Best loading on a game

edited December 2007 in Games
For me, it has to be Technician Ted, with all those TT's walking across the screen.

2nd comes Skooldaze, only because I spent many MANY of my evenings playing this game on my trusty Spectrum with Saga Emporer keyboard. I ended up swapping it for a small white stereo system that was okay but I wish I'd kept it.....

I can't think of a 3rd....... there was one that had numerous colours in the border but I've no idea which one.


Which do you think was the best loading on a game?
Post edited by deffstar on
«134

Comments

  • edited October 2007
    Nothing beats playing pacman while loading up Joe Blade 2.
  • edited October 2007
    Was gonna say thats the one. Technican Ted was cool at the time but when there was that game (Joe Blade you say) which had a mini game while it loaded, that was the best
  • edited October 2007
    Starstrike II
    I loved the vertical loading bar on the right
  • edited October 2007
    ghbearman wrote: »
    Nothing beats playing pacman while loading up Joe Blade 2.

    Moonstrike (48k) had a much better loader.
  • edited October 2007
    Bluce_Ree wrote: »
    Moonstrike (48k) had a much better loader.

    Hmm...

    I just looked at the archive version of Moonstrike.

    Side A doesn't load in 48k mode (but gets further in 128k mode - although it still doesn't bloody load) and side B doesn't appear to load at all. (I'm using Spectaculator).

    Can anyone confirm?

    Andrew
  • edited October 2007
    Side A loads fine on Fuse if I turn off tape traps and loader detection. Side B loads fine with those on.
  • edited October 2007
    hello

    i tryed to slow-load(turned off fast load)starstrike 2 on spectaculator 6.30.the loading bar was there,but the loading bar did not fill up?is this different on other emulators?thank you

    colin
  • edited October 2007
    Fighting Warrior had a really funky loading scheme. It had lines going around the screen, building it. I remember being amazed by it.
  • edited October 2007
    very "subtle" candidate for the best loading is Academy...

    just the jets of the rocket are the location of the loading stripes, nothing else, nothing big... but that?s THE ingenious idea, IMHO
    G! - That makes sense in BASIC 0:1
  • edited October 2007
    Well , if we're also including the little bit at the end of loading , then Booty is pretty cool with the pirate ship on a shimmering sea , but the best is probably Brian Bloodaxe which pretends to reset your machine

    Worst ever has to go to LOTR Fellowship
  • edited October 2007
    Tech Ted is my fave , remember at the time thinking " how did they manage that :o "

    :D
  • edited October 2007
    I'd like to add :-
    • The Final Matrix - and all the other games that use the Search Loader - that was the first one I'd seen and I was really impressed by it.
    • Zanthrax - Crash covertape game - it was rubbish but the loader was cool.
    • Starquake - especially when the multicoloured stripes kicked in.
    • Locomotion - the loading screen is a sliding puzzle.
    • Dynamite Dan 2 - with the cool flashing logo.
    Necros.
  • edited October 2007
    Necros wrote: »
    I'd like to add :-
    • Locomotion - the loading screen is a sliding puzzle.
    Necros.

    I'd like to add this one is really nasty f*'ng trick,
    load it in realtime and stop the tape during the action... you'll see the UNSTOPABLE loading routine!!! :lol:

    really nasty, programers must have had fun getting this silly idea to fool the folks
    G! - That makes sense in BASIC 0:1
  • edited October 2007
    Knight Lore had quite good loading. Cos when it finished, you could play Knight Lore.
  • edited October 2007
    Hmm...

    I just looked at the archive version of Moonstrike.

    Side A doesn't load in 48k mode (but gets further in 128k mode - although it still doesn't bloody load) and side B doesn't appear to load at all. (I'm using Spectaculator).

    Can anyone confirm?

    Andrew

    This is the first game that I've found that doesn't work on ZXDS, Side A resets on the the Press Enter to Continue screen after it finishes loading, Side A loads fine.
  • edited October 2007
    the one that goes

    derrrrrrrrrr...DIT

    derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....DITDITDITDITDITDITDITDRAAAAAANNNNGGGG
  • edited October 2007
    def chris wrote: »
    the one that goes

    derrrrrrrrrr...DIT

    derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....DITDITDITDITDITDITDITDRAAAAAANNNNGGGG
    Bumpy? :lol:
  • edited October 2007
    There's also Future Games and Dan Dare. Incidentally, I've just noticed that the original Flash Load version of Dan Dare seems to be missing from the archive. I have a .tzx version lying around here somewhere and I can upload it if it's required.

    Necros.
  • edited October 2007
    I loved this game and when the loading screen was completed, Brian walked along the huge monty python style words and fell off...resetting the speccy!

    D'oh! you cried, but then the spectrum gives you a health warning about the game and asks if you want to carry on..if so you need to blow gently on the keyboard....wierd.
  • edited October 2007
    Hmm...

    I just looked at the archive version of Moonstrike.

    Side A doesn't load in 48k mode (but gets further in 128k mode - although it still doesn't bloody load) and side B doesn't appear to load at all. (I'm using Spectaculator).

    Can anyone confirm?

    Andrew

    Turn off autoplay/stop on and by the power of greyskull, it works :)

    Cheers,

    Jon.
  • edited October 2007
    ladderman wrote: »
    hello

    i tryed to slow-load(turned off fast load)starstrike 2 on spectaculator 6.30.the loading bar was there,but the loading bar did not fill up?is this different on other emulators?thank you

    colin

    Hi Colin. Works for me if you turn off flashloading and load it the normal way.

    Jon.
  • edited October 2007
    Pegaz wrote: »

    Mind Trap is pretty good, i have not seen that before :cool:
  • edited October 2007
    I remember reading some old w.o.s. threads on this subject, and some of the loading schemes I saw looked amazing. There's one that shows the instructions while it's loading.

    And if you want something that was done recently, there's a video on YouTube showing a 48K playing a melody while loading a game!
  • edited October 2007
    Although not a game, tape version of MDA by Busy Soft had a loader which synchronized itself with interrupt to do the "show the message when reset is pressed" trick while loading.
  • edited October 2007
    Patrik Rak wrote: »
    Although not a game, tape version of MDA by Busy Soft had a loader which synchronized itself with interrupt to do the "show the message when reset is pressed" trick while loading.

    Busy's loaders are really great. Most of his demos (tape versions) had them The one with full-screen loading stripes (BSCOPY128) and the one you mentioned. Great stuff. Need to find those again :)

    TC
  • edited October 2007
    zxbruno wrote: »
    I remember reading some old w.o.s. threads on this subject, and some of the loading schemes I saw looked amazing. There's one that shows the instructions while it's loading.
    Deflektor does that, does it not?
  • edited October 2007
    Vertigo wrote: »
    Deflektor does that, does it not?

    It does indeed, using the Search Loader (although at present it isn't listed as such -- it definitely is Search though). I think the first game to use the loader was Costa Capers.
  • edited October 2007
    StuBruise wrote: »
    It does indeed, using the Search Loader
    Why are JSW : The Time Hole and City Slicker included in that list? Yes, City Slicker was programmed by Marsden & Cooke but it uses a very different loader and the JSW game just uses the standard JSW128 loader with no modifications. :???:

    Necros.
  • edited October 2007
    Necros wrote: »
    Why are JSW : The Time Hole and City Slicker included in that list? Yes, City Slicker was programmed by Marsden & Cooke but it uses a very different loader and the JSW game just uses the standard JSW128 loader with no modifications. :???:

    I posted about JSW: The Time Hole in the Infoseek subforum so Martijn's now fixed that.

    As for City Slicker, it does seem to use Search Loader even though it might not look like it (I think it uses different timings to Ranarama); I disassembled the two loaders and they're basically the same. Same goes for Pac-Land, by the way; it has none of the visual hallmarks of Search Loader but the code is virtually identical.

    Or at least, the code initially loaded into memory is the same; I disassembled the games' loaders as soon as the code was executed so I don't know if there are further differences beyond that (for example, this could be just a short bootstrap loader to get the main loader, um, loaded).
Sign In or Register to comment.