Changes
ANT
,'''Arnold Number Two'''[[File:pixelated ANT logo.png|200px|thumb|right|AtariST has bussy Bee / BBC micro has wise Owl / Exelvision has nice Butterfly / ANT has ...]]* '''prototype ''' board with a hybrid? Gate Array for PCW (color) and CPC compatibility
* 64 colour
* 256/512k RAM
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initial reactions were that the new CPC664 was basically a CPC464
with a floppy disk drive in place of the cassette tape deck. "
('''Neil Reive''')
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'''Richard Clayton'''. July 2003
>>It was a shame not to build the "Ant" -- which was going to be the games machine that shared a lot of hardware design with the PCW ("Joyce"). But we just didn't have the time and effort to do it justice so perhaps it was best that it was cancelled.<<
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'''Vik Olliver'''
nov. 2019
''The CPC that never was.''
'''Richard Clayton ''' and '''Roland Perry ''' reveal details on the computer that never made it to market.
(RetroGamer28) Dec 2017
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'''John Elliot ''' . June 2016.
" Internally, the PCW design was based on ANT [Arnold Number Two], which would have been another computer for the CPC niche.The PCW hardware has some implemented-but-unused features from the ANT, such as joystick support in the keyboard controller, and a CPC-compatible memory paging mode."
[[File:PCW10 keyboard CPC+.png|200px|thumb|center|PCW10 keyboard desing reminds CPC+ style. Cool and Modern as our long-awaited ANT]] *Finally, in April 1985, the '''[[Atari ST]] ''' appeared with similar features to the ANT but with a [[68000]] CPU instead of an accelerated Z80.
The resolution in 320x200 16 colours shares a little with CPC/CPC+ ; and the same sound chip. Its STE version has DMA sound like CPC+, and graphic Blitter.
Recently the unreleased CP/M-68k appeared finished (will it be works with some not hardware dependent PCW programs?).
'''GEM ''' gui was shared with Amstrad PC. But incompatible coded apps cause diferent 16bit CPUs *Amstrad closed Sinclair projects QL and '''Loki'''.[[File:Sinclair Loki similar project than Amstrad ANT.jpg|200px|thumb|center|Sinclair Loki ¿same as ANT ?]] https://sinclairuser.com/051/loki.htm
*Amstrad closed Sinclair QL and Loki projectsabandoned the 3" FDD drive in the latest [[PCW]]/PCW16 models.
*Users scene placed 3.5" drives in CPC.
*[[B-ASIC]] for CPC+ appeared. Amstrad should do at the beginning of the machine.
*Some utils read/write MS-DOS format in CPC with 3,5" drive.
*Similar case in '''CPC+ ''' design and ST.
*Would we consider the Atari ST as the ANT that never came out? (Similar features but with diferent coding 16bit CPU).(Not so powerful to replicate/emulate CPC/PCW?).(is needed hardware like in Aleste machine VDP?)[plain Amiga could move CPC emulator?]
*CPC and ST shared some third party game software development teams and projects. The music coding is almost direct and the graphics is somekind of CPC+
*John Elliot's PCW Joyce emulator supports colour with JOYCE 800x600 driver
*A software library very close to the ST/CPC would have been possible on a color PCW16? (16Mhz CPU)([[Habisoft]] did Knight Lore and Total Eclipse ports)
https://habisoft.com/pcw16/en.htm#Media *The CPC+ and '''PCW16 ''' machines share internal parts with the ANT. *Iñigo Ayo and Team made amazing '''Spec256''' that use parallel Z80 speccy code with pseudo 64bit Z80 [x8 z80] graphic code process to increase ZX games as Atari ST or Amiga like. Suported by '''Habisoft´s Espectrum''', '''emuZwin''' and '''ZXpoly''' emulators. *'''ZX Next''' brought us what ANT and Loki promised? *During 2025 finally PCW users scene fix the name '''[[PCW Plus]]''' for PCW with colour and AY sound add-ons . PCWclassic with Habisoft's ColorIn board or Czarnikjak's Color board with RaspberryPico and dk'tronics AY board . Is that the closest system to ANT ? *[[PCW Plus]] library : around 10 games (Colour & Sound) by Habisoft and KachorroSoft : KnightLore ; Head Over Heels enhanced edition ; Mad Mix Game ; AMC ; Phantis ; Hundra ; Coliseum ; Xecutor ; Batman plus edition ... *ZEsarUX & CP/M Box emulators and FPGA core synthesis (Mister ; NeptUNO+ ; SIDI ; Calypso ; Poseidon ...) supports PCWplus
[[Category: Non CPC Computers| ]][[Category:Stub]]
