so here is a link to a video of the speccy back on the production line...... as much as i hate the machine my hat goes off to those involved in getting it back into production.....
sadly i don't think i will get to see a cpc (cpc + etc) back on the production line i live in hope ..... someone do a kick starter for CPC back on the production line please please please :)
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega: On the Production Line at SMS Electronics - (https://youtu.be/HWJrFEHNZQU)
It is kinda cute, but can you consider it a real Spectrum ? :)
Quote from: [[C|-|E]] on 22:45, 16 July 15
It is kinda cute, but can you consider it a real Spectrum ? :)
Depends on how accurate the colour clash is
XDDDD
Quote from: [[C|-|E]] on 22:45, 16 July 15
It is kinda cute, but can you consider it a real Spectrum ? :)
Neither of these new "Spectrums" is a real machine. One is a bluetooth keyboard that needs a computer or tablet to run work, the other a comedy joypad that looks ripped off from an idea a website mocked up about 15 years ago as a joke.
Leave the CPC be. I don't want to see cynical corporate types cashing in with some hideous monstrosity and conning the media into reporting its an exact recreation of the original machine.
Quote from: cpc4eva on 22:36, 16 July 15
sadly i don't think i will get to see a cpc (cpc + etc) back on the production line i live in hope ..... someone do a kick starter for CPC back on the production line please please please :)
Well, I'm not allowed to talk about it, but let me tell you this. There is more hope than you think. Even More! :)
Quote from: TFM on 16:25, 17 July 15
Well, I'm not allowed to talk about it, but let me tell you this. There is more hope than you think. Even More! :)
:o
Quote from: TFM on 16:25, 17 July 15
Well, I'm not allowed to talk about it, but let me tell you this. There is more hope than you think. Even More! :)
well that just got interesting :D
anything at all u can mention ?
Like will it look the same ?
Will it be un updated version / concept like the speccy vega ?
Will it be same board?
Will it be with more ram and roms etc ?
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Will you finally be able to store bread in it?
Wait that's the other one...
TFM can you give all of us any details at all ?
Like who is putting it together is there a team or is it just yourself ?
i was just chatting with Jim Bagley about this topic and he is very curious as are all of us as to what you TFM or your team have planned for a CPC back on the production line?
for those who do not know Jim he is the main man and sole programmer responsible for many classic games on the Speccy and CPC. He was behind the fantastic Batman: The Caped Crusader, Cabel, Midnight Resistance (Crash 93%) and the massively addictive adventure, Hudson Hawk.
here is a link to a recent interview with him https://www.facebook.com/cpclegends/posts/475914519249194 (https://www.facebook.com/cpclegends/posts/475914519249194)
TFM if you can give us some details very much appreciated :)
just harass Alan sugar... or Amstrad PLC...
I would love an Amstrum CPZXW X512 PLUS that could perfectly run CPC, PCW, PLUS or even ZX speccy things and also have a mega mode to combine all those specs together...
imagine a PLUS with Mode1 + attributes and sprites and shitton (640k) of RAM...also scrollings, redefined characters and so on... in overscan... with 4096 colours and dual AY... all in a small 3" box ressembling a CPC...+
:o
anyway, Jim Bagley is responsible for some nice speccy port, yet some usual limitations for 64k oriented speccy ports are still there... a shame he did not produce proper 128k versions on CPC. He is welcomed to go back to his source codes and do us proper 128k/PLUS version if he wants to.
;D
(he seems like a cool dude and is a Speccy/CPC legend anyway...)
Give it some time, the producer is a regular writer in this forum. When the time is right, he will post everything. What I do know about it is litte, but if 10% of it are true, then we all have something to look forward. :) :) :)
Let's hope a new CPC comes bundled with a decent version of Outrun! ;)
Quote from: ukmarkh on 12:26, 19 July 15
Let's hope a new CPC comes bundled with a decent version of Outrun! ;)
hahaha you and outrun......
id like to see a whole new package which would be new version of outrun, new version of street fighter 2, all those games that were marked for release on the gx4000 but never made etc etc ljust ike they did when the released the original cpc you know all the amsoft titles :)
Quote from: ukmarkh on 12:26, 19 July 15
Let's hope a new CPC comes bundled with a decent version of Outrun! ;)
I second this
Quote from: seanb on 11:57, 02 August 15
I second this
pack 2x1 reloaded : Street Fighter II & Outrun
There are actual developers and old developers returning.. and there is some thing called Crowdfunding...
Quote from: cpc4eva on 05:56, 02 August 15
hahaha you and outrun......
id like to see a whole new package which would be new version of outrun, new version of street fighter 2, all those games that were marked for release on the gx4000 but never made etc etc ljust ike they did when the released the original cpc you know all the amsoft titles :)
How much would you pay for it. New enhanced machine, to full new enhances game? How much would it be worth to people here? [nb]And please ignore crowd funding ect. How much would one of you pay in person.[/nb]
I would happily pay something like 500 o 600 pounds for a new machine like that :)
Problem is... what kind of machine would it have to be to be considered a "real" Amstrad? Something Z80 based with much more RAM, SATA and USB ports, decent graphics and audio chips, etc, that could natively execute all Amstrad soft at hardware level? Is that still an Amstrad? :)
Quote
Problem is... what kind of machine would it have to be to be considered a "real" Amstrad? Something Z80 based with much more RAM, SATA and USB ports, decent graphics and audio chips, etc, that could natively execute all Amstrad soft at hardware level? Is that still an Amstrad? :)
absolutely no
I even resist to count the plus range as original CPC :laugh:
Mark posted this on FB.
i never saw this b4.
look at all those titles that were expected to be released for the CPC plus :(
thats the sort of thing a new CPC machine must be bundled with :)
I have always called the Plus range "CPC Plus" although I know that strictly talking is not a "real" CPC but more a "CPC like" machine. Anyway, at least it is an 8-bit Amstrad computer and the closest relative to the original one, far enough :)
Quote from: Joseman on 17:45, 03 August 15
I even resist to count the plus range as original CPC :laugh:
Because it is not a CPC. There are CPC464, 472, 664 and 6128 computers and there is the 6128 Plus. That's how Amstrad called them.
IMHO the differences between the 464 and 6128 are bigger than between 6128 and 6128 Plus. ;)
Quote from: TFM on 18:52, 03 August 15
IMHO the differences between the 464 and 6128 are bigger than between 6128 and 6128 Plus. ;)
I highly doubt that... the classic 6128 is a simply 464 upgraded... if you cut 2 (or something like that) points on the pcb and put some ram chips, then you put 3 or 4 chips more for the fdc, you have the 464 as a 6128.
The 6128 plus is emulating a lot of things that i think that is a sacrilege emulate, the crtc and the gate array... the plus range is more than a simply difference from the cpc classic, is another computer emulating a classic cpc!
The Plus is not emulating anything. The GA of the 6128 is called ASIC in the 6128 Plus. And it contains PIO and CRTC - but on an hardware level! So between 6128 and 6128 Plus you have different packaging of chips, that's all. Anything else of the Plus is just an upgrade.
But 464 and 6128 are different computers. Not only that the 464 and 6128 use different RAM banking, the 464 also lacks a lot of chips! Examples are the SED, the PAL the FDC.
Quote from: Joseman on 19:16, 03 August 15
The 6128 plus is emulating a lot of things that i think that is a sacrilege emulate, the crtc and the gate array... the plus range is more than a simply difference from the cpc classic, is another computer emulating a classic cpc!
As a HW guy, I really would like you to define what you mean by 'emulate'.
Amstrad designed the original CPC gate array, and extended it to do the plus asic. That's not emulation, that' evolution.
Regarding the CRTC, which version about the UMC, Motorola, Hitachi do you consider the real one and the emulated ones ?
Quote from: gerald on 19:24, 03 August 15
As a HW guy, I really would like you to define what you mean by 'emulate'.
Amstrad designed the original CPC gate array, and extended it to do the plus asic. That's not emulation, that' evolution.
Regarding the CRTC, which version about the UMC, Motorola, Hitachi do you consider the real one and the emulated ones ?
For me the original CRTC is the CRTC 0, the others are similar but not the original.
And if the ASIC is not emulating anything, please change the definition on the cpcwiki, anybody have to be wrong!
Quote from: Joseman on 19:28, 03 August 15
For me the original CRTC is the CRTC 0, the others are similar but not the original.
The 6845 CRTC is a Motorola design. So the original is the CRTC2 in CPC terminology, others are clone/licenced design.
Quote from: gerald on 19:44, 03 August 15
The 6845 CRTC is a Motorola design. So the original is the CRTC2 in CPC terminology, others are clone/licenced design.
But the CRTC 0 is a little improvement with the SAME technology, the plus range doesn't use the SAME technology. Besides the CRTC as you said, is an original Motorola design, in the ASIC is an included feature, perhaps the CRTC0 & CRTC1 are CLONES, but the Amstrad ASIC is EMULATING.
@gerald (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=250) : Of course you are right here. From a programmers POV I can only tell that the differences between CPC and Plus are minor, the two points (which matters imho) are the different behavior of the keyboard scanning and the different behavior of the 3" floppy when starting a seek command directly after writing a sector. Anything else is pretty much the some. ASIC or CRTC are imho as different as CRTCs to each other.
But I think that the whole discussion goes back to psychology. Some people had too high expectations for the Plus being an Amiga and Next station at the some time with 3.5" floppy and what ever. Now they are disappointed, and don't LIKE the Plus. But smiting it doen't make it a worse or better machine.
The Plus is what it is: The next step in evolution after the CPC6128. But this does not mean that there may be another branch of evolution from the CPC6128 to another system (during this decade), :)
Just my 7 Pfennige about that. :)
Quote from: Joseman on 19:50, 03 August 15
But the CRTC 0 is a little improvement with the SAME technology, the plus range doesn't use the SAME technology. Besides the CRTC as you said, is an original Motorola design, in the ASIC is an included feature, perhaps the CRTC0 & CRTC1 are CLONES, but the Amstrad ASIC is EMULATING.
Emulation in computing has a definition that is more specific than just mimicking. In computing emulation means that software is executed on a different CPU to make it mimic some other piece of hardware. People talk about hardware emulation, but that is a confusion of terminology. So-called hardware emulation is really a re-implementation of hardware that does the same thing, it is not executing code written for one machine to simulate the other machine, it's executing directly. (Admittedly the line is thinner with FPGAs because they are re-programmable).
I mean, AMD processors don't emulate Intel ones, they are actual processors, they don't take the x86 instruction set and execute it on some other instruction set, they execute x86 instructions directly!
It's a bit like calling a recreation of an old airplane a flight simulator. It might be a knock off or a copy, and not quite identical to the original, but it isn't a flight simulator, it's an actual plane!
You still arguably have a valid point about authenticity. I mean, you can make a copy of a classic car, but people will still always prefer the original (except the ones that don't).
Well, the gate array is the same as the cpc plus asic, it's logic implemented in a smaller package. The ga prototype board was as big as the 464 board! So neither the ga or the plus asic are emulating anything. Think of the plus asic as a new version of the ga.
I think one of the confusions here is the full understanding of what an ASIC is. Many people believe they are some sort of programmable device like a CPLD or an FPGA. They're not, they are hardwired during production for a particular function. It's exactly the same gates that any other IC would use, they just happen to be lined up in neat rows and only get connected shortly before the lid goes on. They aren't emulating anything.
Bryce.