(*) OK, so that's £10 plus the £20 train ticket needed to go and pick it up :)
After getting back a couple of hours ago from my afternoon trip to meet the seller (she was picking her son up from university in Stafford .. otherwise it would have been a trip down to somewhere in Kent!) - I've powered up the 6128 and it's all fine, except that the drive doesn't read any disks. It sounds like this is a common problem and I'll be ordering some replacement drive belts (and a tape loader cable so I can load from my mini MP3 player) after Wednesday.
It looks like there are 9 or 10 original disks (but until I can confirm what's on them, I'm not sure if the previous owner's sons have wiped their contents as there was a Microprose original but with scribbles over it and some other game's name written on the label). There's also a boxed Fun School 2 (no use for me, even as a technical author!).
As for the 'blank' disks, there looks to be 9 in boxes and approx 25 without boxes. As per the above, until the drive is working, I won't know if what's scribbled on them is actually on the disks.
All in all, it's not too bad a collection for what I paid for it.
10 pounds? You lucky b@st@rd... :D
A pity thebelt needs replacement, but it's to be expected. You can find them on eBay, going for a couple of pounds usually (I remember buying 3 for 5 quid the last time).
Ain't it a grand feeling, turning a machine of old on for the first time? :)
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:53, 25 March 12
10 pounds? You lucky b@st@rd... :D
I thought that too when I saw how much other ones go for - especially the prices being charged for 'just the computer' on some eBay (UK) listings.
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:53, 25 March 12
A pity the belt needs replacement, but it's to be expected. You can find them on eBay, going for a couple of pounds usually (I remember buying 3 for 5 quid the last time).
Aye - payday is Wednesday, so it's a few days to wait before I can order the replacement belt(s) and the tape loader. I'm assuming that loading .WAVs off an old MP3 player is OK?
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:53, 25 March 12
Ain't it a grand feeling, turning a machine of old on for the first time? :)
It will be when I can get it fully up and running :)
Quote from: MugUK on 12:40, 25 March 12
I'm assuming that loading .WAVs off an old MP3 player is OK?
Damn I am jealous, I am after one of the original 6128's at the moment and that seems a great price! :D
I didn't use an MP3 player, instead I set up my 6128+ next to my laptop and just used the soundcard to load tape software until my HxC floppy emulator turned up. These were the instructions I followed: Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource (http://www.cpctech.org.uk/docs/cdtconv.html) and grabbed a load of tape images from CPC-POWER, sauvegarde du patrimoine de l'Amstrad CPC (http://www.cpc-power.com/). Turned out to be more reliable than my old 464 ;D Good luck!
It's a cheapo MP3 player that cost £5 off eBay last year. Uses Micro SD cards so it's just the conversion to .WAV files that will take the time. We (as in the Retro Computer Museum) have used these MP3 players with a 3/4 success rate on the Oric-1, Enterprise and other machines where it takes an enormous amount of arcane analog audio knowledge to get them to load from tape properly. Not what you want at an event :)
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:53, 25 March 12
10 pounds? You lucky b@st@rd... :D
Lucky, yes, but not uncommon. I got an almost perfect condition 6128 with colour monitor, all in boxes for £11. I actually gave them £20 and told them to keep the change because I felt so guilty!
And the opposite :D
Amstrad CPC 6128 +HxC Floppy disc Emulator Full Power Supply Kit & VGA Scart Kit (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-CPC-6128-HxC-Floppy-disc-Emulator-Full-Power-Supply-Kit-VGA-Scart-Kit-/120877895480?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item1c24e24f38#ht_4508wt_1396)
Well, the HxC alone is 100 euros or so. Still expensive though :)
Tape leads and drive belts ordered.
Also borrowed (with a view to buying if possible) another 20 original game disks from the collection belonging to a pub in Manchester. It has a Retro Gaming Night every 2 weeks but has not got a 6128. So at the very least I'll test then and scan both sides for the Wiki ;-)
Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk.
Quote from: MugUK on 10:10, 28 March 12
Also borrowed (with a view to buying if possible) another 20 original game disks from the collection belonging to a pub in Manchester. It has a Retro Gaming Night every 2 weeks but has not got a 6128. So at the very least I'll test then and scan both sides for the Wiki ;-)
That sounds a great idea compared to the old pub quiz! What games are in the collection?
The originals that I have are:
Bought separately: Graphic Adventure Creator & Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja
Came with 6128: Fun School 2 (boxed), Scalextric & Scrabble (no idea what's on side B as a new label has been put on top and the original label is not viewable), Slaine, Combat School, Sonic Boom, Raid, Annals of Rome and something called 'G.M.S' which has an option to run either the 'Simulator' (RUN "SIM") or the 'Creator' (RUN "CREATE") and that's all that's written on the label. Any ideas what this is?
Guessing by the age of the seller's son as she was picking him up from university in Stafford when I picked up the machine, I'm guessing that the bad writing is theirs *and* there's the possibility that all of the disks included will not have what's on the label actually still on the disk.
As for the ones from the pub with the retro games night, they are:
Prince of Persia, Amstrad compilation (Tuberuba, World Series Baseball, Shape & Sound, Qabbalah, The Prize & Supertest 1), Pipemania, Hard Drivin', Turrican, Robocop, Rick Dangerous, Myth, Incredible Shrinking Sphere (loved the tune on the Atari ST version), Ghostbusters II, Fighter Bomber, Batman The Movie, Trivial Pursuit, Microprose Soccer & Six-A-Side, Cyberball, Scalextric & Scrabble with Monopoly & Cluedo on the other side, Live and Let Die, Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja, Operation Wolf, Castle Master, 3D Construction Kit, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, Shadow Warriors, Strider, Batman The Caped Crusader and an Accolade compilation on 2 disks which is Jack Nicklaus' Golf.
Enough to keep me going when the drive belt is fixed :)
Now which ones are needed to be scanned / photographed using my Samsung Galaxy S2 to use on the Wiki?
My, how I'd love to have a pub running retro nights indeed... *sigh*
As for the scans, I'd suggest waiting a few days, I've got something new in the works... :)
No worries. My tape leads and replacement drive belts turned up today so I'll be busy tonight ;-)
Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk.
Quote from: MugUK on 16:02, 29 March 12
No worries. My tape leads and replacement drive belts turned up today so I'll be busy tonight ;-)
Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk.
Just wondering, do you get paid for advertising your phone or does it add that little message whether you want it or not? :D
That's Tapatalk - I only use it when I'm in work as all *fun* places like this are blocked by the company firewall :)
It puts something there - either its own advert or you can put your own text. Never thought to switch it off (as I've bought the app) as it's always been there :)
There is an option in Tapatalk to customize it or turn it off...
Sent from my kitchen stove.
Wow, your kitchen stove is wifi enabled?? :o
Bryce.
Sent from a device made entirely out of lollipopsticks and three rubber bands.
ONLY THREE?! You hardware god, you...
No, sadly the stove is cabled to the router.
Quote from: MugUK on 22:47, 24 March 12
(*) OK, so that's £10 plus the £20 train ticket needed to go and pick it up :)
After getting back a couple of hours ago from my afternoon trip to meet the seller (she was picking her son up from university in Stafford .. otherwise it would have been a trip down to somewhere in Kent!) - I've powered up the 6128 and it's all fine, except that the drive doesn't read any disks. It sounds like this is a common problem and I'll be ordering some replacement drive belts (and a tape loader cable so I can load from my mini MP3 player) after Wednesday.
It looks like there are 9 or 10 original disks (but until I can confirm what's on them, I'm not sure if the previous owner's sons have wiped their contents as there was a Microprose original but with scribbles over it and some other game's name written on the label). There's also a boxed Fun School 2 (no use for me, even as a technical author!).
As for the 'blank' disks, there looks to be 9 in boxes and approx 25 without boxes. As per the above, until the drive is working, I won't know if what's scribbled on them is actually on the disks.
All in all, it's not too bad a collection for what I paid for it.
How much for Combat School... love that game?
I'll let you know when I've got the drive belt swapped over *and* assuming that fixes the problem :)
Turns out the disks from the pub are mine if I can work out what's wrong with their DivIDE and some C64 add-on cart that's been purchased.
With this run of (almost) good luck .. anyone want me to pick their Lotto numbers?
And I've found my Tapatalk settings and switched off the message. I'm guessing it's on by default until you buy it and I never bothered to switch it off :)
@Gryzor: They are red rubber bands, they have a much higher bandwidth than the yellow ones :) but the Lollipopsticks are standard Magnum sticks, which is why it only has Wlan g/b and not n.
Bryce.
Boo-Hoo .. drive still stuffed: New thread here: Grrr! 6128 drive still not reading disks after belt change (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/grrr!-6128-drive-still-not-reading-disks-after-belt-change/)
Hi Mug, nice to see you around this place and I never knew you were a CPC afficionardo! 8) I had a CPC464 back in the 1980s and always viewed it as a baby 8-bit brother to the Atari ST which I dreamed of owning. A couple of years back I got a 6128 for £17 but it came with nothing else. The drive is not reading disks but I still need to fit a new belt (I have two new ones in a box). It makes spinning access noises and the LED lights up, but that is all.
*** I've just read that other topic you linked to and found that very helpful. Just need to have a bash with it all now ***
I got it working even with my fat fingers so it's possible - just I wasn't prepared for 'knackered RAM chips also' - hence me picking up a now working 6128 tomorrow at the RCM Member's Event.
As for 25 years ago - if it wasn't for the payment for the graphics conversion for Out Of This World on the Amstrad and the other machine ... I have to be careful on here :) - then I wouldn't have bought my Atari ST in '87 ;-)
Ahh I forgot about you doing that game, yeah you mentioned it over at Atari-Forum I think. I'm currently deliberating on how to install the RGB S-Video interface that Bryce on here made me last year. I could just solder it directly to my 6128 motherboard and then fudge neatly secure it to the rear of the case. However I would like to keep it separate so I can plug it into other CPCs. The other day I did the simple mod on my Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K (rubber keys), to convert it from RF to Composite. Dead easy job and it gives a decent picture and passes video and sound via a SCART cable. Nice! Still got tons of stuff to get through on the Atari STE and Falcon 030....... NEED MORE TIME! :laugh:
I wonder how many people went from the CPC to the ST instead of the Amiga. It'd be an interesting research...
I picked up my Amstrad 6128 TV kit from the sorting office today and it's looking nice on my 19" LCD TV. Nice .. so long as you like a B & W output only. Time to look for a spare TV for the Amstrad but at least I can now use it with the original monitor as it was the 12V power to the drive from the monitor that was knackered.
Got another 40-50 original disks to test plus a load more to examine the contents of and see what goodies are on there - but of the few I've tried so far Rick Dangerous is already one of the casualties as is Hard Driving (generic read errors coming up).
So I'm there .. kind of. I'd say about 95% towards a working set-up after more than a few months of hassles, repairs, lack of spare cash etc :)
Quote from: Gryzor on 18:00, 13 May 12
I wonder how many people went from the CPC to the ST instead of the Amiga. It'd be an interesting research...
I did...and still have both of them in working condition too. I never used a C64 or even saw an Amiga during the 80s/90s, I didn't really know about an Amiga until I was given one by an ex-work friend. I've got it in the loft somewhere, one day I might dig it out and see what the fuss was about?... but maybe not :)
I too moved straight from the CPC to an Atari ST, I still have the first Atari and an original ST FM, the one without an internal FDD. I bought it years ago and judging by all the dev stuff that came with it, I would say it was originally used by a software developer so may very well have been one of the first around back in the day.
Quote from: Gryzor on 18:00, 13 May 12
I wonder how many people went from the CPC to the ST instead of the Amiga. It'd be an interesting research...
You know all those times where you bought a CPC game and it turned out to be a cheap-looking Spectrum port? I had that same feeling again when I'd buy an Amiga game and it turned out to be a cheap-looking Atari ST port. So in that way the CPC and Amiga felt similar to me. By the time I was wanting to move on from the CPC, the Amiga was the only option. The ST had already looked and sounded dated for a long time.
@Badstarr: I don't think it was an STFM then, probably an ST or a (short-lived) STM. AFAIK all STFMs came with internal drives...
@Carnivac: while games on my friends' Amigas looked better, the ST(e) was far from dated in the late 80s/early 90s. In fact my Amiga friends would come over to my place and play on my ST just as happily (could happen if you weren't a fanboy!).
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:25, 08 July 12
@Carnivac: while games on my friends' Amigas looked better, the ST(e) was far from dated in the late 80s/early 90s. In fact my Amiga friends would come over to my place and play on my ST just as happily (could happen if you weren't a fanboy!).
It certainly was dated for my purposes even compared to the Amiga 500. The ST wasn't a bad machine but the Amiga just had better graphics (when it wasn't just a quick and identical ST port) and sound/music and support from publishers. And not just the games either. The CPC got me into making little graphics and sprites and all that but it was the Amiga's capabilities and Deluxe Paint that really got me hooked.
Did you refer to me as a 'fanboy'?
@Gryzor I will have to have a look at the badge on the machine, but I'm fairly certain it says STFM but it has been a while since I even looked at the machine lol! If it does say FM on it I will post a picture.
You are quite right Gryzor it does say STM on the back of the machine just ST on the front. I must be thinking of the other ST machine I have. Shame I don't have all the software that originally came with it, it had been stored in a garage and after a break in it was all stolen. I have always wondered what the reaction of the thieves would have been when they discovered that their impressive haul was 17 year old software that they wouldn't have had much luck selling at the time!
My STf has an in built drive.... I was thinking about removing the existing drive and putting my spare HxC in hole after I try fix the slight discolouration issue :laugh:
Quote from: beaker on 20:21, 08 July 12
My STf has an in built drive....
It's why it was called STf and not ST. (for floppy)
Do'h! ;D
You're right; it even says so on the old-computers.com website http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=25 (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=25). Thanks for letting me know :D
@Carnivac: no, of course I didn't call you a fanboy, I was talking about my friends -if you read the whole sentence.
@Badstarr: got a few STxx's, but not that one. A shame! Oh, also I gotta find that 4096 STe sticker I had bought from Canada, it's long lost now :( But yeah, I was thinking about thieves yesterday: I was thinking of renting some storage space and I thought, what if thieves get it? What will they do with all those machines? You never know...
@Beaker: are those photos taken from a 80's soft-porn movie?
Quote from: Gryzor on 15:00, 18 July 12
@Beaker: are those photos taken from a 80's soft-porn movie?
heh, oh yeah, sorry I didn't realise the lads left the soft focus filter on the camera we're using to make some still shots of the adult film I'm involved with where Georgia Salpa buys this hot tub and is transported back to the 80's. I play the pizza guy with an awsome moustache... :D
Next time I'll remember to check - I was just a bit shagged out at the time. :(
Next time!?? Next time who cares about the filter, just make sure I get a part in the movie!!
I've just started growing my handlebar moustache :)
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 20:45, 18 July 12
I've just started growing my handlebar moustache :)
/me reminds himself to grow a mustache ... and possibly even sideburns to give himself an edge during the castings.
Aaarrrggghhh, I forgot the sideburns! There goes my chances... unless of course I can manage a "Magnum P.I." chest toupé. :)
Bryce.
Luckily I have these requirements already ... cue the wah-wah pedal soundtrack ;-)
Quote from: beaker on 20:21, 08 July 12
My STf has an in built drive.... I was thinking about removing the existing drive and putting my spare HxC in hole after I try fix the slight discolouration issue :laugh:
I like the ST. A friend had one.
nice keyboard, nice cpu... hardware was ok. yeah you had to work to get it to display what you wanted... maybe that's why I like it more than the amiga.
Quite a few CPC owners I know went to the ST, but I went from CPC to Amiga.
Both machines are decent, I preferred the Amiga at the time (and still do to an extent) but there's a few titles that run better on the ST ..... not to mention, the ST seems to be far more reliable than the Amiga (this is based on my own experience of using them, no scientific tests were done)
There are also some points where the CPC is quite superior to Amiga and ST. But I don't want to start a flame war :)
Woody I agree with you, as someone who like you went from the CPC to the Amiga - I found that the A500s were very unreliable! I went through four - they kept crashing randomly in Workbench making it an absolute PITA to do any programming. In the end the store (the now defunct Runberlows) exchanged my faulty A500s for an A1200 (that's how long I had the problems for) and I have to say from that point onwards I had no problems whatsoever! In fairness, the power supply to our house in the middle of the countryside wasn't the best and I think the older A500 supplies just couldn't cope with the current/voltage variations. Oddly my CPC never experienced any trouble whatsoever.....
TFS/FS please start a flame war - it will be fun ;) . After all these years, it's the CPC that I keep coming back to, that must mean something!
TFM is enough ;-)
Yes, a nice flame war... that would be something... but I guess Gryzor is pretty alergic to that ;)
@beaker: Two likes for you, one for referencing a great movie (really, I loved it!) and the other for mentioning Georgia who appears to be getting the forum's mascot. Maybe we should do a logo with her. Oh, and invite her to CPCWiki HQ for a formal introduction? Money for her ticket would come out of the Wiki fund, of course, but it's fair and for a good reason.
@There are actually a few really nice pr0n soundtrack collections out there; perfect for summer evening driving and whatnot :D
Quote from: endangermice on 23:34, 22 July 12
Woody I agree with you, as someone who like you went from the CPC to the Amiga - I found that the A500s were very unreliable! I went through four - they kept crashing randomly in Workbench making it an absolute PITA to do any programming. In the end the store (the now defunct Runberlows) exchanged my faulty A500s for an A1200 (that's how long I had the problems for) and I have to say from that point onwards I had no problems whatsoever!
I always had two problems with my A500+ from back in the day:
- I went through about 4 internal floppy drives in about 3 years
- I also went through as many keyboards: the A500/A500+ keyboard had it's own CPU onboard, and the problem I had was that the onboard CPU would crash - this would cause the Caps Lock light to repeatidly flash on and off - the keyboard would not work (but the rest of the machine was still running) - sometimes this was also caused by the Gary chip onboard dying.
I never had any of these problems with my CPC 6128 (I'm still on the same 6128 I've owned since 1986)
I've never been a fanboi as such, I do prefer the machines that I had when I was younger (CPC, Amiga, PC) but will quite happily play on other machines (Speccy, ST etc.)
Now that I'm an adult (I'll be 30 in September), I can afford to own CPC, Spectrum and C64 - and because of this, I can pick the best version of each of my favourite games.
I now own a few different STs as well as Amigas.
Quote from: endangermice on 23:34, 22 July 12
(the now defunct Runberlows)
Now that name is a blast from the past :)