Hungry Horace (Melbourne House version)

[samplefiend]

Hi folks,

I recently bought Hungry Horace (Melbourne House tape) on ebay and it loads fine but the colours are different than expected when playing the game. The loading screen works as normal in cyan mode but the game itself plays with a black background and white graphics which doesn't look anywhere near as good as the cyan / buff version. Is it supposed to do this? I download the wav from the archive and played that into my Dragon and it works fine and plays in regular cyan mode. One thing I noticed the loading screen on the wav has the programmer name and copyright info at the bottom but my tape just has a blank purple bar across the bottom when loading.

Any suggestions?

Thanks again

Craig x

[robcfg]

It would be nice if you could upload a wav file of your tape so we can check its integrity.

Anyway, is the game written on both sides of the tape? If yes, do both display the same result?

It could also be a version intended for the Tano or CoCo computers, could you please take a picture of the inlay and the tape? And maybe a screenshot, that would confirm pretty fast if it's a version for ntsc computers.

[samplefiend]

Weirdly my copy of horace goes skiing also does the same thing on a real dragon! i download the wavs of both games from the archive and hungry horace plays the way it should but the wav of horace goes skiing does the same thing on my dragon as my cassette although it plays fine in xroar. can anyone check the HGS wav on their Dragon 32 to see if it does the same for them. Mine is a PAL machine.

i've attached some jpgs of the cassette inlays, loading screens and the game playing to show what's happening ...

Thanks again for your help,

Craig

[zephyr]

Weirdly my copy of horace goes skiing also does the same thing on a real dragon!

Try the attached version...

EDIT: Attachment removed.

[samplefiend]

Hi there Zephyr

Thanks for uploading your version of Horace Goes Skiing. I tried it on my Dragon and the same thing happens as with my cassette. the loading screen looks fine but the game runs in black and white.

is it maybe a hardware problem with my computer? Other games work fine in Cyan mode, the problem only seems to be with the two Horace games for some reason.

Cheers again

Craig x

[zephyr]

Is it a Dragon 32 or 64?

Does the following BASIC code display the "Cyan mode" OK?

Code: Select all

10 X=RND(-TIMER)
20 PMODE 3,1:SCREEN1,1
30 PCLS:TIMER=0
40 X=RND(256):Y=RND(192):R=RND(25)+5:C=RND(4)
50 CIRCLE(X,Y),R,C
60 PAINT (X,Y),C,C
70 IF TIMER < 3000 THEN 40 ELSE 30

[samplefiend]

Hi again Zephyr

Typed in the programme you listed and the colours all displayed fine. it's a PAL Dragon 32 that I have.

This is a strange problem for sure!

Craig x

[zephyr]

Please try the modified version attached below. There's no auto-run. You will need to enter EXEC at the command prompt after it loads.

[samplefiend]

Many many thanks Zephyer - that file loaded fine and played with the proper colourset on my Dragon!

What did you do to it mate?

Cheers for your help,

Craig x

[zephyr]

The original game code sets $FF22 and $FF23 at the same time using the D register. After looking through the code for a little while, this was the only thing that I could see that may possibly be causing problems for your Dragon. So, I split it up and its solved your problem.

Is your Dragon 32 one of the older models with Issue 2 Motherboard fitted?

BTW, Could you please delete your attached pictures now the problem has been solved. They are messing up my browser display and slowing the thread a little.

Regards,
Steve