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General Category => Amstrad CPC hardware => Topic started by: zhulien on 15:55, 27 October 21

Title: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 15:55, 27 October 21
Hi Everyone, this has been bothering me for some time actually.  My 6128Plus seems to have the wrong key mappings.  It makes programming on it very hard.  It is a QWERTY keyboard (I actually have an AZERTY one too but I don't use it).  All the symbols on the keyboard around the enter key are incorrect.  What causes this?
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: eto on 15:57, 27 October 21
Quote from: zhulien on 15:55, 27 October 21
Hi Everyone, this has been bothering me for some time actually.  My 6128Plus seems to have the wrong key mappings.  It makes programming on it very hard.  It is a QWERTY keyboard (I actually have an AZERTY one too but I don't use it).  All the symbols on the keyboard around the enter key are incorrect.  What causes this?


Spanish system rom?

What characters do you expect and which do you get?

Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: Bryce on 09:22, 28 October 21
The key mapping is in the cartridge. You need to use the correct cartridge.

Bryce.
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 10:46, 28 October 21
Is it like that on all CPCs or just Plus machines?
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: Bryce on 23:09, 28 October 21
Quote from: zhulien on 10:46, 28 October 21
Is it like that on all CPCs or just Plus machines?

On Classic CPC's the Firmware in the Lower ROM0 (and hence the key-mapping) is a soldered internal component, so the chances of accidentally swapping it are pretty slim. On the plus, the Lower ROM0 is on the cartridge, so if you put the wrong version cartridge in, you get the wrong key-mapping.

Bryce.
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: 00WReX on 08:24, 30 October 21
Hi @zhulien (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=58)


The system cartridges are colour coded.
So Yellow for English (QWERTY), Green for French (AZERTY), and Blue for Spanish.

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Plus_System_Cartridge

Let me know what you have, and I will be able to help out if needed.


Cheers,


Shane
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 10:34, 30 October 21
how do i know which keyboard i have?
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: gerald on 12:50, 30 October 21
Quote from: zhulien on 10:34, 30 October 21how do i know which keyboard i have?
Just look at the version string at boot.
English starts with V
Spanish starts with S
French starts with F
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: Bryce on 12:51, 30 October 21
You told us in your original post: Qwerty = English.

Bryce.
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 15:58, 01 November 21
Yep, to me it's an English keyboard, but most of the symbol keys on the right side are all wrong, i cannot even find how to type a plus + symbol.


Shift 2 is still double-quote "



Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 15:59, 01 November 21
The cartridge from ebay a few years back was advertised as the English version.
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 16:08, 01 November 21
OK, i figured out out looking at pictures of other 6128 keyboards - my cart is a spanish one.  I do have a couple of spanish 6128 pluses - at least i now know the + key.
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: zhulien on 16:11, 01 November 21
Now it makes me wonder...


Does software use the keys we see with out eyes, or the physical locations?  Obviously when I press the [ with shift, it is giving me a +, so it seems the software doesn't actually know which keyboard we have.


Does that mean to French and Spanish owners running UK Games, the keys are all wrong in the instructions? (unless using commonly placed keys like QAOP and SPACE)?
Title: Re: CPC Plus Wrong Keys
Post by: eto on 16:45, 01 November 21
Quote from: zhulien on 16:11, 01 November 21Does software use the keys we see with out eyes, or the physical locations?

Usually they are using the keycodes, so the physical location, which is identical on all versions of the CPC. So yes, for French and Spanish owner, English instructions might have the wrong keys in there. But also usually, they had Spanish and French instructions with adapted keys.

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