Yep, there's a few of the SPIN-only RZXs. And I think most of them only play in a certain version of SPIN.
If anyone wants to re-record these so they play in all the other RZX emus then be my guest.
To my knowledge, Superkid, Shao Lin's Road and Cerius 2 could all do with replacement RZXs. I don't think Superkid and Shao Lins Road even work in SPIN anymore! Of these three, two are now denied and Shao Lins Road is pretty crappy so I don't suppose they're a great loss :)
The spin only booty rzx works fine in spectaculator 6.3. Maybe these problems will just go away as new versions of emulators appear...
Some versions of SPIN didn't write RZX frames as per the spec if a re-triggered interrupt occured. The RZX files themselves are corrupt in that sense so other emulator's can only add fudges to get them working. Better to have proper RZX files IMO, otherwise we're back to AIR again ;-)
Another Spectaculator user here. Is there a chance that future versions could have the option to play those non-standard RZX's? Better yet, is there a way to fix those files so Spectaculator can play them?
It may seem unnecessary, but tell that that to those guys who recorded RZX's of long, long games. *'Myth, history in the making' comes to mind*
Another Spectaculator user here. Is there a chance that future versions could have the option to play those non-standard RZX's? Better yet, is there a way to fix those files so Spectaculator can play them?
It may seem unnecessary, but tell that that to those guys who recorded RZX's of long, long games. *'Myth, history in the making' comes to mind*
:)
Yep, xmikex and myself went through a phase where we recorded all these multiload games using SPIN's "RZX Pause" feature. It creates a nice, neat seamless recording but it did present compatibility problems with all other emulators (although I think Fuse can play em now), so unfortunately we don't really use it any more. A lot of the games we submitted also had individual level RZXs for those without recent versions of SPIN. Might be a good idea for us to do that with Myth as well, I'll talk with xmikex about it.
RZX'ing can still be a very tricky business. The version of SPIN we use is pretty reliable though and records maybe 80% of the games we attempt first time. Of the ones that don't record first time you can normally "walk them slowly to the end", checking back the RZX every few minutes or so for errors. Cauldron 2 and Bumpy are examples of games that had to be completed in this way. One game that seems not to RZX at all is Hydrofool, a damn shame as we'd love to do it.
Jon, if you're still listening, what are the chances of incorporating rollback and /or the RZX pause feature into future versions of Spectaculator?
Yep, xmikex and myself went through a phase where we recorded all these multiload games using SPIN's "RZX Pause" feature. It creates a nice, neat seamless recording but it did present compatibility problems with all other emulators
Yeah, a few of us weren't expecting to see additional snapshots and input recording blocks in one file. Nothing wrong with this though (and a nice idea). These files should play fine.
Edit: I was almost sure the released 6.x could play RZX's recorded with the 'RZX Pause' feature but it doesn't :-?. Version 7 does.
[snip]
One game that seems not to RZX at all is Hydrofool, a damn shame as we'd love to do it.
Jamie
It's more than likely the "EI-End of Frame" situation which the RZX spec doesn't handle. You can normally tell because the recording doesn't even play back on the recording emulator. Spectaculator 6.1+ has a workaround to ensure spec compliance and playback. Might be worth trying this on 6.30 (no rollback though!), if you can. If you need an extended trial period, send me a PM and i'll sort it out.
Thanks for the replies Jon. I have to admit that we hadn't tried Hydrofool on Spectaculator but we will do so and see what happens. I doubt we'd be able to churn out a decent recording of that particular game without rollback but it'd still be interesting to see if works. Many thanks for the generous offer of an extended trial period - it ain't necessary though, I paid for Spectaculator about two years ago :D
Some versions of SPIN didn't write RZX frames as per the spec if a re-triggered interrupt occured. The RZX files themselves are corrupt in that sense so other emulator's can only add fudges to get them working. Better to have proper RZX files IMO, otherwise we're back to AIR again ;-)
D'Oh. Have you looked at the back to the future ones as well? When it stops it says there is a whole bunch of data available in the frame when only one read was required. It looks like tape data is there (the games tries to load from tape). Is this something extra that can/should be added to spectaculator's rzx?
We've just tried a five minute RZX of Hydrofool on Spectaculator 6.30. It does indeed appear to work fine. That's certainly good news - think we'll hold out for version 7 and RZX it then.
Spectaculator 6.30 can't play back files on the RZX Archive that were recorded with SPIN's RZX Pause feature. There's nothing wrong with these files. Examples are Myth and the Back to the Futures parts 2 & 3. (The other one is denied so I couldn't test it).
Some files won't play back because they were created by a buggy version of SPIN which didn't record re-triggered interrupts correctly. These files are knacked and need redoing. Avalon is an example.
Spectaculator 6.30 does not have any form of rollback or pause when recording RZXes.
Although 6.30 is now out, it's basically a re-release of 6.25 with a few bug fixes for Core 2 Duo processors and native Vista support.
It doesn't contain any of the enhancements I've worked on over the last 2-3 years (on and off).
I toyed with the idea of including a couple of new features (e.g. the Plus D stuff) but I'd changed the emulation core so much to support the Plus D that I couldn't retrofit it back to the old code base.
A few people had betas of what was called 6.40 to test the Plus D support. I've added alot more stuff since then and decided to call it v7.
One of those changes is the re-writing of the RZX engine to support rollback during recording and pausing (e.g. during loading of a multiload game).
So we have:
Spectaculator 7 supports rollback and RZX pause
Spectaculator 7 plays RZX files that were recorded with SPIN's RZX Pause feature. Examples include Myth and the Back to the Future series.
I have not given any betas of v7 out yet. Because of the amount of changes, it's needs a jolly good thrashing before it's officially released. My plan is to release a beta open to all registered users.
- No ETA yet. I've decided not to give out dates as ppl get well pissed if you don't meet them (see any RealX thread ;-))
As it stands, there's alot of features only partially done - there's been some serious feature creep tbh :( I'm intending to get all these completely finished then go to the public beta.
Thanks for clearing that all up Jon. We'll bide our time for version 7!
Pavero, I believe there is a known problem with the new release of SPIN for recording (and playing?) RZXs. I'm pretty sure Dunny is aware of it though and I'm sure it'll be rectified in a future release.
Thanks for clearing that all up Jon. We'll bide our time for version 7!
Pavero, I believe there is a known problem with the new release of SPIN for recording (and playing?) RZXs. I'm pretty sure Dunny is aware of it though and I'm sure it'll be rectified in a future release.
Jamie
OK, I have thought that only playing of RZXs is the known problem ;-).
Heh, they also showed what pervs people are. Samantha Fox's strip poker was at number 4 and was destined to become the number one download.
Black and white low resolution tits! Wow!
What surprised me was when that weird looking pink alien quine got her tits out at the end of Captain Blood and spreadeagled herself across the control panel. Twas a bit of an unexpected ending to say the least. Should be a hit on Speccy Spoilers.
Probably permanent. The old site used a SQL Server database and asp.net scripting. I have no wish or time to learn PHP/MySQL. Plus I told Martijn I only needed a static site, which I think is ample. I don't want to add an unnecessary load to the server.
What surprised me was when that weird looking pink alien quine got her tits out at the end of Captain Blood and spreadeagled herself across the control panel. Twas a bit of an unexpected ending to say the least. Should be a hit on Speccy Spoilers.
What a great feeling, when you know, that someone spent all that 3 hours watching your RZX!:lol:
BTW, did anybody try to record a RZX in the new version of Spin (0.61)? I tried to record four or five (with using rollback) and all were broken :-(.
I recorded Shadowfire in Spin 0.61 and that seems to work fine, although I didn't use rollback; its too much like cheating. :-) The problems with Spin seem to be more to do with playback; sometimes it works, sometimes it bombs and it's hard to tell why.
Comments
Yep, there's a few of the SPIN-only RZXs. And I think most of them only play in a certain version of SPIN.
If anyone wants to re-record these so they play in all the other RZX emus then be my guest.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
Congratulations Daren and Martijn for getting the shows back on the road.
Regarding rzx playback, maybe someone could develop a standalone rzx player, capable of playing any rzx file.
To my knowledge, Superkid, Shao Lin's Road and Cerius 2 could all do with replacement RZXs. I don't think Superkid and Shao Lins Road even work in SPIN anymore! Of these three, two are now denied and Shao Lins Road is pretty crappy so I don't suppose they're a great loss :)
Some versions of SPIN didn't write RZX frames as per the spec if a re-triggered interrupt occured. The RZX files themselves are corrupt in that sense so other emulator's can only add fudges to get them working. Better to have proper RZX files IMO, otherwise we're back to AIR again ;-)
Avalon is another that needs redoing.
Jon.
Another Spectaculator user here. Is there a chance that future versions could have the option to play those non-standard RZX's? Better yet, is there a way to fix those files so Spectaculator can play them?
It may seem unnecessary, but tell that that to those guys who recorded RZX's of long, long games. *'Myth, history in the making' comes to mind*
:)
Yep, xmikex and myself went through a phase where we recorded all these multiload games using SPIN's "RZX Pause" feature. It creates a nice, neat seamless recording but it did present compatibility problems with all other emulators (although I think Fuse can play em now), so unfortunately we don't really use it any more. A lot of the games we submitted also had individual level RZXs for those without recent versions of SPIN. Might be a good idea for us to do that with Myth as well, I'll talk with xmikex about it.
RZX'ing can still be a very tricky business. The version of SPIN we use is pretty reliable though and records maybe 80% of the games we attempt first time. Of the ones that don't record first time you can normally "walk them slowly to the end", checking back the RZX every few minutes or so for errors. Cauldron 2 and Bumpy are examples of games that had to be completed in this way. One game that seems not to RZX at all is Hydrofool, a damn shame as we'd love to do it.
Jon, if you're still listening, what are the chances of incorporating rollback and /or the RZX pause feature into future versions of Spectaculator?
Jamie
I think I read somewhere that these files don't even play on the 'fixed' version of SPIN so it's best they're just redone tbh.
There's nothing wrong with Myth - just ran it on v7 and it played to the end.
Yeah, a few of us weren't expecting to see additional snapshots and input recording blocks in one file. Nothing wrong with this though (and a nice idea). These files should play fine.
Edit: I was almost sure the released 6.x could play RZX's recorded with the 'RZX Pause' feature but it doesn't :-?. Version 7 does.
It's more than likely the "EI-End of Frame" situation which the RZX spec doesn't handle. You can normally tell because the recording doesn't even play back on the recording emulator. Spectaculator 6.1+ has a workaround to ensure spec compliance and playback. Might be worth trying this on 6.30 (no rollback though!), if you can. If you need an extended trial period, send me a PM and i'll sort it out.
Embarrassingly, I implemented it about 2 years ago along with rollback - Wizard's Lair on the RZX archive was one of the test recordings.
Cheers,
Jon.
So when can we expect version 7?
I be confustimacated.
Skarpo
:-?
But he also said:
"Might be worth trying this on 6.30 (no rollback though!)"
Ahhh! Excellent point there. Sorry!
Now I am at least confident in what it is I am confused about ... i.e. his comment and not yours ;-)
Skarpo
:-)
Jamie
D'Oh. Have you looked at the back to the future ones as well? When it stops it says there is a whole bunch of data available in the frame when only one read was required. It looks like tape data is there (the games tries to load from tape). Is this something extra that can/should be added to spectaculator's rzx?
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
Jamie
- Spectaculator 6.30 can't play back files on the RZX Archive that were recorded with SPIN's RZX Pause feature. There's nothing wrong with these files. Examples are Myth and the Back to the Futures parts 2 & 3. (The other one is denied so I couldn't test it).
- Some files won't play back because they were created by a buggy version of SPIN which didn't record re-triggered interrupts correctly. These files are knacked and need redoing. Avalon is an example.
- Spectaculator 6.30 does not have any form of rollback or pause when recording RZXes.
Although 6.30 is now out, it's basically a re-release of 6.25 with a few bug fixes for Core 2 Duo processors and native Vista support.It doesn't contain any of the enhancements I've worked on over the last 2-3 years (on and off).
I toyed with the idea of including a couple of new features (e.g. the Plus D stuff) but I'd changed the emulation core so much to support the Plus D that I couldn't retrofit it back to the old code base.
A few people had betas of what was called 6.40 to test the Plus D support. I've added alot more stuff since then and decided to call it v7.
One of those changes is the re-writing of the RZX engine to support rollback during recording and pausing (e.g. during loading of a multiload game).
So we have:
- Spectaculator 7 plays RZX files that were recorded with SPIN's RZX Pause feature. Examples include Myth and the Back to the Future series.
I have not given any betas of v7 out yet. Because of the amount of changes, it's needs a jolly good thrashing before it's officially released. My plan is to release a beta open to all registered users.- No ETA yet. I've decided not to give out dates as ppl get well pissed if you don't meet them (see any RealX thread ;-))
As it stands, there's alot of features only partially done - there's been some serious feature creep tbh :( I'm intending to get all these completely finished then go to the public beta.
Cheers,
Jon.
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
Pavero, I believe there is a known problem with the new release of SPIN for recording (and playing?) RZXs. I'm pretty sure Dunny is aware of it though and I'm sure it'll be rectified in a future release.
Jamie
Tsk tsk, the statistics were half the fun! :D
I've converted the site to static HTML for the new server, so dynamic aspects such as the stats are no longer available.
Heh, they also showed what pervs people are. Samantha Fox's strip poker was at number 4 and was destined to become the number one download.
Black and white low resolution tits! Wow!
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
What surprised me was when that weird looking pink alien quine got her tits out at the end of Captain Blood and spreadeagled herself across the control panel. Twas a bit of an unexpected ending to say the least. Should be a hit on Speccy Spoilers.
Probably permanent. The old site used a SQL Server database and asp.net scripting. I have no wish or time to learn PHP/MySQL. Plus I told Martijn I only needed a static site, which I think is ample. I don't want to add an unnecessary load to the server.
What a great feeling, when you know, that someone spent all that 3 hours watching your RZX!:lol:
I recorded Shadowfire in Spin 0.61 and that seems to work fine, although I didn't use rollback; its too much like cheating. :-) The problems with Spin seem to be more to do with playback; sometimes it works, sometimes it bombs and it's hard to tell why.