Cyberhuhn on GX4000

[nitrofurano]

while i'm struggling to start coding my own GX4000 stuff (games, demos and alike), i'm trying to convert those games from the 16kb rom competition 2013, starting from Cyberhuhn


what i did is entering this on a terminal (on Linux)

Code: [Select]

cat cpc464.rom Cyberhuhn.rom Cyberhuhn.rom > Cyberhuhn_gx4000.rom

and when running it on Mess emulator, what i got is a message "Cyber Huhn 2013 - Start with |CH"

is there any way to patch this resulting rom file into one that boot directly to the game, instead of falling into Basic?

thanks!
(btw, i guess and hope that, from this way (or another better way that i don’t know yet), we will add 4 games to the games available to gx4000! )

[MacDeath]

the roms are made to be loaded in basic... but in what a gx4000 cartridge with only a 16k game could be nice ?
... you want to make yourself a cartridge in 512K with many games ROMs on and a menu ?

You want to convert this 16K ROM into a new game with PLUS features ?
Or just want to play it on a GX4000 ?

Anyway to have those ROM based games all added into a compilation in GX4000 friendly format could be nice.
Would need extra menu and manage the lack of keyboard with GX4000... lack of "Amstrad firmware" as well ?

What about a "simplOS 4000" ... a simple bank managed/keyboardless OS so those ROMs or some ROMed other CPC games could be launched ? would include test features and so on ?
May even include a tape loader via joystick port ? So some converted tape/audio coded games could be launched from GX4000 as well...
Drivers for external keyboard using the Analog port ? (would need to produce a keyboard to analog port converter though)
could AY produce a sound capable of being read back as tape signal ?

Would need some extra cables but then GX4000 may actually be considered some sort of GX464PLUS...(still with no native extension port, ouch)


anyway concerning cyber huhn, I think you should ask the creator of this game the permission to do it or ask him to do it himself.

I wouldn't mind (re)doing extra graphics for a proper plus version though...

[nitrofurano]

wow, they are all very interesting ideas, thanks! for starting, i was only thinking on having one rom cartridge per game, or one for all these 4 games that were submitted to that contest - and yes, contacting the author would be a good idea (perhaps he, and all other authors in that contest) would appear here in this tread to comment about? my first idea was to merely patching the amstrad bios rom for running the game automatically, just a simple and "amateur" patchwork that would "just work", and the step later would be improving the palette (a bit like Mojon Twins games using ULAPlus palette on ZX-Spectrum, simple stuff like this? ), and so on

[arnoldemu]

wow, they are all very interesting ideas, thanks! for starting, i was only thinking on having one rom cartridge per game, or one for all these 4 games that were submitted to that contest - and yes, contacting the author would be a good idea (perhaps he, and all other authors in that contest) would appear here in this tread to comment about? my first idea was to merely patching the amstrad bios rom for running the game automatically, just a simple and "amateur" patchwork that would "just work", and the step later would be improving the palette (a bit like Mojon Twins games using ULAPlus palette on ZX-Spectrum, simple stuff like this? ), and so on

Some comments:

- patching the bios to run the rom automatically. I would choose another method. Keep the bios unpatched. Keep the game rom unpatched.
Make a new "foreground rom" which calls the rom. This should work. In fact I'll try it.

- patching the palette for plus games is more complex than for ULAPlus.
For ULAPlus you set the palette and it is never changed because normal ZX Spectrum doesn't have re-programmable palette. The ULAPlus is like a palette redirect, it takes the existing palette and converts it to new.

To set the palette for a plus game you need to set your new palette, but also patch the game to stop it from setting it's own palette.
OR, where the palette is set by the game, redirect it to change the palette you want.

I am just warning that it is often a little more work for patching, but when you have done it successfully for one, it is easier to do the next and the next etc.

[MacDeath]

Concerning cyber huhn I don't quite see how you improuve the palette in Mode1... only 4 colours on screen, no need for 4096 colours to chose from, especially with those cartoonish graphics.

PLUS features could provide extra methods for scrolling, interrupts, DMA sounds or some hardsprites but then it wouldn't be a 16K only ROM game.
Anyay, would need a menu to choose between those games, so some sort of light OS on a 16K bank.
PLUS/GX cartridges can provide 512K ROM support, would be a shame to get only 32K or 80K used...


Ask TFM and FutureSoft team, and buy the commercially released game as well !!!
 

Cyber-Chicken for CPC - Cpage Site

[nitrofurano]

...
- patching the bios to run the rom automatically. I would choose another method. Keep the bios unpatched. Keep the game rom unpatched.
Make a new "foreground rom" which calls the rom. This should work. In fact I'll try it.
...

i’m curious to see this!

[TFM]

Hi!


Just tried to patch an auto start in the ROM (by copying the vector of the start-of-game to the rom-init vector. Surprisingly the decruncher doesn't like that an crash. The remains to be solved by the exomizer people though).


Here the actual version (IIRC) of the ROM (which is not the last I planned though...):

[TFM]

Interestingly the first version (using MadRAMs great Decruncher) does work with Autostart... here...:

[nitrofurano]

Interestingly the first version (using MadRAMs great Decruncher) does work with Autostart... here...:

yes, that ch_old_autostart.rom works perfectly! (only sad that the keys part needs to be patched, there is no "space" key at GX4000! - if someone can help there, please do!!! )


btw, how can we have Overkoban, Relentless and Subtera Puzlo booting in the same way? where and how is the patch, and how can we apply there?