Recent posts

#1

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by eto - Today at 12:43

A year or two ago Roland Perry mentioned on Facebook  that he expects that large quantities of 3" disks must be hidden in storage of companies that used the PCW. While I think that most of that was disposed 20 years ago he might not be totally wrong with it - at least for the UK. The PCW sold in the 8 millions and most of those PCWs needed a lot of 3" disks, probably more than the average "games collector" needed on a CPC 6128. I wouldn't be surprised if there could be a few thousand 3" waiting for us to be discovered.

#2

Games / Re: Alien Escape

Last post by GUNHED - Today at 12:41

*** ALIEN ESCAPE ***
ABOARD THE NOSTROMO

You are Ellen Ripley, sole survivor
of the Nostromo crew. The alien
xenomorph has killed everyone else.

Your mission: Reach the escape pod
and get off this ship before the
creature finds you.

The ship's self-destruct may be
your only option, but first you
need to gather essential items.

Can you find Jones the cat and
escape together?

Commands: TAKE, DROP, OPEN, USE,
EXAMINE, ACTIVATE, LAUNCH
Movement: N,E,S,W,U,D or GO NORTH
Other: INVENTORY, HEALTH, SCORE
System: SAVE, LOAD, QUIT

Explore the lower levels!
Good luck, Ripley. You need it.

https://devil-system.de/alienescape/  ( CPC version & HTML version )

Looks awesome! Thanks for your post and video!!! 

Your avatar is even part of the title screen 

#3

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Missing Right Half of Char...

Last post by GUNHED - Today at 12:39

Can be an error in the ROM. Can you create a checksum of your BASIC ROM and then the FIRMWARE ROM?

#4

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by GUNHED - Today at 12:37

I recently purchased a CPC6128 with an internal disk drive on Ebay. But I don't have any disks to try on it. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

Sometimes they get sold on ebay.de for 5 Euros or less per piece.

Reasons for being expansive:
- Fewer 3" discs were produced compared to 3,5" or 5.25" discs
- They are more stable and have better quality
- Production stopped quite a long time ago

On the other hand, lots of users switch to floppy emulators, then they often sell their disc and then you can get them cheap. 

#5

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by eto - Today at 12:33

You should be able to find blank disks for under €10.

Generally speaking I agree but it's not easy to find disks on short notice. You need to be very patient. 

In the past every now and then there was an acceptable offer but that's really rare today. In the last 30 days across Europe these is a single sold offer where you could get 10 disks for around 50€. Everything else were single disks für 8-25€ per piece. Absolutely crazy.

#6

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by eto - Today at 12:22

. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

Unfortunately a few scalpers seem to dominate the market. I've seen a few examples where good deals were sold very fast just to turn up again in parts for (in sum) several times the price of the original deal. (I wouldn't even be mad if there would be an additional service but they don't care about anything and sell exactly like it is, just for 3x the price. )

This has driven the prices up again. A year ago the more normal price for a disk was around 2-5€ per piece, depending on the quantity sold. 10 disks for around 30€ was typical. With the scalpers being present these opportunities are more rare and it's more in the 50€ range for 10 disks (if sold by a private person). 

#7

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by Bryce - Today at 10:05

That's over the top. You can find original disks with games for that price. You should be able to find blank disks for under €10.

Bryce.

#8

B

Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Why are 3" floppies so exp...

Last post by Brocky - Today at 09:26

the 3in disks are rare, they havent made new ones in decades..

its cheaper to run a external 3.5in drive..

#9

Technical support - Hardware related / Why are 3" floppies so expensi...

Last post by salvogendut - Today at 09:10

I recently purchased a CPC6128 with an internal disk drive on Ebay. But I don't have any disks to try on it. Just by looking around on Ebay I see that these floppies are damn expensive. 170 Euros for a box of 10? 17 Euro for a single disk? 

#10

Programming / Re: Frame rate and sprite move...

Last post by roudoudou - Today at 07:07

Arcade has a very few number of sprites (even today) BUT they are moved at each frame, the same sprite may be displayed 10 times (but moved a few pixels each frames) before the new one. It's obvious when there is the slow-mo time in fighting games. I don't know if there is arcade animation better than 7 fps

Back in days, the game Flashback was astonishing because there is a LOT of sprites for each action
ref : https://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheets/37/40146.png?updated=1460957713

My point is "it's not all about fps"