• Z80B @ 6Mhz
• 256/512kb RAM + 1-4Mb external expansion
• SAA1099 sound generator

• Native console output
• Native console input
• ANSI vt100 engine
• Generic console
  • Redefinable font
  • UDG support
  • Paper colour
  • Ink colour
  • Inverse attribute
  • Bold attribute
  • Underline attribute
• Lores graphics
• Hires graphics
• PSG sound
  • ETracker (SAA tracker)
  • PSG Lib (SN76489)
  • Arkos2 Player (AY)
  • WYZ Player (via AY8192 emulation)
  • Vortex tracker (AY)
• One bit sound
• Inkey driver
• Hardware joystick
• File I/O
• Interrupts
• RS232

zcc +sam -lm application.c -create-app

A .MGT disc image will be created suitable for insertion into an emulator or writing to a physical disc. The disc will autoboot and the application will start automatically.

The process will automatically insert a version of SAMDOS onto the disc, to override it with an alternate DOS file such as MasterDOS/B-DOS the -Cz--dosfile option can be used:

zcc +sam -lm application.c -create-app -Cz--dosfile=/path/to/dosfile

• -subtype=allram (default) Loads the program to A+B+C+D, screen paged on demand into C+D
• -subtype=highram Loads the program to C+D, screen into A+B
• -subtype=basic Uses MODE 1 from a BASIC environment (this subtype has much reduced functionality and use isn't recommended).

The SAM Coupé hardware under z88dk provides the following screen modes:

All 4 screen modes on the SAM are supported by z88dk, to switch to mode 2 for example, use the following code snippet:

#include <sys/ioctl.h>

int  mode = 2;
console_ioctl(IOCTL_GENCON_SET_MODE,&mode);

The screen modes are presented as they are for SAM Basic, that is with mode=1 representing the +zx compatible mode and 4 being the high colour screen mode.

The pragma -pragma-define:CLIB_DEFAULT_SCREEN_MODE=XX (where XX is one of: 1,2,3,4,-1) can be used to configure the startup mode. By default the target will startup in mode 4, but if XX=-1 then the screen mode isn't changed.

Alternative SAM Coupé fonts can be loaded using .asm files as per the guide in the Generic Console instructions, CH8 format is the same format as used on the SAM (768 bytes for ASCII set, 1096 bytes for extended set).

The SAM Coupé has a user definable palette and thus palette mapping does not take place for gencon modes 3 and 4.

The default palette in modes 1,2 & 4 matches the +zx, and can be seen in the coloured mandelbrot below:

Mode 3 also currently has the ZX palette so will usually require pot position 3 to be reassigned to bright white (value 127) to match the default on the SAM Coupé.

Palette changes can be made through the following functions:

#include <arch/sam.h>

// Set single pot
sam_set_palette(unsigned char index, unsigned char value);

// Set full palette at once with array of data from entry 0 to entry 15
sam_load_palette(unsigned char *data)

Graphic support is available in all 4 modes. The current textcolor() value is applied to the plotted pixels. This is particular useful in mode 3/4 where there is no attribute clash. Pixel based operations, primitive drawing, stencils and profiles are supported. The bk* routines for saving and restoring background are not currently available.

The file <arch/sam.h> defines additional functions and features for controlling the hardware of the target.

The line and frame interrupts are distinguished and ISRs can be registered for each trigger using the following two functions:

#include <arch/sam.h>
add_raster_int(func);
sam_install_line_isr(func);

In the default allram subtype, NMI handlers can be registered with:

#include <interrupt.h>
nmi_install_isr(func)

The beeper is supported via the functions in <games.h>, E-tracker module support is available via <psg/etracker.h>

Note that E-tracker tunes must be loaded without the player code which is usually attached to the start of the file, this can be done in an editor by finding the string 'ETracker (C) BY ESI', moving 10 bytes back and removing everything before that point.

The +sam target also includes AY emulation and WYZ tracker support is available, this can help when creating portable games however it does come with approximately 8k cost in terms of memory usage.

In the default allram subtype, an area for the stack is reserved in segments A+B, by default 1024 bytes are made available, this can increased or decreased using the option -pragma-define:CRT_STACK_SIZE=nnnn where nnnn is the required size.

You can use the dskman utility to save your files to a dsk-image which can be written out to a DD floppy and read by a real SAM Coupé.

Sam C was the Small C compiler available for the SAM Coupé in 1995.

To aid conversion the libraries and functions provided in Sam C are listed here in the SAM Coupé Library Reference

The currently maintained SimCoupé can easily be used when called with the -autoload command.

A very basic workflow could look like this:

@echo off
REM
REM Windows Batch file for launching ZCC to compile SAM Coupé executables
REM and lauch them in SimCoupe via an MGT disk image.

REM NOTE: Filename without .c extension

set FILE=helloworld
set EMUPATH="C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCoupe\simcoupe.exe"

echo Compiling %FILE%.c... 
zcc +sam %FILE%.c -lm -v -o %FILE% -create-app
IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL% == 0  GOTO FAIL

echo Launching %FILE%.mgt with SimCoupe...
call %EMUPATH% %FILE%.mgt -autoload 1> nul 2> nul
IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL% == 0  GOTO FAIL

GOTO END

:FAIL
Echo  ^^ %FILE% failed, press a key.
pause 1> nul 2> nul
:END

The SAM will load and start a z88dk generated disk when F9 is pressed. Usually the emulators map F9 to the numeric keypad.