All posts by arda

BASin/Basinc, Downloads and Development, Sinclair Zx Spectrum

Big update: Basinc 1.83 “Skynet”

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Yes folks, yes, don’t hide it, I know. You keep bothering AI with questions like “Why doesn’t the central bank just print money and make everyone rich?” or “What happens if I dry my laundry in a microwave?” Truly inspirational questions.
How about bothering it a little with Sinclair BASIC instead, but wait: without ever leaving BasinC?

Alright, I put that at the top as if it were a big deal, but honestly: the AI support in this release is just a toy, and it stays inactive unless you explicitly turn it on.

The real focus of BasinC 1.83 is large programs. If you are planning projects that will occupy almost the entire memory, this update provides the tools you need to handle that scale — including better management of your data files. With built-in ZX0 support and the Memory Manager, memory handling is now much easier. CheqEdit has also been customized specifically for BasinC and included in the package. The ASM Editor can optionally use Pasmo, producing cleaner and more reliable output.

BasinC 1.83 is more stable overall, with known emulation issues resolved. And if there is still a Sinclair BASIC programmer lurking inside you, BasinC remains the right tool for the job.

And we have a dedicated basinc server now!

https://basinc.zx.tr/ Zip and Installer Packages are available.

The full list is below:

//1.83
// Fixed – Nasty bug on NEG opcode emulation caused all sort of problems in new delphi compiler. Sorted! (Uwe Geiken)
// Fixed – A renumber bug caused lines start with a : cause a crash in basinc (briefer666)
// Fixed – A workaround implemented if you want to paste escape code characters into listing (mefjak)
// Fixed – (Hopefully) An edgecase bug after loading from a save – lines at the end of a program disappeared. (Johnny McGibbitts)
// Fixed – SimpleConV2 partial port decoding was causing zx printer emulation to feed the paper 🙂
// Added – Tape Trap Streaning Options now saved with the session
// Added – Tape block grab implementation
// Added – Tape block right button menu
// Tuned – Block properties window position is now item sensitive
// Added – Basic Program Minify Tool in Tools > Clean/Minify basic (Make your programs a bit faster)
// Added – Charset capture mode (Captures printed characters in 50fps to draw a windows compatible text mode output)
// Added – A much better screen listing image save function View > Save Listing as Image can now save full listing not just visible part on screen
// Added – Subroutine list can now show GO TO locations (view > Subs > auto detect goto’s)
// Added – Subroutine list can also show jump origins in two different modes. (view > Subs > Show Origins)
// Added – Context Sensitive Right Click Popup menu enhancements: Find Line to follow target and Retrace Origins (if Auto-sub detection is enabled)
// Added – More flow control: Shift+Enter on a GOTO or GOSUB statement will jump to target line
// Added – Cpu Window has two more options: watch and break an 16 or 8 bit value at a specific address (to enable just enter address any other than 0)
// Changed – Not really usable yet but editing in indenting mode is getting better. Cursor works a bit better now in Indent mode (F2 key to toggle)
// Added – BasinC online help search filter box and some new styles to improve readability
// Added – BasinC online help new entries for Notes, Snippets, Manager, Bridge and Minify windows
// Added – AI API Calls. Ofcourse what did you expect?! 🙂 Bring your own key style. Google Cloud only for now. see Options>External Tools/AI — Nothing is exposed to internet unless you click SEND button
// Added – Snippets window now has a splitter in the middle to change the size of the panes
// Added – AutoBackup folder view button and interval setting in options > files tab.
// Changed – English, Spanish, Deutsch and Turkish translation is updated (Updated parts are AI translation over old manual translations)

// 1.82
// Added – ZX0 compression natively supported in basinC (you may find options on export menus or memory grabber etc.)
// Fixed – SysVars window would update incorrectly if it’s sorted by name.
// Fixed – Snapshot saving in 48K was incorrectly pushing PC to the stack, now corrected
// Added – System Variables Window can now compare and show if a value changed and highlights in red color.
// Added – Tab key to accept code prediction (right arrow still works too)

Arda'nın Türk Yazılım Veri Tabanı, Downloads and Development, in English, Retro Oyun Makaleleri

Super League (by Lacin Soft, Peken, 1988)

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I’ve been maintaining my Turkish software database project—something I started back in the late ’90s—for quite a long time now. Lately, the discoveries have become increasingly rare. Still, once in a while, something truly special turns up.

Peken Bilgisayar

If we look at this Peken Bilgisayar advertisement from the July 1988 issue of 64’ler magazine, it mentions two Turkish-made games:

1. Süper Lig (misspelled as “Süperling”, back then, these ad typeset texts were done by “Apo Ağabey,” who charged clients for the ad layout—so we frequently see his editorial typos appearing in the ads as well. And of course, they couldn’t resist calling it the first Turkish game! 🙂

2. Derby.

Back in August 2024, I opened a thread about these on Retrojen.org:
https://retrojen.org/pano/index.php?topic=1665.msg14184#msg14184

According to what’s been said, Derby was never completed. As for Süper Lig, we hadn’t heard from it either—until suddenly, one of our teammates, Zer0, casually dropped the files right in front of us! He doesn’t remember where they came from. Whoever unearthed these disks—if you see this, please get in touch; I’ll gladly credit you here.

superlig1 ekrangoruntusu

The game is credited to Yavuz Elemek and Başar Bilge, marked with the year 1987. I don’t put too much faith in these in-game dates—take Barbaros for example: in the YouTube video version, there’s no date, but in the downloadable one there is. One of those must have been modified later—probably after someone claimed Barbaros (a Battleship-style BASIC game) was the first Turkish game (it started to appear on November 1989 ads and lists). That’s why I prefer to take my dating from the magazine issues instead.

In this case, Peken Bilgisayar ads appeared in the April, May, and June issues of 64’ler, but the announcement of the game’s release only appeared in July 1988. So while development might have begun in 1987, it probably reached players toward the end of 1988.

takim listeleri ve oyuncu basarilari mac sonucu

The game is a football management simulation where you can customize your team’s colors and players. Options include buying, selling, or sending players to training camp. Then you move on to the match itself. Approximately one real-time second equals one in-game minute, and random events—corner kicks, penalties, shot opportunities—occur throughout the match. At those points, you’re asked where to shoot or dive as a goalkeeper. It’s purely luck-based—like rolling dice. Your players’ stats don’t really affect the outcome; but sometimes the team score or concede on their own without asking.

Rumor has it that this game was created by modifying or translating an existing one into Turkish. If you recognize the original game by looking at the screenshots, please let me know in the comments.

Surprisingly, it’s a very enjoyable game—despite having no graphics at all! It’s one of those rare text-only titles that still manage to be fun. My thanks go first to whoever originally imaged the disk, and to Zero, for helping bring another piece of our cultural heritage to light.

There are two versions, I couldn’t find the difference, they look similar, if you know the difference please let us know. Looks like this one’s a BASIC program compiled with AustroSpeed 1e. I’m going to decompile it and see if I can make sense of the source code.

There’s good news—more is on the way soon…

Download Laçinsoft SuperLig (d64 disk image files)

BASin/Basinc, Sinclair Zx Spectrum

Basinc 1.81 Update

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This update addresses a long-standing bug that has appeared and disappeared across different versions since the original Basin.
The DEF FN command has always caused parsing issues for Basin. Its handling in memory is quite unusual: when the command is entered, a 5-byte buffer is created right after it within the BASIC listing. This buffer is used for internal DEF FN evaluations! Just imagine the complications this design can cause. It’s a rather curious design decision on the sinclair’s part.

Paul has put a lot of effort into dealing with DEF FN. My approach has always been “if it works, don’t touch it,” so I generally stayed away from it. However, this bug has kept resurfacing since the early versions of BasinC (as you can see if you check the different versions of the source code). Paul himself had rewritten and reverted this function several times at different stages.

Unfortunately, I noticed the DEF FN bug has returned in version 1.8. Now I understand that DEF FN parsing needs a complete rewrite. I added this to TO-DO list for future versions. This time, this is just a quick fix. In fact, the fix was already shared on the ZX Spectrum Discord server on June 6, 2025, and a few days later on Uwe’s Facebook BASIC group as version 1.81. Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to post the announcement here—so I’m doing it now. As always, the updated source code is available on the GitHub page. Note that you can always ask for changes or fixed on the zx spectrum discord server, as it is the only real source of communication about BasinC. You can also reach me at @ardae.bsky.social‬

This version not only fixes DEF FN but also addresses another important issue: the new GOSUB locator was causing the cursor to jump up and down in Windows 11. That’s now resolved.
Since BasinC was originally compiled on Windows 7 for backward compatibility, certain behaviors varied. From now on, BasinC is compiled on Windows 10, and I will be dropping backward compatibility in upcoming versions. Hopefully, this will provide a more stable development environment.

⚠️ This update requires version 1.8 to be installed. If you haven’t installed it yet, you can download it from here:
Basinc 1.80 full install

🔄 To apply the 1.81 update, download the file below, go to your BasinC folder, delete the existing basinc.exe, and replace it with the new one from the archive:
Basinc 1.81 Update (1.2MB zipped exe file)

All changes in this update are listed below (including the ones introduced in 1.8, which I had forgotten to announce here at the time — you can always find this changelog inside the source code on GitHub):
Continue reading Basinc 1.81 Update →

Arda'nın Türk Yazılım Veri Tabanı, in English, Retro Oyun Makaleleri

Metallic Legend, Commodore 64 (1993,1994) [TYVT]

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While I wasn’t looking, another old Turkish game has been uncovered, and it needs to be archived here as well. This time, it’s a game made by a group of young people under the name “Turkuaz Yazılım.”

A “preview” version was released in 1993, and a new version was released in 1994.

I downloaded the game from Gamebase64 and also put a copy on my server for those interested:
MetallicLegendc64 Disk64 file

As for the game, it has 4-5 layers of parallax scrolling. There is a clear influence from Shadow of the Beast, with large sprites and technically good visuals, but the colors and graphics seem a bit odd. Instead of aiming for something aesthetically pleasing, it seems they wanted to show everything they could on the screen. The game, of course, follows the unbreakable rule of being unplayably difficult. 🙂 There are cheat options in the package; run the v2 version.

Code: Erkan Dogan, Serkan Dogan
Graphics: Taner Kaya
Music: Ali Uzcelik

Downloads and Development

Retroarch savestate packer/depacker Rzip.exe

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after a minor corruption on my RGB30 handheld filesystem, I lost the ability to restore my savestates on retroarch, after I recovered my savestate files, I couldn’t be able to figure out what’s in them because retroarch compresses state files with it’s own compressor, namely “RZIP” and you can see they are 4CC’d with “#RZIPv” header. No it’s not the same as LZMA rzip, so LZMA or LRZIP cannot decompress retroarch savestates.

Luckily there is a way to decompress those, and it’s already provided in retroarch git repository (link here).

But it’s provided as source code only, and as it is a cross platform code, you have to compile it for yourself somehow. But we are in luck, retroarch has high quality gcc code. With the help of mingw, it can be easily compiled, which I have done for you here:

230kb zip file for Retroarch RZIP Packer/Unpacker
rzip Usage:
– Query file status: rzip i input file>
– Compress file: rzip a input file> output file (optional)>
– Extract file: rzip x input file> output file (optional)>
! Omitting output file> will overwrite input file>

Downloads and Development, in English, Sinclair Zx Spectrum

New version of ZXVisionis available for windows

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zxvision5

ZXVision is a ZX Spectrum graphics viewing tool first released in 2009 under the name SpeccyView4. While the program was initially created to display SCR and MLT graphics, it can also open Snapshot types and TAP/TZX files to view graphic files within.

It intelligently determines the border color or can display in Loading Stripe mode if desired.

Along with the slideshow feature, there are several functions to manipulate loaded images. For example, after loading an SCR, choose Glow first, then SlotMask, and then Glow again from the EDIT menu. You can see the image transform into a TV display.

The program is written in .NET Framework 4. It runs on Windows 10 without requiring any additional installations.

DOWNLOAD ZX Vision V5.2 53KB ZIP file
Just extract and run. No installation or user privileges required. ZXVision works best if you associate it with SCR and MLT filetypes.

UPDATE 21/01/24: V5.3 is available here

Need some images to look at?
DOWNLOAD ZX Spectrum Random Image Pack 360KB Zip file
Unpack all the files to any folder and drag and drop a file into ZX Vision to view it.

More images? Check out zxart.ee website.

BASin/Basinc, Downloads and Development, in English, Sinclair Zx Spectrum

Basinc 1.794

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This article is obsolete. Get basinC 1.8 instead.

There is not much in this update. First of all, you’ll see a few improvements to the UDG Editor that DamienG requested.

Second, while making a few fixes about the SimpleCON device, a bug is also fixed.

But if you came here via BasinC’s own update check reminder, congratz (to both of us)! it’s good right =) Please leave a comment. Do you think basinc will benefit from improved internet functions? And mention your own ideas. (if you are not–don’t forget to enable update check under Tools > Basinc Options > Basinc Network).

Download latest release here:
Portable Download ZIP File, with examples and fonts etc. –Extract to any folder and run.

Download Installer Exe Automatic light install and Uninstall (InnoSetup) -Note: inno didn’t include autoback folder so you have to manually add it to installation folder or disable auto backup in options (or you get errors every 3 minutes)

In the meantime, we welcome you all to our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/UXVHCxuAWg Your Invitation

Changes:

// 1.79.4
// Added - UDG Editor Window, "Save" file option, CTRL+S, CTRL+O shortcuts, keeps track of open file and notify if there is a pixel modified as * in the title bar.
// Fixed - SimpleCON register couldn't be displayed as text because it was initialized as 0, now it is spaces.
// Changed-SimpleCON window was popping up in every character output. Now it only pops up when linefeed.


// 1.79.3
// Fixed - Profile window was showing wrong token in strings. (reported by: lippmaje)


// 1.79.2 (19.05.2022)
// Added - Basin Update Check (disabled by default, enable in Options)