The firmware v1.1.6 of the Imperium Solo by Duke is available. This update is important if you are using a mouse.

It's an adaptator to use USB joysticks (PS4, Xbox One...) and mouses on a standard joystick port of an Amstrad CPC and other 8 and 16 bit computers.

A Notepad NC200 lets you put under the disk drive one type 1 PCMCIA card which is a RAM or SRAM card with a button battery to save the ram when outside of the Notepad. The problem is that the NC200 can only hold type 1 PCMCIA cards as type 2 are thicker, too big for the slot. Also these 1 or 2 Mb RAM cards are not much better than the capacity of 1,5 or 2,5 720 Kb disks.

But David Given who is the author of CP/Mish (CP/M for Notepad NC200) has been able to use a type PCMCIA adaptator in which you put a Compact Flash card (16 Mb). CP/Mish is of course able to use such mass storage. However it needs to open the NC200 case to change the PCMCIA slot guide with a new 3D printed part !

You can see his video on Youtube in which you can see the case being opened, so why not also changing the disk drive with an USB Gotek ?

The firmware v1.1.5 of the Imperium Solo by Duke is available (more wireless gamepads supported).

It's an adaptator to use USB joysticks (PS4, Xbox One...) on a standard joystick port of an Amstrad CPC (and later ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga and Atari ST).

The french Facebook group Amstradiens has done two videos on its Youtube channel about the Dandanator mini :

• its features and use
• using the Rom Generator software

Simulant is selling articles for Amstrad CPC, including the WIFI232 which you connect on any computer with a serial port to emulate a Hayes modem where in fact you are using wifi, for connecting to a BBS for example.

But today where is interesting us is their Kickstarter project about Retro Computer inspired USB PC Keyboards and mice including the Amstrad CPC. For the moment, Simulant has the official permission by Acorn, for the Amstrad CPC it is WIP, see their kickstarter page for more informations.

An Amstrad PPC640 computer with only a beeper is not good at all for sound, except if you use a parrallel adaptator such as the Covox4 or the OPL3LPT. I will test it later when Mod Master XT par FreddyV will support it.

But there is still a possibility to have the best sound possible for a msdos computer by using the DB25 serial port (with a DB9 adaptator) and a DB9 to Mini-DIN 8 pins cable (DBK-103 by Hosa Technology) connected to a Roland expander such as the SC-55st (presented by LGR onr Youtube.

In this video the sound only starts at 35 seconds so click on this link to avoid the start of the video which only shows me launching the msdos gsplay utility.

A video on Amstradiens channel by Cyril to show you how to open an Amstrad CPC 6128 plus and clean its keyboard if some keys arent working correctly anymore.

A new version of Mod Master XT beta 19 by FreddyV is available on Vogons. It lets you hear a lot of music modules formats on any PC under msdos even a PC XT (CGA). This last version adds the support for adlib sound music files, and for a next version the support of the OPLxLPT (OPL2 and 3).

A portable computer like the Amstrad PPC 640, released in 1988 has no ISA expansion ports, he has only a feeble speaker. So you may think it isnt possible to get some nice sound except of simple beeps ?

On the Amstrad CPC it was possible to have a better sound using a Digiblaster sound card connected to the parallel port. It was a simple electronic device with several resistors, not difficult to make in fact.

Well, there is the same thing on PC since ages : the Covox Speech Thing.. It is possible to buy a Covox 4 on Serdashop which is an upgraded version of the Covox Speech Thing (higher precision resistors : 0.1% and low pass filter). For more informations about the Covox, I recommand reading the related articles on Nerdly Pleasures.

I also bought the MCE2VGA on Serdashop which lets you use a VGA external screen instead of only using the internal screen which is quite lacking.

The software used here is Mod Master XT beta 18 by FreddyV which you can download on Vogons.

We are in 2020, and at least it is possible to send a SMS using an Amstrad CPC thanks to Kiragregis. It uses an RS232 interface (by Amstrad) connected to a GSM A6 module bought on AliExpress.

If you understand french, you should really listen to the vidéo by Kiragregis, it's a funny one. If you dont understand, maybe the youtube subtitle will be good enough to understand it.

Sylvestre wrote a new article, this time about the Amstrad Plus or the myths of the CPC+.

Damien Guard made a 3D print faceplate to use a 3 inch disk drive inside a PC in a 5,25 inch spot.

The symbiface 3 is presented on twitch by Oncle_ced. The video really starts at 11 minutes.

The firmware v1.1.1 of the Imperium Solo by Duke is available (more wireless gamepads supported).

It's an adaptator to use USB joysticks (PS4, Xbox One...) on a standard joystick port of an Amstrad CPC (and later ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga and Atari ST).

The firmware v1.1.0 of the Imperium Solo by Duke is available (more wireless gamepads supported).

It's an adaptator to use USB joysticks (PS4, Xbox One...) on a standard joystick port of an Amstrad CPC (and later ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga and Atari ST).