Hi,
I want to enter some POKEs into a game on my ZX Spectrum, but whenever
i do a LOAD "", my games always autorun. Is there any way I can get
the program to just load into memory so I can POKE and then RUN the
program?
try MERGE "" that will load the first block and stop.
I tried a MERGE "" but as it loads the first, and only the first, thing, it only loaded the loader, and I don't know what the game itself is called. Any ideas?
where you'd put your POKEs in at line 25. Others may have protected loaders or autorun - Manic Miner is one example (I think).
If you look at some cheats sections of magazines like CRASH and SU they have complete replacement loaders that you have to type in to be able to POKE your game.
I tried what you suggested with 'Skateboard Construction System', but it didn't work. It began loading and then it lokked like it had reset and had the Amstrad copyright notice in the bottom left hand corner. Do I need a 'Multiface' or something like that?
The following program will give infinite lives in the demo game Kickturn:
10 LET t=0
20 FOR x=32768 TO 32811
30 READ y
40 POKE x,y
50 LET t=t+y
60 NEXT x
70 IF t<>5212 THEN PRINT "Error in data" : STOP
80 CLEAR 24499 : RANDOMIZE USR 32768
90 DATA 221,33,203,92,17,226
100 DATA 0,62,255,55,205,86,5
110 DATA 48,241,62,201,50,46
120 DATA 93,205,23,93,33,37
130 DATA 128,17,158,253,1,7,0
140 DATA 237,176,195,112,253
150 DATA 175,50,156,242,195
160 DATA 28,237
(Poke by Gerard Sweeney taken from The Tipshop, I just wrote the loader)
However another way of hacking it would be to use the SAVE WHOLE option on the menu which is used to create a stand-alone game; this saves the game code without a custom loader so you can load it in as recommended (ie. CLEAR 24499 : LOAD "" CODE : RANDOMIZE USR 60700) but you can also include the poke if you wish (ie. CLEAR 24499 : LOAD "" CODE : POKE 62108,0 : RANDOMIZE USR 60700).
Well anyway to know the names of the parts following the loader you can use
VERIFY "_" or VERIFY"***"
use a name probably not used in the list.
so "Commander" might use "Com" in the name, so dont use "Verify "com"
Verify wont load any thing into yr spectrum but it will let pass al prog blocks until it found the right block.
meanwhile al names are printed on your screen including if its code or not ( Prog: Bytes:)
you can search on wos in the archive for an header reader program.
then you have exact info.
I wrote one buts not in wos since i never realy finished it.
maybe i will do.
It's not just one game, I was kind of looking for something 'universal'. I'm trying the VERIFY "_" now (thanks for that, I didn't think of that :lol: ). BTW, do I need a Multiface to use POKEs?
The majority of spectrum games you are likely to want to play (and cheat) either have custom loaders or fancy ways of compressing themselves.
This means that the spectrum loads the game in a compressed or encrypted form and when the spectrum executes the machine code the first part of the code unpacks the game to its final (workable) state.
Thats why even loading the code and then poking will fail in a lot of games (because although the games loaded - its not unpacked yet).
For a complete solution you could get a multiface - so you can stop and alter the code while it is running.
Or you could add the poke to the game you want to cheat using an emulator. You can then save this snapshot back to tape using a program like Hypraloader. (I'm showing my age - I'm sure there is a newer program that will do this)
Comments
(Oops! You are not using an emu(???))
I actually do like haggis*, so thank ye very much!
Skarpo
:-)
*Well, it depends on how it's prepared.
I tried a MERGE "" but as it loads the first, and only the first, thing, it only loaded the loader, and I don't know what the game itself is called. Any ideas?
skarpo: I love haggis and gravy!
you really need to give us the name of the game before we can help further
Some games have a really simple loader like this:
10 LOAD""SCREEN$
20 LOAD""CODE
30 RANDOMIZE USR xxxxx
where you'd put your POKEs in at line 25. Others may have protected loaders or autorun - Manic Miner is one example (I think).
If you look at some cheats sections of magazines like CRASH and SU they have complete replacement loaders that you have to type in to be able to POKE your game.
(Poke by Gerard Sweeney taken from The Tipshop, I just wrote the loader)
However another way of hacking it would be to use the SAVE WHOLE option on the menu which is used to create a stand-alone game; this saves the game code without a custom loader so you can load it in as recommended (ie. CLEAR 24499 : LOAD "" CODE : RANDOMIZE USR 60700) but you can also include the poke if you wish (ie. CLEAR 24499 : LOAD "" CODE : POKE 62108,0 : RANDOMIZE USR 60700).
It's not just one game, I was kind of looking for something 'universal'. I'm trying the VERIFY "_" now (thanks for that, I didn't think of that :lol: ). BTW, do I need a Multiface to use POKEs?
The majority of spectrum games you are likely to want to play (and cheat) either have custom loaders or fancy ways of compressing themselves.
This means that the spectrum loads the game in a compressed or encrypted form and when the spectrum executes the machine code the first part of the code unpacks the game to its final (workable) state.
Thats why even loading the code and then poking will fail in a lot of games (because although the games loaded - its not unpacked yet).
For a complete solution you could get a multiface - so you can stop and alter the code while it is running.
Or you could add the poke to the game you want to cheat using an emulator. You can then save this snapshot back to tape using a program like Hypraloader. (I'm showing my age - I'm sure there is a newer program that will do this)