new member rub3ñ

[rub3ñ]

hi, i'm ruben.

I am 20 years old and from germany, near stuttgart.
i am very new to the cpc. i love playing old arcade-games and so i bought a cpc 6128 plus with a monochrome monitor a few months ago for 260 euros from a friend who collects amstrad and schneider cpcs. i love this machine. very stylish.

it looks like i only can run the cpc plus with the monochrome monitor - that's no problem at all. but maybe someone can tell me, how to add a second monitor for getting some more color into my cpc life? i just need to get some more discs with some games on it, but my friend promised to copy me some. so if someone knows where to buy three inch discs in germany, i will be lucky for some informations.

rub3ñ

[Gryzor]

Hello mate!

Welcome to our forum Always nice to get new friends, and always very, very nice to see younger people (oh my god... as if I'm an Old Person! ) getting interested in classic gaming!!!

First the bad news: your friend ripped you off. Maybe not on purpose, but on eBay you can usually find a 6128+ with color monitor for maybe 120 euros. Of course the mono monitors are quite rare (never seen one up close myself) (I think DevilMarkus has one?), but that's because nobody really wants them

The good news is that there are all sorts of ways to enjoy games in color (did you know the Plus range has a palette of 4096 colors? F*ck yeah!). I think there has been a discussion about connecting a normal 6128 monitor to the Plus model, but you can also check out this: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/DIY#TV_.2F_Monitors . Some soldering skills needed, but you can connect a TV to it. There's also a guy on ebay.co.uk who sells SCART cables for the Plus range. Mind you, you'd still need the monitor since it includes the PSU, but he also offers a package with a SCART and a small PSU. If you can't find it let me know and I'll look for him.

Concerning disks, lately there has been a nice flood of 3" ones on all ebays - co.uk, fr and de. Your best bet They usually go for 2 euros each...

Again, welcome!

[Bryce]

Welcome to the Forum Ruben, Gryzor has said all there is to say about monitors (or at least pointed you there), as far as disks are concerned, if you can't find any let me know and I can send you a few. Again depending on your soldering skills, you could also consider connecting a 3.5" drive to your CPC, then you don't need to go hunting for 3" ones.

Bryce.

[rub3ñ]

hi again

i have no soldering skills, so maybe i need to ask my friend if he can build me an adapter to run a color monitor. but playing games also makes fun in monochrome. that's not such a big problem. i don't think that he ripped me off. it's a very nice machine and was one of the best he had. it's completely painted. never seen such a computer before.

the idea with an tv sounds nice, maybe i can use my big flat-screen then and play boulder dash in my livingroom. i will inform me on ebay about the scart-cable and the external psu. thank you, gryzor, for the hint.

bryce: as i don't want to use external additions i don't think that i really need a 3.5 inch drive. i like the cpc cause everything is in one box. very compact.

rub3ñ

[Bryce]

Then head over to everyones favourite tat-bazaar and get some 3" discs there:  http://cgi.ebay.de/40-Disketten-Amstrad-Schneider-CPC-464-u-a-/140539160671?pt=Klassische_Computer&hash=item20b8c9685f

Or if you prefer, let me know and I can sell you some (tested of course) and send them down.

Bryce.

[Devilmarkus]

Hi Ruben,
welcome to our forum.
260€ is hard... Really!
To power the CPC+ on, I once bought a 5v psu @ Conrad Electronics.
5v psu (Link to Conrad)

This suits perfectly for the CPC+. Sure they also have cheaper ones, but don't forget that the CPC consumes about 10w power!

As solution for a monitor: Perhaps you can find a CTM 640/644 (CPC old generation monitor).
It's not too complicated to build an adapter cable to connect it to a CPC+, too.

@ Gryzor: Yes, I own 3 GT 65 green monitors. But no plus monitor...

Cheers,
Markus

[Gryzor]

That's a very nice PSU... very small and handy!

[rub3ñ]

thank you for all the informations.
  so now first i make a list what to buy next and maybe my friend has parts that i need or an old ctm640 or 644 at home he can sell me. don't like ebay that much. all gangstas

[MacDeath]

Hi rüb€n... and welcome.

How Am I suposed to write your name ? I don't have spanish keyboard !!!



(rub3ñ ? lol...)

I am 20 years old

i am very new to the cpc.

Captain Obvious to the rescue.

The youngest CPC is older than you.

[Gryzor]

No need to be rude, mate!!

[AMSDOS]

Guday rub3ñ!

I think it's wonderful younger people are enjoying the CPC! 

[rub3ñ]

Hi rüb€n... and welcome.

How Am I suposed to write your name ? I don't have spanish keyboard !!!

(rub3ñ ? lol...)

hmmm.. not rüben - ruben xD  the name is also an mixdown of english and german. so its even harder to speak than to write.

"rubdryann" 

The youngest CPC is older than you.

im a bit ashamed. maybe i should polish him daily. he's so shiny even he's so old. i like older things, you know 

[rub3ñ]

No need to be rude, mate!!

hmm? where was macdeath (&dead?) rude? he was just joking around.
so don't panic, gryzor. i was much more offended by the "your friend ripped you off"-statement about my (i think) cheap buy of an very unique cpc plus. i am old enough to speak for myself. so if i feel treaten rude i will tell.

rub3ñ

[MacDeath]

Was just some Rite of passage.

Anyway, always good to see peoples born in the 32bit era to get back to better and proper setting (8bit...)

[Devilmarkus]

You forgot the 16bit era
(When I calculated it right, Ruben was born in 1991... So this is more the 16bit era )

[rub3ñ]

im getting 21 in june. so i am born 1990  born in the 16 bit era, raised with 32 bit, working with 64 bit and now? falling back to 8 bit?! crazy little me 

[AMSDOS]

The 16bits were almost going to be on the brink of extinction in 1990 (well for PCs they were) cause Billy Boy was unveiling his answer to DOS, Windows 3.0. Sure it would run on a 286 which was 16bit, it was recommended more for a 386. And if you wanted OS/2 back then it was better to see it on a 386!    The only popular 16bit machines back then were Consoles, Amiga's & Atari ST's. The Amstrad was still doing pretty good for an 8bitter in 1990 though!    Don't know which is the best CPC game for 1990? (I'd probably say Rainbow Islands if it was completed in 1990?  )

[mahlemiut]

Windows 3.0 will run on PC-XTs (8086/8088) also.

[MacDeath]

Vast debate ...
some aspects of 16bit computers are also 32bits,...
Atari ST is often said to be a 16/32bit computer, be it addresses or Datas or instruction of whatever...

Even Z80 can addresss 16bits.

And yep, Professionnal PCs were already at the 386 generation at this time. But of course the average underaged snotling (like me...) could only get his hands on a 286/AT at best (or a 8086/XT...more often...).

I got my first PC around 1990... it was a sweet 286 AT at 8-12mHz with Colour EGA (!) and 2HD disk drives (3"1/2 at 1,44meg and 5"1/4 at 1,22megs...)
With a sticker "ESPAS" on it (was it a brand ? or just the company that assembled it from scratches ?

How lucky I was.

This was such a HUGE box.

At the end of  its "life" I even got it upgraded to have mouse port (yes I know... wasn't in-built feature actually got to get some serial port card), +128K RAM (640 K RAM FTW !) and an impressive 80Meg HDD !

I wish I also got a Soundblaster though... and a VGA ? But we could go playing on a VGA at my father's company on the week end...
(Budokan FTW !!!)

It Died on me while i was playing Might and Magic III, killing giant spiders... (sadface.jpg)

My best friend who had an Amiga at the time was like... heee what a piece of shit in a box... sounds ? nope... colours ? don't let me laugh... and so on... (even no joysticks, because no sound card, lol)

But some games made him silent.

-Ghost buster 2 : the PC version is quite different from Amiga/ST/CPC version... and totally awesome, even got "realsound" samples !
-Fighter bomber (and many Flying simulators, like LHX...) : the huge power of the 12mhz and impressive disk access (HDD and HD disks...)

Also a lot of games were what I call "fake" EGA (limited to CGA palette) but some of them were totally decent graphically (Lucasart games, quite often)...
To be fair, except concerning Sounds, My PC was actually better than an Atari ST  on so many points, just the CGA palette "limitation" on 320x200x16 video mode killed it a bit.

Bit I didn't care as I got access to real 16bit games like Populous and so on.

I still had some great times on my CPC though... THX to games like Rick Dangerous 2 or Shinobi or Pirates!...

So yeap, 1990-1991 was a great era for me.

To be fair, at this time, getting a second hand  Amstrad PC1640 in colour was still a good thing for a "child".

Nostalgiatear.gif 

[AMSDOS]

Windows 3.0 will run on PC-XTs (8086/8088) also.

How badly I wonder is anybodies guess. Anyone in the right mind would have used GEM 1.2 instead - prior to the Apple Lawsuit, though that all happened the same year the 6128 came out! 

[rub3ñ]

i even don't know what you all are talking about.

rub3ñ

[Gryzor]

Here are some screens.
You're lucky you didn't live through the Windows 3.0 days. I remember getting my first PC shortly before Win95 came out, and frankly, DOS was so much better...
The GEM (Graphic Environment Manager??) in a few systems; I used it extensively with my Atari STFM - with the later TOS (that's Tramiel OS, the ST's operating system) versions is was really great...
You might wanna try out STeem, the default ST emulator. Lots of great games there, too.

[AMSDOS]

i even don't know what you all are talking about.

rub3ñ

Would take some explaining all those environments I mentioned and OS/2! So here's some sites:

GEM an Operating Environment (as opposed to Operating System) created by the same people who did CP/M (not that it means all that much), there are PC versions of this as well as an Atari version, which I believe is vastly different. For some reason the Apple Lawsuit didn't effect the Atari version.

Windows 3.0 is merely an earlier version of people put up with today!    Only rough and rugged it had a somewhat different shell. Like GEM back then it wasn't a true Operating System cause both of these used DOS.

OS/2 is a true Operating System (by IBM with a little bit of help from Microsoft I think at some stage), having it's own Command Line and Workplace Shell, later versions could incorporate Windows programs & DOS programs. What set it back in it's day (1987,1990 & 1994) was the kind of processor required to run it and lots of memory. 4Mb was a minimum in some sense. Version 1 could run on a 286, though a 386 was regarded as the intended processor for it and later versions certainally reflected that!    Windows though really took a hold in 1992 when 3.1 came out and would run smoothly on a computer with less memory, hard disk space and slower processors!

[MacDeath]

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

There ytou may find stuff on most GUI things released in the past...

[Gryzor]

By the way, Ruben, you might want to check out the various GUI-desktops for the CPC. Check some out here: http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Category:CPC_GUI . It's lots of fun, and amazing what can be accomplished with a tame 4MHz processor...