Mikro-Gen Tempest

[sirmorris]

I've made a discovery.

The game is reading from port $DF. In previous EO builds this did nothing except return the default $FF value. In my EO this is reading from the AY board and returning something the game does not expect. Turning off zon-x support in the hardware menu has allowed the game to run.

Curious.

Was there a joystick interface or external keyboard which lived on this port value? I asked myself. Well, the game is by Mikro-Gen. So I asked the internet if they also made a joystick interface...'


The article here mentions 'MIKRO-GEN are not well known for their hardware add-ons. In fact their last dabble into that market was with the very first ZX81 joystick'...

On port DF I wonder?!

C

[sirmorris]

Ah yes, here we go...

http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/showma ... 200008.jpg

£10 for the joysticks! That's not too bad! Oh, hang on... the controller board is £129...

I wonder why they didn't take off?

C

[sirmorris]

If there's any interest then I'll add joystick support - it seems to be quite simple.

C

[yerzmyey]

As for me - I'd be veeeeeeeery grateful.
It's a really nice space-shooter and I like it.

Also I'd add it into the "joystick" thread - the more games supporting joystick - the more interest in full ZXpand.

Greetzzz,
Y

[sirmorris]

Here it is - ZXpand-enhanced Tempest!

I've hacked in joystick controls:

Up and down control the position of your ship.

Fire is, well, fire.

Right will loose off the SuperZapper.

It was an interesting hack I've removed the support for the mikro-gen stick, as it will fail on machines with ZXpand-AY boards attached.

Enjoy!

[yerzmyey]

WOW, it worx GREAT, thanx a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yerzmyey]

Haaaaaaaaaaa, thanks to You I finally managed to get to the Sector 8!!!!!!!!!



(And then I died. Obviously).