@quazarsamcoupe@mastodonapp.uk
2026-10-11 13:22 UTC
@kianryan@oldbytes.space It looks to be a very quick and dirty port over to the SAM. The main editor of the screen is running in MODE 1 (that's the SAM screen mode that's identical to the ZX Spectrum) so it's 256x192 with attributes and it uses 3 pixel wide characters. There is SAM BASIC under the hood and SAM's ROM is being paged in, so it's not as crude as using a speccy emulator.
A "proper" port would have at least used SAM's hi-res MODE 3 - 512x192 - for text.
Still, at least Tasman Software took a gamble with the SAM back in 1990.
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@quazarsamcoupe@mastodonapp.uk 2026-10-11 14:33
@kianryan@oldbytes.space It looks like the original ZX SPECTRUM BASIC had been put through a converter to change it to native SAM BASIC to form a basis of what was needed as it's still using the likes of RANDOMIZE USR in some places rather than CALL, and lots of GO SUBs instead of easier procedures. But I do spy a lot of new SAM specific additions in the BASIC too.