Christmas Day morning. What a time to be alive!

Another day another weird thing on my CPC 464…

My CPC was mute… Totally silent… I assumed that the AY chip was fried so I have a VRetro AY replacement with sockets…

But last week while setting up the controls for a game… I pressed Numpad 6 and the sound returned! If I hold Numpad 6 the sound effects and music play! But the music sounds a bit off key…

As the AY chip also controls the I/O ports and keyboard… I’m suspecting some bad or aged solder joints… Here’s a pic of the AY’s solder joints…

(My CPC is the Revision 2 with short board from 1986, before the Cost Down… All caps are ceramic and has no amplifier chip)

Who remembers this game. My retrospective game review of Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal which was released in 1988 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and Atari ST. Have you played this game and do you think it’s any good?

Who remembers Domark’s 2nd Bong game The Living Daylights? It’s certainly better than A View To A Kill I recently tackled but it’s not as good License To Kill. How would you rate this game and what are your thoughts and memories?

My retrospective game review of A VIEW TO A KILL: THE COMPUTER GAME for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX and Oric. It’s an early game of a series of Bond games released by Domark. Let me know if you have played any of these versions and if you thought the game was decent or just rubbish 😉

Hey guys

Just wanted to announce that the CPCwiki is back -somewhat!

-The new forum is live at https://forum.cpcwiki.eu .

-the wiki itself will follow in due time

-the old forum will be put online again in read only corner

-the user database will be migrated to the new forum, but not the posts or DMs

-still tinkering with it, but it's functional so you can register and look around.

Have fun!

Bonjour à tous,

Petite expérience personnelle que je voulais partager.

Je me suis posé une question un peu naïve : est-ce qu’aujourd’hui, avec des outils comme ChatGPT, on pourrait arriver à concevoir un petit jeu qui aurait pu exister à l’époque des ordinateurs 8 bits, comme l’Amstrad CPC 6128 ?

Je ne suis pas développeur professionnel et l’idée n’était absolument pas de créer un jeu commercial. C’était plutôt un test : voir jusqu’où une IA pouvait m’accompagner dans la réflexion, la conception des mécaniques, les idées de niveaux, l’interface, les problèmes techniques, les corrections, etc.

J’ai donc travaillé avec ChatGPT pour imaginer « Louis – Mission Guy Môquet », un petit jeu d’aventure/action avec une esthétique inspirée des jeux 8 bits (écrans simples, couleurs limitées, esprit CPC), mais jouable aujourd’hui directement dans un navigateur.

Ce qui m’a surtout intéressé dans cette expérience, ce n’est pas seulement le résultat final, mais la manière de travailler avec l’IA : quand on lui pose des questions précises, qu’on demande des explications et qu’on cherche à comprendre, elle devient un véritable outil pédagogique. Elle aide à explorer des domaines qu’on n’aurait peut-être jamais osé aborder seul.

Je sais que l’IA fait beaucoup débat aujourd’hui, mais cette expérience m’a montré un autre aspect : comme outil d’apprentissage, d’expérimentation et de création, c’est assez fascinant.

Si certains sont curieux de tester le jeu et de me donner un retour (même critique !), je serais ravi d’avoir vos avis : https://louis-combat-rue.rainy-ox-0686.chatgpt.site

Merci à ceux qui prendront quelques minutes pour essayer 😊

My video takes a look at Terminator 2: Judgement Day from Ocean Software for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and the Atari ST. Please share your thoughts on this game. Was it a good game or was it another money grab?

Hello everyone! I own a 1986 Amstrad CPC 464 and I’m having a bit of a problem…

I have to load games from a cassette tape adaptor to a phone with PlayZX as with normal tapes it keeps giving me the dreaded “Read Error B”!

I think the culpirit is the pinch roller… It’s way too shiny as you can see in the photos…

The azimuth is properly calibrated as you can see in Azimuth Locator, and the drive belt is new…

How can I remove the roller from it’s metal casing without butchering the whole unit? I have located some spare rollers but the whole metal arm is imposible to find…

Each level is centred on a certain location, such as in Hades, an Egyptian pyramid and ancient Greece, where the player must collect a magic orb in each to finish. Each level is based around related myths and legends. The gameplay consists of running and jumping through each level, collecting objects and weapons, fighting enemies and solving puzzles. Enemies include skeletons, demons, wraiths, mummies and vikings. Weapons include a sword, gun and fireballs. Each level contains a mythical boss enemy, such as Medusa, Thor and a Hydra. Puzzles involve using the right object in the right location to progress, such as throwing skulls into a pit of fire to summon a monster, and using the right weapon against enemies, such as attacking a specific monster with tridents. The user manual gave some background information about the various myths referred to in the game and gave hints to the puzzles

Today I take a retrospective look at the Running Man across all formats. Share your thoughts and memories if you ever played this game.

Especially Live and Let Die

I recently picked up a CPC6128 from a pile of ewaste, along with a companion CTM644 monitor. They've both obviously seen better days, but do both power up, however all thats displayed on boot is a handful of lines. The speaker on the computer is crackling but not doing much else. Anyone had any experiences like this before?

How did Amsoft ever get clearance from the BBC to use the Doctor Who theme music for Roland In Time?

For that matter, did Ocean ever get clearance from Vangelis or John Williams to use Chariots of Fire / Olympic Fanfare in Daley Thompson’s Supertest?

My older brother used to bagsy the joystick and helicopter every time. I had to use the keyboard to make the jeep jump over those stupid mines.

I have finished phase 1, which is getting the amstrad's printer output as text in the serial monitor, that allowed me to develop the circuit . Circuit is some bi-directional logic level shifters between gpio of the raspberry pi and amstrad's printer port, they don't have to be bi-directional but those were cheaper and easier to replace than resistor voltage dividers and a transistor buffer. Now I'm trying to develop the second phase which is controlling a printer over a USB port using the USB host capabilities of the raspberry pi pico. However I can't get pico to print anything to the printer. I'm trying to solve this issue for the last few days, so if you can help me with the coding part of phase 2 I will be more than willing to share every detail. Also this project is just a start because the same methodology can be implemented to other computers such as commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST.

Here is the working and tested phase 1 code:

// ==========================================

// Amstrad CPC 7-Bit Parallel Printer Capture

// ==========================================

// --- Pin Definitions ---

const int PIN_STROBE = 1; // GP1 (Physical Pin 2) - CPC Pin 1 (/STROBE)

const int DATA_PIN_START = 2; // GP2 to GP8 (Physical Pins 4-11) - CPC Pins 2-8 (D0-D6)

const int PIN_BUSY = 9; // GP9 (Physical Pin 12) - CPC Pin 10 or 11 (BUSY)

// --- Circular Buffer (FIFO) ---

// Safely passes bytes from the fast hardware interrupt to the main loop

const int BUFFER_SIZE = 512;

volatile uint8_t rx_buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];

volatile int head = 0;

volatile int tail = 0;

volatile bool character_received = false;

// --- The Hardware Interrupt (The Data Catcher) ---

// Triggers automatically on the falling edge of STROBE

void strobeTriggered() {

// 1. Instantly pull BUSY high to tell the Amstrad CPC to hold

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, HIGH);

// 2. Read the 7-bit data bus instantly.

// Shift right by 2 so GP2 moves to bit 0, then mask the lower 7 bits (0x7F).

uint8_t incoming_char = (gpio_get_all() >> DATA_PIN_START) & 0x7F;

// 3. Calculate the next buffer position

int next_head = (head + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;

// 4. If buffer isn't full, push the character into the queue

if (next_head != tail) {

rx_buffer[head] = incoming_char;

head = next_head;

character_received = true;

}

}

void setup() {

// Start Serial Monitor communication at 115200 baud

Serial.begin(115200);

// Wait up to 3 seconds for Serial Monitor to open after reset

unsigned long start_wait = millis();

while (!Serial && (millis() - start_wait < 3000));

// Configure the 7 data pins (GP2 through GP8) as inputs

for (int i = DATA_PIN_START; i < DATA_PIN_START + 7; i++) {

pinMode(i, INPUT);

}

// Configure Handshake pins

pinMode(PIN_STROBE, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(PIN_BUSY, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, LOW); // Start in "Ready" state

// Attach the interrupt to trigger on STROBE's falling edge

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(PIN_STROBE), strobeTriggered, FALLING);

Serial.println("=========================================================");

Serial.println(" Amstrad CPC Printerface, Phase 1 ");

Serial.println(" Circuit Design By Ege Ozpalamutcu & Code by Gemini ");

Serial.println(" Listening on GP1 (STROBE) & GP2-GP8 (DATA) & GP9 (BUSY)");

Serial.println("=========================================================");

}

void loop() {

// 1. Process characters from the circular buffer

while (tail != head) {

// Grab the oldest unread character from the queue

uint8_t c = rx_buffer[tail];

tail = (tail + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;

// Handle standard printable ASCII

if (c >= 32 && c <= 126) {

Serial.write(c);

}

// Handle Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) for newlines

else if (c == 13 || c == 10) {

Serial.write(c);

}

// Handle the Escape character (used for printer commands)

else if (c == 27) {

Serial.print("<ESC>");

}

// Print everything else as a hex code for debugging

else {

Serial.print("[0x");

if (c < 0x10) Serial.print("0"); // Leading zero

Serial.print(c, HEX);

Serial.print("]");

}

}

// 2. Safely release BUSY only after /STROBE has returned HIGH

if (character_received) {

// Wait until the CPC finishes its strobe pulse

if (digitalRead(PIN_STROBE) == HIGH) {

delayMicroseconds(10); // Small settling delay for cable stability

character_received = false;

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, LOW); // Signal to CPC that we are ready for the next byte

}

}

}

Who remembers playing Total Recall? My retrospective video goes back to rediscover this Ocean Software game released across all formats. There certainly were a few development challenges. I also take a look at the NES version developed by Interplay and published by Acclaim.
Were they any good?

Recently the motherboard in a Pentium III computer in my collection died of the capacitor plague, so I decided to check what can go wrong in my other machines.

Gemini insists that I should replace an X2 RIFA capacitor in my GT65, as apparently it can blow up any time. The problem is, I can't find any other source reporting this issue. Has anyone ever encountered it or preemptively replaced that component? I'm considering doing this along with recapping a new PIII mobo in a local electronics repair shop next week. Is it worth it?

Today my father brought up the fact that he wanted to throw away his old Amstrad 2086D, so i decided to try and check if it was still working, to see if there's a chance to sell it. I found every component and it turned on, however I got this message:

"Check keylock switch, keyboard and mouse"

I already found a post on this sub that tackled this issue, i tried with both positions of the keylock (down and right) and it leads to the same screen (with the difference that the key down makes the PC do a more frequent beep sound than when the key is to the right), i tried plugging in and unplugging both mouse and keyboard, but still nothing. I also checked the pins for both mouse and keyboard and they look fine

On the other post people also mentioned 'bridging the connector to the other end', how do i do that? And is there anything else that i could try?

I also have the OS floppy disks but if the inputs are not working i don't think they would be useful.

Who remembers Predator? My retrospective video takes us back to 1987 to rediscover the games based on one of Arnie’s best movies. Was this a good game or was it the typical movie tie in trash? Share your thought and memories of this game.

Wizard Longplay inside the Map!