...X-imate Megademo, a little bit old... The best hardware demos are S&KOH (Overflow / Logon System) and The Demo (Logon System). For typical CPC effects, you can watch Big'O'Full'O Dem'O, Voyage '93, Power System Megademo, R.T.S., Unique MD, Divine Megademo, Terror under the X-Mas Tree, Bordelik Meeting 3 and 4, Bombastic, Heat (fire effect from Odiesoft)...
phnx: What different models of CPC are there and do they have some incompatibility problem between each other?
eliot: There are 5 models of CPC.
- CPC 464: 64 Kb, cassette drive
- CPC 664: 64 Kb, internal 3" drive
- CPC 6128: 128 Kb, internal 3" drive (the most used machine of course!!!)
Then in 1989, Amstrad sold a new generation of CPC, named CPC PLUS using a specific AMSTRAD chip: the ASIC. The extended abilities are very interesting: 16 colors to choose in a palette of 4096 colors (instead of 27), 16 hardware sprites in 15 colors, 3 DMA sound channels (can be used to play 15.6 Khz samples on each voice without requiring machine time to the Z80!!!), 1 DMA interrupt channel (can produce an interruption at each line!). Amstrad also sold a game console (GX 4000) which was totally compatible with CPC PLUS. On CPC PLUS machines, there is a cartridge input!
- CPC 464+: 64 Kb, cartridge input, analogic input, cassette drive (totally stupid in 1989!)
- CPC 6128+: 128 Kb, cartridge input, analogic input, internal 3" drive
CPC Plus extended functions are only activated by delocking the ASIC page. So when you boot, you're like on old CPC! Theorically all the programs coded on CPC old generation can work on CPC PLUS.
phnx: How often does new software (demos/games/etc) come out for CPC?
eliot: Well, the releases on CPC are too rare on my mind! But I'm not sure that they're more rare than on the other 8bits scenes... In fact, the coders now prefer code only few but powerful productions... The small or easy-made productions are very rare and the dynamism of the scene seems to be very low although people are preparing very technical demos or big games or tools...
phnx: Do you see a future for the CPC scene say... 2 years from now? :)
eliot: Well, that's not an easy question!!! There are so different aspects in the CPC scene that it's hard to plan what can happen... I think a lot of current CPC sceners will stay CPC fans for a long time but I fear that productions need more and more time to be coded... I think it's the same problem with all the demoscenes, even PC one... About the Hardware cards and new Operating Systems, the problem is the same: new cards (like hard-drive manager, 2Mb expansion or soundplayer...) are only useful if a lot of people got them!!! An other "problem" is that a lot of people seems to be more active 'online' than 'on a real CPC'!!! Having CPC-related activities is good, having real CPC activities is better!!! ;) A good thing that we can know in the future is the rebirth of Amslive, a wonderfull french papermag which can give a lot of motivation to the current scene and even for the newcomers...
phnx: I know you're from France. Is there big CPC activity in other countries?
eliot: Yes... German scene which was very strong in the beginning of 90's (with people like Odiesoft, Prodatron, Fraggle, Kangaroo, Bsc, Face Hugger, Alien, Crown...) seems to be born again after a long period of sleeping... I only expect that these people won't be only active on the net but mainly on the real machine!!! There is also a little scene in Greece with good coders like Antitec, the promising Optimus and the excellent graphist REX. But greek productions are too rare... In United Kingdom, there are a lot of CPC users but not productive people. CPC is used for text-processing and mailing! As you can understand, the french CPC scene is the most active and the coding knwoledge is generally higher than in the other scenes... (People who don't agree have only to proove I'm wrong!!! :)
phnx: Please tell our internet-enabled readers some kewl CPC sites so they can experience a bit of the CPC scene for themselves :)
eliot: You can have a look at:
- www.genesis8bit.com : a general CPC portal with regular news and an enormous archive!!!
- www.roudoudou.com : a lot of photos of CPC Meetings
- www.beng.de : a CPC site which is mainly interesting for his message board!
- benediction.cpcscene.net : the site of the group I belong
- http://www.chez.com/futurs/ : the site of Futurs', a group of CPC PLUS developpers, papermag redactors and hardware designers!
phnx: Ok eliot!! Thanks a lot! Keep the faith :)
eliot: No problem!!! For any question on the Amstrad CPC, don't hesitate: eliot@cpcscene.com
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