Castlevania Spectral Interlude - Massive High Quality ZX Spectrum game released!

[rare_j]

I don't think you have to be a castlevania fan or a speccy fan to enjoy this; it's just a great game.
It is a bit brutal to expect real hardware users to finish this in one sitting, a password system or save game to tape would have been a worthwhile feature. Mind you that's because I'm old, back in the day I'd have spent weeks playing nothing else till it was finished. I guess real hardware users could just leave the speccy on and the game paused until they're ready to play it again, with no moving parts would that cause any harm? I don't think I ever left the speccy on for long periods when I had one but I remember leaving my A1200 on over night sometimes if it was rendering.
I'm on my second play through and only save state at the statue checkpoints now.

[Thorham]

Awesome

Runs great on my Blizzard1230 with CBSpeccy. Amiga definitely needs cool projects like this.

[trydowave]

Im having trouble getting this to load on my real speccy 128. Im using speccy tape on an ipod touch (other games work).
It loads the main intro picture but I just get sound and no loading bars. IT runs for ages and then stays on that picture.

Has anyone else had this problem or can they get it to run on real hardware?
Thanks

[quahappy]

I'm loving this game although *cough* save states are helping immensely. TBH, I don't think I would have had the patience to replay this game if it wasn't for the aforementioned as my demise has happened on more than one occasion. OK, probably hundreds now lol.

However. I am stuck. There are a few bits of the amulet that lies the other side of spike traps and at the moment I have absolutely no idea what I need (if anything) to get to them. I've got the double-jump ability and the ability to turn water to ice. I'm guessing there's another to get across those spike traps? Anyone got any advice?

[rare_j]

Keep going right, freeze the large body of water and proceed to the following area. In there you should find the next ability.

[quahappy]

Thanks for the tip, rare_j.

Do you mean here?



I've frozen the waterfall but I have no idea how to reach the upper-right ledge to the amulet/next screen. I've the double-jump but that isn't enough.

[quahappy]

I've sussed it! I found that you can "teleport" left / right purely by accident (can't find any reference to this anywhere). Whilst holding up, quickly press the left or right key (depending on which way you want to teleport) and this allows to get across those pesky spike traps with ease.

As for the screenshot above. I had to go to the screen to the left of this and get onto the platform that is level with the amulet part and teleport myself across!

Hmmmm..... apparently there are still TWO amulet parts I need to find! Nor these show up on the map either (had already bought the additional map for 300c). I've got to a altar which informs me that I need all amulet parts! Damn..... where could they be?

[trydowave]

So. Anyone got this working on real hardware yet?

[Graham Humphrey]

As I mentioned earlier in the thread I loaded and played the game on my +2. The only thing I can think of in your case is that the volume wasn't loud enough to be picked up by the Speccy (I had the same thing loading it via an app on my Android phone) but if other games haven't done it I'm dubious of that theory. If I convert tapes to .WAV files and load it via an MP3 player that tends to work better (but when my DivMMC arrives I'll be largely ditching that method).

[spud]

I'll try it tonight, finally got some time. I'll use my DivMMC though to load it :-)

[trydowave]

not all my games work mind you. About 50% of them. Ill see if I can adjust volume.
I tried loading the game using ASP on my A1200 and it got further. It said press any key to start. Unfortunately none of the keys did anything.

[Graham Humphrey]

From personal experience I'd say that every problem I've had loading games this way is through the volume although it's mostly custom/turbo loaders that give me headaches. Sometimes I just load the WAV file into Audacity to increase its volume and that has done the trick on a number of occasions.

Haven't tried it on ASp as of yet but I might do to see what happens.

EDIT: Also v1.1 is available as well so might be worth a try?

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by quahappy

I've sussed it! I found that you can "teleport" left / right purely by accident (can't find any reference to this anywhere). Whilst holding up, quickly press the left or right key (depending on which way you want to teleport) and this allows to get across those pesky spike traps with ease.

As for the screenshot above. I had to go to the screen to the left of this and get onto the platform that is level with the amulet part and teleport myself across!

Hmmmm..... apparently there are still TWO amulet parts I need to find! Nor these show up on the map either (had already bought the additional map for 300c). I've got to a altar which informs me that I need all amulet parts! Damn..... where could they be?

You got the teleport from defeating the gorgon the basement of the castle - you should go back and see what's in the rest of the castle. If you're looking for white altar pieces they're mostly in hidden rooms that the upgraded map hints at when you get near them so you have to go over the map again to find them.

[quahappy]

Originally Posted by rare_j

You got the teleport from defeating the gorgon the basement of the castle - you should go back and see what's in the rest of the castle. If you're looking for white altar pieces they're mostly in hidden rooms that the upgraded map hints at when you get near them so you have to go over the map again to find them.

Yup indeedy. I've found all the amulets.... and, OH BOY - the last boss (I presume) sure packs a punch! Going to take some time and a lot of patience.