AMSpiriT

AMSpiriT is an Amstrad CPC emulator designed for Windows. It was developed based on documentation and technical information freely available on the internet.

AMSpiriT aims to faithfully replicate the operation and philosophy of the Amstrad CPC 464, 664, and 6128 computers, as well as the 464 Plus and 6128 Plus models marketed in the mid-1980s, while providing a clean and intuitive interface.

AMSpiriT closely emulates the main electronic components of the AMSTRAD CPC :

Zilog Z80A (CPU) : Encoded in T-states signal for better accuracy.
Gate Array (Amstrad proprietary chip): Manages memory access, video rendering, and interrupts. it is emulated at 16Mhz.
CRTC (Video Controller): Supports the five variants marketed by Amstrad.
FDC µFD765 (Floppy Disk Controller).
AY-3-8912 PSG (Programmable Sound Generator).
Intel PPI 8255A chip : Serves as I/O interface to keyboard, PSG and cassette player.
ASIC (Amstrad proprietary chip - CPC Plus series) : Emulation of advanced hardware effects.

The most recent versions of AMSpiriT have benefited from the technical expertise of talented demomakers, including Serge Querné (aka Longshot/Logon System). Longshot has written an extremely precise description of the CRTC component in his CRTC Compendium. This document comes along with a tool, "Shaker" which serves as an 'acid test', and also demonstrate various algorithms described in this compendium. This collaboration has allowed AMSpiriT to achieve a high level of fidelity, without compromising on the quality of the emulation. AMSpiriT passes with success dedicated z80 tests(ZEXALL for instance) and the majority of Shaker acid test.

AMSpiriT comes ready to use with all the system and BASIC ROMs that have been marketed by AMSTRAD PLC and Locomotive Software. (English, French, Spanish and Danish ROMs).

Supported File Formats :

Cassette files: WAV, CDT
Floppy Disk files: DSK, eDSK, HFE, and IPF
Cartridge files: CPR (for CPC Plus systems)
Snapshot files: SNA (restores previously saved machine states)
Binary files(with AMSDOS headers) : BIN
Text files: TXT (enables automatic copying of BASIC listings)
Script files: CSL (CPC Script Language) allowing you to launch command scripts.

AMSpiriT is currently under development. It requires a relatively strong PC (a 64 bits Core I5 or equivalent processor is recommended): accuracy has a cost! However, we plan to optimize our emulation core, once we've reached an accuracy level we consider high enough.

Keep in touch & Contribute

If you want to get in touch with AMSpiriT Team, or help us and contribute to the project you're welcome to join our new dedicated Discord Server or contact us using this address.

Please feel free to communicate your enhancement requests or report any bugs encountered via the contact address provided above. I will endeavor to respond to your requests to the extent of my availability, technical skills, and personal preferences.

For instance if you find an Amstrad CPC program not working properly with AMSpiriT , please send us a message, with a short description of the issue (what is expected, what was obtained), and ideally a link to a disk (DSK) or a snapshot (SNA) file.

Have Fun!

The AMSTRAD CPC is a fabulous 8-bit machine that was largely under-exploited at the time but which still continues to surprise through the superb creations of its many fans around the world. We hope that AMSpiriT will allow many enthusiasts of the golden age of family micro-computing to (re)discover the AMSTRAD CPC more than 40 years after its commercialization.

We hope in any case that you will take as much pleasure in using this emulator on a daily basis as we had in developing it.

Licenses

AMSpiriT is a 'freeware' software. It may be freely distributed for private use but MUST NOT BE USED FOR ADVERTISING OR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.

ROM images supplied with AMSpiriT are the property of AMSTRAD PLC and Locomotive Software. Amstrad and Locomotive have kindly authorized their distribution in emulators, while keeping the intellectual property.