I made a platform game using ZX Spectrum BASIC

[@psychodeli]

The punch line is genius! 😂

[@animatedAL]

I couldn't resist. 😁

[@RescapeArcade]

Great! Suggestion: Put your main game loop(s) at the start of the listing, and all the setup/ending stuff as a GOSUB subroutine at end of the listing that you point to on the first line. BASIC processes loops and jumps faster when they are closer to the start of the program. And the longer the program the slower things get.

[@animatedAL]

@@RescapeArcade thank you, I've been experimenting doing exactly that, and I'm noticing a big difference with performance.

[@RescapeArcade]

@@animatedAL Excellent - I look forward to seeing this progress! I realise you are coding for the classic 48K ROM, but if you are interested in Sinclair BASIC coding, the ZX Spectrum Next has a number of fantastic extensions to the original ROM, which speed it up dramatically, to near machine-code levels in some cases. Add in hardware sprites (instead of PRINT) and it means a modern NextBASIC game can match the speed/graphics of 1980s platform games written in assembly.

[@animatedAL]

@RescapeArcade it's on my wish list to own the Next, they seem to be like rocking horse sh*t to get hold of.

[@RescapeArcade]

@@animatedAL If you want HW, an Ngo and/or Xberry PI are perfect "official" board clones for 1/3 of the price. Alternatively, CSpect is a pretty decent development emulator. I use a combination of both.

[@animatedAL]

I shall have to look into these. Thank you for the info. it is much appreciated.

[@livelearnlaugh1674]

yes please to the TAP file. Thank you.

[@animatedAL]

Got a few improvements to make and then I'll share it, I shall showcase another video when released.

[@tomclark9635]

Fantastic work. Having just started to program in basic at 45 years old I can appreciate how much work goes into making a game like this. Well done. Just a quick question of I may... When I wrote my first page of code I used the save command and gave it a filename. It asked me to start the tape and press any key. Once a key was pressed the usb stick LED flashed to indicate data transfer. Low and behold it had saved a .tap file of my code to the stick. However, this evening I loaded the file and pressed enter to show the code. Added another page of code a d repeated the save command but this time the usb LED did not flash and the game had not saved and. Inspecting the usb folder contents. The only way to save it is to save the 'game' using one of retrogames 4 save slots. I'm nervous to type anymore code in if it won't save a new tap file each time. Can I please ask how you save your programming progress using The Spectrum? The internet doesn't appear to be as far ahead with this type of thing as you. Well done for that in itself. You're a pioneer.

[@animatedAL]

My USB stick doesn't have any LED light, I do know that any additional lights on Joysticks/joypads can cause the Spectrum to lag, maybe it's the same for a USB stick that has an LED. My only other thought is have you enough space left on the USB stick, could be a memory issue, or try another USB stick, perhaps, plus have you upgraded to the latest Firmware?

[@tomclark9635]

@animatedAL Thank you for the fast and helpful reply. I'm going to try a different usb stick this evening. The latest firmware is installed. Fingers crossed that's all it is. Thanks again and looking forward to seeing more of your content in future.

[@animatedAL]

Let me know how you get on, fingers crossed you get it working.