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







From Elite to Elite 2 and First Encounters on FrontierAstro

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The first Elite game is written by David Braben and Ian Bell, released in 1984. The Amstrad CPC version was written from the ZX Spectrum port. It has less ships (no Ananconda nor Transport) and minor differences in missions and titles.

Frontier Elite 2 was released in 1993 on Amiga, Atari ST and ms-dos. It's an open world without end nor scripted missions. As stated on the wiki page, it's now a shareware that you can download on Frontier Astro or its new version with better graphics working on actual PC : glFrontier.

If you want to play again Elite 2, you will find informations on Sharoma.

Frontier First Encounters was released in 1995 only for ms-dos, it was out too early with bugs which where corrected later. This time there a a story which you follow through events and missions, you will also meet the famous thargoids. Some missions can be done only with certain conditions or a minimum combat rating. It is also now a shareware which you can download on Frontier Astro with also a newer version working on current PC : Frontier First Encounters D3D. There is also glFFE and another version of glFFE by Nick.

And of course there is also Elite Dangerous which was released in 2014 on windows, MacOS, Xbox and PS4.


Youtube video




What you see is what you get, a biography by Lord Alan Michael Sugar

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It took me time before starting reading this book What you see is what you get, but now it's done, the official biograhy of and by Lord Alan Michael Sugar.

I did read already his other biographies :

  • Alan Sugar, the Amstrad Story by David Thomas
  • Sir Alan Sugar, the biography by Charlie Burden

The first one gave insights about his childhoold but nothing about his football years. Whereas the second one was introducing his foootball years. WYSIWYG give a lot more details about his childhood, the first steps which made him the man we all know and also a lot more on his football years. Honestly, I did appreciate this book and I recommend its reading. The only regret and it's purely personal, the book has a part about the Amstrad CPC computers but nothing about the CPC 664 which was my first computer, not very important though.

What you see is why you get, Lord Alan Michael Sugar's biography



Amstrad CPC score contest on Border 0

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Border 0 organizes a score contest, whose rules are below :

1.Use the WinAPE v2.0 Beta 2 emulator
2.Use the following settings :
 GENERAL: CRTC Type: 0
DISPLAY: Enable Plus Features / Pal Emulation / Linear Palette
MEMORY: RAM: 128K / ROM Lower: OS6128 / Upper 0: BASIC1-1 / Upper 7: AMSDOS
3.Load the following DSK of Run CPC
4.Save a SNR session of your game :
  4.1.Save ONLY one game per session
  4.2.Start at the menu screen   4.3.End at the score menu
       
5.Send your SNR session with a tag or your name BEFORE the 31th January 2020 to :
 
Nothing to win except the respect of other who will be able to see the results on Border 0's contest web page, looking at the best SNR on CPC-Power and a video on Youtube.



Happy new year 2020

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The year 2019 is near the end, it gave a lot of good things for the Amstrad computers, not only for the CPC, one of the very last being the Toki beta by AmstradGGP for example.

So, let's wish at least as much good if not more for the hear 2020. And personnally I wish you and people you care for a good and happy new year.



CPCEC, an Amstrad CPC emulator for windows by CNGSoft, 14th release

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CPCEC (windows) is a new Amstrad CPC emulator by CNGSOFT released in 2019, which replaces CPCE (dos/windows).

The 14th release is available since the 27th December.



Pixel Polizei by Markku Reunanen, a windows graphic utility

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You are a graphist on PC but you want that your pixel art to be on one of the following platform quoted below. Pixel Polizei will check the conformity of the color limits and save the result in the native format :

  • Amstrad CPC
  • ColecoVision
  • Commodore 64
  • Commodore Plus/4
  • MSX
  • Oric
  • Panasonic JR-200
  • Sharp MZ-700
  • Sharp MZ-800
  • ZX Spectrum