Archives for the month January 2018 of Genesis8 Amstrad Page





Multiplatform Z80 development with free and open source tools by Keith56

-

Keith56, the author of Chibi Akumas (episode 1 and 2) has released a video on youtube to show the setup he has created for developing the multi-platform version of the 8 bit shooter Chibi Akumas with free and open source tools.



Robbie Strikes Back by Salvador Cantero is available, conversion of the ZX Spectrum game Pssst

-

Pssst is a ZX Spectrum game by Ultimate Play the Game in June 1983. You play Robbie the robot which must protect plants from insects, each one needing a specific weapon. It was written by Chris Stamper (programmation) and Tim Stamper (graphics).

Announced a few months ago, the Amstrad CPC version by Salvador Cantero is now available on his web site.








Soon 50 years of history for the Amstrad company, related in Retro Gamer magazine

-

The company Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar TRADing) has been created the 8th December 1968. So at the end of this new year 2018, it will be 50 years of history, which are told in the last issue of the Retro Gamer magazine.

Retro Gamer magazine for the 50 years of history of the Amstrad company




Second part of a video by Keith56 about Z80 gamedev for Amstrad CPC, Spectrum and MSX

-

Keith56, the author of Chibi Akumas (episode 1 and 2) has released another video after the first video showing his setup for cross-developpment : second part of this video detailing some of the challenges and solutions he has found while developing in assembly for multiple Z80 systems during development of his Chibi Akumas game.



Emmanuel Viau, creator of ERE Informatique, honorary member of MO5, some history and video

-

Emmanuel Viau the creator of ERE Informatique became a honorary member of the MO5 association.

You can read a bit of history about him (french only) and look a video interview of Emmanuel Viau on Youtube for about 2 hours (MO5 link here). The video was done in octobre 2017 by retrogamer.ca





Interview of Bo Jangeborg, creator of Fairlight 1 and 2 by Gear of Games

-

Bo Jangeborg is the creator of two well know games I think : Fairlight 1 (a prelude) and Fairlight 2 (a trail of darkness). He was interviewed by Gear of Games.

Richard Jordan had an advanced project of a remake of Fairlight in 2015, but it seems that Bo asked it to be stopped from what I understand from a commentary of the remake video.




RetroVirtualMachine, a new WIP Amstrad CPC emulator for MacOS, Windows and Linux by Jcgamestoy

-

RetroVirtualMachine by jcgamestoy is a new Amstrad CPC WIP emulator for MacOS, Windows and Linux. There is no available version to try at the moment. Though there is a version 1.1.6 which emulates only the ZX Spectrum.

At the moment, there are five videos of the emulator on his Youtube profile.



8bit Annual 2018 magazine by George Bachaelor and John Kavanagh

-

8 bit annual magazine is the new project of George Bachaelor and John Kavanagh.

It's a paper magazine of 250 pages with content for Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and MSX.

The Amstrad CPC part will cover : Hardware (DDi3 USB Floppy Drive Emulator & 512kb Memory Expansion), Previews (Babaliba, Galactic Tomb Golden Tail - Kitsune's Curse, Jarlac, Ninjajar - The Lost Levels, Robbie Strikes Back, Street Fighter 2, Space Moves 2, Sudoplus, Super Mario Bros, The Shadows of Sergoth) and reviews (Chibi Akumas Episode 2, Combat Pilot, Fresh Fruit and Vegetables, Finding Red, Lost CPC Games (Frogger, Acolyte, Ninja Grannies and Unpredictabal), The Lost Treasure of Cuathemoc, Pentomino 4, Turn Quest, Try To Run Away, XALK, PLUS: All 29 games form CPC retrodev reviewed).



A port of Jack the Nipper on Atari XE and XL by Mariusz Wojcieszek

-

Jack the Nipper (1986) is well know in U.K. as it's inspired by a comic : Sweeny Toddler. You play a small kid which must do foolishness without being punished. It was ported on several 8bit computers except Atari. SO Mariusz Wojcieszek who has also ported Gunfright (1985) and Skool Daze (1984) has ported this game just at the end of 2017. The port was done based on the original game on ZX Spectrum and not on the C64 version. But the sound part comes from the Amstrad CPC version. The game in version 1.1 is available on AtariAge.



A fan book (french) about the Makaimura games (Ghosts'n Goblins) at Côté Gamers

-

A fan book of 300 pages for the price of 25 € is available at Côté Gamers about the Makaimura games : Ghosts'n Goblins (1985), Ghouls'n Ghosts (1988) and Super Ghouls'n Ghosts (1991) and all the ports. The book details all the monsters, invtory of each game, les differents derived products and the clones of the Capcom licence. There are others versions of the book with goodies (see the source link below).

Fan book about Ghosts's Goblins and following games








Colour Personal Computing Fanzine issue 1 by James Ford, free to read

-

After the availability at the start of 2017 of the issue 2 of Colour Personal Computing Fanzine by James Ford, the first issue of Colour Personal Computing Fanzine can be read now freely but in black and white as the colour edition was for Kickstarter's backers.



Three spanish graphical adventure games released on Amstrad at the end of 2017

-

Like CPCRetroDev, they was a contest for creating adventure games organized by Bytemaniacos at the end of 2017, and three games were released for Amstrad CPC (download link below) and two for ZX Spectrum :




Final version of Top Top by Rantan, an Amstrad CPC game (plateform and puzzle) for 2 players

-

The final version of a spanish Amstrad CPC game coming from Spain (thanks for a little bit of sun) : Top Top par Rantan, it's a platform and puzzle game with the particularity to be played by 2 players ! it uses the CPCTelera development framework (C language). Top Top was presented at the CPCRetroDev 2015.

I will try it as soon as I can find someone to play with.

The description of the game by its two authors (AlexySGH and Davitsu) : Eira and Elric, a pair of slightly absent-minded magicians, have accidentally unleashed a powerful curse that have divided them, locking them in the dephts of the Tower of Wizardry. Now, they must use their wit and cooperate from afar to escape from the tower. Explore the different levels, avoid traps and solve puzzles to meet your partner at the top.



A Bounder remake on Android and Iphone in 2018 by Swivel Creations Ltd

-

Bounder by Gremlin Graphics in 1986 is a classic. If you want to know its history, you can look at a video on Youtube of Bounder or read its history on Nowgamer.

This year, Swivel Creations Ltd will release a remake of Bounder on Iphone and Android with 3 graphic modes (C64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC).



FPGAmstrad on MiST-board revision r005.8.15.1 by Renaud Helias (hardware Amstrad CPC emulation)

-

A new version r005.8.15.1 of the Amstrad CPC core for MiST by Renaud Helias is available.

VGA counters fix... How can't I see that before ? (found while merging ZX-Uno version...).
Taken into account also in experimental r005.8.16c30 (experimental != validated)



RASM v067 by Roudoudou, a multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC

-

Not very new (February 2017), Roudoudou has written a multi platform Z80 assembler for Amstrad CPC. It was originally designed for the release of his CRTC³ Amstrad CPC+ demo (cartridge mode, banking, ...).

The last version of RASM is v0.67 (21th December 2017) : bugfix buffer overflow with long filenames for export, export breakpoint in snapshot (unofficial Winape chunk), new directive BREAKPOINT, labels begining with BRK or @BRK for local labels will be exported as breakpoints in the snapshots.



FGPA emulation of the Amstrad PCW by Habi Soft, using a CGA color palet

-

Habi Soft who did create an interface adding to an Amstrad PCW a PS2 keyboard adaptator, vidéo (PAL/NSTC), joystick and mouse, now is showing a FGPA Amstrad PCW emulator with colors .

Check the youtube channel of Habi Soft.





New version v0.29 of the Amstrad CPC emulator Sugarbox

-

Sugarbox v0.29, the Amstrad CPC(+) emulator is available. It features :

  • Complete PLUS family support : 464+, 6128+, GX4000. All ASIC functions are supported (making modern demo like « CRTC3″ or « Eerie forest » functionnal)
  • SNA v3 is supported, with BRKS chunks (breakpoints generated by RASM or Winape)
  • Various fix on full screen management (should not crash anymore)
  • Various fix on DSK management. More dumps should be analyzed correctly
  • IPF support : Generated IPF file should be more reliable (no more crash with Samdisk or DTC from kryoflux)
  • Joystick support is better
  • Sound have been reworked


Rampage the video game, its history and ... a film in 2018 with Dwayne Johnson

-

Rampage is an arcade game by Activision, adapted on Amstrad CPC by Marcus RAINBOW, Mak and Nick JONES. You can see all the ported platforms including the Amstrad CPC in this video of the history of Rampage by Novabug. And well, there will be a Rampage film in 2018 (2nd May in France) with Dwayne Johnson, no joke !






Kilobyte Magazine issue 2 of 2017 to read online

-

The second issue of 2017 of the Kilobyte Magazine is available online. It's about 8bit computers, with some part about the Amstrad CPC.

The issue 3 of Kilobyte Magazine is also available, but without Amstrad CPC content except an article about the Logo programmation language which was present on the CP/M disks.




The shadows of Sergoth, a dungeon crawler for Amstrad CPC, interview and making off

-

An interview of the development team for The shadows of Sergoth is available in spanish and english (end of the page). It's a dungeon crawler WIP for Amstrad CPC 6128.

One of the programmers, Chris94, did 2 videos of the making off (french with english subtitles) :



The Pawn remastered version on PC, MAC, mobile and also on ZX Spectrum Next

-

Indie Retro News has found 2 new versions of the Pawn, an Amstrad CPC graphical adventure game by Magnetic Scrolls, one for PC (windows, linux), MAC and Mobile by Strandgames and another for ZX Spectrum Next by Stefan123.



NQ!-Music disc for Amstrad CPC by Shining and HAL6128 (musics by n1k-o)

-

After releasing Pentomino last year, Shining got many feedback of people who liked the music. And as a big ay-chiptune fan and also a big fan of n1k-o, who is the composer of the Pentomino-music, he decided to do a music-disc, featuring only songs from him : : NQ!-Music disc

After getting the permission from n1k-o, the music-disc finally plays 26 songs, choosen by him. Because of the very crooked different frequency of the ay in the sinclair (where all the tunes come from), they sound not always the same on our Amstrad and many of them, he had to fine-tune. Some, which he wanted to use, were nearly impossible to convert, so the choosen-ones are not the 26 best, in his opinion, but the 26 best he could get up and running on CPC.

Since he joined forces with HAL6128 again, the great gfx was completely made by him. As only playing the songs is a little bit boring, and he wanted to play around a little bit with the crtc and the plus, he implemented the CRTC-register 3 equalizer (he thinks this will not work on TFT but on original monitors. Also the picture in Winape shakes a little bit, in JavaCPC it's ok.).

The pictures use 32k-Overscan and because he wanted to be compatible with 64kB, he had to reload some stuff, to arrange everything in the memory. But when you use the cartridge version or something like the M4, this doesn't matter at all.

As mentioned above, he wanted to play around with plus-sprites, so the demo detects if it is running on a plus and then enables (randomised) one of 4 different note-movements. 3 of them use 14 multiplexed plus sprites at the same time, so that you can see 28 notes on screen.



For more news, Go to home page