Insanely fast Road Runner turbo loading by Ast A. Moore

[amazin]

I've been refurbishing Spectrums for fun and to learn a bit about maintenance, and this version of Road Runner, +2A/+3 Fixed by @Ast A. Moore has become my personal benchmark for the quality of what I've done on the Spectrums.

I'm not sure what he's done. It loads completely in 2:45, I've even made a video, and unless your ZX Spectrum is absolutely perfect, with a completely revised datacorder, it won't load Ast's version.



I have 5 spectrums here at the moment: two +2As have been fully serviced (recapped, datacorder recapped, cleaned, lubricated) plus a grey +2. They load this game every time. No problem whatsoever.

Two of them have only the datacorder serviced, but not the computer motherboard: they will only load this game like once every 10 tries.

I got a black +2A (Action Pack, non 007), I haven't even opened it yet: it won't load this. At all. Never. No head/pressing roll cleaning, no azimuth adjustment will load it.

The Turboload is insanely aggressive like nothing I've seen before. It loads easily from a cellphone, from a tablet, on a modded +2A/+3, but from tape, look, your Spectrum MUST be in tip top condition to run this. Also it's a test for how I record games on blank tapes, the recorder has to be perfect, volume perfect, cable perfect. Or else it won't load.

Ast, if you could share what you done to this, I'd love to read about.

Thanks

[catmeows]

I wonder, does Speedlock and other turbo loaders work for you ?

[Ast A. Moore]

Although this certainly doesn’t look like the original Speedlock, I’m afraid I have nothing to do with this particular version of Road Runner. The full list of games that I’ve provided bug fixes for can be found here, and Road Runner just isn’t one of them.

As a rule, whenever possible, I only provide actual bug fixes and never replace the original loader with mine. The only exceptions are modern home-brew games, but then so far I’ve only offered my turbo loader to a handful of title, namely:

1. Chromatrons Attack by Guesser
2. Nohzdive by Matt Westcott
3. Gluf by Denis Grachev
4. Old Tower by the same author

Naturally, my own games/software come equipped with AstraLoad (which I update from time to time).

[Ralf]

2:45 isn't an insanely fast loading. I've seen a video where Manic Miner was loaded in 30 seconds or so.
It's good but that's all.

As you noticed, when you load Spectrum programs from cassette it is speed versus quality/reliability thing.
Speedloaders have shorter pulses for 0s and 1s so everything loads faster but there is a higher risk of errors.

And actually standard Spectrum ROM loader has quite decent loading times. I've seen games being loaded on C64 or
Atari 8bit. It was a real pain as it would take forever.

[amazin]

I wonder, does Speedlock and other turbo loaders work for you ?

Yep they do, but this is, so far, the most aggressive I've ever seen.

Loading from tape, you have to have a PERFECT ZX Spectrum or else it won't load. Loading from a modern, digital device, it loads easily.

From my small sample of 6 ZXs here, in different stages of rebuilding/recapping, it's quite funny to see how easily or not at all they load this game.

[bob_fossil]

I think that version of Road Runner was done by someone called nuggetreggae. I downloaded an archive of their fixed, trained and all-in-one loaders a few years ago from the other place. I don't seem to have Road Runner in the set of files but I've just tried Bomb Jack and Arkanoid and they appear to have a similar loading scheme.

[spider]

I think that version of Road Runner was done by someone called nuggetreggae. I downloaded an archive of their fixed, trained and all-in-one loaders a few years ago from the other place. I don't seem to have Road Runner in the set of files but I've just tried Bomb Jack and Arkanoid and they appear to have a similar loading scheme.

That was my thought upon seeing the loader as its their "style" , I still have most of their pack. I'm not sure how many distro-denied titles are within, some are missing from the "top 100" list with a placeholder.

The Road Runner one , there's two files for it, both 128K but slightly different. I've not checked them to find out what is.



The secondary codeblock is identical (CRC match) the first one varies. Possibly 48K 'multiload' vs 128K 'all in one go'


Talking of speedy loaders...

With some compression and a high (about as sane as I could get for a real machine) I managed to do this a couple of years back now, was a mini lockdown "pass an hour or two on" thing if I recall:

JSW : From 3m 4s down to 51s
MM (Software Projects) : From 3m 35s down to 49s
MM (Bug Byte) : From 3m 26s down to 49s
JSW 16K (no longer 16K due to the loader) : From 1m 6s down to 29s

They are not pretty, no loading pics etc and have either black/white loading stripes or multicoloured when I realised I could do an LD A,R for convenience. I did do The Hobbit v2 at one stage its probably on the FB Adventure group that had a split attr then pixels loading screen and other stuff, I don't have it to hand though.

[bob_fossil]

The Road Runner one , there's two files for it, both 128K but slightly different. I've not checked them to find out what is.

Yes, my mistake it is there - I forgot to check out the all-in-one folder.

[Pegaz]

So, after all, where can we find this turbo Road Runner version ?
btw, in this video, it loads first part in 55 sec, so I guess 2:45 min loading time is for the whole game.
Still, preety fast...

[spider]

Yes, my mistake it is there - I forgot to check out the all-in-one folder.

I did cheat to save time, I just opened a command prompt in the main folder and did a DIR *road*.* /a /s /d to find everything that may match, I tend to use this for searching as windoze search is a bit erm well, lets not go into that as its off topic here anyway.

I've not checked the differences between them yet anyway. Perhaps if you have a moment you could and post back ?

[spider]

So, after all, where can we find this turbo Road Runner version ?
btw, in this video, it loads first part in 55 sec, so I guess 2:45 min loading time is for the whole game.
Still, preety fast...

As it is listed here on this site and available rather than denied...

Availability: Available

... as otherwise I'd not post it:

https://ufile.io/f/qcz38

Both versions as I wrote about earlier. Just click the 'free download' button and ignore the registration page modal-box popup nonsense aside from clicking the free download in it.

[bob_fossil]

I've not checked the differences between them yet anyway. Perhaps if you have a moment you could and post back ?

The (6) file is the turbo loader shown in the video. The (5) uses a modified ROM loader which does full screen loading bars on the 128k (like on The Lyra II mega demo) while it displays the loading screen a row at a time. The loading counter is nearly double that of the one on the turbo loader.

[spider]

I've not checked the differences between them yet anyway. Perhaps if you have a moment you could and post back ?

The (6) file is the turbo loader shown in the video. The (5) uses a modified ROM loader which does full screen loading bars on the 128k (like on The Lyra II mega demo) while it displays the loading screen a row at a time. The loading counter is nearly double that of the one on the turbo loader.

I see that now, aside from not being multicoloured I was immediately reminded of CBM loaders!

The (6) is the normal style of "Nuggat" loader I'm used to seeing, most of their stuff uses the same for the initial stripes (black/white to start then varies depending on game) and the split loading screen.

[Stefan]

The loading screen loading method is very cool, first attributes, then odd lines, then even lines, it's almost like watching an image appear on a very restricted internet connection.

[Pegaz]

The loading screen loading method is very cool, first attributes, then odd lines, then even lines, it's almost like watching an image appear on a very restricted internet connection.

I've seen such loaders before.
This one is also interesting, with original loading scheme and a decent turbo - whole 48k in about 2:45 min.
https://easyupload.io/9wt5z0

[Pegaz]

Just to correct myself, Road Runner loader really takes 2:45 min, the YT video is actually shortened...

[amazin]

So, after all, where can we find this turbo Road Runner version ?

Here's Alessandro Grussu's main repository of +2A/B/+3A/B fixed games
https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/plus2A-en.html

And here's the direct link to Road Runner
https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zxfix/RoadRunner.zip

[Sokurah]

As you noticed, when you load Spectrum programs from cassette it is speed versus quality/reliability thing.
Speedloaders have shorter pulses for 0s and 1s so everything loads faster but there is a higher risk of errors.

Here's a thought. We all know about the bug in JSW that makes The Banyan Tree impossible to pass if you want to go up.
Now, although this is not a case of speedloader-unreliability, has anyone considered, that the screen might have been working when originally designed, but then corrupted by an error in tape transfer?

[Pegaz]

So, after all, where can we find this turbo Road Runner version ?

Here's Alessandro Grussu's main repository of +2A/B/+3A/B fixed games
https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/plus2A-en.html

And here's the direct link to Road Runner
https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zxfix/RoadRunner.zip

Thanks, @spider has already sent this turbo version, a few posts earlier.
Also, Ast A. Moore and Alessandro are not the same person.
Maybe it would be good to edit the first post, accordingly...

[Lee P]

The loading screen loading method is very cool, first attributes, then odd lines, then even lines, it's almost like watching an image appear on a very restricted internet connection.

I've seen such loaders before.
This one is also interesting, with original loading scheme and a decent turbo - whole 48k in about 2:45 min.
https://easyupload.io/9wt5z0

Is that a new Dan Dare screen? I've seen that loader before (Cliff Hanger uses it I think) but not the screen.

Speaking of which, that nuggetreggae loader reminds me of the version of Dan Dare I had. Standard speed loader, but an unusual way of loading the screen.

[catmeows]

I have checked TZX file. This turbo loader has timing 400 and 800 T for zero and one bits. That gives about 2900 bauds. For comparison, Speedlock has 2000 bauds and most classic turbo loaders seem to be within range from 1900 to 2100 bauds. Standard speed is 1350 bauds.
Anyway, thanks, I was always curious where is the practical limit of turbo loader when using with actual tape.

[amazin]

Maybe it would be good to edit the first post, accordingly...

I tried to edit the title, but apparently I can't once people started replying to it

[Alessandro]

Hi all,

this turbo file is not by me but by Nuggetreggae, credited in the +2A/+3 corrections page at the respective entry.

I have not loaded the file on my two +2As for a long time by now, with the method of the signal coming from Tapir to a car stereo adapter inserted in the Datacorder and amplified through an old PC desktop speaker. But I distinctly remembered that Nuggetreggae turbo files - or any other custom accelerated loader for that matter, including my own SetoLOAD - loaded correctly with that setup.

For the record, I never did anything to my +2As (replacing capacitors etc.). I just am unable to do that, and unwilling to fix what ain't broken to boot

[amazin]

I have checked TZX file. This turbo loader has timing 400 and 800 T for zero and one bits. That gives about 2900 bauds. For comparison, Speedlock has 2000 bauds and most classic turbo loaders seem to use within range from 1900 to 2100 bauds. Standard speed is 1350 bauds.
Anyway, thanks, I was always curious where is the practical limit of turbo loader when using with actual tape.

I searched for other software hacked/fixed by NuggetReggae and found a place with several games that have been cracked/fixed, and some have been hacked to load all stages at once.

http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/y ... Cracks.php

I got a Double Dragon from there, but it's in .Z80 format.

Using Fuse-utils, snap2tzx to be more specific, I was able to create a version of that turboloads (3000 bps - tried 4500, but it won't load from tape - only from a digital device like a cell phone), and even add a custom loading screen.

It loads the game, 118.7K in about 5 minutes.

I placed the .TZX files I've created here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

There is a standard loading file (1500 BPS), a Turbo Load version (3000 BPS - it loads from cassette) and an intermediate speed version that did not work at all, 2250 BPS loading from cassette (weirdly, as I said, the 3000 BPS loads...)

[amazin]

Hi all,

this turbo file is not by me but by Nuggetreggae, credited in the +2A/+3 corrections page at the respective entry.

I have not loaded the file on my two +2As for a long time by now, with the method of the signal coming from Tapir to a car stereo adapter inserted in the Datacorder and amplified through an old PC desktop speaker. But I distinctly remembered that Nuggetreggae turbo files - or any other custom accelerated loader for that matter, including my own SetoLOAD - loaded correctly with that setup.

For the record, I never did anything to my +2As (replacing capacitors etc.). I just am unable to do that, and unwilling to fix what ain't broken to boot

Ciao Alessandro, yeah if you're loading from a digital medium (computer/cellphone/tzxduino) even if using a tape adapter, you're still getting much better quality data than from loading from a tape.

The real complication is when you try to record that turboloaded .TZX onto a cassette tape (and you can have several issues with that) and then try to load that real cassette on the +2 using the built in cassette recorder.

That's what I meant and perhaps it was not that clear: if you have a digital source and you're not relying on an old magnetic tape being dragged, the chances of it loading a turboloader game is much higher than loading from an analogue source.