SPECTRA Advanced Graphics

[LCD]

Ohm, I see emotions!!!

SPECTRA is a SCART interface.

That' like saying, Multiface one is a Composite Video or Kempston Joystick Interface.

Its extended colour scheme is worse than ULAplus in every single respect.

So ULA+ has 4x1 Attributes mode too? In fact ULA+ is only good for recolouring existing games, like the Spectrum emulation on SAM in Mode 1.

ULAplus is available now in clones and is emulated by almost everything. The only thing remaining to sort out on the plug-in board is the audio levels for LOADing and SAVEing. Everything else works.

So when it will be available for 48K Issue 2, Issue 3 and Toastrack? I was waiting years for it and nothing happened.

SPECTRA will only ever work on the 48K machine and is emulated only by ZXSP.

"Subject to change". I know that 128K has no Y on the bus, and no Composite video, but why not take the signals from RGB Socket? SPECTRA for 128 is not impossible. And about the emulators: if software for Spectra will start to appearm it will be supported by Emulators.

To date it has had one demo release.

Thats something I will change.

To recolour existing games on ULAplus you can just set a palette. No coding required. If you hack the palette you can get 64 colours on screen at once. With SPECTRA you have to rewrite the display code.

That's not a problem. Why recolour existing games if coding new games can be such a fun. And why to hack Palette if SPECTRA does not require any hacking?

ULAplus has a carefully chosen 256 colour palette that works well for converting 24-bit images. In 8x1 attribute mode using the HAM8x1 software you can display a static 256 colour screen with 32 colours per row and 8x1 attributes.

Can this 8x1 HAM be done fullscreen on 48K or is it Timex-Only?
Carefully choosen sounds like standard 3-3-2 Encoding as in MSX2 Mode 8.

SPECTRA is limited to a palette of 64 colours, many of which are barely distinguishable.

barely distinguishable? And ULA+ 256 Colours (let me guess: 3-3-2 RGB Bits?) are easier distinguishable?

Its hi-res attribute modes are incompatible with existing Timex software.

Assuming many people have Timex 2068 software. How many Timex Software tilles are using Hires colour mode, apart from some demos?

Its maximum colour resolution still gives worse results than HAM8x1 and uses considerably more RAM.

And how many games use HAM8x1 mode? Oh wait... Not a single one... How many are in development? Is there still CPU time left if using HAM8x1 mode? Yes, Spectra has less colours, but the features can be really used in games and not only in slideshows.

ULAplus supports the Timex modes. Eventually the plug-in should bring these features to the 128K machines, including the ability to run SE Basic 4.01 with its 80-column hi-res screen mode.

And the release date is which year planed?.

Personally I think SPECTRA is a dead end and I wouldn't waste time developing for it.

I respect your opinion, but I don't share it. You don't need to "waste" your time developing for SPECTRA. I don't waste my time coding Slideshows for ULA+. Simple!

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Oh, a slideshow!!! How wonderfull and how usefull
And it looks for me like these "carefully chosen 256 colour palette" is a standard 3-3-2 encoding where many colours are barely distinguishable. Sorry, but then I prefer SPECTRA because I do not do Slideshows but games.

You can try out HAM8x1 mode for yourself in the current release of SpecEmu.

The ZXBC has already librarys to support ULA+, so I wonder why this hostility against SPECTRA. I myself think, developing for ULA+ is a waste of time, unless I want to make a slideshow.

Oh, and sorry that I was too harsch to ULA+, but I waited for it for years as hardware implementation, and it still not available except in Emulators and clones. And it has no real use for gamemaking, only for slideshows.