=========================================================== BIG CLIVE'S SUPERGAYRAINBOW EXPLODING USB POWER SUPPLY GAME For the 48K Spectrum - including ULAPLUS BEAR FLAG EDITION Original QL version by Jim Waterman, 26 - 30 November 2020 This Spectrum conversion by Jim Waterman, 7 - 18 June 2021 =========================================================== Recycled, rehashed, rebuilt almost from the ground up for the comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2022 (now that I don't have to host it any more!) =========================================================== Background ---------- Everything you could ever have wanted to know behind the scenes can be found in the accompanying text file for the original QL version. Pay particular attention to where I mentioned this was supposed to have been a Spectrum game to start with, but was switched to the QL (a) when I needed something to complete the set of Sinclair machines for all the games I'd submitted to the 2020 CSSCGC and (b) when I found out that Big Clive owned a QL back in the day. After I'd released the game, he said on a livestream that he still owns one to this day, somewhere amongst his pile of electronic flotsam and jetsam... So, midway through my time on the CSSCGC's Iron Throne, I whiled away a few evenings converting the game back to how it might have looked in the first place. The original version was intended to show off what I could do with the QL's graphics commands after not very much practice at all, but the Spectrum could use UDGs or customised character sets to achieve the same effect. So, instead, I chose to throw as many machine code routines into it as I could get to work, such as printing the "BANG" all in one go. I had to call in a bit of help from "Programador de Excelência" Dave Hughes in order to rip the explosion noise out of Kevin Bezant's games from the early days of the Spectrum, but everything else was my own work. The QL only has eight colours but its colour commands will work with values up to 255 to give a series of dotted or striped patterns combining two colours - which accounted for the "orange" in the original game. On the Spectrum, at least on the version that most of you will be playing, I've had to revert to the Spectrum's standard colours, swapping the orange charger for a cyan one, and renaming purple to magenta (because you'll all complain otherwise). However, there is another version, in which I've managed to get an orange in there, through the magic of ULAplus. There are far too few games out there that use this excellent enhancement, and that will not do, I say! So if you have an emulator that can handle it (at this stage I recommend SpecEmu), then you can go right ahead and load the ULAPLUS BEAR FLAG EDITION, which is a lot *less* colourful than the canonical rainbow flag, by intention. Incidentally, I am not a bear. Big Clive is. He showed us the bear flag in one of his livestreams. That's how I know about it. Also, the QL was never known for its sound. I could have made this a 128K Spectrum game with a complete three-track version of the "cheap USB charger from China" song made from PLAY statements, but I wanted it to be as close to the QL version as possible, except for the explosion effect I mentioned earlier (which was one of my ideas from before I'd decided it was ever going to be a QL game). At least, because I can time the BEEPs exactly, you get something resembling a "bouncing ball" karaoke-type effect in the introductory screens. Also also, by avoiding the 128K model, I can present this game the way it was supposed to be presented - on a (virtual) microdrive cartridge, just as it was on the QL. Both the regular and ULAplus versions of the game are selectable and all you have to do is type NEW and RUN. By choosing the microdrive version, you will be treated to an extra menu with an extra bit of machine code that I wrote specifically to make that menu look the way it does and not take half the day to do it. I suspect most of you will still only ever load the regular version from tape. Well, it's your loss! The game, for those of you who missed it on The Other Clive's business machine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This game is based on the concept of one of Clive's competitions from 2016, where he gave away one of his favourite multi-bit screwdrivers as a prize (reportedly, it's a very good screwdriver). In "The Supergayrainbow Exploding USB Power Supply Game", all you had to do was make a comment mentioning which one of the six power supplies - otherwise identical except for their colour which made up the "Supergayrainbow" - would explode when the power was turned on. Two days later, in the follow-up video, it was the green one that exploded, and someone who picked the green power supply won the screwdriver. Previously, Clive had dismantled a very cheap Chinese USB charger, in his favourite colour - pink - which had been so badly designed that a quarter of a millimetre separated the housing of the USB socket from a 330V rectified DC supply. Bridge the two, and that's going to hurt... a lot. It inspired him to make a short Euro-dance track about it... in which he "plugged in his super-expensive iPad, and it went bang." Hmmm... is there a Crap Game in all this, I wonder? Yes, there is, and the mere thought of it makes Fanny Flambeaux get all hot under her skirt. What you have to do is... select one of the six Supergayrainbow USB power supplies, plug a device into it that needs charging, switch the power on, and see if it explodes. Maybe you'll get away with it, or maybe your wallet will take a hit as the cheap Chinese power supply takes out the device with it. But wait, there's more! There are five rounds of the game, and each one will add a new device that costs more to replace than the last. In the final round, five devices will be plugged in leaving only one power supply empty - so it is possible, though very unlikely, to go through the whole game with no financial losses at all (for which there will be a different ending). At the other end of the scale, blowing up the Super Expensive iPad in the final round will have a far worse outcome... In any case, your objective - in that there is one - is to keep the costs down to a minimum, to avoid having to work overtime to make up the deficit, or go without "blue-collar trash champagne" (which is Echo Falls Chardonnay that's been carbonated with a SodaStream) for several months. And we can't be having that, can we? FIRST CHOICE: How to get SpecEmu (which won't handle the microdrive) to switch to ULAplus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ideally, I'd like Fuse to be equipped with ULAplus one day, and I'd imagine it's possible to hack it in, but I didn't know how. Until then, Mark Woodmass' SpecEmu is the easiest ULAplus-capable emulator I've found; the custom colours are correct, but you'll be stuck with the tape version for this one as the Inferface 1 and microdrives haven't been implemented. To see the Bear Flag Edition as I'd intended it to be: - Select "Options" from the "Options" menu (that's not a typo!) or press F8. - Tick the box marked "Enable ULAplus (64 colour mode)". SECOND CHOICE: How to get Es.pectrum to switch to ULAplus and load the microdrive version ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This very small but powerful emulator is reasonably easy to use, and can also handle both ULAplus *and* the microdrive at the same time - the downside is that the ULAplus colours are slightly awry, as the two available non-full-intensity blue levels don't match any of the green or red levels. The grey in this game really shows it up, as it's slightly greenish. But anyway, if you want to see the ULAplus version loaded from microdrive in all its mildly-enhanced glory, here's your option. - Select "Hardware" from the "Options" menu. - Tick the box marked "ULA+" under "Classic extras". - Select the "Storage" tab and tick the box marked "Interface 1". - Click "Accept". - Select "Disk -> Insert" from the "File" menu, or press F4. - Navigate to where the .MDR file is stored and open it. - Press the "play" button at the top left to start the emulator. - Type RUN and Enter. Or, if you're a pro, type LOAD *"m";1;"run" and Enter. Bear in mind Es.pectrum disables all the extra keys on a standard PC keyboard so you'll have to remember where all the punctuation is! (It's SYMBOL SHIFT + B for *, O for ;, P for " and CTRL is the SYMBOL SHIFT key.) THIRD CHOICE: How to get ZEsarUX (which won't handle the microdrive) to switch to ULAplus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those of you who, for whatever reason, don't want to use SpecEmu *or* Es.pectrum... César Hernández Bañó is very proud of ZEsarUX and has put a lot of work into it, and can be very defensive about it, but he will usually answer your queries if you go looking for him on one of the main Spectrum forums. There's really no escaping from reality, though - ZEsarUX is far from being the easiest emulator to use. This, though, should get you going with it so you can use the ULAplus of the game. - Click the screen and select "Machine -> Sinclair Research -> ZX Spectrum 48k". - Click the screen and select "Settings -> Display -> ULAplus support". - Press ESC three times to get back to the emulation. I have *still* not worked out a way to switch the drive letter (on Windows), so it makes sense to copy the .TZX file to the same drive that ZEsarUX is installed on. Once you've done that... - Click on the screen and select "Smart Load" - it's not just for noobs, because even trying to do it the conventional way will result in ZEsarUX automatically entering LOAD "" so just run with it... - Navigate to where the .TZX file is stored - click on ".." to move up one directory level if required. - Click on the filename when you see it and the game will load considerably faster than a real tape. Roll of Honour -------------- - Me, for making the QL game in the first place and doing this conversion as well. - Clive Mitchell, for tearing Chinese junk to bits and making videos about it, and being very entertaining doing so. - Kevin J. Bezant, for the explosion sound effect written in 1983. - Dave Hughes, for giving me a hand ripping the sound effect from Sheer Panic. - Andrew Hewson and John Hardman for "40 Best Machine Code Routines for the ZX Spectrum". - César Hernández Bañó, for adding ULAplus support in ZEsarUX; most of the initial ULAplus tests were done on this emulator. - S.J. Patrick for writing the "Thinchars" routine published in ZX Computing, Aug-Sep 1984, p.124-126. Development log --------------- 7 June 2021: - Designed the USB charger / USB logo / BANG graphics (based on the QL original). 8 June 2021: - Copied (and FIXED!) the text enlarger routine from Hewson Consultants' "40 Best Machine Code Routines for the ZX Spectrum" (p.77-84), tested a routine to put the Round number at the top of the screen in a rainbow (of sorts). - Rewrote the BASIC routine completely (and changed all the parameters for the Hewson MC) because it was awful. - Wrote a screen test with the above routine - displaying the round number and the six USB chargers, with another MC routine to display the exploded charger via RST 16 so that it appears just about instantly. - Built the loading screen from one of Clive's "distilling spirits" videos where he's doing a "stupid soy face for the thumbnail so the YouTube algorithm promotes it". Apparently this works. THE ABSOLUTE STATE OF IT. - Wrote the machine code routine to make the Spectrum screen look a bit like a QL... in an instant. This only appears on the microdrive version. 12 June 2021: - Had a response from Dave Hughes about ripping the explosion sound from K.J. Bezant's games. Dave's fixes made it work - I tweaked it to vary the border colours in the OUT instruction to see what it does. - Converted and debugged the actual game routine (so that it plays as it should). 13 June 2021: - Bolted on the three different game endings, and the main intro screen. Needed to write a bit more machine code for the latter, and borrow a flood fill routine from Hewson. 15 June 2021: - Made a start on the "cheap USB charger from China" song for the intro. 17 June 2021: - Finished the song, added an extra intro screen based on one of Clive's doodles from the original video, and bolted it together into a rudimentary Program: and Bytes: tape that auto-runs. - Reassembled all the code to move the routines and character set to new addresses, needed to free up space from 64000-65367 for the ULAplus routine. 18 June 2021: - Ditched the re-assembled version when I found I didn't need to move the code anyway for the ULAplus version... - Tidied up and finalised the previous version. (now V1c) - Added the extra code for the ULAplus colours and routines (a mere 147 bytes, 64 of which were the colours) - Converted the game to its ULAplus-compatible version (V2p) and added an extra bit in the intro where the colours all change. 8 July 2021: - Assembled the microdrive version, with its EXTRA ENHANCEMENTS - i.e. the partial machine code that simulates the QL. This incorporates "Thinchars" by S.J. Patrick to display the QL characters six pixels wide (as they would be on a real QL). A few minor changes to the BASIC had to be made (only a couple of lines) to get it to work, but it does. - Tested the microdrive version with Es.pectrum 0.9.1, as it has support for both the microdrives and ULAplus. Sources ------- There are quite a few of Big Clive's videos that have inspired the creation of this game that's of a suitable quality to match the Chinese junk he rips to its component parts for our delectation and delight. Some of them show the idea behind this game, and the "cheap USB charger" song, others cite some of his catchphrases that I've repeated along the course of the game for maximum levels of Cliveness. This is probably not a comprehensive list, but everything that I could think of that I needed to include is in here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1k6XNrM6OU The supergayrainbow exploding USB power supply game, part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWUBom7u-0 The supergayrainbow explosion. Which colour went bang? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqJnFhhPAis "Really dodgy pink USB charger." - initial assessment of the charger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioAq7PI1Uwg "The cheap shitty pink USB charger from China song." - self-explanatory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSePiQuei8M "The first live stream. (Big Clive Live)" 35:21 - Clive states he owned a QL and liked the SuperBASIC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOyahl_ER8 "The Flying Saucer Stream" 1:28:35 - another reference to QL SuperBASIC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBg4ximDrsk "What's inside Eneloop and LIDL NiMh cells (fire, apparently)" - watch from 16:23 for "This isn't necessarily quite good!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXkOxP5hka4 "DANGEROUS 100W LED EXPLODES!" An obvious troll video that contains (probably) the best (although least genuinely authentic!) "oh... right!" ever at 3:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hvg2Wey92E "Bear & beer. Opening an explosive 11kv disconnector. (With bang.)" From 13:15 - "By the power of beer, let's make it happen!" Also another "...right!" though with a far more authentic test behind it. And finally, for the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzb8U0Bje5A This isn't a Big Clive video - it's Lindybeige having a rant about Thegn Thrand's channel being kicked off of YouTube (though it was reinstated) - this was the source of the "Patreon begging bowl" quote in one of the alternative endings of this game, and it's the way I've always viewed Patreon (start at 5:07). Now for the sources of the gadgets that I've adopted for this game: Super-expensive iPad - £1,069 New Apple iPad Pro (12.9-inch, Wi-Fi, 256GB) - Space Gray (4th Generation) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iPad-12-9-inch-Wi-Fi-256GB/dp/B08635WDCG/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=iPad&qid=1606598506&sr=8-5 (An iPhone 12 is £1,399 and will make you cry even harder if you plug it into one of these cheap Chinese chargers - but because Clive specifically mentioned his "super-expensive iPad", I kept that as the most expensive item.) Sony NW-A100TPS 40th Anniversary Walkman - £400 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzdy_2kGGhM (Was only available in 2019, but Techmoan bought one and reviewed it. Watch his channel as well as Clive's.) Raspberry Pi 400 - £94 https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-personal-computer-kit?src=raspberrypi (Looks like a good deal and this is about as close to a 1980s-style microcomputer as there has ever been since those days.) Amazon Echo Dot - £19 https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8663968?clickSR=slp:term:echo%20dot:1:117:1 (Now superseded by the 4th gen Echo Dot, but I wanted a cheaper device that was a bit closer to the Poundland power bank than the Pi 400.) Pink Poundland power bank - £1 https://www.kevinsimon.co.uk/1200mah-signaled-powerbank-from-poundland/ (Yes, it really is a quid.)