Back into the 'strad.

[mike464]

Hello all. Mike here (in case you did not work out that already).


I am based in Cheshire England and the Amstrad CPC 464 was the first computer I used, probably around 1989/90 or so. It belonged to my late brother at the time, he eventually got a Sega Master System in Christmas 1992 and the Amstrad founds its way to my hands. I have fond memories of playing games on it with the GT65 green screen monitor, Who Dares Wins II, Commando, Postman Pat 2, Silkworm, Bomb Jack.
Eventually the Master System made its way to me, and by the time I got a Mega Drive given to me by a neighbour in early 1995 the Amstrad sadly was put into retirement. I did dig it out now and again over the years to see if it was still working and for a bit of nostalgia but it was in the loft at my parents house from around 2000 or so up until January 2022. I took it out and decided to open up the board. Everything seemed to look OK, I gave it a brief de-dusting and powered it on and it worked! The only issue I found was a snapped tape drive counter belt, and a broken counter reset button. Within a few weeks I had both the belts changed, a new reset button and a CTM644 monitor which is great, and I now have a disc drive on the way! I cannot describe how cool it feels to have my original computer from all those years ago now being upgraded and still working.

I look forward to learning more about the Amstrad and some discussions with likeminded people 

[norecess464]

Welcome aboard, Mike!

I cannot describe how cool it feels to have my original computer

No need to describe. We are all in the same boat here, and we share the exact same feelings

I see you already made the first steps to upgrade your Amstrad 464 with an external disc drive, GOOD, that was the best thing to do!

[tjohnson]

It might sound strange but I find that revisiting old experiences like this tends to overwrite the original memories of them a bit.  I got back into my Amstrad's a few years ago after parking them up in the early 1990s.  The 464 and 6128 were both sold when I bought a PC and my GX4000 was left in the loft to later be given away by my mum.  While it's great to relive these things you can never quite repeat the whole experience and I find it's not quite the same, being young for a start, having your mates come over from school to play games, looking longingly at software on the shelf on W H Smiths, waiting for the next issue of Amstrad Action to be at the newsagents, saving up pocket money for a new game, waiting for a birthday to get a game you really want, mail ordering software and waiting weeks or months for it to arrive (sometimes it didn't), waiting for a game to load and then finding its really great or a massive disappointment, even the smell of new software, all good stuff.

[Richard_Lloyd]

Welcome from another Cheshire addict. I'm a hopeless case - PCW & GX4000 as well as CPC........

[Animalgril987]

Welcome !

[norecess464]

While it's great to relive these things you can never quite repeat the whole experience

Of course! We... grew up!
You have to find your way to enjoy your computer again.
For me, it's all about the creative process of making programs for the machine, but using modern workflows.

[mike464]

Thanks for the welcome all.
Pleased to report the disc drive is now connected up and after some initial teething problems, after about 5/6 connects and re-connects with the interface it was finally recognised by the machine. Maybe it was the fact that nothing had ever been connected to the disc drive port since it was manufactured?
One thing I need to do now is familiarise myself with the disc commands as it unfortunately did not come with a manual. Cat I know, |CPM, run"disc, and that's about it 


The good thing about revisiting the machine now is I have a more mature head on my shoulders, the first time around I was just a kid and literally used it to run games from cassette. Whereas now as well as doing that, I really want to get more into the machine, learning some Basic and making some programs, familiarising myself with AmsDOS, maybe some Logo and CPM, see how the Amstrad handles productivity applications.. should be good fun exploring. 

[eto]

While it's great to relive these things you can never quite repeat the whole experience and I find it's not quite the same

It's different - but not worse. I love it to do more deeply understand it, to deal with its limitations. I love it to show things to my kids and see how they also like this ancient machine and explain them, how this thing was an early and important step of what I now call my "professional career". I'm curios, I experience joy like a kid when I have an idea - try it - and it works.

It does certainly not overwrite my memories. Of course, some things do not cause the same effect as they did back then. E.g. I don't play Elite any more. It was a fantastic experience back then and I played it literally for days. Now I'm bored after 3 trips through space. BUT: I still feel how I loved it back then.