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 v0.41.4 is a command line interface utility written by Impact for Linux, MacOS X and windows with the following features :

• conversion d'images JPG et PNG vers Amstrad CPC(+) au format fenêtré, normal (les deux peuvent être compressés) ou overscan (sans compression possible)
• nouveau mode tile map qui permets d'analyser une image d'un niveau de jeu et de créer des fichiers .IMP et .TIL utilisable avec le nouvel utilitaire de tile d'Impact
• création d'un .DSK ou .SNA si besoin, avec ou sans en-tête AMSDOS
• direct transfer if you have a wifi M4 Card

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 his 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

Arkos Tracker v3 by Targhan is available on his web site which holds several tutorials. The last version available is v3.2.1 (21th October 2024). It's a beta version but totally usuable as stated by the Targhan, for windows, mac and linux (intel and ARM).

Dizark isn't anymore embedded in Arkos Tracker and has now its own web site. Disark is a Z80 disassembler, but it is more than that as it can be used to convert sources from an assembler to another.

Below you will find the content of the announcement of Arkos Tracker 3 on CPCWiki :

Arkos Traker 3! It is a 100% redesigned, recoded version of Arkos Tracker. Don't worry though :

• Compatibility with the previous versions of AT is ensured
• The players are unchanged, minus a few bugs (AKY users should re-encode their files though)

A few features :

• Open source
• A completely new instrument editor
• Simplified pattern management
• Undo/redo everywhere
• Theme-able

The last version of 8BP (v042-01), a programmation framework, is presented by his author on his web site. This version is available since the first September.

For your information, the documentation of 8BP is now available in five languages.

And if you want to program with 8BP under windows, then why not take a look at IDE8BP written by Toni Longo and released at the end of May 2024. You will find a présentation of IDE8BP's features on AUA.

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 :

• Albireo by PulkoTronics
• M4 Board by Duke
• X-Mass by Tot0
• Symbiface II by Dr.Zed
• Nova by PulkoTronics

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 v1.51 is a minor release released in September 2024, which is only fixing the|COPY RSX so that it also works properly with weird binary headers generated by some PC tools.