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Started by ralferoo, 18:00, 27 March 12

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ralferoo

Just found this whilst browsing from April 1984 - [http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?cat=36]

(sorry about the URL formatting, whenever I submitted it, it kept being deleted unless I put it into square brackets)

Amstrad machine is announced

ALAN Sugar, Amstrad's chairman, has now formally announced the Amstrad home computer.
Called the CPC 464, the machine will be offered in four versions. System 1 consists of the CPC 464 console with green screen monitor, priced at £229. System 2 replaces the green screen monitor with a colour monitor for £329. Systems 3 and 4 are the same as 1 and 2, respectively, except a single 3 in Hitachi disc drive is also included running CP/M. These latter options are priced at £429 and £529.
The two disc versions result from a licencing deal with Digital Research for the CP/M 2.2 disc operating system.
Amstrad plans to deliver the first batch of 1,000 machines to stores in June and by Christmas expects to have produced over 200,U00 machines, all of which have already been underwritten by the major chain stores.
The CPC 464 is to be sold initially by Boots, Dixons, Comet (recently bought by Woolworths) and Rumbelows.
The CPC 464 — reviewed in this issue — has a Z80 processor, with 64K Ram and 32K Rom. The machine also features a built-in cassette unit:
According to Alan. Sugar, the machines demonstrated at the launch were production run units with finished Roms, which means that Amstrad may well avoid embarrassing delivery delays.
Software for the CPC 464 also looks healthy. By June some 50 cassette titles will be finished. About 22 titles are running now.
These will include educational titles from Bourne Software, a wordprocessor from Juniper, Pascal from Hisoft and a promising selection of games conversions. These include: Codename Mat and Haunted Hedges from Micromega, two titles from Indescomp Roland in the Cave and Roland on the Ropes (better known in this country as Boogaboo and Fred), Mr Wimpey, Hunchback and Pengwyn from Ocean, Microbot from Softek and several titles from Romik.
An assembler/disassembler is in the pipeline and Softek. is working on a Basic Compiler.
The CPC 464 is to be.launched simultaneously in the UK, Franch and Germany. At present there are no plans to sell the Korean manufactured micro in the US.

MacDeath

I almost had some tears :)

ervin

Thanks ralferoo.
Glorious stuff.

It's amazing what sort of feelings and memories can be stirred up by an old article like that!

MacDeath

what other computer featured a build-in tape driver on a keyboard at the time ?

Most if not all had those as external extension ?

the computers with built-in diskdrives were also quite expensive at the time... Apples and Mac, IBM5150 PC (and XT and AT)...

the 5"1/4 from IBM5150 were humongous too.

Gryzor

Wow, this sounds superb! I think I'll pester my dad to get me one for Christmas, I wonder if I can push it for the System 2...


Seriously though, amazing post, and the site is simply great. It's a real shame it only run for 4 months back in '08... :(


Hey, someone should start a real-time twitter account on the subject, like they do with other stuff (been following WWII and the Titanic myself)...

steve

Quote from: MacDeath on 06:42, 28 March 12
what other computer featured a build-in tape driver on a keyboard at the time ?


Not at the time but several years earlier was the Commodore PET.
Also there was the Coleco Adam which had twin "data drives" in the main unit and also included a printer, but was so expensive that they did not sell in sufficient numbers for the product to continue to be produced.
The Epson HX20 included a microcassette.

Can anyone think of others with built in cassette drives?

Bryce

#6
@MacDeath: Actually there were a few other computers at the time and before, that offered a tapedeck in the Keyboard, even the French company Micronique released the Victor/Hector in 1981 (2Mhz Z80 16K) and the Hector HRX and Victor HR / 2HR in 1983, which may even have been where Alan "borrowed" the idea from :D Th HR machines were actually quite well designed (5Mhz Z80 64K RAM), the only major "forehead slappingly stupid" decision they made was to ship it with Forth instead of BASIC.

Bryce.

Edit: Here's some links to pictures, so that you can appreciate the similarity:

The original Victor Lambda (1980):
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM musem ~ Micronique  Victor Lambda

The Victor/Hector:
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM musem ~ Micronique  Victor / Hector 1

The Hector HRX:
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM musem ~ Micronique  HECTOR HRX

The Victor 2HR(+):
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM musem ~ Micronique  Victor / Hector 2HR / 2HR +

The last in the series was the MX, which was announced around the same time as the 464, but I'm not sure they ever sold more than a handful:
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM musem ~ Micronique  HECTOR MX

Gryzor

By gods these are ugly!

Bryce

Yup, the sound was crap too, and the colours were nothing to write home about either. That might explain their lack of success.

Bryce.

00WReX

I reckon I even see a hint of SAM Coupe in that Hector MX  :D

Cheers,
Shane
The CPC in Australia...
Awa - CPCWiki

Gryzor

Quote from: 00WReX on 14:00, 28 March 12
I reckon I even see a hint of SAM Coupe in that Hector MX  :D

Cheers,
Shane


Well, only the slight wedge... otherwise, the SAM was a really cute machine whereas this one looks like a troll took a crap...

beaker

£229 for a CPC 464 with green screen monitor....
I reckon €160 for this one in the listing below is an absolute steal then, and JasonGarvey1989 reckons it's a good deal too!
CPC 464 listing

Gryzor

Well, Jason is still offering a good €80... :D

Bryce

Jason needs to wake up to reality. And if he does get the €160 he's looking for, he should invest them in a good photography course that can teach him how to focus a camera :D

Bryce.

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