gmane.comp.systems.sam-coupe

New SAM Game: The Lost Disks of SAM

Andrew Gillen — 2012-05-25T11:02:59

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

Wait for that game to load!

David Sanders — 2012-05-24T10:08:18

I admit defeat slightly, but it was a valiant effort.

http://www.dsanders.co.uk/oceanloader.dsk


Cheers

David

Quick attempt at a scroller

Thomas Harte — 2012-05-14T23:32:05

It's exceedingly rough and a pretty simple effect that I'm sure has
been exploited a hundred times before but I thought I'd throw it up as
is as my part in maintaining the fantastic momentum we've had lately.

http://www.clocksignal.com/dropbox/scroller.dsk

It's explicitly not a mere demo effect; adding some sprites and making
a full game is a definite possibility, though you'd probably want to
drop to 25fps — there's loads of memory free even on a 256kb machine
and it's a full, genuine Mode 4 display. The map itself is just an
array of bytes in memory, so there's no real magic there and no huge
footprint. The workflow is based on a cross-platform map editor called
Tiled so that's easy to manage.

Beyond my painful lack of artistic ability there's no reason why it
need use only one tile. Ditto for proper clipping at the edges (which,
because the tiles are precompiled, would cost more RAM but not really
any more processing).

It was full screen until the last minute, when I discovered that some
sections of the horrid little map I've hastily scribbled were a little
too slow. As you'd expect on a Sam, the trick is painting only where
you need to so level design affects speed in a less obvious manner
than being directly tied to screen area.

Fred 58: Sam Coupe book?

Thomas Harte — 2012-05-14T19:42:34

I've transcribed by hand (aside: is there an official transcription or
extraction of the various Fred articles anywhere?) Page 5 and about
two third of Page 6 of the editorial below. Did anything ever come of
the project?

"The big (BIG BIG BIG) news this month is that FRED will be publishing
a book all about the SAM Coupe sometime this year. it is hoped that
the book will be out in time for Christmas this year and will include
many stories from people in the SAM world about their version of the
SAM story, and any experiences they have had. Some stories are
expected to be quite technical, while others will prove to be very
funny. At the moment, Colin is getting in touch with everyone who
could have a good story (including me...) and someone who is not
involved will decide what will make the final version.

"I must stress that the book IS NOT going to be a cheap, photocopied
thing. It will be produced in the same way as any paperback novel, and
could find it's way into some computer shops around the country.

"Colin Mcdonald is funding the project entirely by himself, and
although he expects to make a loss on it, feels that it is something
that many of us would like to remember our times with the SAM. at the
moment, price has not been decided.

"The main reason for mentioning about this book so early is because we
are still looking for SAM stories. If you think you have a story
relating to the SAM which you think other people would be interested
in reading about, please write down your experiences and send them to
Colin. The number of contributions is likely to be very high, so
unfortunately we can't guarantee to use your article, but please don't
let this deter you from trying. We look forward to seeing what stories
you have. The deadline is the 1st September, but the earlier the
better."

(sic)

border effects and tricks

Andrew Gillen — 2012-05-13T09:14:19

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.

Sam Coupe games - multipack available as DSK/SAD image?

Mike Nicholas — 2012-05-06T10:48:53

Hi,
I used to be a programmer for the Sam Coupe back in the 1990’s and purchased many games.
The disks I purchased no longer work and I wondered if anyone knew if it is possible to get a DSK/SAD image for these games?
The main games I am currently looking for are the multipack games.
Mike

Party like it's 1992, or 1984, or whatever.

David Sanders — 2012-05-04T12:32:21

The compiler actually didn't make mincemeat of this one :-)

http://www.dsanders.co.uk/living.dsk

D

Not sure the last one got through

David Sanders — 2012-04-27T19:00:00

Basically it said something like "please feel free to fix any errors as I
can't do anything more without going completely insane".

http://www.dsanders.co.uk/nyancat.dsk


Cheers

David

Nyan Cat

Aleš Keprt — 2012-04-22T18:38:40

Do we have Nyan Cat on Sam Coupe? Somebody should make a conversion. 

original version, Atari 800, ZX Spectrum, Commodore C16, Atari 2600: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ5v9Qo6XzA
Amstrad CPC version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfD3WxgaiXo
BBC Micro version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBVQdx3dJ1c

If you don’t have time to watch it all, here is a “short” 100h summary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA5DsLzSVrk

Sam Coupe version: ???

-----------------------------------------
Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
private: ales-D298t3uwkrc< at >public.gmane.org, www.keprt.cz
office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.keprt-J8kzo41jJ/A< at >public.gmane.org

Musics

David Sanders — 2012-04-20T10:07:55

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

E-Tracker Compiler

David Sanders — 2012-04-20T09:56:43

Well this is embarrassing. Does anyone know who one goes about playing
compiled E-Tracker tunes? I've completely forgotten. I thought it was call
the base address first, and then the base+6 bytes, but I am demonstrably
talking nonsense :-)

Cheers

David

ASCD 1.00 released

Aleš Keprt — 2012-04-18T22:29:06

Hi Sam users!

I released ASCD 1.00. I hope I fixed all known bugs and implemented all features people wanted. Or I will do more in next version.

I have problems with my web provider, so I uploaded the file to reapidshare.com, please download here:
https://rapidshare.com/files/3734044978/ascd100.zip
(no registration needed)

I will also upload to WOS (World of Spectrum). Or World of Sam? Actually, I don’t know what is World of Sam and how it does work, so I am going to upload to WOrld of Spectrum. And also to our old and lovely NVG FTP archive.

What’s new in this release:
In short: ZIP, TZX, joystick autofire, AY8910 for Sam, SAA1099 for ZXS, known bugs have been fixed

* New! Added the support of TZX tape files. Only standard data blocks via ROM hooks are supported atm.
* ZIP-compressed snaps/tapes/disks can now be directly loaded into ASCD
* Added the Recent Files list displaying 10 most recent snap/tape/disk files open
* FDI: Added correct emulation of Missing disk status
* FDI: Added correct emulation of Write protected disk status
* Added autofire option for joystick (0autofire switch)
* Open Tape/Snap menu option incorrectly offered only snapshot files in the filter list
* D3D: OSD (on-screen-display) has now black color when border color is 6 or 7 (yellow or white)
* Caps lock "fix" didn't work on many computers, so there is another fix in this version
* Added low pass filter to ZX Beeper audio -> better music quality in some games
* An OSD message is shown whenever DAC on IC 8255 is activated
* SAA1099 soundchip is now available in ZX Spectrum 48/128 mode too
* AY8910 soundchip is now available in Sam Coupé mode too
* AY8910 soundchip is responding on its ports even if audio emulation is off
* More precise attribute port 255 emulation
* Fixed AY8910 port decoding (thanks to Velesoft)
* Quickboot option is now configurable in config file and menu (it was always on)
* Fixed a bug in SCS loader which caused it to report a file error when a datablock is longer than expected
* Fixed problem with Sam Coupe Tab key behaviour after Alt+Tab

-----------------------------------------
Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
private: ales-D298t3uwkrc< at >public.gmane.org, www.keprt.cz
office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.keprt-J8kzo41jJ/A< at >public.gmane.org

SimCoupi

Simon Owen — 2012-04-16T10:29:43

Seems like a promising start: http://simonowen.com/raspberrypi

Speed is fine with the normal SDL build, even with demanding titles like MNEMOdemo1 part 2.  It ran at about 450% with the emulator turbo button held (max speed but video capped at 5fps).

The OpenGL version ran very slowly in X, as though it was missing hardware acceleration.  That will be needed for the 5:4 aspect ratio feature, to make it look more like the original display.

There wasn't any sound from the 3.5mm jack, and I did see some warnings about not being able to find a sound device.  My monitor doesn't have speakers so I haven't checked whether there's anything over HDMI, but I doubt it.  I'm using the latest Debian build from 13th April, so I'll need to look into drivers etc.

I had to head off to work so it's just a brief look for now...

Si

Essential Sam Goodies

Graeme Gregory — 2012-04-12T10:19:42

Ok, to change the topic from current discussion lately ;-)

I am a newbie to the Sam world, I bought a machine on ebay as a whim and
to reach one of my childhood dreams of owning one. As a kid I could not
afford one and by the time I had $$$ Sam had dissapeared and it was time
for Uni.

So I now have this lovely Sam Coupe with 1.5 working drives and 512K of
memory. What games/demos/widgets should I be getting for it. Would be
good to give this machine as much love as my collection of spectrums and
zx81 get!

Graeme

Fw: Yet more junk mail

2012-04-11T22:04:47

Yes messages today and still more coming in right now. Behold...

Okay so my real genuine opinion is that he may be autistic.  And as such I'm just going to block everything that comes along.  I'm not even considering educating him or having an argument.

Anyway, being a bit positive here, you might like to have a gander at my half-finished conversion of XOR. My guess it'll be a week or two til it's ready for proper.

Cheer up chaps it can't go on forever. I hope.

Http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com 

Howard
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2

-----Original Message-----
From: "WAYN" <invitation< at >whereareyounow.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:45:15 
To: Balor Price<tobermory< at >cookingcircle.co.uk>
Subject: Roger Jowett has left a message for you

Hi Balor,

Roger Jowett has left you a message on WAYN.

Read message:
http://www.wayn.com/-/30692-133h4uz?invite_token=kgig2v-cn5e2oje2kpl3

All the best,
The WAYN Team

----------------------------------------
To stop receiving invite requests from Roger Jowett, click here:
http://www.wayn.com/-/30586-133h4uz?m=22419144&c=688472159

To stop receiving any notifications from WAYN, click here:
http://www.wayn.com/-/30587-133h4uz?c=688472159

Weird caps lock behaviour

Aleš Keprt — 2012-04-08T19:43:58

Hi Sam users!

I encountered a weird caps lock behaviour, and I’d like you to test it too
and let me know whether you encounter the same problems or not. On my
computer all emulators I tested have got problem with caps lock – it simply
doesn’t work as expected. So I made changes to keyboard handling routine in
ASCD 0.98 to let it work. And now this new version is the only emulator
where caps lock works correctly on my computer, but Simon Owen wrote me that
on his computer it is different and ASCD 0.98 doesn’t work correctly like
other emulators.

Please can you test it? If you compare ASCD 0.98 with SimCoupe, you should
clearly see difference in caps lock behaviour in Sam Basic. You can also
test older ASCD 0.98 WIP which uses the old (i.e. standard) caps lock
routine and will probably be similar to SimCoupe.

Download here:
http://www.keprt.cz/progs/ascd/ascd098.zip
http://www.keprt.cz/progs/ascd/ascd098wip3.zip

-------------------------------------------

Technical information follows:

Normally each key sends KEYDOWN when you press it, then it waits 250 ms
(this can be set in Windows) and then sends another KEYDOWN's as long as you
hold down the key. The speed of autorepeat can be set in Windows as well,
normally it sends 30 KEYDOWN's per second on my computer (which is the
highest speed possible on a standard PC keyboard). Finally it always sends a
single KEYUP when you release the key.

Caps lock sends initial KEYDOWN normally, then waits 250 ms (i.e. still
everything normal), but when you hold down the key longer, it starts to send
weirdly KEYUP - KEYDOWN - KEYUP - KEYDOWN... etc. at 30 events per second
(i.e. 15x KEYUP and 15x KEYDOWN). When you release the key, the final event
sent is based on the state of the green caps lock led on the keyboard. So
you
can never know if the final event will be KEYDOWN or KEYUP.

I use Windows 7 with plain standard PS2 keyboard driver, at least I think. I
will definitely go and test it on other computers (I have a few old ones at
home).

ASCD 0.98 (final) released

Aleš Keprt — 2012-04-07T22:53:11

Hi folks,

I just released ASCD 0.98 (final). I am sure there are some hidden unknown 
bugs still present (because bugs are always present) but I fixed all known 
issues and reserve higher versions numbers for more work. :-)

http://www.keprt.cz/progs/ascd/

What's new in this release (news and changes since 0.98 WIP 3):

* Sam: MODE 3 had switched palette entries 1 and 2
* Sam: MODEs 3 and 4 ignore VMPR bit 0 (this was missing)
* Sam: Better port access timings
* Fixed AY8910 deadlock bug (was caused by audio thread race condition)
* Added key shortcuts for floppy drives (F1, Shift+F1, F2, Shift+F2)
* Added variable emulation speed and shortcuts to control it (F3, F4)
* Added pause emulation option (available in menu and Ctrl+F3)
* Moved QuickSave shortcut from key F4 to F5
* Keyboard: Fixed caps lock problem
* Keyboard: Better mapping of symbols on PC keyboard to ZX Spectrum keyboard
* Video: Fixed palette problems in fullscreen mode when using DirectX 6 
driver on Windows Vista and later
* Video: Fixed windows size after return from fullscreen to windowed mode 
when using DirectX 6 driver
* Video: User can now switch bilinear filtering (available in menu and 
Ctrl+F5)
* Audio: Many fixes in audio emulation and Win32 sound update routines
* Audio: Simplified DirectSound driver (because the support for old VXD 
drivers isn't needed anymore)
* Fixed ZX Printer's output, which was shifted one pixel
* Fixed minor incompatibility in kempston joystick emulation (top 3 bits 
were set instead of reset)
* Fiexd minor bug in ZXS48k quickboot (RAMTOP was set 1 byte less the 
correct value)
* Sam Coupé and ZXS 128k quickboots are now even faster
* Saving of SCS snapshots is now allowed in ZX SPectrum 48/128 modes as well
* Tape: Added VERIFY emulation to both ZXS and Sam modes
* Tape: Message "Press any key and start tape" is now skipped
* Tape: SAVE is faster on ZXS, because it doesn't wait 1 second after header 
anymore
* Tape: When a LOAD/VERIFY command is issued and no tape is inserted, user 
is asked to insert one

I also added the ZX80/ZX81 emulation, but it isn't included in this release 
because I am still unsure if it belongs to the same emulator as Sam Coupe, 
or should rather be published on its own.

-----------------------------------------
Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
private: ales-D298t3uwkrc< at >public.gmane.org, www.keprt.cz
office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.keprt< at >mvso.cz

Alan (Alain) Miles?

wayne — 2012-04-06T17:59:01

See this?

http://www.alainmiles.com/

Got to be the same Alan surely?

how - you cant even be bothered to put the email address of the person you now want me to contact in the message you have sent me Re: Auto: i know that was what the email was aboutRe: Auto: busted link

Roger Jowett — 2012-04-06T14:08:33

how? - you cant even be bothered to put the email address of the
person you now want me to contact in the message you have sent me
mail customer services you meant he people that are charging me
£400.00 a quarter for 3% of the advertised connection speed you call
that a service?

On 06/04/2012, sam.coupe-aRb0bU7PRFPrBKCeMvbIDA< at >public.gmane.org <sam.coupe-aRb0bU7PRFPrBKCeMvbIDA< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

i know that was what the email was aboutRe: Auto: busted link

Roger Jowett — 2012-04-06T12:39:18

what the hell are you telling me for that was what my email was about
honestly your about as much use as complaining about pc hardware on a
forum run by the manufacturer of the hardware device who wont let you
post anything negative about it even htough it doesnt work and has set
fire to your house fascist cunts go fuck yourselves

On 06/04/2012, sam.coupe-aRb0bU7PRFPrBKCeMvbIDA< at >public.gmane.org <sam.coupe-aRb0bU7PRFPrBKCeMvbIDA< at >public.gmane.org> wrote:

busted link

Roger Jowett — 2012-04-06T12:36:56

why not check them before you send them and why dont websites check
their links as half the ones i find are busted but dont use itu t
v44+IPR=921600 on your server will you
banned again oh yes please
egg chips and errrr
think i'll have the scotch egg please

On 05/04/2012, Jon Naylor <jon.naylor-XZoyATsUNX5Wk0Htik3J/w< at >public.gmane.org> wrote: