Archives for the month November 2020 of Genesis8 Amstrad Page





dMagnetic v0.27, a Magnetic Scrolls emulator by Dettus for various BSD and Linux distributions

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Magnetic Scrolls is an english editor known for his adventure games :

  • The Pawn (1985)
  • The Guild of Thieves 1987)
  • Jinxter 1987)
  • Fish! (1988)
  • Myth (1989)
  • Wonderland (1990)

Today you can emulate the Magnetic Scrolls games thanks to dMagnetic v0.27 by Dettus which you must compile for several versions of Unix (BSD, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo) with ANSI drawing in a terminal.

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.




A Remake of Ghost'n Goblins for Amstrad CPC 6128+ by Golem13, Winner and Ixien (April 2020)

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I am late but a preview of Ghost'n Goblins for Amstrad CPC 6128+ by Frédéric Poesy, Thomas Ferté and Julien Riet is available since April 2020 after 4 years of development. This preview is an Amstrad CPC+ cartridge image, not an image disk. To access the game parameters, please press space or button 1 during cartridge boot.

BDCIron has done a video of this preview.



Throne Legacy by Arnaud Bouche for the CPCRetroDev 2020

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Arnaud Bouche is the author of Bitume (CPCRetroDev 2017) and Deeper Warrens (CPCRetroDev 2018). For the CPCRetroDev 2020 he has written Throne Legacy inspired by l'Aigle d'Or (golden eagle) from which you can see some gameplay on Youtube.

The game was written with CPCPower and Titan for intro (and story), Ced for making and greatly improving graphics and SLT for tireless testing.

The game is using CPCTelera and Arkos Tracker.







Program some Locomotive Basic with Visual Studio Code and test directly with Basic Unchained

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Visual Studio Code is a programming IDE for many languages and now also thanks to an extension by Cebe74 the Locomotive Basic with syntaxic coloring, renumbering and running thanks to CPCBasic Unchained by Marco Vieth directly inside VSC.

CPCBasic Unchained is an interpreter of Basic Locomotive written in javascript, so you can add it on a web site if you wish.

There is another possibility to write Locomotive Basic programs : using CPC Basic 3 by Dinoneno which I wrote about earlier. There is a forum about CPC Basic 3.



Augmentinel v1.5 by Simon Owen, a remake of The Sentinel for windows

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Simon Owen, the author of SAMdisk has written Augmentinel (remake of The Sentinel) with VR support. He is using the original ZX Spectrum game under emulation but with better graphics and C64 sound.

Since v1.0 released the 1st April 2019, they are the following modifications that you will be able to check yourself.



Final version of the adventure game Tristam Island by Hugo Labrande for Amstrad CPC and PCW

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The finale version of the adventure game Tristam Island by Hugo Labrande is available for 3,99 dollars only. The demo version limited to the first chapter with a gameplay estimated to 1 hour-1 hour 30 (first part of the game) is still available.

This adventure game uses the PunyInform engine by Fredrik Ramsberg. It is in fact available for 36 platforms (8, 16, 32 and 64 bits), including the Amstrad CPC and PCW.



Classic Adventurer issue 9 is out, about adventure games

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Classic Adventurer is a newspaper about adventure games which last issue is a special edition and is out as a free download or in printed format.

This issue has for example an article about games about the Tolkien books, and more of course.




CPCEPower v2011, an Amstrad CPC emulator by Megachur (linux, windows)

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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.




Fire Tyre v2 by CNGSoft, a racing game taking 5th place at the CPCRetroDev 2020

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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 !



Sorcerers v1.1 by Salvador Cantero for Amstrad CPC

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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.




RASM v1.3 by Roudoudou, a multi platform assembler for Amstrad CPC

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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


dMagnetic v0.28, a Magnetic Scrolls emulator by Dettus for various BSD and Linux distributions

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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.



Turbo Rascal SE v0.11.5 and an Amstrad CPC demo in pascal by Leuat : Mørketid

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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 !

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.



CapriceESP32 by Millim, an Amstrad CPC emulator on Odroid Go

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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.

the Amstrad CPC emulator CapriceESP32 runnin Throne Legacy



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