News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu

MASK K7 dump WANTED

Started by dlfrsilver, 10:08, 27 June 09

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

dlfrsilver

Hello Guys, anyone of you have actually Mask from Gremlin in tape ?

We need it in order to check the loader, the only version i have here seems to reset for an unknown reason.

thanks for helping !

specfreak

#1
I've got the re-release version by Byte-Back.  If it's like the Speccy it should be the same loader between releases.
I'll dump the tape when I get a change.  Wonder if it's like the Speccy loader, which is polarity sensitive.
That and Basil The Great Mouse Detective.

Speccy info here if of interst:
http://newton.sunderland.ac.uk/~specfreak/Schemes/docs/gremlin2.html

arnoldemu

Quote from: dlfrsilver on 10:08, 27 June 09
Hello Guys, anyone of you have actually Mask from Gremlin in tape ?

We need it in order to check the loader, the only version i have here seems to reset for an unknown reason.

thanks for helping !
Two things with this loader:
1. CNGSoft found that the tape polarity is important for loading. So the original is flakey too.
2. The loader peeks the screen and uses this to decrypt the code. So you can't have |TAPE:RUN" etc it must only be RUN" like if you press CTRL and ENTER on a CPC464.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

dlfrsilver

Hi :D

Mask is now done, as is impossamole which uses the same damned loader :D

specfreak

Cool, nice to see progress on these.  Basil still uses the old technique and works, but is the same loader as Mask.
On the spectrum Mikie made a V1.20 TZX using a newer ID.19 block (GDB) not sure if it would benefit here, but was a pain
for many emulator authors to implement bust most did.
For reference make v1.20 TZX can be examined here:
http://www.tzxvault.org/v120.htm

They will work fine in Tapir should you wish to see how they are structured.

Hehe, the irony is with 8-bit preservation for me, is that I spend more time loading the tape images than actually playing
the games ;-)  It's fun though.

pacomix

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:54, 14 October 09
Two things with this loader:
1. CNGSoft found that the tape polarity is important for loading. So the original is flakey too.
2. The loader peeks the screen and uses this to decrypt the code. So you can't have |TAPE:RUN" etc it must only be RUN" like if you press CTRL and ENTER on a CPC464.
Wtf!!!! I've been trying to guess what was wrong with all the Gremlin dumps I'm doing until I searched the forum for any message related to it.
Does this means the game is impossible to be loaded in a 6128???


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk

Buleste

Quote from: pacomix on 22:20, 11 September 17
Wtf!!!! I've been trying to guess what was wrong with all the Gremlin dumps I'm doing until I searched the forum for any message related to it.
Does this means the game is impossible to be loaded in a 6128???


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk
No. If you convert it to wav using CDT2WAV it will load however because the pulses seem to be inverted on Gremlin 3 loaders (and others) if you use a TZXDuino or TZX playback it will not load. This however is only for the cassette version. I don't know about the disk.

We are trying to fix this on TZXDuino but we need to see if it works yet.

pacomix

How can I load this original game in a 6128 using the original tape? I can't.


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk

arnoldemu

Quote from: pacomix on 22:40, 11 September 17
How can I load this original game in a 6128 using the original tape? I can't.


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk
Use a good dump (a new one).

Type:
|TAPE
press cursor up and press space 5 times and press return (to erase |TAPE)
press cursor up and type RUN" and press return (write where |TAPE was)
press return again to start it loading. If you see the title screen loading all is good.

My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

pacomix

 OMFG (they didn't include the details in the instructions)


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

arnoldemu

Quote from: pacomix on 08:24, 12 September 17
OMFG (they didn't include the details in the instructions)


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk
I think they assumed that cassette users would press CTRL+ENTER and be 464 owners and disc owners would be 6128 users.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

dlfrsilver

Quote from: Buleste on 22:30, 11 September 17
No. If you convert it to wav using CDT2WAV it will load however because the pulses seem to be inverted on Gremlin 3 loaders (and others) if you use a TZXDuino or TZX playback it will not load. This however is only for the cassette version. I don't know about the disk.

We are trying to fix this on TZXDuino but we need to see if it works yet.


It will load, if you use CSW2CDT to reverse the CDT available on CPC-power back to WAV. The TZXduino will then load the game :)


Only the CDT need a correct support :)

dlfrsilver

Quote from: pacomix on 22:40, 11 September 17
How can I load this original game in a 6128 using the original tape? I can't.


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk


Simple : follow the manual guidance :


ùtape then return to activate the 6128 tape relay


Then RUN" follow by return.


The game will load. It's fully compatible with 464,664,6128.

dlfrsilver

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:14, 12 September 17
I think they assumed that cassette users would press CTRL+ENTER and be 464 owners and disc owners would be 6128 users.


not even. The game works on all machines, including the 464+ (only if you type before this little program :) )


CLS:POKE &C2D4,&C0:POKE &374,&00 and enter

now do CTRL+ENTER, the game loads without crashing.

arnoldemu

#14
C2D4 is the 3rd char under Ready. Loader PEEKs this value.

|TAPE
RUN"

? PEEK(&c2d4)
16

|tape
RUN"
? peek(&c2d4)
0

RUN"
? peek(&c2d4)
192

So to make it work you need RUN" under Ready. So you can't type |TAPE or |tape on 6128.

You can do this:
RUN"
|TAPE
RUN"

Also if there are roms which display a startup message then Ready is moved and when you start to type this will not fix C2D4.

OR, use the little basic program.  :)
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Johnny Olsen

Hey dlfrsilver

The poke should be

CLS:POKE &C2D4,&C0:POKE &C374,&00 and enter

now do CTRL+ENTER, the game loads without crashing.

Buleste

Quote from: dlfrsilver on 17:08, 12 September 17

It will load, if you use CSW2CDT to reverse the CDT available on CPC-power back to WAV. The TZXduino will then load the game :)


Only the CDT need a correct support :)

No it won't as TZXDuino does not play WAVS.
ArduiTape will play a wav and that will load on a 464 If you set the WAV to 22050 Hz or less (I use CDT2WAV as it has 23kHz as a setting and that works) however because of the inverted pulses that Mask and some games require (High pulse to be Low etc) and the fact that TZXDuino always starts with a high pulse, it will not load correctly using a TZXDuino.

ivarf

Quote from: arnoldemu on 07:46, 12 September 17
Use a good dump (a new one).

Type:
|TAPE
press cursor up and press space 5 times and press return (to erase |TAPE)
press cursor up and type RUN" and press return (write where |TAPE was)
press return again to start it loading. If you see the title screen loading all is good.


The stupidity of this Gremlin loader amuses me  :D

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod