Hi Adrian, a couple of years ago I rescued my 6128 and set it up. I was surprised to find plenty of new hardware and software available. Back in the days, Switchblade and Gauntlet 2 were favourites. But now there's a port of the Amiga game Pinball Dreams! Also check out the Batman Demo "Batman Forever - Amstrad CPC Demo (2011)".
Alex is a certified legend for sending you those devices. My first computer was a 464. Roland On The Ropes was the first game I ever loaded up on there. Memories! ❤
Thge Amstrad 6128 was often used as a development machine for the Spectrum because it had a disk drive and could build Speccy executables. The Oliver Twins wrote Dizzy for the Spectrum using one.
The Amstrad CPC wasn't as popular as the C64 or Spectrum in the UK, but it was very popular in France. This may account for the high sales numbers in Europe overall. When I was very young, I remember having conversations with friends at school about which was best - the Spectrum, C64 or Amstrad. The same games were often sold on all these systems at the time - often in the same boxes with a different "system" sticker - and it was always fun to compare as they differed widely. Each system had its fair share of titles that were the best on that particular machine. Often, manufacturers put the screenshots on the back from the Arcade, or the newer 16 bit machines like the ST or the Amiga - so us 8 bit owners never knew what we were getting. Looking back it was an extremely fun time - never to come again.
The French amstrad demo scene is still going today, some of the demos they can cram in 64 or 128k really has to be seen to be believed There’s also a amazing port of Titus The Fox for the Amstrad, looks just like the PC version, but the game was less than 1/4 the size of I remember right
@@faenethlorhalienyes, I have also been very lucky while growing up and had a 48K Speccy, a CPC 464 and a C128D in different years, having played so many wonderful games on them and learning to program, before switching to the Amiga
I had the one friend that had a CPC464 in the Uk and i thought it was so fancy becuase it had its own monitor. Sadly it lived in my friends living room and we weren't allowed to play on it very often because my friend's parents wanted to watch TV which conflicted with us playing games in the room. Not that we were much better with the spectrum as we actually needed my parent's TV before they bought me a cheap B&W set. The Amstrad computers were very popular in Spain and most repair videos on youtube are the Spanish version which has a country specific keyboard and rom.
It was! It was our first computer that my parents bought to us as a bundle: it came with the CPC6128, its color monitor, a computer desk, a TV tuner (to watch TV on the monitor with UHF/VHF and SCART connector), a AM/FM radio (both the radio and TV tuners were stackable under the monitor) and a compilation of games. I still remember the only edutainment software we had for it "La Bosse des Maths" ("The Math Hump" in which a camel lost its back and you can only get it back by completing math activities). That poor guy, the computer did not last a year before sent back to warranty....and got traded for an Atari 520STf :).
The C-64 was 180 pounds at the time the CPC was introduced, but the Datasette drive was 45 pounds and a monochrome monitor was about 100 pounds, making the total cost 325 pounds vs 250 for the CPC with monochrome, and a similar margin for the CPC with color monitor. Commodore still assembled and manufactured key components in the US at this time, and Amstrad stole a march on Commodore with their all-Asia, chiefly Taiwan, manufacturing strategy
@@nrdesign1991 that's the most logical explanation. I just remember that someone from Germany ended up with all of our 3" floppies. My cousin living there knew someone that had a Schneider computer, and was suprised that they would play CPC games (I assumed it was a very different computer).
I have still my CPC6128 since 1986, together with its monochrome green monitor :) Me and my brother convinced our parents that we needed the computer for school. It was used like 99% of the time playing games :P Classics like "Gryzor:", "Ikari Warriors", "Impossible Mission" and many others I played them in this machine for some years ... before upgrading to a Amiga 500 :) It still works. So I believe anyway, it was working at least, last time I tried it, a few years ago - I keep the computer displayed on a shelf over my desk. Here in Greece where I'm from, the Amstrad machines ( especially the 6128 ) were pretty popular.
If you're looking for game suggestions to play on your old British 8 bit computers, I'd say Elite on the BBC Micro must be one of the top options. That was some mind blowing coding that made the Beeb do things even the Acorn designers were amazed by.
I loved this episode. I had cpc464, but it was branded as Schneider cpc464 as my first computer when I was 10 years old (so around '88). It was purchased in Germany. With green monitor. Schneider didn't have colourful keys, but otherwise looked the same as Amstrad. I was a kid so I didn't fiddle with it as much as I could have, but I played the games I could find and did some basic programming. The C64 was definitely more popular at the time, but my dad bought me this, probably because it came with a monitor. It originally came with a demo cassette as well. I remember playing chukie egg, dizzy, green beret, etc. This brings so many memories. I had it until i bought 386dx.
VEB isn't a company name. It's an abbreviation of Volkseigener Betrieb, which basically means publicly owned business. Which, of course, it wasn't but...socialism and stuff...
"people's enterprise" is probably the more common English translation, as "people's..." triggers the correct association in English speakers (people's Republic, etc)
This is a step back in time for me, In my younger days of being a Tv/Video repair Tech, the shop I worked for started selling these machines ( in Australia by the way) , and I remember drooling over them, when we unpacked & set them up to test out, I never owned one, I had a Sega SC3000 instead, which very few of those here would have heard of before, if any ?, anyway I had lots of fun as a kid writing Basic programs & playing games , im 56 now, ahhh memories ...... Many Thanks :)
6128 was a great machine, I used it for 11 years straight. The joystick port is a standard 9-pin Atari if I recall correctly so practically anything should work (I remember using my friend's Sega Master System joypad with it, zero issues). As for games that are not crappy ZX ports, here's a few: Robocop, Batman: The Movie, Defender of the Crown, Rick Dangerous (and the sequel), Pirates!, Captain Blood; also, anything by Spanish companies like Opera, Dinamic, Topo Soft which were famous for awesome graphics. Oh, and instead of typing |dir you can just do cat instead (short for catalogue, I guess).
The 464 was my first computer, which my family got back in '85. Started programming on that thing and have been programming pretty much everyday of my life since.
Loved my CPC 464! It was my first dip into programming, which turned into my career. I got a 6128 a few years later, and wow... after waiting for cassettes to load on the 464 the speed of the 3" floppy drive was an absolute wonder!
Yes! My chlldhood computer!!! The CPC 6128! Greetings from Australia. I remember playing "Gauntlet" 2 player on the same keyboard with my friends! Cybernoid 2 was cool too. Thankyou Alex for sending this to my favourite channel!!
The Amstrads were supplied with a green or colour monitor. The monitors have fixed leads on them for video and a 5V supply for the computer. You could also get the MP-1 unit which had the same leads as the monitors and powered the computer, but outputted an RF signal for use with a TV. Our 464 came with a green monitor and my dad later got the RF modulator. The 664 and 6128 also required 12V for the disk drive, the lead flying off the computer is to supply power IN! Amstrad's way of preventing 5V/12V going to the wrong places. Later monitors and the MP-2 RF modulator added a 12V out socket for these computers but kept the same 5V and video cables as before.
The CPC 6128 was THE computer I spent most of my time with as a child and I loved it. My two favorite games were and still are Head over Heels and The Guild of Thieves.
I have fond memories of this 6128. I took the Pascal programming course at my technical university, and they had class full of those 6128 in CP/M mode. When I saw the |cpm prompt, it was the trip 35 years back in a blink of an eye.
Obliterator was a great game. No only for the music, but the art was amazing. The controls leave something to be desired, but it's still an amazing game.
I thought the Amstrad was pretty popular here in the UK. I used to go to my friend's house and play Barbarian on his. I worked in a computer store on a Saturday and they devoted quite a lot of the store to Amstrad games and had the 464 and 6128 setup permanently to test games if they were returned.
You could buy the CPC range in the shops with either the green screen or colour monitor. Mail-order catalogues often include a third option consisting of computer and an external tv modulator and power supply box for connecting to a Television.
Adrian needs to show the CPC6128 running SymBOS and show what is can do (or even FutureOS). Both are good examples of advance software developed in recent times. Even some demos show some good graphics and sound.
Yes, the CPC was a great computer, I had the 464 (Schneider version) and later a drive from Vortex with additional RSX commands (integrated dissambler). That was a great time, thanks for the video.
The Amstrad CPC6128 was actually briefly sold in the USA in late 1985, or at least planned to be, by Indescomp in Chicago. The price was $699 with a monochrome monitor or $799 with a color monitor. Same thing with the BBC Micro -- a U.S. model was announced in late 1983 and 50,000 units were made, but it was a flop and the unsold units were shipped back to the UK and converted to 240-volt PAL systems.
Indeed I was unable to find any evidence any CPCs were actually sold in the US. I know someone with one of the converted to UK spec US destined BBC Model Bs. He converted it back to US spec for fun.
So happy to see a 6128 again! That was my first family computer when I was seven years old. I learned to type and program on that thing, which led to a career as a software engineer. I still remember every single page of that manual!
I don't know about the CPC 6128, but you can plug a normal Atari joystick into the CPC 464, the original joystick had a joystick port on the front of it for a second player joy. That used pin 9 for the common so the copmputer could tell which joy was doing what.
Regarding the C-64,. I bought it in Toronto, in 1983 (I think) and initially used a standard cassette drive and a colour TV with my computer. The C64, replaced the Vic20 I had been using. I didn't go for the 1541. I bought the IEEE488 interface and an MSD dual drive. I loved the system, and used it even after I bought the Amiga 1000 when it was released. Although I haven't used the C-64 in ages, I still have the complete setup.
The CPC 6128 was my second computer in the 80s, and the one I have most nostalgia for. In recent years I've re-obtained an original 6128, grabbed a Plus 6128 and built two CPC 6128s from scratch (and a keyboard I designed for it). So much you can do with these, I can't wait to see what you eventually do with them Adrian!
@@AndrewHelgeCox The CPC PCB has been replicated by another hobbyist, so that part is simple enough. The Gate Array has also been reproduced using FPGA so I didn't need to do that myself either. Most of the rest of the system is standard parts, and the old parts such as the NEC drive IC are still available as NOS. The only part I designed from literally nothing more than a schematic is the keyboard - and I've since found someone else has done that too :D I originally built the first 6128 because getting hold of an original was so difficult here in Canada where I now live. I made the second one as a test bed (and also just for fun :D)
oh what fun.. the CPC 6128 was the first computers I used to write my first versions of a text editor/wordprocessor in z80 assembly ... lol yeh as a brit these were not as popular as the spectrum or c64 but seemed to be used alot in the small business sector as the display allowed 80 columns but was cheaper than buying a PCW8256 or PCW8512 at time could have bought a 9512 but they we pretty bad .... long live 8 bit .. what memories allan sugars' amstrad brought me.. especially programming in fact one of my early GUI based projects was on the CPc6128 as the storage was a disk, until I went to PCW developing accounting software just as PC was becoming affordable and I was able to buy a decent IBM AT ...good video kind sir
You asked for game suggestions. For Spectrum - Trashman, Knight Lore, Manic Miner, Fairlight, 3D Ant Attack, Highway Encounter, Skool Daze, Starquake, The Trap Door. All great games from the best software houses producing Spectrum games. The Spectrum was a very basic, cheap machine but is beloved in the UK as it brought computing to the masses. The Amstrad computers were well made and capable but not as popular as the Spectrum. Amstrad bought the spectrum brand and technology in 1987 and remade the 128k spectrum as the Spectrum +2 (tape) and Spectrum +3 (3inch disc). I love your channel and would be so happy to see more of the many UK computers featured... Dragon 32, Oric 1, Jupiter Ace and not forgetting the earlier Sinclair machines, ZX80 and ZX81.
The CPC 6128 (Schneider variant) was the first computer I've ever used and I manage to get my hold on the very same one. Strangely enough running it with a HDDD power supply wasn't stable for me (I suspect voltage ripple) so I had to resort to a small mini ATX PSU. Running Parados and Symbos on it was quite the revelation
The pronunciation of Worcester is Wuster. Confusingly, Worcestershire sauce is also pronounced as "Wuster sauce". Regards from the UK - and loving the videos for several years :)
In all 40 years of my USA life, I have never even known anyone who could pronounce worcestershire sauce, including myself. This is life changing information to me.
Thanks so much for this video, Adrian! I was a poor UK Amstrad user back in the 80s when I was a kid, and spent my whole time defending it against my C64 and Spectrum friends! So many fond memories of my 6128 and it's great to see it in one of your wonderful videos. Nice one!
The Amstrads were super popular in France and Spain. All Amstrads got 5V DC from the monitor. The 6128 spiral cord is an additional 12V DC for the disk drive. The DIN connector is RBG out.
My dad and I had a 464 and a 6128 between us. Both with twin disk drives and a huge Daisy wheel Olivetti printer. But they weren't used for games. We both used versions of CP/M and had copies of Wordstar and dBase II. My father's 464: was used for writing letters and a news letter, and I used my 6128 for book editing and writing a stock control programme in dBaseII. The book editing had itd challenges, mainly converting from the Amstrad disk 3" to a 5 1/4 (the 464 had both), then via IBM PC at and on to an be 8" floppy that the Printing company used. We used to use Kermit, which was available for everything, and allowed file transfer from one machine to another via serial ports. This being pre-networks.
Whoah! That other room looks cool - give us a tour of that, please! I had a 464 as a kid; it is the computer that made me into a software engineer. My 464 was the same as your new one - old logo and chunkier keys. Always wanted a 664 though because they look so cool, but now I have a 6128. The 664 you showed was the fully grey German (Schneider) version. The UK version had bright blue accent keys. I had the green screen. I think that’s why I ended up being more interested in programming my CPC than playing games on it. I did spend a LOT of time playing Elite though - the colour didn’t matter so much there.
The CPC 472 special model for Spain was made to avoid a freak tax imposed on 64Kb computers. It was some kind of protection tax. Amstrad physically added an 8Kb RAM chip in a daughter board that was completely disconnected to the system. It is essentially a CPC 464 with a dummy RAM that was inaccessible. The people that checked for the compliance for the 64Kb tax were just not technical enough to figure out it was a ploy because that tax did not apply to computers with more than 64Kb RAM inside. I think it sold for just a few months. And then the 128Kb started to sell and the tax was lifted.
I freakin love Amstrad CPCs! I had a 464 with color monitor back in the day and now I’m an owner of two CPC6128s and CTM644 monitor. They are generally well thought out computers built mostly of off-the shelf components. They are also quite well built too for the time and much better than cheap hifi systems Amstrad was known for before they entered computer systems. They have bunch of nice features like stereo jack, RGB output, 128k versions are good CP/m systems and community produces fun new hardware, OSs, games and demos even today.
I remember you did a mail call at least 2 years ago from stuart where he gave you unusual computers from all over the world. You haven't ever shown any of them. lol I can't begin to imagine how big your queue is.
My Dad's first MS-DOS / IBM clone PC was an Amstrad 286. I was too young at the time to remember any details on the system - but I do remember spending quite a bit of time playing Wolfenstein 3D and Leisure Suit Larry - Land of the Lounge Lizards on it.
On the spectrum - turbo esprit was an amazing first person game that is like GTA on a Z80. Saboteur was amazing, along with Chase HQ on a 128k spectrum was revered as an incredible arcade conversion. Granny’s Garden on the BBC Micro was many people’s first experience of a microcomputer game - mine was in the first year of primary school - like aged 5 or 6. Dizzy (1) was a brilliant CPC game.
One of my best friends had an Amstrad 464, I had a C64. We would walk to a local newsagent and use our pocket money to buy a Mastertronic or a Firebird game each. Go to his place to play whatever he bought for his, then go to mine. Colours always looked better on the Amstrad, but I would never admit that back then!
The only Amstrad I ever had was a PPC640. It was instrumental in teaching me DOS. I had to reflow the solder points on the power connector, then it worked fine. I can't remember what happened to that machine, but it's long gone now.
That Bubble Bobble game on the CPC was remade in recent years, with the goal of making a perfect arcade conversion and they sure did. th-cam.com/video/yBoddqRSUj4/w-d-xo.html
I had most of this 8 bit machines, favourite was the Amstrad CPC6128, did some good coding on that, decent basic, but mainly used assembly and also cobol.
Hi Adrian, My dad was the in house technician for a local electrical shop (back when things got fixed). The shop sold amstrad computers and Dad got a good employee deal. As a kid I remember playing a few games on the 464 that I inherited from my older brother when he got a 6128. The first game I ever finished was Bruce Lee and I saved for months to afford a game called Brian Bloodaxe as it had a dalek in it (was a huge dr who fan). The animation on the Back to the Future 2 game was quite impressive for the time. Although I only had the 464, my dad bought a tuner for the colour monitor to turn it into a tv.
Cassette games were really cheap which accounts for their long popularity. I remember our dad, who didn't earn a great deal, could take all five of his kids to the computer shop and buy us a game each. They weren't all great games but we all got something to play which we could call ours. (I remember choosing Loco as I liked the purple and green of the artwork. It was a clone of Super Locomotive and lots of fun.)
Full price were £8.99 or £9.99 which needed saving up for but Mastertronic etc. had their £1.99 and £2.99 budget range which was usually achievable from pocket money and scrounging once a week.
My first computer, in 1986, was a CPC 6128, IMHO the best 8 bit ever produced, being one of the last produced that shouldn't be too surprising. I learned how to programme on that machine, but I also got drawn into playing games too. First game I ever completed was Elite, took me a long time to reach Elite status, but it was fun ... 'Right on Commander!'. LOL
My first computer the 128! I've been waiting so long for one of these to turn up at the basement. You could connect an external PC 5.25 floppy drive to it and it read and write to the disks if I remember correctly. I am going back 30 years
as you see in the book, there were combined modulator and power units available for them to use them with normal tvs via RF .. model MP1 for the 464, MP2 for the 6128 and also a tv tuner unit model MP3 to convert the colour monitor to a colour tv!
A friend of mine had a CPC6128 and i remember many days in the early 90's spent at his place playing Barbarian, Sorcery+ and jet set willy. His parents eventually upgraded to a PC (maybe a 386? I'm not sure) and we moved on to Commander Keen 4 and links golf!
My favorite game from that era (I had my brother's old ZX Spectrum - the +2 version, made after Amstrad bought them) without a doubt was Fantastic Dizzy. So glad you have an Amstrad copy of it.
The CPC 464 was my family's second computer, (started with a ZX81). My friend's family had a Dragon 64, another nice machine though it didn't have as many games. We sold it evetually to buy an Amiga 500.
A friend of mine had a Schneider (german reseller for Amstrad) CPC 464 and I had (still have) a C64. We played a lot on both machines and we never had any discussions on what computer was better. We simply enjoyed playing all those games we had 😀. But I do like the Basic on the CPC much more than the Commodore basic 😛
Just watched the explanation about the matching monitor. I can attest that the CPC6128 monitor is the best little RGB monitor I've used. I've not used a lot, but a good friend of mine used to use it as a second TV for their family by hooking up a VCR and using its tuner. Which meant we had a way to use it with the C64 if we wanted to. Many good memories sitting in front of this CRT! Edit: Probably worth mentioning, the CPC6128 floppy drive didn't work, the belt had stretched a bit too far and no longer allowed loading software. At that time, there was no real way for us to fix it (we didn't get a dialup connection until a short time after, and even then, where would we find replacements in the 'early internet' days?). So, we just used the monitor for other things. I liked the CPC6128 as a nice BASIC computer and experimented with making it a bit more portable. Turns out the whole computer can function on just 5V, the 12V line is used for the floppy drive. Never got very far with that...
Starting with a ZX81, I moved through a 48K Spectrum, before moving up to a CPC 464, and finally a 6128. Happy days. There was a great slot machine game, Elite, and Zub, but by far the best was Gauntlet, a really faithful Williams defender clone. Great to see you so enthused by these machines. Oh, Apache Longbow flight simulator!
I never knew (or had forgotten entirely) that Micro Power did Gauntlet for the Amstrad. It was originally written for the Acorn Electron by Chris Terran who eventually went on to do a solid port of Firetrack to the Electron. From the CPC-Power site, it looks like he ported Gauntlet to the Amstrad. The Electron version was probably the best Defender clone for that machine as well.
the 464 was my first computer as a kid. I live in a market town and on Saturday mornings my brother and I would spend our pocket money on a new game cassette. Happy times - we were lucky enough to have the colour screen also, which was nice. EDIT: iirc the early machines had taller keys. RENEGADE, GRYZOR, TWIN TURBO V8, TARGET RENEGADE, DRUID where all great games that show off the system quite well IMO
Game suggestion for Amstred 464: 'how to be a complete b*sta*d' the premis is that you are at a house party and have to do all sorts of horrible stuff to clear out all of the guests. :) it was waaaaay ahead of its time haha
The CPM implementation is useful and worth playing with - it's got 60k of TPA which is lot compared to other z80 systems. Joysticks are the 9pin D connectors; a lot of the generic 8bit joysticks will just plug in; it's the second joystick connection was always problematic and autofire systems were notorious for not working well.
When I was younger I had an Amstrad 8086 in the early 90s with a white monochrome monitor, but no Amstrad CPC. Seems like it could have been a popular computer in North America too if Apple and Commodore hadn't dominated here already, maybe then all those games would have turned out nicer on the CPC instead of just being a secondary market.
I got my CPC464 with the green screen monitor way back in 1984, and I still have it to this day and i occasionally fire it up and enjoy a good old nostalgia hit. I really enjoyed the computer scene in the UK in the late 80s, and in my humble opinion, the cpc did reign supreme 😃My only real gripe with the machine, though, was the abundance of lazy slow speccy ports
Hello Adrian, The CPC 464 have been my favorite machine in those times. I do now call a 464, 664, 6128 and a 6128+ my own, beside some other machines like some Commodore and a BBC micro. Good luck with yours and have fun.
The Amstrad CPC 6128 was my first computer. Being boring i mainly used it for graphics work and word processing but the one game i did play was Mutant Monty - happy days.
29:52 ALL of the Dizzy games were written on the ZX Spectrum. They were then ported to the C64 and Amstrad CPC. Most people will say that the CPC version is the best version, the sprites are usually a lot better, but it does still suffer from lack of detail in some areas as the result of being a Spectrum port.
There's a book about the development of R-Type for the Spectrum, which mentions the Amstrad version a few times. It's a fascinating glimpse into the state of the UK computer game industry at the time, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in that kind of thing. It's called It's Behind You - The Making of a Computer Game by Bob Pape, and it's a free download.
We had a 464 for Christmas in 1986, with the green screen. Soon after, we bought the optional external powersupply/TV modulator, so we could play the games in colour on a TV. The unit got VERY hot and that smell of hot plastic reminds me of playing games on it late at night. Great machines at the time, really good basic compared to Sinclair and Commodore, but the Spectrum had the edge in popularity. I now enjoy trying to play Monty On The Run and never getting past the second screen, just like the old days!
In regards of the US version of the CPC I can confirm they do exist, but they are extremely rare. Afaik Indescomp, who was the distributor of Amstrad products in Spain tried their luck to distribute the CPC in US with a subsidiary named Indescomp Inc. I don't know if they were able to distribute anything there, but I can tell you that some of those CPCs exist at least in Spain.
I have a cpc6128 but badged Schneider with Centronics connector for printer and peripheral out, i put a gotek inside with a 3d printed support and use a 3 1/2 inch 1.44 mb pc floppy modded for external floppy drive and its very pleasant to use it. The zx spectrum and cpc 6128 are the only machines i never buy when i' m young. very cool present from UK. ;) PS: I live in Belgium.
I grew up with Spectrum at home and BBC at school. Oh so many years ago! Sadly we didn't have many BBC games (for obvious reasons) although Elite was one pirate title that frequently got passed around (and rapidly confiscated 😂) On Spectrum I used to LOVE Head over Heals (an isometric adventure puzzler) and Horace goes skiing (hard to define... Perhaps a bit like Frogger?) A great video. So nicer to see these old systems again after so long.
After the CPC464 came the CPC664 , basically the same but with a disk drive. That was not on sale for long as the CPC6128 was released, thus the 664 is very rare indeed!
09:17 Yep, that describes me perfectly! (but I bragged about it having a disk drive and dedicated monitor, both of which were uncommon in Britain at the time, when most home computers used cassettes and connected to a TV). The monochrome monitor was good enough to display 80-column text, which allowed me to run a business with the CPC6128 well into the 90s! I can't give any recommendations for games since I never played any, but I can highly recommend Martin Fairbanks's book The Amazing Amstrad Omnibus which contains many tips and tricks and includes an entire chapter on artificial intelligence!
2:20 The 6128 was an upgraded version of the 664, with double the memory. The 664 was the successor to the 464. I've seen a 464 and a 6128, but I've never seen a 664. From memory, the 464 we used to have, I remember the joystick port was on the back, so probably the older model. It has 3 connectors. 5V, 12V and RGB Monitor on a 6 pin Din. in theory you could connect that to a TV with a SCART cable. A fairly common device you could get was an external power supply, that also included an RF modulator so you could connect it up to a TV.
CPC464 had a 7 bit printer port but a simple hardware hack made it 8 bit. The unit was *not* cheap for the average punter (I was one!) - probably why the Spectrum series kept it's popularity a bit longer than it should have. I hated the keyboard and used a really nice modded WYSE terminal keyboard instead :-) I also ran twin 3inch floppies on the 464 which was fun. To get some of the bigger cassette based software to run off disc you could load part of it into video RAM and, when loaded, you move it back down which overwrote the disc software extension area. I had it running CP/M and remember doing file/program/data transfers with an Osborne 1 and pip (?) ... I did connect it as a terminal to a DEC10 at one point and played MUD across the UK academic network ... too much fun for a computer geek of a certain age :-) Oh, and Sorcery+ was the best "platformish" game ever :-)
The CPC 6128 is all you need to play both diskette and cassette games. You can use a well serviced cassette player that you trust with it thanks to the external cassette connections in that machine that DO NOT exist in the 464, where you depend on what shape the internal tape drive is in. The only disadvantage with the external cassette vs the internal when it was new is having to adjust the volume level.
I still have my CPC6128. I started with the 464. Fantastic machines and really underutilised. Check out the Batman Group demo for the CPC6128 to see what the stock system can do.
Adrian, Two things there was another Amstrad between these two machines, the Amstrad CPC 664, which was basically the same as the CPC6128, but with only 64K ram. Not very common, even when it came out. Amstrad also did TV modulators with built in power supply. In the UK there were mail order companies selling CPC464 and CPC6128 with these instead of Monitors. Enjoying your chanells Cheers Clive
We was poor in Europe at the time so most families only had one TV. The 464 was popular because it came with a monitor for a low(ish) price, it was more popular in mainland Europe than it was in the UK. The problem the 464 suffered was its Z80 cpu allowing for cheap ports of spectrum games that did not use its enhanced graphics, it was a way better than the other 8bits but no games every really used its potential.
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Hi Adrian, a couple of years ago I rescued my 6128 and set it up. I was surprised to find plenty of new hardware and software available.
Back in the days, Switchblade and Gauntlet 2 were favourites. But now there's a port of the Amiga game Pinball Dreams! Also check out the Batman Demo "Batman Forever - Amstrad CPC Demo (2011)".
Alex is a certified legend for sending you those devices. My first computer was a 464. Roland On The Ropes was the first game I ever loaded up on there. Memories! ❤
Roland on the Ropes was called "Fred" on the Spectrum. I loved that game but I never played the sequel "Sir Fred".
THANK YOU for whomever sent all that in. Its a boon to all of us what an amazing enthusiast setup out the box.
Noel’s Retro Lab has a ton of videos and info on the CPC machines.
he's made a diagnostic rom too for if one of those machines doesn't work
Yeah he puts out good stuff.
@@AndrewHelgeCox he used to.
His video about the Spain only version was awesome
Thge Amstrad 6128 was often used as a development machine for the Spectrum because it had a disk drive and could build Speccy executables. The Oliver Twins wrote Dizzy for the Spectrum using one.
The Amstrad CPC wasn't as popular as the C64 or Spectrum in the UK, but it was very popular in France. This may account for the high sales numbers in Europe overall.
When I was very young, I remember having conversations with friends at school about which was best - the Spectrum, C64 or Amstrad. The same games were often sold on all these systems at the time - often in the same boxes with a different "system" sticker - and it was always fun to compare as they differed widely. Each system had its fair share of titles that were the best on that particular machine. Often, manufacturers put the screenshots on the back from the Arcade, or the newer 16 bit machines like the ST or the Amiga - so us 8 bit owners never knew what we were getting.
Looking back it was an extremely fun time - never to come again.
The French amstrad demo scene is still going today, some of the demos they can cram in 64 or 128k really has to be seen to be believed
There’s also a amazing port of Titus The Fox for the Amstrad, looks just like the PC version, but the game was less than 1/4 the size of I remember right
I was lucky enough to both have at different times a Speccy+ and a CPC6128, and have several friends who had a C64, so I got to play them all!
@@faenethlorhalienyes, I have also been very lucky while growing up and had a 48K Speccy, a CPC 464 and a C128D in different years, having played so many wonderful games on them and learning to program, before switching to the Amiga
I had the one friend that had a CPC464 in the Uk and i thought it was so fancy becuase it had its own monitor. Sadly it lived in my friends living room and we weren't allowed to play on it very often because my friend's parents wanted to watch TV which conflicted with us playing games in the room. Not that we were much better with the spectrum as we actually needed my parent's TV before they bought me a cheap B&W set. The Amstrad computers were very popular in Spain and most repair videos on youtube are the Spanish version which has a country specific keyboard and rom.
It was! It was our first computer that my parents bought to us as a bundle: it came with the CPC6128, its color monitor, a computer desk, a TV tuner (to watch TV on the monitor with UHF/VHF and SCART connector), a AM/FM radio (both the radio and TV tuners were stackable under the monitor) and a compilation of games. I still remember the only edutainment software we had for it "La Bosse des Maths" ("The Math Hump" in which a camel lost its back and you can only get it back by completing math activities). That poor guy, the computer did not last a year before sent back to warranty....and got traded for an Atari 520STf :).
I still remember loading up Robocop on my mate's 6128 for the first time and hearing the speech on the title screen - I was blown away!
The C-64 was 180 pounds at the time the CPC was introduced, but the Datasette drive was 45 pounds and a monochrome monitor was about 100 pounds, making the total cost 325 pounds vs 250 for the CPC with monochrome, and a similar margin for the CPC with color monitor. Commodore still assembled and manufactured key components in the US at this time, and Amstrad stole a march on Commodore with their all-Asia, chiefly Taiwan, manufacturing strategy
Always amazed how Schneider, the distribuitor of Armstrad in Germany, decided "no, this is too colorful, we need to make everything gray"
Yep! Das German Engineering :) (on the other hand, C64 was king on that other side of the Rhine river).
was probably even cheaper to make
@@nrdesign1991 that's the most logical explanation. I just remember that someone from Germany ended up with all of our 3" floppies. My cousin living there knew someone that had a Schneider computer, and was suprised that they would play CPC games (I assumed it was a very different computer).
This is not a toy. It is a serious RECHENEINHEIT.
I believe in Germany at the time there where rules or maybe even laws about computers being low key.
I have still my CPC6128 since 1986, together with its monochrome green monitor :) Me and my brother convinced our parents that we needed the computer for school. It was used like 99% of the time playing games :P Classics like "Gryzor:", "Ikari Warriors", "Impossible Mission" and many others I played them in this machine for some years ... before upgrading to a Amiga 500 :)
It still works. So I believe anyway, it was working at least, last time I tried it, a few years ago - I keep the computer displayed on a shelf over my desk.
Here in Greece where I'm from, the Amstrad machines ( especially the 6128 ) were pretty popular.
I had both of those computers and Spindizzy was my favourite game. The physics of the game were marvellous.
If you're looking for game suggestions to play on your old British 8 bit computers, I'd say Elite on the BBC Micro must be one of the top options. That was some mind blowing coding that made the Beeb do things even the Acorn designers were amazed by.
I loved this episode. I had cpc464, but it was branded as Schneider cpc464 as my first computer when I was 10 years old (so around '88). It was purchased in Germany. With green monitor. Schneider didn't have colourful keys, but otherwise looked the same as Amstrad. I was a kid so I didn't fiddle with it as much as I could have, but I played the games I could find and did some basic programming. The C64 was definitely more popular at the time, but my dad bought me this, probably because it came with a monitor. It originally came with a demo cassette as well. I remember playing chukie egg, dizzy, green beret, etc. This brings so many memories. I had it until i bought 386dx.
VEB isn't a company name. It's an abbreviation of Volkseigener Betrieb, which basically means publicly owned business. Which, of course, it wasn't but...socialism and stuff...
"people's enterprise" is probably the more common English translation, as "people's..." triggers the correct association in English speakers (people's Republic, etc)
@@der.Schtefan The english Wikipedia calls it "publicly owned enterprise"...as a compromise, maybe we can go with that....😉
"VEB" is like these 2 very big companys named "Inc." and "Ltd." 😉
This is a step back in time for me, In my younger days of being a Tv/Video repair Tech, the shop I worked for started selling these machines ( in Australia by the way) , and I remember drooling over them, when we unpacked & set them up to test out, I never owned one, I had a Sega SC3000 instead, which very few of those here would have heard of before, if any ?, anyway I had lots of fun as a kid writing Basic programs & playing games , im 56 now, ahhh memories ...... Many Thanks :)
6128 was a great machine, I used it for 11 years straight. The joystick port is a standard 9-pin Atari if I recall correctly so practically anything should work (I remember using my friend's Sega Master System joypad with it, zero issues). As for games that are not crappy ZX ports, here's a few: Robocop, Batman: The Movie, Defender of the Crown, Rick Dangerous (and the sequel), Pirates!, Captain Blood; also, anything by Spanish companies like Opera, Dinamic, Topo Soft which were famous for awesome graphics. Oh, and instead of typing |dir you can just do cat instead (short for catalogue, I guess).
The 464 was my first computer, which my family got back in '85. Started programming on that thing and have been programming pretty much everyday of my life since.
Loved my CPC 464! It was my first dip into programming, which turned into my career.
I got a 6128 a few years later, and wow... after waiting for cassettes to load on the 464 the speed of the 3" floppy drive was an absolute wonder!
Yes! My chlldhood computer!!! The CPC 6128! Greetings from Australia. I remember playing "Gauntlet" 2 player on the same keyboard with my friends! Cybernoid 2 was cool too.
Thankyou Alex for sending this to my favourite channel!!
The Amstrads were supplied with a green or colour monitor. The monitors have fixed leads on them for video and a 5V supply for the computer. You could also get the MP-1 unit which had the same leads as the monitors and powered the computer, but outputted an RF signal for use with a TV. Our 464 came with a green monitor and my dad later got the RF modulator.
The 664 and 6128 also required 12V for the disk drive, the lead flying off the computer is to supply power IN! Amstrad's way of preventing 5V/12V going to the wrong places.
Later monitors and the MP-2 RF modulator added a 12V out socket for these computers but kept the same 5V and video cables as before.
The CPC 6128 was THE computer I spent most of my time with as a child and I loved it. My two favorite games were and still are Head over Heels and The Guild of Thieves.
I have fond memories of this 6128. I took the Pascal programming course at my technical university, and they had class full of those 6128 in CP/M mode. When I saw the |cpm prompt, it was the trip 35 years back in a blink of an eye.
Obliterator was a great game. No only for the music, but the art was amazing. The controls leave something to be desired, but it's still an amazing game.
The CPC464 had three major MB revisions. The one with the joystick port on the side is the latest, roughly half-sized.
I thought the Amstrad was pretty popular here in the UK. I used to go to my friend's house and play Barbarian on his. I worked in a computer store on a Saturday and they devoted quite a lot of the store to Amstrad games and had the 464 and 6128 setup permanently to test games if they were returned.
Noels Retro Lab is the on-line Amstrad Guru.
I would love to see a crossover episode with Adrian and Noel on the Amstrad!
You could buy the CPC range in the shops with either the green screen or colour monitor. Mail-order catalogues often include a third option consisting of computer and an external tv modulator and power supply box for connecting to a Television.
Adrian needs to show the CPC6128 running SymBOS and show what is can do (or even FutureOS). Both are good examples of advance software developed in recent times.
Even some demos show some good graphics and sound.
Yes, the CPC was a great computer, I had the 464 (Schneider version) and later a drive from Vortex with additional RSX commands (integrated dissambler). That was a great time, thanks for the video.
Amstrad sold quite a few machines in australia too.. i love my 464.. one of the best z80s of the era...
The Amstrad CPC6128 was actually briefly sold in the USA in late 1985, or at least planned to be, by Indescomp in Chicago. The price was $699 with a monochrome monitor or $799 with a color monitor. Same thing with the BBC Micro -- a U.S. model was announced in late 1983 and 50,000 units were made, but it was a flop and the unsold units were shipped back to the UK and converted to 240-volt PAL systems.
Indeed I was unable to find any evidence any CPCs were actually sold in the US. I know someone with one of the converted to UK spec US destined BBC Model Bs. He converted it back to US spec for fun.
I loved the 6128! My grandad had a 6128 and I had an Amiga 500+. I used to love playing 1942 (amazing music) and croco magneto
So happy to see a 6128 again! That was my first family computer when I was seven years old. I learned to type and program on that thing, which led to a career as a software engineer. I still remember every single page of that manual!
I don't know about the CPC 6128, but you can plug a normal Atari joystick into the CPC 464, the original joystick had a joystick port on the front of it for a second player joy. That used pin 9 for the common so the copmputer could tell which joy was doing what.
taking me back to my childhood with the 464, i had those manuals. we had BBCs and acorns in high school too
You have to play Manic Miner, it’s one of the most loved games of that era in the UK on many platforms, especially the Spectrum.
Regarding the C-64,. I bought it in Toronto, in 1983 (I think) and initially used a standard cassette drive and a colour TV with my computer. The C64, replaced the Vic20 I had been using. I didn't go for the 1541. I bought the IEEE488 interface and an MSD dual drive. I loved the system, and used it even after I bought the Amiga 1000 when it was released. Although I haven't used the C-64 in ages, I still have the complete setup.
The Dizzy games were programmed for the Amstrad machines by Codemaster's go-to team The Oliver Twins. They then converted them to run on the Spectrum.
"I'm probably talking out my backside..." Still better information than a lot of subject matter experts talking out of their frontside...
The CPC 6128 was my second computer in the 80s, and the one I have most nostalgia for. In recent years I've re-obtained an original 6128, grabbed a Plus 6128 and built two CPC 6128s from scratch (and a keyboard I designed for it). So much you can do with these, I can't wait to see what you eventually do with them Adrian!
Would be cool to see your custom builds on video. Not sure what you did for the custom logic in the CPC.
@@AndrewHelgeCox The CPC PCB has been replicated by another hobbyist, so that part is simple enough. The Gate Array has also been reproduced using FPGA so I didn't need to do that myself either. Most of the rest of the system is standard parts, and the old parts such as the NEC drive IC are still available as NOS. The only part I designed from literally nothing more than a schematic is the keyboard - and I've since found someone else has done that too :D
I originally built the first 6128 because getting hold of an original was so difficult here in Canada where I now live. I made the second one as a test bed (and also just for fun :D)
oh what fun.. the CPC 6128 was the first computers I used to write my first versions of a text editor/wordprocessor in z80 assembly ... lol yeh as a brit these were not as popular as the spectrum or c64 but seemed to be used alot in the small business sector as the display allowed 80 columns but was cheaper than buying a PCW8256 or PCW8512 at time could have bought a 9512 but they we pretty bad .... long live 8 bit .. what memories allan sugars' amstrad brought me.. especially programming in fact one of my early GUI based projects was on the CPc6128 as the storage was a disk, until I went to PCW developing accounting software just as PC was becoming affordable and I was able to buy a decent IBM AT ...good video kind sir
You asked for game suggestions. For Spectrum - Trashman, Knight Lore, Manic Miner, Fairlight, 3D Ant Attack, Highway Encounter, Skool Daze, Starquake, The Trap Door. All great games from the best software houses producing Spectrum games. The Spectrum was a very basic, cheap machine but is beloved in the UK as it brought computing to the masses. The Amstrad computers were well made and capable but not as popular as the Spectrum. Amstrad bought the spectrum brand and technology in 1987 and remade the 128k spectrum as the Spectrum +2 (tape) and Spectrum +3 (3inch disc). I love your channel and would be so happy to see more of the many UK computers featured... Dragon 32, Oric 1, Jupiter Ace and not forgetting the earlier Sinclair machines, ZX80 and ZX81.
The CPC 6128 (Schneider variant) was the first computer I've ever used and I manage to get my hold on the very same one. Strangely enough running it with a HDDD power supply wasn't stable for me (I suspect voltage ripple) so I had to resort to a small mini ATX PSU.
Running Parados and Symbos on it was quite the revelation
In Germany they've been sold under the Name Schneider CPC 464. My Uncle had one.
The pronunciation of Worcester is Wuster. Confusingly, Worcestershire sauce is also pronounced as "Wuster sauce".
Regards from the UK - and loving the videos for several years :)
You have to admit you laughed when he said worcher
RAAATTTSSSSSS, All this time, I’ve been calling it WOOSTER-shire sauce! How evil is that? 🤣😆
@@williamsquires3070 not far off,.I think it's wuster sher sauce
@@williamsquires3070 english pronunciations are like a lazy butchering of the actual word.
Like a lot of people from Birmingham England say burminan
In all 40 years of my USA life, I have never even known anyone who could pronounce worcestershire sauce, including myself. This is life changing information to me.
Thanks so much for this video, Adrian! I was a poor UK Amstrad user back in the 80s when I was a kid, and spent my whole time defending it against my C64 and Spectrum friends! So many fond memories of my 6128 and it's great to see it in one of your wonderful videos. Nice one!
The Amstrads were super popular in France and Spain.
All Amstrads got 5V DC from the monitor. The 6128 spiral cord is an additional 12V DC for the disk drive. The DIN connector is RBG out.
My dad and I had a 464 and a 6128 between us. Both with twin disk drives and a huge Daisy wheel Olivetti printer.
But they weren't used for games.
We both used versions of CP/M and had copies of Wordstar and dBase II.
My father's 464: was used for writing letters and a news letter, and I used my 6128 for book editing and writing a stock control programme in dBaseII.
The book editing had itd challenges, mainly converting from the Amstrad disk 3" to a 5 1/4 (the 464 had both), then via IBM PC at and on to an be 8" floppy that the Printing company used.
We used to use Kermit, which was available for everything, and allowed file transfer from one machine to another via serial ports. This being pre-networks.
That sounds epic. Kid me would have loved to see that setup.
The colors look really vibrant. Very cool to see it just work right out of the box.
Whoah! That other room looks cool - give us a tour of that, please!
I had a 464 as a kid; it is the computer that made me into a software engineer. My 464 was the same as your new one - old logo and chunkier keys. Always wanted a 664 though because they look so cool, but now I have a 6128. The 664 you showed was the fully grey German (Schneider) version. The UK version had bright blue accent keys.
I had the green screen. I think that’s why I ended up being more interested in programming my CPC than playing games on it. I did spend a LOT of time playing Elite though - the colour didn’t matter so much there.
The CPC 472 special model for Spain was made to avoid a freak tax imposed on 64Kb computers. It was some kind of protection tax. Amstrad physically added an 8Kb RAM chip in a daughter board that was completely disconnected to the system. It is essentially a CPC 464 with a dummy RAM that was inaccessible.
The people that checked for the compliance for the 64Kb tax were just not technical enough to figure out it was a ploy because that tax did not apply to computers with more than 64Kb RAM inside.
I think it sold for just a few months. And then the 128Kb started to sell and the tax was lifted.
I freakin love Amstrad CPCs! I had a 464 with color monitor back in the day and now I’m an owner of two CPC6128s and CTM644 monitor. They are generally well thought out computers built mostly of off-the shelf components. They are also quite well built too for the time and much better than cheap hifi systems Amstrad was known for before they entered computer systems. They have bunch of nice features like stereo jack, RGB output, 128k versions are good CP/m systems and community produces fun new hardware, OSs, games and demos even today.
I remember you did a mail call at least 2 years ago from stuart where he gave you unusual computers from all over the world. You haven't ever shown any of them. lol I can't begin to imagine how big your queue is.
My Dad's first MS-DOS / IBM clone PC was an Amstrad 286. I was too young at the time to remember any details on the system - but I do remember spending quite a bit of time playing Wolfenstein 3D and Leisure Suit Larry - Land of the Lounge Lizards on it.
On the spectrum - turbo esprit was an amazing first person game that is like GTA on a Z80. Saboteur was amazing, along with Chase HQ on a 128k spectrum was revered as an incredible arcade conversion. Granny’s Garden on the BBC Micro was many people’s first experience of a microcomputer game - mine was in the first year of primary school - like aged 5 or 6. Dizzy (1) was a brilliant CPC game.
One of my best friends had an Amstrad 464, I had a C64. We would walk to a local newsagent and use our pocket money to buy a Mastertronic or a Firebird game each. Go to his place to play whatever he bought for his, then go to mine. Colours always looked better on the Amstrad, but I would never admit that back then!
The only Amstrad I ever had was a PPC640. It was instrumental in teaching me DOS. I had to reflow the solder points on the power connector, then it worked fine. I can't remember what happened to that machine, but it's long gone now.
That Bubble Bobble game on the CPC was remade in recent years, with the goal of making a perfect arcade conversion and they sure did. th-cam.com/video/yBoddqRSUj4/w-d-xo.html
I had my first computer science class in Germany on a schneider cpc 464. This was a lincence build of the Amstrad.
I had most of this 8 bit machines, favourite was the Amstrad CPC6128, did some good coding on that, decent basic, but mainly used assembly and also cobol.
Since they came with their own dedicated monitor and external storage they were great value for money!
Pretty much an all in one, with better video than using an RF converter on a TV.
Hi Adrian,
My dad was the in house technician for a local electrical shop (back when things got fixed). The shop sold amstrad computers and Dad got a good employee deal. As a kid I remember playing a few games on the 464 that I inherited from my older brother when he got a 6128. The first game I ever finished was Bruce Lee and I saved for months to afford a game called Brian Bloodaxe as it had a dalek in it (was a huge dr who fan). The animation on the Back to the Future 2 game was quite impressive for the time. Although I only had the 464, my dad bought a tuner for the colour monitor to turn it into a tv.
Cassette games were really cheap which accounts for their long popularity. I remember our dad, who didn't earn a great deal, could take all five of his kids to the computer shop and buy us a game each. They weren't all great games but we all got something to play which we could call ours. (I remember choosing Loco as I liked the purple and green of the artwork. It was a clone of Super Locomotive and lots of fun.)
Full price were £8.99 or £9.99 which needed saving up for but Mastertronic etc. had their £1.99 and £2.99 budget range which was usually achievable from pocket money and scrounging once a week.
Extra cheap if you had deck to deck recording on your hifi.
My first computer, in 1986, was a CPC 6128, IMHO the best 8 bit ever produced, being one of the last produced that shouldn't be too surprising. I learned how to programme on that machine, but I also got drawn into playing games too. First game I ever completed was Elite, took me a long time to reach Elite status, but it was fun ... 'Right on Commander!'. LOL
How do you complete Elite?
@@AndrewHelgeCox By achieving Elite status, the highest rank in the game.
@@ronwilson9815 Ah okay. I completed it too, or was that only with pokes: I forget now. I played it for years on the CPC though.
I had the original gold tape release that had a bug on it and was recalled, I think I got it at a computer games show.
You can use a c64 joystick, and when in basic just type cat for directory instead of Idir. Enjoy your Amstrads!
My first computer the 128! I've been waiting so long for one of these to turn up at the basement. You could connect an external PC 5.25 floppy drive to it and it read and write to the disks if I remember correctly. I am going back 30 years
as you see in the book, there were combined modulator and power units available for them to use them with normal tvs via RF .. model MP1 for the 464, MP2 for the 6128 and also a tv tuner unit model MP3 to convert the colour monitor to a colour tv!
As a kid I lusted after the 6128; I'd have one now if had room, plus they are not cheap.
A friend of mine had a CPC6128 and i remember many days in the early 90's spent at his place playing Barbarian, Sorcery+ and jet set willy. His parents eventually upgraded to a PC (maybe a 386? I'm not sure) and we moved on to Commander Keen 4 and links golf!
My favorite game from that era (I had my brother's old ZX Spectrum - the +2 version, made after Amstrad bought them) without a doubt was Fantastic Dizzy. So glad you have an Amstrad copy of it.
In the UK we used to go round to a friends house with blank tapes hehe basically shareware before the internet
The CPC 464 was my family's second computer, (started with a ZX81). My friend's family had a Dragon 64, another nice machine though it didn't have as many games. We sold it evetually to buy an Amiga 500.
A friend of mine had a Schneider (german reseller for Amstrad) CPC 464 and I had (still have) a C64. We played a lot on both machines and we never had any discussions on what computer was better. We simply enjoyed playing all those games we had 😀. But I do like the Basic on the CPC much more than the Commodore basic 😛
Just watched the explanation about the matching monitor. I can attest that the CPC6128 monitor is the best little RGB monitor I've used. I've not used a lot, but a good friend of mine used to use it as a second TV for their family by hooking up a VCR and using its tuner. Which meant we had a way to use it with the C64 if we wanted to. Many good memories sitting in front of this CRT!
Edit: Probably worth mentioning, the CPC6128 floppy drive didn't work, the belt had stretched a bit too far and no longer allowed loading software. At that time, there was no real way for us to fix it (we didn't get a dialup connection until a short time after, and even then, where would we find replacements in the 'early internet' days?). So, we just used the monitor for other things. I liked the CPC6128 as a nice BASIC computer and experimented with making it a bit more portable. Turns out the whole computer can function on just 5V, the 12V line is used for the floppy drive. Never got very far with that...
Starting with a ZX81, I moved through a 48K Spectrum, before moving up to a CPC 464, and finally a 6128. Happy days. There was a great slot machine game, Elite, and Zub, but by far the best was Gauntlet, a really faithful Williams defender clone. Great to see you so enthused by these machines. Oh, Apache Longbow flight simulator!
I never knew (or had forgotten entirely) that Micro Power did Gauntlet for the Amstrad. It was originally written for the Acorn Electron by Chris Terran who eventually went on to do a solid port of Firetrack to the Electron. From the CPC-Power site, it looks like he ported Gauntlet to the Amstrad. The Electron version was probably the best Defender clone for that machine as well.
the 464 was my first computer as a kid. I live in a market town and on Saturday mornings my brother and I would spend our pocket money on a new game cassette. Happy times - we were lucky enough to have the colour screen also, which was nice. EDIT: iirc the early machines had taller keys. RENEGADE, GRYZOR, TWIN TURBO V8, TARGET RENEGADE, DRUID where all great games that show off the system quite well IMO
Game suggestion for Amstred 464: 'how to be a complete b*sta*d' the premis is that you are at a house party and have to do all sorts of horrible stuff to clear out all of the guests. :) it was waaaaay ahead of its time haha
The CPM implementation is useful and worth playing with - it's got 60k of TPA which is lot compared to other z80 systems. Joysticks are the 9pin D connectors; a lot of the generic 8bit joysticks will just plug in; it's the second joystick connection was always problematic and autofire systems were notorious for not working well.
The most used programs on my CPC464 were: Tasword and Elite. There was also a french Jump&Run game called Le 5eme axe which i liked a lot…
When I was younger I had an Amstrad 8086 in the early 90s with a white monochrome monitor, but no Amstrad CPC. Seems like it could have been a popular computer in North America too if Apple and Commodore hadn't dominated here already, maybe then all those games would have turned out nicer on the CPC instead of just being a secondary market.
I got my CPC464 with the green screen monitor way back in 1984, and I still have it to this day and i occasionally fire it up and enjoy a good old nostalgia hit. I really enjoyed the computer scene in the UK in the late 80s, and in my humble opinion, the cpc did reign supreme 😃My only real gripe with the machine, though, was the abundance of lazy slow speccy ports
Hello Adrian,
The CPC 464 have been my favorite machine in those times. I do now call a 464, 664, 6128 and a 6128+ my own, beside some other machines like some Commodore and a BBC micro.
Good luck with yours and have fun.
The 464 was my second machine. Some friends had the 6128. Later on my brother bought the Schneider version of the 464 which I have to this day.
The Amstrad CPC 6128 was my first computer. Being boring i mainly used it for graphics work and word processing but the one game i did play was Mutant Monty - happy days.
29:52 ALL of the Dizzy games were written on the ZX Spectrum. They were then ported to the C64 and Amstrad CPC.
Most people will say that the CPC version is the best version, the sprites are usually a lot better, but it does still suffer from lack of detail in some areas as the result of being a Spectrum port.
There's a book about the development of R-Type for the Spectrum, which mentions the Amstrad version a few times. It's a fascinating glimpse into the state of the UK computer game industry at the time, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in that kind of thing. It's called It's Behind You - The Making of a Computer Game by Bob Pape, and it's a free download.
We had a 464 for Christmas in 1986, with the green screen. Soon after, we bought the optional external powersupply/TV modulator, so we could play the games in colour on a TV. The unit got VERY hot and that smell of hot plastic reminds me of playing games on it late at night. Great machines at the time, really good basic compared to Sinclair and Commodore, but the Spectrum had the edge in popularity. I now enjoy trying to play Monty On The Run and never getting past the second screen, just like the old days!
In regards of the US version of the CPC I can confirm they do exist, but they are extremely rare. Afaik Indescomp, who was the distributor of Amstrad products in Spain tried their luck to distribute the CPC in US with a subsidiary named Indescomp Inc. I don't know if they were able to distribute anything there, but I can tell you that some of those CPCs exist at least in Spain.
I have a cpc6128 but badged Schneider with Centronics connector for printer and peripheral out, i put a gotek inside with a 3d printed support and use a 3 1/2 inch 1.44 mb pc floppy modded for external floppy drive and its very pleasant to use it. The zx spectrum and cpc 6128 are the only machines i never buy when i' m young. very cool present from UK. ;) PS: I live in Belgium.
I grew up with Spectrum at home and BBC at school.
Oh so many years ago!
Sadly we didn't have many BBC games (for obvious reasons) although Elite was one pirate title that frequently got passed around (and rapidly confiscated 😂)
On Spectrum I used to LOVE Head over Heals (an isometric adventure puzzler) and Horace goes skiing (hard to define... Perhaps a bit like Frogger?)
A great video. So nicer to see these old systems again after so long.
After the CPC464 came the CPC664 , basically the same but with a disk drive. That was not on sale for long as the CPC6128 was released, thus the 664 is very rare indeed!
We had cpc464 at home. We were very happy with it. Wouldn't have swapped it for a c64 or spectrum. We upgraded to an Amiga after that
09:17 Yep, that describes me perfectly! (but I bragged about it having a disk drive and dedicated monitor, both of which were uncommon in Britain at the time, when most home computers used cassettes and connected to a TV). The monochrome monitor was good enough to display 80-column text, which allowed me to run a business with the CPC6128 well into the 90s!
I can't give any recommendations for games since I never played any, but I can highly recommend Martin Fairbanks's book The Amazing Amstrad Omnibus which contains many tips and tricks and includes an entire chapter on artificial intelligence!
2:20 The 6128 was an upgraded version of the 664, with double the memory. The 664 was the successor to the 464.
I've seen a 464 and a 6128, but I've never seen a 664.
From memory, the 464 we used to have, I remember the joystick port was on the back, so probably the older model.
It has 3 connectors. 5V, 12V and RGB Monitor on a 6 pin Din. in theory you could connect that to a TV with a SCART cable. A fairly common device you could get was an external power supply, that also included an RF modulator so you could connect it up to a TV.
CPC464 had a 7 bit printer port but a simple hardware hack made it 8 bit. The unit was *not* cheap for the average punter (I was one!) - probably why the Spectrum series kept it's popularity a bit longer than it should have. I hated the keyboard and used a really nice modded WYSE terminal keyboard instead :-) I also ran twin 3inch floppies on the 464 which was fun. To get some of the bigger cassette based software to run off disc you could load part of it into video RAM and, when loaded, you move it back down which overwrote the disc software extension area. I had it running CP/M and remember doing file/program/data transfers with an Osborne 1 and pip (?) ... I did connect it as a terminal to a DEC10 at one point and played MUD across the UK academic network ... too much fun for a computer geek of a certain age :-)
Oh, and Sorcery+ was the best "platformish" game ever :-)
I love Bubble Bobble! I have two BB arcade PCBs; one an original Taito and the other a bootleg "Bobble Bobble". Both work perfectly.
The CPC 6128 is all you need to play both diskette and cassette games. You can use a well serviced cassette player that you trust with it thanks to the external cassette connections in that machine that DO NOT exist in the 464, where you depend on what shape the internal tape drive is in. The only disadvantage with the external cassette vs the internal when it was new is having to adjust the volume level.
I still have my CPC6128. I started with the 464. Fantastic machines and really underutilised. Check out the Batman Group demo for the CPC6128 to see what the stock system can do.
Adrian,
Two things there was another Amstrad between these two machines, the Amstrad CPC 664, which was basically the same as the CPC6128, but with only 64K ram. Not very common, even when it came out.
Amstrad also did TV modulators with built in power supply. In the UK there were mail order companies selling CPC464 and CPC6128 with these instead of Monitors.
Enjoying your chanells
Cheers Clive
We was poor in Europe at the time so most families only had one TV. The 464 was popular because it came with a monitor for a low(ish) price, it was more popular in mainland Europe than it was in the UK.
The problem the 464 suffered was its Z80 cpu allowing for cheap ports of spectrum games that did not use its enhanced graphics, it was a way better than the other 8bits but no games every really used its potential.