Meet the Amstrad CPC range of British Micros - Show & Tell

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Hi Cave Dwellers! This was a fun video to collaborate on, it's always enjoyable to spend time with someone passionate about this subject as Neil is. Neil is also very open and shares his KZbin experiences freely to help people like me who are new to this, and I'm grateful for his advice. The Museum of Computing is a fantastic gem in Swindon, hidden in plain sight. I hope these videos give more exposure to the museum and more of you visit, or support them in other ways. They kindly let us share their artefacts with you all because they passionately believe in education. Thank you for taking the time to watch this video and read my ramblings. Take care and keep it retro! Keith thedigitalorphanage.com (Come visit, you're always welcome!)

[@2carstommy]

It's a great place to visit The Muesum Of Computing in Swindon, well worth a visit if you are into your retro computers & games.

[@LGR]

Just exploring that downstairs storage area would be blissfully enjoyable.

[@RMCRetro]

If you're ever in town Clint it would be a pleasure to show you... although Computer Reset would take some serious beating

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Seconded!

[@TranceTrousers]

Well I hope you're pleased with yourselves. After watching this video, and having never owned a CPC or even been that interested in them before, I found myself looking on eBay for one. Not long after I found one for sale locally, and after a damn good clean and switch repair I'm now the proud owner of a working CPC 464 and green screen monitor. That's another one to add to my collection of 80s home computers. Now I have the problem of trying to find somewhere to store it, thanks a lot. Seriously though, this was a very enjoyable video to watch and yours is now one of my favourite retro computer channels, alongside The 8 Bit Guy and LGR. Keep up the good work!

[@Dorelaxen]

I love seeing this sort of thing. Computers in the US during this time were more commonly something you used in school rather than at home. It was all about the consoles for us. I used an Apple IIe for the majority of my time in school, and it wasn't until many years later that I got into retro computing and began collecting. Thanks for this, Neil!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

The 8bit 80’s were a magical time, especially once you got a disk drive!

[@MattFowlerBTR]

At around 23:45 in this vid, sat atop the 664's keyboard, I spy what looks rather like a Multiface Two from Romantic Robot. I never owned one but my friend at the end of our street did. That device always fascinated me. One thing I did have with my colour 464, that I've never heard anyone else mention, was the official Amstrad speech-synth addon. Complete with the support-software that needed to be loaded in from tape, and as I recall also included external stereo speakers.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You are correct, that is a Multiface Two. I owned one when I had an FDI-1 but sold it when I upgraded to the Amiga. A few years ago I just had to have one again just to be able to press that button and feel the power!

[@AxelWerner]

Computers of my childhood. so beautifull all these machines. todays kids cannot understand how limited those machines were and how fun it was to achieve even the simplest things with them.

[@Nibb31]

I was a green screen peasant with a 464, which was all I could save up for as an upgrade to my Commodore 16. I remember working all summer to buy the 3" floppy drive, which cost about £200, but was a lifechanger ! You could put 4 games on a double-sided floppy, and they loaded instantly.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes, I had the same experience when we eventually got the FDI-1. It's a shame AMSTRAD didn't just concentrate on making the colour screen cheaper and make up for it in increased sales. I wonder what numbers of each type were sold, never seen any sales figures.

[@chrisukone]

Neil, my second PC was a 464 with the GT65 monitor. My first being a Vic20. My family were not rich and in retrospect it cost them a lot. I don't think I really understood that when i was 15, but bless them, they said I had a passion and that memory will live with me for the rest of my life. I ended up learning so much about BASIC and assembly language . It really made a difference to my younger years. Mum and Dad are long gong now, but the faith and the expense they couldn't afford at the time will stay with me forever. I love reliving all this through yours and a couple of others channels. Don't give it up. You bring a lot of happy nostalgia to a lot of people. :)

[@outtheredude]

The tall key Amstrad CPC 464, with the original colour monitor and twelve cassette game pack, was my very first computer back in June 1985 for my 11th birthday! I've still got it today, currently hooked up to my TV! :-D

[@lactobacillusprime]

Thanks for sharing. My cousin had the green screen monitor and a Schneider and we programmed and played games on that quite a bit. The good part was that with a large family and many cousins we all had different systems back in the day which exposed us to all the various platforms out there.

[@NaeMuckle]

A big red box full of cpc games and my dad with a big smile on his face as he returned from the car boot sale. Kept playing it for a decade.

[@broonage]

Love the little story of your mum's only exposure to video games....my mum would spend hours playing Flimbo's Quest on my C64, she completed it several times :)

[@diegocipriani]

The CPC6128 was my first PC at 8 years old in 1989, what a nostalgic effect! Thank you Neil and Keith!! My best regards from Italy!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, and thank you for watching. I wonder if Mr Sugar realises just how much fondness we all have for his cost reduced, colourful plastic, bundles of joy?!

[@jessepatterson8897]

I’m a massive nerd, who grew up in both countries, but more the US during my formative computer years, so your series has been great for seeing what I missed.

[@64jimboy]

Thanks, great video. I had a CPC 464 as a kid but stupidly sold it 5 or 6 years ago. I do remember managing to re-purpose the GT-65 monitor to work with my first Amiga (600) when my TV broke. I'm probably the only person to have used Octamed with the GT-65. Thanks Amstrad.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I too used the GT-65 as a monitor on my Amiga 500. I had moved on to a Phillips CM8833Mk2 by the time Octamed appeared on the scene so I expect you are right! The picture was a little soft but it beat using a TV.

[@Colin_Ames]

Thanks to both of you for a great video.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

I had a CPC6128 and colour monitor, but also Amstrad sold a TV Tuner box (with a built-in speaker) that went under the monitor to convert the monitor to a TV. You just swapped the cables between the CPC and TV Tuner.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I had one of those TV tuners too. I bought it secondhand from a school mate. It was a pretty good picture if I recall, but I don't think it had presets. AMSTRAD also made a matching clock radio.

[@Beaps73]

I picked up a bag of cpc disks about a year ago at a car boot. I listed a few on an Amstrad forum. One was DT Supertest. I asked how much is it worth, one guy said I'll kick it off and give you £130 so I sold it. I only paid £2 for the whole bag

[@ctrlaltrees]

My best friend as a kid had the CPC464, I knew literally nothing about it until I started watching RMC. Not many people out there covering the Amstrad 8-bits (there's also Noel's Retro Lab - another great channel but he's mainly about fixing them). Interesting to see the entire range laid out like this with all of the matching bits and bobs. Also I could listen to Keith talk about paint drying so I very much enjoyed this one. 😁

[@chopschoppsta7197]

Marvellous !! As always !! 👍🏼

[@boddickergames7304]

I used to sit down with my Commodore 64 and look down smugly at my friend's Amstrad, and then I saw the Amstrad version of Gryzor/Contra and the mocker became the mocked and I cried a little.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Gryzor is one of my all time favorite CPC games and one of the best looking. I remember playing it all the way through to the end, although I can neither confirm or deny whether an infinite lives cheat was used.

[@boddickergames7304]

The Digital Orphanage I was completely blown away by it, I completed the arcade game once when I was younger and had much better reactions but could never do it again!

[@ccfc147]

And we both looked down on the spectrum owners

[@paddycoleman1472]

I had a CPC664 and used it for my college work. For its time it was an amazing computer.

[@ME-ke7qc]

3:08 the bottom cpc 464 is the earlier amstrad with the chunky keys very rare...i know i had one back in 84

[@GarethNIreland]

Superb video guys. Subscribed

[@stevecharlton3271]

Yay the cpc a computer I loved as a kid still love it today

[@geofftottenperthcoys9944]

Loved my 464. Wrote a D&D PC creation program in basic with a lot of options for my then game. For me Macrocosmica was one of my best remembered and long played games.

[@HuntersMoon78]

I recently picked up a CPC 464 at a flea market for £5, took it home, plugged it in and to my amazement it worked. A few month later I found a carrier bag full of games for £8

[@RetroRecollections]

Brilliant look at the Amstrad CPCs, a computer I have zero experience with. I do have a very old memory of seeing a CPC 464 in a shop window (I think Tandy or Dixons) with the green screen monitor and wishing I had one. 👍

[@willyarma_uk]

Great video as always. I've got a 6128, I've got the PSU modulator box and carefully added an RGB scart socket to it, image is amazing! Also carefully widened the floppy bay and put a 3.5" drive in there as the original 3" drive stopped working, I think its the rubber belts, it works great, and looks ok.

[@macIain]

My first computer was and Amstrad CPC 464 with Harrier Attack. Harrier Attack was amazing!

[@stevec00ps]

@23:46 - is that a 3.5" drive (in what looks like a Hayes modem case!)? Didn't know you could get these for the CPCs!

[@RMCRetro]

Yes that's a mod keith made for his many years ago before floppy emulators. It works well

[@PeteSlater]

I must have been lucky... My desk at home when I was a kid contained: A Sinclair Spectrum 128k A Commodore 64 Am Amstrad CPC 464 I got to play games on all systems and appreciate the differences between them.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

But which playground gang did you join? Were you accepted or shunned by them all?

[@MrDuncl]

What year was that ? In 1985 that would have cost a small fortune. In 1995 you may have got change from £20. I got a working Spectrum for £1 at a very wet car boot sale back then !

[@RonLaws]

OMG!!! I HAD ONE OF THESE 24:26 -- Rescued it from a recycling centre years ago, so sad when i had to let it go :( never quite got the monitors working right (Inverted colours) the Nintendo Play choice 10 Deluxe is such a hard machine to come by in working order.. It was essentially a NES on steroids with 10 electronically selected ROM cartridges. Would love to see a video on this, i was too young at the time to fully understand how it worked (and thus never solved the screen issues)

[@ratspike8017]

I know this was all about Amstrads, but I noted the comment about buying an A500 in 1989. Me too - I upgraded from my (beloved) Dragon 32 direct to the Amiga. And my playground status shot from zero to stratospheric just like that... happy days... anyway, interesting to have all the unusual Amstrad models explained!

[@SomePeopleCallMeWulfman]

I loved my Schneider CPC 464 back in the day :-)

[@kpanic23]

About five years ago, I was gifted four(!) CPC 664s and one CPC6128 together with 5 monochrome monitors from a former teacher who rescued them from his school when retiring, together with a giant box of 3" floppies. Since all of the 664s had lots of non-working keys, and I, to be honest, couldn't be bothered to do much with them, I gifted them on to a couple of collectors. Who told me I was completely crazy... :D

[@jason_a_smith_gb]

kpanic23 The original hardware isn’t as easy to use in 2019. And the 664 has less RAM to the 6128. Then, all models take up space and require hardware repairs. It would be nice to see a new version of the 6128 which is updated for HDMI and software on SDCard images. However, the 664 wasn’t around for long. So, rare to own...

[@binkman853]

Excellent video - Loved the content & stories. From the US and find the history of the Amstrad incredible.

[@run1492]

On 1984 I've started Jet Set Willy on my CPC 464. Today, just an hour ago and thanks indeed, to the Caprice Forever CPCs emulator snapshop capabilities (otherwise almost impossible), I've completed it... on 2021, just 37 years later. My CPC is my pal forever, I will always love it !

[@electronash]

I had the colour monitor too! (just so I don't feel left out. lol) Loved our CPC 6128 in the 80s. It was my first real experience of computers and games, as our C64 got sold when I was about 3. Dizzy, Dynamite Dan, Spindizzy, Roland on the Ropes, Hunchbank were all favs.

[@electronash]

(add joke about the 3" floppy here.)

[@philipc4272]

They put BASIC on the pack-in game rather than include it on an internal Rom? Alan was an inventive penny-pincher, I'll give him that!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

That he was! I think it also acted as an anti-piracy measure too as there was no firmware or BASIC to make it easy to dump a game ROM's contents.

[@galacticusX]

Wonderful! The 464 was the dream of my childhood.

[@andreiazzopardi]

I had changed the 3" disc drive in my 6128 to a 3.5" floppy with a side select switch due to the lack of 3" discs

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Nice. I made one of those in 2012 for the 6128 you see in the video. That's what I loaded the games from you see in the montage.

[@andreiazzopardi]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage I actually replaced the internal 3" into a 3.5" with the side select switch on top. The 3" internal drive was beyond repair. Had to solder some diode on the 3.5" drive which reason I do not remember why, but it worked! :)

[@MEGAMIGA]

The CPC 464, my very first computer!

[@bennysh]

Ahh..nostalgia! Got the CPC6128 for my "Bar mizva", my first computer which started a life long journey into a career in software development..

[@magicknight8412]

Always great to see the mighty Amstrads ! Now to continue my search for a working, good condition 664 ...

[@davem4544]

I got an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen in 1988. All my mates had Speccys, I always preferred the Amstrad, brilliant memories of playing Rock star ate my hamster, head over heels. Rocky horror & Roland on the ropes. I still play Amstrad now, but through an emulator

[@Jerome_TV_01]

Nice Amstrad overview, Thanks :)

[@colonelk3000]

CPC6128 was my first computer! With the flaky 3" FDD, had a plug in tape drive IIRC, dot matrix printer and a colour screen! We sold it for £100 with all the games in the late 90's, I thought the buyer must have been mad at the time! Sad we don't still own it though :/ Jet Set Willy and Who Dares Wins 2 were probably some of the most played titles for myself and my brother I think.

[@Beaps73]

The CPC was my first entry into gaming and yes I was a green screen peasant haha

[@AnthonyFlack]

I remember I once dreamed I had a colour monitor and the disappointment of waking up to find it was green again.

[@Beaps73]

I got wind that Amstrad was going to release an RF modulater. I went into Tandy and pre-ordered one, my green screen days were over, maybe not. Tandy never got one in after 8months of waiting, I was a very sad little boy and had to return to my green screen :-/

[@AnthonyFlack]

I did get the MP1 modulator a year or so later, but I could only use the TV if I got up early on Saturday morning. Also the picture was terrible. I remember dark blue appearing with harsh diagonal black stripes across it. Pretty disappointing compared to my friend's colour RGB monitor.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

We were by no means a well off family but I'm realising how lucky I was to have that colour monitor. Having sound and colour graphics, was such a leap from the secondhand silent ZX-81 on an old 10” B&W telly. You can imagine how happy I was!

[@AnthonyFlack]

@buster2006 - funny thing is I'd quite like one to have one now. See the old green lines again. Having only one colour meant the picture was nice and sharp, and it was quite neat how it produced 27 distinct shades of green.

[@christophersavart5589]

We used to have both in my house when I was kid. My big brother had the cpc6128 and I had the commodore 64 with cassette tape(wich used to belong to him) . We used to compare both versions of the same games and we mostly came to the conclusion that games look more colorful on the cpc but we're more detailed on the c64. The music and sounds were often better on the c64 but they were some exceptions.

[@johnonebigscribble]

Absolutely fascinating video... keep up the great work!

[@jparky1972]

I bought an Amstrad cpc464 as my way of getting into computer programming. A job I did for a number of years!

[@run1492]

Great great video, thanks ! By the way, try, in a real cpc 464 to power up it, then write "call 19" + intro, then "call 20" + intro. The screen goes desyncronized and the tape unit makes a continous "clack-clack-clack" sound until you reboot it ! That was a simple but intense experience those days hahah

[@antony1974]

CPC6128 for us, And non stop playing Sorcery+ with the colour monitor! Loved it.

[@techsupportrich]

You didn’t mention the Multiface 2!

[@RMCRetro]

That didn't make the edit I'm afraid, great bit of kit though and has there ever been a better name for a company than "Romantic Robot"?

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yeah Neil, people need to hear me waffle on about my Multiface 2 and how it changed my life for the better! 😂 Versatile and very clever bit of kit!

[@techsupportrich]

My memories of it are a little hazy. I remember it had the feel of something that was put together on somebody’s kitchen table. I think there was an upgrade that made it a 2+, which involved my dad sending off the one we had to be worked on. It came back encased in gaffer tape. Am I right in thinking it would basically let you dump what was in memory to a floppy disc? Used to copy absolutely every game you could get your mates to bring over. I can’t imagine what Sony or Nintendo would do if somebody made something like it these days, but it’d probably involve some prison time.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes, that's correct. The clever part though was it listened to and made a note of all calls to the chipset too so it could put all the values back on restore of the memory. It was also great for entering or finding cheat codes for more lives etc. They had to keep upgrading it though to improve the stealth features to avoid being detected by games software.

[@gwishart]

@@techsupportrich Romantic Robot was literally two people building hardware on their kitchen table, in a house in Brent. You can see their original "headquarters" here: www.google.co.uk/maps/place/113+Melrose+Ave,+London+NW2+4LX/@51.5531132,-0.22534,3a,75y,189.68h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0raADCKhb8k8Sf5i44BoJg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x48761057158295df:0x78686fd14a643e41!8m2!3d51.5529326!4d-0.2253747

[@chrisukone]

Loved this machine. Best games include the Hewson classic Exolon, Zynaps and of course Cybernoid. There was one I really liked back in the day. Was a type in from an old "Your Computer", mag called "Fantasmagorical". Have looked for past issues for it, but it's spread over 2 months and can't find the second half. I'm wonderin if Neil has it. Planning a trip to the Cave soon. Hopefully he is about at the time to ask"

[@christianfairhurst3877]

Did any games on disk have 128k enhancements compared to the 64k tape versions? And were there any games enhanced for the + models?

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes some multi-part games would load in one go on a 128k machine, and some used the extra memory for speech. Chase HQ did both of these. A lot of the cartridge games for the plus models used a combination of the enhancements, the minimum being a better colour palette.

[@gwishart]

The 128K version of Spellbound Dizzy (and presumably the other Dizzy games that followed it using the same engine) had extra graphics compared with the 64K version. For example, there are different types of fruit to eat, stars are animated, extra frames in Dizzy's eating animation, extra sprites for Dizzy when wearing the scuba gear. Also, not a game as such but the 128K version 3D Construction Kit combined both the environment and condition editor into a single program, rather than having to load them separately as on the 64K.

[@ricardobornman1698]

All that retro goodness!

[@fabiosemino2214]

Finally dug up my 464+, working like a champ after 25y of basement inactivity. I've never experienced tape loading back then, now I understand the terrible waiting game :) Tried also some modern games, very sweet micro!

[@005AGIMA]

Always a great video. I only ever had 2 Amstrads. An Amstrad Notepad, and an Amstrad PC2386 DX. Oddly they've become very memorable and are both on my "to re-collect" list. As is a Spectrum +3 which I guess was an Amstrad as well ;)

[@axelBr1]

My first computer was a ZX81, (1K) and then the CPC464. Finally getting a PCW (something)

[@little_fluffy_clouds]

Always lusted after a CPC6128 as a child, but a 48K Speccy was all I had. In my teenage years, I managed to get an Amiga 500, so I was finally happy with my computer. “Grass is greener” envy subsided, until I saw a PC with a VGA card and a SoundBlaster card years later.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Great video, and if you get a chance do have a look at that Apple III, and if they have an Apple II GS with GS OS that would be great as well, as you could do a comparison to the Amiga 500, and Atari ST.

[@MegaAndroyd]

Hopefully Alan isn't out getting pulped. I miss him already.

[@Charlesb88]

I think he was just "booked" for another engagement so his appareance here had to be "shelved". 😁

[@kirbyyasha]

There needs to be a whole series with Alan, I miss him too.

[@Laserdreamz]

Classic, got exactly the same 464 pack in 1987 with the colour screen, my mum has played a couple of games but she was a total whizz at Oh Mummy! I see the Amsoft games get a pasting online but truthfully I enjoyed most of them then and a few stand up now.

[@osgrov]

Very nice. :) As a Swede, the CPC range were only images in british magazines at the time.. I don't think they were ever marketed up here - a shame. Any chance of you digging into ORIC in a future episode? They're quite a mystery to me, but they look cool. Not sure if they are, never played with one! Keep up the great work, love your channel!

[@mychickennotraw1136]

I have watched hundreds of video where white keys/plastics go yellow on vintage computers. My Amiga A1200 has suddenly started going yellow :(. To see that beautiful blue on that 664 disappear to nothing is heartbreaking.

[@davepauljones]

Yes indeed you can retrobright the blue keys, I successfully did mine, looks excellent now! timestamp is 12:49, did not do gray keys yet.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Do you have any before and after photos?

[@davepauljones]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage Yes took a few, just wondering where to upload them

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

@@davepauljones you could try asking www.cpcwiki.eu to host them. I am interested in seeing the comparison so if you could also email me a before and after photo that would be great (via the email address on my YT about page)

[@bodegg2]

I won a 464 with colour monitor in a 'Your Computer' magazine competition back in 1984! Once spent so long in front of it I got a severe migraine and some vision loss!

[@webbo73]

only thing missing from this was the RetroRoadtrip music and titles 😀...Love those.

[@RMCRetro]

Don't panic I have a trip booked at the end of this month and the theme tune will be dusted off for that one

[@zxkim8136]

Great episode Neil I'd have the 472 personally 😀😀😀 Kim 😀😀😀

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

Christmas '84 I nearly had a seizure when my parents pulled a "just one more thing" moment and walked down the stairs with the boxes for a 464 with colour monitor.

[@RobR386]

I had a CPC464 with the GT65 monitor

[@sirraymondluxuryyacht8131]

My friend had a CPC464 colour screen, I had a CPC464 green screen, and my cousins had a CPC 6128 - My friend had a ZX Spectrum - Ahh the good old days

[@wag-on]

Green screen peasant here 😭. The only redeeming quality was the screen was pin sharp. Love these machines.

[@GMMilambar]

Ahhhh.... My first computer was a CPC464, with the monochrome monitor, too poor to afford the colour one. Fond memories of sitting late into the night, playing a fruit machine simulator on it.

[@kaptainkopter7655]

An Enter and Return key on the same keyboard! Mind blown.

[@MM-gt8cg]

That’s a veritable smorgasbord of Amstrad 80s goodness

[@Ezyasnos]

We don't have Amstrad CPC's over here in the Netherlands. We have Schneider CPC's, and I have the Schneider CPC 464 and the 6128 :) The Schneider CPC's don't have those coloured keys. Too frivolous I guess :D

[@blitoris]

Never considered myself lucky, but getting a colour monitor with my 464 I must have been.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes I'm realising that too!

[@natsume-hime2473]

What ever that red computer with the indicator lights on it was, that thing would be fascinating to learn about.

[@ttrjw]

The industrial design of the plus reminds me of the PCW.

[@MrDuncl]

You didn't mention the official CPC tuner so you could turn your CPC monitor into a TV. Did it work on a greenscreen ? I had one but used it with a Sony Trinitron monitor from a Prestel terminal. In terms of covering all bases anyone remember the Sinclair PC that looked just like a black Atari ST that Amstrad made ? I have only ever seen pictures.

[@gwishart]

Pretty sure you're thinking of the "Sinclair PC200", it was essentially the "Amstrad PC20" in a different coloured case.

[@MrDuncl]

That is the one. I have never seen either though.

[@TheRetroByte]

I think Neil died and went to Amstrad heaven during the making of this video. Great Video Neil 👍😀

[@kins749]

Not an Amstrad fanboy, but really enjoyed this video.

[@80sretrogamergamingarchive90]

The best British computer ever I wish they would bring it back like a Indian jones

[@Unguents]

Good old Indian Jones and the Temple of Mood

[@shelby3822]

No Alan? *switches over to Techmoan*

[@ApplesnCastles]

CPC-464 was my first computer, I had the colour version too - I also saved up for the digital speech synthesiser which also had pseudo stereo sound - I loved it. I've not see the (SS1 was it?) since. My fav games were "The way of the exploding fist" and "Commando".

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I had the SS1 too. It had a built in amplifier which plugged into the line out of the computer. The CPC range had 3 sound channels, one left, one right, with the 3rd coming out of both speakers.

[@ApplesnCastles]

The Digital Orphanage Ah so it was the SS1 :) I’ve not seen one since - I have kept some Amigas & ST’s but nothing 8-bit, must say, I am tempted into looking for a good CPC, colour screen & SS1 if I can lay my hands on it and once more, see that blue BASIC start-up screen (I think with yellow text) pop up once again. I am amazed that cassette tape programs are standing the test of time - they’re outlasting some CD’s - which is an achievement indeed given one is magnetic media & the other isn’t! :)

[@P5ychoFox]

I’ve owned every one of these machines and I’d definitely choose the 6128 Plus. Such a beautiful machine.

[@martinvegas1327]

664 was my first computer!

[@Charlesb88]

It's interesting how Amstrad decided not to go with the then standard for compact floppies, the 3 1/2" disk but went with a 3" proprietary format. Far to often we see attempts at trying to get a new floppy disk format to catch on only to see people stick with their older tried and true floppies fornat even if they have downsides. One reason the data cassette tape format caught in the early days of home computers was it was cheap, you could use standard tape recorders in the case of really cheap home micros, and even with dedicated data tape drives ( which had advantages over bring your own tape deck systems as no need to fiddle with volume and tone settings) they where still reletively cheap vs floppy drives, and they could use blank standard audio tapes available everywhere (compact cassette tapes labeled for data storage were sold though generally uneccesary). They did suffered from being slow, sometimes unreliable, and linear recording only (must fast forward tape if more then one program recorded ). They also suffered their being no cross compatable data format for them (The Kansas City standard was an attempt to address this issue that never caught on). I remember when the 1.44mb 3 1/2" floppy became standard, Mitsushita (I believe) came out with ED (Extra density?) Version holding 2.88mb that flopped (no pun intended). Maybe you remember the SuperDisk LS-120 format the used 3 1/2" disk but held a whopping 120mb on floppy. It was backwards compatable with the 1.44mb floppies but despite this lost out to the zip disk which used a propriatry disk size/shape. One if many nice ideas (at least in theory) for improving the standard floppy that failed. One of the reasons for the Macs resurgence when Steve Job returned the Apple in the late 90s was his nice away from propriatry and/or more expensive formats and tech in their computers. They went all in on USB, switched from SCSI hard drives to PATA IDE drives, adopted 802.11 wireless standards, switch to the standard VGA connector over propriatry Apple monitor connectors, the PCI card slot over NuBus card slots, and later the switch to the dominent Intel x86 CPUs from PPC. Obviously back in the 80s thing where a bit more of a wild west as standards went so it's understandable that home micros didn't all stadardize they way the Win PC market did in the 90s.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

-"22:49 six four it's funny isn't it it's not that it offers us anything that we can't already do on the other machines because It's got blue key slightly different shape but hey that's the nature of us retro computer collectors that I guess" - I think this comment just saved me some money. I have an Atari 800xl, an 65xe and a 130xe...and I was preparing to waste a large figure on an 600xl...lol

[@thedevilbunny]

Wow, i'd love to have a place like that in West Virginia! First rate Neil! Really learned a lot!

[@terminusaquo1980]

We are really lucky to have the museum of computing here in Swindon and it's a great place to visit. Swindon is more well known for the birthplace of the railway and the NHS but we have and have had our fair share of electronics companies here as well such as Intel.

[@Dorelaxen]

If you ever make it to Texas, there's the National Videogame Museum there. It's INCREDIBLE.

[@count69]

As a Spectrum owner I was naturally a bit aloof of Amstrad products, we tended to judge them on what they did to the Speccy (just slapping it into a cheap and nasty Amstrad casing!). However, in the early 90s I bought an Amstrad PCW Word Processor(8256?) while at university, one of the best purchases I've ever made in my life generally, not just tech wise. The PCW came with CPM, which was a really easy and versatile command line manager. The printer, which was made to sit on the top of the monitor, and made all my friends laugh they thought it lkooked so ridiculous, was a dot matrix printer, and with a little bit of jiggery pokery could print font up to 96pts and could even be tricked into printing some 'graphics' by using special characters and varying font sizes. For a student with limited space it was a genius design. One day I received a letter from Amstrad inviting me to send them £20 for a ROM upgrade to the system. Why not. A few weeks later I received a ROM chip, and an instruction sheet. The instructions had to be seen to be believed - it was a single side of A4 and it was hand written in biro! It had a bad quality b&w photo of the final wiring of the chip badly photocopied in the middle of the instructions, and a section of typed instructions was also photocopied and stuck to it, you could see where the photocopier had copied the bits of selotape they'd used to stick them all on the paper! Someone had just slapped this lot together onto a sheet of A4, written the missing bits in pen, and photocopied it as it was and called that 'a job done'! Well, it turns out it was probably written by an engineer, so these instructions had bypassed all the corporate sections that stand in between engineers and the public and been sent straight out - and it worked perfectly first time. It took me 5 minutes to solder this ROM onto the board with a couple of wires, and then I loaded the software and wow, was I amazed. The upgrades were really something, a better version of CP/M, new fonts, bigger dictionary, and lots of new functionality. As an ex Speccy owner (I still had it somewhere but it was laughable that I was going to try to write academic essays on it!) I had a lowly opinion of Amstrad. But this word processor was able to do pretty much what Word could do on my mate's PC (okay, without any clipart etc), and all on using mark-up on a green screen (was it yellow/amber?). As far as I remember this upgrade also meant that some elements were displayed WYSIWIG on the screen, which made printing funkier stuff so much easier! All in all I would say the Amstrad PCW Word Processor has been the piece of machinery with the greatest utillity I have ever used.

[@Ouch.]

I had a Spectrum, followed by a CPC6128, followed by an Amiga 500. What a history?

[@SD-tj5dh]

We had one of these in my local youth club.

[@karlreading3201]

Great Video, same again please but with a spectrum vibe! Cheers 🥂

[@trydowave]

my mate had this and we played all those amsoft games to death. Good memories and the best version of Barbarian on 8bit.

[@johnknight9150]

A mug's eyeful!

[@bobingabout]

Had the 464, greenscreen, and the Power/RF Modulator box that let you plug it into a telly. Sold it all to buy an Amiga 600 in 1992/3.