Recent posts

#1

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

Last post by abalore - Today at 14:12

Greetings. Great project nice to see it was released.
Sadly in my opinion this game is beyound recovery, too many design flaws due to many factors, the main culprits being :
> speccy port
> mouse based interface on a machine that seldom possess a mouse
> did I mention it is a speccy port ?

Clearly a real 6128 oriented game could perform so much better, be it the menus, the interces (why drag the mouse all around the screen each time you must do anything and choose something from limited options ?

Even the use of the grey ink and how it manages the tranparency or so many other aspect of the game are clearly bad coder decisions...
Just check head over heels that somehow manages far betterly some proper isometric engine in f**cking real time and alllows for bachgrounds to be in proper 4 colours with sprites in 3 colours+mask.
They couldn't even design a proper menu to manage party, equipment or saved games or narrative campaign (which could be achievedin f**cking basic actually, oh wait they probably did...). The 2D map or combats interface are not great either, can't zoom or anything, can't "scroll" the board...
To be fair most RPG games from this era even on 16bit systems were archaic and heavy concerning the interface, but still.

So yeah, great patched version, yet a proper rendition of Heroquest would need something done from scratch.


BTW, some from scratch modern version could stick with Heroquest board game, or go for the Advanced Heroquest or even Warhammer quest board games later released by Games Workshop, yet the original Heroquest is nice because of its simplicity and  had many supplements, not jsut in computer game versions...
Same with SpaceCrusade, I would love some Eldar Attack option or even playing with an Ork warband as was offred in some whiteDwarf supplement (or Terminator or scout space marines quads...

If someone were to do some modern Heroquest/SpaceCrusade project, I'm quite into those games and Warhammer in general (both fantasy or 40k) and even other games such as SpaceHulk could use the same graphic engine.

I'm working on a isometric engine that my lead to a HQ or SC game. Of course with advanced rules. BUT my engine is in Mode 0 because I strongly believe the benefits of the extra colours are higher than the limits of the lower resolution. Take Get Dexter or Scape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters as examples. I think they only used mode 1 to reuse same graphics in all platforms with minimum retouching.

#2

News & Events / Re: CPCDiskXP v2.1 released

Last post by robcfg - Today at 14:03

I'd say it's not exactly a USB drive, but a drive connected to a custom bus.

Have you tried maybe the HxC Floppy Emulator software? Or CPCDiskXP trying to use your drive as a regular drive instead of a USB one?

[DSK Editor]

#3

News & Events / Re: CPCDiskXP v2.1 released

Last post by xesrjb - Today at 13:49

Do you still need to do it in XP?

Windows 7 still seems an issue the FDinstall still not happy about USAB drives.

With this write method you don't need to install fdrawcmd.sys, CPCDiskXP don't use it for USB Write. You can use it from Windows7 (I suppose) without using virtual machines. Take a look at this instructions since I see you're not testing well:

USB Floppy Usage:

• You need a formatted disk from windows. Once covered the "high density" tab on the floppy, you have to format it in FAT 720Kb using the windows command line "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9".
• Start CPCDiskXP, press 'DSK Editor' button.
• 'New', select IBM format (last in the list).
• Now Add the files you want to write
• Press 'Write USB Floppy' button to write the Dsk.
• Test/Load on your real CPC...

USB Floppy FAQ:

• You can't write protected games or existing Dsk in other formats different from IBM.
• You can easily make your own dsk and add games and utilities using the program Dsk Editor.
• You can try for example this Dsk containing Abadia del crimen and Army Moves I & II
• You can use this method to create one Dsk with WriteDSK program, write it to a floppy diskette with your usb floppy drive so you can use WriteDSK from CPC to write protected games and / or existing DSKs.

Is there now any ,,better" Solution for this great Software to handle with 3,5" external (USB) drives?

I have an Dell D600 and the internal Drive is an USB Drive, so I habe some trouble...

xesrjb 

#4

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

Last post by MacDeath - Today at 13:17

Greetings. Great project nice to see it was released.
Sadly in my opinion this game is beyound recovery, too many design flaws due to many factors, the main culprits being :
> speccy port
> mouse based interface on a machine that seldom possess a mouse
> did I mention it is a speccy port ?

Clearly a real 6128 oriented game could perform so much better, be it the menus, the interces (why drag the mouse all around the screen each time you must do anything and choose something from limited options ?

Even the use of the grey ink and how it manages the tranparency or so many other aspect of the game are clearly bad coder decisions...
Just check head over heels that somehow manages far betterly some proper isometric engine in f**cking real time and alllows for bachgrounds to be in proper 4 colours with sprites in 3 colours+mask.
They couldn't even design a proper menu to manage party, equipment or saved games or narrative campaign (which could be achievedin f**cking basic actually, oh wait they probably did...). The 2D map or combats interface are not great either, can't zoom or anything, can't "scroll" the board...
To be fair most RPG games from this era even on 16bit systems were archaic and heavy concerning the interface, but still.

So yeah, great patched version, yet a proper rendition of Heroquest would need something done from scratch.


BTW, some from scratch modern version could stick with Heroquest board game, or go for the Advanced Heroquest or even Warhammer quest board games later released by Games Workshop, yet the original Heroquest is nice because of its simplicity and  had many supplements, not jsut in computer game versions...
Same with SpaceCrusade, I would love some Eldar Attack option or even playing with an Ork warband as was offred in some whiteDwarf supplement (or Terminator or scout space marines quads...

If someone were to do some modern Heroquest/SpaceCrusade project, I'm quite into those games and Warhammer in general (both fantasy or 40k) and even other games such as SpaceHulk could use the same graphic engine.

#5

E

Games / Re: Micro Machine for Symbos /...

Last post by Egg Master - Today at 13:08

With all this hardware (MSX extensions visible in the video), the CPC no longer produces sound, the image is no longer displayed on the monitor and the USB mouse and gamepad are no longer connected to the keyboard. Anyway, the Tecnobytes V9990 card has been sold out since 2008 (7 years ago!) and, judging by the cpcwiki topic, not many people got it.

As said, I will not post again, so please do not reply to me here. Thank you.

#6

Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: Port of FUZIX for the CPC6...

Last post by ajcasado - Today at 13:08

If you consider terminals being text only, then you can use a buffer for the terminals in their residing banks and only when necessary to render the display, copy them to video ram. You can do the same with gfx screens too but of course a terminal takes a lot less ram.

Thanks for the suggestion @zhulien , that's something I had in mind for the existing 128K port, for now, I don't expect to work on it, but if you want to experiment with this idea i'll be glad to assist you in anything you need, the sources are on FUZIX github repository: https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX/tree/master , also on my fork, where you can download precompiled releases of the 128k port: https://github.com/ajcasado/FUZIX/releases/tag/v0.5.0-alpha4 .

Terminals (TTY's) are managed in the kernel memory space, so the buffer should be in that space, where there's not much room left. An alternative would be using RAM disk or even a fixed disk, which isn't much slower than a RAM disk which code is not very optimized. The RAM disk driver rd_cpcsme.c could be optimized quite a bit by replacing LDIR with POP-PUSH approach, interleaving bank switches between the source and destination banks, without relying on a pivot buffer. I've seen this technique used in the Cromemco port, specifically in bankfork function, which I've already adapted for the CPC.

If using disk or RAM disk, space is not as limited, and given that text rendering isn't very fast, storing the video memory in raw format might be better—perhaps with a compression algorithm that works well on the Z80.

Right now, I'm adapting the Cromemco port into something functional on the CPC, as I mentioned in my previous post. In this case, since the first 64K (visible to the CRTC) currently have no other use, I'll try using four terminals, each occupying one of the four 16K blocks as video memory. If I manage to implement overscan and find that the resulting number of terminals are not enough for a satisfactory OS experience, I'll probably implement the buffer you suggested to increase the number of terminals. This could even allow for a virtual terminal size larger than the rendered area, using a combination of cursor + shift or cursor + control to move the rendered window over the terminal buffer. I'll see how far I can take it.

#7

T

Games / Re: Micro Machine for Symbos /...

Last post by Trebmint - Today at 12:47

You said it was pointless and to play the megadrive version which given I assume you understand how much time and effort has gone into this so far is not a great thing to say. What you think is still CPC and what isn't CPC is up to you, but many people on the forum bought the g9k hardware, so I dont see that developing for it should be something thats mocked. 

#8

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: Looking for contact with t...

Last post by robcfg - Today at 11:20

I told our friend @MiguelSky so I hope you'll get a message from him soon.

#9

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: Looking for contact with t...

Last post by BZHGames - Today at 11:11

Okay, thanks for the clarification.
I'll look further on amstrad.es then.

#10

E

Games / Re: Micro Machine for Symbos /...

Last post by Egg Master - Today at 10:41

If you're not interested in a project then its probably better to ignore it and say nothing.

I'm very interested in SymbOS and all related projects. But I also notice that connecting MSX graphics and sound cards to the Z80 via the expansion port to run custom games no longer requires a CPC. I just feel you're attacking me because I don't have the same point of view. It's a great project, but I will prefer to see SymbOS using the Amstrad Plus features.

Of course (also an old discussion), it doesn't feel like a CPC anymore (V9990 / OPL4) .... but.... enhancing the CPC is fun and programming it also.

I agree, but here it is more an enhanced MSX game on a Z80 OS. Where can we bought the V9990 or the OPL4 cards for CPC today? I just suggest an alternative with the Mister Pi. They feel offended and tell me to shut up and to go to another forum, it is not kind and respectful.

No worry, I will no more "disturb" you here.