Not sure, maybe, probably....

[nocash]

Hello? I said "most games should", not all games do.
"Most commonly used keys" means what it says.

As far as I know, Q-A-O-P was the closest to a standard convention, the text is there so programmers know which keys would be best to be used for CPC games.

> Edit: Of course most games offer this.
> But the wiki page is about digital joysticks and not about replacements.
Yeah, when implementing joystick support, one shouldn't forget to add keyboard, too. Just a reminder, suggesting that not all cpc-users have joysticks/joypads (as opposed to console owners).

[MacDeath]

Concerning the analog joy topic, as it is actually being searched at the moment (sort of), we know thing will soon change and we may get more proper responses if thing go well.


So as a hot-topic of this moment, we can afford some perhaps as the forum (hereby) is developing it.

Also, well...
Are there that many peoples surfing the CPC wiki ?

Most of those are CPC fanboys (me first), who have one or used too.

So let's say we will try to write more some kind of formulae such as "this is unknown and need a more proper/deep research..."

[arnoldemu]

Hello? I said "most games should", not all games do.
"Most commonly used keys" means what it says.

As far as I know, Q-A-O-P was the closest to a standard convention, the text is there so programmers know which keys would be best to be used for CPC games.

> Edit: Of course most games offer this.
> But the wiki page is about digital joysticks and not about replacements.
Yeah, when implementing joystick support, one shouldn't forget to add keyboard, too. Just a reminder, suggesting that not all cpc-users have joysticks/joypads (as opposed to console owners).

Ok I understand. I have re-worded the text to explain this better. Also I added it to the keyboard programming section.
Finally I added some info about the "keyboard" clash in the keyboard programming section too.

[MacDeath]

I added category:internal components because i felt the keyboard programming page included some internal hardware usefull informations.

[nocash]

Thanks for uploading the photos at http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Dk'tronics_memory_expansion they are great. Almost a bit too many :-) I've moved most of them to a separate gallery, is that okay? And kept only a selection on the 'main' page.

Now, that was about the dk'tronics memory expansion. But, what is the dk'tronics silicon disc?
http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Dk'tronics_Silicon_Disc

The "silicon disk OS version" probably contains an additional BIOS, aside from that, is there a difference between "memory expansion" and "silicon disk"?

[Gryzor]

I may be late, but I totally agree with the opening comment of this thread. I've changed a few articles myself, but there are so many these days it's impossible to catch them all...

The problem is, indeed it's better to have some not 100% verified info than not having it at all. But, it's also very important to watch the phrasing. The articles are NOT discussions, so there shouldn't be first-person sentences, questions etc.

Therefore:

"I think no games support 4096 colors simultaneously on the CPC" should become "It's not certain if any games supported 4096 colours".

Or, "Are there any known games taking advantage of the 64MB VRAM on the Plus2 models" would become "There are no games known that support....".

Very easy, very simple, still the same meaning, much more 'professional'.

[ChaRleyTroniC]

I believe PDW was a German group of programmers who wrote CPC Demos. Not sure what the PDW stood for though

Public Domain Wuppertal. It was the precursor to the infamous BENTG!.

[TFM/FS]

It isn't "Halbwissen". It's a FACT: The cpc+ is 20 years old, but still nobody has documented how the analog port works. I am just the first person who has "discovered" that there is no knowledge on that part.

Well following my agenda "Eigenlob stinkt ;-)" I have to say that there was an article of the CPC Plus in the CPC Amstrad International magazine 1992, where everything about the Plus is documented, but not the Sound-DMA (Couldn't find out how the copper code works in that time). Means the documentation is there, it was published, it seems to be lost. Thats fact ;-)

[TFM/FS]

The "silicon disk OS version" probably contains an additional BIOS, aside from that, is there a difference between "memory expansion" and "silicon disk"?

Yes, you're right literally. The Silicon Disc and the Memory expansion both contain one of two 256 KB RAM blocks. Together they provide 512 KB.

[Executioner]

Q, A, O, P and SPACE should be banned. No human can seriously use their thumb sideways for FIRE!

[Gryzor]

Q, A, O, P and SPACE should be banned. No human can seriously use their thumb sideways for FIRE!

Where did that come from?

Anyhow, I think QAOP[SPACE] should be immortalised somehow. Maybe they should build a controller with just those keys. I can use my thumb sideways for fire with no trouble whatsoever, but then again maybe our generation mutated a bit because of it

[MacDeath]

QAOP+space was typicall of those 8 bit computers, Aamstrad's games of course, was it the same on other computers ?.

Main reason ?
well, first, those games used mostly only 1 fire button so it was suitable to use the space bar.

Also 464 and 664 had the arrow keys not well designed to be used in games (while 6128 and Plus keyboards are quite good).

And as we switched to PC, where the arrow keys are easier to use, or the wasd+ mouse + numerous other keys... We are no more used to the good old qaop.
Just too bad not that many games allowed a proper flaxible "redefine keys" option...

Also most consoles implyed the bad habit to to everything with thumbs...
When i play souldcalibur with friends, i'm completely ashamed to see those consoles despite so called ergonomic paddles, put a far to heavy empathy on thumbs...and it hurts badly.
While i'm used to keyboard+mouse on PC, a FPS with paddle is a pain in the ass to me...
The opposite is true to any consolefag.

that's simple : a mundane console paddle with triggers : you only use 4 fingers, your your thumbs to manage almost 6 button each...triggers are not that heavily used too.

Play station pads are not well designed so you use 2 fingers per hand for triggers...
And Xbox pads had one trigger per hand only if i remember well.

while a keyboard game would use almost every fingers...
Even a basic mouse would use 2 fingers+the wrist/fore-arm...

That's why the WIImote is so good : you don't get thumbpain and use almost you full upper body/arms...

That's also why I loved the SpeedKing.
It used a "natural" trigger for fire buttons (i had the 1 button model...) and direction with both wrist/armes in fact, not simply 1 thumb...with a natural position for the holding hand.

Yet it was a pain in the ass when you had games that  needed an extra key :
Operation Wolf or R-Type...

also I played a lot too much (yound and fool) and the notorious lack of autofire on Amstrad, well...triggering could be quite intense too...

Also it is fun to see many girls using the modern Padds put on a table/surface, and used like a keyboard (some men do it too) yet not always good when triggers are needed in gameplay.


Also a difference between Computer games and console games...

Consoles were mostly used on family TV, in the living room... while computers were mostly on their own "workingdesk".
Consoles controllers were often designed to be used on a sofa with no support while computers joystiks where to be fixed on a table/desk.

[arnoldemu]

Q, A, O, P and SPACE should be banned. No human can seriously use their thumb sideways for FIRE!

Hmmm.. So what is your preferred key combination then?
Seriously it would be interesting to know.

On the BBC my favourite used to be:
Z,X for left/right
:,. (or equivalent on BBC) for up down. and equivalent of @ for fire.
BTW I am looking at a PC keyboard when I am writing this.

[Executioner]

Hmmm.. So what is your preferred key combination then?
Seriously it would be interesting to know.

On the BBC my favourite used to be:
Z,X for left/right
:,. (or equivalent on BBC) for up down. and equivalent of @ for fire.

Yes, many Amstrad games also had similar layouts as the BBC games. If not they had redefinable keys. A good compromise which works with all UK/US keyboards was Z,X,K,M and L. At least you've got a finger on the fire button , and you can use left-hand SHIFT as secondary fire comfortably.

[ukmarkh]

Q, A, O, P and space all the way baby, and the copy key on the right hand side for the second fire button. Although I've just tried Executioners key config and it works just as well.