Uto's 8 bit page

About this page

avatar Uto Welcome to @uto_dev's Spectrum dedicated web site. I've put together some of my ZX-Spectrum related projects and/or FAQs in this site.

I got my first ZX Spectrum back in September 1984, and it was the computer where I learnt programming... and gaming. As I've been involved in some Spectrum and other 8 bit machines (C64, MSX, CPC, PCW, Plus/4) projects lately I've decided to build this site to put them all together.

My stuff

DAAD & PAWS Stuff

PAWS and DAAD are text adventure engines for old 8 bit games. DAAD was the most advanced one and can generate games for many old machines. I have created some stuff to improve and ease development with them:

  • PCDAAD: A DAAD interpreter for DOS in VGA 320x200, 256 colours mode (original was 16 colours).
  • MALUVA: A DAAD extension, able to make DAAD load raster graphics, additional texts, etc. in several 8 bit machines (C64, ZX Spectrum +3/ESXDOS/Next, CPC, PCW, MSX, Plus/4).
  • DAAD Reborn Compiler: A new compiler for DAAD (AKA DRC).
  • DAAD Ready,a package to easily develop adventure games for several machines using DAAD Adventure Writer. Includes PCDAAD, MALUVA and DRC.
  • PAWS2DAAD: A PAWS database extractor wich generates code ready for DRC compiler for DAAD.
  • UnDAAD: A DAAD database extractor.
  • EAAD: A DAAD code editor, with separated tabs forr each section, syntax highlight, code completion and puzzle wizard. Binaries here for [Windows] and Linux [Linux.]
  • UnPAWS: A Professional Adventure Writing System database extractor.
  • Utilities

    I'm also the author or co-author of a few 8 bit related utilities:

    My writings

    I've had written some articles 8-bit or text-adventure realated. Some of them I wrote in English, some of them in Spanish:

    About 8-bit stuff:

    About text-adventures, 8-bit related:

    About text-adventures in general

    FAQs

    I've created a few FAQs for the ZX-Uno FPGA clone and its ZX-GO+ variation, please find them below. Please notice the ZX GO+ is in the end a ZX-Uno, so reading both FAQs is recommended for people interested in it.

    Other stuff

    • HDFMonkey: I've managed to compile hdfmonkey, an utility to handle hdf files with command line orders, for Windows. You can find it here. There may be a chance it does not work with 32 bit windows, it it does, please let me know. Warning: to compile it under Win32 I had to remove some code that I'm not really sure what it was for. I've seen no side effect so far, but use it at your own risk. HDFMonkey is an utility by gasman.
    • Most of what I've developed for fun is related with text adventure games, see my github repositories. It took me a while to replace the Turbo Pascal CRT functions until I got the Turbo Pascal RTL source code.

    Ye olde times

    This is not my first 8 bit related page, but this other one.