Recent Posts

1

Software related / Re: Help with Amstrad Plus keyboard incompatibility with some CPC games

« Last post by Urusergi on Yesterday at 23:46 »

@Maniac please, try this code:

Code: [Select]

ORG &3B9B
        LD BC,&F40E
        OUT (C),C
        LD BC,&F6C0
        OUT (C),C
        LD HL,&000E
        OUT (C),H
        LD C,&92
        INC B
        OUT (C),C
        DEC B
        LD C,&49
        LD D,&0A

L3BB2:  OUT (C),C
        LD A,&F4
        IN A,(&00)
        CPL
        LD (HL),A
        INC L
        DEC C
        DEC D
        JR NZ,L3BB2
        LD C,&80
        OUT (C),C
        LD C,&82
        INC B
        OUT (C),C
P.D.: There's no need to relocate this code, it has the same bytes as the original since it is more optimized (JP > JR, XOR &FF > CPL)

2

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Universal Serial Interface for Amstrad CPC (a.k.a USIfAC)

« Last post by nicf82 on Yesterday at 23:24 »

Hi

I just received my USIfAC and (thanks ikonsgr!) - trying to run the terminal.bas program on my 464 to do some experimenting, but I'm running into a problem as its failing on line 500 with the 'CLEAR INPUT' command - I have tried the program on Winape emulating a 6128 and it seems to work fine. I'm guessing this is a command from BASIC 1.1??? Is there something I can change it to to get it to work or another fix?
Cheers!Nic

3

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Gilding the DKTronics Speech Synthesizer

« Last post by RetroCPC on Yesterday at 22:44 »

Bryce,

Thank you for the reply - WRT your suggestion of isopropanol, is that to clean the unit of the nicotine / damp smell?

I have an ultra sonic tank that will clean the PCB, I'll first dissolve the old flux with isopropanol - I find isopropanol just dissolves the flux residue into a thin sticky film that coats the PCB, it then needs to be cleaned off somehow and the best cleaner I've found is SWA Flux foam cleaner from Electrolube.

4

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: [PLEASE READ] GX4000 with original power brick and C4CPC

« Last post by kingtreelo on Yesterday at 21:44 »

Before i purchase a new PSU, this is the one that landed with my GX4000, is this suitable to use with the C4CPC or should i just buy the one that Gerald listed

5

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: C4CPC 3D printed cartridge

« Last post by Bryce on Yesterday at 21:17 »

Are you looking for mass production, or do you just need one or two for yourself?

Bryce.

6

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Gilding the DKTronics Speech Synthesizer

« Last post by Bryce on Yesterday at 21:16 »

Nothing that 10 litres of isopropanol can't solve!

As for the disks, not a chance, PCW disks are double sided and the CPC drive only has one head. If you install a dual head drive as B, then you can use ParaDOS to read them. As far as the drive itself is concerned, remove the belt and check that all the gunk from the old belt was removed from the wheels. The motor turns at 300 RPM, so it should sound differnt to PC floppy drives. Grab some original disk from someone here or ebay and then give it a test. If it still doesn't read, then let me know and I can give you some tips on getting it working.

Bryce.

7

Technical Support / Re: 6128 Plus and sync issue

« Last post by Bryce on Yesterday at 21:07 »

Ok, Sony BVMs are the epitome of "show what came down the cable". There's zero picture manipulation, because of what they were made for.

Bryce.
 

8

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Gilding the DKTronics Speech Synthesizer

« Last post by RetroCPC on Yesterday at 20:04 »

So my CPC6128 arrived - and there's a 95% chance that its original owner has since died of lung Cancer - and to add to the seriously strong smell of nicotine the unit has been stored in a damp cellar or some such... A really NICE combination..

Oh - and to add to this, at sometime in its life it looks like coffee has been spilled over the keyboard...

I've stripped the unit down, PCB's is in good condition (an unbelievable amount of old solder flux on the underside of the board) - I'll rinse it under water to remove the top layer of dust and grime, then drop the whole PCB into an ultrasonic cleaning tank...

I'm now so jealous of those of you with with show grade units all I can say is that my room now stinks like an rotten smokey old pub... at this rate I might have to start worry about my own lungs!!!

A quick question, can the CPC6128 read PCW256 CPM disk or will it result in a disk error? The gentleman I purchased the unit from said he replaced the FDD drive belt, but it still did not read disks - however the disks he sent with the unit are apparently from a PCW256... so maybe the drive works, but the disks are formatted differently?

If its not the fact that the disks are CPM disk format, then I also noticed that the FDD drive motor does not spin as freely as I would expect - its rotation seems stiffer then you'd normally encounter with such sized DC motors ... are sticky Drive FDD motors a known issue with the CPC? The Motor is still connected to the PCB so maybe theirs some electric braking (via diodes or some such) even when the drive is unpowered?

9

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: C4CPC 3D printed cartridge

« Last post by kingtreelo on Yesterday at 19:54 »

Hi,
I'm looking for a company who may be able to produce these in the UK, anyone had any success?

10

Other retro / Re: BBC News article - Surf Champ on the ZX Spectrum

« Last post by Nich on Yesterday at 19:38 »

Indeed, who knows how they could've pulled it off on a CPD. What did they do on the c64?

It seems that Surf Champ was the only C64 game that New Concepts released. Zzap! magazine didn't rate it very highly
didn't rate it very highly.

I think it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get the game to work properly on a CPC, not just because of the shape of the CPC's various keyboards, but also because of the infamous 'key clash'.