Childhood Memories of the Fond Kind (Amstrad CPC)

[00WReX]

Written earlier this year on an Australian site...I only just found this.

Childhood Memories of the Fond Kind (Amstrad CPC) – Part 1

I'm sure many of you can relate to this article of chilhood memories about your CPC.

Cheers,
Shane

[Bryce]

Nice read. The C64 memories story he links to is also really good. I love his phrase: "BASIC. It's like The Bible, only awesome."
And he must have really loved it, because he's talking about C64 BASIC, which was actually rather bad.

Bryce.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Definitely a cool read.


I was ten years old in 1986 when I got mine. A CPC464 (Colour monitor!) I couldn't wait to set the thing up, and i remember for about an hour, i was baffled as to how to load a game on it, as the only machine i had used prior to that was a Commodore Vic20! So load wasn't exactly working for me! (Don't RTFM me, what 10 year old reads a manual?!)


First game i got going was one of the 12 free games that came with it, and that was Roland On The Ropes, which was a lot of fun at the time.


Being a fan of puzzles, i remember loading Sultans Maze, and after i started to load it, read the inlay where it says "This game will take 17 minutes to load"... needless to say after I had the misfortune to play it once, it never got loaded again!


Then the first non Amsoft games I had! Still remember, it was the They Sold A Million II compilation, which was four games. Match Day, Match Point, Bruce Lee and Knight Lore. Knight Lore barely worked (until a year later when i got a double tape deck and made a dupe of it and it finally loaded!), it was one of those isometric games, which bored me to tears. Play one, you've played them all. Was hooked on Bruce Lee all that summer.


I won't go on any further, but needless to say, being a big Arcade fan, i played a lot of conversions from 1987-1991 (and again from 1993-1998 before the CPC had to be put away to make room for my new PC at the time).

[AMSDOS]

Just wondered if you got a free game when you got a 6128? I brought mine second-hand in the early 90s and wasn't sure if you got a free game (wasn't sure if it had to be an AMSOFT game or not).

[Shaun M. Neary]

Just wondered if you got a free game when you got a 6128? I brought mine second-hand in the early 90s and wasn't sure if you got a free game (wasn't sure if it had to be an AMSOFT game or not).

I'm not entirely sure, I didn't know a lot of disc users back then. I know by the late 80s, early 90s, the pack turned from 12 to 17, the original 12 pack which was:


Roland On The Ropes
Roland In The Caves
Sultans Maze
Harrier Attack
Bridge It
Xanagrams
Timeman One
Fruit Machine
Easi Amsword (not strictly a game, a word processor utility)
Oh Mummy
Animal Vegtable Mineral
The Galactic Plague


Later on, five more were added, taking the total to 17.
Wordhang
Monopoly
Cluedo
Scrabble
Scalextric


The Plus range came out in late 1990, all of them came with Burnin' Rubber, but i'm not sure if anything else came bundled with it.

[AMSDOS]

I'm not entirely sure, I didn't know a lot of disc users back then. I know by the late 80s, early 90s, the pack turned from 12 to 17, the original 12 pack which was:

Yeah, just wondered. I remember seeing Bundled Game Packs through the magazines I'd got with the 6128, though I didn't get anything like that. I got 2 games when I brought the 6128, "Fruity Frank" and "Stairway to Hell". We had a 464 originally and my Dad got "Haunted Hedges" with it (though I understand that "Harrier Attack" was usually the game to come when you brought that computer), I just wasn't sure if the 6128 had the same sort of thing happening with that or if you only just got the CP/M Discs.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Yeah, just wondered. I remember seeing Bundled Game Packs through the magazines I'd got with the 6128, though I didn't get anything like that. I got 2 games when I brought the 6128, "Fruity Frank" and "Stairway to Hell". We had a 464 originally and my Dad got "Haunted Hedges" with it (though I understand that "Harrier Attack" was usually the game to come when you brought that computer), I just wasn't sure if the 6128 had the same sort of thing happening with that or if you only just got the CP/M Discs.

Presumably, seeing as you got the 6128 used in the early 90s, the previous owner probably upgraded to the 6128+ and kept all the games. Could be one scenario. My 6128 was second hand also, and i hooked up the stereo to the CPC in order to keep my existing tape collection until i busted it over either via the Bonzo utilities or the multiface (I think i was one of the last to obtain one of those in 1995, Romantic Robot were no longer doing them but they built one specifically for me). It didn't come with much either, other than a CP/M disc.

[AMSDOS]

Presumably, seeing as you got the 6128 used in the early 90s, the previous owner probably upgraded to the 6128+ and kept all the games. Could be one scenario. My 6128 was second hand also, and i hooked up the stereo to the CPC in order to keep my existing tape collection until i busted it over either via the Bonzo utilities or the multiface (I think i was one of the last to obtain one of those in 1995, Romantic Robot were no longer doing them but they built one specifically for me). It didn't come with much either, other than a CP/M disc.

It's possible I guess, though I'm in Australia and the Plus machines were never released here. I think to get one here meant buying it from the UK.


There is a bit of an article about it here:
http://cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/8b/TAU_59Page6.jpg


This came from an Aussie magazine from December 1989. In a later issue of that magazine there was news about the Plus Machines, though it was from that news which stated the Plus machines won't be coming to Australia. I think Amstrad Australia were pushing more towards their PC range of machines and the Amiga/Atari ST competitor the PC20.


I did see a "Plus" machine up for sale here in the Classifieds though, so there were some signs that people were obtaining them and using them here.

[Shaun M. Neary]

It's possible I guess, though I'm in Australia and the Plus machines were never released here. I think to get one here meant buying it from the UK.


There is a bit of an article about it here:
http://cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/8b/TAU_59Page6.jpg


This came from an Aussie magazine from December 1989. In a later issue of that magazine there was news about the Plus Machines, though it was from that news which stated the Plus machines won't be coming to Australia. I think Amstrad Australia were pushing more towards their PC range of machines and the Amiga/Atari ST competitor the PC20.


I did see a "Plus" machine up for sale here in the Classifieds though, so there were some signs that people were obtaining them and using them here.

Wasn't aware that the machines weren't released over there. That pretty much marked the death knell for the machine in that case.


As a previous owner of both, the Plus machines were no great shakes. They had better hardware capabilities but few people took advantage of them. The cartridge software was a disappointment, bearing very little in the way of difference to their disk counterpart in either appearance or gameplay.


It was a nightmare for existing hardware users as well. It rendered my multiface useless to the point where I just ended up getting a CPC6128 instead and barely using the Plus machine.

[AMSDOS]

Wasn't aware that the machines weren't released over there. That pretty much marked the death knell for the machine in that case.

I suspect it was the distribution which had something to do with it since the earlier machines were Distributed throughout Australia by AWA-Thorn, and by 1989 Amstrad Australia had decided to push toward the 16bit market, though I would of thought by 1990, Amiga's and Atari STs would of being popular everywhere.

As a previous owner of both, the Plus machines were no great shakes. They had better hardware capabilities but few people took advantage of them. The cartridge software was a disappointment, bearing very little in the way of difference to their disk counterpart in either appearance or gameplay.

The Plus machines suffered perhaps on the Development tool side of things. The earlier machines had a range of software ready to go when the 464 was launched(?). Of course much of it was fairly simple stuff. I guess these days more and more stuff is coming out for the Plus Machines which aid in those extra features of those machines I suppose.

[steve]

I bought a CPC 464 soon after they were first introduced and did not get any software with it. 

It's true, the pioneers are the ones with arrows in their backs. 

A few years later, I bought a CPC 6128 and got the PP8 disk pack with it.

[Dizrythmia]

Thanks for enjoying my article guys!! I've been a member of this Wiki for a while now & was a member of the old CPC forum before that, I just don't check in all that often!!

You've all read about how I got started with the CPC & I don't have anything more to add I'm afraid. I've tried on & off over the years to get ahold of a QWERTY Plus machine, but it's not easy & when I do find one postage tends to be the next block to owning one. I do own a GX4000, but I've wanted a Plus ever since I read my first Amstrad Action, which was the Pang cover in the article.

Anyway, dare to dream I guess!! Thanks again for the kind feedback

[Gryzor]

My 464 didn't come with any games either. A shame! I think later on 6128's came with that disc containing Scrabble etc?

Anyhow, back on topic, thanks for the find, will print it out to enjoy later on. No second part though?


Oh, just as I was hitting "Post" Dizrythmia posted; thanks for the article mate! =)

[remax]

My french 6128 came with no games.


I had to buy a pack from loriciels (MGT, 5th Axis, Sapiens, l'Aigle d'Or) to stop watching the Amstrad rolling demo in infinite loop


EDIT : 87/12... i was a latecomer.

[Gryzor]

Well, at least you got a pretty good games pack

[Shaun M. Neary]

Between the French, with Loricals and the Spanish with Dinamic, those countries were guaranteed to get quality games.


Especially the latter, I have a lot of fun playing After The War and Satan.

[remax]

Well, at least you got a pretty good games pack

Well a great pack i would say... Nothing to let down in this one.