One big mistake timex made...
3 messages · 2008-01-08 → 2008-01-09 · Yahoo Group era · View archive on archive.org
Participants: Adam Trionfo, Fred
Preserved from the Timex/Sinclair 2068 Yahoo Group (2001–2019), which is no longer online. Text reproduced from the archive.org archive; email addresses masked.
Messages
1. RE: One big mistake timex made...
Adam Trionfo · Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:02:
>>
The emulators are being written by curious Spectrum owners who would
like to know what could have been, and to discover what they may have
missed.
>>
The TS 2068 emulators have been written by people that don't have the computer or a history with it? I presumed that the emulator, I use Eighty-One for TS 2068 emulation, was written by an American.
>>
There is a large project aimed at a heavily-modified PAL TC2068, the Spectrum SE underway.
>>
Is there a link for this?
>>
TS isn't different enough from the Spectrum to attract distinct development
>>
Probably not. Still, for the same reason that programmers have written emulators for the TS 2068, I'm surprised that no one has written a game for it.
>>
[...] and appropriate mass-storage for the pics.
>>
Are you talking about a floppy drive, or "real" mass storage like a hard drive?
Adam
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2. Re: [ts2068] RE: One big mistake timex made...
Fred · Wed, 9 Jan 2008 09:58:
On 09/01/2008, at 3:02, Adam Trionfo wrote:
>>> The emulators are being written by curious Spectrum owners who would
>>> like to know what could have been, and to discover what they may
>>> have missed.
>
> The TS 2068 emulators have been written by people that don't have
> the computer or a history with it? I presumed that the emulator, I
> use Eighty-One for TS 2068 emulation, was written by an American.
Eighty-One is named for the ZX-81 that it was originally designed to
emulate, which should give you a hint to it's origin as the US name
TS1000 isn't used ;)
As another poster says, Eighty-One is the work of a UK author, and I
don't believe that he has a TS.
I contributed most of the Timex emulation code for the Fuse emulator,
and while I did buy a TS2068 to experiment with for emulation
development purposes about 3 years ago, I think I am the only emulator
author with one.
My background is with the ZX Spectrum in the UK.
>>> There is a large project aimed at a heavily-modified PAL TC2068,
>>> the Spectrum SE underway.
>
> Is there a link for this?
For the machine yes, but the project no. The people involved don't
want to over-promise and under-deliver.
>>> TS isn't different enough from the Spectrum to attract distinct
>>> development
>
> Probably not. Still, for the same reason that programmers have
> written emulators for the TS 2068, I'm surprised that no one has
> written a game for it.
I am interested in having a look at what could have been possible with
the extra TS2068 graphics hardware, but my programming time is taken
up with maintaining the emulator at the moment.
Most current Spectrum development is done by people who had one in the
80s and want to support the machine they know.
>>> [...] and appropriate mass-storage for the pics.
>
> Are you talking about a floppy drive, or "real" mass storage like a
> hard drive?
I mean a floppy drive, as a half screen hi-colour image for a location
graphic would be 6k uncompressed, taking too much from the 48k RAM in
the machine to leave space for a text adventure with several images.
Plugging in a 64 RAM cartridge and using some compression may allow a
reasonable attempt in a 112k tape based game, but a disk drive would
make it truly feasible.
Fred
3. RE: One big mistake timex made...
Adam Trionfo · Tue, 8 Jan 2008 22:06:
Robert "Exile In Paradise" Murphey, on Tue 1/08/08 at 7:19 PM, wrote:
>>
Well... that sounds like you've found a niche to fill? *grin*
>>
I'm not looking to fill a niche. I sort of would like to use the TS 2068 as a stepping stone to programming a game in assembly... even if the TS 2068 is in Spectrum mode. There has been SO much written about the Spectrum. I had never even HEARD of the Spectrum until I started to get English Amiga magazines in the early nineties. The Amiga magazines were always referring to the machine. Oh, and with such love!
>>
Sure, anyone with an emulator or a bootable TS2068 can
write new code for it.
>>
True enough. Emulators are nice because you can assemble your code and try it right away. No need to burn an EPROM or use some other method to get the code to the platform. However, in the end, I prefer playing games on the real hardware. Eventually this just won't be possible because all the hardware will have worn out. Until then, I'll try to use the hardware when I can.
>>
Get, or write, a Macro Assembler.
>>
Get a Macro Assembler? Check. WRITE one?!? Why would I want to do that when they already exist?
>>
The Macro capability means you can assign names to
things, and use them in place of the thing (and more).
>>
Is there a good header file for the TS 2068? They save so much time!
>>
Pick anything out there that you are real familiar
with, and go crazy converting it to TS2068.
>>
When you say it like that I think to myself, "convert the Bally Astrocade's Checkmate to the TS 2068." This game, built into the Astrocade's system ROM, is your BASIC light-cycle game. The game makes heavy use of the Astrocade's ROM routines. The source for this game (which I typed in) is available here:
http://www.ballyalley.com/ml/ml_source/checkcrt.asm
This game depends on the header file, as well as the ROM (source for both are available).
I'm not saying I want to convert Checkmate to the TS 2068... I'm just saying that is what crosses my mind. I'm sure that a project like this would take a LOT of time. Then again, ANY assembly game would take lots of time.
Oh, in case your wondering what the game looks like, here is a video of it in action (6.5MB):
http://www.ballyalley.com/astrocade_videos/cart_game_videos/Checkmate.mpg
Here are stills from the video:
http://www.ballyalley.com/astrocade_videos/cart_game_videos/cart_video_stills/checkmate/checkmate-stills.html
>>
Me, I have to fix the noisy video on mine before I could
stand to look at it long enough to code.
>>
Yea. I want to take a stab at this this week. First I'll try cleaning up the composite, and if that's not good enough, then I'll try the RGB upgrade.
Adam
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