Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

stefano wrote: Another possibility is to try to reduce the graphics data by simplfying the pictures a bit, use the ROM font and to remove the 'save' option.

Siggi ?

Those of us who load programs bigger than 16k will in general use some mass storage like MMC (ZXPAND, MEFISDOS) or USB-Stick or network or floppies. So we do not use tapes anymore. Thus you could remove the tape load/save code and define some areas in the basic program, where we could add our own (BASIC) code to save/load memory areas to/from our mass storage device.
E.G.
BASIC lines 100-200 could be used to save a memory area (which length/address) to MMC or USB
BASIC lines 300-400 could be used to load memory area (which length/address) from MMC or USB

You coud execute this BASIC lines by the C program using the BASIC-Interface of z88dk? Right?

Siggi

It could be possible, perhaps not so easy but removing those routines saves only little memory.
The thing I'm mostly interested in is what are the most common memory expansions above the 32K: a data page behind the ROM ? linear addressing up to 64K ?

** EDIT ** - Apologies ! I didn't see you already answered it !

I think I made it.
In theory it is still possible to save the game after exiting, but considering the mess I could see on the emulator the stack is conflicting with the BASIC area already, so I wouldn't bet on it.

By the way: save 120 bytes at position 24823

I only just noticed this thread. Planet of Death, eh? Somebody disassembled it and translated it into C. Who would do such a thing?
[it was me!]

I did it, then forgot about it. That was in 1998! Glad to see someone's taken it and done something good with it!

Nice to meet you !
While we're on it, I'm adding a version for the Memotech HRG + 32K (no graphics, but cute text).

Paul, I'm a bit ashamed.. the credits for your name have always been present.
I see you did it originally for the CP/M system, you might be happy to know that now the save/load game functions are supported also on it

Hello all and thank you for producing these versions of Planet of Death.

I am particularly interested in the text-only ZX80 version in this thread at download/file.php?id=1537

Also, the ZX81 text-only version at download/file.php?id=1535

Has anyone completed these versions, or at least can anyone reproduce a problem I have experienced with the above versions?

***Minor spoilers follow***

If you start the game, then type "E" to go east and then "LOOK DRAWING", I get the response "YOU SEE NOTHING SPECIAL".

Also, from the start of game, if you type "GET FLINT" then "D" to go down, then "USE FLINT", I get "I CAN'T DO THAT YET". So from that point it appears like the game can't be completed.

However, in the original Artic Computing ZX81 version at http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/tape/P ... ath(Artic) you see the following responses:-

"E", "LOOK DRAWING" -> "IT SHOWS A MAN CLIMBING DOWN A PIT USING A ROPE".

"GET FLINT", "D", "USE FLINT" -> "IT HAS FALLEN TO THE FLOOR" (the rope that is)

Has anyone else tried these games and expereinced these differences, or is it possible I am somehow loading them incorrectly? I am curently trying them under Eightyone emulator version 1.10 with 16K ZX80 and ZX81 configurations.

Thanks for any possible replies.

It's been a while (years), but I re-installed Z88DK on my laptop. Then, after some minor modifications I was able to recompile poglad's (Paul Taylor's?) translated C source after finding an archived copy on the Internet Archive at http://web.archive.org/web/201008231418 ... co.uk/pod/

This allowed me to generate another ZX80 tape version which does not seem to show the above problems. I was then able to complete the solution at https://solutionarchive.com/file/id,8065/ on an emulated ZX80 with no problems.

Thanks to poglad and stefano for their previous work on this, which showed that it was possible to get a version this game working on a 16K ZX80.

If anyone is interested, I have now uploaded the end result of the above endeavours to YouTube.

Two complete walkthroughs of the ZX80 version, based on solutions by Zeljko Juric can be seen at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sopIkxFevm8

If you open up the description for that video I have also provded links to the particular, slightly modified version of Paul's source code which I recently recomplied and also the resultant ZX80 tape file.

Hello, I'm proud of the very little (or no) flicker happening while you are typing.
I just prepared an hardcopy implementation for the zx80 ROM, so more extensions to the game are now possible
Was the ADV_A version present in the "console" directory too big ?