2015 | The Amstrad CPC news portal

Retro Game Asset Studio (RGAS) v1.1 / v1.1.1

Nov 132015

Lachlan Keown released a new version of his Retro Game Asset Studio (RGAS). With RGAS you can design various asset types (sprites, sound / music, levels) for different retro computers (Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum). It is a cross-development tool, which runs on the .NET runtime under Windows and with Mono it can be used under Linux, too. It is also one component which is included in the CPCtelera game development framework.

The latest version can be downloaded from the RGAS CPCWiki page.

Changes v1.1:

Upgraded to .Net Framework 4.0 from 3.5
Copying pixels from sprite stores both text(JSON) and bitmap data on clipboard
Sprite list now maintains position on refresh
Sprite list allows multi-select drag re-order
Level designer allows editing of level parameters
Level designer has gridlines option
Level designer image quality improved
Level designer allows duplicating of levels
Amstrad font samples available when creating new project
Change output format from drop-down menu on toolbar
Add tooltip to tiles on level designer for sprite name
Single portable .exe rather than a collection of .dlls

Changes v1.1.1:

Performance improvements under Linux

#CPCRetroDev 2015 final results (35 new games)

Amstrad CPC, Development, Game 2 Responses »

Nov 032015

Wow, what a competition and I really needed some time to write this news and upload all competition entries to the download section of this page. It was already clear, that the #CPCRetroDev 2015 is a huge success this year, but it is time to have a look at the entries of the competition now. There were 35 entries in the competition which where

3 are coded in BASIC
1 in BASIC+ASM
2 in ASM
1 uses AGD
1 uses its own engine (C+ASM)
27 use CPCtelera

But I don’t want to bore you with the details, so here are the official results of the competition and the links to the download section.

Amstrad CPC Horror Games! (Resurrected Version 2015)

Amstrad CPC, Game No Responses »

Oct 312015

It’s Halloween so it is a good idea to have a look at horror games for the Amstrad CPC, isn’t it? Xyphoe did this some years ago, but the video was deleted by Youtube because of the background music, so he resurrected it and record it again and here it is. Enjoy it and Happy Halloween :-)!

#CPCRetroDev 2015 awards nominees

Amstrad CPC, Development, Game 1 Response »

Oct 282015

The deadline for the #CPCRetroDev 2015 is already met and in only a few days, there will be the big price ceremony where the winners of the Amstrad CPC retro game development contest will be announced. This year the #CPCRetroDev is already a very big success with about 35(!!!) submissions to the competition and so it was hard to decide the final nominees for the different categories. Thanks to all the contributors for your work on your submissions!
Well, I don’t want to put your on the rack, so here they are:

BASIC category

Junior / Miguel Sky
Regreso al CPC / Antonio Corpas
Super Thordercam / CARLIO

PRO category

4 to 4 Back to the future / www.cpc-power.com
Frogalot / CNGSoft
Paranormal Outbreak / Noxtale1
RUN CPC / Ervin Pajor
Space Pest Control / usebox.net
Space Moves / Toni Ramírez
Top Top / Rantan Games
ZNAX / Shinra

Special mention to the Best Technical Achievement

Frogalot / CNGSoft
Spaces Moves / Toni Ramirez
ZNAX / Shinra

Devilish Games special mention to the Most Original Game

4 to 4 Back To the future / CPC-Power
Mas To The Past / Antrax CPC
Top Top / Rantan Games

The price ceremony will take place on Saturday, 31st of October, 2015, 19:00h CET (UTC+1) at the Museum of the University of Alicante. A live stream of the event can be found here: http://vertice.cpd.ua.es/mua.

Sugarbox v0.25

Amstrad CPC, Emulator No Responses »

Oct 272015

A new version of Sugarbox, a new Amstrad CPC emulator for Windows, was released. The main feature of the new version is the support of online libraries like CPC-Power and Amstrad.eu. Another interesting feature is the support for black frame insertion, which will provide a smooth scrolling on 100hz capable displays.
Be sure to test the new version of the emulator and download the latest version from http://sugarbox.free.fr.

Changelog:

[General]: Optimisations (Emulation is about 15% faster)
[General]: Generic Joystick are supported through Direct Input. 2 Joysticks can be used, in the order they appear in the os. Work with Xbox controler, as well as standard usb joystick.
[SNR]: Add feature to watch SNR file (playbacks) – Preliminary
[Z80]: Fixed timing issue in interrupt following some opcodes
[Z80]: Fixed incorrect R increment for DD CB and FD CB instructions
[FDC]: Fixed « Format » command. Now, a Format command from discology (for example) produce a disk that is correct.
[FDC]: Fixed the MSR, that was not handled correctly. This fix Bobby bearing and Camelot warriors original dsk.
[FDC]: Fixed the Step Rate Time computation, which was twice longe than expected
[FDC]: Fixed behaviour with SK bit and deleted sectors (making Nigel Mansell works)
[FDC]: Fixed how read track over the index hole works. The current sector is finished,then the command is ended (fix Skyx)
[eDSK]: Fixed an incorrect behaviour with non formatted tracks on some dump. This prevents Bobby Bearing (UK) (1986) (CPM)
[Original].dsk to crash when trying to load
[eDSK]: Fixed some rare problematic case with offset-info datas
[CT-Raw]: Fixed write bug when multiple revolutions exists (which somewhere shifted what’s written, leading to CRC error). Fix « Le maitre absolu » in ct-raw format
[Memory]: Fixed a bug in the PAL, preventing SymbOs to use full memory.
[GUI]: Fixed missing space and enter for Autotype
[GUI]: Added a PAUSE feature, accessible via menu or the « Pause » key on the keyboard
[Z80]: Fixed a rare bug that can lead to potential unwanted deadlock with HALT command
[TAPE]: FAST loading enabled : If a tape is read, refresh are cut, so speed can be 2 to 3 time faster.
[Display]: SDL2 lib is now used. Fullscreen option is now better, as it can be fully configured. Also, black screen insertion for 100hz display can be used for buttery smooth scrollers
[Display]: Screen size and position is now more correct
[Display]: Screenshots are now better (and without any toolbar)
[Printer]: A really basic printer is now plugged ! You can see print result in the PRINT directory. (no graphical printing is done, only text)
[Online libraries]: Preliminary integration of CPC-Power and Amstrad.eu online libraries.

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