News about Amstrad CPC, PCW, Notepad NC100 NC150 NC200, PDA600 and also Amstrad PC






Amstrad Eterno 2023, the 30th September 2023 in Malaga

-

A bit late to announce, but Amstrad Eterno 2023 is an Amstrad CPC event in Barcelone (Spain) on the 30th September 2023 (10am to 8pm), more detals on their site, notably Roland Perry, Batman Group and much more.



WIP Booty the remake for Amstrad CPC by Salvador Cantero

-

Booty the remake first released on ZX Spectrum in 2019 by Salvador Cantero is a remake of the original game still for ZX Spectrum in 1984 by Firebird Software and in 1986 on Amstrad CPC.

Ce remake sortira donc aussi sur Amstrad CPC, see the announcement on Twitter.

It is programmed with the collaboration of Beyker, Brundij and Atila Merino. The game will be showed on the Play on Retro stand at AmstradEterno. Check the short video of Booty the Remake on Twitter.





Chloe Aprende a Reciclar and Rigor Mortis, two Amstrad CPC platform games by Churrosoft

-

Thanks to Youtube which showed me a video of Chloe aprende a Reciclar by Francisco José Poyato Falero (Churrosoft), which did lead to his other platform game : Rigor Mortis, which I had both missed at their release (about 2 months ago, seing the download date).







Fugitif by Frederic MANTEGAZZA, a 1991 Amstrad CPC game, commented sources and WIP remake

-

Frédéric MANTEGAZZA and Laurent DIEUDONNE (his cousin) are the authors of an Amstrad CPC game edited by Lankhor : Fugitif. Drawing are by Jean-Paul RENAULT (read the description on CPC-POWER about the drawing, it's interesting), music by Laurent MOLLARD and box cover by Stéphane POLLARD.

box cover by Stéphane POLLARD of the  Amstrad CPC game : Fugitif

It was made in mode 1 using rasters to show more than 4 colors. Frédéric has lost the original source code, so he disassembled the program and commented it (download available).

For more details, read the AMSnews article on the game.

A solution of Fugitif is available if you are blocked somewhere. And you can also check the video by Amstrad Maniaque below.

Frédéric is working on a new release of Fugitif, to address the main issue of the original game: at the time, he was unable to do anything else during the raster display. The new release will use demomakers tricks to display a hud below the image. This hud will non longer be icons-based, but rather a console, whith a syntax interpreter, as in many adventure games in this era (and something he originaly wanted to do). The game will be translated in other languages.




Physical edition of several Amstrad CPC games by Play on Retro

-

Play on Retro is selling physyical editions of several Amstrad CPC games :

  • Baba's Palace (2017), a reflexion game by Rafa CASTILLO and John McKlain
  • Castaway (2022), an action game by the T Team
  • Jax the Dog (2023), a platforma game by Capasoft and Digital Studio
  • Shadow Hunter (2023), an action game by Mananuk, Xavisan, Xenomorph, Titan
  • Space Saga which includes Space Panic (2022) and Spaceman Kerl (2022), two action games by Fitosoft
  • Transylvanian Castle DX2 (2022), a RPG game by Fitosoft, adapted from a ZX Spectrum version which is also included



After Octopus, it's now Octopus Deluxe by Team Galaxy for Amstrad CPC+ and GX4000

-

This year a remake of a Game and Watch by Nintendo was released by Team Galaxy : Octopus for Amstrad CPC+ and GX4000. Today it's still the same game but pimped for the CPC+ and GX4000 : Octopus Deluxe !

Both games were programmed by Maxit (and vocal digitalization) and Kukulcan, graphics by Titan and music by Pulsophonic.

See below for a vidéo of Octopus Deluxe. If you wish to see a video of Octopus, there is one by Amstrad Maniaque.




CNR Team (Crack'N Rom) and CPC Fanz BZH 1 by Toug

-

It's on the Facebook page of the web site that I saw CNR Team (Crack'N Rom) which working on their web site about their Amstrad productions, the fanzines Crack'N ROM and pour ses créations Amstrad CPC, les fanzines Crack'N ROM and the Carnard déchainé (wild duck).

Also mentionned on CNR's Facebook page, Toug who participated to Crack'n ROM has written a paper zine in January 2023 which I missed : CPC Fan BZH n°1 (sweet name), the second issue will be out on November 2023.



Amstrad Addict by David Crookes, a one time magazine

-

Xyphoe has written in 2022 two articles without knowing its use. Well now he knows, it's for a one time paper magazine : Amstrad Addict by David Crookes (WACCI, Amstrad Action...). This issue has an exclusive interview of Alan Michael Sugar (unknown date) and certainly an article about the racing game Vespertino by Batman Group. To order this issue of Amstrad Addict, it's here.



PunyInform v5.0 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson to write text adventure games

-

PunyInform v5.0 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.