Recent posts

#1

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.

#2

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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.

#3

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.

#4

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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. 

#5

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.

#6

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.

#7

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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.

#8

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Technical support - Hardware related / Re: Broken motherboard trace c...

Last post by NoMoreGreenScreen - Today at 10:22

Good news - I have a fully working CPC464  

(and i dont know what I did)

Yesterday evening I had the machine apart to follow the actions @McArti0 suggested.  In doing so i noticed i was straining the keyboard ribbon cables to try and accommodate the open case and room to get my paper clip in.  I ended up taking out the ribbon cables out and powering the machine up - except it would power up.   I put the ribbon cables back in and this time it powered up and the bank 1 keys are all working, the AY is working, everything (well apart from the pause button on tape deck, but no way am i taking that apart!!)

I dont really know what resolved it -   I had removed and reinserted the ribbon connectors multiple times prior and made sure they were bedded in each time so this was no different.  Prior to reconnecting, I had ran the multi meter probes in the keyboard connectors (maybe i scraped something off??), i had 'shorted' (but not if you get my drift) pins 13 to 6 with it powered off to practice with the paper clip but that was it.  

Irrespective, its working.  I retested with powering down and up and all was fine.  I don't know if this is permanent but at present as ts working, i wanted to take time to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread with advice; i really appreciate it.

#9

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: PicoCPC

Last post by XeNoMoRPH - Today at 09:59

https://twitter.com/FreddyVETELE/status/1901744642577547594

#10

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: Hi to all! :) New CPC464 o...

Last post by m_dr_m - Today at 00:34

Note: The combo Albireo + Unidos (to be installed in ROM) has the best compatibilty to run softwares.
It will allow you to use uniload, which is the most convenient way to explore the CPC game library!