2015 | The Amstrad CPC news portal

Akalabeth, predecessor of Ultima, ported to the CPC

Aug 312015

Akalabeth was ported by the CPCWiki user Fessor to the Amstrad CPC. Akalabeth, written 1980 by California Pacific Computer for the Apple II, is a predecessor of the game Ultima and because the BASIC source code is available, it is possible to port it to the Amstrad CPCs Locomotive BASIC. So if you want to play the ancestor of the modern role playing games, head over to the CPCWiki forums and download the DSK image with the port of Akalabeth.

Xyphoe celebrates the 30th birthday of the CPC 6128

Amstrad CPC, Game, Hardware, System No Responses »

Aug 292015

After his great video for the 30th birthday Amstrad CPC 464, Xyphoe celebrates the 30th birthday of the Amstrad CPC 6128 in his latest video on Youtube. So let’s celebrate with him. Have fun:

Updates for FutureOS and tools

Amstrad CPC, System 1 Response »

Aug 282015

TFM just released a new version of FutureOS and some other tools and applications. There is a huge changelog, so have a look at it by yourself. You can download the latest software from the FutureOS homepage.

FutureOS

Update of the Documentation
New expanded automatic installer created:
- supports choice of number system (hexadecimal or decimal)
- Allows to select a ROM number for the Dobbertin / dxs RTC
New OS functions: RBB_8, RBB_16, ZEIBI, ZEIBJ, GET_DIR, R_RTC RB_8, RB_16, B8DIN, B16DIN, E2XRAM, FER7F added
Enhancements for Monitor TV and LCD TV
Bit 0 of config variable KF_CPC decides if UI works in HEX or DEZ
IDE Icon disappears in SPARtan mode (when not used)
Hot keys for the Desktop added
FDC error tolerance increased
Expanded TYPE Icon functionality:
- Added ability to show regular 17 KB and compressed OCP screens
Enhanced management of the CPC Mini-Booster and the MultiPlay card
Spanish and French language interface improved
Some Bugs in format function cured
Error message for File-Copy added
OS function LADE_N expanded: Set 8. bit of drive number to ignore file header and load according to user data
OS functions ICON6ON and ICON3ON expanded
- They now work with all (MODE 2: 6-104) values for columns
RRB0 corrected, generates free E-RAM instead of Short-Time-Memory
REName corrected, will save lower RAM
Read DIR related bugs fixed
Better VN96 support
Some more bugs fixed

Wallpapers

Automatic display of OK Icon in SPARtan mode added
Added a second disc with just a few but nice Wallpapers

CBM – Application Shell

Devices can be selected (A-M) and their DIRectories can be read without the need to return to the Desktop. This file overworked Restart restaurates SP save. File selector ESC makes warm start
Hot keys added
X-Menue added, more functionality

ROManager 2.14

Function added to ReRead DIRectories
Static display of time and day at menu entry
Bugs fixed
Support for CP/M Graduate software E-ROMs enhanced

Applications

“Little Help” / “Kl.Info-Sys” updated
Update of “Konfig OS” / “Config OS”

CP/M Plus ROMs

ROMs and documentation on FutureOS homepage now

Goodbye Nilquader

Amstrad CPC, News No Responses »

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

CPCtelera v1.2 / v1.2.1 – Amstrad CPC game engine for C developers

Amstrad CPC, Development No Responses »

Aug 062015

After two months of intense development a new version of CPCtelera, the Amstrad CPC game engine for C developers, was just released. 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. It is available for Windows, Linux and OS-X. You can get the latest version from GitHub and discuss it in the CPCWiki.

UPDATE: Version 1.2.1 was released some bugs including a OSX problem during installation. See below for more information.

New features included in v1.2:

Added new modules: cpct_random & cpct_easytilemaps
3 new fast functions for very easy management of Tilemaps and Tilesets directly.
New cpct_img2tileset utility for converting images containing complete tilesets or sprites groups into C data for including directly in projects code.
2 new fast functions for generating pseudo-random byte numbers uniformly distributed.
2 faster memset functions, up to 3 times faster than original cpct_memset (cpct_memset_f8, cpct_memset_f64)
New function to set the location of the program stack at will (cpct_setStackLocation)
New function for drawing Masked Aligned Sprites using Transparency Tables(cpct_drawSpritesMaskedAlignedTable)
Added a transparency_tables header file for easing inclusion.
Added a C-script for generating mask lookup tables.
Added new examples: Text Software Scrolling, fastmemset, Easytilemaps demo, drawSpritesMaskedAligned demo, ProgramStack demo.
Added Img2CPC image conversion tool by Augusto Ruiz.
Added new version of RGAS: 1.0
Updated SDCC to 3.5.0
Movable project folders: they can be moved to different locations on a same hard-disk or even on a different machine without any change (provided CPCtelera 1.2 is installed). They now use an environment variable for linking with framework.

List of improvements and bug-fixes:

Added a bug-fix for SDCC __z88dk_callee function binding on tail jumping optimizations.
Improved performance for C calls to functions using __z88dk_callee and __z88dk_fastcall new calling conventions included with SDCC 3.5.0.
Fixed mixed up definitions for Joy1_Fire1 and Joy1_Fire2
Optimized several library functions.
Documented functions that use self-modifying code (and will not work from ROM, logically)
Split C and ASM bindings for most functions: calls from both languages include their own code without overheads
Recalculated timings of most functions with respect to Amstrad’s microsecond-rounded scheme.
cpct_mkproject checks for valid AMSDOS characters on project names.
Fixed a subtle calculation bug in cpct_getScreenPtr
Added library cleanup to setup.sh
Improved OSX compatibility for the cpct_mkproject and setup.sh scripts

Changes in v1.2.1:

Fixed setup.sh failing under OSX
Fixed cpct_img2tileset not accepting full paths
Better information display and progressbar for cpct_img2tileset
Added offline documentation that was being ignored by git
Added new advanced example: Smooth 1-pixel movement in mode 0 (advanced/move1pixel)

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