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Victor Trucco

1 day ago

Hey guys, some news:

1 - Layer 2 and Sprites were "palletized" (like the ULA that I showed in my last post), so now it's possible to use 512 color anywhere.

There are two palettes for each module, the main palette and an alternative that can be changed by a Next Reg. So we have a total of 6 colour palettes: two for ULANext and LoRes,
two for Layer 2 and two for Sprites. It works exactly the same as that of the ULANext for writing and reading the colors on same Next Regs. Just check the corresponding bits for each case.

2 - The new memory management it's also running on the last update. With the Next Regs MMU0 to MMU7 you can place any Speccy RAM page ANYWHERE.

The pages were divided into 8kb for better memory utilization and greater flexibility. The older methods still works to mantain the compatibility with old softwares and overrides the new methods when used.

For example a write on port 0x7FFD will write MMU6 and MMU7, too

More news coming soon. Check the Ports for the last additions. ... See MoreSee Less

TBBlue I/O port system – ZX SPECTRUM NEXT

specnext.com

TBBlue I/O port system May 3, 2017 Fabio Belavenuto Off Happening, Hardware, The TBBlue uses two I/O ports on the register/data system, to send and read information about hardware and settings. Port 0...

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Mark Green

5 hours ago

Ok, so looking at the palletization now - are Layer 2 and Sprite palettes automatically set to 256 inks? Because when you're setting pixel by pixel there seems to be no need for a paper color (and no way to use one). ... See MoreSee Less

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Andrew 'PJ' Canham

2 days ago

I apologise for my confusion on the FPGA - I know many people have this fully understood, but I'm still a little confused (I blame a combination of undergoing brain surgery, and only being a halfwit to begin with!)

My understanding (which many be way off kilter) is that the FPGA is multi core, and whilst the dev team are struggling for space, that is to fit the Next OS into one of the cores. I also understand that additional cores are being used for standard speccy incarnations (and predecessors, and clones). Is this correct?

I am also under the impression that there will still be free cores that can be used, so, for example, a core could be programmed to run a modified Next OS, without affecting the existing cores. Am I right, or barking up the wrong tree entirely?

Any guidance on this would be much appreciated :) ... See MoreSee Less

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Andrew 'PJ' Canham

7 hours ago

Okay, so now I've got my head around the FPGA, thoughts are returning to software development, and I'm just bashing around an idea in my head for an inspired game.

Formally I had a pretty complete version of Highway Encounter as a remake which never saw the light of day (partly because it was written in Blitz Basic, which was getting glitchy, and I was moving over to GLBasic instead, but mostly because I couldn't be arsed to code the ending sequence!), and whilst I admit that this may just end up as vapourware, I am now toying with the idea of writing The Next Highway, which, as I am thinking about, would come with a twist - the roadway would be non linear (ie you could turn off the highway onto "side streets" etc - basically using the extra memory to create a complete map of challenges).

Other ideas I had included gradients to contend with, potholes to avoid, diversions / closed roads etc etc - like I said, it could end up just as vapourware, but I'm just thinking out loud...

(screens are from the beta test version of the PC remake that never got released) ... See MoreSee Less

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Jim Bagley

3 days ago

I'm thinking ahead about new Next games. How would you want them distributed there are a couple of options... ... See MoreSee Less

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