256 Colour Mode

[Gryzor]

Wot, 256 colours AND a genlock by Xmas? Move over, Amiga! Have you set a price yet?


(ok, now I'm pushing it...)

[rexbeng]

Ah! I suspect you already know of someone who'd sit down and update every major software (game/demo etc) for using this expansion, then?
rb

[TotO]

Overlay display on CPC is only interesting if adding a framebuffer with something like a blitter to draw it.
(something like 6bit colors + 2bit luminosity for handing lights, shadows and fading)

Else it will be definitively too slow for doing any sort of things...

[Bryce]

It probably couldn't even handle that My original plan was to add simple, single colour sub-titles to videos that I'd taken with a VHS Camcorder.

Bryce.

[TotO]

Sure I understand.
It's just about the overall concept applyed for a CPC.

[MacDeath]

It probably couldn't even handle that
My original plan was to add simple, single colour sub-titles to videos that I'd taken with a VHS Camcorder.

You should better use a Thomson TO8 for such purpose.


Thomson MO6 and TO8 have some extra video modes with such feature as a monocolour masked foreground to add on a video from a VHS/external channel.


MSX too.

[Devilmarkus]

Yeah  TO8 is nice...

I improved a Java-TO8 emulator a bit (added sound, increased framerate)
http://retropower.eu/to8.php?zip=turbocup.zip&s0=turbocup.sap&key=143

[Bryce]

Ah the Thomson M06, always wanted one of those. It was as if the 464+ had an ugly sister hidden in the basement

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Yikes! As if someone put a Coupe and a SharpSomething in a blender...

[MacDeath]

Yeay but they had the merit to actually exist and to be proudly "merde in France".


Still, the MO6 have 128K of RAM... I wished Amstrad put 128K on the 464s too... (and 256K on the 6128... oh and a proper mouse too...)


on the other hand, those thomson had so many flaws compaired to the Amstrads... no proper sound (fucking beeper only), MO and TO not actually compatible (464 and 6128 are fully compatibles, the PLUS are somewhat compatible too with older CPCs).


but hey, get the MO and TO compatibles, get them with overclocked CPU (2mhz instead of one) and add in a sweet AY for sound and those MO6/TO8 could kick serious CPC asses.  


Also I wished the CPC had some Nanoréseaux too...

It was as if the 464+ had an ugly sister hidden in the basement

MO6 is not ugly... nor is the TO8D...
I happen to like its design, the white and grey and yellow (blue when Olivetti models) is quite nice looking actually.

[Bryce]

A "Nanoréseaux" for the CPC would be simple, just nobody has done it properly yet, but how many people would really use it today?

Bryce.

[ivarf]

Google translate translates that to nanoarray Huh...?

[Bryce]

Google translate is shite. Réseaux means network.

Bryce.

[MacDeath]

Ok guyes...
(wi, d'akor may zamiees...)

(Guiyes ?)


Nano-rèseaux...
Nano-network..
Nano-link.
Nano-link inside
Nano-internet for CPC ?


ok, I leave.


BTW bryce... from what I recall well...
Nanoréseaux had a special command for the TO8 (master réseaux) to get a whole RAM Bank/Ram Bank ?/yeah Ram Bank !... From a MO6 (slavv réseaux 464 équivalent quoi..?)

so few checkhands and lets get 16K banks swaped directly...




CPC could clearly use some whole 16K RAM/ROM/swaper at once...


So, why CPC is not that easier on the modern internet ?


(Nanoréseaux was conceptualised in whole as modern internet but in  80's french students in the earlyie/myddle 80's... as "Nano&réseaux"*
*french in language...
for freacking thomson 8bit computers...**


**haha damn britans we vere above you actually...***


***and all the rest either... german freuounds...****


****I mean Germans and Britons never designed things to run on a Thomson Machine, the French did... what a superiority.*****


*****yep, many beer had has have been consumed in the process...

[TotO]

TO and MO range of computers was not artactive since the first day.
I don't know people who what one. Just poor french computers made for french schools.

I remember that a main computer (sort of PC 8086) was linked to all MO/TO computers to load programs to the memory for students use.
No use of individual tape or floppy, but a "one shot" RAM programming by network.

Here the only interest of this system ; French schools to teach computing in 1985/1990...

[RockRiver]

I was thinking in project ANT

Could be possible to mix the same done title of Atari ST and CPC ?
Graphics from ST , Z80 code of CPC ; sound is YM in both and recreate ANT version.
CPC mode 1 but with 16 colours instead of 4.

We will need to recreate the new Gate Array and CRTC with more VRAM use (32k) and use quick Z80 (like in PCW16)
Another step upper than CPC+:  Something near to SAMcoupé, spec256, ZXnext

By emulation? Fpga to recreate the ANT board???

[GUNHED]

Would be desirable to stay 6128plus compatible as much as possible (f.e. colors).

[ZorrO]

@Trembint - Where do such dreamers come from?
If you need 256 colors try Amiga A1200, if you need 65k colors try Atari Falcon, there is a lot stuff to watch or play. Or if you need necessarily 8bit with 256 colors try Atari XE or Enterprise or better MSX2. If you need necessarily CPC with more colors try CPC PLUS, or MSX3 graphics cart made by Prodatron for SymbOS. I don't know how many people have it, 5 maybe? After few years how many games was made for it? 2 maybe 3?
Are you jealous because ZX Spectrum NEXT? (I guess). Some people dreams about CPC NEXT, but who will be create soft for this?
I seen PowerPC for Amiga with no soft, what IMHO have no sense. I seen graphics cart VBXE for Atari XE, with very few games. Do you need Yet another new but obsolete platform with no software? For what?
I don't get it. But... I like software tricks to show more colors on normal CPC. DevilMarkus do it magic stuff like this. Find him on FB, or on cpc-power page. Or try blinking 125 palette on CPC to display pictures from C64, XE or CPC+ on normal CPC, and enjoy it. I'm sure Spectrum fans will be impressed. Or listen MDL files on Digitracker, what sounds almost like Amiga. You don't need new machine for this.

[Benedikt]

@RockRiver, @ZorrO, you do realize that this thread is from 2012, right?

When it comes to 256 colors on a CPC, I would like to simply give a CPC-compatible machine two pages of video memory with separately configurable mode.
Pixel generation would then get its data from both pages in parallel for combined video modes with higher bit depth, e.g. 640x200 4-color, 320x200 16-color and 160x200 256-color.
Asymmetric combinations where some bits are changed per pixel and others per pixel pair/group would also be possible, e.g. 320x200 64-color (modes 1 + 0) or 640x200 32-color (modes 2 + 0).
A latch in the second page's data path could help speed up block copy/fill operations in an EGA-like manner.

See Designing and building the KCC plus, a new, enhanced CPC6128 compatible computer for details.
I doubt that many more people are working on something, right now.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

If you are creating an FPGA New CPC with enhancements, then a 16MHz Z80 core plus 16 colour MODE 1 (via double bandwidth data bus / what Benedikt wrote) with the Plus palette makes a lot of sense. You'd need a register to set the CPU speed and enable the enhanced gate array (read 4 bytes instead of 2 each cycle?) with compatibility as the default.

The trick is to keep the new features "CPC-like" and not get carried away with tiled graphics modes and the like (Spectrum Next went mad IMO and it took the retro fun away).

Wouldn't say no to a raster processor (like Amiga copper) to take CPU load away from anything that does raster effects via timing.

Also add some more timers, the 300Hz one is very coarse.