emulator: ACE-DL
type: standalone
core_classification: community_fork
source: "https://roudoudou.com/ACE-DL/"
upstream: "http://ace.cpcscene.net"
profiled_date: "2026-08-08"
core_version: "2026-06-03"
display_name: "Amstrad - CPC/Plus (ACE-DL)"
cores:
  - ace-dl
  - acedl
systems:
  - amstrad-cpc
mode: standalone

notes: |
  SDL port of ACE, the Amstrad CPC/Plus emulator written by Philippe Rimauro
  (OffseT) for MorphOS. ACE-DL is built by Edouard Bergé (Roudoudou) from the
  MorphOS sources and released for Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi;
  a third port targets Haiku. All three are closed source, the original author
  keeps the sources private, so the entries below were established on the
  official 2026-06-03 Linux x86-64 build: path constants read from the binary,
  file opens traced with strace, and required/optional decided by removing each
  file and observing the result.

  Machines are CPC 464, 664 and 6128 plus the Plus range, which boots from a
  cartridge and covers the GX-4000. An operating system is one 32 KB file
  holding the 16 KB firmware ROM followed by the 16 KB BASIC ROM; the AMSDOS
  disc ROM is a separate 16 KB file mapped in slot 7. The upstream MorphOS
  release keeps the three ROMs apart under System/ and composes them at
  startup, ACE-DL ships them pre-joined under private/firmware/ with one file
  per machine and language. The pairs are exact:

    OS464_UK.rom        Firmware v1 + BASIC 1.00
    OS464_FR.rom        Firmware f1 + French BASIC 1.0 (md5 824f5213…)
    OS664_UK.rom        Firmware v2 + BASIC 1.10
    OS6128_UK.rom       Firmware v3 + BASIC 1.20
    OS6128_FR.rom       Firmware f3 + BASIC 1.23
    OS6128_S.rom        Firmware s3 + BASIC 1.21
    OS6128_DK.rom       Firmware d3 + BASIC 1.20
    XMEM_FW_3_15_UK.rom XMEM 3.15 firmware + BASIC 1.20
    XMEM_FW_3_15_FR.rom XMEM 3.15 firmware + BASIC 1.23

  Firmware versions run 1 to 4 for the 464, 664, 6128 and Plus, and the letter
  is the country: v English, f French, s Spanish, d Danish. The BASIC revision
  attached to a version 3 firmware follows the country, 1.23 for France, 1.21
  for Spain, 1.20 elsewhere, which is what the pairs above show. The XMEM files
  replace the firmware half with the X-MEM expansion firmware and keep the
  stock BASIC.

  The nine operating systems are the entries of the Machine configuration
  selector. OS6128_UK.rom is the built-in default and is opened at every
  startup even when the config OS= key names another file. Command line -fuk,
  -ffr, -fsp and -fdk switch to the UK, French, Spanish and Danish 6128 files.
  A machine needs at least 32 KB in the file: truncated to 16384 bytes the
  emulator prints "Error initializing ROMs!" and dies, padded to 40000 bytes it
  boots, so the check is a lower bound rather than an exact length. The AMSDOS
  ROM is checked for presence only, an 8 KB stub boots.

  Plus machines boot from a cartridge and no cartridge filename is compiled
  into the binary, the three Amstrad_?4.cpr files are the system cartridges the
  author ships in the same directory, which is also the default browse root of
  the cartridge requester. The loader walks the RIFF chunk list and reports
  "Cartridge Load Error (Header)" on a bad header and "truncated file!" when a
  cb00..cb07 bank is short, each bank being 16 KB for 128 KB total.

  Plugins pull three more ROMs. Multiface II reads multiface2.rom, the Hacker
  plugin reads hackit400uk.rom in its UK flavour and hacker481fr.rom in its
  French one, and Play2CPC reads the YM2608 ADPCM rhythm ROM, warning with
  "ym2608_adpcm_rom.bin not found!" and running without it. The Windows package
  omits that ROM, the Linux and Raspberry Pi packages carry it.

  Expansion ROMs are user business: config keys ROM0 to ROM255 hold whatever
  the user picks through the requester rooted at media/rom/, and the release
  seeds that directory with third-party ROMs (ParaDOS, Protext, Maxam, Utopia,
  uniDOS, SymbOS, FutureOS, Orgams, Discology and others). Disc, tape,
  snapshot, Dandanator and X-MASS images are user content the same way, and the
  Nova plugin regenerates its 32 KB private/Nova/nova.nvram when the file is
  absent. Outside emulation the binary loads its own payload: seventeen QOI
  images, fatal with "Error loading QOI file please reinstall"; seventeen WAV
  drive and monitor samples, each merely reported as not found; and the
  private/messages catalog holding the French, English and Spanish
  translations. private/sounds/hitachi_long_seek.wav ships with every package
  but appears in no path constant and is never opened.

files:
  # -- Operating systems, firmware ROM + BASIC ROM joined in one 32 KB file --
  - name: OS6128_UK.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS6128_UK.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: true
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: b96280dc6c95a48857b4b8eb931533ae
    sha1: 5977adbad3f7c1e0e082cd02fe76a700d9860c30
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/firmware/OS6128_UK.rom, default machine, opened at every startup"
    note: >-
      CPC 6128 English. Firmware v3 followed by BASIC 1.20. Absence stops
      startup with "Error initializing ROMs!".

  - name: OS6128_FR.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS6128_FR.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    region: [france]
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: 5ee871d5600eb9b5a22989c295f902a5
    sha1: 200d59076dfef36db061d6d7d21d80021cab1237
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS6128_FR.rom, command line -ffr"
    note: "CPC 6128 French. Firmware f3 followed by BASIC 1.23."

  - name: OS6128_S.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS6128_S.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    region: [spain]
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: 0246740371010333385665dfeb7cd0ec
    sha1: 1acd01c2c03424a78b32c9440f4d890fb1104815
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS6128_S.rom, command line -fsp"
    note: "CPC 6128 Spanish. Firmware s3 followed by BASIC 1.21."

  - name: OS6128_DK.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS6128_DK.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    region: [denmark]
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: ca1635fd992e2aa7a776b30da13467e5
    sha1: a9e7ee6355730f319a37c95ca0a714212b88c3b1
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS6128_DK.rom, command line -fdk"
    note: "CPC 6128 Danish. Firmware d3 followed by BASIC 1.20."

  - name: OS464_UK.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS464_UK.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: a993f85b88ac4350cf4d41554e87fe4f
    sha1: 56d39c463da60968d93e58b4ba0e675829412a20
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS464_UK.rom"
    note: "CPC 464 English. Firmware v1 followed by BASIC 1.00."

  - name: OS464_FR.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS464_FR.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: a588b7c9e1c142b5d8ebec65ac7713d8
    sha1: c68d84f37ab9defbb19200598c24948c97c9a644
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS464_FR.rom"
    note: >-
      CPC 464 French. Firmware f1 followed by a French BASIC 1.0 that the
      upstream MorphOS release does not carry.

  - name: OS664_UK.rom
    path: "private/firmware/OS664_UK.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: 5a384a2310f472c7857888371c00ed66
    sha1: 073a7665527b5bd8a148747a3947dbd3328682c8
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry OS664_UK.rom"
    note: "CPC 664 English. Firmware v2 followed by BASIC 1.10."

  - name: XMEM_FW_3_15_UK.rom
    path: "private/firmware/XMEM_FW_3_15_UK.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: 85accc17e98c79dbbdde826cbfaf4692
    sha1: c7d7e5116665e4f21ae3b9bcdca2ce3685f00293
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry XMEM_FW_3_15_UK.rom"
    note: "X-MEM firmware 3.15 English, followed by BASIC 1.20."

  - name: XMEM_FW_3_15_FR.rom
    path: "private/firmware/XMEM_FW_3_15_FR.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    min_size: 32768
    validation: [size]
    md5: 046fa182f7574bde3ab97ee873f6e736
    sha1: faa49a3aeb1d7e972437f6b77515455d14e2d680
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: Machine configuration entry XMEM_FW_3_15_FR.rom"
    note: "X-MEM firmware 3.15 French, followed by BASIC 1.23."

  # -- Disc ROM, mapped in slot 7 --
  - name: Amsdos.rom
    path: "private/amsdos/Amsdos.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: true
    size: 16384
    md5: 25629dfe870d097469c217b95fdc1c95
    sha1: 39102c8e9cb55fcc0b9b62098780ed4a3cb6a4bb
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/amsdos/Amsdos.rom, opened at every startup"
    note: >-
      AMSDOS disc ROM. Absence prints "Error loading AMSDOS ROM" then
      "Error initializing ROMs!" and stops startup. Length is not checked.

  # -- Plus system cartridges, 8 banks of 16 KB in RIFF chunks --
  - name: Amstrad_v4.cpr
    path: "private/firmware/Amstrad_v4.cpr"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 131156
    md5: 39b565e648172980aa552293e667070f
    sha1: 405e341437fab8db477606238af0c20eca2e39ee
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/firmware, cartridge requester root, CPR loader"
    note: "464plus/6128plus/GX-4000 system cartridge, English, firmware version 4."

  - name: Amstrad_f4.cpr
    path: "private/firmware/Amstrad_f4.cpr"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 131156
    md5: e7159fd674022ba05f9b347ae3cdafc6
    sha1: e5aa80c501cfb435e2cba35ad92e427240394164
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/firmware, cartridge requester root, CPR loader"
    note: "464plus/6128plus/GX-4000 system cartridge, French, firmware version 4."

  - name: Amstrad_s4.cpr
    path: "private/firmware/Amstrad_s4.cpr"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 131156
    md5: 6eeed3fdd4abc98a2a932da810410128
    sha1: 05fb14df24b2b504a3ae463a086f02f0adcc07b9
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/firmware, cartridge requester root, CPR loader"
    note: "464plus/6128plus/GX-4000 system cartridge, Spanish, firmware version 4."

  # -- Plugin ROMs --
  - name: multiface2.rom
    path: "private/multiface2/multiface2.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 8192
    md5: 4c9f014e91d407cc6509fad0095ab909
    sha1: 1431ec628d38f000715545dd2186b684c5fe5a6f
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/multiface2/multiface2.rom, read when PLUGIN_MULTIFACE2=1"
    note: "Romantic Robot Multiface Two ROM. The plugin loads without it."

  - name: hackit400uk.rom
    path: "private/hacker/hackit400uk.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 16384
    md5: 9a293eaaebca601f671070ad56cb81b6
    sha1: 56306e7234bcffd14b4f977d42d237c4ad9c12d5
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/hacker/hackit400uk.rom, read when PLUGIN_HACKER=1"
    note: >-
      HackIt 4.00 by Siren Software, English, UK flavour of the Hacker plugin.

  - name: hacker481fr.rom
    path: "private/hacker/hacker481fr.rom"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 16384
    md5: dfdd9924295f491d54f30569874287f8
    sha1: 0c15d6753cf0ae2a1737b6e857e8e82ee135a697
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/hacker/hacker481fr.rom, read when PLUGIN_HACKER=1 and PLUGIN_HACKERFR=1"
    note: >-
      Le Hackeur 4.81, the French edition of the same Siren Software ROM,
      French flavour of the Hacker plugin.

  - name: ym2608_adpcm_rom.bin
    path: "private/sounds/ym2608_adpcm_rom.bin"
    system: amstrad-cpc
    required: false
    size: 8192
    md5: 8740932cda05e518a9955f1d08d6786f
    sha1: 50b6c3e288eaa12ad275d4f323267bb72b0445df
    source_ref: "AceDL 2026-06-03: private/sounds/ym2608_adpcm_rom.bin, read when PLUGIN_PLAY2CPC=1"
    note: >-
      YM2608 internal ADPCM rhythm ROM used by the Play2CPC cartridge sound.
      Missing file prints "Warning: ym2608_adpcm_rom.bin not found!" and the
      plugin keeps running. Shipped in the Linux and Raspberry Pi packages,
      absent from the Windows package.