A new version of the Amstrad CPC emulator Sugarbox is out.

You wish enhancements for the WinAPE Amstrad CPC emulator ? Then ask to its author on CPCWiki.

Just 16 months late to announce the latest version of the Amstrad PCW emulator Joyce v2.2.7 by John Elliott (unix and windows).

Be aware than John's web domain has changed, please update your boorkmark.

The last version of the Amstrad CPC emulator CapriceRPI (v 1.3) by KaosOverride for Raspberry PI is available.

This emulator base on the sources of Caprice32 (Ulrich Doewich) can also be compiled on something else than a PI with the following command : make -f makefile.notpi.

At least a new version of the WinAPE Amstrad CPC emulator by Richard Wilson.

En résumé elle apporte des améliorations sur l'émulation du Z80, changement de palette, émulation sonore, support des cassettes, assembleur et désassembleur.

Also, there is a new version of ParaDOS, a ROM (for CPC old and +) used for disc and files manipulations. Source of ParaDOS is available too.

The Amstrad CPC use 3" disks because Alan Michael Sugar got a large batch of 3" drives, and then stayed with it for compatibility. Game editors started to add protections to avoid piracy. Amstrad CPC emulators are using the .DSK format to store the content of a disk (but it assumes that each track have only one size). This format can't manage well protections, for this you need the extended DSK format where each track can have a different size to support more protections, but still not all of them. That's why hardware solutions are necessary to preserve the exact content of the original disks in their totality (and then you can write them again to real disks) such as :

• Kryoflux, this is the official hardware developed by The Software Preservation Society. More on Kryoflux features here. The kryoflux creates a file for each track of a disk in raw format (the track is read 5 times so about 250 Ko per track). Then there is the CT Raw, one file created from the raw tracks, and lastly the .IPF resulting from the CT Raw.
• SuperCard Pro (SCP), contrary to the kryoflux, the SCP creates one file for one disk. With a firmware update, the SCP will be able soon to become a floppy disk emulator like the HxC Floppy Emulator by Jean-François DEL NERO

There is a problem to create .IPF for Amstrad CPC programs, the real disks have been either :

• written in an usine so they will be seens as originals and IPF will be created
• written on a real Amstrad CPC, so they will be seens as copies and IPF wont be created

Every emulator can use the raw or CT Raw kryoflux files if using the SPS decoder library. If an emulator doesnt use this library, then the best thing is to use .DSK created from kryoflux files with Samdisk like those dumped by Maxit on CPC-Power. SuperCard Pro support must be added internally into an emulator. Sugarbox already supports the SCP and of course the kryoflux (from a kryoflux raw or CT Raw, sugarbox can create a SCP file). Samdisk will soon support the SCP hardware, so it will be possible to read one track only.

The Amstrad notepad NC100 was out in 1992 with the protext word processing (already on Amstrad CPC and Amstrad PCW). But it's also possible to use it with ZCN by Mark Russel wich is a native CP/M, or use the all new Fuzix, this time an unix (system 5) by Alan Cox.

You can emulate an Amstrad NC100 (and also NC150 and NC200) with nc100em (still by Russell MARKS) for linux or ms-dos, and since the start of 2014 for windows (port by Stefano Bodrato). The MESS emulator also supports the 3 Amstrad notepad NC. If you dont have the original NC100 ROM, you will need the ZCN.BIN file included in ZCN v1.3. You will find more informations about the Amstrad Notepad NC on the excellent Tim's Amstrad NC users site (see ZCN page).

Today a new version of the Amstrad CPC emulator Sugarbox is out :

• [TAPE] : Tape support : CDT/WAV/VOC/CSW(v1.1 & v2.0, with or without Z-RLE encoding) files are supported
• [TAPE] : Possibility to save Tape as WAV, CDT (with only DRB or CSW blocks), CSW (v1.1 or 2.0 compressed). Preliminary, maybe unexpected results can occurs !
• [FDC] : Head is no longer forced to track 0 when a disk is ejcted. This fix a bug in disk swapping for Targhan.
• [FDC] : Track delay time added. This fixed a weird protection scheme on Daley Thompson Olymic Challenge
• [FDC] : The US1 FDC bit is no longer wired. This fixed « Sphaira » original game.
• [FDC] : When « Read id » is performed on a not formatted track, the track was incorrect in the result. This is now fixed, fixing « Return of the jedi ».
• [FDC] : Fixed a bug that only load up to 42 tracks per side for a disk. Now, 720k disk (with 82 tracks) can be loaded again correctly
• [FDC] : Fixed a bug that prevent « motor » command to be taken in account
• [FDC] : Fixed a bug related to BC bit in register 2, making « Starfox » game to work.
• [GUI] : Added protection button for the disks
• [FDC-eDSK] : Correctly save tracks that are not formatted
• [FDC-DSK] : Close dsk file correctly.
• [SHORTCUTS] : added ctrl+f9 -> Reset
• ctrl+f1 : insert disk drive A:
• ctrl+f2 : insert disk drive B:
• [Gate array] : Fixed a bug that was displaying incorrect colors when using the ghost registers
• [General] : On exit, if a disk has been modified without being saved, user is asked about it.
• [General] : Fixed some rare crash that can occurs
• [General] : A click on speed on status bar now toggle the emulation speed between « 100% » and « No speed limit »
• [General] : Some architecture and code optimization, increasing overall emulation speed (about +25% speed)

Today with the LCD screens, the Amstrad CPC emulators don't display the same result than with a real Amstrad CPC and a Cathodic Ray Tub (CRT) television.

So Alex76gr has created a collection of 75 loading screens pictures of Amstrad CPC games with a scanline effect (1536x1080 resolution).

However adding scanlines isnt enough to looks like a CRT television set.

Winape and Caprice32 are 2 Amstrad CPC emulators which can provide a CRT rendering.

A new version (v1.3) of the CDT2WAV utility (windows/linux/mac) by DevilMarkus.

It let you use resulting .WAV on a real CPC with a tape drive or a MP3 player.

For Linux and Mac users, launch the cdt2wav.jar with the following parameters : cdt2wav.jar -Xms512m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m (or set all to 256 if you want only 256 Mb max. ram usage).

Two online Amstrad CPC emulators have been updated with bugs corrections and new features :

• Sugarbox : loading of snapshots (.SNA)
• JavaCPC : you can load your own disks images files (.DSK), some important keys are F1 - Show some info, F12 - Reset CPC, F2 - Load medium (CDT, DSK, even SNA is possible), F10 - Boot DSK in DF0, F9 - Toggle turbo mode and ALT + Enter - Toggle fullscreen)

Sugarbox is a new Amstrad CPC emulator (beta) for windows. Beware, there are some problems with windows XP SP3, it works without problems on windows 7 or 8.

A new version of the desktop JavaCPC is available. It's an Amstrad CPC(+) emulator written in Java by Markus Hohmann (DevilMarkus).

Maziacs is a ZX Spectrum game written by Don Priestley in 1983.

It was ported on Amstrad CPC by 40Crisis and sold by DK'Tronics.

The Z80 code is runned natively by the Amstrad CPC Z80, but all Spectrum system calls are managed by a partial emulation of the ZX Spectrum ROM.

As Don Priestley did authorize the download of his games and as Amstrad did authorize the use of the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC ROMs, the package Maziacs Sinclair Zx Spectrum Emulator for Amstrad CPC can be freely downloaded.

Last version of Joyce (v2.2.6) by John Elliott is available. It emulates an Amstrad PCW (including the PCW16) for Unix, Windows and MacOS X.