========================================
CSPECT LOADING INSTRUCTIONS for ALS 2302
========================================

This is only my third publicly-available Next program - as such it's still been
part of the learning process of NextBASIC, this time involving the practical use
of tiles, anything at all involving sprites, and which dot commands do and don't
work properly with CSpect (some that I wanted to use don't, and I had to find
out the hard way).

TEN files are required to run ALS 2302 successfully:

+--------------+----------------+---------------------------+
| als2302.bas  | LINE 20        | Main program              |
| chars6.bin   | CODE 64512,768 | 6-pixel character set     |
| mars.bin     | BANK 9         | Game background           |
| mcode.bin    | BANK 47,0,65   | Machine code              |
| mushroom.sl2 | LAYER          | "A full LAYER 2 screen"   |
| mowers.car   | DATA m$()      | Mower names               |
| spaceman.spr | BANK 40        | Sprite sheet              |
| text.car     | DATA t$()      | Text for PROC textprint() |
| title.sl2    | LAYER          | LAYER 2 title screen      |
| toptitle.bin | BANK 9         | Smaller title for menu    |
+--------------+----------------+---------------------------+

als2302.txt is also provided as a way of viewing the listing outside of the Next environment.

================================================================================


Installation instructions
-------------------------

I do not own a real Next yet. Apparently, the delivery date is still on for late
summer, or early autumn 2023. CSpect is the most capable Next emulator but can
be a bit finnicky to set up, and requires the use of a virtual SD card image.

If you don't have that SD card image already (how did you expect to get Next
emulation working without it?), download a pre-made image with all the files
needed to make a Next work properly, from https://zxspectrumnext.online - use
the "CSPECT Next distribution 2Gb SD Card Image", which will unzip to a file
cspect-next-2gb.img. Rename it if you want (I renamed mine SD1.IMG - make sure
to change the filename every time it's required in the guide below.)

Also, Mac and Linux users, you're on your own for the installation and use of
anything mentioned below - I know a bit about the use of ./ and CHMOD to execute
files and they'll be .SH instead of .BAT, but when it comes to compiling from
source, that's several orders of magnitude above my pay grade. Deal with it.

1.  First, in NextBASIC or in the Command line, create a folder "ALS2302"
    (MKDIR "AL2302").
2.  Copy the ten game files into this folder on the SD Card image.
    This will involve the use of HDFmonkey - details are given below. 
3.  Select Next BASIC, CD "ALS2302" and LOAD "als2302.bas".


Installation and use of HDFmonkey
---------------------------------

1.  HDFmonkey, by Gasman (found here: https://github.com/gasman/hdfmonkey) has
    to be compiled from source, and I can't help with that. However, there are
    pre-compiled packages out there, such as this one for Windows on
    https://uto.speccy.org, for as long as the link lasts:
    https://uto.speccy.org/downloads/hdfmonkey_windows.zip
2.  Drop HDFmonkey.exe into your CSpect directory, and create a folder "SD2"
    (which will hold files to be transferred between the SD card image and your
    CSpect folder). HDFmonkey works on the command line, so it's easier to make
    a batch file that will do the job easily:
    hdfmonkey put cspect-next-2gb.img SD2\nas10.bas NAS\nas10.bas
    Save this as HDFMUP.BAT, and run it.
3.  ASIDE: Note that to get files off the SD card image, replace "put" with
    "get" and switch SD2 and NAS around (or whatever folder you're copying
    items from on the image). e.g.:
    hdfmonkey get cspect-next-2gb.img NAS\scrawl.sl2 SD2\scrawl.sl2
    Save that as HDFMDOWN.BAT and edit it as necessary.

Check that the files have downloaded properly - if they are showing 0 KB, they failed. I've found that out the hard way. It may be best to open a Command Prompt window and run HDFMUP.BAT and HDFMDOWN.BAT from there.


- JRW 14/1 - 28/4 MMXXIII
