Ebay help needen - UK

[TFM]

Can somebody buy this item for me?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INSTRUCTION-BOOK-AMSTRAD-PcW16-/160689301212?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item2569d426dc


They only sell inside the UK, but I would need it in Munich :-D

I take all costs :-D Any help appreciated! For this book we have no download, no pdf!

[fatbob]

I am willing to bid on this for you.
Could you PM me with the maximum amount that you would like me to go up to.

[TFM]

Done :-D

[Gryzor]

Oooh, can you scan it??

[TFM]

Oooh, can you scan it??

Me? Not actually, but in a couple on months I can. If someone likes to volunteer I would make it available. Else I do it in Spring.

[robcfg]

As long as you get it, there's no hurry at all to scan it. I mean, a couple of months won't do the difference.


But, as I understand that it is a quite rare book and needs to be accordingly preserved, i'd like to offer my help shouldn't you find someone nearer willing to do it.

[Gryzor]

TFM, I can scan it myself, sure. If you agree, maybe we could have it shipped to me and when I'm done I'd ship it to you?

[fatbob]

Item won and paymant has been sent  .

Just PM me postage details and I will get it sent to wherever as soon as it arrives.

[MacDeath]

Yeay, PCW-16... the Amstrad response to Macintosh1... almost 10 years after.


Nice GUI though, but IMO this is a bit what the Amstrad PLUS should have been, just add the CPC colours/colour modes, some HardSprites/DMAsounds/Scrollings, and the PLUS casing...

And retro compatibility with both PCW and CPCs...

But anyway, as this one is Z80 based (sort of) perhaps some mods of SymbOS and FutureOS could work on this...

Or  some Hardware mods to get it into a proper SuperPLUS in colour with extra internet connections and so on....

would be awesome.


http://toastytech.com/guis/pcw.html
http://toastytech.com/guis/index.html

hey Stephan, have you sent your OS to this site ?
This is a very interesting site actually.

[TFM]

Actually it has color, just add the right monitor.

I don't need SOS for it, it runs perfectly with Roseanne 

btw: You can even run CP/M as a task on it. (Roseanne is multitasking).

[MacDeath]

Can you change the monitor on those ?

[Bryce]

If you are referring to the PCW8256/512, they didn't have a monitor output socket, if that's what you mean. But they did have a Video and Sync signal inside that (with a small adapter circuit) sould be used to drive a composite video or VHS Modulator signal. I've no idea how many colours or shades were being produced on the video pin though. It may still have been a mono signal. Let me check the schematics....

Bryce.

Edit: According to my documents here, there is neither hardware nor software support for more than one colour - ie: it's definitely monochrome no matter what monitor you use. The Gatearray only works with one bit per pixel and the Firmaware also. Can't find any info on the PCW16 at the moment.

Edit2: Ooo, just found my PCW16 docs (I really need to name my sub-directories more sensibly): The PCW16 could output standard VGA 640x480, so it certainly did have colours internally, but sadly it didn't forward these signals to a port.

[robcfg]

I've heard that it's actually quite easy to connect these lines to the port. I'll dig into it 

[Bryce]

Connecting the PCW8256/512 is quite easy, and was discussed earlier in a different thread here (In fact I think the NSync and Video signals were routed to the rear expansion port), but I don't have enough info to describe a connection for the PCW10/16. If it does have suitable internal signals, they weren't routed to any of the external ports.

Bryce.

[TFM]

@all:

The PCW16 is -totally- different from anything else (PCW10 or Joyces). The have not a single chip in common and no part of the design. Keep that in mind. (No, not even the CPU).

To get color on the PCW16 you have to connect a 2. monitor, a color monitor of course.

@fatbob: Oh, btw. PM sent :-)

[Bryce]

Where or how do you connect the second monitor?

Bryce.

[TFM]

Oh great! I can't attach an .rtf file. I wrote a lot here, but I have not time to write it a second time. Meeting (I'm supposed to be in) is running since 1 Min.

[MacDeath]

So to add a PLUS Asic would be quite difficult indeed...