Oct 022019
 

A new version of the Retro Virtual Machine by Juan Carlos Gonzalez Amestoy was released. It is a modern multi-platform emulator for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Currently it supports the emulation of an Amstrad CPC 464, 664 and 6128 and also different Sinclair computers. Besides that it is also feature packed with for e.g. realistic CRT emulation and devices like the X-Mem, the CPC Dandanator or the AMX mouse. Hopefully more will come in the future. Needless to say that it also supports tape and floppy emulation and features extended development features like debugger and integrated assembler.

But have a look by yourself:

The Retro Virtual Machine immediatly became my favourite emulator, so if you want to test it, too, head over to the Retro Virtual Machine homepage and download it for your favourite operating system.

Features:

  • Multiplatform
    • Windows (Vista+)
    • Linux
    • MacOs (10.9+)
  • Multi System
    • ZX Spectrum
      • ZX Spectrum 16k
      • ZX Spectrum 48k (issue2/3/+/+English)
      • ZX Spectrum 128k (eng/spa)
      • ZX Spectrum +2 (eng/spa/fr)
      • ZX Spectrum +2A (4.0eng/4.0spa/4.1eng/4.1spa)
      • ZX Spectrum +3 (4.0eng/4.0spa/4.1eng/4.1spa)
      • ZX Spectrum +2E (eng/spa)
      • ZX Spectrum +3E (eng/spa)
      • Inves Spectrum +
      • ZX-Uno (v4.1/v4.2)
    • Amstrad CPC
      • Amstrad CPC 464 (CRTC-0)
      • Amstrad CPC 664 (CRTC-0)
      • Amstrad CPC 6128 (CRTC-0)
    • Multi machine
      • Possibility of opening several machines in parallel
    • Virtual Cassette
      • Support TAP,TZX,PZX,CSW,CDT in playback or recording.
    • Floppy disks
      • Low level disc (mfm)
      • New implementation of upd765
      • HFE/DSK support
    • Monitor
      • Emulation of synchronism (H-sync/V-sync)
      • New Shader
    • Joysticks / Gamepad
      • Autodetection
    • Devices
      • ZX Spectrum
      • DivMMC
      • Kempston Mouse
      • Magic-AY
      • Turbo Sound
    • Amstrad CPC
      • X-Mem
      • CPC Dandanator
      • AMX Mouse
    • Supported file systems in the integrated explorer
      • FAT 16
      • FAT 32
      • CPM
    • SD Emulation (SPI)
      • SD (max 2GB)
      • SDHC (max 32GB)
    • Development system (ALPHA)
      • Editable hexadecimal view
      • Editable disassembly view
      • Multiple monitors
      • Assembler with LUA pre-processor
      • Command terminal

Sep 072019
 

You might have already noticed it – there are currently not that many updates on my page as you might have been used to. After a lot of different changes (where I do not want to bore you with details ;-)) I needed a time out from all that retro stuff. However, I am still around and visited at least the Revision in Saarbrücken, the Evoke in Cologne and the XzentriX in Seeshaupt. We also won the second price in the fast music compo at the Revision… I also recorded live videos of the CPC demos that were shown during the Revision and some of you are still waiting that I publish them, but they were too “shaky” and dark so that deshaking was not possible and I did not want to upload them in the current condition.

If you had an eye on the technical stuff of my pages, you might have noticed that I worked a little bit under the hood and installed Let’s encrypt certificates on my pages. I also moved this page one directory down, so that the main pages is now sitting on https://www.octoate.de instead of https://www.octoate.de/wp. Hopefully the rewrite rules are redirecting you, if you have still links to the content of my page, but please check the RSS feed integration (if you are using it). I also plan to get rid of the development blog and move it back to my weblog… anyway, that is not CPC related and both are german blogs :-).

Well, during the next time I will try to catch up with the news that was laying around for a long time. But my time is still limited and I am not able to read all the CPC forums where there might be news around. So if you have any news about the CPC or CPC related topics, do not hesitate and contact me via the contact page or just drop a mail to news@octoate.de.

Let’s bring our hobby to the next century :-)!

Apr 132017
 

A big task on my ToDo list for this website is to move it to HTTPS. If you have already tried to use HTTPS, you might have seen that the site already uses a valid certificate but the WordPress installation still uses insecure locations to load data. I will start this evening to move WordPress itself to HTTPS and there might be some problems with older content on this site. Hopefully the page will be normally working until next week (well – or this evening again, of course ;-)), so if you experience any problems, please use the comments or the contact form and help me to get them fixed.

[UPDATE: The website is using HTTPS now. If you are trying to use HTTP you will be automatically forwarded to the HTTPS version of the website. During the update process I had to remove the CPC Toplist, because the CPC-Live website uses a non valid self issued certificate (it expired), which would cause security warnings in your browser. During the next days, I will try to check most of the pages to prevent loading content from non secured pages :-). Hopefully the RSS feed readers will still work…]

Jan 012017
 

My best wishes to you for the year 2017 and hopefully we see another thrilling year like 2016. If we look back at 2016, we saw an awesome amount of new productions, hardware and a lot of new people joining the Amstrad CPC community. So a big thank you to all the authors who dedicate their spare free time to the development of new retro games, utilities, etc. and a big thank you to all the other people who are discussing, produce videos and dedicating their free time to their hobby as well.
As you might have noticed, in 2016 I have changed the way, how I write the news on this page and try to continously provide you with news instead of writing 3 news a day (ok, let’s not look backward at yesterday – that was my own firework on this page ;-)). This was a success so I will keep this system. Another thing, what I want to change is to use SSL for my website. Currently I am investigating how much effort is necessary to change the whole website to SSL.
Finally, if you are an author and your awesome work is not mentioned here, then don’t hesitate to use the contact form and submit it here. I am always happy about any submission I can get for the news :-).

Finally – again – a happy new year 2017 and my best wishes for you and your families! Maybe we see us on an event like the Revision, the Evoke or the XzentriX :-)!

Aug 232015
 

Sometimes sad things happen and it is hard to write about it. This sunday our friend and CPC community member Nilquader of SPRING died after a long fight against cancer. It was always great to talk to him about CPC hardware or electronics and meet him on several meetings over the last years, where I also had the pleasure to work with him on the Verilog ACID protection chip implementation. He was always very helpful, motivating and productive, so we will miss him a lot for sure. Life can be unfair…

Nilquader on the XzentriX 2014 meeting in Seeshaupt / Germany

Nilquader on the XzentriX 2014

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