Recent posts

#1

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: What are people actually d...

Last post by norecess - Today at 15:48

I have an Amstrad CPC 6128 and an Amstrad Plus (and an Amiga 600) all plugged and ready for immediate use. I have also the GX-4000 / other Amstrad CPC "backups" (each ones with a different CRTC models) properly packed but not plugged.

Those days (years...) as I'm focusing on GX-4000 developments, I mostly use the Amstrad Plus with a C4CPC card. I do all my development on a PC laptop, and then I regularly test the new build on the Plus after each coding session. I do that to ensure that what I'm experiencing under the emulator also works fine on the real machine. I use my Plus instead of the GX-4000 because my Plus has a very handy reset button ;-)

From times to times (cf. in total approx. 30 min per week) I enjoy using the Amstrad CPC 6128 to launch games (Fruity Frank or similar, cf. games that provide me immediate enjoyment). And when there is a new "important" release available (demos, games, etc) I immediately run it the same day after work

Finally, I still maintain the dream that one day, I will have once again have a "full Amstrad experience", cf. using the machines themselves much more (cf. being productive using it). Maybe when I will be retired... since I plan keeping my Amstrads all my life, that will be perfectly fine to explore all of that in 20 years from now ahah

#2

Biete / Suche / BIETE Symbiface III

Last post by Poliander - Today at 14:36

Da ich mein Symbiface III nicht mehr nutze - und nur selten benutzt habe - würde ich es gerne für 120,00 € (inklusive Versand nach Deutschland) weitergeben. Kaufpreis plus Porto waren damals 113,00 €. Bei Interesse einfach PM an mich.

#3

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: MultiPlay MX4 Expansion

Last post by zhulien - Today at 14:27

i love that it supports 2 mouses - so 2 player mouse games can be played properly

#4

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: CPC IDE adapter, anyone?

Last post by zhulien - Today at 14:21

just wondering what the throughput is like and cpu load - i know there will be qutie a bit of additional circuitry to implement DMA (like the m4 card has - direct to ROM-space loading, so the ROM can be paged in and the loaded data LDIR'd to the ultimate location)

still interested if you can change the IO ports to allow it to work along side an existing X-MASS card for a second IDE card

#5

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: What are people actually d...

Last post by skylas - Today at 12:29

I mostly use emulator, although I have my cpc6128.
If I use the original cpc, i use it most for playing games but also sometimes to test a game i created.
When i use the emulator, I use it for playing games of course, but I enjoy more programming when I am focused on creating something.

#6

Classifieds / Re: Free Wii

Last post by Gryzor - Today at 11:55

Oh you mean "you can't have too much home around your TV"?

#7

Other retro / Re: Hurlements UBI Soft Remake

Last post by Arnaud - Today at 09:33

Hi @Hammer, thanks for the review, i am always very happy when people talk or review about my games.

#8

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Re: Amstrad PCW 8256 Games Arc...

Last post by zzarko - Today at 07:29

Hi guys,

I wanted to go back through some of my old game on the PCW8256 and one of the games is Santa's Grotto. 

Every time I load it, it plays for a few seconds and then comes up with the "Tough Luck" message.  Do you get the same thing?

Any idea how to fix it?

Thanks all.

Hi Aristodest,

Sorry for the late response, haven't been here for a while... I have just tried that game on my PCW for a few minutes and it seems to work OK. Could you maybe post some more details abut the problem? Are you trying on a real PCW or in an emulator? If on a real PCW, do you use a real floppy or some hardware floppy emulator (Gotek, HxC)?

You cannot view this attachment.

Cheers,
Zarko

#9

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Re: Making PCW programs in TRS...

Last post by zzarko - Today at 06:52

Hello,

Not sure what you mean regarding the TIM-011 being 'similar' to the PCW, similar in what regard?

Regarding sound, the PCW has no sound - it has a simple beeper, and you might use software to create 'notes' using that beeper, but it would be a limited effect, and restricted to one note at a time.

As for graphics, the PCW has a bit mapped screen and quite a bit has been done regarding graphics, for example there are a couple of extensions to BASIC that allow lines, shapes, fill etc, and 'drawn' large characters.  Of course, many games have done a lot of graphics code (from scratch) and achieved remarkable things, but what could be done as a general library might be a different matter.

Your code for CP/M working on the PCW is a different matter, the PCW is a perfectly standard CP/M+ computer, and Joyce is a perfectly standard CP/M computer emulator, so if you stick to CP/M things then this should work OK.

Regarding the BASIC things, I've got info etc regarding WALBASIC (French) and I think ExBASIC, but both stay at a fairly low level using PLOT, LINE and similar.

I'll see what info I can find regarding the TIM machine?

Geoff

1. Similar in a sense that it is a Z80-based CP/M machine with 256k of RAM, bit-mapped graphics and a beeper.
2. I would disagree on not having a sound, beeper is a sound (ZX Spectrum has the same) and many games uses it.
3. TRSE is not a BASIC or a BASIC extension, it is a compiled Pascal-based language made primarily for games and demos
What can be done with a general library can be seen in these small demos for TIM-011 (mind you, those are primarily simple ones, made just to test the library):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-H5_wRrpec
A friend of mine converted Miguel's CP/M 2048 game to these libraries:

https://youtu.be/uJobXy-6xGs
And here are some graphics effects made by a demo coder, to show the speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyYnfVSkmTI
4. Sticking to regular CP/M is OK, but for graphically more intensive games and demos you need something that can access PCW specific hardware and that is optimized for it, that is what I have been doing with libraries for TIM

If there is no interest in making new games or demos for PCW with TRSE, then there is no need for the libraries for it. I have just showed that a fairly modern IDE can be used for new PCW stuff. It is on others to decide if they want it or not.

And many thanks to you Miguel, without your work, the CP/M basic stuff would take much longer time to achieve. You are a great guy!

#10

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! / Re: Making PCW programs in TRS...

Last post by FloppySoftware - Today at 04:48

It's nice to see that some of my work is useful!