I read sometime back that the copy of Space Fighter from Superior Software does not work on Beebem in BBC B mode but does in Master Mode.
The aliens did not show up on the game and you simply ran out of fuel and died.
I copied a uef tape version to disk and still had the same problem.
After a bit of experimenting, I noticed that Beebem does not like the poke at &2992 so I changed it from &FE48 to &FE40 and the aliens now show up and my copy seems to work ok.
I did not get the time to play the game for long, but it seems ok.
Enjoy,
Mick.
PS let me know if anything goes wrong later on as there may be another ?&FE48 that I missed.
Space Fighter for the BBC B
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Michael Brown
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Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
Old topic ... but deserves a reply ...
I had the same issue with Space Fighter on real hardware, no aliens, but only with the Acorn Speech fitted. This prompted us to fit a switch to disable the speech upgrade and Space Fighter had aliens again. Another notable game to be affected by having Speech fitted was Hyper Sports, it would lock up during the Skeet Shooting event.
Versions of BeebEm in 2010 emulated the speech, so likely explains why it didn't work. Current releases of BeebEm and b-em (without speech) work as expected.
I'm now testing Space Fighter in MAME, and in BBC B has no aliens whereas running on Master works correctly. My development version of MAME has speech emulated, but even when I remove speech there are still no aliens, so not sure of the cause of the issue. It's clearly related to whatever is connected to the System VIA, and the fact it works on a Master suggests the actual VIA is not at fault. The only real difference is that the Master has the RTC on the VIA ports instead of the TMS5220, am confused.
I had the same issue with Space Fighter on real hardware, no aliens, but only with the Acorn Speech fitted. This prompted us to fit a switch to disable the speech upgrade and Space Fighter had aliens again. Another notable game to be affected by having Speech fitted was Hyper Sports, it would lock up during the Skeet Shooting event.
Versions of BeebEm in 2010 emulated the speech, so likely explains why it didn't work. Current releases of BeebEm and b-em (without speech) work as expected.
I'm now testing Space Fighter in MAME, and in BBC B has no aliens whereas running on Master works correctly. My development version of MAME has speech emulated, but even when I remove speech there are still no aliens, so not sure of the cause of the issue. It's clearly related to whatever is connected to the System VIA, and the fact it works on a Master suggests the actual VIA is not at fault. The only real difference is that the Master has the RTC on the VIA ports instead of the TMS5220, am confused.
- Nigel
BBC Model B: ATPL Sidewise, Acorn Speech, 2xWatford Floppy Drives, AMX Mouse, Viglen case, BeebZIF, etc.
BBC Model B: ATPL Sidewise, Acorn Speech, 2xWatford Floppy Drives, AMX Mouse, Viglen case, BeebZIF, etc.
Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
I always wondered why Hyper Sports locked up on the Skeet Shooting. Now I know!
Thanks for that snippet of info. I’d put it down to just one of those things that I’d likely never find an answer for.
Thanks for that snippet of info. I’d put it down to just one of those things that I’d likely never find an answer for.
Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
So presume you had speech fitted? I think another one was Eagle Empire, but Space Fighter and Hyper Sports were definitely speech afflicted.
Do any of the b-em/BeebEm maintainers remember this issue, and offer any clue to it's fix?
- Nigel
BBC Model B: ATPL Sidewise, Acorn Speech, 2xWatford Floppy Drives, AMX Mouse, Viglen case, BeebZIF, etc.
BBC Model B: ATPL Sidewise, Acorn Speech, 2xWatford Floppy Drives, AMX Mouse, Viglen case, BeebZIF, etc.
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Michael Brown
- Posts: 2609
- Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 1:54 pm
- Location: Nottingham
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Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
Hi,
with ref to Eagle Empire, not sure if speech interfered with the game, but Eagle Empire was prone to crashing randomly. It would not work at all if you played Martian Attack directly before it and did not reset the memory.
The reason for the issue was discovered some time back and a simple ?&800=&80 poke before the game stops the crashing. However, not tried this with speech fitted so maybe that is something someone reading this can try.
Mick.
with ref to Eagle Empire, not sure if speech interfered with the game, but Eagle Empire was prone to crashing randomly. It would not work at all if you played Martian Attack directly before it and did not reset the memory.
The reason for the issue was discovered some time back and a simple ?&800=&80 poke before the game stops the crashing. However, not tried this with speech fitted so maybe that is something someone reading this can try.
Mick.
Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
I wonder if they would work with an ISSUE 3 or 4 without the track mods as the OS wouldn't find the speech chip, but CC Speech and my code would.
Re: Space Fighter for the BBC B
I can't understand the change from &fe48 to &fe40 as &fe48 is timer 2 low counter and &fe40 is port b
