Interesting/peculiar CPC apps?

cwpab · 22:44, 09 February 24

What are the most interesting and peculiar Amstrad CPC apps? There are thousands of them, and they serve much more diverse and original purposes than word processing, file copying, drawing and spreadsheeting.

Gryzor · 05:58, 10 February 24

Route planner? Pretty awesome for the platform...

Nich · 20:46, 10 February 24

I've had a look at the NVG archive and have come across a few interesting and unusual applications:

Commercial releases

La Cuisine Française - a computer-based recipe book
Le Graphologue - graphology (handwriting analysis)
The Landscape Utility - create your own landscape images. Unfortunately the full version isn't available online as far as I know, although a demo version called The Landscape Creator is available.
Model Universe - design 3D models. Vectoria 3D is another application that is designed for this purpose.
Le Taromancien - tarot card reading

Freeware and PD releases

Ghoul's Writer - create intros and letters with demo-like effects. I had a lot of fun using this when I was swapping discs by post back in the mid-1990s.
Retro-Loadsheet - calculate weight and balance data for loading aircraft; developed by @skylas on this forum
Run VT! - create video titles

Type-in listings

Digiglobe - a 3D atlas. Enter a city and the program will display it on a 3D globe. This was published as a type-in listing in PC Amstrad International, and the magazine ran a competition to develop an improved version. The winner of this competition was WinGlobe, which introduced a graphical user interface.
The Drumming CPC - play digitised drum sequences; no additional hardware required (although it is intended to be used with the Digiblaster)
Écriture Arabe - type Arabic and Latin text to the screen. Unfortunately it isn't a proper word processor as it only writes the text to the screen and doesn't store it anywhere else in memory, but I've never seen any other program on the CPC that lets you use Arabic (although I don't understand any of it!).
Lathe - design 3D models. More limited than Model Universe and Vectoria 3D, but I enjoyed playing with this back in the early 1990s.
Routard - plan journeys across France, similar to Routeplanner which @Gryzor has already suggested.

skylas · 02:19, 11 February 24

Really interesting topic! And thanks for the mention for my Retro-loadsheet.
To be honest, it was the most difficult program for me to make. Although I knew that very few will understand the calculations, it was a self goal to create it due to my work at the airport in a similar job.
I had on my hardcopy files some complicated charts for trimsheet (like this https://www.flygp.se/products/load-and-trim.html ) , by which I was trying to export data by using a ruler and counting millimetres, and then transform lines into mathematical calculations.

Nich · 11:59, 11 February 24

I've discovered another one - The Real You? It invites you to conduct some tests to discover your personality.

Gryzor · 12:40, 11 February 24

Quote from: Nich on 11:59, 11 February 24I've discovered another one - The Real You? It invites you to conduct some tests to discover your personality.

That's interesting. Reminded me of another old such title which the developer continued evolving and it got a mobile release a few years ago. It was very very interesting (and pretty grim), but can't remember the name damnit.

It was different though, essentially you took decisions at different crossroads in your life (including in the womb😁)

cwpab · 16:17, 11 February 24

skylas · 03:04, 12 February 24

Quote from: Nich on 11:59, 11 February 24I've discovered another one - The Real You? It invites you to conduct some tests to discover your personality.

Thanks!
This reminded me a personality test in Greek:
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=16391

Bryce · 09:45, 12 February 24

There were a few "Biorhythm" and Horoscope programs around. I also wrote an IC Database at one time that gave you the specs, pinout (as a picture), function, etc of all 74 series, 4000 series and a few analogue IC's.

Bryce.

zhulien · 12:53, 27 February 24

It's not a perculiar app as such, but the name to me is very weird... so the name itself I am curious why is it called... Bonzo Doo-Dah. Actually searching that, it comes up with a band, not the CPC program for most hits - is it named after the band?

Gryzor · 13:43, 27 February 24

Quote from: zhulien on 12:53, 27 February 24It's not a perculiar app as such, but the name to me is very weird... so the name itself I am curious why is it called... Bonzo Doo-Dah. Actually searching that, it comes up with a band, not the CPC program for most hits - is it named after the band?

Here you go:

https://cpcrulez.fr/applications_crack-bonzo_doo_dah_AA.htm

GUNHED · 15:40, 27 February 24

Well, from all the applications I programmed, the one to be mentioned would be ROManager, because it supports 99% of the ROM/Flash/M4 etc. expansions, has lot of nice features and even supports do deal with ROMs for CP/M Plus.

In general there are lots of 'forgotten' applications (because they are older) which really are very powerful.

zhulien · 01:40, 28 February 24

Quote from: GUNHED on 15:40, 27 February 24ROManager

It makes Romans Age faster?

eto · 09:38, 28 February 24

Quote from: cwpab on 22:44, 09 February 24What are the most interesting and peculiar Amstrad CPC apps? There are thousands of them, and they serve much more diverse and original purposes than word processing, file copying, drawing and spreadsheeting.

I don't remember a lot of them. I think there was a text editor "Context" which I used once in a while to make my homework for school or write a letter. Also I remember some DTP program but since I had no clip-arts that was not very useful.

Sure, there were some great tools/utilities, but I would not call them applications. To me, if it's something that makes my CPC experience better/easier, it's a utility. If it's something that I use to create some (creative) output, it's an application.

Btw: I just recognized that on the CPC I mostly remember games and the creative/serious part was mostly BASIC programming - then on the Atari STe I mostly remember the applications and how I used it for creative purposes - but there are only a few games that I can remember at all.

GUNHED · 15:43, 01 March 24

Quote from: zhulien on 01:40, 28 February 24
Quote from: GUNHED on 15:40, 27 February 24ROManager

It makes Romans Age faster?

Kind of... it makes everything quicker!

zhulien · 11:50, 17 March 24

I have a disc here, I am hoping it has the original content (if not, i will try find the orignal content and put it there)...

Something from a company called RPA Systems Inc, on one side is Climatoligia and the other side is Demografia.

Anyone heard of these before?

There is a page here: https://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/demografia_y_climatologia.htm

but seems the actual software isn't there - let's hope its on my disc.

Nich · 12:10, 17 March 24

Quote from: zhulien on 11:50, 17 March 24I have a disc here, I am hoping it has the original content (if not, i will try find the orignal content and put it there)...

Something from a company called RPA Systems Inc, on one side is Climatoligia and the other side is Demografia.

Anyone heard of these before?

There is a page here: https://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/demografia_y_climatologia.htm

but seems the actual software isn't there - let's hope its on my disc.

The disc images are already available on CPC-POWER.

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Interesting/peculiar CPC apps?