New articles are available on 64 NOPS, a blog about programmation on Amstrad CPC by Hicks (Vanity) and Toms (Pulpo Corrosivo).

A.L.C.O.N. 2020 is a shoot them up already existing on Amstrad CPC since 1987. Abalore started to work on a remake in 2016 and it's now available.

The PlayCity extension is not required but recommended to hear the full 6 in-game audio channels. A 2-button gamepad or joystick (best) is also a nice addition to enjoy the full arcade experience.

Programmation is by d'Abalore, graphics by TotO, and music by Targhan.

CPCEC (windows) is a new Amstrad CPC emulator by CNGSOFT first released in 2019, which replaces CPCE (dos/windows). This 19th version (fixed) was released the 12th December 2020.

This new version adds hardware rendering, which can be desactivated if it is better without.

A new version of the Amstrad CPC emulator for Odroid Go by Millim : CapriceESP32 is available (v0.7.1).

It features mute sound and support for cheating (read documentation for using it). To access both features use the Menu Key + B, then Menu Key + Down arrow.

You must put the directory /cpc at the base of the Odroid SD card (especially /cpc/dsk), the .FW will be in /odroid/firmware as usual.

I recommand to read the documentation of CapriceESP32. You must use the Menu key + B to access the .DSK directory then Menu + right arrow to go to the file list, select file with A, press Menu + B once again to launch the selected file. To use the virtual keyboard, press Menu + A and once again to remove it. There is no sound mute at the moment. If you want to reset the emulator, just choose another disk and file to execute.

A new version of ConvImgCpc by Ludovic Deplanque is out (1st december 2020).

It's a windows xp utility to convert PC images to Amstrad CPC.

Infocom is a company created in June 1979 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) staff and students. This company has created well known adventure games (interactive fiction).

They choose an interesting solution to create their adventure games, they could have created games and adapt them on other platforms, instead they choosed to separate the game engine and the game data. So they only have to write an new game engine for each computer.

This game interpreter or virtual machine is called the Z-machine. It was created by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979. The original compiler by Infocom has been lost but Graham Nelson has written in 1993 Inform which can ccompile the source of an adventure game for the Z-machine virtual machine or for the Glulx virtual machine (which removes some limitations of the original virtual machine by Infocom).

The compiler Inform 6 since the v6.30 can compile either for Z-machine or Glulx virtual machine. There is also a version 7 of Inform.

And now comes PunyInform v1.8 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson which is a library written in Inform 6 to create adventure game (pure text, no graphic support contrary to DAAD) using the Z-machine virtual machine which will run on 8bit computers (or more recent computers too). PunyInform has a parser, knowing of common verbs and a framework to write adventure games.

PunyInform is based on the Inform 6 library written by Graham Nelson. Its goal is to make easily adventure games in Inform 6, with a manual describing the differences between the official library and PunyInform..

Games using PunyInform can be compiled in z3, z5 and z8 format (z3 being the best format for 8bit computers, other formats have more features). Compared to the Inform 6 library, it means that there is no support for the Glulx virtual machine but z3 format is important as Inform 6 doesnt support it.

To compile games written with PunyInform, you should use the Inform 6 compiler maintained by David Kinder. Binaries are available on if-archive. PunyInform needs Inform v6.34 (or more).

They are tutorials to write adventure game with PunyInform (end of the page).

To try your game after compilation, you can use WinFrotz by David Kinder, to create map easily you can use Trizbort.

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 !

Leuat has written an Amstrad CPC demo with TSRE : Mørketid released for the Syntax demo party 2020. The group is Proxima with code and graphics by Leuat and music by Mibri.

Seen on Odroid's forum (there also), there is finally an Amstrad CPC emulator for Odroid Go by Millim : CapriceESP32 !

You must put the directory /cpc at the base of the SD card (especially /cpc/dsk), the .FW will be in /odroid/firmware as usual.

I recommand to read the documentation of CapriceESP32. You must use the Menu key + B to access the .DSK directory then Menu + right arrow to go to the file list, select file with A, press Menu + B once again to launch the selected file. To use the virtual keyboard, press Menu + A and once again to remove it. There is no sound mute at the moment. If you want to reset the emulator, just choose another disk and file to execute.

dMagnetic v0.28 by Dettus is available for several versions of Unix (BSD, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo) with ANSI drawing in a terminal. This utility lets you play adventure games by Magnetic Scrolls. This version adds support for extended DSK.

The emulator is using the original files of the games for Amstrad CPC, C64, msdos, windows (1991 compilation), .MAG et .GFX files on the magnetic scrolls memorial.

AlbiDOS v0.84 par Philippe Rimauro is available for the expansion card Albireo for Amstrad CPC to use USB mass storage.

The last version of RASM is v1.3 (24th November 2020).

Rasm is now available on Github (documentation included).

This multi platform assembler (linux, windows, but not only like MorphOS on Amiga) let you program for Amstrad CPC.

Changelog is :

• extended cartridge support
• new directive LZSA1, LZSA2 for crunched code sections
• new directives INCLZSA1 and INCLZSA2 for binary import and LZSA crunching
• new directives XORMEM and SUMMEM to generate checksum of a memory area
• new directive TIMESTAMP to output date/time
• new TAPE option for SAVE directive
• new DMA import options with INCBIN directive (new checks & warnings)
• new enhanced instructions LD IX/IY,BC/DE & LD BC/DE,IX/IY
• new tag {SLOT} for extended cartridge management
• new suffix .HIGH and .LOW to split 16bits register in macro definition
• new option -msep to specify separator for labels inside modules
• new option -amper to use ampersand for hex values
• directive BRK now generates #ED,#FF opcode
• bugfix byte order for Microsoft real format
• bugfix DSK header with nightly build
• bugfix 16bits PCM wav import
• do not warn for missing file with INCLUDE in disabled condition
• do not export struct definition with symbols
• many warnings removed, cleanup, some draft for future functionalities

The last version of the Amstrad CPC emulator CPCEPower by Megachur is available on cpcwiki.

The goal of this emulator is to emulates as best is possible the Amstrad CPC, like ACE.

AlbiDOS v0.79 par Philippe Rimauro is available for the expansion card Albireo for Amstrad CPC to use USB mass storage.

CNGSoft has written for the CPCRetroDev 2020 the game Fire Tyre which a second version has been released the 17th November 2020.

It's a car running game written in only a week which of course uses CNGSoft's CHIPNSFX utility for the music and sound effects. You must finish the 4 tracks in a limited time, 6 laps for each track (clock wise and anti-clockwise). For each lap done you will get more time. The car has two manual gears : low and high. Low gear can only move the car up to 100 miles per hour, high gear up to 180. If a car hits you from behind (impossible to see) then you will loose some speed so watch your gear !

I played the game with CPCEC which is of course the Amstrad CPC(+) emulator by CNGSoft. First I was using the joystick to accelerate and braking (up and down) and the button to change gear but it was hard to play. The game is much easier if you use a button to accelerate and the second button to change gear, braking was configured to the down direction of the joystick but never used. I think that the game would be easier and more enjoyable with no gear changing needed.

The graphics are simple but nice, the musics (introduction and during play) are from C64 games and nice to listen. The big gameplay problem to me is loosing speed after being hit from behind which you cant avoid, and if you forget to change gear it hurts !

Salvador Cantero is the author of Robbie Strikes Back (Amstrad CPC version of Pssst for ZX Spectrum) released in 2018.

He did participate at the CPCRetroDev 2020 for which he won the second place for his game Sorcerers. He wrote the game's code, graphics, cover and manual. McKlain wrote the music and sound effects, Dany Cantero wrote the translations and Blackmores did the game tests.

The game can be played solo and with someone else in competitive mode where you will have to be faster than the other player. In both game mode you will have to collect coins of 1 of 5 to buy potion ingredients. But pay attention to the ingredients price as if you collect too much money you will need to go to the well to start from scratch. When you will have collected the 5 potions needed you will be able to open the door for the next level.

As I played the game I can say that everything is nice : gameplay, graphics, music. So it's not a surprise that it got the second place and also got more awards : Relevo Mention, the Geek-net Award and the IndieGameMusic Award.

The game is available as a disk and tape image for the Amstrad CPC but there is also an .APK file if you want to play on an Android phone or tablet.

The source code of Sorceres is available on CPCRetroDev 2020 web page.