Octoate

CPCtelera v1.4.2 – Amstrad CPC game framework for C developers

Jul 192017

A new version of CPCtelera, the Amstrad CPC game framework for C developers, was just released in version 1.4.2. CPCtelera offers a huge C library for the SDCC C cross-compiler, which makes it easier to create games and applications for the Amstrad CPC. This version mainly contains a new version of the SDCC compiler (v3.6.8), which is more efficient, creates better code and contains several bugfixes, but there are also some nice little features, which were added, too (see the ChangeLog for more details). It is available for Windows, Linux and OS-X. You can get the latest version from GitHub and discuss it in the CPCWiki forums.

Changes in v1.4.2:

Updated SDCC compiler from version 3.5.5 to newest version 3.6.8 (revision 9946). New version is much more efficient, generates better code and solves some bugs from previous one.
Added automatic Arkos Traker 1 AKS music conversion. It is done through the makefile macro AKS2C, which is easily added in config file cfg/music_conversion.mk
Added project support for Visual Studio Code IDE. All CPCtelera projects can now be opened and compiled in VS Code. Moreover, intellisense and keyboard shortcuts for automaticly running games are easily added.
Documented VS Code integration, with plenty of information for users on how to set up projects.
Documented Automatic Conversion Tools for Music, Graphics and Tilemaps. This will greatly help users on fastly and comfortably integrating asset production in their projects without having to bother to convert them when they change.
Added support for drawing tiles using gray code order and making use of the stack. Really fast method for advanced users.
Added troubleshooting section to the documentation in order to help users with common issues.
Fixed issue in iDSK: it was overwritting files with same name but different extension.
Added Support for Paged Memory and use of memory beyond 64K.
Added z88dk speculative optimization peepholes for advanced users wanting to experiment with advanced optimization.
Added new asm examples with animations, music and data structures: greetcardmusic/ and structs/.
Updated RGAS to latest 1.2.2 version.
Added bitarray support for tiled Tilemap TMX-CSV conversion to C.
Fixed getRandom to output predictable random sequences

Chipnsfx tracker+player suite

Amstrad CPC, Music No Responses »

Jun 162017

Chipnsfx is a music software suite with focus on a lightweight code and data written by CNGSoft. The player routine is under 950 bytes long and can be as small as 550 bytes. Like all newer software the softwore focus more than one system, so you can produce music for the Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum 128 and the MSX1. Other platforms can be supported by minor changes on the player routine (e.g. the Sega Master System). The tracker was already used in several CNGSoft productions like Bubble Bobble for CPC, Hire Hare, Frogalot, etc.

You can download the latest version from CNGSofts Chipnsfx website.

Arnold WIP emulator for Windows / Linux / Mac

Amstrad CPC, Emulator No Responses »

May 262017

Kevin Thacker released a new work in progress version of his Amstrad CPC emulator called Arnold. For this release he did a huge amount of testing, especially for the FDC routines, and wrote a lot of tests to ensure that the emulator behaves just like the real machine.

You can get a precompiled version here: http://www.cpctech.org.uk/setup.zip

And for the Linux and Mac users (and Windows users :-)) – you can get the source code here: http://www.cpctech.org.uk/arnoldsrc.zip

Here is the changelog for this version (be prepared… it is huuuuuuge):

SAMdisk 3.8.10

Amstrad CPC, Utility No Responses »

May 232017

SAMdisk is a tool to convert floppy disks into various disk images which can be used in emulators. It works with almost all PC floppy controllers and supports also some copy-protected formats. It requires that you have fdrawcmd.sys, a low-level floppy disk driver, installed on your system.

You can download the latest version from the SAMdisk website.

Version 3.8.10 (2017-05-14)

added read and write support .qdos (QL) disk images
added –irregular option for blind output image if first track isn’t regular
added –fill to set filler byte for regular formats
fixed setting perpendicular mode for 1Mbps data rate
fixed reading directly to single-sided formats from a:/b:
fixed short data indicator showing on no-data sectors
fixed raw output not using source format fill byte for missing sectors
changed raw output to allow blank head 1 to mirror head 0 format

XzentriX 2017 meeting in Seeshaupt / Germany

Amstrad CPC, Meeting No Responses »

May 072017

The 20th XzentriX meeting, a retro-computing party for old computers and game consoles, will take place from 01.-03.09.2017 in Seeshaupt / Germany. Like every year you can expect that a lot of german Amstrad CPC / Schneider CPC users will visit the party. If you have time, don’t miss it! You can find more information on the XzentriX homepage and see some photos in the meeting gallery of my page.

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