Amstrad newbie - thinking of getting 6128

[Swainy]

Guys, I've been thinking about getting an Amstrad CPC for a while now. At heart I'm a Speccy boy but since I've been doing the RA podcast I've been collecting all different formats.

Anyway there's someone selling a 6128 near me and they want £95 for it. Is that a good price and is that the model to go for?

Cheers

[steve]

I don't know if it is a reasonable price, does it include the colour monitor?, does it have much software with it?, what extras are included?

[Swainy]

To be honest I'm not sure, just sent the guy another message. I know that it doesn't come with any games, just the manual and a few machine code books. Oh and the drive belt has been replaced.

[steve]

It's been a long time since I bought any CPCs and do not follow current prices, it may be best to do a completed listings search on ebay.

[endangermice]

Swainy! An absolutely splendid choice of machine .



I think £95 is too much for a 6128 on its own, I presume your referring to the ebay listing. The same guy is trying to sell a 6128 plus for £300 which again IMHO is too much. I've never paid more than £50 for a 6128 and both of mine included the monitor and a few games. I last bought a 6128 a couple of years ago and I very much doubt they have climbed in price that much! I also got a 6128 plus last year and paid about £60 for that though it was a French model which I exchanged the keyboard for Spanish version which is very close to the UK.


I think you might be better off positing a wanted on Amibay. I think you'll do better that way. If you need a monitor, I have a spare CTM 664 under the stairs. I think it's working ok and it's yours if you want it - the wife has been wanting me to get of it for ages!


Anyway if you need any help etc, the guys on this forum are nothing short of exceptional and you have my number if you want to text / phone me! If you end up getting one that doesn't work I'm sure I can fix it for you and if not there's always the legend that's Bryce who knows more about Amstrads than I thought was humanly possible!


Cheers,


Damien

[Swainy]

Thanks Damien, it was actually on preloved.com that I spotted it. Was hoping to knock the price down but obviously I won't be making an offer if it doesn't come with the monitor ect.

[Swainy]

Right, the guy got back to me. It doesn't come with the monitor, only the power supply, the usual manual and an Amstrad omnibus manual and two machine code books. So I told him I couldn't pay more than £50 for it as I would either have to buy a monitor or spend at least £20 to get it working on a normal TV.

At first he said fair enough but now he's got back to me with a lower price of £60 plus he will throw in 50 issues of a Amstrad Action.

Still not sure what to do as I will have to fork out for a psu/Scart adaptor and of course get some games for it.

[endangermice]

No worries. Hmm if it comes with a power supply then I can only imagine it either comes with an adaptor from ebay or has the MP1 modulator. If it's the former, the disc drive won't work unless the power supply provides 12v in addition to the 5 to run the computer (one the pre-Plus machines the drive motors require 12v). However most people replace the 3" drive with an external 3.5". The CPC uses a drive controller that's compatible with the standard Shugart floppy interface meaning you can hook a standard 3.5" drive to the CPC an older PC ribbon cable that includes an edge connector (these should still be easy to find). Most of the modern 3.5" drives will happily run from 5v so in this case 12v won't be needed but the 5v supply will need to provide enough amps for the CPC and external floppy.

If it has an MP1 then you should be angle to hook it in to the TV using RF though the quality of the picture is somewhat lacking. MP1 could be used in conjunction with a SCART cable though.

If you have an external floppy wired up (with a couple of cable modifications - check the wiki for a complete guid) the. You can use a program such as CPCDiskXP to transfer a disk image to a 3.5" disk using your PC as long as it has a standard (not USB) floppy drive.


SCART cable will cost around £10-20 I think Retro Computer Shack do a decent one or you can of course roll your own.


£60 sounds better and the mags might be a bonus though I guess that doesn't include postage...? Might be worth trying to push for £50 unless he's adamant.

[Swainy]

Well it's a local sale so no postage involved but I'm worried now about the psu not powering the disk drive.

[Bryce]

Hi Swainy,
       and welcome to the forum. I would assume he's giving you a PSU that will power the drive too, otherwise it would be useless, but check with him anyway. If you do get it, I'll make you up a SCART connection in return for the two Machine code books.

Bryce.

[endangermice]

If you do get it, I'll make you up a SCART connection in return for the two Machine code books.

You can't say fairer that that .


If you do want my spare CTM 664 too (for the authentic experience), it's yours and it does have the 12V supply. I'm helping my sister-in-law move in a couple of weeks time. She lives near Beaconsfield so nearish to you. I could leave the monitor with her and you could pick it up when you have a free moment.


I'll give it a test first - it was working last time I used it which admittedly was a few years ago.


Feel free to reject it - you may just want to go with the SCART and external supply option.

[Swainy]

That's very kind guys. I've asked the guy to send me some pictures so we could identify the psu as I would like to use it on a TV if possible due to lack of space for a monitor.

I'll keep you both updated

[chinnyhill10]

Guys, I've been thinking about getting an Amstrad CPC for a while now. At heart I'm a Speccy boy but since I've been doing the RA podcast I've been collecting all different formats.

Anyway there's someone selling a 6128 near me and they want £95 for it. Is that a good price and is that the model to go for?

Sorry I'm late to the party but going rate is £50. Perhaps more if it has a monitor (but who wants one in this day and age).


Ignore the idiots offering Buy It Nows on Fleabay for £200 quid pop. That all kicked off during the 30th coverage where some chancers thought they could make a few quid.

[chinnyhill10]

Swainy! An absolutely splendid choice of machine .



I think £95 is too much for a 6128 on its own, I presume your referring to the ebay listing. The same guy is trying to sell a 6128 plus for £300 which again IMHO is too much.

There's no IMHO about that being a high price. It's ludicrous and pushes the market up as people suddenly think that's what they should go for. People like that ruin it for all of us.

[Neil79]

There's no IMHO about that being a high price. It's ludicrous and pushes the market up as people suddenly think that's what they should go for. People like that ruin it for all of us.

Kinda like what Amiga Heaven... Pen T fold has done to the Amiga market! You can blame him for the rapid increase in Amiga game prices

[Swainy]

Well the bloke hasn't got back to me with pictures yet, hopefully tomorrow. I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off with a 464 but I did want a 128k machine if possible.

[steve]

Choosing between a 464 and a 6128, difficult, have you considered splitting the difference and getting a 664.

[paradroid90]

Hi Swainy

When I first dipped my toes into the Amstrad World I bought a 6128 which needed some TLC.

I must say I never regretted it :-)

Mine has a 3.5 inch disk drive in the 3 inch bay, a new keyboard membrane and Parados installed.

All done for a reasonable price.

The reason for the post (I was getting there lol) was that if you find a 6128 which is a bit worse for wear there are plenty of people who would be prepared to help you in restoring it to its former glory.

This would allow the machine to be obtained for a reasonable price and create a machine which matches what you want from it 

[Bryce]

As long as the case isn't damaged and all keys are present, everything else can be fixed.

Bryce.

[endangermice]

I'd definitely go for the 6128, the 664 (due to its short lifespan) is pretty rare and does usually commands a hefty price. The ease of hooking up a standard 3.5" drive and transferring the disk images from a PC makes it pretty easy and cheap to get up and running and disks load a lot faster than tapes with the option of adding an HXC later if you want to be able to store multiple images on a drive emulator - something I'm definitely looking to purchase over the next few months.


For me the ideal entry setup is a 6128 with external 3.5" floppy drive and SCART cable.


Due to their relatively standard off the shelf components (apart from the Gate Array and PAL) it's still pretty easy to get all the parts you need to repair them. If possible I'd try and get the non-cost down version. The cost down has a surface mount custom IC which replaces the functionality of several separate ICs on the original (CRTC, Gate Array and on 6128 the PAL). These are much harder / impossible to repair if the custom IC has died. I believe one of the ways to identify the Cost down version is a different Amstrad logo on the top of the case though I don't know whether the logo changeover reflects the cost down changeover - I suspect it doesn't.


If the seller knows anything about CPCs they will be able to tell you which it is and there are pictures of each available on this site.

[Munchausen]

£60 is actually pretty good, particularly with the SSA-1 (if it's the ad I think it is) and the magazines, and if it's in good condition. Not having to drive far or pay for postage is also worth something.


Also, I recently saw a smaller number of AA magazines go for a fairly hefty amount on ebay.

[Swainy]

Right, turns out that there are no leads! What do I do guys?

I'm a bit confused, would this solve the problem? http://www.thesinclairshop.com/PDF/Amstrad-duel-voltage-psu.pdf

[Bryce]

Is it just me, or is that pdf just a picture of stripes of sky? Shit, I really need to cut down on the green stuff [nb]Turned out my Acrobat had crashed and was only displaying the background [/nb]

Take it anyway, you can power it with a +3 PSU (which you most likely own) with a simple adapter, that's what I do. I can organise one of these for you too. But I'd get him to knock another 10 quid off the price.

Bryce.

[Munchausen]

Do you plan to use the 3" drive? Because if you're using an HxC or something, you wont need the 12V supply, only 5V.

Also, what display will you use? Easiest thing to do is use SCART, with something like this: AMSTRAD CPC 464 / 664 / 6128 RGB VIDEO / AUDIO SCART CABLE 1.2M | eBay
BTW that seller, ikonsgr, is on the forums and is very helpful and will provide support, so I would recommend him as a seller (it's a good price too).

There are full kits (SCART cable and PSU) on ebay, but the only one I could find was this and it's a little pricey: AMSTRAD CPC 6128 TV CONNECTION KIT - PSU ADAPTERS & RGB SCART CABLE | eBay

Or if you need SCART and 5V power but dont need the 12V for the disk drive you can get this kit: AMSTRAD CPC 464 TV CONNECTION KIT - PSU ADAPTER & RGB SCART CABLE | eBay

If you have a +3 PSU then go with the adapter from Bryce and a SCART cable.

If you want to use composite, VGA or HDMI you will need a converter.

[Munchausen]

Oh also, that PSU you posted looks like it would work ok, if not the neatest solution in the world.