Spectrum Ports / Homebrew · Timex 2068

Dr. Acula

Dr. Acula for Timex 2068, TS Pico only. Preserves the selected 2024 source with beeper audio: it is not an AY/128K edition or a 48K reduction of another edition. All eight original melodies and 32 sound routines remain present. Requires 8 KiB of Pico DOCK RAM to preserve 1,088 original bytes used as noise data; the window also contains a shifted 1,075-byte copy to retain the sound-loop timing. No Spectrum ROM code executes from Pico memory. Checks cover cold boot, editable native BASIC with BREAK/LIST, original images, 60 keyboard gameplay updates and all 32 complete FE audio value sequences. Independent review includes 96 memory/interrupt/stack restoration cases and 264 forced interrupts across the eight melodies’ pointers. The 32 sound routines are separately invoked after gameplay, not all naturally triggered during the game. Measured effect duration in CPU cycles differs by approximately -1.15% to +3.27% from the source. The memory/port bridge uses original Pico firmware, but not the actual custom Pico ROM. All reachable states and worst-case stack use throughout the full game are not proven. Gameplay is not fully identical: 32 of 60 captured screens match; the different initial interrupt phase changes the original time counter. Effective timing, analogue noise and speed are not claimed identical to the source machine. Tests use emulation with Pico firmware; physical hardware, joystick, untested routes and whole-game completion are unverified. No reduced-audio normal TAP is supplied.

Emulator tests cover specific routes and components; this is not a complete-game or physical-hardware certification.

Download

TSPico version: external memory is required. Verified in the documented software model; not tested on physical hardware.

Notes and controls

The BASIC loader can be interrupted with BREAK, listed and adapted for other storage devices.

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