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Another ACID implementation on the way

Apr 152011

Thanks to an tweet by Dadman I saw that he updated his blog about an ACID replacement. If I understand it correctly (I had to use a translator, because my spanish isn’t good enough), mcleod_ideafix has also finished the ACID emulation for the Amstrad Plus. So we will surely see new hardware for the Plus coming Smiley mit geöffnetem Mund . You will find more information about it on http://www.zxprojects.com.

Nilquader and I wrote a ACID emulation about half a year ago on the XzentriX 2010 meeting, but we decided not to release the code until a new hardware is ready, because we wouldn’t like to see high-priced bootlegs on e*ay…

[UPDATE:] Because the release of the ACID emulation code, Nilquader and I decided to release our ACID emulation code, too. You can find the source of it here.

RGB to SVideo converter

Amstrad CPC, Hardware 1 Response »

Mar 272011

Bryce, already known for his great hardware extensions for the CPC, released a new hardware design which converts the RGB signal output of the CPC to a SVideo signal. It consists only of a few hardware components and is very cheap to build. Because some users requested it to be as small as possible to integrate the circuit into their CPCs, Bryce designed it to be as small as possible. You can get the schematics, the board layout and a more detailed description in the “[[RGB SVideo]]” article in the CPCWiki. You can discuss the hardware here.

MITM cartridge adapter

Amstrad CPC, Hardware No Responses »

Feb 022011

Bryce announced the MITM (man-in-the-middle) cartridge adapter, which sits between a Plus cartridge and the Plus. With this adapter, you just need an original cartridge with an ACID protection chip which is directly connected to the CPC, but it will read the contents of the EPROM on the adapter. Maybe you know the same principle from playing Super Nintendo games from foreign countries – they used such an adapter to bypass the protection chip, too.

You can find an [[MITM|article about the adapter]] in the CPC Wiki. The schematics and layout will follow soon.

Multi Cartridge for Amstrad Plus

Amstrad CPC, Hardware No Responses »

Dec 112010

Bryce finished another hardware project, this time for the Amstrad Plus series. It is a multi cartridge, which contains a 512 KB EPROM or Flash-ROM on which you can place 4 128 KB ROMs. You can use the DIP switches on the cartridge to select which of the four ROMs shall be used by the CPC. As always you can find more information about the cartridge and the board layout in the [[Multi Cartridge|Multi Cartridge]] article in the CPC Wiki. The project can be discussed here.

NOTE: You will still need a ACID protection chip in this cartridge.

MegaROM board

Amstrad CPC, Hardware 1 Response »

Oct 172010

Bryce released another great hardware project for the CPC. This time it is a ROM extension board which uses one big EPROM (1 MBit or 2 MBit) to store your ROMs instead of using small 16kb EPROMs, which are hard to find nowadays. With an 1 MBit EPROM you can use 8 16kb ROMs and with an 2 MBit you can use 16 16kb ROMs.
This is an DIY project, which means, that Bryce won’t build a batch of them, but you can get all files (schematics, board) and a description of it from the [[MegaROM]] article in the CPCWiki. You can discuss this project in this thread of the CPCWiki board.

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