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New(ish) user reporting in!

Started by CFox, 19:29, 01 March 20

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CFox

Hello everyone!

I have had a CPC6128 now for over a month and I have had fun with the system in a way that wasn't possible back in the day. I had my first computer, a CPC464, for Christmas 85 and I had it for three and a half good years until I moved to the almighty PC, which coincidentally was also made by Amstrad (Amstrad 2086 with a blazing fast 8MHz 8086  :laugh: ). I also had a Sega Master system in the late 80s, but that never really replaced the CPC, merely just complemented it.

Although I liked the CPC very much back in the day, Amstrad CPC line was only moderately successful in Finland back in the day. Already by 1984 or 85 Finland was securely a Commodore land and even adverts titled C64 as "Official computer of the Republic". Although software was easily available on the store shelves for CPC, there simply was no scene and none of my friends had Amstrad back in the day, which meant that every game I had, I needed to buy. Relative rarity also meant that there weren't any disczines or demos circulating and dedicated magazines for the system was never published (C64 had one). I currently own few retro computers ranging from Sun Ultra workstation to Pentium II/III era machines. Although I have been using CPC emulators occasionally, probably since early 2000s, I just recently decided to go for a real machine, mostly because I find emulators a bit boring nowadays as hardware is a big part of my retro hobby.

And boy, was it a good purchase! As said, emulators never sparked my interest in the system really high and I mainly occasionally played some of the games from my childhood. Since getting the 6128, I have been gradually learning more of the system, reading zines, watching demos and of course testing bunch of different games, new and old and everything in between. CPC continues to surprise me with its capabilities. It is just mind blowing what the late 80s, early 90s and modern game, demo and software developers can do with this ancient piece of computer hardware, not to mention all the awesome indie hardware projects. It is also heart warming to see a healthy and friendly community still kicking alive and well, which ultimately is required to keep the system relevant for years to come.

My next ventures with the system will be getting a CTM644. Although OSSC is awesome for 99% of the stuff, it just can't handle CRTC tricks with the LCD displays it is connected. I do have a 14" CRT telly, which mostly works just fine (I have found few glitches with it, but it may be caused by my SCART cable, who knows), but as I said, hardware is big part of my hobby. So monitor it is.

I can't think of much else to write at this point, so I wish everyone well and godspeed on your CPC journey!
CPC6128 - Gotek FlashFloppy - CTM644 - OSSC

robcfg

Welcome!


The CPC is one of these machines that didn't reach its full potential back in the days, but now they are stronger than ever.


Enjoy!

trocoloco

Welcome man, enjoy your CPC to the fullest. Emulators do a great job and certainly there are very good ones but I hope you find the monitor cos nothing beats the real deal  :)

keith56

Welcome to the forum! It's great to hear you're having so much fun with the CPC again!

I certainly agree that there's lots of impressive 'goings on' with the CPC these days (though to be honest I use emulators mostly even though I own a couple of CPCs)

Are you planning to use the CPC purely for games, or will you be trying some programming of your own?

Have fun,
Keith
Chibi Akumas: Comedy-Horror 8-bit Bullet Hell shooter!
Learn ARM, 8086, Z80, 6502 or 68000 with my tutorials: www.assemblytutorial.com
My Assembly programming book is available now on amazon!

SkulleateR

Welcome to the forum, have fun  8)

CFox

Thank you all for warm welcome!


As for programming, yes, my plan is that I'd also learn it too. To be honest, I've tried to learn programming countless of times from BASIC to Ruby, Java and C. Even 8080 assembly. Still, I've always lost my enthusiasm at the early stages, so I'm not overly optimistic about CPC either. I'm also very interested in other CPC hardware projects, such as M4 board and memory expansions and other OSs it allows to be used.


Edit: working CTM unit should be on the way from France  8)
CPC6128 - Gotek FlashFloppy - CTM644 - OSSC

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