Unspecified Custom Loaders Identified
This thread specialises in loaders which are considered to be "Unspecified custom loaders" according to the Infoseek engine. These loaders (after some cross-reference and analysis) can be then identified and named. I would like to start off:
I've been looking at some games which appear to be listed as having "Unspecified Custom Loaders" - and I've identified similar recurring patterns:
- The normal "Program: Name" prompt is displayed at the beginning of the opening block
- The next block either begins with a border in a nonstandard colour, or has a small BASIC block in standard colours before loading future blocks (CODE) in nonstandard colours
Variant 1
- The screen AND the program are part of the same headerless CODE block recorded at normal speed
- The loading stripes on the border are nonstandard colours (same colour for the pilot tone and data) for the majority of the block
- The final minute of the block has the loading stripes suddenly switch over to multicolour stripes in a rainbow-like fashion (in no particular order)
Example(s): Wizard's Lair
Variant 2
- The screen AND the program are part of the same headerless CODE block recorded at normal speed
- The border is a nonstandard colour
- The loading stripes on the border are multicolour rainbow stripes (both pilot tone and data)
Example(s): The Ice Temple
Variant 3
- The screen and the program are SEPARATE headerless CODE blocks recorded at normal speed
- There are NO loading stripes on the screen - the border simply flashes and cycles between colours (both pilot tone and data)
- There is no indication that the title screen is being loaded except for the last few lines at the bottom at the end of the screen block
- This loader can have separate smaller blocks as opposed to large single ones
Example(s): Las Vegas Casino
Variant 4
- The screen and the program are SEPARATE headerless CODE blocks recorded at normal speed
- Some games will include a pre-loader warning or notice followed by a short BASIC block with a header (especially true if it is a multiload game)
- The remaining blocks are in multicolour rainbow stripes
- There is no indication that the title screen is being loaded except for the last few lines at the bottom at the end of the screen block
- This loader can have separate smaller blocks as opposed to large single ones
Example(s): Dragon Spirit
I've been racking my brains to come up with a name for this loader (and no, I'm not confusing these loaders with the Injectaload or Flash Loaders). Since the variants share the same multicolour loading stripes (or lack thereof), I was thinking of christening it the "Arcus Loader" ("Arcus" being Latin for "Rainbow"). The data encoding seems to be very similar to each other, so I'm not just picking out random custom loaders (NOT protection schemes). I wonder if anyone on the WOS Administration team is reading this - perhaps you could consider naming this loader based on the information I've given (Arcus x - x being the variant number).
Additional: By the way, this loader was used in both 48K AND 128K games, to my knowledge.
I've been looking at some games which appear to be listed as having "Unspecified Custom Loaders" - and I've identified similar recurring patterns:
- The normal "Program: Name" prompt is displayed at the beginning of the opening block
- The next block either begins with a border in a nonstandard colour, or has a small BASIC block in standard colours before loading future blocks (CODE) in nonstandard colours
Variant 1
- The screen AND the program are part of the same headerless CODE block recorded at normal speed
- The loading stripes on the border are nonstandard colours (same colour for the pilot tone and data) for the majority of the block
- The final minute of the block has the loading stripes suddenly switch over to multicolour stripes in a rainbow-like fashion (in no particular order)
Example(s): Wizard's Lair
Variant 2
- The screen AND the program are part of the same headerless CODE block recorded at normal speed
- The border is a nonstandard colour
- The loading stripes on the border are multicolour rainbow stripes (both pilot tone and data)
Example(s): The Ice Temple
Variant 3
- The screen and the program are SEPARATE headerless CODE blocks recorded at normal speed
- There are NO loading stripes on the screen - the border simply flashes and cycles between colours (both pilot tone and data)
- There is no indication that the title screen is being loaded except for the last few lines at the bottom at the end of the screen block
- This loader can have separate smaller blocks as opposed to large single ones
Example(s): Las Vegas Casino
Variant 4
- The screen and the program are SEPARATE headerless CODE blocks recorded at normal speed
- Some games will include a pre-loader warning or notice followed by a short BASIC block with a header (especially true if it is a multiload game)
- The remaining blocks are in multicolour rainbow stripes
- There is no indication that the title screen is being loaded except for the last few lines at the bottom at the end of the screen block
- This loader can have separate smaller blocks as opposed to large single ones
Example(s): Dragon Spirit
I've been racking my brains to come up with a name for this loader (and no, I'm not confusing these loaders with the Injectaload or Flash Loaders). Since the variants share the same multicolour loading stripes (or lack thereof), I was thinking of christening it the "Arcus Loader" ("Arcus" being Latin for "Rainbow"). The data encoding seems to be very similar to each other, so I'm not just picking out random custom loaders (NOT protection schemes). I wonder if anyone on the WOS Administration team is reading this - perhaps you could consider naming this loader based on the information I've given (Arcus x - x being the variant number).
Additional: By the way, this loader was used in both 48K AND 128K games, to my knowledge.
Post edited by Swevicus on
Comments
It's not always obvious which loading scheme (if any) a game uses when doing the relatively simple job of sampling a tape and converting it into a TZX (I often refer to Andy's excellent loading scheme pages when something appears non-standard). Also, if you're only using a pre-converted TZX for reference then you can't be 100% certain whether the TZX was converted properly in the first place or bodged (intentionally or unintentionally) so that it at least loads. It's quite easy to alter a few values here and there, slow down or speed up data blocks and still get most things to work.
I'm certainly no expert but I have been converting tapes for years and there are loads of my earlier efforts that I'd really like to go back to and check again as I na?vely thought I'd got them "right" at the time. Basically, I think it's something you need to have spent a fair bit of time doing before you try and get your head round it.
Grouping similar loaders together isn't a bad idea as such but in terms of properly identifying and labelling them I think you've got to be very careful and need some half decent programming knowledge to be able to look at the code behind each one so you can be certain that a specific type isn't lumped in with another that just looks similar on the surface. For example, I've seen a ton of games that don't have header blocks but who's to say that the loading scheme is the same for each one? Just because one game loads in at normal speed but uses blue/black loading stripes who's to say that it's the exact same loading scheme as another that looks the same. Maybe the code behind the loader is totally different?
Also, until you've actually looked at all the thousands(?) of uncategorised ones you won't really have an accurate idea of how many different "variants" there are. You may well end up with Variant 1, Variant 2, ..., Variant 347 etc. Also, how many variants actually only appear once?
I don't think it's a bad idea to try and lump a load of games that appear to use a certain loader type together but who's going to go through and make sure that they do all use the exact same loader? Like with a lot of projects in life, it's one thing to suggest something but a lot harder to actually undertake all the work yourself.
Anyway, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade but that's just my 2p on the subject :)