SpecBAS on Linux

[johnno56]

Hi Paul,

I wanted to test SpecBAS on my 64bit Linux Mint machine for two reasons... A bit of nostalgia and to see if it can run...

Created the SpecBAS folder. Placed all necessary files within and created and loaded the 'demo' folder as well. Created a 'launcher' to execute SpecBAS.exe via Wine and it ran very well. Of course, my eyesight has trouble seeing such small fonts, I had to use it full screen... lol

Working my way through the demos... I think this will take a long time to complete. But, what I have seen so far, is quite impressive. The performance improvement is what I noticed most as well as the resolution... No joy playing midi - but that is to be expected - probably one of the drawbacks of using Wine...

This looks like fun!

[ZXDunny]

My goodness you are brave

I will be working on a native Linux port (there's only one source file that needs to be ported) as soon as I can be bothered to install a Linux VM and grab a copy of Lazarus... But anyway.

If small fonts bother you, I like to run SpecBAS in a double sized window. SpecBAS by default looks for a file in ~/specbas/s called startup-sequence, and you can create it in specbas itself. Start up a new program and enter the lines:

10 OPTION "intscaling",1
20 SCREEN WINDOW 1600,960
30 WINDOW SIZE 0,800,480

and then, as a direct command:

SAVE "/s/startup-sequence"

And then restart (or simply NEW). You should get a large window, with bigger pixels. This will of course require a display larger than 1600x960 - I run 1920x1080 and it's fine.

Apologies about the MIDI!

[johnno56]

Thanks for the font tip. I was going to ask about "unpack the specbas_sysfiles.zip file" that was mentioned on the github page... then I noticed your tip. I will try that and let you know... In regards to midi... not your fault... common problem I have running Windows programs that use midi...

Just tried the "fix" and worked like a charm... I can even read the screen without my glasses... Cool...