The last version of Atic Atac for Amstrad CPC by Jown Ward is available on his github page.

A fourth video of Atic Atac is available on John Ward's Youtube channel.

Something I should have written about much sooner.

These last years several expansions allows you to use mass storage (USB or sd...) on Amstrad CPC, each needing a ROM to use it correctly.

And if you use two of these expansions, you will need to load two ROMs, so less RAM for your Amstrad CPC.

So Offset did write UniDOS and drivers to be able to use another expansion, needing only one ROM with features being the same whatever the expansion. Unidos can manage actually :

• Albireo by PulkoTronics
• M4 Board by Duke
• X-Mass by Tot0
• Symbiface II by Dr.Zed
• Nova by PulkoTronics

Offset also wrote UniDOS Cartridge Creator (v1.4) which is an utility to create Amstrad Plus cartridges equipped with a patched firmware which allows to add UniDOS and its DOS nodes. You can furthermore configure up to 30 additional tool ROMs (such as Utopia, Maxam, Protext..) in the cartridges (compatible with ParaDOS and Burnin' Rubber) without requiring a real ROM board. The tool also let you automatically download the latest UniDOS ROMs from the official web site.

You can download a linux virtual machine by Francisco Gallego to develop Amstrad CPC programs including :

• CPCTelera 1.5/dev
• RVM
• WinAPE
• Visual Studio Code
• Terminator
• Gimp

To learn Z80 assembly, I only knew the book by Rodnay Zaks, but it seems it's not the best one after reading this Twitter thread. So the book by Lance A. Leventhal would be more didactic and less redundant.

These two books are available on Amstrad CPC Mémoire Ecrite, but beware the last edition of the Rodnay Zaks's book is 1982, the one by A. Leventhal is 1983. Don't download an older version. Rodnay Zaks also exists in french, spanish and german (in 1982 and 1987).

Coloco by Tuxedo Games already exists on ZX Spectrum and is in beta for the Amstrad CPC.

Check the video of the beta on Youtube.

After Gem Jam, Arnolde is now working on a version of Wordle for Amstrad CPC.

Arnaud Bouche who already wrote several Amsrtad CPC games has just announed on CPCWiki a WIP CPRG with nice screenshots.

Mananuk (on Twitter) who is already working on a Amstrad CPC port of Black Sea Treasure Hunters (ZX Spectrum), has just released the Mandarin.

It's a platform game using the MK1 engine by the Mojons Twins and the WYZ player/tracker) by Augusto Ruiz.

A video of the Mandarin was done by Xyphoe. Click on this link to start directly to the game.

PunyInform v3.5 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson 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 v6.35 (or more).

They are tutorials to write adventure game with PunyInform (end of the page) and all the documentation including a 8 page cheat sheet (quick reference)..

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

And finally, to create an Amstrad CPC and PCW disk image, you will have to use the Puddle BuildTools.

The first project for remplacing the Gate Array did start in 2016. It is finished by Gerald, the author of the C4CPC used on CPC+. The difficulty is getting the components to build it...

The second fonctionnal project but still being worked is the one by Bread80, go see his videos on his Twitter account.

Third project more recent, the one by SerErris as a CPLD who was inspired by the thread of the first project.

The Gate Array has also being remade for emulations solutions using FGPA.

A new Gate Array would also mean to be able to add new features !

I am not alone to be interested by using MIDI on Amstrad CPC : blog Amstrad Noob did write about it some days ago : First looks at the Ultimate CPC MIDI Sound and MIDI Interface Card.

A video is now available.

AmstradGGP has released a second teaser for its game Mighty Street Fighter.

Seen on Facebook, the issue 12 of RetroMagazine World by Francesco Fiorentini is released in english and italian.

And a web article about the correction of a basic (and asm) basic listing : Frotee which was in Amstrad Computer User issue 34 in September 1987.

Aquablue is a short demo for the Amstrad CPC by Cyrille GOURET. it's available on the Amstradiens Facebook group.

You can see a video in the Twitter link. The video below is related to Aquablue (video by Comsoft).

Basic Instinct CPC who is on Facebook is making streams about basic programmation on Amstrd CPC in basic on Twitch.

AST continues to work on SYSco which is a file manager compatible with many new DOS such as AlbiDos (usb/sd), Amsdos (Floppy A and B), iMPdos (X-Mass 128/512 partitionned) and probably the M4 board and Unidos later (if you use AlbiDos, you should move to Unidos btw).

Symamp by Prodatron is a musical player for SymbOS which let you play these formats :

• MOD (4 canals)
• SA2 (Surprise! Adlib Tracker 2)
• SKM (compiled Starkos modules)
• ST2 (Soundtrakker 128 modules)
• PT3 (ZX Spectrum Protracker/6channel Vortex Tracker)
• MP3

It supports the following sound cards/chips (all internal sound chips of course) :

• Dave soundchip of the Enterprise 64/128
• CPC Playcity expansion
• MSX Darky catridge
• Dk'tronics AY soundcard for the PCW
• any MP3MSX compatible MP3 decoder on any platform
• OPL4 (MoonSound, MonsterSound, OPL4 Shockwave, Dal So Ri)
• carte Willy de Pulkomandy

Zym by Prevtenets is an adventure game interpreter for Infocom like games using the Z-machine. It can play infocom games with using the format Z3, 4 5 and 8.

Freedos v1.3 is available and there is a version for 8086 with a FAT32 feature! So it should be usable on an Amstrad PC. I will test it this week-end.

Amtix 3 by Fusion Retro Books is available. Find FRB on Twitter et Facebook.

Annnounced a few days ago, Arnolde has released the Amstrad CPC version of Wordle.

Eric Cubizolle (Titan) was on the Froggy's Delight's channel to explain pixel art, its history and its practice (youtube video below).

You are so used to it, but the cover of your Amstrad CPC disk drive has some informations. Why not getting an upgrade of these informations by getting the one made by Frédéric Bellec (ACME web site) ? It's available in azerty and qwerty, and in english.

If you still didnt buy the MegaCard to upgrade your MegaPC, there is another useful upgrade. Replacing the Megadrive ASIC on the ISA card as it's an early version with a bug. Beware, you need to be careful when removing the bugged ASIC and putting a new one coming from a Megadrive donor. It will let you use flash cartridges with more success like the MegaEverdrive PRO (other source here).