SPEEDTRANS PLUS
Speedtrans Plus is the most sophisticated Tape-to-Disc transfer
utility for SPEEDLOCK protected programs ever published.
It will definitely transfer more games than any other dedicated
Speedlock transfer program on the market and with much greater ease.
Other transfer programs require you to know how long the game code is
so that you may run an alternative program for the long games which
does not save the loading screen.
This is done because they do not make use of the extra memory
available on the CPC 6128 or from the use of an extra RAMPACK.
This program is highly intelligent in that it first reads the loader
from the tape and establishes which type of protection is in use
from 6 alternatives.
At the end of the load it then finds out how long the code is and if
it is too long to be saved to 1 file it will move the excess code
into the banked memory and save the game in 2 parts and write the
appropriate loader program.
The screen will also be moved into a bank and compressed before
saving. This can mean screen files as small as 4K (BASKET MASTER)
depending on mode and content.
It is remotely possible that the screen code cannot be compressed and
in such a case the code is saved normally as a 17K file.
We have to date only found 1 game where this applies (Phantom Club)
but there may well be others in the future.
All this means that a lot less disc space is used than with other
transfer programs also you will nearly always get the loading screen
saved.
The exception to this is when there is no loading screen (as in
SCRABBLE) or when the screen is blanked out and more code is loaded
into the screen memory, as in BMX SIMULATOR,PHANTOM CLUB and MADBALLS.
With all except the very latest games the disc saving name will be
displayed on the screen at the start of the load. To run the
transferred game just RUN this name. In all cases the disc saving name
is displayed while the save is carried out.
Another intelligent feature of SPEEDTRANS PLUS is that the very first
thing it does is to find out which drive it is in. This means that if
you have a two drive system you may run the program from drive B by
typing RUN "B:DISC" or ùB:RUN"DISC.
The saving will ALWAYS be to drive A so with a single drive you must
change the disc when prompted on screen.
Although the banked memory is used for the transfer it is not used for
running the game from disc so all transferred games will work in a
standard CPC 464 or CPC 664.