Thanks for this.
Did anyone keep stats of their scores from back in the day? I didn't, but I reckon that aged reactions on a modern keyboard will still be faster than youngster reactions on a Speccy keyboard (even a + model). Actually that's a PhD thesis waiting to happen.
Daley is back!
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Alessandro
- Dynamite Dan
- Posts: 1910
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
- Location: Messina, Italy
- Contact:
Re: Daley is back!
Don't know, but on the HARP website you can still find the charts for the Speccy Tour 2008 where Part 2 was one of the games to compete in and of the Regulation play tournament.
Re: Daley is back!
Thanks for the nice feedback, it's great that Daley is still so popular.
[mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention] Thanks for trying the tzx file, unfortunately my speccy is out of action at the moment (next on my list). I've seen the issue when redefining using the number keys, I'll fix it and release a new version. Will try and add a tap version then.
[mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention] Thanks for trying the tzx file, unfortunately my speccy is out of action at the moment (next on my list). I've seen the issue when redefining using the number keys, I'll fix it and release a new version. Will try and add a tap version then.
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Ast A. Moore
- Rick Dangerous
- Posts: 2641
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:16 pm
Re: Daley is back!
Cool. Looking forward to it!
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.
Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Re: Daley is back!
Great idea!
I'm curious to know how you made it happen
I'm curious to know how you made it happen
Re: Daley is back!
This is great, thanks for doing this!
I don't know if it's possible, but it would even better if you could add the AY music from the 128k version of Daley Thompson's Supertest - especially the AY version of the Chariots of Fire theme during the main title screen, which was sorely missed from the Spectrum version of Daley Thompson's Decathlon after playing it on my friend's C64.
I don't know if it's possible, but it would even better if you could add the AY music from the 128k version of Daley Thompson's Supertest - especially the AY version of the Chariots of Fire theme during the main title screen, which was sorely missed from the Spectrum version of Daley Thompson's Decathlon after playing it on my friend's C64.
Re: Daley is back!
[mention]Kweepa[/mention] Some notes on how I built the game:
I created disassemblies for days 1 & 2 - here I used my own emulator to record every bit of memory that was read/written to as I played the game. I tried to make sure I covered all aspects of the game, e.g. deliberate false starts, foul jumps etc.
Using the disassembly from day 1 I made sure it built and ran. I created a Visual Studio makefile project which calls sjasmplus to do the compile, and then launch the snapshot in the EightyOne emulator (as it has great debugging support).
Now the long bit:
Started to remove code so I could free up space to bring the new events in. This included entering your initials and the world records, the decathlon image on the title screen (which used a lot of memory), the next event banner and music between events, only showing 1 Ocean banner etc.
Luckily the Javelin event was already in Day 1 as part of the demo, it just needed a few tweaks and it was in. I then removed demo mode to free up a little more space.
1500m - I could use the same code from the 100 & 400 metres and just extend it to 1500 (I wasn't keeping the energy bar).
Start bringing in code from Day 2 for the other events, Discus, 110m Hurdles and Pole Vault. This involved working out where the code was in day 2 and bringing it across into the empty areas bit by bit. Obviously the code looked for sprites/lookup tables etc. in certain memory locations so I needed to correct them to the locations where I had put them. This was quite painful at times and I often had interesting bugs, Daley's legs moving without his upper body springs to mind. Debugging against the original was invaluable.
As I went I took the opportunity to remove anything I thought was unnecessary. For example, in the Discus event when you throw a large discus is shown which spins to the edge of the screen and then it changes to the outer field, so now it just goes straight to the outer field and we can avoid the graphics and code needed for the large discus.
As you can imagine memory was getting ridiculously tight and so unfortunately some areas which I would have liked to keep had to be cut, e.g. the medal ceremony. Maybe one day I can bring this back, there are definitely opportunities to optimise the code in places.
It still amazes what the developers of that time achieved with no internet and crazy deadlines. Just Wow!
I created disassemblies for days 1 & 2 - here I used my own emulator to record every bit of memory that was read/written to as I played the game. I tried to make sure I covered all aspects of the game, e.g. deliberate false starts, foul jumps etc.
Using the disassembly from day 1 I made sure it built and ran. I created a Visual Studio makefile project which calls sjasmplus to do the compile, and then launch the snapshot in the EightyOne emulator (as it has great debugging support).
Now the long bit:
Started to remove code so I could free up space to bring the new events in. This included entering your initials and the world records, the decathlon image on the title screen (which used a lot of memory), the next event banner and music between events, only showing 1 Ocean banner etc.
Luckily the Javelin event was already in Day 1 as part of the demo, it just needed a few tweaks and it was in. I then removed demo mode to free up a little more space.
1500m - I could use the same code from the 100 & 400 metres and just extend it to 1500 (I wasn't keeping the energy bar).
Start bringing in code from Day 2 for the other events, Discus, 110m Hurdles and Pole Vault. This involved working out where the code was in day 2 and bringing it across into the empty areas bit by bit. Obviously the code looked for sprites/lookup tables etc. in certain memory locations so I needed to correct them to the locations where I had put them. This was quite painful at times and I often had interesting bugs, Daley's legs moving without his upper body springs to mind. Debugging against the original was invaluable.
As I went I took the opportunity to remove anything I thought was unnecessary. For example, in the Discus event when you throw a large discus is shown which spins to the edge of the screen and then it changes to the outer field, so now it just goes straight to the outer field and we can avoid the graphics and code needed for the large discus.
As you can imagine memory was getting ridiculously tight and so unfortunately some areas which I would have liked to keep had to be cut, e.g. the medal ceremony. Maybe one day I can bring this back, there are definitely opportunities to optimise the code in places.
It still amazes what the developers of that time achieved with no internet and crazy deadlines. Just Wow!
Re: Daley is back!
Thanks for the explanation. A true labour of love!
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bob_fossil
- Manic Miner
- Posts: 659
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm
Re: Daley is back!
Used to love playing Daley Thompson's Decathlon many moons ago. I think having to do the 1500m without the stamina bar might just finish me off now.
I've had a go at converting the .tzx file into a .tap. Seems to load okay in SpecEmu in +2 mode using Tape Loader or 48k Basic at least.
http://www.thefossilrecord.co.uk/wp-con ... 0.tap_.zip
I've had a go at converting the .tzx file into a .tap. Seems to load okay in SpecEmu in +2 mode using Tape Loader or 48k Basic at least.
http://www.thefossilrecord.co.uk/wp-con ... 0.tap_.zip
Re: Daley is back!
[mention]bob_fossil[/mention] Thank you for creating the tap file, I've uploaded it onto GitHub too.
Re: Daley is back!
Loads OK here on the MAc/Fuse now in fast loading gubbins mode! Niice!
annnndd also loads up on the ol' DivMMC on the real life Speccy. Niiiiiiiicer!
annnndd also loads up on the ol' DivMMC on the real life Speccy. Niiiiiiiicer!