British Micro Donations Refurb - Amstrad CPC & DDI-1

[@dedeegal]

That fits perfectly! If I remember correctly, "Finders Keepers" was the first game I bought and loaded on my CPC-464 @20:30. That must have been sometime in the mid 80's. I still have a CPC-464 sitting around. Not my very first one and no longer in use ... but it would probably still work ... with a suitable power supply and ... a little less available these days ... a suitable CRT monitor.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks for having me over in the Man Cave again Neil. I had a good time as evidenced by the really professional outtakes that you showed your Patreon subscribers. Hopefully the Amstrad CPC will go on for many more years, fuelling your 8-bit childhood nostalgia!

[@DaveVelociraptor]

Hi Mark, make more videos!

[@TheMalMeninga]

Hi Mark! Lovely to see you as always. :D

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@DaveVelociraptor Yes sir!

[@richardc2380]

Miss your videos Mark. Hope you find the time to make some more in the future.

[@Shockabuku]

It's always good to see Mark doing a guest appearance in the cave!

[@chrisgreenuk]

Great to see my old monitor being put to good use. Glad to see it survived the journey back to the cave and is working as part of your 464 setup.

[@Zerbey]

Friend of mine had an Amstrad, I had a Spectrum. We had good natured banter for many years over who had the superior machine. The reality was, they both had their advantages and disadvantages.

[@sealslayer]

Neither of you did, it would be your other friend with a C64 🤣

[@DavieTait]

Little known fact that the 3" discs that Amstrad sold were also used in commercial fishing navigation equipment ( 1st of the colour computerised navigation chart/plotters ) like the Decca CVP3500 , we had one aboard our trawler in 1988 and it was cheaper ( half the price ) to buy the Amstrad branded discs than the Decca branded ones even though they came out of the same factory... www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2058618/object_KUAS_7751163.html

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

that’s amazing, that disc format died out quick as very few companies used it.

[@DavieTait]

@@jestronixhanderson9898 Decca first put that plotter out in 1981 so were using those discs back then , they were a format used in industrial machine as far as I ever found out ( early CNC milling machines and the likes )

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

Sugar must have found they were dirt cheap to use, no retooling

[@DavieTait]

@@jestronixhanderson9898 pretty much , they were £10 a disc from Decca and around £3 a disc from Amstrad.....

[@mattcole6230]

Great video. I've just purchased one on the back of this! Any plans for an ad -ons video Neil? I'm thinking a run through if memory expansions and DDI interfaces. Playing 128k games is a must I'm my opinion.

[@MrKelaher]

These sold in Australia too. 6128 was my second machine after a local TRS-80 clone ("System 80"). Amiga 500 replaced CPC :)

[@TranceTrousers]

Great video as always chaps. I have a CPC 464 and have just bought a CPC 6128 too. I also repaired a tape counter on an Aquarius data recorder recently. I found the button itself rattling around inside the case, but I couldn't figure out how it attached to the counter mechanism. So I removed the clear plastic cover and luckily there were two tiny pieces of plastic that attached to the button still inside. I superglued the parts back together, reassembled everything, and the reset button now works a treat :-)

[@AdamJX602]

Great vid! I had one of these as a kid, my mum sent a mail order letter in for the disc drive and explained it was my birthday, they sent a free copy of Through The Trapdoor in the box! I was so happy. This computer is also the reason to this day I call the return key on any keyboard “Enter”.

[@BeerBellyDK]

It's not quite the OEM parts, but if you check out some LEGO wheels, you'll more than likely find that some of the rubber tyres for their wheels, might be a suitable (or at least usable) replacement for that broken one you had in this video. :)

[@diegocipriani]

Great Video as always, your narrative style is so relaxing and the split run is very refreshing and interesting. Thumbs up from an italian Amstrad aficionado :)

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

Awesome stuff! I sold my CPC 464 5 or 6 years ago now, but quite amazingly i recently found out my Fianceé has her original CPC up in the loft so this video might come in handy if its not in working order.

[@Private-Hudson]

A cup of coffee in hand and another great nostalgic trip down memory lane...Great video as always RMC.

[@AmigosRetroGaming]

Great timing...we were just sent this exact model! I suspect i'll be consulting this video a few dozen times.

[@bellgore]

that was my first computer as a kid had the green monitor many hours of Gauntlet were played on it.

[@justinholmes5614]

I had one as a kid. The colour screen works on the Amiga with an adaptor.

[@RMCRetro]

It does indeed I was using it just last week on my Amiga with a Scart adapter. Very handy!

[@sexysensation]

Impressive, I did not know that! :)

[@wutangpaul]

Also HUGE in Ireland too. Restoring one at the moment, booted today for the first time in 30 years. Currently waiting on a replacement keyboard from France. I love how simple they are inside.

[@JonPadfield]

Really like this collaboration video. Excellently filmed and put together as usual, but with some added excitement of the two restorations at once. Nice one Neil. And with a name like Sugar, Alan should have been born to make the tea!

[@GadgetUK164]

Great job! Always nice to see another CPC saved!

[@KillerBill1953]

I and my wife had a series of ZX Spectrums from the rubber key through to the last tape Amstrad version. I loved playing games on it. Then I bought a CPC464 with colour monitor when they first came out. There were very few games but I eventually bought a disk drive and printer and learned some basic machine code. I have to admit that learning to programme on the Amstrad was probably the happiest I've been with any computer. Thanks for the excellent video.

[@shadowhound0]

Your videos are awesome, I can't begin to imagine the years of electrical engineering knowledge that went into these videos you share with us! You're greatly appreciated

[@AlanPope]

I do believe that's the CPC 464, DDI-1 and some games that I sent over in May last year! Glad to see it's getting a lot of TLC :)

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Alan and sorry it took a while to look at it!

[@AlanPope]

@@RMCRetro Oh no worries! I'm just glad you got it all cleaned up and working. Really nice to see the care you guys take. Such gentle restoration experts ;)

[@lofi-guy]

@@AlanPope Did you get it originally from a chap in Essex? It's very similar to one I sold a few years ago. It too had a missing counter reset button and was equally battle scarred.

[@vcolinc]

@@lofi-guy Ah good, glad you found this thread!

[@AlanPope]

@@lofi-guy I honestly couldn't tell you where I got it. It has been in my loft for at least 10 years. I have multiple CPCs, tons of books and games too. I can't recall exactly their origin because I have so many of them! :)

[@EgoShredder]

There was an excellent interview with one of the Amstrad CPC hardware developers a few years back. Should still be on KZbin.

[@NaokisRC]

2:00 Coming from LGR's latest video about the Monorail PC left me thinking I was still watching that

[@Roragana]

The FD1 interface could be a bit of a nightmare, it wobbled around enough on its own & the lack of an expansion port pass through meant that it could end up at the end of long chain of accessories such as the range of DK'Tronics ram packs, ram discs etc.

[@markpitt5248]

Earlier this year I managed to get a CPC6128 with colour monitor, lots of nostalgia as a CPC was my first machine as a child. It was very clean but as usual the disc drive belt had perished into gunk, luckily it came apart really easily and in fact it was one of the easiest belt changed I've had to do on a drive! Next is to get a Gotek working with it, so far I have had little success flashing the hardware onto the floppy emulator so its still a WIP.

[@SimmyBassline]

The battle scars and war wounds just show how much it was once loved! Brilliant work guys

[@HuntersMoon78]

I recently got an Amstrad CPC 464 for £5 then a few weeks later I got a bag of games for £8

[@markpitt5248]

Bargain!

[@mbirth]

My dad brought home the Schneider CPC464 when I was like 6 years. I remember hours of Glider Rider (sometimes just listening to the music), Ghostbusters and Airwolf. My dad also built an adapter to connect the CPC to the telly to see some colours instead of the green screen. He also built something to read and burn EEPROMs with the CPC, IIRC. It was an awesome introduction to the computer world.

[@dipi71]

My parents were kind enough to buy me a Schneider CPC464 with colour monitor. Later I bought a 3'' disc drive unit like the one in the video. I learned Z80 assembly, Forth, Lisp and Logo. I had already learned BASIC the year before in school, but I was blown away by the CPC graphics (mode 0: 160×200 pixels, 16 colors out of a palette of 27; mode 1: 320×200, 4 colors; and mode 2: 640×200, great for editing text) and by the ingenuity of the »copy cursor«. I've later used the color monitor for watching television and VHS videos (soldered a FBAS/RGB converter kit for that), and as a gaming monitor for my second home computer, an Atari Mega ST4. Fun times. Cheers!

[@EgoShredder]

A school friend of mine lent me his Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 along with his Glider Rider game, because I wanted to hear the music to Glider Rider! Very generous of him to do that and I made sure to treat it with real love and care. Amazing that was 36 years ago! 😳

[@paulfinney]

I was always told the reason Amstrad used the 3 inch floppy was because Alan Sugar found an overstock of the mechanisms and discs over in Asia

[@SteDubya]

Nice work gentlemen! My CPC had the same broken counter issue and was filthy when it arrived. I went a bit over board and recapped the tape drive although I don't think it was strictly required.

[@MattyStoked]

It's been too long since I sat and watched one of these. The CPC is a machine I've always been interested in. Great video lads.

[@ThunderBassistJay]

I bought one in '83. Later I added two Teac floppy drives and extra memory. Back then it was a great home PC with its 16 colours.

[@seymansey]

I’m on the lookout for a replacement keyboard membrane for my CPC 464+. Standard CPC membranes are available, but not the plus models. Would love to get my hands on one to repair my childhood PC.

[@dant5464]

Neil, perhaps put the two enter keys on your eBay saved searches as well. They're meant to be blue, not faded to grey! As for the pinch roller, what about an o-ring - not the right profile? CPC646 was my first computer growing up, with a green tube and later the RF modulator for use on a TV - Amstrad MP-1.

[@Inject0r]

Lovely to see you guys working together. Great dynamics between the two of you! 👍🏼😁

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Tom

[@johnnylawless3431]

Lovely. Two of my favourite KZbinrs, with my first computer. Was one of the keys blue originally? The Return key, maybe? So long since I had my 464!

[@Nibb31]

Yeah, the CPCs lost their colours over the years: - black, red, blue, green on the 464 - black, gray, blue on the 664 - black, gray on the 6128 - all beige on the 464+ and 6128+

[@Nibb31]

I had the same setup: 464 with DDI-1 disk drive. The best of both worlds.

[@Dev_olution]

Another great video thanks, Nice to see Mark and of course Alan.

[@80sretrogamergamingarchive90]

So satisfying too see another amstrad cpc 464 SAVED 😀🥰🥰

[@richardisaacs567]

Hey guys, that would be called conservation as it has kept many of the older features such as the scuffs and damage but you have prolonged the life by cleaning and fixing obvious core working issues.

[@abc-ni9uw]

Somebody told me once that amstrad stood for ' ALAN MUST STOP TRADING AND DIE. Now i know this is not true

[@vcolinc]

Alan Mainly Sells Tacky Rubbish As Dinkum

[@caw25sha]

It actually stands for Alan Michael Sugar TRADing. Which would look good on the side of a yellow three wheeled van.

[@theburntcrumpet8371]

This channel goes from strength to strength. I’m very excited about its future

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you! Funnily enough as I reply to this I'm eating a crumpet for breakfast. Not burnt though.

[@SoanosBarcoded]

Oh, Hi there. I also have a snapped tape counter reset and I am looking for a replacement part. I do have a 3D-printer though so if there was a model of that part I might be able to print one. Unfortunately I have not yet come across anyone who would have modeled it on Thingiverse.

[@charlesjmouse]

Ahh, the '464... my computing savior! I started out with BBC B + CUB monitor + twin FDD's on loan from my father's work. Eventually they wanted it back and my parents not rolling in cash bought a ZX81 for me as a replacement! It's the thought that counts even if I had come crashing down with a gigantic bump. Time went by with no sign of a Beeb entering our house once more (too expensive). Having had a 'proper' computer I knew a Speccy would seem too much like a toy and the rubbish Basic in the C=64 was off putting to me - at the time I did play games but was more in to programming and tinkering... ...Then Amstrad came out with the '464. By comparison with a BBC Micro it did all the things I wanted well enough and as a complete system at a price my parents could afford. Good games too. I was happy enough, it even came to university with me. Misty-eyed nostalgia aside I regard the original CPC computers as nothing short of a work of genius. Amstrad's all-in-one marketing and design for a good price was spot-on. But much more than that I really think the engineers who designed this machine managed to trap lightning in a bottle. The combination of fantastic firmware and amazingly clever design resulted in a bunch of not terribly inspiring components coming together in a machine far more capable than it's specs would suggest without any obvious compromises. As an all-round package I believe it was the best machine of it's time, and that coming from a confirmed Acorn 'nut'. Yes there were 8bit machines with better specs but all either didn't live up to those specs, were much more expensive, or had compromises in their design that made the whole 'less good' than it could have been. Waxing lyrical, I'll shut up now. I wonder what might have been if the '464 had arrived with '464+ specs, assuming that didn't mean bumping the price?

[@outtheredude]

CPC+ in a CPC body at CPC prices back in 1984?!? Bye bye Atari 800 with all the colours, bye bye C64 with hardware sprites and scrolling, bye bye... ;-)

[@RobA500]

Oh no Alan's back, good on you for making him tea boy. I once heard you could make CPC's self destruct with a couple of system calls.

[@Thiesi]

Just a quick question: Does anybody know if Alan Sugar likes Amstrads?

[@TheRetroByte]

Not sure. I was getting a mixed message.

[@colinr0380]

Maybe an early Christmas gift is in order!

[@dmthandmade5674]

Had one of these when I was a kid. Joint xmas pressie with my bro. Daley Thompson olympics and enduro racer ftw.

[@WinrichNaujoks]

Finders Keepers! So difficult, and I didn't even figure out what I'm supposed to do!

[@shelby3822]

1 second into video: "yeah Alan's back!!!"

[@DarkStarr9999]

An option to renew the rubber tyre is silicone/rubber tubing.

[@Brutalwhan]

Lovely to see Mark back in the game.

[@hipwave]

I needed badly a refurb video, Thanks

[@SidneyCritic]

I have made small stuff like that reset lever out of alum plate. Just simplify the shape, cut it out of plate, file grooves and recesses in it, and paint it black.

[@vBDKv]

I was gaming hard on this poor computer back in the day. I went through a joystick like once a month :p I'm not joking at all, all my joysticks had button issues after a month or two. Luckily they were cheap.

[@krnlg]

I see Lord Sugar took a break from ranting at underpaid workers on Twitter to make an appearance on RMC... I suppose it keeps him out of trouble! Love the Amstrad computers and got a CPC in the loft but I'm not sure what has happened to old Alan of late. Great video as always!

[@RMCRetro]

Yeah Twitter Alan is not someone I agree with, perhaps that's why it's a giggle to poke fun at him!

[@numberg8238]

It's a good thing I got that photorealistic leg tattoo of Neil and Mark during the summer! Just need to add Alan now

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

I recently bought a similar setup. I too had to do the belts on the ddi. I have two ddi drives that I fixed and have managed to tune the rpm to stock, often this is all that’s wrong if the belt is fixed and it’s not reading. I managed to buy in bulk 40 brand new discs still shrink wrapped! So I sacrificed a few and loaded all the games on from my childhood days, Jetset Willy, Grand Prix, rambo, sorcery etc. man the nostalgia was strong as weirdly amstrad ddi drives have a unique smell :)

[@outtheredude]

The Amstrad CPC 464, complete with colour monitor, was my first ever computer, which Mum got me for my 11th birthday from Dixons way back in the summer of 1985. Mine's a "tall key" version, originally manufactured back in December 1984. Though it is scratched and somewhat beat up, and the monitor's long since gone (which was a pre-664 sans 12v disk connection one), it amazingly still retains the original colours of the graphics on the keyboard unit, as well as those of the proper double shot keycaps, more than 35 years on. Could having Jazz and Rampage 3D Transformer stickers placed on it have protected it for all these years from the ravages of deadly UV light?

[@M101K3]

I was getting some heavy Techmoan vibes during the tape drive refurb. Not complaining, love it.

[@RMCRetro]

I will happily take that compliment thank you

[@MarkFixesStuff]

A recent count in the house means I can revise the "about seven" to an actual count of SEVENTEEN CPC464 machines and two CPC6128s... :shameface:

[@DubiousEngineering]

Very cool guys! ... lovely chilled video !

[@plapbandit]

Eyy, never thought I'd see the day Alan gets demoted to brew boy! Milk and two sugars while you're at it bud!

[@ANTandTEC]

I used to service these in the 80's/90's. Always used to clean the read/write heads if I had them open though...

[@prodelboy2743]

Code Masters - Operation Gunship - By the Oliver Twins That is all

[@Kumimono]

I figure one could 3D print that tyre from rubbery filament.

[@asteele7931]

Unless plumbing is very different over there, than it is from here in Texas, you could check various plumbing gaskets for shower/tub faucets, I bet you can find a good replacement tire for the roller.

[@BrendaEM]

An interesting test: can a common electronic board tin-plating kit be used to refurbish edge connectors? After cleaning the rust, this also might help with rusty RF shielding, as it might have been used in the first place.

[@skochin]

Great work and excellent music choice as usual.

[@tom75tom75]

When i was a kid in France, a friend of mine had a 464 (before i got a 6128) .. we loved it but I remember loading some game from the tape was sooo slow.

[@thegoods1r694]

I have to be honest, I really liked the content and the two of you working off each other. What I didn't like was swapping back and forth between devices in the middle of teardown/refurb, it was jarring.

[@_yadokari]

I think it's important to know how everyone takes their tea.

[@mapesdhs597]

Early Grey with milk. Before people start shouting, Douglas Adams took his E.G. with milk too, so schmeugh. :D

[@kpanic23]

23:14 "If it isn't broke, don't fix it!" - Most important lesson of all. I just can't stand people blindly shotgun recapping everything nowadays.

[@donpalmera]

You should always leave caps until they've leaked and eaten the PCB.

[@g.h.c855]

Give it a good home, I now have an image in my head of a row of little cubicles each computer has its own desk and power outlet.

[@iloveshaunovery]

Thank you for your video think I need to clean up my amstrad this will help me along the way.

[@RMCRetro]

You're welcome, drop by @theretromancave on Twitter I'd love to see some pics of your machine cleaned up

[@-Steven-]

But did you remember to put the write protect pin back into the disk drive, i remember when i first cleaned out my dd1 disk drive the write protect pin fell out and i never noticed so spent hours trying to find out why it kept telling me that my discs had the write protect enabled until i notice a small gold pin on the floor and after some investigation realised it was part of the disk drive protect mechanism.

[@TheAngryMelon64]

Nice to see Mark back.

[@kirknelson156]

to replace that take up drive wheel have you considered rubber O-rings, they come in variety of sizes, and while most are round which i don't think would matter really they also come in square profiles.

[@Rocky1138]

The reset button seems like an ideal project for a 3D printer.

[@soviet1918]

Loved my Amstrad :D , in fact i was one of the first people in the UK to have one and cost me £399 "yeah i know don't say it" , came with a colour monitor plus a really really bad joystick and as i remember 12 games in like a big box , Harrier Attack/Roland on the Ropes/Caves/Fruit Machine/Bridge-It /Easi-Amsword/Animal Vegetable Mineral/Oh Mummy/The Galactic Plague/Sultan's Maze/Xanagrams & Timeman One ... Ahhhh the memories lol , later i got the Disc drive that played Sorcery+ :D , odd discs as well as i remember lol ..

[@Zeem4]

I'm guessing the disk drive is the sort with the optical write-protect sensor. Losing the write-protect pin from the version with a mechanical sensor is a mistake you only make once.

[@steelpatriot3683]

Love that you have Knight Time next to Alan Sugar. I loved Magic Knight games .... Many long sittings at Spellbound and Finders Keepers in my long lost youth

[@SteDubya]

A good replacement for the drive wheel "tyre" may be an O-ring. In a previous life I had an air conditioning business and had a stock of refrigerant line seals. Used them to fix similar thing's although not an amstrad. May be worth looking into

[@coldmethod]

Mark looking classy af with that shirt.

[@RMCRetro]

It's lile techno camouflage, I kept losing him

[@jaistanley]

For the replacement tyre: It should be fairly trivial to 3D print a TPU (flexible and rubbery filament) replacement. Whether this has the dimensional accuracy/surface finish required to maintina a good enough wow and flutter is a matter for experiment I'd say.. Perhaps a rubbery resin for an SLA printer would be better.

[@andyukmonkey]

I really struggled to use my 464's disk drive and Multiface 2 at the same time. It would make BASIC glitchy and just not work. Years later I worked out It was just a dirty edge connector...

[@gamerdude0]

I needed a tire for my tape drive but couldn't find a replacement so I made one out of rubber tubing I had to hand, I cut a thin piece off and managed to wrap it round the wheel, it works now.

[@JonnyBlueChair]

rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.de%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283504026458

[@JonnyBlueChair]

This one works, I bought one couple of months back.

[@005AGIMA]

Spider spotted Neil. Nice work. Or was that a mini alien face hugger?

[@SirNarax]

Question: Why am I watching retro game videos if I am not a retro gamer? Answer: Because it is interesting and reminds me of being a youngling with Super Mario World, a gamepad and all afternoon to waste.

[@gower1973]

All the middle class kids had an Amstrad, all the council kids had a Spectrum, all the cool kids had a Commodore and all the rich kids had a BBC Micro, a microcosm of the political landscape of the 80’s

[@EnglishMike]

LOL. We weren't rich, and I had a BBC Micro. Mind you, we got the order in before the price went up -- and then had to wait six months for it to arrive.

[@jamesmccrillis8392]

find someone with a 3d printer they can print a new counter rest and rubber replacement for the tape drive

[@NorthernScrub]

I have one of these! With the colour monitor! Now, if only I could figure out how to properly clear the memory...

[@RDJ134]

My Nephew had one of those. I didnt knew what brand it was untill now :)

[@CommodoreFan64]

Nice system too bad we never got them here in the US.

[@not_fresh6736]

the way this video edited, voiced, music, jokes and overall production makes me feel like i am watching documentary from mid 90s. good ol discovery style

[@RMCRetro]

I'm OK with this!

[@mnemo70]

Must be that shirt. :D

[@MarkFixesStuff]

mnemo70 what are you saying about my shirt?

[@davem4544]

Loved my CPC464 when I was a kid, mine was the model with a joystick port on the left side, I play one now but on an emulator, I should look into getting a proper one with a colour screen, an upgrade from my green screen as a kid Loved Finders keepers!

[@Retrobution]

What you may find with some monitors is that you may find that the image is very dark, or something isnt looking right. If you turn the brightness dial the image may go crazy and glitchy. Two things can fix this, 1st is to open it (very dangerous so look get expert help with this), the back casing comes away easily (tricky to get it back on correctly aligned with the components inside though for the v hold button) and you just spray the potentiometer for the brightness (you cant get the wd40 straw to get in there with the case on unfortunately), give it a few turns and then when the case is back on - power it on and test to see if the glitchy lines etc have gone. For the screen that is too dark, there is a small potentiometer that you use a screwdriver on located on the black (i think its called a flyback?) box with two potentiometer screwdriver holes, (to the right of the v and h hold potentiometers) i believe the bottom one adjusts the brightness of the tube itself, very tiny turns to adjust, and it'll be all good then, but get someone who knows their stuff to do this!)

[@reecebower9934]

I'm slightly disturbed that he rinsed that towel and than dropped it back in the water lol

[@kimpirihi]

My first computer. It took 7 1/2 minutes to load one game

[@wepif6341]

I just find watching these so therapeutic