Want to see a modded Amstrad GX4000 by Zaxon ?

Click on the source below to find photos of an Amstrad CPC 464 upgraded with a X-Mem card (memory extansion by ToTO) inside the keyboard.

Xyphoe just published a new video on Youtube, but not about an Amstrad CPC game as usual, this time it's about how to comme d'habitude, mais comment repair an Amstrad CPC 6128 disk drive (belt replacement and cleaning the head).

Available on NoRecess : a new version of HxC Manager forr 464/664 and an interview of Thriller (Cadjo Clan) a demomaker.

Happy X-Mass to everybody

This is a disguised advertisement for the X-Mass by TotO, available for pre-order.

If you want to check the inside of an Amstrad notepad NC100 being repaired by EEVblog, that's here (australian accent inside).

A new hardware interface by TotO the hero which should be available for Christmas on Cent Pour Cent. See below, it's just a copy and paste of this site about the X-mass.

Shown at the ReSeT #18 event in France, the X-MASS is actually work in progress.

This last MX4 expansion is a mass storage. It embed a 128MB turbo flash drive for storing thousands of files into your CPC and definitively make it autonomous as no PC is required to configure and use it.

Developers will be able to work on more ambitious projects requiring megabytes of resources and code to be compiled, breaking the floppy limitation. Used in conjunction with X-MEM, the cross-dev will be no more the only issue for the future.

Last but not least, users will be able to copy, load, save, run files faster than ever !

By the way, the X-Mass can already be used with SymbOS.

After the article Why the Z80's data pins are scrambled, here is another one by Ken Shirriff : down to the silicon: how the Z80's registers are implemented.

The Amstrad notepad NC100 was out in 1992 with the protext word processing (already on Amstrad CPC and Amstrad PCW). But it's also possible to use it with ZCN by Mark Russel wich is a native CP/M, or use the all new Fuzix (fuzix announced on google+), this time an unix (system 5) by Alan Cox. You can emulate an Amstrad NC100 (and also NC150 and NC200) with nc100em (still by Mark Russel) for linux or ms-dos, and since start of 2014 as I just discovered for windows (port by Stefano Bodrato). The MESS emulator also supports the 3 Amstrad notepad NC. If you dont have the original NC100 ROM, you will need the ZCN.BIN file included in ZCN v1.3. You will find more informations about the Amstrad Notepad NC on the excellent Tim's Amstrad NC users site (see ZCN page).

The Amstrad CPC use 3" disks because Alan Michael Sugar got a large batch of 3" drives, and then stayed with it for compatibility. Game editors started to add protections to avoid piracy. Amstrad CPC emulators are using the .DSK format to store the content of a disk (but it assumes that each track have only one size). This format can't manage well protections, for this you need the extended DSK format where each track can have a different size to support more protections, but still not all of them. That's why hardware solutions are necessary to preserve the exact content of the original disks in their totality (and then you can write them again to real disks) such as :

• Kryoflux, this is the official hardware developed by The Software Preservation Society. More on Kryoflux features here. The kryoflux creates a file for each track of a disk in raw format (the track is read 5 times so about 250 Ko per track). Then there is the CT Raw, one file created from the raw tracks, and lastly the .IPF resulting from the CT Raw.
• SuperCard Pro (SCP), contrary to the kryoflux, the SCP creates one file for one disk. With a firmware update, the SCP will be able soon to become a floppy disk emulator like the HxC Floppy Emulator by Jean-François DEL NERO

There is a problem to create .IPF for Amstrad CPC programs, the real disks have been either :

• written in an usine so they will be seens as originals and IPF will be created
• written on a real Amstrad CPC, so they will be seens as copies and IPF wont be created

Every emulator can use the raw or CT Raw kryoflux files if using the SPS decoder library. If an emulator doesnt use this library, then the best thing is to use .DSK created from kryoflux files with Samdisk like those dumped by Maxit on CPC-Power. SuperCard Pro support must be added internally into an emulator. Sugarbox already supports the SCP and of course the kryoflux (from a kryoflux raw or CT Raw, sugarbox can create a SCP file). Samdisk will soon support the SCP hardware, so it will be possible to read one track only.

This news isnt for the young ones under 18 years old. But are they people under 18 years old interested in the Amstrad CPC ?

So, it's the first ever nude photo on this site, and it's a hard one !

By the way, there is an intruder in this photo, a bit hard to find though...

Bryce's last project that you will find on CPCWiki is something that will make you dream : a portable Amstrad CPC .

It will take time, but you can see some photos, it's only a start though, on the CPCWiki subject about the portable Amstrad CPC.

And if it's not too late, go see too the subject about the mouse adaptater for Amstrad CPC.

The question about why the Z80's data pins are scrambled was asked on Slashdot.

And the answer has been given by Ken Shirriff, happy reading.

HxC Floppy Drive Emulator v2.0.18.4 is available on Github.

It's an utility to create images to be used by the SDCard HxC Floppy Emulator, to replace the good old 3 inch disks drives of our Amstrad CPC.

Cent pour Cent is a new Amstrad CPC web site where you will be able to buy extensions created and made by TotO :

• MultiRAM "concept" (still in prototype phase) : a 512KB RAM expansion using the MotherX4 module card format. (8x5cm)The idea is to use a 8x512Kb SRAM IC that allow a design close to a ROM board instead of trying to clone existing DRAM/PAL boards.
• MiniBooster : it is intended to be a CPC Booster replacement board for users who need to exchange data from a modern computer using USB or Bluetooth (optional module) connexion instead of the old DB9 serial connector. This board is MotherX4 formatted.
• MotherX4 : a multi-slots board that allow to plug up to 4 expansions to the back of your CPC like the MiniBooster COM board and the FlashGordon ROM board. Made to fit between the CPC and the CTM, its size is the same as a 3" floppy disc.
• CTC-AY : a card with 2 audio chips (2x Yamaha YMZ294 : AY compatible) on custom ports (no PPI), three left canals and 3 right canals with speaker mono mix and stereo mix, ...