Philosoft utility collection - interesting discovery

[eto]

2 weeks ago a user on Ebay Kleinanzeigen (German classifieds page) offered an unidentified CPC expansion for sale. We went into a closer inspection and recognised that it's a ROM box and that it contains the ROM of an interesting expansion card from Philosoft (around 1987). The user was then so kind to dump the ROMs and send the disk to me, so we can archive the ROM contents for the community.

The EPROM holds some interesting utilities:

• WordStar compatible text editor
• 2-pass assembler
• Z80 tester/debugger
• Terminal program (incl. X-Modem protocol)

An entry about this expansion already existed on Cpcrulez with some additional information but no softwre or manual. Text is in German only but can probably translated good enough with Google or Deepl: https://cpcrulez.fr/hardware-interface_ROM-philosoft-rom-module.htm

Unfortunately the manual with 200 pages is still missing, so we can only refer to the short explanation on CpcRulez.


You can now find the ROMs on CpcRulez or here: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROM_List#Full_Program_ROMs

The ROMs were originally in Slot 4 and 12. I didn't try yet if other slots would work also.

[GUNHED]

Use on real CPC, they won't work on (most) emulators.

[roudoudou]

without the manual, it's hard to use

"test" to enter in the tester

then "d 1234" to dump memory located at 1230 !

[eto]

Use on real CPC, they won't work on (most) emulators.

I tried it with Winape and it worked.

without the manual, it's hard to use

Yes, unfortunately that is missing. 

The magazine article on CPCRulez at least gives a brief overview of the available commands and can be used as a starting point. It's in German but DeepL or Google Translate should help to understand it. 

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

This Philosoft? There's a Tom Richens on LinkedIn who used to work for them - if someone wants to ask him if he knows anything.


Philosoft 57 Llwyn-Onn, Penderyn, Aberdare, Wales CF449XY. Tel: 01685 813978.

Writers of Insight - Optical Character Recognition software that enables the PCW to read scanned-in text 

Philosoft. 1990 - 1997 7 years. • Developed specialised software in assembler (Z80) to operate under CP/M on the Amstrad PCW series.

[GUNHED]

No, Philosoft Germany.

[Nich]

You can now find the ROMs on CpcRulez or here: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROM_List#Full_Program_ROMs

Unfortunately they're no longer available for download from CPCRulez following a request from the author.

[TotO]

Unfortunately they're no longer available for download from CPCRulez following a request from the author.

So... Who is the author?

[eto]

So... Who is the author?

https://www.philosoft.de/