NextBASIC Text Scroller:

I've been on holiday in Turkey and am back now and just getting back into the swing of things before I carry on with my main ZX Next project.

To get the juices flowing I've returned to my text scroller, written in NextBASIC, which previously had 4 scrollers. I have now managed to increase this to 6! There have been speed improvements in NextBASIC since I originally coded this and it looks like they have paid off.

Captured on CSpect (will later test on my Next board).

This is something I put together yesterday.

On the left is a web app I created which lets you write and assemble z80 in the browser then automatically adds it to the SD card image CSpect uses, which is done while the emulator is still open, which results in me being able to load and run it straight away!

Here's the workflow:

- As I type in the text box, cut or paste, etc. the content is saved to a temporary text file.
- When I hit Save a directory is created with the filename I choose, unless it already exists.
- After that the contents of the temporary text file are copied to a new text file with the name of the project in this directory.
- This text file is then passed to sjasmplus (which I installed on my VPS) and the output is saved to a binary file (it could later be adjusted so I can output NEX files). The result of this is printed to the web page.
- The binary file is then copied to the SD card image which is hosted and mounted on my VPS.
- I have my VPS mapped to a Windows drive on my laptop which means CSpect sees it as a local drive and is able to use the SD card image that is stored remotely.
- I am then able to write a short program which loads the binary file and runs it.

In short I can open CSpect, go to my web app and write some z80, save it, then run it in CSpect straight away!

I also have it so that it automatically lists the projects I have saved in a dropdown menu and then I can load in the source code from the text file for easy editing.

Now I just need to actually use it!

I've installed sjasmplus on my VPS for ZX Next coding. Starting to get the hang of it. I might make a web interface so I can easily write and assemble code in the browser then I can just use the .http dot command to download it to the Next.

Messing around with some more palette-cycling in NextBASIC:

CRASH Radio has been evolving and now has regular slots from TJ and Simon Butler each week. It's going very well!

I've popped a couple more downloads on the site for the ZX Spectrum Next and another code snippet.

Coding-wise I'm working on a game engine for the ZX Spectrum Next and as a result I have been playing about with some assembly. It's pretty basic, and I'll use it alongside BASIC, but it does what I need it to:

I've been doing quite a bit on the CRASH Radio Station lately and I'm really enjoying it. Can't believe that my little station turned into this! Chris Wilkins contacted me about 6 weeks after I launched ZX Spectrum Radio and asked if I'd like to link it to CRASH and the rest is history!

I'm going to be popping a few more things on my site soon. More code snippets, downloads etc and I will eventually be getting back to Spectrum Next coding.

A new creation from me, just launched today:

I've added 5 more entries on the Downloads page:

I've updated the Downloads page. It now has stuff on there! These include:

The new look site is live!

It works much better on desktop and mobile now. New menu options at the top include: