Upload information

Please follow these instructions for uploading to ADATE, because this will help me to maintain the site. Thankyou for your support.

  1. ADATE supports the following emulator file formats:

    Details of these file formats, and tools to create them, can be found at "The Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource"

  2. The emulator file should be put into a .ZIP archive file, and SHOULD include a "file_id.diz" file, with the structure described below. If a "file_id.diz" is not included, or is in the wrong format, it will take longer for your upload to be made available for download. So please, use the "file_id.diz" and the correct structure.
  3. put your upload into /pub/ftp/cpc/ADATE/incoming/ I will not look for uploads in other directories, so please put them here.
  4. when upload is complete, you can send a e-mail to amstrad@aiind.upv.es with the name of the file and a short description about the contents of the file.
  5. I use a automatic script to generate the indexs and check the incoming directory. If a invalid ZIP is found (e.g. a bad upload), it will be deleted. So please be careful when uploading.

NOTE: I will not check the uploads everyday, so it may be a few days before your uploads are made available in the main archive.

file_id.diz structure

The "file_id.diz" file is a standard ASCII file and can have MSDOS/Windows (CR,LF), Mac (LF) or Linux (CR) line-endings.

Each line of the file has the following form: VARIABLE ":" VARIABLE_DATA

e.g. TITLE: MONOPOLY

VARIABLE contains characters only in upper or lower case.

VARIABLE_DATA contains characters and punctuation. If the data has spaces, then you MUST put quotes (") around.

e.g. TITLE: "CURSE OF SHERWOOD, (THE)"

In the case of a variable which can have more than one piece of data (e.g. PROGRAMMER), you must seperate them with ;.

e.g. PROGRAMMER: "KEV";"JIM".

The variables are used to build the index file, so please use the format described to help. The variable-data pair can appear in any order. e.g. it is not necessary to have TITLE first.

At a minimum please include these fields: TITLE, PUBLISHER, LANGUAGE, YEAR, UPLOADER

The following variables are supported:

TITLE
The name of the program. e.g. "MONOPOLY"
PUBLISHER
The name of the company who published and distributed the game. This may or may not be the same as the developer. e.g. "US GOLD" or "RICOCHET"
DEVELOPER
The name of the company who developed/wrote the game. e.g. "TIERTEX".
PROGRAMMER
The name(s) of the programmers. The names should be seperated with semicolons ";".
COPYRIGHT
The name of the current copyright holder. e.g. "INFOGRAMES" This may or may not be the same as the PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER.
ARTIST
The name(s) of the artists. This should include the artist for the title screen and in game graphics if different.
MUSICIAN
The name(s) of the musicians.
PRODUCER
The name(s) of the producers.
LANGUAGE
The language. The internet naming standard is used: e.g.
EN (ENGLISH),
DE (GERMAN),
ES (SPANISH),
FR (FRENCH),
IT (ITALIAN),
GR (GREEK)
YEAR
The year of the release.
LOADER
The name and version of the loader. Some names are: STANDARD, SPEEDLOCK, SPEEDLOCK V1 etc
NOTES
Notes that apply to this game.
UPLOADER
Name of uploader.
PUBLISHER_CODE
Code assigned by publisher. I have used this for AMSOFT and VEB MIKROELEKTRONIK software, so please use it for these also.
FLAGS
The flags field is a string containing one or more characters. Each character is a flag/attribute. The following flags are defined:
1
The program requires 128K RAM only and will not run on a 64K machine.
4
The program will only run correctly on a CPC464. If you run it on a CPC664, CPC6128, CPC464+ or CPC6128+ then it will not function correctly.
+
This program will only run on the CPC+ series and uses the enhanced hardware of this system.
e
This program will use 128K RAM if detected.
  • Some programs will load all the level data into the extra ram, and there will be no furthur loading
  • Some programs will activate extra features on 128K version
  • Some programs may load additional data into the 128K RAM to reduce loading times
c
This program will only run on the CPC series. If it is run on a CPC+ then there are problems (e.g. keyboard doesn't respond)
j
The program is operated by the joystick only.
m
The program is a multi-load. i.e. after the main part has loaded, there is additional data that is loaded for each level.
p
The program will use the special features of the CPC+ hardware if detected. (e.g. This flag/attribute would apply to the game "Stryker and the Crypts of Trojan")
r
The program will not run if there are expansion roms connected. To run this program you must disconnect all roms. (e.g. This flag/attribute would apply to the game "Flyspy")

e.g. if the following is defined in the .diz file: FLAGS = "1c", then this program is 128K only and will only run on the CPC series.