You're on Grimware! Don't panic, yet.
Hacking and programming my Amstrad CPC/Plus for… hmm, quite a while, I've finally decided to move all the technical (paper-)documentations, tips, tricks and notes I've gathered trough the years, to the mighty intarweb 2.0 (and later). However, the task appears to be quite huge, so, it will take some time before I complete it (if I ever complete it).
At the moment, I'm busy adding/writing all the technical documentations (especially for low-level hardware stuff). So don't ask for tutorials (“splitscreen for noobs”, “how to do a great demo in 5 minutes”, etc.) yet. That's not my main concern here (how can you explain such stuff without proper references/documentations anyway, hu?) and I'm just a good (and humble of course) democoder, not a good writer :)
Note that some sections of this wiki are private (top secret stuff to take over the world, har!har!har!). And do not expect anything fancy too, this is just a coder's technobables wastesite.
Grim/Arkos^Semilanceata
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Documentations
Hardware
- Z80 (CPU)
- I/O decoding (CPU communication with the others chips)
- CRTC 6845 (Video frame timings and VRAM pointer)
- Gate Array/PAL (Video mode, Colors, Interrupts & ROM/RAM mapping)
- PPI 8255 (Peripheral)
- AY3 8912 (Soundchip)
- FDC 765 (Floppy Disc Drive controller)
- ASIC (Amstrad Plus custom chip)
Please note that all these low-level documentations are described from the Amstrad CPC/Plus point of view and may not be applicable to others platforms (with differents clock-frequencies, hardware design, etc). Also, these docs are intended as programming references, not tutorials.
You will find additionnals documentations about the CPC/Plus hardware in the datasheets repository.
Firmware
- CPC 464,664 and 6128 Firmware (aka SOFT968) by Locomotive Software Ltd. and Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, 1986.
- The Amstrad CPC Firmware Guide by Bob Taylor and Thomas Defoe, 1992.
Software
Z80 Assembly
- WinAPE's Maxam Assembler by Arnor, 1988 and extended by Richard Wilson.
- DAMS manual (french) by Micro Application, 1985.
Music
- STarKos by Arkos, 2004.
Datasheets, Manuals and books repository
All the downloadable documents in grimware listed on a single page.
Programming
Sources code
Demos/Intros
- Sintimus. A 256 bytes intro displaying 256 sinus dots.
- Shabok. A 256 bytes intro displaying a shadebob effect. 100% Firmware based.
- OUT(Dated). An intro used as the hidden part in Synergy 2/Impact.
Music players
- PT3 Player. An Amstrad port of the Speccy PT3 music player.
- SKS Player. The STarKos v1.1 music player.
Graphics
Projects
Support Grimware.org
If you think you can help here (add content, fix my engrish, send beers or Nutella, …), then drop an email to grim at cpcscene dot com.
Grimware.org is hosted by Servage. If you're looking for a nice (and large) place to host your webstuff, go for it! If you do so, then you can use this coupon code : CUST41645. I will get 2 months of credit for the hosting and you will get +25Gb extra space on your account.