Make the ZX Spectrum game you always imagined.

Screen banking

Give your world room to grow. Your screens move into the spare 128K banks and are paged in as the player walks, so level after level fits.

• Press Build tape and the Desk moves your compressed screens into the spare 128K banks, then builds the tape around them.
• In the example shown, banks 1 and 3 hold screens, banks 4 and 6 hold sprite masks, and bank 7 holds music and sound effects.
• Only screen data is banked. Code, blocks, sprites, events and objects stay in main memory.
• A 128K machine is needed for the banked version.

Several stages on one tape

Make a game in chapters. Build each stage as its own MPAGD game and join them on one tape, carrying lives, score, keys and the variables you choose from stage to stage.

• Each stage is its own MPAGD game. Tick the Stages routine in each one, call one USER number to hand over and another to take values back.
• You choose what to carry across: lives, score, high score, the control method, defined keys and any of variables A to W and Z.
• On the Stages page you add the tapes, put them in order and download one joined tape. A report lists what each stage hands on and takes back.
• A message can tell the player to stop the tape and press PLAY for the next stage.

Watch the demo on YouTube

Engine Trimmer

Keep only the engine your game really uses. Link your MPAGD engine folder, apply the trimmed copy with a backup, and go back to any earlier version.

• Load your game and the Desk works out which engine routines it never calls.
• Link your MPAGD engine folder, then Apply to my engine. The Desk saves a dated copy first and keeps your untouched original.
• Every trim starts from your original, so trimming twice never loses routines. Earlier versions can be restored from the page.
• Compile in MPAGD again afterwards.

Memory page

See exactly where every byte goes. A coloured map of main memory and a card for every 128K bank, so you know what you can afford before the next big idea.

• After a build it lists normal memory in address order: the fixed Spectrum area, start-up code, your main program and each element with its address and size.
• Each 128K bank has a card showing how full it is and what is in it: screens, the music player and songs, sound effects, cutscene pictures and masks.
• Room left for more gives a rough idea of how many more screens each bank could take.
• Download report saves the figures as text.

Free memory gauge

A live gauge on every page. Check how much room is left in main memory and in each bank without leaving what you are doing.

• It sits at the foot of the step list on every page and says Not measured until you build.
• After a build it shows the bytes free in normal memory, and a line for each bank with what it holds and how much room is left.
• It turns amber when less than 5 per cent is left. Click it to open the full Memory page.

Room speed

Find the screens that slow your game down. The Desk runs your build in an emulator, times every screen, ranks them, names the biggest costs and compares with a saved baseline.

• Runs the tape the Desk last built in its own emulator, visits every room on the map and times the main loop. Full speed is 2.00 frames per loop.
• The table ranks rooms slowest first and names the biggest costs, such as a sprite type's events or masked sprite drawing.
• Keep a run as the baseline, rebuild, measure again, and a Change column shows what each room gained or lost.
• It is an emulator measurement, so use it to rank rooms and find the big costs, then check a slow room on real hardware. 128K builds only for now.

Masked sprites in spare banks

Sprites that sit in the scene, not in a square of background colour. Every frame can have a mask, held in the spare banks.

• Masked frames are marked on the Sprites tab, so you can see which ones will be drawn with a mask.
• Masks live in the spare 128K banks. Each bank holds masks for 42 frames, and no mask data stays in main memory.
• Tick Draw without a mask on any sprite or object that should look transparent or glowing.

Big sprites

Build a boss to remember. A leader sprite and up to three pieces, such as 2 by 2 sprites of 16 by 16, move and draw together without tearing, with optional whole-shape collision for walls and hits.

• MPAGD sprites are 16 by 16. Joining four into a 32 by 32 boss with separate scripts makes them tear. This routine joins them properly.
• You move one leader sprite with its normal script. The Desk places the other pieces against it and, in builds without masked sprites, draws the whole boss in one go.
• Draw the pieces as separate 16 by 16 images with consecutive numbers in reading order, and keep the boss wholly inside the play window.
• Up to three big sprites, each up to 4 sprites across and 4 down. Optional whole-shape collision for walls, sprites and bullets.

Watch the demo on YouTube

Hitboxes

Stop dying to a sprite that never touched you. Draw a tighter collision box for any sprite image, even a different one for every animation frame.

• MPAGD tests collisions with a 16 by 16 square. Hitboxes let you draw a tighter box for each sprite image.
• Open the Sprites tab, press Hitbox on a sprite card, and drag on the grid. Fit to the pixels wraps the lit pixels for you.
• You can give each animation frame its own box. Images with no box behave exactly as MPAGD normally does.
• It costs about 250 bytes plus 4 per image, and works on 128K and 48K builds.

Sprite blinking

Flash an enemy when it is hit. A sprite blinks between two colours while one of its variables holds a value you choose, with up to four rules.

• Tick it, give it a USER number (218 by default) and call that number once a frame from EVENT MAINLOOP2. It looks at all the sprites itself.
• Each rule names a sprite type, one of the sprite's variables (DIRECTION, SETTINGA or SETTINGB) and a value. The sprite blinks for as long as the variable holds that value.
• Choose what blinks: the sprite, its mask, or both. Pick two colours, how many frames to spend in each, and an optional BRIGHT. Up to four rules.
• Colour on the Spectrum belongs to 8 by 8 cells, so the whole cell changes colour, not only the sprite's own pixels.

User routine builder

Add features with no coding. Tick what you want from a library of ready-made routines, grouped by category. The Desk writes your user.asm, shows a USER number map and warns about numbers nothing handles.

• Browse a library of routines grouped by category: screen transitions, colour effects, sprites and movement, pictures and text, music and stages.
• Each routine is off until you tick it, has a USER number you can change, and shows its memory cost.
• The USER numbers map shows what each number triggers and warns about numbers nothing handles.
• The result is a user.asm for MPAGD, which you can save straight into your user routines folder.

Walk-behind blocks

Let your heroes step behind the scenery, such as trees, pillars and doorways, even with masked sprites.

• Sprites pass behind blocks of the types you choose. Tick any of Custom, Platform, Wall, Water, Fodder, Deadly and Ladder.
• Only the draw order changes, so a Platform block still acts as a platform.
• It works with masked sprites.

Watch the demo on YouTube

PT3 music

Give your game a soundtrack. Add Vortex Tracker II or ProTracker 3 songs, played from the frame interrupt and controlled from your script by one variable.

• Add .pt3 songs from Vortex Tracker II, ProTracker 3 or the AY Tracker. Songs and the player go in a spare bank.
• In your game, one variable controls the music: 0 stops it, 1 plays the first song, 2 the second, and so on.
• Interrupt timing keeps the tempo steady for about 260 to 300 bytes of main memory. Optional ZX7 compression fits more songs in the bank.

AY Tracker

Write the tune yourself. Compose and edit PT3 songs inside the Desk, with a drag and drop song timeline. Simpler than Vortex Tracker II.

• Write and edit PT3 songs without leaving the Desk, with a pattern grid, samples and ornaments.
• Drag patterns from the pattern bank into the song timeline to arrange them.
• It plays through the same PT3 player your game uses, so timing and effects behave as they do in a game.
• It is simpler than Vortex Tracker II and has not been compared with it.

AY sound effects

Keep using SOUND n, now with real AY effects. Add AY Sound FX Editor banks and choose which chip channels effects may borrow.

• Add AY Sound FX Editor files (.afb or .afx). The order in the list is the SOUND number, starting from 0.
• Tick only A, B or C to keep a channel free for the music.
• Play gives a software preview. BEEP and CRASH are untouched.

Sound FX builder

Design your own lasers and explosions. Draw an effect frame by frame, start from presets, preview it and add it to your game in one click.

• Draw an effect frame by frame: volume, tone and noise for each fiftieth of a second, up to 5 seconds.
• Start from presets such as Laser, Zap, Explosion, Jump or Pickup, or press Surprise me.
• Add to my effects puts it on the end of your list, ready to play with SOUND.

Loading screen and BASIC loader

Make a loader that is yours. Edit the BASIC loader, choose your own loading screen and tape file name, and add a message and key wait.

• Choose or draw your loading screen, set the tape file name and edit the BASIC loader.
• The loader can wait for a key after loading, and can hide the file names while loading.
• The screen can be drawn in the Screen Editor from this page.

Cutscene pictures

Tell the story in full-screen pictures from .scr, PNG, JPG or GIF files. Each can wait for a key or time itself.

• Add full-screen pictures from .scr, PNG, JPG or GIF files, converted to Spectrum colour rules.
• Pictures are compressed and kept in spare bank space. Each can wait for a key, not wait, or show for a number of seconds.
• Show one with the Cutscene pictures routine and a USER number. A 48K game cannot use them.

Screen Editor

Draw a loading screen that follows the Spectrum's rules. A 256 by 192 pixel editor that keeps to the colour limits for you.

• A 256 by 192 editor that follows the Spectrum's colour rules: one ink and one paper per 8 by 8 cell.
• Tools include pencil, line, box, oval, fill with 45 patterns, text, cell attributes, selections and layers.
• Import an image with dithering, then save a .scr or export a PNG.

Screen Editor image layers

Drop in a picture and move it about. PNG, JPG or GIF images come in as movable layers matched to Spectrum colours.

• Import onto screen adds a PNG, JPG or GIF as a movable layer, with a size box and a transparency choice.
• Layers float above the drawing. Merge them down or flatten them when you are happy.
• Cells still follow the Spectrum rules: at most two colours and one brightness per 8 by 8 cell.

Screen Editor text tool and fonts

Put words on your screens in any Spectrum font. A text tool with a font picker, .ch8 font files and a built-in font editor.

• Type text, pick a font and click the screen to place it. Snap to cells keeps it on the 8 by 8 grid.
• Load .ch8 font files, the format MPAGD uses, or edit a font in the built-in font editor and save it back.

Script editor

A code editor that knows MPAGD. Edit events.a00 to a20 and events.msg with colour coding, folding, per-file undo and careful saving that only writes what changed.

• Edits events.a00 to events.a20 and events.msg, with colour-coded commands using the compiler's own word list.
• IF, WHILE and REPEAT blocks fold, and the status line tells you if blocks are balanced.
• Find bar, replace in all files, and a checker that follows the compiler's rules as you type.
• Only changed files are written, after a dated backup, and the app keeps a history of each file.

Usages, Outline and Variables

See where everything is used. Every place a variable, USER number, message or command appears, with counts.

• Usages lists every place a variable, USER number, message number or command is used.
• Outline shows the sections of the open script from its comment banners.
• The Variables table shows how many times each variable is set and read, so you can spot ones that are never used.

Variable and sprite type labels

Give variables and sprite types memorable names that show in the editor and reports without changing your scripts. Copy labels from another open project.

• Give variables A to Z memorable names, and name the player and each sprite type.
• Labels show on hover, in Usages, in Game review and in the pickers throughout the Desk.
• They live in the project file, so your scripts are never changed.

Dashboard

Your game at a glance. A first page with your game's picture and numbers: screens, sprites, blocks and more. Each tile opens the matching tab.

• The first page of a project: your loading screen or start screen, the project name and badges for what is ready.
• Stat tiles show screens, sprites, blocks, objects, free memory, tape size, music and more. Click a tile to open its tool.
• It also shows a world map, your top to do items and a checklist for getting the game ready.

Map

See your whole world. Every screen is drawn from your blocks and laid out as on your MPAGD map, with sprites, objects and borders, and PNG export.

• Every screen drawn from your blocks and laid out as on your MPAGD map.
• Tick boxes show sprites, the player start, objects, borders and screen numbers. Click a screen for its details.
• Zoom in full screen, or download the map as a PNG.

Sprite and object reports

Know where everything is. See where each sprite and object is placed or spawned, and which ones look unused.

• Sprites: where each sprite is placed or spawned, and which ones look unused.
• Objects: the screen each starts on and its position.
• Masked frames are highlighted, and each sprite card has its Hitbox button.

Block use counts

See which blocks earn their place. How many times each block is used, with a filter for blocks used fewer than a number of times.

• Every block shows how many times it is used across screens, PUTBLOCK and USER commands.
• A coloured bar shows each block's MPAGD type, with a Type filter. Click a block for a large preview and where it is used.
• From here you can also remove unused blocks or reorder blocks, with scripts renumbered to match.

Merge game files

Combine the best of two games. Builds a new .agd from the parts of two game files, for example to bring screens from one stage into another, with checks.

• Builds a new .agd from the parts of two game files. For each part, choose which file supplies it.
• Quick choices include everything from the other file but keep my event scripts, or only the look.
• A checks list compares numbers such as screens against the window and blocks. It cannot tell whether your scripts still make sense, so test the result.

Document the project

Documentation in one click. A README and picture sheets of every block and sprite frame.

• One click makes a README, a single-page document.html, a picture of every block with its number and use count, and a picture of every sprite frame.
• It is read-only, so it never changes your project. English only for now.

Tape building

From compile to tape in a click. Builds a .tap with an editable BASIC loader, ready to load. It says clearly when the main file is not a compiled game.

• Press Build tape and the Desk banks the screens, adds music, effects, pictures and masks, and builds a .tap with your loader.
• The tape notes show where your program ends and how many bytes are free. If it is too big, the Desk says by how many bytes and suggests what to try.
• Then Download .tap, Test game in the built-in emulator, or Open in my emulator.

Built-in help

Help right where you are. A ? button on every page (or F1) opens the user guide at the part for the page you are on, in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

• The round ? button, or F1, slides the user guide in from the right, opened at the part for the page you are on.
• It follows you if you change page, and has a topic list. It is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

To do list

Never lose a good idea. A list for ideas, bugs and jobs in every project, saved in the project file.

• Every project has its own list of ideas, bugs and jobs, opened from the To do button at the top right of every page.
• Each item remembers the page you were on, so you can jump back to it.
• It is stored in the project file, so Save project keeps it.