SAMdisk v3.8.10 by Simon Owen is out since the 18th December.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

• added read and write support .qdos (QL) disk images
• added --irregular option for blind output image if first track isn't regular
• added --fill to set filler byte for regular formats
• fixed setting perpendicular mode for 1Mbps data rate
• fixed reading directly to single-sided formats from a:/b:
• fixed short data indicator showing on no-data sectors
• fixed raw output not using source format fill byte for missing sectors
• changed raw output to allow blank head 1 to mirror head 0 format

There is also a Samdisk 4.0 beta version on github for windows, linux and MacOS.

After the reparation of an Amstrad Notepad NC200 by C-E, it's the turn of the reparation and modding of an Amstrad CPC 6128 (copy and paste of a CPCWiki message with the permission of C-E, thanks to him).

Last time I went to Spain I was digging in my old bedroom, that is basically a time capsule that takes you back to the 80s/90s, and I found my original CPC 6128 hidden in a closet along with the color monitor that came with it. There was also an old PC PSU I was using to power the computer, a 3.5" drive, a few home made cables... It seems that I put everything there when I was given a bunch of Pluses for free in 1997. After that, I was mainly using a 6128 Plus. The poor guy was pretty battered: very yellow keyboard that is probably not original (those keys look like coming from a Plus); a crappy ABBA switch hanging from a pair of cables; lots of scratches here and there...

However, despite its condition, this Amstrad is still very important for me. I spent my childhood with the machine, me and my friends played countless games on it, I used it to program a lot of crappy stuff and a few "games"... in summary, lots of great memories. So, when I came back to UK I brought the guy with me to restore and mod it :)

This is what I am planning to do:

• New caps
• Dual OS
• Centronics ports
• ABBA switch (a decent one)
• Reset switch
• 5VCPC
• Floppy drive restoration

and, if possible, internal RAM expansion.

Externally nothing will change besides the little hole for the reset switch and the case modification required to fit the Centronics ports. It will look like a Schneider 6128.

So... I finally had time to do something with my old 6128. It is still a work in progress but I thought that I could give you an update and show some pics :) . The first thing I did was just to remove the board from the case and clean it a bit. Here is how it looked before cleaning. It is a 6128 board version 2.

Then, I removed all the electrolytic caps, the 40015 and the solder that was filling the holes for the centronic ports. To remove the 40015 I simply cut the pins and then they were removed one by one. I was using the old good braid all the time. Here is the stripped board.

Before going on, I think that it is worth saying that it is NOT necessary to remove all the electrolytic caps in a CPC 6128. The only one that can be problematic if you install the 5VCPC is the cap near the power socket. Bryce found that if it is not OK the computer will likely reset. I just decided to replace them with high grade new ones because I felt like doing it, nothing else :) . In any case, if you decide to change the electrolytics, pay attention to one that is near the AY, it is a 50V 1uF NON POLAR cap.

The next step was to prepare the socket for the dual OS. I followed this tutorial from Bryce that describes all the necessary steps in great detail. This is my modded socket :

After this I recapped the board and soldered the socket in place :

Finally I installed the new ports. I attached them to the board first using screws and nuts and then I soldered the leads. There are quite a few, but it is still a reasonably fast process.

And it seems that it works... :)

There are still three clones left of the mouse interface sold for 27,50 € (France) or 31,50 € (worldwide). They are made by Talkrek, it's a clone of the Dk'tronics mouse interface created by Bryce.

I am late, but No sin mi Amstrad is an article by Álvaro Corazón Rural with pictures by Jelena Arsic seen on Jot Down web site an also in a paper edition it seems. It's an article about the Amstrad Eterno 2017 meeting which held in Barcelona on the 18th March 2017.

A new version of the Caprice32 emulator by Colin Pitrat is available.

Karamoon wrote a solution for the Amstrad CPC role playing game Fer and Flamme created by Hervé Lange on Gros Pixels.

The CRPG addict tried to finish Fer et Flamme (english this time).

You can find an interview of the author Hervé Lange on Amstrad.EU (french) made in March 2011 by NoRecess.

Many informations are available on El Linaje Real by ESP Soft on Retro Maniac, in spanish.

CHIPNSFX tracker+player suite is a musical software suite focused on lightweight code and data (the player itself is under 950 bytes long, and can be as small as 550 bytes) for the Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum 128 and MSX1 platforms; other hardwares can be supported with minor modifications in the player code, such as Sega Master System. The tracker can create songs up to 256 patterns long, patterns can be up to 96 ticks long, and there can be as many as 255 different instruments. The player itself is hardware-independent, the programmer can provide the external functions required to make it work on any Z80-based platform. CHIPNSFX was succesfully used in past projects such as :

• CNGTRO #1
• Justin
• Bubble Bobble for CPC
• Frogalot
• Hire Hare

Thanatos remixed by DJ ThumpHeadAche is a superb adaptation of the Thanatos music, you should really listen to it.

Already mentionned in 2011, a beautiful play of Thanatos on piano by Alpiso is quite a hit too (Alpiso Youtube's channel has more Amstrad CPC tunes).

Warming some old 2011 news is still useful, the next link wasnt good in 2011 (corrected now), so what about listening to a Thanatos guitar arrangement played by Pacopersia this time ?

For the longplay video by cholo go to :

• part 1 of Thanatos
• part 2 of Thanatos
• part 3 of Thanatos

Eight Bit Magazine will print this Eight Bit Adventurer column by Stuart Williams about the adventure games on 8bit compouters. Stuart is already writing in Eight Bit Magazine about Apple computers, and an article the apple adventurer will be in the incoming issue 3. For more informations, go read Retro Computing News.

Issue 3 of Eight Bit Magazine can be pre-ordered.