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.

First announced in May 2024, SymCalc by Prodatron for SymbOS is available since the 18th October 2024. It's a spreadsheet software for the SymbOS operating system. Le code de l'application disponible sur la page github de SymCalc, its documentation is available on SymbOS web site.

Last version of the FutureOS operating system by Gunhed for Amstrad CPC was released 4 days ago. So lets update your FutureOS installation to be able to read the disc mag FutureView 5 Halloween issue (if you don't update you risk to have difficulties to read it, if you want to use the ROMs do use the slots 10 to 13, otherwise you can use the DSK installation or the M4 files to put at the folder of the M4 SD card).

New versions by Roudoudou of his RASM Z80 assembler v2.2.9 and of his ACE-DL Amstrad CPC emulator (10/26/2024) :

• Dandanator goes to Basic mode without cartridge to avoid side effects
• new button in Machine configuration to reinit the entire machine (no plugin, no rom, no breakpoints)
• import of natives ACE breakpoints from RASM symbol file
• may click Timer in Trace to reset nop counter
• may press F7,F8,F10 when trace mode but focused on another window
• added HOME/END and Shift+HOME/END in memory explorer to navigate in memory and selection
• more persistence for CRTC register value change
• update also RASM to benefit direct import of native ACE breakpoints

The last version of multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC RASM (v2.2.6) was released yesterday 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.

Manuel3D is the author of 3 Amstrad CPC programs, two utilities : New font for Amstrad CPC and Draw a star, and also a game : the hangman.

On his Youtube channel, his latest video is one about a case for an Amstrad CPC 464, but I dont know if he is the author of the 3D model.

New version (16th August 2024) of mTCP NetDrive, an utility by Michael B. Brutman which lets you connect under ms-dos a network drive which is in fact an image disk hosted on a windows or linux server (disk drive or hard disk image) for only 6 Kb of RAM (adds the RAM for the packet driver though).

A nice utility to use with the PicoMem card by FreddyV.

SymbOSVM by Prodatron and Insane/Rabenauge is available on its web site, it's a virtual machine which goal is to run natively SymbOS on recent 32/64 bits processors.

SymbOSVM by Prodatron and Insane/Rabenauge is a virtual machine which goal is to run natively SymbOS on recent 32/64 bits processors.

SymCalc, a spreadsheet for SymbOS by Prodatron was first seen with screenshots in may 2024. Everything works in RAM, you need at least 192 Kb of RAM, with 126 lines and 64 columns (should be 250 lines later). An alpha version was released in June 2024.

PCRetroTech is a recommended Youtube channel if you are interested by the Amstrad PC 1512 (with its 16 colours CGA mode) and PC 1640 (with its plantronics mode). I recommend these videos (there are more of course, the 3rd is also about Amstrad CPC) :

• Studying the Amstrad PC1512 Graphics Chip
• 16 Colour Graphics on the PC in 1982 (plantronics mode on PC 1640
• Amazing Dithering in CGA and EGA Graphics (and how it works), also for Amstrad CPC with the online utility Dithertron which could use more video modes of the CPC (interlaced, mode 2...), see the Dithertron's github

MicroWeb v2.0 par James Howardest un navigateur web pour processeur Intel 8088 (et +), CGA, EGA, VGA ou Hercules, interface réseau ou port série et driver EtherSLIP), souris recommandée non nécessaire, 640 Ko de mémoire recommandé, EMS/XMS non nécessaire (mais permets de charger des plages plus importantes en taille). Cette nouvelle version apporte les fonctionnalités suivantes :

• Support for more video modes, including monochrome and colour modes (including Amstrad PC 1512 in 16 colors mode)
• GIF images are now loaded
• PNG and JPEG dimensions are loaded but not the content
• Improved font rendering and better Unicode support for accented characters
• More HTML tag support including tables and forms
• Can now leverage EMS memory (if available) for larger pages and images

Shawn Sijnstra (and Stefan Vogt) are working on VEZZA his Infocom/Inform/Z-machine interpreter for Amstrad CPC and PCW (and other computers) to play adventure games without needing a memory expansion (Inform format v1 to v8), under CP/M and not Amsdos. The program you need to dowload is different if you are using an Amstrad CPC (vezza-nb.com) or a PCW (vezza-90.com).

For the 3th PunyJam contest PunyJam he wrote with the PunyInform library a text adventure game : Blorp! (February 2023). This is a short adventure set in an underwater brewery. You left your rather expensive experiments in the hands of your friend Dave, but you know something isn't right. You better have to download the Airlock Collection pack for its Amstrad CPC/PCW disk image, the Itch page has only a Z3 and Z5 infocom file.

James has modified Wolfenstein 3D to work on a PC XT in CGA and also wrote a web navigator : MicroWeb for Intel 8088 or compatible CPU, CGA, EGA, VGA or Hercules compatible graphics card, network interface (it is possible to use your machine's serial port with the EtherSLIP driver), mouse is desirable but not 100% required, 640k RAM is desirable. EMS/XMS are not required. And thanks to the author of the PicoMEM, MicroWeb is now supporting the CGA 16 colours of the Amstrad PC 1512 (was monochrome before, and GIF support too), but I dont see a new release in the github, so wait a bit.

Martine v0.40 is an utility written by the Impact group :

• converting JPG and PNG images to Overscan screen or window for Amstrad CPC (and Plus series)
• new tile map mode, which allow to analyze an image of a level game, and produce .imp and .til readable by tile tool from Impact

This version is available as today. It is available for Windows, MacOS, ARM64 and linux.