The life of a Games Programmer

Saturday, December 02, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.5.0

I have moved #CSpect over to Itch.io so that it's properly hosted. I'm looking to get rid of old web sites etc so hosting ZIPs there was gettting more complicated, and this fixes that.

So from now on, you can keep track of it over there.

LINK: https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect

If you want to support my work...
Become a Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/mikedailly
Or buy me a Ko-fi: http://ko-fi.com/mdf200
Main Website: https://lemmings.info
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_mikedailly
Discord: https://t.co/q9u0cmfBz6

Saturday, July 22, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.4.4

SNasm V3.2.1.0 changes

Some updates and fixes to both CSpect and SNasm

Equates can no longer start with a local label symbol
Locals are no longer reset by Equates/Sets/Rb/Macro etc.
Fixed LDDRX instruction byte codes
Proper Version added to assembly EXE
Change internal LEX processing and state saving/stacking

#CSpect V2.19.4.4 changes

Some updates and fixes to both CSpect and SNasm

OUT ($ff),$40 will not disable ULA Vblanks, while OUT ($ff),$00 will now enable them (see NextReg $22)
New debugger command "NEXTBRK" will stop in the debugger after a Next instruction has been executed

Download: #CSpect V2.19.4.4 Emulator

Friday, June 09, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.4.3

#CSpect V2.19.4.3 changes

Fixing up some audio issues, and a crash.

Reverted the ZIP file detection to fix SDCard access.
Updated some demos to fix keyboard reading equates

Download: #CSpect V2.19.4.3 Emulator

Friday, June 02, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.4.2

#CSpect V2.19.4.2 changes

Fixing up some audio issues, and a crash.

Fixed up DACs, incorrect channels were sometimes being set, and some ports were wrong.
Added "-nodelay" startup option to the docs. Totally forgot about it, my bad.
AY will now be reset with nextreg 6 (bits 0-1)
Fixed a CSpect crash when a streaming file wasn't there. (esxDOS emulation)
I now try and detect if you've accidentally provided a ZIP file instead of an SD card image.

Download: #CSpect V2.19.4.2 Emulator

Sunday, May 14, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.3.0

#CSpect V2.19.3.0 changes

Some debugger and Layer 2 fixes, and fixing the streaming API in the esxDOS emulation system.

Extended the debugger's "Display" view to show the whole screen
You will now be prompted to install OpenAL if it can't be found (on windows)
Fixed Layer 2 pixels in the border area
Fixed the esxDOS emulation streaming, allowing Pogie to run with audio from the command line again
Added "INPORT <16bitport>" and "OUTPORT <16bitport>" breakpoints in the debugger, allowing a break on a read/write to a port
Added a new "TONE" command to the debugger. This switches on a single tone to the audio buffer to test if there are system playback issues

Download: #CSpect V2.19.3.0 Emulator

Sunday, March 05, 2023

#CSpect V2.19.2.1

#CSpect V2.19.2.1 changes

Minor fix for the debugger screen, and a couple of quick additions.

Fixed the debugger screen so it's no longer transparent
.NEX file start delay added to loading of NEX files
-nodelay added to skip a .NEX file start delay
-rot90 Rotate the display 90 degrees
-rot180 Rotate the display 180 degrees
-rot270 Rotate the display 270 degrees
Command line processing cleaned up a bit
cspec_win.dat file format changed. Now includes a version [0], and screen rotation [1]

Download: #CSpect V2.19.2.1 Emulator

Thursday, March 02, 2023

#CSpect 2.19.2.0

#CSpect V2.19.2.0 changes

Minor update, fixing some issues with the large rendering change, and adding super useful debugger command macros.

Added new debugger command "LOAD <filename>,<address>[,length]" where address can also be ""<bank>:<offset>""
Copper writes fixed up, wasn't executing all CPU TStates, so going slower than it should have been.
Updated screen drawing to be later in the line, to account for left border better.
Added a little Time base correction when audio/video buffers overflow instead of just throwing the spare frames away.
AY chips now respect the ABC,ACB and mono selection for each chip.
Added 2 new iCSpect.GetGlobal() calls; ""eGlobal.low_rom"" and ""eGlobal.high_rom"" to return the ROM/RAM at the low/high position
Added LoadFile() to iCSpect to load a file from SD card or relative file mmc path.

Download: #CSpect V2.19.2.0 Emulator

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

#CSpect 2.19.1.0

#CSpect V2.19.1.0 changes

Minor update, fixing some issues with the large rendering change, and adding super useful debugger command macros.

Rewrote command line processor
Added debugger macros to the command line '+def[0-9]"g $8000". use ";" for multiple commands: '+def[0-9]"g $8000;m$4000". ALT+[0-9] to play macro.
Fixed a crash when L2 left clip was > L2 right clip
L2 no longer renders with top clip was > L2 bottom clip
Fixed a bug in the ULA rendering where the border colour was being set to the fallback colour, and not the border colour (which matches global transparancy).
Updated TileTest screen mode test app
OpenTK upgraded to v3.3.3

Download: #CSpect V2.19.1.0 Emulator

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

#CSpect 2.19.0.3

#CSpect V2.19.0.3 changes

Massive update, with virtually all rendering components touched to properly allow for blending modes. While there has been a concerted effort to beta test this, please report any rendering oddities that you see on the Spectrum Next discord channel.
Also in this version, is a major update to audio/video syncing, producing far smoother and more playable results. The recommended command line for gamers will now be "-60 -vsync [game]". This should give full audio, and nice smooth gameplay.
General timing has also been improved, so without audio running at 60hz and vsync in fullscreen, everything should "glide" nicely again - as it used to in the C++ version.

Plugin authors be aware of a change to the Plugin system. Due to the new Audio/Visual syncing system, the emulator "could" now be running on a different thread, and as such, you can no longer do GUI/OS work from callbacks. ALL UI/OS work must now be managed via the new OSTick() callback. Like the Tick() callback, but this is always called from the OS thread, allowing you to open windows, and refresh/draw them. Please see updated plugins on my github for further example code.

Hope you all enjoy this one, it's been some time in the making - thanks to all who helped beta test it.

V2.19.0.3

Fixed Timex Hires non-ULANext ink/paper orders
Fixed Timex Hires ULANext ink/paper orders
Added wildcard support in F_OPENDIR ($a3)
Added better exception reporting to the LOG for loading plugins
Fixed DeZog plugin building - DLL has been properly updated with new Plugin interface

V2.19.0.2

Fixed up keyboard cross threading issues
Fixed up File open cross threading issue
Added a new OSTick() call to plugins to allow UI/OS function calls - please note the changes in plugins to avoid crashes
Fixed Timex hires with ULA Next ink/paper shift mode
Added a "Standard Plugin Keys" section to the readme.txt file

V2.19.0.1

Fixed 2 profiler crashes, when clicking on the profile window in different states
Fixed ULA last line drawing
Fixed sprite in border bugs with new screen rendering
Fixed L2 640x256 and 320x256 clipping
Fixed Timex border colour issues
New Audio/Video syncing system
Fixed 320x256 window

V2.19.0.0

Fixed a crash in Mode 6 and 7 when the tile window was larger than the screen
Fixed blending of tiles to border when in Mode 6 and 7
Fixed border when in Mode 6 and 7 when ULA is being used in blending
Fixed an esxDOS emulator issue, when a game requests too many bytes than is left in the file, and it fills the extra space with 0s resulting in game crashes
Timing fixed. 50hz and 60hz were both running slowly/weirdly both with and without sound. Should now be correct.
-60 and -VSYNC should now be perfectly smooth again
-fps added to show FPS on title bar
-freerun disable all timers and run as fast as we can (must use -sound as well)
ULA Y scrcolling fixed to use Yscroll value MOD 192 (instead of anything over 192 being 0)
ULA+TILE Stencil mode added. Stencil will use any ULA mode (normal, timex, lowres)
Mode6/7 blending can now be used with stencil mode (where ever the hardware allowed it)

Download: #CSpect V2.19.0.3 Emulator

Monday, January 02, 2023

#CSpect 2.18.0

#CSpect V2.18.0 changes

Major update as we now support Mode 6 and Mode 7, complete with the fancy blending they can do, and all the tile to sprite weirdness.

Mode 6 and 7 added in all it's ULA/Tile ordering weirdness. "(U|T) S (T|U) L" ordering
Mode 6 blending added (B+L)
Mode 7 blending added (B+L-5)
multiface is now paged out on RETN
Fixed a couple of RETN's that were marked as RETI's
Added the Mode 6 and 7 blend mode (and fiddling) test/demo + source

Download: #CSpect V2.18.0 Emulator