Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 6128 - Retro computer

Amstrad CPC 6128
What did 6128 mean anyway?

The Amstrad CPC 6128 was designed as the successor to the Amstrad CPC 664, which only had a very short life span, being sold for around a year.

The 6128 had almost all the same features as the 664, except the memory. Like the 664, only 42 Kb could be accessed, the upper 64Kb were used as a RAM disk or to store data. It was sold with a good quality monitor (as with previous machines monochrome green or color) and a built-in 3" floppy disk drive (2 x 180 KB).

In a slight departure from previous Amstrad machines, it ran under AmsDos (the Amstrad Operating System) or under CP/M 2.2 or CP/M 3.0 (CP/M +). The CP/M 2.2 OS was bundled with DR Logo and CP/M+ with GSX (the graphic extension of CP/M). Like the CPC 664, the Amstrad CPC 6128 was almost fully compatible with the CPC 464. This was more of a professional setup than most other home micros - perhaps not totally ideal for the classic games player.

Amstrad's were released across Europe, sometimes under different names (such as Shneider in Germany). The ROM installed in the machine was identical for all brands of Amstrad such as Schneider, Orion etc.

Note that there is a way to find out all the brand names under which Amstrad distributed their CPC range. Go check out the web if you are so inclined. Or if you're an Amstrad nut.

It was a dream machine for those that liked a bit of add-on action, with enough peripherals to fill a small planet available, such as:

• 2nd 3"/3.5"/5.25" FD max 800k
• 20MB Hard disk (4 x 5MB)
• Max 252 x 16K EPROMS
• Max RAM Installed 640k (576k in use - impressive at the time)
• RS-232 Interface, Modem - modems were becoming popular by this point
• 3 key Mouse, Light Pen - light pens were the next 'big thing'. Turns out that they weren't.
• Centronics Dot Matrix Printer
• An MSDOS emulator - impressive stuff. Good if you wanted to 'Dos' around.

On top of all of this, the CPThreeO 6128 was programmed for etiquette and protocol, and was fluent in over 3 million forms of communication. It could even speak Boche. A very adaptable machine.

Due to it's good compatibilty with previous Amstrad machines there were plenty of computer games available, so you could always rely and a fairly sizable back-catolog for entertainment purposes.

It was similar in style to the 664, so was a pretty decent looking machine. If you also had alot of add-ons it looked like you had a rather beastly setup.

The 6128 was never really fully appreciated. Give it some sugar, baby! A fine Retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: CPC 6128
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: Summer 1985
END OF PRODUCTION: 1990
KEYBOARD: All grey QWERTY/AZERTY mechanical keyboard plus numeric keypad with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 128KB (2 banks of 64KB)
VRAM: 16KB
ROM: 48KB
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors 40 x 25 with 4 colors 80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colours 320 x 200 with 4 colours 640 x 200 with 2 colours
COLOURS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 7 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Printer port, Expansion port, 1 Joystick plug (Atari standard), Floppy Disc Port, DIN plug for Amstrad monitor, Headphone/Sound stereo jack, outputDIN plug for external tape recorder, SuperRecals TX1138 MtoF connector for moisture vaporators
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3'' disk-drive built-in
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: Disk drive Power in (5v DC)Computer power in (12v DC)
PRICE: ?

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Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 664 - Retro computer

Amstrad CPC 664
This one was a bit of an Amstragedy.

The Amstrad CPC 664 was designed to be the successor to the popular CPC 464.

This machine was similar to the ZX Spectrum +3 (in the same way that the 464 was similar to the Spectrum +2 - both machines produced by Amstrad).

It was released onto the UK market in the spring of 1985 - roughly a year after the CPC 464.

Like it's younger brother, it was sold with a green screen monitor or the far better colour monitor (at an extra cost). It was a very similar machine with the same sound and graphical capabilities - the main difference was instead of a 'Datacorder' it was fitted with a built in disk drive. They couldn't come up with a snazzy name for the disk drive, it was labelled FDD. Imaginative.

The floppy disk format was the Hitachi 3 inch which was not really a very common format - not a smart move by Amstrad. The Hitachi 3 inch was also used by the Tatung Einstein and the Oric Atmos (a home computer that came and fell by the wayside)

Anyway, apart from the disk-drive, the machine did have afew further enhancements over it's predecessor. It still came bundled with Locomotive BASIC, but a few extra commands had been thrown in for the user to dance to delight with.

You could now play around with graphics a bit more, with command such as FILL (unsurprisingly to 'fill' a graphics area) and FRAME to 'smooth over' edges of images that you had spent hours creating. You also recieved AMSDOS and CP/M 2.2 operating systems, which was a bonus for any of you serious users out there.

It was similar in looks to the CPC 464, and was a pretty smart looking machine. Professional and cool at the same time.

Despite selling roughly 10,000 units in the space of just under a year, the CPC 664 was cancelled at the end of 1985 and replaced by the CPC 6128 - which was a bit of shame really. It never got the chance to be a classic games machine.

Like the 464, it was a pretty good machine that gave potential buyers another choice when deciding what to purchase. These days you have either PC or MAC, back then there was a myriad of flavours to choose from...

Another machine that helped to usher in the floppy drive era. Give it a casual wave.
A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: Amstrad CPC 664
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: Spring of 1985
END OF PRODUCTION: A short life span - end of 1985 :-(
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Locomotive Basic v1.1
KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard, numeric keypad and edit block with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 64KB - 42KB available to the user
VRAM: 16 kb
ROM: 48 kb (32 kb for the CPC 664 ROM + 16 kb for the AMSDOS ROM)
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors40 x 25 with 4 colors80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colors320 x 200 with 4 colors640 x 200 with 2 colors
COLORS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 7 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Printer portBus port1 Joystick plug (Atari standard)Floppy Disc PortDIN plug for Amstrad monitorHeadphone / Sound stereo jack outputDIN plug for external tape recorder
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3" Hitachi floppy drive - not the best choice
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: 5v DC (powered by an Amstrad monitor)
PRICE: ?

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Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 464 - Retro computer

Amstrad CPC 464

Sugar sweeten's the 8-Bit pot.

The Amstrad CPC series were 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. 'CPC' stood for 'Colour Personal Computer', although it was possible to purchase a CPC with a green screen monitor (GT64/65) as well as with the standard colour screen monitor (CTM640/644). The colour screen was obviously more expensive.

The CPC 464 was introduced in 1984, and was designed to be a direct competitor to the Commodore 64. Packaged as 'a complete system' the CPC 464 came with its own monitor and built-in cassette tape deck. Like the CMB 64 it sported a sizeable 64KB of RAM.

The CPC 464 did become a popular machine in the UK, but never managed to break into the upper echelons of brilliance (and arcade gaming) that the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 occupied - no 8-Bit machine ever did.

It was on a par (in popularity stakes for the home user) with the BBC Micro, and was easily seen as a better choice than the likes of the Acorn Electron, Dragon 32 or any of the Oric machines.

Still, with it's responsive keyboard, built in 'Datacorder', 64KB of RAM and sound provided by the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip (popular for arcade gaming in other systems such as the MB Vectrex), it was a formidable entry into the ranks of the 8-Bit generation.

The fact that it came with it's own monitor was quite sexy at the time. Owners felt a certain degree of coolness when compared to those that were using a bog standard portable TV - especially those with enough wonga to get a CPC with a colour screen. The picture was nice and sharp and of course you had no need to fiddle with channels and tuning.

A large number of programs and peripherals were developed for the machine such as AmsDos (Amstrad's Operating System). AmsDos was completely embedded in the Basic using so-called RSX commands starting with , but crazily it could not format disks, you actually needed a special application to peform that simple task! The 464 also could use CP/M 2.2 or 3.0 when used with an external Floppy disk unit (3" Hitachi, 180 KB / face). A lot of great CP/M software was adapted for the Amstrad CPC.

The Locomotive BASIC installed in the machine was decent, and ran at a reasonable speed (but didn't have enough oomph to send you 'loco' down in Acapulco) - but was generally faster than other versions of BASIC out there at the time.

Roughly 42KB RAM was available for the user, and the video memory and the ROM were mapped on the same addresses with a dedicated chip to switch the memory banks automatically.

It was capable of producing decent graphics (required by computer games players - especially when playing arcade games!), but could not quite match the sprites of the C64 or the detail of the ZX Spectrum. Still, with 27 available colours and the video output generated by the Motorola 6845 (which was connected to a pixel generator that supported 4 bpp, 2 bpp and 1 bpp output (bpp = bits per pixel)), decent in game graphics could be produced.

Three built-in display resolutions were available, though increased screen size could be achieved by reprogramming the 6845.

The standard video modes were:

Mode 0: 160×200 pixels with 16 colors (4 bpp)
Mode 1: 320×200 pixels with 4 colors (2 bpp)
Mode 2: 640×200 pixels with 2 colors (1 bpp)

The first Amstrad CPC prototype was called 'Arnold', which gave the name ROLAND (An Arnold acronym) to several CPC classic games (such as Roland On The Ropes). It was built around a 6502 processor before being changed to a Z80 late in the computer’s development. A few months later, the CPC series would be completed with a computer which offered a built-in floppy disk unit, the snappily named CPC 664.

Plenty of games were released for the machine (most of the classic games like Manic Miner, Harrier Attack, Jet Set Willy, Exploding Fist, Elite etc) , and it was popular right up until around 1990. Plenty of arcade games were converted to the Amstrad too. (There would generally be a version of most games for the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad).

The machine itself was pretty nice looking. The colour of the box and monitor went together nicely, and the keyboard had that 80's colour scheme to it. It had the right look, professional yet 'jazzy'.

Ladies and Gents, toast the CPC 464. It was a decent machine y'know. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: CPC 464
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1984
END OF PRODUCTION: 1990
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Locomotive Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard plus numeric keypad and edit block with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 64KB (42KB available to the user)
VRAM: 16 kb
ROM: 32 kb
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors40 x 25 with 4 colors80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colors320 x 200 with 4 colors640 x 200 with 2 colors
COLORS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 8 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Not bad at all. Printer portBus port1 Joystick plug (Atari standard)Floppy Disc PortDIN plug for Amstrad monitor Headphone / Sound stereo jack output
BUILT IN MEDIA: Tape Recorder (1000 or 2000 bauds)
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: 5v DC (powered by an Amstrad monitor)
PRICE: £299

Retro Computers and classic games

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