Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi All,

siggi wrote:just an idea: perhaps you could move some of the addinional code (making the VSYNC pulse longer) behind the "out ($FF)" terminating the sync pulse?

Success!
The result: and the original: In the attachment you can find the (hopefully) last general (hardware independent) version of SPONZY.
Please try it!

Regards,
Zsolt

Hi Zsolt,

I've been following this thread off and on for some time, but untill recently i have not had a Zeddy capable of running sponzy, however i can now

my method maybe a little 'mad' but it works...

also it appears to work with my ZX81 turbo mode... BM0 took just 11 seconds to complete in slow mode !

i can save to and from tape.

i have no image stabily problems, using a CRT type monitor, with the 312 lines version (from the post above) have not tried the other lines versions

Great job you have done here,

Andy

Hi ZSOLT
I also tested the 312 line version in my Zeddy. But after the 3rd crash when I tried to "burn" the EEPROM, I learnt, that I have to add a new line into my Sponzy-Rom-programming description: "POKE 101,64" (because now I have Andy's new ULA in my laptop Zeddy and have to enable the M1 logic ).

Now the programming has worked and after booting SPONZY everything was perfect (even with my sensible laptop display): no jitter/flicker, no grey line at the bottom, no pixel lines missing
And when running in turbo mode (with the new ULA), the SPONZY is quite fast

Great work!

Siggi

Dear Zeddy Fans,

More then a year ago i started this topic, and now here is the final version of SPONZY (by me). It has some changed and some new additional features, what you can activate with formula "REM >=command" - where the „>=” is SHIFT+Y (CHR$ 200):

• REM >=fast
  • switches to FAST mode (no display)
  REM >=slow
  • switches back into SLOW (displaying) mode
  REM >=invs
  • inverts the printable area of the screen
  REM >=tfsk
  • Toggles the Frame SKipping modes: to skip a frame or display both frames
    (instead of the previous "REM >=spup" "REM >=spdn" commands)
    It speeds up the program execution, but it is not too eye-friendly solution
  REM >=xdrv
  • redirects the tape-io handling to the external driver program
    For more information see the "xdrv_itf.asm" file in the attachment
  REM >=tape
  • restores the standard tape-io handling

Another feature of this version is a "DTV"-like menu driven program loader, which loads the TAP-format program files stored in the flash_ROM. Its curiosity is that during program-load it switches back to SLOW mode. This is of course much slower, but we can enjoy the spectrum-specific loading screens.

The additional hardware, designed for SPONZY, was modified a bit (the schematic is in the attachment).
With a jumper the system can boot also from the internal ROM.
Best wishes,
Zsolt

Hi Zsolt
the new tape interface described in "xdrv_itf.asm" seems quite easy to be used. Do you think that it possibe to use a C program (compiled with z88dk for the Speccy) as file manager? It might use ROM calls, but I think the ROM is not reentrant. So there might occur problems, if the ROM is waiting for tape input and is called also by the file manager?

I did not install the new Sponzy rom, because the weather here in Germany is too good to do inhouse Zeddying . But the next rainy period will be used for an update of my laptop ZX81 ....

Siggi

Congratulations! This is a fabulous piece of work and you should be very proud

I am making sure that uber-zeddy will be able to run it!

Thanks Charlie,

siggi wrote:..I think the ROM is not reentrant. So there might occur problems, if the ROM is waiting for tape input and is called also by the file manager?

Why not? I am not familiar with z88dk, but if you save all registers and use own stack (as described in xdrv_itf.asm) it is possible...

I forgot anything: what's then, if we want to save the screen (screen$ option)?

So before the filemanager starts, backup the complete HFILE and the attributes too ($4000-5AFF) and then restore all.
Regards,
Zsolt

Hi,
Here is the latest (+1 ) version of the SPONZY:.
I made some modification: I applied the uncompressed constants (as described in SG81 ROM),
so I got a little space for the joystick support of the "DTV"-like menu handler.
(of course i hope it speeds up the interpreter too )

Regards,
Zsolt

Edit: the attachment was removed because it was buggy - use the improved version instead

Hi,
During tests of my new tool for SPONZY (to create a big ROM with TAP-files) I found a bug in the latest(+1) release of SPONZY - sorry . The attachment contains the improved version of the ROM, the "testMENU.asm" (this example shows how builds up a menu) and the new tool (fls4sponzy.exe) to easily create it.
Best wishes,
Zsolt

Thank you Zsolt

Good to see this still being developed and supported.
Alas, have not yet "made time" to get this to run on any of my Zeddies yet (it's still in the "to-do" list). I WILL get there one day

Mark