★ LITTÉRATURE ★ ENGLISH ★ THE INS & OUTS OF THE AMSTRAD ★ |
| The Ins & Outs of the Amstrad | Littérature English |
The greater part of an iceberg lies hidden, accessible only to those who have suitable equipment. Much the same could be said of the capabilities of the AMSTRAD CPC464. Superficially it may appear to be just another games-playing machine. However there is a lot more to it than that. As with the iceberg, special equipment is needed to explore the system capabilities in full, and the object of this book is to provide such equipment. Even at first glance, it is clear that the CPC464 is a little out of the ordinary. That it has a built-in cassette recorder is by no means unique, although the provision of a monochrome or colour monitor, incorporating the system power supply, is a welcome change, and other features are useful, if less obviously so. For those who confine themselves to BASIC, the friendliness of the machine will be sufficient to recommend it, but for the ‘hacker', the user who wants to delve deeper into the mysteries of the system, there is much to be explored. Here we are mainly concerned with the way in which the CPC464 will work with external equipment. To deal with that effectively, we must first study and understand the internal system, for that determines how add-on bits and pieces can be controlled. The book is therefore divided into two main parts, the ‘Ins' dealing with the internal system, and the ‘Outs' dealing with external additions. It is inevitable that frequent reference will have to be made to machine code routines. Those who need additional data on this subject will find Programming the Z80 a useful aid. It is listed in the Bibliography at the end of the book. It should be said that the book is based on the cassette system version of the CPC464, and some points may be modified in the disc system version.
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