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RFC: ULA Replacement for ZX Spectrum SE

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OwenBot

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Oct 19, 2009, 3:28:46 PM10/19/09
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Well, it's taken the best part of a decade, but the ULA replacement
for the ZX Spectrum SE has reached the stage where you can use it in
emulation[1].

http://sites.google.com/site/ulaplus/

[1] if you have Ubuntu or you're prepared to compile it yourself.

Fred

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Oct 20, 2009, 9:00:33 AM10/20/09
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OwenBot wrote:
> Well, it's taken the best part of a decade, but the ULA replacement
> for the ZX Spectrum SE has reached the stage where you can use it in
> emulation[1].

I've not seen it in motion, but I guess is best suited to SCREEN$, new
programs with the expanded palette in mind and re-colouring those games
that were ported from systems with different colours like your Gauntlet
example? I guess most Speccy software was made with the built-in colours
in mind so I would guess wouldn't have a large change with the adapted
palette.

I guess it wouldn't take many pokes for your Gauntlet example to be
hacked so that the main menus used BRIGHT 1 and selected the normal
palette while the main game still used your remapped colours.

Was there much use of the extended palette for existing Spectrum
software with the Sam? I guess that could be a source of ready-to-go
palette variations for Speccy games.

Fred

Zedex Dragon

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Oct 20, 2009, 9:52:33 AM10/20/09
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On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:33 +0100, Fred <fr...@spamcop.net> wrote:

> OwenBot wrote:
>> Well, it's taken the best part of a decade, but the ULA replacement
>> for the ZX Spectrum SE has reached the stage where you can use it in
>> emulation[1].
>
> I've not seen it in motion, but I guess is best suited to SCREEN$, new
> programs with the expanded palette in mind and re-colouring those games
> that were ported from systems with different colours like your Gauntlet
> example? I guess most Speccy software was made with the built-in colours
> in mind so I would guess wouldn't have a large change with the adapted
> palette.

Well that depends. Often programmers would use yellow or magenta for skin
tones and it's nice to be able to do those in something a bit more subtle.

> I guess it wouldn't take many pokes for your Gauntlet example to be
> hacked so that the main menus used BRIGHT 1 and selected the normal
> palette while the main game still used your remapped colours.

You mean FLASH 1. The main game uses normal and bright intensities, but it
doesn't use FLASH. But otherwise yes, I'm sure it could be done.

> Was there much use of the extended palette for existing Spectrum
> software with the Sam? I guess that could be a source of ready-to-go
> palette variations for Speccy games.

No idea, but it's not that close a match. The SAM only gives you 16
colours from 128 in the Speccy mode, whereas the ULA replacement does 64
from 256.

--

-==(UDIC)==-

d e+ N+ T--- Om+ U34 u-- uC++ uF- uLB+ uA++ nC nH+ nP nI nPT nS+++ nT- wM
c? o-- y a0x23

OwenBot

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Oct 28, 2009, 8:11:48 AM10/28/09
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Just an update to let you know the following titles have now been re-
coloured:

Abu Simbel Profanation
Army Moves
Bruce Lee
Chuckie Egg
Cybernoid
Cybernoid 2
Exolon
Gauntlet
Highway Encounter
Jack the Nipper 2
Manic Miner
Phantis
Solomon's Key

OwenBot

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Nov 3, 2009, 8:44:17 PM11/3/09
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And a further update to let you know support for the mode is now
available in BASin and ZXSpin.

zxbruno

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Nov 4, 2009, 10:17:34 PM11/4/09
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On Nov 3, 5:44 pm, OwenBot <cheve...@gmail.com> wrote:
> And a further update to let you know support for the mode is now
> available in BASin and ZXSpin.

Looking good. :)
I find it amazing that *if* one palette can give the desired effect,
it saves the user the need to hack existing software. User loads
palette, then loads original game, voila. :) I think that's amazing.

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