Chuckie Egg Kempston support

[patters]

I'm amazed there isn't a hacked version of the game with this added in. I've tried to apply the patch routine published in Your Spectrum back in the day here and it doesn't seem to work unfortunately, even heeding the correction in red text. On my real Spectrum with DivMMC Future and the TAP file version of the game, the routine hangs once a new game is started and the screen has drawn. If I use Fuse emulator and the TZX version of the original release the game starts but then thinks the jump button is permanently held down and won't read any other input.

I also tried an SZX snapshot which was hacked to support Kempston for the Vega (available here) but that was the same - misreading the Kempston completely behaving like jump was held down and no working movement. Any other game I load into Fuse with the exact same config works just fine with Kempston, so it's not my config. Anyone else manage to get working Kempston support for Chuckie Egg?

I'm not an assembly programmer, but the guy who hacked it for the Vega does explain how he did it here, however it's beyond my skill level unfortunately.

[Spud]

Personally I don't think Chuckie Egg lends itself that well to joystick play, but I've done a rough hack up for you. It isn't 100% finished yet, you'll see when stationary the dude always faces left, and getting off the top of ladders and walking right doesn't quite work. Let me know if mostly works for you and I'll finish it off. I won't make the link public as I guess it is distribution denied for a reason. Where should I send it?

I've tested it on my 128K toastrack loading the modified .tap off a divmmc with joystick and it works fine.

I also took the opportunity to test this guy's cool loading screen out. (I did a quick and dirty conversion with ZX paintbrush so it's not perfect.

[ZXDunny]

Now you can do a perfect version: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/a/andy-gre ... ckie-egg4/

[Spud]

Now you can do a perfect version: https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/a/andy-gre ... ckie-egg4/

*facepalm*


Thanks

[patters]

Nice. The main reason I wanted joystick support is that I think it would be a good intro game for young kids, but keyboard control is too fiddly. Are you able to send the file in a PM? Or a Dropbox link perhaps?

For getting this mod "out there", would it be possible to create it as a patch to be applied to the most common Chuckie Egg TAP file (IPS style like ROM translations of console games)? You would provide the MD5 of the TAP file it's expecting. That way you're distributing a useful binary patch, not the actual copyrighted material.

While looking for a Kempston version I did see that someone's already done a disk version with this loading screen over at vtrd.in but theirs didn't add joystick support so yours will be better.

[Spud]

Sent you a pm with a one drive link. Hope it does work for you

[patters]

Hi Spud,

I've given it a go and it does seem good. I found I can jump off ladders ok etc. I guess the remaining issue (which you mentioned is incomplete) is the player does face to the same side always when idle. I think if you can correct that it's golden.

Cheers!

[Arthur071169]

Hi.
As a proud owner of a ks2 zx next, I wonder if this amended ultimate version was ever completed? (Facing the right way etc).

Happy memories of playing this when it was released but sadly I am even worse than I was as a child playing with a keyboard.

The loading screen is a nice touch but being able to use a kempston would be the cherry on the cake.

Thanks.

[Seven.FFF]

As a proud owner of a ks2 zx next

Sounds like you may not be aware you can map keys to your joysticks in all TAP/TZX/Z80/SNA games on the Next. This works similarly to the rewirable ComCon joystick interface you may remember from back in the day.

After you’ve pressed enter in the NedtZXOS browser, press J to see the joystick options screen when the loader options screen comes up.

All your chosen options will be remembered next time you play the game. If you need to get back into the options screen to pick new options for any reason, press symbol shift+enter in the browser.

[Arthur071169]

Many thanks. I will try this ( I hope it is per game and not a generic overwrite that affects all games ).

Arthur.

[Arthur071169]

Many thanks. I will try this ( I hope it is per game and not a generic overwrite that affects all games ).

Arthur.

[Seven.FFF]

I hope it is per game

It’s per game, as are all the game load options. That’s why the options exist in the first case,?to allow you to tweak the hardware for the way each game needs - which is often at odds with other games.

One game only works on 128K, another game only works on 48K or with USR0 mode, another game needs pentagon timings, another game needs ULA+, another game uses floating bus but reads the ULA+ port and needs that disabled, another game works more smoothly at 7Mhz, another game uses Kempston mouse, another game uses Kempston joystick but reads it non-standardly through the mouse port. So needs mouse disabled, etc.

[Arthur071169]

Fantastic to know all the above.
Many thanks for the updated info - it really will add to my gameplaying enjoyment.

Arthur