juillet juillet 2012 archives of Genesis8 Amstrad Page

Imaginario Colectivo, an Amstrad CPC adventure/platform game by ESP Soft

Imaginario Colectivo is the last Amstrad CPC game by ESP Soft (adventure/platform).

History, programmation and graphics by GG, sound by McKlain, edition by Litos.

From the same authors : Hora Bruja.

Source : Amstrad ESP

Captain Blood Legacy, the following of the Captain blood game by Exxos

A following to Captain Blood by Exxos (later renamed to Cryo) should be a good thing : Captain Blood Legacy.

But when we know that they sacrificed the Amstrad CPC used to program the original game, should we howl to the moon, hoping that this sacrifice wont be useless ? Will this following game be enough to fill the emptyness created by this awful destruction ? I do hope so...

Source : Captain Blood Legacy blog

All the listings of Hebdogiciel within easy reach

The french newspaper Hebdogiciel published many computers listings, for all computers of the 80 era in this weekly newspaper by Shift Editions.

It was available between 1983 and 1987, and survived only with its sales, disallowing ads to stay independent.

Today, all its listing are available on Hebdogiciel.

Source : CPCRulez's forum

An Oh Mummy remake on Iphone and ... Sega Megadrive

Oh Mummy is an Amstrad CPC classic, programmed by Gem Software and published by Amsoft in 1984. The music comes from a child music : The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid.

There is a Oh Mummy remake for Mummy pour Iphone by Lentrica Software for 0,99 €.

An Oh Mummy remake for Sega Megadrive by 1985 Alternativo (Spain) can be ordered in advance, the game being available in October 2012.

Source : CPCRulez's forum

Be nice to your Amstrad CPC, get a better sound with a Digiblaster, Amdrum or Music Machine

As much as we love our Amstrad CPC, the sound we get with the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip isnt the bestone on 8bit computers. Happily it's possible to get a better sound with either a Digiblaster, an Amdrum or a Music Machine.

The first version of the Digiblaster was designed by Face Hugger (Interview of Face Hugger by NoRecess) and printed in the German magazine CPC Amstrad International in issue 8-9/1991. It's a small hardware device plugged into the CPC's printer portto play 8-bit mono sound samples. Joshua made a redesign for better sound quality (electronic printout of Digiblaster v1 and v2 here).Then there is new Digiblaster by Futurs : the SoundPlayer and the SoundPlayer+ (VN96 network included). The SoundPlayer+ was replaced later by the SoundPlayerNG.

The digiblasters v1, v2 and SoundPlayer(+/NG) can be connected to passive mono speakers.

A few months back, Bryce made a redesign with even better sound quality : the Digiblaster v3. You can feed the AY output through the card so that both sound sources are played through the same speakers. The DigiBlaster has been made dual-mono so that both speakers play the sample as is done withthe AY-3-8912 Channel B. The AY and Digiblaster sound levels are balanced. You must use active stereo speakers.

You can write music using the Digiblaster with :

• Cocoon Player by One (1995)
• Digitracker by Prodatron (1993)
• The Drumming CPC by Andreas Stroiczek (aka Face Hugger), published as a listing in issue 4/5'92 of CPC Amstrad International
• FuturePlayer by TFM (FutureSoft)
• Protracker by Crown (1993)

At least 2 Amstrad CPC demos did use the Digiblaster : Bordelik Demo 4 (1995) and Digital Orgasm (1994).

The Amdrum has been made by Cheetah, but it uses the expansion connecter. It can also play 8bit samples like the Digiblaster, and was advertised as a drum synthesiser. You can check the youtube video of the Amdrum being used with the JavaCPC emulator.

A third device which I found on CPCWiki : the Music Machine, using the expansion connector like the Amdrum. Another hardware letting play sound samples, designed by Flare Technology andmanufactured by RAM Electronics. It could record sound with a microphone.

Source : CPCWiki's forum

Phenix Informatique closing for an unknown duration, doh !

Due to a bug in its CMS Xoops, Phenix Informatique (Amstrad.eu) is closing for an unkwown duration.

Sad news, lets hope that it will rise again from its ashes like it already did several times in the past.

UPDATE : well finally it wasnt a CMS bug, but a problem of the web hosting service. So the web site is working fine once again, pfiou. For once I was too quick to write a news.

Orion Prime in german : Ich spreche deutch auch

Orion Prime, the Amstrad CPC adventure game, has been translated in english, spanish and french, but now also in german.

Glory Holes, an Amstrad CPC demo by Bénédiction/Semilanceata/Tom et Jerry, 1st place at ReSeT8

Glory Holes, an Amstrad CPC demo got the 1st place at the ReSeT#8 meeting (Coutances).

Main code by Krusty/Benediction, player byGrim/Semilanceata, music by Tom&Jerry/GPA. Graphics by Grim/Semilanceata, Beb/Vanity, Ced/Condense and Voxfreax/Benediction.

Asm sources are included inside the archive.