Spectrum Next

[spacefractal]

Yes im not and newer have been fan of the Spectrum machines and have newer really been that. Howover im have do some spectrum port projects etc.

Spectrum Next which some people just have got the dev boards have got arrived, so its seen that kick start project is one of them that dont go wrong. Spectrum Next does have some extended modes, which im actuelly like, example trible AY chips as well a FM chip. The sid chip is howover gone, which is good. Spectrum using Sid would fell very weird anyway. But doing Dual AY tunes is actuelly fun.

Howover im also got asked to write some music to a Spectrum Next game. Its a port from the Nintendo DS with new fancy graphics, found the Atari 800 tune of the original, which im approvede to use Dual AY and much more. Im guess many of you know Warhawk :-).

Also im have done few tunes for fun in either Dual or Single AY. Im post them later when converted and uploaded in the Spectrum section on my homepage.

PS. Its based on the Atari 800 version, but im approvede and extended it.

[MrPlow]

Cool!!
The game looks and sounds great!

I am getting my ZX Next in January providing the orders are not delayed...

[erico]

Sounds awesome! I heard this tune a billion times on slayradio.
Well done!

I´m not surprised about the competence on the spectrum next campaign, the 2 brazilians on the team are very pros (which is a rare thing to find around here).

[bigsofty]

Rob Hubbard, maybe my no 1 chiptune artist of all time, nice one!   

[Ian Price]

Rob Hubbard was indeed the 8bit Music Maestro; Thing On A spring, Monty On The Run, Bounder etc. etc. Awesome stuffage.

[spacefractal]

three is various other tunes in this game as well, etc a boss fight tune and more. Its more or less based on the Nintendo DS version of the game.

we did have some memory issues here and there. hope Michael Ware got finished his game on time as well Manic Maker.

in the ingame, here we pretty much use the Atari 800 original where im have added the intro and some missing patterns from the Atari 800, which the tune is based on. Hence we credits X*Agon as well me, which created the Atari version of the tune. Im extended it for the title tune, which its use 6 channels.

So this is techinal second time have have do Spectrum 128 music for a game.

PS. Warhawk gonna to been a hard game :-). Hope fully we got implement a least a refill powerup for causel players.

[Hark0]

Hi!

Welcome Spectrum Next to new FPGA 8-bit computers! 



I'm are one of the ZX-Uno Team (http://www.zxuno.com)... developers of another FPGA ZX-Spectrum open source/hardware computer clone. (We are delighted with the arrival of this new machine ;-))

If are interested... you can find some info in the link attached.... or searching for our group in Facebook.


I'm currently finishing my first game for ZX-Uno (basically a ZX-Spectrum 48 kb with OUR NEW video graphic mode called "Radastan").

(I don't  know if the Next have support for this new video mode).


Features of Video Mode Radastan are:

128x*96 screen pixel... without color clash.
Each pixel have single color of a 16 color palette (based on Ulaplus - https://sites.google.com/site/ulaplus/home)
And we have, INT video raster, scroll.... and some other features.

I upload some snapshots... 


Videos:

On Emulator (ZEsarUX):

On real Hardware:

Developed using Z88DK. (https://www.z88dk.org/forum/)

;-)

PS (For a long time I did not enter this forum ... it's a pleasure to stop here again  )

[Ian Price]

Wow! Looks great

Keep us informed

[Hark0]

Wow! Looks great

Keep us informed

Of course!!! 

[spacefractal]

property im should split it, since its not a Spectrum Next, but more about a another spectrum clone. Anyway your game looks very cool too. The game would been more than possible do on Spectrum Next As well.

Yes im get a lots of demos of Warhawk of course. That game run in full 50/60fps with a loads of sprites onscreen. Spectrum Next have hardware sprites as well.

But cool anyway :-) and im like the graphics and style. So just keep us informed.

[spacefractal]

Next is using a mode called Layer 2 with 256 colors graphics, hardware sprites as well 3xAY sound. So property not Radastan, since im have newer heard about it nor mentiod it on the Spectrum Next forums. Warhawk Next is gonna to been a big spectrum game with around 1mb size.

[MrPlow]

Great to see some Speccy appreciation on here!

[bigsofty]

I'm really interested in how these work out, it would be nice to be able to break out my old copy of HiSoft DevPac and know there's more than just an emulator market. Good luck guys! 

[spacefractal]

edit:
The Radastan ULA is not supported on Spectrum Next, but its support a quite simular ula, Radasjimian instead using same resolution. But rather using 4bit per pixel (16 colors), its use one byte per pixels and using two "screen buffers" to draw the screen with. So its not the same ula, but does a similar trick.

On Spectrum Next for that game, im would not use Layer2 at all, since that graphics mode is too slow for all those tiles animations (even with cpu overclocking), so im will use the same Radasjimian ula for a Spectrum port as well would using a hardware sprite for the main hero to speed thing up.

That is what im would do with Return's to Holy Tower to support Spectrum Next. Its will require some work here. Mostly on the draw engine.

Lowres here does really have its charm for some games!!!!



Recently im have done some more dual AY Warhawk music as well to a ending and also seen that scene. Cool little one with a lots of particles used.

Just before new year im did music for this little demo (which here only use one AY chip, but the volume is a bit low for some reasons):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o06w55attthisj4/Happy%20New%20Year%20-%20Spectrum%20Next%20Demo.mp4?dl=0

music its self:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/285apz9d79mfmxc/Rush%20of%20Time%20-%20Happy%20New%20Year%21.mp3?dl=0


Yes im did newer liked Spectrum in its ealer day, but... there is some very nice spectrum games when done right.

Also we have also got a license from a another cool game, which im did have a hold of the C64 version (of course). howover the C64 version was a direct Speccy port, which is normally a no goo.... but gameplay was nice and im actuelly liked both the simple graphics and style of it and matched the theme nicely.... that is most important here. Howover im do by now cant talk about the game, since they not started porting it yet.

PS. Im sorry if im bashed your game,  Hark0. its was newer meant.

[bigsofty]

I enjoyed the ZXSpectrum but I was a Amstrad CPC man though and through. I must admit though, the ZX cause me some resentment back in the day due to some extremely dodgy arcade conversions from the ZXSpectrum to the CPC(since they were both Z80), reducing the colours/res, they even emulated colour-clash  !?!