Brilliant video Tezza. I still have a fully functional CPC 464....it now has pride of place in my bedroom. Yes, my Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, PS2 and PS4 are in the living room hoojed up to the large tv, but the Amstrad came with it's own colour monitor! Only thing I don't have whereas you do is the cool manual....I learned BASIC from that and have been coding ever since. Thank you for sharing the light on my beloved CPC :D
The CPC464 was my first PC. I learned to code with that (excellent) manual. Later I upgraded to a 6128 and I'm still having fun with that today. As with the C64 and ZX Spectrum, the homebrew scene for the CPC is still very active. Not only are there plenty of great new games and demos coming out every year that really show what the hardware can do when pushed to its limits, but people have also given it a multitasking graphical OS (SymbOS), and there are hardware expansions available to add extra memory, hard drive, wifi, cartridge support, dual sound chips and other fun stuff. And then of course there is the CPC Plus range...
I loved mine and subscribed to the official magazine. Adding a disk drive and printer turned it into a functional, if limited, word processor. I modded a small pair of speakers to work with the unit which gave me stereo sound.
Thank you for this. I’d been trying to work out what computer it was I had when I was around 10 years old in 1997ish. I knew it was an old computer for the time but when I searched for 80s computers, I tended to get the American ones. Finally worked out it was the CPC 464 and this video was a wonderful shot of nostalgia. It’s what got me into computers and gaming as a young girl, something that’s stayed part of my life ever since.
Great memories going to my cousins house in the Scottish countryside and watching manic minor and green beret played in the kitchen. A snooker game to if I remember correctly. They had the the cpc464, I had the spectrum and my other cousins had the Commodore 64, great days 🙂
Very interesting! I've never used one, but I remember a friend from Denmark told me that this was his first introduction to computers in his early years.
My first real PC at age 16. Leaned BASIC on it. Built in tape deck was great - until the heads eventually clogged up with dust. Played "Dizzy" on it for fun. CPC128 had a drive with a CPM OS
They sold well in Australia. I used to purchase those colour monitors for $5 each when the computers were worthless in the late 90s and early 2000s and pull the tube out to repair televisions. A guy I knew went around garage sales and was bringing them to me all the time. I think the monitor was made by Orion.
@@stephenw2992 - they're so rare now, I had to resort to having one posted from the UK to NZ, which is ridiculous considering how worthless they used to be. But most of the TVs are in landfill now too, and those that survived are getting their tubes pulled out to repair old arcade machines and computer monitors... My CPC monitor sits on a desk next to a Commodore 1084S and as much as I hate to admit it, the Commodore has a much better image with a finer dot resolution - but the CPC monitor looks right for the CPC.
@@AnthonyFlack The 1084 had a superior tube, but the electronics were not very reliable since they are made by Philips. They also became next to worthless. I used a couple as CCTV monitors and then threw them on the dump around 2008. I repaired many of them. Never had anyone ask me to repair an Amstrad even though they were very common. There is still CRT stuff going in the ewaste here and unfortunately many of them wont sell any of them even for parts. I had to watch a Sony PVM go on the back of a truck to be destroyed for a couple of dollars worth of scrap recently.
i just bought this PC my dads picking it up today so i really hope it works and thanks for the information i also got a CRT i could not see a model number on it but i got it all for $60 aud
@@cygil1 its not completely working so ive had it too the side while i build up a bunch of parts for the CRT cause it has vertical collapse so after that i hope the computer itself fully works.
@@fox.9879 - the fact that you know what "vertical collapse" is makes me hopeful you can sort it out. If the power light comes on when you turn on the CPC, and if the machine beeps when you press DEL, chances are it's fully working.
Yes, the CPC supports a 640x200 monochrome mode. Most if not all of the Inofocom catalogue was ported to the CPC. These games run in 80 column mode by default.
In the 1980s I was a teenager studying computer science at school in Italy. I had one. It was less capable for games, but more useful for learning to program, first with Basic, then with a limited but functional Pascal compiler, and finally with the z80 assembler.
The Amstrad cpc 464 was my first micro computer back in 1984. I have still got a working unit and I gets regular use I absolutely love the machine. Great video👍🏻😎😂.
@@tezzaNZ I don’t rightfully recall. Maybe one died. Although I built an aluminium case for my ZX and built a keyboard, my first circuit board I ever etched. And hooked it up to an amber monitor. Had a speech synthesiser for it too. The lid on the case was held in place woth those plastic push in clips like you would have on a cupboard door back in those days. I wish I had photos of it. First custom case build lol.
Nice one. I had this computer. Having the cassette player built into it was a good idea.
My favourite computer!
Thanks for your videos!!
Glad you like them!
Brilliant video Tezza. I still have a fully functional CPC 464....it now has pride of place in my bedroom. Yes, my Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, PS2 and PS4 are in the living room hoojed up to the large tv, but the Amstrad came with it's own colour monitor! Only thing I don't have whereas you do is the cool manual....I learned BASIC from that and have been coding ever since. Thank you for sharing the light on my beloved CPC :D
The CPC464 was my first PC. I learned to code with that (excellent) manual. Later I upgraded to a 6128 and I'm still having fun with that today. As with the C64 and ZX Spectrum, the homebrew scene for the CPC is still very active. Not only are there plenty of great new games and demos coming out every year that really show what the hardware can do when pushed to its limits, but people have also given it a multitasking graphical OS (SymbOS), and there are hardware expansions available to add extra memory, hard drive, wifi, cartridge support, dual sound chips and other fun stuff. And then of course there is the CPC Plus range...
I loved mine and subscribed to the official magazine. Adding a disk drive and printer turned it into a functional, if limited, word processor. I modded a small pair of speakers to work with the unit which gave me stereo sound.
Cool. Thanks for sharing those memories.
Thank you for this. I’d been trying to work out what computer it was I had when I was around 10 years old in 1997ish. I knew it was an old computer for the time but when I searched for 80s computers, I tended to get the American ones. Finally worked out it was the CPC 464 and this video was a wonderful shot of nostalgia. It’s what got me into computers and gaming as a young girl, something that’s stayed part of my life ever since.
Great memories going to my cousins house in the Scottish countryside and watching manic minor and green beret played in the kitchen. A snooker game to if I remember correctly. They had the the cpc464, I had the spectrum and my other cousins had the Commodore 64, great days 🙂
Beautiful mix of audio and processing machines inside this device 🕹
Very interesting! I've never used one, but I remember a friend from Denmark told me that this was his first introduction to computers in his early years.
My first home computer and still the best 8bit in my opinion.
My first real PC at age 16. Leaned BASIC on it. Built in tape deck was great - until the heads eventually clogged up with dust. Played "Dizzy" on it for fun. CPC128 had a drive with a CPM OS
They sold well in Australia. I used to purchase those colour monitors for $5 each when the computers were worthless in the late 90s and early 2000s and pull the tube out to repair televisions. A guy I knew went around garage sales and was bringing them to me all the time. I think the monitor was made by Orion.
Those monitors are now quite rare
I certainly helped with that, but they would have been buried in landfill anyway. You did well to find one.
@@stephenw2992 - they're so rare now, I had to resort to having one posted from the UK to NZ, which is ridiculous considering how worthless they used to be. But most of the TVs are in landfill now too, and those that survived are getting their tubes pulled out to repair old arcade machines and computer monitors...
My CPC monitor sits on a desk next to a Commodore 1084S and as much as I hate to admit it, the Commodore has a much better image with a finer dot resolution - but the CPC monitor looks right for the CPC.
@@AnthonyFlack The 1084 had a superior tube, but the electronics were not very reliable since they are made by Philips. They also became next to worthless. I used a couple as CCTV monitors and then threw them on the dump around 2008. I repaired many of them. Never had anyone ask me to repair an Amstrad even though they were very common. There is still CRT stuff going in the ewaste here and unfortunately many of them wont sell any of them even for parts. I had to watch a Sony PVM go on the back of a truck to be destroyed for a couple of dollars worth of scrap recently.
Nice cameo appears of the VTech Talking Lesson One at @1:45.
i just bought this PC my dads picking it up today so i really hope it works and thanks for the information i also got a CRT i could not see a model number on it but i got it all for $60 aud
Very nice!
Good deal if it works.
@@cygil1 its not completely working so ive had it too the side while i build up a bunch of parts for the CRT cause it has vertical collapse so after that i hope the computer itself fully works.
@@fox.9879 - the fact that you know what "vertical collapse" is makes me hopeful you can sort it out. If the power light comes on when you turn on the CPC, and if the machine beeps when you press DEL, chances are it's fully working.
Does the CPC have the text adventure games like Zork and others? If so, do they support the 80 column mode?
Yes, the CPC supports a 640x200 monochrome mode. Most if not all of the Inofocom catalogue was ported to the CPC. These games run in 80 column mode by default.
I played many Infocom adventures on my CPC6128 back in the day.
Colour screen eh? Fancy!! Mine had the green screen version.. Still awesome to 12 year old me though until I got my first Amiga.
There is an Android app that plays cdt files so you don't have to convert them
I'd love to own one of these absolute piles of garbage
In the 1980s I was a teenager studying computer science at school in Italy. I had one. It was less capable for games, but more useful for learning to program, first with Basic, then with a limited but functional Pascal compiler, and finally with the z80 assembler.
The Amstrad cpc 464 was my first micro computer back in 1984. I have still got a working unit and I gets regular use I absolutely love the machine.
Great video👍🏻😎😂.
Nice presentation.
Thank you
My third computer, after 2 ZX-81s. Big step up.
It would be. Why two ZX-81s though?
@@tezzaNZ I don’t rightfully recall. Maybe one died. Although I built an aluminium case for my ZX and built a keyboard, my first circuit board I ever etched. And hooked it up to an amber monitor. Had a speech synthesiser for it too.
The lid on the case was held in place woth those plastic push in clips like you would have on a cupboard door back in those days.
I wish I had photos of it. First custom case build lol.
the original cpc 464 had chunky keys....i know i had one back in 1984