Sorry for being late, but it's only two weeks left to participate to the fourth Amstrad ASCCI contest organized by Logiker.

Reidrac (Juan Martinez) has released yesterday the Heart of Salamanderland v1.0, a platform game for the Amstrad CPC(+) and GX4000. Beware, if you did download this version, then get v1.01 which corrects a sync bug on CPC+ and GX4000. As usual it is recommended to read the manuel (RTFM !).

The initial automatic translation has been corrected manually.

In 1985 when I was 14, my parents bought me an Amstrad CPC, I had the choice between a color Amstrad CPC 464 or a monochrome Amstrad CPC 664. Having been able to handle a ZX 81 equipped with 16 KB of RAM and a cassette reader a year or two previously at the home of a retiree who was teaching us computers, I chose a 664 for its floppy disk and loading speed, and I still don't regret this choice, despite certain games impossible to play on a monochrome screen. I have only programmed very little in basic, and mostly played on it.

In 1988 I bought with my own money at 19 years an Amstrad PC 1512 with two 5,25 inch floppy drives for about 6.000 francs with a Citizen printer (but which model ?), having worked each summer since the age of 16 years old. Later it was upgraded with 128 Kb RAM, a 32 Mo hard disc on an ISA card (bought on the place just in front of the castle of Louis XIV in Versailles), a 2 Mb EMS card and replacing a 5,25 drive with a 3,5 drive. Sadly I didn't keep this PC 1512 en 2012 when I changed home, I only kept the hard drive. It's still a bad memory today (my second big error, the first one just below).

Several years later (exact year unknown), I no longer had my 664 (first big mistake of selling/giving it), and while browsing an FTP site between 1992 and 1994 I came across a software with an evocative name: CPCEMU, written by Marco Vieth (CPCEMU having been released in 1992, previously it was under the name Z80emu). Unfortunately I was not able to use it straight away, at the time the ROMs were not provided due to copyrights issues. After getting them, I was so happy to be able to use an Amstrad CPC again, that I sent two spaced payments to Marco Vieth to thank him for his emulator. Later, I also translated its documentation into French. CPCEMU was the reason I bought a Gravis Ultra Sound ISA card as beginning I don't know which version it could use this sound card for much better sound than a Sound Blaster of this area.

On March 25, 1994, David Long proposed with Marco Vieth in the appropriate newsgroup the creation of a newsgroup named comp.sys.cpc to deal with Amstrad CPC computers. But creating a newsgroup requires a whole procedure, from memory it's me (but please refute me if I'm wrong because my memory is... defective from birth) who managed it with the RFD (Request for Discussion) and the CFV (Call for Vote) from the comp.sys.amstrad.8bit newsgroup to also talk about other 8bit Amstrad computers. The vote took place, and its result announced on August 4, 1994: 148 votes yes, 36 votes no. Twelve more no votes and the newsgroup would not have been created.

Another memory but I'm not sure at all because I couldn't find any proof within my emails (and I lost a bunch of thems a few years agos with a loss of data on a NAS), having seen that agreement had been given for the ZX Spectrum emulators to be available with their ROMs, and having nothing to lose, I did ask to ask Cliff Lawson either by email or in the newsgroup and got a positive response. But frankly, take this with a grain of salt or if anyone has any trace of my request, please let me know to know if I'm rambling (which is not impossible). I suppose Marco Vieth or Cliff Lawson should know, but I didn't try to bother them with this old story.

Then in May 1999, I created a website written in pure HTML, hosted by Free, because I was interested in learning HTML, so I was using a simple text editor to write my code, the best solution for learning the hard way, rather than a WYSIWYG solution. The name of the web site : Genesis8 Amstrad Page or GAP, the space between tracks on floppy disks. It was ugly, aesthetics not being my strong point (and it is still ugly). At that time, commercial games for Amstrad CPC could be downloaded, notably on the FTP NVG site, but not demos, fanzines or other utilities. So I started scouring the french demo parties to recover these programs, suddenly the French demomakers saw a bizarre guy who wanted to squat their Amstrad CPC to copy as many things as possible on the floppy disks he had brought with him, people are sometimes weird... I first uploaded the files that I retrieved to the FTP site ftp.lip.fr in the /pub/amstrad directory, and later directly on my web site. Later, these files were found on other websites, which was a good thing so their preservation was ensured.

Later in order or disorder, the site became a little less ugly thanks to CSS, then moved to PHP and MySQL database. I bought the domain name www.genesis8bit.com (and even later www.genesis8bit.fr). For the record, the layout of the site is provided by PHP code, and my text editor for writing news is called PHPMyAdmin where I type directly HTML code. A rustic solution but one that suits me perfectly. I go to the W3C validator from time to time to check for code errors, most often forgetting to close an HTML tag.

I created this site because I wanted to, to deal with a subject that was close to my heart, I never wanted it to be a big site (I just checked on Google Analytics, over the last 30 days there have been between 20 to 60 visitors per day, which suits me very well given the subject of the site), nor that it brings me any money (hence the absence of advertising since forever). At one time the site was on the first page of Google searches, but that hasn't been the case for a while, which isn't a problem for me. It's been a one-man show from the start, but I wouldn't mind a little help if another person would be interested in writing with me, the CPC scene has been bubbling to say the least for several years and I have a little problem keeping up on my own.

In this regard, I would like to thank all the people who allow the Amstrad CPC scene to continue to live 40 years after the release of the Amstrad CPC in 1984. In my eyes I am just a bard who sings the glory of other people who are the real heroes, while I have the easiest job, just singing with my falsetto voice and making false notes on my instrument (to choose it would be the saxophone).

Long live the Amstrad CPC, the PCW, the Notepad NC, the PDA600 and all the Amstrad PCs, may they still be there after my death (which I hope to be in a far far future, for your greatest misfortune).

P.S. : I would have nothing against a donation of an Amstrad PC 1640 or any other Amstrad PC, hint, hint. But hey, let's not complain, since I can have fun with my Amstrad PPC 640 and Freddy Vetele's PicoMEM card, which I would like to thank very much here.

P.P.S. : there will undoubtedly be an overhaul of the appearance of the site this summer with slightly more recent mobile code, and at least two new features soon: the announcement of upcoming Amstrad meetings at the start of the site's cover page , and the possibility of only displaying CPC or PCW news, or Notepad, etc...

Don't hesitate to check the Android and Amstrad CPC game written by Ivan AVILA.

He is actually working on an action game : Trasgo (loading screen and a part of the gaming zone).

Longshot has released version 1.8 of the Amstrad CPC CRTC Compendium (8th May 2024) which is a documentation about the CRTC 6845 (and some others circuits). Note that the CRTC is a generic component used in several computers including the IBM PC.

It is possible to check if an emulator is good with the SHAKER tests by Longshot. SHAKER is a program designed to run on CPC machines produced by AMSTRAD in the 80s-90s. The objective of this program is to carry out extensive tests on the video circuits of this machine. These video circuits are the GATE ARRAY and the CRTC 6845. AMSTRAD produced several series of GATE ARRAY and used CRTC models produced by different manufacturers (HITACHI, MOTOROLA, UMC, AMSTRAD). This has been causing compatibility problems on operations that exceed the functional specifications of these circuits. The identified CRTCs are numbered from 0 to 4.

And last, if you like reading, don't hesitate to go check Longshot's blog.

dMagnetic v0.37 by Dettus is available since May 2023 for several versions of Unix (BSD, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo) with ANSI drawing in a terminal. This utility lets you play adventure games by Magnetic Scrolls.

The emulator is using the original files of the games for Amstrad CPC, C64, msdos, windows (1991 compilation), .MAG et .GFX files on the magnetic scrolls memorial.

The Key is a point and click Amstrad CPC graphical adventure game using the Paket engine discovered in 2019 in this video of the demo game Escape the ROM created by Jordi Sureda (graphics) and Santi Ontañón (code). The game is available in spanish and english on their web site

space_debris.mod in a well known musical file for PC, to be read with Mod Master for example.

BSC did port Space Debris on Amstrad CPC and it's simply wonderful ! Well in fact this video is one year old, too bad I missed it before.

You can check his Soundcloud page.

Another interesting video by Rodrik Studio who is repairing an Amstrad PC 1640.

MicroWeb v2.0 par James Howardest un navigateur web pour processeur Intel 8088 (et +), CGA, EGA, VGA ou Hercules, interface réseau ou port série et driver EtherSLIP), souris recommandée non nécessaire, 640 Ko de mémoire recommandé, EMS/XMS non nécessaire (mais permets de charger des plages plus importantes en taille). Cette nouvelle version apporte les fonctionnalités suivantes :

• Support for more video modes, including monochrome and colour modes (including Amstrad PC 1512 in 16 colors mode)
• GIF images are now loaded
• PNG and JPEG dimensions are loaded but not the content
• Improved font rendering and better Unicode support for accented characters
• More HTML tag support including tables and forms
• Can now leverage EMS memory (if available) for larger pages and images