A Glut of software, manuals etc for new PCW or Gotek owners. Enjoy :)

Started by PCWPIP, 20:41, 01 November 20

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PCWPIP

Some useful stuff for new PCW owners and/or new Gotek Owners:

First, a little background:

Back when I grew up in the UK I owned a stream of the typical UK 8 bit computers, starting with a ZX81 as a Christmas present.  The first purchased with more serious intent was an Amstrad PCW8256.  I loved the PCW but eventually had to give it away to a local kid in Swindon before emigrating to Colorado, USA.  After all, it wouldn't work here.  He got everything, including the external 5.25" floppy drive, software, manuals, printer, everything.  Lucky kid.

20 years later, in Colorado I am undergoing something of an attack of nostalgia and come across a good looking condition 8256 (US spec) on eBay.  It was not booting but powered to a green screen.  I suspected this was a bad floppy belt.  I haggled and got it for $120, including the printer, keyboard and about 30 CF2 discs.  Once I serviced the drive and replaced the belt everything worked perfectly.

I have since installed a ram upgrade and gotek floppy emulator.  The gotek didn't come with a USB thumb drive but the chap who sold it to me emailed some games and instructions and I was away.

I had to hunt around for more software, boot images and so on. Some of it was found here, some elsewhere and it was a bugger finding it all.  So, I am going to share what I found here.  Put these [CPM Boot] and [Games] directories on a USB and you too can use this in your own GOTEK.  I also found some productivity software, magazines, manuals and a Windows utility to create/edit .DSK images.


Secondly, I do have some questions:

A:  I want to add the 180K 3" A drive the GOTEK replaced as drive B:.  Partially for storage, nostalgia and so I can copy from disk to image on the GOTEK.
     I will create a separate thread for this.
     UPDATE:  I have added to an existing similar thread.

B:  I tried to create new CP/M boot images for 1.04, 1.12 and 1.15 by taking a .DSK image for 1.07 and replacing the .EMS file.  This didn't go so well.
     If anyone has working 1.04, 1.05, 1.12, 1.15 or 1.07H .DSK images to share I'd love to add them.
     I will create another new thread to discuss what went wrong.


C:  My PCW is a US spec model.  Most disk images I come across are for the UK spec machines.  The keyboard for the US spec machine is subtly different
    (a # where the sterling symbol is on UK keyboards for example).
    I will create a third new thread for this.


Lastly, and most importantly, a bunch of useful stuff for you.  What I've attached:

Zip Files to Share:


1)  Prebuilt blank 180K .DSK images for gotek:

    Got to store your data somewhere, generated these with CPCDiskXP.


2)  CP/M Boot Disk images for gotek (working):

     CP/M Plus book images I found on this forum:  1.01, 1.04,  1.07 (not H) and 2.09

     I created a pair of Start of Day boot images that boot CP/M 2.09 and automatically copies the necessary CP/M files to the M: drive and does a SETDEF
     etc.  It'll ask you to flip the disk to copy files off of side 2.  Puts all the utilities onto the M: drive for easier/faster access.


    Does anyone have an image for 1.05, the version supplied with the US machines?   A .DSK image would be very welcome.  Thanks.


3)  CP/M useful boot files:

    CPM Plus .EMS files from 1.12 (J12CPM3.EMS), 1.14 (J14CPM3.EMS), 1.15 (J15CPM3.EMT renamed to .EMS), 1.07H (J17CPM3.EMS).

    B180.FIB which can be used on later versions of boot disks to enable a 180K drive as B: I believe.



4)  Non-working CP/M Boot Disks images for gotek:

    These are CP/M Plus .DSK boot images I tried to create by taking a 1.07 .DSK file, removing the J17CPM3.EMS file and replacing it with the alternate .EMS
    file.  This caused a problem, the 1.04 disk generated will not boot at all.  The 1.14 and 1.15 images will boot but hang when mostly done, if I switch
    disks and wait for the abort/retry message, switch back again and press a key then the boot completes and works fine from then on.  I don't know why they
    hang.

    Help or replacement images would be greatly appreciated.

    UPDATE:  I found the CP/M 1-04 images.  Thanks!



5)  [Games] directory with .DSK disk images for gotek with many games and also a [Games Documentation] with some Game Documentation/box art etc.

    The documentation is very incomplete for now.  I'll add more later.


     UPDATE:  too large to attach to post.


6)  Magazines:

    .PDFs of some 40 issues of the UKs 8000 Plus magazine.


    UPDATE:  too large to attach to post


7)  Mallard Basic:

    I found, but have lost the Mallard Basic listings as taken from the 80000 Plus magazine.  When I find them again I will supply these too.  They were
    in .BAS format, ready to load.

    UPDATE:  I can't find these :(  I'll update if I find them.


8) Manuals:

    A Mallard Basic Manual in PDF form.  This one is for the PC version, if anyone has a PDF of the PCW version I'd very much appreciate it if they would
    share.  I tried to find a print version but they are rare on eBay and the shipping from the UK was ridiculous.

    The PCW 8256 manual in PDF form.

    A PDF version of a LocoScript v1 book.


    UPDATE: too large to attach to post.


9)  Productivity Software:

     Locoscript v1 and v1.2

     Arnor Protext disks.  Manuals in French...I would appreciate a PDF of the manuals in English if anyone has them.

     DBaseII disks.  Seems to run, but no manual.  Is there a PDF somewhere?

     LocoScript v2.16.  No manuals, any would be appreciated.

     PCW CP/M Utilities found from https://www.seasip.info/Cpm/software/amstrad.html.  I have not tried these, please read the web site.  CLOCK.FID
     (pclcksea.com) is nice.  You need to set the time with a DATE SET command, where does that come from?

    UPDATE:  I found date.com on the programming utilities disk.  Works like a charm.   I now have a working clock on the screen :)

     I would love to get some more PCW specific productivity software such as Supercalc, Locofile etc.  If anyone could share disk images and PDFs of the
     manuals so we can add them here I'd appreciate it.

     UPDATE.  see reply to this post, found a great deal of software.  Thank you.


10) Programming tools/books etc.

      The CP/M 3 (plus) Programmers Guide.

      Hisoft C manual in PDF. I would like the disk images for this if anyone has it (please).

      Any other disks and manuals for PCW specific programming packages would be appreciated.


      UPDATE:  Found a couple, thank you.


11) Utilities.

      Utilities to support the PCW or GOTEK images from the PC side.  I currently have CPCDiskXP this I use to modify/create PCW disk images.

      Any other useful utilities to add?


PCWPIP

Running into issues with the attachment size, I need to break down some of the into smaller attachments.


Some of the the manuals etc are WAY bigger than the allowable attachment size :(



PCWPIP


PCWPIP


PCWPIP


jevicac

Hello PCWpip, we have a page dedicated to the Amstrad PCW, we leave the address below. Due to lack of time we are slow but trying to translate as far as possible in 4 languages. I hope you like it.

http://www.habisoft.com/pcwwiki/doku.php?id=en:start

GAMES
http://www.habisoft.com/pcwwiki/doku.php?id=en:juegos:indice
APPLICATIONS
http://www.habisoft.com/pcwwiki/doku.php?id=es:aplicaciones:indice

New developments
http://www.habisoft.com/pcwwiki/doku.php?id=es:nuevos:indice

The Spanish version of the PCWwiki is much more complete right now.

PCWPIP

Thank you.  That which is complete looks excellent  8)


I will be taking a closer look at the applications...


UPDATE:  An excellent selection.  Thank you.  I recommend this archive.  The games selection with box art is the place to go.


PCWPIP

Each magazine PDF is too big to post here.


The manuals are way too big to post.


Would it be possible for a moderator to post large ZIP files? 


About 250MB for Games, 400MB for the Magazines, 420MB for the Manuals, 450MB for the Productivity s/w, 170MB for the Software devt s/w

PCWPIP

Attached is the CPCDiskXP software I use to create/update .DSK images on a PC:

jevicac

I think it would be nice to create an account in a free cloud for example, upload the files and then paste the links

Gryzor


Hello!


Although your offer is simply great, a couple of issues:
-we don't really deal with the PCW so  much here on the CPCwiki, especially since there is a PCWwiki ;) . Therefore I'm not too sure that hosting files so big would be wise...
-public file hosters are unreliable to say the least. Of course you could add the files to a shared Google Drive folder which should be a bit more reliable, but of course if you remove them from your drive they'll be lost to everyone
-let's see if we can host them on the PCWwiki. If not we'll see how we can upload them here.

PCWPIP

I just need to finish downloading some extras and I'll pop it on Google Drive for both Wikis to download.


The idea was to have everything needed in one stop.  Save everyone the hard work...


I'll get back to you.

robcfg

Thank you very much for this!


It's amazing the amount of software published for the PCW back in the day, and the new one being developed  :)


Looking forward to your Google Drive link!

PCWPIP


Please do not share these links outside this forum.


I will remove these in a few days, so if the moderators of CPCwiki and PCWwiki could download asap.


I hope these help.


FYI: this should help with the PCW wiki as there is much artwork and manuals for the Infocom games here that you are missing.


PCWPIP.




Blank CF2.zip (566KB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16mF_uTGkhqK8EwYEMLziiJZ54X3x6l07/view?usp=sharing


CPM Boot.zip (1.3MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1swr3ez_iMS2wmO0RFbTDwHuEzmbYPPGx/view?usp=sharing


Games.zip (689.3MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LqEWVZN04vVcxQwAB28_BqyGqm6CWmT/view?usp=sharing


Magazines.zip (396.9MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v883HMvtlTM2zJtFHhMYFh_L-eHiTgPq/view?usp=sharing


Manuals.zip (373.2MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJc_pPIwpwFHlfexB3b8lf1OdOvwAGUc/view?usp=sharing


Productivity.zip (374MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UUba6Bf-NvOEhvtQz-h5piPzxcrQvWx3/view?usp=sharing


Programming.zip (128.7MB):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14JHXyqPTuzCb7v5tNCQpOh4DsgR-B4MH/view?usp=sharing

jevicac

Thank you very much for sharing the material with all of us. I have checked that there is material from the PCWiki on it.

Gryzor

Thanks a lot for this! Got all the archives, let's discuss where to put them :)

Browsing through it, awesome stuff!!!

PCWPIP

To make this complete enough for me to be completely happy with it, I'd still like from the community (please):


Boot disks for CP/M 1.5 (US), 1.12 and 1.15.  If I ever get my 3" A: drive installed as B: I should be able to post an image of 1.05.


Mallard Basic Manual for PCW in PDF form.


Locoscript 2 Manual in PDF form.


A dBaseII Manual in PDF form, I thought I saw one somewhere....


A copy of "Yes Prime Minister" for PCW.  Software I didn't even know existed until recently, but I now really really want.


If you have any of these please post them here.   Thank you.


JohnElliot pointed me to a copy of the 8000 Plus magazine Mallard Basic Listings (much obliged14) and I am attaching those now:


GeoffB17

Hello,

I mentioned in a recent thread specifically about dBase II that there is certainly a .PDF manual got a generic dbase II manual, for a NEC computer, available on the web for download.   I've looked at it, and the dbase info is fully appropriate for the PCW installation, only an initial part about installation/setup (screen codes) is not.   Actually, the manual supplied with the PCW package is no better, although I think that the working progs were supplied already installed with the PCW (H19/VT52) terminal codes already installed?

I found this item easily via Google search, if you're having trouble let me know.   I think the site was a 'bitsavers' one.

There is a site somewhere - I'll try and find it again - which has a number of PCW disk images, but I think they're all .td0 images (TeleDisk).   The 1.05A version came from there.   There are also a number of versions of LocoScript there, these may also be versions for the US PCW, but I've not tried any of them.   If I remember correctly, I used the ImageDisk utility to convert the .td0 file into a binary/raw image, then could then be accessed using John Elliott's Joyce emulator so the files could be extracted.   This .EMS file loaded fine on my PCW.   I not aware of any reason why the other system versions would not load on your US PCW but it's possible the later system versions may have been looking for something maybe connected with Printers so it could be the problem is more that you're using a PCW 8256 than using a US version?

Which 5.25" drive did you have?   I still have the BOX version attached to my PCW, this still works fine.

Geoff

PCWPIP

I think mine said PACE on it....but its been over 20 years  :o


UPDATE:  Found the manual:
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/nec/APC/819-000100-8001_dBASE_II_Users_Guide_Feb83.pdf

GeoffB17

Yes, that's the manual I saw.   About 358 pages, well imaged.   Covers both using/programming dBase, and a reference for all the commands.

The other page I referred to is:

http://www.retroarchive.org/maslin/disks/amstrad/index.html

I don't know of a way to directly turn a .td0 into a .dsk, but I could do it within Joyce OK.

Geoff

Richard_Lloyd

Richard
CPC464, CPC6128, PCW8512, PCW10, BSA & NSP

Gryzor

Although I have no real interest in dBase, I downloaded the manual and it looks pretty great...

PCWPIP

I found the 1.05 version of the CP/M3 .EMS file in a post here...I created a boot disk here for us US PCW owners.

FYI: 1.05 is a USA specific version of 1.04 with a few small tweaks for our slightly different keyboard.  # on the 3 key, cent symbol on the 6 key etc.

PCWPIP

Still not done...Miguels magnificent MESSC C compiler.

http://www.floppysoftware.es/mescc.html

I put together 3 disks (disk 1 is a boot disk) that will populate a 512K PCWs RAM drive with the necessary header files and include files.  This gives you his excellent TE_PCW.COM editor (renamed EDIT.COM) and a submit file so from the M: prompt you can type "A:COMPILE A:HELLO" (minus quotes) and it will compile, optimize, build and make HELLO.C into the HELLO.COM program file.

Note: I had to make sure each source was correctly ANSI coded and properly transferred as ascii as it was easy to end up with garbled carriage returns.  I also had to produce the 3 disks to fill the M: drive and leave the remaining files on the A: drive so no disk swapping (in use) is needed.  Also PIP will not transfer files with an underscore in the name.  All the includes had underscores.  I had to rename them with a dash and rename them after they are copied.  What a nuisance (and you can apparently blame old DEC character sets for that.  PIP used to use an arrow symbol, which was amended to an underscore later and hence that character bums PIP out...both of us).

For completeness, I attached the source ZIP file for MESSC too.  This isn't needed unless you want to look at the original files.

Thanks to Miguel, an hour or so tweaking everything to fit and I compiled my first "Hello World" C program  8)

Philip.

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