amstradcpc - aceituning/retroace GitHub Wiki

amstradcpc

The Amstrad CPC (short for Colour Personal Computer) is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990.

Emulator Rom Folder Extension BIOS Controller Config
lr-caprice32, CapriceRPI amstradcpc .dsk .cpc none /opt/retropie/configs/armstradcpc/retroarch.cfg

Emulators: CapriceRPI, lr-caprice32

ROMS

Accepted File Extensions: .dsk .cpc

Place your Amstrad CPC ROMs in

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amstradcpc

Joystick Controls Setup

As usual for a "classic" computer, a keyboard is needed for optimum input control. Flight simulators or complex building simulations require a variety of key combinations. For further input we need a connected (real) keyboard or a Virtual Keyboard. This can be called with the Y-Button of your PAD (both lr-caprice32 and CapriceRPI)

When we talk about joysticks, these are directly interpreted as cursor inputs by the CPC. The fire button is displayed as X. So if you press right HAT button a right arrow will be printed. So you see the CPC interprets the joysticks input as ASCII code, very unsimilar to the Atari 2600 or C64. But the devices use all a D-SUB-9 connector and theoretically even a Megadrive/Genesis PAD could be connected to this mashines (afaik Start or Select button bridges 5V and Ground -- risk of a short circuit with possible damage to original hardware).

JoyPad setup for lr-caprice32

By default the RetroPad is selected as controller input we have to select Amstrad Joystick to make the Virtual Keyboard work. Enter the retroarch core by using START + Y on your pad, now use Retroarch -> Quickmenu -> Controls -> User [1-4] Select Device Type Amstrad Joystick and save the overlay.

Now you can launch the Virtual Keyboard to configurate any game. If the overlay window seems to stuck then press Select-Button on your pad to activate it and move its white cursor with the HATs. A-Button selects the character.

A more elegant way is to directly edit the configuration file with nano /opt/retropie/configs/amstradcpc/retroarch.cfg and add input_libretro_device_p1 = "513". So the file could look like this

# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/amstradcpc/"
input_libretro_device_p1 = "513"
input_libretro_device_p2 = "513"

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

JoyPad setup for CapriceRPI

Default keys:

  • Analog1 / HATs is cursor control
  • Y-Button brings up the Virtual Keyboard
  • X-Button brings up configuration menu (with possibitly for save state)
  • B-Button is FIRE (lr-caprice uses A-Button)
  • A-Button is charcter Z

CapriceRPI

If you are open into a ROM from EmulationStation and it opens to a blue screen you can type

CAT

and it will list the file names of your game. The you will type RUN"FILENAME (match the lettercase exactly)

e.g. CAT results:

CABAL     .BI1
CABAL     .BI2
CABAL     .BIN
CABAL     .LV1

Then I type:

RUN"CABAL

If your keyboard types @ when you try to type ", then the Pi may be configured for the English (UK) keyboard layout, in which case you can type " by trying to type @.

QUICK START CONTROLS

F5: reset
F6: exit

Keyboard Controls will vary by game

lr-caprice32

lr-caprice32 utilises Retroarch configurations

Add custom retroarch controls to the retroarch.cfg file in

/opt/retropie/configs/amstradcpc/retroarch.cfg

For more information on custom RetroArch controls see: RetroArch Configuration

Links of interest / References

[Solved] Amstrad CPC - Virtual Keyboard? lr-caprice32
How to remap Keyboard chars to specific Joypad buttons