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ORGAMS – Z80 assembler for the Amstrad CPC

Aug 232016

Madram, Drill and Hicks have released a new version of ORGAMS – an assembler for Z80 assembly language, which runs on the Amstrad CPC. It is a ROM based assembler, so you should use it with a ROM expansion like the X-MEM board by TotO or the Amstrad WiFi. It also features a very detailed english and a french user guide. You can download the latest version from the CPCWiki forums.

ORGAMS assembler

New features

Trace: Source visualization while debugging (imperfect, Orgams can be lost with conditional or repeated blocs)
Trace: Memory visualization while debugging
Trace: CONTROL UP/DOWN for faster navigation
Monitor: Binary display with ‘?’ command
Monitor: Display restored zone when returning to BASIC
Assembler: Can assemble up to #BF80, and in #C000-#FFFF page
Editor: Free cursor
Editor: TAB to repeat previous search (text or label)
Editor: ESC to stop current search (only works with CONTROL F)
Editor: CONTROL-ESPACE put/remove BRK
Editor: CONTROL-C to display CATalogue
Editor: Can join lines (DEL at first column). Corollary : ‘DEL’ after ‘RETURN’ cancels an unexpected split
Editor: Use ‘&’ for hexa, like in BASIC and MAXAM.
Editor: Allow (IX) as shortcut for (IX+0)
General: Use RAM from very last bank (&FF) to alleviate conflict with 256k RAM-DISC.
General: Extension and Monogams ROMs can be burned everywhere (i.e. ROM 1 to 127)
General: Allow |o,”source” (no need to write “.o”)

Bugfixes

Bloc repetition was corrupted when corresponding source was overlapping 2 banks
Division with MSB set in divisor (e.g. &240/&C0) was corrupted
Sign was lost with sub-expression (e.g. -1/[1/1] or -1 mod [4 mod 5])
Negative values for FILL, ORG and repetitions raise error.
Bad expression for repetitions (e.g. undefined label) raise error.
Proper binary save from 9800-HIMEM zone
Returning to basic won’t reset 9800-HIMEM zone anymore
‘ORG &100’ now correctly parsed (not as ‘OR G AND 100’)
Assembling in RSX workzone (e.g. A6FC+) won’t corrupt firmware (Orgams-wise) anymore
Reset CRTC in RESTORE
Mute AY in BRK/RESTORE
At first invocation of BRK/Monogams, select RAM by default (lower & upper)
Robuster memory detection
Fix stack going down at each assemble / editor access.
Numeric pad is active when invoking |m
Block markers properly corrected when importing file
LD B,(IX) doesn’t crash anymore
LD H,IXH doesn’t crash anymore
Miscellaneous search bugs (CONTROL F) corrected.

Perfect Pix graphics tool

Amstrad CPC, Development, Utility No Responses »

Aug 042016

Rhino released a new graphics tool for the Amstrad CPC called Perfect Pix. Perfect Pix supports 3 different extended graphics modes with extended colours and resolutions:

Mode R
- Up to 384×272 pixels and 16 freely selectable colors from a palette of 27.
Mode B0
- Up to 192×272 pixels and 136 colors from a palette of 378.
Mode B1
- Up to 384×272 pixels and 307 colors, divided into color 0 + up to 34 palettes of 9 colors per line.

Perfect Pix comes with an awesome documentation (english and spanish) and of course with the source code to use the pictures in your own production. If you need graphics for your next project, be sure to have a look at it. You can download the latest version from Pouet.net and the CPCWiki forums.

Perfect Pix by Rhin / Batman Group

v1.00

First release.

v1.01

Added message if upper memory is full by too many ROMs.

v1.02

Bug fixed in the converter exporting overscan screens.
More upper memory free for greater ROMs compatibility.

v1.03

Improved controls in Paint tool by adding CONTROL + keys to move the pointer to scroll the zoom window (similar to OCP Art Studio).
Added warning message in the converter when source image exceeds the image size limits managed with the Paint tool.
Additional upper memory free for greater ROMs compatibility.

Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) 3.6.0

Amstrad CPC, Development 1 Response »

Jul 142016

A new version of the SDCC C compiler is available. You can use SDCC to develop for the Amstrad CPC, e.g. with using the SDCC Code::Blocks template or the programming tutorials by Mochilote or with the new CPCtelera framework. The new version contains also some features for the Z80 port, so be sure to update it. You can download it from http://sdcc.sourceforge.net.

Changes:

Merged upstream binutils 2.25
New memory management with lower overhead
Changed default language dialect to –std-sdcc11
Diagnostic for missing type specifier: No implicit int outside of C90 mode anymore
C11 generic selections
char type is now unsigned by default (old behaviour can be restored using –fsigned-char)
Character constants are now of type int instead of char.
ISO C95 and ISO C11 wide character constants
ISO C95 and ISO C11 wide string literals
Basic standard library support for wide characters: c16rtomb(), mbrtoc16(), mbsinit(), mbtowc(), mbrlen(), mbrtoc32, c32rtomb(), mbrtowc(), wcrtomb(), mblen(), wctomb()
Treat all ports the same in the manual (i.e. mcs51-specific stuff is now clearly described as such)
Reorganized interrupt handling for z80, z180, r2k, r3ka, tlcs90, gbz80 backends
Workaround for stm8 division hardware bug
ELF/DWARF support for stm8
Output symbol table for ELF
pic16 port now uses standard-compliant crt0iz that initializes static and globals to 0 by default
Numerous feature requests and bug fixes

CPCRetroDev 2016 – The Oliver Twins join the jury

Amstrad CPC, Development No Responses »

Jun 212016

PhilipAndrewDizzySkySaga

Great news for all the developers who participate in the CPCRetroDev 2016 development contest this year: the Oliver Twins, well-knows for producing a lot of CPC games, will join the jury for judging the entries and give feedback to the participants. They also will participate at the pricegiving ceremony at the University of Alicante to personally hand over the prices.
You can fin

d more details on the CPCRetroDev homepage.

There is still enough time left to develop your game for the CPCRetroDev contest, so start developing your awesome game… now :-)!

CPCRetroDev 2016 – over 1000 EUR in prices!

Amstrad CPC, Development 4 Responses »

May 192016

After the awesome success of the last CPCRetroDev last year it is time for a new game competition in 2016, isn’t it? This year there are even higher prices, which you can win with your game in different categories. As usual the competition is organised by the University of Alicante / Spain and aims to award the best and creative game developers, who create a game for an unmodified Amstrad CPC 464. The deadline for this years competition is the 26th October 2016, 23:59h (CEST), so don’t waste any time and start the development of your awesome game.
If you are not familiar with development for the Amstrad CPC, you can have a look at the CPCtelera game development kit, the great programming tutorials on CPCMania, the CPCrslib programming library or cpcitor’s development toolchain. There is also a category for Locomotive BASIC programs and you can find help in the CPCWiki forums.

You can achieve the following awards (all in all about 1.050 EUR!!!):

Special awards

125€ – Gominolas to the best music
125€ – Jon Ritman to technical development
125€ – Dinamic to innovative playability

PRO category

300€ – Best game
150€ – Second best game
75€ – Third best game

BASIC category

100€ – Best BASIC game
50€ – Second best BASIC game

…and there will also be a physical cassette edition with all 2016 games, too.

You can get more information about the competition rules and about the competition itself on the CPCRetroDev 2016 homepage. Be sure to participate and bring your creative game ideas to the Amstrad CPC.

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