Dream CPC setup

[Skunkfish]

Possibly not quite what you're after, but there is a command |httpmem which can load a binary file direct from the web to the CPC's memory. You can also download a file directly from a URL with |httpget. I'm sure someone could integrate this into a dev environment one day....

Check out the full guide here: https://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/m4info.txt

[StealthGary]

Oh, that's pretty cool... I could always run a local http server.

[StealthGary]

So, I'm on the waiting list for the M4. Should be a couple of months - not a great deal I can do with my 6128 until it arrives, other than write some BASIC code I guess.
I've just come across the thread for the ULIfAC though, and wondering if that might be a better option as it appears to have everything the M4 has, plus extra RAM too. Not that I'd really know what to do with it...

There seem to be loads of hardware options and loads of info out there, but most refers to things I know nothing about. All I ever managed as a kid is some simple BASIC programs... the hardware stuff was always beyond me (as was machine code, but I reckon I'll start getting to grips with that eventually.)

I wonder if there are any step by step guides that go from:
Step 1) You've bought a CPC, congrats...
through to
Step 1,287) Your CPC is now a monster able to run Doom, bypass encryptions and hack into the mainframe.

[Anthony Flack]

Assembly language is easier than it first appears, and there are good tutorials available online, but it's also much easier to write with an emulator than on the CPC itself, so you could try your hand at that while you wait. 

Back in the day it was common for experienced developers to write their code on a separate computer from the one it was intended to run on, and I never understood how they could code a CPC game on some completely different computer like a Tatung Einstein, although in retrospect it's obvious; I didn't understand what a compiler did. 

[StealthGary]

Yeah, it always seemed so far out of reach to me... until recently.
I was at a retro event a few years back and one of the guys that was demoing the ZX Spectrum Next sat down with me and explained how bits in memory correlated to pixels on the screen... and it just blew my mind. It's like, I've been using computers since the early 80's without ever really understanding what they were or how they worked. I made a career out of software development, but always worked in such high level languages I never even had to think about the metal.
Then, this year I read Code by Charles Petzold, and it all clicked into place. So, while I've not had time to actually learn what I need to - finally and for the first time, machine code seems like an achievable goal.

So... I still have very little to no understanding of the hardware, but at least it no longer seems like sourcery!

[norecess464]

So... I still have very little to no understanding of the hardware

I sometimes envy people that do not know how things work under the hood. This maintains some kind of magic and we see things differently once we know how things are made.

Ignorance is good, sometimes! 

[StealthGary]

Hah! Noooo... I wish I'd learned more about this stuff earlier! At the lowest level, these machines are actually really simple - and if I'd have understood that as a kid, I think I'd have done a lot more cool stuff with them than just playing games and tinkering in BASIC!

[norecess464]

these machines are actually really simple

Well, yes apparently they are. But after decades around it, I'm still learning. So, maybe it's not that simple after all ahahah

[StealthGary]

No, I mean... I still don't understand any of this stuff at all - but at a fundamental level it's all just a bunch of logic gates, which themselves are just switches... and honestly that realisation is just mind blowing to me!

Also: I've just been looking at your site. Sonic. Sonic on the CPC. Goddamn that's impressive.

[Anthony Flack]

It always seemed out of reach to me as well, but it turns out I already knew almost everything I needed to know even back then, I just needed an assembler and a decent manual.

Nobody told me I needed an assembler and a Z80 instruction manual and if I did know that, the next thing I would have to do is try to hunt down whatever old issue of Amstrad Computer User explained how to scan the keyboard or pass data to the CRTC. It's sad because I would have loved to get stuck into ASM back when I was a kid but with nobody to help me I would have run into a bunch of stumbling blocks before I had what I needed.

If you actually have the information, it's not so hard at all. Fortunately these days we have a wiki.

[StealthGary]

Well, I look forward to finding the time to actually have a play with that... I'm not sure when that'll be. Retirement, perhaps?!

I was probably too young to get into ASM really... I only did fairly simple BASIC as a kid. I think I was ten when I got my Amstrad.
There was some good info in magazines, but it always assumed a lot of knowledge. I should have been getting beginner focussed books from the library, but who knew?!
It's a double edged sword though... these days we have every possible piece of information at the touch of a button in a device in our pockets - and nothing but distractions! I miss computers that can't multi-task... make it take 2 minutes to load up a different piece of software and perhaps I'll stay on task!

The one thing I wish someone had explained to me as a kid is the concept of a game loop. I could have got my head around that... I didn't understand how easy it is to make games until my 30's. I got into databases and business software because games seemed like witchcraft for people much cleverer than I.

[norecess464]

I just needed an assembler and a decent manual.

I remember well 1991-1992. Back then I wished to program in ASM, but I had no contacts (yet) with anyone else in the community, and the Amstrad CPC/Plus was an almost dead machine commercially. While I was able to find games easily, I could not find any shops selling a Z80 assembler for the Amstrad CPC! Those were the sad times....

[GUNHED]

The CPCs can be simple - that's the good thing.

And they can be very complex and powerful - that's the even better thing.

[StealthGary]

I just needed an assembler and a decent manual.

I remember well 1991-1992. Back then I wished to program in ASM, but I had no contacts (yet) with anyone else in the community, and the Amstrad CPC/Plus was an almost dead machine commercially. While I was able to find games easily, I could not find any shops selling a Z80 assembler for the Amstrad CPC! Those were the sad times....

Similar experience - I had no idea about ASM, but my only contacts were the other kids on the playground who happened to have CPCs as well. Many had moved onto the Amiga by the time I had my plus... the rest of us just swapped games and made largely futile attempts to copy games via hi-fi systems of varying quality. The only help with programming I could get was from Amstrad Action.

I'll never forget wanting to do my homework on my CPC - I'm probably about 12 or 13 by this point and I've managed to get hold of a dot matrix printer... My local toyshop, unsurprisingly, didn't sell any word processing software. 
I ended up taking a telephone directory program that I'd found printed in a magazine, and hacking away at it until I could use it as the world's most clunky and awful word processor. Lived with that until I eventually got my first PC.

[norecess464]

Yes, that was a dark period. The rich kids moved to an Amiga (or bought a Super NES).

For me 1993 was suddenly a super exciting year for the Amstrad, when I discovered the world of fanzines, diskmags, the demoscene and such. I realized there was still a strong community back then! The peak being 2 years later, by going to my first demoparty ("Ze Meeting 95"), I was super impressed by everything (hardware, development practices, friendship...). This delayed my introduction to the PC platform by a few years.

[StealthGary]

Oh man, I would have loved that! I think I probably got my first PC in '95, and the poor dude that I bought it from had to field about a hundred phone calls from me per week as I learned how to use it.
I could have really benefitted from some exposure to a computing community back in those days, but it was not to be. The few of us in school who were into computers just had to work stuff out and glean whatever info we could from each other.

[Prodatron]

I miss computers that can't multi-task...

It was always just a legend that 8-bit computers couldn't handle multitasking like e.g. the Amiga did back in the day. It had nothing to do with reality, it was simply the ignorance and discouragement of that time. Nowadays the CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then.

[StealthGary]

Hah! Well, yes... you have me there.
I was talking more about the fact that right now as I sit in front of VSCode, I can at any moment and for any or no reason, hit ALT-TAB... and have instant access to every possible item of knowledge or entertainment.
I kinda miss just having a screen that shouts 'NOW WHAT?' at me until I make it do something.

[Prodatron]

Ok, I agree.


But I don't want to miss Alt+Tab anymore on my CPC as well

You cannot view this attachment.

http://www.symbos.de/bloginfo.htm?228

[StealthGary]

I mean... yes... that is, to be fair... very sexy.

[lmimmfn]

I miss computers that can't multi-task...

It was always just a legend that 8-bit computers couldn't handle multitasking like e.g. the Amiga did back in the day. It had nothing to do with reality, it was simply the ignorance and discouragement of that time. Nowadays the CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then.

While I'm a huge Amstrad fan and Amiga fan and not trying to be snarky but what exactly does it mean that "CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then."?

[eto]

While I'm a huge Amstrad fan and Amiga fan and not trying to be snarky but what exactly does it mean that "CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then."?

There was a crucial additional word: "nowadays". I can imagine that on the software side the 2023 SymbOS scheduler handles multitasking better than a 1987 AmigaOS scheduler. That doesn't mean the multitasking on the Amiga was bad (it was pretty good), just that it was a legend that 8bit computers are not capable of it - it was just never tried properly. 

[GUNHED]

I miss computers that can't multi-task...

It was always just a legend that 8-bit computers couldn't handle multitasking like e.g. the Amiga did back in the day. It had nothing to do with reality, it was simply the ignorance and discouragement of that time. Nowadays the CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then.

While I'm a huge Amstrad fan and Amiga fan and not trying to be snarky but what exactly does it mean that "CPC handles multitasking better than the Amiga did back then."?

Well, if the Amiga needs more power for one process, one task need to be started more often (I did read somewhere here), now f.e. in Caruh you can just increase Priority. Another thing is that (at least for Caruh) applications are made from the beginning in a way that they are made for multitasking. I assume the same is valid for symbos too.

[Anthony Flack]

I need to try out SymBios sometime. Since getting an M4 board it does elicit a small thrill to type CAT and see gigabytes of drive space available. A CPC with a hard drive and extra ram is a whole different computer.

I was writing stupidly ambitious games in BASIC when I was a pre-teen. Filled up the memory sometimes. I had managed to scavenge up some machine code routines for sprites and some other things from magazines, and I knew some tricks like how to force the CRTC into mode 0 while BASIC still thinks it's in mode 1.

I wrote many, many games, they all ran far too slow and 95% of them were abandoned halfway through. Good times. I wish I had some trace of it all I could share.

I don't know the firmware well enough, but it's my dream for someone to write a new BASIC rom for the Plus machines that let you type |plus and be able to access the Plus colours and sprites from BASIC, like you should have been able to do to begin with.  

[GUNHED]

Well, every kind of computer can be expanded and gets expanded. No reason to not bring the CPC in a more powerful state too.