Fourth release of CHIPNSFX tracker+player suite by CNGSoft : new command Control-D tells whether the current instrument is unused or the current pattern is a duplicate (Shift: erase unused instrument, turn current pattern into a link to the pattern it is a duplicate of). Minor bugfixes: inconsistencies in -P mode and in channel toggling, better compression when generating INCLUDE files, etc. Minor changes in several songs. New DESPERA1.CHP.

Third release of CHIPNSFX tracker+player suite by CNGSoft : new command line options -P (cursor follows playback), -k1, -k2 and -k STR (set QWERTZ, AZERTY or custom keyboard map), following a suggestion from Beb..

Released in April 2016, iMPdraw v1.2 is the last version of this Amstrad CPC painting program by AsT. A new version will be available this year.

Other painting program exists : GOS (CPC+ only) and Claudia (CPC and CPC+).

Also, on his site, he is announcing the 1st June that he is working on a one screen demo, without a release date (soon he hopes).

Second release of CHIPNSFX tracker+player suite by CNGSoft : new command line options -F (48000 Hz) and -L (linear amplitude). A blue bar makes the active items stand out. Minor changes in the documentation file.

SAMdisk v3.8.10 by Simon Owen is out since the 18th December.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

• added read and write support .qdos (QL) disk images
• added --irregular option for blind output image if first track isn't regular
• added --fill to set filler byte for regular formats
• fixed setting perpendicular mode for 1Mbps data rate
• fixed reading directly to single-sided formats from a:/b:
• fixed short data indicator showing on no-data sectors
• fixed raw output not using source format fill byte for missing sectors
• changed raw output to allow blank head 1 to mirror head 0 format

There is also a Samdisk 4.0 beta version on github for windows, linux and MacOS.

CHIPNSFX tracker+player suite is a musical software suite focused on lightweight code and data (the player itself is under 950 bytes long, and can be as small as 550 bytes) for the Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum 128 and MSX1 platforms; other hardwares can be supported with minor modifications in the player code, such as Sega Master System. The tracker can create songs up to 256 patterns long, patterns can be up to 96 ticks long, and there can be as many as 255 different instruments. The player itself is hardware-independent, the programmer can provide the external functions required to make it work on any Z80-based platform. CHIPNSFX was succesfully used in past projects such as :

• CNGTRO #1
• Justin
• Bubble Bobble for CPC
• Frogalot
• Hire Hare

Targhan has done many things, two are an Amstrad CPC soundtrakker (STarKos) and a PC soundtrakker (Arkos Tracker).

Today the news are good, a teaser for a new version (v2) of Arkos Tracker as an Amstrad CPC intro with a 9 channels music song, a conversion of a Rob Hubbard music. To listen to the 9 channels, you need a PlayCity sound card or an emulator like JavaCPC Desktop (check PlayCity on misc tab of preferences).

Arkos Tracker v2 will feature :

• works on windows, linux and mac
• play both psg and sample sounds
• unlimited channels
• overhauled interface
• 4 effect columns per tracker
• arpeggios and pitches inside tracks
• slow pitch and glide fxs
• import from AT1, SKS, 129, WYZ and MOD
• export to binary or sources
• any freq from each psg
• subsongs
• new format called AKY allows replay from 7 to 12 scanlines for 3 channels with a much better compression ratio than YM players

The code of this teaser is written by Targhan, font by Super Sylvestre.

Everybody knows the hardware interfance X-Mass by ToTO for Amstrad CPC, a MX4 mass storage expansion with 128 Mb of flash for storing files on your beloved computer.

AcmeDOS is an Amstrad CPC ROM which lets you use the Microsoft FAT file system with the X-Mass.

YANCC (Yet Another Norton Command Clone) is a text interface to manage your files on the X-Mass and the AcmeDOS ROM with an interface not unknown to olders : ms-dos and norton (or linux and midnight commander).

SAMdisk v3.8.9 by Simon Owen is out since the 18th December.

The utility supports transfers between floppy disks and disk images, and is designed to work with almost any soft-sectored disk format compatible with the PC floppy controller, including some copy-protected formats.

Low-level floppy device access requires the fdrawcmd.sys driver to be installed.

• fixed clipping extent of non-error sectors
• fixed raw .2d file reading (thanks Tatsuyuki Sato)
• fixed HD track error during 2DD to 2HD promotion (thanks Tatsuyuki Sato)
• fixed use of scanning data rates not supported by FDC
• fixed --offsets crash if 2 stored copies were present
• changed gap indicator from g to +, added - for short sectors
• added support for double-density MB-02+ disks (thanks Jan Kucera)
• added --step-rate speed option (0=slow, 15=fast, 10=default)

Coming from Sugarbox code, SugarCOnvDisk can convert disks images between differents formats : dsk, edsk, supercard pro, HFE, IPF, CT-raw, Raw (kryoflux) to dsk/edsk, scp, IPF, HFE. It also supports batch and filtering.

SymbOS v3.0 RC1 (14/11/2016) is available.

Changes since the last update : fixed bug in the widget management of the extended desktop, the widget feature can now fully used as well, and increased booting speed.

The windows utility CDTMaster by Oscar Martin exists as v3 since 2015 (works also under linux with mono). It is a Taper like utility, it includes other options like importing files from a DSK, converting files into TZX/CDT blocks (like 2cdt) and convert CDT to WAV (like playtzx).

If 2CDT is used to manage Amstrad CPC tape images, the new version of cpcxfs by Kevin Thacker is used to manage Amstrad CPC disk images.

This new version fixes :

• errors shown with static analysis
• cpcxfs will correctly set ERRORLEVEL command-line variable under more error conditions
• there is more bug I forget them sorry

New version of the 2CDT utility by Kevin Thacker which lets you create a tape image file (.CDT) or inject files inside.

New feature of this version : you can define the sync byte for headerless.

Corrected in this version :

• command-line processing under windows and linux has been re-written. It is a lot better
• if you uses the mode with 2 blocks and you gave it a file which was shorter than a block it would not write it correctly. Now fixed
• When using pure tone it didn't write the length of the '1' pulse correctly
• Some issues seen when running static analysis over the code.

A preview version of SymbOS by Prodatron is available with wifi support (needs the M4Board extension card by Dukes.

Beware, this version isnt 100% stable.