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You can e-mail me at nich <AT> durge <DOT> org, and
I also have PGP keys for PGP 2.6.x (0x87BA6D91)
and GnuPG and later versions of PGP (0x4F361801).
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I currently maintain two websites devoted to the Amstrad CPC computer,
and also maintain the main archive of games and utilities for the CPC. As
you can tell, I'm quite a fan of the good old CPC, and have owned one
since 1987 - and I like playing CPC games, and discovering games that I
have never previously played.
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CPC Game Reviews
http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/
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I started this site back in late 1998, when I thought it would be nice to
create a guide to every commercial Amstrad CPC game that had been
released. Several years later, it has become one of the biggest Amstrad
CPC websites on the World Wide Web, with more than 1200 reviews (most of
which were written by me). Each game is rated out of 10, and there are
screenshots and downloads for all of them. Furthermore, there's also a
gallery of game advertisements which have been scanned from magazines. A
text only version is also available. In case you're wondering, my
favourite Amstrad CPC game is Spindizzy.
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CPC Magazine Covers
http://users.durge.org/~nich/cpcmags/
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I also have a large collection of Amstrad CPC magazines - Amstrad
Action, Amstrad Computer User, AMTIX!, Computing with
the Amstrad and CPC Attack! - so back in early- to mid-2000,
when I bought the collection from someone else, I decided to scan all of
the covers of these magazines (many of them are really good). It has taken
me nearly three years to scan all of the covers (there were so many other
things that I wanted to do), but the results are worth it.
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NVG
ftp://ftp.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/cpc/
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All right, this isn't a website, but anyway... NVG has always been host to
the main archive of Amstrad CPC games and utilities, but by 1997, it
wasn't being updated any more. Over three years later, there was talk of
resurrecting it, but a new maintainer was needed. So, on the 25th of
January 2001, I became the maintainer, and have introduced hundreds of new
games to the archive, and replaced existing games with better versions.
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Before I started developing and maintaining websites, I wrote a few
programs, and a disc fanzine, for the Amstrad CPC. More recently, however,
I wrote a program for the
2003 Minigame
competition, and converted one of the other entries from the ZX
Spectrum to the Amstrad CPC. It was an interesting experience to do both
of these things.
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OTTO
Download issue 1
Download issue 2
Download issue 3
Download issue 4
Download issue 5
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OTTO was a disc fanzine that I edited and wrote, which lasted for
five issues. The first issue was released in November 1995, and the fifth
and final issue was released in September 1997. It wasn't exactly advanced
as far as disc fanzines go - in fact, it was mostly written in BASIC - but
nonetheless, people seemed to like it, and overall, I enjoyed writing it.
After the final issue was released, I developed a website so that all five
issues of OTTO could be read from a Web browser, but it no longer
exists.
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Flags Slideshow
Download
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I have liked flags for a long time, and had seen another program on the
CPC which displayed the flags of the world. It was very impressive, but
it only displayed one flag at a time, and the more complex flags were left
out. I decided to write a version which displayed lots of miniature flags
on the screen, like a gallery. The initial version appeared in the final
issue of OTTO. Soon afterwards, I made an improved version which
included a memory game and a quiz game.
I'm really proud of Flags Slideshow. It took me
several days to draw all of the 227 flags in the program, but the result
was well worth it, and when you put lots of them on the screen at the
same time, they look really colourful and beautiful. I released updated
versions in 1997 and 1998, and then another one in 2002.
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Life
Download
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In September 1998, I became fascinated with John Conway's famous
mathematical game, Life. Looking back, I can't remember why, and I have
long since ceased to be fascinated by it. I had already played with
several versions on the Amstrad CPC, but they all looked dull. I decided
to write my own version, which would be the most colourful version of Life
for the CPC ever - and it certainly is colourful.
Life was the first program of my own that was
written entirely in machine code. I also included the source code for the
program, with lots of comments to assist anyone who wants to learn machine
code for the Amstrad CPC, and some instructions on how to use the program.
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10-Liners
Download
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10-liners are programs that are written in ten lines of BASIC, and they
can be short or long. Computing with the Amstrad started to publish
them in mid-1987, and after it closed, Amstrad Computer User
continued to publish them. I became obsessed with them when I was starting
to collect back issues of ACU in 1992 soon after that magazine
closed, and wrote literally dozens of my own 10-liners from 1992 to 1998.
The later ones were good, but the majority of them were actually rather
mediocre compared to the ones that appeared in CWTA and ACU.
Amstrad Action published some of my 10-liners in
the June and July 1994 issues, but they definitely weren't some of the
best that I wrote. There are rumours that they were only published because
I wouldn't stop pestering AA to do so... well, I was still at
school at the time and wanted my 15 minutes of fame. (Mind you, my
classmates were impressed.)
So here is a collection of most, but not all, of them; I
deleted some of my really awful efforts and they have gone
forever.
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Stack 'n' Smile
Download
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The Minigame competition, where people write games for old computers and
try to fit as much into a small amount of memory as possible, has been
going since 2001. For the 2003 competition, I wanted to write a game for
the 1K category. After struggling to find something suitable to write, I
decided to work on a 1K version of one of my favourite games - Pick 'n'
Pile by UBI Soft.
What you see here is the final result of my efforts. The
aim is to make columns consisting of three or more bricks of the same
colour by swapping bricks. When you do, the column will disappear, but
more bricks will fall from the top of the screen to replace them! You have
five minutes to amass as high a score as you can. The disc contains fully
documented source code and a text file with further information about the
game. I had to cut out some things to make it fit in 1K, and the game
could be a bit faster, but I'm pleased with the result.
I had hoped that the game would finish in the top ten of
the 26 1K games that were submitted to the competition, but it finished in
a disappointing 17th place. Unfortunately, by cutting out some routines,
the game became a lot slower, and it suffered as a result. Well, there's
always another year to try again...
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zblast SD
Download
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Staying with the 2003 Minigame competition, one of the results in the 4K
category was a fantastic space shoot-'em-up for the ZX Spectrum written by
Russell Marks, called zblast SD. It came in 4th place in the 4K
category, but I felt that it should have won. In fact, I reckon that it
would have made a very good candidate for a budget game, had it been
released in the Spectrum era of the 1980s.
At the same time, a new software house called
Cronosoft had emerged on the
8-bit scene. Their early releases were mostly Spectrum games, but as time
passed, more and more games for different formats, including the Amstrad
CPC, were being released or were in development.
Eventually, in February 2005, I wondered if I would be
able to convert some Spectrum games. I had a fairly good knowledge of Z80
assembly language, and there was documentation on the World Wide Web that
outlines the hardware facilities of both the Spectrum and the CPC. As a
test, I decided that I would convert zblast SD to the Amstrad CPC.
The conversion took a lot longer than I had expected. It
took me two months to complete, and it is nowhere near as fast as the
Spectrum version. I knew very little about how the Spectrum's hardware
facilities are accessed and how the screen and memory are laid out, so it
took time to learn all of this. It has put me off converting any more
Spectrum games for the time being, but I was still pleased with what I
had achieved. The ZIP file you can download includes source code and a
text file with further information about the game.
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