CPCESP 1.0 — Amstrad CPC emulator for the ESP32
Hi everyone!
After many months of work, CPCESP 1.0 is almost here.
With this release, CPCESP —whose version 0.85 alpha was launched a little over a year ago— has become an Amstrad CPC emulator that, in terms of both accuracy and the overall experience, rivals ESPectrum, our ZX Spectrum emulator which is also part of the RETROESPMachine project.
CPCESP turns a low-cost ESP32 board into an Amstrad CPC 464, 664 or 6128. It runs bare-metal, with no operating system underneath, and drives a VGA monitor or a 15 kHz CRT directly. It has never been so easy and so affordable to enjoy an exact replica of an Amstrad CPC.
Release: Saturday 7 November 2026, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), in a special live stream on the RETROESPMachine YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/live/cIdhc_7sAu4
New website: https://retroespmachine.com/cpcesp
From the launch on, you will be able to flash CPCESP straight from the browser (Chrome or Edge), or download the firmware for esptool.
Accuracy first
Our main goal has been to get the CRTC, the Gate Array and the monitor right, so that the demoscene’s hardest productions look as they do on a real CPC, at a true 50 Hz. We used the CRTC Compendium as our reference. CPCESP runs demos such as Batman Forever, One Screen Colonies, PHX, Still Rising, Total Eclipse and Scroll Factory, along with games like Pinball Dreams, Oscar Z, Relentless and Super Edge Grinder. You can see captures taken from CPCESP running on the board on the website.
Features
- CPC 464, 664 and 6128, with ROMs in English, Spanish or French, and AMSDOS or ParaDOS
- CRTC types 0 (HD6845S) and 1 (UM6845R), and a model of the monitor’s sync
- Two disk drives, DSK and EDSK, with writes saved to the microSD; two-sided 3" disks can be turned over; blank disks
- CDT and CSW tapes, with fast loading that keeps the exact timing, and loading from a real cassette through the audio input
- AY-3-8912, in stereo (ABC/ACB) on stereo boards
- Dk’tronics RAM expansions of 128, 320 and 576 KB (on the 464 and 664 too), and SNA snapshots of up to 576 KB
- PS/2 keyboard, DB9 joysticks with configurable buttons, AMX and SYMBiFACE II mice from a PS/2 mouse
- VGA at 50/60 Hz and 15 kHz CRT output, with composite sync for VGA-SCART cables, and scanlines
- Menus in English, Spanish and French; file browsers with ZIP support; snapshot browser and quick snapshots
Compatible boards: LilyGO TTGO VGA32, Olimex ESP32-SBC-FabGL, ESPectrum, ESPectrum+ and RobGo-RG (mono/stereo).
See you on Saturday at the live stream! Questions and feedback are very welcome here.
Víctor Iborra “Eremus”
RETROESPMachine
