The FAQ exists in four versions :
- AMSTRAD.FAQ : english text, always up to date,
- AMSTRAD.HTM : english HTML (v0.82 from 1 to 2.1, v0.72 after),
- FRENCH.FAQ : french text (v0.73, not yet entirely translated from the english version),
- GERMAN.FAQ : soon, translation by Tim Riemann.
The latest versions of these FAQ are archived on :
- primary site : ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/amstrad
- FAQ archive (english text only):
http://www.faqs.org/amstrad8bit-faq
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.sys.amstrad.8bit
ftp://ftp.cs.nott.ac.uk/faq/amstrad8bit-faq
- ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/di/dibald/FAQ and ftp://ftp.psyber/com/tcj/faqs
The first french translation was done by Pierre Guerrier. The conversion from text to HTML was first done by Erwann Gaudal. Thanks to them.
This FAQ is posted twice a month on the 4th and 19th to comp.sys.amstrad.8bit, and only once on the 4th to comp.answers and news.answers (well on 19th if I forgot to add answers on 4th !).
Lines preceded by a '+' have been added since last FAQ
Lines preceded by a '*' have been modified since last FAQ.
Both added and modified are in bold in the HTML FAQ
This FAQ is written by :
If you have any ideas for the FAQ, send an email to the correct person. About parts written by E.R., as english isn't my mother tongue, this FAQ has certainly typing mistakes, grammar errors, etc... I welcome all the corrections.
This FAQ is freeware, you can use it freely for your personnal use. For commercial use, you must ask our permission before.
Parts of this FAQ are taken for the documentation of CPCEMU, some are from the main faq keeper (E.R.) and Mark Ray (Notepad part), other parts are taken from articles of the newsgroup, thanks to :
michaels@jake.unsw.edu.au
llopis@cs.unc.edu (Noel Llopis)
l21ba540@rz.unibw-muenchen.de (Robert Steindl)
ard@siva.bris.ac.uk
kmc56@cantva.canterbury.ac.nz (Kenneth Crawford)
simonh@cvcge.ic.ac.uk (Dr S.J. Harris)
ml322523@dingo.cc.uq.oz.au (Ben Williamson)
rrotz@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu (rrotz)
nwc@kom.auc.dk (Peter Sorensen)
d.c.long@warwick.ac.uk (David Long)
ksweber@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Weber)
ianmacd@xs4all.nl (Ian Macdonald)
iri@aber.ac.uk (IAN RODERIC IZETT)
kthacker@krisalis.co.uk (K.E.W. Thacker)
slog@cix.compulink.co.uk (Roger Bradley)
matthew.phillips@christ-church.oxford.ac.uk
richard@systemed.u-net.com (Richard Fairhurst)
hubersn@lcs.wn.bawue.de (Steffen Huber)
dik@dix.teuto.de (Dirk Eismann)
makra@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (Martin Krausse)
guerrier@ecoledoc.ibp.fr (Pierre Guerrier)
prhunt@dyson.brisnet.org.au
gblancha@jonque.ens.fr (Gilles Blanchard)
cliffl@amstrad.com (Cliff Lawson)
Send me a message if you have something to add to what I extracted.
This unmoderated newsgroup comp.sys.amstrad.8bit is open to discussions about the Z80 Amstrad computers : CPC (464, 664, 6128, 464+, 6128+), GX4000, PCW (8256, 8512, 9256, 9512, 9512+, QUibble) and NC-100 notepad. It was created from an idea by Marco Vieth and David Long (maintainer of the now dead UK Demon PD library).
Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to :
- CPC, GX4000, PCW, NC-100 hardware and software,
- emulators,
- specific Amstrad CP/M files, overlays...
- ads for selling/buying the relative hardware and software.
etc...
The only topic that is excluded :
discussion of Amstrad PC-compatible (1512, 1640, 2x86, 3x86 and others Amstrad compatible I don't know) because these computers are really compatible, so comp.sys.ibm.pc.* newsgroups must be used.
The GX 4000 was the Amstrad 8 bit console. The "new" console ran enhanced graphics and sound. It had a colour palette of 4096, hardware sprites, hardware scrolling, and used 128K carts. Yes games were made for it, there are about 10-20 still available in England.
Amstrad also released computers that had the GX 4000 hardware and cart facilities, but still could use tapes and disks. The white 8 bit Amstrads were the 464+ and 6128+.
All the following emulators and utilities can be found on ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/amstrad/emulator, or use the HTML frontend : ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/amstrad/frontend/emulator.htm.
For the moment, there are six emulators for PC, four for Amiga, two for Acorn RISC OS machines, one for UNIX (SUNos for the moment) and MAC (Power MAC and 68k MAC).
There is a commercial spectrum emulator for the CPC, reviewed in Amstrad Action.
CPCEMU by Marco Vieth, the last version is 1.4, get CPCEMU14.ZIP
CPE, written by Bernd Schmidt and now maintained by Ulrich Doewich (reports him bugs, suggestions) since v5.1
Get CPE52.ZIP, or if you have a 386, get CPE51.ZIP. For sources get CPESRC52.ZIP
Amiga CPE (68000, 1 Mo), last version is february 95, get ACPE_NEW.LZH.
The Amstrad CPC emulator (v0.55beta) by Herman Dullink on PC, get CPC055.ZIP.
A PC v0.40 of AMI-CPC by Ludovic Deplanque (see A1.1.7), get PCCPC040.LZH, and AMIPCUT.LZH for conversion between .CPC and .DSK images disks. See http://www.chez.com/deplanque
A1.1.5) NO$CPC (PC) 11/01/97
Another german emulator, by Martin Korth, last version is 1.4 (10/17/97), get NO$CPC14.ZIP and NO$CP14A.ZIP (XT version). See http://www.work.de/nocash
A1.1.6) RWCPC (PC)
An emulator by Richard Wilson (ParaDOS), get RWCPC.ZIP. As 04/10/97, Richard Fairhurst announced a new version of this emulator, supporting .DSK, the archive isn't available for the moment.
A french emulator for AMIGA, by Ludovic Deplanque. Last version is 0.44, get AMICPC44.LZH, with .DSK support, includes sources. See http://www.chez.com/deplanque
The CPC emulator for Amiga by K.E.W. get ACPCDE20.LHA, it's a demo/evaluation version of the real shareware. Don't forget the web page of Kevin (see A2.2), it's the best and biggest.
Another french CPC emulator on AMIGA by Stephane Tavenard, get EmuCPC v0.7 : EMUCPC07.LZX
!CPC is a CPC emulator for Acorn RISC OS machines (Archimedes/RISC PC) by Mark RISON. Get CPCDEMO.ZIP. Mark hasn't time anymore to work on !CPC, he will release it as freeware, sources will be available too.
This emulator for Acorn RISC OS marchines is written by Andreas Stroiczek, aka Face Hugger. Get v1.10 as CPCEM110.ZIP or on :
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/acorn/long/emulator
ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/systems/acorn/riscos/emulator/
This emulator for SUNos, Linux and MAC is written by Brice Rive.
PowerMac v1.3.2, get CPC132PM.ARJ
MAC v1.3.2, get CPC13268.ARJ
SunOS v1.3.0, get CPC130SU.ZIP
Linux v1.2, get CPP120LX.ZIP
http://www.worldnet.fr/~brice/cpc/cpcpp.html
Presumably the first CPC emulator written, for PC/XT/AT © 1989,90 by GHE, Aachen. It is only black and white, but with additionnal ROMs, only a "beer humour", get SIMCPC.ZIP
This emulator by Paul Hodgson isn't available for the moment, still in alpha.
MTM is as its name states a multi-machine emulator. Currently implimented emulation cores are Amstrad CPC range and the Spectrum range of computers, other cores in the pipelines are Zx80/Zx81, Mastersystem//Gamegear, MSX and Gameboy. MTM is currently a win95 hosted emulator but once all cores are complete the following hosts will be supported : DOS, SGI Unix, MAC.
An Unix/Lunix emulator by Mark Conmy. Emulation is fine (without sound) apart from some interrupts errors with some games and supports DSK files. The tape support and snapshot support were almost there, but not quite. It works under Irix (4, 5, 6), SunOS 4.1.3/4, Solaris and Linux. It will be posted to csa8 if/when Mark get it properly running (hopefully he will have some time this summer 1997). The full source code will be made available (not just binaries) under the GNU GPL.
A CPC/CPC+ emulator by K.E.W. Thacker, in alpha stage for the moment. It will need win95 and DirectX 5, a pentium for enough speed as written in C.
SNA2GIF v1.1 by Marco Vieth, is included in CPCEMU14.ZIP, it extracts screens from snapshots to GIF format.
SNAP GRAB v1.1 is a freeware by Georg Schwarz to extract screens from snapshots to Multiface II format, which can be seen on real CPC even with a multiface. If you want to see the picture on your PC, you will need CPC2x (see a1.2.3), get SNAPGR11.ZIP
CPC2x v2.0 by Michael Stroucken converts Amstrad CPC screens to the graphic TIF and GIF format. Get CPC2X.ZIP with sources and binaries for MSDOS and CP/M.
CPC fs v0.85 by Derik van Zutphen transfer CPC files between .DSK files and DOS files, in the two ways, look for CPCFS085.ZIP.
Last version : http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~derik/cpcfs/
CPC extractor v1.0 by Guillaume Genty extracts files from .DSK files. Look for CPCEXT.ZIP
Transfer v2.1 by Christian Horn, transfers DOS files to .DSK files. You need to be in the directory where the DOS files are, otherwise it won't work. The .DSK file can be in another directory. Look for TRANSF21.ZIP.
M2TOSNA v1.1 by James McKay converts CPC Multiface II files to 64 Ko and 128 Ko snapshots files. Look for M2TOSNA1.ZIP
Copy Protected Disk reader v3.24 by Ulrich Doewich, utility to transfer CPC disks into the common DSK file format of CPC emulators. It uses the extended DSK format which manages better copy protected disks. Look for CPDR324.ZIP
Transfer files between CPC and MAC with a parallel cable, look for CPCTERM.ZIP
1.2.10) 22disk (PC)
22disk is a shareware utility by Sybex which can read/write/format CP/M disks on PC. It can use CPC disks formats with a definition file called CPMDISKS.DEF which comes with CPCEMU, or EURO.DEF (EURODEF.ZIP). Don't use it under OS/2 or win95.
You can find 22disk on Simtel mirrors (22DSK144.RAR).
Disc Image Copier by Tim Rieman, transfert DATA and SYSTEM disc from CPC to PC with a parallel cable, look for DIC120.ZIP
1.2.12) AIFF decode (Unix, PC, Amiga)
AIFF decoder v1.1 by Pierre Guerrier, MSDOS port (DECODR11.ZIP) by Ulrich Doewich, Amiga port (AMIAIFF.LZH) by Kevin Thacker, a tool for retrieving data from sampled Amstrad CPC tapes, C sources included.
PC2CPC v2.0 converts CPC emulator EDSK images to 3" disks via the parallel link, look for CPC2PC.ZIP
DSK-CPC by Tobin Tanner; it runs on a CPC with a 720 Ko DOS disk in drive B: drive. It will read .DSK files from that disk, and write them as real disks in the A: drive.
ROMs are now included with CPCEMU and CPE, with the permission of Amstrad and Locomotive Software.
These files are images of a disk, you "insert" a disk with F3 in CPCEMU, and F6 with CPE, then you can type CAT to see the files, launch files with .BIN or .BAS extension with the command RUN"filename
You can either put these files in the TAPE directory of your emulator, or inject them in a .DSK file (look for 1.2.4 and 1.2.6).
Later mentions of DDI-1 can also be remplaced by FD-1 (which comes without the interface for the 464)
Porting files across from CPC to PC for use in CPCEMU is easy, at least, if you have a DDI-1 disk drive it's easy! You need to follow these instructions. Follow them exactly. As is usual with things like this, you do everything entirely at your own risk. I have done this on my own PC without damaging it, but can not guarantee that it will work with yours. If you do damage your computer, it is YOUR FAULT.
Note of the FAQ keeper, I have a report of someone trying the following instructions, who had his controller burnt, so beware, do it only if you have another controler in case where the first controller would burn.
These instructions only apply to the DDI-1 package. They MAY work with the FD1 3" second drive, and will definitely NOT work with the internal drives on 6128s, 664s, and 6128+s.
Install 22DISK! You will need to tell it you have no A: drive, and that B: is a 360K drive, physical unit 0, on the Primary adapter, with step-rate of 12 milli-seconds. You will also need the CPMDISKS.DEF file from CPCEMU.
Open up your PC, following all usual precautions such as turning off the power and discharging any static electricity on your body!
Unplug any floppy drives. This step is important. (See note 1) Find the connector which is meant for the B: drive. (It is probably on the same cable as the connector for the A: drive. The A: connector has a twist in it. The B: connector is the other one!)
Plug it into your DDI-1 drive unit. You may have to file the keyway on the connector off. (Different PCs have different keyways on their connectors, so you may not have to attack it with a file. So much for standardisation!)
Turn the DDI-1 drive on first, then the PC. When it does the Power-on test, press DEL to enter the setup menu (you have got an AMI BIOS haven't you?) Tell it you have no A: drive and a 360K 5.25" B: drive. (See note 2)
Use 22DISK to read, write, and format your 3" disks to your heart's content! You could also use ANADISK I suppose.
When you've finished, restore the machine to it's original state. As well as using CPC disks, you'll probably be able to use Spectrum 3 disks if you have an appropriate CPMDISKS.DEF. If of course you want to use Speccy disks...
Note 1: Amstrad's disk drive is reasonably standard, but not quite! When you install it, it claims to be both your physical drive 0 and physical drive 1. As such, if you expect it to be just drive 1 (B:), and leave unit 0 (A:) still plugged in, it will promptly ram the heads of unit 0 hard against the end stop, promptly trashing your unit 0. I found this the hard way, and had to buy a new 3.5" floppy drive.
Note 2: If you don't have an AMI BIOS, then this will be different. You may have to run a program from a system disk which came with your computer.
The pinouts of the 3" drive are _identical_ to the ones of a 5.25" drive - it will just plug in. It's a long time since I was inside my Einstein, but I'm pretty sure that drive is a 40track SS unit - what a PC would call a 180K drive. Things like the Disk Change line may be different, but if you set up your PC to ignore that (and possibly tell it it's a 360K drive), you should be OK.
I've used a 3" drive (actually a Double-sided model) with an original IBM XT in this way.
A reply to the last two paragraphs :
It actually depends on the type of 3" drive. Some of them had a 34 way connector like the IBM PC 5.25 " drive (i.e. PCB gold plated edge connector) and are compatible. Genuine Amstrad drives on the other hand have a 26 way PCB header which contains all the useful signals, although some have been removed.
I remember, that the 34 way connectors are only nearly compatible. In those days arround 1985, I connected a CPC 464 External drive to another CPM computer with standard 5.25" drives like the PC-drives. It was necessary t swap the lines since the pin numbering was mirrored compared to the standard.
I also think that the exact layout depends on the Version of the computer (CPC 464/664/6128). So be careful and do not ruin your hardware by building sh circuits! (It shouldn't be very difficult to verify which are the GND-lines )
A complement to this reply
The amstrad and PC disk connections are as follows:
24 pin Amstrad disk drive:
Index 2 * * 1 GND DS0 4 * * 3 GND DS1 6 * * 5 GND Motor 8 * * 7 GND Dirn 10 * * 9 GND Step 12 * * 11 GND Wdata 14 * * 13 GND Wenable 16 * * 15 GND Track0 18 * * 16 GND WProt 20 * * 19 GND Rdata 22 * * 21 GND Side 24 * * 23 GND N.C ? 26 * * 25 GND
34 pin Standard disk drive:
Head Load 2 * * 1 GND In Use ? 4 * * 3 GND DS3 6 * * 5 GND Index 8 * * 7 GND DS0 10 * * 9 GND DS1 12 * * 11 GND DS2 14 * * 13 GND Motor 16 * * 15 GND Dirn 18 * * 17 GND Step 20 * * 19 GND Wdata 22 * * 21 GND Wenable 24 * * 23 GND Track0 26 * * 25 GND WProt 28 * * 27 GND Rdata 30 * * 29 GND Side 32 * * 31 GND N.C. ? 34 * * 33 GND
Note that on the Amstrad drive, DS3 and DS2 are missing.
The pins marked with a ? may have been redefined on some drives (e.g. on high density PC drives, one of them is used to change the drive current - I can't remember which now), also on very old single sided drives, the Side signal used to be used to reset the drive. If you are using a 34 way connector drive in an Amstrad, you may want to hard wire Head Load to be permanently enabled (if it is used - not all drives do).
It is no problem to use a 5,25" drive on a CPC. You have to take care about the cabling, as the 6128 uses a 36 pin port and the drive has only 34. The two problems which can arrive are:
You can read the disks on the PC with 22DISK (from Sydex) or CPCTRANS from CPCEMU. In the next version of the FAQ, you will know how to connect a 3" on the PC.
You can find 22DISK on Simtel mirrors, 22DSK142.ZIP, in /SimTel/msdos/diskutil/22dsk142.zip
Look for 22disk additionnal definitions in the file EURO.DEF on the various FTP sites, BBS.
In CPCEMU v1.4, there is a plan for such a cable, you will be able to transfer all the files with the included programs.
If you have a problem with PCPARA.BAS, coming with CPCEMU, load the program into the emulator (put it in the TAPE directory) and save it as an ascii file with this command : SAVE"PCPARA.BAS",A
The CPC nor the PCW have a RS 232. But you can bought it, you then just need a communication program on PC and CPC/PCW and a null modem cable to exchange files between the computers.
Subject: Re: PCW8512 Internet capable?
Fifty quid does, indeed, mean fifty British pounds. SCA can be contacted at 146 Ham Road, Worthing, Sussex, BN11 2QS, England. Tel: +44 903 821128 or Fax: +44 903 821120.
In addition to a special, high-speed serial interface (which can handle speeds of up to 38,400 baud!), they also supply numerous other products, such as parallel ports and memory expansions. They even sell two complete modem kits for the PCW: a slow 2400 baud model and a fast 14k4 model. Both kits come with a serial interface, but the faster modem comes with a special interface (normal ones can only handle up to 9600 baud on the PCW), better software and fax facilities. I can highly recommend this deluxe kit. I use it myself and have astounded friends by using a humble PCW to send faxes! The cheaper kit costs 169 pounds and the deluxe one 299, although you can get a twenty pound discount by mentioning that you're a 'PCW Plus' reader. Be warned, however, that you'd have to contend with the dreaded three-pronged British plug.
Commercial companies can transfer your files
* They can transfer your Locoscript files, for 5 GBP (+10% postage for France). Contact Howard Fisher for more details (howardf@locomotive.com)
Locomotive Software Tel 01306 747757 10 Vincent Works Fax 01306 885529 Dorking Surrey RH4 3HJ
Contact Tony Gill at tgill@alystra.win-uk.net for rates.
ROWANSOFT, ROWANCRAIG, ARDFERN, BY LOCHGILPHEAD, ARGYLL, PA31 8QN Tel. 01852 500 257
With CPCEMU 1.3 you can easily poke games with a external database file of pokes. Here is the structure of the database :
Here is a example of a DBF file saved with the command :
COPY ALL TO file DELIMITED WITH "
"0","Chuckie Egg 2","255 lifes","t","67c2","ff","??" "0","Combat Lynx","# choppers","t","5899","00","??" "0","Cybernoid","255 lifes","t","0227","ff","??" "0","Defenders OE","","t","8461","18","??" "1","Defenders OE","","t","8462","08","??" "0","Devils Crown","inf oxygen","t","863b","00","??" "1","Devils Crown","","t","863c","00","??" "2","Devils Crown","","t","863d","00","??"
Do not hesitate to post pokes on comp.sys.amstrad.8bit, I will concatene them, and post them regularly.
Second, here is a message from llopis@cs.unc.edu (Noel Llopis)
What do you mean you liked so much as to draw a map??? I did draw a map of almost every single game! And I still have them around (will have access to them in Xmas) so if somebody has a request... I do have all the Ultimate Filmation ones, Batman, Head over Heels, etc, etc... A LOT OF THEM!
And last, simply post solutions in the newsgroup, I will keep them, and repost them when asked. But put a CTRL-L, as some people won't want to see them. Post also basic loaders with cheat.
If you have the error : 'disk missing', the drive belt should be the problem. Here are two references for the belt, but electronics shops didn't seem to know them : KO 7000 or Konig electronics 7092.00
The best solution is to come with you old belt in an electronic shop and to see the available belts. You should look for one with the dimensions 72mm x 3 mm x 0.5 mm (although I believe it is OK to use belts in the length range of 69-72 mm long and either 3 or 4mm wide).
Now how to replace it, in my example I am talking of a 6128, open it, detach the cable from the main board to the drive, unscrew the screws. You can now take the drive in your hand, look at the down of the drive, you see the green printed circuit, remove it, you see now the belt, which has certainly slipped, put the new belt, and replace all the elements.
The other possibility is a fault with the index hole detection. As well as the large shutter on a 3" disc, there is also a smaller one through which the disc drive can watch for the index hole to go past. There is an LED and an associated detector that watch for this, and if either has gone wrong or got covered in dust you may get disc missing messages.
6) How can I help the CPC/PCW world ?
By sending modifications, new informations for this FAQ to roussin@genesis8.frmug.fr.net
If you know addresses of authors who wrote programs on CPC/PCW, send me their address, I will write them to ask the persmission for letting their games to become freeware or shareware (they still will retain the copyright, even after all these years).
If you use CPCEMU regularly , you could send Marco Vieth a little money, even if the emulator is freeware. He really deserves it.
You could also send me your latest production, whatever it is, here is my address :
Emmanuel ROUSSIN Genesis the 8bit generation 115 avenue de Paris 78000 VERSAILLES FRANCE
I will then put it on my BBS, on the french FTP site and perhaps on a future comp.binaries.amstrad.8bit. I will of course send you back your disks. I can read 3"; 3,5" and 40 tracks 5,25" with the formats known by the PARADOS ROM, MAGIC DOS, and those defined in 22disk. Don't forget to precise which one you use, thanks. I can read the following PC media : 3,5"; 5,25"; QIC-80 tapes and CD-ROM.
Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, one of the three persons of Vortex Software with Costa Panayi and Luke Andrews, has released the "Vortex Emulation Package", all the games of the company for Amstrad CPC, but also for C64, Spectrum and ZX 81. Attention, the games are now FREEWARE, so Vortex Software still retains the copyright. Please, do not alter them or make money with them. Look for VTX_*.ZIP
Marks works now for Lucasarts on "Shadows of the Empire" for the nintendo 64.
Design Design Software have released all their CPC games (Tank Busters, Dark Star, Forbidden Planet) as freeware. With the permission of the author (Simon Brattel, crem@cix.compulink.co.uk).
Look at 3.4) for a PCW address.
For a CPC<->PC cable, to be used with CPCEMU, send 80 FF to (you can also write to the pseudo 'idem' on 3614 RTEL1) :
L.E.I.
46 Bd Chezy
35000 RENNES
FRANCE
Futur's is a french group, they do many things, but one good thing is the Soundplayer CPC, which is a better Digiblaster. The Soundplayer is used by Protracker and Digitracker, for a little sum of money if you are making it yourself : 25 FF (2.5 pounds, 5 dollars). The electroninc plan is in the paper zine Quasar issue 9, see 9.1.4)
So, with this little marvelous thing, you can have 8bit samples, instead of 4bit samples, it is connected to the printer port.
Sebastien BROUDIN
4 bis avenue Gambetta
Apt 30
60600 CLERMONT-FERRAND
FRANCE
He sells Megablasters, a game made by Odiesoft. It's like bomber man on Amiga, but really better. The price are :
* - 170 FF for two 3" disk, box, documentation, * - 155 FF for two 3.5" disk, box, documentation, * - 137 FF for box, documentation, if you send two 3" ou 3.5" disks.
A source for Amstrad PCW, PC 1286/2286, PC1386/2386, PC 1512/6400, and PC 1640 disks, ribbons, memory and drive upgrades, etc. in the USA is:
Sinotech Ltd.
218 Terrace Drive
Mundelein, Illinois
USA 60060
phone: (708) 566-0504
The FAQ keeper bought to this company a rombox and the ParaDOS ROM, the best disc OS ROM for CPC, it works great. This company is held by Peter Campbell : cam1@cix.compulink.co.uk
Comsoft
10 McInstosh Crt.
Wellpark
Glasgow
G31 2HW
United Kingdom
Tel/fax (044) 0141 554 4735
World wide credit card (visa, mastercard) are accepted, you can also send an international postal money order, and of course checks (U.K. only).
Comsoft will release a PCW version of RoutePlanner in 1996.
World copyrights on the CPC/PCW versions of the Protext word processor (and derivatives), Maxam assembler and Utopia utility programs, formerly published by Arnor Ltd, are now owned by WACCO and sold by ComSoft.
AS OF 21 APRIL 1996: PERMISSION IS GIVEN BY BRIAN WATSON OF WACCO (BRIAN@SPHEROID.DEMON.CO.UK, VOICE: 044 1353 777006, FAX: 044 353 777471) FOR LEGITIMATE OWNERS OF PROTEXT (AND DERIVATIVES), MAXAM, UTOPIA AND OTHER WACCO PROGRAMS TO CONVERT THEM FOR USE WITHIN EMULATORS. CONTACT WACCO FOR MORE INFORMATION.
Sentinel Software 41 Enmore Gardens East Sheen London SW14 8RF United Kingdom
Membership secretary : Gordon Wooliscroft 2 Wrenbeck Drive Otley W. Yorks LS21 2BR United Kingdom
The group has been going for 10 years now. We publish a magazine called "CPC User" every couple of months, and also have other services for members - a disk and tape library, book library, and helplines. The magazine carries occasional articles on using CPCs in conjunction with PCs (how to set up emulators, share files, and so on), and other articles range from those aimed at beginners to experienced users, with competitions, type-ins, tutorials, and fiction.
See section 2.2) for web address and 9.1.3) for fanzine.
Heiner de Went Tannenweg 1 48727 Billerbeck GERMANY
18 Raffles COurt Petaluma CA 94954 U.S.A.
If french people are interested, don't forget to send stamps to get back your disk or paper fanzine. For foreign people, International Reply Coupons are available from post offices in all EU countries, US, Canada, and most others. A single IRC can be exchanged by the recipient for enough postage stamps to cover airmail for a letter weighing up to 10 grams. For heavier letters, such as those containing disks or 'zines, simply send more IRCs!
address : BIOS, Postfach 27
88475 Schwendi
Germany
Articles are mostly in german, but many are translated to english or french. Price for one issue is 7DM, you can subscribe too for five issues by sending 35 DM or an euro-cheque, or 17 IRC. You will receive also a disk, state the format you use : 3" 3,5" 5,25"/40 5,25"/80 (one/doublestep) or VDOS/XDOS.
You can send your own articles about the CPC scene, the best solution would be a file typed on word for windows.
Issues are 1 pound 50 pence each in the UK, 2 pounds in Europe and 2 pounds 50p elsewhere. Cheques and postal orders payable to WACCI at
7 Brunswood Green HAWARDEN Deeside Clwyd CH5 3JA United Kingdom
Editor Paul Dwerryhouse, at the above address.
They have a Book Library, Tape library, "Homegrown" Disk Library and PD Disk Library, 3" Disks supplied at 1 pound 50p each, alternative Firmware Guide and Disk, 6 pounds. Look at 2.2) for their www address.
A magazine published every couple of months by the United Amstrad User Group (UAUG), see section 2.2) and 8.1.3.3)
A french zine, especially about programmation on CPC and also CPC+. Today is 27 february 1996, the last issue, number 9 (summer/automn 1995) is available with 6,70 FF of stamps from :
Philippe Rimauro (Futur's/Quasar) 80 chemin des Maillos 09200 SAINT-GIRONS FRANCE
New copy each 2 months. Issue 11 out 1st April 1996. Editor: Brian Watson of WACCO. Articles (and advertisements!) are in English and for all users of 8-bit computers. Price for one issue is 2UKP (UK) or 3UKP (rest of world). You can subscribe too for 10 issues for 25UKP.
8BIT,
39, High Street,
Sutton,
ELY
Cambs
CB6 2RA
United Kingdom
send me addresses, or better send me your last issue at the address given in 6), I will of course send you back your disks.
Here is a message from DREAMER of TGS/CRT (see section 8.1.4) :
Just today I had an idea for a new project. It's called "Project Projects". It'll be a kind of discmag with the main columns "Games", "Demos", "Zines" and "Tools". In each column you can find articles about projects that anyone wants to do or is doing, but needs help/support or whatever. For example, a coder wants to do a game like Dune 2 on CPC. But he needs graffix and musix for this and canīt do it himself. So in "Project Projects" he writes in the column "Games" in a sub-column called "Dune 2". There he explains exactly what he wants to do and what he needs. He says, e.g., he needs a graphician for painting units, backgrounds, and logos, and a good musician. Some days after the issue of "PP" has been released (with his question for graffixmen and musicians) he is contacted by some people who wanna do the game with him. So he tells me he needs no more support and I put the game out of the projects list. Some months later the game is finished, but he needs beta testers for finding mistakes/errors and for suggestions to improve the game. So he again tells me, and I put him back into PP. You could also use PP just for making suggestions for projects. For example, you put the project "Dune 2" into games and say that coders, gfx-men and musicians are needed - so everybody for the game is needed... Perhaps some time anyone will take the idea and make it reality.
I hope that this project will help and motivate the CPC users out there! When I have enough stuff for a first issue, I'll release that thingy!
More news about "Project projects" on 07/09/96 :
It will be released in a cooperation with "CPC Telegramm", a German fanzine. This way the German Only CT shall become international, too, and the PP gets a probably much better start... I think the first cooperation issue will be released in the next two or three months.
Nicolas Ader (Nicky one) Place du Donjon 32320 BASSOUES FRANCE
+ Boxon 3 should be out before the end of 1996
Anthony Nevo (orphee) Le Louya 35290 GAEL FRANCE
Miguel Fremeaux (Dracula) 1 rue de la Viale 11610 VENTENAC-CABARDES FRANCE
the last issue (number 5) of december 1995 is out with articles translated in english, on 2 disks, now on on ftp.ibp.fr : /pub/amstrad/dracula5.lzh
Sebastien Broudin (Seb) 1 rue Emile Combes 60600 FITZ-JAMES FRANCE
An English disc fanzine, with around 40 articles (all in English) in each issue covering a huge range of subjects: opinion, humorous articles, comprehensive news coverage, demo, game, fanzine and utility reviews, and much more. It's been described by some people as the best-coded disc fanzine ever: it won't work on CPC emulators, though. Issues 1 and 2 are already out, and issue 3 should be released at the end of the 1st 1996 semester. It's freeware, and (hopefully) will be available via FTP soon. You ca n e-mail the editor Richard Fairhurst CRTC / Systeme D) at richard@musicians-net.co.uk, and BTL is now on the have web pages at Kevin Thacker's site, and also on Richard Fairhurst site.
A good german zine, with some english articles, last issue : no 5. + Issues 2 and 5 are on ftp.ibp.fr in /pub/amstrad/zines/tribmag?.lzh (where ? is 2 and 5).
Juggler of POW! postlagernd PA Donaustrasse 7-9 76437 Rastatt GERMANY
A TGS/Creators production. It's a discmag which is mainly about non-computer stuff, but instead about stuff like roleplaying games, fantasy books, science fiction, stories, etc. Collapse, the editor, gets nearly no contribution, so it would be good to point his mag out a bit... The first issue (the only one out up to now) was German only, but if he gets English stuff, this mag could become international soon! The address:
Collapse of TGS/Creators Tobias Zimmermann Augsburger Weg 3 59439 Holzwickede GERMANY
A new disc german-only mag by the group "TAG". I don't know much to write about it now... ask the editor! His address:
Gremlin of TAG Thomas Schilling Rebenweg 28 79793 Wutschingen-Horheim GERMANY
A disc mag for all the programmers out there. All Routines the editor (Steve of Wizcat) gets are published with many explanations (normally). Steve has many problems getting enough stuff for each issue, so pointing him out would be good again... The address:
Steve of Wizcat Christian Stengel Ihnbergstrasse 9/1 73479 Ellwangen Germany
A useful add-on, connected to the expansion port, its primary use is to make snapshots, exactly like the emulators. See 1.2.7), an utility to transform multiface snapshot to emulators snapshot.
DOS SANTOS Francisco (RAM7) 123 boulevard Strasbourg 94130 NOGENT SUR MARNE FRANCE
+ You can contact him also now by email : ram7@genesis8.frmug.fr.net
The ROMCARD is sold 300 FF, with its cable. The RAMCARD is sold about 400-450 FF. Don't expect short delays.
The ROMCARD can have four 32Ko EPROMs : so that's 8 ROMs on the CPC as it uses 16Ko ROMs. Other ROMCARDs can be put in parallel, to add another four 32 Ko EPROMs each time.
If you order one ROMCARD or RAMCARD, say to RAM7 where you heard of his production.
+ None for the moment.
The "User-friendly" Notepad is Amstrad's idea of a what a simple word processor should be like. It is _not_ a PC-compatible and is _not_ the PenPad PDA. Its main flavours can be recognised from the following characteristic markings: The NC100 is about A4 size with a LCD "letterbox" screen, nearly full size keyboard, a PCMCIA memory card slot on the right-hand side and four coloured keys; The NC200 has a fold-down LCD screen instead and a built in 3.5" disk drive. -- I've never seen the NC150. D epending on the frequency of useage, the batteries can last for several months.
You could either try to contact your local Amstrad dealer, or Tandy in the UK are quite happy to post one abroad and take all major credit cards. Call their Norwich office on +44 1603 621426. Current price is about 130GBP.
The Notepads have standard Centronics parallel ports and RS232 9-pin serial ports. The system has drivers for 9 and 24 pin dot matrix, Canon inkjet and Laserjet printers. The serial port claims 9600 bps, but I can only make my NC100 work reliably at the full speed using Xmodem and the AC adapter. This seems to be a common problem +probably because the AC adapter supplies 10 volts and the batteries only 6. A batterie buffered PCMCIA Memory Card will preserve you from data loss even if your Notepad cras hes and increases the available memory.
The LaserJet printer driver does not seem to be fully implemented. It does not feature diffrent point sizes. (At least in the german version of the NC100.) So you are allways printing in the point size you have selected on the LaserJet panel.
Brief instructions are given in the manual. You can either by the LapCat parallel port system, or buy a "Null Modem Cable" from your local computer store and use a terminal program on the PC (Telix supports the XModem file transfers as well, but standard Windows Terminal/HyperTerminal works OK for text). Set both ends to the same speed, 8 data bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit, RTS/CTS handshaking on, and experiment until it works...
Oddly enough, the Notepad includes a copy of BBC BASIC. This allows you to create your own programs and download other peoples'. A memory card will prevent you from data loss when your Notepad crashes. Tyring to load a BASIC program received from a PC into the Word Processor might result in a crash. It also allows you to create file with BASIC bigger than 1024 bytes. This is because the BASIC allocate all available memory on startup except 1024 byte.
12.5.1 - Where can I find programs for it? Try ftp.maekong.york.ac.uk in /pub/BBC orhttp://www.uea.ac.uk/~u9428232/NC/files/
Certainly! To go from WP to BASIC type "*EXEC filename" into BASIC (don't forget line numbers!). To go from BASIC to WP, load the program and then type:
*SPOOL document LIST *SPOOL
Of course - just save it with the name AUTO and whenever you start BASIC, it'll run...
CP/M is available for the NC100 from ftp.nvg.unit.no (& mirrors) in /pub/cpc/nc100/. It needs you to have a PC-compatible linked to your NC100 and a memory card ready for it. I haven't tried it and I don't know if it works on the NC200 or NC150.
If you're lucky, switching it to standby and back will get you out. If you've got context-saving on then it definitely won't. Try these: switching on while holding Function; switching on while holding Function, Stop, Del and the right-hand Shift; removing all the batteries (including the lithium cell) and the power adapter and trying to switch on. The last two definitely blank the memory. The first two don't always.
Try CPC supplies on +44 1772 654455 (Main switchboard) or Email their fax machine on remote-printer.Sales@6.6.4.4.5.6.2.7.7.1.4.4.tpc.int and ask them to 'phone you! Failing that, call Amstrad (number elsewhere in this FAQ)