News about Amstrad CPC, PCW, Notepad NC100 NC150 NC200, PDA600 and also Amstrad PC






Modded Amstrad CPC+ with HxC floppy emulator and Symbiface by Deepfb

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See below for a nice modded Amstrad CPC+ with the SDCard HxC floppy emulator and Symbiface by Deepfb :

front of modded Amstrad CPC+ with HxC floppy emulator and Symbiface

inside of a modded Amstrad CPC+ with HxC floppy emulator and Symbiface

right side of a modded Amstrad CPC+ with HxC floppy emulator and Symbiface



Bloids1K, an Amstrad CPC demo by Optimus for Euskal Party 18

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Bloids1k by Optimus (Dirty Minds) is a 1 Kb demo (1 effect, no sound) release for the Euskal Party 18 in July 2010.




ManageDSK v0.18 for windows is out

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ManageDSK v0.18 by Ludovic Deplanque is out. It features :

  • create an empty .DSK file,
  • add files in a .DSK file,
  • extract files from an .DSK file,
  • rename files in a .DSK file
  • delete files in a .DSK file,


With your SDCard HxC emulator, select a disk image directly on the CPC

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First, you should download the latest firmware of the SDCard HxC floppy emulator, the v1.3.11.0 corrects some timing problems with Asic 3 (CPC+) and 4 (pre-CPC+), and some bugs. It's best to freshly format (FAT32) your SD card, then copy the *.upd and *.cfg to the card. Press Left and Right buttons before power up and keep it pressed at least 1 seconds at power up. Wait some seconds, it's done.

There is now an Amstrad CPC program to directly choose an image. This program (just run"hxc) is in the autoboot.hfe disk image. By pressing the middle button, the autoboot.hfe disk is automatically selected. It has been compiled with Small Device C Compiler and still need to be optimized (slow drawing using system calls). The program has been converted to a ROM by Krusty, but as the original program is changing fast at the moment, it could be a bit early to download it.

choosing a disk image directly on the Amstrad CPC with a SDCard HxC emulator



Mode 1 pictures by Jill Lawson

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Thanks to Papy CPC (at the Amstrad Expo 2010 meeting) who knows this site better than me, this picture gallery file which was credited to an unknown artist has found its rightful author : Jill lawson. Below you will see her beautiful mode 1 pictures. Enjoy them (last 2 pictures comes from les sucres en morceaux).

Abbey by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Alan Michael Sugar by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Cacti by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Dog by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Flamingo by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Frog by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Jet by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Max by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Mona Lisa by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Penguins by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Steam boat by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Stonehenge by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Swans by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Tiger by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Toutankhamon's mask by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Train by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Another train by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Boat and bridge by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC

Cliff by Jill Lawson, mode 1 picture on an Amstrad CPC



Color Lines is out, really, I dont lie, it's for real, you have to believe me

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Ten years after the development of this game started, it's out. First, I would like to introduce this reflexion game with the own words of the author (who for sure had smoken a CPC+ cartridge as he seems to be under the effect of Acid) :

Warning, warning ! Color Lines must not be put in everybody hands. Wonderful graphics, melodious music, perfect playability are just there to hide the incredible addiction power of this game. Enter a world where pure logic and sometimes luck are you only weapons !

Sadly the physical package (box, documentation, 3 and 3,5 inch disk) will be only available to the lucky people who were present at the Amstrad Expo Meeting. Back from the meeting, Tom and Jerry will release a .DSK of his game. Maybe later package will be available for order, not sure though. The documentation and the game itself are in french and english.

To play this game is easy, on a 9x9 chessboard you have to align 5 circles of the same color in all possible directions, the game ends when the chessboard is full.

Many people did contribute to the game (France, Greece and United Kingdom) :

  • Z80 code : Tom and Jerry
  • main graphics : Eldrik
  • music and sfx : Tom and Jerry
  • additionnal music : Ultradsy
  • beta testing : Supersly
  • skins (chessboard and score panel) : Eldrik, Supersly, Ced, Papy CPC, Fano, Macdeath, Rex, VoXfReaX, Nori, Winner
  • english translation : Nicholas Campbell
  • cover and stickers : Lobo and Kukulcan

The first picture (front cover of the game) below is a collector, you see on it my hands taking the photo

Color Lines front cover

Color Lines front and back cover

Color Lines disks

full package of Color Lines



Burnin' Rubber incoming on Playstation Network

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Too bad it's not the Burnin' Rubber we all know, which came with all Amstrad CPC+. Instead this game was called Bump 'n' Jump, aka Burnin' Rubber in Japan, it's a 1982 Japanese arcade game created by Data East Corporation.

Burnin's Rubber on playstation network



Windows XP on an Amstrad CPC 464, yes you can !

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It just needs a lot of tapes...

fist tape to install windows XP on an Amstrad CPC 464



Cpcdsk and the Caprice Reloaded emulator

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Cpcdsdk is a project aiming to collect the various bit of existing sourcecode in one common place for the linux OS relative to the Amstrad CPC, add the missing features, and make life easier for all developpers :

  • The Caprice Reloaded emulator, with integrated assembler and debugger, for windows and linux,
  • gfx2crtc, a tool to convert pictures to the amstrad sceen format,
  • An imporved version of Ramlaid's cpctools, now running under linux, with (limited) support for usb floppy drives
  • A special version of STSound from Leonard, modified to emulate an AY3 more accurately (the original emulates the slightly different YM chip used in the Atari ST)
  • Hideur Maikeur by Downwater for handling AMSDOS headers
  • iDSK from sid for manipulating dsk images and files inside.