Does any one remember SPACE HAWKS on the CPC?

[Brick Redux]

Thanks for that Ian, a good job indeed.  I like how the trapped Sorcerers tell you which object to find - cool.

I agree with you on your comments relating to Renegade.  The sequal was good too, but lets not mention that third time travel effort.

[Ian Price]

Yeah, Renegade 3. How on earth did that get made? I reckon they offered the work-experience kid a chance at making a game in 2 weeks and that's what he came up with.  It's unfit to be in the same universe as the other two games. TBH Target: Renegade wasn't a patch on the original though. But at least it was fun.

[erico]

A tale similar to double dragon, where the III sucks horribly!

I love Renegade, played it for ages. The CPC version looks really good, and somehow I can see more frames on the lower part then the arcade has.
My only bad points would be it has no run (at least on the review I saw). The run+flying kick on arcades was awesome, you could off-the-wall hit enemies.
The run+punch was the most difficult move to master as it required perfect timing to work out.

Renegade and Gryzor are using mode 0 (16 colors) right? Looks really pretty. It is a nice pallete.

edit: Renegade´s music is amazing, quite shinobi and moon patrol on its jazzy take.

[Ian Price]

You double tap direction to run in Renegade on CPC. JFYI There is a cheat code for Renegade that turns the blood from blue back to proper red (it was altered specifically for the German market, as red blood was banned at the time!).

Both Renegade and Gryzor use a mixture of MODE 1 and MODE 0. It's a special technique that few other games used (Mario Bros and Sorcery to name two others). The game plays in MODE 0 but some of the text is in MODE 1.

I absolutely love CPC Renegade's Rock N Roll music. I'm humming it right now as I type.

[mentalthink]

We forget Saboteur, this it's another Museum Piece...

Ian you say in Gryzor the developer use Mode 1 and 0, are you sure I think CPC standard not PLUS, can't use different resolutions at the same time...

I know sometime ago the Scene People discover the Mode5, it's interlaced mode I think can give at the same time more than 512 colors, but I think only it's for fixed images , can't use for make games.

A question, where I can buy or download new creations in UK, in Spain the people continue working, and I think in France the Scene have a lot of live.. But really I don't know who makes new games for CPC....

[Brick Redux]

If you go here:

http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/

Old & new games are available for download - click on game title to download. (Theres also links to other CPC websites there too)


www.genesis8bit.fr/index.php‎

Another good place for updates, new stuff etc.


Mixed modes was possible on the original CPCs but required good knowledge of machine code.  You can still get hold of type-in progs & some of them allow you to mix modes, shrink the screen ( like in Chase HQ ), make it overscan etc.

Dunno about mode 5, but more colours could be displayed by swapping two different screens - eg: one screen displays a red circle, the other screen displays a blue one resulting in a circle on screen that appears to be a mix of both colours.  This could also trick you into believing that the CPCs resolution had become far more crisper if used correctly.

[mentalthink]

Thanks Brick Redux, for the Webs... I take a look.
About mix mode 1 and 0 I suppose obviously it's in ASM, I have to search a bit, just from some months ago I'm learning ASM of CPC, in Spain we have 2 Magazines Spectaculars, MicroHobby for ZX and Amstrad Semanal, the both have a training about ASM absolutely good explained...

Well ASM it's very faster, but the Basic, I read in some books, the CPC basic was more powrfull than PC on this times and 3 o 5 times for expensives... Really it's a very very nice machine... C64 it's excellent, but this machine in my country was really really expensive, only a few people can have the privilege to have one.

[fuzzy70]

@mentalthink, You might be interested in the following site http://www.cpcmania.com/ as it has some programming tutorials, manuals etc for the cpc in both English & Spanish  .

Alas while I have a boxed CPC up in my loft (along with majority of the 8bit/16bit home computers from the 80's onward) it was never a machine that really caught my eye back when it was released & I have no reason why. I think I was mainly using the C64 (& later C128) for game playing & programming in ASM as tbh C64 basic was hardly the best around back then with any graphic or sound requiring an overdose of POKE's to use, also the memories of PRINT commands with the graphic symbols etc are not particularly fond ones.

I also had a BBC micro at the same time which I used for more serious stuff due to the user port, 1 MHZ bus, inbuilt ADC etc which made it a superb machine for my electronics tinkering. While BBC basic was very good & came with an inbuilt assembler the numerous VDU commands & *FX/OSBYTE calls probably took longer to learn/remember than anything else on the machine 

Lee

[Ian Price]

Locomotive BASIC (the BASIC used on the whole CPC range) was indeed very powerful, but it was also pretty slow. As for mixed modes - it was possible and it wasn't difficult; I did it back in the day myself. The CPC came with a fantastic manual that told you everything you needed to know about Locomotive BASIC. Best manual I've ever read; it was clearly written with pride.

Even today, pretty much every game I write was influenced by owning a CPC back in the day - just look at my most recent game, AquaVenture - chunky sprites created with a small vibrant palette. The CPC is where I started coding, after all.

[erico]

I am dumb o cpc actions. But by the way I see here it was quite an amos for 5he machine.

[Ian Price]

CPC/Locomotive BASIC wasn't anything like AMOS (which compiled to machine code and allowed the use of sprites etc.), but there were several games creation packages, including the excellent Laser Basic.

[mentalthink]

Hi  fuzzy70 thanks for the link, I use sometimes for look the make the PC floppy into some one of my CPC's 6128 (just 2 months ago I buyed one for 15€  ), don't worry about magazines , I have more than 2 or 3 GB in drop box whit magazines... those times were very very creative...
About C64, I have one here but I don't load nothing for now, I try to connect to internet whit Arduino whit the Serial Port, some games are really ugly, but in example Turrican II it's simply amazing, the Basic really in 64K version was a problem, all whit Pokes, I think this was difficult for the kids, BBC micro I want to buy some accorn Computer.

About Ian says whit Locomotive Basic, JAJA now make smile, when I buy GLbasic, I never turn again to do programs from Amstrad CPC, and Basic uhmm yes this can't do interesting things... In CPC the code was interpreted, and yes I find make only some months LASER BASIC and it's really amazing how it's faster.

If you want rebember those times , take a look to this movie to UK people like us a lot, for me it's more interesting than Pirates of Silicon valley, perhaps are only 2 hours fliying to UK...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIcAyFVK0gE

About the history of CPC arrives to Spain was practically casuality, I think Sir Clive and Sir Alan Sugar don't make to much funny the Spaninsh Country...  (but this it's another HISTORY)

[Brick Redux]

Try these links too.


A Sprite editor and new Basic commands to move them.

http://www.sean.co.uk/books/amstrad/amstrad8.shtm


A listing demonstrating the split mode effect.

http://cpcrulez.fr/coding_src-list-RSX-mix_your_modes_POPU.htm


A Type-in prog you can download that gives you new basic commands to mix modes.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.cpc-power.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.cpc-power.com/%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3D2kf%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official


Hisoft Turbo Basic ( & Compiler ) - it even comes with an invader game

http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Hisoft_Turbo_Basic

[Brick Redux]

Theres also a game maker call Sprites Alive. It gives you an extra 70 commands to basic that include missile , bullet, collide, move, hit, explode, animate, maze etc. You might find the screen commands interesting as they allow you to alter the size of the screen.  It comes with its own sprite editor too.

http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Sprites_Alive

I once used it and made a 6 screen - helicopter inside a cavern type game.  Your goal was to move to the far right of the screen whilst navigating the caverns terrain and monsters.  It looked a bit like Magic Carpet ( C 64 )

[mentalthink]

Thanks Brick Redux for this webs too, I know all you comment me, in fact now we have some crosscompilers, something like GLBasic, but for ZX, CPC and MSX.

http://ccz80.webcindario.com/ccz80sp.html //This it's something like C, but scripting very easy, but I don't know if it's too much faster. (it's in english too) Comes whit IDE

http://www.z88dk.org/forum/   This it's C, and I think it's very faster, but never I used.

A very good web is this
http://cpcrulez.fr/coding-crossdev-phrozenC.htm

French people have a very very good Scene, in Spain I don't understand because MSX have a huge Scene, in 80's MSX don't sell too much computers, well in around the world MSX practically it's unknowed.

I test Hi-Soft Basic but I think the help it's in Deutsch , and for the moment I don't understand too much well this tongue.