binary literal prefix.

For standard 48K BASIC it becomes more complicated, because you have to use an OUT/IN port combination to read nextregs, and you don't have a bitwise AND or binary literals either. I don't feel like working that one out unless you really need it

Thanks to Garry L and Allen A, who helped with this answer when I got stuck.

[Alcoholics Anonymous]

It's very easy to forget (and I forgot too) that when programs are loaded in a legacy mode (48k, 128k, etc), the original roms are put in place. So if the tap is loaded in 128k mode, eg, the REG command will cause a syntax error. There is no choice but to do it with OUTs instead of REG for this case. Luckily the ula+ disable bit is on bit 0 so it's fairly easy on 48k basic too.

10 OUT 9275,133: let a=IN 9531
20 IF (a-2*(INT(a/2))) > 0.5 THEN OUT 9275,133: OUT 9531,a-1
30 LOAD ""

That silly condition is there because I'm not sure if some rounding error in the division will factor in a simpler expression.

[R-Tape]

Thanks a lot [mention]Seven.FFF[/mention]m [mention]Alcoholics Anonymous[/mention] et al. It looks like it'll be far simpler for me to go into advanced settings every time I load an AGD game. As you say, some do have palettes set.

Are you referring to the "ULA Plus AGD bug" Dave?

If so, could you please test my AGD-authored games as well? I cleansed all of them of the bug (*) and under emulation they seem to work OK. But I do not own any ULA Plus compatible hardware and would like some feedback especially from the Next.

(*) Except for Cronopios Y Famas, which will also receive a slight update in the future, and Funky Fungus, because it will be soon superseded by the Reloaded edition.

Aye Ale, it's the AGD auto ULA+ thing. I've just loaded these into the Next:

Apulija 13
Doom Pit
Lost in my Spectrum
Seto Taisho to Kazan
Seto Taisho vs Yokai
Sophia 1 & 2

And they appear as you intended—in glorious 'normal' spectrum colours. I'd forgotten how infectious the soundtrack was on Seto vs Yokai!

[R-Tape]

Got my Yodel email this morning.. only 143 deliveries ahead of me! Sat by the front door like a dog waiting for its owner..

Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then? Did it arrive then?

[PeterJ]

Did yours arrive [mention]Alessandro[/mention]

[DouglasReynholm]

Well, it's a cautionary tale..

Just as I was finding out my month old 4TB so-called backup hard drive was broken the buzzer went, hard. In my excitement I knocked my phone on the floor cracking the screen, something I've not managed in many years. The box was literally hurled at me by a surly man in a very menacing black mask (as prophesised by Morkin yesterday). The buzzer is now broken and Hermes are supposed to be coming to collect the hard drive return today, so another day looking out the window for vans.

The Next is okay apart from the torn inserts, had to completely reformat the SD card to see it on my PC but all works beautifully otherwise!

[Alessandro]

Did yours arrive @Alessandro

No email notifications so far, I also checked the spam folder. I think batches for destinations outside of the UK will be sent after Easter anyway.

[Packobilly]

IMHO, we all have the old computers to load our favorite games from time to time.
As for the Next, if we consider the possibility of using Wi-Fi, and uploading everything we have downloaded from the wonderful websites enabled for that case, I think it is a spectacular machine.
And all this, without taking into account the potential it has and the software that is currently being developed for this machine.
Personally, I support the Next, and I hope that it is given the importance it really has for the entire existing community that supports and loves Grandpa ZX.
Greetings to all.

[PeterJ]

Did your Next arrive [mention]Alessandro[/mention]?

[Alessandro]

Did your Next arrive @Alessandro?

I received an email from DPD three days ago, stating that my order had been dispatched. Right now, tracking information on their website says it should be due for delivery next Tuesday. I hope so!

[PeterJ]

Its odd that the one for [mention]Pegaz[/mention] arrived already, but maybe he did not have the accelerated model.

Fingers crossed.

[Alessandro]

My Next arrived today No problems to report, box and computer in great order, except for some nasty glue traces left from the round stickers at the sides of the lid

I hooked it to an old VGA monitor I normally use with the +2A and a GBS-8220 RGB-to-VGA card. For now I just browsed through the various menus and updated system and core to v1.23 and v.3.01.00 respectively. In the next few days I will do some more tests and try some old and new Spectrum software, and some specific for the Next as well.



From the initial impressions, the machine looks very sleek and retains the heritage of the old Spectrums, both in appearance and functionality, but expands it to new directions, which I am eager to explore I like the glossy finish of the keyboard layout; it creates a nice contrast with the matte keys and case. The 4-color lines on the right and the curved right side are a pretty sight too. A testament to the genius of the great, late Rick Dickinson.

(Edit: corrected a couple of typos)

[PeterJ]

Fantastic that it arrived safely. Already looking forward to see what you can do with the machine [mention]Alessandro[/mention].

I guess the gourmet cooking will be on hold for a few days!

[PeterJ]

By the way, thank you [mention]garryl[/mention] and [mention]TheSMoG[/mention] (I'm assuming one of you created this) for linking to us from the FAQ. The cheque is in the post

https://wiki.specnext.dev/FAQ#Where_can ... F_roms_.3F

Are you planning any option to download games on the fly from websites, like some 'emulators' do (as well as the excellent ‘Interface 1bis' from [mention]Dan Antohi[/mention]? It would be good to involved with this. [mention]kolbeck[/mention] has created an open API for querying ZXDB:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=505

[Seven.FFF]

I was thinking of linking to [mention]Alessandro[/mention]’s divMMC TAP page too, as the subject of why custom loaders don’t work with ROM traps comes up quite often.

[PeterJ]

I was thinking of linking to @Alessandro’s divMMC TAP page too, as the subject of why custom loaders don’t work with ROM traps comes up quite often.

Good stuff!

[Alessandro]

I guess the gourmet cooking will be on hold for a few days!

I already bought some speck and gorgonzola for this Saturday's pizza, and plan to prepare beef bites a là Voronoff this week - the arrival of the Next must be celebrated with special treats

[mention]Seven.FFF[/mention], feel free to link to the TAP files as you please, I am glad to know they will be of use to fellow Next users as well

[TheSMoG]

By the way, thank you @garryl and @TheSMoG (I'm assuming one of you created this) for linking to us from the FAQ. The cheque is in the post

https://wiki.specnext.dev/FAQ#Where_can ... F_roms_.3F

Are you planning any option to download games on the fly from websites, like some 'emulators' do (as well as the excellent ‘Interface 1bis' from @Dan Antohi? It would be good to involved with this. @kolbeck has created an open API for querying ZXDB:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=505

Well downloading LEGAL stuff on demand is in the plans and actively being worked on. That doesn't mean the system won't be extensible if you know what *cough* I mean. The software being developed currently is/will be open source so....

[Swainy]

Got to say I’m very imp with RAMS for the Next.

https://youtu.be/OgI_rqUh71M

[redballoon]

I tell you, the Galaxian sound is the sound of the arcade for me.
This looks so good!

[DouglasReynholm]

Congratulations [mention]Alessandro[/mention]! I wonder if they have all shipped now?

[Ralf]

Some new info about new Dizzy game for Next:

http://www.indieretronews.com/2020/07/w ... to-zx.html

The included graphics actually look like they are for standard Speccy however. But they are great anyway !

[Seven.FFF]

My understanding is that it will be a standard 128K game design, with perhaps some Next-specific enhancements written after completion to float hardware sprites over the top of the player and characters to eliminate attribute clash without fundamentally changing the visual character of the game.

Although an approach like that isn't making anything close to full use of the machine's new features, it's just as valid as an artistic choice for devs, and will also likely be very popular with end users, many of whom would rather not play games that appear "too 16bit" (a subjective perception people form from seeing 256 colours per pixel on the entire playfield).