Imagesource: https://github.com/ColinPitrat/

What a shame. For more than a year we have ignored a machine, of which millions have been sold. Millions! The Amstrad CPC series.

Competing especially with Commodore and Sinclair machines, Amstrad's Z80A based 8-bit boxes were really successful, especially in Europe. Something special were the integrated storage devices - either a compact cassette deck or a 3.5'' floppy drive.

The software variety was not to be sneezed at, because besides the available CP/M programs there were also a lot of games available for the machines. Amstrad also licensed the machines to Schneider, among others, and in East Germany a compatible clone of the system was developed in 1989 - dubbed "KC Compact". But it became irrelevant after the fall of the Wall.

1990 marked the end for the CPC. In general the 8-bit era was coming to an end (I mean for the rest of the world, not us…), and Commodore and Sinclair divided the remaining market almost alone.

Too bad. That's what Colin Pitrat must have thought, when he added another star to the emulator universe.

His Caprise32 is not the only piece of software, that brings the CPC machines back to virtual life. But it is one of the few projects that is completely open source.

Caprise32 can be compiled on Windows and Linux. If you live in front of a Mac, you should have a look at the excellent RetroVirtualMachine by Juan Carlos González Amestoy as an alternative.

Something different. Love it. ❤️