10 Reasons the Amstrad CPC 6128 Is My Favorite Retro Computer

[@Diamondblade2008]

FANTASTIC VIDEO! My father got me the CPC6128 back in 1985 (I was 7 back then). Used to spend hours playing games on it, though my father also used it a lot for word processing. I sorely miss my father saying to me when I was a child: ''Your school report this term is excellent! For that we are going to buy you a computer game tomorrow!'' I used to get mega-excited over that! Downloading an app onto my iPhone just isn't the same as my parents taking me to town to buy a game then me in a rush to get home and play it!

[@jonh404]

Aside from that, there's also the fact that phone games suuuuuck.

[@Diamondblade2008]

@@jonh404 Not only that, you bought a game and that was it. No stupid ads, no ‘premium subscriptions’ and no having to buy add-ons or upgrades.

[@thierrya4950]

For the time, this computer was ahead

[@JP-cu2gm]

Got mine in ‘86 when I was eight! The feeling of buying a new game and then cannot wait to get home to play it (but parents still have three hours of shopping left to do)…

[@Diamondblade2008]

@@JP-cu2gm Hear hear! The excitement was almost uncontrollable for me when I selected the game that I wanted then I had to endure another 2 hours with my parents shopping!

[@Jsarson1976]

I had an Amstrad CPC464 when I was young. I have fond memories of the games and the hours I spent with it learning simple coding 😊

[@TheRetroCollective]

Great choice, I LOVE my 6128 having only had the 464 back in the day. Pride of place in the collection.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

The 464 "tall keys" has a better keyboard. So arguably that one, with an added disk controller and a memory expansion would be the ultimate CPC :-)

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

Same, but got to work in a shop in Adelaide, South Australia selling them!

[@Athena_cute_AI]

@@NoelsRetroLab maybe better keys, but the 464 was so tall it put a lot of pressure on the wrists. So if you were a heavy user of the 464s keyboard you probably will get problems with hands, arms and shoulders

[@anticat900]

I did find the 6128 a rather dull looking machine over the 464 though thought the German version of the 464 was the best. I particularly don't like the keyboard all squeezed into one block of keys.

[@jonh404]

@@anticat900 ditto, Amstrads effort to woo the business world made the 6128 a bit bland looking. My first computer was the 464, but my favourite is the 664.. It just struck that balance fire me, had the disc drive and kept the great keyboard layout.

[@davewarrender2056]

Had one at 17 , wrote my first serious programme on it , a full word processor with wrap around typing , auto adjust wording. As well as highlighting . Plus store facility to disc or direct print out. All done in its basic. Brilliant beginners comp when learning to programme, the manual was great too

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

Still have my first one which was also my first computer ever. Discology is a killer app, never seen an app like this anywhere. Although an Amiga guy, CPC is in my heart.

[@friedbertmoessner2625]

It was my favor eather that time and I still have that computer. It was sold here in Germany from the company "Schneider". Thanks for your video :-)

[@Thebasicmaker]

I have both Amstrad (Spanish version) and shneider! Cause my English version was stolen

[@jorcasce]

This is incredible, this was my first computer back in 1987, I was 9 years old and my dad got it to me. Looking back the best present was the manual. I learnt to program thanks to that manual!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Very cool! I also pretty much learned to program from that manual as well. It was really well done. I feel bad for kids today that don't have that kind of experience (Javascript or Roblox doesn't quite cut it).

[@darrenwilson99]

The manual is exceptional. My Speccy mates loved it because it went into so much detail for every command.

[@MGForums]

I wish I still had my 6128. That manual was so comprehensive, an a-z of all basic commands with a description of their use, it was excellent. I wrote a few basic games. One that really stood out was a fruit machine simulator that was honestly better than any of the commercial ones available. I incorporated a feature builder with holds, nudges, stop-a-reel, cash builder, hi-lo gamble etc, everything you’d expect from a real fruit machine at that time and most importantly the reels actually spun fast unlike the codemasters game.

[@knownuser0815]

There were some games in the manual, for example Bomber or Raffles. 😀

[@JP-cu2gm]

I made a football penalty simulator where you could shoot hi/lo left/centre/right and the stick man goalkeeper would guess a random direction to dive. Lols those were the days.

[@JP-cu2gm]

@@knownuser0815did anyone ever type one in and it not be bugged?

[@Warlock_UK]

I really loved our Amstrads that we had when I was a kid, I spent many years programming on it from '84 to around 1990 when I got a C64 in my room.

[@robertcraane7910]

I had one... .wish i could find one... Loved that thing, and in a way it made my career in IT and later music! And it looked so much more modern and exiting back then! Wow, so glad to see the old girl again!

[@jonyballistic]

Absolutely terrific video! The amstrad with the disc drive was my first home computer. Learned programming on it. And oh the games! Starglider, mercenary, tau ceti. Thanks for this vid, great work

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Glad you enjoyed it!!!

[@knownuser0815]

Tau Ceti, written by Pete Cooke. Google it, there's an interesting interview with him :)

[@fallwitch]

I just want to say you are an amazing dad for teaching your daughter to program. Just found your channel and love it. Looking forward to watching more/

[@ervinpoljak8332]

had one back in 1986 ;) Great experience....played Samantha Fox Strip Poker and The Bard´s Tale :))))) ~ |CPM ! and yes.... Logo - this is what i liked back then :)

[@stephenbranley91]

We had a fun programming challenge at work the other day. After offering solutions in C and Pascal I also wrote a solution in Locomotive BASIC on a CPC emulator :)

[@Thebasicmaker]

When I was 14 I go to a course to become a computer operator, I go there the day of exam with my Amstrad CPC 464, and I got 60/60 and laude as final result!

[@urmeli0815]

Love that machine. I started programming on the CPC 6128 and have been doing it professionally until this day. Recently re-bought a 6128 on ebay, a disk emulator and an HDMI adapter. The colors look so great on a TFT!

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Go grab a CRT.... I find the games look much better on a tube, as you basically no longer see that the pixels are so wide. I run it on a cute 13 inch Sony over SCART, beautiful!

[@jipmann-grooveclinic]

Awesome - I got one of these for Christmas in 1985 and spent much of my childhood playing & programming it.. I got it down out of the loft about five years ago fix the disc drive and it all still worked great. Unfortunately, I decided to sell it as I didn’t have space for it… however if I realised they were still making the add-ons, I would have kept it.. super machine!

[@curiousottman]

I find it just fascinating that there are so many retro machines I’ve never heard of let alone used. Being in Canada we had the standard array of commodore, Atari, Apple, IBM and radio shack machines back in the day. Why did these machines never make it across the pond in any major quantities? Really nice video. My only complaint is that it’s far too short!

[@ChristosFrantzolas]

Noel, Hi! The 6128 was my 2nd computer (yeah my first was a ZX, you guessed it) and I still have it but I hesitate to power it up often since it is might blow something and I like it as a fully working souvenir. Having said this, I wish to add to your excellent video that the expansion port of the 6128 carried all signals necessary to drive a second floppy so you could use an external 3.5 inch floppy (from an IBM clone) and with just a ribbon cable (and a power supply for this external drive) you had a physical B: drive with cheap 3.5 floppies. I also remember that with a simple switch on a select line you could also choose the floppy side without having to physically flip the disc!! Great times, eh? Thank you for your fine work, Christos.

[@georgebachaelor7600]

nice one bro - 6128 was the bomb back in the days. What it was also good for was the business / home school related software. TASMAN 6128, MINI OFFICE 2, things like that were my goto software for completing school work essays, assignments and reports :)

[@007JHS]

The Amstrad 6128 became for a time, the most popular educational computer in South Australia. The Ed Dept had its own software development facility (Satchell) which produced a lot of great products for use in schools.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Interesting! I knew Amstrad had a presence there, but I didn't realize it was such a big one. It's funny how many connections there are between Australia and Europe with retro computers. No wonder you can participate in Eurovision! 🤣

[@shaun5552]

@@NoelsRetroLab For the record a school in Tasmania at that time (~1987) is the only place I've ever seen a 664. The CPC's in general were extremely common for a time, helped by being sold not only by proper computer stores but department stores and electrical goods retailers (the kind of shops that sell washing machines, TV's etc) as well. So it was physically very easy to obtain one.

[@superviewer]

Thanks. It was also in Denmark although I only knew one guy who had one. I started out with my father's Speccy, but when I had to get my own micro, the C64 just ruled the day.

[@McOwnage]

At just 9 years old my school allowed me to take one home for the weekend. Ghouls and Goblins got a good workout that weekend.

[@SelfIndulgentGamer]

I got one of these free today and found this video to be really helpful. Thanks :)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Another great video, Noel! A friend had a CPC6128 when I was a kid but it's a system I know absolutely nothing about. This is a really good introduction.

[@angelrogo]

That's exactly the microcomputer I had in my early teenage years, the Spanish model with the Spanish keyboard, including Ñ key. I have great memories of my first Basic 1.1 programs, even learning some machine code; my first experiences with the CPM DOS; great but really expensive videogames on 3" discs, and tons of not-so-expensive games on external tape. Later on, I only used the TV tuner for the screen.

[@chongtak]

In the end of the 80s, I purchased a secondhand external floppy disk drive for my cpc 464, it came with a second floppy disk drive that was 3.5". It always baffled me how the guy had succeeded to do that magic but it worked well. I copied a lot of games on 3.5" disks that where cheaper and very fancy, nobody believed me at school, until they came to my place and saw it.

[@DenizTurkmen]

Had a C64 but my neighbors had an 6128. It was really cool to have a built-in disk drive. I also agree about the colors, whenever I saw game ads with screenshots I remember Amstrad ones standing out.

[@vragec111]

Thank you for the wonderful video. I had Schneider CPC 464, with green monitor 🤫. When I came to my friend to play on her mom's computer.. I was in utter shock to realise the speed of disk loading... Fell in love with the beauty of that machine..the sounds of disk drive humming and purring... 🤗🌷

[@Diamondblade2008]

Interesting comment. I also used to like the sounds the disk drive made. However there was one sound it made which gave me nightmares at night. The sound it made before it gave the ''Drive A: read fail (R)etry, (I)gnore or (C)ancel.'' message. I don't know if you know what sound I mean but it went something like this: ''Dit - dit, duh-duh nee-naw Dit - dit, duh-duh nee-naw'' That sound scared me a LOT when I was a kid!

[@sdavies45]

@@Diamondblade2008 I know the noise that you're talking about, it could be a bit freaky. The PCWs used to make that nee-naw sound when they couldn't read the disc as well, when they had just been turned on, and you had to put in a boot disc, if it couldn't read it for some reason the screen used to flash green and then black and it would go "nee-naw" repeatedly, kind of freaky.

[@Diamondblade2008]

@@sdavies45 I am 42 and I stll remember that sound clear as glass today. I was 7 years old when my dad got me the CPC6128 back in 1985. I put an unformatted disc in the drive (not knowing it was unformatted) and typed 'Cat' (which lists the files stored on the disc; which my dad showed me how to do) and thats when I heard that sound for the first time and that error message came up. It scared me so much I ran into my mum's arms crying. Thankfully my Apple laptop and my iPhone never makes those sounds!

[@sdavies45]

I am 37. I think I was about 12 though when I had my CPC6128, and I was 11 when I was introduced to the Amstrad PCW. I got the CPC because I wanted to write programs in BASIC.

[@AndrewShakespeare]

Alan Sugar chose the non-standard 3 inch disk because the external drive for the 464 cost £12 to build and sold for £200, or £170 if you were in the Amstrad Users' Club.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

You have to wonder if things would have been different had he gone with a 3.5" drive!

[@crusader77_retro]

Gran review del 6128!. Aqui en España compitio codo con codo con el spectrum en cuanto a popularidad, en muchos colegios habia una sala de informatica compuesta de ellos. A mi en lo personal, marco mi vida y a lo que me dedico profesionalmente... Un saludo desde España, tienes nuevo suscriptor 😊

[@KorenLesthe]

I grew up with the CPC 464 (my first game was Manic Miner). My brother then got a 6128 and I agree : it's also my favorite Retro Computer.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I'm glad you think so too! It's a fantastic computer for sure.

[@Diamondblade2008]

@@NoelsRetroLab I had the CPC6128 for many many years. Just wondered why Amstrad decided to tone down the colour scheme on the keyboard. I remember the CPC464 having a multitude of different colours on the keys, yet on the CPC6128, they were all a uniform grey (like on nearly all modern computers today).

[@skesinis]

You reminded me of a mod that we made with a friend of mine on his 6128 back in the very early ‘90s. We changed the 3” single sided 180kB drive to a 5.25” double sided 360kB PC drive. We used a switch to select the sides and the drive was used to copy Pascal 3.0 programs from his CPC6128 to a PC and continue developing when he was at his uncle’s PC. Even though I really liked the CPC6128, I couldn’t afford it when it was new and I only had a ZX Spectrum 48k which another friend had donated to me, many years after he had it, as he had moved to an Amiga 500. Even the Spectrum was enough though to trigger my interest in Z80 assembly, using just a book’s appendix to convert the asm opcodes to numbers that I could then type as data on a basic loader program. I know exactly how frustrating it was saving to a tape, but at the time I didn’t know any better.

[@laurentvoisin8129]

I had one when I was young and I think I 'll buy one on eBay. Thanks from France for all your vidéos. I'm trying to fix my old msx and you really helped to anderstand (or remember) a lot of thinks.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

You're welcome. Enjoy your Amstrad! :-)

[@Xoferif]

It's really great to see the next generation learning programming on classic machines! (Hello to Noel's daughter!) =) Although I was a Spectrum owner, I was hugely impressed with the 6128 when it was announced. Having a disc drive integrated into a micro as standard seemed an amazing idea back in the day.

[@tezinho81]

I learned to program BASIC on the 6128. The original manual had many pages of BASIC code which I spent many happy hours copying onto the screen.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, the manual was great and really taught you a lot to get you started programming with the Amstrad. I have lots of fond memories as well.

[@SmartHomeCoding]

Wow, great video. I only had the CPC 464 as my first computer, but I absolutely agree with you. Unfortunately, I no longer have it and keep the memory alive with Winape 😊. Merry Christmas from Trier (Germany).

[@Geffers58]

I loved this machine back in the 80's. I had a plug in thingy that gave instant assembly language - an enormous saving of time. I don't think I ever used its BASIC though. I did cross compilation onto other machines and all sorts.

[@jonh404]

When you say "plug in thingy", I'm thinking you probably had MAXAM on a rom board.

[@Thebasicmaker]

Interesting I wish I had you as my neighbor!

[@willyloops]

I was talking about the Firefox (Clint Eastwood´s movie) with a friend a couple of hours ago and looking for the game version for this Amstrad cpc6128 and I just found this channel ...and....c´mon !!! I can not believe it !! I know you Noel !! I´m Guillermo, from Luanco, you recorded several games for me to play in this Amstrad when I was a child, I even played one game you created for this device about a time machine (kind like a roll game where to choose what to do)...years after of that, your father was my math teacher at highschool and your mother my language or literature teacher as well (they have to forgive me I was a very bad student !!!)......Surely you knew my sister Sara too (she was very good student).......I played a lot with your cousins Alejandro and Ramón Luis in la plazoleta de la torre del reloj when we were children....I can't believe that you have this channel and that you continue loving this machine, I subscribe and greetings since childhood Noel !!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Hombre, Guillermo, qué casualidad!! Claro que me acuerdo. Sara y yo éramos muy amigos. Pues ahora llevo un par de años en Luanco. Si te entra el gusanillo por probar el Amstrad otra vez, mírate el emulador RetroVirtualMachine que está muy bien. Un abrazo!

[@kjamison5951]

I still own my 6128… I cannot bring myself to have it recycled. I used it all through my university course and used it to transcribe my handwritten notes and sketches to a digital format. I built a ROM interface that allowed me to add a standard 3.5” floppy drive and I also bought a ROM that allowed me to move files between the Amstrad and PC 720k disk format. With the DMP2000, I printed many documents. Favourite game was Cauldron, but I have hundreds of others on tape which I was able to transfer to disk for fast loading. I also edited the high score tables so when I played, I was always top of the tables.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Of course you can't have it recycled!! 🙀 That sounds like a well-loved, well-used CPC. I also did a lot of class work on it. Cauldron was great! I remember making the map for that game and having lots of fun with it 😃

[@PJBonoVox]

I never had a CPC machine, only a C64. But a couple of friends had CPCs and I loved the palette and the basic. Looking back now, if the CPC had hardware sprites it would have been an absolute powerhouse.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Agreed. That's what the Plus range has, but they came out way too late to be relevant.

[@PJBonoVox]

@@NoelsRetroLab Yeah, too little too late sadly.

[@_B.M_]

An amazing machine. For me, the main selling point was the fact that for the price, you got a colour monitor and the disk drive included. Other brands were costing almost as much but you had to use your own TV and a tape deck.

[@ecernosoft3096]

"it has the best color palette of any 8bit computer" Atari 800 be like: ... but still. I must say, AWESOME video! It's beyond cute seeing your daughter use a 40 year old machine too. ;-)

[@paralaksa5035]

Agreed! I had a speccy but always loved the 6128 back in the day!

[@YosemiteSam23]

Had a 6128 in the late 80’s loved it 👌🏼🔥

[@jameslye3452]

bought a second hand one in the 90's. still have the manual now which i use with a cpc emulator. I remember scouring the car boot sales and the odd computer fair for the floppy Discs. Fun entry into computers

[@DarnWhippets]

Wish I still had mine too. Moved to an STFM when they came out.

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

Growing up I had to admire the Amstrad CPC from afar because they weren't sold in the USA, at least not where I could get them. But I've always liked that soothing yellow-on-blue font that's reminiscent of the CGA font on the much more expensive IBM PCs. Spending my childhood squinting my eyes at Apple IIs and TI-99/4As, you got to appreciate systems with nicely readable on-screen text.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, the colors and the fonts were great. I'm surprised you would even know of Amstrad CPCs in the US though. Were you importing UK magazines or something? Otherwise they were virtually unknown over there.

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

@@NoelsRetroLab my memory is a little hazy, but I know they were mentioned in Omni magazine, in their computer review sections, and occasionally multiplatform games would have Amstrad and Spectrum screenshots on their boxes (presumably so they didn't have to reprint them for the US and UK markets.) I think they may have also mentioned them on the Computer Chronicles TV show. So I was aware that Amstrad was a thing, although I admit that information on them was extremely limited in the US pre-internet.

[@Unknown-sp4gi]

This is where gaming started for me :) The Legend Of Kage, Head Over Heels, Arkanoid, great memories.

[@tezinho81]

Head over Heels was awesome. Did you ever play Spy Vs Spy?

[@dimitriskarapostolis9880]

Fruity Frank, Oh Mummy, Boulder Dash, Bomb Jack, Desert Fox, Gauntlet, Match Day, Moon Buggy, Pyjamarama some of my initial mines!

[@krisvantuerenhout537]

This was my second computer after my ZX81. And it sure was I nice upgrade on all fronts. 1 Year ago I bought a CPC6128+ .. these 8bit computers had even a better color palette ;-) It's sad there is not much KZbin content about this range of CPC's.

[@joefish6091]

Amstrad was not American, so not much utube, the UK CPCers (and PCWers)need to make videos.

[@havenisse2009]

I had a CPC6128 from 1985..2012. I had a 5.25" inch drive for it, and (cracked) versions of Protext, ProMerge, ProSpell, custom disc controller and much more. I could literally store 410K x 2 on each disc (had to cut index holes in the disc). I used that computer for school assignments, and it was surprisingly efficient. The joy of going to poweroff to writing in less than 5 seconds. Not even PCs today can do that. Sold it because it had a really low WAF. Regret it today in a way. But all good things have a time.

[@jiannixflow1107]

Love this!! I wish today life was simpler like back then! Thx for uploading

[@lovemadeinjapan]

It can be: 1) Ditch social media (uh, I'm still on KZbin), 2) ditch your smartphone (it is hard, but I find a Windows Phone fits at the right place: just the bare minimum of apps), 3) Make your workweek fit in 4 days maximum, 3 is even better, so you don't have to spend too much money, 4) Get those vitage products you always dreamt off. The only downside: back in the day I had a single 8-bit computer with maybe 10 games, now I have 5 with an abundance of programs.

[@karim2k]

Back in time, i did stood as a unique machine among the commodores and the MSX machines and few people could deal with it so much is was advanced

[@jonh404]

Hahahaha I'm sitting here in Australia in the dark at 3am watching his video, laughing out loud at his jab at the location of the cursor keys... THANK YOU 😂 Totally made me burst into laughter. The 6128 is my least favourite CPC, The CPC664 being my favourite because it got the disc drive & the cursor keys 😂. I hope Noel reads his messages.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I do, I do 😃 Glad you enjoy the cross-pattern keys. The 664 is beautiful. Certainly much prettier than the 6128!

[@calebfuller4713]

I had one of these too. It is still my favourite retro computer. It was definitely one of the better BASIC versions among 8-bit computers and I fondly remember learning and writing programs on it. I'm actually more impressed nowdays by the fact it ran CP/M and finding the wealth of software I COULD have used - industry standards like Wordstar, dBASE II, Supercalc, Turbo Pascal, MS BASIC, FORTRAN and COBOL. Actually if I'd learnt dBASE programming back then, my IT programming career might have gone further...

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Nice! Yes, it did have a lot of non-game software. I believe I tried my first version of Turbo Pascal on the Amstrad, and I did a lot of school work on word processors on it. Quite a well-rounded machine!

[@AmAtAm]

I have always loved this machine and this was a really good summary of what’s so good about it.

[@dragonbleu1205]

TOP ! Hello from France ! A CPC user

[@SyldabiaHacks]

It’s My favourite computer. With ZEDIS II purchased in the el Corte inglés like a extraneous program, was my introduction to the programming in ASM.

[@SparkyMAWy]

CPC6128: My favourite machine. Though I have a CPC464 that I inherited from my late grandfather that I learnt computer fundamentals on, that still works and I got loads of bits for. My CPC6128 has a 512kb RAM box which is good for SymbOS and CP/M Plus.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Nice! Yes, there are awesome add-ons for the Amstrad. And people are still designing new ones!

[@Jimmy-B-]

Was my first computer as a child. Remember not liking keyboard sound when you press the buttons. Sounded to tinny. That was another reason to be envious of the Amiga at the time

[@mnomic8371]

My dad had this computer and I loved it; I had the zx spectrum +3 which had the same disk drive (the +3 was also made by Amstrad). The difference was, the Amstrad had a better colour pallette 👍🏻

[@adroharv9213]

I absolutely loved how vivid the Amstrad palette was and it really stands it out. To be fair that's why I look so fondly at all the 8bits from this time as they were so different in feel from each machine. I think the C64 had the most natural colour scheme with it's muted look in terms of a more realistic feel but the Amstrads beautifully garish look is beautiful to behold

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Definitely! That made it challenging to make more natural skin tones or earth tones, but they nailed the garish fun video game feel 😃

[@calebfuller4713]

The Amstrad's palette was purely mathematical. It was RGB with 3 levels for each element (on, half, or full) giving a total of 27 colours.

[@sveinnarn]

It was also my favorite Retro computer. But I love the ZX Spectrum since it was my first one. And the Amiga 2000 was my first "Real" computer which I loved too.

[@robsretrostuff]

Great video. I had a 664 back in the day

[@syrus3k]

This is almost the zx spectrum +3.. I had one of those, I loved it.

[@TheGrunt76]

Nice video and I agree on all points! I had 464 back in the day and it was a wonderful machine. As my retro computing hobby really escalated last autumn, I went and purchased nice 6128 with dd replaced with gotek. I also have a working disk drive, so I can return it to original condition if I want to. At first I used it with OSSC to flat screen monitor and occasionally with small CRT TV, but then decided to go full real deal and also purchased original color monitor from ebay.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Nice! I'd love to keep around the original color monitor too, but I don't have much space. So I have to make do with a single CRT for all my retro needs. At least it's a Sony Trinitron and the image quality is great.

[@rishadq]

Awesome find! The CPC6128 was my first real computer, aside from my Casio handheld calculator/computer. Plug in a joystick and away you go! :-)

[@mrljgibson]

I have a two ZX Spectrum 48k plus computers for nostalgia reasons, but the best things after that were all mainframe systems and workstations.

[@moterov4]

My first game was "Spannerman". I learned programming with CPC6128, I remember in my 2nd computer academy with PCs that used the GWBASIC, but I already carried my programs printed in the CPM's BASIC MALLARD and I think to remember it was quite similar.

[@dartsma464]

I started with Spannerman too. Are there more than the two of us that did that?

[@knownuser0815]

Spannerman, Oh Mummy, Roland in Space (?) 😁

[@miked4377]

excellent video!

[@pengvin3524]

I LOVED this machine. i played lots of Infocom adventures on one

[@chriswatson2407]

Nice to see your sprite included in the programme.

[@Ingens_Scherz]

Had one of these for a couple of years before I got an Amiga 500. Totally loved it. Unfortunately (?) it and all my games and peripherals paid for the 500!

[@missionpassed4584]

I had an Amstrad cpc 464 in the 80s and over time had collected many many games and magazines and was very much used to the quirks of tape cassette games including waiting an eternity for a game to load only for it not to, then came the 6128 with its hard disk system, it was awesome, no waiting for ages and just seemed so much more modern, my friend at the same time got the the GX4000 which I tried but just never gone on with it, anyway a great little machine, sadly once I got the snes it all went all sold off I have many regrets in my life and that was one of the biggest.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

I like how the console colors remind me of the ones used in IRIX.

[@mrtiff99]

Just discovered your channel. I grew up with spectrums and Commodores and never really got to use an amstrad. Your right about the colour palette ( I hated the c64s). Great channel keep up the good work

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. Time to try out some Amstrads, even if it's through emulators :-)

[@baltasarq]

All in all, the Amstrad 6128 was the best balanced home computer in 1985. I would not have recognized it back then though, being an 128 speccy guy!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

If only it had faster screen access somehow, it would have been great. That was (and is) its weak point, even compared to the Speccy since its screen data was a lot smaller.

[@baltasarq]

@@NoelsRetroLab Well, yes, but that was because the Speccy sported the famous colour clash.

You mentioned it but I want to strengthen it: 80 column support! One of the few popular 8 bit machines that have this. Soo much more comfort when dialing into a BBS or a larger machine via RS232.

[@vmisev]

I’m late to comment, but one thing is important to add: Amstrad CPC 6128 not only had CP/M 3, but also shipped GSX graphics drivers with color support, and that was very rare in the world of CP/M. GSX later evolved into GEM for 16 bit machines.

[@GorgCave]

CP/M system discs also have version of LOGO where turtle have four pens with different colours to chose - as it is running in 320x200.

[@darky4312]

My first game "PUNCHY" my second game "SORCERY" (my first love), i have 12 years hold, now 47. I love my AMSTRAD CPC.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I never played Punchy, but I absolutely love Sorcery. One of the most influential games for me. It was absolutely magical!

[@Diamondblade2008]

One game I played to death on my (sadly now dead) CPC6128 was Tornado Low Level, where you fly a plane dropping bombs on targets. Used to spend hours every weekend playing that. My dad said to my mum ''He is really happy with that game. He can't stop playing it.'' Fond memories.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@@Diamondblade2008 I never played that one, so I'm going to have to remedy that. Downloading it right now... :-)

[@Diamondblade2008]

@@NoelsRetroLab That game is really good. You have to check out the scrolling in that game!

[@Athena_cute_AI]

@@Diamondblade2008 full speed vertical hardware scrolling

[@AnthonyFlack]

For me the benefit of CP/M was that you could play all the Infocom adventure games.

[@spinnetti]

Never had those here, but looks pretty good!

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

Taught myself to program in basic on CPC 464 and created a AD&D 2nd edition PC generator with all my custom parts in it.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Love that story! Very similar to my own. Do you still have that program around or is it lost?

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

@@NoelsRetroLab No, lost it after my ex took everything but the back door!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@@geofftottenperthcoys9944 😢 I also lost most of what I did at that time in a leak-in-the-attic accident.

[@partyguinness]

We had a gig whereby we could record/bootleg games from the 6128 cartridge to cassette for the CPC464

[@ncbrady]

good job as always Noel !

[@douro20]

Have you ever considered translating some of your old CPC games? 'La Máquina del Tiempo' looks like a nice one.

[@CwazyWabbits]

Was the assembler you had Maxam? I seem to remember the tape version of it loaded into memory in the same location where the extra commands for the disk drive were and thus stopped you using the disk drive once loaded.

[@fattomandeibu]

I like this video, but feel that one thing that could be misleading, is that plenty of tape games used multiload, at least here in England. The game would load the game itself from side A of the tape, then tell you to turn over to side B to load level data and as you got to the end of each stage, it would load the next one and at game over you would rewind to the beginning of side B. Side B loading times were usually pretty quick, too. Not as quick as a floppy, but it worked for those of us for which a disk drive was too expensive.

[@ElectronGordo]

Hop! she got's out like in Lord of The Ring, when Frodo took out the Ring from his finger! :) Nice video again.+

[@Skunkiboi]

It was also popular in Germany. Some schools had it in order to teach students how to code.

[@nexpro6985]

@Noel's Retro Lab you might be interested to know that all.of the publicity stills for the movie Full Metal Jacket were made on a Nikon camera attached to a cpc6128 with a green monitor.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

What?? Really?? I would almost believe that as an oddity except for the green monitor part. How could they use a green monitor to do that?

[@nexpro6985]

@@NoelsRetroLab I was using the relay in the cpc6128 to operate the shutter switch on the Nikon camera. The camera was equipped with a 250 frame film cassette system. I wrote the software in locomotive basic apart from a small machine code routine to bypass the 1 second minimum time between relay operations that is imposed in basic. I also used the same system for Eyes Wide Shut but by then the disk drive was getting a little unreliable. I wore out two Nikons.

[@nexpro6985]

@@NoelsRetroLab basically I used the cpc6128 as a programmable switch. The monitor was not used apart from supplying power and to run the program.

[@TheVanillatech]

"Amstrad/Schneider" I had a 464, so no disk drive. I borrowed a friends disk drive so I could play Lemmings. Great computer though I always wanted an Amiga, and never got one. Croco Magneto appeared on the covertape of Amstrad Action one year, around 1989/1990. A french game I believe.

[@arnolda.lampel6087]

It was the very 1st computer that I got and I still have & use it TODAY :-) Actually it is the German "Schneider" version w/ centronics connectors instead of edge connectors. Those have been given me some headache, since the pinout is different from the Amstrad version AND different from the original Schneider manual.

[@knownuser0815]

Arnold war ja sogar die interne Bezeichnung für die CPCs bei Amstrad:)

[@RealDukeOfEarl]

Sorcery II was the game that first used disk overlay, and it did it for the 664. Man I remember beating Sorcery on the 464. Good times.

[@VioletGiraffe]

I never had one, in fact, I never had any 8-bit computer as a kid (coming from a poor-ish family in a third-world country), but now I really want a CPC!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

You can start with an emulator (Try RetroVirtualMachine) and if you love it, you can always track down an Amstrad 😃

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

-"Amstrad colors were perfect for the great majority of the games". -As an Atari 8bit user with 256 color available for me to choose.....I totally agree with with that statement. I can really appreciate the vibrant colors in Amstrad's games. Sure , in painting programs and some specific "moody" ports the palette didn't work that well, but our generation was thirsty for colors!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Wow, I didn't realize the Atari 8 bit could choose from 256 colors! That's really impressive! I need to dig deeper in the Atari 8 bit line. The more I use them the more I like them 😃

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@NoelsRetroLab @Noel's Retro Lab the 1979 hardware and architecture of the machine was ahead of its time in many aspects. We only got to see the full extent of its capabilities through the work of the home-brew community.(animated transparency, hardware scaling and scrolling, color effects and interruptions,4 sound channels +1Antic channel for 1bit noise, more than ). That was true for all micros. Home-brew programs do a great job displaying what those machines can really do. Still there were software examples during its commercial life that showcased the capabilities of the atari machine . i.e RAMbrand(drawing program 1985) took advantage of Antic's Display list interruption enabling the display of ~90 colors on the screen. The game Timeslip(1986) is also a show case of that technique. Of course the 8bit Atari computer was the work of the same people who gave us Amiga and that explains a lot. But still , I remember I had to mesh up the picture adjustments of my TV really bad in my efforts to resemble the vibrant picture of my friend's CPC6128 and I never really managed to get a match. The color saturation in the atari palette just wasn't there. I always favored the CPC over the C64 and I will agree that it was the only 8bit (MSX 2 series excluded) with an "arcade" look in its games and a robust disk drive. I even got to appreciate its sound chip by hearing its tunes through real speakers (not through the onboard solution / small speaker). I never knew that its basic was that good! I always thought my self lucky having Atari basic to "play" with for hours(compared to C64 version) so this is one more reason to put Amstrad higher in my preferences list. In my opinion the CPC machine was the most well balance end product a user could have in early- mid 80s. Sure it lacked scrolling and scaling abilities but as you said for the majority of the programs it delivered an amazing arcade style of graphics and sound with a high fun factor for the user.

[@insoft_uk]

The 6128 was an awesome machine, I remember as a kid spending time in Dixons we’re they had them on display used to type in simple basic programmes and one of the nice things the 6128 had was the colour numbers written down on the top of the drive was so handy. Tho never had one myself I grew up with a ZX Spectrum +2, as 6128 was priced too high tho the 6128 to me was the best 8-bit micros of the times

[@NicolasCorte]

Love your channel

[@jfinnie78]

I always wanted the slightly funkier looking 664 as an upgrade to my 464 with green screen... never got my dream. Went from CPC464 to a PCW8256. Green screens for the win! :)

[@JakeBirkett]

Saving to tape was a big pain indeed! So slow.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yeah, absolutely. But at least most of the saving to tape was pretty small since it was assembly so it was just a few KB. But still, no comparison with having the luxury of a disk!

[@jediknight2350]

my fav first computer was the texas instrument ti994a , i had an amstrad 6128 but when amiga came out the old amstrad got sold cheap lol.