Shawn Sijnstra (and Stefan Vogt) continue to update VEZZA his Infocom/Inform/Z-machine interpreter for Amstrad CPC and PCW (and other computers) to play adventure games without needing a memory expansion (Inform format v1 to v8), under CP/M and not Amsdos.

The program you need to dowload is different if you are using an Amstrad CPC (vezza-nb.com) or a PCW (vezza-90.com).

Amtix issue 9 by Fusion Retro Books was released at the start of October 2023.

Find Fusion Retro Books on Twitter and Fusion Retro Books on Facebook.

Furnace by Tildearrow is a chiptune tracker for many sound chips, including the one for the Amstrad CPC. Thanks to McKlain fo the information o Twitter.

PunyInform v5.1 by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson is a library written in Inform 6 to create adventure game (pure text, no graphic support contrary to DAAD) using the Z-machine virtual machine which will run on 8bit computers (or more recent computers too). PunyInform has a parser, knowing of common verbs and a framework to write adventure games.

PunyInform is based on the Inform 6 library written by Graham Nelson. Its goal is to make easily adventure games in Inform 6, with a manual describing the differences between the official library and PunyInform..

Games using PunyInform can be compiled in z3, z5 and z8 format (z3 being the best format for 8bit computers, other formats have more features). Compared to the Inform 6 library, it means that there is no support for the Glulx virtual machine but z3 format is important as Inform 6 doesnt support it.

To compile games written with PunyInform, you should use the Inform 6 compiler maintained by David Kinder. Binaries are available on if-archive. PunyInform needs Inform v6.35 (or more).

They are tutorials to write adventure game with PunyInform (end of the page) and all the documentation including a 8 page cheat sheet (quick reference)..

To try your game after compilation, you can use WinFrotz by David Kinder, to create map easily you can use Trizbort.

And finally, to create an Amstrad CPC and PCW disk image, you will have to use the Puddle BuildTools.

RetroVirtualMachine v2.1.9 by Juan Carlos González Amestoy was released today. It's an Amstrad CPC emulator for MacOS, Windows and Linux. This version features bug fixes.

Even if I knew ugBASIC for having seen it on the System-CFG forum, I didnt write about yet. It's interesting as it is a compiled basic which works on many computers including the Amstrad CPC(+). So it's Amsnews which reminds me to do my duty. In fact this compiler write the code so a program works whatever the features of the targeted computer, a feature who doesnt exist in hardware will be managed by software. For ugBASIC's github it's here, the official site here, an official FB group of ugBASIC and even now an ugBASIC forum. Good reading.

You can download 19 MIDI songs by Manfred GROSS which can be read by the Ultimate CPC MIDI Sound and MIDI Interface by LambadMikel for your Amstrad CPC.

The Picomem ISA card created by FreddyV is for all 808x computers and brings additionnal RAM (if you don't have 640 Kb), EMS memory, hard disk and disk drive images support, thanks to a Raspberry Pico (like the PicoGUS sound card). It's still work in progress. Rodrik Studio did two videos about the Picomem, one in english, the other in french :

• english video
• french video (see below)

Seen on CPCWiki, it is possible to replace an AY-3-8912 original sound chip (originals for sell are costly) by a replacement chip created by vRetro Design (better to put the chip in a socket after removing the original) : AY-3-8912 functional equivalent for 25 euros.

There is another replacement chip : AY-3-8912A-TS (Turbo Sound) but contrary to what was thought at the start of the CPCWiki thread, it isn't usable on an Amstrad CPC. It's only for ZX Spectrum and it offers 2 AY instead of one.

The clone had a timing problem but it has been corrected by vRetro on the 12 October 2023 as announced by SerErris.

And one more computer running soon SymbOS by Prodatron : the Amstrad Notepad 200 !

If you wish to try it with an emulator, you can download a version of the 18th July 2023.

Prodatron's notepad NC200 being out of order, it lacks for the moment the possibility to start on a real NC200.