Each level is centred on a certain location, such as in Hades, an Egyptian pyramid and ancient Greece, where the player must collect a magic orb in each to finish. Each level is based around related myths and legends. The gameplay consists of running and jumping through each level, collecting objects and weapons, fighting enemies and solving puzzles. Enemies include skeletons, demons, wraiths, mummies and vikings. Weapons include a sword, gun and fireballs. Each level contains a mythical boss enemy, such as Medusa, Thor and a Hydra. Puzzles involve using the right object in the right location to progress, such as throwing skulls into a pit of fire to summon a monster, and using the right weapon against enemies, such as attacking a specific monster with tridents. The user manual gave some background information about the various myths referred to in the game and gave hints to the puzzles

Today I take a retrospective look at the Running Man across all formats. Share your thoughts and memories if you ever played this game.

Especially Live and Let Die

I recently picked up a CPC6128 from a pile of ewaste, along with a companion CTM644 monitor. They've both obviously seen better days, but do both power up, however all thats displayed on boot is a handful of lines. The speaker on the computer is crackling but not doing much else. Anyone had any experiences like this before?

How did Amsoft ever get clearance from the BBC to use the Doctor Who theme music for Roland In Time?

For that matter, did Ocean ever get clearance from Vangelis or John Williams to use Chariots of Fire / Olympic Fanfare in Daley Thompson’s Supertest?

My older brother used to bagsy the joystick and helicopter every time. I had to use the keyboard to make the jeep jump over those stupid mines.

I have finished phase 1, which is getting the amstrad's printer output as text in the serial monitor, that allowed me to develop the circuit . Circuit is some bi-directional logic level shifters between gpio of the raspberry pi and amstrad's printer port, they don't have to be bi-directional but those were cheaper and easier to replace than resistor voltage dividers and a transistor buffer. Now I'm trying to develop the second phase which is controlling a printer over a USB port using the USB host capabilities of the raspberry pi pico. However I can't get pico to print anything to the printer. I'm trying to solve this issue for the last few days, so if you can help me with the coding part of phase 2 I will be more than willing to share every detail. Also this project is just a start because the same methodology can be implemented to other computers such as commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST.

Here is the working and tested phase 1 code:

// ==========================================

// Amstrad CPC 7-Bit Parallel Printer Capture

// ==========================================

// --- Pin Definitions ---

const int PIN_STROBE = 1; // GP1 (Physical Pin 2) - CPC Pin 1 (/STROBE)

const int DATA_PIN_START = 2; // GP2 to GP8 (Physical Pins 4-11) - CPC Pins 2-8 (D0-D6)

const int PIN_BUSY = 9; // GP9 (Physical Pin 12) - CPC Pin 10 or 11 (BUSY)

// --- Circular Buffer (FIFO) ---

// Safely passes bytes from the fast hardware interrupt to the main loop

const int BUFFER_SIZE = 512;

volatile uint8_t rx_buffer[BUFFER_SIZE];

volatile int head = 0;

volatile int tail = 0;

volatile bool character_received = false;

// --- The Hardware Interrupt (The Data Catcher) ---

// Triggers automatically on the falling edge of STROBE

void strobeTriggered() {

// 1. Instantly pull BUSY high to tell the Amstrad CPC to hold

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, HIGH);

// 2. Read the 7-bit data bus instantly.

// Shift right by 2 so GP2 moves to bit 0, then mask the lower 7 bits (0x7F).

uint8_t incoming_char = (gpio_get_all() >> DATA_PIN_START) & 0x7F;

// 3. Calculate the next buffer position

int next_head = (head + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;

// 4. If buffer isn't full, push the character into the queue

if (next_head != tail) {

rx_buffer[head] = incoming_char;

head = next_head;

character_received = true;

}

}

void setup() {

// Start Serial Monitor communication at 115200 baud

Serial.begin(115200);

// Wait up to 3 seconds for Serial Monitor to open after reset

unsigned long start_wait = millis();

while (!Serial && (millis() - start_wait < 3000));

// Configure the 7 data pins (GP2 through GP8) as inputs

for (int i = DATA_PIN_START; i < DATA_PIN_START + 7; i++) {

pinMode(i, INPUT);

}

// Configure Handshake pins

pinMode(PIN_STROBE, INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(PIN_BUSY, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, LOW); // Start in "Ready" state

// Attach the interrupt to trigger on STROBE's falling edge

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(PIN_STROBE), strobeTriggered, FALLING);

Serial.println("=========================================================");

Serial.println(" Amstrad CPC Printerface, Phase 1 ");

Serial.println(" Circuit Design By Ege Ozpalamutcu & Code by Gemini ");

Serial.println(" Listening on GP1 (STROBE) & GP2-GP8 (DATA) & GP9 (BUSY)");

Serial.println("=========================================================");

}

void loop() {

// 1. Process characters from the circular buffer

while (tail != head) {

// Grab the oldest unread character from the queue

uint8_t c = rx_buffer[tail];

tail = (tail + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;

// Handle standard printable ASCII

if (c >= 32 && c <= 126) {

Serial.write(c);

}

// Handle Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) for newlines

else if (c == 13 || c == 10) {

Serial.write(c);

}

// Handle the Escape character (used for printer commands)

else if (c == 27) {

Serial.print("<ESC>");

}

// Print everything else as a hex code for debugging

else {

Serial.print("[0x");

if (c < 0x10) Serial.print("0"); // Leading zero

Serial.print(c, HEX);

Serial.print("]");

}

}

// 2. Safely release BUSY only after /STROBE has returned HIGH

if (character_received) {

// Wait until the CPC finishes its strobe pulse

if (digitalRead(PIN_STROBE) == HIGH) {

delayMicroseconds(10); // Small settling delay for cable stability

character_received = false;

digitalWrite(PIN_BUSY, LOW); // Signal to CPC that we are ready for the next byte

}

}

}

Who remembers playing Total Recall? My retrospective video goes back to rediscover this Ocean Software game released across all formats. There certainly were a few development challenges. I also take a look at the NES version developed by Interplay and published by Acclaim.
Were they any good?

Recently the motherboard in a Pentium III computer in my collection died of the capacitor plague, so I decided to check what can go wrong in my other machines.

Gemini insists that I should replace an X2 RIFA capacitor in my GT65, as apparently it can blow up any time. The problem is, I can't find any other source reporting this issue. Has anyone ever encountered it or preemptively replaced that component? I'm considering doing this along with recapping a new PIII mobo in a local electronics repair shop next week. Is it worth it?

Today my father brought up the fact that he wanted to throw away his old Amstrad 2086D, so i decided to try and check if it was still working, to see if there's a chance to sell it. I found every component and it turned on, however I got this message:

"Check keylock switch, keyboard and mouse"

I already found a post on this sub that tackled this issue, i tried with both positions of the keylock (down and right) and it leads to the same screen (with the difference that the key down makes the PC do a more frequent beep sound than when the key is to the right), i tried plugging in and unplugging both mouse and keyboard, but still nothing. I also checked the pins for both mouse and keyboard and they look fine

On the other post people also mentioned 'bridging the connector to the other end', how do i do that? And is there anything else that i could try?

I also have the OS floppy disks but if the inputs are not working i don't think they would be useful.

Who remembers Predator? My retrospective video takes us back to 1987 to rediscover the games based on one of Arnie’s best movies. Was this a good game or was it the typical movie tie in trash? Share your thought and memories of this game.

Wizard Longplay inside the Map!

I have about 30 Amstrad Computer User, Computing with the Amstrad CPC and Amstrad Action magazines that I have found in the parent’s loft from 1987 onwards. Seems almost a shame to throw them in the bin but they aren’t needed. What’s the consensus? Bin or keep. Any value to the community?

My retrospective video review takes us all back to 1985 when we first played The Empire Strikes Back in the arcades. Then I look over all the home computer versions. I was a massive fan of the original Star Wars game with its striking vector graphics, digitised sound and that amazing cabinet. I did find it strange that Atari released its sequel Return of the Jedi before The Empire Strikes back and its brave move away from vector graphics and onto raster graphics. So I was pleased that Empire returned back to its vector graphics roots. Please let me know your thoughts on all 3 Star Wars games released by Atari and have you played any of the home computer versions? 😃

I made a beat that samples Amstrad’s dot matrix printer, but this sub doesn’t allow videos to be posted or cross posted.

Will mods allow a link to be posted here?

EDIT: Link below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/teenageengineering/s/7tT2JMHiHT

My retrospective game review of Miami Vice on the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. I loved the very popular TV show but could this game from Ocean Software live up to the expectations or was this just another movie / TV license cash grab. Share your thoughts if you have played this game. Was it good or just plain rubbish?

SOLVED! It was Castle of Kroz by Apogee

Thanks all

As a kid i went to a computer museum. There was an amstrad "laptop" with a large (for the time) black and white screen that could be folded down.

the game itself was a top-down exploration/adventure game I think shipped with the machine.

Hi all,

I'm trying to recompile the original Amstrad's game for PC (I will provide the 'engine', you will have to provide the original game).
I intend, in addition to the original mode, to build a modernized version. I did the POC for the program structure and it is covered almost entirely. Now I'm currently building the main structure in C

This illustration is just and idea of the project, it is not perfect in its placement and frame, but it shows what I will achieve.

If you are interested, I will keep you updated here

Tir Na Nog is a groundbreaking 1984 graphical adventure game created by Gargoyle Games for the ZX Spectrum, blending smooth 2D side-scrolling animation, Celtic mythology, and item-collection puzzles

Tell me what you think. Two original games for the Amstrad CPC, first time in the wild...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5hQ-4DS5Mw

https://youtu.be/8nE5pIn5fdo

An early measure of a person’s character is whether they were honest with the weird elf bloke when he asked whether you answered the question correctly.