Section 1 - General Knowledge
This is obviously pure conjecture at the moment, since no
definitive list has ever been produced, but should the Sinclair
Software Database ever be realised to near completion, this may
come close to providing an approximate answer. Still, my own guess
is about 12,000, but that is a guess. The trouble is
there are so many obscure games and programs that nobody has ever
heard of.
The answer is Dizzy, who has appeared in 15 CodeMasters
games in total, and more on other formats. This is the growing list of
them on the Spectrum (which is what we're here for):
- Dizzy
- Treasure Island Dizzy
- Fantasy World Dizzy
- MagicLand Dizzy
- SpellBound Dizzy
- Dizzy Prince Of The Yolk Folk
- Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
- Bubble Dizzy
- Dizzy Down The Rapids!
- Fast Food
- Kwik Snax
- Panic Dizzy
- Crash Special Edition of the original
- Crash Special Edition of Dizzy 2
- Dizzy 3.5 (Crash Xmas Special)
Such a cool thing has been available for quite a lot of moons and is named
'HypraLoader'. It was written by Tomaz Kac and can be found here.
This tool can upload any common filetype to your Speccy using the
SoundBlaster output.
You could also try another tool, TAPER, which can upload tape format files
(.TAP, .LTP, .TZX) using either your SoundBlaster or parallel port interface.
Not including Speccy Sensations of course!
The Spectrum Games Compilation of 90 games was released 1988 by the
remnants of Argus Press Software/Bug-Byte/Quicksilva. It's made up of
various budget games covering 1983-1987, mostly of typical Quicksilva
quality. However, there is the odd gem on it, including what is possibly
the best 2-player game ever - Xeno (as recommended by Jon Ritman!). I
don't think there were any reviews, though the Argus Press '30 Games'
compilation from 1986 covers part of it and was reviewed in YS at least.
'SGC' cost £39.95 by mail order (advertised in full-page adverts in SU);
The manual is rather dodgy - it even has a disclaimer inside the
cover that reads 'Some of these games have been replaced with better
ones'!
And what about the second largest? It is of course the legendary
Cascade Cassette 50, a terminally awful single tape
containing 50 sub-PD-quality programs. They really were dreadful, even
in those days!
There are two contenders, however, for the third largest compilation. The
name of the first one escapes me, but it was released around 1992, and had
about 30 formely full-price games, although many were quite old. The other
contender is Ultimate - The Collected Works, which contained nearly
all of the Ultimate back-catalogue. It was released by Crash magazine.
On a real Spectrum, all the operating system is copied from ROM, so
there's no danger of a virus. Trojan horses are, I suppose, possible,
but if a program said
"Please insert the tape of your favourite game, press record on your
tape player and leave for 60 minutes"
I would tend to be rather suspicious, to say the least :-)
Almost all emulators (excusing very serious bugs, of which I don't know
of any) don't allow programs executing under emulation access to the
resources of the host machine, so there is no danger there. There is one
exception to this rule, though: Warajevo 1.5 incorporates a facility for
allowing 80x86 code in Spectrum snapshots. In theory, someone could
write a PC virus and/or trojan horse in a snap and then distribute that.
However, no-one has done this so far (that I know of!).
Basically, there is no risk of a virus/trojan horse infecting/damaging
your system from a Spectrum snapshot; the only way such a 'virus' is
going to do any damage is by the same method as the "Good Times" e-mail
'virus' ie preying on the ignorance of some users of systems.
There are quite a few available. One is Load "" - The Spectrum Magazine.
It's a very new Spectrum diskzine. It's related to everything
speccy-wise. It will probably come out every two months, and you can get a
copy:-
- By Contacting the Ed by E-mail: joao.viegas@tail.pt
- By FidoNet NetMail: Joao Viegas@2:361/19
- BBS: Ostias Bar BBS +351-39-431895 (00-08h LT)
- By Slug Mail: Joao Viegas, Terreiro da Fonte 13, Eiras 3020 Coimbra, Portugal
This a form that is linked to Hynek Med's
excellent Sinclair ZX Spectrum related files search engine. Simply type
the truncated name of a game you are looking for and the select "submit".
Originally designed by Digital Integration, Lenslock was a piece of transparent
plastic. A mangled graphic would appear on the screen, and only by looking at it
through Lenslock would you be able to see the code that appeared, which you had to type in.
| |
| | Blue plastic bit
| |
|____________| Bend at this point
| > > |
| < < | Lens bit.
| > > |
|_<_______<__| And bend here too
| |
| |
| |
| |
Imagine this, bend at the lines specified away from you and place on the
screen so it stands out like this..
Screen
|
|
|___Lenslok
| |
| | < look this way at the screen.
|___|
|
The silly patterns were refracted by the kinks in the see-through
plasticy bit.
As for cracking it, this is one solution:-
- Wait for the game to ask you to read "OK"
- Snap your game
- Using PcTools for example search for OK in your snap and note the adresses (if you're lucky, there should be only one
- Reload your snap and advance to the point where the game asks you for the code, and snap it again
- Using PcTools, look at the adresses you noted, and there should be
the 2-letter code.
It's quite easy really (using Gerton Lunter's Z80 emulator). Load in the snapshot, change
to multiface 128 (F9,then M to activate it) with F5, press T (tools),
then press space. Then write the address and then the byte.
Press Q to leave that menu and R to return to the emulator.
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Written by Stephen Smith.
Stephen Smith (stevo@REMOVE-THIScarlylesmith.karoo.co.uk)