Kevin Thacker released a new work in progress version of his Amstrad CPC emulator called Arnold. For this release he did a huge amount of testing, especially for the FDC routines, and wrote a lot of tests to ensure that the emulator behaves just like the real machine.
As promised, Keith56 released his new bullet hell shooter for the Amstrad CPC 6128 & Plus on the 31st December. In the good old tradition of bullet hell shooters, you are playing a side-scrolling game with enemies, shooting an extreme load of bullets to you, which you have – of course – to avoid. Here is the introduction from the author:
“Chibiko didn’t get any presents from Santa this year… in fact, in the last year she’s been killed by God, banished from hell, and reincarnated as the enemy of all mankind -so it’s pretty likely she will never get in his good books again! Still, she can always do without that ‘gotta-buy-it’ plush doll, and the coal is always useful for burning ‘leftovers’. What’s a whole lot less welcome is the strange monsters that have been lurking around the mountains lately – and now they are infesting HER castle! Join Chibiko in her unholy battle against the invasion of badly drawn, cliche and generally uninspired enemies, pummel your way through 4 levels of brainless firepower crazy action – and unleash hell on the 4 end level boss enemies!”
You can download the game (and its source code) from the website of the game or at the end of this news. Of course, you can also discuss it on the CPCWiki forums.
Roudoudou worked on a compressor / decompressor which uses the LZ48 / LZ49 compression algorithm on the Amstrad CPC and released his work in the CPCWiki forums. The compressor is inspired by the LZ4 compression algorithm of Yann Collet and the modifications fits well to the Z80 CPU of the Amstrad CPC. The advantage of this compression method is, that the decompression code is very small (83 bytes) and very fast. The disadvatage is that there are other compressors which feature a better compression ratio, but require more memory and more time for decompression as well.
You can get more information about the modified algorithm and download the assembly source from the CPCWiki forums. You can also find a version for SDCC / CPCtelera and binary files for Windows there.
This archive features the LZ48/LZ49 (de)compression routines by Roudoudou, which were derived from the LZ4 compression by Yann Collet. Its advantage is the small decompression routine size (84 bytes) and high decompression speed. In this archive you will also find Windows binaries of the compressor for cross-development and routines, which you can direclty use with SDCC / CPCtelera.
Docent wrote a decompressor the the LZ4 compression algorithm, which can be used on any Zilog Z80 CPU. The focus of the LZ4 compression algorithm is a fast decompression speed and a small decompression routine. The size of Docents version of the decompression routine is 219 bytes (raw decompression routine under 110 bytes) and it supports the legacy and the newest LZ4 format (except for framing).
You can download the latest version of the decompression code here or at the end of this news.
Features
decompresses files packed by lz4 command line packer and raw lz4 compressed data
supports legacy and the newest lz4 file format (except framing)
fully relocatable code
total size of 219 bytes size with raw decompression routine below 110 bytes
cpc firmware friendly (no alternate register set used)
ROM friendly – no self modifying code or additional memory required
simple interface – only start of file in memory and target memory destination required
This archive features the LZ4 decompression routine by Docent, which can decompress files which were compressed with the LZ4 compressor by Yann Collet. Its advantage is the small decompression routine size and high decompression speed.
Some time ago the Mojon Twins released their Amstrad CPC port of their game Sir Ababol 2 (you can download Sir Ababol here). In Sir Ababol 2 you have to guide the main character, Sir Ababol, to the top of the six towers of Freezia. Of course you have to fight against several enemies which you will meet on your way.
You can download Sir Ababol 2 from the Mojon Twins homepage or at the end of this posting. The source code for the game can be found there, too.
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