GREAT NEWS! Keep up the great work!!

Thanks for this update, and please do keep us posted!

There are quite some useful cross assemblers available: pasmo, z80asm, sjasm, tniasm, etc...

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There are quite some useful cross assemblers available: pasmo, z80asm, sjasm, tniasm, etc...

Yes, I know. I personally prefer asm80 (old russian cross-asm, I like it because it have short form of code - like a=0 instead ld a,0 or a++ instead of inc a) and also I used WLA DX and some other more known cross-assemblers. Sjasm now have some popularity in Russia too. But I use cross-assemblers, because I don't have real ZX long time, and use emulators. AlCo prefer to use real hardware, so he mainly write his projects on real ZX/ATM (big piece of Ball Quest code was written on real ZX too), in Alasm, which he strongly modified and upgraged. And he actively use many features, which he added in Alasm and ZX/ATM firmware, which does not exists in cross-assemblers. So converting this project from Alasm to any cross-asm will be great pain in ..head

I think, next time, if we shall decide to do initially cross-platform project (ATM/MSX), we will use cross-assemblers, of course - using of three emulators and transferring files between different disk images is headache too.

hmm, where can we find more info on that speccy assembler?

btw. you prefer a=0 and a++ instead of the REAL z80 mnemonics, why? I mean THAT's assembly, dude. You prolly like the C language more, eh.

I'm afraid, all info about Alasm and other russian ZX assemblers available only in russian language (because all they TR-DOS and 128+KB oriented, and can't be used on original ZX models).

I prefer short form for code because I think that spend many time of working on project just for typing many mnemonics LD and other is slightly unoptimal. In case of LD we need to use 3 really unneeded symbols, used in early assemblers just because simple parsing algorithms used in translators. In same way 8080 translators use different mnemonics for transfers with different methods of addressing. Now computers and translators can do more dirty work easily, so I let them to do it

Assembler is still assembler anyway, and such form of code can be autoconverted to standart Z80 mnemonics, if this is needed.

Hmm, you might have a point. typing just 'a,0' or 'a=0' would mean "ld a,0" for example. it save typing, but it's assembly. so we'd have pseudo assembly..
altho I agree an assembler/editor has to be somewhat "smart".. oh well. lez hack into wbass again

A=0 for LD A,0 would work..

But how to make DJNZ look more high-level without drowning in type work?

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We also plan to change all music, because original music has been written for Turbo-Sound add-on (2xPSG soundcard), and its be too hard to remade it for standart AY

Hmm... Maybe you should consider using Konami SCC together with PSG. SCC is pretty easy to get and quite close to PSG when we talk about programming. It does not have noice generator, but you can use custom waveforms.

Yes, some of russian assemblers supports form 'A,0' as well as 'LD A,0'. asm80, which I use, support both forms, of course. And also they have alternative mnemonics for some of opcodes, for example EXA for EX AF,AF'; many mnemonics in one string ('LD A,0:LD B,A:...'); many operations with one mnemonic ('LD A,B,B,C' == 'LD A,B:LD B,C', or PUSH AF,HL,DE,BC instead of four pushes); names for halfs of IX/IY (IXL,IXH and so on). Some of these features exists in Alasm, and feature set is different in misc assemblers (especially in macro system), so converting sources between them not very easy. I choose asm80, because it's good and comfortable for me, but it's not best cross-assembler, of course.

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But how to make DJNZ look more high-level without drowning in type work?

There is no goal to make assembler look like HLL. It is just optional features, needed to reduce count of unneeded actions while developing process. DJNZ can be shorten to DZ, I think (as DEFB shorten to DB, and so on), but it's rare operation anyway, comparable to register transfers.

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Hmm... Maybe you should consider using Konami SCC together with PSG. SCC is pretty easy to get and quite close to PSG when we talk about programming. It does not have noice generator, but you can use custom waveforms.

Yes, I already thought about this. But unfortunately, music in BQ actively uses noise and envelope features on both chips. So, direct conversion from second PSG to SCC is impossible in this case.

If anybody interested, I upload records of some TS music tracks from Ball Quest in mp3 format, links in topic http://ru.msx.org/forumtopicl6904.html

Short report about BQ for MSX. Project progressed slowly, because at this time it has low priority (AlCo also make 'Info Guide' diskzine for ZX, which came twice in year, and now he work on next IG issue). Some graphical bugs in BQ fixed (most noticeable), but there is still some problems with render and compatibility (disk routines correctly works only on Korean MSX'es). I think, more results can be after IG#10 release.

Thanks for the update.

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A=0 for LD A,0 would work.. But how to make DJNZ look more high-level without drowning in type work?

        ld b,78
o_O:    :
        :
        djnz o_O

--->

    78 x (
        :
        :
    )

hey shiru, since you're russian, do you know of a guy called c-jeff in the zx scene ? he's a musician

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hey shiru, since you're russian, do you know of a guy called c-jeff in the zx scene ? he's a musician

Well, I'm not shiru but I would like to say C-Jeff is the one behind Konami

Yes, poke-1,170, I know him.