After three years of work, SymbOS v4 by Prodatron is available. It's a GUI OS for Amstrad CPC, PCW and Notepad 100/150/200, MSX, Elan Enterprise, ZX Spectrum Next, SymbOSVM.

The Desktop Manager has received new controls, such as one for drawing large grids and the long-missing fully functional tree view with collapsible nodes. Lists, trees and pulldown menus can now contain icons thanks to the new inline support of the Advanced Text Control.

The Sound Daemon provides platform-independent sound services for multiple programs. With Arkos Tracker-based PSG and MOD-based Wavetable support, users can enjoy high-quality sound effects and music in apps and games. GUI events can be assigned to system sound effects, improving the interactive experience.

The Printer Daemon acts as a spooler for multiple print jobs and supports unified formatting codes and network TCP/IP printing. It ensures seamless printing from different applications using a printer-specific driver.

SymbOS C Compiler (SCC) is the new ultimate developer kit for building SymbOS applications using the C programming language. Based on the Fuzix compiler, it features a proper libc port for plug-and-play compilation of existing code, extensive (Posix) wrappers and helper functions for SymbOS system calls, detailed documentation to help you get started with SymbOS programming, multithreading, graphics and sound support, and a complete sample application for reference. It can run on Windows as well as directly on SymbOS !

SymbOS 4.0 supports kernel-level data compression to save disk space. Transparent file management allows compression of existing file formats, data blocks can be decompressed up to 63 KB at a time.

Many other improvements have been added, such as the famous Alt+Tab task switcher, Usifac II/Ulifac support, Nova RTC support and countless more things.

Three new supported platforms have been added to the SymbOS family, including Amstrad NC100/150/200, ZX Spectrum Next, and SymbOSVM, which allows SymbOS to run almost natively on modern 32- and 64-bit platforms.

The last version of multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC RASM (v2.3.3) was released five days ago on Github.

• ability to remap any UTF8 char when using inline struct and parameter overload
• Rasm MSDOS version is back ^_^

This multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC (for linux, windows, and also for MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC. It's recommended to use it with the new emulator also by Roudoudou : ACE-DL released today, to get symbols and breakpoints importation and much more.

First time I write about SplitRaster+ by Roudoudou even if it was first out in 2019... It's a line command utility for windows, linux and macos which converts PNG pictures for Amstrad CPC+ up to 1000 couleurs ! Yes you did read this number, but seriously usually it will be around 300-500 colors, by using rasters and Amstrad CPC+ hardware sprites.

You can download SplitRaster+ 2025 on Github. I let you check what it can do (extracted from CPCWiki) :

Holdfast is an Amstrad CPC simulation game of a village written by K.J. OLLETT and edited in 1985 by Kuma Computers.

Tom and Jerry (GPA) has translated the game in french and also corrected a bug. The original game has a good critic on CPC Games Review.

The last version of multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC RASM (v2.3.2) was released today on Github.

This multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC (for linux, windows, and also for MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC. It's recommended to use it with the new emulator also by Roudoudou : ACE-DL released today, to get symbols and breakpoints importation and much more.

HxC Floppy Emulator Manager v4.2 is available.

It features :

• CLR key added to move back to root folder while navigating
• C key added to clear current slot (that was removed since version V3.0 and +)
• ROM version can be launched with |HXC,0 or |HXC,1 to force physical drive 0 or 1
• upgraded from SDCC 4.3 to SDCC 4.4

It remains compatible with the 64KB RAM-based machines, and the ROM version is directly available into the AUTOBOOT.HFE file.

I missed the initial release of SCC (SymbOS C Compiler) in September 2024 by Prevtenet. The version v1.1 just got out today. It's a C compiler, a fork of Alan Cox's brilliant Fuzix Compiler Kit reworked into a complete development toolchain for SymbOS. Currently SCC runs on Windows and cross-compiles binaries for SymbOS, but can also cross-compile itself to run natively (albeit slowly) on SymbOS itself.

You can download SCC v1.1 on Github.

Disk Image Manager v2.8.2 by Damien Guard is an application for examining and manipulating disk images in the Standard and Extended DSK format used by many ZX Spectrum, Amstrad PCW and CPC emulators.

Disk Image Manager v2.8.1 by Damien Guard is an application for examining and manipulating disk images in the Standard and Extended DSK format used by many ZX Spectrum, Amstrad PCW and CPC emulators.

ConvGeneric by Roudoudou is a command line utility (windows, MacOS) to convert PNG to Amstrad CPC formats like sprites, tiles, complete screens... :

• Multimode support
• Software sprite conversion
• Tile extraction
• Tiled screens mode
• Metatile mode
• Screen conversion
• Hardware sprite extraction

Beware this utility can't reduce the number of colors, if you need this then use :

• Martine
• ConvImgCpc

To make so beautiful Amstrad CPC loading screens like Eric Cubizolle (Titan), it's easy, you just need to use the same painting program : Multipaint by Tero Heikkinen AKA Dr. Terrorz, and maybe a bit of talent and mostly a lot of work.

Titan is describing Multipaint as a mmix of OCP Art Studio and Deluxe Paint for windows which offers the possibility of using the resolutions and palettes of a whole bunch of old computers including the Amstrad CPC (mode 0 and 1, overscan possible in mode 0).

Martine v0.40 is an utility written by the Impact group with a new big feature : an editor, and soon a linux version.

It's a CLI utility to convert JPEG or PNG image files into SCR/PAL or Overscan Amstrad CPC file screen. Multi os, you can convert any pictures to Amstrad CPC Screen. The files generated (.win, .scr, .ink) are compatible with OCP Art Studio and Impdraw V2 i2.

Roudoudou has created a web site to learn Amstrad CPC assembler programmation even if you are just starting it (french inside).

Arkos Tracker v3 by Targhan is available on the new web site, the new site isn't complete but it holds already several tutorials. The last version available is v3.2.2 (1st December 2024). It's a beta version but totally usuable for windows, mac and linux (intel and ARM).

This new version brings a few bug fixes and many improvements in the user interface, especially in the Instrument Editor.

New versions by Roudoudou of his ACE-DL Amstrad CPC emulator (11/18/2024) :

• new extra Timer to increase ACE refresh accuracy
• added Atari SC1224 monitor emulation
• Added configuration SAVE/LOAD in configuration main menu
• Added configuration select from command line
• Left-clic on Reset must not reinitialise extended memory
• Command line option to select another Audio driver (AceDL -h for help)
• all GUI almost translated in French (optional)
• bugfix plastic cover size with CTM filters
• bugfix ACE breakpoints + evolutions