New release of EightyOne available

[Crayon21]

I have a request for the zx81. Could you include a grid based map for the zx81's plot and unplot functions, possibly in the documentation for the next release? I get that the manual is also an option but unlike the spectrum or vic 20 manuals, the zx81 has no visual grid for creating graphics. I would find it easier to program for if this was done.

If the internet were to go out, I'd be stuck because there's no indicator of which screen position is where...and my memory is poor.

thanks

Moderator note: edited for language. Mark

[1024MAK]

There is a grid layout of the character positions and the plot/unplot positions in the ZX81 BASIC Programming manual. I linked to an online web based copy in this post.

As the positions of character and plot/unplot are discussed elsewhere, it would be appreciated if this subject was not discussed in this topic.

Mark

[Fruitcake]

Version 1.41 of EightyOne is now available:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/eightyone-sinclair-emulator/

This release provides a mix of new functionality, a range of enhancements to the existing functionality and a good dose of bug fixes all over the place. There' still plenty left to improve and fix, but it feels the latest changes have reached a state where they will be of benefit to users and hence worth releasing now.


The headline changes are:

• Speech support
  The Currah Microspeech was already supported but its emulation had issues. These have now been resolved. In addition, support has been added for a further 4 speech interfaces for the Spectrum and 5 for the ZX81! These cover the SP0256 allophone based approach and the canned word DT1050 Digitalker approach.
• Sound support
  All major AY-8912 sound interfaces for the Spectrum are now emulated, along with the Cheetah SpecDrum interface that turns the Spectrum into a drum machine.
• Joystick support
  Support has previously been available for the ZXpand joystick, both via a connected game controller or the numeric keypad on the side of a keyboard (although this feature was not actually working properly). The joystick functionality has now been expanded to cover all popular joystick formats for the ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum, TS2068 and Jupiter Ace.
• Floppy drive and IDE drive improvements
  Various floppy drive and IDE drive options did not properly work. The functioning of these options have been significantly improved, fixing almost all the issues. The ability to select alternate ROMs via the user interface has also been added.
• Spectrum 128 Keypad support
  The Spectrum 128 keypad provided additional editing facility when using 128 BASIC mode, but was never released for sale in the UK. It was included with the Spanish Spectrum 128, but unless you live in Spain you might never have had the opportunity to try out the facilities provided by the keypad. The keypad is emulated by holding down the right Control key at the same time as pressing the main number and symbol keys of the keyboard. The Keyboard Map option available from the Help menu shows the layout of the keypad.
• Expanded documentation and examples library
  The reference library has been expanded to cover almost all of the interfaces and features supported by EightyOne. Manuals and example programs are provided to help understand how to use (and where applicable to program for) each interface. However, transcripts of the manuals for a few interfaces are still missing (most notably for the TS2050 Modem, The Parrot speech interface and the Kempston Mouse), as are recordings of some of the cassettes that came with certain interfaces. [Please let me know if you are able to provide scans/wav files for any missing/incomplete items]

See the change release file (accessed via the Help menu) for the full list of changes.


Note: The new version has necessitated a breaking change to the .ini configuration file used by EightyOne, so you should delete the existing configuration file when upgrading. The easiest way to do this is to launch the new version of EightyOne and then select Options > Configuration > Reset To Default Settings. If you don't do this then you might encounter odd behaviour later on.


A big thank you goes out to John Stroebel, who is jointly behind this release. He was instrumental in resolving and expanding the speech support, along with contributing to other key improvements and bug fixes. This release would not have been so wide ranging without his assistance.

[1024MAK]

Thank you both (Fruitcake and John Stroebel) for this update

I've already downloaded a copy

Mark

[Moggy]

Nice work.

@Paul

I see the Memotech assembler has been included which I will test and report back. Did you use the ROM file I sent you or was it implemented by some other means? I shall also test Andy Rea's tracker and PT3 and STC player programs which never seemed to work under recent versions as well as the AY chip emulation sounding a bit off.


EDIT.

Just quickly tried the Z80 assembler which I find very useful as it's actually on the target machine and much quicker for small routines rather than messing about with PC based compilers/assemblers and the small test program I used assembled perfectly, just like the real thing so full marks for that one.

[Moggy]

I have tested the AY with Andy Rea's PT3,STC and tracker programs and can report for me it was a resounding success.

Both the players used to crash and burn for me in recent incarnations of Eighty One as opposed to earlier versions and that seems to be no longer the case. The tracker used to crash both graphically and sonically and couldn't load/save song or sample files as their extensions were SNG and SAM respectively not P, again now no longer the case. One thing I have noticed is that Eighty One seems to want a muscle machine to run smoothly as opposed to SZ-81 which I can run smoothly with a very low spec Intel atom notebook. Maybe more is going on in the background with Eighty One.

When playing PT3/STC tunes on the "student computer" Celeron equipped piece of dreck I'm on at the moment I noticed the slightest mouse movement or wander on to something else caused the AY playback to stutter badly but will try on my I5 desktop tonight where I suspect this won't be the case.


Next on the agenda is to test the Spec drum which I actually own along with all the kits.

[Moggy]

Right Cheetah Specdrum.

I'd forgotten how good this is

What can I say except well done men and as for the rest of the new included interfaces I'm truly impressed.

[1024MAK]

The cat looks like he’s got the cream

Mark

[Moggy]

I certainly have!

When it comes to things like AY and more pertinently in this case the Specdrum sometimes emulation can sound a bit off but I have to say that the Specdrum emulation is absolutely top notch and what ever samples have been used are bang on the nose and at last decent AY from Eighty One which also ticks all the boxes with all my AY programs although it won't emulate the ZXpand turbo module which is no great loss.

Just for giggles I tried the Cheetah sweet talker. I dumped the contents of an EPROM chip I use to store speech from my Hunter board into big REM which I converted to a P file and used the ZXpand feature of Eighty One to block load it to a suitable memory location in the spand and ran it like I would do the real thing. I didn't think it would work but surprise surprise it works just like the real thing!

So please find attached said gubbins.

Put both files in the ZXpand folder set Eighty One for ZXpand and Cheetah Sweet talker, load the P file "VOX" which loads the speech code file " TALKY" to 8192 then self runs.

I have put a pause in the listing which accommodates my own modified Sweet talker you can adjust as needed.

Have fun, I know I am!

[stroebeljc]

Thanks, Moggy. Try out the S-Pack and compare against the SP-0256 generated voice for an interesting contrast in voice options that were available for both the Zeddy and the Speccy. Of course, there's much more we could add to EO. I like watching the Sound Output display during speech. You can adjust its size to get a nice view of the live waveform.

On another note, we've improved support for disk drives and allow users to even load their desired ROM for a given controller. For example, to get a good listen to the MIDI capabilities available in EO through the AY port, choose Spectrum 128 with the Beta Disk 128 floppy and attach the ZX MIDI player TRD image to floppy drive A. The versions of TR-DOS that come with EO (the released versions) are buggy and won't work for this test. But, I happen to know there are some good ones available here. (I personally recommend version 6.11Q ) Also, make sure you have one of the MIDI output devices attached in the Sound Settings dialog. He's got some really nice MIDI files bundled with the player. Give them a try.

Finally, you might notice we've made the Hardware settings dialog more flexible, added functionality, and allow it to remain open like the other dialogs. Hope you like it!