News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu
avatar_fano

PCW ?

Started by fano, 09:02, 13 March 11

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

RockRiver

Quote from: arnoldemu on 09:34, 29 March 11
Here are some urls with some pcw software (quite a few games here):
http://computeremuzone.com/?id=pcw&l=en
ftp://ftp.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/cpc/pcw/
http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/ZX/zxzvm.html
The PCW software is not as well archived as the CPC stuff.

This summer spanish amstrad scene are exciting with the new pcw emu "CP/M Box"... And "Kachorro" rebird his pcw soft biblioteque:
http://silverka.net/pcw/

If you have another M.I.A. soft util or game please notice to Kachorro to grow up the preserve list


Devilmarkus

Quote from: MacDeath on 20:34, 25 April 11
Some "Buzzer" stuff may be found for PC : what they called "RealSounds...
Perhaps games like :
Crimewave


Here's the info about Realsound ;)
When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

MacDeath

Back to PCW...


Do you think a Hardware Addon could enable to add some colours ont the PCW ?

This may be some Palette+character attributes add-on, connected to some extension port...
oops, is there any one on PCW ?

http://www.retro-zone.org/hosted_sites/ronsamstradpcwpage/index.php?menu_id=4&content_id=24


seems so...



So, you put the video output to pass through this external video addition...
and through the extension port you set the attributes and palettes...

perhaps recode the Bitmap so it may do the Amstrad CPC modes... larger pixels but actual coloured modes...



But, such way may put a delay/lag too... and would need tight timing/interrupts management.



So... what would you get for that ?

Approximately a CPC in fullscreen with shittons of RAM and only a buzzer for sounds.... ;D

SyX

Quote from: MacDeath on 10:22, 10 September 11Do you think a Hardware Addon could enable to add some colours ont the PCW ?
Well, in my old Amiga, i had a Graffiti (other link and another and other), it's a peripheral attached to the Amiga RGB port, and when you enable it, the Graffiti converted the Amiga RGB signal to 640x256 (or 320x256 or 160x256 or even 80x256, depending in the bandwith of the Amiga graphics mode and chipset) with 256 colours from a palette of 262144 (18 bits of colour)... even in Amiga 500,  that it only use 32 colours from a palette of 4096 (12 bits of colour).

I think that it would be possible to adapt a similar solution for the PCW... and the CPC of course ;)

MacDeath

Or just add a CPC gate Array perhaps ?

SyX

A new version of the wonderful PCW emulator CP/M Box has arrived, you can get here ;)

steve

Use a GX4000 as an external graphics card by connecting the PCW's expansion port to the cartridge port by using memory mapped ports, the PCW would emulate the cartridge rom.

Bryce

Ooo, that would be reeeaaaallllly ssssssllllooooooowwwwww.....   :'( and the PCW would have to emulate ROM so that the GX4000 knew how to handle the data and also emulate an ACID! not much time left to put anything on that colourful new display.

Adding graphic performance to a PCW would be generally very difficult. The Commodores have certain advantages here, that make it slightly easier, but the PCW doesn't. The CPC could do this by disabling the internal CRTC, paging in an external RAM at &C000 and reading this data from an alternative CRTC / Graphic chip. But it wouldn't be easy or particularly cheap.

Bryce.

steve

OK, you could give it acceptable performance by using 512KB of dual port ram which the PCW could modify but the GX4000 would only read.

redbox

I know how to add extra graphical capability to a PCW - buy a CPC.

Bryce

Or put on a pair of polaroid sunglasses and violently shake your head while looking at the monitor? :D

Bryce.

MacDeath

Could the PCW do some sort of composite colour mode like the CGA did ?

QuoteYou could hook up a Color Graphics Adapter to a standard TV set. That's not a tweak, it was expected. It was also expected that it would show pretty much the same picture as on an RGB monitor. But it turned out that the NTSC artefacts could be used to create a sort of 16 color, 160×200 mode, as many 8-bit systems had. I couldn't find out if this was NTSC only or worked on PAL TVs as well.
http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/computer/cga.htm

But I guess the 50hz won't work ?

Bryce

No. The CGA composite signal is completely different to what a PCW produces. In fact the PCW doesn't have any sort of real standard picture signal inside, it creates a non-standard purely mono signal that was specially suited to the monitors input. I discussed this somewhere here before, but I can't remember what thread it was.

Bryce.

SyX

In the spanish forum are "cheating" ;D using a few interrupts to select at what colour channel (R, G or B) send the PCW picture  :P

Bryce

With good results, but still only one colour really. Nice trick though.

Bryce.

RockRiver

Quote from: fano on 17:34, 25 April 11
(...)images before my poor Joyce dies  :'( (before my son touch something  :( )
I didn't need my daughter to kill a pcw main board. This is what happened...

Since decades user manuals told us to power on peripheral before the computer
I did not make it and plug first the PCW and then the color amstrad monitor: a power surge killed the PCW...
I think, Fano, your son didn't make anything... the killer was other...

But I bought another PCW too... to kill it another time????????
Nooooooo!!!!!
See the photos:
PCW7512  :o http://www.retrowiki.es/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2589
(sorry in Spanish please use google traductor or another)
The other post plus the one that SYX talked with new photos in "one coloured PCW video":
http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2441

Thanks Fano, Syx and all of you... "ElectroGods save the PCW queen!!!!!!"



[ sorry my strange English like Indian "Sitting Bull" ]

SyX

RockRiver, you have making a great work, i love the PCW revolution that flood the spanish forums ;)

TFM

Hmmm..... like I remember the PCW16 has colors, but its integrated monitor is black&white.
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

fano

Looks like i missed this post  ::)
Finaly i think you're right , i used an ATX power supply.I do not have idea how to protect PCW from power surge when using external power supply.
Nice project btw , do not forget to post more pictures here when finished (something says me i'll try to do same)

Quote from: RockRiver on 20:05, 15 September 11
I didn't need my daughter to kill a pcw main board. This is what happened...

Since decades user manuals told us to power on peripheral before the computer
I did not make it and plug first the PCW and then the color amstrad monitor: a power surge killed the PCW...
I think, Fano, your son didn't make anything... the killer was other...

But I bought another PCW too... to kill it another time? ??? ??? ?
Nooooooo!!!!!
See the photos:
PCW7512  :o http://www.retrowiki.es/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2589
(sorry in Spanish please use google traductor or another)
The other post plus the one that SYX talked with new photos in "one coloured PCW video":
http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2441

Thanks Fano, Syx and all of you... "ElectroGods save the PCW queen!!!!!!"



[ sorry my strange English like Indian "Sitting Bull" ]
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

Follow Easter Egg products on Facebook !

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod