SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Finally i have the sound working and my Cassette Player working.

Im Demoing the adams Family which proves 128K and also realtime Loading of Jetpac 16K.

The Video is slightly long but its showing Realtime Application! There is a TURBO Mode!

The most important break through is my comprehension to getting sound working.

It's almost Finished and can be run on a PC. You will not need the real thing and you wont know your on the PC apart from the fact it's in Front of YOU!



Kind Regards Baggey

Superb work. 
An intuitive view of the spectrum process with memory layout and the actual opcodes - very cool and informative.
Psst - you nailed the sound \o/

Have you thought about other z80 systems? Or would that start breaking things?

How did you find the z80 specs - did you see any hidden codes, etc??

QuoteHave you thought about other z80 systems?

Yes, I have a ZX81 and even an Amstrad CPC 464 in the make. I would like to tackle Enterprise 128K and MGT Sam Coupe.

I have also pondered over the Sega Master System.

QuoteOr would that start breaking things?

The Skeleton of my Emulator setup is pretty Robust now. Ive had a lot of time with it

I can get upto 120 ish frames a second! Yes in Blitzmax. So adding in more stuff is okay! Famous last words

QuoteHow did you find the z80 specs - did you see any hidden codes, etc??

There are many site's across the internet Talking about Undocumented codes and timing. And many books on the subject.

there are many games like Aquaplane, Cobra, Crosswize, Greenberet, Arkanoid just to mention a few. That wont work properly with out getting the Undocumented Z80 Specs right.

I have had some help Thankyou!

I used this to learn BlizMaxNG as well as revisiting my childhood computer system! I thought, if im going to learn BlitzMaxNG. I might as well do it with something Im interested in.

Computer Programming is FUN and Making your own Computer system in Software even more Fun.

Some People may ask why have you wasted your time on this and not do something more modern.

Wasting time on something your interested in, isnt really time wasted!

Kind Regards Baggey

Excellent work! 

Quote from: Baggey on April 20, 2024, 08:33:00Some People may ask why have you wasted your time on this and not do something more modern.

Wasting time on something your interested in, isnt really time wasted!

I've got to reply to this as I've had something almost the same said to me recently. This was my reply to that question:

----------
I decided to go back to the originator - The Atari 2600. Work out what made those games so playable, etc. I needed some form of sound generation and video generation system to replicate things. So I researched and wrote a new version of the old system.

This now means I can replicate a game, work out how it operates, what makes it the way it is and take that knowledge forward with me.

Aside from that I wanted to know the core systems, etc. My aim was also to make something that was mine. Or should I say My own creation. Think of it as an art piece. music, sounds, visuals - the artists in me...
----------

So I can completely understand how you started and continued the project. I think your approach is paying off. it's brilliant. Especially knowing thay you have an eye on other systems for future work. Kudos

\o/

Now that is mighty impressive

This is the kind of stuff that I wish I could be capable of doing. I am guilty of watching the entire YouTube video, completely fascinated with the loader screen and the outputs around it. Retro lovings

Quote from: Baggey on April 20, 2024, 08:33:00Some People may ask why have you wasted your time on this and not do something more modern.

Wasting time on something your interested in, isnt really time wasted!

I think at some point we've all had a similar thing put to us. In a nutshell my response is basically "This has been a hobby and passion since I was 10 years old". I wonder if in 30+ years the consoles of today will hold such memories? From a personal point of view the Vic-20 still holds a big place in my heart. I can still remember typing a program from the manual to make a wave sound as the very first thing I did. 40 years later and still remember that (yeah yeah I'm old ). Hooked on coding ever since

A waste of time time? never!. The only waste of time is explaining to them why it isn't

Here's a question for you:
How are you dealing with the screen output from the spectrum?
I know the spectrum layout very well - 8bit line (seperated) + color offset.

I'm assuming you have and output screen buffer that you scan the above into and then output.

So are you just getting the needed pixel data and then setpixel() into a bitmap?

I'm no spectrum fan, so my interest in this project is limited. However I completely agree with the time wasting sentiment. it's absolute bollocks when someone tells you you're wasting your time doing something, when you really enjoy actually doing it. 

I've got a mate who tells me the same thing whenever I start messing about with C64 and Vic 20 stuff. "Why are you doing that? There's no money in it!" etc. There's not really much money in making modern games either, nowadays, at my level, so I'm doing it just because i fucking want to

Having said that Rockman did make me another £2.00 sale the other day, so maybe I will be a rich game developer one day, haha.

Quote from: Xerra on April 21, 2024, 12:13:18I'm no spectrum fan, so my interest in this project is limited. However I completely agree with the time wasting sentiment. it's absolute bollocks when someone tells you you're wasting your time doing something, when you really enjoy actually doing it.

I've got a mate who tells me the same thing whenever I start messing about with C64 and Vic 20 stuff. "Why are you doing that? There's no money in it!" etc. There's not really much money in making modern games either, nowadays, at my level, so I'm doing it just because i fucking want to

Having said that Rockman did make me another £2.00 sale the other day, so maybe I will be a rich game developer one day, haha.

Thankyou for your nice comment. I get YUH!

I love the C64 as well! Now that ive got my head around the Sound stuff! Famous last words! 

Ive even got a Oric ATMOS 48K under the Hood. But to be honest with you it did have some shit games! It was a complete Frankenstein. It had a  C6502 with an AY8192.

Where i think the better option would of been a Z80 with a MOS6581

When the ZX Next was in its thought stages and backing process began. I spoke to a guy called ofvears, we talked about having the Next with SID options. Ive seen a DEMO of it AWSOME! But for some reason it wasn't implemented. But ive realised in software we can now make what we want to happen!  May be a NEXTY!? Could be NEXT on the cards

As you already know i have a Vic20 and C64 almost ready to go, just need to sort the sound out?

Another Chip id like to try out is the M68000. Ive already spoken to someone who used to be proficient with it and the Atari 520st FM.

Kind Regards Baggey