Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!news.rmit.EDU.AU!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!Germany.EU.net!main.Germany.EU.net!EU.net!Austria.EU.net!01-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!swidir.switch.ch!in2p3.fr!oleane!jussieu.fr!blaise.ibp.fr!roussin From: roussin@blaise.ibp.fr (Emmanuel ROUSSIN) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amstrad.8bit,news.answers,comp.answers Subject: comp.sys.amstrad.8bit FAQ v0.71 1/1 Followup-To: comp.sys.amstrad.8bit Date: 6 Sep 1996 20:05:47 GMT Organization: Institut Blaise Pascal - Universites Paris 6 et Paris 7 - Paris - France Lines: 1623 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: <50q06r$cbc@vishnu.jussieu.fr> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaise.ibp.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Archive-name: amstrad8bit-faq Posting-Frequency: monthly (4th day) X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: news1.ucsd.edu comp.sys.amstrad.8bit:3145 news.answers:64827 comp.answers:16186 comp.sys.amstrad.8bit Frequently Asked Questions v0.71 (08/30/96) The latest FAQ is archived on : ftp.ibp.fr in /pub/amstrad/amstrad.faq (english version) ftp.ibp.fr in /pub/amstrad/french.faq (french version, soon) (after a first translation from Pierre Guerrier) and on rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet/comp.sys.amstrad.8bit (english version) 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 + Lines preceded by a '*' have been modified since last FAQ. This FAQ is written by : - Emmanuel Roussin, roussin@genesis8.frmug.fr.net, section 1 to 11, - Mark Ray, M.Ray@UEA.ac.uk, section 12 (Amstrad Notepad), - still waiting for somebody who could write a PCW part, send it to E.R., beginning with the section 13 (you lucky one !). 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 as you want, but we keep the copyright). We will greatly appreciate if you ask our permission, before using it in commercial stuff, whatever it could be. 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 misc1284@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Kenneth Crawford) simonh@cvcge.ic.ac.uk (Dr S.J. Harris) ml322523@dingo.cc.uq.oz.au (Ben Williamson) david@uaug.cablenet.co.uk (David Cantrell) rrotz@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu (rrotz) 33ps@but.auc.dk (Peter Sorensen) Dave@kechb.demon.co.uk (David Long) ksweber@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Weber) ianmacd@xs4all.nl (Ian Macdonald) iri@aber.ac.uk (IAN RODERIC IZETT) K.E.W.Thacker@cm.cf.ac.uk (K Thacker) slog@cix.compulink.co.uk (Roger Bradley) matthew.phillips@christ-church.oxford.ac.uk richard@musicians-net.co.uk (Richard Fairhurst) hubersn@lcs.wn.bawue.de (Steffen Huber) + dik@dix.teuto.de (Dirk Eismann) Send me a message if you have something to add to what I extracted. ------------ Table of Contents Introduction 1) Emulators and utilities 1.1) emulators 1.2) utilities 2) Where can I find emulators, ROMs and programs ? 2.1) FTP sites 2.2) WWW 2.3) BBS 2.4) How to use the programs with the emulators ? 3) How can I transfer my programs from CPC to PC ? 3.1) 3" drive on PC 3.2) 3,5" or 5,25" drive on CPC 3.3) parallel cable 3.4) RS 232 / RS 422 (Macintosh) 3.5) Companies 4) Ok, all works now, but some games are huge and hard, where can I find maps, advice, solutions, pokes, basic loaders ? 5) My CPC internal drive doesn't work anymore 6) How can I help the CPC/PCW world ? 7) Commercial games wich are now PD, freeware or shareware 8) Useful address and informations 8.1) Addresses 8.2) Informations 9) Fanzines 9.1) on paper 9.2) on disk 10) Additionnal hardware 10.1) hard disk 10.2) Multiface II 10.3) ROMCARD and RAMCARD 11) Upcoming CPC meetings 12) The Amstrad Notepad 12.1) What is it? 12.2) How can I buy one? 12.3) What peripherals can I use? + 12.3.1 Printing 12.4) How do I connect it to a PC? 12.5) BASIC 12.5.1 Where can I find programs for it? 12.5.2 Can I use the Word Processor to enter listings? 12.5.3 Can I make a program auto-run? 12.6) Other Programs 12.7) I've just crashed it... 12.8) I've just broken it... 12.9) Internet resources. --------------------------- Introduction 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 after an idea from Marco Vieth and David Long (maintainer of the 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+. 1) Emulators and utilities All the following emulators and utilities can be found on ftp.ibp.fr in /pub/amstrad/emulator 1.1) emulators For the moment, there are 4 known emulators for PC, 4 for Amiga, and 2 for Acorn RISC OS machines. One emulator is on the way to be release on MAC, another one on UNIX. There is a commercial spectrum emulator for the CPC, reviewed in Amstrad Action. 1.1.1) CPCEMU (PC) The first emulator is CPCEMU by Marco Vieth, the last version is 1.4 (look for CPCEMU14.ZIP). It needs at least a 386 SX/DX with a VGA display, runs with MS-DOS and OS/2 2.x DOS box. Marco Vieth has slowed his developpement with version 1.3, but still released minor modifications. And version 1.4 is now out (end of march 96) with GUS support by Ulrich Doewich, a french translation of the documentation by the FAQ keeper and Jean-Pierre MARQUET, on line help, 2 joysticks, VESA resolutions, new SNA2GIF, better FDC routines... 1.1.2) CPE (for PC and Amiga) With Christmas of the year 1994, we got a nice present : the second CPC emulator for PC by Bernd Schmidt (look for CPE50.ZIP). It needs at least a 386 SX/DX or higher with MS-DOS. What are the main differences with CPCEMU ? CPE manages better the graphism, but can't write to .DSK files, only to its own format .CPD It supports the GUS sound card directly (thanks to Ulrich Doewich). On mid-february 95, Bernd Schmidt released amiga CPE, needs 68000, 1 Mo. Looks for ACPE_NEW.LZH, as Bernd works more on the PC version, don't expect this amiga version to be as good as the PC one. If you are interested, you can even look at the sources for CPE PC version, look for CPE50SRC.ZIP 1.1.3) A-CPC (PC) The Amstrad CPC emulator (v0.3beta) by Herman Dullink on PC, needs 386sx at least and VGA, look for CPC03.ZIP, doesn't work with my computer, a new version will come when Herman will be less busy. 1.1.4) PC-CPC (PC) A PC version of AMI-CPC by Ludovic Deplanque (see below 1.1.5), look for PC-CPC.ZIP, and AMIPCUT.LHA for .CPC<->.DSK conversion. 1.1.5) AMI-CPC (Amiga) Now CPC emulators are not only the speciality of germans, here is an alpha version of a french CPC emulator for AMIGA, by Ludovic Deplanque. Look for AMI-CPC v0.33 : AMI-CPC.LHA and the turbo version AMI-CPCT.LHA Soon v0.35 on ftp.ibp.fr You will need AMICPCUT.LHA, utilities for the .CPC<->.DSK conversion on Amiga and PC 1.1.6) A-CPC (Amiga) The CPC emulator for Amiga by K.E.W. Thacker is finally out in septembre 1995, look for ACPC_DEM.LHA, it's a demo/evaluation version of the real shareware. Don't forget the web page of Kevin (see section 2.2), it's the biggest one. 1.1.7) Emu-CPC (Amiga) Another french CPC emulator on AMIGA by Stephane Tavenard, look for EmuCPC v0.4b (january 1996) : EMUCPC.LHA 1.1.8) !CPC (Acorn) !CPC is a CPC emulator for Acorn RISC OS machines (Archimedes/RISC PC) by Mark RISON. Look for CPCDEMO.ZIP, see his web page for informations (in section 2.2). 1.1.9) !CPCemu (Acorn) This emulator for Acorn RISC OS machines is by Andreas Stroiczek, aka Face Hugger. The current version is 0.79, look for CPC-EMU.ZIP 1.1.10) CPC++ (Unix) * Version 1.0 (for SunOS only yet) is on this web page : * http://www.worldnet.fr/~brice/cpc/cpcpp.html 1.1.11) Other emulators - SIMCPC: Presumably the first CPC emulator written. CPC Emulator for PC/XT/AT (c) 1989, 90 by GHE, Aachen. It is only black and white, but with additional ROMs; only a "beer humour". - CPCEMUII (?): In development since October 1993 by Paco Lopez (Spain). Still unavalaible. It uses the same disk format as CPCEMU. - another Amiga emulator is currently in developpement, you can contact : P.R.Thompson-CSAI94@cs.bham.ac.uk, - a Mac emulator by a compuserve guy, developpement halted for the moment. - another Mac emulator by Pierre Guerrier (see 2.2). - an Unix/Linux Emulator by Mark Conmy, mpc@scs.leeds.ac.uk. Last time I heard about it, the emulation was finished but it didn't support snapshot or DSK. Maybe he has finished these extras. - a linux emulator by Noel Llopis, to be ported to other unix. 1.2 Utilities 1.2.1) SNA2GIF (PC) SNA2GIF v1.1 by Marco Vieth, is included in CPCEMU14.ZIP, it extracts screens from snapshots to GIF format. 1.2.2) SNAP GRAB (PC) 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 CPC2TIF, see below. Look for SNAPGR11.ZIP. 1.2.3) CPC to TIFF (PC) CPC2TIF v1.0 by Michael Stroucken converts Multiface II screens to the graphic TIF format. Look for CPC2TIF.ZIP. 1.2.4) CPC file system (PC) 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/ 1.2.5) CPC extractor (PC) CPC extractor v1.0 by Guillaume Genty extracts files from .DSK files. Look for CPCEXT.ZIP. 1.2.6) Transfer (PC) 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 works. The .DSK file can be in another directory. Look for TRANSF21.ZIP. 1.2.7) Multiface II to Snapshot (PC) M2TOSNA v1.1 by James McKay converts CPC Multiface II files to 64 Ko and 128 Ko snapshots files. Look for M2TOSNA1.ZIP. 1.2.8) CPDread (PC) Copy Protected Disk reader v2.04 by Ulrich Doewich, utility to transfer CPC disks into the common DSK file format of CPC emulators. Look for CPDR212.ZIP 1.2.9) MACTerm (MAC) Transfer files between CPC and MAC with a parallel cable, look for CPCTERM.ZIP 2) Where can find the emulators, ROMs and programs ? ROMs are now included with CPCEMU and CPE, with the permission of Amstrad and Locomotive Software. CPE is now using the same ROM format than CPCEMU. 2.1) FTP sites - ftp.ibp.fr : /pub/amstrad, thanks to Remy Card, all questions about this site should be directed to roussin@blaise.ibp.fr All the files comes from 'Genesis the 8bit generation BBS' (see below), - oak.oakland.edu : /Simtel/msdos/emulator/cpcemu13.zip - other Simtel mirrors as : ftp.ibp.fr : /pub3/pc/SimTel/msdos/emulator/ ftp.demon.co.uk : /simtel/msdos. - ftp.nvg.unit.no : /pub/cpc, thanks to Arnt Gulbrandsen for creating the site, and to Noel Llopis to maintain it, ROMs, CPC programs, emulators, send what you have in /pub/cpc/incoming - sunshine.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de : /pub/joscho/cpcemu mirror of ftp.nvg.unit.no, limit of ftp-users to 4 from 8-18 CET and to 10 from 18-8 CET. Any questions, remarks and additions to joscho@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de - ftp.demon.co.uk :/pub/cpm, thanks to Paul Martin specific amstrad CP/M related files Paul Martin (pm@nowster.demon.co.uk) will send anyone, who can give him proof (photocopy of the CP/M disk with the serial number for example) that they have original Amstrad CP/M Plus, the binary ROM images of his "CP/M Plus ROMs" for free. - ftp://adams.eimages.co.uk - partial mirror of ftp.nvg.unit.no, by David Cantrell 2.2) WWW When I will have time, there will be a HTML faq, it will be announced, when ready, in the newsgroup. - the biggest Amstrad web page is the one from Kevin Thacker, the A-CPC author (Amiga CPC emulator). http://andercheran.aiind.upv.es/~amstrad - Amstrad : http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/amstrad - Amstrad Action homepage : http://www.futurenet.co.uk/ - PCW Plus magazine's : http://webserv.futurenet.co.uk/computing/pcwplus.html It's pretty new and not a lot of info on it yet. - http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk:8080/rison/cpc/cpc.html page of the !CPC author (RISC CPC emulator). - Wacci, an U.K. CPC paper zine (see section 9.1.2). http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri0264/wowww.html, Wacci is an U.K. - The Computer Journal (TCJ) : http://www2.psyber.com/~tcj/ - PCW page by Jake Last : http://www.cus.umist.ac.uk/~octopus - NC100 page By Mark Ray : http://www.uea.ac.uk/~u9428232/NC/ - Peter Sorensen (Aka NWC) : http://www.kom.auc.dk/~nwc/ - Michael Stroucken, author of CPC2TIF : http://www1.pitt.edu/%7Emxsst1/cpc/, with technical datas about repairing CPC monitor and power supply. - Tolkien computer games for Amstrad CPC : http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/amstrad.html - Bernd Schmidt, author of CPE and AmigaCPE : http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~crux/index.html - Pierre Guerrier, he will release a CPC emulator under MAC : http://www.polytechnique.fr/poly/~guerrier/CPC.index.html - United Amstrad User Group (UAUG) : http://adams.eimages.co.uk/users/davidc/uaug/ There will be software available to download and the firmware guide in HTML, see section 9.1.3) - John Elliott, infos on PCW16 : http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjoh0132/Cpm/pcw16.html - Brice Rive, author of the CPC++ emulator (SunOS) * http://www.worldnet.fr/~brice/cpc/amstrad.html - unknown, not yet created, http://www.8bit.com/AMSTRAD.HTML - A prototype homepage for STS, the British CPC group, is now on-line, * with also the BTL fanzine (see 9.2.5), maintained by Richard Fairhurst http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/6845/ * - Ian Macdonald, about PCW : http://www.xs4all.nl/~ianmacd/PCW.htm + - Mex : http://blitzen.canberra.edu.au/~mex/amstrad.html 2.3) BBS - Aspects (2:250/107) : +44 1617920260, in United Kingdom, sysop Dave Gorski, V32b, CPCEMU v1.2, programs (mostly in basic), - Genesis the 8bit generation (2:320/220) : +33 1 39 50 54 11, in France, up to VFC, sysop : Emmanuel Roussin. last versions of emulators, qwerty and azerty 6128 ROMs, freeware, shareware, PD, disk zines, pokes, solutions, demos and a few commercial games (with the permission of their respective authors). For the moment, there are about 41 Mo of zipped programs. For fido users, you can file request ALLFILES.ZIP, and then what is interesting you. Many thanks to Kangaroo, Tom&Jerry for the files they sent me. - Razormaid (2:2471/6009) : +49 711 4204329, in Germany, up to V32b and Zyxel, sysop : Thorsten Mitschele aka Kangaroo in the CPC scene, it has the same files as Genesis, with some delay. CPC files has been erased, Kangaroo had too few people interested in them, he could perhaps change his mind if people calls his bbs about CPC. - ZNODE 51 : +49 89 961 45 75, in Germany, from 15:00 to 3:00 CET (MEZ), up to V32b, CPC files. - The Dream Machine (2:442/600) : +44-1222-689812, Cardiff, Wales, U.K., V21 throuph v34/VFC, sysops : David J. Thomas and Rachael Munns, this bbs carry CPC and CP/M files, and the c.s.a.8 newsgroup. - Chill out zone : +49 821 2290356, Augsburg, Germany, v21 through v32b, sysop : Dark Sector, CPC files (coming from Razormaid). - Kittis Box (2:2448/53): +49-234-682887, Bochum, Germany,V34-VFC, sysop: Thorsten Franke, this bbs carry CPC and CP/M Files, it is the home of the CPCNet, a german speeking network for CPC-Users based on fidotechnology and ZConnect. To get infos write a mail to Botho@kitti.ftg.donut.de or get via fido-file-request the file CPCNET + - Chaos Cottage : +44 1736 756633, Hayle, Cornwall, U.K., V34,sysop : + Nigel Woolcock (jacob@spuddy.mew.co.uk), CP/M file area (mainly PCW) + with 5 Mo, AMSTRAD, CPM, CPMTECH fido echos and the csa8 newsgroup + available. 2.4) How to use the programs with the emulators ? 2.4.1) DSK files 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 2.4.2) CPC files 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). 3) How can I transfer programs from CPC to PC ? Later mentions of DDI-1 can also be remplaced by FD-1 (which comes without the interface for the 464) 3.1) 3" drive on PC 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 has 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). 3.2) 3,5" or 5,25" drive on CPC 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: - The drive has no ready signal. That is true for some older PC drives. In this case, forget it, if you are not able to solder some IC's to simulate the signal. - You can only use one side of the disk (180k). If you want to use both sides, you have to solder in a switch, or get another DOS (Vortex XDOS or Dobbertin X-DDOS). 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. 3.3) parallel cable 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 3.4) RS 232 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. 3.5) Companies Commercial companies can transfer your files 3.5.1) Locomotive Software They can transfer your Locoscript files, for 5 GBP (+10% postage for France). Contact Howard Fisher for more details (howard@locomotive.com) Locomotive Software Tel 01306 747757 10 Vincent Works Fax 01306 885529 Dorking Surrey RH4 3HJ 3.5.2) Rowansoft Contact Tony Gill at tgill@alystra.win-uk.net for rates. ROWANSOFT, ROWANCRAIG, ARDFERN, BY LOCHGILPHEAD, ARGYLL, PA31 8QN Tel. 01852 500 257 4) Ok, all works now, but some games are huge and hard, where can I find maps, advice, solutions, pokes, basic loaders ? With CPCEMU 1.3 you can easily poke games with a external database file of pokes. Here is the structure of the database : - part, 1 character (0 to f), 0 for one poke, for multi-pokes 1 for the first, 2 for the second, etc... - name of the game, 20 characters, - description, 20 characters, blank when it's infinite lives, when there is a multi-pokes, only the description of the first poke is written. - type, 1 character, 't' for tape, 'd' for disc and 'a' for tape and disc, it's only an indication, - address, 4 characters, the poke address in hexadecimal, - byte to poke, 2 characters, an hexadecimal value, or '??' when you must type something, at this moment the explication is in the field description, - old byte, 2 characters, an hexadecimal value if a check is needed or '??' for no check, 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. 5) My CPC internal drive doesn't work anymore * 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@blaise.ibp.fr 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. 7) Commercial games wich are now PD, freeware or shareware 7.1) Vortex Software 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. 7.2) Design Design 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). 7.3) Jon Ritman Some almost freeware : batman, Head over Heels, Matchday I and II, I have word of Jon Ritman which is the author, that Ocean doesn't bother to see these programs to be available. Thanks to them. Don't forget that they still owns the copyright, please don't modify the programs. 7.4) Radical Software Radical Software released "Fluff" (Plus-only game) and "Smart Plus" (Plus-only art package, supports new features and overscan) to freeware. I will receive Flull for ftp.ibp.fr, but does someone have Smart Plus ? 8) Useful addresses and informations 8.1) Addresses Look at 3.4) for a PCW address. 8.1.1) France 8.1.1.1) L.E.I. 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 8.1.1.2) Futur's 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 n9.1.3) So, with this little marvelous thing, you can have 8bit samples, instead of 4bit samples, it is connected to the printer port. 8.1.1.3) A.F.C. (Association of CPC Fanzines) Sebastien BROUDIN 4 bis avenue Gambetta Apt 30 60600 CLERMONT-FERRAND FRANCE Phone number (033) 44.50.17.14 This association prints a monthly letter with the latest CPC scene news. They also sell Megablasters, 170 FF or 137 FF if you send 2 disks. A fabulous game, don't hesitate to order it. 8.1.2) U.S.A 8.1.2.1) Sinotech Ltd. 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 8.1.3) United Kingdom 8.1.3.1) Comsoft (was Campursoft) 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). - 8 sockets ROMBOX, and now a 16 sockets too, - ParaDOS, a ROM operating system, the best OS as AA states it. - DES (Desktop Environment System), graphical interface for CPC, like on MAC or PC Windows, on disk or ROM, - ProPrint, protext text enhancement program, fonts, font editor, on disk or ROM, - MicroDesign Plus, DTP package, - MicroDesign Extra, disc of clip arts for MicroDesign, - Maps for MD, british isles and worlds maps, - 2in1, PC to CPC, runs under CP/M, - The Basic Idea, tutorial of 42 pages and disc of examples for the aimed basic programmer, - Xexor, file management/disc backup utility (also for protected discs), - Soft-Lok v2.3, tape 2 disc, especially for speedlock protected games. Comsoft will releasing 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. 8.1.3.2) Sentinel Software Sentinel Software 41 Enmore Gardens East Sheen London SW14 8RF United Kingdom - RoutePlanner, UK navigation program - Pro-Ext, Protext extensions for desktop publishing - TUSS, utility to find sprites in games - DesText, interfaces Protext with Comsoft's DES - a wide range of CPC programming tutorials 8.1.3.3) United Amstrad User Group 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. 8.1.4) Some snail mail and Email addresses - Cliff Lawson (Amstrad), CLIFFL@amstrad.com, he reads the newsgroup. - Andreas Stroiczek (aka Face Hugger), n96477@pbhrzx.uni-paderborn.de DOSCOPY, Face Huggers Ultimate MegaDemo, !CPCEmu for Archimedes, and more... - WSX/INICRON, nwil0062@rz.uni-hildesheim.de - Brain Blaster & Schhumpf of Frankenteam, makra@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de, CPC Telegram Disczine - Doc Bartlet, rdbarthe@trick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de Bollaware demo/game coders - Keith A Goodyer, kgoodyer@mag-net.co.uk R-Type, f16, Dynamite Dan II, Speedzone, Gilbert Escape from Drill, Grid Iron I, Grid Iron II, Punch and Judy - Roland Perry, roland.perry@ukonline.co.uk - Richard Clayton (Locomotive Software Ltd), richard@locomotive.com - Howard Fisher (Locomotive Software Ltd), howard@locomotive.com - Offset (Futur's group), rimauro@bordeaux.ensam.fr Plus software and Hardware and also CPC software and hardware too - Antoine Pitrou, pitrou@Email.ENST.fr, Cheese, Turbo Monitor, etc... * - Georg Odenthal (Odiesoft), odie@soz.psychologie.uni-konstanz.de Megablasters, demos - Kevin Thacker (Morpheus), K.E.W.Thacker@cs.cf.ac.uk WWW resource, A-CPC emulator (Amiga) - Ilias Fotopoulos (KOD), fotopul@ceid.upatras.gr, demos, SEX disk fanzine - Marco Vieth, ali@uni-paderborn.de, CPCEMU (emulator on PC) - Bernd Schmidt, crux@Pool.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE, CPE (emulator on PC) - Mark Rison, rison@hep.phy.cam.ac.uk, !CPC (emulator on Archimedes) - Herman Dullink, csg669@wing.rug.nl, CPC (emulator on PC) - Oliver Mayer (BSC), a2888696@smail.rrz.uni-koeln.de Demos, Soundtrakker - Paul Gargan (Gliceas), c1pgarga@CompApp.DCU.IE, Amstrad User - Prodatron, pdt@uni-duisburg.de, Demos, Digitracker, X-treme - Richard Fairhurst (CRTC), richard@musicians-net.co.uk, AA, BTL, RoutePlanner etc - Richard Wildey (Wild Thang), cs94rrw@brunel.ac.uk Sentinel Software, TUSS - Simon Forrester (Hairy), sforrester@futurenet.co.uk AA, BooTracker - Simon Matthews (Ratz), ha3012@qmw.ac.uk, Demos - Spike, klleherd@tcd.ie, Game reviews - DREAMER of TGS/CRT, Heiner@wendt.westfalen.de, Heiner de Went Tannenweg 1 48727 Billerbeck GERMANY - Mark Haigh-Hutschinson, mhh@lucasarts.com, Vortex Software, see 7.1) 18 Raffles COurt Petaluma CA 94954 U.S.A. - Mark Ray, M.Ray@UEA.ac.uk - Amstrad Notepad (NC100) - Brice Rive, brice@world-net.sct.fr, CPC++ emulator on SunOS 8.2) Informations - the firmware guide : The CPCEMU Amstrad CPC Firmware Guide is available now! Thanks to Bob Taylor and Thomas Defoe for allowing the distribution. David Cantrell has scanned and reformatted the electronical version! It is on ftp.ibp.fr : /pub/amstrad/misc/firmware.zip. 9) Fanzines 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! 9.1) on paper 9.1.1) Rundschlag 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. 9.1.2) WACCI 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. 9.1.3) CPC User A magazine published every couple of months by the United Amstrad User Group (UAUG), see section 2.2) and 8.1.3.3) 9.1.4) Quasar 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 9.1.5) 8BIT 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 9.2) on disk 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 can³t 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. 9.2.1) Boxon Nicolas Ader (Nicky one) Place du Donjon 32320 BASSOUES FRANCE Boxon just stopped with number 2 in 1995 9.2.2) Demoniak Anthony Nevo (orphee) Le Louya 35290 GAEL FRANCE 9.2.3) Dracula Fanz 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 9.2.4) Phaser Sebastien Broudin (Seb) 1 rue Emile Combes 60600 FITZ-JAMES FRANCE 9.2.5) Better Than Life 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 can 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. 9.2.6) Tribal Mag 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 9.2.7) Art of Fantasy 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 9.2.7) Guten TAG 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 9.2.8) Coders Paradise 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 10) Additionnal hardware 10.1) Hard disks (no more produced) - a Dobbertin MFM interface with 20 MB HD for 1000 DM (400 UKP), - in the very early years a Vortex Filecard with 20 MB MFM HD for 3500 DM. 10.2) Multiface II 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. 10.3) ROMCARD and RAMCARD DOS SANTOS Francisco (RAM7) 123 boulevard Strasbourg 94130 NOGENT SUR MARNE FRANCE 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. 11) Upcoming Meetings 11.1) Byte '96 FWIW, the faq keeper should come to this meeting. Here is the text from the english invitation : Months of july and august 1995 have seen a lot of meetings in France. So we've decided to go on like this during the year 1996 ! But instead of making a Freedelire, a Bordelik meetings and an AFC Expo with a week between each meeting, we've thought of it that it will be easier to make a big meeting instead of three smaller ones. Byte '96 will take place in Oye-Plage in France (62.15 Kms near Calais), the 23, 24 and 25 august 1996, a participation of 130 FF is asked for each person (food...). What will you see if you come ? First, a lot of machines. Yes, we will try to gather a lot of people who are really fond of computers. Yes, you may be able to meet people (from different countries) who programs, makes some graphisms, or even music on CPC, PC, Amiga, but also Oric, TRS-80, C64, MSX, Sinclair... It SHOULD have a rewarded competitiont that will level the chances between all these machines (but for the reward, we don't know yet if it will be a week in the Canaries isle with Carla Bruni or a dedicated disc of "The Ultimate Noisecore Experience"). Second, of course, a lot of games, demos and fanzines or disc mags will be out during this party. To finish, you'l hear some strange discussions about weird things like "how to make rotozooms running at 50 Hz", "Is it possible to make overscan plasmas without any problem on Z80 with a 3.3 Mhz frequency ?", "How to make an emulator of the bugs of win 95 ?", etc... This meeting is organized by Cracky/Mortel/CocOOn System, One/PC Addict/MCHTML/CocOOn, Rainbird/arkos/CocOOn System, Seb/AFC/CocOOn System If you know some people who can be interested by this meeting, and who have not received this paper, please send them a copy of the one that is in your lucky hands. ======================================================================= YES, I will come to Byte '96 No, I won't come to the meeting, but I'm stupid enough to send you back this paper Hi ! My pseudo is and I'm in the group named My name is and my address is Phone number I've no friends and I come alone I come with a group, we are Thanks to send this paper back to : Byte '96 DUPAS Christophe 274 rue des Petits Moulins 62215 OYE-PLAGE FRANCE Thanks to give half of the participation when you register 12) The Amstrad Notepad 12.1) What is it? 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. Depending on the frequency of useage, the + batteries can last for several months. 12.2) How can I buy one? 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. 12.3) What peripherals can I use? 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 + crashes and increases the available memory. + 12.3.1 - Printing + + 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. 12.4) How do I connect it to a PC? 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... 12.5) BASIC 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 or http://www.uea.ac.uk/~u9428232/NC/files/ 12.5.2 - Can I use the Word Processor to enter listings? 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 12.5.3 - Can I make a program auto-run? Of course - just save it with the name AUTO and whenever you start BASIC, it'll run... 12.6) Other Programs 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. 12.7) I've just crashed it... 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. 12.8) I've just broken it... 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) 12.9) Internet resources. Amstrad Notepad Users' Web - http://www.uea.ac.uk/~u9428232/NC/ mirrored at http://www.miracles.win-uk.net/NC100/ Amstrad's homepage - see above Mirko's NC100 page - http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~mir/amstrad.html NVG FTP site - ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/cpc/nc100 .