CPCCore

Cross-platform Amstrad CPC emulation core (C++17). Emulates the CPC 464 / 664 / 6128 and CPC+ (ASIC): Z80 CPU, CRTC, Gate Array, PPI 8255, PSG AY-3-8912, FDC µPD765, tape, DMA, memory banking.

Used by:

• SugarboxV2 — Qt desktop emulator
• SugarConvDsk, SugarConvTape — disk/tape conversion tools
• SugarLibRetro — libretro core

Table of contents

• Build
• Unit tests
• CMake options

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Build

Requirements: CMake ≥ 3.16, a C++17 compiler.

git clone https://github.com/Tom1975/CPCCore.git
cd CPCCore
git submodule update --init --recursive

Linux

sudo apt-get install build-essential libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev \
    libxrandr-dev libfreetype6-dev libglew-dev libjpeg-dev libudev-dev \
    freeglut3-dev xvfb

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make all

Windows

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5
cmake --build build --config Release
cmake --install build

macOS

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5
make -j$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)

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Unit tests

The test suite covers FDC emulation, copy-protection schemes (Speedlock, Alkatraz, CodeMasters…), tape loading, and CPU correctness.

Build with tests enabled:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DGENERATE_UNITTESTS=TRUE
make all

Run (Linux — requires a display or xvfb):

xvfb-run --auto-servernum ./UnitTests/Release/unitTests

Run (Windows):

.\build\UnitTests\Release\unitTests.exe

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CMake options

Option	Default	Description
GENERATE_UNITTESTS	OFF	Build the unit test binary
GENERATE_BENCHMARK	OFF	Build the benchmark binary
CMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM	—	Set to 3.5 when building with CMake 4.x