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#1
I've been loading a few tapes and for the first time I'm finding that some of them don't load now, usually the ones with fancy fast loaders. Other tapes do load fine and they've been stored all together and well looked after for the last 40 years or so.
My question is: is there anything worth trying to see if these tapes can be made to work? Is it worth running a head cleaner tape or fiddling with the azimuth alignment with a tiny screwdriver, or anything else? Or should I just accept they were never going to last forever, and their time has come? The software is mostly preserved online, but it's nice to play from the original tapes on the original hardware.
My question is: is there anything worth trying to see if these tapes can be made to work? Is it worth running a head cleaner tape or fiddling with the azimuth alignment with a tiny screwdriver, or anything else? Or should I just accept they were never going to last forever, and their time has come? The software is mostly preserved online, but it's nice to play from the original tapes on the original hardware.
#2
Quote from: genesis8 on Today at 08:26If you have time and energy, would it be possible to do a short video on youtube to show your work for us poor hungry for informationsI am just learning electronics (I am software engineer), so I think I could rather learn from videos?
It's so more sexy when you can see things.
It is also my first project on RPI Pico... actually on any microcontroller. I am doing it mostly to learn. I even don't have an Amstrad yet (testing on a prototype of a replica that I am trying to build), so I don't think such a video would be valuable. First I would rather like to at least see it working.If you want some more info, it is a short summary:
I connected vsync and hsync to pi's input GPIOs. RGB will go through voltage comparators (now they are just a bunch of resistors and capacitors to adjust voltage levels) to convert it to 6 pins total. Each pair represents one color. There is 00 (no color), 01 or 10 (half brightness) or 11 (full brightness). Pico works in 128Mhz so it makes it really easy to synchronize because one pixel in mode 3 is 7 cycles on Pico. PIO code that reads it just waits for HSYNC to go up, then down, then waits a couple more cycles (will not do it when I will support overscan). After each pixel is read, PIO sends it to queue, then it goes through DMA to host that stores it in an array that represents one line. Once line is done (next HSYNC starts), host copies line to two consecutive lines on output buffer (that will change if I want to store each line only once). I repeat it 312 times and start again from beginning (next frame). (I will rather sync it using VSYNC in future).
On output side, second PIO generates HSYNC, VSYNC and just reads the buffer representing VGA screen that it receives through DMA from host (the one that I was filling so far). For each pixel it sets again 6 output GPIO, using the same format - 00 is no color, 01 or 10 is half brightness, 11 is full brightness. Each GPIO has a resistor, that are connected on other side, so we have "analog" signal there that goes directly to VGA. That's it.
#3
Longplays, reviews and other gaming vids / Re: 🕹️ The Top 10 AMSTRAD CPC ...
Last post by dodogildo - Today at 15:58Quote from: eto on Today at 13:10Indeed... the graphics/colours (imho) try too much to be 16bit-ish. To me it becomes a blurry mess.Lots of later day CPC titles have "too much color" and little playability. Not a big fan of that era (and Mode 0
) #4
2.15.0.0
I need to copy the DSK on real disk because my USB floppy emulator is only for my CPC6128.
#5
2.15.0.0
I must find free time to try this one !
Thanks to authors for feeding my hungry CPC with marvelous new stuff!
#6
Longplays, reviews and other gaming vids / Re: 🕹️ The Top 10 AMSTRAD CPC ...
Last post by Shaun M. Neary - Today at 14:48Prehistorik II is kinda marmite for the Amstrad. You're either going to really love it to death, or go "Ugh, the fuck is this about?"
For the time it came out, the fact that you could pick the version suitable for either the CPC or the Plus version was pretty awesome. There wasn't a lot of games out there that gave both options. The sound on the Plus version is really nice too using three channels.
It can be a little stressy to play, but that's my own perspective and the slowdown when multiple characters are on the screen can put a lot of people off.
I like it, personally however my attention starts to drift once it goes too slow.
For it's time, it was good but so much amazing work has come out since then and as a result, Prehistorik II is starting to show it's age.
For the time it came out, the fact that you could pick the version suitable for either the CPC or the Plus version was pretty awesome. There wasn't a lot of games out there that gave both options. The sound on the Plus version is really nice too using three channels.
It can be a little stressy to play, but that's my own perspective and the slowdown when multiple characters are on the screen can put a lot of people off.
I like it, personally however my attention starts to drift once it goes too slow.
For it's time, it was good but so much amazing work has come out since then and as a result, Prehistorik II is starting to show it's age.
#7
D
General Discussion - Introductions / [DataPro] Hello from France
Last post by DataPro - Today at 14:14Hello everybody !
I am a CPC user.
I didn't have an Amstrad CPC in 80's but my friends had. I bought all my Amstrad CPC, CPC+ and GX4000 around 1998-2005.
I have several GX4000, 2 CPC 6128+, a CPC 6128 and 3 CPC 464 and of course 3 CTM 644, a GT65 and 2 CM14.
I also bought a USB Floppy emulator from Zaxon and I enjoy looking old good games and new homebrews ones.
I am a CPC user.
I didn't have an Amstrad CPC in 80's but my friends had. I bought all my Amstrad CPC, CPC+ and GX4000 around 1998-2005.
I have several GX4000, 2 CPC 6128+, a CPC 6128 and 3 CPC 464 and of course 3 CTM 644, a GT65 and 2 CM14.
I also bought a USB Floppy emulator from Zaxon and I enjoy looking old good games and new homebrews ones.
#8
Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: VGA through rpi pico - How...
Last post by Sykobee (Briggsy) - Today at 13:41I envision the process would be implemented as similar to the below (as VGA is 31kHz and input is 15kHz)
Two buffers, 768 pixels each.
Some magic to find out when a scanline starts from VSYNC and HSYNC signals.
Repeat {
Scan-out 768 pixels VGA from buffer A | Read half-scanline display data into buffer B (384 pixels incorporating left border and LHS of screen)
Scan-out 768 pixels VGA from buffer A | Read other half-scanline display data into buffer B (384 pixels incorporating RHS of screen and right border)
Scan-out VGA from buffer B | Read half-scanline display data into buffer A
Scan-out VGA from buffer B | Read other half-scanline display data into buffer A
}
Presumably for an 800 wide VGA screen you'd publish the first pixel 17 times before the rest of the line, and then the final pixel 17 times, to hit 800 pixels. You might want a configurable black border option too here.
You'd also publish X blank lines before and after the display.
The tough thing is sampling at the right rate to get the precise MODE 2 pixel sampling correct.
The above is how OSSC does it, I believe, but that's overkill hardware for a CPC. It's very low latency.
You will need some magic for R3 horizontal scrolling funkery. You can test that using Relentless.
Two buffers, 768 pixels each.
Some magic to find out when a scanline starts from VSYNC and HSYNC signals.
Repeat {
Scan-out 768 pixels VGA from buffer A | Read half-scanline display data into buffer B (384 pixels incorporating left border and LHS of screen)
Scan-out 768 pixels VGA from buffer A | Read other half-scanline display data into buffer B (384 pixels incorporating RHS of screen and right border)
Scan-out VGA from buffer B | Read half-scanline display data into buffer A
Scan-out VGA from buffer B | Read other half-scanline display data into buffer A
}
Presumably for an 800 wide VGA screen you'd publish the first pixel 17 times before the rest of the line, and then the final pixel 17 times, to hit 800 pixels. You might want a configurable black border option too here.
You'd also publish X blank lines before and after the display.
The tough thing is sampling at the right rate to get the precise MODE 2 pixel sampling correct.
The above is how OSSC does it, I believe, but that's overkill hardware for a CPC. It's very low latency.
You will need some magic for R3 horizontal scrolling funkery. You can test that using Relentless.
#9
Longplays, reviews and other gaming vids / Re: 🕹️ The Top 10 AMSTRAD CPC ...
Last post by eto - Today at 13:10Quote from: Deevee on 14:27, 13 April 24I've always found it hard to see Prehistorik 2 as a good game though.Indeed... the graphics/colours (imho) try too much to be 16bit-ish. To me it becomes a blurry mess.
#10
Nice tune! :-)