The 29th and 30th October 2024, big floods have taken place in the province of Valencia in Spain.

Human losses are to be deplored, nothing will be able to bring them back, enormous damage, lost memories...

However, for the computers that we like, it is possible to do something. I will therefore let you see the restoration of an Amstrad CPC 464 that was found under mud. It looks like archaeology when it comes to removing the layer of mud that is still partly wet !

Eto announced yesterday his iRAM/640, an internal 512 Kb RAM expansion for Amtrad CPC 6128 which needs no soldering at all : remove the Z80, insert the expansion in the CPU socket ! Of you course if you use a DIY kit, you will have to solder the components.

Legacy software that supports the DK'Tronics memory standard will be able to access up to 576K of RAM (the maximum suppored by DK'Tronics). More recent software, like e.g. SymbOS, with support for the enhanced Yarek/RAM7 standard will see the full 640K.

You can read the genesis of the iRAM/640 expansion in this CPCWiki's thread.

My personal point of view, it's a very useful RAM expansion, thanks Eto for your work.

Abalore annonced three days ago the v6 ROM for his Amstream card which you can download on CPCWiki.

Amstream is a MX4 card to directly download Amstrad CPC(+) programs from internet. This new ROM version can now also run Locomotive Basic programs. The ROM still prints a v5 version even if it's v6.

HxC Floppy Emulator Manager v4.2 is available.

It features :

• CLR key added to move back to root folder while navigating
• C key added to clear current slot (that was removed since version V3.0 and +)
• ROM version can be launched with |HXC,0 or |HXC,1 to force physical drive 0 or 1
• upgraded from SDCC 4.3 to SDCC 4.4

It remains compatible with the 64KB RAM-based machines, and the ROM version is directly available into the AUTOBOOT.HFE file.

Newsflash, Rodrik Studio is presenting the PicoCPC which was made with the help of FreddyV (PicoMEM's author) who announced it on Twitter.

The PicoCPC features :

• ROM, so can change a 464/664 in a 6128
• RAM, all mode except the mode C3 (important for at least CP/M+ and Fuzix) at the moment)
• keyboard remapping to EN/FR/ES
• Floppy disk Controleur (only work with 464 and 464+
• MEA8000 emulation used in the Technimusique vocal synthetizer (french product)
• Reset bouton

This PicoCPC is using the Raspberry Pico 2, so it could be possible to get more features in the future, like we can see what can be done with the Pico 1 used in the PicoMEM card with a PC XT. The sound of a Gravis Ultra Sound on an Amstrad CPC o.O ?

The FD-1 drive is a second disk drive for Amstrad CPC 664 and6128 or first disk drive for Amstrad CPC 464 when you connect it to the DDI-1 drive controller.

Amstrad Retro Geek is showing a Gotek integrated inside a 3D print FD-1dans un FD-1 avec impression 3D réalisée par Benemerit (Madrid).

The Amstrad CPC 464 in the video has a DK'Tronics 64 Kb RAM extension and its ROM has been replace by one of the 6128 : basic v1.1 instead of v1.0.

The ESP32AY by Alexander Sitnikov is a hardware AY musical player (Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MSX, Pentagon, ZX Spectrum). It reads many different formats (more informations on Github).

Archer presents his unofficial Amstrad CPC mini made with the hardware emulator CPCESP (CPCESP on Twitter) and 3D impression. It's nicely made.

The original Albireo card was created by PulkoMandy, it offers mass storage (USB and SD card) and a serial port. It is nice to be used with the Unidos ROM (Futurs). Zik (Futurs) has obtained the agreement of PulkoMandy to create a v2.0 of the Albireo card without the serial port, and already two batches of the card have been sold. But to make a third batch, 20 to 25 orders are needed. So don't hesitate to torder one as the price of 25 euros is peanuts for the features.

Stephbb75 is making video on Youtube about Amstrad CPC cross development. The last video (29th November) is available. The first five videos are here :

• installing SDCC, a C compiler
• drawing
• using disks
• draw an image
• create a slideshow

Stephbb75 is making video on Youtube about Amstrad CPC cross development. There are already five videos :

• installing SDCC, a C compiler
• drawing
• using disks
• draw an image
• create a slideshow

Bread80 has several projects at the moment, he is working recently on two interesting ones.

First project in two parts, the presentation of the Amstrad CPC Revision Zéro, yes the one base on a 6502 processor which was never finished. It was shown by Roland Perry at a spanish meeting, and Deepbf was able to take photos. So Bread80 did analyse in a first part the working of this prototype card which was clearly non functionnal. In the second part, he is starting to design a working 6502 Amstrad CPC (with a 2 Mhz model like the BBC computer).

Second project which is the following of the one started in 2020 by designing a new Gate Arry using a Rasperry Pi Pico 2040, but now that the new Pico model is out, he is starting using the Raspberry Pi Pico 2350 more powerful and which has more GPIO, in three technical parts (first part, second part, third part).

The V9990 Powergraph video card for MSX (cartridge) can be used on an Amstrad CPC with an AMSDAP card (MX4 ports and two MSX cartridge ports but only those using IO of the Z80, not those using memory functions, so you can use for example a V9990 and a sound cartridge).

Everybody knows the robot demo moving in a forest, well now thanks to HAL6128 you have something else to chew. You can download the DSK and see for yourself the result in this video by Poulette73 (see below).

HAL6128 bought a V9990 a moment ago but didn't use it, till recently to learn using it. He downloaded a non playable demo of a fighting game using the V9990 for MSX and adapted it for Amstrad CPC. It looks like a mode 1 screen but with 16 colors instead.

The M4 Board which let you add wifi on your Amstrad CPC just got another firmware v2.0.8 which corrects DNS issues occurring under certain conditions (first seen with french users).

There is also a new extended documentation of the M4 board written by Csaba Toth in english (PDF format).

Minesweeeper by Under4Mhz is a reflexion game for Amstrad CPC released in January 2024. It's a remake of the classic game for windows.