Re: Musician wanted!
Are there any musicians out there who fancy composing or providing some music for a shoot-em-up? It's the SAM version (and next chapter) of a speccy game I wrote last year. Seem to have found one :-) Cheers Andrew
Re: New DISC manager in development
Looks encouraging and has some good features. It would be even nicer if it could be operated from command line for use in build scripts though! - Original Message - From: VELESOFT veles...@seznam.cz To: SAM USERS sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 1:09 PM Subject: New DISC manager in development Here is new manager for PC (in development, but work) http://speccy.pl/forum/index.php/topic,1371.0.html VELESOFT --- Tato zpráva neobsahuje viry ani jiný škodlivý kód - avast! Antivirus je aktivní. http://www.avast.com
Re: Line interrupts
Set up an IM2 vector table, use the frame interrupt to set up the first line interrupt (send the line number you want to fire to port $f9), then have your line interrupt routine set up the second time it should trigger by sending the new line number again to port $f9. I do that more or less for my special edition version of lost disks of sam I've been tinkering with for a while now, only inside an IM1 interrupt routine. Seems to work absolutely fine so far, although I don't know if it would be considered the right way. Probably not, but if it works, I'm happy as larry. Happy new year:) Andrew - Original Message - From: Andrew Park To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Wednesday, January 01, 2014 3:37 PM Subject: Line interrupts Hi all Happy new year lets hope we can see some more sam stuff this year. Any idea how i can set up a line interrupt routine between 32768 and 65535? I want to change the palette twice once at line 0 and then again on line 128. Many thanks Andy
Re: Windows Tools for Sam
I do similar, although I do all my graphics work in grafx2. Save them out as 16 colour pngs and import into my own crap thing I wrote in Delphi to parse through the RGB data, combine the nibbles and chuck the image out a a load of DEFBs, line by line. It'll auto-create the CLUT entries too if I need. It even does weird and wonderful stuff like outputting graphics as hard coded asm for sprite routines and such. I guess I found that nothing off the shelf met my requirements so I had to get my hands dirty. Cheers Andrew - Original Message - From: Chris Pile chris.p...@blueyonder.co.uk To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2013 2:44 PM Subject: Re: Windows Tools for Sam Hi Andy, I've always used Paint Shop Pro v7.04 - setting the canvas to 256x192 and 256 (byte per pixel) colour mode. Then make sure you only use the first 16 palette entries (in Paint Shop Pro) when you design your graphics. These 16 entries will then map directly to the SAM's 16 palette colours. When you come to save the image save it as filetype RAW and make sure you set the header bytes to zero. This will spit out your image as a simple byte-per-pixel, linear 256x192 block of data of 48k in size. So, for example, if the first 5 pixels of your image used palette entries 1, 12, 3, 9 and 15 the first 5 bytes of the RAW data block you saved from PSP would look like (in HEX): 01 0C 03 09 0F ... and so on. Then you can either write a simple PC program to take these bytes and combine them to produce the required nybble-per-pixel layout of the SAM, or you could import this block using SimCoupé and write a simple SAM program to to this conversion. After conversion the above example would look like (again, in HEX): 1C 39 Fx (where x would be whatever the 6th byte was in the RAW) The disadvantage to this method is the palette information isn't saved with the RAW image data. So you must hand-build the CLUT on the SAM from whatever 16-colours you decided to use in Paint Shop Pro. An extra step, but not too troublesome. If you try this method be sure to find a version of Paint Shop Pro that is =7.04, as all version after that sucked big time! Chris. On 20/10/2013 10:35, Andrew Park wrote: Hi Does anyone know of any windows based tools to create graphics for the sam? What i mean is you can draw the graphics in a windows based environment then export the data to be used in assembly such as JAM etc? Andy
Re: CLI based disk imager?
Hi Andrew, It isn't so much a speed issue - more one of convenience. I like the idea of having a simple executable I can take with me and use wherever I am :-) However having managed to tweak the C to do what I wanted (more or less) last night, I've now somehow managed to break it completely with my rudimentory C knowledge and have given up on the whole endeavour! Cheers Andrew, (installing Python...) - Original Message - From: Andrew Collier and...@intensity.org.uk To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 12:25 AM Subject: Re: CLI based disk imager? Hi, Oh my, that's some of the first c code I ever wrote. You're really probably better off without it! If what you want is to put a bunch of files onto a disk image, you can do that in pyz80 without having to change it. Just use -I on a command line, e.g.: pyz80.py -I file1 -I file2 -I file3 -o image.dsk (Yes, the python's going through an interpreter - or rather, bytecoded - but for this size of files compared to computer performance these days I doubt you'll notice a speed issue) Andrew On 7 Oct 2013, at 20:41, Andrew Gillen a...@joua.net wrote: Hi Stefan Thanks for the suggestion: it is a nice idea in principle, but I'm not familiar with python, and I'd rather have something that doesn't require any sort of interpreter. I have however just found Andrew's older c based Disk Manipulator, I think I may have better luck hacking that to do something instead, so I shall have a play with that. Cheers Andrew - Original Message - From: Stefan Drissen To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Monday, October 07, 2013 7:46 PM Subject: RE: CLI based disk imager? Stripping Andrew’s pyz80 should be an easy start. From: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] On Behalf Of Andrew Gillen Sent: maandag 7 oktober 2013 20:32 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: CLI based disk imager? Hi, Anyone know of any any cli based utlities for just constructing disk images? Ideally something windows based, I guess a CLI-ified (and scriptable) version of Edwin Blink's SAM Disk Manager would be ideal ;-) ? Cheers Andrew
CLI based disk imager?
Hi, Anyone know of any any cli based utlities for just constructing disk images? Ideally something windows based, I guess a CLI-ified (and scriptable) version of Edwin Blink's SAM Disk Manager would be ideal ;-) ? Cheers Andrew
Re: Sim Coupe
Not a lot of use to you I realise, but I can confirm it is working fine here, too. Cheers Andrew - Original Message - From: Stephan Haller no...@froevel.de To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 9:15 PM Subject: Re: Sim Coupe Hmmm ... wasn't a problem either. The md5sum of the exe file I downloaded is bbf240d96fb6896d4394c813ae634726 tmp/SimCoupe-1.0.exe Maybe your virus killer is killing this exe? Am Montag, den 24.06.2013, 20:52 +0100 schrieb Adrian Brown: Yer but try and get the windows exe ;) -Original Message- From: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] On Behalf Of Stephan Haller Sent: 24 June 2013 20:22 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Sim Coupe Hi Andrian, that's strange. Sourceforge is listing all files to me. Try http://sourceforge.net/projects/simcoupe/files/simcoupe/SimCoupe%201.0/ Regards, Stephan Am Montag, den 24.06.2013, 20:11 +0100 schrieb Adrian Brown: Anyone know where to get simcoupe from - sourceforge seems to be empty? My virus killer seems to have eaten the sound dll :( Adrian -- Stephan Haller www.froevel.de Systemadministrator EMail: no...@froevel.de Telefon: 02202 / 45 97 95 Mobil: 0176 / 63 86 30 21 Jabber (bevorzugt): no...@jabber.froevel.de ICQ: 33955897
Re: New Game: Dave Infuriators
Second level is arguably easier (less cluttered anyway) than the first so use that to hone skills. The first level is designed to be completable by Dave himself without user intervention, although he doesn't use the quickest route; but it will unlock level 2 on completion. Cheers Andrew On 15 Nov 2012, at 20:36, Simon Owen simon.o...@simcoupe.org wrote: It's great to see more new content! I just wish I could get more than 2 steps up on the first screen. I'm just recovering from a Super Hexagon addiction, so I do like my games tough ;) Si On 14/11/2012 16:08, Andrew Gillen wrote: Hi, just to let you know I have finally finished writing Dave Infuriators. Simple platform game against the clock. Instructions can be found in the readme.txt in the archive. Played with just two keys : change direction and jump, so following the trend these days of minimal controls. Took longer to write than it should with life's distractions and other projects. Also didn't end up quite how I envisioned but here it is nevertheless! Http://www.blackjet.co.uk/download.php?d=dave-infuriators Requires 512K SAM. Cheers Andrew
New Game: Dave Infuriators
Hi, just to let you know I have finally finished writing Dave Infuriators. Simple platform game against the clock. Instructions can be found in the readme.txt in the archive. Played with just two keys : change direction and jump, so following the trend these days of minimal controls. Took longer to write than it should with life's distractions and other projects. Also didn't end up quite how I envisioned but here it is nevertheless! Http://www.blackjet.co.uk/download.php?d=dave-infuriators Requires 512K SAM. Cheers Andrew
Re: Cross-development tools
I use a tool I coded in Delphi or whatever the free open source clone of it is called. It converts pngs into defbs and creates the palette but it needs the source image to be made up of the Sam palette accurate colours. It does not create valid screen$ files though as I have never needed to use them. The images are straight mode 4 ones. It does a bunch of other things like sprite masking and reversal. It is very rough but it does what I need it to do, it also works well under wine. If it would be of use I could publish it online for anyone to use, but it is so specific to my dev environment I never thought to mention it really. Cheers Andrew On 14 Jun 2012, at 09:58, Adrian Brown adr...@apbcomputerservices.co.uk wrote: For quick stuff I use edwin's scrviwer (http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/edwin/software/scrviewer/scrviewer.ht m) to save a bmp to a dsk then use dodgy basic code to convert the screen$ to raw data. Other than that I sometimes write oneoff utils. I still use comet to do the code :) Long term in the back of my mind I was to use the TCP/IP stuff im working on to do a cross plat. Dev system to real hardware, that's the ultimate :D Adrian -Original Message- From: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] On Behalf Of Chris Cowley Sent: 14 June 2012 09:31 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Cross-development tools Am starting to poke about a little more with Coupe development as time permits and I wondered what, if anything, currently exists by way of publicly-available cross-development tools. I have my favourite text editor and pasmo set up, which I use for occasional speccy stuff, and have augmented this with pyz80 (coz it writes out DSK files, which has been handy). Have also got SAMdisk and DiskManager for manipulating disk images, which seem to be working nicely, but... What I really could do with is a utility (preferably with a palette editor) for drawing graphics (tiles, sprites) that runs on Windows and spits out either DEFBs or binary files that I can INCBIN. Does such a thing exist? Failing that, something that has a reasonable stab at converting PNGs or GIFs into a form I can use in asm would be useful. What do you guys use to do this sort of stuff? And also are there any other useful cross-development tools that I should be looking at? Cheers, Chris.
Re: Cross-development tools
I think Tommy Gun meets many of your requirements, Chris. Www.users.on.net/~tonyt73/TommyGun Cheers, Andrew On 14 Jun 2012, at 09:23, Chris Cowley chrr...@gmail.com wrote: Am starting to poke about a little more with Coupe development as time permits and I wondered what, if anything, currently exists by way of publicly-available cross-development tools. I have my favourite text editor and pasmo set up, which I use for occasional speccy stuff, and have augmented this with pyz80 (coz it writes out DSK files, which has been handy). Have also got SAMdisk and DiskManager for manipulating disk images, which seem to be working nicely, but... What I really could do with is a utility (preferably with a palette editor) for drawing graphics (tiles, sprites) that runs on Windows and spits out either DEFBs or binary files that I can INCBIN. Does such a thing exist? Failing that, something that has a reasonable stab at converting PNGs or GIFs into a form I can use in asm would be useful. What do you guys use to do this sort of stuff? And also are there any other useful cross-development tools that I should be looking at? Cheers, Chris.
Re: BorderTron 3000 - SAM Coupe Edition
Seems to work a treat. I shall no doubt feature a bordertron generated pause effect in my next game. Many thanks for your work on this, Chris. All the best Andrew -- From: Chris Cowley chrr...@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 6:39 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: BorderTron 3000 - SAM Coupe Edition New binaries (v1.02) at http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/bordertron3000/sam/ I've taken Si's comments on board regarding the visible display area, and reduced the width accordingly. Also added registration marks to show the position of the PAPER area and the limit of the TV-visible region (have left an extra 16 pixels either side of the visible region as this allows you extend a 3 character block of colour into the visible area to shift a scanline right by 1 single character, IYSWIM). Also, fixed the various MacOS bugs (I hope...), fixed the Z80 interrupt re-entrancy issue, and improved the quality of the code it generates a bit. Full source code is available here:- http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/bordertron3000/sam/BorderTronSAMSource.zip The bulk of the source is actually the Z80 assembler. The UI, DSK output, and border-related stuff is pretty small. Am happy to help out if anyone wants to reuse the code. Cheers, Chris.
Re: New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM
haha, coding legend - I wish ! Nice compliment but I'd say it was down to dogged determination rather than anything else. I wanted it complete as quickly as possible so I could play it! It helps massively to have a reference design to work from, and having the majority of the graphics already prepared with just a lick of paint here and a tweak there meant I could concentrate on coding rather than designing. The enter key thing - during development we were not sure if black would work as a background, we felt it made the game too dark (well it would, it's black!) and with the default colour of the player sprite being a dark grey we felt it might be necessary to pick a lighter background colour. So the enter thing was just a way to try out various colours on the background. In the end I went for black, I think it works well enough, but left the colour changer code active just in case anyone wanted to adjust it themselves - then forgot to document it. I sometimes play it with lighter background still. All the best Andrew -- From: Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 11:50 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM I agree with Rob and with the other comments; and I'll add that the slow colouring in of the character to represent lives is a really neat touch. I'm a bit confused about what the enter key is meant to do on the info screen though — it seems to redefine black? On 31 May 2012 13:31, the wub the...@gmail.com wrote: What a great game! The presentation is outstanding, you really have a nice style graphically! I like the infinite lives/quick restart as it makes for a very compulsive, this time I'll do it kind of feeling.. The fact you did this in a month makes you some kind of coding legend! :) Rob.
Re: New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM
Cheers, Howard, pleased you like it. I've just released v1.2 which has a redefine key option on the info screen so hopefully that will be appreciated. Cheers Andrew From: Balor Price Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 4:15 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM AAArrrgghh it's ridiculously moreish even though I'm terrible at it! Looks like the collision detection problems have been totally sorted, and the movement of Moby is really smooth too. Well done! Can't wait for Dave Infuriators. Howard On 25/05/2012 12:02, Andrew Gillen wrote: Hi folks I've been a busy little bee this past month. After playing the very excellent speccy game The Lost Tapes of Albion released by Dave Hughes for the 30th anniversary I just had to get some of that action into the SAM. Dave 2 was put back on the shelf temporarily and I began work. After one month it is complete and available at http://www.blackjet.co.uk/index.php#lostdisks The game simply involves collecting 40 disks per screen while avoiding the marauding enemies. Controls are QAOP, you can only move up or down when you're standing on a teleporter. You can get an idea of what they are on the title screen, but with play it should be reasonably straightforward. The screen wraps, if you walk off to the right you end up on the platform below, and go left and you end up on the platform above. To quit back to the menu, pause the game with the space key, then press escape immediately after un-pausing (press any key). Hope you enjoy. Cheers Andrew
New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM
Hi folks I've been a busy little bee this past month. After playing the very excellent speccy game The Lost Tapes of Albion released by Dave Hughes for the 30th anniversary I just had to get some of that action into the SAM. Dave 2 was put back on the shelf temporarily and I began work. After one month it is complete and available at http://www.blackjet.co.uk/index.php#lostdisks The game simply involves collecting 40 disks per screen while avoiding the marauding enemies. Controls are QAOP, you can only move up or down when you're standing on a teleporter. You can get an idea of what they are on the title screen, but with play it should be reasonably straightforward. The screen wraps, if you walk off to the right you end up on the platform below, and go left and you end up on the platform above. To quit back to the menu, pause the game with the space key, then press escape immediately after un-pausing (press any key). Hope you enjoy. Cheers Andrew
Re: Wait for that game to load!
This sounds excellent Keep em coming ! From: David Sanders Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:08 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Wait for that game to load! I admit defeat slightly, but it was a valiant effort. http://www.dsanders.co.uk/oceanloader.dsk Cheers David Emoticon1.gif
Re: border effects and tricks
Simon, This is excellent. Many thanks for putting the effort into this :) I fear it would have taken me sometime to get it right so I appreciate your deft work! I shall have a play, and with a bit of luck the results of this will be present in my next project. Cheers Andrew -- From: Simon Owen simon.o...@simcoupe.org Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 6:31 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: border effects and tricks On 13/05/2012 10:14, Andrew Gillen wrote: it created some nice patterns, but not quite the patterns I wanted. Try working from this: http://obo.homeip.net/BorderSAM.zip The visible width is 36 blocks, and each out covers 2 blocks. That means 18 OUTs for the effect plus 6 more for invisible padding between lines. Adding a NOP after an OUT adds a single block for odd widths. There must be an even number of NOPs in each line for timing, with any spare NOP added after the padding OUTs. For every 2 NOPs added you must remove an OUT. Technically, 2 OUTs (8T total) should be needed per extra block, but the ASIC contention alignment during the border write rounds it up anyway. I've kept the number of vertical lines the same as the original code, though you can see more than that on a real SAM. There's also some interrupt re-entrancy with the current code, but it's allowed for in the timing delays. I've just had a chat with Chris on IRC and there may be SAM support in the editor program at some point :) Si
border effects and tricks
Hi all There seems to be a lot of talk about timing critical border effects for the ZX Spectrum. Anyone got any information on achieving the same sort of effects on the SAM? I'm guessing it would be achieved the same sort of way, and I even played with Bordertron 3000 ( http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/bordertron3000/ ) and imported the result into Sim Coupé, the result encouraged, but equally frustrated, it created some nice patterns, but not quite the patterns I wanted. The different Spectrum / Pentagon settings changed the resulting border effect, so I assume it might just a matter of getting the timing right. The unfinished unofficial technical manual from Entropy has an unwritten chapter on this very subject which is a great shame - it looks like that document if it was finished would have been a goldmine of information on all sorts of interesting tips and tricks. Cheers Andrew.
Re: Party like it's 1992, or 1984, or whatever.
David, Still a worthy battle, though. Keep the tunes coming chaps, this is turning into a good year for the SAM so far! Cheers Andrew From: David Sanders Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 2:57 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Party like it's 1992, or 1984, or whatever. http://intensity.org.uk/samcoupe/downloads/maaorava.dsk (made in Protracker 2, ripped from an ancient MOD of the same name by Stargazer). It's from a little while back, and is a sort of a b-side in that I'm happy with the way it turned out, but it didn't quite seem to mesh with the visuals of anything I was coding at the time so I haven't ended up using it (yet). Andrew Sounding great! You're welcome to have some non-compiled modules if you want to steal/mess about with my bass noises. I tend to just try and stick to using 4 channels with modulation so I very rarely end up with the standard ragged waveform that the SAA produces. I think most of my efforts are still driven by SID jealousy, though that's a pretty out-of-date battle! Emoticon1.gif
Re: XOR now completed!
Hi Howard This is excellent, I'm not familiar with the original and I must admit when I read XOR thought it might be a shoot-em-up (X-Out maybe haha ;)) It is a really well presented and smooth experience, but REALLY mind bending! I love the transitions and slidey text :) Managed the first level after a few goes, nice gentle start, thought the next might be just a bit harder, but jeeps that's a jump in difficulty. I doubt I'll get much further in this but I'll certainly try! Cracking stuff though, many congrats on completing the project. Cheers Andrew -- From: Balor Price toberm...@cookingcircle.co.uk Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 2:00 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: XOR now completed! Hello everybody I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR. I finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game! You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration). It's 25 years old and still as rock-hard as I remember. Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated. :D Cheers Howard
Re: Musics
That sounds awesome. Great tune From: David Sanders Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 11:07 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Musics Hello List, If anyone fancies a listen to the most fiendishly complicated piece of Sam music I've written, here it is: http://dsanders.co.uk/sanxion.dsk It's kind of a conversion of Rub Hubbard's Sanxion loader, but done from memory so probably quite different. I believe the effect at around 2:00 has never been done before on the Coupé! A first time for everything even on the Sam eh? So, why did I spend my morning writing this? Your guess is as good as mine, but I reckon someone now ought to make the effort to convert the actual game. Ahem. Cheers David Emoticon1.gif
Re: ZX Spectrum 'relaunch'
Hi Warren This idea reminds me of the ZX Spectrum that was modded to run linux. Check out http://www.retrothing.com/2009/04/modding-a-sinclair-zx-spectrum-to-run-linux.html http://www.retrothing.com/2009/04/modding-a-sinclair-zx-spectrum-to-run-linux.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qh7dvaH98 That Beagleboard solution isn't a cheap one, and it requires a fair bit of hackery to get the keyboard sorted, but it looks like a fantastic result. I'd like to try the PI out in a similar capacity, but I lack the degree of expertise in electrical hackery unfortunately to see it through with any confidence of success. If I can find a similar membranous keyboard to that which was used on that set up for a low enough price, it won't stop me trying, though. Much of the experience in playing old games is in using the old kit itself. No amount of PC emulation and full stroke keyboard use can replicate that ZX feel. SAMwise it is different, the keyboard is of a good enough standard for emulation to represent a pretty accurate experience for me. Cheers Andrew -- From: war...@wdlee.co.uk Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 11:18 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: ZX Spectrum 'relaunch' Off on a bit of a non-SAM tangent (but probably somewhat related for most of us) I came across this the other day: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8304237/ZX-Spectrum-relaunch-gaming-goes-back-to-the-future.html Lots of you have probably already heard this, but I don't remember it being mentioned, so thought I would! ;-) Supposedly a company were going to relaunch the zx spectrum this year (by the looks of it, as a 48k speccy keyboard that links up to an iPhone or similar to run an emulator), to coincide with the 30th anniversary, but it doesn't look like it's going to materialise any time soon. I know something similar is/was being planned for the C64? However, it got me thinking... Obviously in this day and age, many of use want to enjoy the retro gaming experience, but we haven't exactly got the space to keep things set up. I intend to have my SAM set up permanently at some point, but I very much doubt I'd ever get the space to dedicate to other systems, so clearly something that pleasantly replicates the original experience quickly and easily with modern advantages would be a pleasing alternative. So I figured, what would make an easy to use 'spectrum' emulator for playing all the old games? You'd want HDMI output for ease with modern televisions, SD card storage, and have it all fit into one of our old rubber keyed friends. How do you do this on a budget at that size? The first thing that popped into my head, is the Raspberry Pi (if it ever gets to selling!!). Small enough to probably fit in a speccy case, with HDMI out and card reader. Surely this could make for a fairly cheap and effective 48k Spectrum emulation experience? I think the Speccy is particularly suited, because let's face it, for most of us it was about the games more than anything. I don't think anything similar would work for the SAM, because what makes that such a unique experience (for me, anyway) is the original and additional hardware in addition to the software. But for a speccy I could see it being great fun, to play the games with ease on a keyboard that replicates the old experience but with updated advantages. (I think a SAM equivalent would have to be more along the lines of Colin's 'SAM-in-a-can' projects, but rather than old SAM parts, something that accurately replicates the original hardware with modern additions) Not being much of a tech person I'm not sure about the feasibility, but it seems like a wasted opportunity in todays market where retro-gaming has had somewhat of a resurgence? Warren
Re: ZX Spectrum 'relaunch'
Hi Graeme When you get round to doing it please feel free to publish a guide so we (royal we perhaps) may follow suit ! :) And while I'm at it to save spamming the list twice in a row, in reference to your Essential SAM goodies thread, take a look at The Garden Centre of the Universe from The_Wub! (http://www.worldofsam.org/node/684) - a great game published in 2011 for the SAM, and you can always have a look at http://blackjet.co.uk to see what we're up to at Blackjet ;) (sorry folks for yet another plug). All the best Andrew -- From: Graeme Gregory x...@xora.org.uk Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:13 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: ZX Spectrum 'relaunch' I have been planning for a while not to do this modification. But I was going to use an I2C IO Extender chip instead of the USB keyboard hack. With this I should be able to map exactly the spectrum keyboard map into Linux. Ive had the broken spectrum and a couple of beagle boards sitting on my shelf for 6 months or so but had no time to get soldering! It can be done easilly with the Pi or Beaglebone as well, and they are significant cheaper and smaller. Graeme
Re: Junk mail
No, second time I've been mail bombed by him in as many weeks. The first was a mail of 21MB, then tonight 40 odd individual mails plus one of 8MB. Every single one forwarded to ab...@gmail.com. I know they'll do nothing, but we can dream, right? -- From: da...@properbastard.co.uk Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 11:39 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Junk mail Was it just me who was sent a huge number of un-requested files? I've added the sender to my email blacklist.
Re: ASCD 0.98 WIP 2 released
Hi Aleš Great work on this emulator. I tried it this evening and it plays a mean game of Dave Invaders and even the demo of Dave Infuriators Quick load and save seems to work great but with one small bug (that I'm sure you know about already but I thought I'd mention anyway) when I Quickload from the Emulation menu it says it fails to load, but actually loads fine. The F9 key doesn't offer up the same error. Anyway, I might actually be able to complete my own game now without resorting to a cheat mode Looking forward to further development. All the best Andrew From: Aleš Keprt Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 2:26 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: ASCD 0.98 WIP 2 released Hi Sam Users! I just released the new version of my emulator ASCD 0.98 WIP 2. It’s still “work-in-progress”, but many planned things are already implemented. You can download it from my web site www.keprt.cz – click Download, then see at the bottom of that page. Snapshots are now enabled for use, they are saved to the new file format with extension SCS (aka. Sam Coupe Snapshot). The file format is self-described in the source code (see file SamSnap.cpp). The new fileformat covers also ZX Spectrum 48/128 snapshots, as it is the fileformat used for internal Quicksave/Quickload feature. You can also simultaneously write action replay recording file and use quicksave/quickload. My plan is to add AVI video recording to let people record “walkthrough” videos in games. Until this is implemented, ASCD 0.98 won’t reach final state. What’s new: - 0.98 WIP 2 - march 2012 == * Sam Coupé Snapshots are now public; next goal is to implement AVI video file writer * The snapshot code is still in development, now supported also for ZX Spectrum modes * QuickSave/QuickLoad feature now uses new snapshot format in all modes, including air recording * New file format for OpenAir recordings - files are now a lot smaller * Sam: Added printer support (wasn't implemented in Windows version yet) - saves to printout.txt * Sam: Improved floppy disk drive emulation, SAMDICE doesn't crash anymore, although it still doesn't work * Sam: Improved mouse emulation code * ZXS: Added support for 3x8bit DAC audio based on IC 8255 (ports 31,63,95,127 - MQM5 works :-)) * ZXS: Added support for Fullerbox AY audio (it's always turned on in ZXS 48/128k mode) * ZXS: Added ZX Printer support - it saves the prints to zxprint.bmp file * Z80: Fixed ADC HL,rr incorrectly setting N flag * Z80: Added support for saving .z80 snapshot files (uncompressed 48KB only) * Mouse was too fast, so it is set 2 times slower than before * Changed contents of a disk images are now saved with a temp filename and then renamed back only if no error occurs 0.98 WIP 1 - march 2012 == * First public Win32 version - supports Windows 2000 and later, DirectX 6 (2D) and Direct3D 9 (3D) * MS-DOS version is now officially dropped * Updated to Visual C++ 2008 and Zlib 1.2.6 * Fixed many bugs in the emulation core * Fixed Windows related bugs (especially in GUI) * Added support for saving .sna snaps (both 48k and 128k) * Added many items to Windows menu, but this is still quite incomplete * Fixed wrong flash speed (it flashed every 25 frames, now it flashes every 16 frames) Best regards, Aley Keprt - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz -Emoticon3.gif
Re: Dave Infuriators
Hi Adrian I'd very grateful to see some of you code snippets for saving out. I can so far save stuff, but it is all corrupt, so I assume I'm giving it the wrong parameters for which data to save, the length and filename seems to be fine, though. The manual is a bit too light on information on this I think. Cheers Andrew -- From: Adrian Brown adr...@apbcomputerservices.co.uk Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 8:11 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: RE: Dave Infuriators Give me a shout if you want to save from assembler. Ive got various code that can do that using DOS hooks (no custom code as that's a pain with SD cards etc) Adrian -Original Message- From: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] On Behalf Of Andrew Gillen Sent: 13 March 2012 23:31 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Dave Infuriators Pleased you're all looking forward to it :) I'm looking to include the level editor as part of the release, though I need to figure out how to save data to disk. It's all well and good loading using the SAM DOS hook codes but saving I'm not so sure about. I have yet to tackle this, but does anyone have any tips? It was a miracle I managed to get this and Dave Invaders loading stuff during runtime ! I suppose I could drop back out to basic and have the basic listing deal with saving the block of level data out on exit from the editor maybe, but that seems a bit ham-fisted for want of a better term. -- From: the wub the...@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 8:29 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Dave Infuriators This looks like great fun! The background graphics are really effective too, can't wait to have a go! :) Rob.
Re: Dave Infuriators
Pleased you're all looking forward to it :) I'm looking to include the level editor as part of the release, though I need to figure out how to save data to disk. It's all well and good loading using the SAM DOS hook codes but saving I'm not so sure about. I have yet to tackle this, but does anyone have any tips? It was a miracle I managed to get this and Dave Invaders loading stuff during runtime ! I suppose I could drop back out to basic and have the basic listing deal with saving the block of level data out on exit from the editor maybe, but that seems a bit ham-fisted for want of a better term. -- From: the wub the...@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 8:29 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Dave Infuriators This looks like great fun! The background graphics are really effective too, can't wait to have a go! :) Rob.
Dave Infuriators
Hi all Just thought I'd share with you a peek at the new work in progress for the SAM http://www.blackjet.co.uk/images/uploads/ani0005.gif Not much to say on the project yet other than to say it is a platform / puzzler controlled with two keys; a change direction and a jump. The keen-eyed among you might notice there was no apparent input from the player in the demo, Dave navigated himself around based on what tile he encountered on the way. The final game should have traps, switches and various other things to aid and hinder the player. Cheers Andrew
Re: Emulation etc...
Hi David, On 17/02/2012 20:27, da...@properbastard.co.uk wrote: would it be possible for the raspberry pi to run SimCoupe ... I'd expect the OpenGL SDL version should build and run on it without any trouble. I'll certainly give it a whirl once I get one. I think you may have a beta-tester then if that's the case ... certainly more interested in getting one if there's a possibility of emulating SAM and perhaps other machines... Also count me in on the beta testing ;) I can't wait for the Pi to surface and have every intention of using it as an 8bit emulation station, with SIM Coupé top of the list of things to try on it. I'm with you on the anticipation thing. I've been pottering about with my Amiga 4000 this past week and it really takes me back to when computers were fun. The Pi should be great fun if it lives up to expectations. Cheers Andrew
Re: Jam Assembler
david brant davidcbrant@... writes: Hi All, I've uploaded a new version of Jam Assembler to my web site. It's not the version I was hoping to upload but it is an improvement on the last. Has easier object loader on SAM Coupe side hope people like it. I've also updated the read me file so please read it. Any problems please e-mail me I've updated the e-mail link on the read me. If you already have Jam Ass you can download it then just copy the JAR file and the object.mgt file over if you like. I think these are the only files that have changed. All the best David Hi David I gave the new JAM a go this weekend. It built some of my old space invaders source without any modification and the loader seems to work fine for me. I have yet to read the Read Me but that is usually the last resort, right? :) Cheers Andrew
Re: JAM Assembler 1.13 problems?
Hi David, I have used JAM and found it to be an excellent environment. Much of the original code I wrote for Dave was developed using it but I found the default build to address $8000 a limitation, so I ended up with a context/pasmo setup where I could do what I wanted and build to any address. Cheers Andrew On 1 Feb 2012, at 07:59, david brant davidcbr...@yahoo.com wrote: People do use it then, not had much in the way of feedback. Jam Assembler does not doing anything special with the font or anything like that. It would be using Windows API for fonts and messages etc. i.e. anything standard windows stuff. Jam Assembler not been tested on anything newer than XP though. What version of Java is your computer using? Have you tried re loading Jam Assembler? I have a newer version on my computer which sorts out some project view issues and does method inheritance I'll upload it tonight with a bit of luck. Otherwise can you send me a screen shot please. On 1 Feb 2012, at 01:19, Balor Price wrote: So, hmmm... while I'm fired up... Anyone having problems with the GUI in Jam Assembler? It's been a while since I tinkered, but now I'm getting gobbledygook instead of English in the dropdown menus and dialogue boxes... At a guess I'd say the font lookups had gone askew, it's a JAR file that's executed so it's not relying on Windows API calls or anything. David? Howard
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Hi Rob That is praise indeed coming from the author of the mighty fine Garden Centre of the Universe. I'm chuffed with the response the game has had. Very chuffed indeed. SO chuffed in fact: with motivation at a record high we got carried away and sorted out a website for Black Jet at http://blackjet.co.uk All our games will be available from there in future so stay tuned for more announcements and be sure to bookmark it (no pressure, honest)! Cheers Andrew./ -- From: the wub the...@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:12 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders Sorry to join the discussion a bit late! Dave Invaders is amazing! The graphics and music are fantastic and the playability is spot on! Every go leaves you with that, next time I'll get a bit further feeling... I've got to level 4 so far! Great work Andrew! You've really given me something to aim for, particularly in terms of making a game that's fun to play. Can't wait to see what you do next! Rob.
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Hi LCD I'd love to contribute but I fear I don't have the required expertise. I'm going to stick to releasing games while I grow my knowledge. I wish you luck with the endeavour though: it could open up the SAM to new development and that can only be a good thing. Cheers Andrew -- From: Leszek Chmielewski retr...@gmail.com Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 2:11 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders I wanted to note that Boriel want to expand his ZX BASIC Cross-Compiler to support SAM Coupé in future too: http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/Other_architectures But he will surely need help to finish it. His ZX BASIC is already great for coding games on Spectrum because he expanded the Spectrum syntax a lot and allow to use InLine Assembly, and I miss a good BASIC Compiler for SAM Coupé, with support of Strings and similar stuff. This would surely allow more people to write new Software for this machine. Anyone of assembly wizards willing to help him in this task? LCD Am 29.01.2012 19:45, schrieb Chris Pile: I'm not really sure exactly where the age divide falls on this issue and I'm willing to bet none of us is classically young, but yeah! I can categorically state that I fall into Old Git territory! I keep meaning to do some Sam work again, but getting started always feels like a huge effort... Me too. Finding both the time and, more importantly, the enthusiasm to do anything on the SAM is pretty much impossible. Which is why it's refreshing to see new games and new developers such as Andrew and Rob still willing to put the effort in. Starting and (crucially) finishing any project on the SAM can be nothing more than a labour of love these days. Chris...
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Hi Thomas I originally intended to release the source, but then assumed no one in their right mind would be interested. I don't have any objections to still doing so, but you'll have to wait for me to get it cleaned up. I will also remove the graphics and music data as I'd rather keep those from the public. Tonight I've also uploaded a new bug fixed version of the game. The game features bonus levels that are accessed by grabbing the keys in a specific order on each level, only on many levels it was not possible to get them in the right order. I've also tweaked the running order very slightly to move the Easter themed level slightly as feedback has suggested this is much trickier than the level directly after (the halloween one). There is also a couple of minor graphical tweaks here and there, and finally to address the problem that the keys are not always obvious I've inserted a nice little flash sequence that runs on level startup. I hope you enjoy the changes, and I look forward to hearing any more feedback you might have. Same place as before: http://www.joua.net Cheers Andrew -- From: Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 4:17 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders I'm also going to out myself as a fan — though it took me about five goes to get to the second screen! As a career non-finisher I also have to agree with Andrew's comments on seeing a project through. My only observation would be that sometimes the collectibles aren't obvious because of the nice, detailed and colourful backgrounds. Is there any way they could periodically do a little sparkle or something? And would attempting to prod you towards an open source release have any effect? On 28 January 2012 11:41, Andrew Collier and...@intensity.org.uk wrote: On 27 Jan 2012, at 13:49, Andrew Gillen wrote: Hi folks I've finished writing my first game for the SAM. In fact it is pretty much the first game I've ever programmed in assembler (certainly on the SAM anyway) . I've tinkered with various high level languages over the years but have nothing to show for it. Nice work! I particularly like the graphics. The Sam's 16 colours can be a bit limiting and a lot of games have very sparse backgrounds because of that, so it's great to see yours with lots of detail and different themes. Most especially though, congratulations for taking a project and seeing it through until its released. I know from experience how difficult this can be. Andrew
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Yep and show us youngsters how it is REALLY done :) -- From: Chris Pile chris.p...@blueyonder.co.uk Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 10:48 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders Have to send a me too post - really impressed. Love the graphics. That's two good new SAM games in the last year (Rob's Garden Centre Of The Universe game being the other one) - what's going on?! I agree 100%! It's quite worrying... But inspiring all the same. Maybe it's time for us old dogs to dust off our assemblers and get coding!! :-) Chris...
New Game - Dave Invaders
Hi folks I've finished writing my first game for the SAM. In fact it is pretty much the first game I've ever programmed in assembler (certainly on the SAM anyway) . I've tinkered with various high level languages over the years but have nothing to show for it. You can grab it from this rather minimalist website: http://www.joua.net/ You need a 512KB SAM for it (although when playing it you'd be forgiven for asking why..). Just a run of the mill single screen platfomer, really, but I appreciate any feed back. I've learned a heck of a lot of the year programming it and should be taking the experience gained to improve my skills (what skills?!) when tackling new projects which will be forthcoming! If you find the frame rate somewhat lacking on some levels then you can turn off the music (e-tracker mods) to gain some processing time. Or just turn it off anyway of course if you don't like it! Anyway, enjoy. Cheers Andrew.
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
HI Warren, Glad you like it. There are 15 screens of the main game, but there might be more to see if you get lucky... :) I should of course mention when I say my first game, I didn't work wholly alone as I had great assistance from a good friend of mine on the graphics and music - Mr Jaco Van Der Walt. Cheers Andrew -- From: war...@wdlee.co.uk Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 2:49 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders It's great to see any new SAM game! Well done! And congrats for programming it in assembler. Wish I could do that, as it would give me much more elbow room for a couple of my own projects. (It's GamesMaster's fault, honest!!) It's certainly good old fashioned platformer fun. How many levels/screens are there? Warren Quoting Andrew Gillen a...@joua.net: Hi folks I've finished writing my first game for the SAM. In fact it is pretty much the first game I've ever programmed in assembler (certainly on the SAM anyway) . I've tinkered with various high level languages over the years but have nothing to show for it. You can grab it from this rather minimalist website: http://www.joua.net/ You need a 512KB SAM for it (although when playing it you'd be forgiven for asking why..). Just a run of the mill single screen platfomer, really, but I appreciate any feed back. I've learned a heck of a lot of the year programming it and should be taking the experience gained to improve my skills (what skills?!) when tackling new projects which will be forthcoming! If you find the frame rate somewhat lacking on some levels then you can turn off the music (e-tracker mods) to gain some processing time. Or just turn it off anyway of course if you don't like it! Anyway, enjoy. Cheers Andrew.
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Hi Chris Great to have your feedback. You're right the collision detection isn't quite there. I don't think it helps that the sprites are pretty irregular in their dimensions, I've tried to make allowances for this in the code, but it doesn't quite work as well as I'd like, but you live and learn. There is also some weird program flow design choices I made to make things a little smoother, and I think they make the detection look a bit off sometimes. The player thinks they've made it past an enemy sprite only to be penalized for it a frame or two later. This is a throwback to some old code I had in there which eventually got removed, but I didn't tidy the rest of it up so some of it remains. I'm probably not making any sense now, I know I'm rambling on so I'll just stop here. Anyway I'm grinning from ear to ear with the positive reaction the game has had. cheers Andrew -- From: Chris Pile chris.p...@blueyonder.co.uk Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 2:55 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: New Game - Dave Invaders Hi Andrew, You know what - that is very nice!!! I'm not usually a fan of platformers - but you've created a little beauty there! Love the graphics. Love the arcade-type touches in there too - especially the side-swipe CLS. That little touch alone is very retro! It's something you used to see all the time back in the early days of the '80s arcades. I love things like that! I even like the music! The little ditty used on the cut-scene is great - again, it gives it a very retro feel. If that's your first game in assembler then I'm looking forward to your second!! If I had one criticism it would be that the collision detection is a bit off at times. But accurate collision detection can be a PITA to be honest. That's perhaps a task to address in your next game? For now - I love it, even though it's bloody hard!! But then I'm generally pretty useless when it comes to playing games! :-) Regards, Chris.
Re: Drive/SCART fault?
Hi LCD Thanks, that's good to know it is just a PSU fault. The drive is the original drive that shipped with the SAM back in '91. Is this something I should approach Quazar with, or is it something that can be resolved easily by someone as inept as me with electronics? I'd like to keep the original SAM supply really for aesthetic value. Cheers Andrew From: Leszek Chmielewski Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 12:21 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Drive/SCART fault? Am 24.01.2012 01:01, schrieb Andrew Gillen: Anyone experienced any issues whereby accessing the floppy drive causes the display to corrupt? It starts off with the left hand side phasing off in jagged lines, then eventually the entire screen goes blank. When the drive has been shut off the display returns. This only effects the video signal from the scart socket - RF works absolutely fine. Cheers Andrew Sure, the PSU supples not enough ampere or the drive (replaced?) consumes too much. I had similar issue with replacement drive, and after building new PSU all works fine. Cheers LCD
Drive/SCART fault?
Anyone experienced any issues whereby accessing the floppy drive causes the display to corrupt? It starts off with the left hand side phasing off in jagged lines, then eventually the entire screen goes blank. When the drive has been shut off the display returns. This only effects the video signal from the scart socket - RF works absolutely fine. Cheers Andrew
Re: Flash! with keyboard as default setting
The version I have on the disk that came with my SAM SAMDOS 2.0 DR Wright's DEMO has the cursors keys operating the on screen cursor by default. I guess I can make an image of this disk and provide if required? Cheers Andrew -- From: ellvis ell...@zeroteam.sk Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 9:13 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Flash! with keyboard as default setting Hi, I was trying to find a version of Flash! that have keyboard as default setting after start. As I have no mouse, I am unable to use the program as every version I found on internet have mouse as default way to move the cursor. is there such a version at all or is it done by some POKE into loader? e. -- ellvis/ZeroTeam ell...@zeroteam.sk http://zeroteam.sk ZX Spectrum support since 1996
Loading stuff from machine code with the ROM functions
Hi all Wonder if someone can offer some advice? I'm trying to get my program to load in new data during runtime. I can do this at the start of the program by pointing IX to my uifa, loading the header and then pointing IX to the difa and c,d and e to the appropriate place as per the technical manual (although it states the difa is returned 80bytes above my uifa which isn't the case - it seems to be at 4b50 as per the documentation for B-Dos (but I'm not using b-dos, I'm using Samdos (or so I thought!))). Example code that I am using (and works fine when called the machine code from the basic prompt): ld ix,uifa RST 08 DEFB 129 ld ix,4B50 ld c,(ix+34) ld e,(ix+35) ld d,(ix+36) ld hl,8000 rst 08 defb 130 uifa: defm 19,'level1.bin' So that works ok, I can load about 15 files in to whatever pages I need and all is well until I then want to load in a bunch more later. I assumed it would be a simple case of paging the ROM back in and running the same code as above only it crashes when I try to read in the header of the file. Am I missing something really obvious that I need to do after I page the ROM in and before I run the code to load the file? I thought it might be the stack pointing to a random location but even after re-pointing to what appears to be a clean place in free memory it still goes haywire Any tips? Cheers!
Re: Loading stuff from machine code with the ROM functions
I noticed after I hit send at 382Dh it is jumping to 4200h, but there is nothing there. The ROM disassembly says it is handle hook code in A, well I suppose it can't if there isn't any (samdos?) code at 4200. So how do I get it in there? Cheers! Andrew From: Andrew Gillen Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 12:09 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Loading stuff from machine code with the ROM functions Hi all Wonder if someone can offer some advice? I'm trying to get my program to load in new data during runtime. I can do this at the start of the program by pointing IX to my uifa, loading the header and then pointing IX to the difa and c,d and e to the appropriate place as per the technical manual (although it states the difa is returned 80bytes above my uifa which isn't the case - it seems to be at 4b50 as per the documentation for B-Dos (but I'm not using b-dos, I'm using Samdos (or so I thought!))). Example code that I am using (and works fine when called the machine code from the basic prompt): ld ix,uifa RST 08 DEFB 129 ld ix,4B50 ld c,(ix+34) ld e,(ix+35) ld d,(ix+36) ld hl,8000 rst 08 defb 130 uifa: defm 19,'level1.bin' So that works ok, I can load about 15 files in to whatever pages I need and all is well until I then want to load in a bunch more later. I assumed it would be a simple case of paging the ROM back in and running the same code as above only it crashes when I try to read in the header of the file. Am I missing something really obvious that I need to do after I page the ROM in and before I run the code to load the file? I thought it might be the stack pointing to a random location but even after re-pointing to what appears to be a clean place in free memory it still goes haywire Any tips? Cheers!
Re: Introduction and E-Tracker Query
Hi Rob All development and composing has been on Sim Coupe so far. The guy doing the music has redone the module from scratch, and made it a lot longer. This time round most of it plays fine until about 40 seconds in when some of the channels come in at the wrong time and are all messed up. I'm going to try it on my real SAM at some point in the future, but I'm not in a massive hurry to resolve it because I'm going through recoding and optimising everything else at the moment as I get new ideas and learn new tricks. cheers Andrew -- From: the_wub ! the...@gmail.com Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 10:09 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Introduction and E-Tracker Query Hey Andrew, I'd be interested to know if the problem shows up when you compile a module under emulation in SimCoupe? I have a very similar problem to yours although for me it's not the tempo of the module that changes; instead one or two channels play their parts in completely the wrong key when compiled! The problem only occurs on the real hardware and because I develop on both I didn't notice the music was wrong for ages! I think this information from ellvis will clear things up though... thanks for that! I bet I have some wacky values sitting there as I had no idea what I was doing when writing my tracks :) Rob.
Re: Introduction and E-Tracker Query
Hi Ellvis, Thanks for that explanation. Interesting thing is that speed command wasn't being used at all. But it did have a bunch of 2Fs, and as ridiculous as it undoubtedly is I changed them all to 30 and this largely fixed it (although we think the tempo is still off in places), so I went ahead and changed all those effects to 30, and it improved the tempo still further. God knows what the other effect numbers are supposed to do then. Are there any pdf'd etracker manuals around? Cheers Andrew -- From: ellvis ell...@zeroteam.sk Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 8:38 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Introduction and E-Tracker Query Hi Andrew, I ment incorrect use of speed command in pattern. Let's say we have this line in pattern editor: 000 C-5 5035 000 mean position in pattern, C-5 is tone and octave, 5035 is sample, ornament, effect and value. Effect number 3 is speed. Sometimes if you change speed of part of the song by a command and then change it back, the compiler mess it up in final compiled song. So, if you have a song source, just go through it and check for use of command 3. Of course, this is my shot, the problem can be completely different! Hope this help! ellvis On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:14:53 - Andrew Gillen a...@joua.net wrote: Hi Ellvis, You may be on to something with the speed command, but I'm not sure what you're precisely referring to! Changing the ornament values (I think) seems to speed up the song in the editor, but in the compiled result doesn't seem to do much. I think we're suffering from a misunderstanding of how to use the software, but without a manual it might be hard to overcome. (I say we, I'm not programming the music, a friend of mine is, I'm musically inept!) Cheers anyway! Andrew. -- From: ellvis ell...@zeroteam.sk Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 9:07 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Introduction and E-Tracker Query Hi Andrew, a very fast thinking from me: check the song source in the tracker for speed command. Sometimes it go compiled wrong or differently then it should and song play strange after compilation. This is happening not only on E-Tracker but also on SQ-Tracker on the Spectrum. Hope this is of any help. ellvis On Fri, 4 Mar 2011 19:04:47 - Andrew Gillen a...@joua.net wrote: Hi all, I just subbed today but have been periodically delving into the archives of this mailing list for the past six months or so when looking for tips and ticks for programming my SAM. I've had the machine for about ten years or so having snapped a mint unit off ebay, but it's taken this long to have a real play with it beyond firing up Manic Miner! right now I'm in the process of programming a platform game for the SAM which has been coming along quite nicely since September of last year when on the flight home from my honeymoon in the States I decided to have a crack at it - some of you may have seen a couple of posts from me to the WOS forum which got me off to a good start but I thought this might be a better place to come for advice? Anyway, I have one question right now regarding the E-Tracker compiler - took me some time to track down a copy from the web - but it seems to seriously reduce the speed at which a module is playing. Is this by design, or could there be some piece of magic I am missing? I snagged it off the Velesoft web page (http://velesoft.speccy.cz/saa1099-cz.htm). I assumed it was my code that might be at fault, but the module when played in the windows SAA application sounds just as slow as it does when played from interrupt in my program. The pre-compiled module plays at the correct speed inside the main e-tracker. I intend to take a look at pro-tracker because I believe this offers efficiency advantages, but in the meantime I was hoping to use e-tracker so any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Cheers! Andrew -- ellvis/ZeroTeam ell...@zeroteam.sk http://zeroteam.sk ZX Spectrum support since 1996 -- ellvis/ZeroTeam ell...@zeroteam.sk http://zeroteam.sk ZX Spectrum support since 1996
Introduction and E-Tracker Query
Hi all, I just subbed today but have been periodically delving into the archives of this mailing list for the past six months or so when looking for tips and ticks for programming my SAM. I've had the machine for about ten years or so having snapped a mint unit off ebay, but it's taken this long to have a real play with it beyond firing up Manic Miner! right now I'm in the process of programming a platform game for the SAM which has been coming along quite nicely since September of last year when on the flight home from my honeymoon in the States I decided to have a crack at it - some of you may have seen a couple of posts from me to the WOS forum which got me off to a good start but I thought this might be a better place to come for advice? Anyway, I have one question right now regarding the E-Tracker compiler - took me some time to track down a copy from the web - but it seems to seriously reduce the speed at which a module is playing. Is this by design, or could there be some piece of magic I am missing? I snagged it off the Velesoft web page (http://velesoft.speccy.cz/saa1099-cz.htm). I assumed it was my code that might be at fault, but the module when played in the windows SAA application sounds just as slow as it does when played from interrupt in my program. The pre-compiled module plays at the correct speed inside the main e-tracker. I intend to take a look at pro-tracker because I believe this offers efficiency advantages, but in the meantime I was hoping to use e-tracker so any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Cheers! Andrew
