We all love to use our old joysticks like the Competition PRO with our retro hardware, but to be honest, sometimes we wish to use a more modern input device like an XboX controller, don’t we? Impossible? No! Duke, also author of the great M4 WiFi interface for the Amstrad CPC, has designed a device, called Imperium Solo, that allows you to connect your modern game controller to the Amstrad CPC and play your games with it. It already supports a variety of USB input devices (like the already mentioned XboX controller or a USB NES gamepad), but the firmware is constantly improved by Duke to support even more input devices.
You can get more information and the latest firmware on Dukes Imperium Solo web page and discuss and order it in the CPC Wiki forums.
A new version of the HxC floppy emulator software for Windows was released in version 2.1.6.0. Besides some non Amstrad CPC releated features, it contains the possibility to add DSK files to the batch converter export list now.
The HxC floppy emulator is a device, which emulates a floppy disk systems by using disk images, which are contained on a SD card. It is the defacto standard for Amstrad CPC users to replace the internal or add a new 3″ drive. Thanks to Norecess’ great HxC floppy configuration software, it is nicely integrated into the system of the Amstrad CPC and very easy to use.
You can download the latest version from the HxC floppy emulator homepage.
Changelog for v2.1.6.0
- XML format definitions: Korg DSS1 DD disks added.
- XML format definitions: Emax II disks added.
- Command line tool: USB loader -> Raw loader added.
- Amstrad DSK file added to the batch converter export list.
- New Writer: Thomson *.FD writer.
- Thomson *.FD loader fixed: Side 1 ID corrected to 0.
- D88 Writer fixed: Cylinder and Side ID correctly set.
- ImageDisk (*.IMD) export: Deleted data mark and data CRC error flags supported.
- FAT12/16 Disk browser: Entries First cluster readback corrected. (With high word uninitialized).
- IMG loader: More disk sizes support added.
- DosDiskBrowser: 1.743MB & 1.764MB added.
- 64bits systems: Batch converter and Dos Disk browser issues fixed.
- MacOS X & Linux version: file export -> Auto-append the file extension.
- Track editor: Disk flux stream reverse function.
- Track viewer & editor: GUI layout changed/updated.
Probably you have read it on this page before: one of the main components of the Amstrad CPC, the Gate Array aka Amstrad 40010, was decapped and high resolution photos were shot from the internals of this integrated circuit. Finally, Gerald found some time to reverse engineer the schematics of the Gate Array and released them in the CPCWiki forums. With the schematics it is possible to better understand what’s happening inside, find eventually existing hardware tricks / bugs and finally build a replacement of course.
Ash Evans has already “ported” the schematics to Verilog, so it is possible to use it in your own CPLD or FPGA designs.
Thanks a lot for your work to reverse engineer the last integrated circuit (for the classic Amstrad CPC), which can help us to preserve the Amstrad CPCs for the future :-)!
During the last years we saw a lot of hardware expansions for the Amstrad CPC. Most of them were the usual expansions like more RAM, ROM or storage. But finally, thanks to Duke, the Amstrad CPC gets an Wifi expansion, which you can use to connect to the internet. It is possible to send HTTP requests and it also starts a web server (on the on board Wifi microcontroller), where you can change some of the settings.
Besides the Wifi connectivity it also features a ROM board and a SD card slot for storage. The SD card will also be supported directly by replacing ROM 7 (AMSDOS), so you can use software, which don’t use direct FDC access directly from the SD card.
Here is the video of the current version of the Wifi expansion:
If you are interested in ordering a board or just want more information about the expansion board, head over to Duke’s homepage.
Do you know the Visual6502 project? The 6502 CPU was decapped and reverse engineered to retrieve more information about the way it works and get a better emulation. On the page you will also find an emulator, which shows you how the CPU works on the chip level. Well, why speaking about this project? Because it is about getting information by reverse engineering the chip and that’s what happened to the Gate Array aka “Amstrad 40010” and some other chips. Robcfg sent some of them to Sean Riddle who was kindly enough to decap the chips and provided the photos. The Gate Array is a custom made chip by Amstrad, which provides e.g. clock frequencies or the colour information for the CRTC. With the photos it is possible to do a reverse engineering and hopefully extract a schematic of it. Maybe it is possible to build a replacement in the future, too.
If you want to help or want more information about it, have a look at the thread in the CPCWiki forums.