CPC Power is holding 4 contests : coding, GFX, music and logo GFX.

This is one news I should have written months ago, so much to say, though it will still be short. The Mojon Twins are spanish developers who simply piss code like cows do, I really dont know where they find time to write so many games.

Their latest creation is Cheril of the Bosque.

Dont hesitate to get their other games, many are coming with the sources like Kevin Thacker did with Blue Angel 69.

Kevin Thacker's conversion of a Magic Bytes reflexion game released in 1989 : Blue Angel 69 (written by Winfried Stappert) is now available. The original game is turn based (vs computer or another player). The screen draws a 8x8 chessboard filled with positive or negative numbers. Each turn, the player must choose a number whichs on the same linge (or column for the other player) that the last chosen number. Once chosen the number est removed from the chessboard and added or substracted from the player score. The goal of the game is of course to have more points than your adversary at the end of the game (where you will see the sexy robot fully).

Blue Angel 69 has been programmed by Kevin Thacker, graphics by Markus Hohmann, CAT art, inlay, disc label by Kukulcan, Blue Angel 69 website hosted by Markus, created by Kukulcan.

You can download the FULL game and source from Kevin Thacker's website.

In the sources you will find a library to use StarKos from z88dk, and within morelib some extras for loading/saving files using amsdos, displaying double height chars and more. The code also includes a modified version of cpcrslib which Kevin modified to try and make the code smaller. Kevin hope others using z88dk to make games will find these sources useful.

All build files and tools (excluding z88dk) are in the download. Kevin Thacker provides all so that you can learn from it, and that's a very good idea.

You will also be able to download it from cpc-power, and here you will also find cassette inlay and a disc label, both created by Kukulcan.

Cpcdsdk is a project aiming to collect the various bit of existing sourcecode in one common place for the linux OS relative to the Amstrad CPC, add the missing features, and make life easier for all developpers :

• The Caprice Reloaded emulator, with integrated assembler and debugger, for windows and linux,
• gfx2crtc, a tool to convert pictures to the amstrad sceen format,
• An imporved version of Ramlaid's cpctools, now running under linux, with (limited) support for usb floppy drives
• A special version of STSound from Leonard, modified to emulate an AY3 more accurately (the original emulates the slightly different YM chip used in the Atari ST)
• Hideur Maikeur by Downwater for handling AMSDOS headers
• iDSK from sid for manipulating dsk images and files inside.

You can download the latest version of ccz80 (v3.0.0). The ccz80 language has a syntax based on C language, to program for Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX on a PC.

P.S. : see CCZ80++ now.

PhrozenC has been updated to v1.1 :

• CC (Win32) Fixed crash when included file does not exist
• Fixed crash when calling CC with a C file entirely created on a CPC
• Fixed CS RSX-command usage. Now only ROM-based, but 100% safe
• Updated documentation with compiler internal section

PhrozenC v1.0 is a K&R C compiler (Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan, it's not ANSI C) for Amstrad CPC and PC by NoRecess. On PC it compiles a .C file in .ASM ready to compile with WinAPE. On CPC the .ASM file can be compiled with Maxam.

For Amstrad CPC it exists a ROM version (prefer this version), a 64 Kb version (stand-alone application) and 128 Ko version (RSX).

PhrozenC is released with a PDF manual covering all the things you have to know about to start programming using PhrozenC.

There is even a small tutorial about learning C for the newcomers. Example sources are available, as also a small set of library files handling file management, graphics, memory management, string concatenation, etc...

cpcrslib (Amstrad CPC library for Z88dk) has been updated.

Tile Map Areal. A virtual and a visible area are defined. Horizontal and Vertical invisible margins can be defined. With that trick it's possible to make the sprite clipping when disappearing from the screen. It's very usefull when scrolling too.

TileMapConf.asm: Two new constants defined: T_WH y T_HH. With them, the invisble margins are defined.

cpc_ShowTileMap2: Shows visible area instead of full virtual area. Usefull when scrolling.

cpc_PutSpTileMapO: New routine to make a sprite disappear from the screen when it leave the visible area.

cpc_ScrollLeft0,cpc_ScrollRight0: Tile Map Scrolling routines modified. cpc_ScrollLeft, cpc_ScrollRight: Decrapted.

ESP Soft's blog is open since the 14th July 2009. It's mostly about programmation for Amstrad CPC, how to use the CCZ80 compiler by Emilio Guerrero, with code source of the Xilen war game.

google translation of the ESP Soft blog

P.S. : see CCZ80++ now.

For those who would be interested in programming applications for Amstrad CPC in C language, you have at least 3 possibilities :

• Z88dk v1.9 with cpcrslib (Amstrad CPC library for Z88dk) : several programs including an Amstrad CPC+ demo (Phat) have been programmed with Z88dk already
• Small Device C Compiler v2.9.0 : Contiki and the pheelone demo has been compiled with SDCC, any other program that someone would know ?
• CCZ80 v2.07 by Emilio Guerrero. This compiler can be used for developping Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX programs on windows (command line application, with a GUI included). Gommy, Defensor Medieval a ZX Spectrum game has been programmed with CCZ80. There are 2 Amstrad CPC librairies usable for CCZ80 : cpcrslib (adapted from cpcrslib for Z88dk) and sprutilcpc ( included with CCZ80), but no Amstrad CPC program seems to have been programmed yet with CCZ80. If you have, let me know please.

Phat is a demo by Norecess released in July 2008 for Amstrad CPC+, coded in C with the Z88dk C compiler.

Though you can see a video of Phat on Youtube, it will be better to use a real Amstrad CPC or an emulator.

Pheelone is a new Amstrad CPC demo by Norecess (code), Ced (graphisme) and Targhan (sound). This demo needs 128 Kb memory, and has been programmed with Small Device C Compiler v2.9.0.

You can see a video of Pheelone on Youtube.

Small Device C Compiler v2.9.0 is out (since 22th march 2009), it's a freeware, retargettable, optimizing ANSI - C compiler that targets the Intel 8051, Maxim 80DS390 and the Zilog Z80 based processors. Contiki (a small but modern operating system) for Amstrad CPC was compiled with SDCC. BTW, last version of contiki (v2.3.0) is out since the 27th june 2009.

You will find on Tom & Jerry's site 2 ASM sources (maxam) for compressing Amstrad CPC binaries (better than pucrunch and bitbuster) : Exomizer et Aplib, coming from the PC world. He found them in a forum thread of Amstrad.ESP (spanish site).

Blassic is a basic language interpreter for windows, linux and Yopy PDA. It can interpret Amstrad CPC basic, I didnt try it though.