Date   : Tue, 03 May 2005 21:23:01 +0100
From   : "Peter Edwards" <samwise@...>
Subject: Re: BBC B/Electron Chuckie Egg queries

Richard & David,

I am constantly amazed by the ease with which assembler skills are displayed
by the members of this list ... ;)

I imagine CE is probably one of the easier programs to hack - but I always
struggled with assembler.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Majordomo List Manager [mailto:majordomo@...] 
> On Behalf Of Richard_Talbot-Watkins@...
> Sent: 03 May 2005 09:56

> Anyway, I decided this wasn't good enough :)
> 
> so with a bit of fiddling, here's an alternative loader which 
> provides a
> version as colourful as the Speccy version (white eggs and 
> red background
> on score, but without the yeuch colour clash):

Wow! Richard, That's the Beeb Chuckie Egg Professional's dream!!

How I envied those smug spectrum owners with their multiple colours - when I
just KNEW the beeb was capable of the same ... !

I was really looking forward to trying this listing - unfortunately, I have
issues ... :(

I think I've correctly typed in your listing (including identifying the
missing & on line 140, in your repeat listing) but I'm getting mixed results
even tho I appear to have the same CH_EGG as you.  The Chuckie Egg logo on
the title screen is corrupted in both MESS and BeebEm - is that right?

Then, on playing the game in BeebEm - the background of the information at
the top of the screen turns red (altho the font colour stays black, unlike
the spectrum version) but the eggs stay yellow ... :/

Running it under MESS is even worse - the game uses all the original beeb
colours with no hint of a change (except the corrupt logo on the title
screen)!

Did I make a typo, or is this one of those hacks that requires a proper
beeb? :(  I can supply what I've just typed in .ssd format, if that's of any
use?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Devenport [mailto:dave@...] 
> Sent: 03 May 2005 13:59

> My emulator (correctly) kills you when you step in the hole...
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Dave

Which emulator would that be?  That's the behaviour I get in MESS too, but
I'm not convinced that would happen on a proper beeb (John Abbey confirms
that BeebEm's behaviour is more accurate).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Devenport [mailto:dave@...] 
> Sent: 03 May 2005 18:06

> Had a quick look at the disassembly of the chuckie egg source code
> 
> *LOAD CH-EGG
> ?&2a39=&4c
> ?&2a3a=&d8
> ?&3a3b=&29
> call &29ab
> 
> Should "rem out" the dying routine, and make you immune to death :)
> Basically instead of dying, it just jumps back to the start 
> of the main 
> loop.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Dave

I tried this one under both emulators and had even less luck than with
Richard's listing - it actually crashed CE both times!  Did I get something
wrong or is this another one which needs an actual beeb?  An infinite lives
poke I'm sure would be appreciated by the CE community (altho, admittedly,
that might just be me at the moment! .. :)

These kind of hacks are excellent - would either of you mind (assuming I get
them working) if I archived them for posterity on my website?

Either way, if you can help me get them working for my own uses, I'll be
forever indebted!!  

Many thanks,

Peter.
The Chuckie Egg Professional's Resource Kit
http://www.bagshot-row.org/chuckie-egg/