Is there a list of loader types ?

[saucysarah]

I was wondering if there was a list of different Loader types and the games that used them ? For example, which games used Speedlock 7 etc. I see that you can list all Speedlock games using the site search but it doesn't tell you which one it uses. This site also only seems to be able to search for a total of 7 protection schemes/loader types. I remember WOS being able to search for all? of them. Is there any chance this info could be incorporated into this site ? Looking at the old WOS Infoseek there are 33 protection schemes that can be searched for.

[Ast A. Moore]

TZX Vault (when it’s up) has some basic filtering by protection scheme. It doesn’t have all of them, though, only a few major ones.

Note that some of the protection schemes were pretty unique and used only for a handful of titles. Others might not be listed as such, because they’re very basic. For example, Continental Circus uses the value in the R register to XOR it with the data bytes. So, I’m sure there are more than just 33 protection schemes.

[Alessandro]

You could take a look at Andrew Barker's collection of loading schemes:

https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/loading ... hemes.html

Also see this thread at World Of Spectrum:

https://worldofspectrum.org/forums/disc ... th-sources

[Einar Saukas]

I exported a spreadsheet with all scheme loaders currently stored in ZXDB:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Normally SC doesn't show scheme loaders, but you can see them in "compact view". For instance Out Run Europa have ZXDB-ID=3567, therefore you will see the exact file(s) that use "Alkatraz 2" if you visit this page:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/alt/3567

If there are any corrections to be made, please let me know!

[saucysarah]

Thankyou! That's just what I wanted. Is there any reason why you can only search for 7 different schemes on this site compared to the old WOS Infoseek which had 32+Custom ? And how come they're not mentioned in the main SC version, only in compact ?

Also, is there an easy way that I can save that list as a text file while keeping the columns neat and tidy ? When I try to save it it comes out a bit of a mess with carriage returns everywhere and different sized tabs.

[rs6060]

I exported a spreadsheet with all scheme loaders currently stored in ZXDB:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Normally SC doesn't show scheme loaders, but you can see them in "compact view". For instance Out Run Europa have ZXDB-ID=3567, therefore you will see the exact file(s) that use "Alkatraz 2" if you visit this page:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/alt/3567

If there are any corrections to be made, please let me know!

There are a few loaders on there which I wrote and am happy to correct you with. Who Dares Wins 2 was a Dollar$oft loader, as can be verfied if you load the TAP file into Textpad. There was nothing complicated about this loader, I simply removed the border coloyr change and replace it with two bytes in the colour attribute map.

This also applied to LOCO on the Speccy.

[saucysarah]

A question to anyone that knows about loaders. What is the 'Gargoyle' loader and is it just a mix up ? I tried different versions of 'Heavy on the Magic' and 'Lightforce' and they look exactly like the 'FTL' loader (and Lightforce was published by Faster Than Light).

[lfaria]

A question to anyone that knows about loaders. What is the 'Gargoyle' loader and is it just a mix up ? I tried different versions of 'Heavy on the Magic' and 'Lightforce' and they look exactly like the 'FTL' loader (and Lightforce was published by Faster Than Light).

AFAIK, their only difference (FTL vs. Gargoyle) is in the data pulse timings. Gargoyle is a little bit faster.

[Einar Saukas]

Thankyou! That's just what I wanted.

You are welcome!

Is there any reason why you can only search for 7 different schemes on this site compared to the old WOS Infoseek which had 32+Custom ?

Probably SC wanted to avoid a large drop-box, so it only shows the most common loaders. This is a site choice, not related to ZXDB.

And how come they're not mentioned in the main SC version, only in compact ?

Probably because there's not much space left in SC "main view". Again this is a site choice, not related to ZXDB.

Also, is there an easy way that I can save that list as a text file while keeping the columns neat and tidy ? When I try to save it it comes out a bit of a mess with carriage returns everywhere and different sized tabs.

Open the spreadsheet instead of copying data directly from the forum:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[Einar Saukas]

There are a few loaders on there which I wrote and am happy to correct you with.

Awesome! If you give me a list of loaders you authored, I would like to add this information to ZXDB!

Who Dares Wins 2 was a Dollar$oft loader, as can be verfied if you load the TAP file into Textpad. There was nothing complicated about this loader, I simply removed the border coloyr change and replace it with two bytes in the colour attribute map.

ZXDB stored information about loaders for each individual file, since the same game can have multiple files with different loaders. Can you please tell me the exact files from Who Dares Wins II page that use this loader?

This also applied to LOCO on the Speccy.

Also can you please tell me the exact files from Loco page that use this loader?

[druellan]

ZXDB stored information about loaders for each individual file, since the same game can have multiple files with different loaders. Can you please tell me the exact files from Who Dares Wins II page that use this loader?

I did a quick string search on the TOSEC database, these are the titles that mention Dollar$oft Loader:

Compilations\Games\10 Computer Hits 3 (1986)(Beau-Jolly)(Side A).tzx
Compilations\Games\10 Computer Hits 3 (1986)(Beau-Jolly)(Side A)[a].tzx
Compilations\Games\10 Computer Hits 3 (1986)(Beau-Jolly)(Side A)[m tzxtools].tap
Compilations\Games\Action Pack 3 - Who Dares Wins II + Trap (1987)(WH Smith)(Side A).tzx
Compilations\Games\Action Pack 3 - Who Dares Wins II + Trap (1987)(WH Smith)(Side A)[m tzxtools].tap
Compilations\Games\Pack of Aces - Who Dares Wins II + N.E.X.U.S. (1987)(Paxman Promotions)(Side B).tzx
Compilations\Games\Pack of Aces - Who Dares Wins II + N.E.X.U.S. (1987)(Paxman Promotions)(Side B)[m tzxtools].tap
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a].tap
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a].tzx
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a].z80
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a2].tap
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a2].tzx
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[a3].z80
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Alligata)[h Wymiana Programow Kg].tap
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1986)(Software Center)(ES)(en)[re-release].tzx
Games\Who Dares Wins II (1987)(Z Cobra)(ES)(en).tzx

[Einar Saukas]

But what are the corresponding files in ZXDB?

[druellan]

Hi, sorry, these are the files

compilations\123\10ComputerHits3.tzx.zip (Who Dares Wins II on this compilation)
compilations\a\ActionPack3.tzx.zip (Who Dares Wins II on this compilation)
compilations\p\PackOfAces.tzx.zip (Who Dares Wins II on this compilation)
games\w\WhoDaresWinsII(SoftwareCenterS.A.).tzx.zip
games\w\WhoDaresWinsII(ZCobra).tzx.zip
games\w\WhoDaresWinsII.tap.zip
games\w\WhoDaresWinsII.tzx.zip