My 464+ "Freezes" keys after loading some games

Started by rdkarlov, 07:29, 12 October 14

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rdkarlov

Hi!

This is my first post here and can't find any sort of "Read First" so please excuse me if I'm in some way breaking any rules here. In that case I'll be accepting any pointers you give me.

I have some CPC's in my collection, among them a very nice 464 Plus.  The problem with this is that some games freeze the keyboard after loading. I don't have many tapes to test it with, and have been a bit too lazy to kludge a smartphone with a CDT player in it, but of the three tapes I tested only one worked.

Jet Set Willy II and Hundra will load, then play music and stop receiving any keyboard or joystick activity. Curiously the music keeps playing forever, so I take it the computer hasn't crashed. I press every key and controller buttons but nothing goes beyond the frozen screen and background music playing.

Heavy on The Magick works fine and I've been playing it for hours. Also, the Burnin' Rubber cart works flawless.

Any hints appreciated.

Gryzor

#1
Welcome mate!

The reason you didn't see a "Read First" is because there's no need for one :) All you need to know is in the message I sent you when you signed up. So, it's just common sense and respect for the others; apart from that feel free to make any "mistakes" (for the time being, I'm moving this to the Hardware Support section).

This is a weird problem, you mean external controllers don't work either?

tastefulmrship

#2
Quote from: rdkarlov on 07:29, 12 October 14
I have some CPC's in my collection, among them a very nice 464 Plus.  The problem with this is that some games freeze the keyboard after loading. I don't have many tapes to test it with, and have been a bit too lazy to kludge a smartphone with a CDT player in it, but of the three tapes I tested only one worked.

Jet Set Willy II and Hundra will load, then play music and stop receiving any keyboard or joystick activity. Curiously the music keeps playing forever, so I take it the computer hasn't crashed. I press every key and controller buttons but nothing goes beyond the frozen screen and background music playing.

Heavy on The Magick works fine and I've been playing it for hours. Also, the Burnin' Rubber cart works flawless.

Any hints appreciated.

The great T&J has been sorting this issue out; his web-site has a number of CPC+ keyboard fixes.

EDIT: Ooops! Click on DIVERS on the left, then CPC+ BUGLIST. The list of fixed games is on the right (HUNDRA is one of them! ^_^)

CraigsBar

Quote from: rdkarlov on 07:29, 12 October 14
Hi!

This is my first post here and can't find any sort of "Read First" so please excuse me if I'm in some way breaking any rules here. In that case I'll be accepting any pointers you give me.

I have some CPC's in my collection, among them a very nice 464 Plus.  The problem with this is that some games freeze the keyboard after loading. I don't have many tapes to test it with, and have been a bit too lazy to kludge a smartphone with a CDT player in it, but of the three tapes I tested only one worked.

Jet Set Willy II and Hundra will load, then play music and stop receiving any keyboard or joystick activity. Curiously the music keeps playing forever, so I take it the computer hasn't crashed. I press every key and controller buttons but nothing goes beyond the frozen screen and background music playing.

Heavy on The Magick works fine and I've been playing it for hours. Also, the Burnin' Rubber cart works flawless.

Any hints appreciated.
Hi rdkarlov,


First of all, welcome ;)


This souds a lot like the the Keyboard Scanning bug that was present in the Plus machines. Basically Amstrad made a very slight change to the way the keyboard was read in the 6128+ and 464+ this was 100% compatible with the old technique, so long as the programmers stayed within the documented techniques for reading the keyboard. If coders had used some other routines to read the keyboard then these no longer worked. these are the incompatible games you have, Elite is also one of them that used to annoy me no end when I first got my 6128+


Most of them now have been fixed (see the list above) and JSWII has a plus enhanced version around somewhere that you should try (@andycadley did that ever get a tape version released?)


Hope you have fun, I can recommend a Car CD Cassette adaptor and tapDancer from the android playstore(free) work wonderfully for loading.


Regards


Craig 
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

Gryzor

Good thread. I had totally forgotten about that!

Devilmarkus

This keyboard / PPI-bug also happens in the game Barbarian.

In my Death Sword 128k overhaul this bug is fixed.

Death Sword 128k(Amstrad CPC) ;)
When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

rdkarlov

Thanks for all the feedback and pointers!

I really thought that could be some incompatibility issue but had to check with the scholars.

Is that bug in any way related to ROM code so that flashing a new ROM into the cart would completely get rid of the problems without changing the games themselves?

TFM

Quote from: rdkarlov on 07:29, 12 October 14
I have some CPC's in my collection, among them a very nice 464 Plus.  The problem with this is that some games freeze the keyboard after loading. I don't have many tapes to test it with, and have been a bit too lazy to kludge a smartphone with a CDT player in it, but of the three tapes I tested only one worked.

Jet Set Willy II and Hundra will load, then play music and stop receiving any keyboard or joystick activity. Curiously the music keeps playing forever, so I take it the computer hasn't crashed. I press every key and controller buttons but nothing goes beyond the frozen screen and background music playing.
Heavy on The Magick works fine and I've been playing it for hours. Also, the Burnin' Rubber cart works flawless.


That's a well know problem for the Plus range. Some games for the old CPCs do an "illegal" way of keyscanning, which is faster, but doesn't work with Plus machines.

The solution is to go to CPC Power and get pached version of that games.

Hope that helps & Welcome here !!!  :)


Quote from: rdkarlov on 00:22, 13 October 14Is that bug in any way related to ROM code so that flashing a new ROM into the cart would completely get rid of the problems without changing the games themselves?

No the problem is located in the ASIC chip of the Plus which contains the 8255 PIO and the CRTC (and other stuff of course). The only cure is to write software clean.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

rdkarlov

Quote from: TFM on 01:41, 13 October 14
No the problem is located in the ASIC chip of the Plus which contains the 8255 PIO and the CRTC (and other stuff of course). The only cure is to write software clean.

Good grief!  :o

Thanks for the clarifications. Cheers!

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