Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

This game by Artic Computing is a piece of history.
Details can be found everywhere on the WEB, so I'm focusing on the only informations related to my improvements.
The original game was written for both the ZX80 expanded with 16K and new ROM and ZX81 with 16K.
Tape SAVE and LOAD options were missing (they came only with the ZX Spectrum conversion) and the display was horribly flashing because, to keep the ZX80 compatibility, it was running in FAST mode. (Perhaps in those crazy times someone even tried to explain it saying it was useful for fast typing..)

Well, believe it or not this very odd adventure, weak under several aspects, was disassembled and rewritten in C,
This permitted it to become portable, so here it is back on the ZX80 (native ROM) and ZX81 (slow mode)

Good news are that the new console drivers are faster and smoother (I'm particularly proud of the ZX80 version), that the WRX HRG version features uppercase and lowercase and that a fast tape save option is now supported. Working on the data relocation it should be possible to add also the vector graphics in the WRX HRG version .. well if someone is interested and Siggi will help a bit

This is the standard text mode. It should be totally flicker free.
The tape SAVE and LOAD subroutines could surprise some of you, just listen to the sound

WRX HRG version.. tape save/load is enabled
32K and the WRX mod are required.

See how smooth can be the text editing even in FAST mode !
Delete key is 'left cursor'

stefano wrote: .. well if someone is interested and Siggi will help a bit

Siggi will help (if time is available), but a working z88dk would also be nice (currently nightly builds fail) ...


Siggi

I hope the only failing component is z80asm, which is revisited trying to get some more magic we dreamt about for years.
You might switch to the 'stable' copy still present in the source tree or to keep your last working copy, or simply bear with us a little more. The problem to solve is that I should move the data to the upper memory block to get enough space for the extra elements, perhaps This perhaps can be done adding a header block to load the data and to force the program block to refer to it.. well I think I'm able to do it myself but I'd like to know if there's a simpler way, just in case..

This is excellent - it was my first foray into adventure gaming back in the day !!

ZX80 owners will also be pleased.

Keep up the good work.

RWAP wrote:This is excellent - it was my first foray into adventure gaming back in the day !!

It was my first adventure as well. I'm looking forward to downloading this and playing it this weekend.

I'm really pleased that the zx81 and zx80 are getting so much love from the z88dk team! Thanks

It couldn't be different, the zx81 lovers have always been so enthusiast! When we weren't fully confident on what we could get, we were encouraged even with gifts.. Thanks to you all !