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avatar_Nilquader

Amstrad NC100 / NC150 / NC200

Started by Nilquader, 00:32, 31 August 10

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Nilquader

I've recently played a lot with the Amstrad NC machines and found them quite interesting because of their long lasting battery (about 20 hours), world's best CPU (z80) and great built-in software (BBC Basic, z80 Assembler, Word processor). I sometimes use my NC100 at university to do homework or work on my term papers. Not being able to check my favorite websites every five minutes is a big advantage if I want to be productive  ;)


What about you? Do you own one? Do you still use it today? Do you think this machine deserves it's own page on the wiki?
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

steve

I have an NC100 but I have not used it for years, the trouble was I did not have the plug-in memory card needed for off-line storage.
Maybe I should try and get one off ebay, A couple of weeks ago there was an NC200 sold for £15.00, but I missed it.

TFM

Quote from: Nilquader on 00:32, 31 August 10
What about you? Do you own one? Do you still use it today? Do you think this machine deserves it's own page on the wiki?

Hi Nilquader! They definitely deserve their own pages :-) Well, I have some NC100 and one NC200. I brought the NC200 to numerous meetings to create live-meeting-reports, some of them have been used for Future-View disc-mags. I love this machines! But they lack the well documentation of the CPC series. What a pity.
However the NC100, NC200 are my second favorite computer(s) after the CPC.

Do you tell us something about the NC100 that you have converted to an NC150?
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Ygdrazil

Quote from: TFM/FS on 03:22, 31 August 10

Hi Nilquader! They definitely deserve their own pages :-) Well, I have some NC100 and one NC200. I brought the NC200 to numerous meetings to create live-meeting-reports, some of them have been used for Future-View disc-mags. I love this machines! But they lack the well documentation of the CPC series. What a pity.
However the NC100, NC200 are my second favorite computer(s) after the CPC.

Do you tell us something about the NC100 that you have converted to an NC150?

I got numerous techbooks on the NC series! I find the NCs pretty well documented, but ofcouse not as well documented as the CPC's (But  they are also extreme in that  department  :D )

A thing I like about the NCs are the similarity of the memorymap and firmware of the CPC's :-) The I/O ports are a different story though!

/Ygdrazil

PS. And yes, the NC's should at least have their own page in the CPCWIKI :-) After all they are family!


arnoldemu

Quote from: Nilquader on 00:32, 31 August 10
Do you think this machine deserves it's own page on the wiki?
Yes.

Btw, I updated the nciospec doc. I think my version is on genesis8. It would be good to ensure this version is uploaded.

So who will make the first nc demo?
with scroller etc?
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

robcfg

I have the three of them NC100, NC150 and NC200; and I find them to be very interesting machines.


At the last RetroMadrid expo, Deepfb and I took there the NC Family along with their Nakajima brothers. They share the same case format as the NC's but they're equipped with a Nec V20 x86 processor.





I also provided the MESS team with NC's PCB scans and rom dumps so emulation of the NC150 and NC200 could be improved.


By the way, anybody has an italian NC150? I got the French one.

Nilquader

#6

Lots of replies   :)  It's great to know that i'm not the only one interested in these devices...


Quote from: TFM/FS on 03:22, 31 August 10
I love this machines! But they lack the well documentation of the CPC series. What a pity.


Have a look at NCIOSPEC.TXT or "The Amstrad Notepad Advanced User Guide" from Robin Nixon (Avaliable at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=6vP5WtCdApgC ). Here you'll find most of the information you need to program the NC100.


Quote from: TFM/FS on 03:22, 31 August 10
Do you tell us something about the NC100 that you have converted to an NC150?
I still have to work on the patch for the french ROM. You would not want to work with a french keyboard layout. And the french firmware (V1.10) has a bug which locks you out of BBC Basic. (Enter the spreadsheet, press RED to create a new document, leave the spreadsheet via FUNCTION-RED. Basic is now disabled.) I would like to check if the italian version or another version of the french ROM has this bug fixed.


Quote from: Ygdrazil on 08:28, 31 August 10
I got numerous techbooks on the NC series! I find the NCs pretty well documented, but ofcouse not as well documented as the CPC's (But  they are also extreme in that  department  )
Which books do you have? Anything you would recommend for programming the Notepad?




Quote from: robcfg on 10:48, 31 August 10
By the way, anybody has an italian NC150? I got the French one.
I only have the french one. I'm also looking for the italian version, or at least a ROM image.
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

robcfg

I think we should create a NC Series page and redirect Nc100, Nc150 and Nc200 to it.


Is it very complicated to do that? I'd contribute nice scans of the machines and if the ROM files are free to distribute, I'd contribute them too.

Nilquader

#8
Quote from: robcfg on 12:36, 31 August 10
I think we should create a NC Series page and redirect Nc100, Nc150 and Nc200 to it.


Is it very complicated to do that? I'd contribute nice scans of the machines and if the ROM files are free to distribute, I'd contribute them too.
Yes, a "NC Series" page is a good idea. If this page gets too large, we could split it later. A separate page about NC Series Programming could be useful, too. We should upload the firmware calls and IO ports lists there.


Getting permission to distribute the ROM images could be complicated, because they contain copyrighted material from many different companies (Arnor, Ranger Computers, Amstrad etc.)


--
Edit: I've just made a very basic Wiki page for the NC Series based on the english Wikipedia article for the NC100.
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

robcfg

I've uploaded the 300dpi scans of my french NC150, as soon as I can I'll be doing the same with my NC100 and NC200.


Regarding the ROM dumps of the NC Series, I don't know how to contact the right people to ask for permission. If I remember correctly the current owner of the Arnor products is reachable and I think I saw a list of people that worked in the NC Roms. I'll try to retrieve it so that we know wo should we ask.

Ygdrazil

I have a NC100 with Danish Keyboard (And Danish letters - and even the Danish manual), but otherwise the ROM is in English! Does anyone know if it came in with a dedicated Danish ROM (Eg. Danish dictionary etc)?

Was there ever a 'Danish' NC200?

/Ygdrazil


Quote from: robcfg on 16:01, 31 August 10
I've uploaded the 300dpi scans of my french NC150, as soon as I can I'll be doing the same with my NC100 and NC200.


Regarding the ROM dumps of the NC Series, I don't know how to contact the right people to ask for permission. If I remember correctly the current owner of the Arnor products is reachable and I think I saw a list of people that worked in the NC Roms. I'll try to retrieve it so that we know wo should we ask.

Nilquader

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 16:57, 31 August 10
I have a NC100 with Danish Keyboard (And Danish letters - and even the Danish manual), but otherwise the ROM is in English! Does anyone know if it came in with a dedicated Danish ROM (Eg. Danish dictionary etc)?

Was there ever a 'Danish' NC200?


This should be a special version of the ROM, at least the keyboard layout must have been changed. Are you able to dump the ROM? I would really like to have a look at it. And please upload a photo to the Wiki. Never seen a danish NC100 before.
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

Ygdrazil

I will make scans and make photos of the NC stuff I have! Please be patient, so much real life work lately  :'(

BTW..

Did the NC series have 6MHz Z80 CPUs or not  ;)

/Ygdrazil

Quote from: Nilquader on 17:04, 31 August 10

This should be a special version of the ROM, at least the keyboard layout must have been changed. Are you able to dump the ROM? I would really like to have a look at it. And please upload a photo to the Wiki. Never seen a danish NC100 before.

Gryzor

I've got an NC100 and an NC200 and I love them to bits, especially the keyboard. I also have a Z88 - it seems I really like the specific form... What other computers exist like those? I think Sharp had one, too...?

Anyhow, as for the wiki: it's called CPCwiki, but of course I don't have the slightest problem adding as much info as possible on the NC series, especially since there's so little out there... so, anyone, go ahead and do your stuff, and I'll add it to the sidebar appropriately.

Nilquader

I just uploaded more board scans of the NC100 and photos of the NC200. (Does anyone have better quality scans of this board? I only have these photos.)  I have another (earlier) board version of the NC100. I will be scanning this one soon...
--
Nilquader of SPRING
http://www.nilquader.net/

Gryzor

Those photos are great... see how much modern they look next to the original CPCs...

Btw, the Nakajima is like it came out of Sega's lines :) I should find one!

arnoldemu

Quote from: Nilquader on 11:00, 13 September 10
I just uploaded more board scans of the NC100 and photos of the NC200. (Does anyone have better quality scans of this board? I only have these photos.)  I have another (earlier) board version of the NC100. I will be scanning this one soon...
I plan to upload the nciospec.txt and the details I worked out for the nc200 disc interface (not complete).
I can also upload a dissassembly of the nc200 rom relating to the disc interface (my own incomplete comments).
Would this be useful?
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

robcfg

I think that any info is always useful.


I know it's the CPC wiki and not the NC wiki, but it would be a shame to let that info dissapear...

TFM

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Gryzor

Quote from: Gryzor on 09:35, 06 September 10
t's called CPCwiki, but of course I don't have the slightest problem adding as much info as possible on the NC series, especially since there's so little out there... so, anyone, go ahead and do your stuff, and I'll add it to the sidebar appropriately.

arnoldemu

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:53, 14 September 10
I plan to upload the nciospec.txt and the details I worked out for the nc200 disc interface (not complete).
I can also upload a dissassembly of the nc200 rom relating to the disc interface (my own incomplete comments).
Would this be useful?
I uploaded the nciospec.txt (original from Cliff Lawson, also published on his website). This needs cleaning up for wiki because it is a copy and paste of the original doc and the formatting is messed up.

I also uploaded my documentation about the nc200 (the information I know anyway).
Maybe Russell Marks has more information now, but I didn't check.

The dissassembly of the disc stuff is not worth uploading at this time. Its not helpful at this time.

I have also uploaded some datasheets. I can upload more another day.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Gryzor

Hello mate,

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/NC_100/150/200_IO_Specification looks fine to me. http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/NC100_IO_Specification is a bit screwed, but I will give it a try. Can you attach here the original txt?


arnoldemu

Quote from: Gryzor on 08:16, 16 September 10
Hello mate,

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/NC_100/150/200_IO_Specification looks fine to me. http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/NC100_IO_Specification is a bit screwed, but I will give it a try. Can you attach here the original txt?

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/cliff.lawson/nciospec.txt

the other is my extra notes. Both need a bit of a clean up.
The extra notes are the ones which can't be found elsewhere especially relating to nc200.
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

arnoldemu

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:38, 16 September 10
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/cliff.lawson/nciospec.txt

the other is my extra notes. Both need a bit of a clean up.
The extra notes are the ones which can't be found elsewhere especially relating to nc200.
It would be good to see some pictures and scans of the pcb of the ranger disc interface if anyone has one.

It is commented that the NC150 ROM contains some code to access this disc interface.
It is possible that the NC200 disc is directly related to this.

So it would be interesting to read about that.
I'm thinking of buying an NC100 now ;)
My games. My Games
My website with coding examples: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource

Gryzor

Go for the NC200 directly if you can find one... much sexier!

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