Hello, everyone!
I'm new here so I thought I would say hello. The CPC 464 was my first computer. I loved it, cherished it and keep it in pride of place in my office to this day - so when I noticed there was a CPC forum while doing a wikiwalk, I had to sign up!
I'm looking forward to talking to you all. :)
Hi Zoe,
welcome to the Wiki. Do you still use the 464? And for what? Games? Programming? The fact that it's on your office desk would suggest that it also influenced your career choice?
Bryce.
I sometimes load up the old girl but I misplaced my cassettes long ago and my external disk drive needs a new belt before I can get the disks running again. As a result, it normally gets booted up for some quick coding. I still love type-ins even after all this time (the AA Christmas type-ins book - the one that starts with a set of tips on how to make it Christmas every day by pinching things from around the house and wrapping them up as presents) is a perennial favourite.
Mostly it sits on a shelf and gets used as a prop in videos on occasion, though. It's turned into a mascot of sorts. It did influence my career choices though - I wrote and made (really bad) art on it back in the day and now I write & make (not quite as 8-bit) art on a PC. ;)
Get your drive fixed. Cassettes and disks are still easily sourced these days.
Bryce.
It's on my to-do list. :D
Welcome :D
Any plans to write your own game for the CPC?
Quote from: beaker on 22:18, 20 October 13
Welcome :D
Any plans to write your own game for the CPC?
I wrote a few text adventures when I was younger (mostly using GAC but I did try following that AA guide to writing an adventure game when it was running). I may download GAC and break out an emulator to give it another go. No promises on quality!
Emulator?? You have the original hardware there in front of you! There's nothing like working on the real thing.
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 22:24, 20 October 13
Emulator?? You have the original hardware there in front of you! There's nothing like working on the real thing.
Bryce.
What would I save it onto? The disk drive is out of commission and there are no cassettes to hand!
Welcome to the forum. You have definitely come to the right place. :)
The CPC464 was also my childhood computer.
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 22:29, 20 October 13What would I save it onto? The disk drive is out of commission and there are no cassettes to hand!
New tapes can still be bought here and there.
But you can also find 3" disks on eBay. ;)
My advice though, is that you ship your disk-controller to Bryce and have him prepare it for the HxC. Then buy a HxC floppy emulator. You will want this solution sooner or later anyway, if you're going to be using your CPC more from now on. :)
Quote from: mr_lou on 06:21, 21 October 13
[size=78%]New tapes can still be bought here and there.[/size]
But you can also find 3" disks on eBay. ;)
I still have 3" disks in storage. About 40 of them, if I recall correctly. They were stored well, so at least some of them should still be working.
Quote from: mr_lou on 06:21, 21 October 13
My advice though, is that you ship your disk-controller to Bryce and have him prepare it for the HxC. Then buy a HxC floppy emulator. You will want this solution sooner or later anyway, if you're going to be using your CPC more from now on. :)
I don't know what HxC is but shipping the drive anywhere will mean decoupling it from the monitor's plug, since whoever I bought this off in '89 had wired the two together to save on plug space. It's doable if it needs to be done at some point, but it's annoying.
Welcome!
Hi Zoe!
Welcome to our lovely forum!
I'm pretty confident that you'll have your machine fully functional in no time.
Enjoy!
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 09:33, 21 October 13I don't know what HxC is but shipping the drive anywhere will mean decoupling it from the monitor's plug, since whoever I bought this off in '89 had wired the two together to save on plug space. It's doable if it needs to be done at some point, but it's annoying.
HxC is a floppy-disk emulator. Meaning, instead of inserting floppy discs, you insert an SD flash card. This SD card then holds your floppy disks in the form of image-files.
A HxC emulator can be connected to an Amstrad CPC, among many other retro computers. But for the DDI-1 disk-controller for the CPC464, a minor adjustment needs to be done first (as far as I remember. Bryce or someone else will correct me if I'm wrong).
So you would need to ship your DDI-1 disk-controller to e.g. Bryce, to have it modified. The disk-drive itself can stay at home.
One drawback to this though, is (again, as far as I remember) that the 3" drive won't work after the modification.
Welcome! I hope you get your machine working fully soon. In the mean time, take a look at what's possible on the CPC by watching batman forever... Amstrad Scenedemo - Batman Forever by Batman Group (Forever 2011) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJosZfm560Q#) :D
Don't forget the excellent Orion Prime
Orion Prime (Amstrad CPC) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM1BSm3Bsho#)
And the also incredible R-Type 128kb Remake!
R-Type Amstrad cpc HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26i1jIGoQA0#ws)
Nice times to have a CPC!
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 22:29, 20 October 13
The disk drive is out of commission and there are no cassettes to hand!
Well, the drive probably just needs another drive belt, you can get them at ebay for cheap.
Bit late, but welcome, Zoe, here to our forum & community.
Enjoy it!
Welcome Zoe! A pleasure to have you here! :)
"...fire up the old girl" - now that's somewhat interesting. What do people think their CPC is? for me it's a boy, but of course the Arnold name may have influenced this perception. The Amiga was a girl, obviously, but mostly everything else has a male character... or is it my idea?
Quote from: Gryzor on 18:42, 22 October 13
What do people think their CPC is? for me it's a boy
For me it's a CPC ;)
Colorful Personal Chap
Did 'he' smoke a pipe and have a funny accent, too?
Don't they all?
For me, the CPC was always genderless back in the day but I tend to think of it as an old lady, now ("Arnold" be damned!). My other computers don't have genders though, just (annoying and uncooperative) personalities.
Oh, well, you can not really call her old, rather... a nice lady in her early best years ;)
Quote from: TFM on 19:48, 22 October 13
Oh, well, you can not really call her old, rather... a nice lady in her early best years ;)
I can! :P Besides, I measure computers in Cat Years, so thrrrpt!
All my CPCs are male except the 664. With those curves she just has to be female :)
Bryce.
My GenieIIIs is definitely female, about all the CPCs... I should ask them one day. The Plus could be female too.
What the heck are you guys smoking?? Computers having genders my arse!! :laugh:
I mean if it did the stock machine (without any add-ons) would quite obviously be a middle aged man who's best days are behind it: bloated, slow, crap at multitasking, not much in the way of memory and pretty useless in the modern world. I don't even want to go into the size of the machines "floppy" but I don't think 3 inches would impress any lady...
Quote from: beaker on 00:27, 23 October 13
What the heck are you guys smoking?? Computers having genders my arse!! :laugh:
<post style=sexism>But computers have an internal logic that only the well-versed can understand. They will lock up and refuse to function and you'll never know why. They don't speak to you in plain English, and they require lots of cajoling just to do new things. They're either a woman, or a teenager. :P
[size=78%]</post>[/size]
I think of my CPC more as an Autobot :P
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 09:26, 23 October 13
<post style=sexism>They will lock up and refuse to function and you'll never know why. [size=78%]</post>[/size]
lol, most of the time that's evil developers writing ropey code, and they don't speak English at the best of times even if they are English :laugh:
Well, with my Windows PC I always know if it's got a PMS from the first seconds after boot. Same as with my gal.
64K CPC : female
128K CPC : male
;D
anyway being 30 years old doesn't make a CPC464 an old lady... or else I must be somewhat old crumpy crumbled grandpa with my 35 years old.
Also it's not really nice to promote Batman Forever, Orion Prime and R-Type 128 to a CPC464 owner.
Because you know, those need a 6128 config... :D
While at it, talk about RickDangerous128PLUS... ::)
This on the other hand :
BB4CPC - Bubble Bobble "Remake" - Amstrad CPC - Gameplay part 1 by Ataru'75 [096] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBlBB2_4rfg#)
:P
Anyway I guess someone could be kind enough to help someone in distress to get a 3"1/5 disk drive on this Disk drive box, or a +64K (or +512K RAM) RAM+ROM stuff... or perhaps just a 3" diskdrive belt.
I bet those could help too :
(http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/05/02/cassette-adapter-small.jpg) (http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/05/02/cassette-adapter-small.jpg)
(http://www.outblush.com/women/images/2008/12/bluetooth-cassette-tape-adapter.jpg) (http://www.outblush.com/women/images/2008/12/bluetooth-cassette-tape-adapter.jpg)
;)
Well I guess nowadays for a 464 owner the best solution would be the 512KB expansion on Cent Pour Cent - CPC News (http://www.centpourcent.net) and an HxC drive...
Anyway Zoe.
It seems you are both writer and comic artist, and perhaps even RPG player, perhaps you could check for some opportunities to get something like a RPG on CPC done ?
Or get some webcomics ported on CPC, or try some good old 384x272 Mode1 or 192x272 mode0 pixel arts.
@Gryzor :
http://www.gryzor.info/sigbar1.png (http://www.gryzor.info/sigbar1.png)
perhaps you should change the thing inside your signature bar, this "empty content" icon is so sad...
Quote from: MacDeath on 22:27, 23 October 13
Anyway Zoe.
It seems you are both writer and comic artist, and perhaps even RPG player, perhaps you could check for some opportunities to get something like a RPG on CPC done ?
If you need a programmer, let me know ;)
Quote from: MacDeath on 21:18, 23 October 13
Also it's not really nice to promote Batman Forever, Orion Prime and R-Type [size=78%]128[/size] to a CPC464 owner.
Because you know, those need a 6128 config... :D
My 464 has a 6128 CPU in it, if that's any consolation?
Quote from: MacDeath on 21:18, 23 October 13
I bet those could help too :
(http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/05/02/cassette-adapter-small.jpg) (http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/05/02/cassette-adapter-small.jpg)
(http://www.outblush.com/women/images/2008/12/bluetooth-cassette-tape-adapter.jpg) (http://www.outblush.com/women/images/2008/12/bluetooth-cassette-tape-adapter.jpg)
;)
What sorcery is this?!!
Seriously though, those look pretty snazzy.
Quote from: MacDeath on 22:27, 23 October 13
It seems you are both writer and comic artist, and perhaps even RPG player, perhaps you could check for some opportunities to get something like a RPG on CPC done ?
Or get some webcomics ported on CPC, or try some good old 384x272 Mode1 or 192x272 mode0 pixel arts.
I've not done pixel art for decades; not since I finished playing around with the Teletext simulator I wrote (it was supposed to be the basis of a disk magazine but that ended up being on PC instead).
I may give it another try at some point, but probably not until I finish writing a short text adventure to get back into the mood. :)
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 01:05, 24 October 13
I may give it another try at some point, but probably not until I finish writing a short text adventure to get back into the mood. :)
Looking forward to both :)
Always a touch scrappy when dealing with greetings, so I say G'day All. :D
QuoteI may give it another try at some point, but probably not until I finish writing a short text adventure to get back into the mood.
There are quite a lot of modern tools to make pixel art fun... And CPC wasn't the worst computer of its ERA graphically (1984...)
Texte aventures ? (yes I am french)
not that hard to had a GUI + graphics and a few dice based wargame mechanics...
technically wise, Monkey island is a text based adventure game... with nice reggae music and sweet graphic and mouse interface.
It's all in the fluff.
QuoteWhat sorcery is this?!!
actually cheap things that enable you to use modern MP3 digital devices as tapes on those old Datacords tape drivers used on those funny old 8bit computers... the actual equivalent of HxC disk drive emulator... but with tapes...
Also, Sorcery or Sorcery PLUS ?
(http://www.cpc-power.com/extra_lire_fichier.php?extra=cpcold&fiche=1989&slot=4&part=A&type=.png)
QuoteMy 464 has a 6128 CPU in it, if that's any consolation?
So it has a Z80A, which is exactly the same component on both machines...
CRTC may be different slightly different, some extra RAM ans stuffs to handle extra RAM and bank switching or even FDC (floppy disk controller...)
Hell the 464PLUS actually have some tape controlling extra components the 6128PLUS doesn't actually have...
But the "CPU" is still the probably same Z80A on all "Amstrad CPC"s.
(also on MSX1, ZXspeccies, and SegaMaster System and so on...even PacMan arcade board...)
or were you meaning Motherboard ? in which case I fail to understand how it would only have 64K... perhaps a 664 motherboard inside a 464 casing ?
BTW you are geek ? welkomen here, the geekiest eurokomputerzengeekfeast.
And also a few greekz geekz.
And last : what is the meaning of "snazzy" ?
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
And last : what is the meaning of "snazzy" ?
It's slang.
My mother would say it to mean stylish ("that's a snazzy shirt"). Opposite would be dowdy, which means plain or boring.
Younger people sometimes use it for something being smart (as in a good solution to something) or 'neat' as the Americans would say.
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
There are quite a lot of modern tools to make pixel art fun... And CPC wasn't the worst computer of its ERA graphically (1984...)
That's for sure!
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
Texte aventures ? (yes I am french)
Oui. Je préfère descriptions de texte ;)
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
not that hard to had a GUI + graphics and a few dice based wargame mechanics...
First of all, that would alter the style of game I am looking to create. I'm not working on a combat-based game. I working on atmosphere and a game that makes you question whether what you are experiencing is real or imagined. You get a far, far greater ability to do that when you're working on a text game than when you're constrained by the graphical capabilities of older computers and your own ability to use those capabilities to create decent results.
In other words, I'm going with text because I know I can get the effect I want from descriptions and I doubt I can get them from graphics.
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
technically wise, Monkey island is a text based adventure game... with nice reggae music and sweet graphic and mouse interface.
It's all in the fluff.
We will have to disagree on Monkey Island. I see that as the inevitable descendant of Dizzy, not the descendant of Colossal Caves.
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
actually cheap things that enable you to use modern MP3 digital devices as tapes on those old Datacords tape drivers used on those funny old 8bit computers... the actual equivalent of HxC disk drive emulator... but with tapes...
Sorry, my sense of humour mustn't have come across in what I said there. I know what these are, I use one to get my iPod to play through old car stereos.
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
So it has a Z80A, which is exactly the same component on both machines...
I don't know, I didn't mod the thing. I bought it from a guy who'd already modded it. It boots with the "128k Microcomputer (v3)" message, came with a 64k memory expansion and a disc drive, and has no problems with software marked "6128-only" (save for one program I came across once, which expected a 6128's keyboard layout and didn't react well to finding a 464 layout instead).
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
BTW you are geek ? welkomen here, the geekiest eurokomputerzengeekfeast.
And also a few greekz geekz.
I'm not so much a geek as a nerd.
Quote from: MacDeath on 01:04, 25 October 13
And last : what is the meaning of "snazzy" ?
Snazzy just means "cool" where I'm from.
WoW! That's the first time somebody took the time to completely answer one of MacDeath's super-long-posts. :o
You know Zoe, he could paint such great pixel art, if he wouldn't waste so much time for typing. Sorry, couldn't resist. :)
Hahaha I think you're right, it's probably because she's not used to them yet :D
(Don't get me wrong, I love his posts)
Btw, yeah, I know about my broken sig, just bored to fix it :D
She MUST be gorgeous in writing text adventures ;)
Eh... *awkward*
As you say.
*reads last few posts*
*now officially has no idea what you guys are talking about*
...welcome to our forum!
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 20:05, 25 October 13
*reads last few posts*
*now officially has no idea what you guys are talking about*
You're welcome ;)
A girl on the CPC? And you make comics and write your own stories? The CPC pixel scene needs a touch of sensitivity, therefore I hope you will tangle with making pixel art and become the CPC's answer to Mermaid ([CSDb] - Mermaid/Genesis Project/Vision (http://csdb.dk/scener/?id=19)). :D
rb
Quote from: rexbeng on 13:27, 27 October 13
A girl on the CPC? And you make comics and write your own stories? The CPC pixel scene needs a touch of sensitivity, therefore I hope you will tangle with making pixel art and become the CPC's answer to Mermaid ([CSDb] - Mermaid/Genesis Project/Vision (http://csdb.dk/scener/?id=19)). :D
rb
*Checks out Mermaid*
*Jaw drops*
*Dies of cuteness overload*
*comes back to life*
Wow, that's really cute stuff. I especially love the "I can has roasted marshmallow" pic from the 2010 calendar (http://csdb.dk/release/download.php?id=130481).
Hahahah that's a cute one indeed :D