dizzy code or any game
Catalin Ispasoiu
games were built ?
There were programmed entirly on spectrum or ...?
Thanks, Catalin.
Kaptain Kangaroo
"Catalin Ispasoiu" <n_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5250ac0e.03012...@posting.google.com...
Dizzy was coded on an Amstrad, and transferred to the Spectrum:
"When the Spectrum turned up with its rubbery keys and infuriating code
input rules it was all too much. We wanted to be able to continue writing
games on our Amstrad but produce them for the Spectrum as well so we called
on our friend and electronics expert Ivan to build a cable to link the two
machines. The specification of this basic device was that we should be able
to write a byte (single number 0-255) to the printer port on the Amstrad and
it was to be received on the Spectrum parallel port. Once this cable was
constructed, we wrote a piece of code on the Spectrum to control it. This
was to be the only bit of code we ever wrote on the Spectrum itself and was
called SPLINK - SPectrum and LINK (Ivan's surname). It received the numbers
and interpreted them as either memory locations or bytes to write to the
current memory location. This enabled us to write Spectrum games on our
Amstrad, making the most of the benefits of its on-board source code and
graphics, its very fast and reliable disk drive and a leading
Assembler/Machine Code compiler called MAXAM. That way SPLINK gave us an
enormous advantage over our competitors who were trying to write Spectrum
games - using a Spectrum!"
See http://www.olivertwins.com/ for a fascinating history on the young guys.
As for source code, that isn't available for most games.
Marcus Durham
<w...@tinycitymadeofashes.fsnet.co.uk> writes
[snip]
>Dizzy was coded on an Amstrad, and transferred to the Spectrum:
I think everyone had wrongly assumed for years that the Twins games were
Speccy ports to the Amstrad and not vice versa! I certainly had! I'm
amazed!
--
Marcus Durham
Kaptain Kangaroo
"Marcus Durham" <Mar...@mdurham.co.uk> wrote in message
news:pk8ID+Jx...@hones.co.uk...
Well, they were written natively for the Spectrum, but using the Amstrad.
The Amstrad was just better for editing code on.
Marcus Durham
<w...@tinycitymadeofashes.fsnet.co.uk> writes
[snip]
>Well, they were written natively for the Spectrum, but using the Amstrad.
>The Amstrad was just better for editing code on.
>
>
*before* they had a Spectrum and used the CPC to port the code from the
assembler on the CPC to the Spectrum. Therefore the games were not
written natively for the Spectrum but were ported to the Speccy from the
CPC. Essentially the code would have been the same (Z80 machine code)
apart from the graphics and sound routines. Or am I missing something?
--
Marcus Durham
Kaptain Kangaroo
I think that they used to write games for the Amstrad, and then they'd port
them to the Spectrum. But in the case of Dizzy and later titles, I think
that the code was simply written on the Amstrad, FOR the Speccy.
Eddie Duffy
>
> "Catalin Ispasoiu" <n_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:5250ac0e.03012...@posting.google.com...
> > Does anyone have the source code for any game or anyone know how those
> > games were built ?
>
> As for source code, that isn't available for most games.
True, you'd be very lucky to get hold of any original source code,
but here's a link or two to some game disassemblies and tech info.
John Elliot (JSW + MM): http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/jsw.html
Andrew Broad (JSW + MM): http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/
Chris Wild (various): http://www.icemark.com/downloads/index.html
Eddie Duffy
>
> I think that they used to write games for the Amstrad, and then they'd port
> them to the Spectrum. But in the case of Dizzy and later titles, I think
> that the code was simply written on the Amstrad, FOR the Speccy.
It was a similar case with Matthew Smith, who developed Manic Miner on a
Model 4 Tandy (which was also a Z80 machine). Apparently, there is still
some of the Tandy's OS code inadvertently left in the game.
And then there was Psion, who used to use a whopping great VAX-11 with
cross-assembler to produce code for the humble Speccy. A sledgehammer to
crack a nut if ever there was one. Though, admittedly, their VAX wasn't
used solely to create Spectrum games.