Archives for the month October 2021 of Genesis8 Amstrad Page





Paket, an engine to create graphical adventure games, demo included with vidéo

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The information below is from 2019. Amstrad Maniaque made a video of the demo game Escape the ROM created with the Paket adventure game engine.

Seen on Twitter, Santi Ontañón (code) and Jordi Sureda (graphics) have written a new engine to create graphical adventure games as made by Lucas Arts or Sierra : Paket (Point And Klick Engine Tool).

A demo in spanish and english is available on their site.





Tachyon Dreams by CosmicVoid, a sierra like adventure game in EGA for your old PC

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Seen on Indie RetroNews, Retro Dreams (episode 1) by CosmicVoid is the first episode of a Sierra like adventure game for your old PC if you have an EGA graphic card. Give some love to your old PC (Amstrad or other).



Dream Walker, a new adventure game for Amstrad CPC (with CP/M)

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Dream Walker is a new beta adventure game by Gareth Pitchford, written with the PAW adventure engine. It will be later written with DAAD to be ported to other platforms.

You must execute CP/M first to be able to launch the game.



Turbo Rascal SE v0.13.216, Pascal programmation for Amstrad CPC and more

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Turbo Rascal SE (TRSE) v0.13.216 is out. It's a complete suite (IDE, compiler, programming language, image sprite level resource editor) intended for developing games/demos for 8 / 16-bit line of computers, with a focus on the MOS 6502, the Motorola 68000, the (GB)Z80 and the X86. TRSE currently supports application development for the C64, C128, VIC-20, PLUS4, NES, Gameboy, PET, ZX Spectrum, TIKI 100, Amstrad CPC 464, Atari 2600, 8086AT, Amiga 500 and the Atari ST 520 (complete list here). With the benefits of a modern IDE (error messages, code completion, syntax highlighting etc) and a bunch of fast built-in tools, it has never been easier to program for your favorite obsolete system !

Join TRSE on Facebook !

I dont have the details of the new features of this version.



CPCRetroDev 2021 is up since start of October, already 13 games announced on Itch.io

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A bit late, but the CPCRetroDev 2021 competition has already started. You can check the details on CPCRetroDev.

You will have till the 2th November to finish your game. And the award cermony will be the 12th November at 7:00pm.

This year, the game will be submitted on Itch.io.

There are already 13 games with a status created on Itch.io



Several long videos about servicing an Amstrad GX4000 in french by CabryDIY

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I am guilty of not viewing these videos by CabryDYI (french inside), but reading the title, they should interest you if you need to repare or service an Amstrad GX4000. Happy viewing.




Source code of the assembler/desassembler DAMS is available since March 2015

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Pascal SEGUY is the author of the DAMS utility (assembler and desassembler), edited by Micro Applications in 1985 and by Audiogenic Software LTD in the U.K.

I just discovered in a CPCWiki thread about FutureOS that Mr. SEGUY did put the source code of DAMS on Github.



dMagnetic v0.32, a Magnetic Scrolls emulator by Dettus for various BSD and Linux distributions

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dMagnetic v0.32 by Dettus is available for several versions of Unix (BSD, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo) with ANSI drawing in a terminal. This utility lets you play adventure games by Magnetic Scrolls. The version 0.31 added Apple 2 support (.NIB and .2MG), v0.32 adds Apple 2 .WOZ support and clode cleanup.

The emulator is using the original files of the games for Amstrad CPC, C64, msdos, windows (1991 compilation), .MAG et .GFX files on the magnetic scrolls memorial.



Sokoban for SymbOS by Prodatron

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Prodatron has just released an adaptation of Sokoban for SymbOS. This version extends the original game principle with a lot of additional puzzle objects such as coloured boxes, ice floors, holes, portals, rails and magnets.




The ROMs of the Amstrad CPC 6128 unassembled by Bread80 (firmware and basic)

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Seen on CPCWiki, Bread80 did put on github the unassembled firmware of the Amstrad CPC 6128 on github (Basic will come in a few weeks). He talks about it on his web site and Twitter.

It's time to upgrade the firmware and speed of Basic !



PunyInform v3.0 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson to write text adventure games

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PunyInform v3.0 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson is a library written in Inform 6 to create adventure game (pure text, no graphic support contrary to DAAD) using the Z-machine virtual machine which will run on 8bit computers (or more recent computers too). PunyInform has a parser, knowing of common verbs and a framework to write adventure games.

PunyInform is based on the Inform 6 library written by Graham Nelson. Its goal is to make easily adventure games in Inform 6, with a manual describing the differences between the official library and PunyInform..

Games using PunyInform can be compiled in z3, z5 and z8 format (z3 being the best format for 8bit computers, other formats have more features). Compared to the Inform 6 library, it means that there is no support for the Glulx virtual machine but z3 format is important as Inform 6 doesnt support it.

To compile games written with PunyInform, you should use the Inform 6 compiler maintained by David Kinder. Binaries are available on if-archive. PunyInform needs Inform v6.35 (or more).

They are tutorials to write adventure game with PunyInform (end of the page).

To try your game after compilation, you can use WinFrotz by David Kinder, to create map easily you can use Trizbort.

And finally, to create an Amstrad CPC and PCW disk image, you will have to use the Puddle BuildTools.



PunyInform v3.1 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson to write text adventure games

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PunyInform v3.1 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson is a library written in Inform 6 to create adventure game (pure text, no graphic support contrary to DAAD) using the Z-machine virtual machine which will run on 8bit computers (or more recent computers too). PunyInform has a parser, knowing of common verbs and a framework to write adventure games.

PunyInform is based on the Inform 6 library written by Graham Nelson. Its goal is to make easily adventure games in Inform 6, with a manual describing the differences between the official library and PunyInform..

Games using PunyInform can be compiled in z3, z5 and z8 format (z3 being the best format for 8bit computers, other formats have more features). Compared to the Inform 6 library, it means that there is no support for the Glulx virtual machine but z3 format is important as Inform 6 doesnt support it.

To compile games written with PunyInform, you should use the Inform 6 compiler maintained by David Kinder. Binaries are available on if-archive. PunyInform needs Inform v6.35 (or more).

They are tutorials to write adventure game with PunyInform (end of the page) and all the documentation including a 8 page cheat sheet (quick reference)..

To try your game after compilation, you can use WinFrotz by David Kinder, to create map easily you can use Trizbort.

And finally, to create an Amstrad CPC and PCW disk image, you will have to use the Puddle BuildTools.



Elite the New Kind by Christian Pinder for windows (and other platforms)

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Elite the New Kind by Christian Pinder is a remake of Elite made by reverse engineering based on the source code of the BBC version of Elite and written in C. This version has been ported to many platforms. For a while it couldnt be available, but since the 30th anniversary of Elite, it's once again available.




Puzzle Bobble by Crazy Piri is available for download

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Crazy Piri has released yesterday its Puzzle Bobble, have fun !

Credits are : Benjamin (OneVision) Yoris for the graphics, Stephane (Shaan) Liuzzi for the sound and Miguel (RedBug) Vanhove for the code. For the loading screen : Cedric (LeZone) Grandemange for the graphics, Alexis (KOOPA) Lambin for the sound and Bruno (Kukulcan) CPCPOWER for the code. Additionnal credits : Julien (Targhan) Nevo for the musical player AKG and Andre Leiradella for the 280 QR code library : qrc1.




Gates of Integrity for windows, a remake of Bards Tales by Oliver Lenz

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Oliver Lenz is the author of the Amstrad CPC emulator for msdos (v0.8a) and windows (v1.02) : Arnimedes.

In May 2020, he finally finished its remake of Bards Tales : Gates of Integrity. Beware it's oldschool, you can save only in the guild.




Jewel Warehouse 2 by EgoTrip, a platform/reflexion game for Amstrad CPC

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After Jewel Warehouse released in 2016, Egotrop just released its following, simply Jewel Warhouse 2, a platform/reflexion game for Amstrad CPC. It uses the development framework CPCTelera.

There is also a Nintendo DS version Jewel Warehouse.





CHR$(143) by Nicolas JEAN, a tribute to Amstrad CPC 464 CHaRacter$ based games

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CHR$(143) on Steam by Nicolas JEAN for 3,29 € is a game for windows being a tribute for the Amstrad CPC 464 (user-defined) "CHaRacter$" based games.

Guiding a small group of "agents", you will gradually discover a Lost World, the seemingly simple graphics of which conceal its hidden complexity...

You will learn to move in it, to understand its physical properties, to accumulate sufficient stocks of materials, to build structures, machines and vehicles, to engineer various types of power plants to fullfill your growing needs for energy, and to search, sometimes even in the fog of war, for the enemy that your destiny requires you to defeat...

72 built-in levels + unlockable User Level Editor and (experimental) unlockable LAN Multiplayer Mode.

You can see on Nicolas JEAN's Youtube some videos including ones about level 5 et 6 (spoiler alert).




RASM v1.6 by Roudoudou, a multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC

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The last version of RASM is v1.6 (29th October 2021).

Rasm is now available on Github (documentation included).

This multi platform assembler (linux, windows, but not only like MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC.



Josh, a reflexion and arcade game for Amstrad CPC by Retropoke

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Josh is a reflexion and arcade Amtrad CPC game by Philippe MOULIN (Retropoke) for the code, Kukulcan for the introduction and game ending, and Rayxamber for the music.

This following description comes directly from CPC Power : between reflexion and d'arcade, Josh will bring you in varied enigmas which aim is to get all fragments of diamonds in a box of the same color to go to the next level. On your road, you will find differents objects which will help you to accomplish your mission and differents ennemies who will want you to loose. Beware you have only one try and any mistake will plunge you in an infinite void.

Retropoke has written many other software for Amstrad CPC this last years, check on CPC-Power.




736 Kb of RAM on an Amstrad PPC 512 and PC 1640 by Retro Theory

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Thanks to the Super PC/Turbo XT BIOS 3.1 Retro Theory now has 736 Kb of RAM under msdos, super fast booting compared to the stock BIOS/ROS. Mem check is skipped, parity checking had to be altered, and CGA 80Col is hardcoded for now.

He had to modify the source code for testing the Nec V30 processor which is on the PPC 512. This stock new BIOS works well on an Amstrad PC 1640.

The additionnal RAM comes of course from an ISA board.



NOMWARS, an Amstrad CPC game written with 8BP v041 (and more)

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Jose Javier Garcia Aranda has released a new version of NOMWARS (tape and disk) written with 8BP v41 (8bits de poder : 8bits of power), his RSX library to write Amstrad CPC games in basic and asm.

A physical edition of the game can be bought on Hobby Retro.

You can download 8bp on github.

You can also get SPEDIT v14, an utility to capture sprites from games or pictures made with an utility such as ConnvImgCPC, Martine...

And finally, he is working on a menu application for DES cartridges, to allow easy launching on games installed inside such a cartridge.




3DManiaks, an Amstrad CPC demo by the group Impact

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3DManiaks by Impact is their latest production, an Amstrad CPC demo which is quite nice to see. You can download it on Pouet or on CPCWiki. You can also see 3DManiaks sur Youtube.

The demo has been written by :

  • Demoniak (code)
  • Kris (art)
  • CMP (design)
  • Mast/FtL (music)





SDCC v4.1.0 (C programming for Amstrad CPC) on PC and MacOS

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A new version of the ANSI-C compiler SDCC v4.1.0 is available since the 8th March 2021 for windows, linux and MacOS.



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