How Do I Make A Fake Loading Screen?

February 19, 2008 6:42 PM

What's the easiest way to create a fake ZX Spectrum/Amstrad/C64 loading screen?

So I'm helping put together a stage show based around computer and video games, and it'll involve a digital projector and whitescreen. I want to look at the possibility of faking up a loading screen that brings up the show title at the beginning like on an old cassette-based game, you know, with flashing borders, the data noise, and then the picture being drawn.

What's the most straightforward way of somebody with limited technical aptitude accomplishing this? At the moment I see two possible methods: a fake flash-based recreation of a game loading, or running an emulator with a custom-written programme in it that brings up said screen. While the latter would look more authentic, my programming skills don't extend beyond making the word 'POO' appear when you press any key.

Is there a way I should be approaching this? Please note: I'll consider 'No, you are a moron. This is not possible,' answers perfectly legitimate if this is, indeed, a ridiculous idea.

posted by RokkitNite to media & arts (5 comments total)

An animated GIF might be the way to go. Get some screenshots and put them into an image editor that lets you create an animated GIF. You can duplicate frames and change the duration of each frame to suit your needs.
posted by The Deej at 6:59 PM on February 19, 2008

ZX Spectrum Emulator

Amstrad Emulator

C64 Emulator
posted by b1tr0t at 7:03 PM on February 19, 2008

All the emulators b1tr0t mentions will work great, and getting a screen to load in on an Amstrad is simple. Let's see if I can remember:

To save what's on the screen, you go:

save "pic.bin",&C000,&4000

That is, save the 16kb of memory from address &C000 to disk.

Then to load it:

load "pic.bin",&C000

And it will appear just like a "typical" game loading screen. Assuming you've set the palette correctly. Putting together a simple BASIC program to do this is easy, contact me if you want to proceed along this route and I'll see if I can help.

Of course, drawing the picture there to begin with is the difficult part - I don't know how you would do it other than using drawing software on the CPC emulator, some of which you're sure to find here.
posted by Jimbob at 10:02 PM on February 19, 2008

Actually, that save command may be:

save "pic.bin",B,&C000,&4000
posted by Jimbob at 10:09 PM on February 19, 2008

Oh, look what I just found. On this page is a program called ConvImgCPC. It's a Windows program that lets you draw pictures and save them in the CPC's screen format. Could be useful.
posted by Jimbob at 10:24 PM on February 19, 2008