Recent posts

#1

Technical Support - Software related / Re: Parados Dual OS Eprom Writ...

Last post by unay - Today at 12:36

The chip number is M27C256B.
I was trying some various ways, eventually it works.
Dont ask me how

Thanks.

#2

Games / Re: Mighty Renegades [ wip ]

Last post by XeNoMoRPH - Today at 12:35

This better not be an April fools prank...

AmstradGGP They are quite serious about it. hehe

#3

Technical Support - Software related / Re: Parados Dual OS Eprom Writ...

Last post by eto - Today at 12:12

chip is 256k, 16k bios can write without any errors.
only 32k dual parados bios cant write.

The file has 0x72 at address 0x00004. So if your programmer writes a 72 but then reads a 70 then it's a problem with the Eprom or your programmer but it can't be a problem of the file.

What chip is it exactly? (exact model number)

Was the Eprom properly erased between programming attempts? Can you program other 32K files properly?

I also assume it's inserted directly into the programmer without any adapter?

#4

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Question on CTM644 - Very ...

Last post by xesrjb - Today at 11:20

My name is Marek and this is my first post here so I say Hello to everybody!
CTM644 has sub britghness regulator VR402 and it is located on left edge of the board, close to service switch.
To avoid electric shock, good rule says to work with one hand, and the other on your back... 

thanks, works perfect now...

xesrjb 

#5

Games / Re: Bad CPC games you can't he...

Last post by eto - Today at 10:55

Today, I would describe its gameplay as extremely basic, and its graphics are nice, but painfully juddery.

That's exactly the point: "Today". I remember that I was blown away when I first saw it. Not just a tiny little screen, lots of colours, lots of things going on on screen. Today I agree, it's an okay game, but nothing outstanding anymore.

Amstrad Action gave it 90%, ACU 95%, Computing with the Amstrad 10/10. CPCGR gave it 8/10

I always had the impression that all of those ratings are inconsistent The range 0-6 was barely used and if we saw a "6" or less we all thought it's not worth buying it. That left a really small range of 7-10 for the actual relevant ratings.  A bit similar to what happens on cpcgamereviews with ratings for recent homebrew productions. While I can understand the reason for it I think it makes more harm than good. There are now many "okay" games getting 7/8 and "good" games in the 9/10 region. That leaves no space for really outstanding games and leading to really outstanding games getting the same 9 rating as a "good" funny little single-screen platformer.

Many of the homebrew games we have seen for the CPC in recent years wouldn't just score 10/10 on the old review scales, they would break them.

That's a normal development. Lightforce is a probably good example. Would it have been released 2 years later it would not have received 10/10.

And that todays productions look and sound fantastic doesn't make them automatically better.

Imho we should avoid that trap of giving everything 7+ as long as it's not garbage. With a scale of 0-10 the 5 should indicate "okay game, you can consider it". A "good" game should be a 7 and an outstanding game a 9. The first step of the rating process is putting it into one of those categories based on the gameplay itself, leaving aside the technical qualities or the time when it was released. This "normalizes" the rating and helps avoiding the nostalgia-trap. Then you can give one bonus point for special achievements and/or deduct one point if there are significant flaws. The bonus point could also include things that were "special" when it was released. That would lead to a more consistent rating where a good game from the past and a good game from today are rated more equally. Also good and outstanding games would overlap only if one is "really good" and the other is "outstanding with flaws".

Btw: If I would rate Lightforce it would get a solid 6 for an "okay game today" with a bonus point for "good graphics and sound, especially considering it was released in 1986".

#6

Games / Re: Bad CPC games you can't he...

Last post by Shaun M. Neary - Today at 10:45

A work of copy & paste elements from other 3 games has a lot higher score than the original. With all respect to Wizcat, the effort put on this Frankenstein game is nothing compared with what the programmers of Barbarian, Beyond the Ice Palace and IK+ did, to not talk about the creativity involved. I don't know if the final result is so much enjoyable for that score boost, but... really IK+ is so bad and the exact same thing is so good?

Two different people reviewed those games though. So you're getting two very different opinions from two different mindsets. So I can understand why one got rated higher than the other.

For what it's worth, I think IK+ deserves a lot higher than 5/10 but you'd need to ask @Nich what he was thinking at the time of writing and if his mind has changed on it now.

Hmmm... I gave International Karate 5/10, but I also gave the same rating to IK+ - and looking at both games now, I think IK+ is definitely the better of the two games, so it ought to be revisited. I have re-reviewed a number of games on the site in the last few years.

The original International Karate was such a poor Speccy port, although I did enjoy it in 1987, but then, I was 11 years old.

When I saw the C64 version of it, I wanted to fucking cry. The Amstrad was capable of it, why couldn't we have had a version like it?

#7

Technical Support - Software related / Re: Parados Dual OS Eprom Writ...

Last post by unay - Today at 10:24

chip is 256k, 16k bios can write without any errors.
only 32k dual parados bios cant write.

#8

Technical Support - Software related / Re: Parados Dual OS Eprom Writ...

Last post by McArti0 - Today at 10:22

Bad chip?
To fast write?
Bad connect?
Bad programmer?

#9

Games / Re: Hero Quest CPC Plus CPR wi...

Last post by MacDeath - Today at 09:19

I did this without any proper method, there are combinaison I didn't do, some may seem somewhat redundant and others are completely shitty...
I show that 4 colours mode is so limited that you won't actually care about having realistic colour sheme because too few of them can rarely display reality, so you go for readability, a practicity in contrasts (lighting and hues) or a feeling.

Most of them work provided you respect the gradiants and luminosity and account of compatibilities or oppositions.
Also must check if the Hero profil (upper left screen) is readeable so not good to use too dark ink0... I mean, DarkBlue1 on Black0 is not quite readable on most screens... but if this can be patched it then opens new options.


Greyscale figurines : looks like someone didn't paint his pile of shame...

BrightWhite26 : may be replaced by Pastel Yellow25 (mostly), Pastel Cyan23 or even pastelGreen22 may work if the palette fit. If replaced by pastel Red-Blue-Magenta, it feels a bit too nightmode. But having no proper white put some "colour filter" vibe on everything.

Orange and Pink are somewhat interchangeable

Grey can Replace/be replaced by Dark Cyan, Dark Yellow, Sky blue, PastelBlue... and most medium unsaturated ones suckh as Pink, Orange...

Mauve and Dark Green can go surprisely well with various combinaisons yet fail are realism. Mauve may be my favourite CPC colours yet not always easy to use, it goes so well with pastel blue as colour ramp goes.

Many opposite hues combine into "greys" (Yellow+Blue, Green+Magenta, Red+Cyan) so a palette like DarkBlue+DarkYellow+PastelBlue+PastelYellow could be surprisely good.

the plain saturated colours such as medium Red, Magenta, Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow are not good in figurative mode1 IMO... Always go for darks, pastels or hybrids (Mauve, Orange, SkyBlue are the easy ones, SeaGreen, Lime, Purple are harder to use...)
 
Hard not to use Black, DarkRed and DarkBlue are the only serious alternative.

Also clearly  a tool could be designed to produce this sort of Palette Test Grid automatically, would be a good tool actually.

#10

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: Hello everyone

Last post by unay - Today at 09:15

Four years after that, the CPC started to fail, and I got rid of it, a decision I have regretted terribly since

All most all of us has similar stories.