Novabug presents his personal top 11 of the Amstrad CPC games of 2017.

The top 11 of 2016is here also.

1Kusai by Shinra is an Amstrad CPC 1Kb intro released at the Forever 2018.

The source code of 1Kusai is available.

So, the idea was to fit Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa in 1K.

I worked from an SVG file and removed a lot of details until it would fit the allocated space (packed with zx7). Eventually it ended up too small after some late minute changes to the code which improved the compression. Oh well.

The SVG was converted to bezier curves using NanoSVG, then a custom Lua script to convert the usual bezier curves definitions into a form more suitable for computation. Normally a Bezier curve is defined by X and Y equations which look like this :

x = A(1-t)³+3B(1-t)²t+3C(1-t)t²+Dt³

We can rewrite this as : Z + t(Y + t(X + Wt))

With:
Z = A
Y = 3B
X = 3C - 6B
W = D - 3C + 3B - A

So in this form we need only 3 multiplications.

The computations are done using CPC firmware which provides neat floating point math support. I compute 256 points along each curve (this could be adjusted to less points for faster drawing, at the cost of slightly less smooth curves) and draw lines between them. Then the system FILL routine is used to fill the closed shapes.

The sound of waves and thunder you can hear is just the Y or X coordinate (I don't remember, whichever sounded best) sent to the AY noise register (again using the CPC firmware, because this is the most space efficient way). I tried to write some music using the free bytes left but did not manage to do anything very convincing. Next time I'll try to spend more effort on the sound side.

Seascape CPC by Devilmarkus was released at the Revision 2018 demo party.

Onescreen Colonies by Vanity was released at the Revision 2018 demo party.

Isometrikum by Vanity got the first place at the oldschool demo competition of the Revision 2018 demo party.

After Oldschool is beautiful and his video serie about programmation, Zisquier is doing the same thing (french inside).

• Second lesson
• Third lesson

The latest Amstrad CPC demo by Condense : PhX has been released at the Revision 2018 meeting (Allemagne).

• Live video of phX by Octoate
• Video of phX by NoRecess

Code is by NoRecess, art by CED, audio by Factor6, trackloader by Arnoldemu. It was programmed over a period of 5 years.

April Fool ALERT, April Fool ALERT

I have received the same email than Markus Hohmann as he announced it on Facebook.

So Alan Michael Sugar is asking to remove all ROMs of the Amstrad CPC firmware for a copyright reason as an Amstrad CPC mini will see the light later this year.

I was waiting for such a beast, but I didnt think about possible consequences. Though I will respect what he is asking as I have never wanted to put illegal programs on this web site.

The extension card ZX Dandanator mini which exists on ZX Spectrum should see the light on Amstrad CPC : the CPC Dandanator mini, announced by XeNoMoRPH on Amstrad.ES.

You can read all the features of the original card on its author web site (see above).

A new version of CPChessNet (v1.7b) by Joseman is available to play chess on internet with your Amstrad CPC and the wifi card M4 Board (by Duke).