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






PunyInform v3.5 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson to write text adventure games

-

PunyInform v3.5 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.





WIP Coloco by Tuxedo games, when H.E.R.O. meets Flappy

-

Coloco by Tuxedo Games already exists on ZX Spectrum and is in beta for the Amstrad CPC.

Check the video of the beta on Youtube.


Youtube video




UniDOS v1.37 by Offset, the lord of the DOS to rule them all

-

Something I should have written about much sooner.

These last years several expansions allows you to use mass storage (USB or sd...) on Amstrad CPC, each needing a ROM to use it correctly.

And if you use two of these expansions, you will need to load two ROMs, so less RAM for your Amstrad CPC.

So Offset did write UniDOS and drivers to be able to use another expansion, needing only one ROM with features being the same whatever the expansion. Unidos can manage actually :

Offset also wrote UniDOS Cartridge Creator (v1.4) which is an utility to create Amstrad Plus cartridges equipped with a patched firmware which allows to add UniDOS and its DOS nodes. You can furthermore configure up to 30 additional tool ROMs (such as Utopia, Maxam, Protext..) in the cartridges (compatible with ParaDOS and Burnin' Rubber) without requiring a real ROM board. The tool also let you automatically download the latest UniDOS ROMs from the official web site.



Develop for Amstrad CPC with a ready to use linux virtual machine

-

You can download a linux virtual machine by Francisco Gallego to develop Amstrad CPC programs including :

  • CPCTelera 1.5/dev
  • RVM
  • WinAPE
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Terminator
  • Gimp


Learning Z80 assembly, are you Rodnay Zaks or Lance A. Leventhal ?

-

To learn Z80 assembly, I only knew the book by Rodnay Zaks, but it seems it's not the best one after reading this Twitter thread. So the book by Lance A. Leventhal would be more didactic and less redundant.

These two books are available on Amstrad CPC Mémoire Ecrite, but beware the last edition of the Rodnay Zaks's book is 1982, the one by A. Leventhal is 1983. Don't download an older version. Rodnay Zaks also exists in french, spanish and german (in 1982 and 1987).



Play MIDI music on Amstrad CPC with a Python converter and a player by LambdaMikel

-

Michael Wessel (LambdaMikel) has written a python converter of MIDI music files which can then be read on an Amstrad CPC with a player with at least 2 hardware expansions (with 512 Kb support and soon 4 Mb support) :

MIDI was the ultimate sound during the msdos era before windows 95 and the coming of audio card with samples like the Gravis Ultra Sound, it is time that MIDI arrives on Amstrad CPC.


Youtube video



Perched! for Amstrad CPC and Perched 3D by Lumina Studio

-

Perched! par Lumina Studio is an Amstrad CPC game released for the CPCRetroDev 2021 contest. You will have to climb high, higher if you want to merit the divine blue cheese ! The program is written by Paula Garcia Morales (programmation), Laura Gil Lopez (programmation, artist, music) and Jorge Perez Dominguez (programmation).

Perched 3D is a WIP version for a platform not mentionned yet.


Youtube video