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avatar_Zetr0

Hello CPCWiki Forums =)

Started by Zetr0, 21:24, 06 October 11

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Zetr0

Hello fellow CPC owners.

I am new to this fair board and have been enjoying a lot of the content that CPCWiki has been kind enough to offer.

Not only that I am also NEW to being a CPC owner, specifically I have a CPC464 which was kindly given to me by my friend Jasey over at www.AmiBay.com

I also have a DD-1 Interface as well as two (greedy me) FD-1 3" Disk Drives.

Sadly in its day, I was not interested in the CPC range, infact I *incorrectly* thought them as inferior machines to my humble spectrum or c64, only owned by kids with rich parents at the time.  But that was just the play-ground talking.  I have over the last few months been researching these machines, reading all that I can find - hence why I am here.

I come from a technical background, in both firmware/software and hardware development, I like to share what I know with people and I love learning somthing new, and like the latter Amstrad made spectrums the CPC 464 system interest me greatly.

While I know that the CPC 6128 is the path of least resistance, the 464 model is just so iconic of the CPC range. when thinking about the year it was released (1985) it is amazingly well made... truly a credit to its designers and builders too!

The CPC464 is is a HUGE machine, totally Dominating the deskspace - even my 128K +2B is stuplified by its sheer presence =)

My plan for being here is to learn more, and hopefully contribute to the CPC scene, I cannot wait to talk about adding 64K to the motherboard, or an 8bit Z80 IDE interface, lots of little ideas that wont let me sleep lol.

As you can imageing I have so many questions, of which probably most have been asked before, so I will ask them (hopefully) in the relevent sections - and not too often.

I look forward to chatting with you all =D
If I had a hammer.....

TFM

Welcome here, enjoy the forum. If you like to add hardware, this is the right place for you :-)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

SyX

Oooooh!!! If it's my best friend for ever Zetro  ;D (i'm Lionheart in EAB :P)

Welcome to the CPCWiki!!!  :D

Bryce

#3
Hi Zetr0,
        welcome to the Wiki. It's always great to have new (especially hardware) people join the group. I can't help you on the software side, but I might be able to help you with Hardware questions. The CPC is completely different (from a hardware point of view) than the old spectrums (pre-Amstrad) or C64 / Atari XL. Some things for the better, some definitely for the worse, but an interesting computer to design for.

@Syx: I really enjoyed Lionhearts link too :) ("Retro Hardware Porn" as Gryzor would call it :D )

Bryce.

SyX

Bryce, I love East Europe 80s hardware porn!!!  ;D

Bryce

That's art, not porn :) Porn is the dusty old PCB full of badly soldered Russian Logic ICs :D

Bryce.

MacDeath

Hi and welcome.

Feel free to add some personnal information so we may know where you are from.


HUGE... not hat much.


well, ok, the CPC464 has some old fashionned design... just like the CPC664.


It is due to the Function keys (numpad) and the way the arrows are separated from the rest... also the side disc/tape driver is part of it.

Speccy +2 is smaller because it simply has no numpad (nor arrows ?)


That why I definitly love my CPC6128... classy all the way.


A good point with this large design is that you may add internal stuff for the CPC464 then, modern electronic being the small reduce miniaturized stuff it is.

steve

I also like the CPC464 styling, and it's large size could allow a disk drive to be mounted internally, (maybe), with the DDI-1 outside attached to the expansion port.

Zetr0

My sincere thanks for the warm welcome =)

Its good to see some fellow - crossover members and as always a pleasure to meet new friends =D


@Bryce

In terms of CPC hardware I have a lot to learn, so prepare yourself for a lot of dumb questions =D



This has to be one of the most beautiful things I have seen today.



I don't know what it does (yet) but I must have one! lol!


@Syx / Lionheart

I haven't been on EAB in some time, I should try to get on there more often, alas more often than not I simply run out of time.

My sincere thanks for sharing, I do have a soft-spot for Russian hardware (especially 70's to early 90's), but the same could be said for European hardware too ;)  that Soyuz-Neon is impressive I could look at that all day =D


@Steve

I like the cut of your jib young man =)

Internal Floppy Drive for the WIN!

Although if I have it my way and with acouple or so months developement... I think a 8 Bit IDE port on the Z80 is very possible.... 
If I had a hammer.....

steve

Quote from: Zetr0 on 02:55, 07 October 11


This has to be one of the most beautiful things I have seen today.



I don't know what it does (yet) but I must have one! lol!


Be careful what you wish for, I believe these are part of a KGB plot and one day they will all march off their PCB's and take over the world. :laugh:

robcfg

Hi Zetr0!


Welcome to our lovely forum!


I think you will enjoy our Mainboard Versions page with nice pictures and 300 dpi scans of the CPC range motherboards, along with the KC Compact and the Aleste 520 EX  8)




MacDeath

QuoteI also like the CPC464 styling, and it's large size could allow a disk drive to be mounted internally
Maybe a HxC floppy emulator (don't remember exact name) would be more suitable, as the tape loader place could enable to even put a panel and a screen...

But this may need some additional stuff even for a floppy disc emulator.


Also think about a Jack plug for Audio tapes (iPod and wave sound files and so on) to replace the tape drive.

steve

The built-in cassette drive is one of the good features of the CPC 464, if you remove it you might then have to fiddle with the volume setting until the tape loads properly.

Gryzor

A bit late, but let me extend my warmest welcome! I truly hope you stick around, you'll see there's much on offer and we hope we benefit from your presence, knowledge and late-day wisdom ;)

Zetr0

@Gryzor

I am very humbled  :-[ , I hope that I can contribute to this wonderfull scene even in some small way =)


to that end, and while I think about it, would it be okay to print out and laminate an A4 logo of CPCwiki with URL to put beside the CPC464 for when its exhibited at R3Play in Blackpool?



If I had a hammer.....

Gryzor

...you seriously expect me to say no to this? Gosh, we could use all the advertising there is! If postage wasn't prohibitive I'd even send you a printed canvas banner...

Well, since I can't do that I'm at least willing to lend you my HxC SD floppy emulator, this should help with loading up every game possible very easily at the show!

But, please, if you do have a setup there, do take some photos :)

Ygdrazil

#16
Looks like a nice event http://www.replayexpo.com/, never heard about it before, so some pictures would be really nice....
Don't forget to show the URL of the CPCWIKI  :) on the CPCWIKI poster!

Regards,
Ygdrazil

Quote from: Gryzor on 23:45, 08 October 11
...you seriously expect me to say no to this? Gosh, we could use all the advertising there is! If postage wasn't prohibitive I'd even send you a printed canvas banner...

Well, since I can't do that I'm at least willing to lend you my HxC SD floppy emulator, this should help with loading up every game possible very easily at the show!

But, please, if you do have a setup there, do take some photos :)

Zetr0

#17
Hiyas Gryzor

Quote from: Gryzor on 23:45, 08 October 11
...you seriously expect me to say no to this? Gosh, we could use all the advertising there is! If postage wasn't prohibitive I'd even send you a printed canvas banner..

Its always  nice to ask first!

Quote from: Gryzor on 23:45, 08 October 11
Well, since I can't do that I'm at least willing to lend you my HxC SD floppy emulator, this should help with loading up every game possible very easily at the show!

Thats very kind of you, I shall ask my friend r0jaws on AmiBay if I could ninja his as he lives round the corner, but I could use some help setting up an SD card with the files etc =)

Quote from: Gryzor on 23:45, 08 October 11
But, please, if you do have a setup there, do take some photos :)

Most certainly

at the moment theres my 464 and a 6128, a GX4000 possible (maybe) a 6128+

This lot will be offset with the Sinclair units on the otherside =)

Again I will be doing a nice laminate for worldofspectrum.org - just to encourage interested people to come and have a look at our respective communities =)

my super evil megamind plan is to unite the Spectrum and CPC comunities enough so I can develop a Universal 8/16Bit IDE Z80 adapter

like this one -





All the hardwork is done in the ROM, it can load snapshots from DISK as well as Harddisk - as well as tape-loaders and machine code blocks.... lots and lots of really geeky fun, and I really want to adapt this for the CPC range =D

there.... thats my evil master plan.... I cannot believe I have no innner monologue!!! :o
If I had a hammer.....

Gryzor

Ohhhh drool.... An IDE adaptor is what we're missing! Not *really* sure what I could use one fore, but I'd certainly want one!

As for the SD, well, it's pretty easy setting it up but I could always send you a ready-made card with hundreds of games on it so you don't have to pick them beforehand.

Zetr0

@Gryzor

I have to admit, 8bit IDE is a lot of fun... I get about 88KB a second on the +2e here and its delicious to copy games from tape and put them on the Hard Disk,  well compact flash card ;)

The beauty here is to also copy files back to tape or disk so one can repair that long lost original.  Personaly I get a hugh kick out of writing programs and saving them to IDE, currently writing a menu driven system to load snap-shots from the IDE device.


Now, I would love an SD card to use for the show, I have pently of SD cards here, a list or link of files to save some pennies =)

I shall give my friend  a buzz and inform him that his HxC has now been commandeered for a higher purpose! =D
If I had a hammer.....

SyX

Zetr0 takes a look to the sexy MegaFlash by Mr. Bryce, i'm a proud user of one and i recommend you 100% :)

In another demostration of his kindness, he made all the information freely available for the community :D

I don't think that he has once left, but it can not hurt to ask him ;)

Gryzor

Well, all the magic you're describing is in the software. Since we do have the HxC I can't see any more advantages to a virtual HDD. Sure, speed is limited from the floppy drive's timing, but that's rarely an issue, and of course you can copy everything from images to real media (have done it, too). Or am I missing something?

Also, somebody released just the right program for the Atari ST which can actually use files on the HxC as a virtual HDD. I haven't seen how it works (I don't have my STs at hand), but I guess it couldn't work on the CPC, but again I can't see much use for everyday use.

I don't mean to bust your bubble, maybe I'm misunderstanding something -and, as I said, I'd still die for one :)

steve

Evolution of storage media on the CPC is - cassette - floppy - hard disk - CF/SD card.

If you use a CPC frequently CF/SD is the next step.

I look forward to seeing construction details in the CPCwiki.

Zetr0

Quote from: SyX on 16:54, 09 October 11
Zetr0 takes a look to the sexy MegaFlash by Mr. Bryce, i'm a proud user of one and i recommend you 100% :)

In another demostration of his kindness, he made all the information freely available for the community :D

I don't think that he has once left, but it can not hurt to ask him ;)

Now thats a bit on the clever side.... to think I was going to hammer out an IDE driver with emulation and 27c256's!!!!

Quote from: Gryzor on 16:56, 09 October 11
Well, all the magic you're describing is in the software. Since we do have the HxC I can't see any more advantages to a virtual HDD. Sure, speed is limited from the floppy drive's timing, but that's rarely an issue, and of course you can copy everything from images to real media (have done it, too). Or am I missing something?

Also, somebody released just the right program for the Atari ST which can actually use files on the HxC as a virtual HDD. I haven't seen how it works (I don't have my STs at hand), but I guess it couldn't work on the CPC, but again I can't see much use for everyday use.

I don't mean to bust your bubble, maybe I'm misunderstanding something -and, as I said, I'd still die for one :)

LOL theres no worries about bubbles, the IDE device isn'ta virtual device at all its all there, partitions (as BIG as the DOS type allows) for many programs in one partition / direcrory (again pending Partition support for directories)

i.e I can tap out  CAT "C:" on my +2e here and up flies a nice list of 32 Snapshot games, I then tap in Spectrum "C:SCRU128.Z80" and in about 4 seconds the snap shot is loaded and playing - the best way to think of it is just like a HUGE faster floppy disk =)

have a lookie at this youtube I made =)
If I had a hammer.....

Gryzor

Snapshot loading is very smart, a very nice feat. But Amstrad drives are pretty fast - we never had any issues with loading times.

Of course, with a 464 this would be a godsend...

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