Let's look at how to make an 8bit computer produce graphics normally seen on an Amiga.
The Spectrum Next contains extra hardware that lets us very accurately control when things happen relative to the screen being drawn. This is done using a piece of hardware called the "copper".
The copper is a processor external to the main CPU and can be given a list of instructions to follow that are synchronised to the generation of the screen. By cleverly manipulating the Spectrum Next's registers we can create some impressive visual effects normally only seen on 16 bit machines like the Amiga.
In this video I explain how to create the classic copper bars effect, some nice gradient backgrounds and parallax scrolling. The full source for this is available on my github, linked below and a detailed explanation of the code is on my website also linked below.
If you manage to make anything with this, let me know in the comments or send me a message on Twitter - @ncot_tech
In-depth written version: https://docs.ncot.uk/spectrum-next/copper/index.html
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-copper
Blog - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/the-copper
Chapters
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Overview - 00:53
The Copper - 01:57
Copper Programming Overview - 05:10
Copper Bars - 06:28
Parallax Scrolling - 14:14
Outro - 16:52
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IokhD9dArv0
I've been buying odd things off eBay again. I figured that since I needed to test out this document camera thing for some other videos, I may as well record my initial reactions, unboxing and thoughts while trying to work out what it does.
I bought this blind off eBay without really researching too hard into whether it would do what I wanted.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWdZIgLYPD4
Let's try making our own SIMMS and upgrade my ST to 4 megabytes!
One of the first upgrades I ever got for my ST was a RAM upgrade to take it from the stock 512KB to 1MB. The one I got was the Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe board as I quite liked the idea of being able to add more RAM in the future.
At the time I never did, but it's the future now, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. At some point in the machine's past I did stick two 1MB SIMMs in it to take the machine to 2.5MB but I don't remember when or why. They might have been spares from upgrading a PC.
Initially I wanted to try out making my own SIMMS using a PCB design I found on github but for some reason it didn't work. It's possible I have the wrong RAM chips or I damaged them somehow when soldering. I'm not quite sure.
Web: https://ncot.uk/electronics/upgrading-my-atari-st-to-4mb/
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Title: Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe 4MB upgrade for my Atari STFM. Turning it into a 4160STFM.
Music: Epidemic Sounds
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w26PqMvgpRA
Meet the world's worse mouse design ever. The Atari ST mouse. Amiga owners liked their tank mice, we ST owners didn't like ours. It was square, uncomfortable and prone to breaking quite easily.
Mine is broken, I try to fix it. I fail. But along the way I get to figure out how it works, which was worth the effort.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-muqApQG_U
Today we're going to be looking at the sprite system. We'll be covering...
- What the sprite system can do (and what it can't do)
- How get images into the Next in a format it can use
- How to put them on the screen
- Then we'll see different ways the sprites can be manipulated
All from the comfort of your C compiler!
This will be pretty in depth and detailed so use the chapter marks to jump around the video as you need to. There is an accompanying written explanation on my website and sample code on my github.
The sprite system of the Spectrum Next isn't really covered in the manual and the Wiki does contain a lot of information but there's nothing that really gathers it together in coherent explanation. This video is my attempt at giving an overview of how to program the Sprite System on a Spectrum Next using Z88DK and C.
Github repo - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-sprites-example
Website - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/devlog-03-hardware-sprites/
-- Credits --
Photos by Mike Cadwallader, 2020
Original code by Stefan Bylund - https://github.com/stefanbylund/zxnext_sprite
Screenshots from the Spectrum Next wiki - https://wiki.specnext.dev/
-- Chapters --
00:00 Intro
01:09 Overview of sprite system capability
02:23 Credits
02:39 Theory of operation
03:18 Loading an image
04:56 Sprite Tools
05:41 Getting a sprite onscreen
07:25 Sprite attributes
09:20 Sprite status slot register 0x303B
11:28 Sprite attribute slots
15:57 Multiple sprites
17:00 Animation
20:15 Limitations of the hardware sprites
22:20 Sprite manipulation
24:06 Scaling sprites
25:39 Composite sprites
31:02 Managing many sprites
34:34 Conclusion
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCCo13UezHI
Timelapse of my cheapo CTC 3D printer printing a 3D model of the goose, from the Untitled Goose Game.
Model came from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3906053
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0TJnEK0mM
How to set up Z88DK to develop C programs for the ZX Spectrum Next in about 20 minutes.
This video aims to show how straight forward setting up a modern, easy to use development environment for the ZX Spectrum Next can be.
I'll show you how to install Z88DK the compiler, set up Visual Studio Code as the editor, CSPect as an emulator and it'll take about 20 minutes! If you've wanted to try out C programming but don't know how to start, this is the video for you.
If you want C programming tutorials that focus on the style of C programming you'd be using on the Next, let me know. This is mostly ANSI C from the 1990s not modern C++ so things are a bit different to what you might find online.
To learn how to program for the ZX Spectrum Next, look at some of my other videos where I explain sprites, graphics and fixed point maths.
Find me online:
Twitter - @ncot_tech
Website - https://ncot.uk
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology
Chapters
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Intro 0:17
Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux 1:57
Running Ubuntu for first time 2:49
Installing Z88DK 3:49
Uncompress Z88DK 6:15
Compile Z88DK 8:0
Common build error and how to fix 8:59
Emulator 14:36
Code Editor Waffle 16:31
Installing VS Code 17:27
Mapping WSL as a drive 18:11
Updating the tools 18:52
Future Videos 19:24
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JD8CQ5zTc