RetroVirtualMachine v2.1.4, an Amstrad CPC emulator
-RetroVirtualMachine v2.1.4 by jcgamestoy was released the 19th January 2023. It's an Amstrad CPC emulator for MacOS, Windows and Linux.
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RetroVirtualMachine v2.1.4 by jcgamestoy was released the 19th January 2023. It's an Amstrad CPC emulator for MacOS, Windows and Linux.
Longshot has released version 1.3 of the Amstrad CPC CRTC Compendium (beware, the english version isn't definitive, only the french one is actually) which is a documentation about the CRTC 6845 (and some others circuits). Note that the CRTC is a generic component used in several computers including the IBM PC.
It is possible to check if an emulator is good with the SHAKER tests by Longshot. SHAKER is a program designed to run on CPC machines produced by AMSTRAD in the 80s-90s. The objective of this program is to carry out extensive tests on the video circuits of this machine. These video circuits are the GATE ARRAY and the CRTC 6845. AMSTRAD produced several series of GATE ARRAY and used CRTC models produced by different manufacturers (HITACHI, MOTOROLA, UMC, AMSTRAD). This has been causing compatibility problems on operations that exceed the functional specifications of these circuits. The identified CRTCs are numbered from 0 to 4.
Tenebrae by Haplo is a reflexion/puzzle game for Amstrad CPC. You are moving in a roguelike environment with an important twist : you can only do it a lighted zone... It's an interesting game, I recommand to try it. It exists already for ZX Spectrum, Commodore and PC. You can see two video of tests :
These last years several expansions allows you to use mass storage (USB or sd...) on Amstrad CPC, each needing a ROM to use it correctly.
And if you use two of these expansions, you will need to load two ROMs, so less RAM for your Amstrad CPC.
So Offset did write UniDOS and drivers to be able to use another expansion, needing only one ROM with features being the same whatever the expansion. Unidos can manage actually :
Offset also wrote UniDOS Cartridge Creator (v1.4) which is an utility to create Amstrad Plus cartridges equipped with a patched firmware which allows to add UniDOS and its DOS nodes. You can furthermore configure up to 30 additional tool ROMs (such as Utopia, Maxam, Protext..) in the cartridges (compatible with ParaDOS and Burnin' Rubber) without requiring a real ROM board. The tool also let you automatically download the latest UniDOS ROMs from the official web site.
Unidos v1.50 is a major release with a lot of visible and invisible modifications. All DOS nodes were also updated. For the end user, the most notable update is the full time and date support as well as new RSX. For the developers, new BIOS and node API came up.
Also, since the release of the ACE Amstrad CPC emulator in v1.25, several plugins were upgraded : DK'Tronics speech synthesizer, Techni-Musique and SSA-1 speech, Willy, Nova, Amdrum, Mirage Image, MultiPlay and the PlayCity, Albireo.
Announced at the start of the year, CPC Jewels by ESP Soft is now available for download as tape and disk, but also as a physical tape on matranet. It's a remake of Columns.
A longer video is available here.
Zilog Games is working on their Amstrad CPC game The Wormhole for the CPCRetroDev 2022 contest.
It's a platform game. Don't hesitate to go check their Twitter account or their blog on Itch.IO, notably for their nice introduction of the game.
The STNICCC2000 demo by Oxygene is a classic on Atari ST, which was ported on many other machines. In 2022 it now works on any PC with msdos, even on a 8088/8086, but a 80286 is preferred for a reasonable speed.
You can see the demo running on an Amstrad PC 3086 (video by FreddyV, see below) or the official video of the Revision 2022.
Here is a video by Old Style Gaming in coopération with Xyphoe on the 20 best Amstrad CPC games released after the CPC demise.
You can download the second issue of the Amstrad CPC ùCPM fanzine.
It was created with an Amstrad CPC 6128 with colour screen and gotek drive, with the Micro Design+ software. Illustrations were done with the VIDI digitalizer.
You certainly know Eric Cubizolle (Titan) for his marvelous Amstrad CPC loading screens remakes.
But did you know that he is as good with 3D printing models ? I let you see his 3D models including the one for the Octopus game in video.
Seen on AUA, Future Knight DX by John32B is of course a remake of Future Knight, a platform game released in 1986 by Gremlin Graphics Software.
This version is an adaptation from the Amstrad CPC game, and is different than his first remake which design level was done from scratch.