A handy general purpose Firebird hacker, called the Bleepload, for you to bolt on whatever you like. Type it in and save it for later use in this directory. Don't try running it on it's own though: because you'll only get an 'Out of data' message: you need to bolt on the game data for hacking the game in line 340 onwards...

The Firebird loader (or Bleepload as it is more commonly known) was used in many games by Firebird.

"Bleepload" first appeared on Firebird games around March 1987, and was used by them on every release until their demise in 1989. It emulates a BBC loading system in that each file loads in a series of blocks, which are numbered in hexadecimal

• Two normal blocks (BASIC and CODE).
• It prints the name of the game before the loading screen.
• Yellow/red stripes for the pilot tone and cyan/blue for data.
• Each data unit is split into many small blocks recorded at normal speed.
• A hexadecimal upward counter is shown on the screen.

Examples of Bleepload games are Bubble Bobble, Starglider and others.

Click here to download this hacker (TAP format) or Click here to download this hacker (TZX format).

10 LET T=0
20 FOR F=32768 TO 32876
30 READ A : POKE F,A
40 LET T=T+(F-32758) * A : NEXT F
50 IF T-679460 THEN STOP
60 FOR F=32877 TO 1E9 : READ A
70 IF A>256 THEN GO TO 100
80 POKE F,A
90 LET T=T+(F-32867) * A : NEXT F
100 IF T-A THEN STOP
110 LOAD "" CODE : RUN USR 32830
120 DATA 50,21,255,122,254
130 DATA 46,192,62,50,50
140 DATA 84,205,33,21,255
150 DATA 34,85,205,62,195
160 DATA 50,58,0,33,32
170 DATA 128,34,59,0,195
180 DATA 0,0,50,107,92
190 DATA 33,114,128,17,0
200 DATA 0,1,0,0,237
210 DATA 176,195,61,0,128
220 DATA 223,181,209,177,144
230 DATA 141,139,151,206,198
240 DATA 199,200,237,123,112
250 DATA 128,62,205,50,84
260 DATA 205,33,0,128,34
270 DATA 85,205,33,109,128
280 DATA 126,50,22,128,50
290 DATA 28,128,50,31,128
300 DATA 50,40,128,50,48
310 DATA 128,35,126,50,42
320 DATA 128,35,126,50,39
330 DATA 128,195,0,205