May « 2013 « Speccy Live

Whats new:
Sprites can now be individually coloured using the SPRITEINK command. If 16x16 sprites aren't big enough, there's an option to use 16x24 instead. Note there's still a one-size-fits-all policy, but at least you now have a choice. It'll even resize your sprites for you.

Tagged as: games, software Continue reading

2May/13Off

The Spectrum Show #16

posted by TecSoft

In this episode we go back to June 1984 and get all the latest Sinclair news and top selling Spectrum games. We look back at a dark period in emulator history as its tenth anniversary passes. We check out some older games and look at some newer titles.

Tagged as: podcast, video No Comments

2May/13Off

Your Game 5 Has Been Announced!

posted by nix./site

After about three years of absence, the Your Game competition gets the fifth run, as well as several changes to the rules and organizer team.

"Your Game" ZX Spectrum game making competition opens for the 5th time: http://abzac.retropc.ru/ti
To stimulate the development of ZX Spectrum the organizers have selected ZX Evolution as a target machine. (It seems that only ATM Turbo 2 compatible, or potentially compatible, Spectrums are produced now for sale.)

This does not mean you have to support all the extra features of ATM Turbo 2 / ZX Evolution computers in your games. But if you use more of them, it will be appreciated. And if your game is compatible in any way with inferior models, it will be appreciated too. (You can make as many executables as you want.)

Super Spectrum is not a dream now. In ATM Turbo computers (since 1991) each pixel can have its own colour, 320x200 in 16 colours out of 64. You have 1MB RAM (4MB in ZX Evolution), 7 MHz CPU (14 MHz in ZX Evolution) and Beta 128 Disk Interface (plus SD card interface added in ZX Evolution). You can use AY sound, 8-bit DAC, or any of NeoGS and TurboSound FM sound cards.

The deadline will be in June 2014. But try to contact us as early as possible if you write a game for our compo. We'll consult you and help with sources, docs, testing etc.

Prize fund is $500 so far, from 6 sponsors interested in the development of ZX Spectrum.

ATM Turbo 2 programming manual (English): http://alonecoder.nedopc.com/zx/books/ATMHW.rar
ZX Evolution user manual (English): http://nedopc.com/zxevo/zxevo_user_manual_revc_eng.pdf
ZX Evolution site (English): http://nedopc.com/zxevo/zxevo_eng.php
NeoGS sound card site (English): http://nedopc.com/gs/ngs_eng.php
TurboSound FM sound card site (Russian): http://www.nedopc.com/TURBOSOUND/ts-fm.php

Games and demos for ATM Turbo 2: http://atmturbo.nedopc.com/atmload.htm
Games and demos for ZX Evolution: http://forum.nedopc.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1162
ATM Turbo 2 emulator: http://alonecoder.nedopc.com/zx/CATDEMO.rar
ZX Evolution emulator: http://alonecoder.nedopc.com/zx/theboard2.rar
SDK for writing sprite based games in C: http://shiru.untergrund.net/files/src/evo_sdcc.zip
Quick and dirty sjasm programming example: http://alonecoder.nedopc.com/zx/atm_example.rar
Quick and dirty ALASM programming example: http://alonecoder.nedopc.com/zx/theboard.zip

The rules of the compo are TBA.

Tagged as: parties, your game 4 Comments

1May/13Off

iZX 2.0 Is Out

posted by TecSoft

Starting from v2.0 iZX deprecate old activation method. Now iZX activation key can be obtained via PayPal. Price didn't change, however trial mode is removed. But you can still try iZX Lite version before buying iZX, it's free. Those customers who already bought iZX can get activation key for free. See here for more details.

Now about new features. The biggest one is online downloader integrated with WOS. It allows to browse catalogue, search for games and download them from WOS. Another most wanted feature is bluetooth keyboard support. The third feature is an ability to load programs from MIC input of device.

Also in release 2.0 you'll meet with new GUI interface for iPad, quicksaves and other improvements.

Tagged as: emulators 16 Comments