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#91
Technical support - Hardware related / Re: ROMBO ROMBOX - MF2 -512K R...
Last post by Rabs - 22:44, 07 December 23Quote from: DR400 on 22:08, 07 December 23Hi, I have 3 CPC 6128's, recently one has developed a fault where my ROMBO ROMBOX and MF2 and 512K RAM board are no longer detected, all 3 work 100% on the two other 6128's.Sounds odd. I would still suspect the edge connector. Are you able to check continuity?
When I run a |manicminer or similar command to a run ROM, nothing happens, the MF 2 is not detected , but the reset switch works.
All the edge connectors are OK, connecting cables all good, so far I have swapped a Z80 from working 6128, same result. Using modern stable 5V 2A PSU (no 12v as Gotek's in use)
What would you suggest to try next? (have de-solder station etc. so happy to chip swap etc.)
TIA
Robin
#92
My story with Hard Drivin' is particularly dramatic:
ACT 1) It's summer 1991 and I'm 11. And I see an arcade machine that I wanted to have for the CPC, so I described my parents I wanted to have "the one (game) with the dynamite". Problem is, I wanted to have this:
And instead received this for Christmas:
ACT 2) I remember the frustration seeing I had been gifted 5 fecking games I didn't want. But it couldn't be that bad, right? Some of them should be fun... Not really: Xybots was the only good one but I didn't know what to do, APB was a chaotic conversion where I also didin't know what I was doing, Toobin and Dragon Spirit were just too arcadey and frustrating... And Hard Drivin' didn't even load. But it wasn't just that: the TNT pack gave the last finishing touches to my agonyzing disk drive belt, and it's very likely the eternal loading attempts from Hard Drivin' had a great part on it. And my dad decided to give the CPC to an old objects shop just because the broken belt, somehow assuming the whole machine was useless. So Hard Divin' killed my CPC.
ACT 3) It's 1993 and my dad's 386 with VGA is finally getting some games. Budokan was among them, and there was "4D Sports Driving" or... Stunts. I didn't know back then, but that was my first exposition to Hard Drivin' as this was a Hard Drivin' clone with a cool track editor and some crazy characaters and cars.
I recommend everyone to try this one, it's pretty fun. The game has an active compettive community today, check this out: 1) https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-remarkable-community-around-a-27-year-old-ms-dos-racing-game 2) https://www.stunts.hu/
One of the things you can add in the editor are tennis fields, so I remember adding a lot of then to see what happened. I also remember someone made a super long square circuit with 4 banked curves in each square, and me and one friend tried to have the best times on that track. You really needed to think about slowing down before reaching the curve, especially with the super car.
ACT 4) It's 2015 and I embark on a still unfinished (Biggles part 2, Head over Heels, Batman...) mission to complete all 80ish CPC games I had as a kid. I reach Hard Drivin', load the game from the TNT pack DSKs and... the game didn't load. It appears the bug was not only in my copy as a kid. So Tengen/Domark killed CPC machines on a massive scale... Deliberatedly? Quite unlikely, probably an error. So I try the normal version of the game... and get a 2 frames per second movement of this:
Which forces me to play the MS-DOS version of the game as the CPC one was unplayable. And I finally finished the game! The most tricky part was to place the car in order to enter the loops. It's good to control wheel with the mouse for that.
EPILOGUE) I'm not sure if Hard Drivin' is a speccy port, but it's slower than the Spectrum version and it should have been rejected by stores due to being unplayable. It also broke my disk drive belt, so I hate it.
ACT 1) It's summer 1991 and I'm 11. And I see an arcade machine that I wanted to have for the CPC, so I described my parents I wanted to have "the one (game) with the dynamite". Problem is, I wanted to have this:
And instead received this for Christmas:
ACT 2) I remember the frustration seeing I had been gifted 5 fecking games I didn't want. But it couldn't be that bad, right? Some of them should be fun... Not really: Xybots was the only good one but I didn't know what to do, APB was a chaotic conversion where I also didin't know what I was doing, Toobin and Dragon Spirit were just too arcadey and frustrating... And Hard Drivin' didn't even load. But it wasn't just that: the TNT pack gave the last finishing touches to my agonyzing disk drive belt, and it's very likely the eternal loading attempts from Hard Drivin' had a great part on it. And my dad decided to give the CPC to an old objects shop just because the broken belt, somehow assuming the whole machine was useless. So Hard Divin' killed my CPC.
ACT 3) It's 1993 and my dad's 386 with VGA is finally getting some games. Budokan was among them, and there was "4D Sports Driving" or... Stunts. I didn't know back then, but that was my first exposition to Hard Drivin' as this was a Hard Drivin' clone with a cool track editor and some crazy characaters and cars.
I recommend everyone to try this one, it's pretty fun. The game has an active compettive community today, check this out: 1) https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-remarkable-community-around-a-27-year-old-ms-dos-racing-game 2) https://www.stunts.hu/
One of the things you can add in the editor are tennis fields, so I remember adding a lot of then to see what happened. I also remember someone made a super long square circuit with 4 banked curves in each square, and me and one friend tried to have the best times on that track. You really needed to think about slowing down before reaching the curve, especially with the super car.
ACT 4) It's 2015 and I embark on a still unfinished (Biggles part 2, Head over Heels, Batman...) mission to complete all 80ish CPC games I had as a kid. I reach Hard Drivin', load the game from the TNT pack DSKs and... the game didn't load. It appears the bug was not only in my copy as a kid. So Tengen/Domark killed CPC machines on a massive scale... Deliberatedly? Quite unlikely, probably an error. So I try the normal version of the game... and get a 2 frames per second movement of this:
Which forces me to play the MS-DOS version of the game as the CPC one was unplayable. And I finally finished the game! The most tricky part was to place the car in order to enter the loops. It's good to control wheel with the mouse for that.
EPILOGUE) I'm not sure if Hard Drivin' is a speccy port, but it's slower than the Spectrum version and it should have been rejected by stores due to being unplayable. It also broke my disk drive belt, so I hate it.
#93
Quote from: chinnyhill10 on 22:22, 07 December 23Ah the memory cheats then. I could have sworn the one I borrowed on the compilation started on the bridge. But perhaps I played that later when I got my hands on an emulator in 1995. Happy days of hunting around NVG on a command prompt!Yeah, the version that was originally on NVG had the 'bridge' scene (despite being named Doors of Doom on the title screen), but I replaced it with my own version (based on the original cassette version) many years later.
#94
Quote from: Nich on 19:50, 07 December 23Ah the memory cheats then. I could have sworn the one I borrowed on the compilation started on the bridge. But perhaps I played that later when I got my hands on an emulator in 1995. Happy days of hunting around NVG on a command prompt!Quote from: chinnyhill10 on 20:43, 06 December 23Which is the original release? Did Amstrad put a cut down version on the compilation then also sell a version that offered up multiple levels with the desert level being first? It's a tad confusing!
As @SkulleateR has pointed out, there are two versions of the game. Doors of Doom contains the 'desert' scene, whereas Doors of Doom+ (which was only released on disc) starts with a 'bridge' scene.
Doors of Doom was also released on the PP5 and PP8 compilations that some CPC6128 users received when they bought their machines, but it only features the 'desert' scene.
#95
D
Technical support - Hardware related / ROMBO ROMBOX - MF2 -512K RAM c...
Last post by DR400 - 22:08, 07 December 23Hi, I have 3 CPC 6128's, recently one has developed a fault where my ROMBO ROMBOX and MF2 and 512K RAM board are no longer detected, all 3 work 100% on the two other 6128's.
When I run a |manicminer or similar command to a run ROM, nothing happens, the MF 2 is not detected , but the reset switch works.
All the edge connectors are OK, connecting cables all good, so far I have swapped a Z80 from working 6128, same result. Using modern stable 5V 2A PSU (no 12v as Gotek's in use)
What would you suggest to try next? (have de-solder station etc. so happy to chip swap etc.)
TIA
Robin
When I run a |manicminer or similar command to a run ROM, nothing happens, the MF 2 is not detected , but the reset switch works.
All the edge connectors are OK, connecting cables all good, so far I have swapped a Z80 from working 6128, same result. Using modern stable 5V 2A PSU (no 12v as Gotek's in use)
What would you suggest to try next? (have de-solder station etc. so happy to chip swap etc.)
TIA
Robin
#96
v0.3, another small bugfix version, released. Get it here: You cannot view this attachment. , or you can get it at github.
The following changes are in this version:
I anticipate releasing v0.4 at some point next week, with some more of the 10-planned levels implemented, as well as additional in-game instructions.
As an aside, I made my first commit on a private repository on 11th November, and I think I've spent 40 to 50 hours since then coding and testing this. Having not touched C for 20-odd years, and never having used CPCTelera before, I'm quite pleased with my progress.
The following changes are in this version:
- Decreased Slowdown in later stages of a Level
- Added in-game Pause (P to pause/unpause)
- In-game Quit (Q) now aborts the current game completely
- Decreased size of compiled binary significantly
I anticipate releasing v0.4 at some point next week, with some more of the 10-planned levels implemented, as well as additional in-game instructions.
As an aside, I made my first commit on a private repository on 11th November, and I think I've spent 40 to 50 hours since then coding and testing this. Having not touched C for 20-odd years, and never having used CPCTelera before, I'm quite pleased with my progress.
#97
Technical Support - Software related / Re: trying to copy Pinball Dre...
Last post by poulette73 - 21:30, 07 December 23For Parados rom, do you have any romboard (X-MEM, M4 Board, FlashGordon, ULIfAC, Megaflash, etc..) ?
This would really be the most practical solution for making copies from 3"1/2 to 3".
This would really be the most practical solution for making copies from 3"1/2 to 3".
#98
G
Technical support - Hardware related / Re: USIfAC II, technical probl...
Last post by GL - 21:02, 07 December 23Quote from: ikonsgr on 20:21, 07 December 23Now, can you specify when exactly CPC464 hangs, and what did you do to by pass this hanging?The hangs occurred each time on cold boot, and whenever on each reset if there is usb stick connected. So basically it was non-usable with usb flash.
Maybe i will try it on my "non hanging" CPC464 and see if it also works ok, and then we can update fw with the modifications.
As I wrote I just modified the clc's setup at the beginning of the code. Originally there is CLC5CON = 0x02; which setups CLC5 for FDC emulation, but is in disabled state. I changed it to CLC5CON = 0x82 just to test what happens, and it works for me. I'm sure this is not the proper way to fix the problem. It must be some check before amsdos initialization to test if cpc has real FDC (not sure for all possible real hardware/software configurations). This can be challenging as the amsdos/parados is the first rom which is loaded, possibly modification to the initialization code is needed to check for fdc presence and enable fdc emulation if it's missing.
#99
General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 1984 Review of the 464 fro...
Last post by dodogildo - 20:51, 07 December 23Great read, thank you. A journey through time that warms the heart!
#100
A
General Discussion - Introductions / Re: Hello Everyone I was looki...
Last post by andycadley - 20:27, 07 December 23I was about to mention that one. It's a more available option, though I believe it requires some kind of internal modification of the console (presumably ACID related) so a lot less desirable than a C4CPC