The Sinclair QL Forum

Another nice job Andrew! Thank you!

Hello Andrei,

v1.0 works fine (up to now) to a BB QL with Trunp Card, JS.

I would like to suggest to add an indication when Sound is active or not.
For example when is muted, the speaker could be drawn like muted.
Like this: (as example).
Of course this is not an important issue. Just to make an excellent game to appear even better (according to my opinion).

Thanks Andrei for your excellent work.

QSTAR 1 - final version

Tested on QDOS with JS ROM and Minerva ROM, 128 k and up to 4Mb and on SMSQE

Updates:
1. fixed a major bug / memory leak that could crash the QL on game exit
2. fixed the SMSQE stipple issue
3. fixed misspelling in spanish text
4. now speaker icon changes when sound is on / off
5. updated fat_fnt file

Dilwyn, if you want, you can add QStar to Sinclair QL Pages.

Andrew wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 10:31 pm QSTAR 1 - final version

Great Andrew!

Definitely, QStar is a significant boost for the development of new QL games with an '80s retro aesthetic. The game is entertaining and very addictive.

From a technical standpoint, I like the following:

- The program is very compact, only 28KB, and it's compiled.
- It runs well on emulators, FPGA, and real hardware.
- It works well across all ROMs and operating systems (QDOS, SMSQ/E, Minerva, ...).
- It works well on accelerated machines ((S)GoldCard, Q68).
- It is 'friendly' to the operating system. Exiting the game leaves the system clean.
- Except for the omnipresent TKII, there is no need to load additional Toolkits! It seems all necessary Toolkits are included in the executable itself.
- Supports multiple languages.
- The source code is available.

This development could be the start of building the long-awaited 'framework' for developing games for the QL. This will undoubtedly encourage others to develop new games for our beloved platform.

Congratulations once again and thank you for your work on this development. It's very rewarding to see that the QL is still alive despite its 40 years.

But also

I'm sorry Andrew, but I have to report a possible bug in QStar!

I was using it in QPC2 v5.02 mode 32, resolution 1024x768, with QPC_QLSCREMU 8. The game runs OK until I press F1 to alter the animation delay. After doing that and returning to the game, the display is corrupted, see screen shot below. Looks like parts of the intro screen and current level are somehow blended. I don't often play computer games, this one is great fun and more challenging than it looks. Great animation and beautiful graphics.

dilwyn wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 11:28 am I'm sorry Andrew, but I have to report a possible bug in QStar!

I was using it in QPC2 v5.02 mode 32, resolution 1024x768, with QPC_QLSCREMU 8. The game runs OK until I press F1 to alter the animation delay. After doing that and returning to the game, the display is corrupted, see screen shot below. Looks like parts of the intro screen and current level are somehow blended.
qlstar_bug.jpg

I don't often play computer games, this one is great fun and more challenging than it looks. Great animation and beautiful graphics.

The game was created to run on an unexpanded QL - or on any QL or emulator that uses the standard QL resolution (screen_base at $20000). I have not taken any precautions to make the game compatible with other resolution and/or colour modes.
So what happens on screen is not a bug, it is rather a side-effect of QPC_QLSCREMU 8
QPC_QLSCREMU Enables (some) original QL screen emulation. As you know, when emulating the original screen, all memory write accesses to the area $20000-$207FFF are intercepted and translated into writes to the first 512x256 pixels of the big screen area. But as far i can see, not so for memory read accesses.
Also there are some other quircks:

• QL mode 8 is 256x256 pixels and offers about 42 characters per line with standard fount.
  In mode 32, resolution 1024x768, with QPC_QLSCREMU 8 we have 256x256 pixels with 84 characters per line with standard fount and that messes up all PRINT commands in my program
  In mode QL colours, resolution 1024x768, with QPC_QLSCREMU 8 we have 256x256 pixels with 42 characters per line.
• LBYTES image_scr, 131072 works well in this mode. But in mode QL colours, resolution 1024x768, with QPC_QLSCREMU 8 - LBYTES is not loading the image properly.
• move_memory A to B, no_of_bytes works well when B is in area $20000-$207FFF in both cases
• move_memory B to A, no_of_bytes works in mode QL colours resolution 1024x768 but does not convert B into reads from the first 512x256 pixels of the big screen area in mode 32 1024x768

Maybe in a future program I will try to make it run in all colour modes and resolutions. But I feel that the safest way for doing it is PE, and that would exclude all unexpanded/minimally expanded QLs.

I understand, thank you Andrew.

Review of the game at https://dilwyn2.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/qstar/ and it's now on my QL website's Games page.

dilwyn wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 1:18 pm I understand, thank you Andrew.

Review of the game at https://dilwyn2.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/qstar/ and it's now on my QL website's Games page.

Thank you, Dilwyn!

Hey Andrew

Great work!!! Super programming!!!
Thanks