Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for Colour Personal Computer) is a series of home computers developed by Amstrad and sold from 1984-1992. The computers were designed to compete with the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in Europe, and, thanks to good hardware and a very competitive price, they did a fairly good job in the UK, France, Spain, and Germany, selling around 3,000,000 units. However, like most other computers, it was eventually displaced by those which could run MS-DOS.
Like most European 8-bit computers, the Amstrad CPCs used the Zilog Z80A and a AY-3-8912 sound chip.
Personal
As it was primarily a European home computer, I have even seen an Amstrad CPC. It wasn't until I became interested in researching video games in the 2000s that I started seeing it on MobyGames. I eventually got an emulator and tried out some of the games made for it, but never really found any I liked, and I didn't see much interest in the hardware either.
I've never used an Amstrad CPC.
Models
- CPC 464 - 64 KB RAM, cassette recorder. The most popular model, designed primarily for games.
- CPC 664 - 64 KB RAM, disk drive. More of a business line, discontinued after only a few months.
- CPC 6128 - 128 KB RAM, disk drive, CP/M compatible.
- 464 plus - Redesign of the CPC 464.
- 612 8plus - Redesign of the CPC 6128.
- GX4000 - A dedicated gaming console version of the CPC.
Software
The Amstrad CPC used its own dialect of BASIC called Locomotive BASIC. It could also run CP/M.
Games
- See all Amstrad CPC Games.
A lot of games made for the CPC were ported from the ZX Spectrum which used the same CPU. However, the porters rarely took advantage of the Amstrad's superior graphics hardware, resulting in inferior looking games.
Review
I don't know enough about the computer to write a review.
Media
Documentation
CPC 6128 User Instructions.
The Computer Handbooks: Microcomputers - Amstrad.
Games and Graphics Programming on the Amstrad Computers CPC.
Writing Adventure Games on the Amstrad CPC.
Links
- 8bitworkshop.com - Online development.
