10 Reasons the Amstrad CPC 6128 Is My Favorite Retro Computer

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Support Noel's Retro Lab on Patreon: / noelsretrolab
My entry for the #RetroFair2020 due to the cancelled Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest. Just a quick presentation about my personal reasons for why the Amstrad CPC 6128 is my favorite retro computer.
I suspect this should be particularly interesting to people outside of Europe since the Amstrad CPC had very little presence there. I hope it provides a good introduction and makes you want to learn more about it.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:37 Great BASIC
01:11 Good Keyboard
01:47 Disk Drive
02:25 128K of RAM
02:52 CP/M
03:24 Games Catalog
04:00 Disk Support
04:35 Best Colors
05:04 Simple Architecture
05:41 Homebrew Scene
06:39 Conclusion
Other Retro Fair 2020 videos: • #RetroFair
retrofair2020.com/
Some good Amstrad CPC emulators:
Retro Virtual Machine www.retrovirtualmachine.org/en/
WinAPE www.winape.net/
Amstrad CPC software:
CPCPower www.cpc-power.com/index.php?p...
CPCRulez cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/index.php
List of games shown
03:42 Black Tiger
03:45 Crafton & Xunk / Get Dexter
03:49 La abadía del crimen
03:55 Eden Blues
04:39 Sorcery
05:24 Total Eclipse
05:34 Mercs
05:44 El tesoro perdido de Cuauhtemoc
05:54 Jarlac
06:02 Pinball Dreams
06:12 Jet Set Willy
Amstrad CPC 6128 Facebook group / 298743294763933
Connect with Noel's Retro Lab:
Discord ➤ / discord
Twitter ➤ / noel_retrolab
Facebook ➤ / noelsretrolab
Instagram ➤ / noel_retrolab

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30 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 398

@Diamondblade2008 4 года назад

FANTASTIC VIDEO! My father got me the CPC6128 back in 1985 (I was 7 back then). Used to spend hours playing games on it, though my father also used it a lot for word processing. I sorely miss my father saying to me when I was a child: ''Your school report this term is excellent! For that we are going to buy you a computer game tomorrow!'' I used to get mega-excited over that! Downloading an app onto my iPhone just isn't the same as my parents taking me to town to buy a game then me in a rush to get home and play it!

@jonh404 Год назад

Aside from that, there's also the fact that phone games suuuuuck.

@Diamondblade2008 Год назад

@@jonh404 Not only that, you bought a game and that was it. No stupid ads, no ‘premium subscriptions’ and no having to buy add-ons or upgrades.

@thierrya4950 11 месяцев назад

For the time, this computer was ahead

@JP-cu2gm 2 месяца назад

Got mine in ‘86 when I was eight! The feeling of buying a new game and then cannot wait to get home to play it (but parents still have three hours of shopping left to do)…

@Diamondblade2008 2 месяца назад

@@JP-cu2gm Hear hear! The excitement was almost uncontrollable for me when I selected the game that I wanted then I had to endure another 2 hours with my parents shopping!

@Jsarson1976 9 месяцев назад

I had an Amstrad CPC464 when I was young. I have fond memories of the games and the hours I spent with it learning simple coding 😊

@Warlock_UK 2 месяца назад

I really loved our Amstrads that we had when I was a kid, I spent many years programming on it from '84 to around 1990 when I got a C64 in my room.

@104d_3rr0r_vince 4 года назад

Still have my first one which was also my first computer ever. Discology is a killer app, never seen an app like this anywhere. Although an Amiga guy, CPC is in my heart.

@RMCRetro 4 года назад

Great choice, I LOVE my 6128 having only had the 464 back in the day. Pride of place in the collection.

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

The 464 "tall keys" has a better keyboard. So arguably that one, with an added disk controller and a memory expansion would be the ultimate CPC :-)

@geofftottenperthcoys9944 3 года назад

Same, but got to work in a shop in Adelaide, South Australia selling them!

@ivarfiske1913 3 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab maybe better keys, but the 464 was so tall it put a lot of pressure on the wrists. So if you were a heavy user of the 464s keyboard you probably will get problems with hands, arms and shoulders

@anticat900 2 года назад

I did find the 6128 a rather dull looking machine over the 464 though thought the German version of the 464 was the best. I particularly don't like the keyboard all squeezed into one block of keys.

@jonh404 Год назад

@@anticat900 ditto, Amstrads effort to woo the business world made the 6128 a bit bland looking. My first computer was the 464, but my favourite is the 664.. It just struck that balance fire me, had the disc drive and kept the great keyboard layout.

@MGForums 2 года назад

I wish I still had my 6128. That manual was so comprehensive, an a-z of all basic commands with a description of their use, it was excellent. I wrote a few basic games. One that really stood out was a fruit machine simulator that was honestly better than any of the commercial ones available. I incorporated a feature builder with holds, nudges, stop-a-reel, cash builder, hi-lo gamble etc, everything you’d expect from a real fruit machine at that time and most importantly the reels actually spun fast unlike the codemasters game.

@Klassenfeind 11 месяцев назад

There were some games in the manual, for example Bomber or Raffles. 😀

@JP-cu2gm 2 месяца назад

I made a football penalty simulator where you could shoot hi/lo left/centre/right and the stick man goalkeeper would guess a random direction to dive. Lols those were the days.

@JP-cu2gm 2 месяца назад

@@Klassenfeinddid anyone ever type one in and it not be bugged?

@davewarrender2056 Год назад

Had one at 17 , wrote my first serious programme on it , a full word processor with wrap around typing , auto adjust wording. As well as highlighting . Plus store facility to disc or direct print out. All done in its basic. Brilliant beginners comp when learning to programme, the manual was great too

@robertcraane7910 2 года назад

I had one... .wish i could find one... Loved that thing, and in a way it made my career in IT and later music! And it looked so much more modern and exiting back then! Wow, so glad to see the old girl again!

@gppsoftware Месяц назад

I've still got my CPC6128 packed away in a box. Haven't used it for years, but it was the computer that launched me into professional software engineering. One of the last things I did with the 6128 was to write an assembler in Z80 assembler that had a full screen editor with debugger that swapped out to disk to do assembly and used the upper 64k to store object code, then save them to disk, ready for running. It meant that all source code was read from disk files (with #include files) and assembled into memory, enabling a 38k contiguous program to be written - an early form of virtual use of memory! It was way better than the HiSoft assembler which stored itself, source code and object code in the low 48k all at the same time, thereby limiting the size of program you could write. My assembler was about 7k and the editor 3.5k. Happy days!

@jorcasce 3 года назад

This is incredible, this was my first computer back in 1987, I was 9 years old and my dad got it to me. Looking back the best present was the manual. I learnt to program thanks to that manual!

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Very cool! I also pretty much learned to program from that manual as well. It was really well done. I feel bad for kids today that don't have that kind of experience (Javascript or Roblox doesn't quite cut it).

@darrenwilson99 2 года назад

The manual is exceptional. My Speccy mates loved it because it went into so much detail for every command.

@angelrogo 5 дней назад

That's exactly the microcomputer I had in my early teenage years, the Spanish model with the Spanish keyboard, including Ñ key. I have great memories of my first Basic 1.1 programs, even learning some machine code; my first experiences with the CPM DOS; great but really expensive videogames on 3" discs, and tons of not-so-expensive games on external tape. Later on, I only used the TV tuner for the screen.

@ctrlaltrees 4 года назад

Another great video, Noel! A friend had a CPC6128 when I was a kid but it's a system I know absolutely nothing about. This is a really good introduction.

@AmAtAm 4 года назад

I have always loved this machine and this was a really good summary of what’s so good about it.

@jipmann-grooveclinic 2 месяца назад

Awesome - I got one of these for Christmas in 1985 and spent much of my childhood playing & programming it.. I got it down out of the loft about five years ago fix the disc drive and it all still worked great. Unfortunately, I decided to sell it as I didn’t have space for it… however if I realised they were still making the add-ons, I would have kept it.. super machine!

@ncbrady 4 года назад

good job as always Noel !

@SelfIndulgentGamer Год назад

I got one of these free today and found this video to be really helpful. Thanks :)

@fallwitch 2 года назад

I just want to say you are an amazing dad for teaching your daughter to program. Just found your channel and love it. Looking forward to watching more/

@jonyballistic 3 года назад

Absolutely terrific video! The amstrad with the disc drive was my first home computer. Learned programming on it. And oh the games! Starglider, mercenary, tau ceti. Thanks for this vid, great work

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Glad you enjoyed it!!!

@Klassenfeind 2 года назад

Tau Ceti, written by Pete Cooke. Google it, there's an interesting interview with him :)

@miked4377 2 года назад

excellent video!

@paralaksa5035 2 года назад

Agreed! I had a speccy but always loved the 6128 back in the day!

@NicolasCorte 2 года назад

Love your channel

@jamesburland Год назад

Love this!

@crusader77_retro 2 года назад

Gran review del 6128!. Aqui en España compitio codo con codo con el spectrum en cuanto a popularidad, en muchos colegios habia una sala de informatica compuesta de ellos. A mi en lo personal, marco mi vida y a lo que me dedico profesionalmente... Un saludo desde España, tienes nuevo suscriptor 😊

@rmchopperyt5603 3 месяца назад

Had a 6128 in the late 80’s loved it 👌🏼🔥

@ervinpoljak8332 2 года назад

had one back in 1986 ;) Great experience....played Samantha Fox Strip Poker and The Bard´s Tale :))))) ~ |CPM ! and yes.... Logo - this is what i liked back then :)

@DarnWhippets 2 года назад

Wish I still had mine too. Moved to an STFM when they came out.

@Xoferif 4 года назад

It's really great to see the next generation learning programming on classic machines! (Hello to Noel's daughter!) =) Although I was a Spectrum owner, I was hugely impressed with the 6128 when it was announced. Having a disc drive integrated into a micro as standard seemed an amazing idea back in the day.

@jiannixflow1107 Год назад

Love this!! I wish today life was simpler like back then! Thx for uploading

@lovemadeinjapan Месяц назад

It can be: 1) Ditch social media (uh, I'm still on RU-vid), 2) ditch your smartphone (it is hard, but I find a Windows Phone fits at the right place: just the bare minimum of apps), 3) Make your workweek fit in 4 days maximum, 3 is even better, so you don't have to spend too much money, 4) Get those vitage products you always dreamt off. The only downside: back in the day I had a single 8-bit computer with maybe 10 games, now I have 5 with an abundance of programs.

@007JHS 3 года назад

The Amstrad 6128 became for a time, the most popular educational computer in South Australia. The Ed Dept had its own software development facility (Satchell) which produced a lot of great products for use in schools.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Interesting! I knew Amstrad had a presence there, but I didn't realize it was such a big one. It's funny how many connections there are between Australia and Europe with retro computers. No wonder you can participate in Eurovision! 🤣

@shaun5552 2 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab For the record a school in Tasmania at that time (~1987) is the only place I've ever seen a 664. The CPC's in general were extremely common for a time, helped by being sold not only by proper computer stores but department stores and electrical goods retailers (the kind of shops that sell washing machines, TV's etc) as well. So it was physically very easy to obtain one.

@KorenLesthe 3 года назад

I grew up with the CPC 464 (my first game was Manic Miner). My brother then got a 6128 and I agree : it's also my favorite Retro Computer.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

I'm glad you think so too! It's a fantastic computer for sure.

@Diamondblade2008 3 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab I had the CPC6128 for many many years. Just wondered why Amstrad decided to tone down the colour scheme on the keyboard. I remember the CPC464 having a multitude of different colours on the keys, yet on the CPC6128, they were all a uniform grey (like on nearly all modern computers today).

@friedbertmoessner2625 Год назад

It was my favor eather that time and I still have that computer. It was sold here in Germany from the company "Schneider". Thanks for your video :-)

@robsretrostuff 2 года назад

Great video. I had a 664 back in the day

@chongtak 3 года назад

In the end of the 80s, I purchased a secondhand external floppy disk drive for my cpc 464, it came with a second floppy disk drive that was 3.5". It always baffled me how the guy had succeeded to do that magic but it worked well. I copied a lot of games on 3.5" disks that where cheaper and very fancy, nobody believed me at school, until they came to my place and saw it.

@chriswatson2407 3 года назад

Nice to see your sprite included in the programme.

@havenisse2009 Год назад

I had a CPC6128 from 1985..2012. I had a 5.25" inch drive for it, and (cracked) versions of Protext, ProMerge, ProSpell, custom disc controller and much more. I could literally store 410K x 2 on each disc (had to cut index holes in the disc). I used that computer for school assignments, and it was surprisingly efficient. The joy of going to poweroff to writing in less than 5 seconds. Not even PCs today can do that. Sold it because it had a really low WAF. Regret it today in a way. But all good things have a time.

@urmeli0815 Год назад

Love that machine. I started programming on the CPC 6128 and have been doing it professionally until this day. Recently re-bought a 6128 on ebay, a disk emulator and an HDMI adapter. The colors look so great on a TFT!

@lovemadeinjapan Месяц назад

Go grab a CRT.... I find the games look much better on a tube, as you basically no longer see that the pixels are so wide. I run it on a cute 13 inch Sony over SCART, beautiful!

@stephenbranley91 4 месяца назад

We had a fun programming challenge at work the other day. After offering solutions in C and Pascal I also wrote a solution in Locomotive BASIC on a CPC emulator :)

@skillaxxx 2 года назад

To be honest, in 1985 there was also the Z80 MSX2 with 256 colours on-screen 😇 Still, it was a great machine, wish they had came with regular 3.5" floppies back in the day !

@jonh404 Год назад

Ya, I'd never even heard of the msx standard till a few years ago.. I never appeared here in Australia. But after watching many videos it's practically a WHAT IF..... At this point.

@FinnbogiRagnarRagnarsson 11 месяцев назад

A neighbour had one. Graphically it blew everything else out of the water. She had very few games however and it was nearly impossible to get more of them. I was very envious of the graphics, but the selection of games she had was rather dull.

@lovemadeinjapan Месяц назад

The 2 is from 1986, and before they were available in Europe, we were already in 1987.

@skillaxxx Месяц назад

@@lovemadeinjapan You could buy Sony MSX2 machines in Europe in 1986, it's just that Philips didn't release them until 1987.

@skillaxxx Месяц назад

@@lovemadeinjapan By chance I saw the Philips VG8230 MSX2 was available from 1986-1-1 today ...

@curiousottman 2 года назад

I find it just fascinating that there are so many retro machines I’ve never heard of let alone used. Being in Canada we had the standard array of commodore, Atari, Apple, IBM and radio shack machines back in the day. Why did these machines never make it across the pond in any major quantities? Really nice video. My only complaint is that it’s far too short!

@vragec111 4 года назад

Thank you for the wonderful video. I had Schneider CPC 464, with green monitor 🤫. When I came to my friend to play on her mom's computer.. I was in utter shock to realise the speed of disk loading... Fell in love with the beauty of that machine..the sounds of disk drive humming and purring... 🤗🌷

@Diamondblade2008 4 года назад

Interesting comment. I also used to like the sounds the disk drive made. However there was one sound it made which gave me nightmares at night. The sound it made before it gave the ''Drive A: read fail (R)etry, (I)gnore or (C)ancel.'' message. I don't know if you know what sound I mean but it went something like this: ''Dit - dit, duh-duh nee-naw Dit - dit, duh-duh nee-naw'' That sound scared me a LOT when I was a kid!

@sdavies45 3 года назад

@@Diamondblade2008 I know the noise that you're talking about, it could be a bit freaky. The PCWs used to make that nee-naw sound when they couldn't read the disc as well, when they had just been turned on, and you had to put in a boot disc, if it couldn't read it for some reason the screen used to flash green and then black and it would go "nee-naw" repeatedly, kind of freaky.

@Diamondblade2008 3 года назад

@@sdavies45 I am 42 and I stll remember that sound clear as glass today. I was 7 years old when my dad got me the CPC6128 back in 1985. I put an unformatted disc in the drive (not knowing it was unformatted) and typed 'Cat' (which lists the files stored on the disc; which my dad showed me how to do) and thats when I heard that sound for the first time and that error message came up. It scared me so much I ran into my mum's arms crying. Thankfully my Apple laptop and my iPhone never makes those sounds!

@sdavies45 3 года назад

I am 37. I think I was about 12 though when I had my CPC6128, and I was 11 when I was introduced to the Amstrad PCW. I got the CPC because I wanted to write programs in BASIC.

@georgebachaelor7600 Год назад

nice one bro - 6128 was the bomb back in the days. What it was also good for was the business / home school related software. TASMAN 6128, MINI OFFICE 2, things like that were my goto software for completing school work essays, assignments and reports :)

@ecernosoft3096 Год назад

"it has the best color palette of any 8bit computer" Atari 800 be like: ... but still. I must say, AWESOME video! It's beyond cute seeing your daughter use a 40 year old machine too. ;-)

@Jimmy-B- 4 месяца назад

Was my first computer as a child. Remember not liking keyboard sound when you press the buttons. Sounded to tinny. That was another reason to be envious of the Amiga at the time

@yamitanomura 2 года назад

nice video !

@ChristosFrantzolas Год назад

Noel, Hi! The 6128 was my 2nd computer (yeah my first was a ZX, you guessed it) and I still have it but I hesitate to power it up often since it is might blow something and I like it as a fully working souvenir. Having said this, I wish to add to your excellent video that the expansion port of the 6128 carried all signals necessary to drive a second floppy so you could use an external 3.5 inch floppy (from an IBM clone) and with just a ribbon cable (and a power supply for this external drive) you had a physical B: drive with cheap 3.5 floppies. I also remember that with a simple switch on a select line you could also choose the floppy side without having to physically flip the disc!! Great times, eh? Thank you for your fine work, Christos.

@TheGrunt76 4 года назад

Nice video and I agree on all points! I had 464 back in the day and it was a wonderful machine. As my retro computing hobby really escalated last autumn, I went and purchased nice 6128 with dd replaced with gotek. I also have a working disk drive, so I can return it to original condition if I want to. At first I used it with OSSC to flat screen monitor and occasionally with small CRT TV, but then decided to go full real deal and also purchased original color monitor from ebay.

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

Nice! I'd love to keep around the original color monitor too, but I don't have much space. So I have to make do with a single CRT for all my retro needs. At least it's a Sony Trinitron and the image quality is great.

@DenizTurkmen 8 месяцев назад

Had a C64 but my neighbors had an 6128. It was really cool to have a built-in disk drive. I also agree about the colors, whenever I saw game ads with screenshots I remember Amstrad ones standing out.

@jameslye3452 2 года назад

bought a second hand one in the 90's. still have the manual now which i use with a cpc emulator. I remember scouring the car boot sales and the odd computer fair for the floppy Discs. Fun entry into computers

@pengvin3524 2 года назад

I LOVED this machine. i played lots of Infocom adventures on one

@syrus3k 2 года назад

This is almost the zx spectrum +3.. I had one of those, I loved it.

@spinnetti 2 года назад

Never had those here, but looks pretty good!

@getdrinking 2 года назад

I loved that the 6128 came with a colour monitor

@Geffers58 2 года назад

I loved this machine back in the 80's. I had a plug in thingy that gave instant assembly language - an enormous saving of time. I don't think I ever used its BASIC though. I did cross compilation onto other machines and all sorts.

@jonh404 Год назад

When you say "plug in thingy", I'm thinking you probably had MAXAM on a rom board.

@tezinho81 3 года назад

I learned to program BASIC on the 6128. The original manual had many pages of BASIC code which I spent many happy hours copying onto the screen.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Yes, the manual was great and really taught you a lot to get you started programming with the Amstrad. I have lots of fond memories as well.

@SmartHomeCoding 6 месяцев назад

Wow, great video. I only had the CPC 464 as my first computer, but I absolutely agree with you. Unfortunately, I no longer have it and keep the memory alive with Winape 😊. Merry Christmas from Trier (Germany).

@GermanAracil 6 месяцев назад

It’s My favourite computer. With ZEDIS II purchased in the el Corte inglés like a extraneous program, was my introduction to the programming in ASM.

@kjamison5951 3 года назад

I still own my 6128… I cannot bring myself to have it recycled. I used it all through my university course and used it to transcribe my handwritten notes and sketches to a digital format. I built a ROM interface that allowed me to add a standard 3.5” floppy drive and I also bought a ROM that allowed me to move files between the Amstrad and PC 720k disk format. With the DMP2000, I printed many documents. Favourite game was Cauldron, but I have hundreds of others on tape which I was able to transfer to disk for fast loading. I also edited the high score tables so when I played, I was always top of the tables.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Of course you can't have it recycled!! 🙀 That sounds like a well-loved, well-used CPC. I also did a lot of class work on it. Cauldron was great! I remember making the map for that game and having lots of fun with it 😃

@krisvantuerenhout537 4 года назад

This was my second computer after my ZX81. And it sure was I nice upgrade on all fronts. 1 Year ago I bought a CPC6128+ .. these 8bit computers had even a better color palette ;-) It's sad there is not much RU-vid content about this range of CPC's.

@joefish6091 2 года назад

Amstrad was not American, so not much utube, the UK CPCers (and PCWers)need to make videos.

@Unknown-sp4gi 3 года назад

This is where gaming started for me :) The Legend Of Kage, Head Over Heels, Arkanoid, great memories.

@tezinho81 3 года назад

Head over Heels was awesome. Did you ever play Spy Vs Spy?

@dimitriskarapostolis9880 2 года назад

Fruity Frank, Oh Mummy, Boulder Dash, Bomb Jack, Desert Fox, Gauntlet, Match Day, Moon Buggy, Pyjamarama some of my initial mines!

@matthiasmartin1975 2 года назад

I like how the console colors remind me of the ones used in IRIX.

@skesinis 2 года назад

You reminded me of a mod that we made with a friend of mine on his 6128 back in the very early ‘90s. We changed the 3” single sided 180kB drive to a 5.25” double sided 360kB PC drive. We used a switch to select the sides and the drive was used to copy Pascal 3.0 programs from his CPC6128 to a PC and continue developing when he was at his uncle’s PC. Even though I really liked the CPC6128, I couldn’t afford it when it was new and I only had a ZX Spectrum 48k which another friend had donated to me, many years after he had it, as he had moved to an Amiga 500. Even the Spectrum was enough though to trigger my interest in Z80 assembly, using just a book’s appendix to convert the asm opcodes to numbers that I could then type as data on a basic loader program. I know exactly how frustrating it was saving to a tape, but at the time I didn’t know any better.

@karim2k Год назад

Back in time, i did stood as a unique machine among the commodores and the MSX machines and few people could deal with it so much is was advanced

@mnomic8371 2 года назад

My dad had this computer and I loved it; I had the zx spectrum +3 which had the same disk drive (the +3 was also made by Amstrad). The difference was, the Amstrad had a better colour pallette 👍🏻

@SparkyMAWy 3 года назад

CPC6128: My favourite machine. Though I have a CPC464 that I inherited from my late grandfather that I learnt computer fundamentals on, that still works and I got loads of bits for. My CPC6128 has a 512kb RAM box which is good for SymbOS and CP/M Plus.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Nice! Yes, there are awesome add-ons for the Amstrad. And people are still designing new ones!

@missionpassed4584 Год назад

I had an Amstrad cpc 464 in the 80s and over time had collected many many games and magazines and was very much used to the quirks of tape cassette games including waiting an eternity for a game to load only for it not to, then came the 6128 with its hard disk system, it was awesome, no waiting for ages and just seemed so much more modern, my friend at the same time got the the GX4000 which I tried but just never gone on with it, anyway a great little machine, sadly once I got the snes it all went all sold off I have many regrets in my life and that was one of the biggest.

@Ingens_Scherz 3 года назад

Had one of these for a couple of years before I got an Amiga 500. Totally loved it. Unfortunately (?) it and all my games and peripherals paid for the 500!

@gamexentralx 2 года назад

I love that machine.

@mrtiff99 4 года назад

Just discovered your channel. I grew up with spectrums and Commodores and never really got to use an amstrad. Your right about the colour palette ( I hated the c64s). Great channel keep up the good work

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. Time to try out some Amstrads, even if it's through emulators :-)

@ElectronGordo 4 года назад

Hop! she got's out like in Lord of The Ring, when Frodo took out the Ring from his finger! :) Nice video again.+

@moterov4 4 года назад

My first game was "Spannerman". I learned programming with CPC6128, I remember in my 2nd computer academy with PCs that used the GWBASIC, but I already carried my programs printed in the CPM's BASIC MALLARD and I think to remember it was quite similar.

@dartsma464 4 года назад

I started with Spannerman too. Are there more than the two of us that did that?

@Klassenfeind 2 года назад

Spannerman, Oh Mummy, Roland in Space (?) 😁

@philiphandforth4390 3 года назад

Really liked this video, have you ever tried symbOS on your cpc, I've been looking into the OS and it seems interesting, would love to see some retro user perspectives on it..

@frankiii9165 3 года назад

El ordenador que nos merecemos!

@PITBULLI79 2 года назад

Great video! I recently bought 2 6128s to remember my childhood.Regarding the new games are they sold on disks or other formats? Thanks!

@partyguinness 7 месяцев назад

We had a gig whereby we could record/bootleg games from the 6128 cartridge to cassette for the CPC464

@mrljgibson 9 месяцев назад

I have a two ZX Spectrum 48k plus computers for nostalgia reasons, but the best things after that were all mainframe systems and workstations.

@rishadq 2 года назад

Awesome find! The CPC6128 was my first real computer, aside from my Casio handheld calculator/computer. Plug in a joystick and away you go! :-)

@adroharv9213 3 года назад

I absolutely loved how vivid the Amstrad palette was and it really stands it out. To be fair that's why I look so fondly at all the 8bits from this time as they were so different in feel from each machine. I think the C64 had the most natural colour scheme with it's muted look in terms of a more realistic feel but the Amstrads beautifully garish look is beautiful to behold

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Definitely! That made it challenging to make more natural skin tones or earth tones, but they nailed the garish fun video game feel 😃

@calebfuller4713 3 года назад

The Amstrad's palette was purely mathematical. It was RGB with 3 levels for each element (on, half, or full) giving a total of 27 colours.

@PJBonoVox 4 года назад

I never had a CPC machine, only a C64. But a couple of friends had CPCs and I loved the palette and the basic. Looking back now, if the CPC had hardware sprites it would have been an absolute powerhouse.

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

Agreed. That's what the Plus range has, but they came out way too late to be relevant.

@PJBonoVox 4 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab Yeah, too little too late sadly.

@Skunkiboi Год назад

It was also popular in Germany. Some schools had it in order to teach students how to code.

@calebfuller4713 3 года назад

I had one of these too. It is still my favourite retro computer. It was definitely one of the better BASIC versions among 8-bit computers and I fondly remember learning and writing programs on it. I'm actually more impressed nowdays by the fact it ran CP/M and finding the wealth of software I COULD have used - industry standards like Wordstar, dBASE II, Supercalc, Turbo Pascal, MS BASIC, FORTRAN and COBOL. Actually if I'd learnt dBASE programming back then, my IT programming career might have gone further...

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Nice! Yes, it did have a lot of non-game software. I believe I tried my first version of Turbo Pascal on the Amstrad, and I did a lot of school work on word processors on it. Quite a well-rounded machine!

@arnolda.lampel6087 4 года назад

It was the very 1st computer that I got and I still have & use it TODAY :-) Actually it is the German "Schneider" version w/ centronics connectors instead of edge connectors. Those have been given me some headache, since the pinout is different from the Amstrad version AND different from the original Schneider manual.

@Klassenfeind 2 года назад

Arnold war ja sogar die interne Bezeichnung für die CPCs bei Amstrad:)

@AnthonyFlack 2 года назад

For me the benefit of CP/M was that you could play all the Infocom adventure games.

@willyloops 3 года назад

I was talking about the Firefox (Clint Eastwood´s movie) with a friend a couple of hours ago and looking for the game version for this Amstrad cpc6128 and I just found this channel ...and....c´mon !!! I can not believe it !! I know you Noel !! I´m Guillermo, from Luanco, you recorded several games for me to play in this Amstrad when I was a child, I even played one game you created for this device about a time machine (kind like a roll game where to choose what to do)...years after of that, your father was my math teacher at highschool and your mother my language or literature teacher as well (they have to forgive me I was a very bad student !!!)......Surely you knew my sister Sara too (she was very good student).......I played a lot with your cousins Alejandro and Ramón Luis in la plazoleta de la torre del reloj when we were children....I can't believe that you have this channel and that you continue loving this machine, I subscribe and greetings since childhood Noel !!

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Hombre, Guillermo, qué casualidad!! Claro que me acuerdo. Sara y yo éramos muy amigos. Pues ahora llevo un par de años en Luanco. Si te entra el gusanillo por probar el Amstrad otra vez, mírate el emulador RetroVirtualMachine que está muy bien. Un abrazo!

2 года назад

You mentioned it but I want to strengthen it: 80 column support! One of the few popular 8 bit machines that have this. Soo much more comfort when dialing into a BBS or a larger machine via RS232.

@The_Wandering_Nerd 3 года назад

Growing up I had to admire the Amstrad CPC from afar because they weren't sold in the USA, at least not where I could get them. But I've always liked that soothing yellow-on-blue font that's reminiscent of the CGA font on the much more expensive IBM PCs. Spending my childhood squinting my eyes at Apple IIs and TI-99/4As, you got to appreciate systems with nicely readable on-screen text.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Yes, the colors and the fonts were great. I'm surprised you would even know of Amstrad CPCs in the US though. Were you importing UK magazines or something? Otherwise they were virtually unknown over there.

@The_Wandering_Nerd 3 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab my memory is a little hazy, but I know they were mentioned in Omni magazine, in their computer review sections, and occasionally multiplatform games would have Amstrad and Spectrum screenshots on their boxes (presumably so they didn't have to reprint them for the US and UK markets.) I think they may have also mentioned them on the Computer Chronicles TV show. So I was aware that Amstrad was a thing, although I admit that information on them was extremely limited in the US pre-internet.

@insoft_uk 2 года назад

The 6128 was an awesome machine, I remember as a kid spending time in Dixons we’re they had them on display used to type in simple basic programmes and one of the nice things the 6128 had was the colour numbers written down on the top of the drive was so handy. Tho never had one myself I grew up with a ZX Spectrum +2, as 6128 was priced too high tho the 6128 to me was the best 8-bit micros of the times

@TheVanillatech 6 месяцев назад

"Amstrad/Schneider" I had a 464, so no disk drive. I borrowed a friends disk drive so I could play Lemmings. Great computer though I always wanted an Amiga, and never got one. Croco Magneto appeared on the covertape of Amstrad Action one year, around 1989/1990. A french game I believe.

@JakeBirkett 3 года назад

Saving to tape was a big pain indeed! So slow.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Yeah, absolutely. But at least most of the saving to tape was pretty small since it was assembly so it was just a few KB. But still, no comparison with having the luxury of a disk!

@RealDukeOfEarl 2 года назад

Sorcery II was the game that first used disk overlay, and it did it for the 664. Man I remember beating Sorcery on the 464. Good times.

@GandaMelgao 5 месяцев назад

I believe CPM was needed to play Infocom text adventures, my favourite type of game. Never had an Amstrad Cpc. I bought an Amiga instead. But for a while, The Cpc6128 was my dream computer, the one I desired most 😊

@dracomalinois 2 года назад

2:23 Les passagers du vent !

@geofftottenperthcoys9944 3 года назад

Taught myself to program in basic on CPC 464 and created a AD&D 2nd edition PC generator with all my custom parts in it.

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

Love that story! Very similar to my own. Do you still have that program around or is it lost?

@geofftottenperthcoys9944 3 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab No, lost it after my ex took everything but the back door!

@NoelsRetroLab 3 года назад

@@geofftottenperthcoys9944 😢 I also lost most of what I did at that time in a leak-in-the-attic accident.

@jediknight2350 2 года назад

my fav first computer was the texas instrument ti994a , i had an amstrad 6128 but when amiga came out the old amstrad got sold cheap lol.

@MarkFixesStuff 4 года назад

I’m here sir!

@MarkFixesStuff 4 года назад

I learned quite a bit from this. Didn’t know there was a DanDanator for the CPC!

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

I'm glad you got something out of it, Mark! Yeah, the Dandanator is great. Very similar to the Speccy one. That's what I use for the RAM tests and a few other tools. Very handy.

@douro20 2 года назад

Have you ever considered translating some of your old CPC games? 'La Máquina del Tiempo' looks like a nice one.

@darky4312 4 года назад

My first game "PUNCHY" my second game "SORCERY" (my first love), i have 12 years hold, now 47. I love my AMSTRAD CPC.

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

I never played Punchy, but I absolutely love Sorcery. One of the most influential games for me. It was absolutely magical!

@Diamondblade2008 4 года назад

One game I played to death on my (sadly now dead) CPC6128 was Tornado Low Level, where you fly a plane dropping bombs on targets. Used to spend hours every weekend playing that. My dad said to my mum ''He is really happy with that game. He can't stop playing it.'' Fond memories.

@NoelsRetroLab 4 года назад

@@Diamondblade2008 I never played that one, so I'm going to have to remedy that. Downloading it right now... :-)

@Diamondblade2008 4 года назад

@@NoelsRetroLab That game is really good. You have to check out the scrolling in that game!

@ivarfiske1913 3 года назад

@@Diamondblade2008 full speed vertical hardware scrolling

@rmchopperyt5603 3 месяца назад

Manic Miner used to drive me insane 🤣

@jfinnie78 2 года назад

I always wanted the slightly funkier looking 664 as an upgrade to my 464 with green screen... never got my dream. Went from CPC464 to a PCW8256. Green screens for the win! :)

@GrantMeStrength 2 года назад

Still a great video 🙂

@CwazyWabbits Год назад

Was the assembler you had Maxam? I seem to remember the tape version of it loaded into memory in the same location where the extra commands for the disk drive were and thus stopped you using the disk drive once loaded.