AMCHARGE and downloading on CPC, minitel style.

[MacDeath]

ok, there was a strange adapter, it is "joystick male" on one side and DIN5 male on the other one...


What is this ?

some network solution ? Minitel download cable ?



I will post a photo soon.


(Also the keyboard seem more broken than I would have expected, I will disassemble the machine anyway...)



sorry the pictures are bad because I didn't spend time to get my thing to work well (no more battery...)



BTW, I opened the machine, quite clean but the keyboard matrix, I dismounted it, blow some dust, it works fine actually now, but the missing key.


the screw near this key (the right arrow... very "right/down corner" of the machine) is somewhat broken...  well, the plastic it goes into.
not a big deal as there are some clips and the other screws...


As usual the disk drive need a new belt.
I don't remember where I put mines... will have to buy some more anyway.
Thoses things, you alway see them somewhere until you need them... sh***

Post edition : I changed the title of the topic, so it can fit the theme.

[Bryce]

I doubt that cable belongs to the CPC. It could be from any other 8-bit computer or even an old PC (RS232 to Modem) Cable.

Bryce.

[arnoldemu]

some network solution ? Minitel download cable ?

I would say it probably is a minitel cable.
Has the minitel service finished in France now?
if not, you need to find one of the ocean discs/tapes that has "amcharge" on it.

[MacDeath]

Ok, after some research it looks like an Amcharge cable...

[Gryzor]

I don't really remember how Amcharge worked... care to enlighten?

[TFM]

Looks like a TAPE adaper using the Joy port

[arnoldemu]

I don't really remember how Amcharge worked... care to enlighten?

I don't really know for sure, because I never used it, but I think it worked like this:

You connect the cpc to the minitel device (not sure if it was part of the television or not) using the cable.
You then ran the amcharge software and it communicated with minitel.
You logged into one of the "forums".
It was possible to download software to the cpc. I think it used a kind of serial communication to talk to the service.

minitel I believe was a viewdata like service, comparable to "teletext" here in the uk.

[MacDeath]

Ok, minitel was a "dumb terminal", it was given freely by France Telecom.


HxC from the floppy emulator fame even tried his hands on some stuff with those.

Have alook at this page, you can translate it via babelshrimp or whatever.

HxC2001 HeadQuarters : Lecteur de telecartes


So you had some DIN5 connector that act like some network stuff... (remember the midinet on AtariST using the MIDI port ?)


AMCHARGE...
it was some sort of a kit, with a disk and the cable.


I suspect it to work like the codemaster CD using the Joyport to act like a "Tape" plug.

You needed the proper application to run this and the proper "Minitel site".
But I never used it at the time.

[TFM]

Is there still Minitel service in France?

BTX was discontinued in Germany some years ago. The CPC had this 400 DM BTX Moduel, which also contained an enhanced GFX card. It was plugged into the Exp. port and the monitor signal was going through the BTX module.

[Gryzor]

Thanks, I know a bit about Minitel (I had even seen in in french mags of the time; still remember all that pixellated boobage...) but not about Amcharge.[nb]hey, there's no article on the wiki![/nb]


But why bundle it with games? Was there game-specific software or it was just a random medium of delivery?

[MacDeath]

Is there still Minitel service in France?

haha, Minitel was "discontinued" in... 2012... yeah, they just closed the services just now I got this cable...

I wanted to try my Amcharge cable so badly and now it is too late I guess.

hey, there's no article on the wiki!

You are damn right, I searched last day and couldn't find anyting so I had to go at CPCrulez...


just like there is no article on the French Amstrad Crocodile too...yet...

Well, I will get a look at the articles on AMcharge in Amstrad100% magazines and perhaps try a page, sadly i never used the Amcharge myself (and will no more be able to, sadly).

The main problem is that French sceners talk engrish like spanish cows translated by greek goats.
I am perhaps one of the rare french who come here often or even contribute (well, used to contribute) on wikipages.

alongside Toto and Fano, who are keen Engrish talkers too...

The CPC had this 400 DM BTX Moduel, which also contained an enhanced GFX card. It was plugged into the Exp. port and the monitor signal was going through the BTX module.

Would be interesting to see more about it too...

I think there were also Minitel emulators on CPC... you needed a Modem of course.

we have this sweet "Category:Network" that may be usefull i guess, or pehaps a subcategory like "Telematic" would be more accurate ?

[Cholo]

I was wondering about the odd "Amcharge" i found on at least 2 original disc games (second hand).. when i saw the first one i thought it was just the usual "free space lets use it"-manual file copy by someone .. but when the second game disc showed up i couldnt help thinking it might have been on there from the start (especially as both games dosnt appear to have been damaged by the "copying").

[steve]

Could this "amcharge" be the beginnings of a CPC network?

[TFM]

Yes it could. But at the end the CPC Booster+ will make it :-)

[Gryzor]

Well, I will get a look at the articles on AMcharge in Amstrad100% magazines and perhaps try a page, sadly i never used the Amcharge myself (and will no more be able to, sadly).

If you could it'd be great, and don't worry about your english, I'll have my goat edit it

[OCT]

just like there is no article on the French Amstrad Crocodile too...yet...

There's this article though, with the boss' son's unforgettable assessment of a BMW 850 brought over from Spain to the best-selling subsidiary:

c'est quand qu'on remonte dans l'avion ?