Enterprise 64 - Another Failed British Micro [Part 1]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
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The choice of rare computers from the '80s is abundant in the UK. The Enterprise 64 is one such computer. It promised the world, it had the potential to take on the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and others, but it fell flat on its face. Why? Was it the hardware, was it the management? This new old stock Enterprise 64 gives us the chance to explore that question, and the machine.
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● Episode Chapters
00:00 A treat for 2022
00:52 Intro
01:58 Unboxing the Enterprise 64
06:30 Expansions for the Enterprise 64
07:46 PCBWay
08:12 The company and the name
09:53 The competition
11:53 What's Inside the Enterprise and testing
20:05 Drastic Delays and Outro
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Still waiting for part 2... such a cool machine with so much potential. I want to see a game use the hardware as it was intended!
Hungarian retrogeek here. Here's my solution to the mystery. The Hungarian Communist government was struggling with a school computer project since around 1980. Numerous attempts to build a simple 8-bit machine failed, mostly due to the unavailability of necessary parts and manufacturing capacity. The few models produced are very interesting from a collector's perspective: the Primo (a Sinclair ZX-80 clone), the HT-1080Z and its successors, the Aircomp 16, etc. Most of them were only built in relatively small numbers, despite the fact that Hungary had a fairly strong computer industry and produced state of the art, modern office computers. All of these proposed school computers had a Zilog Z80 CPU, or its East German copy, the U808. The other common thing about them was that nobody had ever seen one in their school. Only legends circulated about a few lucky kids whose parents worked at some high place and were somehow able to obtain one. Although even this wasn't that magical any more: by 1985 a lot of Hungarians could travel to Austria, and Commodore 64s bought in Austrian shopping centers started to become fairly common.
Also by 1985 the government started to realize that they're pumping a lot of funds into a fairly hopeless project, and it would make more sense to purchase leftover stocks of failed Western products. This is how the Enterprise arrived to Hungary. Since it was a flop, the manufacturer was happy to sell them at production price. The Commodore 16 and Plus/4, also a failed product line, was highly popular in Hungary for the same reason. Ultimately many schools received Commodores, the 16s being the students', and the Plus/4 the teachers' machines. (The 16 was a simplified version of the Plus/4, thus they were compatible.)
However, the government still hadn't given up their plans to introduce a domestically produced microcomputer, and in 1986 a final and definitive school computer, the Videoton TV Computer (TVC) appeared. It was actually a cheap copy of the Enterprise, without the custom chips, and in much poorer quality. It was also much larger. However, it had the advantage of being very cheap. By 1986 the Commodore 64, and even the Amiga 1000 were already available in some Hungarian stores, but the TVC only costed a fraction of what they did.
In some schools the TVC was still in use in the early 1990s. When I went to technical school in 1991, we had two in the computer lab, along some thirty Atari 600XLs. Yes, the government really purchased anything they could get, as long as it could run BASIC.
Despite all of its shortcomings and poor quality, the TVC was a popular computer. Even today, there's an enthusiastic TVC community in Hungary, doing all the things retro geeks do. I also have two TVCs, which are likely the only specimens on the North American continent. Their power supply, of course, didn't survive until 2021, and they were European too, so I gutted them and replaced their insides with a modern PSU, made in China. At least it still only contains parts made in a Communist country.
We used to stock these in a store I used to work in. IIRC, we never sold a single one. It never stood a chance against the Amstrad CPC, C64, & Speccy. Great to see one again. Always loved the physical appearance of it.
It looks like the Japanese computers i can't remember the name. I'd love to have one though I love these old micros I wanted one so bad a a kid the c64 but my grandparents who raised me thought they were a fad.
@@allanfulton8922 MSX computer maybe?
I had a CPC 464, but this looks cool, never seen one on the shelves.
@@allanfulton8922 I wanted a NES in the early 90's but my Mum bought me a C64 GS instead. The other kids had Mario, I had Flimbo's Quest.
Perhaps it is character building.
🤣🤣🤣
Such a shame there was never a Part 2 to this!😪
Probably still waiting for the membrane 😅
So that’s why I was searching for part 2 and found nothing.
Nice one! I am a hungarian and I was 13 years old (at 1989) when I went to a computer camp where I have seen Enterprise 128 for the first time! It was in the media lab, I assume because of the graphics capabilities together with C16s ans Plus4s, on which we learned graphics programming in BASIC! The camp also had a LAN of 32 C64s, something that I have never seen before!
C16, Plus4, Enterprise 128, all that in 1989... It sounds like you got to buy up all the excess stock of machines that didn't sell in the rest of Europe.
@@Nibb31 I think that was exactly the case!
What do you do with 32 networked C64s?
@@stealthslide2723 It was a long time ago but I remember that it was a classroom setup, so the teacher could see anyone's monitor, also could do some stuff on our computers and also there was only one printer and floppy drive that all of them reached! So it was pretty cool thing.
@@Nibb31 Speccy(well, its clones) in USSR just began to appear around the same time, so... it's no wonder. Prior to that we had all kinds of clones produced domestically - 8080, 6502, even pdp-11 based micros (and mostly these latter ones) 🙂
Seems Hungary (my home country) somehow became a safe haven for computers which were absolute flops "in the west", including the Commodore 264 series (which was my first computing experience) and the Enterprise. And Intelligent Software might have connections to another (mostly) Hungarian micro, which was actually made in Hungary: the Videoton TV Computer, a.k.a. the TVC. These are all quite some stories to tell.
“The chip hit the flan”. I see what you did there! :)
And he kept a very straight face there!
"Failed British Micros" could be a series, my favourite of the bunch being the SAM Coupé.
I remember Your Sinclair having a Sam Coupé news section for a long time, but nothing ever seemed to actually get released.
I'm one of the 12,000 or so that bought one. In hindsight I should've gone straight to 16bit (with the money I spent on the Coupé I could've afforded an Amiga instead of the ST I ended up with).
Interesting you mention it was a hit in Hungary. Well, I live in a relatively small town in Hungary and I knew someone who had one. The guy was really good programming it, he wrote quite a few, simplier games and demos on it and whenever we were at their place, we'd play a port of the Star Wars arcade game. As a matter of fact, that was my first encounter with that legendary game.
I remember seeing one of these as a kid and I thought it was the coolest looking computers I had ever seen!
With about 80,000 units made and a quarter of them being sold in Hungary, there should still have been a userbase large enough for sales of games and other software. But shops weren't that interested in stocking software for "minority" computers. Was there ever a magazine or fanzine ? Much homebrew software in the UK ? Are there 60,000 Enterprises in landfill scattered across the UK with all the software published for it ?
It's a bit sad that most of the Enterprise Demos are from Hungary....the only people who really showed off what the Machine could do.....
If it's of any interest I ran the fanzine. Private Enterprise. I also published software for it.
I was UK around the time of its release and I've never heard of it
The point of having two tape decks is that you can use them in a RAIT 0 configuration and load twice as fast.
How can you have a RAID 0 with tape drives??
@@adrianwestley3982 RAIT, not RAID. Also: it's a joke.
Never owned one but I think I remember my local computer shop stocking some, it was a independent computer shop that was around from the late 1970's to the early 2000's where my brother got his first computer the Commodore 16, then a year or two later he got his Commodore 128. The shop was small but always had interesting stock, it was called Computer's Plus based in the high street of Sittingbourne, Kent. Good memories.
You can repair the box with PVA wood glue, it's very good for sticking expanded polystyrene, I did some sculpting and model making with it at college many years ago.
The mains plug has no sleeves on the live and neutral pins, not seen that for a very long time!
This channel deserves way more subscribers.
Im glad we had so many choices in the early 1980s. I would hate the UK market to have been as boring as the US market in the same time period.
Choice beats little choice.
I don't know the Commodore 64 was one the best in my opinion and I had them all at one point (8 bit)
@@Salfordian I started with a ZX81, then a Vic-20, then a C64. Then I had a very short lived Atari 400 which was replaced with an 800. Along side the 800 I had a Camputers Lynx. I loved them all! I now have over 200 retro computers!
@@chrislong6601 Are there many retro computers still needed for your collection?
@@doctorcrankyflaps1724 A few machines I don't have - that I either need to save for, or trade things I have for maybe such as an Amiga 1000. I bought a 1000 when they were brand new - and to be honest didn't last long with it because of lack of software and moved the ST for which I had plenty of access. There are a few other machines I need too. And a few I have far too many of!
I don't know if you're under the impression that the US market was nothing but IBM and Apple or something, but we had Commodores, Ataris, Tandys, Sinclairs, the TI-99/4A, and even the BBC Micro was sold briefly as the Acorn Electron. We even had a few also-rans of our own like the Coleco ADAM and the Exidy Sorceror, the latter of which had the distinction of using 8-track cartridge cases for its ROM cartridge format.
Another good video. Interesting machine technically, slightly more powerful than the Amstrad CPC and with a far larger colour palette, but it seems to lack the hardware sprites and scrolling of the C64. The sound chip is also unusual being a custom build and not an off the shelf component, there's also parallels with the later Sam Coupe computer. There's an interesting video of the machine running Jon Ritmans Batman on TH-cam and it's quite impressive :)
9:50 Dammit Neil. 🤣
20:14 _Dammit Neil!_ 🤣🤣
Given its expandable potential and what it has under the hood, I'm flanbergasted 😉 it didn't do so well. I imagine if they were able to get it out early enough it would have competed nicely. Looking forward to part 2!
A real missed opportunity. And all down to price and timing. This always looked like an interesting machine to own to me.
Alas the CPC464 came was released first and pretty much soaked up any potential market between the C64 and Speccy that the Elan could have captured.
It's so BEAUTIFUL
Great video as always and so good to see you back on fine form with a classic RMC video! I'd seen pictures of the Enterprise but knew absolutely nothing about them so it's fascinating to learn the story. It's amazing just how many weird and obscure British micros there were in the 80s, we really were punching above our weight during that era.
Oh, and thanks for having me on of course - always happy to provide dessert-related content!
In my opinion, the Enterprise should have been made as a BBC competitor / business machine, with better keyboard, proper expansion connectors, 128K Ram as standard and Z80B at 6 Mhz or Z80H at 8 Mhz. If they had made a simple 5 1/4 or 3.5" floppy drive, and with its 80 column mode, it would have allowed CPM, or other Graphic OS to be used. With it's Spectrum emulator, it would have also made an awesome upgrade for Spectrum owners as it was way more reliable than the Sam Coupe Spectrum emulation.
Thanks for reminding me about the Z80B. I forgot how exactly I overclocked it
"My perfect box has been ruined" Finbarr Saunders moment there
Great video, bought a 128 back in 1985, bundled with monitor and 4 games. One of which was Nodes of Yesod, which you definitely should try out. Still have the original machine and monitor, and collected a few more in the early 90s plus software. Release was 12 to 18 months too late, and mid 1985 the Amiga 1000 was released. I have my original A1000 also. Love the CBM Pets btw!
"With obsolescence built out"
To be fair, it probably runs Cyberpunk 2077 about as well as PS4 and Xbone do.
Having some wax paper or old floppy label backing around when removing old labels really helps with the process and gives you a place to safely store it whilst you service.
On my amiga i just sat the disk on the psu for 2 mins to sofen the glue...
I remember thinking these looked fantastic and very futuristic at the time, think it was featured in a computer magazine I read in the 80's but I cant remember ever seeing one for sale in an actual shop
I've got one of these in perfect nick. Wish I still had the cassette tapes of the programs I wrote at the time. I upgraded from a Vic20, then a BBC C, then this lovely machine and its beautiful PASCAL/BASIC hybrid. But ofc against the C64 and Ataris, it didn't stand a chance.
It was so hard to find software for the Enterprise that I taught myself to write my own games. Bought my house through programming, so ... thank you very much, Enterprise.
Funny thing is that I live in Hungary now, so I'm going to have a gander and see if there are any of these lying around!
It was great to be reminded of all those old machines -- some had totally slipped my mind. The Dragon! Was it the Jupiter than was supposed to run FORTH?!
ChibiAkumas has a video on the 128k version and has a link for contacting the maker of the sd emulator Szörg who also makes a few other things.
There was 1 kid in my year who had one. We mocked him! Why? No games, at all. nada. he went moths before he got any games. But deep down we loved the look of it. Better than my bread bin or those horrible ickle speccies. lol. Anyway I think there was the problem, just no support from anyone. No support and the machine dies.
Yes, it's a tragedy - that machine was a beast in those day, so much potential! When I first saw one, with that joystick, I nearly had a lonely island experience! ROFL :D (NSFW don't blame me if you find the right song!!)
One of the rarest computers out there. I still have it
The Enterprise 64 was my second computer (The first being a Sharp PC1245 pocket PC)
I loved it and the community that was built up around it.
I was a member of the Independent Enterprise User Group (IEUG) Ran by Tim Box of Boxsoft fame and the only other name I can remember from those days was nicknamed "Spider".
We even had a group magazine.
I had an article in it.... then it folded (co-incidence?)
I loved the way it handled the screen graphic modes and sound.
I loved the structured, but very slow BASIC (BBC was ten times faster - Mandelbrot program)
I built and RGB interface to connect to my portable TV which had an analogue RGB input (So much better than RF)
Those were the fun fun fun days.
😂 This must have been mentioned, and I just missed it… “Flan” is a cheap graphical change to “Elan”, removing the bottom horizontal line in E creating an F. A “safe” business move to avoid changing stock and molds, just “mutilating” them a bit. 🙈
Thanks for showing this computer on the channel. I recall seeing it advertised in many magazines in the 80s and it had great specs. Can't wait to see your next videos on it.
Ohhh... I remember reading computer magazines, back then, and drooling over The Enterprise 64. It was so beautiful and had such incredible form.
What a fun machine! I hoped that the joystick would have been a standalone stick with some internal wiring to a DB-9 pinout. What a nightmare to replace if you bought one and then it broke...
Always thought it looked cool embedded in the machine like that, but it's not practical, many of them are snapped off!
Fortunately the joystick wrecking Daley Thompson's Decathlon wasn't available for this computer
Awesome calendar! Although that Rock & Wrestle cassette made me feel nauseous!!
How many time have I sat there with 2 pencils to wind one of those back in!!
Great vid as always, Thankyou!!
I had an Enterprise 128, about 17 years ago, with a whole bunch of cassettes (none of them were prerecorded at the factory) but I was too young to be interested in retro and to find out how to do stuff so I gave it away for a 4 GB thumb drive. I regret doing that ever since.
@@laylatrix22 Gondolom nálunk még jónak számítottak akkor is ha az angoloknál már rég elavult volt.
Enterprise forever has all of the software in one place and there is also an SD card reader for the cartridge port to put your software on.
I was terribly excited when this was announced. Exchanged many letters with the company. Waited. WAITED. Finally it was released and a friend got one and... it was horrifically slow. The flood fill was glacial. So disappointing. Years later I got to work with Dave Woodfield on a project. Lovely bloke. Champion maze-solving robot mouse builder. True story.
It’s really cool to see one of these computers on this channel! I’ve seen a picture of one in an older issue of Retro Gamer Magazine, but that’s it.
I remember me and my best friend salivating over this back in the day (that headline 672x512 res seemed next gen!). We had C64s. Oh and the saga in Popular Computing Weekly re: name changes etc . I've never really seen it in action so super looking forward to part 2!
Companies that included built in joysticks clearly underestimated the unrelenting destructive force of children in the heat of hectic and exciting gameplay.
Exciting stuff I can't wait for part 2! I've never heard of this thing 😊
Ah, nice to see a familiar face here at RMC ))
@@victorluchitz7907I even own two RMC mugs! 😁
I remember reading about Enterprise 64 when it was released, in the Greek "Pixel" Magazine. They had a complete presentation / test along with all the hilarious story of "Elan/Flan". I loved the looks of the machine, but it was already too late in 1985 for just another 8 bit machine. Amstrad CPC / ZX Spectrums were well established by then even if they didn't have the custom graphics / sounds chips. And of course talking about custom chips, everyone would immediately think of the Amiga. All in all the Enterprise was in this weird category of machines released which was like companies trying to prove that "Z80 still can!" (Remember Sam Coupe?) while 16 bit machines were already on their way and could do much more with similar custom chips.
Your channel is so great. Here in the US we never saw some of the technology that existed across the pond. I really appreciate your channel and the way you present everything. Great stuff. 👍
As a kid I LOVED the idea of the built-in stick, but even as a kid marveled at the decision to make it left handed...
I picked a new old stock earlier this year and its box condition was almost identical to this one. I decided not to use the PSU and used a modern replacement instead. To my surprise however, the machine was in perfect working order and showed no signs of prior refurbishment. The only downside is the lack of software available to buy for it and even flash cart/card solutions weren't readily available when I looked. Most homebrew software is also 128k only and ther isn't currently an easy way to upgrade the 64k model. It's a nice collection piece if not a practical one.
I got the same damage of the vent on my E64. Mine is same brand new old stock from eBay and the only problem I had was the keyboard membrane that I was able to fix it but I also bought the replacement. I really hope that you will cover this machine in your show more often.
I love the appearance, amazing content right there, welcome back br
The new set looks great, as well as segments filmed in the "store". Great job!
8:56 Shirley you can't be serious? 😂
I had one, but donated it to a computer museum in the Netherlands. It had crazy good hardware capabilities (sound and graphics)
In the mid nineteen eighties I owned a "Tatung Einstein" it is the one British computer I have never seen on any retro channel
The Tatung Einstein was made in Telford where I live, I knew someone who worked there but they worked in the offices not on production.
Also a quick search on TH-cam show multiple videos on the Einstein on retro channels.
We have one here, I'll see what I can do!
There also was the Tatung 256 model, a even more obscure 8-bit computer from the same firm
Those red, blue and green keys have held their colour a lot better than my old 464. The font used on those keys looks really 80's too.
I never saw one in the wild and will be curious to see and hear what it can do.
The fact that a plug was installed on the power cord suggests that this is not actually new old stock.
you can use polystyrene cement to repair the box. Architects use this for modelling, so easy to obtain. I was also very surprised to see the plug supplied and fitted, which is very unusual for this era.
"Desperate for the chip to hit the Flan".... well done Neil.
*takes a bow*
I always enjoy these videos about lesser known computers, and am looking forward to part 2.
My dad bought just the motherboard of one of these in (I think) 1987 and I spent that summer, aged 11, manually soldering up a physical keyboard for it and housing it in a perspex box. Other than the satisfaction of getting it working, I don't have any other memory of what we did with it. I imagine I quickly got frustrated with the lack of software and went back to my Speccy.
Always loved the joystick with the ribbed base, colours, shape of the keys, font on the keys, ever since it was featured in Your Computer magazine.
There should be a (rare) Spectrum emulator cartridge for it.
I wrote an emulator of the Enterprise about six months ago; one of the saddest things about the machine is that almost all of the software is just Amstrad CPC conversions. The sound chip has the capacity to be really interesting - e.g. it allows one channel to sort-of ring modulate another, albeit at a harsh digital approximation - but it's mostly AY conversions and a really-decent MOD player that just uses the sound chip as a DAC, and the video chip's built-in mode and address splits should have allowed for some fantastic arcade games but the machine never really took off enough to attract sufficient developer attention.
EDIT: pedantic comment, but the switch from width x height to height x width when discussing colour depths is perhaps slightly misleading; in 256-colour mode you get 80 pixels horizontally across the screen. It has the same video bandwidth as a CPC, so one-pixel-per-byte mode naturally has half as many pixels across as its (and the Enterprise's) 16-colour mode. But what makes the Enterprise cool is that the video clock is decoupled from the processor clock, so you can relatively easily drop in a 6MHz or better CPU. It'll have to wait more in terms of its local clock when accessing the shared 64kb but if expansion RAM can serve it quickly enough then it can run unthrottled elsewhere.
I think if it had released early in 1983 it might have stood a chance.
Flantastic!
I always thought this was a beautiful looking machine. Really looking forward to seeing what it can do.
To quote Eddie Izzard: "Yes, all they did was slowly collapse like a flan in a cupboard."
You have one! I’ve been looking for that for sometime. I remember seeing it in a magazine as an early teen. And I’d love to add that to the collection. A very quirky playful thing.
Despite being a complete Acorn nut, an Enterprise 128 is still the prize micro in my collection. It is a taste of what might have been. It's been said that, because of the launch delays, Alan Sugar somehow got wind of the Enterprise colour styling and just copied it for the CPC, along with other aspects such as the custom max RAM expandability (I believe both can use up to approx. 4MB via external switching logic). DId Alan copy the colours, etc.? Hmm.
I remember seeing one in a store in Glasgow and really wanted it, but I was too young to afford it myself. My Dad bought me an Acorn Electron which kicked off my micro obsession, but it was still a delight to finally obtain an Enterprise 128 about a decade ago for 165 UKP, along with quite a few original peripherals (tape deck, disk controller, cables, etc.) If anyone's interested in some pics, post a reply and I'll dig it out, though I've not powered it up in a very long time. So yeah, I have literally dozens of Acorn machines (and Sinclair, Commodore, Amstrad, etc.), but the Enterprise is the only one that almost has its own shelf. :D
Just a shame the cost cutting went so far as to remove standard I/O ports in place of raw PCB edges, that was a big mistake. But then, the launch delay was so long that by the time it came out it was pretty much too late anyway.
Most of the surplus stock went to Hungary, where there is now a strong and vibrant hobbyist community for them:
enterpriseforever.com/
Here's an old article from The Register about it:
www.theregister.com/Print/2013/10/24/elan_flan_enterprise_micro_is_30_years_old/
As soon as I saw the part one tag I knew we wouldn't see much of the machine working! I'm looking forward to seeing what it's capable of. I'm not sure if I ever saw one of these in person in a computer store, it does look vaguely familiar though.
It has a lot of plastics, I can't think of any that didn't
Timing is so important in these types of releases. By 1985 the 16 bit Amiga and Atari ST were on deck, which no doubt stole some of this computer's thunder (even though they were considerably more expensive). If it had come out in 1983 as originally promised and at the originally promised price, who knows how things would have gone.
Indeed, a computer that may have done very well if released on time...
That 4Mhz Z80 - Something I've always wondered is why no competitive home computer manufacturer (sorry, Camputers) released a faster machine for the bragging rights. It wasn't a matter of cost; CPC's run fine at 6Mhz with a simple crystal swap (yes, video & I/O are a little screwy but that's software) and 8Mhz+ would only take a minor gate array change. All Z80's run at 6Mhz+ and by the time the CPC was out the Z80B wasn't expensive.
Got my calendar in the post today, will take pride of place in my new electronics workshop.
"My perfect box has been ruined".
The Enterprise 128 was my first computer. Loved it. Loved the demos.
I love videos of systems I've never heard of. Quite rare these days with so much internet. Cheers : )
Great video, as always. The 80's gave us a huge choice of home computers here in the UK. Nobody else I knew had one but I do still have a soft spot for the Dragon 32 and 64. Yeah it was never a huge success. I recall how excited I got being able to briefly use the Dragon MSX prototype years later. I also recall my Dad coming home with an Apricot F1 he got via work. Again nobody had one, but for some reason that made it feel more special.
That Enterprise is a good looking machine, that joystick I find cute.
I have ordered SD+RAM expansion from Hungary and it works very well. There are DB9 joystick adapters also, but you should be looking for EnterMice, modern joystick+mouse adapter (I do not have that one yet). Software-wise, Hungarian programmers made some, at least for me, mind-boggling stuff for an 8bit micro, like: ZX Spectrum 48/128 emulator (executes ZX binary files, not just basic; someone even loaded up ZX81 emulator in it and then loaded ZX81 game inside that emulator and it worked), Amstrad CPC 464 emulator (executes binary files for CPC), SID Player (plays C64 SID files), MOD player (Amiga ProTracker modules) and so on... I was amazed at what the machine is capable of, BASIC is something that was way ahead of many others, shame it was a flop back then.
You're turning into quite the wordsmith, Neil.
I have to admit, this is one computer I've noticed in older videos that has really stood out from the others, so I'm glad to see it finally covered.
"Wordsmith" should mean making up words, not being sussinct with existent words. It's taken from the word Swordsmith - a person who creates swords.
@@DailyCorvid Wordsmith is defined as a person who is skilled at using words. However, surely a clever construction of sentences by placing two words near each other in ways that have not previously been so would be closer to your parameters?
I was impressed by, 'the chip hits the flan'. Clever.
Flantastic video Neil look forward to part 2. 😉
Loved my many Enterprises. I interviewed Mike Shirley for Private Enterprise.
This machine was always on my collectors list. Some great specs for its time, but is came to late on the market, when the so calles 16 bit era stated. If i recall correctly you could also hook up up to 32 machines in a network with network storage and network printing.
I love the idea of the drives sitting on top of the machine. If they'd put them side by side that would have looked much more normal, kind of like the DuoDisk for the Apple IIe. And they could've made them modular to cut down on cost, so you could either plug one into the expansion bus, or two side by side. All they'd need was a U shaped connector to go from the expansion port to the drives above the unit.
Also, I must congratulate you on that flan party pun. That was excellent in every way. Don't get me wrong, the other flan-based puns were pretty good, but the flan party was really a cut above the rest.
I thought that warranty sticker was a red herring for a second lol
No, it's so clean, no key cleaning montage :O
I’m impressed that it was pre fitted with a plug, I remember with most electrical items back then you used to have to fit a plug yourself.
This is the first time I have ever heard of such a machine, I found it funny when you said the keyboard was Not great not terrible. I thought of 3.6 Roentgen Not Great Not Terrible.
Great video can't wait for part two.
5:17 where’s the fun in that🤣🔥
This video inspired me to look at My Enterprise 64 again. I was getting horrible waving with a SCART to HDMI converter. The waving got better when I switched to the RetroTink 2x SCART adapter, and adjusting the voltage on my power supply from 9 to 11 VDC stabilized the image. The voltage is probably closer to 10.5, as the power supply seem to output a slightly lower voltage than shown.
Love the obscure computer videos. This machine looks very interesting. Any emulators?
When you're this retro they call you MISTer
FPG A very witty remark!
that computer software corner set is a m a z i n g
Calender immediately purchased. Definitely going to go to one click print in the future
I remember the Enterprise being released. Those were great days to live through, but it was in a market where the Spectrum and C64 ruled the roost.
Same here - it hit just so late that nobody really wanted to buy a new system that while a bit more capable in some ways, just none of the momentum (word of mouth marketing, software and so on) which made it almost doomed to fail from the start. It took a few years until dramatically more capable systems would take over, but yet another 8 bit system in an already crowded 8 bit market? That would have been near impossible.
I love seeing this obscure systems, it would have been appealing back then, although I wouldn't have given up my Spectrum due to the massive software catalogue
And there I was, thinking I knew every 8-bit machine released in the UK. Nope! Impressive specs too, if they'd got it out by early '84 it could have really gone somewhere.
Looking forwar to seeing what it can do when part two drops.
Exposed fingers is a good idea for cost cutting, surprised we didn't see more of that.
watching operation wolf on the cpc6128 brought back so may memories . So much nostalgia
In Germany the machine was sold as "Mephisto PHC 64" by a company that successfully sold chess computers...For the price of 1200 German Marks about 80,000 pieces are said to have been sold. No huge success. In those days in Germany there was only the C64 and - with a big gap - the Amstrad (Schneider) CPC.
I love this channel