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

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

Retroarch savestate packer/depacker Rzip.exe

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>

Basinc 1.794

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)

JPG2PDF or Image to Pdf..

Actually, it’s just jpeg to print 😀
I needed to convert a large number of jpeg files into a pdf document and I did not want to use an online service for these tasks. But I couldn’t find a free tool for this simple process either. There must be, but I couldn’t find it. Anyway, I wrote it myself, anyone can use it.

This tool does not offer any setting mechanism as it uses the default settings of your printer. For this reason, do not forget to set your printer’s settings from the control panel beforehand.

I recommend using Microsoft Print to PDF for PDF output. It’s free and comes installed on the latest versions of windows.

Of course, you can also use other printers.

We also observed that the images on a friend’s computer were incomplete, but we could not find the reason. Good luck if you find it.

Jpeg2PNG screenshot

How to use?

1. Drag and drop images into the window.
2. If necessary, you can sort the files alphabetically (sort button)
On the 3rd side, choose a printer, preferably “Microsoft Print to PDF”
4. Print by pressing the print button.

DOWNLOAD HERE 8KB zip file (No installation necessary, just unzip and run) works on WindowsXP to Win11

An experiment about Turkish Wordle.

I’m not sure this is relevant if you are an english speaker, but if you are interested, this article is about 5 letter Turkish word frequencies.

Worlde has become quite popular on social media in recent weeks. Everyone keeps posting their great success, but you can only solve one word per day. That’s why everyone is eagerly waiting for the clock to pass midnight.

The game is there: https://f.github.io/wordle-tr/

Wordle expects for you to find a 5 letter Turkish word. In doing so, it expects you use valid words. Wordle uses the Turkish tdk word library and the words you type must match the words in the library.

9971 words are registered in the 5-letter words library. If we look at the letter distribution in them;

a 6363
e 4064
k 3417
i 3266
r 2849
l 2543
n 2441
m 2289
t 2086
s 1922
ı 1915
u 1598
y 1410
o 1279
ü 1251
d 1236
b 1203
z 1099
ç 951
ş 914
h 910
g 817
p 734
v 662
f 650
c 534
ö 462
ğ 353
j 57

In this case, we have the letters AEKİR, from which we can only create ERİKA. The next letters are LNMTS, the next 5 is IUYOÜ.
Erika seems like the best opening word, but then you’re on your own.

If you want to handle the 15 most popular letters in the first three words, you have only one option:
1. ALTIN (includes 15348) (31.2%)
2. EKÜRİ (includes 14847) (29.4%)
3. SOYUM (including 8498) (17.2%)

After these three words, you will have a 78.5% chance of removing all the letters.

With just the word ERICA, you cover 41% of the letters per word. If you feel lucky, make an opening with ERİKA. Thus, you will have a chance to make a shorter prediction. Otherwise, continue with ALTIN and EKÜRİ, if you can’t find enough letters, you will continue with SOYUM.

That is all. Have fun.

I don’t know why I translated this into English 😀

BasinC 1.77 Release

EDIT:This is now an old version. Check new version at -> >Basinc 1.792<

Well, this one is again just a quick update. Some bug fixes and minor improvoments.

A visible addendum is Project Notes Editor. It’s just a workaround to add remarks/comments to your project. Note that comments will only saved with BAS files.
Also I’ve added keyboard toggle options for tool windows. For more information please see the changelog below.

BasinC Emulator 1.77 – Download
A reminder: This archive does not contain basinc.ini file. You may copy your old ini file into basinc 1.77 folder or basinc will create a new ini file for you.

Happy halloween!

Version History:
Continue reading BasinC 1.77 Release

İstanbul Efsaneleri: Lale Savaşçıları Amiga version is Cracked.

Well, it’s just a very quick crack and the game is in Turkish. A little background about the game, it’s originally written with Amos Pro 2.0 around 1995, later the game had been ported to PC DOS and Windows as CDROM version.
This one is Amiga 500 version, pretty iconic Turkish game. It has been welded into Turkish retrogaming culture. Cracked version is only tested on Kickstart 1.3 and 1MB of ram (most common amiga configuration).

As I said, this is a quick crack, it may or may not work. Game manual and original disk images can be found on the internet.

Lale Savaşçıları DOWNLOAD 2xADF (1MB Zip Dosyası)

Purebasic for Amiga Syntax Highlighter

Last week, with a group of friends examined different development possibilities for Amiga. We were searching for small footprint (low memory usage) soultions. Then we stumbled upon -now deprecated version of- purebasic.

It worked and performed fine, yet developing under winuae with 25 year old environment was pain in the ass.

Then I decided to create a PureBasic Amiga syntax highligter for notepad++. It includes all documented commands for Amiga version of Purebasic 4.00.

Download Purebasic Amiga UDL XML file

To use this file, goto notepad++, Languages > Define Your Language > Import… and select provided xml file. RESTART notepad++ before use.

Before I forget: Vintage thoughts