Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

People are still making stuff for the Sinclair related machines. Tell us about new games and other software that runs on the Spectrum, ZX80/ZX81, Pentagon and Next.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

It’s finally here!

The Woot! 2017 Tape Magazine.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

It features:

-Games/Demos from Bob Fossil, TextVoyage, Spud, R-Tape, Mat Gubbins, Utz, Ste Nichols
-Articles, puzzles, stuff from various contributors (I really hope I’ve remembered to thanks everyone in the TAP)

Thanks everyone, and a huge thanks to Hikaru for sorting out the 128k issues. This is the first time I’ve filled up the memory from bottom to top.

DOWNLOAD:
stonechatproductions.co.uk/zxgames/Woot_2017_final.zip

It's not available from SC yet as I need to have a crack with Peter if SokobXXX is allowed or not (NSFW after 8 levels), also there may be one more game to add.

Keep the attribute flashing yo!
redballoon
Manic Miner
Posts: 390
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2017 3:54 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by redballoon »

I tell you, that Jim Bagley graphic is pretty aces!
User avatar
MatGubbins
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:45 am
Location: Kent, UK

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by MatGubbins »

That "I'm Dreaming of a Black and White Christmas" game is a great way to get the old brain matter going.
I got my mince pie and took the day off.

The Woot! with spinning colours is excellent, the programmer could improve the code and make it 45 bytes less.....
(Yeah, I have already...)

Thanks to all and everyone that done something and bunging things together.
User avatar
Joefish
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2041
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:26 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Joefish »

Excellent stuff. Sorry I didn't have time to contribute.
User avatar
Ast A. Moore
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2640
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:16 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Neat! I love cover and the font.

I disagree that 2017 has been a stinker of a year for the Speccy. For starters, we’ve solved the mystery of the floating bus on the +2A/+3. That news could have made it to the front page of The Guardian, if only I’d remembered to return their call. (It was a busy Tuesday.) Oh, well.

Cheers!
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.
User avatar
PeteProdge
Bugaboo
Posts: 3518
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:03 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by PeteProdge »

Very chuffed to be 'in print' on the Speccy, and I can see a couple of mock-ups created from some nonsense I've spouted on here! Excellent work.
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
User avatar
bob_fossil
Manic Miner
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by bob_fossil »

Top notch work Mr R-Tape!

Eric Banksy, Gubscroll and Magic Nights put a smile on my face which Doodlebug quickly removed. :) Infuriating but in a good way.

Anyone else having difficulties loading cr*pmas.tzx? Had to fiddle about getting the first turbo loading block to work in SpecEmu only for it to fail to load later on with an R:Tape loading error which I guess was genuine error and not some form of self promotion? :)
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

Currently enjoying the gentle puzzle that is 12days, not too challenging and plenty of treats along the way, very apt for the time of year.

Crapmas uses the 47 loader, works okay in SPIN.
User avatar
bob_fossil
Manic Miner
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by bob_fossil »

12 Days Of Christmas is very much the Last Of The Summer Wine of puzzle games.
R-Tape wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:19 pm Currently enjoying the gentle puzzle that is 12days, not too challenging and plenty of treats along the way, very apt for the time of year.
Hikaru
Microbot
Posts: 100
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:42 pm
Location: Russia
Contact:

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Hikaru »

Certainly, I will have to disagree with this being a bad year for the Speccy. I would also say sprawling epics are very much in demand!
Spoiler
Dat Santos ending though. Loved the Doodlebug too.

Bob's puzzlers have some interesting ideas. Unfortunately I think '12 days' has a bug. If you cancel a link just next to the destination number it is supposed to connect, the number disappears.

(As others have said, crapmas.tzx seems problematic to load.)

Epic wisdom scroller, didn't expect that one.
Feeling entertained now. Thank you for the presents Mr. Santa and everyone.
Inactive account
User avatar
bob_fossil
Manic Miner
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by bob_fossil »

Hikaru wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:43 pm Unfortunately I think '12 days' has a bug. If you cancel a link just next to the destination number it is supposed to connect, the number disappears.
Thanks for spotting that. I hadn't and I've been playing it for over a month now. :oops:

I've made a fix which should hopefully stop that from happening.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

Just making sure - is Level 13 of bawxmas possible?

Image

If so I've misunderstood part of the game.
User avatar
MatGubbins
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:45 am
Location: Kent, UK

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by MatGubbins »

Yup, now you need to really think, switch some lines to black and some to white. It looks hard (f'nar) but think simple. They get tougher later on, then some are a breeze.
User avatar
Spud
Manic Miner
Posts: 372
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2017 8:50 pm
Contact:

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Spud »

Perhaps I should build a none-snazzy version of Crapmas? Such a shame, it's such a cool turbo loader! I should have tested it myself on SpecEmu, sorry about that!

Edit: It appears to load fine in Fuse with all the trimmings enabled and just tried it on Spectaculator and it loads in real time mode but not if your enable turbo mode on it.
User avatar
Woodster
Drutt
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:17 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Woodster »

bob_fossil wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:01 pm Top notch work Mr R-Tape!

Anyone else having difficulties loading cr*pmas.tzx? Had to fiddle about getting the first turbo loading block to work in SpecEmu only for it to fail to load later on with an R:Tape loading error which I guess was genuine error and not some form of self promotion? :)
It loaded for me after hitting F11 to manually start the tape when the screen turned black.
C.Born
Manic Miner
Posts: 202
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2017 4:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by C.Born »

so i am to late with this type-in from FORMAT ??

Code: Select all

;spectrum snow
;v1.4 - oct 1987.
;for 48k mode.
;(c)1987 INDUG.
;by jon nixon.
;
; *D+
count equ  96 
      org  40000
start exx
      push hl    ; preserve HL' (shadow register) for BASIC use
am  equ $+1
      call a1    ; ax seems better since then the RAM to SCREEN$ copy is avoided
      pop  hl
      exx
      ret
a1    ld   hl,45000
      ld   de,16384
      ld   bc,6912
      ldir
ax      call r1
      ld   a,7
      ld   ix,ga
      ld   b,count
      ld   de,8
aa    xor  a
      ld   (ix+0),a
      ld   (ix+4),a
      call r2
      ld   (ix+1),a
      call r2
      ld   (ix+5),a
      call r2
      ld   (ix+2),a
      call r2
      and  1
      sub  1
      ld   (ix+3),a
      call r2
      ld   (ix+6),a
      ld   a,1
      ld   (ix+7),a
      call g1
      add  ix,de
      djnz aa
ac    ld   a,(23560)
      cp   32
      ret  z
      ld   ix,ga
      ld   b,count
      ld   de,8
ad    exx
      call g1
ae    ld   h,(ix+1)
      ld   l,(ix+0)
      ld   b,(ix+3)
      ld   c,(ix+2)
      add  hl,bc
      ld   (ix+1),h
      ld   (ix+0),l
      ld   h,(ix+5)
      ld   l,(ix+4)
      ld   b,(ix+7)
      ld   c,(ix+6)
      add  hl,bc
      ld   (ix+5),h
      ld   (ix+4),l
      call g1
ag    exx
      add  ix,de
      djnz ad
      jp   ac
r1    ld   hl,(23670)
      ld   (ra),hl
      ld   hl,(23672)
      ld   (rb),hl
      ret
r2    push ix
      push bc
      ld   ix,ra
      ld   b,8
r3    bit  7,(ix+3)
      jr   z,r4
      ld   a,(ix+0)
      xor  83
      ld   (ix+0),a
      ld   a,(ix+1)
      xor  181
      ld   (ix+1),a
      ld   a,(ix+2)
      xor  118
      ld   (ix+2),a
      ccf
r4    rl   (ix+0)
      rl   (ix+1)
      rl   (ix+2)
      rl   (ix+3)
      djnz r3
      ld   a,(ix+3)
      pop  bc
      pop  ix
      ret
g1    ld   a,(ix+5)
      ld   hl,0
      cp   192
      ret  nc
      push bc
      ld   b,a
      ld   c,(ix+1)
      and  248
      ld   hl,0
      ld   l,a
      add  hl,hl
      add  hl,hl
      ld   a,h
      or   88
      ld   h,a
      ld   a,c
      rrc  a
      rrc  a
      rrc  a
      and  31
      or   l
      ld   l,a
      ld   a,b
      rrc  a
      rrc  a
      rrc  a
      and  24
      or   64
      ld   h,a
      ld   a,b
      and  7
      or   h
      ld   h,a
      ld   a,c
      and  7
      ld   c,a
      ld   a,8
      sub  c
      ld   b,a
      ld   a,1
      ccf
g2    rla
      djnz g2
      ld   b,a
      xor  (hl)
      ld   (hl),a
      inc  h
      ld   a,h
      cp   72
      jr   z,g3
      cp   80
      jr   z,g3
      cp   88
      jr   z,g3
      ld   a,b
      xor  (hl)
      ld   (hl),a
g3    pop  bc
      ret

ra    defw 0
rb    defw 0
ga    defb 256
len   equ  $-start

http://www.cborn.nl/zxfiles/Snow_format_issue_0105.z80
User avatar
Rorthron
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1644
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2017 10:35 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Rorthron »

Many thanks for all your work on this. It's great fun.

The chart of Spectrum games is a little sad (especially if you focus on the blue section). Here's to things getting better in 2018.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

C.Born wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:55 pm so i am to late with this type-in from FORMAT ??
Image

Very nice!

You've got twelve months to write something for the next one :-p
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

MatGubbins wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:03 pm Yup, now you need to really think, switch some lines to black and some to white. It looks hard (f'nar) but think simple. They get tougher later on, then some are a breeze.
Gotcha. I got it into my head that the whole screen had to end up the same.
User avatar
bob_fossil
Manic Miner
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by bob_fossil »

Cheers for this. I could only get it to work by turning off the 'Auto tape play/stop' checkbox in the Tape Playback Options group of the Tape property sheet in the Options dialog.

When I had this on, after pressing F11 to manually load the first turbo block, the game would load up right until the end when the red and black title screen is being loaded in before generating a tape load error. If I remember correctly, I had this problem a while back when the guy who wrote the 47 loader was posting development versions of his various loaders back on 'the other place'. :)
Woodster wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:34 pm It loaded for me after hitting F11 to manually start the tape when the screen turned black.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by R-Tape »

Rorthron wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:57 pm Many thanks for all your work on this. It's great fun.

The chart of Spectrum games is a little sad (especially if you focus on the blue section). Here's to things getting better in 2018.
Image

Not sure. One thing that hasn't really changed over time is the number of standout A+++ games (mainly handcoded). The large proportion of blue 10 years back has a significant number of UDG clones and borderline CGC entries. AGD games seem to have replaced those, and the AGD authors are generally striving to innovate rather than churn out the same stuff.

I would still like to see a bit more blue though. (Matron!)

I should have made room for ^this^ in the mag!
User avatar
Blerkotron
Dizzy
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:36 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Blerkotron »

Excellent work, all - I need more time to dig into the games properly but crikey that 'Magic Nights' tune is remarkable!
Ralf
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:59 am
Location: Poland

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by Ralf »

I disagree that 2017 has been a stinker of a year for the Speccy.
It was a mixed bag.

The bad: dirty bad fight around Vega projects and quite recently several marketing lies reaveled. Community deeply split into followers and haters. Old WOS, may now better called World of Lee going down with each day.

The Nice: people still do a lot of games of different technologies and qualities but even the worse ones can be fun for some moment,

Amd some of games really kick ass. Sword of Ianna already and might Finag Fight probably soon
There is also very high chance to see Zx Next sooon, I can feel it deeply tat it will be a succcess and machnies will go to buyers;
User avatar
MatGubbins
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:45 am
Location: Kent, UK

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by MatGubbins »

SokobXXX, oh my! Straight into the adult section, no ifs, no buts. They maybe tiny little pixels, but they are dirty little pixels.
M.Whitehouse.
User avatar
bob_fossil
Manic Miner
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:09 pm

Re: Woot! ZXMAS Tape Magazine 2017

Post by bob_fossil »

Mr Gubbins, you're an unstoppable puzzle solving machine! :)
Post Reply