ZX ULAX emulator

[Lethargeek]

I don't manage to run the Wondeful Dizzy disk image, the emulator stays on the prompt; what I am doing wrong ?

what prompt? spectrum will display the start menu after a reset
you need to enter TR-DOS and then execute RUN "DIZZY-8"
just like any other emulator and a real Spectrum

[Lethargeek]

While investigating why the emulator fails INIR->NOP' test found an old stupid table indexing bug in the legacy Z80emu code. Maybe it affects undocumented flags effects only, maybe it's much worse. Will need to recheck everywhere it was used. Fix coming soon.

[Lethargeek]

public beta 28 - fixed some unsafe table indexing legacy code have no idea why it never crashed before

[Jbizzel]

Hi, I tried ULAX but I cant get it to do anything on win 10!

f11, esc, enter and space work. I read the English read me and it hasn't helped. Maybe someone can give me a pointer, I'm sure its just me. Also, is there anywhere to read about the hardware development for this project please?

[Lethargeek]

Hi, I tried ULAX but I cant get it to do anything on win 10!

f11, esc, enter and space work. I read the English read me and it hasn't helped. Maybe someone can give me a pointer, I'm sure its just me. Also, is there anywhere to read about the hardware development for this project please?

it works fine under my win10 so it seems you're not following the instructions properly
i don't quite understand about the keys, space and enter are regular zx keys, not the controls
i can't help unless you describe in detail what you're trying to achieve and how exactly
step by step, starting from how you're running the executable

[Jbizzel]

Final edit

OK great, I managed to figure it out from the guide. Here's a summary if its helpful to others:

double click on "emuL.exe"

You have to press shift and the 6,7 etc to move the cursor like on a 48k spectrum

Drag the .sna into the window.
Drag the .dux file into the window

press END to load the game.
press page down to load the dux
press page up to turn ULAX on.

Cool.

[Lethargeek]

press page down to load the dux
press page up to turn ULAX on.

this part is wrong, pagedown already "turns the ULAX on" (the "FULL" mode) if there's a dux to load
pageup toggles between "FULL" and "auto" modes regardless of dux and without resetting the VRAM
so if you press pageup right after loading a dux you will disable the FULL mode immediately
pageup switch is meant for debugging, demonstration and setting the desired mode for quickloading

also it's possible to 'pause,end,pagedown,unpause' if you want to see the loading screen or can't press 'end,pagedown' fast enough

[Lethargeek]

el Poder Oscuro and Robin the Outlaw were added

also there might be finally some progress in hardware developement soon(ish)

[Gvan]

el Poder Oscuro and Robin the Outlaw were added

also there might be finally some progress in hardware developement soon(ish)

Great ! What should the hardware implementation be based on ?

[Lethargeek]

el Poder Oscuro and Robin the Outlaw were added

also there might be finally some progress in hardware developement soon(ish)

Great ! What should the hardware implementation be based on ?

a new fpga clone with a real z80 this time

[Lethargeek]

fast and simple colour clash removal for l'Abbaye des Morts
not added to the game pack yet, but as it's short i'm posting here
just create a new dux file for the right version if you don't want to wait:

Code: Select all

; for TZX version from Spectrum Computing

; non-hiding attr
7F000F	0 FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF

; abuf2scr
109637	0111 0
109639	109637	3B
109674	0131 0113
; sbuf2scr
109686	109637	3F
1096CA	109637	3F

; sprite
1099BB	C301 0 0 0 C888
109AEE	0140 0 0130 0531 0334 0113 0 0
109AF6	109AEE	46
109B50	001F 0
109B52	109B50	7
1099F2	109AEE	E	109A14	001F
109A16	109AEE	1E	109A48	109B50	3
109A4C	109AEE	2E	109A8E	109B50	5
109A94	109AEE	3E	109AE6	109B50	7

Code: Select all

; for SCL version from Virtual TR-DOS

; non-hiding attr
7F000F	0 FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF

; abuf2scr
109738	0111 0
10973A	109738	3B
109775	0131 0113
; sbuf2scr
109787	109738	3F
1097CB	109738	3F

; sprite
109ABC	C301 0 0 0 C888
109BEF	0140 0 0130 0531 0334 0113 0 0
109BF7	109BEF	46
109C51	001F 0
109C53	109C51	7
109AF3	109BEF	E	109B15	001F
109B17	109BEF	1E	109B49	109C51	3
109B4D	109BEF	2E	109B8F	109C51	5
109B95	109BEF	3E	109BE7	109C51	7

Code: Select all

; for RZX recording from RZX Archive

; non-hiding attr
7F000F	0 FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF

; abuf2scr
109726	0111 0
109728	109726	3B
109763	0131 0113
; sbuf2scr
109775	109726	3F
1097B9	109726	3F

; sprite
109AAA	C301 0 0 0 C888
109BDD	0140 0 0130 0531 0334 0113 0 0
109BE5	109BDD	46
109C3F	001F 0
109C41	109C3F	7
109AE1	109BDD	E	109B03	001F
109B05	109BDD	1E	109B37	109C3F	3
109B3B	109BDD	2E	109B7D	109C3F	5
109B83	109BDD	3E	109BD5	109C3F	7

[Lethargeek]

two new ones - Blinky's Scare School and Titanic Blinky
also added l'Abbaye des Morts from the previous message

[Gvan]

two new ones - Blinky's Scare School and Titanic Blinky
also added l'Abbaye des Morts from the previous message

Great !
And some news about the hardware ?

[spectrum32]

Amazing emulator.

[Lethargeek]

two new ones - Blinky's Scare School and Titanic Blinky
also added l'Abbaye des Morts from the previous message

Great !
And some news about the hardware ?

waiting for PCBs

[Seven]

Hi! May I ask for update for Game Over game

Liked to play it very much, but it suffers from color clashing heavily.
Also tried to play updated Commando in emulator, it looks absolutely fantastic now.
Thank you.

EDIT: sorry, found Game Over version, but it looks modified with colored sprites etc, is there a way to run original version, just without color clashing?

[Lethargeek]

EDIT: sorry, found Game Over version, but it looks modified with colored sprites etc, is there a way to run original version, just without color clashing?

but it is the original (or the same gfx as original, you can check rzx as well) in the game pack
some sprites just don't have attributes in this game, so i've had to give them some default color
i chose yellow, but you can change it yourself to any other you like, here:

Code: Select all

80B37D	8000 8001 8000 8000 8000 8001 8001 8000

8000 is for 0, 8001 is for 1 in attribute format so as you see it gives 01000110 = bright yellow

[Seven]

Thank you! I changed default color to red and it looks so much better now!
There is Amstrad multicolor version of Game Over and it uses red for projectiles, which is what I wanted.

Enemy with new modified dux shoots with yellow but I think it's ok to distinguish.
The only minor issue is that moving platforms are now red too, is there a way to change their color in existing dux file?

[Lethargeek]

The only minor issue is that moving platforms are now red too, is there a way to change their color in existing dux file?

as with any sprite, you need to locate the address of its 1st byte then put a color tag there

Code: Select all

address	FFFC ink paper

address is either "80XXXX" where XXXX > #3FFF is current 48k RAM
or "8pxxxx" where xxxx < #4000 is offset within a 128k page p
ink and paper in GRB555 format * or one of the standard 15 colors -7A111X
in this case, for grey platforms

Code: Select all

802E04 FFFC -7A1117 0

* all numbers in the dux are hexadecimal

[Lethargeek]

in this case, for grey platforms

Code: Select all

802E04 FFFC -7A1117 0

* all numbers in the dux are hexadecimal

correction:

Code: Select all

802B04 FFFC -7A1117 0

[Lethargeek]

new games added: Moving Target, Sooty and Sweep and recently recovered Sooty and Sweep II

updated The Lost Treasures of Tulum to v1.01 and fixed some original sprite mask errors (ULAX [FULL] mode only)

also decided to update Game Over 1 (both parts) - a bit more colors for sprites + proper background output in rzx

[RockRiver]

Thanks a lot , Lethargeek, for your ULAX hard and awesome work. I like these "enhanced 8bit systems". New and extended life for our beloved ZX system and games...

I'm big fan of Spec256 (through EmuZwin, ESpectrum , ZxPoly , GZX emus) [35 games nowadays]

* My goal is to have a real spec128 thing on FPGA ... mister/neptUno/DivGMX (future core?)
*now re-coloring some games on emuZwin editor

*what about spec256 support on ULAX emu???
(DUX / EZX files loader... hybrid thing)

[Lethargeek]

@RockRiver, i don't get why anybody would need spec256 support in this emulator when there are others already. This is more like a tool for a specific hw project incompatible with spec256. Although it is relatively easy to rip the gfx from spec256 resources (Ruff&Reddy was originally an old unfinished spec256 project) and maybe add even more improvements.

[Gvan]

Hello.
Some news about the hardware implementation ?

And about the emulator, it would be a good thing if you added support for the "recreated Zx Spectrum" keyboard (like Fuse), so to have a more real feedback from your color enhanced games.

Again, thanks for your wonderful work.

[Lethargeek]

the hw isn't completely ready yet, doing some fpga-only modeling atm
and in any case, i won't support any strange device i don't have

meanwhile, two new games - Pogotron and The Young Ones