Heavy Metal Mini -- Game program for the Sharp PC-E500,PC-E550,
---------------- PC-1480U,PC-1490U.
This program is from a Japanese Magazine called 'Pockecom Journal' 1990
edition. It is basically a shoot'em up type game in the style of
defender. The Sharp PC-E500 was used in a research project
(The development of a stereoscopic video system) conducted by me in
1990-1992.
HOW TO LOAD AND DECODE THE PROGRAM:
----------------------------------
The program is about 12K in size and entirely in machine code.
To allow it to be downloaded to the IBM-PC and then to the net
I have gone through a few processes. The binary info is
converted to a text hex listing followed by compression with
the PKZIP program and finally uuencoded (the last two steps to
save network bandwidth).
Since this is the first time such a process has been described
(to my knowledge) I will describe the process in detail.
So to download the program the following steps are necessary:
(1) download this file from the net to your PC.
(2) UUDECODE this file using the program 'UUDECODE' which should
produce a file called 'HMM.ZIP'.
(3) Use a program called 'PKUNZIP' to uncompress the archive and
produce the following three files: ----------------------
|
Searching ZIP: HMM.ZIP \/
Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Attr Name
------ ------ ----- ----- ---- ---- ------ ---- ----
54985 Implode 19280 65% 11-12-91 10:35 036495c4 --w HMMHEX.TXT
708 Implode 532 25% 11-12-91 10:45 5ca696f2 --w HMMLOAD.BAS
669 Implode 504 25% 11-12-91 10:46 601e07a4 --w HMM.BAS
------ ------ --- -------
56362 20316 64% 3
( If you are unfamiliar with the above two steps or don't have the
two programs mentioned then have a look in the newsgroup
comp.binaries.ibm.pc or ask around.)
The three programs are:
HMMHEX.TXT - the machine code program in a text hex dump format
HMMLOAD.BAS - the program used to load the hex data into the
PC-E500 via the serial port.
HMM.BAS - a program to load/allocate memory and unload/deallocate
memory the machine code program from a ram disk (you
need extra memory for this) or a disk drive. Only use
this program if you have either extra memory or a
disk drive.
(4) load the program HMMLOAD.BAS into your PC-E500 using your serial
converter by (a) set up the serial parameters on the PC-E500
and the IBM-PC. (b) type LOAD on your PC-E500 (c) transmit the file
'HMMLOAD.BAS' from your IBM-PC to your PC-E500 (use a pause of about
0.5 seconds after each line) (d) press BREAK key on your PC-E500 when
the file transfer is finished.
(5) The program takes a lot of room inside your PC-E500 so
initialise your ram disk to a smaller size and remove any
unnecessaries to make sure you have more than 19456 bytes free
using the PRINT FRE(0) command.
Then type the following commands on your PC-E500:
POKE&BFE03,&1A,&FD,&B,0,&4C,0:CALL&FFFD8
This allocates &4C00 (19456) bytes of RAM for machine code usage.
The computer will look as if it has reset (don't worry). Go
back to basic and check that the RAM has been allocated
using the PRINT FRE(0) command again. The result should be
much less than before. If not, then the RAM has not been
allocated and you had better try again.
(6) type RUN on the PC-E500 and transmit the file HMMHEX.TXT
to the PC-E500 from the IBM-PC. Press BREAK when the transfer
has finished.
(7) ONLY IF YOU HAVE EXTRA RAM OR A FLOPPY DISK:
LOAD the file 'HMM.BAS' into the PC-E500 if you can use it.
type the following command to save the machine code file in
your RAM or floppy disk : SAVEM"E:HMM.BIN",&BB000,&BE118
The machine code program resides in RAM in locations &BB000 to &BE118.
To deallocate the RAM after you have finished playing the game type:
POKE&BFE03,&1A,&FD,&B,0,0,0:CALL&FFFD8
But BEWARE you will have to reload the program if you take this step.
RUNNING THE PROGRAM:
-------------------
The program is started by typing CALL&BB000.
Pressing [SPACE] starts the game.
Ship movement is with the 2,4,6 and 8 keys.
Firing is with the [SPACE] key. Also, if you hold down the [SPACE]
key for longer you get a bigger bullet.
The weird key above the MENU key is the PAUSE button.
Finally pressing [C.CE] quits the game.
Have Fun!
Andrew Woods.
[ For your convenience the file "hmm.zip" (21k) has been saved separately ]