freshlamb wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:15 am
This is really disappointing news about TAP files, as I was my favorite way to store my games.
I don't think it's TAP files in general. I've been using TAP files pretty extensively recently, and they're always perfectly well-behaved. There's no reason they should ever vary in VICE (I'm in 3.5). Maybe there's some IRQ thing that happens that depends upon or is affected by a timer in some way? That's the only way I can explain the load behaving differently each time, and finding novel ways to fail.
Here's an outline of the process, and what I've seen happen:
(0) SEARCHING (counter 000 - 004), FOUND "CASTLE QUEEN" (counter 004)
(1) All-white screen that says "LOADING." at the top (counter 006 - 014) [popped back to READY prompt]
(2) All-blue screen that says "AJ&KJ CASTLE QUEEN" with "AJ&AJ" changing colors. (counter 014) [CPU jam]
(3) After pressing F1, "LOADING." is added to top of the screen (counter 014 - 031)
(4) All-cyan screen that says "97 CASTLE QUEEN BY KURT JOHNS etc." (counter 031)
(5) After pressing F1, a bitmapped image of the Queen finding the key, pursued by a ghost (counter remains 031)
(6) After pressing F1
again, "PLEASE WAIT." (counter 031 - 47) [popped back to READY]
(7) The screen half-fills with junk, but loading continues (counter 047 - 058) [CPU jam, popped back to READY]
By far, the most common issue is CPU jam at step 7, just when everything seems OK!
I'm going to copy each component over to tape and try this on a real VIC. I'll report back...
An error in the code would be good news, because it means it can be fixed.