Hi all, it's been a while but I've been kind of busy. :-)

My game project is almost complete, I just wanted to add some music. I wrote a couple of (quite bad) tunes with Beepola, compiled with the Music Box engine. I've loaded these high into memory (64000 up), well away from my ZXB code and I'm calling them with 'randomize usr X' from within ZXB. The player is configured to play the tune once and then return control to the caller.

I'm having a small problem that I can get around, but I wanted to ask about. If I call the music player from within a SUB or a FUNCTION, the Spectrum crashes after playing the tune. If I call it from OUTSIDE a SUB or FUNCTION (i.e. just from within the main code) then it returns fine.

For example:

Hello!

Could anyone tell me how I can simulate "GOTO (arithmetical expression)":

ex:

Maybe not a bad idea: a decompress function for RLE encoded binaries (starting with dbyte contains length of compressed and a flag byte). Maybe something like UnRLE(sourceaddress,destinationaddress) returning the length of decompressed bytes or alternative, if the starting bytes are missing: UnRLE(sourceaddress,destinationaddress,length,flagbyte), or even with bank switching management. This will allow to pack more graphical and level-data into our programs. Maybe a job for britlion, to write a fastcall routine? This can be used for all Z80 computers then.

Maybe this is obvious, but let me ask - is there any way to read a BYTES file from disk (I mean, plan +3 disks) from a program compiled in ZX Basic to RAM? I mean, without having to exit the program and go back to plain BASIC to do so. Maybe through ROM calls? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to design some kind of system to make graphic adventures which load stuff from disk.

Hi everyone!

Should this work?

As some of you will be aware, I've been tinkering with an open source version of SE Basic that could be distributed with hardware without infringing Amstrad's copyright. I'm pleased to say the project is now viable, although it is not yet written.

I've also said I would only release it in exchange for a sack of cash. So let me quantify that: I want 100 people to donate a minimum of £10/€10 each to the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.

You can sign up here:
http://www.pledgebank.com/opense

If you are based in the UK you can make your donation here:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Ma...ami-Appeal

If you are based in Spain you can make your donation here:
http://www.cruzroja.es/portada/

I know it's called pledgebank but I want you to donate now. This is an honour system. If you say you've donated £10/€10 or more I'll assume you have.

Please sign up by July 1st.

Thank you.

-Andrew

P.S. I have donated £10 to get the ball rolling

The total has now reached 17 (13 of which have paid up already). It would be lovely to get to 20 this week. So to encourage you here's a progress report:

* More than 60% of the ROM is now fully functional and unencumbered by Amstrad code.
* The ROM is functionally compatible with SE Basic 2.21 http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseeki...id=0025327
* As far as I can tell, everything that ran on the 2.21 ROM still works.
* New RENUM routine. It only accepts the first two parameters, but it isn't broken either.
* New tokenizer. You can now enter INK and it will automatically be translated to PEN.
* 60 abbreviated commands:

Why not just put your org lower, have your low non speed critical functions, use align to hop to 32768 and stick a defs 6912, 0 to skip your screen buffer zone?

This works: