The Sinclair QL Forum

Silvester wrote:Don't forget the STOP instructions halts DSL activity and that is used by Trump Card (maybe also GC/SGC?) for DRAM refresh.

Would that also effect a Tetroid QBIDE with an on board RAM upgrade? I think that is what Nokosdoykas is using. (I don't know about Cristian)

I might try NOPing out the STOP command and see what happens (I expect the game will run a lot faster), then post it here to be tried.

I'm pretty sure SGC DRAM refresh should work differently - I'd guess there are no /DS pulses as well when the CPU is running code from the instruction cache.

Tobias

Martin_Head wrote:Would that also effect a Tetroid QBIDE with an on board RAM upgrade? I think that is what Nokosdoykas is using. (I don't know about Cristian)

I use an original TrumpCard (768K)

I have tried to get rid of the STOP instruction to see if it fixes the problems seen.

In the BOOT program of the patched version of the game I uploaded, add
This will replace the routine with STOP in it to NOP's.

In Qemulator the game runs a lot faster.

To replace the STOP with a software delay loop, add the following Adjust the $044C in line 370 to adjust the speed, lower=faster.

In Qemulator, it's a little slow, so may want speeding up a bit.

in real hard ware.... 1 screen 2 cose to quick and then black screen and nothing else...

First, the game couldn't enter the option menu and freezed in black screen.
Then with the modified line 155, the option menu was almost always invisible but it was possible to type "S" and start the game, which was too fast.
Now, with PatchSTOP procedure the option menu appears, the game is playable and finally it's possible to control the bat (almost) normally!
Thank you Martin!

QL+TrumpCard+Minerva

P.S.
Anyway, let's say this is not the best brick game ever. The ball suddenly speeds up like a bullet, and the bat acceleration is exaggerated.

Cristian wrote:First, the game couldn't enter the option menu and freezed in black screen.
Then with the modified line 155, the option menu was almost always invisible but it was possible to type "S" and start the game, which was too fast.
Now, with PatchSTOP procedure the option menu appears, the game is playable and finally it's possible to control the bat (almost) normally!
Thank you Martin!

QL+TrumpCard+Minerva

P.S.
Anyway, let's say this is not the best brick game ever. The ball suddenly speeds up like a bullet, and the bat acceleration is exaggerated.

So the game will work on on a real QL.

I was wondering if you tried doing a RES_128 on the Trump card, and then trying the game. It should make sure that the game runs in the internal RAM rather than the Trump card RAM. So if the STOP instruction causes problems with the Trump card RAM refresh, it should not be affect the game. Or could you put the game on a microdrive, and try it in an unexpanded QL.

As far as all the black screens problems go. The game does keep switching the display on and off by writing to the master status register (I think that's what it is called). I don't know if writing to this address works in Qemulator. Which might be why I don't see blank screen problems. I might try NOPing out the code that alters this register to see what happens.

Even if now the option menu is always visible, still the black screen problem sometimes occurs when passing to next level.
Surely I'll try both RES_128 and microdrive methods, then I'll let you know.
Thank you very much Martin.

I made some tests with the BOOT (without the PatchSTOP procedure).
I got the best results from microdrive, without Trumpcard and without Minerva rom.
I had to remove the splash screen because of the limited space of the cartridges
Also with Trumpcard + RES_128 and JM Rom the stability seems almost perfect.
So, the blank screen problems seem connected mainly to Trumpcard RAM (and to a lesser extent to Minerva).
I reached level 5. Anyway, the racket acceleration is difficult to control even with a good joystick.

I have no idea what this game is, but what kind of compression could you do on the splash screen?