New version of the Amstrad CPC core for MiST by Renaud Helias is available. : TV mode with border and screen well centered.

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.

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

Fourth version of the CSW2CDT tool suite, which is a set of three programs whose main purpose is the encoding of computer tapes used in the Sinclair ZX and the Amstrad CPC.

Caprice Forever v2017-3 by Frédéric Coste is a modified version of the Caprice emulator (by Ulrich Doewich) for windows.

• Preliminary SNR session playback
• Insert Caprice32 FDC engine as fast FDC
• Add support for DualShock 4 wireless controller
• Preliminary text rendering for DMP2160 Dot Matrix Printer
• Add scripts to help entering cheat modes
• Add keyboard clash phenomenon (« Ghosts » keys)
• Add CPC 664 french machine (different hardware keyboard than UK)
• Add recent disk images list
• Add favourite disk images list
• Add display option to keep fullscreen for next session
• Use custom patterns for scanlines (see Hints)
• Add option to never update disk images
• Fix minor bugs

New version of the Amstrad CPC core for MiST by Renaud Helias is available.

• TV mode using VSYNC/HSYNC xor and Gerald VSYNC/HSYNC width formula
• This version was realised with atari forum team, testing several experimental forks
• It does output 15kHz original signal on SCART. Do use mist.ini scandoubler_disable=1 (see http://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki/DocIni)
• sorry FDC work will be for a next time : my r005.8.15 candidate version does fail 80% of arnoldemu FDC testbench...

The original Amstrad notepad NC100 emulator was written by Russell Marks. Nilquader has modified it, and Gnarz has modified this modification.

Gnarz's modification features :

• removed the vgalib and terminal versions
• made the gtk version compile with GTK+ 2.0
• made the sdl version compile with SDL2
• made the menu key available on modern keyboards emulate the NCs menu key
• changed the serial port emulation to allow it to use devices other than stdin/stdout. For example, the command socat -d -d PTY,raw,echo=0 PTY,raw,echo=0 creates a nice serial device emulator, whose ends are output by the command. You can specify the open end with -s, and use the other end with cat or sx or what have you... stdin/stdout is still available by passing - as an arg to -s
• some cleanups in the Makefile
• added ncconvert

Colin Pitrat is the author of a port of the Amstrad CPC emulator Caprice32 initially programmed by par Ulrich Doewich.

Caprice32 features :

• Complete emulation of CPC464, CPC664 and CPC6128
• Mostly working support of Plus Range: CPC464+/CPC6128+/GX4000 (missing vectored & DMA interrupts, analog joysticks and 8 bit printer)
• Joystick support - it can be fully used with joystick only, thanks to an integrated virtual keyboard.
• Joystick emulation - joystick-only games can be played using the keyboard
• English, French or Spanish keyboards
• DSK and IPF files for disks - VOC and CDT files for tapes - CPR files for cartridge
• Snapshots (SNA files)
• Direct load of ZIP files (all formats except IPF)
• Custom disk formats
• Printer support
• Memory tool to inspect and modify memory (peek and poke)
• Experimental support of Multiface 2 (you should prefer using memory tool)
• Text mode graphics (using aalib or libcaca)

The CSW2CDT tool suite is a set of three programs whose main purpose is the encoding of computer tapes used in the Sinclair ZX and the Amstrad CPC families during the Golden Age of European videogames (1982-1994), when tapes were the most popular distribution method of commercial software :

• CSW0 is a command-line program that reads WAV audio sample files and writes CSW V1 packed samples
• CSW2CDT is a command-line program that reads CSW1 V1 packed samples and writes CDT/TZX tape images
• CSW2CDT-UI is a dialog-driven program whose graphical user interface simplifies the usage of the first two tools.

The general procedure is divided in several steps :

• The tape must be sampled as an uncompressed WAV audio file whose quality should be at least 22050 Hz. Mono and 8 bits are preferred over stereo and 16 bits
• The resulting WAV file must be fed to CSW0, that will measure all the square waves and produce a CSW V1 file. Optional flags can be used to perform band-pass filtering on the signal
• This CSW V1 file will be handed to CSW2CDT, whose task is to scan the data blocks within and build a CDT/TZX image. Again, optional flags allow for increasingly complex processing of the contents
• The CDT/TZX image ultimately needs to be tested then in an emulator that can play tape files back, such as CPCE and WinAPE for Amstrad CPC titles or FUSE and UnrealSpeccy for ZX Spectrum softwares

CSW2CDT-UI eases the procedure because its graphical user interface is more comfortable (although less flexible) than the command line : choosing the sample, generating the CSW V1 file, and encoding the CDT/TZX file can be performed by pushing buttons and choosing options. It also allows for the reverse procedure of playing back CDT/TZX images into CSW V1 files and WAV audio files with some few mouse clicks.

Dlfrsilver, loyal alphatester and main inspiration, wrote the French and English handbooks.

There is a simple solution to avoid anti-aliasing in screenshots taken in the Amstrad CPC emulator WinApe. You have to disable the option Pal Emulation.

The solution was given by Roudoudou.

ACE v1.14 by Philippe Rimauro is an Amstrad CPC emulator for MorphOS.

A new version of the desktop JavaCPC is available. It's an Amstrad CPC(+) emulator written in Java by Markus Hohmann (DevilMarkus).

New version of the Amstrad CPC core for MiST by Renaud Helias is available.

• IO_ACK trigger in edge, not in state (better in some scrolling...)
• WAIT_n generator ignoring M1 while IO_ACK
• OSD entry : "MEM_wr" mode : quick or slow. quick by default.

quick : Arkanoid II, Prehistoric II. Ecole demo. Pinball Dreams
slow : Saboteur 2. Still Rising demo.

The MIST is a Field-programmable gate array (FGPA) board designed to implement classic 16 bit computers like the Amiga and Atari ST(E) as System-on-a-Chip using modern hardware. But it equally well supports 8 bit systems like the Atari XL, ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari VCS, Atari 5200, Colecovision, Apple II, Sega Master System, NES, Odyssey2 and of course the Amstrad CPC.

Renaud Helias has written an Amstrad CPC 6128 core for this Mist Board. The last revision of this core can run correctly the Still Rising demo by Vanity (see the youtube video).

Caprice Forever by Frédéric Coste is a modified version of the Caprice emulator (by Ulrich Doewich) for windows.

• Fix FDC engine to pass most of Kevin Thacker's acid tests
• Add option to cold reset at real speed (see Hints)
• Load disk and tape from ZIP archives files
• Add disk menu to manually update and reload disk image
• Add disk menu to manually update and reload disk image
• Fix Tape to load The Last Mission
• fix minor bugs