#zxspectrum — Public Fediverse posts

Flashpoint by unknown

./f/Flashpoint.ay
Title: Flashpoint
Author: unknown
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Progress is being made. Complete success is still probably days or weeks away.

#zenzx #emulator #golang #foss #ZXSpectrum #Speccy #Spectrum #retrogaming #retrocomputing

Joe Blade (title) by Gari Biasillo

./j/JoeBlade1.ay?#0
Title: Joe Blade (title)
Author: Gari Biasillo
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Due to the way the zen80 emulator works (the Z80 emulator I wrote) and because when I started it I aimed for readability of the code and educational value more than raw performance, I've been hitting against a few limitations that seemed somewhat intractable when trying to make ZenZX load fast a good portion of the ZX Spectrum game titles that use a "turbo" copy protection.

For many titles that don't use that specific type of copy protection, ZenZX could load .tap and .tzx files just fine in "fast" mode, instantly loading and playing a game that used to take 3 or 4 minutes to load from tape. But games like Chase H.Q. and others, especially those which have substantial 128k versions, were a different story.

The design of zen80 (and ZenZX by extension) doesn't easily allow for dynamic acceleration of the virtual Spectrum's memory access beyond a certain limit. This would have been trivial to solve in C or C++ using a union structure to access memory through different field arrangements, but Go (the language I chose to write zen80 and ZenZX) doesn't admit union structures. (and I could have used Go's unsafe package to implement something equivalent, but that would have defeated the educational purpose of writing an emulator in safe, readable, and educationally useful Go).

So I was faced with the difficult possibilty of having to substantially redesign the emulator I've been working on for a couple of years.

Thankfully, that wasn't necessary. I designed an alternative "fast-track" memory that zen80 can use to read from and write to memory and i/o ports, which represents an addition and extension to the existing design, whilst keeping all the existing interfaces the same.

What good is it to have these extensions if, essentially, the CPU that already exists, and the one that's already wired into the code can't be dynamically accelerated to the maximum? you might ask.

Well, what it does is that it allows me to execute a second Z80 in parallel, just for the turbo loaders, with very high precision, at very high speed. The maximum speed a modern computer can achieve is potentially thousands of times the speed of an emulated Z80, especially for a Z80 that's running in parallel without need to update the screen.

So essentially, ZenZX now has a third tape loading mode --tapemode=turbo, in addition to the already existing --tapemode=fast and --tapemode=accurate, with "accurate" being an euphemism for f* slow, identical to the original ZX Spectrum ROM tape loading routine.

After some minor surgery to the code, a parallel Z80 instance now loads the game in a separate, faster memory, and when it's done loading and decoding whatever it has to do in turbo mode, every new tape block is copied verbatim to the memory of the user-facing emulator that ZenZX is running on the front shop.

I don't have much evidence to show yet, as I'm ironing out a number of other new wrinkles, trying to deliver a more polished user interface than you have seen in the last week or so. The thing with screenshots when everything goes right is that they look exactly the same as when everything went wrong but you fixed the problem 🤣

Here they are, for now you have to take my promise that these games actually loaded very fast! 🤣

#ZXSpectrum #Spectrum #Speccy #retrogaming #retrocomputing #zenzx #emulator #golang #foss #z80

RC2014 AY Driver Graphics and Sound test

https://makertube.net/w/1Eb9QMrvNGrNNKdr9VGZgy

Future Games - Title (Beeper) by Tim Follin

./f/FutureGames.ay?#0
Title: Future Games - Title (Beeper)
Author: Tim Follin
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Mastertronic Sales Records Reveal the 20 Biggest Budget Hits
#Mastertronic #Commodore64 #C64 #ZXSpectrum #Commodore16 #Plus4 #RetroGaming #8Bit #SebsPlace #RetroComputing
https://theoasisbbs.com/mastertronic-sales-records-reveal-the-20-biggest-budget-hits/?fsp_sid=12160

How I got started with computers over four decades ago.

https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/paoloamoroso/the-origins-of-my-computing-journey

#retrocomputing #ZXSpectrum

Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge - Title (AY) by Jonathan Dunn

./d/DaleyThompsonsOlympicChallenge.ay?#0
Title: Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge - Title (AY)
Author: Jonathan Dunn
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

TFreax, new game for #Atari8bit computers (and other vintage machines) https://forums.atariage.com/topic/392268-tfreax-a-new-atari400800-game-3k/ #atari #c64 #vic20 #zxspectrum #c16

#zxspectrum #zxspectrummemes #mondaymotivation #retrogaming

The Mystery of Arkham Manor - Title (Beeper) by Unknown

./m/MysteryOfArkhamManorThe.ay
Title: The Mystery of Arkham Manor - Title (Beeper)
Author: Unknown
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Finally, after trying many cool computers & consoles, I'm trying my #r36s with what it's really worth! 😎

#zxspectrum #retrogaming

As a curiosity, this is the distant cousin of the oddball three-inch floppy drives used in the Amstrad CPC, PCW, and ZX Spectrum +3.

Yamaha marketed the MDR-1 as an external drive that allowed a line of their existing music instruments to record and retrieve digital data from magnetic disk media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO07oqIw6E0

#retrocomputing #yamaha #cpc #zxSpectrum #floppy #disk #cf2

Wah! Woke up feeling bored with Retro. Time to take a holiday, then have a break from retro. On the hope that absent will make the heart grow fonder. Never thought this would happen. Failing that maybe some therapy. #retrogaming #zxspectrum

100 TIN SOLDIERS BANK HOLIDAY BLOWOUT SALE! A bundle by PuttyCAD, $4.99 for 8 games https://itch.io/s/199021/100-tin-soldiers-bank-holiday-blowout #indiegames via @itchio #zxspectrum #speccy #8bit #retro #brandnewretro #games

In the future everybody will have persistent random access memories.

#retrocomputing #ZXSpectrum #Spectrum #speccy

Boiler House (in-game) by unknown

./b/Boiler_House.ay
Title: Boiler House (in-game)
Author: unknown
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Solar Invasion - Title (AY) by Tim Follin

./s/SolarInvasion.ay?#0
Title: Solar Invasion - Title (AY)
Author: Tim Follin
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Brand new Spectrum game (currently in beta): Dracula, by giadacu.

Download:
https://giadacu.itch.io/dracula

#zxspectrum #textadventure #retrogaming

Chase H.Q. among other things is notorious for its turbo copy protection. The emulator was able to load correctly Chase H.Q. for the ZX Spectrum 128k in "accurate mode" (meaning slow old, slow old). It wasn't able to accelerate the load in this version, the forthcoming version later in the week aims to solve that. On the plus side, the AY chip is producing relatively acceptable music and sound effects!
The emulator is still unable to save audio or video, so this is audio captured with the laptops mic, just enough to document that it works. I messed with the menus and other UI elements a bit to try to see if that would affect the emulation and the music, and I couldn't detect any difference. Another little emulation success, and homework for the rest of the week!

#ZXSpectrum #Spectrum #speccy #retrogaming #retrocomputing

Another instant tape loading success for the emulator. No living things were slapped during the production of this testing session.

#ZXSpectrum #Spectrum #Speccy #retrogaming #retrocomputing

Run the Gauntlet (title) by unknown

./r/RunTheGauntlet.ay
Title: Run the Gauntlet (title)
Author: unknown
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Zynaps seemed like the right thing to try after watching @jimblimey 's attempts to destroy an evil space empire. ZenZX was able to load the tape in fast mode right away! A little breakthrough of sorts for me.

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #ZXSpectrum #Speccy #Spectrum

Mean Streak by unknown

./m/MeanStreak.ay?#0
Title: Mean Streak
Author: unknown
#ZXSpectrum
#chiptune

Brand new Spectrum game: TFreax, by orac81.

Download:
https://orac81.itch.io/tfreax

#zxspectrum #retrogaming

Tiny Peter es un nanobot médico y ha sido enviado al interior del cuerpo de un alienígena enfermo para ayudarle a curarse de su enfermedad. Está disponible en https://sunteam.itch.io/tinypeter para #ZXSpectrumnext ¡Muy divertido! 😃👍🏻🕹️ #retrogaming #zxspectrum #arcade #plataformas #videojuegos

So yeah, promised 1987 on the #ZXSpectrum tonight - just a few more than last week to get through!