Custom Loaders

[RMartins]

Someone took the plunge and did a compilation of these ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e_IkqfMeD4

[RMartins]

In particular don't remember my Cobra having that loader.

I'l have to find that tape to check.

[Joefish]

Look more closely - that static image is a composite of three different loaders. The corners of the loading screen and red stripes are from Moon Strike, not Cobra. Dunno about the blue stripes, could have been several.

Is the Fairlight one in the video from a re-release or 128K version? I had that game early on and I'm pretty sure the loading screen was just a straight wipe down the screen and then the countdown in the corner, which admittedly was clever enough. Loading the stone frame in first then the picture is a neat trick too, but the spiral box effect it ends on is a bit lame. It was clever technically, but like the Bobby Bearing one, it was just overdoing it. I think Indiana Jones was the first one I saw do that with a US Gold logo or something. All very elaborate but a terribly dull loading screen by the time it had finished!

[RMartins]

Look more closely - that static image is a composite of three different loaders. The corners of the loading screen and red stripes are from Moon Strike, not Cobra. Dunno about the blue stripes, could have been several.
...

I was not referring to the video thumbnail, but the actual Cobra loading screen at 12m20s, that only transfers the pixels that it needs, and then paints attributes.
Mine, as far as I remember loaded as usual, as a regular screen.

[bob_fossil]

The version of Cobra I had on the Magnificent Seven compilation used the ALKATRAZZ loader. I'm not sure many other Ocean titles used this as they tended to use Speedlock.

[druellan]

Interesting, I'm starting to maintain the "Dynamic Loader Screen" group https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?group_id=1050 so, I'm going to take a look for sure, but as commented, might be the case some loading schemes are from fan-made versions.

Thanks Bob for that insight on the Magnificent Seven compilation. I'm going to check that.

[toot_toot]

The version of Cobra I had on the Magnificent Seven compilation used the ALKATRAZZ loader. I'm not sure many other Ocean titles used this as they tended to use Speedlock.

I think Ocean may have changed the loader type depending on the release. I know they changed the loader for the C64 compilation and Hit Squad releases due to duplication/tapes being not as high quality, so fast loaders that had a higher fail rate on cheaper tapes were replaced with slower loaders. Which made for some VERY long loading times!!!!

Checking the Hit Squad TZX and the original TZX releases of Cobra on the Spectrum, I can confirm that the original release has the interesting (nice!) build up to the loading screen with a timer under the game name, in seconds, as in the YouTube video. The Hit Squad version just displays the loading screen in one go, with no build up and has a minutes and second timer on the top left. However, checking the Magnificent Seven version, it's the same loading screen build up (and time) as the original release. I'm not sure if the actual loader is different (it sounds the same!)

[patters]

Ah man, I remember that Locomotion slide puzzle loading screen at 19mins in the video. That was some serious voodoo. I'd forgotten how varied these loaders were now we're spoiled by DivMMC.

That Flying Shark loader was cack. Used to go wrong a lot for me and also why waste so much time on the yellow and red headers every second or so.

[Stu]

The version of Cobra I had on the Magnificent Seven compilation used the ALKATRAZZ loader. I'm not sure many other Ocean titles used this as they tended to use Speedlock.

Mailstrom is another example of Ocean using Alkatraz -- like you say, they generally stuck to using Speedlock, although they also used Paul Owens Protection System for some of their other games, eg. Chase HQ and Batman: The Movie.

I think Ocean may have changed the loader type depending on the release. I know they changed the loader for the C64 compilation and Hit Squad releases due to duplication/tapes being not as high quality, so fast loaders that had a higher fail rate on cheaper tapes were replaced with slower loaders. Which made for some VERY long loading times!!!!

Checking the Hit Squad TZX and the original TZX releases of Cobra on the Spectrum, I can confirm that the original release has the interesting (nice!) build up to the loading screen with a timer under the game name, in seconds, as in the YouTube video. The Hit Squad version just displays the loading screen in one go, with no build up and has a minutes and second timer on the top left. However, checking the Magnificent Seven version, it's the same loading screen build up (and time) as the original release. I'm not sure if the actual loader is different (it sounds the same!)

I've seen a lot of Hit Squad releases that ditched the original loader in favour of Speedlock 7, hence the difference with Cobra Hit Squad (Speedlock 7) vs original (Alkatraz). The later versions of Speedlock loaded around 1.25x normal speed whereas Alkatraz loaded at around 1.5x -- so yeah, maybe that's because Alkatraz wasn't as reliable on crappy tapes?

(btw the version of Cobra in the video is the Erbe release with their own loader.)

[kolbeck]

I have my own favorite list here

https://zxinfo.dk/animated

[StooB]

Ah man, I remember that Locomotion slide puzzle loading screen at 19mins in the video. That was some serious voodoo.

It's completely fake though. It doesn't actually load anything in that time.

That Flying Shark loader was cack. Used to go wrong a lot for me and also why waste so much time on the yellow and red headers every second or so.

That's Firebird's Bleeploader, if there's an error you can just rewind to the last block and retry. They usually put a standard loader on the b-side.

[patters]

I do remember trying to reload failed chunks but it never seemed to work for me. Perhaps I had a damaged tape. I got most of my games with my +2 second hand out of the Friday Ad.

[Pegaz]

It's completely fake though. It doesn't actually load anything in that time.

Well, this one is not fake, it really loads the game while the screen is drawn.
http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/y ... ndTrap.zip
My second favorite loader is the one with the slanted screen drawing:
http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/y ... o_Kosi.zip

Custom loaders with random attribute drawing are also my favorites, like the ones from The Hobbit 128k or Moon Strike which is similar, but with a lot more content:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7dL5ULL_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVXAYhZo6nA

[druellan]

Ah man, I remember that Locomotion slide puzzle loading screen at 19mins in the video. That was some serious voodoo.

I remember absolutely hating that one trying to convert the loader without any success for hours just to discover you're supposed to ignore the first block, since it's fake just to give the illusion is loading while the screen moves, watching the animation on every-single-test the best psychological copy protection out there!

[XoRRoX]

Look more closely - that static image is a composite of three different loaders. The corners of the loading screen and red stripes are from Moon Strike, not Cobra. Dunno about the blue stripes, could have been several.
...

I was not referring to the video thumbnail, but the actual Cobra loading screen at 12m20s, that only transfers the pixels that it needs, and then paints attributes.
Mine, as far as I remember loaded as usual, as a regular screen.

I checked. The original one also loaded in parts but with first the attributes, then the pixels. The Erbe re-release shown in this video loads first the pixels, then the attributes.

[XoRRoX]

Archie Robbins' re-releases also include custom animated loading of the screens.

[chixus]

My name is Ivan Benišek from Serbia, I made some custom loaders and all compressed by BUSYSOFT compression method, all games have load error protection, fast and funny loader, also works on all machines including +2A and +3, also with Interface 1 attached.

Here is the collection:
https://www50.zippyshare.com/v/pi17P4qV/file.html

Also some youtube videos:

https://youtu.be/En5p1BtEJkw

and the old one:

https://youtu.be/PbspcnHFCyM

Growing up!

[Alessandro]

Thank you Ivan. However clicking on the first link always returns a "403 Forbidden" error to me, could something be done about it?

[Stu]

Thank you Ivan. However clicking on the first link always returns a "403 Forbidden" error to me, could something be done about it?

Yeah unfortunately zippyshare is blocked in several countries. Hopefully @chixus doesn't mind but I took the liberty of re-uploading it to easyupload where it should be accessible for 30 days:

https://easyupload.io/ynstne

[Alessandro]

Thanks @Stu

[spider]

How about these I put together ?

They all show the same 'test screen' loaded in different ways Ignore border leader colours, sorry. The 'rainbow' effect is intentional via a quick LD A,R

[chixus]

Thank you Ivan. However clicking on the first link always returns a "403 Forbidden" error to me, could something be done about it?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... tUbwJ2caJG

[chixus]

here is new one and old link should work!

Here is again!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[Alessandro]

There are a number of custom loaders which are not present in that video:

https://worldofspectrum.org/forums/discussion/47463/

Also, of course, check my own SetoLOAD :

https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/setoload-en.html

[spider]

here is new one and old link should work!

Looks good to me!

I did similar a couple of years ago with this and MM and for the sake of it 16K JSW too, with compression I got them down to this:

Title ... New Speed ... Original Speed

JSW = 51s / 3m 4s
MM (SP Version) = 49s / 3m 35s
MM (BB Version) = 49s / 3m 26s
JSW (16K version) = 29s / 1m , 6s