Archives for the month January 2019 of Genesis8 Amstrad Page






Happy new year 2019

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I wish you all and also to your loved ones a happy new year 2019, good health, and long life to our Amstrad CPC, PCW, NC...



CP/M Box v1.8 by Habi Soft, an Amstrad PCW emulator

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CP/M Box by Habi Soft, an Amstrad PCW emulator, is available in version 1.8, with a lot of new things : new video system (with color support), new languages system, actions, video recording, a new better debugger, more hardware options, light pens, mass storage, test PCBs, fast loading, keyboard redefinition...




RASM v0.105 by Roudoudou, a multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC

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The last version of RASM is v0.105 (2nd January 2019). This multi platform assembler (linux, windows, but not only like MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC.

The online documentation is available.

  • do not allow CALL (IX) or CALL (IY) syntax
  • added comments begining with //
  • added SIZEOF support for fields of structures
  • new directive TICKER to count instruction duration


M4FE v1.9.8, a frontend in ROM for the Amstrad CPC wifi extension card M4 Board

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The new version of M4FE v1.9.8, a frontend for the wifi M4 board by Abalore is available. It needs the last firmware for the M4 : v2.0.5b8 for the support of long file names.



New v2.0.5b8 of the firmware for the wifi card M4 Board by Duke

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The M4 Board which let you add wifi on your Amstrad CPC just got another firmware v2.0.5 beta 8 :

  • Fix DSK file size 0 bug
  • Fix |longname / C_FSTAT bug, now (again) displaying long filenames properly
  • Fix Hack menu - Slowdown keyboard reading
  • Added Hack menu - Support full keyboard character set (QWERTY only for now)
  • Added Hack menu - Pokes (Press ESC when done entering pokes)
  • Added Hack menu - Display memory


New v2.0.5b9 of the firmware for the wifi card M4 Board by Duke

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The M4 Board which let you add wifi on your Amstrad CPC just got another firmware v2.0.5 beta 9 :

  • Fix Hack menu - Flaw in IM 2 detection
  • Fix Hack menu - Resume "some games" (Pinball Fantasies, atleast on my one CPC)
  • Added Hack menu - AZERTY keyboard support (Huge thanks to @dxs for the painful keymap table! And thanks to @ZbyniuR for the keyboard detection method)


New v2.0.5b10 of the firmware for the wifi card M4 Board by Duke

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The M4 Board which let you add wifi on your Amstrad CPC just got another firmware v2.0.5 beta 10.

It adds the ability to launch hack menu via external button. It requires soldering two wires to the M4 PCB (the wifi module).

If you are happy not using Hack Menu or just launching it from the WEB interface, no reason to make this modification. If you decide to solder on the switch, be aware it is at your OWN risk.

Be careful not to short the wires to the metal housing of the ESP12F module. I recommend to isolate the wires at the resistor and button to avoid an accidental short.



An Amstrad PCW 8256 in a case by Sebastian Blanco

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What could you do if you had a spare PCW 8256 main board ? You could put it in a case like Sebastian Blanco did, see below.














New v2.0.5b11 of the firmware for the wifi card M4 Board by Duke

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The M4 Board which let you add wifi on your Amstrad CPC just got another firmware v2.0.5 beta 11.

This version corrects the loading of CPC+ cartridges which was broken by a previous beta.



M4FE v1.9.9, a frontend in ROM for the Amstrad CPC wifi extension card M4 Board

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The new version of M4FE v1.9.9, a frontend for the wifi M4 board by Abalore is available. It needs at least v2.0.5b8 firmware of the M4 wifi board for the support of long file names.



Using Amstrad CPC+ cartridges with a Raspberry PI ?

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I dont know if it is possible to use Amstrad CPC+ cartridges on a Raspberry PI, but I certainly know that it is possible with MSX cartridges and this cheap computer, with the BlueBerryMSX or OpenMSX emulators.

Well, maybe I will give an idea to someone ?




Shadow on the Beast on Amstrad CPC+ and Amiga soon, and already on PC

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Shadow of the Beast was released in 1990 by Psygnosis. Megachur is working on an Amstrad CPC+ version. Five videos are available on Megachur's Youtube channel.

Also, as seen on MO5.COM, an unfinished PC version already exists : EON released in 2014 by François « Wonderboy Bobi » Perez (Aggelos). And an Amiga port is being written by a spanish team : AmigaWave.




RASM v0.107 by Roudoudou, a multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC

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The last version of RASM is v0.107 (16th January 2019). This multi platform assembler (linux, windows, but not only like MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC.

The online documentation is available.

update v0.106

- multi-line comments with /*  */

update v0.107
- colored output with Unix terminal- trigger error if a (VOID) arg is used with a
 macro which has parameter(s)
- added Vasm syntax ENDREP and ENDREPEAT to end a REPEAT block
- enforce zero result when there is an error in a calculation
- new directives NOEXPORT/ENOEXPORT to disable/enable on demand symbol export



CPCWiki cited in a document for accepting new Unicode characters

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New characters will be added to Unicode following an Unicode working group doccument, which mentions a CPCWiki page about keyboard versions as a reference.

Sadly, only 2 Amstrad CPC characters will be added to Unicode, and not all of them as I thought at my first quick lecture, the dream was short.



RECOIL, a picture viewer for Android, Windows, macOS and Linux including Amstrad CPC pictures

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RECOIL is an application for Android, Windows, macOS and Linux to view 20th century computer pictures, including the Amstrad CPC. Seven pictures formats of the Amstrad CPC are recognized (some I dont know) :

  • CM5+GFX (mode 5)
  • FNT (8x8 font)
  • HGB (HinterGrundBild)
  • PPH+ODD+EVE (Perfect PIX)
  • SCR+PAL (Advanced OCP Art Studio)
  • SGX (SymbOS)
  • WIN+PAL (Advanced OCP Art Studio)


An Android remake of Deflektor by One Red Pixel

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Deflektor is a classic game written by Vortex Software with a music by Ben Daglish. A non officiel Android remake exists in the Google store Google Under the name of Deflektor Classic by One Red Pixel. The remake has a 4,4 note, which is a good note, maybe you have some time to spare ?





Strider, the complete story by Slopes Game Room

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Slopes Game Room on his Youtube channel is talking about things including the story of video games. This time it's about the série Strider serie (1 and 2) released on Amstrad CPC in 1989, created by Capcom and edited by U.S. Gold.




The Amstrad CPC remake of Phantomas 2 will be released this Friday

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Phantomas 2 was released in 1986 on ZX Spectrum by Dinamic Software.

Since March of last year Jordi Sureda and Santiago Ontañon have been working on this Phantomas 2.0 for Amstrad CPC, which ended last December. The game will be released this Friday 1st February on Github.

More informations in spanish on Ready and Play.

It can be bought on Matranet.





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