2015 | The Amstrad CPC news portal

CPCtelera v1.3 – Amstrad CPC game engine for C developers

Oct 172015

A new version of CPCtelera, the Amstrad CPC game engine for C developers, was just released in version 1.3. 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 features SDCC patches and bugfixes, some speed optimisations, new methods and a big toolset improvement. It is available for Windows, Linux and OS-X. You can get the latest version from GitHub and discuss it in the CPCWiki.

Changes in v1.3:

API change on cpct_getXBits functions. Changed order of parameters to further optimize operations.
Optimized functions: bitarray functions, cpct_count2VSYNC, cpct_px2byteM0, cpct_enable/disablefirmware, cpct_getHWColour, cpct_setPalette, cpct_fw2hw
Added example on getting hardware values with cpct_getHWColour
Automatic inclusion of binary files in DSK: Users can now specify a path for the makefile to retrieve binary files and insert them on the DSK on compilation.
iDSK: Fixed historic data corruption problem on adding new files.
Added cpct_winape script that automatically downloads, installs and lauches winape from command line to speed up development process. It works multiplatform, transparently using wine where required.
Added cpct_setInterruptHandler and cpct_removeInterruptHandler functions to let the user easily hook any function to system interrupts.
Added example on hooking a function to system interrupts.
Added cpct_img2tileset support for generating sprites with interlaced masks.
Added new script cpct_tmx2csv to convert tmx files from tiled into CSVs ready for inclusion in user code.
Added Augusto Ruiz’s dskgen tool for generating and managing DSKs low level.
Updated SDCC with latest patches and bugfixes.
Modified SDCC building: SDCC now builds with maximum optimizations activated and all unnecessary parts are removed from compilation (it compiles faster)
Improved Makefile functions for CDT Creation.
Added examples about automatic assets inclusion/conversion and CDT generation with multiple files.
Improved compatibility and functionality of Augusto Ruiz’s img2cpc
Improved examples and explanations
Added GCC/CLang version checking on installation (checks required C++11 features are present)
Added splitted C/ASM bindings for most of CPCtelera’s functions, along with __z88dk_callee and __z88dk_fastcall calling convention use.

Amstrad CPC on the MIST-FPGA board

Amstrad CPC, Emulator, Hardware No Responses »

Oct 172015

Do you know the MIST-FPGA board? No? It is intended to rebuild old computer systems and consoles with it. I use the term “rebuild” because it fits better in combination with a FPGA than “emulate”, because there is no program running within the FPGA, but it is real hardware which is running. Confused :-)? Anyway, the name MIST is a combination of Amiga and Atari ST, and of course, both systems are already running on the systems together with a lot of other computer and console systems, too (e.g. Nintendo NES, Commodore 64, PC Engine, etc.). Since some time, there is also an Amstrad CPC core available for the MIST-FPGA board and it was released in version r004.7.2 some days ago. The new version features some bugfixes and support for the R-Type remake by Easter Egg. So if you own a MIST-FPGA board, give it a try. You can find more information about the installation of the Amstrad CPC core and the binaries on the MIST-FPGA GitHub page.

Drive belt replacement video by Xyphoe

Amstrad CPC, Hardware No Responses »

Sep 152015

Your Amstrad CPC is showing a “Disc missing” error when you try to load a disc? Then normally it is time to change the drive belt of your disk drive. There are already some nice tutorials on how to change the drive belt of an Amstrad CPC, but Xyphoe recorded a video where he changes the drive belt of an Amstrad CPC 6128. So if you need to change your drive belt have a look at it.

CPC musicians needed for a Christmas album

Amstrad CPC, Music No Responses »

Sep 132015

SuTeKH/Epyteor wants to produce a Christmas album containing a lot of different christmas tunes and so he is searching for musicians who will contribute a music for this CPC music disc, which will be (obviously) released later this year. There are no special requirements, so you are free to choose your music style. Here are the “rules” for the music disc:

All contributions will be released; so even if you’re not a musician (like me), you can get your hard work released on your favourite 8-bit computer!
All contributions will be FULLY credited. Any shout-outs you want, then add them! Why not?
The tunes must be either Arkos or STarkos format (I can also play .ayc/.ym tunes if people prefer using PT3 or VortexII)
There are no time constraints; if your song is 55 minutes long, then 55 minutes long it is.
Make sure the song isn’t too large in size; this Christmas album will have to work on all CPC formats (ie in 64k).
For now, NO SAMPLES! I know this could be a bugger for Christmas tunes, but I’ll have to see how much space is left to handle samples before committing to accepting sampled releases.

So if you are able to contribute anything to this music disc, head over to the CPC Wiki forums and posting or PM there.

SamaruX v2.02 – Unix-like shell for CP/M

Amstrad CPC, System No Responses »

Sep 012015

Miguel I. Garcia Lopez released a new version of his Unix-like shell for CP/M systems with Z80 CPU called SamaruX. Of course it features standard functionalities like redirecting the output of stdin / stdout, piping, environment variables, batch processing and much more. It was written with MESCC, a Small-C compiler for CP/M. If you are still using CP/M on your Amstrad CPC and want to test it, you can get the latest version of SamaruX, its source code and the MESCC compiler from the Floppy Software homepage. You can discuss about it in the CPCWiki forums.

Changes in v2.02

Enhanced support of SamaruX external commands.
New examples of SamaruX external commands: banner, cal, head, whoami.

Changes in V2.00

New built-in commands: date, mem, sort, wc, tee.
Improved built-in commands: batch, cat, cd, cpm, ed, env, if, man.
New environment variables: HOME, BINDIR, MANPATH.
Added support for SamaruX external commands (the game Robots has been included as an example).
Text manual included.

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