Definitive list of games incompatible with +2A/+3 and of compatible versions (if any)
I am trying to compile the definitive list of games which are incompatible with the +2A and the +3 and of their compatible versions, if they are present of course. With "compatible versions" I only mean official releases, therefore excluding any fixes and/or hacks, such as Cristian Secara's excellent fixed version of Platoon.
Starting sources were the WoS forum and Velesoft's "fixed" games collection. I have conducted the research using Fuse for Windows 1.0.0.1, ZX Spin 0.7 and two actual, unmodified +2A machines.
1. Completely incompatible games (together with effect):
2. Compatible versions of otherwise incompatible games:
3. Other cases:
Anyone willing to help? Thanks in advance :)
Starting sources were the WoS forum and Velesoft's "fixed" games collection. I have conducted the research using Fuse for Windows 1.0.0.1, ZX Spin 0.7 and two actual, unmodified +2A machines.
1. Completely incompatible games (together with effect):
- Advanced Soccer Simulator - Freezes after selecting player team.
- Austerlitz 1805 128K - "C Nonsense in BASIC, 1500:3" error upon loading first data block.
- Cyclone - Upon loading, emits a beep and then the system resets.
- Fairlight 128K - System crash after initial screen.
- Fairlight II 128K - Freezes upon loading.
- Frank Bruno's Boxing - Freezes upon loading.
- Fourth Protocol, The - System crash after initial screen.
- Geoff Capes Strong Man - Reset after game start.
- Impact - Reset after game start.
- Kliatba Noci - System crash after game start.
- Kung Fu - Reset after game start.
- Pole Position (all versions) - Reset after game start.
- Road Runner (US Gold) - Reset upon loading.
- Starglider 128K - Game starts with missing text and graphics.
- Starstrike II - Reset upon loading.
- Tau Ceti 128K - System crash upon loading.
- Thanatos 128K - Reset upon loading.
- Their Finest Hour - Reset upon loading.
- Three Weeks In Paradise 128K - Reset upon loading (this one in particular will only load on a first generation 128K machine).
2. Compatible versions of otherwise incompatible games:
- Bomb Jack (MCM)
- Cobra (Hit Squad)
- Hysteria (A Year After Mix)
- Mikie (Hit Squad)
- Paperboy (MCM)
- Rambo (Hit Squad)
- Short Circuit 128K (Hit Squad)
- Skyfox (Dro Soft; Spanish language)
- Tomahawk (Byte Back; removes Lenslok protection as well)
- Top Gun (Hit Squad; no music, sound effects only)
3. Other cases:
- Shao Lin's Road - Load only under 128K mode.
Anyone willing to help? Thanks in advance :)
Post edited by Alessandro Grussu on
Comments
do the ultimate games have the same issues without a little fix as they do with the divide .i.e. "usr 0" or 1? in 128 mode
starstrike 1 or 2 (I forget ) will work from frozen snap version.. again a firebird one of both might fix that.
I created this version from a snapshot: Starstrike II.
Oh sorry, I read too fast. :razz:
Additions for the second list:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013915
both were on that tape.. as for fixed, not sure.. but maybe Ian Oliver will see it mentioned here :)
Yep :)
I find that rather odd. 48K version - no problem on the +2A in 128K mode. Try and load the proper version made for that (type) of machine and it fails!
Is it just the early 128K games that fail or are there some later ones, too?
I don't find it odd. After all, the 48k versions don't mess with the memory ports.
It was the hit squad version.
Any other examples spring to mind, anyone?
Rasputin needs an Issue 2 Spectrum model to work.
Meanwhile I have spotted another one for point 2 of my list:
Can't remember the name of the ride, but it was the one with the blue solid line across the whole screen. Problem being on the +2a the line isn't quite so solid, you drop through it like it's not there.
Firing up the same copy on my 48k, no problem, walked straight accross it
There's a Hit Squad release, so it might be fixed there, or maybe not (perhaps only crashes were fixed, or this problem wasn't known back then).
Meanwhile, itsallgood helped me find that the Sinclair User Megatape 10 versions of both Spellbound 48K and Knight Tyme 48K work on the +2A and +3.
EDIT: At least under emulation - again, do not have the time to do a thorough research on the actual machines, but with Fuse for Windows 1.0.0.1 the behavior of the game is identical. Will care to confirm this on the actual machines as soon as possible, but so far there have been no discrepancies between emulation and real hardware.
What he means is the 128s are faster than the 48 (which is 3.5Mhz). The t-states are also different so multicolour effects that rely on 48 timings look wrong on 128 hardware. You also have to consider that all the I/O is contended on the 128 and +2 (which makes them a little closer in timings to the original 48 ... maybe that's why they did it), but the +2A/+3 do not have contended I/O and so are the fastest machines of the Sinclair branded ones. Generally that's a good thing though as it means less chance of sprite flicker.
The 128k models are slightly faster (70908 states per frame vs 69888 in 48k models), and each line takes 228 states vs 224 in 48k. Pentagon and other russian clones are even faster (and they have no low memory contention).
This screws up a bit some border effects, such as those in Aquaplane or Paperboy menu, but the effects are mostly harmless, and modern games usually take those differences into consideration when doing multicolour effects.
Anyway, let's get back to topic please - while interesting, this is a different discussion altogether.
Seems like it must be moved to list 2, because the versions included in both Sinclair User tapes do work.