PlayCity aka CTC-AY (MX4) for August !!!

[TotO]

For information, in 48 hours only, more than 20 PlayCity boards was already pre-ordered. 
Thank you for supporting this project that will allow really great thinks on CPC!!!

[CraigsBar]

For information, in 48 hours only, more than 20 PlayCity boards was already pre-ordered. 
Thank you for supporting this project that will allow really great thinks on CPC!!!

i am really looking forward to playing cyber chicken with 9 channel sound with mine.

[jbaudrand]

  I'm felling a bit schizo about this. I can't wait to discover new game with new possibities, and I feel a bit sad that it's no more the CPC I've used to know...


Is there a project using 3d printing to make protection case for these boards?

[TotO]

Be reassured, this board was designed with the respect of the CPC in mind.
Improve existing things, make the programmer life easiest with more flexible possibilities.

The CPC will always sound the same, just it will be able to does it with more instruments at the same time.
- On the developer side, it's faster to program, allow more creativity and allow to save CPU time.
- On the user side, i.e. that will allow to ear music & sfx at the same time. (not have to chose between "fromage ou dessert")

The CPC will always display the same, just it will be able to does it with more rasters effects on screen.
- On the developer side, ... (OK you have understand)
- On the user side, that will allow new things that we loved to see on CPC, but few limitations avoid that.

You know, it's really easy to put an Arcade FM audio chip or Video Display Processor on the CPC to transform it.
It's definitively what I don't want... (and nobody here I think, because we love our computer)
The idea is not to change the CPC, but to make it a little better... Like when you goes from 64K to 128K RAM... 

Is there a project using 3d printing to make protection case for these boards?

I'm thinking about since I started to design the boards... You have to wait that will be more accurate and cheap to be viable for us.
(a so little community, but we can build great things if we are enough to follow)

[TFM]

Surely all Games for PlayCity will always have a "CPC only" mode too (I assume), but there's nothing bad about using new hardware.

Nobody ever got mad when we replaced our GT65 with a CTM664 or our tape with a floppy disc drive back the day. And everybody was fine using 3.5" or 5.25" discs - even with 700 KB formats. It was accepted. Now play city is in the tradition of great expansions for the CPC. We can use it and code for it, because it's available for everybody. I know TotO a bit, he is a real CPCiste - and I'm sure everybody will get served. Of course I know that this was not the same with some other expansions, which can not be bought today any longer. This understandably may scare some people But now with the PlayCity we got the now shiny bright raster interrupt counted time perfect world. 

[jbaudrand]

I've tried to print an adaptater to put a kinect on a tripod via sculteo, not cheap, but clearly more affordable than I though...

[TotO]

Yes, but prices drop fast and quality increase in time.

[SyX]

I'm felling a bit schizo about this. I can't wait to discover new game with new possibities, and I feel a bit sad that it's no more the CPC I've used to know...

As the people before me has explained, this board doesn't transform the CPC in a different machine.

Now you can use the NMI interrupt in your programs, when the only way of using in a CPC is through a Multiface II or a similar device. The same using the scanline or CRTC Cursor interrupt, this feature was only possible in CPC+, now it can be used in CPC too.

Those improved interrupts make possible to play digidrums during a game without wasting all the cpu in delays... but it doesn't make miracles, they have a cost in cpu, but now you can think in add this feature at your game. In the same way, now you can make a raster or a vertical split in the char where you want, not where the GA interrupts let you.

And facilitating the access to the pins needed for attaching a light gun or pen, make possible converting light devices from other systems to CPC with an adaptor from DB9 to those pins.

With respect to the extra sound chips, they sound exactly like the PSG but in a small package, jejeje. And the only thing they bring is that you can have more channels for music and sfxs, instead of choosing between music or sound, you can use both simultaneously. And how those chips are not connected through the PPI, accesing to them is really easy, even from basic is not more than 2 x OUTs (register and value).

If i can say, there is a feature that we wanted and it was not possible to add to the board, only because those days is impossible to get access to enough speech synthetizer chips... nothing is more 80s, than computers talking in robotic voice, jajaja.

I feel the soul is the same and we win a more friendly way of using difficult CPC features in games or tools, but the same limitations remain.

Is there a project using 3d printing to make protection case for these boards?

Of course, it's only a question of time, maybe a few months or a year, but in the moment is possible to reach the quality and price that TotO wants (and if you have one of his boards, you know how well they are built and packed), the boxes will be available.

[radu14m]

Great work totO !
can't wait to hear the first samples 

[Axelay]

Surely all Games for PlayCity will always have a "CPC only" mode too (I assume), but there's nothing bad about using new hardware.

If you use the programmable NMI to create a complex set of ruptures with little cost to CPU time, I imagine there'd be every chance that a 'vanilla' CPC version could potentially need to have such a sufficiently different code structure as to be 'impractical'.

[TotO]

Dear CPC friends,

You are probably waiting your PlayCity... (or other boards from centpourcent.net)
You have to know that all boards was build!!!
But... The right angled MX4 connector is actually missing, so I can't ship them since 2 weeks!

Why? Because, I have ordered in Germany 1 month ago those connectors.
Printed in stock (as usual) I was informed that no stock is available since end of August.
In fact, the company order them in China to resell them to Europe. (not built in germany)

Now, I hope to get them as soon as possible... But, we can only wait. (me too, as I have sent my boards)
Thank you for understanding,

  TotO.

[TFM]

Take a break after all the hard work, you deserve it! 
During the last couple of month you soldered probably 1 million of solder points on all this PCBs.

[TotO]

During the last couple of month you soldered probably 1 million of solder points on all this PCBs.

They Solder a Million !  [nb]More close to $FFFF[/nb]

[TotO]

The missing connectors are here.
I will solder them this weekend and ship the boards next week!

[TFM]

Great news! And to come back to the imho strange kind of discussion... People having a PC constantly put in some new GFX cards, Sound cards, Hard-disc adapters and 66 other things. So where is the problem to add a better "Soundcard" to the CPC. Any critics about that is imno hilarious. Sorry, but I needed to bring that on the point.

[TotO]

The fact is that PlayCity add more features than a soundboard does.

[TFM]

Of course it does, but I tried to explain in an easy way using common terms.[nb]Dirty psychology you know.  [/nb]

[TotO]

Peoples have just to look the firsts topic pages or read the dedicated page to understand that audio is one of the features. 

The PlayCity is a CPC expansion with the next features:
- 6 audio channels sound with programmable frequency (stereo line out and speaker mono mix in).
- 4 counter/timer channels for programmable interrupt (including NMI).
- IM2 vectorized interrupt support.
- Raster lines interrupt support.
- CRTC hardware CURSOR interrupt support.
- The LIGHT PEN/GUN connector.

[CraigsBar]

Peoples have just to look the firsts topic pages or read the dedicated page to understand that audio is one of the features. 

The PlayCity is a CPC expansion with the next features:
- 6 audio channels sound with programmable frequency (stereo line out and speaker mono mix in).
- 4 counter/timer channels for programmable interrupt (including NMI).
- IM2 vectorized interrupt support.
- Raster lines interrupt support.
- CRTC hardware CURSOR interrupt support.
- The LIGHT PEN/GUN connector.

to be honest whilst the list of features is awesome. The most noticeable and instantly desirable to stupid users such as me *is* the 9 channel sound. So from that point I can really understand the misnomer of calling the excellent PlayCity a sound card. That however should not in any be seen as a critisism of this excellent hardware. It just means that the game coders out there need to show us stupid users what else the little board of magic is capable of.

Thanks TotO, these hardware devices are excellent, please please please do not stop innovating for the Cpc.

[TFM]

TotO & Craig: I didn't refer to any hardware specifications. I was talking about the acceptance of new hardware for the CPC in general. And this is where work must be done. 

[radu14m]

is there already a demo with PlayCity support ?

[CraigsBar]

is there already a demo with PlayCity support ?

Well some, The Music Disc from Reset 10 sounds awesome and CyberChicken uses the PlayCity to provide stereo sound effects whilst playing the BGM on the internal AY

[radu14m]

where can i find the disc ?

[CraigsBar]

where can i find the disc ?

Right on the Wiki http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/File:Playcity_examples.zip

[TotO]

Because some parts see their prices increased and the EUR going low, I can't keep the actual low price for the PlayCity. (19.90€)
After the current batch will be emply, the price will increase to 24.90€.

Thank you for understanding.