New Hires Games: Hero, Beamrider, Magic Floor

[nocash]

Well $80 at the end is needed by real hardware, I am sure about this. Dr. Beep missed this last byte by his 1k games which have been tested in EO only and were working there and now we know why.
And by the way, it is just one single byte, you can not really name it as "waste of memory".

I thought the missing 80h caused problems in EO, not vice versa?
The 80h is the end byte of the VARS area, which, I can't see how the program could need that byte (it's immediately starting ASM code via "LIST USR entrypoint" without using any BASIC variables).
For the "waste of memory" I was mainly aiming at the 25 halt bytes in d_file, the 80h was just dropped alongsides.

[sirmorris]

Well I'm completely amazed that these games are here at all

A friend of mine converts Acorn Electron (smaller, cost reduced BBC micro) games to the Acorn Atom (The BBC micro's predecessor) which is a process that I regard as something akin to magic. These ZX81 conversions are confidently standing together with those - they're stunning. Absolutely stunning.

C

[kmurta]

I thought the missing 80h caused problems in EO, not vice versa?

I confirm that you are right, I test a couple of programs without the $80 byte in a real ZX81 a all are loaded and executed successfully.

Well I'm completely amazed that these games are here at all

Me too!!!

And I'd like to see more conversions that level in the future, this was undoubtedly a great and wonderful contribution to ZX81 community.

Thanks for your effort, Martin.

( Looking for the components to assemble the 56Kb expansion to play HERO in my real ZX81 )

[PokeMon]

I thought the missing 80h caused problems in EO, not vice versa?
The 80h is the end byte of the VARS area, which, I can't see how the program could need that byte (it's immediately starting ASM code via "LIST USR entrypoint" without using any BASIC variables).
For the "waste of memory" I was mainly aiming at the 25 halt bytes in d_file, the 80h was just dropped alongsides.

Maybe this is subject to the 1k ZX81 version only. Due to missing memory extension I worked long time only with 1k.
I am not sure but before executing the USR Function and call to an assembler routine it first gets back to BASIC I think.
Maybe this byte could be omitted for autostarted programs.
I didn't investigate this in detail.

[PokeMon]

Oh I found:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=748&p=6869#p6869

It was just an issue regarding the Tapeloader interface (tapeutils.jar) which I used in the past for loading .p files over the soundcard/audio connection to ZX81.
The software didn't start transfer the file when missing 80h.

[zsolt]

HI,

I never thought that such BIG (and cool of course ) games will be available on the ZX81.
Your site was unknown for me - it is a very good summary.
I tried also the emulator.
Congratulations for these great works,
Zsolt

ps: @kmurta - in SPONZY i applied a smaller version:

[attachment=0]Sponzy_disp.asm[/attachment]

[dr beep]

In the 1K hires games I pointed the VARS to a free location and set the value of #80 there. This indeed worked in EO, but not on real hardware.
So at the end of the games I always set #80 from VARS. Starting is done by the auto start to BASIC-line where the USR-call is.

So to me: you need to add the #80 at the end.

[ranma_simon]

The original LINK doesn't work

[zx81jens]

Try this:

http://problemkaputt.de/zx.htm



Greetings
Jens

[RetroTechie]

( Looking for the components to assemble the 56Kb expansion to play HERO in my real ZX81 )

Same here...

Makes one wonder how many people have played H.E.R.O. on real ZX81 hardware. And no, FPGA board or ucontroller-based clone doesn't count for this one. Sinclair made board + (RAM pack or >32K RAM internal mod). But let's say clones built from mostly discrete components like Z80, 74.. logic etc are allowed.

5 people? 10? Okay, 12.. maybe.