Archives for the month October 2020 of Genesis8 Amstrad Page






Tetris, an Amstrad CPC port of the Game Boy classic by Crazy Piri

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The Game Boy has just been emulated on Amstrad CPC permitting to play Tetris.

So would a pure Amstrad CPC port by Crazy Piri still be interesting ? In my opinion yes.

So Crazy Piri is a group created the 19th December 2019 for the CPC Gamedev Contest 2020 organized by Pascal Visa for the Facebook group Amstrad CPC pour toujours and beyond.

The group was founded by :

  • Cedric "leZone" Grandemange (graphics),
  • Alexis "KOOPA" Lambin (musician),
  • Miguel "RedBug" Vanhove (coder).




Crazy Blaster by Misfit available on Amstrad CPC (also Rodman)

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Crazy Blaster par Mika (Misfit) REKANEN is available and being sold by The Future was 8bit for 4,99 pounds.

Misfit also wrote in 2018 a remake de Pac Man : Rodman (available on The Future was 8bit).

The video below is of Rodman, not Crazy Blaster.



The source code of Soundtrakker 128 is released by BSC

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BSC has released the source code of Soundtrakker 128.

He is also the author of AYAY Kaeppttn!a SID player/tracker .

He is working on AY³ aka AYcubed, a new SID engine which emulates some parts of the SID sound like:

  • 3 independent voices
  • synthesized square and sawtooth wave forms
  • variable duty cycle on square waves Stereo!


AlbiDOS v0.58 for the Amstrad CPC expansion card Albireo (PulkoTronics)

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AlbiDOS v0.58 par Philippe Rimauro is available for the expansion card Albireo for Amstrad CPC to use USB mass storage.

Pulkomandy is working on supporting USB hubs with the Albireo card.



Turbo Rascal SE for Windows-Linux-OS X, a Pascal IDE to program for Amstrad CPC (and more)

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Turbo Rascal SE (TRSE) is a complete suite (IDE, compiler, programming language, image sprite level resource editor) intended for developing games/demos for 8 / 16-bit line of computers, with a focus on the MOS 6502, the Motorola 68000, the (GB)Z80 and the X86. TRSE currently supports application development for the C64, C128, VIC-20, PLUS4, NES, Gameboy, PET, ZX Spectrum, TIKI 100, Amstrad CPC 464, Atari 2600, 8086AT, Amiga 500 and the Atari ST 520 (complete list here). With the benefits of a modern IDE (error messages, code completion, syntax highlighting etc) and a bunch of fast built-in tools, it has never been easier to program for your favorite obsolete system !

TRSE runs on Windows 64-bit, Linux 64-bit and OS X. Development began on Feb 24th 2018. The TRSE framework contains a number of project examples for multiple platforms, including almost 200 runnable tutorials. TRSE also contains a real-time ray tracer that can export (compressed) data for demo and game production.

Join TRSE on Facebook !



Caprice Forever v2020-10, an Amstrad CPC emulator by Frédéric Coste for Windows

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Caprice Forever v2020-10 by Frédéric Coste is a modified version of the Caprice emulator (by Ulrich Doewich) for windows (32/64 bit).

  • Add Action Replay to filter RAM memory content
  • Audio devices list review
  • Fix some keyboard issues with CTRL key
  • Fix crashes when CSW tape is inserted
  • Fix autotype issues in hardware mapping mode
  • Improve PPI emulation using Arnold PPI tests
  • Improve Input/Output decoder with PPI settings
  • Fix minor bugs



CPCEC, an Amstrad CPC emulator for windows by CNGSoft, 18th release

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CPCEC (windows) is a new Amstrad CPC emulator by CNGSOFT first released in 2019, which replaces CPCE (dos/windows). This 18th version was released yesteray the 10th October 2020.

This new version brings :

  • Big changes in the CRTC logic ("Chapelle Sixteen" runs at last!),
  • new support for Dandanator cartridges (now you can play "Sword of Ianna"),
  • partial Playcity support (enough for Targhan and Toto's teasers to work!),
  • more disc protections that work,
  • new debugging functions (looking at graphics, following a timer, skipping scanlines and frames, etc),
  • improvements in the interface...


Le Mystère de Kikekankoi, a french adventure game, solution and PC remake by Kelebrindae

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Le mystère de Kikekankoi is a french graphical adventure game written in 1985 by Laurent BENES, Didier BERCHIATTI and graphics by Roger NICOLLE. The game was released on Amstrad CPC and Oric 1. They also wrote other games : Orphée, Tony Truand, Top Secret et Sauvez Yurk.

This adventure game has a twist : the time is limited, so you are replying to a SOS to save a woman and go behind a waterfall in a cave to save her.

If you have difficulties to finish the game, you will find the solution of le Mystère de Kikekankoi on Dokokade.

On Dokokade, a remake for PC of the mystère de Kikekankoi by Kelebrindae is mentionned, written in 2010.

You can see a longplay video of Mystère de Kikekankoi by Amstrad Maniaque on Youtube.



A speedrun of Sorcery by Asthalis in 9 minutes 13 seconds on Amstrad CPC

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Sorcery is an arcade/platform game written in 1985 by Dave CHAPMAN, Andy WILSON (programmation) and Ian MATHIAS (graphics), with an idea by Martin WHEELER. It was edited by virgin Games and published by Amsoft. The game was

Sorcery+ is a follow up when you find once again Sorcery but with anonther world where you have to kill the evil necromancer who did emprison your fellow magicians. Beware before finishing the first part and entering the second part of the game, you must have a special item to be allowed to finish the new and second part !

On OursoN Retrogames's youtube channel, Astthalis is showing a speedun in 9 minutes and 13 seconds on Sorcery.



CORSAIR Trainer, a WIP Amstrad CPC game by Bitplane Technomantes (Assembly Online 2020)

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Bitplane Technomantes has released a WIP of its Amstrad CPC game limited to 1 level : Corsair Trainer at the Assembly Online 2020 (direct download). It's a 50hz vertical scrolling shoot them up with 3 difficulty levels.

Programmation is done by Axelay, graphics by Rexbeng and the music by McKlain.

They won the first place at the game development compo.



FlashGordon cards by PulkoMandy are available (rom board)

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FlashGordon by PulkoMandy is a Flash/ROM board and mostly a clone of Bryce's MegaFlash design, with a different flash chip and integrated mods for a reset button and "disable all ROMs" switch. It can be slotted on a Mother-X4, or plugged to the CPC with the appropriate cable (centronics or HE902 to HE10 female, 50 pins). It can store up to 32 ROMs, including optional replacement for ROM7 (need hardware mod on CPC6128/664 to disable the internal one, no changes needed on Plus and 464) and ROM0 (for use of the Hacker or straight-to-CPM boot or other foreground ROMs). Software is available to manage it (either ROMAN from PNG or TFM's RomManager) and will come pre-installed on the boards.

So there is a new batch of FlashGordon available if you are interested.



CPCEC, an Amstrad CPC emulator for windows by CNGSoft, 18th release (fix)

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CPCEC (windows) is a new Amstrad CPC emulator by CNGSOFT first released in 2019, which replaces CPCE (dos/windows). This 18th version (fixed) was released yesteray the 20th October 2020.

This new version fixes two bug, one about supporting the Dandanator, another about the CRTC letting running the Camembert demo, and also adding mouse support for GUI.



Livingstone Supongo a mode 0 arcade game, now in mode 1

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Livingstone Supongo is a mode 0 game by Opera Soft. Nan has made a conversion of this game in mode 1 which you can download a tape image. The translation of the Youtube video is the following : Here is a demo of what is the classic Livingstone I suppose from Opera Soft, but transformed to mode 1 with four colors. The process has been without artistic intervention, being carried out through a process of converting colors replaced by those available in mode 1 and patterns..



Mod Master XT beta 22 for your PC XT, listen to musical modules files

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A new version of Mod Master XT beta 22 by FreddyV is available on Vogons. It lets you hear a lot of music modules formats on any PC under msdos even a PC XT (CGA), for example an Amstrad PC 1512/1640 or a PPC 512/640...

New features are :

  • Fixed one bug for the Tandy Port config
  • Added OPL3LPT Support
  • Changed in the way the mixing buffers are managed
  • Added the support for the Tandy DAC output (DMA)

WARNING: Don't use Pause, it does not work.



Two interesting videos on Mr Lurch's Things about the Amstrad PC 1640 et CPC 464

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Two interesting videos on the Youtube channel of Mr Lurch's Things, the first one about the Amstrad PC 1640. This video did let me know that the PC-CD (Standard Color Display) monitor can of course display CGA but also low-res EGA (320x200 and 640x200 in 16 colors). The PC-ECD (Extended Color Display) monitor of course can display high-res EGA (additionnal 16 or 64 colors in 640x350). There also is a PC-MD monitor (monochrome).

The second video is about the réparation of an Amstrad CPC 464 tape drive (but honestly I didnt see this one).



An Amstrad PCW core for Mister FGPA by Steddyman

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Steddyman did develop an Amstrad PCW core for the Mister FGPA project.

Version two of this core is out since today, it features :

  • Turbo support to 32Mhz
  • Expanded memory support to a maximum of 2MB
  • 3" and 3.5" disk support
  • Dual disk drives
  • PCW 8xxx and PCW9xxx model support
  • All hardware Joysticks and Mice supported
  • 4 colour mode support

You can see a youtube video of this core running an adventure game in 4 colours.



An Amstrad CPC demo by BSC : Musik100 with a new sound engine

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Musik100 by BSC is an Amstrad CPC demo of a new sound engine. You will find more details on CPCWiki.

You can see and especially listen to this demo on Youtube. Listen also to this other youtube video using the same sound engine.

Dont be afraid to go to his Soundcloud page.



iMPdraw Ultimate Pack Edition ! by AST/Imp4ct is released

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iMPdraw Ultimate Pack Edition ! by Impact, their new graphics tools (ConvImgCpc & iMPdraw) but also iMPdos, for xMass management. This pack contains M4_Asic rom, a special rom made by Duke for Amstrad Plus ONLY !!! So if you own an Amstrad Cpc, don't install it. Latest Albireo rom is available on this Ultimate Pack Edition.

iMPdraw works on Floppy Disc A/B, Gotek A/B, M4 sd Card, Albireo Sd Card & Usb, & xMass expansion Board (iMPdos only).

Have a good fun, Bugs reports are welcome, run"install" to start.



A new version of Martine and 3 demos by Impact in 2020

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Martine is an utility converting JPG and PNG images to Overscan screen or window for Amstrad CPC (and Plus series). The last available version is v0.26 which was released the 22th January 2020.

Impact has also released 3 demos in 2020 :



Two Amstrad CPC demos by Oneman : Dash 4 in 1, Starbobs464

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Seen on Pouet, two Amstrad CPC demos by Oneman :




Arcade Game Designer v0.7.10 for Windows by Jonathan Cauldwell

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Arcade Game Designer v0.7.10 is a Windows (32/64) utility by Jonathan Cauldwell to write games for Timex/Next, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Acorn Electron, Dragon/Coco and Enterprise, without any knowing of programmation.

The big news for the CPC is that it should now allow you to import third-party assembler routines and call them in your game with the USER command (plus an optional argument that gets passed in the accumulator). There is an example user routines directory with a couple of routines suggested by users.

There is a forum about AGD, follow the link of the first message to download AGD.



Requiescat in pace Ultrasyd (October 2020)

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Cymbob did announce on Twitter the death of his friend : Ultrasyd, requiescat in pace :-( . There are informations that I would prefer not having to write about it... All the things he wrote will stay in our memories.



ACE v1.22, an Amstrad CPC(+) emulator for MorphOS and Haiku by Philippe Rimauro (Offset)

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ACE v1.22 by Philippe Rimauro (Offset) has been released the 22th October. It's an Amstrad CPC emulator for MorphOS.

PulkoMandy has ported ACE for Haiku since 2017, current version is v1.15.0 beta. You can download on the same page than ACE.



WIP Melkhior's mansion by Richard Jordan for PC and ZX Spectrum (Next)

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Richard Jordan is working on Melkhior's mansion : a 3D isometric remake of Atic Atac, with an available demo for PC. The game will also be available for ZX Spectrum Next and 128 Ko.




WIP La culotte de Zelda on Amstrad CPC+

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La culotte de Zelda is of course a tribute to the game The legend of Zelda released in 1987 on Nintendo NES. The loading screen is awesome, and I await impatiently the release of the game..





64 NOPS, a blog about the Amstrad CPC programmation by Hicks and Toms

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64 NOPS or the art of doing nothing (NO OPERATION) 64 times on Amstrad CPC by Hicks (Vanity) and Toms (Pulpo Corrosivo) is a new programmation blog for the Amstrad CPC.



The Cutting Room Floor, the hidden content in Amstrad CPC games

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The Cutting Room Floor is a site dedicated to unearthing and researching unused and cut content from video games. From debug menus, to unused music, graphics, enemies, or levels, many games have content never meant to be seen by anybody but the developers — or even meant for everybody, but cut due to time/budget constraints. The site has an Amstrad CPC section which you could help to augment (65 games at the moment).



Knight Lore ported by Habi Soft on Amstrad PCW

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Knight Lore released in 1984 on Amstrad CPC has been ported to Amstrad PCW by Habi Soft, with colors too !

If you need help to finish the game, go see StrategyWiki.



Sgt Helmet Training day 2020, the last Amstrad CPC game by the Mojon Twins is out

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Cheman is the last Amstrad CPC game by The Mojons Twins, cover by kendroock, history by maribip, na_th_an and anjuel, music by David Sánchez (aka Davidian aka Murcian). The game uses the following framework/library : MK1 PSTCRA by The Mojon Twins, Cprslib by Artaburu and WyzPlayer by Wyz.

It looks like a Commando BUT ammunitions are limited, dont play trigger happy or you will burn yourself, use your brain. You will use a joystick or the keyboard (O P Q A for directions, space to shoot, directions + space to push a rock for blocking a laser).

You control Sgt. Helmet who has to perform several missions: traverse the enemy camp (with and without ammonition), rescue the hostages, finding 5 bombs, setting them next to the evil computer, then get back to base, or destroy motorbikes. Use keycards to open closed gates and kill every clone soldier if he stands in your way. You can destroy the barbed wire to progress (but avoid touching them!) as well. But beware! Bullets are prized and you better save them. You can refill your ammo with the magazines you will find across the map – but you better be savvy. Use boulders to block lasers so your ass doesn’t get burned and… GOOD LUCK!



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