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#21

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: C64 Vs Speccy: Which one d...

Last post by Prodatron - Yesterday at 21:09

For me it apears to be very obvious that the C64 is much better than the Spectrum. The original ULA graphics just sucks.
Because of my old memories I voted for the C64, as 99% of my friends had a commodore and noone a Spectrum, and so I had - beside of my CPC - very nice moments with C64 games in the mid/end 80ies.

What is very cool about the Spectrum is that it created one of the best Z80 coders ever. That is always the advantage of limited systems.

#22

C

General Discussion - Introductions / Why 80 Columns? Very interesti...

Last post by cwpab - Yesterday at 21:03

I've personally never used the term "80 columns" as I've only used 8 bit computers for gaming.

So I was very interested in discovering why on Earth would someone define a screen resolution like that. I even counted "columns" in text displays, but there were only a few of them, never 80. What was going on?

Coincidentally, a couple of days ago I came across an earlyexplanation of this in the "Home Computers" article of an 1983 issue of the American magazine "Consumer Reports":



And only today, I found a very cool article explaining the origins of the "80 columns" measurement: Corecursive: Why still 80 columns? This Day In History.

Enjoy the reading of those 2!  They have a lot of cool stuff.

#23

Games / Re: Galastrad - [ wip ]

Last post by CyrilAmstrad - Yesterday at 20:58

My first impressions were positive - nice title screen, music and intro sequence - but then the menu appears. Why does MPAGD have to have such ugly-looking text?

The game itself looks OK for an MPAGD game, though.

Thanks  
Well about the text , even the game is already finished and packed. I will look if I could twist more nice the ingame menu texts. 

#24

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC four times faster...

Last post by McArti0 - Yesterday at 20:56

The Gotek would have to listen to a 1,5times faster FDC

and all disk drives are equally fast? 3,5" too?

#25

Games / Re: Galastrad - [ wip ]

Last post by CyrilAmstrad - Yesterday at 20:56

That's MPAGD? Impressive...

Regarding the menu I would love if the game can be started without a keyboard. That helps on the GX4000 but also on handheld emulators.

Yes , a GX4000 version will be release too with only Joystick controls. ( this time no + features added , on CPR version , just joypad direct controls only )

#26

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC four times faster...

Last post by Prodatron - Yesterday at 20:47

regarding video, FDC and probably more.

VGA monitor welcomes this with open arms.

Does Gotek also have a problem?

The Gotek would have to listen to a 1,5times faster FDC. All sectors will have a 1,5times higher density, which was the problem of a 6MHz CPC. Because of this you werent' able to exchange discs between a 4 and a 6MHz CPC. A 6MHz CPC could save about 6,7KB/track instead of 4,5KB.

#27

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC four times faster...

Last post by McArti0 - Yesterday at 20:42

regarding video, FDC and probably more.

VGA monitor welcomes this with open arms.

Does Gotek also have a problem?

#28

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC four times faster...

Last post by McArti0 - Yesterday at 20:36

The SuperZ80 expansion card, disabling the internal Z80, writing speed to internal RAM 20kB per frame 1us per byte.

SuperCPU could have a larger than I design (one address, one byte =24 bit) write buffer to CPC RAM. Each write to the buffer is fast. Wait states appear when the buffer does not have time to empty. When buffer is full during nCPU is Hi, SuperZ80 can execute several non-write instructions or wait for write byte to buffer.
I was also thinking about a 9-bit clone ROM, which it would download while executing the code and write the 9th bit that this byte is already cached inside.

#29

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC four times faster...

Last post by Prodatron - Yesterday at 20:32

BTW: I have a CPC6128 running at 6 MHz stable. Just replaced the 16 MHz crystal by a 24 MHz one.

Yes, your old story.
But "stable" is a very relative description.
It is useless/not compatible regarding video, FDC and probably more.
Unfortunately I forgot it, but what was the CPC meeting, where you presented this 6MHz machine to the public?

#30

A

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: C64 Vs Speccy: Which one d...

Last post by andycadley - Yesterday at 20:30

C64 has a larger resolution, better colors, uses colors more freely, faster Basic, and normal command entry, and sprites, while ZX only has the DRAW command. C64 wins. And wide pixels more similar to CPC.

Not really. In the higher resolution (320*200) the C64 can still only have 2 colours per 8*8 pixel square, except that one of those colours also has to be shared across the whole screen. So it's actually less capable of using colours freely compared to the Spectrum in that regard.

I think it's arguably about which had the fastest BASIC, but absolutely undeniable that the C64 had the most limited. It was completely lacking in any graphics commands at all and most of the things you'd expect from an 80s home computer relied on resorting to long lists of POKEs. 

It's a good machine for playing games on, but not much of a programmer's machine unless you were prepared early on to dive into assembly language (or buy an extension cartridge like Simon's BASIC to get a decent environment).