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1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
This commit is contained in:
yann64
2026-10-13 17:26:43 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 055c3924f2
commit b274874139
1284 changed files with 1284 additions and 42835 deletions
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content/museum/a10-telespiel-9010.md
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forum_thread: 909
photos:
- title: A10 9010
subtitle: ''
@@ -70,16 +71,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: Andy (Schweiz)
date: Saturday 10th June 2023
text: 'Yes, this was real the type R10 9010 and not A10. More information about this system exists here: https://www.gamescore.ch/en/r10-telespiel-9010'
- author: Andy (Schweiz)
date: Saturday 10th June 2023
text: 'Yes, this was real the type R10 9010 and not A10. More information about this system exists here: https://www.gamescore.ch/en/r10-telespiel-9010'
- author: Heribert Knörftz (Germany)
date: Sunday 29th December 2019
text: I got such a console as a birthday present as i was a child. Mine is completely black and it is called "R10 9010", not "A10". The console is made in Hong Kong and its power consumption by 6 larger "baby cell" batteries is 1 W max.
related:
- /museum/alex-video-spiel-tg-621
- /museum/apf-match
content/museum/abs-computer-orb.md
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value: Unknown
comments:
- author: Andy Holyer (UK)
date: Monday 16th May 2011
text: |-
I worked for ABS for a period in 1984, and quite a bit of my time was supporting the Orb.
Slight correction on the above - there was a choice of eight colours, and yes the fire brigade did apparently buy one because nobody else produced a fire-engine-red computer.
The Orb had one major failure: the more terminals connected, and the more those terminals were doing, the worse the chance of an "Uninitialised Interrupt" which would freeze the whole box. I don''t believe an 8-terminal rig ever worked - we had a 4-terminal setup in our office and that was about the limit. During the summer of 84 I was sent off on a long tour of dealers to upgrade the firmware of their Orbs. Along with this was a set of release notes, and no I don''t still have a copy of these, but the notes contained the following magnificent paragraph:
"Uninitialised Interrupts: The Orb no longer suffers from Uninitialised Interrupts. In future they will be referred to as "Unexpected Interrupts".
To be fair, these now only froze one screen, so you could shout out for everyone in the office to save their work before rebooting the machine, but still...
The Orb was the eventual downfall of ABS. Dealers around the country signed up as dealers on the basis of receiving telephone calls form people saying that they would like to buy an Orb, and were they a dealer? Eventually it emerged that these calls had actually come from people in the sales department of ABS.... I only discovered this during a later interview (I didn''t get the job, but they suggested that having ABS on my cv was probably a limiting move).
Oh, and the hook line for the Orb? "The All-round Personal Computer". \*Sigh\*.
- author: Stan Sieler (United States)
date: Friday 5th March 2021
text: '"...it was one of the first, if not the first, multi-user user microprocessor systems". I had an Alpha Micro AM-100 in my living room in 1978. A multi-user system, it was based on the WD16 microprocessor chipset from Western Digital (clone of a PDP-11, IIRC). But ... wow, I''''d love to have an Orb!'
- author: Tricia Stevenson nee Grant (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 11th December 2017
text: I worked for ABS before the Orb. I started when they were in Charing Cross Road $ moved to Byfleet with them. That''s where I met my husband James Rew Stevenson who was the Purchasing Officer for ABS. I remember Alan Birch, Gilbert Van Someren, Paul ?, Timothy ?, I can picture the accountant ? Cherry? My memory is not so good these days.
- author: Matthew Hart (Sydney, Australia)
date: Friday 5th May 2017
text: |-
I worked as an Intern for ABS Computers in Portslade, E.Sussex in 1985.
The Orb (and its more powerful sibling the Tower Orb or TOrb), were great computers.
The Simple 7 programming languae was a joy to use, as it employed a method of translating english into code, much like Psuedo Code, this was then compiled into the application.
I really miss that language, and would sorely love to get hoold of the sources so I could re-visit it.
- author: Seba Rho (Argentina)
date: Tuesday 16th June 2015
text: 'I''''ve found theese pics of ABS Computer''''s facilities: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sussexphotography/sets/72157619122283003. Someone could check this?'
- author: Kwabena A. A. Mensah
date: Sunday 14th September 2014
text: |-
I''m nursing feelings of nostalgia for the ABS MX mini, the first computer I worked on. I''d be interested to hear from anyone who built or used this machine.
In January 1986, I joined TC Coombs $ Co., a London stockbroker. The business depended on a pair of MXs - lovingly named System A and System B - running the "Simple 7" combined operating system and programming language, and an equity trade accounting package written by ABS.
ABS had ceased supporting the machines, and there was no documentation on either the hardware or the software other than on-screen prompts, a directory of reports (cryptically titled Z1 to about Z100), and source code listings for the handful of modules that were run regularly.
Initially my job was to disassemble the main trade data capture and contract note printing module, working forward from the eighty pages of source code and backward from the contract note.
Once I''d got the hang of Simple 7, I extended the application by coding an aged debtors module, which made me popular with the Finance Director and earned me a big pay raise.
The ABS systems were replaced between June and December 1986 with a MicroVAX cluster running the Ingres RDBMS under VMS. Over the succeeding eighteen months, we developed a custom accounting and settlement application on the new platform.
I left the firm in January 1990 and it went bust a year later. The ABS MXs and Simple 7 were already a distant memory then and I''ve always wondered what became of my first computer love.
- author: rog (Brighton)
date: Friday 8th April 2011
text: |-
I worked at Shortlands, and remember them around the office, I really wished I had snagged one then.\
I remember people saying they had overheating issues, and caught on fire, but i never saw it.\
The Shortlands building has now been converted to a church.
- author: Daniel Garland (New Zealand)
date: Thursday 28th September 2006
text: |-
"Interesting system! early imac?"\\
Um.. HELL NO. Do any of these still exist? or are they extinct???
- author: Joseph Hays (USA)
date: Wednesday 10th April 2002
text: Interesting system! early imac?
forum_thread: 359
oc_id: 355
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608090525/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=355
content/museum/acc-8000.md
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- title: 'ACC-8000 #1'
subtitle: ''
content/museum/access-computer.md
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forum_thread: 363
photos:
- title: FIRST VERSION
subtitle: ''
@@ -88,24 +89,6 @@ params:
- title: Actrix and Access Computers
url: http://www.actrixcomputer.com/
text: Unofficial homepage for Actrix and Access Matrix Computers
comments:
- author: Robert Neal (United States)
date: Sunday 26th August 2018
text: I have my 1983 Access Matrix in the closet (literally) and haven''t started in back up in several years. I still have all the software and documentation and was wondering if there was any market out there for one.
- author: William Sevon (USA)
date: Saturday 16th August 2008
text: I purchased an Access in December of 1984, about the time they were gong off the market. I used it for several years and produced a variety of publications that I printed with the machine. My son did some programming for me in Basic and the machine ran them very well. Even though it was heavy, 30 lbs+, I found that the 60 K memory and the portability were remarkable compared to the IBM 1620 that I first used in 1963 which had 60 K memory but required an air-conditioned room of moderate size. I haven' used the Access in years, but I still have it alo0ng with all the original manuals, something modern computers, such as my current Dell, lack, as well as all the original disks. I look upon it as another of the many antiques that fill my house.
- author: Randolph James (USA)
date: Tuesday 31st January 2006
text: I bought one of these computers when they first came out. I loved it. It had everything you could possibly want built right in; computer, disk drives, printer, modem, and several ports. It was advertised as a 'portable' but I called it 'transportable' because it weighed so much.
- author: phlatline (midwest)
date: Tuesday 23rd March 2004
text: |-
I just got an ACCESS today, & I was wondering if anyone knew where I can get manuals/docs, software, anything at all for this system?\
Thanx!
- author: nijineko (usa)
date: Wednesday 10th September 2003
text: yea! that's my dad who posted that information about the access! i am looking for the nemesis game that was run on this system and/or the actrix system. can anyone help?
oc_id: 359
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230415202048/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=359
content/museum/acetronic-mpu-1000-2000.md
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forum_thread: 886
photos:
- title: MPU-1000 LOGO
subtitle: ''
@@ -142,56 +143,6 @@ params:
- title: VC4000.de
url: http://www.vc4000.de
text: Website dedicated to the Interton VC4000 (in German)
comments:
- author: edi (andorra)
date: Monday 18th April 2022
text: Good job. $a href$''https://www.webnovedad.com/descargar-gratis-pluto-tv-para-pc/''$pluto tv para pc$/a$
- author: Belle (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 24th May 2021
text: hi we had acetronic MPU-2000 + one games any chance give price ?
- author: Mark C (UK)
date: Thursday 26th September 2019
text: Forgot - my email - mark@paradigmit.uk
- author: Mark C (UK)
date: Thursday 26th September 2019
text: |-
Hi (Bobby) - any chance that the service manual you have is for an Acetronic MP1000 - Radofin 1292? If so, any chance I could get a copy of it or buy yours? I''m looking for a schematic for my Acetronic MP1000..
Cheers,
Mark.
- author: bobby (SE London)
date: Thursday 28th December 2017
text: I Still have one in my loft. Plus a load of games for it. I also have a service manual by RADOFIN. Dated 20 August 1979.
- author: Darren (Australia)
date: Tuesday 7th June 2016
text: |-
I Found an Old "ACETRONIC MPU-1000" / "RADOFIN 1292" Game "SPACE WAR (30)" in with my VIC 20 Stuff!
It is Nooo Goood to me, so Anyone interested in Purchasing it for CHEEP???
darrenpnut76@yahoo.com.au
- author: simon tolchard (uk)
date: Thursday 18th November 2010
text: I still have one, boxed (and working) from when I was 8 or 9. My parents purchased it from "Laskeys" in Oxford I think.
- author: Tony White (UK)
date: Tuesday 21st August 2007
text: |-
I had an Acetronic MPU1000 in 1983 - when I was 9.
One of the best games was Othello - there were 99different levels and it was our family's target to beat the computer on level 99!
Some other memorable games were Olympics, Grand Prix, Blackjack, Shooting Gallery, Circus, Electronic Pinball, Super Knockout, Invaders, Space War and Laser Attack.
Shooting gallery was great fun.
- author: Olivier (France)
date: Friday 17th February 2006
text: I think someone was working on it (Interton VC 4000 in fact), but it is not ready yet. Wait and see...
- author: Aeo (Spain)
date: Friday 17th February 2006
text: |-
Anybody knows an emulator for this system?\
Thanks!
related:
- /museum/cabel-universal-game-computer
- /museum/interton-vc-4000
content/museum/acorn-computer-a4.md
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forum_thread: 50
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- title: ACORN A4
subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Nick Broomfield (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 1st April 2016
text: |-
If you want to buy one!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182075342752?ssPageName$STRK:MESELX:IT$\_trksid$p3984.m1555.l2649
- author: JHrn (USA)
date: Friday 31st December 2010
text: |-
I think it can do word processing, I had emulated RISC OS 3.x once, it\
had a built-in text editor, which is of course in the ROM.
- author: Luca (Italy)
date: Tuesday 11th May 2010
text: I own two of these :)
- author: Erik N (Australia)
date: Friday 8th June 2007
text: |-
I think I want one of these\
does it do wordprocessing and printing???
- author: Merjia (Aus)
date: Friday 11th August 2006
text: |-
Yeah me too!\
They look awesome.
- author: Pharoah (USA, PA)
date: Friday 16th December 2005
text: |-
Wow!\
I REALLY want one of these!
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000
content/museum/acorn-computer-abc-110.md
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- title: ABC LABEL
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content/museum/acorn-computer-abc-210-cambridge-workstation.md
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forum_thread: 639
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- title: OPENED
subtitle: ''
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- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: Stuart Todd (Bradford, UK)
date: Monday 16th June 2014
text: The main market for these machines were universities. I have surplus one from Leeds Universirty in the garage, the BBC board of which was working when it came to me although I could never get the 32015 started. I do recall Acorn User interviewing a Professor regarding their use of the Cambridge Workstation (CWS). He or she stated that despite the machine only have 1/10th the power of the university Cray supercomputer, as the staff and staff were able to test their code on the CWS
- author: Harry Ellis (UK)
date: Tuesday 21st January 2014
text: Hi all - I bought my Cambridge Workstation form a company in Richmond, Surrey, UK in 1985 and still have it if anyone is interested. I developed for it a program for the documentation of entity models. It was still working satisfactorily in 1995 when I was using it to document a Corporate Data Model that I created for the British Army. This form of documentation was taken by my friend and colleague Richard Barker into Oracle where it emerged as their Designer 2000 product. I also have my BBC Micro and coprocessor.
- author: Edward W. Jackson (USA)
date: Thursday 9th January 2014
text: My neighbor bought this computer, with "Peach Tree" software, in a package, with printer for some serious money in the late 80''s. I don''t remember exactly, but $6000 rings a bell. He was very proud of it, and I believe he used it for word processing.
- author: Richard Kilpatrick (Hawick, Scotland)
date: Tuesday 15th October 2002
text: Anyone with these machines, please contact me - I'm wondering how many were made, and trying to get Panos 1.4X disk images to re-install. I also need a keyboard or details of the keyswitch to repair mine :)
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-abc-110
- /museum/acorn-computer-abc-310
content/museum/acorn-computer-abc-310.md
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photos:
- title: 80286 2ND PROCESSOR BOARD
subtitle: ''
@@ -82,13 +83,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: David Wheeldon (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 7th March 2021
text: I recently had the opportunity to collect and own and large collection of BBC equipment which included a number of 2nd processors including a working 80286 Issue 0 board also a 30Mb acorn hard drive unit full of master 512 type files and applications
- author: Tim Boyd
date: Saturday 3rd July 2010
text: Acorn came very close to releasing an 80286 Second Processor$ I''ve seen one in the traditional 2P case, complete with correct labelling, which surfaced during one of Acorn''s clear-outs.
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-abc-110
- /museum/acorn-computer-abc-210-cambridge-workstation
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000.md
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forum_thread: 681
photos:
- title: ARCHIMEDES 3000 FAMILY
subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdon)
date: Friday 22nd April 2011
text: The Archimedes took regular double density 3 1/2 inch floppy disks, just the same as the ST and Amiga. Later Archimedes machines could also use High Density 1.44MB disks, but the A3000 couldn''t without an internal upgrade.
- author: Simon (Manchester)
date: Saturday 25th December 2010
text: |-
Just wondering what kind of floppy disks the a3000 took?\
are they available on ebay?
- author: Daniel
date: Saturday 4th December 2010
text: |-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem$item$270673866094$ssPageName$STRK:MESELX:IT
This is a beautiful little machine, owned and loved by my good self.
Everything works (will upload a picture of the system switched on ASAP).
Original manuals, software etc.
PHILLIPS 14" Monitor
Flashback, Lemmings, ChuckRock, E-type Jaguar, Chocks Away, many more!
I will probably update this listing as and when I scrutinise what I have!
Any questions, just ask! I love this machine, and to be honest, am very tempted to keep it, but I appreciate that you bidders out there have the same passion, so another good home is a welcome home....
There are some very good online-bookable couriers, so I think £20 should cover it, though maybe over two shipments (at the same time).
- author: Harris Khairuddin (Bath)
date: Monday 27th February 2006
text: I have an A3000 with 4mb upgrade and RISC OS 3.11. Is the RAM module compatible with the A3010 and A3020?
- author: michael tesh (sheffield)
date: Wednesday 25th May 2005
text: does the a3000 have an modem add on?
- author: Martin (Scotland)
date: Monday 18th October 2004
text: My dopey mother sold my A3000 when I was out of the country, but I still have some files I'd like to retrieve - any ideas how i can do this?
- author: Ace (sheffield england)
date: Monday 13rd September 2004
text: |-
is there a acorn risc pc (a5000) around ive been after one for ages im after some games as well\
p.s.i collect old computers and synthesizers
- author: Andrew McConville (Scotland)
date: Tuesday 1st June 2004
text: |-
Have never personally owned an A3000 - had a A3010, but I thought I'd share this:
My school Maths department had one(as did most of the depts in the school had an Acorn of some sort - Art topped the list with six! All different variants too.....) and over time it became known as "The beast" for the amount of upgrades that one of the teachers had performed. When I left it was running at "A5000" spec - Arm 3 25Mhz, 120MB internal HD 8MB ram (yes 8MB!) He'd gone and got one of the drive/board upgrades which gave it a 1.6 MB FD and internal podule expansion like the A3020's....\
SO for anyone looking to upgrade... if you can still find them, then these may be worth getting. If I had known that the expansion of the A3000 was so much better than the A3010 that I got, I probably would have paid the extra £100 to buy a new one over the price I paid for my new A3010.
- author: Sam Thornley (South normanton)
date: Thursday 17th July 2003
text: |-
I was setting up my A3000 and noticed on the under side near the mouse port is a compartment\
with a screw.I undid the screw to find what looked like a batery compartment (AA size) .I think this was\
made for CMOS back up batery. :-)
- author: ash purdie (pixton England)
date: Wednesday 30th April 2003
text: I love Acorns there just amazing.
- author: Sam Thornley (South Normanton (England))
date: Saturday 22nd March 2003
text: I have a A3000 with a internal hard drive. But the hard drive does not work.
- author: Ace (Sheffield England)
date: Tuesday 18th March 2003
text: I own a Acorn A3000 but to add to my collection i was wondering where i could get an A4000 risc pc and a bbc master compact.
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3010.md
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forum_thread: 690
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- title: REAR CONNECTORS
subtitle: ''
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 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Spop
date: Monday 24th January 2022
text: Woow, 32-bit!!
- author: hello (herefordshire uk)
date: Saturday 4th September 2010
text: DOES ANYONE KNOW IF U CAN CONNECT A TAPE DRIVE TO AN ACORN A7000+
- author: ominous
date: Saturday 4th September 2010
text: I connected a fdd from a bbc micro to my ACORN A7000+ through the serial port and gained access through a program I wrote in BBC basic
- author: retroking
date: Tuesday 31st August 2010
text: does anyone know where i can get a floppy disk drive or a compatible one for my acorn archimedes a3010,thanks
- author: Chris Charlton (Manchester, UK)
date: Sunday 2nd April 2006
text: |-
Still got one of these bad boys in the loft! Remember doing all my GCSE coursework on it and printing out on a dot matrix printer!
Might be interested in flogging it if anyone wants it? Drop me an email!
- author: Harris Khairuddin (Bath)
date: Monday 27th February 2006
text: I had Mad Prof! It's a brilliant game! Anyone know where I can get a 4mb memory upgrade for an A3010?
- author: Huc (Leicestershire Uk)
date: Thursday 22nd December 2005
text: Did anybody have mad professor Mariati
- author: Huc (Leicestershire Uk)
date: Thursday 22nd December 2005
text: The A3010 was amazing
- author: Andy (Manchester, UK)
date: Monday 11th October 2004
text: |-
I had one of these, but a very, very early version! My serial number was ...0004, and instead of an ARM250 processor soldered to the motherboard, I had one of the rare 'piggy-back' modules, which was basically a cut-down ARM3. These were only used for the very first run, as Acorn were worried that they would not have the ARM250 modules ready for production of that initial batch.
The added bonus was that the piggy-back board was slightly faster than the ARM250, and a company at the time (Simtec?) were able to replace it for a full ARM3! I never did this as it was just too pricey, but over the years it did gain a hard drive! Best of all, I've still got it somewhere... Stunt Racer 2000, anyone? :o)
- author: Andrew McConville (Scotland )
date: Tuesday 1st June 2004
text: |-
I had one of these! Wish I still did in many ways. Mine was the standard 'Family' pack which I got in December 1992 and had it upgraded to 2MB Ram. Earlier versions of this machine had Risc OS 3.10. Anyway over the years it served me really well and was upgraded a few times- firstly with an 82MB Hard Drive and then one of the fabulous exploding AKF 18's (fortunately this one didnt go on fire and I managed to get it fixed) which blew twice.... By the second time I had bought a PC anyway so it wasn't so important.
The last upgrade I got for it was one of the last "Super Turbo" 20Mhz clocked 4MB Ram upgrades which you could get for Arm 250 machines - they were made by a company called Simtec if I recall correctly. Benchmarked it against one of my school's numerous 4MB A5000's once - I was rather surprised to see that mine won by quite a margin. Unfortunately I don't remember what the upgrade actually did to eke out more performance.....
In many ways I wish I still had it - you can see the influence on more modern OS's even today...
Tried to add some of this info to the main hardware page but couldn't, got an internal server error. So if any of the admin folks see this.....
- author: Gilbert Dykes (Scotland)
date: Thursday 11th March 2004
text: The Archi A3010 had a brilliant draw program I wish my new computer had one half as good. And it was multi tasking not bad for 1meg.
- author: mick Thornley (S.normo)
date: Monday 23rd February 2004
text: Silly me i fogot!
- author: Doug (Bedfordshire, UK)
date: Friday 23rd January 2004
text: Because its an old computer!! And the programs easily fitted on floppy discs :) I added a hard drive to mine. I guess adding a hard drive was just too expensive at the time.
- author: mick Thornley (Derbyshire,South Normamton)
date: Thursday 20th March 2003
text: Why don't the Archimedes A3010 have an hard dirve?
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3020.md
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- title: SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
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 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Nattyfido (UK)
date: Tuesday 4th September 2007
text: If anyone is interested in these computers, I still have them, my email has changed though. It is fido_ov_lido@yahoo.co.uk and my website is www.nattyfido.is-a-geek.com
- author: Dean Fowler (Margate, Kent, UK)
date: Wednesday 18th October 2006
text: I have an A3000 and three A3020s. I would be willing to swap the A3000 (not working) and two of the A3020s for an Archimedes mouse. All machines have internal hard drives and are a bit grubby.
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a4000.md
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forum_thread: 692
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -177,51 +178,6 @@ params:
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 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Chris (UK)
date: Tuesday 1st February 2011
text: |-
Hi,\
My old A4000 is sick, when it is booting there is a message "Internal error: undefined instruction at $03877AC8" does anyone have any clues about this ?? Is it corruption on hard drive or does this indicate hardware problems? or is the old machine on the way to the scrap yard?
- author: Dean Graham (Selby, UK)
date: Saturday 27th November 2010
text: |-
Hi Jamie,
Thank you for your post! Im pleased to report I got the A4000 up and running and it now has an A3000 to keep it company.
Cheers,
Dean
- author: Jamie
date: Monday 22nd November 2010
text: |-
Dean:-
You are probably not going to see this but yes it will work with a VGA monitor. PS2 Keyboard and mouse? I dont know
- author: Bernadette (England)
date: Friday 23rd May 2008
text: |-
My primary school had one of these, only one! I can't believe the difference ten to fifteen years makes, now my little sister goes to the same school and they have a computer suite with about twenty brand new PCs with broadband internet. (I am 25 and she is 8)\
I remember my teacher showing me how to make pie charts on it, i think thats all we used it for!
- author: Dean Graham (Selby, UK)
date: Thursday 23rd February 2006
text: |-
Hi,
I have an A4000 base unit only and would like to know if it will work ok with a standard PS2 keyboard, mouse and VGA monitor?
Any help would be greatly apprecaited.
Many thanks,
Dean
- author: George (hialeah)
date: Sunday 15th May 2005
text: woah, you are right.
- author: Andy (England)
date: Sunday 30th January 2005
text: Hi, It looks like I'm the first to post here! ok, I'm posting cos theres a couple of details I'm sure aren't completely right here... as far as I remember, the A4000 had an 18Mhz CPU (though the RAM ran at 12Mhz), and 2Mb ROM, and the version I had had a 40Mb harddisc - I don't know if they did models without a hard disc, though I doubt it, as this was the 2nd highest spec of the systems they were producing at the time. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000.md
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- title: MAIN UNIT
subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: PVT (Worcesttershire)
date: Sunday 8th February 2015
text: I have a pristine A5000 full spec DVD with manuals and loads of software. Does anyone want to buy it?
- author: J C (UK)
date: Friday 12th October 2012
text: |-
Hi everyone, I wonder if any of you could help us out. We have a A5000 in great condition (plus printer) which we are hoping to sell to pay the bills!
Is the price listed on this page (1000-1800 pounds) a realistic asking price for selling it today? It seems rather high $ (it''s surely not listing the original price by any chance is it?)
- author: Michael Lorenz (USA)
date: Wednesday 11th March 2009
text: |-
Just some additions - Econet was optional, my A5000 came without. Then, the highest standard resolution was 800x600. Maximum colour depth was 8 bit - 16 colours and the other four bits were used for hue and saturation IIRC. Also, with 3rd party upgrades RAM could be expanded to 8MB. Finally, the keyboard may have some superficial resemblance with PS/2 keyboards but it really isn''t. Not even close. Some keys are labeled differently, there''s a standard bus mouse port and a hardware reset button in the back of the keyboard. The mouse that came with mine was made by Logitech no less. And the connector is actually a serial port, reset line and power supply for the mouse controller in the keyboard. Plugging a PS/2 keyboard in would blow some fuses. Mouse events are merged into the keyboard data stream, there is no separate line for mouse data,\
The mainboard of at least some revisions was actually prepared for PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. There''s a jumper to switch between acorn and PS/2 mode but no PS/2 connectors are fitted and there are no holes in the case.
- author: Tony Salvidge (Radstock, nr Bath)
date: Friday 21st March 2008
text: I have an Archimedes A3000 computer which has gone faulty. I have some software on the hard-drive which I require, but I am unable to access the hardrive for some reason. Can anyone help
- author: mrdalliard (UK)
date: Friday 1st June 2007
text: |-
The rumour about monitors going up in smoke was true. I had a couple repairs to my monitor during it's lifespan - and Acorn even extended the warranty by several years - bless 'em.
I've still got my A5000 and it still works just fine.
- author: Nigel (uk)
date: Sunday 4th May 2003
text: I remeber being one of the first to get an A5000 I think I had to wait 6 or 7 weeks after ordering it at the show when they were released. My machine has a serial no ending with a number just over 100 (102 or 105) I think. Still works fine but I haven't used it for a while now...
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000.md
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- title: RUNNING
subtitle: ''
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 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: TECH GUY (herefs uk)
date: Saturday 4th September 2010
text: My acorn A7000+ has 64Mb of ram and a 20Gb sata hard disk and I adapted dos box to run on it!!!
- author: Harris Khairuddin (Bath)
date: Monday 27th February 2006
text: I own an A3000 but recently bought an A7000. The games from my A3000 dont seem to work on the A7000 - they just crash or dont run at all. Is there any workaround?
- author: Malcolm (Frome England)
date: Saturday 25th September 2004
text: |-
I am trying to get an A7000 working on a Tandberg TFT moniter which works on most operating sys and\
which will display VGA 640 X 480. I have tried a Delete power on as described in the A7000 Welcome Guide, but the display shows a message "Input not support" message.I would be grateful for any suggestions. Many thanks, Malc.
- author: Julian O'Connor (UK)
date: Friday 18th June 2004
text: The Archimedes and A???? range use standard SCSI, IDE disks later on. Once I borrowed an IDE disk from an Acorn A7000 to get an PC working. I formatted it and installed Windows ,etc and all was well. Later I put the disk back in the A7000, hoping to boot from ROM and format the disk back for use in the Acorn again. I was somewhat surprised to find that all the data previously on the disk from the Acorn was still there despite having been formatted and used on a PC!
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes
content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes.md
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subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)
comments:
- author: Alex Wilkinson (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 10th August 2018
text: |-
Hi I need help i have an A3000 and it works fine until i put either an arm610 card or the 486 pc card in the expansion slot on the back then it won''t turn on or light up and the psu makes a squealing noise if i then turn off and remnove card it works fine again i''ve tried different psu to no luck!!!
Thanks :)
- author: Rob Turner (Ashford, Kent / UK)
date: Wednesday 28th November 2012
text: Please note that the A310/1 system and A3000 systems mentioned in my 11 July 2012 post have gone to a good home - but I''ve still got 2 pre SVGA Phillips monitors as used with above machines, free to a good home, £10 UK delivery - same email as other post - Rob.
- author: Wilton CA (Brasil)
date: Wednesday 28th November 2012
text: |-
Hi... anyone interested in selling me an Acorn Archimedes?
I know postage to my country is high, but I''ll cover all expenses.
Please contact me with full specifications of the machine: nightspectre75 at gmail com. Thanks!
- author: Jonty (Manchester, NW England)
date: Sunday 11th November 2012
text: |-
I''d like to know if there is an analogue joystick for the Archie 3010 2MB I just bought to play Elite on, and whether I can fit a hard drive/flash drive module to it.
Incidentally,Elite co-creator David Braben is looking for backers/venture capital on Kickstarter to gauge interest in Elite IV.
A pledge of £20 gets you the game, of which there are 3820 places left, but higher pledges gets you more goodies:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous
- author: Rob Turner (Kent, UK)
date: Wednesday 11th July 2012
text: |-
If anyone''s interested in a whole A310/1 system and A3000 system in full working order, email me on asgardindustries@btinternet.com. Absolutely free but collect from Kent or pay carriage - Rob.
Plus up to 5 svga monitors!
- author: fyrstyk (Suffolk)
date: Sunday 22nd April 2012
text: |-
Cath, I''m a bit of a BBC nerd and would be able to give some equipment a good home if it''s still available.
email is fyrstyk at gmail dot com
- author: trev
date: Thursday 22nd March 2012
text: Hi, anyone selling any ARM Acorn gear? please email me at tripytrev@hotmail.com
- author: cath (halifax england)
date: Thursday 2nd February 2012
text: |-
hi, my father recently passed away and has left a whole stack of old computers BBC and archimedes, i know at least two of each of these computers are working and then there are programs spares and accessories monitors etc i do remember them as a child but i''m no expert on what make model etc, it would seem a shame to skip/dump them does anyone know where i could sell or give to a good home?\
thanks in advance cath
- author: Joseph Nollette (United States)
date: Sunday 29th January 2012
text: They do not make RISC PCs anymore :-( ($\_$)
- author: Joseph Nollette (United States)
date: Sunday 29th January 2012
text: They do not make RISC PCs anymore :-( ($\_$)
- author: Joseph Nollette (United States)
date: Sunday 29th January 2012
text: They do not make RISC PCs anymore :-( ($\_$)
- author: Pete (UK)
date: Thursday 8th December 2011
text: |-
Can anybody help me please ... I have been given an Archimedes and am anxious to get it running for nostalgic reasons.
BUT I wasn''t given a monitor and of course, being so old its not your standard SVGA fitting. But what \*IS\* it and can anybody help with locating one?
Thanks in advance
- author: Lee Duke (England)
date: Sunday 19th December 2010
text: |-
I need some help!!!\
I have a A3020. As of yesterday I thought it was beyond hope until I read about pressing the Delete key on power up and my A3020 booted up. I left it on for a few hours as it hasn''t been on in ages. Then I shut it down. As I was having problems using my Cub3000 monitor with it I tried using a PC monitor which wouldn''t work at all with it. That was the last time it was working correctly. Now when it boots up the floppy drive is accessed, the Numlock key is illuminated, the cursor flashes about 3 or 4 times until it is steady and then freezes. Once the the cursor has frozen I cannot use the keyboard at all.\
Anyone got any ideas? The CMOS battery looks fine but is probably way beyond its use by date but it hasn''t leaked.\
There is no IDE HDD. There are 4 memory modules installed so I''m guessing this is a 4MB A3020.\
Any help what so ever would be greatly appreciated!!\
Many Thanks in advance!. Please email me: leeorg_184@hotmail.com
- author: Jeremy Thomson (New Zealand)
date: Friday 12th November 2010
text: |-
I was one of the first to get an Archimedes in NZ. The ''Lander'' demo just blew me away, as a working programmer I had a fair idea of the MIPs on display. RiscOS was a brilliant OS, each application was in its own directory, this had three files !boot, !run and !sprites. !sprites contained the icons for the application and any associated file types, so what did any wannbe hacker at the Auckland Acorn user group do, they changed the icons to there own personal taste and you could never figure what the files were on someone else Arch . !boot associated file types with icons and the application so you click on a file and it would load into the application, unless some trickster had messed with your !boot files.\
My A305? originally had 512Kb, eventually it was to have 4Mb, ARM3, MIDI ST506 Disk controller SCSI CDROM. I remember wanting a CDROM but it would cost NZ$2000 at the time PC CDROM were NZ$500. That was the downfall of the Arch, they just couldn''t compete with the economies of scale from the Tawanese PCs. Well if you can''t beat em... just look at the ARM now, the worlds most popular (32bit or better) microprocessor.
- author: Khephren (UK)
date: Tuesday 9th November 2010
text: |-
"here it was very well-known and commonly used"\
Erm...no-one I knew had one, and most people had never heard of it.
It had plenty of grunt, but no custom chips. A very old fashioned approach compared to the Amiga.
- author: Andy (UK)
date: Monday 18th October 2010
text: Well, I think that they may well have under estimated the market potential for the Archimedes. I remember playing the demo 3d game that came with it ...impressive...but Acorn did not go bust.....They went on to create a joint venture with Apple called Advanced RISC Machines and now just ARM Ltd ..... sound familiar........look at your mobile device..chances are it is powered by one..
- author: ed (UK)
date: Thursday 27th July 2006
text: The first computer my family ever owned was an archimedes acorn of some sort. i spent hours playing chocks away with my dad. i've been searching all over for a rom of it so i could play it again, does anyone know of a site where i could download one? thanks.
- author: Richard Hedderly (UK)
date: Wednesday 14th May 2003
text: I used to work for an computer store in the mid 80s and one day Acorn came to visit us with their new baby.. The Archimedes. We noticed as others did what an incredible games machine it made but Acorn were insistent that it was only for education and pushed that front. It could of blown the Amiga and STs off the face of the earth but they were too shortsighted to see it. Oh well. Maybe now in hindsight they can see the error of their ways. Oh no they can't, they've gone bust!
- author: Helgi Geirhards (Iceland)
date: Monday 14th April 2003
text: I am scrambling for a Watford Electronics Video Digitiser Card running on my software located on a Acorn RiscPC. Is there any chance that you might know where to locate such an item? Those items where popular for video frame grabbing in the early 90´s
- author: Paul Kilfoyle (Somerset)
date: Tuesday 12th March 2002
text: |-
I am trying to find some information about the standard Archimides colour monitor, used by schools in the UK,(made in Taiwan/Korea?) that was supplied with their A310 computer supplied around 1990.
Specifically, what was the "vertical refresh rate" of these momitors?
Does anyone out there still have the original specification booklets/manuals that came with the A310 as these may contain this information I am looking for.
- author: Gary (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 3rd March 2002
text: |-
This morning I was strolling around my local car-boot sale when I turned around to spot an Archimedes A3020 complete with monitor, disks and a couple of games. :D
I've been playing Lemmings and James Pond (Robocod) this morning and was wondering if anyone could answer this question to enable me to play more.
Is it possible to download a rom image from the internet and convert a disk to the format for the Archimedes and put the game on a disk? If possible please could you explain how to do it, i'm despirate to find out, Thank you
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-a4
- /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000
content/museum/acorn-computer-atom.md
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- title: ACORN ATOM
subtitle: ''
@@ -313,58 +314,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Keith Howell\
 type of document : HTML\
 source : [Oh no, not another computer museum!](https://electrickery.nl)
comments:
- author: John Ferguson (UK)
date: Thursday 12th April 2018
text: Owner of two Acorn Atoms one of which is for sale on Ebay at this moment.
- author: Mikael (Sweden)
date: Monday 14th April 2014
text: |-
I have found a Emulator of Acorn Atom, and printed out an manual to. So it''s gone be nice Basic programming.
I like to program Basic, but I''ll need manuals so I know how the Basic language work out. And what I can see so was Acorn Atom a good computer, the Basic is easy to understand.
- author: Atom User
date: Friday 1st July 2011
text: |-
"A lot of applications were available on sideways ROMs that plugged into the "utility ROM socket" as Acorn called it"
The ROM sockets were continuous with the address space of the 6502, so did not need page switching. The Atom supported additional ROMs but they were not ''sideways'' ROMs.
- author: Roger Haycock (UK)
date: Monday 4th October 2010
text: |-
I built an Atom from a kit. When I switched it on I had five pictures. This was caused by dry joints in the memory. If a pin was open it was read as a one. I wrote a program to find all the dry joints and gradually I got them all fixed.
I still have my Atom although some of the keys are missing. I am wondering about getting it going again.
- author: DaveC (York, England)
date: Tuesday 28th September 2010
text: I built my own Atom in 1979/1980. The hardest part was getting the springy key connectors through the holes in the pcb$ they kept jumping out and it took hours. The Atom was my first computer and I used it a lot while I was studying for my Electronics degree. I even used it to drive a speech synthesiser chip for my final year project. It still works!
- author: AlanH
date: Sunday 6th June 2010
text: |-
I had a kit one that my older cousin assembled for me, although after a while it stopped working so had to send to Acorn for fixing.\
The Atom was a great little machine for the day and I cut my coding teeth on it, I must have had it for a couple of years before I could afford to buy a Beeb which was in a different league.\
After 30 yrs of programming its surprising how things haven''t really changed that much since those days on my Atom programming in BASIC and 8 bit assembler.
- author: IanE (UK)
date: Tuesday 9th March 2010
text: |-
I had a factory built machine but a bog standard one. This came with 2K RAM. I upgraded it by buying a bag of chips which plugged into sockets pre-soldered on the board This took it up to 20K.
The first one I had didn''t last long. Around the end of 1981 they converted from an external PSU to an internal one. My system came with just a length of wire that fitted in the power input socket on the back. We put a 13A plug on it and plugged it into the mains. There was a big blue flash and a bang. No more main board. My system should have had the external PSU but was supplied with just the mains cable.... they replaced it under warranty but it put a damper on Christmas Day!
I kept games and programs on a reel to reel tape deck but eventually kileld the Atom by turning the output level on the tape too high.
Best game was Galaxian! Just like the original including sounds but in mono and not colour.
- author: a (a)
date: Tuesday 30th August 2005
text: Atom is advanced for its time look @ the 3D Plot
- author: Alex (Santa Cruz, CA, USA)
date: Thursday 2nd October 2003
text: |-
I remember building an Acorn Atom fromkit with my father (I mostly watched) I remember having to cut a yogurt container to hold the little speaker!
He modded this a lot with many, many extra roms and an analog and digital joystick and a cotroller like a R/C car controller. 5 1/4 hard drive and more memory if I remember correctly.
My favorite game on it was a car driving game, where your car was a line along the bottom of the screen (the hood/bonnet) and the road was just made up of little white dots that marked the side of the road. And lets not forget the lines and lines of basic code you could type in to get the magic carpet game working!
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master-aiv
content/museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master-aiv.md
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forum_thread: 963
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- title: VOLTMACE DELTA CONTROLLERS
subtitle: ''
@@ -111,10 +112,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Programming of Acorn computers
comments:
- author: Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdon)
date: Monday 23rd May 2011
text: More info and pictures of the AIV system can be found at http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/Domesday.html plus pictures of the machine internals.
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-atom
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master
content/museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master-compact.md
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forum_thread: 712
adverts:
- title: 'ACORN AD #1'
subtitle: ''
@@ -120,62 +121,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Programming of Acorn computers
comments:
- author: Marianne (UK)
date: Sunday 29th October 2017
text: Marc from Australia, that''s a sin even the pope couldn''t absolve you of!
- author: Marc (Australia)
date: Sunday 1st March 2015
text: |-
As many Australians know, these machines plus the original beebs were prolific in Australian public and private (mainly Catholic) primary and high schools.
And thus I have a confession to make. I helped load hundreds of these and the beebs into skips for recycling (destination unknown) in about 1994-5 as schools transitioned to Macs or X86 clones.
At that time I had gone from C6 to Amiga and then to a 386 and didn''t see to keep one of these around (even though I was kinda fond of them having used them as a student myself). All that I kept was an Archimedes, which were briefly adopted in some places.
Sorry, aficionados!
- author: EA
date: Friday 26th July 2013
text: |-
Sparkey, when it''s Sparky
Don''t tell others how to spell when you can''t spell deserve right!
Who knows what someone will sell these systems for.
- author: EA
date: Friday 26th July 2013
text: |-
Sparkey, when it''s Sparky
Don''t tell others how to spell when you can''t spell deserve right!
Who knows what someone will sell these systems for.
- author: john Nicholls (Kanahooka NSW Australia)
date: Monday 5th December 2011
text: Hi I recently purchased a BBC compact to go with my 4 BBC B machines I also have an electron, plus an A3000, I have yet to purchase a B+ and Master 128 but the compact is rare and compliments the collection, I find there is nothing wrong with it and had fun discovering the differences to the Beeb, does anyone know what the edge connector is for?
- author: Jamie (UK)
date: Monday 22nd November 2010
text: How could you SMASH A COMPUTER??
- author: Sparkey989
date: Saturday 11th September 2010
text: Dude. None of theese are for sale. They don''t even own all of them, so if you can''t even spell what you don''t diserve it.
- author: callum brooke (london)
date: Wednesday 5th May 2010
text: how much do u wat for this computer
- author: Jezza (UK)
date: Saturday 6th September 2008
text: Gosh this site brings back memories. I had one of these back in ''86. It really was the biggest waste of space. There were only about 2 software titles sold on 3.5" disc at the time (the BBC B mainly used 5.25"), and of course there was no internet or LAN in my parents house! If i wanted it to do anything i had to program it myself. It was a bit much watching my friends play cool games on their Amigas while i was forced to write my own games that resembled those of the Spectrum age. In the end (much to my shame) in about 1989 i smashed it to bits with a hammer. I hated the bloody thing!
- author: mick (sheffield england)
date: Tuesday 5th February 2008
text: this computer was also seen in the only fools and horses episode a frogs legacy i think. del boy is trying to sell them
- author: Linkman (Slovak republic)
date: Friday 15th October 2004
text: Really ? how much ?
- author: Daniel (Poland - Katowice)
date: Sunday 12th September 2004
text: |-
HI!\
Where i can get this great computer??
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-atom
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master
content/museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master.md
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forum_thread: 831
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- title: BBC MASTER
subtitle: ''
@@ -247,52 +248,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Chris Richardson\
 type of document : ZIP\
 source : [BBC Documentation Project](http://www.bbcdocs.com)
comments:
- author: Chris Jordan (UK)
date: Saturday 19th April 2014
text: |-
David wrote: "the BBC B used the IC18 Sound Generator and the BBC Master the IC38 which offered the same number of channels (4) but slightly better quality sound. ... the BBC B+ also used the IC38!"
David, ICXX is simply Acorn''s own designation for the position of the IC in the circuit. What identifies the Sound Generator is the manufacturer''s part number - SN76496 in the Model B and B+, and the SN76489 in the Master. There is no difference in the sound output quality between these two chips.
By the way, are you the David Shepherd who wrote Atom Minotaur? I''m the Chris Jordan who designed the sound firmware driving the above chips in the BBC Micro.
- author: David Shepherd
date: Wednesday 2nd April 2014
text: |-
"I believe this inaccurate. I recall no improvement in the sound feature between these two models."
Pedantically yes, the BBC B used the IC18 Sound Generator and the BBC Master the IC38 which offered the same number of channels (4) but slightly better quality sound.
I say pedantically, because the BBC B+ also used the IC38!
- author: Chris Jordan
date: Monday 3rd February 2014
text: |-
"The BBC Master was an enhanced version of the BBC Model B providing improved features... These features were: ... 4 sound channels"
I believe this inaccurate. I recall no improvement in the sound feature between these two models.
- author: Matthijs (Netherland)
date: Tuesday 30th October 2012
text: |-
As far as I remember de BBC Master512 ran DR-DOS en not MS-DOS.\
However you could play Flight Simulator on it. $-)\
Also were able to program in Turbo Pascal.
- author: Userus
date: Thursday 22nd March 2012
text: Most accomplished 8-bit home computers? For home games were much important while BBC''s had inferior graphics system. You may compare with MSX2 appeared the same year, for example.
- author: Mark (England )
date: Thursday 20th January 2011
text: |-
Does anyone know if the BBC B or Master has been put into VHDL code so it can be put onto a single chip ??
I know it''s been done for other old retro machines !! Might make a good project for a programmer proficiency in VDHL /Verilog programming.
- author: John H
date: Sunday 19th December 2010
text: I started programming on one of these (actually on a model B in school)$ I''m now a senior software engineer on large server projects. It struck me the other day, there must be tens of thousands of professional programmers and engineers now active who all owe their careers to the BBC Computers In Schools project. Awesome, when you come to think about it.
- author: Steve (Adelaide, Australia)
date: Sunday 5th September 2004
text: |-
My high school had these things up until 1994 when they were replaced with Macs! I always loved seeing these in action in the late 80's at the library there (before I started at that school in 93) with networking and games like Xor. They were a well designed computer, the fact that they hung around for so long says something.\
From the previous page, I think an Australian school having BBC micro's must have been something of an anomaly.
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-atom
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master-aiv
content/museum/acorn-computer-bbc-model-a-b-b.md
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forum_thread: 48
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- title: BBC MODEL B
subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Mark Usher / Andreyro\
 type of document : RTF\
 source : [BBC Documentation Project](http://www.bbcdocs.com)
comments:
- author: Dox (Australia)
date: Monday 23rd April 2012
text: |-
I couldn''t resist a trip down memory lane. First, a long overdue "Thank you" to Mr Hume.
His whole Math''s class was caught up in his enthusiasm, excitedly awaiting the day when his Micro Computer would arrive. It was late.
When it did, a small cadre of boys and girls gathered around the keyboard and monitor to watch as he loaded a few worthy but dull games. I seem to recall, only one or two got hands-on because they took so long to load.
The following week, everyone else was rehearsing for the school play. That evening, he changed the course of my life.
All I''d ever seen a computer do was play a few simple games. When asked what I wanted to do, I was too naive to know better.
I asked if we could "type-in a game". And to my amazement, he did just that. For years after, "typing-in a game" meant copying from a magazine. I knew differently.
Writing BBC BASIC in real time, Mr Hume crafted one of the few games I''d seen before ... "Bomber". Life. As I watched. We didn''t finish it in one night, nor ever as I recall. but I''d seen enough. I was hooked. I was consumed with the desire to do the same. I had to speak "fluent computer".
Within 6 months, I''d able to do the game. Taking a simple idea and turning it into code.
Within a year, I was coding in fluent machine code (hex, not assembler). Within a year, I was in high school and coding passionately. Along with a couple of mates, we wrote most of the senior schools'' computing assignments during our first term. LOL. Stopped us being bullied, oddly enough. Being able to write games made us geeks tolerable, even useful. We were awarded special privileges by the tougher kids and the teachers. It could have been so much worse.
My own first computer was a VIC-20. An amazing gift, that my single mum couldn''t really afford. Later on, I managed to snag my BBC (an old model A) ... and loved it with a passion. Then the ST, my beloved Amiga and then the wilderness of MS-DOS until Linux and for the last decade, my Mac''s.
It''s 30 years since the ZX Spectrum was released. A machine that I loved and loathed (fan-bois are not new). Nothing will ever compare to the BBC. (Arch, if you ever read this ... the Z80 was definitely better :-)
How good was BBC Basic? And lightening fast. Procedures, wow. And the assembler. Econet. And of course, Elite.
Thank you to Acorn, the BBC, Mr Hume. Arch and Beef. It''s 29 years later, I''m awake at 3am still coding furiously. Good night.
- author: Peter Gathercole (Somerset, United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 7th May 2006
text: I was responsible for equiping a teaching lab. at Newcastle Polytechnic, and natrually I chose the BBC micro (a controversial decision when everyone else was buying original IBM PC's). 16 model B (suitable for a class of 32), networked together with ECONET to a server with a 20MB hard disk. I was given a free hand to buy 'demonstrative' hardware to show what computers could do. We ended up with robotic arms, 2 different speach synths, graphic tablets, 2 different camera systems, a speach recognition system, a BITSTICK (great for playing Elite), touch sensitive screens, light pens, pen plotter, Teletext adapter, 6502 second processor. The systems were used for Basic and Pascal programming, word processing (view), spreadsheets (viewsheet). With all of the 'toys' out, it really was something to see. All this connected to the 'standard' ports of the BBC. What a wonderful machine. I know from experience that it was a great system for teaching. I still have two running today!
- author: Alan Goodwin (UK)
date: Wednesday 8th September 2004
text: |-
Let's face it; everyone has used a BBC. Schools loved 'em...and rightly so. The real draw, though, was seeing "Elite" running on it. I started coding 3d vector routines as a result, whilst I got my 'o' level in computer studies with three programs I made for fun (a crude music sequencer, a bug-ridden 3d graphical adventure game and a simple word processor). Biggest surprise the old girl gave me was when I slammed in my new copy of Superior Software's "Citadel" and she started TALKING to me! "Whatch owt for speeeech!", she said, "Ower new program, coming soooon!".
I dropped my sandwich!
- author: Caroline (Hampshire, UK)
date: Thursday 29th January 2004
text: |-
My ex husband was an electronics technician in the RAF and when he came out of the forces at the end of the 70s he also got into computing. He bought a computer kit from an electronics magazine for £500 (which was delivered in a Securicor security van) and assembled it himself.
When the BBC B came out, we bought one, with a green-screen monitor and a dot-matrix printer. Backup storage to tape.
I taught myself BASIC programming on it and got seriously stuck into graphics and small utilities.
The problem with the graphics (wireframe, not solid in those far-off days) was that it took at least an hour to plot each one so if you got one of the co-ordinates wrong and it didn't come out the way you wanted it to, you had to wait another hour or more for it to cycle through again to see whether you'd got it right.
I remember trying to bribe, threaten and otherwise corral my kids into helping me debug huge pages of BASIC code from the tractor-feed striped-paper printouts with rows of holes down each side..
- author: Timmy (Uk)
date: Thursday 5th May 2022
text: Look for help with a bbc microcomputer
- author: ANDREW (SCOTLAND)
date: Monday 16th April 2018
text: IT LOOKS LIKE SOME THING I WOOD FIND IN MY GRANNYS ATIK
- author: Simon Anthony (Australia)
date: Sunday 24th July 2016
text: |-
Does anyone remember my software ? Did anyone actually use it? I once worked for ECS which branded my products. Does anyone remember my articles in Acorn User and Archimedes World ? - and Archive for that matter ?
I''m told my NewSaver prog was used in schools in Wales, UK not NS.
I''m just wondering...
- author: Amir Hussain (Pakistan)
date: Tuesday 7th July 2015
text: |-
This was the first computer I ever touched . . . . . . Still remember the amusement of that touch.. After taking few programming classes I decided to write the CowBoy Shooting game in the BBC Basic. Started writing the code and ended up with just a screen replicated from the game scene into BBC Basic.
That was the time I never thought of anything else....
My teacher Mr. Moosa Kazmi, was the person who encouraged.....
- author: Rick Galbraith (Winnipeg, MB Canada)
date: Wednesday 26th June 2013
text: |-
It was the summer of 1986 and I had some free time on my hands. The public library in Dryden, Ontario, a pulp-mill town in northwestern Ontario, had just received 6 BBC B+ (North American version). They offered a course in basic computing. So my first computer experience was on the BBC. I was 36.\
A couple of months later, I took a job in another town for three months. Then, I came back to Dryden and started to write an article about a person in that other community. I composed it on the BBC.\
We had an Epson Printer at the library. I bought my own printer cartridge as I typed a lot of pages and didn''t want to use their supplies. I think there was a charge for their supplies.\
In 1990, my wife bought me a present: It was a BBC that had been owned but never used by another library. I acquired a printer, and a copy of the Oak Leaves printer driver. I had fun using that driver to implement the print settings through the View word processor and the highlight codes.\
The BBC is gathering dust in my basement. I fiddled with the floppy drive jumpers and lost the settings. I burned out 2 of the kimtron monitors.\
I''ve gone on to use various flavours of Linux (after being for a short time a Windows user, from 1997 until 2002), But the BBC was fun.\
One memory was of a computer game called Pirate. I copied the disc and could play the game, but could never read the basic program. Using BBC basic, I was able to perform some operations on that disc. The disk file table took two sectors. There was a twelve character title space. The name Pirates was in that space, separated by spaces. But the spaces were not ASCII 32, but ASCII 00. This made the file system unviewable! Then I made a program to rebuild the Basic Program, and I was able to see an extra character in each line that hid the program from displaying on screen. sneaky.
- author: bbcbfan
date: Thursday 28th March 2013
text: |-
can someone help me , i have a bbc b with poorman''s sideway ram $) ( a eeprom + little chip mounted and some wires for write protect and not wire protect. do some have the schemaic of this , it''s to long ago , but the problem is the switch write protect and not write protect is broken\
there is also a risitor bij de not write protect option
which old magazine explain how to make this poorman''s sideway ram ???
- author: Phil Caldwell (London, UK)
date: Wednesday 27th February 2013
text: |-
Jimi (Manchester) - Wednesday 20th June 2007
Jimi, couldn''t agree with you more.
I build PC''s for fun now, I lecture in computer engineering in my spare time and I am basically the go-to guy at work for my manager when the company PC''s fail in the different sections of the building.
My colleagues don''t even bother with the IT section as they are based in the north, we''re in London.
The curriculum these days must be so mind numbing for students.
- author: Phil Caldwell (London, UK)
date: Wednesday 27th February 2013
text: |-
I remember using these computers when I was at school, looking at this website brought so many happy memories flooding back.
One quite funny, I was in fourth year and I could not get a program to run, it was around 600 lines of BASIC, it kept coming back syntax error, I''m sure you all remember this problem.
I tried for around an hour to get it to run, all of a sudden this horrid little second year kid stood behind me and said you''ve made a mistake in line 150 or there-abouts, I can''t remember now.
I looked back, still couldn''t find the error, he simply stood beside me entered some code on the keyboard and lo and behold it damned well worked.
I always despised that kid after that. Looking at this site made me think of that and gave me a really good laugh.
People these days don''t know how papmpered they are with mouses, CD Roms, Gigabytes of RAM, multi Ghz processors and so on. Oh the good old days..
- author: James Cresswell (UK)
date: Monday 29th October 2012
text: Just thought I would add my penny''s worth on the fantastic BBC Micro model A. It was the very first computer I was introduced to and from the very first day, I was hooked. The school I was in, was one of the first to have a school computer and because it was a boarding school, I was on that machine day and night, with only the glow of the green monitor for company. I must have wrote dozens of programs, and to see the massive program ''RUN'' for the first time was the best buzz I ever had. Of course computers now are far superior, but sometimes I crave to get behind that green monitor again and sit up all night writing lines of code. The BBC Micro may be consigned to history now, but it will always have a special place in my heart, as it was so special to me when I was growing up.
- author: Mike Cook (Manchester England)
date: Tuesday 10th May 2011
text: |-
A video of the 1985 Micro User show in Manchester:-\
http://vimeo.com/23537869
- author: Mark Cardy (Northern Ireland)
date: Monday 25th April 2011
text: I Had A BBC ''B''. Got it for Christmas 1983. it was the best thing that i''d ever got. i learned the Language, and some of the Advanced language (assembly if i remember right). i noticed that the BBC was alot quicker than any other PC in that era, even IBM etc. What happened? why did it not take over the world? It was so quick, easy to use, British, etc.
- author: Gordon McIntosh (UK)
date: Wednesday 6th April 2011
text: I remember using your computer lab Peter and the robotic arms - these were great machines
- author: Ben McPherson
date: Friday 18th March 2011
text: Caroline, Peter, I''d be very interested to hear more from you about your experiences with the BBC Micro. Do email me if you''d be interested in sharing - other users too. I may be making a short film about the BBC Micro.
- author: Kevin (Scotland)
date: Wednesday 19th January 2011
text: Remember at primary school every class from P3-P7 would get its allocated day on the BBC B....everyone used to eagerly wait on their turn to get on for just 5 minutes. The dangerous thing was always the BREAK key - which on a BBC terminates the program and lands you right back at the command prompt. Remember there was one day when someone did that and everyone else missed their turn for that week because the teacher couldn''t be bothered loading the program in again from cassette....everyone else in the class was totally gutted. He wasn''t popular in the playground that afternoon LOL
- author: Helmut (Germany)
date: Friday 14th January 2011
text: Hi , I have got 2 BBC Micro, DD drive, 1 Acorn Electron, all hardly used. Anybody interested?
- author: Lez Anderson (England)
date: Tuesday 14th September 2010
text: |-
Has anyone put the BBC onto a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) I believe it''s already been done for some other old computers like the Coco 3 (25MHz !!!) and Amstrad CPC..
If anyone has any information regarding this please post a message with Web link etc ..
- author: Chulang Searles (Barbados)
date: Friday 2nd July 2010
text: I had use it when I was doing my electronic course in 1991 for plant control modules. It was fanstatic to use and easy. I wish that PC could be as simple to program and interface to as these devices could
- author: Chulang Searles (Barbados)
date: Friday 2nd July 2010
text: I had use it when I was doing my electronic course in 1991 for plant control modules. It was fanstatic to use and easy. I wish that PC could be as simple to program and interface to as these devices could
- author: Warren Heyes (United kingdom)
date: Wednesday 5th May 2010
text: I have a BBC computer, colour monitor, dual drive, tape recorder, rom expansion board, manuals, software, joystick etc. going begging. Only monitor lead missing. Not used for years so can''t be sure it all still works. Anyone interested? - Cheshire/Merseyside area
- author: Paul (Yorkshire, UK)
date: Sunday 2nd May 2010
text: Kev, I''m in Sheffield and would be happy to pick up the Beeb stuff from you. My mobile is 07949263072.
- author: Kev Martin (UK)
date: Friday 30th April 2010
text: |-
I have two BBC 32k computers, disc drives, two monitors (one colour) many ROMs, books and discs. Last udes many years ago and working then. Anyone interested? Free for collection from Brigg, North Lincolnshire or they will be thrown away.\
Kev
- author: Antony Franks (West Yorkshire, UK)
date: Tuesday 28th April 2009
text: |-
I have a BBC Model B, S/N 02-B01-215984\
Bought in (I think) mid/late 80''s\
Sidewise extra ROM board, Watford DFS, Watford 32k RAM board, iinterWord, iinterSheet, interChart, Watford mouse. No cables, manuals but makes the OK noise when switched on. Due to house move this must go - free to anyone who can collect otherwise it''s for the skip!
- author: Philip Black (Sussex, UK)
date: Wednesday 1st April 2009
text: Hi Carol, I would love the Beeb computer. But how can I get in touch with you?
- author: Carol (Kent, S$E$ England)
date: Wednesday 28th January 2009
text: |-
I have been given a BBC Micro model B computer in full working order with external disk drive/RAM drive, monitor and memory expansion.\
I would like to give it to anyone who can collect it from me in Kent S E England.
- author: Nigel Bevan (Bristol UK)
date: Wednesday 12th March 2008
text: |-
I have to downsize and have a lot of Acorn memorabilia. Includes: Master, Risc600, hundreds of discs, monitor, drives (5 1/4 and 3") bound sets of Micro User, Archimedes World, Acorn World and lots of other stuff.\
Do you know who might be interested in buying any of this stuff? Contact me by e-mail and I can let you know what else I have.
- author: Joe hardisty (manchester)
date: Friday 19th October 2007
text: i have a bbc computer for sale of anyone wants it, i payed 40 with postage, and i would idealy like £30 for it, as i am running low on funds hehe
- author: Steve (Australia)
date: Saturday 6th October 2007
text: |-
Does anyone in Australia have a 5.25 inch disk drive for the BBC they'd like to sell? I've just bought a BBC setup from eBay with disks of classic games, but the disk drive is knackered. I even have a Z80 second processor that I'd consider swapping for a 6502 Second Processor. My email is\
stephenknoxbigpondcom
Thanks
- author: jimi (manchester)
date: Wednesday 20th June 2007
text: has anyone noticed almost everyone who used a bbc in school managed to get an o level in I.T. or a degree in programming or at the very least some experience in programming that shows how rubbish the modern curriclum is!!! take that blair and i hav 1 waiting for the new guy taking his place.
- author: jimi mc (manchester)
date: Wednesday 20th June 2007
text: oh yes and does anyone know it a modern 3 1/2 floppy drive is compatible with a model b??? woul help for game transfer
- author: jimi mc (Manchester)
date: Wednesday 20th June 2007
text: MAN bbc's rule i hav a model b and a cumana floppy disc but no games and why the hell couldnt they just have used the same type of cassette interface as a 48k spectrum that might explain why i have no games but 13 and loving it!!!
- author: joshua01793 (swindon)
date: Friday 15th June 2007
text: hell i love the bbc computer i am oly 14 and i no most of bbc basic i do not have one but i do have the beebm on my pc so i can pracits
- author: John Nuttall (Guildford)
date: Sunday 10th June 2007
text: |-
I've just been given a working BBC micro, a real nostalgia trip. It boots with message\
ACORN MOS\
Acorn 1770 DFS
How can I tell which model I have and what RAM is installed please?
- author: TOM (UK)
date: Tuesday 27th March 2007
text: David Glass (Scotland) - I think you're talking about grannies garden, if you're still looking. if anyone can tell me the name of the games i'm after mentioned below (TOM (UK)), i'm still looking!
- author: martin overthrow (harlow (uk))
date: Monday 19th March 2007
text: |-
As an engineer i loved the old BBC, i could up grade an A to a B in about 45 minutes. they were a joy to use and to fix.\
does anyone remember the Master 128 and the Doomsday Project? it was a Philips Laser Vision Player connected to a Master 128 with a special interface to control the laser disc player.
- author: Daniel Clohesy (Australia)
date: Monday 5th February 2007
text: I remember that my primary school in Paddington, Sydney, Australia was one of the first public (state) schools to have a "computer room". The very first computer I used was the BBC micro which we thought was pretty flash! We used C64's aswell but my fondest memories of the BBC was playing "Elite" with the school principle.
- author: David Glass (Scotland)
date: Monday 29th January 2007
text: |-
I vaguely remember this rpg style game where one of the levels you came across dragons of all colours. You had a puzzle to solve but I cant remember what it was. I think it was feeding them?
Does this make sense and does anyone know the game i'm remembering?
- author: Will Bowman (UK)
date: Thursday 28th December 2006
text: There is a BBC Model B working still in the local primary school. As far as I can tell, it'll stay there til it breaks down, which hopefully won't be any time soon...
- author: Paul D (UK)
date: Wednesday 30th August 2006
text: The BBC B was the first computer i bought and i drooled over the specification even before they were in production. I think i pre-ordered mine, but i can't be sure. It probably helped start my software developing career, at the time i was a graduate trainee engineer and was learning the job of writing assember code. There were some good game for it, including the then addictive space trading classic, Elite.
- author: Paul (England)
date: Sunday 9th July 2006
text: I have just got a BBC model B computer, when I powered it up there are no beeps from the machine and no out put to the TV i have checked the fuse and that is ok, Has any one else had any problems with this and could point me in the right direction. Thanks Paul
- author: John Stocking (Norfolk UK)
date: Tuesday 30th May 2006
text: |-
I am looking for a 'Bitstick' ROM for a BBC Micro if anyone has one they wish to dispose of please email price etc and I will get back to you\
thanks\
John
- author: Jon (UK)
date: Monday 22nd May 2006
text: |-
Hi
I bought an Acorn computer recently... I don't know a great deal about them, but when I started it up, all I get on the monitor is flashing dashes running across the screen - is it completely broken or is there a way of sorting this problem out?
Thanks!
Jon
- author: Abdullah S. Eyles (Adana, Turkey (was in UK then!))
date: Thursday 23rd March 2006
text: |-
We had a BBC B in 1986! I wrote some programs for my Father to use in his work with BBC Basic.
One time the printer (Epson FX80) was printing strange characters. A quick look at the circuit diagram revealed a possibly faulty IC which I dilligently removed. A quick search of my electronic cupboard for a replacement, within one hour up and running again! :)
Try that with a Pentium IV or whatever junk we are using today!!
- author: joe hardisty (stalybridge)
date: Tuesday 10th January 2006
text: WOW the bbc micro computer is a fantastic computer i remember getting one arround 1995 i was about 7. i have just got into them again and i was wondering if there is anyone out there who knows of any basic programing language on the internet? (i suppose there wont be anyone because i char wrong and you had to start all over! lol) what a fantastic machene they were i have built many windows computers and they are really not a patch on the bbc! i know you must think i am mad but really when you put it into perspective think of the money you have to pay for ram, graphics cards, harddrives, the bbc took all these things (exept the harddrive) and put together a machine that you could play games on that would keep me happy four hours, word proccessing program and listening to the old epson printer fire all its little pins at the paper as in those days they were the "range". the bbc micro computer was an in-expensive, and efficient way to compute and did everything to the best of its
abbility! well put it this way they are still going now 25years on and most havent missed a beat! (please feel free to add me on msn or e-mail me at anthonyh055@hotmail.com)
- author: TOM (UK)
date: Thursday 15th September 2005
text: |-
Wow, i can't believe someone could help, thanks, i think that is the game i was describing. I'll have to give it a try and see. I don't remember it being monochrome, but memory does things like that to you, doesn't it? i'd got it into my head that it was called alchemist, but that's an entirely different game.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/spectrum/03/alchemist.html
there are a few other games i'm trying to find. it'd make me happy if anyone knows what these are-
\* an adventure a bit like granny's garden (on the BBC, i played it at school), but which featured a top down view bit where you had to move your person (car?) around in real time picking up little flashing things, i think, before a time limit ran out (i think). a bit vague, i know, but i'd like to see it again.
\*a text adventure, also on the bbc, where (i think) you and your apprentice (you may have been sherlock holmes, or something like that) had to explore a transylvanian castle, possibly looking for a vampire. i remember a front passage being described as musty when you typed "LOOK".
\* a commodore 64 game where you walked around with a view similar to zelda 1, planting and harvesting mushrooms, building fences, then calling for a rocket ship to pick all of your harvest up. it always seemed to crash (the ship, i mean). you could press some sort of thingy to make a gun shoot as well.
thanks again, THarte (UK), and thanks to anyone who can help with these.\
tom.
- author: THarte (UK)
date: Tuesday 9th August 2005
text: |-
Note to TOM (UK) - the game you're describing sounds like Spellbinder by Superior Software. It was monochrome and set entirely in a castle - a screenshot can be seen here: http://www.stairwaytohell.com/electron/scr/Spellbinder-elk.gif\
. Stairway To Hell is also an excellent site for game downloads.
- author: Gustavo Fernandes (Brazil)
date: Sunday 15th May 2005
text: |-
My ACORN BBC B+ board is faulty. Is there any dealer for old ACORN boards ? ( I have already tried CJE).\
Is there any compatible board to which I can move the BBC´s EPROMs ?
- author: TOM (UK)
date: Wednesday 27th April 2005
text: WE used them in school too, remember granny's garden? i'm trying to find the name of a game i remember playing once on the electron. i believe it was side view, and you could walk up, down left or right a bit like maniac mansion, except that you had direct control over the character. you started with water to your right, i think, and you couldn't swim. i think there was something about being able to mix potions or something. there was someone when you got so far through it who threw some sort of homing thingy that seemed to kill you every time. games back then were hard! anyone know what it was called? thanks if you can help!!
- author: Philip Trott (Kent)
date: Thursday 14th April 2005
text: I still have a BBC B computer and loads of software for it and it still works today I think that says something about the quality of the machine
- author: Thibaut (Belgium)
date: Monday 14th March 2005
text: 'This was a stunning wachine. My father, my brother and I bought it in Belgium in 1982. We paid 120.000 BEF (3.000?) for a set comprising : - BBC Model B (40.000 BEF) - 1 double sided disk drive unit (we wanted 2 1 side units, but the seller claimed there were no more, so he gave out the double sided unit. I was mad at him) (30.000 BEF) - 1 EPSON RX 80 matric printer (25.000 BEF) - 1 Sony color TV, used as a monitor (25.000 BEF). Can you imagine that we paid at that time the price of a modern computer for a 5 1/4 disk unit ? In addition to the numerous softwares we exchanged at school, we added a word processing ROM and a utilities ROM called Disc Doctor. I did a lot of things with this computer : programs that applied theories of my maths courses (functions study, matrixes, ...), accountancy, word processing, ... We could even print graphs on a 80 column matrix printer with a utility called "DUMP", that copied pixel by pixel the status of the screen...'
- author: Alastair Montgomery (North Yorkshire)
date: Thursday 13rd January 2005
text: |-
The BBC B, was the third computer I used, I started of with a ZX81, then got an Acorn Electron, finally got a second hand BBC B. Best games IMO were Elite, Revs and Chuckie Egg.
Did a lot of programming on the BBC, Pascal, Basic and assembler.
Wish today's computers would boot up as fast as my old BBC.
- author: Clare (Wales UK)
date: Thursday 30th December 2004
text: |-
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me with an Archemedis A5000 problem, if not, do you know where I can get help?\
I recently got hold of one of these machines, plugged it into my PC monitor and it all worked fine. When I was playing with the resolution settings, I set it to something the PC monitor cannot handle. Now I cannot get it back. Anyone know how to do this?
Please Help,\
Clare.
- author: Jonathan Bluestone (London, England / Oklahoma City, OK, USA)
date: Wednesday 29th December 2004
text: I'm in \*love\* with the BBC Microcomputer, and more so with the Master 128 which I brought when they first came out from Watford Electronics ... quite a drive from Hayes, Middlesex, just to buy the new machine. And the reason I purchased it was to play Elite with sixteen colors no less! I'm a massive classic Elite fan (and to a lesser extent, Frontier and First Encounters) and I'm always interested in talking to anyone who has any old Beeb bits, machines they don't want ... or who just want to talk Beeb. I use and can highly recommend a BBC emulator which emulates the Electron, Model B, B+, 65C02, and even the Master 128 to a high degree of accuracy called pcBBC (which runs under MS-DOS, Windows 98se at least) - sadly no longer produced or supported, so if you want to know more about this product, feel free to contact me with the subject PCBBC or BBC in the subject line or I'll ignore messages as spam.
- author: Rob D (Solihull, UK)
date: Sunday 5th December 2004
text: |-
Morning all,\
I wonder if anyone can help: There was a BBC B game when my fiancee and I were at school, and we're trying to remember the name of it.
It was set on a desert island. You survived by eating tapioca, and sometimes you got a fever/ malaria (we can't recall exactly). It may have been educational (they allowed us to play it at school!). Can anyone remember what it's called?\
Cheers
- author: Pugwash (UK)
date: Tuesday 17th August 2004
text: |-
My older borther bought the Model A in it's year of release. It was later upgraded to almost "B" spec by him before leaving it for me to use. I added 128MB of internal sideways ram, speech chip, 100kb floppy drive and colour monitor. I learnt programming on the machine and subsequently did a degree and worked for 10 years in programming.\
Most programmers I know had a BBC rather than a Spectrum.
- author: Nigel (New Zealand)
date: Tuesday 27th April 2004
text: There used to be an upgrade kit to convert an 'A' to a 'B' - I think that apart from RAM, this also included the addition of a cassette tape interface.
- author: james rymer (epsom england)
date: Friday 5th March 2004
text: |-
hello\
i remember when i was at school we used to have\
BBC a,b i soon learnt BASIC ,they were good days then we also had a computer club\
i still remember if a any one does the strange things you could do with \*fx and \*tv function\
i think i can\`t remember but one \*fx function you could lock up the whole keyboard and pressing BREAK did\`nt restore things you had to switch the machine off and let it reboot\
also i think at the time (1984) there was a voice systheseizer chip that went in side the machine\
so you could use a program and make human sounding words also there was the AMX mouse\
i never had a BBC at home (too expensive)\
i had an electron so i suffered with no mode 7
- author: Kostya Bezgin (Kiev, Ukraine)
date: Tuesday 3rd February 2004
text: |-
Hi!\
I am from Kiev, Ukraine\
I have still working BBC B\
Now working on project called BeebUX - BBC B 8bit multitasking Linux liko os base on Commodore system LUnix and TCP/IP stak Contiki\
Now a wor adding PC D-Dlink extrnbal Ethernet card Paraport-2 to UserPort and buld 8bit PC ISA bus for drive IDE HDD, CD and 1.44 FLoppy\
MY ICQ: 11884009\
Phones\
celleular +(38-039) 247-1048\
home +(38-044) 565-2500 , +(38-039) 565-2550\
work phone +(38-039) 572-5701\
work phone/fax +(38-039) 572-3963
- author: Dave Gamble (UK)
date: Sunday 6th April 2003
text: |-
I remember the launch of the BBC Micro model A and B. I first read about them in the U.K. computer press and as a 13 year old at that particular time, drooled over the spec of the model B machine. I then saw them used on the BBC TV program called "The Computer Program" host by Chris Searle. I wanted a BBC micro! But, they were £299 and £399 respectively for the Model A and B. I eventually "made do" with a Commodore 64.\
It is great testiment to the design of these machines, that they are still in use at my son's local primary school, albeit the "Master" version. AMAZING!
- author: Blackjack (Brighton UK)
date: Wednesday 26th March 2003
text: |-
I always wanted a BBC B but I was at school then and simply couldn't afford the cost, about £400. Instead I looked at the Electron instead, but they still cost £200! I simply couldn't afford that. Then the price came down to £130 and due to a legacy I could finally shell out the cash. I also bought the expansion units. However I was disappointed. The machine was slow due to the lack of onboard hardware the games were very inferior compared to the BBC Micro version!
But I always wanted a BBC B! Later when I left school I had finally afford what I wanted - but it had been replaced with the BBC Master! I thought about the Compact but I thought, "no way, it'll just be another Electron!", and I was right. Ah, but the Master 128 was brilliant, just what I had always wanted and should have bought in the first place! A rtruly great machine, I loved it, programmed it, played games on it!
Later Acorn brought out the Archimedes range. I remember thinking "nice machine, but theres no sofware for it!" And the price! Poor old Acorn never had much of a head for marketing and making a machine that refused to run any "proper" software i.e games etc for the old machine really killed it's own market and the new machine never really took off. Downward compatibility was something that Microsoft/Intel knew all too well. Ah well.
- author: nog (Brighton UK)
date: Thursday 6th March 2003
text: I remember when my father brought a BBC B back in the 80's, I think he payed about £400 for it, He then nicked a twin 3.5inch disc drive from work, and we re-wired it so it would function. I was hooked. I learned to program it from a very young age and was addicted to games like Elite, Repton. Codename Droid, Frak, etc.Its still up in the loft, in a box. :)
- author: jay (uk)
date: Thursday 6th February 2003
text: |-
the was a flood at my school and most the bbc's\
were dameged so i rescude 2 bbc pc\
they have no disck-drive and i have saved a\
acorn A5000 but has any one got a disck drive\
i wold like to buy it form any one
- author: Roosta (UK)
date: Saturday 1st February 2003
text: |-
Ahh, the ol' Beeb.\
apart from the criminally small amount of initial memory and limited palette, this was a truly great computer.\
Not only did it originate some of the greatest games ever (the wireframe masterpiece with 2nd processor support 'Elite' , Citadel, Chuckie-egg, and Exile) it was built to survive .. err a nuclear bomb or something, had proper keys, MASSIVE upgrade potential, the best version of Basic in ROM (BBC basic), and can still occasionally be seen in the corner of laboratories, dust covered but quietly running some piece of essential homemade software that simply doesn't need to be ported to some unreliable 2ghz behemoth PC.
In Short, it was a REAL computer in an age of flimsy games computers.
Having made the Beeb and languishing for a few years, Acorn went on to produce what I believe is the greatest microcomputer to date - the Acorn Archimedes. But that's another matter ...\
RIP Acorn, May Microsoft burn in hell along with Acorn's marketing people ;-)
- author: Richard Palmer (UK)
date: Thursday 1st August 2002
text: |-
The BBC model Bwas my first computer. I can recall my father's face when he parted with £399 UKP in 1983 for a box including many add ons. The computer was excelllent despite it's price and I still came across models 10 years later in the labs at university.
The BBC used to shamelessly plug their computer. When 'Elite' was released in 1984 it featured as a main news item on the 6pm BBC UK national news. Mind you it was a classic game.\
BBC BASIC was an excellent programming tool and because of the wide use of the systems across UK schools it was taught in the classroom
- author: David Noke (Australia)
date: Monday 20th May 2002
text: I particularly liked the innovative "copy" key. Very handy when tpye out those lines of Logo!
- author: Nevermind (Norway)
date: Sunday 28th April 2002
text: |-
I think perhaps one of the best BBC games was "Scramble" - am I right ? I miss the screenshot in the "Software Info".
I used to test the different home computers at the time for speed by running the simple for n=1 to 1000, print n, next n - and Dragon 32 (forth-based) was the quickest until I tested the BBC...it rocked :-)
- author: Nelson Bowker (UK)
date: Wednesday 3rd April 2002
text: |-
A hard disc drive was available via the 1 Mhz bus port, from which which hardware card with a rom talked to the old sasi disc drive interface, released at about the same time as the second processors arrived at £500\
I have one - bought second hand! A whole 10 MB in my cse - which was a lot of programs then!!!!
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-atom
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master
content/museum/acorn-computer-electron.md
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forum_thread: 134
photos:
- title: THE BOX
subtitle: ''
@@ -417,73 +418,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Gordon Dyer\
 type of document : ZIP\
 source : www.old-computers.com
comments:
- author: Julie Moualhi (Thetford Norfolk UK)
date: Sunday 12th April 2015
text: I have a acorn electron computer in my spare room in a box with games etc was wondering if it''s worth anything I have had the computer for the past 30+ years
- author: Mikael (Sweden)
date: Sunday 13rd April 2014
text: I only now got some Electron Emulators, but in old days did I have an Texas Instrument TI994A. And a Lambda 8300, then a Commodore 64. But I sold them after a while, I am very interested in programming Basic.
- author: Anne Bokma (The Netherlands)
date: Saturday 24th August 2013
text: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/23/acorn_electron_history_at_30/
- author: Marc (The Netherlands)
date: Wednesday 15th May 2013
text: I loved this machine. I bought one in 1985 when it got dumped on the market. It costed me fl 100,$ (appr. 45 euro). Bought some games too (Androids!). Later on I bought the Plus 1 and a double-density 5,25" drive! A new world opened up to me. With the RAM extension, you could load programs into the upper memory, like Pascal. And program the RAM with your on boot loaders. I have programmed a lot (VDU codes!). I frequently bought the Electron User magazine, and type the code from the magazine. When I moved to my current house in 2005 I gave the Electron away to a friend.
- author: Rob (Australia)Moved to Aus in ''95 (Australia)
date: Friday 18th January 2013
text: |-
I loved the Acorn Electron. It was my first PC in approx. 1987. A BBC compatible so cheap BBC games from the poxy games shop in Southend,..most worked. I used to start loading the game and then have dinner while waiting!!.. It was pretty great at the time, before games consoles $ game boy.\
Even wrote some games out of the manual.\
It was about that time that Commodore64s came along which ROCKED! Thanks Barry Taylor for the C64!\
It was 20 pounds well spent!
- author: David (Canada) moved from uk in 2007 (Canada)
date: Monday 10th September 2012
text: |-
I was 14 years old when the Electron appeared and i begged my dad for one i belive they cost 299 even in 1983 that was a lot of money.\
I used to buy the magazines and type in programs, i bought many games for it one of my memories is of a game called Citadel , one thing i do remember is borowwing games off BBC owning freinds and finding\
the Electron couldnt run some, think it was a graphics issue\
I have very fond memorys of that machine i held on to it until 2007 when i moved to canada, i gave it to a freind and it was still working.\
I also remember the powersupply issues i was on my second when i gave it away.
- author: Simon Lyne (United Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 3rd May 2011
text: I got hold of an electron a while back (restored it, seen on my website). I have a real soft spot for the electron. It was underpowered but still a very caperble machine. A good programmer could do magic with this machine and its a shame that the ULA took so long to develop.
- author: kev smith (northampton UK)
date: Friday 25th June 2010
text: |-
i loved my lil electron, i still have it up in loft at mums and used it about a year ago, since then im using an emulator to relive old days of the classic games.
i find it amazing that even now - acorn technology is still in use - i only just found out that most mobiles use what is essentially an acorn chip -
brilliant computer - right gear - just a little bit too late
i did get a spectrum eventually and i hated it - if i could get hold of a BEEB id use that too
- author: A. Trent Phillips (United States)
date: Monday 12th April 2010
text: Many older PC video cards like my Hauppage Brand card can be set to NTSC, PAL and SECAM analog standards as well as being switchable to the appropriate Channel / Frequency table. Having a monitor with a refresh rate of at least 50 Hz will also be a BIG help. If it hooked into a common TV set (UK or USA), you SHOULD be able to hook it to a decent, if not older, video card.
- author: Jezza (UK)
date: Saturday 6th September 2008
text: I loved my little Electron. I learned to program on it, played loads of games Elite!!, Repton, too many to mention. It was a great little computer with a really nice keyboard, much easier to use than the Spectrum rubber keys. I sometimes think about buying another one now but maybe the memories are best left alone. (Power sockets and bricks were a problem though.)
- author: Nigel (Australia)
date: Thursday 13rd April 2006
text: Two common problems with the power supply on these machines; the PSU itself tended to run hot and die, and the PCB mounted power supply socket used to disconnect from the solder connections and/or print on the PCB, as there was no strain relief.
- author: naes (Hull, England)
date: Wednesday 29th June 2005
text: I was wondering whether it was possible to rig up an Electron to a TV card. Does anyone know what frequency range of the TV output port.
- author: Tom Brennand (London UK)
date: Wednesday 3rd November 2004
text: |-
Hi.
I have 2 Acorn electrons but neither of them are working. In my opinion the little gems are too good to go to scrap so I was wondering if anyone would be able to help with the repairing of these.
Basically they both seem to have the same problem apart from a slight difference. When I turn them on, one has a totally white screen, and the other a totally yellow screen. There is no BEEP like you normally get.
Any ideas??? please email me with any feedback. Thanks
Tom
mail@tombrennand.net
related:
- /museum/acorn-computer-atom
- /museum/acorn-computer-bbc-master
content/museum/acorn-computer-risc-pc.md
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forum_thread: 989
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -132,41 +133,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_riscpc_486card_s1.jpg
comments:
- author: Douglas Piper
date: Sunday 29th May 2016
text: Hi. I use a riscpc600. The canon bjc 2100. Has just died any advice on what I should replace it with. Presumably I can pick something up on ebay
- author: CLASSIFIED
date: Friday 20th August 2010
text: i want one
- author: Andrew (Glasgow (UK))
date: Sunday 27th June 2010
text: |-
To add my two pence worth and expand on the main article. After the Risc PC 700 released in July 1995 with a 40 Mhz Arm 7 CPU, there was a "Strongarm" Risc PC released in September 1996 with either a 202 or 233 Mhz Digital Strongarm CPU and RISC OS 3.70. Strongarm CPU cards can be fitted in any Risc PC.
There are also the 233 and 300 Mhz Strongarm-based Kinetic upgrades by Castle Technology which have their own onboard memory augmenting the RAM installd on the motherboard. This goes some way towards reducing the impact of the slow front-side bus.
Acorn may have long since gone, but the RISC PC appears to be a hardy little beast (or big depending on the number of case slices you have) RISC OS has been developed beyond 3.7, there is now 4.x in ROM which can be softloaded with version 6.20 which is available from Risc OS LTD.
I have just succeded in getting my RPC on the internet! Of all the retro/old systems I have from its era, the RPC is perhaps the most expandable, and certainly the most versatile.
Unlike a few years ago there are a few emulators (free and commercial) around for both classic Risc OS and 4.x - current.
- author: David (Surabaya Indonesia)
date: Wednesday 8th October 2008
text: Think about No Emulator? Horewer...
- author: Tim (UK)
date: Tuesday 20th June 2006
text: The notes say "two PS/2" ports. In fact the keyboard was PS/2 but the mouse was a "bus mouse" system in order to keep compatability with the earlier Acorn machines. A Logitech bus-mouse came with the machine.
- author: Chris (UK)
date: Monday 24th May 2004
text: |-
The first batch of RiscPC 600s did not have 16-bit sound. They required an inexpensive hardware upgrade to support 16-bit sound, and in some cases required a new motherboard because the header (LK14 IIRC) was not present to allow the upgrade.
In addition, this was not the first Acorn to have a PC card. There are podule cards for the older Acorns, but they were very slow due to the speed of the bus. They also couldn't share memory like the RiscPC one can, so in effect you had to pay for your memory twice.
The Windows video drivers for the RiscPC even used the ARM to help with rendering the screen. How cool is that?
It's a huge shame to see the RiscPC turn into a piece of history. Last I checked, there are quite a few going on Ebay. Get yourself a piece of history while you still can!
oc_id: 1015
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230609185904/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1015
content/museum/acorn-computer-system-1.md
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forum_thread: 477
photos:
- title: THE WHOLE SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
@@ -92,10 +93,6 @@ params:
- title: The Acorn Microcomputer (1979) page
url: http://www.cary.demon.co.uk/acorn/
text: Nice dedicated page with info and emulator!
comments:
- author: Achim (USA and Germany)
date: Sunday 11th December 2022
text: Hello, please contact me if you have Acorn System 1 (or even System 75, 2, 3, 4 or 5) for sale.I have an address in the US and in Germany.
oc_id: 483
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230210082452/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=483
content/museum/act-800.md
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- label: PRICE
value: Unknown
comments:
- author: Bill Appleton
date: Monday 7th August 2017
text: |-
Hi I run a web site for ACT and Victor computers. If anyone has any images and details of this computer so I may do a page on the site.\
Check out www.actactsirius1.co.uk.\
Please make contact through the act sirius site thanks you\
Thanks in advance
- author: Eamonn
date: Friday 9th June 2017
text: |-
Some info marked on the back.\
Model MMII, S/N 600559. 220V. Amps 3/4 4/81(this might be the date).\
965 W Maude Ave Sunnyvale Ca 94086 Made in U.S.A.
- author: Eamonn (Ireland)
date: Friday 9th June 2017
text: I have some photos of the ACT 800.
- author: Tom Turnbull (United kingdom)
date: Saturday 28th April 2012
text: The ACT 800 was manufactured by a company call Computhink who also made the disk drive it was called the minimax in America
- author: Tom Turnbull (World)
date: Wednesday 25th April 2012
text: I was given one of these to use when I worked for Petsoft around 1981 it came with twin 5-1/2 inch floppies that cost around £1000 the disk filing system was terrible you could not have read and write access on the same file. I was asked to convert PET games to it but the screen was not bit mapped like the PET to write to the screen you had to poke the X Y co-ordinates into 2 memory locations with the poke value of what you wanted on the screen in a third memory location. I gave up converting games on it. It was not a nice machine.
forum_thread: 1060
oc_id: 1090
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230416215943/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1090
content/museum/act-apricot-f1.md
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forum_thread: 489
photos:
- title: 'MONOCHROME VERSION #1'
subtitle: ''
@@ -214,89 +215,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Triphazard (UK)
date: Thursday 1st January 2009
text: |-
Whoa... Are there really so few owners/fans of this great machine? My own has a single 3.5" slot, no HD, 9" green screen and I broke the fibre optic cable for the IR keyboard. I couldn''t afford the IR trackball while it was available but I added 512K to the default 256K on board.
I also managed to get copies of SuperCalc 3, DBase II and Friday!, a database program created using DBII. I still giggle at the MS Windows 1.0 vouchers it came with. (This machine recalculated the most basic spreadsheet with figures scrolling along for several seconds, like those cliche ''80s movies.)
However, at the time it was about a year ahead of IBM''s PCs. They still had 5.25" floppies, 64K RAM, 8088 chips and locked-in servicing.
I can $ a single disk to launch MSDOS 2.0, SCalc/SWriter and all the data I have. It will all run from a RAM disk and batch save my data back to disk before shutting down.
Computers today don''t seem to do anything any faster than before. Graphics look great but we still sit and wonder what to do next...
- author: Boomtown 45 (United States)
date: Friday 7th June 2019
text: I acquired an Apricot F1 system$monitor, computer, trackball, and infrared keyboard$today at an estate here in New Mexico. Monitor''s startup screenshot shows a system date of "18/07/1985". Does anyone know if there''s someone here in the US who''s interested in a vintage system from the UK? I''m thinking it would be cost prohibitive to ship it to England.
- author: Robin England (UK)
date: Sunday 14th October 2018
text: Hi Matt, I am an enthusiastic collector of the Apricot F-series machines and would be interested in any Apricot stuff you have. I don''t run a computer museum but I collect and restore vintage machines. Let me know if you want to discuss further. Cheers, Robin
- author: Matter
date: Thursday 9th August 2018
text: |-
My old man helped develop apricot computers, from the 80’s until there demise. I have inherited multiple examples of most the computers they made including, hardware, software, literature, and many one of prototypes that he developed, etc\
They need a good home, that respects and understands them\
Thanks Matt
- author: Matt (Birmingham)
date: Thursday 9th August 2018
text: Apricot computers available for real enthusiast
- author: Doekman (Groningen, The Netherlands)
date: Wednesday 2nd May 2018
text: My neighbour had one of these. I remembered it had a great design, and the graphics where impressive. She got this computer via some home computer programme of her employer, Johnson Controls. That explains I never saw the computer elsewhere.
- author: Dan
date: Tuesday 21st November 2017
text: I took one of these F1 computers to Yemen, and wrote a multi-currency book-keeping program in Turbo Pascal. It was a great computer, complete with four colours! My kids enjoyed simple games as well. I am not sure what happened to the computer. I am sure it is gone, now that the war had destroyed most things.
- author: Nosher (Bradford, UK)
date: Saturday 22nd July 2017
text: I used the Apricot F1 in an educational environment. Use of the machine could survive loss or breakage of the IR pipe but it was possible to pick up your keyboard and reboot your neighbour''s machine. Other machines did not have this issue. Use of the Apricots came to an abrupt end when $ing a 3M diskette instantly decapitated the drive head rendering the machine useless. Other machines did not have this fatal flaw. There didn''t appear to be much different about 3M diskettes but the metal shutter contacted the lightly suspended disk head and ripped it out of position.
- author: Jimbob (Scotland)
date: Thursday 6th October 2016
text: |-
I remember my Dad giving me a side by side demonstration of an F1 beside an IBM of the same vintage.\
The F1 wiped the floor with the IBM in loading or copying from floppy discs and the wireless keyboard was a revelation to a young kid.\
Wonder how much further forward we''d be if innovative companies like Apricot had survived rather than Apple or IBM.
- author: Chris (NJ)
date: Monday 7th September 2015
text: I have a line on one of these systems in the UK, but being I''m in the US, I''d like to acquire one here if at all possible, reasons are clear. Please contact me if you have one - dreyfusshudson at yahoo dot com. Many thanks.
- author: Dylan Smith (United Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 21st October 2014
text: We had one at our school. It was very nicely made and came with a small but good quality colour screen, and a pretty innovative design. I remember rigging up a serial cable and bodging together some code to transfer images from a friend''s Amiga 500 to the Apricot. However, it was hugely let down by being one of those "yes it runs MS-DOS but no it''s not IBM compatible" machines which made it more or less pointless. MS-DOS even back in the day was awful and the only reason for running it would be IBM compatibility
- author: John Moore (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 1st January 2014
text: I purchased an F1e back in 1985 for NZ$2700 ! By today''s standards that''d get you something really flash. This had just one 315k disk drive (not 320k like the rest of the world). I could never figure out for the life of me why ACT did not make all their computers IBM compatible. They would have possibly been still in business, as (as as been pointed out) their computers were quite innovative, especially since they were one of the first to use 3.5in floppie disks. I can also remember buying my first lot of "single sided" disks .. NZ$80 for10! I still have the original activity disks that came with the computer. I did find the keyboard a bit strange as the key tops kept on wearing out, so I stuck laminated characters over the top of each key! Other than that the computer worked fine with 256k of RAM. The fact it also came with it''s own version of GWBASIC made it interesting, along with Super Writer, Super Calc and Super Planner. It also came with a communications programme to
connect to an IBM compatible machine (with limited success). My son and I wrote literally hundreds of programmes in BASIC. A few I eventually (using the comms package) converted to Turbo Basic and a .exe file. Apart from the Bios problems I loved it. See also Apricot PC.
- author: John Moore (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 1st January 2014
text: I purchased an F1e back in 1985 for NZ$2700 ! By today''s standards that''d get you something really flash. This had just one 315k disk drive (not 320k like the rest of the world). I could never figure out for the life of me why ACT did not make all their computers IBM compatible. They would have possibly been still in business, as (as as been pointed out) their computers were quite innovative, especially since they were one of the first to use 3.5in floppie disks. I can also remember buying my first lot of "single sided" disks .. NZ$80 for10! I still have the original activity disks that came with the computer. I did find the keyboard a bit strange as the key tops kept on wearing out, so I stuck laminated characters over the top of each key! Other than that the computer worked fine with 256k of RAM. The fact it also came with it''s own version of GWBASIC made it interesting, along with Super Writer, Super Calc and Super Planner. It also came with a communications programme to
connect to an IBM compatible machine (with limited success). My son and I wrote literally hundreds of programmes in BASIC. A few I eventually (using the comms package) converted to Turbo Basic and a .exe file. Apart from the Bios problems I loved it. See also Apricot PC.
- author: Chris (USA)
date: Tuesday 19th February 2013
text: I want one.
- author: RC Ellis (USA)
date: Saturday 25th February 2012
text: |-
I had the F1 - as a DOS compatible it was fine. The machine I bought came with an early version of Microsoft Word for DOS - which worked well.
I managed to find a connector on the motherboard which allowed me to add a second 720 3.5" floppy - had to put it in a separate box, but it worked.
The monitor finally failed and I was able to connect a Radio Shack CGA monitor.
I was also able to run Turbo Pascal 3.0 on it. And as a CS teacher that was wonderful.\
It was very stylish overall, and I got good use out of it for several years.
- author: Andrew Fison (usa)
date: Friday 8th April 2011
text: I remember doing my college accounts courses on these, our computer room had about 20 of these in there, also one advantage of the infra-red keyboards was you could pull the batteries out of the one in front of the screen and stand behind your mate typing on another keyboard while he wonders where all the strange calcs came from
- author: Ian Chard (Oxford, UK)
date: Wednesday 23rd August 2006
text: I spend a depressing few weeks writing a small database on one of these things in the late 80s. It was a monochrome monitor, and the phosphor lag time was \*huge\* -- you could still read text several seconds after clearing the screen!
- author: Newtony (Belgium)
date: Tuesday 12th February 2002
text: |-
Hi everyone,
I began collecting old computers about three years ago, mostly IBM-compatibles. I also have five Apricot F1 computers. They were in pretty bad shape but I should be able to get at least one in complete working order. However I don't have any software for them and I can't get them to work with regular MS or PC-Dos, probably because the BIOS is not 100% IBM-compatible. Is there anyone here who can get me working copies of the F1 software such as Activity ? I really want these machines to work, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
- /museum/act-apricot-pc
content/museum/act-apricot-f2-f10.md
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forum_thread: 487
photos:
- title: APRICOT F2
subtitle: ''
@@ -119,27 +120,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Chris ( NJ)
date: Monday 7th September 2015
text: looking for one of these also, preferably in the US. dreyfusshudson at yahoo dot com. Thanks.
- author: chris ze miller
date: Tuesday 31st January 2012
text: I seem to recall my favoured computer was called The Apricot Vine.But my ultimate wish list computer was the Apricot Xen.The Apricot I hired may have been called The Vine.They really were mega money to buy.Considering my freehold shop was £18000 to buy.A further £2500 for a computer was out of the question.Multiply by 8 .Shop worth £150,000 today is like £20000 for the Apricot.At that time Canon invented the colour photo copier and their sales marketing team were geared up to hire it.I wanted one.At the Which? Computer Show they were all stunned when I tried to buy one!Took ages to get back to me with a price.One Million Pounds! Recently I bought a colour A3 copier,scanner,printer $ a windows 7 computer all in for £600.I think to myself.I wonder if there are still businesses around the world paying for the monthly hire purchase agreement for their apricot computer and canon colour copier!
- author: chris ze miller (Shropshire,UK)
date: Tuesday 31st January 2012
text: In Feb 1986 I hired an Apricot from Dik Bic in Shrewsbury and paid £184 for the month.I could not learn Gem Write and gave it back.In comparison in January 1988 I paid £582 for an Amstrad 9512 and within a short space of time was printing out my mail order catalogue without having to refer to the instruction book.In those days one could go to evening classes to learn how to use Wordstar.Conclusion.Software that needs instruction books or evening classes is poorly written $ best avoided.Both Wordstar $ Gem Write have totally disappeared.
- author: Andrew Muldoon (UK)
date: Tuesday 22nd January 2002
text: |-
Hi,\
I quote from your page on the F2:\
"Apparently they were to be sold with GEM Write and GEM Paint (along with the GEM edsktop ?)... did it really happen ?"\
I can confirm that it did ship with GemDesktop.\
I have a fully working F2 with original manuals, disks and box. It is a great machine and was the 1st computer I ever owned.\
The actual one I have is the 1st computer I ever owned....bought from new and I sold it in 1994, but I got it back early this year.\
Nice site you have.\
Cya.
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f1
- /museum/act-apricot-pc
content/museum/act-apricot-pc.md
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@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ params:
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- links
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forum_thread: 493
photos:
- title: INSIDE THE APRICOT
subtitle: ''
@@ -156,83 +157,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Dave whale (Neath Abbey, W Glam)
date: Thursday 20th May 2021
text: David Fisher. They are DOS discs 3.5" $ work on IBM I think, have you tried I know the format is a little different IBM allow less files. I could copy to IBM format but don''t know if the DOS $ BIOS calls work. Regards Dave
- author: Dave whale (Neath Abbey, W Glam)
date: Thursday 20th May 2021
text: Charles Whitmore I tried to email you but W10 refuses don''t know why. I may be able to help assuming the discs haven’t ‘faded’. Are your drives SS 315m or DS 720m. Stuffs in loft so can’t say which I have. Regards Dave
- author: Charles Whitmore (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 4th April 2021
text: Does anyone know where I can get a set of operating disks for the apricot pc and an xi as I can’t find mine and I would quite like to revisit these 2 computers now I have retired. If you can help then please email me at charles.whitmore@icloud.com thank you
- author: Malcolm Baird (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 3rd April 2021
text: I have an Apricot Xen 5, processor box only, no keyboard, no screen, no peripherals. It has a hard drive (capacity???) and 3.5" floppy. I don''t know if it works, but maybe useful for spares. Therefore free to a good home. I can deliver in person to South West Scotland area but currently due to Covid restrictions, not to England.
- author: chris (UK)
date: Saturday 31st October 2020
text: |-
I have an Apricot PC (dual floppy) which I have powered up ok, but I don''t have any Apricot software disks. Does anyone know where I could get the minimal disks needed to run the machine and see if it works?\
Obviously then some software to run would be nice too\
Any ideas?
- author: Erik Gunder (United Kingdom Denmark France)
date: Saturday 18th July 2020
text: Hi, I have an Apricot from 1984, complete with disks and manuals. Would like to sell - any offers or questions please email.
- author: Peter Elliott (Wigston Leicester UK)
date: Monday 15th July 2019
text: I have a Apricot LS 550 model LV 83741-0 Could it be of use to you guys ? I know nothing about PC !!$$128559$
- author: Robert
date: Sunday 10th July 2016
text: Hi i search the computer who see in the movie Electric Dreams... what is the model and where is possible to buy it. i know is a vintage computer ^^ but i want to make a exposure about movie''s computer ...thank''s
- author: David Fisher (UK)
date: Tuesday 24th May 2016
text: Hi our company used apricot to run out factory manufacturing snooker balls, we still have loads of the 3.5" disks (Supercalc) and would love to access some of the infromation, does anyone know how to convert the disk to work on dos. I know it can be done as he have had it done before.
- author: Sergio (Italia)
date: Sunday 22nd May 2016
text: |-
Hello,
I''''m looking for the original Apricot mic for my act portable, if someone has one to sell please contact me.
cottony@virgilio.it
- author: Sergio (Italia)
date: Saturday 21st May 2016
text: |-
Hello,
I''m looking for the original Apricot mic for my act portable, if someone has one to sell please contact me.
- author: Iliya Kovac (Birmingham, England)
date: Wednesday 21st January 2015
text: |-
My first ever contract was with Apricot Computers in Birmingham in the R/D, England. I wrote all the test software for their computers (except the hard drive).
Apricot PC/Xi, F1 and another one I can''t remember.
The software tested the computers and did burn-in test in production. I wrote an O/S that loaded the programs and ran them. Even did a simple GUI menu. After a few months I went down to manufacturing and saw my program running on loads of computers. So satisfying.
The S/W development team was really looked after. Even had own lunches cooked to order and eat them at the computers while still working. We were paid to work during meals!
- author: Graham Smith (New Zealand)
date: Tuesday 23rd December 2014
text: |-
Hello John Moore,
I recently acquired an Apricot xi. It posts but the main transformer in the power supply is over heating$ smells a bit. Can you help with parts?
- author: John Moore (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 1st January 2014
text: |-
Besides a F1e originally purchased back in 1985, I also have 3 Apricot PCs in differing stages of repair. I have pilfered the ram of 512k out of one to add to the 256k already in another to bring it up to its maximum of 768k. All the PCs have 720k double sided drives (as opposed to the 315k single sided drive). I did get one with an external 20meg Winchester drive. From memory I think the PCs were about NZ$7500 and up to 10grand+ for the xi version. The 20meg drive (back in the mid 80s) we''re about 5 grand - a bit ridiculous by today''s standards. I had a variety a software with the various computers, which included Wordstar a fairly good word processing package. All the previous F1 programmes worked including the activity. I seem to remember that the PC also came with its own version of activity ...but not too sure. One of the PCs was running the ACT version of DOS3.2. Unfortunately this eventually failed and I had to fall back to 2.1..doh! As an aside I got two 12 inch screens and one 9 inch with these computers. Unfortunately we had problems with ants in our roof and one of the 12 inch monitors became a fairly big ants nest!!! Strike out one monitor!! I loved the keyboard of the PC with the extra screen that brought up certain features of the software being run. Why oh why did ACT not make these IBM compatible, it would have been fantastic.\
I did see a pic of the ACT Zen with a telephone as part of the keyboard. I think this was the 286 version with the 20meg drive.
- author: WHS (US)
date: Wednesday 28th December 2011
text: |-
Apricot was not the first outside of Japan witht the 3.5"\
HP preceded Apricot with 3.5" microfloppies. (HP 150 eg.) HP announced they had moved 25,000 of them in June 1983 (EDN 11/10/1983 p49)
- author: GP (South Africa)
date: Thursday 20th January 2011
text: Was browsing the Internet for the boot up files for the apricot. I still have an original apricot PC which start the development of what is now an extensive product sold internationally. As part of a display we would like to show the original software as it was developed on the apricot (not sure if these disk will even work) but we don''t have the original startup boot disks (dual drive floppy machine). Any suggestions.
- author: Old Geek (US)
date: Saturday 4th September 2010
text: I recently found an apricot (the original) and want to restore it. Any tips or user groups?
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f1
- /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
content/museum/act-apricot-portable.md
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forum_thread: 486
photos:
- title: APRICOT PORTABLE
subtitle: ''
@@ -160,76 +161,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Carl Plumer (United States)
date: Tuesday 5th February 2019
text: I''m very interested in acquiring the beautiful Apricot PCs, manuals, after market books, etc., and peripherals. Means a lot to me and I will treat them all like fragile crystals of pure joy. Ping me at carlsplumer AT gmail DOT com if you want to chat about your Apricot stuff. Cheers!
- author: james (australia)
date: Tuesday 21st August 2018
text: I have an old manual for the apricot portable if anyone wants it . crick@ozemail.com.au
- author: Matt
date: Thursday 9th August 2018
text: |-
My dad worked at apricot from the early 80’s until there demise, and I’ve inherited many portable apricots also many prototypes of most models endless amounts.\
I’m looking to move them on to an enthusiast that will appreciate them\
Thanks Matt
- author: Sergio (Italia)
date: Saturday 21st May 2016
text: |-
Hello,
I''''m looking for the original Apricot mic for my act portable, if someone has one to sell please contact me.
- author: Roy (United Kingdom, Kent)
date: Friday 24th August 2012
text: |-
Got the portable, in special case, mouse, manuals, discs etc. complete.\
Want an offer or what have you?\
Roy
- author: Roy (United Kingdom, Kent)
date: Friday 24th August 2012
text: |-
Got the portable, in special case, mouse, manuals, discs etc. complete.\
Want an offer or what have you?\
Roy
- author: Roy (United Kingdom, Kent)
date: Friday 24th August 2012
text: |-
Got the portable, in special case, mouse, manuals, discs etc. complete.\
Want an offer or what have you?\
Roy
- author: John B (Canada)
date: Sunday 11th December 2011
text: |-
The Portable/FP was only ever available with an 8086 and strangely will not support the NEC V20 as a $-in speed upgrade. The systems originally selling with only 256kb of ram had the black finish and the better 512kb systems came in white. You also can not repopulate the system board (512kb units came with half their banks filled) with an additional 512kb of ram, thus maxing the machine out, and get the memory to immediately be detected by the BIOS. The service manual also does not state how exactly you get around this, so that nibble of info might be lost to time.\
The floppy drive (Sony OA-D32W) is a twin head drive unlike the OA-D32V and thus works with double-sided diskettes.\
The only truly awful design issues with the system was the glossy plastic over the LCD which makes for a near mirror finish (and incredible glare) and the absolutely dreadful IBM text mode emulation which all Apricots had up until the XEN 386.
- author: wus
date: Friday 18th November 2011
text: Didn''t the apricot portable use a 80186 cpu?
- author: Dave J (Wales)
date: Monday 28th February 2011
text: I still have mine and its in working order. It was a wonderfull machine and I learnt word processing and spread sheets on it. It was well ahead of its time and has to be one of the best of its time.
- author: Nico (Netherlands)
date: Sunday 8th August 2010
text: The specs on this page say it''s a 8086 processor. Mine has a Z80 processor. Also the Sony diskette drive was blocked. The grease used in those days turns into solid glue after so many years. Had to use solvent to make the thing move again. In the text at the top it says single sided 720k and in the specs at the bottom it says 720k double sided. It is 720k and 720k is always double sided as far as I know. To (dis)assemble the unit is a bit of a where to start and where to finish puzzle. Unfortunately have not been able to get it to work so far. No display and the diskette drive just starts the motors (spinning and head movement) and never stops. Any suggestions?
- author: Johan Hjelvik (Norway)
date: Monday 19th April 2010
text: This machine, released over 25 years ago, was very early on several new tecnologies$ LCD display, GUI, infrared connection and speech recognition. SuperWriter and Supercalc both worked very well. And, of course, I''ve still got mine, in perfect condition!
- author: Peter Hurst (UK)
date: Friday 21st March 2008
text: |-
I also bought an Apricot portable from Dixons, although the Voice Recognition was almost useless the fact it came with SuperCalc 5 rescued it from being a complete waste. Although Apricot hardware was not 100% PC compatible it gave me a cheap (£500) PC when I wanted to move from ZX81's and Atari 400's and see what the real world was like.
I remember I quite liked the infra-red keyboard and it came with a fibre optic "light pipe" in case the sun was on the sensor or objects got in the way. Later I got hold of some PC emulatin software which allowed me to run Procomm on it and it became quite a usefull tool.
- author: Daniel Garland (New Zealand)
date: Thursday 28th September 2006
text: This computer is bizarre, fantastic, odd & brilliant all at the same time. Way ahead of its time, in more sense than one - and check that case design! I would love to own one of these one day, however the chances of that are highly remote :-(
- author: Jozef Schildermans (Belgium)
date: Tuesday 17th September 2002
text: I bought a second hand Apricot portable around 1985 or 1986 and wrote lots of articles on it. The screen was not very good, but the voice recognition and wireless keyboard were way ahead of its time. Sadly, I traded the unit in for an IBM compatible pc with more memory and a CRT screen, so I don't have it anymore. Haven't seen one since, except for on this excellent site.
- author: George (Athens/Greece)
date: Saturday 20th April 2002
text: Apricot Portable is the most beautifull portable PC I've ever seen. Way ahead of it's time in the mid 80's
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f1
- /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
content/museum/act-apricot-xen.md
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- title: XEN-I MODEL
subtitle: ''
@@ -179,10 +180,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Matthew bennett (England )
date: Tuesday 14th December 2021
text: Hi there my dad helped develop the zen,,, My main point is that I still have a one off prototype of the zen case, it was is a clear one so you can see all the internal parts ��
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f1
- /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
content/museum/act-apricot-xi.md
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forum_thread: 494
emulators:
- title: 'APE Plus : Apricot Emulator'
url: http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/ai/ape.html
@@ -101,46 +102,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Jonathan Marsters\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.actapricot.org](http://www.actapricot.org)
comments:
- author: Sven W. (Germany)
date: Monday 2nd August 2021
text: I just got one of this rare grey Apricot Xi today. Ive experienced almost as exactly the same problem as Bill mentioned below. The computer startet no problems. But after a few seconds the PSU of the Monitor got up in smoke. Fortunately it came with another small monitor and i was able to do a bit of tinkering with this lovely machine. Some of the keys of the keyboard seem to be dead. Anyone here that knows if these rare keyboards are fixable? Greetings
- author: rfka01 (Germany)
date: Monday 12th February 2018
text: |-
I have one that is missing the keyboard ... contact me if you have one for sale for a reasonable price.\
rfka01 (at) freenet (dot) de
- author: Gary (United Kingdom)
date: Thursday 28th December 2017
text: 'I''''m currently (attempting) to rebuild a rather neglected Apricot Xi10, that was upgraded to a 80286 by Apricot in 1987. There appears to be plenty of technical information available for the original Xi, but not so much for the 286. If anyone has a service manual, then I''''d love to hear from you (address: garyspamfull, domain: gmail.com).'
- author: Steve Mills (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 8th December 2017
text: I would like to recover a system that I built in the 1980s on an Apricot XI10 machine - I have it all backed up on floppy disks. If anyone knows of an XI10 for sale in full working order, or alternatively if someone would be willing to lend me a working XI10 for a few weeks then I''d be interested to hear from you.
- author: Marty (Czech Republic)
date: Thursday 8th June 2017
text: Hi guys, I have one of these but in very poor state. Additionally, I have no keyboard nor screen. Do you anyone have idea about video and keyboard pinouts? I am ready to build any converter to bring it to life.
- author: Bill Appleton (UK South West)
date: Monday 27th October 2014
text: |-
I havea rare grey Xi and decided to power it up after a few years of standing idle.\
Hard drive powered up, monitor burst into life, Loaded operating system from hard drive, Keyboard keys not working,.\
After a few moments a crackle and smoke. Power supply died.\
Will fix this so as once again working.\
What modern pentium or I3 will still be working after 26 years or more let alone the hard drive.\
Excellent technology for the time and well built.
- author: Jenny W. (Teddington, UK)
date: Friday 26th November 2010
text: |-
I bought this machine in 1984 and had an ambitious advertising sales data base with integrated sales ledger written for it. I was working from home at the time and occasionally carried my "portable" Apricot on the train to the London office. Everything went remarkably well until the little hard disc started to fill up.\
I still have the computer stored under my desk, in good condition although I haven''t tried firing it up for years.
- author: Peter F. (Suffolk, UK)
date: Wednesday 23rd January 2008
text: |-
I remember this machine having a fantastic keyboard! The best touch was the programmable LCD with soft function keys.\
When they were updated from CPM(?) to IBM DOS, Apricot UK used to come out and 'modify' the computer... In reality they just swapped over the motherboard and added a strange dongle on the back to convert the CRT connector.
- author: Don Swatman (Hearth)
date: Friday 9th June 2006
text: It used to have a very slow character/text redraw. Rumour has it that this was intentional because it could be so much faster than the Sirrius it would destroy the Sirrius market. However someone developed a bit of code that bypassed the slow redraw and once installed it used to fly (well relatively speaking).
related:
- /museum/act-apricot-f1
- /museum/act-apricot-f2-f10
content/museum/act-qi-300.md
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value: £3,200 (QI-600)
tabs:
- links
forum_thread: 969
links:
- title: Apricot PC list
url: http://www.osemidlands.co.uk/support/insight/insight/en/products/timeline/timeline.htm
text: Full list of Apricots PC compatible products (From the Xen-i onwards)
comments:
- author: Andy W. (UK)
date: Wednesday 11th February 2009
text: |-
We had one of these at home back in late 1988. With its 48MB hard drive and 5MB of RAM it pretty much represented the cutting-edge of desktop PC''s at the time. It cost a bomb, I believe the additional 4MB of RAM cost another thousand pounds or so. In fact I sold it, still working, in around 1995.
Ahh, those were the days......
- author: Brian (UK)
date: Thursday 19th June 2008
text: This was my first PC, and followed the legendary Amstrad PCW8256 I wrote my PhD thesis on. The hard drive had 40mb capacity and made a soft rattling sound as it booted up. Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. Never forget it.
- author: Antti Rytsola (Finland)
date: Tuesday 27th November 2007
text: |-
I think we had one of these Apricot 386sx-16 at the time. It was the first place I ever saw the strange interface on the backend which later changed my career - 10base-T.\
The inbuilt expansion space was quite unusable due to the microchannel architechture, but we got on expansion box to the side of the thing with three full-sized ISA slots and had a memory card on one of them.
- author: Deacon Mckay (UK)
date: Wednesday 13rd September 2006
text: i had one of these but it died, it was running windows 3.1 and dos. when i opened it up it had a 100mb HD, i'm not sure if it had been modified. it also had an old co-axal network plug and card.
oc_id: 995
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221128005132/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=995
content/museum/actrix-ds.md
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@@ -67,19 +67,7 @@ params:
MODEMS: 300-baud acoustic coupler and Direct-Connect
- label: PRICE
value: 3090$ (USA, november 1983)
comments:
- author: ColX (Uk)
date: Sunday 31st July 2016
text: Guess you must mean QEMU emulation,but there''s Amiga cp/m emulation for example,and probably other emulators too run cp/m if that''s what your looking for.
- author: kay katz (USA)
date: Monday 11th March 2013
text: I bought an Actrix computer in 1984 and used it until 1990 when I gave it to a friend in consideration for helping me move. It was a great piece of machinery! Wish I still had it.
- author: Starla
date: Friday 8th April 2011
text: 'Even though I drove an old Dodge Dart that used a quart of oil every 100 miles, I chose to spend $3,000 on this machine. The interface was a little geeky: when you used the save command, it would ask "abandon modified buffer?" It also froze after about 10 pages of text. I bought it for "portability." Wow. Those were the days!'
- author: nijineko (usa)
date: Wednesday 10th September 2003
text: my dad used to have one of these... i am looking for a particular game that was native to the OS on this computer. the game was called nemesis. there was an emulator (q-something) that allows a pc computer to emulate this OS and run its software. can anyone help with that?
forum_thread: 496
oc_id: 502
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230415070620/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=502
content/museum/add-x-systeme-smp-5.md
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@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ params:
value: Built-in PSU
- label: PRICE
value: 4222 (France, february 83)
forum_thread: 499
oc_id: 505
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603004442/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=505
content/museum/add-x-systeme-smp-8.md
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forum_thread: 500
photos:
- title: SM1 LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -147,15 +148,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: '"French people talking to french people"'
image: /media/museum/pubs/addx_pub_des-francais.jpg
comments:
- author: Andy Key
date: Friday 11th January 2013
text: |-
Does the SM1 mentioned here have any relationship to the SM1 which was a precursor to Memotech computers, designed by Steve Marchant?
The SM1 I had was Z80 based, 64KB RAM, 2x 8" floppies (internal), connector allowing external hard drive, probably monochrome 80x24, blue metal case, looked very different to the picture (more like a 380Z), and had a very springy/noisy keyboard.
&#123;&#123;{ Andy
oc_id: 506
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230528090835/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=506
content/museum/adds-mentor-2000.md
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forum_thread: 863
photos:
- title: LABELS
subtitle: ''
@@ -128,58 +129,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Dave Dunfield\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/)
comments:
- author: Monty Cuthbert (Doncaster UK)
date: Monday 10th February 2020
text: |-
EDP\
I came out of the army after years service at 31 in 1974 with the word COMPUTER going through my head. I talked the Government into starting resettlement courses with CDI in Computer Engineering. After this course I went to work for ICL in Bracknell, but by 1980 ICL’s expansion dealings with Singer made me feel uncomfortable as the word redundancy was being spoken about. I approached an agency saying “I would like a job in the area or in South Yorkshire where I come from.”\
The response was the offer of the Northern Regional Managers position with a company in Sheffield. I said “Hold on a minute, I am only a in house system maintenance engineer.” The Agency said “That is what we told the Managing Director and his response was does he want the job or not” I left ICL and joined Richard Jowitt in Sheffield. I was the only employee in the company with an engineering title.\
The day I arrived Richard told me he was going round the world to look for a computer to ut into small businesses. He came back a week later and told me I was going to ADDS on Long Island, New York for a week to learn about the Mentor Computer.\
Initially until I could recruit more engineers I was living with my parents in Doncaster Tuesday to Thursday handling work in the North and being with my wife and children Friday to Monday handling southern problems.\
The Northern Regional Manager was more like the Northern Hemisphere Manager.\
In 2002 I left the company which by then had ten repair centres.\
I was talking to Richard in 2000 and I told him that I had eight years left before retirement but I could not see computer repair engineering lasting that long. The throwaway society was approaching.\
I was elected as a DMBC Councillor in 1998, I took redundancy from EDP and carried on as a full time Councillor.\
Monty
- author: Oleg Kuznetsov (Russia)
date: Thursday 28th November 2019
text: Great compute and great OS PICK I had been using in post-USSR ministry of Foreign Trade and the experience with MENTOR machine was quite bright and powerful in terms of massive level-up in programming with BASIC for the enormous database of spare parts, invoices, accounting records and entry data forms we used on ASCII RS232 terminals which allow pseudo-graphics to make nice windows and entry screeens. I will remember these magic times for the rest of my life as the most productive in my programmer career. Later I bacame the CFO of RUssia in a multinational company in Mining and I still cherish and respect the Great Effort which MENTOR designers and engineers made for us to be more than happy and successful users of this GEM. Cheers to all the super-team of ADDS guys - who will be forever remembered in our country. I realize that computers of today maybe are much top gear etc. While old stuff like MENTOR and PICK will never be beaten by new HI-Tech. We people of 90s will always
trust in real gear. Cheers to all folks who like MENTOR and PICK!! Br Oleg
- author: Mark (United States)
date: Saturday 1st April 2017
text: |-
I worked at EDP in Sheffield and then Milton Keynes from about 1986 to 1989. I worked for Alan Lees who is mentioned in another post. I repaired all the various ADDS systems supplied and eventually supervised the repair center eventually...
I loved programming in PICK. Nothing else like it. Taught me about data structures and objects long before that was even a thing, it just made sense.
- author: Francis Palacios (Valencia, SPAIN)
date: Wednesday 18th December 2013
text: |-
I was the Technical Director of the Spain reseller for ADDS Computers since 1985 to 1992. In summer of 1986 I meet with an Engineer from EDP U.K called Alan Lees at Lisboa (Portugal) for the M2500 training course.This M2500 system was an excellent computer, very noble and powerful. I can say that M2500 was the best system for Pick O.S. in 80´s decade at Spain. Around 1990 were substituted by NCR/AT$T Tower 200,400 y 600 series with the name Mentor 6000 series. Same hardware but different O.S. Unix for Tower an Pick for mentor.\
M2500 brings back good memories, unfortunately disappeared, however I keep an old M6000 that I´m sure that will startup. Regards.
- author: Ronald Loui (Springfield, IL)
date: Saturday 25th May 2013
text: ADDS Mentor was a joy to work with $ Pick OS was revised and was fast. The late, great Eugene Nathan Johnson was a fan. Prime took the fun away too soon thereafter, but the Mentor was always the sweet one. Standing next to the "fridge" with terminal on top was a happy working height. I remember this was a good looking box in black matte. I''d love to have one to play with again.
- author: Jeff Nisler (Long Island,NY / USA)
date: Wednesday 22nd December 2010
text: In 1980, I was the principle software engineer at ADDS responsible for the porting project that became MENTOR - the prototypes were called Epsilon, I have 1 of 6 that were made with all the original engineering documents and source code (hasn''t seen power for about 20 years) - the Mentor was soon numbered the 4000 as smaller and larger configurations were offered (3000, 5000, 6000). I had left for Altos before they did the later Mentors. Sorry to hear Neil''s has died (and what a way to go).
- author: Daniel
date: Sunday 15th August 2010
text: I found lots of these computers in an abandoned house basment, it was really weired to see! I took one home plugged it in and the powersuppliy blow lol, still kept it though.
- author: Neil Boulton (Lichfield, United Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 1st June 2010
text: |-
Just found this site again, forgot I had sent these pictures in a while ago!
Well the M2000 has finally gone to heaven. About a year ago there was a significant fire in the garage where it lived (it didnt cause it though!) and everything including the garage was gutted.
It had stopped working a while beforehand, but I couldnt permit myself to throw it out because it couldnt have been fixed.
Glad to see its still alive on here though.\
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Kind Regards,\
Neil Boulton.
oc_id: 882
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230605035745/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=882
content/museum/advance-technology-advance-86.md
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photos:
- title: ADVANCE 86B GOLD !
subtitle: ''
@@ -159,61 +160,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Øystein De Lumeau\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : www.old-computers.com
comments:
- author: Bob Eager (UK)
date: Friday 20th April 2012
text: |-
I had one of the very early ones (initially without heatsinks on the Ferranti ULA chips). They were fitted on an engineer visit.
I fitted a hard disk to mine, and the top power supply overheated regularly. I always had to run it with the lid off!
It wasn''t totally IBM compatible. Because it used an 8086, with a 16 bit data path, extra logic was needed to make the 8259 interrupt controller respond on the correct ports. They didn''t do this, so where a real IBM compatible would use ports 20 and 21, the Advance only used even numbered ports$ in this case, 20 and 22. Any software that programmed the interrupt controller would not work correctly.
Advance provided a conversion program that (mostly blindly) changed 21 to 22 in executables files. Not a success. I did it by code inspection with DEBUG, and was usually successful.
- author: Ramon Zarat (Canada)
date: Wednesday 7th April 2010
text: |-
@Micah B. Haber
"Internally" refers to the processing word width. In this case, 16bit words can be computed at each cycle. But it takes nearly twice as long as computing an 8bit words, save some overheard because the process is inherently serialized. That''s why 16bit computing is only marginally faster than 8bit. 16bit real advantage is for bigger address space, not speed.
On the other hand, "Externally" refer to the bus the CPU use to communicate its information to and from the system, including RAM. A 16bit bus can effectively carry twice the information of an 8bit bus and thus, is twice as fast, because here we are talking about parallel communication.
While it''s true a 16/16 system is not twice as fast as an 16/8 system, the 8bit bus of the 16/8 setup can seriously bottleneck the 16 bit CPU in some scenario. We should say then the 16/8 is slower than the 16/16, not the other way around. Todays 32 and 64bit CPU have external bus much wider than their internal address space /processing width and are not directly comparable to the 16bit CPU era.
- author: David Martin (Crewe, UK)
date: Friday 10th November 2006
text: |-
The 86B was my first introduction to the 'PC' world after a string of home computers. It did everything an IBM junior did but was cheaper and had the 'perfect suite' of software too, which was actuall pretty good for it's day.
I remember it would regularly crash when it got warm because of poot contacts between the A and B boxes - ended up soldering the ribon cables into place to fix the damn thing once and for all!
If my memory serves - these were only available through the WHSmiths stores in the UK. Not ideal marketing as Smiths weren't big in the home or business computer markets at the time.
- author: Dave (United Kingdom)
date: Thursday 12th August 2021
text: The Advance 86a was the first machine I worked on when I started my career in programming, I remember when saving to tape if you accidentally didn''t have the record button down you could not interrupt the save process and would have to wait 2 minutes for it to complete before trying again. I also recall the coiled keyboard cable acted as a receiver for radio waves from cab drivers where occasionally loads of random characters would appear on the screen. We were writing software for WH Smiths to sell with it. I vaguely remember the machines getting withdrawn due to a lawsuit between IBM and Ferranti..
- author: digitalhippy (bristol, UK)
date: Tuesday 30th August 2011
text: |-
I still have one of these, its huge, all plastic though. Yes only marketed though WHSmiths, but what a price £1000 for everything !! 360k disk wow!\
It got me through college into a career in IT in the City and now an Architect, although I have bought a few computers ever since! I keep thinking about taking it out of the store and putting an old Mac mini inside the case!
- author: James Griffin (Australia)
date: Saturday 23rd October 2010
text: The Advance 86 was sold in Australia re badged as a Dick Smith Challenger , the first and cheapest available in AUSTRALIA at the time ,
- author: EPDM (BE)
date: Wednesday 23rd June 2010
text: |-
From Mr. Martin''s post I presume the cases where connected through ribbon cables. Are there any more details how this was?
Where there openings provided or did you have to open up the case to attach the cables?
- author: Jim Campbell Andrew (UK)
date: Sunday 13rd April 2008
text: Hi - just reading your page on the Advance 86 machines. One thing you don't mention (and I'm \_fairly\_ sure is correct) is that they were only sold through the WH SMiths chain of newspaper/magazine/book stores in the UK.
- author: Micah B. Haber (Nashua, New Hampshire)
date: Saturday 10th March 2007
text: |-
"but had a different CPU, the 8086 which was a true 16-bit processor. It could thus compute twice as fast for a much lower price !"
This is incorrect. An 16-bit internally and 16-bit externally CPU is not going to be inherently twice as fast as a 16-bit internally and 8-bit externally CPU. Doubling the bits does not double the performance, as can been seen in the current transition from 32-bit to 64-bit x86 CPUs.
oc_id: 507
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604031851/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=507
content/museum/advanced-computer-systems-acs-1007.md
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tabs:
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forum_thread: 484
adverts:
- title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980)
subtitle: ''
content/museum/advision-home-arcade.md
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forum_thread: 1149
photos:
- title: ADVISION HOME ARCADE
subtitle: ''
@@ -183,10 +184,6 @@ params:
 source : [Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central](http://amigan.classicgaming.gamespy.com/)
**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
comments:
- author: Laura
date: Friday 21st December 2012
text: I have the Advision Home Arcade L''Aventure a L''Ecran. The only information (in English) that I found on the internet about it so far is that it is the French version of the Arcadia 2001.
related:
- /museum/bandai-arcadia
- /museum/emerson-arcadia-2001
content/museum/ai-electronics-abc-20.md
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forum_thread: 446
adverts:
- title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980)
subtitle: ''
content/museum/ai-electronics-abc-24.md
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forum_thread: 53
adverts:
- title: FRENCH ADVERTISEMENT
subtitle: ''
@@ -68,19 +69,6 @@ params:
- title: Gaby's Homepage für CP/M und Computergeschichte
url: http://www.gaby.de/abc.htm
text: This site features infos and an interesting article about the ABC-24
comments:
- author: java16
date: Friday 13rd September 2013
text: Hello, I have one, but I have not a keyboard ... dou you have some information if is possible to use another one from different of computer
- author: Juergen Sievers (Germany)
date: Thursday 1st March 2007
text: |-
Hi,
I’m collector of vintage computer systems. One of my systems is an ABC-24 for which I have destroyed the CP/M Boot Disk. So I want to ask you for a copy of this Disk (or an Image) if you have one.
Regards\
Juergen
oc_id: 34
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603204804/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=34
content/museum/ai-electronics-abc-26.md
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forum_thread: 506
photos:
- title: ABC-26
subtitle: ''
@@ -73,10 +74,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/ai-electronics_abc26_pub-fr_2.png
comments:
- author: JAN LE ROUX (SOUTH AFRICA)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2017
text: I have an ABC-26 Ai Electronics 8.5 inch floppy drive computer with keyboard still in working condition that I am interested in selling. The computer was bought new by my wife but we now only use notepads. Does anyone have any idea of the value?
oc_id: 512
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230531224515/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=512
content/museum/ai-electronics-ai-m16.md
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forum_thread: 505
photos:
- title: CLOSE-UP
subtitle: ''
@@ -81,10 +82,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/pubs/ai-m16_pub_facen.jpg
comments:
- author: Colin Dorr (USA)
date: Friday 13rd April 2007
text: 'I had this computer a long time ago. I called it: The best and first computer i had. When i buyed it it costs $2,900 (In 1983). I replaced it in 1986 for a Apple Macintosh computer. I think the end of production was in 1987 because of the news.'
oc_id: 511
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230415202048/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=511
content/museum/akor-super-tv-boy.md
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- title: DETACHABLE CONTROL PAD
subtitle: ''
content/museum/akor-tv-boy.md
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forum_thread: 808
photos:
- title: TV-BOY I
subtitle: ''
@@ -91,39 +92,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: troller for life (MA)
date: Friday 5th October 2012
text: how do the tv games work ? does it work on a tv?
- author: Enrico
date: Thursday 12th July 2012
text: 'Buy them: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200791578129'
- author: Period000 (Sudbury, MA USA)
date: Thursday 6th October 2011
text: I have one. Am I the only one in America who does?
- author: New Digital world (150)
date: Monday 24th January 2011
text: |-
I sell the tv boys.\
The link is :\
http://www.newdigitalworld.nl/retro-games-accessoires-c-90.html
- author: Karl Kruggel (New Prague, MN USA)
date: Tuesday 31st August 2004
text: I have been looking for one of these now for about a yearand a half. Anybody that knows of one, I would be willing to buy. Thank You.
- author: Pete Scoins (Torquay, Devon, England, UK)
date: Friday 2nd April 2004
text: I had a TV boy, I must of spent my early teens (i think) playing the games i love when i was small... Ahh.. The memories
- author: JP (London, UK)
date: Thursday 13rd November 2003
text: |-
Picked up a TV Boy 2 at a car boot sale for £3
Battery compartment had suffered a leaky battery so doesn't work with batteries. With a mains adaptor however, its no prblem. and works fine.
Good for instant gratification. :)
- author: Jason Ramsey (44860 San Clemente Circle)
date: Friday 18th April 2003
text: Anyone own a tv-boy and willing to sell it?
related:
- /museum/akor-super-tv-boy
oc_id: 827
content/museum/alex-video-spiel-tg-621.md
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forum_thread: 642
photos:
- title: BACK
subtitle: ''
@@ -92,16 +93,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: Patrick (Germany)
date: Sunday 18th November 2012
text: 'I''''ve found this crazy video game a few days ago in the attic at my parents house. Unfortunately the connector to the TV is cut off. Does anyone know which kind of connector is necessary? My mail addy: boing@patrick-albert.de'
- author: Michael (finland)
date: Thursday 27th May 2004
text: My girlfriends best friend just found this in her attic, problem is, I tried it on both of our tv's and on one,m the picture stays for about 2 minutes, and starts to deteriorate... before you say it, I know it cannot be the game itself, it is definately the RF... does anyone know the specific frequency that I can tune my tv to so that I can enjoy this antique machine and all it has to offer, just email me back at ramaista@hotmail.com
- author: Olivier (France)
date: Tuesday 6th August 2002
text: This pongs can be found under many different brands... And the case is so ... computerish! Quite a strange machine.
related:
- /museum/a10-telespiel-9010
- /museum/apf-match
content/museum/alpha-micro-1000-series.md
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forum_thread: 593
photos:
- title: REAR SIDE
subtitle: ''
@@ -93,117 +94,6 @@ params:
url: http://www.otterway.com/am100/
platform: Multiplatform
text: Open source emulator for the AM-100 micro computer that runs on Linux, Windows, or Macintosh desktops and can run AMOS and all associated programs.
comments:
- author: William V.
date: Tuesday 15th March 2011
text: '"Engineers knew a basic hack to get access to the $1,4$ system area without a password. " An Alpha Micro served as our high-school computer lab back in 1980... we found several versions of this hack within the first semester, and were able to save the day when the class teacher forgot the password for OPR:'
- author: Dave Lea (UK)
date: Wednesday 1st September 2010
text: worked on these in the late 80''s / early 90''s and i did get the biggest electric shock (240v) of my life off one when i discovered a previous engineer had removed the fuse cover from the psu exposing the mains fuse (ouch!)
- author: Deak Brenan (USA)
date: Monday 29th March 2010
text: The last Alpha Micros that we maintained went out of use in 2004 after about 15 years of use. The staff still refer to it now. Engineers knew a basic hack to get access to the $1,4$ system area without a password. The Discana utility could fix any amount of system corruption and best of all, when colour monitors came out we were all shocked to find the Amos operating system was actually in colour. Who new?
- author: John Caprise (Phoenix AZ)
date: Thursday 6th March 2008
text: |-
I used this machine from 1996 up through 2002. It was the main brain behind an old Bowling Alley scoring system for Brunswick. Not only did it serve all of the scorers, the system was also used for daily reports in the bar and resturuant with a PLU driven software system. We also used it for league and torniment managments useing the scoring interface. The system was installed in the early 80's, yet this machine ran solid for nearly 20 years in a less than sterile envirenment (and , that is being very kind). The VHS data back up was surprisingly reliable. This machine was defenitly ahead of it's time in what it could do.
Obviously the AMOS and the Bowling Center software where a bit buggy by today's standards. Biut unliike allot of software running on Modern OS machines, it was far more stable. (Buggy but stable).
This was a great machine, the company had excellent support. I'm glad to know that they are still in business. I bet you you could still find it running in some older, more run down Bowling Alleys.
- author: Richard (UK)
date: Monday 18th January 2021
text: I''m looking for anyone who still has a working AM1xxx (AM1000, AM1200, AM1000-62) because mine is dead and I''m desperately seeking a copy of AMOS to reload onto it. Any help appreciated, richard at genzone.net, thank you very much.
- author: Mike Sessi (USA)
date: Wednesday 19th August 2020
text: I have a AM1082, Dual 8" priam 70MB, AM300, AM610, AM415...AM100/L.....I Looked and Looked, before I recycle system, does anyone have an "L" ?
- author: Tim Shoemaker (California (USA))
date: Tuesday 13rd February 2018
text: |-
WAY back in 1980, I sold my old 16k Imsai 8080 with dual 8" and dual 4" floppies, and purchased an Alpha Micro AM-100 with a 90MB CDC Phoenix disc and purchased "Alpha Accounting".. this was where I cut my teeth as I went into business.\
Over the years, I worked for multiple companies that used Alpha Micro computers, Including 2 AM Dealers, one manufacturing company (about 13 years). I also spent about 4 years as Programmer at Alpha Micro itself programming for their IT Department in Alpha Basic.. we maintained all the internal business software for MRP, Sales, Purchasing, Accounting, etc, and we were a test platform for new hardware $ software as it was being released to the public. I also programmed in DDL (Dravac Database Language) as well as ISAM, and I did my small share of Macro Assembly coding to fix/change terminal drivers. I finally left the Alpha Micro world in 1999 when Datatronics (my employer at the time) purchased a new ERP system to replace "ShoemakerWare" that we had been running the company on for many years. Alpha Micro was a fun run! Great/Amazing computer technology back in the early 80''s.
- author: Susie (US)
date: Friday 11th November 2016
text: I have an Alpha Micro 1000 with the original power cord, monitor, users manual, and keyboard. It was used by our business for many years until 2000. My boss kept everything, and our company is finally closing down after his death. I know it is very rare to find one with all the components. It was in perfect working order the last time it was used and has been in our office storage for years. Is anyone interested in purchasing the system?
- author: Andy
date: Thursday 10th November 2016
text: I have DRAVAC DR-100 board from 1980. Its covered with black paint (unusual). any info? Thank you!
- author: Joe B. (Colorado)
date: Tuesday 30th August 2016
text: I worked on AM1000, to AM1000 between 1978 and approximately 1986 when I migrated all the Accounting and proprietary insurance software I wrote from AlphaBasic and DDL (Dravac Database Language, anyone remember that? from UK?).. they had a frontend compiler that linked to their extensions in basic. Originally I had my on ISAM I had written in Basic, and ported over the old AlphaAccounting to my own Code using that.. which later got abanded for a new Fangled 4GL in 1986 called at that time Data Language Corporation''s "Progress". Ran on 286 SCO Unix. by 1994 there were still people using Alpha Micro and I got to port someones else old alphabasic code to Progress for a Trucking Company. But since I cut my teeth on CP/M, 6502 assembler, Vector Graphic, northstar, and AMOS WD16 assmembler writing Tape Transfer software (lol, I have to laugh), I have fondness in my heart for the Alpha Micro.
- author: Gordon (Usa)
date: Sunday 12th June 2016
text: 'I have an Am100/l main processor board available. Motorola MC68000P8 CPU. COntact me for pictures and details: gordon@hesketh.us'
- author: Danny (USA)
date: Tuesday 16th June 2015
text: |-
Anyone have any working Alpha equipment they might be interested in selling?
I would love to have a system for hobby use, I first worked on them in the early 80s in high school, then was a programmer on them for about 6 years after that.
I would be pretty open on the models, 100$L, 1000. I would love to find that a AM-1500 (or other VME model) is available.
Alphabase$Metropolis license would be a HUGE bonus :)
Thanks very much,
Danny
- author: Terri (United States)
date: Tuesday 7th April 2015
text: If anyone is interested in getting a hold of some old (working) Alpha Micro systems (please state specific system, 1000, eagle, etc), please contact me and I will forward your info to someone that will likely be able to locate a model for you. tmando@iname.com
- author: Pat Dow (Oregon)
date: Wednesday 2nd October 2013
text: |-
I worked on the AM from 1981 thru 1987 as a Field Engineer and later as a Sales Engineer with Alpha Micro.\
@Joel, your mom was my boss for a while back then!
- author: Dan Danknick (Boulder CO)
date: Tuesday 30th October 2012
text: I had the great fortune to work at Alpha in the early 1990s in the OS group, fixing SPRs and adding enhancements. AMOS was an amazing OS and of course, we did all of our work in M68 assembler. At my next job I had to learn 286 asm and thought that the segmented address scheme was pure madness by the Intel engineers! I am glad to say I''m still friends with fellow programmers that I met at Alpha, now 21 years later.
- author: Joel Kelly (Las Vegas, NV)
date: Friday 20th July 2012
text: |-
My Mom was the (by the end) the Regional Sales Manager of the entire West Coast. She was the President and then a member of the AMOS group, which I vaguely remember going to as a kid. I remember how the AM machines "kicked-ass all over" the old VAX junk.
I think she started out working for Howard Ogle, the President and Founder of MacroTech. They built knock-off products that did stuff a bit better, I think.
Honestly, I was more interested with her $9000 Mac IIci as a kid. With Aldus Illustrator and I think even PhotoShop!!! WhooOOo!
- author: Carl Best (Oregon, USA)
date: Friday 18th November 2011
text: |-
I serviced Alpha Micro Computers from 1982 up until about 1997.\
The AM1000 had just come out when I started working with an Alpha Micro dealer as a field service engineer.\
I also serviced the old S-100 bus systems, from the original AM100 with the Western Digital Micro PDP11 processor up to the Motorola 68000 based AM1062, and the single board successors to the AM1000, the AM1200, AM1500, AM2000 and AM3000.\
Over the years, as customers bought newer computers, I aquired a farily comprehensive collection of old Alpha-Micro computers, including an 8 inch dual-floppy AM100, an AM100/T with a 30Mb winchester drive, an AM1042 68000 based S-100 system, a collection of AM1000''s, AM1500/2000/3000.\
They all run, and I have complete AMOS documentation, plus full electrical schematics for the older computers.\
These were great computers, and ran rings around anything else built at the time.\
Multitasking? in 1982, an Alpha Micro with a 68000 processor could handle 4 users connected via dumb terminals, print to two or three printers simultaneously, and nobody would ever notice a pause or slowdown while they worked. Some of the larger systems supported dozens of users and six or eight printers seamlessly.\
At that time, an IBM PC went to sleep every time the single user printed a document. It wasn''t until Windows 95 that the PC world even approched that kind of performance.
- author: FRANKLIN (75) (Caracas - Venezuela)
date: Saturday 17th September 2011
text: |-
Hello ... Down here , we still have some 1200 in use .\
Could be +/- 12, all running applications just like 25 yrs ago . The only technician is the one writting this , all the others are retired or have 10'' of soil over the chest !!!\
Solid machine ! Hey, it''s not true that the security chip''s X-ray protected ... I''ve got my 1200 all set to support !
- author: gs (california)
date: Sunday 6th January 2008
text: |-
I remember the salvation army using alpha micro systems in their churches. we sometimes received support calls about those.
there is a nice website on the am's that is actually running on a later eagle model: http://ampm.floodgap.com
please post any ebay auctions you find on one, i would love to play with one again..
- author: js (nowhere)
date: Saturday 21st July 2007
text: Apparently AMOS development is very heavily guarded; the microcode on the mainboards is top secret!
- author: alessandro (italy)
date: Saturday 21st April 2007
text: back in '88 I worked on it , the one I've used was the only computer I've ever seen with a storage mass on VHS tape , transfer rate was terrible 15 min for 200k of data .I remember that the security chip built in was X-ray protected ,programmer trainer told me .
- author: Pete Fenelon (UK)
date: Sunday 22nd February 2004
text: |-
There is now an Alpha Micro/AMOS emulator - "am100" by Mike Noel.
Looks pretty good. Works well enough to boot AMOS and do some fairly simple tasks.
oc_id: 606
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230528024543/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=606
content/museum/alspa-computer-aci-1-2.md
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subtitle: ''
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value: PSU built-in
- label: PRICE
value: 12350 (France, september 1984)
comments:
- author: Art Cancro (USA)
date: Friday 11th October 2013
text: |-
Altos 186 and 486 systems did indeed run the Intel 80186 processor, which were passed over by the PC world.
Typically there would be one to four terminals attached, one of which was the system console. The version of unix that it ran was a port of Xenix, which was Microsoft''s port of Unix. Yes it was "real" unix, albeit a somewhat limited one. However, most unix software could be made to run on it.
Altos computers of this era were Intel based but most of them were not "IBM compatible." Altos did not see any need to do that since their machines were never intended to run MS-DOS.
- author: Jeff Nisler
date: Wednesday 22nd December 2010
text: |-
I worked at Altos when the 186 system came out. I porterd a version of the Pick OS to it in 1984 (a solo effort, which was never offered for sale). And I can tell you why it was a slow pig running zenix - the size was made small by removing hardware to a bare minimum, and in the balance the main cpu had to also be the CRT controller - the OS had to sit 2nd seat to the controller, or you wouldn''t see anything.\
I have one of the prototypes, and it still works.
- author: Donald S. Campbell
date: Wednesday 10th March 2010
text: |-
I attempted to use the 80186 based Altos many times, but it was a failure from the beginning. It was officially called ACS486.
It''s speed was horrible, and the reliability almost nonexistant. It was a blunder of gigantic proportions.
I bought several at the ''bargain'' price of $4k each, and soon discovered why the great discount - they were junk.
Howver, the other Altoses I''ve used, including ACS8000-10, ACS580, ACS586, ACS2086, ACS1000, and ACS2000, are easily among the best systems in their class.
My OS of choice from the beginning was Oasis8-16/Theos, and it still would be if the Altos was still available.
Altoses running Theos were unbeatable - Xenix/Unix were slow and made for support groups - not efficiency and productivity, where it counts.
forum_thread: 522
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Isn't this a stupid advert ?!\
Look carefully at each face !
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comments:
- author: J.Roco (USA)
date: Monday 16th March 2015
text: I wrote multi-user programs for vertical markets on altos computers running MP/M using a slightly modified version of dBase II (modified to lock files and records.) The last was the 686. One of the contributions to Altos''s loss was a motherboard failure caused by lack of adequetly seating chips into their sockets. We had to travel to every site and physically reseat every chip on the motherboard!!!
- author: joel wylan (usa)
date: Wednesday 20th October 2010
text: i worked at altos as tech support on all platforms for all programming languages. my first silicon valley job. was liason between developers and code vendors. what a trip finding this website.
- author: SP
date: Friday 3rd July 2009
text: Searching for Xenix 3.2f for this machine (I got one). I would agree the help provided, please. Thanks. You can locate me in the classiccmp e-mail list
- author: Stephen Silberman (Earth)
date: Tuesday 29th April 2003
text: I had one of these back in the mid 80's or so. It was state of the art then. We ran it with MPM as an operating system. That was an early multi user version of CPM. We had three of them networked together and could share files and programs. We used it for accounting applications in a garment manufacturing business. It was a big step up from our Intertec Superbrain which preceded it.
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text: This looks like a Fortran program...
image: /media/museum/software/altos_acs8200_fortran_ss.jpg
comments:
- author: Steve (USA)
date: Thursday 13rd September 2018
text: I programmed one of these using dBaseII in the early 80s. It used the MPM operating system and could have several Televideo dumb terminals attached. It had a 10MB hard drive. I still have it! I''m starting to try to figure out how to sell it.
- author: Mike P. (USA)
date: Wednesday 29th November 2017
text: My father used one of these systems in his office for the food research laboratory he worked at in the late 70''s. I remember the 8" floppy drives were separate from the processor. There was a big blue CRT/keyboard terminal of unknown make, and a big floor standing Texas Instruments dot matrix printer. I believe the system was serial connected to several pieces of lab equipment. I was only 7 or 8 at the time, and this whole thing fascinated me, it was the cat''s meow.
- author: medge (Australia)
date: Tuesday 18th November 2014
text: |-
Used an Altos 8000 running UCSD p-system natively in my first job back in ''84. 48k ram, split over 4 users with some shared memory for semaphores etc.\
Needed to use overlays in p-system to handle the larger programmes. Each overlay had to have the same procedure names in the smae location to work.\
I remember with the 20MB version you needed to toggle the on/off switch a few time to get the drive up to speed before it would boot from it.
- author: Phil Glau (USA)
date: Wednesday 31st July 2013
text: |-
My dad had one for his business but it had two 8" floppies and no HHD. I suspect it was much cheaper to have a second floppy rather than a HHD. I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
I learned BASIC and COBOL on it and ran CP/M as the operating system.
I think the reason he bought it was because Peachtree Accounting ran on it (not 100$ sure about this, but over the years, he stuck with Peachtree and I think it was because of backwards ''compatibility''. Eventually the data was transferred from the Altos to a Windows machine of some sort, but remained PeachTree)
- author: Phil Glau (USA)
date: Wednesday 31st July 2013
text: |-
My dad had one for his business but it had two 8" floppies and no HHD. I suspect it was much cheaper to have a second floppy rather than a HHD. I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
I learned BASIC and COBOL on it and ran CP/M as the operating system.
I think the reason he bought it was because Peachtree Accounting ran on it (not 100$ sure about this, but over the years, he stuck with Peachtree and I think it was because of backwards ''compatibility''. Eventually the data was transferred from the Altos to a Windows machine of some sort, but remained PeachTree)
- author: R Ryan (USA)
date: Monday 11th April 2011
text: The TCU-8 is not a computer but an 8 channel RS-422 asynchronous terminal multiplexor. Altos, Wyse or other RS-232 serial terminals were plugged into the connectors labeled 0-7. They could be daisy chained together. The address of the unit in the chain was set with the DIP switches.
- author: Jason (Birmingham, West Midlands, UK)
date: Saturday 19th March 2011
text: |-
I work as an ICT Technician at a Secondary School here in the UK. The caretaker bought in from home last week an Altos TCU-8 computer.
It has a row of LED''s at the front labelled 0 to 7, a bank of input connectors at the back also labelled 0 to 7, a larger input connector, kettle lead 3 pin power socket, on / off switch and a 5 row dip switch component.
Any information about this computer would be helpful. There''s nowhere to connect any type of TV, monitor or keyboard. The front row of LED''s look like something the Altair 8800 would have.
- author: john (syracuse new york)
date: Monday 27th December 2004
text: |-
We used an altos 8000 system with\
20 meg hard drive and 8 inch floppy\
from 1982 to perhaps about 1989\
they were 100% reliable all that time\
and were obsolte long before being worn out.\
They weighed about 80-88 pounds and\
had something like 256 k of ram for\
allegedly 3 or 4 users and the operating system\
ran cpm and mpm on it, still remember "pip"\
instead of copy. Had 8 megaherz cpu\
Very very good quality machine.
oc_id: 456
source:
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comments:
- author: Eric Scott (Canada)
date: Friday 6th January 2023
text: I had an old System 5 when I was a kid. It had a 5 1/4" floppy and a full Hight 5.5 MB hard drive on it. It ran MP/M and we had three terminals attached to it. My Dad built and programmed a complete POS system for our continence store. We ran the system until the early 1990''s.
- author: Göran Axelsson (Sweden)
date: Thursday 26th July 2012
text: I just got an ALTOS serie 5-15DE and it came with two 5.25" floppy drives. I haven''t started it yet so I can''t tell anything about the capacity.
- author: George Barna
date: Friday 8th June 2012
text: I had one of these. It had a 2 x 5 1/4" floppy drives, NOT 8", of 800Kb capacity each.
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603020928/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=455
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The AMtext product line includes a complete selection of peripheral devices, including telecommunications, an optical character reader. magnetic card reader, phototypesetters, daisy wheel printers. high-speed line and matrix printers, as well as mass storage on floppy and hard disk drive units.
image: /media/museum/pubs/jacquard_j100_amtext_2.jpg
comments:
- author: Jenny Robinson (UK)
date: Thursday 28th April 2011
text: I worked for Jacquard before it became AM Jacquard and also for a couple of Jacquard distributors. When Type-Rite came out I became the word processing queen and travelled all over Europe training Jacquard distributors. I guess it was late seventies and into the eighties. Those were amazingly happy days which I remember with great fondness. I worked with Norman Tinklin, Robin Bews, Barry Lawrence and Terry Hart. We had some wild times
- author: Carol Wollard (USA)
date: Wednesday 9th March 2011
text: I worked for ATV on Daimler Street in Santa Ana - those were crazy times. No doubt, Typerite was the best word processing software I have ever used - I loved Jacquard computers - too bad they went by the wayside.
- author: Robert R. Heinz
date: Tuesday 4th January 2011
text: |-
I worked in Technical Support in the Santa Monica office in 1977 with Lynn Shelly and another gentleman I forget. I was responsible for supporting the Family Feud show at ABC Studios for 2 seasons. I got to sit backstage with Richard Dawson and Gene Woods during every taping and will never forget the fun
Thamkls!!
- author: Tom Mallen (Los Angeles, CA USA)
date: Friday 4th June 2010
text: Just visited this site to see what might be available about Jacquard Systems. I was Director of Finance from May 1977 through the acquisition by AM International (formerly Addressograph, Multigraphics etc.) until the west coast office was relocated to New Jersey at the end of 1980. Remember Ken Rubin, Edgar Bolton, the investment group of celebrities that funded the startup company Magnatronics and the growth of this phenominally talented group. A true leader in the infant Wordprocessing arena. The AM acquisition helped the growth but AM''s problems denied an opportunity to become the premier product. Wordperfect and Word were far behind Jacquard''s capabilities in 1979.
- author: Art Cline (Dallas, TX)
date: Friday 11th July 2008
text: |-
Wow what memories!
Fred, I was one of the four National Technical Support personnel that you mentioned.
- author: John Lerno (Westminster/Ca)
date: Monday 7th July 2008
text: Hello Fred Rodney I used to work at ATV in the middle to late 80s on the Jacquard systems. Wow it is a small world seeing you here
- author: Pat McAuley (Dublin, Ireland)
date: Thursday 20th March 2008
text: Hey Mike Hopkins, fancy you popping up on an Old Computer message board. Memory Ireland, memories flooding back of Ballsbridge and the Irish Sweeps Stake!!! Keep up the good work!!!!
- author: Fred Roney (Schaumburg, IL)
date: Friday 30th November 2007
text: |-
Updated email address. Motorola bought Symbol Technologies effective Jan,4 2007
FAME member. Former AM employee.
- author: Mike Hopkins (Adelaide Australia)
date: Friday 14th July 2006
text: |-
Nice to see follow ups to my post of nearly 4 years ago. I used to program in Super Basic on the J100. I still get some of those error codes coming into mind e.g. Error 48 - disk full and I think 36 was file not found.
Worked with John McGrann and Michael Harvey, other posters to this page, and Terry Fossey, mentioned at Memory Ireland.
Memory had a 'brave' project to develop an accounting system called MAX for the J100/500, using programmers in Zimbabwe. The project became known as MAD MAX.
- author: Fred Roney (Chicgao, IL USA)
date: Friday 30th September 2005
text: |-
I'm astonished that people still talk about or use these systems still. It definitely brought a smile to my face. I was employed by AM in 80-82, transferred from Varityper to Jacquard in 81, ended up with ATV Systems and FDR Field Service through the sale of the division. I was 1 of 4 National Technical Support personnel kept on to provide support for the Jacquard J100, J300, J500 series up until about 1989 with the sale to Decision Data, now Decision One.\
If I remember right the J500's CPU was made up of 4 ALU's, the microcode was burned to PROMS and the max mem. was either 256k or 512k. And yes TypeRite was definitely ahead of it's time.\
I wish you all well. It's nice to know some people on the planet still remember. I don't bother mentioning AM Jacquard much these days. Most people say AM who and what’s a Jacquard, isn't that some kind of loom?
- author: Anthony Dodd (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 16th January 2005
text: It was interesting to stumble across this site. I first started work as a programmer working for Memory Computers, Dublin (1985-87). I had great pleasure in working on the J100 & J500 (later). It had a very simple and intuitive basic language support, the operating system was simple to use. Commands such as sprcat (super cat), still stick in my mind to this day. I agree with all the comments that the word processor on the jacquards was way ahead of it's time. While at memory I started working on a new breed of Motorola machines, running Unix V, and I remember distinctly thinking how cumbersome vi was in comparison, the nearest thing I came to type-rite was word perfect a few years later. I was involved in developing systems and supporting systems for a great number of installations throughout the city. I remember my last involvement with the J500s was with respect to installing the new breed of laser printers arriving on the market. There we're problems with the J500s inability
to support the XON/XOFF protocol used by these printers.
- author: Tim Trent (UK)
date: Monday 10th January 2005
text: |-
Back in 1979 I joined the UK company as a baby salesman. Damn these machines were good. For me they set the WP standard. They beat Wang hollow.
I loved the cut and paste and copy and paste rulers. Thsi was pretty much the forrunner of "highlight and select" really.
At a trade show we were next to a shredder manaufacturer. He knew as little about coimputers as we did. but I did manage to get him to find out of he offered an optional RS232C connection to his shredders!
- author: Tom Morgan (Sacramento CA)
date: Friday 18th July 2003
text: It's very interesting to see these other postings regarding the J100 and J500 because I worked for Jacquard in Santa Monica on both of these systems. They were pretty revolutionary for their time, especially the J500 and you guys got to see some of the follow-on products after I left the company in 1979. I actually worked for them during 2 time periods and was a test technician on the J500 in 1979.
- author: Ruth Cust (Sydney, Australia)
date: Tuesday 22nd April 2003
text: |-
My first 'real' job was as a technician (they called us 'engineers') on Jacquards and AMTexts for the Australian distributors - Computer Resources, later AM Jacquard, then Datronics, in the late '70s early '80s. I remember the Irish J505 - we sold them here.
For a while they were great business - TypeRite, accounting programs, inventory control. It absolutely boomed.
We installed J100s with 14 or 16 J105s in TAFE Colleges around Sydney. I now teach in one of the Colleges, and the Jacquard sign is still above the door to the old Jacquard room in the basement of my building 20 years later. It has PCs in it now. Sigh.
- author: Mike Hopkins (Australia)
date: Monday 28th October 2002
text: |-
I used to work for the Irish distributor of Jacquard, a company called Memory Computer, based in Dublin. Memory's engineers actually developed the modifications to the J500 which turned it from a single user into a multi-user (up to 3 concurrent users) machine. From my recollection it had a maximum memory of 128kb (yes kb not MB). I believe they may have sold the design back to Jacquard, or AM-Jacquard as they became. Memory went on to manufacture its own PC like machine which was compatible with the Jacquard line, but not with the IBM PC. It included a cassette tape drive controllable from the keyboard, which was aimed at the dictation / word processing market. The Jacquard line had, what was at the time, a very good word processing application called Type-Rite. Memory Computer listed on the London Stock Exchange in the early 80's but went bust a few years later.
Mike Hopkins
- author: Fred Roney (Chicago, IL USA)
date: Friday 30th September 2005
text: |-
I had a few more memories come back.\
The last Pertec drive used was a 24BM Drive. 3 fixed internal platters and 1 removable. Each platter was 6MB. It used a linear motor (Voice Coil), a grate and gratitude systems for positioning the heads. Quite a challenge to align.\
Also used was the Control Data Corp CDC9762 80MB drive, interfaced through a Systems Industries Controller or Formatter.\
Some systems had a Pertec Reel-Reel Tape drive with compliance arms, no vacuum column. Use of this device also required the use of a Pertec controller or formatter. NRZI and PE formats.
Can you believe this, one of the last support calls I did (around 1988) was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Boeing had a J300 system installed with 2 CDC9762 drives. Among other things, they used it to communicate over the internet to other contractors and University research centers.
- author: Robert Harvey (London, United Kingdom)
date: Monday 20th June 2005
text: |-
I got a J500 up and running in the Bank of Credit and Commerce to word process the annual accounts while our computer division were still struggling to use other systems. We brought a second J500 in later and then upgraded one to a three screen J505 with a 5Mbyte fixed and 5Mbyte removable hard disc system. We continued to use this sytem until the the late 80s when PCs took over. TypeRite was well ahead of its time and in my opinion was not equalled until WordPerfect 5.1 hit the market.
I also used the DataRite product on it. This used a COBOL like language with a form system that automatically generated the enviroment section of the source code. Of course you had the luxury of using TypeRite to edit the DataRite source files. The 16 bit error codes from the J500/505 werevery detailed and particularly useful when debugging applications. They were logically structured so the high bits told the programmer which subsystem had generated the error which was often enough to establish the error in my code.
There was also a spelling checker called SpellRite. We experimented with this but made little practical use of it because it was very slow. You ran SpellRite as a batch program which generated exception files. These files were then manually checked and used to update the dictionary and to correct spellings if I recall correctly.
One of my more interesting experiments was to demonstrate that AM could typeset documents directly from a J500 disc because they used a Jacquard computer in their phototypestting system. All that the technician operating the phototypesetter had to do was set up some macro to translate key control sequences into the equivalents of styles. (I believe that we could also have sent our documents for typesetting over a phone line if we had wanted to). My boss did not approve of this experiment and it came to nothing in the end.
There is some doubt on this site as to the amount of ROM containing the Jacquard's microcode. From memory I think that it was 128Kbytes because I am sure that the system's total addressable memory space was 256Kbytes. But I could be wrong. I do recall that the J505 upgrade involved replacing a lot of dil packaged ROM chips.
- author: Cy foughty (Portland, OR)
date: Thursday 11th September 2003
text: |-
I can't believe I stumbled across this site! This is great. I worked for ETV computer systems in Amarillo, Texas USA and later we moved to Dallas. We built a "modern" ( at the time) hard disk and tape backup subsystem for the J100 and J500. We also had a cpu upgrade board. I beleive we called it the J300. That was a long time ago. Actually Skip and Steve Butterfield designed and built the first ones. Later I moved the manufacturing to Dallas.
The products breathed new life into the old systems. This was from 1983 to 1987. We sold the storage subsystems to Memory Ireland, Jacquard France, and othjers. I can't remember the distributor in Australia.
We sold a lot of systems directly. I personally installed storage systems in NASA, the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center in New York city for Amercian Express, Texas Supreme Court and Appeals courts, and many others.
This does bring back old memories. Really good ones. To this day, I still think that Type-Rite has word processing features that still aren't in Word or any other place. Really good features like the math filter bar to work on columns. If you think about it, it was the first spreadsheet and it was integrated into the word processor. These were great systems.
So to be so windy but it was a good time for me.
- author: Skip Shaw (USA)
date: Friday 29th July 2022
text: I’m Skip Shaw, a founding member of Jacquard Systems. Originally, I was in charge of hiring and managing all of the software engineers at Jacquard, later also acquiring responsibility for the hardware engineering (with leader/J500 inventor, Steve Butterfield) and then later taking over Marketing after Addressograph Multigraph (later AM International) acquired what became the AM Jacquard division. Out of college, I originally worked at TRW in Redondo Beach and as a result much of the “founding� software crew were TRW legacies…my then best friend, John McCulley (TypeRite) (John has passed away), Barbara Renshaw (later my wife) AND Jim Cook (both brilliant Operating System Software Engineers), Steve Nelson (my first office mate at TRW) (known primarily for the SORT Software that blew away the IBM OS 360 sort), and several others not mentioned (as of yet) on this site PLUS numerous “top notch� software engineers, hardware engineers $ technicians (Ken Rubin and many others)
were gathered to create what continues to be recognized as one of the most innovative, farsighted software and computer systems vendors of its era. After the ATV acquisition of AM Jacquard occurred (due to the imminent bankruptcy of AM International), Steve Butterfield, Steve Nelson, (the 3 of us just happened to all be career Air Force Officers'' sons), Barb Renshaw, Bill Bailey (the Utilities Guru), Bob Hossely (the 3rd System II guru) and I (as CEO) formed The Peerless Group (later Peerless Systems) and took that company public on the NASDAQ. At Jacquard, we accomplished a lot of very unusual and forward looking products, perhaps the most publicly notable being John McCully’s “TypeRite� that was literally many years ahead of the competition. TypeRite achieved its stellar reputation because of John’s unusual creative thinking combined with the very farsighted design and implementation of the Jacquard Operating System (System II) and its attendant compilers. (TypeRrite was
partially written in assembly language, coupled with the Super Basic Compiler (implemented by Doug Ahl) and a very large portion of TypeRite’s capabilities and flexibilities were provided by the very “transparent� and superbly integrated System II and Super Basic. And let''s don’t forget Diana Gaskell’s truly innovative "math library� which itself "speed obliterated" the OS 360 speeds (just as the SORT had) in the many benchmarks that our customers generated. So, the Jacquard Technical Group was a family of innovators and doers that initially came as the very best in their respective fields (and thought they knew everything, and that their thoughts alone were the very best). What happened at Jacquard was that these “Super Engineers� learned that they had brilliant peers, began to respect others’ ideas and integrate and meld these truly innovative ideas into a “fantastically integrated� and forward-looking body of technologies… i.e., “an integrated whole.�
In the process of that respect and teamwork, Jacquard became a family that is still together in friendship today… and from time to time gathers electronically and physically to celebrate those enduring friendships. I’m proud and grateful to have had that opportunity and experience with “our� family. And we all appreciate the recognition that we continue to receive.
- author: Skip Shaw (USA)
date: Friday 29th July 2022
text: I’m Skip Shaw, a founding member of Jacquard Systems. Originally, I was in charge of hiring and managing all of the software engineers at Jacquard, later also acquiring responsibility for the hardware engineering (with leader/J500 inventor, Steve Butterfield) and then later taking over Marketing after Addressograph Multigraph (later AM International) acquired what became the AM Jacquard division. Out of college, I originally worked at TRW in Redondo Beach and as a result much of the “founding� software crew were TRW legacies…my then best friend, John McCulley (TypeRite) (John has passed away), Barbara Renshaw (later my wife) AND Jim Cook (both brilliant Operating System Software Engineers), Steve Nelson (my first office mate at TRW) (known primarily for the SORT Software that blew away the IBM OS 360 sort), and several others not mentioned (as of yet) on this site PLUS numerous “top notch� software engineers, hardware engineers $ technicians (Ken Rubin and many others)
were gathered to create what continues to be recognized as one of the most innovative, farsighted software and computer systems vendors of its era. After the ATV acquisition of AM Jacquard occurred (due to the imminent bankruptcy of AM International), Steve Butterfield, Steve Nelson, (the 3 of us just happened to all be career Air Force Officers'' sons), Barb Renshaw, Bill Bailey (the Utilities Guru), Bob Hossely (the 3rd System II guru) and I (as CEO) formed The Peerless Group (later Peerless Systems) and took that company public on the NASDAQ. At Jacquard, we accomplished a lot of very unusual and forward looking products, perhaps the most publicly notable being John McCully’s “TypeRite� that was literally many years ahead of the competition. TypeRite achieved its stellar reputation because of John’s unusual creative thinking combined with the very farsighted design and implementation of the Jacquard Operating System (System II) and its attendant compilers. (TypeRrite was
partially written in assembly language, coupled with the Super Basic Compiler (implemented by Doug Ahl) and a very large portion of TypeRite’s capabilities and flexibilities were provided by the very “transparent� and superbly integrated System II and Super Basic. And let''s don’t forget Diana Gaskell’s truly innovative "math library� which itself "speed obliterated" the OS 360 speeds (just as the SORT had) in the many benchmarks that our customers generated. So, the Jacquard Technical Group was a family of innovators and doers that initially came as the very best in their respective fields (and thought they knew everything, and that their thoughts alone were the very best). What happened at Jacquard was that these “Super Engineers� learned that they had brilliant peers, began to respect others’ ideas and integrate and meld these truly innovative ideas into a “fantastically integrated� and forward-looking body of technologies… i.e., “an integrated whole.�
In the process of that respect and teamwork, Jacquard became a family that is still together in friendship today… and from time to time gathers electronically and physically to celebrate those enduring friendships. I’m proud and grateful to have had that opportunity and experience with “our� family. And we all appreciate the recognition that we continue to receive.
- author: Steve Jones (United States)
date: Thursday 24th February 2022
text: 'I have been doing more searching since finding this website earlier today.. I wanted to provide this resource for other Jacquard fans! Here''''s a magazine from 1983 that shows the system I was involved in: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Broadcast-Engineering/BE/80s/BE-1983-05.pdf The cover picture is showing a television show being captioned by a J-100 and the software my stepfather''''s company wrote.. My personal involvement was just porting the software to the PC platform later in the 80s but now I''''m interested more in the history of the old J-100..'
- author: Steve Jones (US)
date: Wednesday 23rd February 2022
text: I''m trying to remember/research the old Jacquard systems.. My stepfather owned a company called Translation Systems, INC which wrote some court reporting software, and then television captioning software using the same translation routines.. I first became aware in the mid-80s when I was hired to migrate the captioning side of the software over to the IBM PC. I never really did much with the Jacquard except for to review source code and run their software for purposes of comparing functionality to what I was writing on the PC, but I''m trying to find any information on the old systems.. Anyone else on this board ever deal with TSI or any of the translation software that was pretty common in the US courts and the Marine Corps in the late 70s and early 80s? Maybe someone who supported the captioning on Jacquard at NCI in Washington or CCDA in Toronto? The first live TV captioning was done on this system. It was the Superbowl in 1985! We eventually replaced the Jacquard with our
PC version, and then ultimately got replaced by systems by larger companies with bigger pockets!
- author: Barry Lawrence (UK) (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 7th September 2020
text: I was involved with the launch of the J100 into the UK. Just rummaged through these names, many bringing back happy memories, especially Jenny, Lorna, Norman, Robin and Terry.
- author: Steve Klekas (San Diego, United States)
date: Wednesday 2nd September 2020
text: My dad Nick got me a job as a J500 operator in Newbury Park. It was my first computer job. Not counting selling Ti calculators at the mall. I ended up being a technician. The j500 was a great computer to learn on being a bit slice architecture where all the instructions were on display as it were, coming out of the ROM and moving bits around in and out of RAM and the ALU. Didn''t know a bit from the bite when I started there but pretty much was able to learn all the basics, thanks to many hours at the machines , my dad, Mark Fletcher, and Mark(?) Hayes, the first two wizards I knew. Steve Butterfield was The Wizard in La who designed the J500 I was told. Met him years later at Teradata when it was still little. About 40 years ago.
- author: Lynn Shelley (Newbury Park, CA, USA)
date: Tuesday 28th April 2020
text: Dick Cavanaugh hired me from CMC/Pertec in 1976 for tech support, had some good times at Jacquard. even got to spend 3 weeks in Bangkok, Thailand assisting Anunt Jethanamest''s sales office. I talked Bob Heinz into coming aboard in tech support, then left shortly afterwards for another job. I went to work for myself between ''81 and ''91, hardware support of about 70 Jacquard systems in the SoCal area. Jacquard computers didn''t start to disappear until the 486-based PCs came along, which spoke a lot for Jacquard''s hardware and software. I remember Ken Rubin, Steve Butterfield, Dick Cohen, Tom Mallen, Walter Rey, Edgar Bolton, Dick Cavanaugh obviously, Mark Crawford, Phil Wall, ''Dallas'' Alice, Kathy Doucette, Skip Shaw and Barb Renshaw, Jim Tury, Gladys Goodman, lots and lots of good people and good times.
- author: Keith Whitehead (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 12th June 2019
text: I have 4 Jacquards at home along with a shared hard drive . Never powered them up. The external hard drive, is HEAVY, 2 of us can only just do it.
- author: Francis Remkiewicz (California/USA)
date: Tuesday 30th April 2019
text: |-
In 1979 I worked for the IRS in Washington, DC. I convinced the IRS to sole source an AM Jacquard J500 for creating a time and attendance automated system for Headquarters, IRS. I worked with the AMfolks for over 18 months until completion. I was the first to transmit our DC data to the Data Center in Detroit over a 300 baud acoustic coupler.\
That application, restructured many times is still in use by the IRS.\
By the way, my 3 year old daughter learned to spell on Type-rite. Many a Saturday and Sunday she would accompany her dad to the office. Does anyone remember the heat issues with the J500? The heat in DC regardless of the A/C was a constant problem. I am glad to have been a tiny part of your history.
- author: John Koneyak (Baltimore )
date: Wednesday 13rd June 2018
text: Man does this bring back memories. I worked for AM International, then ATV, then FDR as a Customer Engineer on Amtext 425, J100, J300, and the J500. I worked out of the Baltimore office with a great guy and good friend named Jim McElvaney. Man was he sharp! They would send us for training in Schaumburg. Wow what memories!
- author: David Geddes (Silicon Valley)
date: Monday 24th October 2016
text: |-
I was rummaging through a box of old photos and ran across a picture I took of the factory where J100s were being built, somewhere around 1976. I was a bench technician at the time, and later worked on the E100 Embossers. I would be happy to share the photo, but can''t find a way to upload it. dgeddes@fastmail.fm\
By the way, does anyone know what became of Jeff Chapin?
- author: John Lerno
date: Wednesday 21st September 2016
text: Hello Carrol. I worked with you at ATV on Daimler :)
- author: Liza Loop (USA)
date: Friday 16th September 2016
text: |-
If you want to see the brochure introducing the Jacquard 100 Videocomputer and its pricelist, go to: http://www.loopcntr.net/repository/2828.pdf
Enjoy! Liza Loop
- author: Richard Smith (UK)
date: Friday 3rd June 2016
text: I worked on J100 and J500 in the mid 80s while working for MBS Engineering in the Midlands with Gordon Whitehouse and Barry Brind ex Jaquard engineers. A lot of our systems had Pertec drives. Remember celaning heads and platters on PM visits.
- author: Noel Griffin (Ireland)
date: Monday 23rd November 2015
text: I developed My-Plan the 3D spreadsheet that ran on J100 and J500. Ah System II - happy memories, but not fond of DD01 error 8''s :) TypeRite was superb
- author: Robin Bews (Reading, England)
date: Wednesday 23rd September 2015
text: I worked for Jacquard Systems in the UK as an engineer. I worked with Jenny Robinson, Norman Tinklin, Terry Hart and Barry Lawrence. Where are you all? Had a couple of trips to Santa Monica to study the J100 with Kenny Rubin and the J500 with Steve Butter field. I also trained many AM staff at their training centre in Norwich.
- author: David Geddes (Fremont CA)
date: Friday 21st August 2015
text: |-
Ken Rubin!! I remember you. You truly were the lead designer on the J100. I also remember Steve Butterfield and Matt, and Frank Hill. I was a repair technician in the lab at the time.\
Later I worked on the Addressograph/Multigraph Credit Card Embosser (can''t remember the exact name), and installed one in the Bank of Ireland office in Dublin. It was the very first credit card machine in all of Ireland. I also remember Dave Smead, and would love to connect with all of you folks.\
Nowadays I am the director of system architecture at a silicon valley ASIC startup.
- author: Ken Rubin (USA)
date: Monday 26th January 2015
text: Anyone need images of the J100 and J500 Datapro awards? I still have pretty much a full set of framed awards.
- author: Fred Roney (Schaumburg, IL/US)
date: Monday 3rd November 2014
text: |-
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1982/02/06/page/61/article/business\
Link to a very short 2/6/1982 Chicago Tribune article on AM selling Jacquard to Applied Technology Ventures of Santa Ana, CA.
- author: Fred Roney (Schaumburg, IL/US)
date: Monday 3rd November 2014
text: |-
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1982/02/06/page/61/article/business\
Link to a very short 2/6/1982 Chicago Tribune article on AM selling Jacquard to Applied Technology Ventures of Santa Ana, CA.
- author: Fred Roney (Schaumburg, IL/US)
date: Monday 3rd November 2014
text: |-
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1982/02/06/page/61/article/business\
Link to a very short 2/6/1982 Chicago Tribune article on AM selling Jacquard to Applied Technology Ventures of Santa Ana, CA.
- author: sean
date: Wednesday 22nd October 2014
text: I worked on the Manafacture of the M55
- author: Steve Baker (UK)
date: Monday 3rd March 2014
text: I joined Jacquard from Wang in 1979. (Hi Jenny and Tim) the Type Rite software was good, but boy was the hardware dated compared to Wang. If only the J500 could have multiuser. After 9 months it was all over - I sometimes wonder if the £80ks worth of J100 I sold to an insurance co. inBristol ever shipped. Never mind I earned a lot of commission!
- author: Tom Morgan (Vallejo, CA)
date: Wednesday 7th November 2012
text: Here is a hi back to Ken Rubin - Laura and I still remember flying out to Riverside with you for dinner one evening and spending a weekend at Mammoth with you as well. Hope things are good with you - those were fun times back in Santa Monica
- author: DAVID BROWN (RIVERSIDE CA.)
date: Sunday 11th March 2012
text: I WAS THE COMPANY DELIVERY DRIVER FOR JACQUARD SYSTEMS IN SANTA MONICA CA. IN THE BEGINING DAYS OF THE COMPANY IN THE 70''S MY FIRST JOB. I REALLY LIKED THE PEOPLE I WORKED WITH AND FOR I GOT LAID OFF WHEN A INVESTER CAME ON BOARD HATED TO GO BUT I WENT TO IBM AND BECOME A RICH MAN IN THE COMPUTER BUSINESS. THANKS JAQUARD SYSTEMS FOR LETTING ME GO OR I JUST MAY HAVE BEEN A DRIVER ALL MY LIFE. FUN TIMES
- author: DAVID BROWN (RIVERSIDE CA.)
date: Sunday 11th March 2012
text: I WAS THE COMPANY DELIVERY DRIVER FOR JACQUARD SYSTEMS IN SANTA MONICA CA. IN THE BEGINING DAYS OF THE COMPANY IN THE 70''S MY FIRST JOB. I REALLY LIKED THE PEOPLE I WORKED WITH AND FOR I GOT LAID OFF WHEN A INVESTER CAME ON BOARD HATED TO GO BUT I WENT TO IBM AND BECOME A RICH MAN IN THE COMPUTER BUSINESS. THANKS JAQUARD SYSTEMS FOR LETTING ME GO OR I JUST MAY HAVE BEEN A DRIVER ALL MY LIFE. FUN TIMES
- author: Tim Trent (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 19th February 2012
text: Just found Wikipedia didn''t have a page about AMJ. It does now. Hope I did enough on it that it doesn''t get $d. Loads to add, but I cant find many secondary sources, the kind they need to cite things in the articles.
- author: Tom Chesek (Harrisburg Pennsylvania/USA)
date: Friday 20th February 2009
text: I received training on the J100 system and service them while employed at AM International in Harrisburg PA. PA Blue Shield, Book of the Month Club, and Hershey Foods are the customers that I recall using the J100 systems. I still have my 1979 Data Pro Honor Roll coffee mug with AM Jaquard Systems logo on it. I wish I had at least an electronic copy of a J100 system brochure.
- author: Ken Rubin (Seattle WA USA)
date: Friday 12th December 2008
text: |-
For the UK folks, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Norman Tinklin back a decade or so ago. I''m in London this week and his cheery voice is still on his phone answer message so may be I''ll have a chance to say hello again. Cheers to all!
Ken
- author: John Lerno
date: Monday 7th July 2008
text: I remember doing the cats eye adjustment on the old pertec drives...remember when if you made the mistake and jiggled the drive how the head would slam back ....those were the days
- author: John Rouse (England)
date: Wednesday 25th June 2008
text: |-
I worked for Varityper, and was trained on the Jacquard machines. I even went to Pertec for a course on disk drives. I remember the "little man" adjustment, to get the voice coil operated heads to align with the data tracks.
I spent some time at High Wycombe on the commissioning, with a real character called Fritz - the first engineer I'd met who wore a bow tie.
- author: John McGrann (Ireland)
date: Thursday 4th May 2006
text: I worked on J100's and J500's for a Jacquard distributor in Ireland, Memory Computers, I still have a J100 brochure. I wrote a system for a J100 using a product called Data-Rite, does anybody remember it ? I reckon that I was one of the few who used it. I moved from development into sales and sold J500 Type-Rite word processors, we used to beat Wang quite a bit. We had a guy Terry Fossey who decoded the J500 O/S and made it mulit user so we coul sell 3 user J500s !!
- author: Ken Rubin (Seatle, WA)
date: Wednesday 7th April 2004
text: |-
Hi Tom, et al;
Thought I'd add a note since I am the one who breathed the first breath of life into the first J100. I recall working with Tom and I'm sure he remembers me - the others, well... you can blame me I suppose.
Cy, there's a good chance that the motherboard you got from Steve and Skip was based on the redesign that was completed just before AM international sold off the Jacquard Assets. I still have the DataPro Awards that were bestowed on the J100 and J500 - they nicely cover blank wallspace in my den/office. Jacquard built a lot of systems and was one of the key players and very instrumental in forging the way for desktop systems.
oc_id: 527
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230208113648/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=527
content/museum/ampere-ws-1.md
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- title: AMPERE WS1
subtitle: ''
@@ -117,25 +118,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: The guys talking here surely know about the Ampere WS-1, and can teach you stuff about the APL language of course !
comments:
- author: Josh Carlson (Usa)
date: Thursday 8th December 2022
text: David, do you still have the Ampere? I’ve been trying to get my hands on one for years. Can you email me at helforamaATgmailDOTcom? I’m in the USA (Alabama)
- author: Fritz (Germany)
date: Tuesday 12th June 2018
text: Do you still have the machine?
- author: David (USA)
date: Saturday 5th November 2016
text: Oops. Message sent to Yuri.
- author: David (USA)
date: Saturday 5th November 2016
text: |-
I have an Ampere WS-1 I want to sell. I would prefer to do this in the USA, but what are you offering? The unit works on D batteries, or with the included power adapter, and has the two manuals (looseleaf) and the Sharp APL manual (spiral-bound) that came with it. I have not sold anything outside the United States and am not certain what problems might arise. What would be your offer?
David
- author: Yuri (Russia)
date: Wednesday 6th August 2014
text: If someone owns the laptop let me know. Laptop needed for the museum of computer technology. I want to buy. leskovezATmail.ru
oc_id: 66
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230322115358/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=66
content/museum/amstrad-464-6128-plus.md
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forum_thread: 45
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- title: CPC 464+
subtitle: ''
@@ -525,70 +526,6 @@ params:
- title: Amstrad CPC - French commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1649912029980987973&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
comments:
- author: Syd Groves (Australia)
date: Wednesday 6th May 2020
text: |-
Hello There,I am emailing you from Australia to see if you would be interested in a very unique proto-type Amstrad portable computor from the late 1980s.This proto-type was developed by the then Managing Director of Amstrad Australia, Mr Bordan Tkachuk, who passed on to my wife, who was in the IT field.At 12 plus Kgs it really wasn''t going far, but it is a very good example of how the personal computer market was being investigated by companies at the time.\
If you are interested I can send photos and more details!
Kind Regards\
Syd Groves
- author: Noobsaibot73 (Madrid (Spain))
date: Monday 15th April 2013
text: |-
Hi Chris,
What a pity !!!! Here in Spain, Amstrad supported the CPC until 1994, when the CPC''s and the rest of the 8 bits computers disappeared.
- author: Roger Jowett (Ulster)
date: Thursday 28th February 2013
text: |-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ
please help\
trying to convert 8bit video for sam coupe\
this is still not mode 3 interlaced with hmpr bit 5$6 CLUT alterations per scan line HELP we only need a DMA...\
masterdos/basic atom lite support HELP
- author: chris (Australia)
date: Thursday 4th October 2012
text: Sadly Amstrad Australia refused to import these and stopped supporting Amstrad CPC models by 1990.
- author: Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 2nd March 2012
text: |-
If you look at the specifications of the aborted Sinclair Loki and the specifications of the Amstrad CPC + series, they do look remarkably similar...
Loki was supposed to have enhanced sound and graphics with hardware sprites, 4096 colours, DMA sound, light pen/light gun port and lots of other fancy stuff.
Funny that.
- author: Lez Anderson (England)
date: Tuesday 14th September 2010
text: |-
Has anyone put the Amstrad CPC onto a single chip FPGA/CPLD (field Programable Gate Array) .. I''ts already been done for other old computers, some runnning at 25Mhz plus !!
If anyone has any information please post a message...
- author: Webmaster (France)
date: Friday 28th May 2010
text: |-
Yes, you should have a look here:\
http://www.amstrad.com/support/index.html
- author: Thomas (UK)
date: Thursday 27th May 2010
text: Anyone knows anywhere where they fix these computers?
- author: Pepax (CZ)
date: Monday 4th February 2008
text: The videoram chip is not an 18pin 41464 but an Amstrad-branded 20pin 40464, also found in the GX4000.
- author: Supersly (France)
date: Saturday 18th August 2007
text: |-
About the 464 / 6128+ you made a few mistakes :\
the computer does not have 64 hardware sprites, but only 16 at a size of 16x16 pixels. The sprites are using 15 other colors than the 16 of the palette, and have x/y zoom.
The soundchip is the same AY as on the CPC, but controlable with a DMA : it is not "better than the Atari one", it is the same, but slower, and connected in stereo.
In the field "colors" : only 16 colors, 31 if you add the sprites.
- author: Vincent (Belfast)
date: Tuesday 30th July 2002
text: Does anyone know where I can download the manual for the cpc 6128+
related:
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-464
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-5512
content/museum/amstrad-cpc-464.md
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subtitle: ''
@@ -660,127 +661,6 @@ params:
- title: Amstrad CPC - French commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1649912029980987973&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
comments:
- author: Bob (Leicestershire, UK)
date: Thursday 14th November 2019
text: I am trying to print out an asci file on an Amsoft CF2 compact floppy disc . Can anyone help ?
- author: Robyn Hibbert (Central Coast Australia)
date: Tuesday 16th September 2014
text: I have an Amstrad Portable PPC512/640 One of the original laptops I think, in perfect condition with all accessories including the user instruction book, does anyone know anything about, is it worth anything ?
- author: Robyn Hibbert (Central Coast Australia)
date: Tuesday 16th September 2014
text: I have an Amstrad Portable PPC512/640 One of the original laptops I think, in perfect condition with all accessories including the user instruction book, does anyone know anything about, is it worth anything ?
- author: Roger Jowett (Ulster)
date: Thursday 28th February 2013
text: |-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ
please help\
trying to convert 8bit video for sam coupe\
this is still not mode 3 interlaced with hmpr bit 5$6 CLUT alterations per scan line HELP we only need a DMA...\
masterdos/basic atom lite support HELP
- author: Antonio (Italy)
date: Wednesday 21st November 2012
text: Text windows ... and the "COPY" key :D
- author: Chris (Australia)
date: Thursday 4th October 2012
text: 'The World of Amstrad still lives on - check out the CPC wiki: http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Main_Page !!!'
- author: Yves (Belgium)
date: Thursday 31st May 2012
text: |-
Hi this was my first computer !!!\
At school we had MO5 and TO7\
We had a small computer club formed of 6 people to create small games.\
I wish i had it still.\
I''m currently looking the ebay to buy a 6128
- author: Allan (England)
date: Friday 27th April 2012
text: |-
Ahhh, the Amstrad CPC464. How fondly I remember mine, sat on a rickety old table in the corner of the living room, with its green screen (couldn''t afford the colour version).
Learned my first assembly code on it. Even my mother loved it, and was often to be found playing a fruit machine game on it, for hours on end. I wish I still had it, if only for nostalgia reasons.
- author: Peter Belbin (Gold Coast/Australia)
date: Friday 16th March 2012
text: |-
I have a amstrad computer with at least 10 games $ the menu book for sale.1 of the games is Hobbitt can anybody tell me are these worth anything or not please before i throw the lot out.\
Thanks Peter
- author: dave
date: Sunday 31st July 2011
text: i bought mine second hand from a 12 year old/ it had dozens of games!!! I loved Dizzy and Jet Set Willy. I later bought a hard drive and a modulator in order to play in full colour! Awesome
- author: Phil (London)
date: Thursday 4th November 2010
text: George Johnson - uncanny how similar our experiences are. My brother had a Dragon 32 and then I got a CPC 464 - I loved it and spent many a hour writing programs for it. The 464 and the ZX81 are the two reasons I got into IT, now I''m an Oracle DBA too!
- author: Marcos (England)
date: Thursday 16th September 2010
text: |-
These are now on an CYCLCONE chip using a teasic devlopment board ( Altera DE1 board), running at 24MHz !!
See the symbos web site !
- author: Conrad (Scotland)
date: Monday 5th July 2010
text: I''ve still got mine, just firing it up now to see if it still works!
- author: George Johnson (London, UK)
date: Monday 3rd May 2010
text: I well remember getting it. We had had a Dragon 32 and my old man wanted an "upgrade" and bought a 464. I had no games and Amstrad had just started an offer to give away 12 games after we had bought ours. So I old man went down to Rumbelows ( electrical store ) and demanded the games, even though he was technically not entitled and he got them! I then managed to convince 4 mates to get CPCs and we had a good little trading ring going for well over 3 years! CPC was the first time me and my old man had ever played with computer databases, most likely responsible for me working in IT as an Oracle DBA! Gryzor, Glider Rider and Enduro Racer. Level 9 games had to be some of the best going.
- author: Bernadette (England)
date: Friday 23rd May 2008
text: |-
It was my very first computer when I was about eight or nine years old! I remember my mam let me load a game, and I had time for a bath while it was loading. Me and my brother used to insist that my mam let us bring it to our grandmas on a weekend and it wasn't exactly a light thing to carry.\
My bro got a black marker pen and scribbled over all the keys the little sod.\
Its in the attic now and I'm at the family home for the weekend, I'm trying to convince my mam to let me bring it down!
- author: Francisco Martin (España (Spain))
date: Saturday 29th September 2007
text: I was 14 y.o. when my CPC 464 arrived to my life, it was my first computer, as the color monitor was very expensive I have one which used green phosphorus, it was an incredible machine. I used to spend too many hours with two games "La Abadia del Crimen" and "Saboteur2". The PC's can't provide you the same feelings, neither the emulators, if you have used one CPC is forever, is in your heart and mind. Thanks to Mr. Sugar for giving us the CPC, one dream with a computer body.
- author: Uncle Mex (Glasgow, Scotland)
date: Wednesday 27th June 2007
text: What a wonderful old machine the CPC was - the best computer (or console for that matter) I ever had. Gryzor, Exolon, Nebulus, Renegade, all magnificent 8-bit masterpieces... but I still go back to Chuckie Egg and Thrust even to this very day :-)
- author: Anon (Belfast)
date: Thursday 4th January 2007
text: |-
My brother spilt milk on our family 464 and I got the blame for it. The ripples are still being felt to this day.
Ahhh - the sweet song as you waited 20 mins for Knightlore to load... Buying the mags for the cheats.
- author: stephen hendrick (wales)
date: Friday 4th August 2006
text: |-
hi my name is ste i'm ninteen and strangely adicted to retro games ,,, i've recentley heard about using an ipod to play tzx and cdt formats through a tape adapter with a jack at one end.\
having found a few working tzx games i have become excited about the concept. for months i have searched the internet far and wide for Fruity frank in tzx or cdt format (old amstrad game) if anyone out there has it in this format please mail me it i may even pay for it when i certify you are genuine......cheers
- author: Owen (Cork, Ireland)
date: Sunday 3rd April 2005
text: |-
The best computer ever! Remember these games like Harrier Attack, Galatic Plague, Roland on the Ropes/Caves, Bridge It, Scaletric.\
There was nothing quite like waiting 5-20 minutes for a game to load!
- author: James penketh (Horwich)
date: Tuesday 12th October 2004
text: I love amstrad 464+ It is the best!
- author: Neville (Lleida, Spain.)
date: Thursday 1st July 2004
text: |-
This one was my first computer ever! I was given one with a green monitor and a bunch of Amsoft tapes (Admiral Graf Spee, Galactic Plague, etc) on 1986. I barely used it for anything different that computer games, but it was a very good computer indeed. For years I could play conversions from my favourite arcade titles for less than $9 per game.
Those who want to dump their tapes onto TZX or CDT files (emulator friendly formats) must create 8 bit mono VOC files (GoldWave is very good at it) and then encode them with the Samp2CDT or VOC2TZX utilities.
- author: Joe (Norwich)
date: Thursday 13rd November 2003
text: |-
I found a cpc464 in my shed - perfect condition, and would like to try some retro games on it\
Is there an online resource where I can download games? How would I get them onto audio tape?
- author: Al (Kent, England)
date: Wednesday 11th June 2003
text: I had an Amstrad CPC464 as a little kid, and remember playing on things like Harrier Attack and Jet Set Willy really vividly. In fact i'm just about to go up into my loft and try to find it, and see if it's still working! Anyone know of anywhere I could get hold of the music synth or vocal synth for the CPC464?
- author: Roland Weigelt (Bonn, Germany)
date: Monday 21st October 2002
text: Great computer! Good basic, nice firmware manual and a processor (Z80) with an easy instruction set. This was the computer on which I really learned to develop larger software.
- author: Charles da Silva (France)
date: Thursday 19th September 2002
text: No doubt it was a great computer. Not only had it allowed so many people to discover computers (for the price of a single C64, you had the monitor and the tape recorder), it also had the best softwares, an excellent Basic and it was one of the most solid computer ever... I've got mine since 1986 and it's still working fine. Thanks to Alan Sugar who made the computer technology affordable for anyone !
- author: Amon (Italy)
date: Tuesday 30th July 2002
text: |-
I had this marvelous computer when i was a boy... my fist step in informatic world! U have worked on CPC 6128 of my best friend\
remember it forever in my life!
- author: Dave (Edinburgh)
date: Friday 15th March 2002
text: 'I had my old CPC for years as a youngster, and it suffered lots of gaming abuse, even falling off the desk a few times: still worked perfectly! The only thing that went in all its years was the tape counter! I LOVED my Amstrad, and I now own 2 of them thanks to ebay! Check out my site for emulation and history stuff :)'
related:
- /museum/amstrad-464-6128-plus
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-5512
content/museum/amstrad-cpc-5512.md
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subtitle: ''
@@ -495,21 +496,6 @@ params:
- title: Amstrad CPC - French commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1649912029980987973&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
comments:
- author: Frédéric
date: Wednesday 12th December 2018
text: |-
If I remember correctly, the aim of the joke was to tell Amstrad not letting their users down and to push them making a better machine. The disclaimer about the article being a joke was (said to be) forgotten/lost in the final layout, and got published the week after as en erratum.
This satiric newspaper was mostly source-code oriented (typos included !) and the news part contained lots of provocations towards computer firms (along with random dark/absurd humor illustrations) which made them go to court quite often.\
They also ran a weekly programming challenge ("Les deulignes" meaning the twolines) praising short theme-free programs (utility, joke, fun, tips) which respected the rule of being programmed in BASIC and were 2 lines long. Lines could contain several statements.
An example of joke-program featured that I remember :\
10 cls : print "How to keep an idiot busy for hours ?" : print "Press any key to figure out..."\
20 while inkey$$"" : wend : goto 10
- author: Lisa White (US)
date: Saturday 30th December 2006
text: Does anyone know how to get service in the US for a old amstrd pc?
related:
- /museum/amstrad-464-6128-plus
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-464
content/museum/amstrad-cpc-6128.md
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subtitle: ''
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- title: Amstrad CPC - French commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1649912029980987973&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
comments:
- author: bond.san
date: Friday 21st June 2013
text: |-
For Sale: £90 Amstrad CPC6128 + Green screen monitor - working - games - utilities - joystick.\
Disc drive not working - disc drive rotating but not reading discs - did work when tested several years ago.\
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190859678111
- author: bond.san
date: Friday 21st June 2013
text: |-
For Sale: £90 Amstrad CPC6128 + Green screen monitor - working - games - utilities - joystick.\
Disc drive not working - disc drive rotating but not reading discs - did work when tested several years ago.
- author: Chris (Australia)
date: Thursday 4th October 2012
text: |-
My first computer with a disk drive! Awesome! Check out the wiki on all things CPC:
http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Main_Page
- author: Dina (Denmark)
date: Saturday 7th July 2012
text: |-
Hi, just replaced the drive belt ind my old cpc6128, but only a few games are able to load. I can run "cat" on most of them, but when i try to run the games i get and ignore, retry cancel dialogue...\
Does anyone have any idea what can be wrong?
I''m all nostalgic here and can''t wait to show my daughter what kin of computergames mommy playes, when she was a kid :)
- author: Christopher Patrick (USA)
date: Tuesday 15th May 2012
text: '@Harkline1 you can play Spimdizzy online at http://www.spindizzy.org/nwp/'
- author: Daniel (Spain)
date: Tuesday 1st May 2012
text: |-
@Harkline1\
Try replacing the disk drive belt as suggested by GreenMachine. I had the same problem with mine some years ago after recovering from the attic. The belt had tear down and the motor spun without providing enough traction to the disk shaft. A new belt, 30" and working as new.
- author: Demus (Poland)
date: Friday 6th April 2012
text: CPC6128 with $$149$20MB Hard disk? Is this a correct information? Amstrad PC1512 have drive like this.
- author: Harkline1
date: Friday 6th April 2012
text: 'My Mum and I have just cleared out the cubby house. We have taken the plastic off the Amstrad CPC6128 128k, and want to play one game, and one game only: Spindizzy. We put the disc in, try to boot (have tried both RUN"DISC and :CPM, but the disc drive just whirs and clicks and it then asks me to RETRY, IGNORE or CANCEL. Can anyone help? It was in perfect working order when it went into the cubby house. What could have happened during 20 years of hibernation? Is there anything I could try to one again have the joy of Spindizzy? Harkine'
- author: Proteus
date: Thursday 29th December 2011
text: |-
Hi, there is a minor error in the discription. The 5V is for the computer and the 12V is for the floppy.\
Regards
- author: GreenMachine
date: Sunday 26th April 2009
text: |-
Gregory: If it runs (lit LED and drive noises), but otherwise doesn''t work,\
you probably just need a new drivebelt.
http://www.old-computers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID$4477
You could also take a look on eBay or maybe here:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/\
or\
http://www.tradeinpost.com/
The CPC 6128 uses the same drive as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3.
The belt ought to be a few mm wide - I once bought replacements that\
were very thin - not optimal.
- author: Gregory (Greece)
date: Saturday 25th April 2009
text: I have a CPC 6128 with a green monitor... 8bit machines have became one of the best retro decorations to one''s home - When the computer was about 10 years old i was thinking of selling it, now i wouldnt even consider it! I just love seeing my good old CPC sit in his small corner in the room. It brings me memories of younger more innocent times... I will never give it anywhere. If my kids want to give it away after many years ( when probably it will cost a lot more as a antique ) they can do it, but as long as i live it will never happen. Anyway.. i have a problem.. the drive isnt working anymore... :( After almost 25 years it finally gave up i guess. Anyone knows anything that i can do about this?
- author: Noobsaibot73 (Madrid, Spain)
date: Thursday 11th September 2008
text: |-
This computer has many superb games, as The Sentinel, Saboteur 2, Combat School, Barbarian.....thanks Mr. Sugar for "the dreams machine". My first computer was a CPC 464, during years I was looking for a 6128, and finally, I''m the proud owner of one of this incredible machines.\
Ok, the rest of the 8 bits owners (msx, spectrum or C-64) will tell the same of their machines, but if you were an Amstrad user, you know what I''m talking about, no other computer (or emulator) will let you feel those sensations.
- author: Fatih Kececi (TURKEY)
date: Tuesday 29th April 2008
text: Amstrad CPC6128 was my first computer. i really loved this machine...
- author: Stephen Lambert (Manchester, England)
date: Saturday 22nd March 2008
text: Legendary, fantastic machine. My very first computer that I can remember and I loved it to bits. Then my parents sold it in Loot against my will...I was sad. But all is well because I've just bought one off ebay! No more emulators for me! Back to the real thing!
- author: noobsaibot73 (Spain)
date: Sunday 11th November 2007
text: I'm the proud owner of a CPC 6128, this is a fantastic machine, this machine was intended for applications as well as games. A few days ago I bought one original MP3 (tv tuner) so now I'm able to see tv with my colour screen. I told you, this is a SUPERB machine !!!!
- author: Steve (GREECE)
date: Tuesday 9th January 2007
text: Hi,Amstrad was my first contact with PC's,now I have it to a basement and not working on him anymore, if someone is interested for it im selling it,just email me thnx
- author: Reinor (Australia)
date: Friday 17th November 2006
text: I found one of these outside an old sporting complex that was being cleaned out for the first time in a decade. It had been lying in the pouring rain for at least a week, in a pool of mud with various crawlies living in it, along with a couple of disks. I took it home, wiped off the mud, plugged it in and presto! Try that with a modern computer!
- author: Peter Jarvis (Doncaster, England)
date: Monday 4th September 2006
text: When I was 12 I got a cpc464 for christmas I was over the moon, even though it only had a green screen monitor. I loved the Roland Games as naff as they are now. I always wanted a 6128 but because I was only 13 at the time they came out couldn't afford one. I have just bought one off ebay and am waiting for it be delivered; I haven't been this excited since christmas eve, the christmas I got my 464. There is something massively appealing about the amstrad computers, more than any other that was around at the time. I remember programming a game that went on the cascade50 cassette and winning a competition for a calculator watch and a copy of the games before they were released. If it wasn't for my amstrad I wouldn't be a internet developer. What great times.
- author: ISIHOS KIRIAKOS (ATHENS\HELLAS)
date: Saturday 3rd June 2006
text: |-
HI MY MAME IS KIRIAKOS ISIHOS . I'M ASSISTANT IN THE BIBLICAL STANTIES IN THEOLOGICAL SHOOL OF THE ATHENS UNIVERSITY AND SUB-DIAKON IN THE ORDODOX CHERTCH.. OLSO PROGRAMMERS TECNICAL COMPUTERS AND OLD COMPUTERS USERS HOME & PC. I'VE: AMSTRAND 6128, SPECTRUM 48,+2,QL.\
NOW BICOUSE THE 6128 NO WORK HAVE AMULATORS PC PROGRAMS.\
PLEASE I SEARCH THE TWO(2) SYSTEM AND UTILITIES DISKS FOR 6128 INCLUDED IN THE COMPUTER PACK. IF SOMBODY HAVE THIS DISKS PLEASE SEND ME THE FILES WITH E-MAIL: KIRIAKOSYPOD@YAHOO.GR\
P.S. IN INTERNET HAVE ANDRESS TO DOWNLOAD FREE THE ORIGINAL SYSTEM DISKS FOR 6128 ?\
THANKS..\
FRYENDLY\
KIRIAKOS
- author: Chris (Australia)
date: Monday 19th December 2005
text: Hey Guys, Just wanna share my 2 fav games for the Legendary Old School Amstrad. Can any of you remember Manic Minor and Barbarian? how good were they? If anyone knows a website that i could get these games from and start bringing back the old memories please feel free to email me or post it here. Cheers Lads
- author: Víctor (Málaga, España)
date: Tuesday 5th July 2005
text: ¿Qué puedo decir de este ordenador que no sepáis todos los que hayáis tenido la suerte de tener uno? Fue el primero de todos los ordenadores que he tenido y es el único que no me ha sacado de quicio. Mi CPC6128 me lo regalaron mis padres en las navidades de 1986, cuando yo contaba con sólo 11 años, y disfruté de tardes interminables pegado a él con mis amigos, después del colegio. Hoy, salvo por algún cambio de goma en la disquetera, lo tengo en perfecto estado, funcionando, aunque no lo uso tanto como yo quisiera por mi trabajo. Estas vacaciones de Agosto le voy a volver a dar un poco de caña. Por cierto, me he entretenido en escanear el manual y voy a colgarlo en el emule en breve. Un saludo a todos los cpceros, y ¡¡Larga vida al Amstrad CPC!! (durará tanto como nosotros queramos). P.D. Gracias, Alan, por inventar una máquina tan maravillosa.
- author: ShadowCaster (France)
date: Friday 9th July 2004
text: |-
Marc, there's a fast dos emulator for the CPC.\
It's called NO$CPC.
- author: ShadowCaster (France)
date: Friday 9th July 2004
text: David, the game you are seraching is "into the eagle's nest" somtimes also called "eagle's nest"
- author: DAVID (FRANCE)
date: Sunday 9th May 2004
text: I search the name of a game I use to play when a was young, It was a soldier in some rooms and you need the search some "first aid" some "guns" and of course you need to fire ennemies. Im not sure but it could be in a castle ? I was many rooms in the games and my soldier was blue or grey ? and the other was gree ? but Im not sure... thank you for help me
- author: Dimitris (GREECE)
date: Wednesday 5th May 2004
text: |-
Amstrad CPC6128 was the most home among personal computers and the most personal among homes. I still have an upgraded CPC6128 and I am still upgrading and programming (CP/M). It is very very easy to upgrade by - let's say - adding a 3.5" FD to your CPC and download dsk images from Internet or run CP/M programms written for other computers. It is amazing to give CAT command and see the message
\------------------------\
Drive B: user 0
Disk.BIN 500k
296k free
---
No - 178k - size limit any more
If anybody likes to, just mail me.!
- author: ikonsgr (GREECE)
date: Thursday 22nd January 2004
text: What can i say for this machine..., i think that AMSTRAD 6128 was one of the main reasons that makes me to think all the years with "him" , perhaps, the best years of my life. From the age of 12 untill 17, AMSTRAD 6128, with the extrordinary BASIC and the Fantastic games it had, made me to create,play,enjoy and dream like nothing or noone else can make me do, back to these beautiful days of youth.. Heil to the BEST HOME MICRO (along with Spectrum :) ) OF ALL TIME, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PLACE IN OUR HEAERTS!!!
- author: David Merrett (Australia)
date: Thursday 22nd January 2004
text: |-
Both the Amstrad CPC 6128 and the lower version with the tape player in it\
As well as the Commodore C64 were used in the Education Department of South Australia. You can still pic them up at Government Auctions for like 5 dollars each.
- author: McKlain (Spain)
date: Saturday 23rd August 2003
text: |-
"It was sold with a mediocre monitor (monochrome green or color)"
Hey, the monitors were not that mediocre!
- author: Malc (UK)
date: Tuesday 22nd April 2003
text: I bought one of these new. The disk drive seemed tremendously fast after my Commodore 128/1571 combo in CPM mode!
- author: Martin Upson (Frankfurt, Germany (year out from Uni, London))
date: Thursday 16th January 2003
text: I still have a CPC 6128. I loved it to bits. Got lots of old games but would really like some more!! Please let me know if you're interested in selling them. Many thanks, Martin
- author: Directx (Greece)
date: Thursday 26th December 2002
text: |-
CPC 6128 was my first home computer! An amazing machine ..
Hint: To see it's disk catalogue type CAT\
Hint 2: To load software type RUN "software_name"
- author: Gez (UK)
date: Monday 2nd December 2002
text: I bought a cpc 6128 a while ago at a car boot sale but i still can't figure out how to load disks. can some one please e-mail me the syntax.
- author: marc (france)
date: Saturday 9th November 2002
text: |-
fruity franck...\
do we have to use emulator or does it exist in a dos version?
- author: Stephen Pattenden (Kent, England)
date: Sunday 6th October 2002
text: |-
I too have a CPC 6128. Does anyone know how much they are worth nowadays?\
Is there anyone out there who is interested in buying it off of me?
- author: Andy (England)
date: Monday 9th September 2002
text: |-
Does anyone use CP/M on either the 6128 or an emulator? I'm writing a magazine article on CP/M and would like to hear from current users.
Thanks,
- author: defianter (germany)
date: Monday 12th August 2002
text: |-
@ Ben ( UK )
I search for North vs. South for Wondows. Did you know where i can get it today?
regards\
gero
- author: Gina (France)
date: Tuesday 16th July 2002
text: |-
I remember "FRUITY FRANCK" ! It was so great ! It was the first video game I played...\
Does anybody know where I could find it today ? Does it work on windows ?
- author: Piotr (Poland)
date: Wednesday 26th June 2002
text: Thanks Olivier. I've already found it. :)
- author: Olivier (France)
date: Sunday 23rd June 2002
text: The game you are talking about is Fruity Franck. I think you can find it on any Amstrad emulation site. Enjoy.
- author: Piotr (Poland)
date: Sunday 23rd June 2002
text: I had 8 years when I have my firs computer. It was GREAT amstrad CPC 6128. I remember a great game. I don't remember it's name but you have to walk gardener called "frank" and catch fruits. Thanks Amstrad for great computer !!!
- author: Olivier (France)
date: Friday 17th May 2002
text: |-
I think the game you are talking about is MGT (MaGnetik Tank). You can download it here: http://www.arcadeabyss.com/amstrade_page_diskm.html
Have fun!
- author: Ingo (Germany)
date: Friday 17th May 2002
text: |-
yeah - those were the days! I still recall the years 1987 and 1988 - dbaseII and wordstar - compared to the C64 i was using before it was really cool...\
does anyone remember this game ? I don't know the name... you were controlling a kind of hovercraft through a maze of rooms with traps. It was a kind of pseudo-3D with a fly-on-the-wall-perspective. If you know the name of the game please contact me - thanx a lot!!\
btw. i love this site - it's really fantastic and somehow a time-machine - cewl!!!
- author: Efthymios (Greece)
date: Wednesday 3rd April 2002
text: |-
My 6128 is working perfectly up to now. Sometimes I spend some time, just to play a game and to remember those days.\
Dont know if someone else does the following' I usually open the keyboard to clean the chips and stuff. Am I mad; Dont think so. I am just showing some respect to the King...That's All\
Thanks Amstrad for those great years of 8bit entertain :-)
- author: Ben (UK)
date: Monday 4th March 2002
text: I still have my 6128 and its in full working order. Just the other day I was playing classic American Civil War game "North and South" and cop simulator "APB" - the predecessors of Command and Conquer and Grand Theft Auto sort of.
- author: Warlock (UK)
date: Tuesday 26th February 2002
text: |-
One of the many computers we had when I was growing up was the 6128. I think my dad finally threw it out in 1998 or 1999. Great piece of kit, though - we used it for \*years\*
He was the only person I know who successfully recoded the keyboard routines on Jet Set Willy so that it would work on a 6128.
related:
- /museum/amstrad-464-6128-plus
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-464
content/museum/amstrad-cpc-664.md
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- links
- docs
- videos
forum_thread: 126
photos:
- title: CPC-664
subtitle: ''
@@ -599,22 +600,6 @@ params:
- title: Amstrad CPC - French commercial
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1649912029980987973&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 29 s'
comments:
- author: commodore 64
date: Thursday 9th September 2010
text: yeah, it came a bit late for me as i had already got my hands on what was the best ca 1983, the mighty c64. Probably would have gotten the amstrad if it had come out earlier. Very very popular machine, it became.
- author: David (Earth)
date: Thursday 5th April 2007
text: |-
I have two of these; one has been converted to a 6128 with a chip swap and memory pack. The membrane keyboards were immensely troublesome - I got fed up of dismantling and cleaning them.\
Box-loads of games and apps. Have an original copy of the complete op code.\
Also have a refurbished 464 and a modulator.\
The graphics gives one a pounding headache! Would like to upgrade. Amstrad was destroyed by the Yanks, WD & co., who were extremely worried about cheap Asian imports under-cutting their home market - now look where we are!!
- author: Andrew Bolton (London)
date: Friday 7th March 2003
text: |-
This was the first ‘serious’ computer I owned – serious because it could run CP/M and therefore I could write useful software in Turbo Pascal and dBase II, and It also ran Wordstar. I don’t think it fair to call the monitor ‘mediocre’ – remember everyone else, with Spectrums, C64’s and so on, plugged their machine into the TV, and the Amstrad monitor was certainly better than that. I had the 12” green screen which was perfectly good enough for working at. I was also rather glad I bought it before it was replaced with the 6128, which had a pretty horrid keyboard - the 664 had a really nice keyboard!\
One problem though was that because the screen was bitmapped it ate 16K out of the 64K memory, leaving an unusually small TPA for CP/M, of around 45K (I can’t remember exactly, but the 42K cited on the 6128 page doesn’t sound right – but perhaps my memory is faulty). Most CP/M machines had character mapped displays which only used about 2K. Eventually I bought a 64 Ram expansion and got a copy of CP/M3 (aka CP/M +) (as used on the 6128). This expanded the TPA to 61K – and I added an external 5.25” drive which held something around 880K – a vast amount I never thought I’d fill…
related:
- /museum/amstrad-464-6128-plus
- /museum/amstrad-cpc-464
content/museum/amstrad-csd.md
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value: Amstrad probably gave them to dealers
tabs:
- photos
forum_thread: 933
photos:
- title: INSIDE
subtitle: ''
@@ -74,10 +75,6 @@ params:
Courtesy **amstrad.cpc.free.fr**
image: /media/museum/photos/amstrad_csd_bootscreen_1.jpg
comments:
- author: Raindance Rob (UK)
date: Saturday 31st July 2010
text: i remember seeing these in Dixson''s $ Curry''s here in the UK $ i always wondered what they were for, now i know :o)
oc_id: 957
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20220819200344/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=957
content/museum/amstrad-gx-4000.md
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- links
- docs
forum_thread: 1052
photos:
- title: GX 4000
subtitle: ''
@@ -273,15 +274,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Charles Da Silva\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Amstrad.CPC](http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/)
comments:
- author: Chris Weatherley (United Kingdom)
date: Thursday 19th April 2018
text: |-
As a keen collector and fan of this system, I have produced a fair number of video''s about the GX4000.
https://youtu.be/iWB6NRkjTmE - 25th Anniversary
https://youtu.be/20ZBzhKoGdI - CPC vs GX4000 Game comparison.
oc_id: 1082
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221205113606/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1082
content/museum/amstrad-nc-100.md
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- emulators
- links
- docs
forum_thread: 736
photos:
- title: NC-100
subtitle: ''
@@ -164,27 +165,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Charles Da Silva\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Amstrad.CPC](http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/)
comments:
- author: Karl Cross (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 15th January 2022
text: 'This website really is ace. Recently came to own one of these machines. A fascinating piece of history. Quite practical as a distraction free writing machine. One query: Does anyone know which printers it is compatible with?'
- author: David Simkin (Australia)
date: Sunday 13rd March 2016
text: |-
I purchased an NC100 in 1992 for $A399 to type menus for my restaurant. I later purchased a 512K memory card for $189!\
The Australian flyer proudly boasts "In 10 seconds flat, anyone can use it" and was promoted as the "Amstrad Notepad".
- author: Dirk Hillbrecht (Germany)
date: Saturday 1st November 2008
text: |-
I purchased an NC 100 around 1994 for 200,- DM (approx. 100,- EUR) in a local electronic store. It served me for more than two years in my studies where I used it to type the lectures directly into the system. With all my classmates writing by hand this was really exotic back those days. I used kind of a "simplified" LaTeX notation which I converted into "real" LaTeX on my computer at home using some scripts in a Linux environment. this setup allowed me to type even complex mathematical formulas almost error-free in realtime!
I still have the device and while not using it any more today, I will keep it - it was my first "Laptop"...
- author: Brian K. Hahn (USA)
date: Monday 24th May 2004
text: |-
The Amstrad NC-100 is closely related to the Tandy WP2 in that both have have mainboard manufactured by Citizen CBM Division.\
As a collector, I recently aquired an NC100. I found the display rather dim, but everything else about the unit was impressive. I have since aquired Citizen Hi-Contrast displays for the NC100. I upgraded my unit and it looks great and very crisp. If anyone is interested I can do the same for them.\
Please visit my Amstrad NC100 page at: http://www.8bit-micro.com/amstrad-nc100.htm
oc_id: 753
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608212536/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=753
content/museum/amstrad-nc-150.md
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value: About 450
tabs:
- photos
forum_thread: 1110
photos:
- title: NC 150
subtitle: ''
@@ -81,15 +82,6 @@ params:
• BBC BASIC (Ctrl-B)\
• Games (Ctrl-G)
image: /media/museum/photos/amstrad_nc150_display_s1.jpg
comments:
- author: Robcfg (Spain)
date: Tuesday 7th April 2015
text: |-
The first NTS Dreamwriter, the Dreamwriter 225 is actually a rebadged NC100 with rom version 1.06.
Next models have Nec V20 processors instead of Z80 and different applications on rom.
Dreamwriter 500 is supposed to be a NC200 with V20 processor and backlit screen.
oc_id: 1140
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230601083050/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1140
content/museum/amstrad-nc-200.md
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value: £390
tabs:
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forum_thread: 1111
photos:
- title: RUNNING
subtitle: ''
@@ -89,10 +90,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/amstrad_nc200_casemanual_s1.jpg
comments:
- author: Gerrard Shaw (England)
date: Saturday 17th March 2007
text: I saved a few of these when they were chucked out from my secondary school a few years back. Did a great job for me as my first "laptop" - I remember using it on a Ferry to France plugged into the ship's mains :)
oc_id: 1141
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604042104/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1141
content/museum/amstrad-pc-1512.md
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- links
- videos
forum_thread: 193
photos:
- title: AMSTRAD PC-1512
subtitle: ''
@@ -107,256 +108,6 @@ params:
- title: Amstrad PC Finnish commercial (1987)
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQfi8iG-Gk
text: 'Length: 10 s'
comments:
- author: Christine Earl (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 15th May 2022
text: Help. I have a 1987 Amstrad PC1512DD with monitor keyboard, printer × some paper, user manuals , other books , interface modem , ( don''t know They are ). Not used now . Can anyone use this .? Everything must go formatted discs etc . Must collect from nr. BAKEWELL. DE45 1LL. A donation would be nice . Going to skip otherwise ..please help. Sentimental reasons .don''t want it to go to skip . Thanks Christine .
- author: AirTC (Ukraine)
date: Sunday 9th August 2020
text: Oh!! It was my second PC. First one was Electronika BK-0011.
- author: Krzysztof A. Majewski (Polska)
date: Monday 24th February 2020
text: I am looking for DOS 3,2 on 5,25"disk for Amstrad-Schneider 1512 HD
- author: diamondgod (West Virgina)
date: Monday 24th February 2020
text: it looks so old and I like it
- author: Kes (UK)
date: Tuesday 17th October 2017
text: Hey T, I restore/collect old machines, happy to give it a home if you''ve still got it! Email me on kes@kesgai.com.
- author: T (North London)
date: Saturday 14th January 2017
text: |-
I am north London-based writer with our old grubby but fine otherwise 1512 in need of a home (collections only i''m afraid). We''re giving away the screen, keyboard, hard-drive (2 slots) and its manual - the mouse is filed somewhere else in the office I''m afraid, likewise the software disc. It''s first genuine taker, first serve. $Please let me know if it''s worth it to any of you, that i keep the mouse and software disc when i eventually find them$
Feel free to get in touch if you can use any or all of this
Best
T
- author: Misses Robata
date: Wednesday 14th December 2016
text: |-
POOP! CGA graphic modes : 320 x 200 / 640 x 200
MUCH BETTER! Amstrad specific mode : 640 x 200 / 16 colors
- author: Awesomespace (The Netherlands)
date: Saturday 27th June 2015
text: |-
We have the setup with the ZIP drive from Henk (see messages below) in this retro game space and it''s running fine! See our website for a screenshot.
Added a few RAM chips (640K now), a NEC V30 and a soundblaster 2.0 to spice it up a bit! We will add a CGA to VGA converter soon so we can play the games on a VGA screen or even a projector! Awesome machine, thanks Henk!
- author: Zoe (UK)
date: Saturday 6th September 2014
text: Hi gang, looking to see if anyone''s got some old software I''m after, it''s a Basic program for Locomotive BASIC2 called, we think, ''lakeside''. It came on a PCPlus "superdisk" coverdisk. Would be awesome if anyone can help with any leads. Cheers
- author: Daniele (Rome - ITALY)
date: Wednesday 27th August 2014
text: |-
the 1512...\
my very first PC\
I learned everything about computer with it\
really really cheap for that time\
the best, and was british!\
$-)
- author: Pedro Renato (Portugal)
date: Monday 2nd June 2014
text: This was one of the first computers I used!
- author: John (united kingdom)
date: Sunday 9th February 2014
text: I used to have one of these running smartwork. Looks identical, but mine was called a dd640. ''dd'' for double drive I presume, and 640 for the ram.
- author: Alan Questell (North Carolina, USA)
date: Friday 30th August 2013
text: |-
This was my first PC-compatible, purchased after finishing graduate school. Hated to betray my Apple IIe, but PCs were what was being used where I began working.
The 1512 was really easy to upgrade to 640K memory. And we also added the 10mb hard card.
I used this computer for years and my mother used it for years after me when I upgraded.
- author: Barry (United Kingdom)
date: Wednesday 6th March 2013
text: |-
I have a twin floppy 1512 used but in its original box''s. if any one is interested in make me an offer for it\
bsprice@blueyonder.co.uk
- author: Joao Marques (Portugal)
date: Sunday 29th July 2012
text: |-
I had a 1512 with 640K of RAM and 2 DS floppy drives. In those days i was starting my way arround computers, this was my first one. Still remember messing up with config.sys and autoexec.bat to try to address the 640K for DOS games, i even remember creating BAT files, creating menus for some utilities i''ve got from computer UK and US magazines.\
I have many great memories of LONG hours spending messing up with DOS and games. GREAT machine. To bad i gave it away to a friend many years ago and never seen it again... :(
BTW Jorge Gomes, is there even a remote possibility of getting one these days in Portugal? I think i still have some floppies with the programs i have and i think i still have floppies with DOS 3.1 and DOS 3.2...
Anyway if someone in portugal have one and want to sell contact me by email, pls: joaoerm@gmail.com
- author: Tom Horton (England)
date: Saturday 12th May 2012
text: |-
Still have my Amstrad 1512 with additional 20Mb HD installed....runs DOS with a text ''graphic'' menu system which my Uncle set up for me years ago.
I think I still have some system disks (5 1/4) so if any one wants a bit of software I can upload to somewhere for download - you''ll just need a 5 1/4 disk drive ..... or if I have a spare disk I could post
Great PC with many happy hours spent playing games etc
- author: Ian Ward (UK)
date: Thursday 26th April 2012
text: My Brother in Law is still running his milk business on the HD20 version.
- author: Henk Siewert (The Netherlands)
date: Monday 23rd April 2012
text: |-
Hallo,\
I have 5 1/4 and 3 1/5 inch system floppies.\
If you need one just email me on info@swtrocketry.com
- author: John (Spain)
date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
text: Reply to PETE (USA) - What do you mean by clocked at 4,7Mhz? - If the PC1512 is a "Turbo XT" with an 8Mhz CPU as suppose to an IBM XT with 4,77Mhz. The PC1512 was even faster than the IBM costing over 5 times less money, back in the days. I still have my one packed away in their original boxes, as new, and costed me £995 in 1987
- author: David Meggitt (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 5th February 2012
text: |-
I still have this machine in the loft, and was in full working order when placed there, with one exception.
The last time it was used was to prepare detailed spreadsheet for accompanying a submission for UE Funds in c 1989. Tragically, with one day to go the second floppy drive with data failed to respond and therefore unable to get the print out.
(Current notebook is a Sony VAIO with intel core i7).
- author: David Meggitt (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 5th February 2012
text: |-
I still have this machine in the loft, and was in full working order when placed there, with one exception.
The last time it was used was to prepare detailed spreadsheet for accompanying a submission for UE Funds in c 1989. Tragically, with one day to go the second floppy drive with data failed to respond and therefore unable to get the print out.
(Current notebook is a Sony VAIO with intel core i7).
- author: PETE (U.S.A.)
date: Saturday 14th January 2012
text: I BOUGHT A USED amstrad pc1512 .IT HAD ONLY 512K OF RAM AND I PERSONALLY UPGRADED IT MYSELF TO 640. IT''S CPU CLOCKED AT 4.7 MHZ !
- author: Dave (USA)
date: Wednesday 28th December 2011
text: This was our family''s first X86 compatible PC, way back when. I''m an American, too$-I have no idea how we ended up with one of these British machines. We bought it at a retail store in Worcester, Massachusetts USA. Theres nothing on this site about them being sold in America.
- author: Luke (USA)
date: Friday 14th October 2011
text: I think this thing could upgrade to EGA video....also I packed my with a full sized Roland LAPC-I full sized sound card....I think I still have everything including media..DOS and GEN...
- author: Simon
date: Thursday 15th September 2011
text: Back when I worked for the Amstrad User Group in Sunderland, UK, one of my first jobs was to upgrade a users PC1512. I fitted 18 separate memory chips, they came in 2 plastic tubes, giving the PC 640KB of memory. Secondly I formatted and fitted a 10MB Western Digital Hardcard. This combined a 10MB hard drive with a hard drive controller on 1 8bit ISA card. Each of the bad sectors, and there were lots, was listed on the drive and when you formatted it you had to tell the software to avoid them.
- author: JORGE GOMES (Portugal)
date: Thursday 25th August 2011
text: i have one of this, with HD 20 MB. But i have not a floppy disk with operating system for run...do you have one ?
- author: TGH (Suffolk/UK)
date: Saturday 20th August 2011
text: hmmm...My old 1512HD was dug out of the attic the other day. Put some AA batteries under the monitor and fired it up and got a similar message. After a few switch offs/ons it sprang to life, complete with ascii menus my uncle and I created to access the HD programmes via batch files.....happy days. Do you have any of the system discs? PCDOS I think was what came with the 1512...
- author: Michael King (UK)
date: Wednesday 27th July 2011
text: |-
Hi! I''ve got a 1512 HD20 that was my father''s.\
When I boot it up it says
Hard disc drive not ready\
Insert System Disc into drive A
I''m trying to get the data off the disc and was hoping I could caddy it or connect it in some way to another machine - some sort of ISA to ..USB/PCI or whatever...
Any ideas appreciated\
Michael
- author: Vlad (Ukraine)
date: Monday 2nd May 2011
text: And at me was such!!!! In 1995.With a colour (EGA) monitor, two 5" floppy drivers, power button behind the monitor and Norton Commander inside
- author: Henk Siewert (The Netherlands)
date: Tuesday 29th March 2011
text: |-
I have a Amstrad 1512 still running.\
It is a PC1512DD, dual 5 ¼ drive. I have replaced the 2nd drive with a 3 ½ inch 720K drive.\
The machine has a Iomega ZIP-100 connected to its printer port. Giving me 3 30Mbyte hard disks!\
This is possible thanks to a special device driver. It is complete with the mouse and an extra Trojan light pen. It is perfect for running all kinds of MS-DOS software. I even run CP/M 2 en 3 software by using the NICE22 en Z80mu emulators.\
On this machine I wrote, in the 80’s, my very first program for money. A Management Information System in dBase III for a big company here in the Netherlands.\
This is a nice ‘old’ machine. I hope it will run for many more years.
- author: Graham (Australia)
date: Tuesday 8th March 2011
text: My Grandparents had 2 of these - firstly the standard 1512 with 1 (and later 2) floppies. Then they "upgraded" to a 2nd 1512 but this time with the 20HD!! Every school holidays I would get up early and switch it on and play Pool, Digger, moonbugs and HEAPS of other games (even gwbasic games!) When I moved out of home 7 years ago my Grandparents gave me the HD20 machine, more for memories sake, complete with the dot matrix printer and ALL the game/program discs. Today I turned it on for the first time in about a year - but alas - it seems the harddrive has died and I cannot boot it up :( I Agree with @Freeway_Speedmaster - you really can "love" this machine. I''ll now try to see if I can fond someone who can fix it for me.
- author: Tom Rattray (Edinburgh, Scotland)
date: Thursday 13rd January 2011
text: |-
I bought a 1512 with in 1986/87 to do my MEng project on. Cost a huge chunk of my student grant at the time (yes, that''s a sign of how old it is). My memories are brilliant of this machine - I used it jury-rigged to a BBC B with camera for stereo image processing. Several of my fellow students ended up buying one as well - it was a laboratory, a games machine (Bruce Lee) and a thesis-generator all in one. At the time, it was extraordinary and never let me down.
And then today, long after I gave up my 1512, I have a customer call with a hard drive problem where the 1512 would have given me the the infrastructure I needed! Dang.
Never throw anything away (but when I got married, the 1512 went the same way as my old Return of the Jedi arcade machine). Tom
- author: Freeway_Speedmaster (Athens, GREECE)
date: Wednesday 24th November 2010
text: \- Back in 1987 (just 15 years old) an Amstrad 1512DD was my third home computer in the row out from the Amstrad family, previous ones were the CPCs 664 and 6128. Just good memories only from all of them and especially from the 6128 and of-course the 1512. This particular ''home computer'' (at last then an affordable compatible PC) absolutely just opened the door back then to everyone that was really interested in the IT world. I have still somewhere 3" floppies with games and my first programming attempts with the CPCs (which gave them away to younger relatives of mine many-many years ago) and I am still keeping safe and intact the 1512 on a self in the play-room, which by-the-way still works perfectly! Today (38 years old) unfortunately, with the excemption of Apple sometimes, there are are not any more Computers that you can get in ''love'' with this way! :-)
- author: Jörgen Svensson (SE)
date: Wednesday 10th November 2010
text: |-
Hello!\
I have one of those 1512''s... I like it, but sadly enough, my fiancee doesn''t, so at the moment it is located in the basement.. I also have a 1640, with 640K RAM... and both are equipped with harddisks...\
I have some of the documentation as well, so I thought I should ask if there is any need of scanning those binders to put here?\
Take care, and keep the history alive!
- author: citokinch (london ontario)
date: Wednesday 27th October 2010
text: the amstrad was my first computer and although it had limitations this old 8088 never saw a techy nor did it ever break down. When we finally recycled it several years ago it was still working after over 20 years, if only my Compaqs were so reliable.
- author: BUTCH
date: Friday 8th October 2010
text: |-
The 1512 was my first ''proper'' computer. I bought it in 1990 for UK£199. It had a colour monitor and two 5.25 floppy drives, It came with GEM disks. GEM was fantastic, my first ever GUI, and at the time I lost a couple of nights sleep because I made two back-up copies of GEM instead of the one that the licence allowed. After a couple of months using it, I bought a 30mb Winchester drive that cost twice as much ad the 1512, but opened up another world to me. With a daisywheel printer I had a complete office package for less than UK£500.\
Alan Sugar, now Lord Sugar, was probably just in the market for profit then and maybe didn''t care that much for computing himself, but he opened up computers to a whole new generation because of his aggressive cost cutting and marketing skills.
- author: Sean D.
date: Thursday 16th September 2010
text: |-
I managed to get hold of a boxed (with EVERYTHING) Amstrad PC 1512 with the PC-MM monochrome monitor.
The Amstrad is fine inexpensive DOS machine, but you really need more than one disk drive or have a hard-drive to properly enjoy it. Loaded with 512k of RAM (not the full 640k) and three 8-bit ISA expansion slots, it''s mildly upgradable, but the cards would be very difficult to find, because 8-bit expansion cards are getting scarce now. The monitor is large and reasonable when displaying text, but it fails awfully at anything graphical.
The redeeming thing is that it will run most IBM software, and has an excellent keyboard, although the layout isn''t standard. The keys aren''t quite where you''d think! (there are three Del keys, to top it off!)
The people at Amstrad put some ideas into the PC 1512 that should be in new machines, like the depression in the top so the monitor doesn''t slide around, and easily replaceable AA clock batteries. (which hide under the monitor when it''s on top).
A tip: If you''re going to get a PC 1512, get one with more than one disk drive and a colour screen. Bottom end won''t always cut the mustard.
- author: Marty H (Australia)
date: Sunday 29th August 2010
text: Surprised that the PC1512 is 1986 vintage! My mum and dad bought a PC1512 HD20 from K Mart in 1991 for around 1400 Australian dollars. You couldn''t buy a decent computer (386, 486) for under $2000 at the time so this was it. But it carried my mum through university from 1992 to 1995, using the Ability software package, which combined word processor, spreadsheet, database and modem communication software. I learned some MS-DOS (and so did my mum!) using the included tutorial disk. The computer eventually broke down in 1999 - the hard drive had failed but a replacement HDD was hard to justify because we didn''t really need the computer, and I thought a replacement would be hard to find and/or expensive. It wasn''t much but I have indispensable (to this day!) knowledge and a foundation in computers because of this thing.
- author: Fredrik Larsson (Sweden)
date: Tuesday 20th April 2010
text: My father bought the Amstrad PC1512 in 1988, just a year before I was born. 22 years later and the computer still works perfectly without any blemishes. I grew so fond with it that I kept and maintained it over all these years$ today I not only regularly play old classics like Digger (Play it over at http://digger.org!), Castle Adventure, Q-Bert and others but I also have a small library of games and programs I made in GW-Basic for it. Some of the programs I even released online on my website. I hope my precious old jewel survives for decades to come!
- author: Lars (Germany)
date: Saturday 18th October 2008
text: |-
My father bougt himself an used Amstrad PC1512 in 1993. Although I never really understood why he did that (I also shared a brand new 486 with him), this machine was one of the most interesting and amazing computers I have ever seen. We replaced the B-floppy by a 30 MB NEC hard disk which looked quite odd (black panel) but worked perfectly.\
Though it was far away from being a high-end pc, its strange features made me love it. First, the clock and calendar was powered by 4 AA-type batteries being placed on top of the case and only covered by the monitor placed above. The loudspeaker was not simply a beeper, it war REALLY loud but could be reduced by a volume potentiometer placed beside it. On the backside of the Keyboard there was a 9-pin joystick connector to support a joystick built for Commodore and Atari systems. It was no real pc-type gameport (which used a 15-pin connector) but only offered the possibility to use a joytick instead of the cursor-keys that were disabled when a joytick was connected. Anyway, it was fun to use the joystick instead of the cousor-keys, also Commodore-type joysticks were cheaper and did not need to be calibrated.\
The case itself offered a wide empty space, I never found what this was for.\
I loved this machine but sadly my father didn''t. Only about one year later he replaced it by a used 386 pc.
- author: Remi Dumont (France)
date: Tuesday 24th July 2007
text: I used to have one of these and loved it. One thing I remember, though, is that when I bought it, the retailer told me the HD version wasn't produced anymore and I eventually acquired the DD version. Anybody heard about this ?
- author: Alejandro Corral (Earth)
date: Sunday 10th June 2007
text: This model was expandable to 640k with 18 memory chips. I did to mine with KM4164B-12 ones. Later motherboard revisions would use less memory chips, so there was only 6 empty sockets for memory expansion.
- author: sakis (greece)
date: Thursday 3rd May 2007
text: Hey. My dad has bought a new Amstrad pc 1512 when I was 12yo.it is still working and I can play some nice games like Double Dragon I & II, Digger, F-16, Space Quest, logo writer.Even now that I am 33yo with a dual core PC and 256MB graphic card CGA looks beatiful. Only my Floppy with GEM Desktop is not working any more.Does anyone has the program to send me?
- author: Kaitz (Estonia)
date: Wednesday 1st November 2006
text: I bought 1512 dd in 1999 for about 6,6 $ and with manual. it is monocrome monitor, later found joystic and its working fine. I love this machine.
- author: stanislav pecho (Czech Republic)
date: Tuesday 15th February 2005
text: I am owner of this one.....still working without issues. I remember, when i was installing a Text editor T602 from 20 pieces of 5,25 discs....it was very funny job :))
- author: topaz (germany)
date: Thursday 3rd February 2005
text: I had an "altered" Amstrad/Schneider PC 1512SD as my first computer, bought by daddy in 1988. The case still said 1512SD, but it had a 20 MB Hard-Drive built in, apparently done by the computer shop we bought it at. Also, its monochrome screen could work in CGA and Hercules mode, there was a button at the back that you had to push in order to go from one mode to the other.
- author: ian Henderson (uk)
date: Sunday 21st November 2004
text: Just come across this page, I have in storage! a 1512 dd with a colour monitor, also a dmp3186 that I bought as a package late 87 early 88. as it was the recommended unit for the Open University foundation course inTechnology. Luckily the computer has lasted longer than my OU education. Hard to believe that my phone has more memory than my 1512. Anybody know how to get downloads onto a 5 1/4 drive from a broadband ethernet link
- author: 1512 lover (UK)
date: Wednesday 10th September 2003
text: |-
Just to inform other people that are interested in the Amstrad 1512, that there is now a "full" forum for fellow 1512 fans to discuss anything about the 1512 in. From stories to "I want to give my 1512 to a good home."\
The link is: http://majury.force9.co.uk/bb2php/index.php\
and is associated with the Amstrad 1512 Homepage.\
http://www.amstrad1512.co.uk
- author: jose luis (tarragona / spain)
date: Thursday 29th May 2003
text: When i buy this computer, the price in Spain was 901 Euros (150000 Pts). This price was for Amstrad 1512, with 1 disk 5/12", monocrome monitor and printer Amstrad (i don't remember the model)
- author: _ (_)
date: Friday 27th September 2002
text: I brought one in Greece from U.K., without electric fan, in Dec 1986 and it still works perfectly. Sept. 2002
- author: eb (Grenoble (France))
date: Thursday 9th May 2002
text: |-
Est-ce que quelqu'un est intéressé pour acheter un Amstrad PC1512 en parfait état de marche?\
Si oui, envoyez moi un petit mail
related:
- /museum/amstrad-pc-1640
- /museum/amstrad-ppc-512-640
content/museum/amstrad-pc-1640.md
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value: Most of the standard IBM/PC cards
tabs:
- links
forum_thread: 39
links:
- title: Intel GEM page
url: http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Gem/index.html
text: a page dedicated to the GEM graphical user interface
comments:
- author: Steve Skepper (UK)
date: Tuesday 28th January 2020
text: |-
I was teaching spotty teenagers database sand spreadsheets, and programming in BASIC, at a govt funded private training college . We bought 24 of these machines. They had 640k of RAM, and 1 megabyte hard drive. AMstrad made thiier own hard drives originally, and they would run so hot the plastic on the front of the HDD would soften up, and you could leave your thumbprint in it. ALL the HDD''s failed after three months and were repalced with Toshiba Drives.
The other faill was the platters on the drives would expand with heat, so if you formatted the drive when it was cold, it then wouldnt be able to read the tracks when the drive was hot, and vice versa.
At the same time i remember British Gas was going to buy half a million of them , then backed out when they discovered the power cables had no earth wire.
- author: Misses Robata
date: Wednesday 14th December 2016
text: |-
An EGA PC. NOT POOP!
EGA is the minimum requirements for a PC not to be considered poop.
The EYES! MY PRECIOUS EYES!
- author: Jim (Boston, USA)
date: Thursday 17th March 2016
text: I bought one of these through and American Express deal back in the late 80s. It was a surprisingly competent machine, and I ran some very complex simulations for regenerative braking and for composite materials with it. Turbo Pascal was my platform of choice, and some of my simulations could keep this machine cranking for over an hour. But it always worked. Looking back, those were good times.
- author: Colin McCormick (Plymouth, UK)
date: Wednesday 17th June 2015
text: These things were sold off cheap due to overproduction, with no HDD or monitor for about £99. Myself and some work colleagues bought them and rigged up our own power supply arrangements, since no monitor meant no power supply. I built a little gadget which tweaked the timings of the sync pulses so it gave a really good display on my Sony TV set. Then I bought a used 20MB hard disk and controller card. I used it for years, especially with Locoscript word processor and database. Bit slow at times, but a very cheap PC.
- author: James Dougherty (United States)
date: Tuesday 28th May 2013
text: Although this was not my first computer it was my first PC and second with a hard-drive. My mother bought it here in the States via an American Express offer I believe. Great machine. Programmed in Turbo Basic $ Pascal. Lots of BBS time also!
- author: Johnb (UK)
date: Sunday 18th March 2012
text: |-
We had the dual disk drive model with hi-res EGA monitor. Used it mainly for Turbo Pascal 5.0. I remember it being pretty fast. Problem was the monitor fan was NOISY!
I think we paid about £600 for it in 1988.
- author: Johnb (UK)
date: Sunday 18th March 2012
text: |-
We had the dual disk drive model with hi-res EGA monitor. Used it mainly for Turbo Pascal 5.0. I remember it being pretty fast. Problem was the monitor fan was NOISY!
I think we paid about £600 for it in 1988.
- author: AK (Moldova)
date: Tuesday 9th August 2011
text: |-
JC, you surely must mean 10 Megs, NOT 10 Gigs.\
And Amstrad 1640 was the first computer I ever did see and use. Wasn''t mine, but I still had access.
I guess I''m getting nostalgic.. sob.
- author: JC in Jacksonville, Florida
date: Friday 15th July 2011
text: |-
This was my first "IBM" PC. I traded a Commodore 128 setup ( with virtually every add-on ) for this machine.\
It was AMAZING! A 10 Gig HD - more than I would ever need :)\
I hacked a 3.2 inch 720kb drive on to the side of it, mounted an external fan on the monitor and used it for YEARS untill I upgraded to an 8 MHz PC.
- author: Jim (Boston, USA)
date: Tuesday 12th July 2011
text: |-
I bought one of these while in college through American Express. I did a ton of programming with it using Turbo Pascal. Overall it worked fine. I remember that the keyboard wiring was unique, but that Keytronic had a keyboard that worked with it when the dip switches were set correctly.
While computers are now vastly more powerful, I dare say that the finite element analysis program I wrote on the Amstrad had this machine doing harder-core work than the flashy hardware of today. Sure, a simulation run took twenty minutes, but who cares? The answers came out okay...
- author: Andy Gibbs
date: Sunday 7th November 2010
text: My memory of the Amstrad 1640 was forgetting to park the hard drive heads, moving it (even just across the table) and having to reformat and reinstall everything! I think it happened quite a few times. The other thing was some rather cryptic bios error message which was eventually tracked down to needing to replace the AA batteries under the monitor base.....
- author: Dom (UK)
date: Wednesday 11th August 2010
text: This was my first experience of computers after the ZX81 and my first experience of DOS. It gave me a measure of how computers were developing from hobbyist little boxes like the ZX81 to much more useable desktop machines. I had a lot of fun messing around on it in the ''90s, I suppose it was old then. It came with a tetris game that had soviet space ships as background and I''d very much like to find that old version. I don''t know if it is the original version of Tetris, probably not, but the Russian theme seems very fitting to Tetris. I can''t find it anywhere on the net. 1995 seems a lvery long time ago! Somehow when I got my Win95 machine in ''96, I lost something like losing a childhood as I was swept into the modern world of windows and the internet..
- author: Ewan Cronin (UK)
date: Friday 22nd June 2007
text: I have an 1640 and it still works!!. the only problem is finding disks that work:). Was a hand me down from my dad and has seen me though college and to this day(after 20 years still going,beat that laptops)
- author: David P (Australia)
date: Saturday 13rd January 2007
text: I remember having a PC 1640, it had a strange mouse which i had trouble getting to work. My PC 1640 had a 20 MB hard drive from Conner which i still have. My uncle gave this to me with Space Quest 2 and 3.
- author: Michel Borduas (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
date: Saturday 23rd September 2006
text: After buying and learning on a SINCLAIR Z80 around 1984, this was my first "fast and powerful" computer which I bought around 1987 or 88. I kept it until 1995 when I migrated to Windows 95 and a more powerful machine. Surprisingly, my AMSTRAD PC-1640 (they were sold under that number in Canada) still work today and I gave it to a local farmer who still use old DOS program (mostly dBase III and Lotus 1,2,3). I'm always surprised to see what he can do with it!!!
- author: Tim Parsons (uk)
date: Tuesday 13rd June 2006
text: |-
For a while, it was slightly cheaper to buy a floppy-disk-only model with a 32MB Western Digital or Miniscribe "hard card" occupying one-and-a-half of the three available expansion slots at the back of the machine. Sadly, the one place there was no decent EM shielding was in the expansion bay cover immediately above where the drive was, and the natural angle for the monitor (which rested in a rectangular indentation on top of the system case) was pushed right back so the back of it rested on the expansion bay cover. The hardcards lived about 18 months then died suddenly, whereas the "supplied and fitted" internal 20Mb hard disks seemed to go on forever.
We actually found these were a better choice than the then "corporate standard" of Apricots, as they conformed more closely to the IBM spec than the three-times-the-price Apricots did.
Oh yes; and there was a decent little text editor, written by Roland Perry of Amstrad, that was indispensable!
- author: dave (essex, england)
date: Wednesday 22nd June 2005
text: I remember my father owning one of these when i was a kid, he bought it second hand and even then it was old so i was suprised to find, around 1998 whist working in a chemist, they actualy used one to store patients detail!
- author: Alex L (Milton, ON, Canada)
date: Thursday 9th September 2004
text: This was my families first computer as well. Ours although bought in North America was labeled PC1640. After we sold it to my grandfather, he used it for several years, and once again it has returned to me, it still runs. It just thinks the year is 1980, the batteries died, and I don't need it to date everything.
- author: J.T (Fin)
date: Wednesday 31st March 2004
text: |-
My first computer too!! and i´ts still working.\
sorry if my english is bad
- author: Elliot (Burnaby, BC, CAN)
date: Wednesday 9th July 2003
text: |-
This was my first computer. I used to waste my time playing Where in Time is Carmen SanDiego, Ancient Art of War, Ancient Art of War at Sea, and Sierra's Quest for Glory I. I recall rather fondly making stupid-looking posters on GEM-Paint and printing them on our really loud 9-pin printer.
My last experience with this computer was at the house of my former babysitter. She had the same model. It wasn't working at the time. We checked the disk drives and found that one of the kids had shoved coins inside.
- author: Malc (UK)
date: Tuesday 22nd April 2003
text: My first PC! I still have the technical reference manual somewhere. I bought the twin floppy model and added a 30MB hardcard which went in an ISA slot. I can't remember if it had colour or mono screen though - probably mono. Replaced it with an Olivetti 386SX thing.
- author: Jeremy Pavleck (Madison, WI USA)
date: Saturday 28th December 2002
text: |-
This was one of my first PC's. I believe it was called the 6400 in the US though. Used to play all sorta of games on it as well as make horrible cards and banners on the yucky, slow dot matrix printer.\
Saved up all summer and bought a co-processor for it. But it in wrong and it never worked again. Oh well!
- author: Martin Kukac (Czech Republic)
date: Tuesday 14th May 2002
text: |-
I need schematics of POWER and KEYBOARD connector of Amstrad PC1640. Please send me it to my mail, if you have it.\
Thanks
related:
- /museum/amstrad-pc-1512
- /museum/amstrad-ppc-512-640
content/museum/amstrad-pcw-16.md
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- software
- emulators
- links
forum_thread: 68
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -158,44 +159,6 @@ params:
- title: 16 Storm, the PCW-16 site
url: http://www.aster.fsnet.co.uk/pcw16.htm
text: Reviews, tutorials, news and links
comments:
- author: roger jowett (ulster)
date: Saturday 26th May 2012
text: |-
MSDOS 3.5" 1.44 MB double-density floppy disk.
hi density\
double density was 720kb on the pc
- author: Graham Holloway (Stevenage, UK)
date: Thursday 28th July 2011
text: I still have my PCW-16, from Dixons, with the Citizen Dot Matrix printer. I used to love playing with the Rosanne O/S and loading CP/M which allowed me to play and make games on the machine, someone provided me the neccessary floppys from PCW Format magazine, not sure that still exists. Great little machine, as long as the screen holds out I''ll keep it.
- author: Alan Birt (England)
date: Sunday 9th May 2010
text: May 2009. Further to my previous posting about the PCW16 some five years ago, may I report that I am STILL using my PCW16 for all my general correspondence. What a splendid machine it is and still giving faithful service. Since I purchased it for a pittance, it has also proved to be great value for money. May it long continue !
- author: Lee (UK)
date: Wednesday 24th June 2009
text: Hi, the interpreter is finished and available! I am uploading it in the next few days. I found the author who was more than happy to release the code as Open Source! So check out my site soon for updates! I also have programs to download, manuals, articles and more there and coming soon!
- author: MS (Dreamland)
date: Saturday 19th August 2006
text: |-
As Alan Birt mentions, the PCW series still has a handful of faithful fans, thanks to its simplicity and sole focus on basic writing/office tasks. Sure, they're not remotely comparable feature-wise to modern PCs, but still orders of magnitude simpler to use if you just want to write a letter or report.
Anyhoo, some extra tidbits about the PcW 16:
The OS, Rosanne, is an astounding achievement; written solely in Z80 assembler, it incorporates a graphical WIMP environment with the usual menus, dialog boxes, etc. that are de rigeur on multi-GHz machines. Additionally, it's really nice to program for -- a good set of well-documented OS calls means you can knock up a graphical app in a few lines of Z80 asm. Someone started on a BASIC interpreter, but it never came to light. The only way to use another language (hosted) is to use the CP/M port.
PcW 16s have severe build-quality issues. I've had two fail on me, and from speaking to other '16ers', it's not uncommon for machines to stop working. Inside the machine, it's quite clear it was cheaply put together. A shame, because the keyboards were great!
Hardly any third-party programs exist for the '16. An accounting program was produced after launch, and there was the idea to utilise the machine's serial port (with modem) for rudimentary internet access, but that died out as the PCW line ended. By far the most significant 'external program' (in '16 parlance!) is John Elliott's CP/M emulator which, although not supporting graphics, is excellent for text-mode CP/M programs, thereby extending the '16's software capability dramatically.
Also of note is John's 'ANNE' emulator, based on his 'JOYCE' program, which emulates a PcW 16. It's currently in mid-development status but works pretty well.
The '16 is a fascinating little machine, but was perhaps doomed from the start -- computer shops are more interested in selling expensive and absurdly complicated machines to Auntie Ethel than a simple little word processor and spreadsheet. Same thing I see happening with the em@iler, which my parents use happily! Not much commission in flogging those devices :-)
If anyone's still using a '16, it'd be great to read about it on this site. Oh, and this is the first time I've visited this site for a couple of years -- kudos to everyone involved. It's retrostalgic tastic!
- author: Alan Birt (UK)
date: Monday 6th December 2004
text: I am still using a PcW16 for all of my writing - my PC is used only for e-mail; websites and digital photography. I have several spare PcW16s, bought for next-to-nothing, which I am keeping as spares in case my first machine "blows up". \[I also have one example of all the Amstrad PCWs, just for nostalgia\] The PC word processing programs are too complicated for me, but I am a retired pensioner.
oc_id: 52
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608075417/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=52
content/museum/amstrad-pcw-8256-8512.md
+1 -423
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@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ params:
- emulators
- links
- docs
forum_thread: 199
photos:
- title: COMPLETE SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
@@ -269,429 +270,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Charles Da Silva\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Amstrad.CPC](http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/)
comments:
- author: Geoff Barnard (England)
date: Tuesday 14th February 2023
text: I''ve now got a second PCW, managed to get a 8512 with the higher capacity floppy drive. Just needed the rubber bands replacing. Still much activity on the forum (CPCWiki), people using the Gotek virtual drive for PCW games, general programming for CP/M and whatever. Large amounts of software available as virtual disk images
- author: Geoff Barnard (UK)
date: Thursday 19th January 2023
text: Hello back to Keith Saunders! Please tell me more. I''m still busy around computing, various forums, esp re vintage computers
- author: Geoff Barnard (UK)
date: Thursday 19th January 2023
text: Hello back to Keith Saunders! Please tell me more. I''m still busy around computing, various forums, esp re vintage computers
- author: Geoff Barnard (UK)
date: Thursday 19th January 2023
text: Hello back to Keith Saunders! Please tell me more. I''m still busy around computing, various forums, esp re vintage computers
- author: Geoff Barnard (UK)
date: Thursday 19th January 2023
text: Hello back to Keith Saunders! Please tell me more. I''m still busy around computing, various forums, esp re vintage computers
- author: Jon (UK)
date: Sunday 2nd October 2022
text: 'There is a project to build your own PCW WiFi Modem here: https://github.com/VapourSoft/PCWWiFiModem'
- author: Keith Saunders (Stockton-on-Tees, England)
date: Wednesday 24th August 2022
text: I''d like to just say hello to Geoff Barnard who gave me enough interest in computers to allow me to make a life out of it.
- author: Geoff Barnard (Guisborough, England)
date: Monday 2nd May 2022
text: Jerri - I''d be interested to know more about your game project. I still have my PCW, it is still working, I still use it. As do many others. It is still a perfectly viable CP/M computer. Still much interest in such retro machines. Geoff, England
- author: Jerri Kohl (United States)
date: Monday 14th February 2022
text: To those who are interested in selling their PCW/Joyce, I am interested. I wish to port a series of RPGs (Role Playing Games) that I am developing to this platform.
- author: Jerri Kohl (United States)
date: Monday 14th February 2022
text: To those who are interested in selling their PCW/Joyce, I am interested. I wish to port a series of RPGs (Role Playing Games) that I am developing to this platform.
- author: Katy (UK)
date: Saturday 31st July 2021
text: Hi We are in London I have in the cellar an Amstrad 8512 with monitor, printer, user guide and a number of games and floppy discs Also a BBC micro Would anyone be interested in these? thanks Katy
- author: Andy O''Connell (United Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 25th February 2020
text: I''m trying to sell my father''s old PCW8512, with printer and several disks. It still works, I understand. Any tips on where to sell such a thing?
- author: Geoff Barnard (Guisborough England)
date: Tuesday 17th December 2019
text: My 8256, bought 1985, is still working fine, although the disk drive needed repair some years ago. I still use it, as a useful CP/M machine, and in conjunction with active forum for vintage computers. My machine now sports 3.5", 5.25" and virtual 8Mb HDs. Hopefully will keep going for a few years yet. Certainly NOT for sale, NO WAY!
- author: Robin smith (Honey Brook, Pa. USA)
date: Tuesday 16th January 2018
text: |-
Have an original Amstrad 8256 in box, never used or taken\
Out of box . Also have many many extra discs , ribbons\
For sale .
- author: Robin smith (Honey Brook, Pa. USA)
date: Tuesday 16th January 2018
text: |-
Have an original Amstrad 8256 in box, never used or taken\
Out of box . Also have many many extra discs , ribbons\
For sale .
- author: Robin smith (Honey Brook, Pa. USA)
date: Tuesday 16th January 2018
text: |-
Have an original Amstrad 8256 in box, never used or taken\
Out of box . Also have many many extra discs , ribbons\
For sale .
- author: Robin smith (Honey Brook, Pa. USA)
date: Tuesday 16th January 2018
text: |-
Have an original Amstrad 8256 in box, never used or taken\
Out of box . Also have many many extra discs , ribbons\
For sale .
- author: camincha benvenutto (Pacifica CA USA)
date: Sunday 17th December 2017
text: Thanks 4 giving me this opportunity 2 offer my AMSTRAD 8256 LocoScript 3 Family $ its printer, keyboard, manuals. brand new tapes just 4 Ur picking it all up. Have not used it in over 10 yrs. Printer was not in gd shape.
- author: Francis
date: Friday 22nd September 2017
text: Hi, I am Francis. I have a collection of Amstrad 8512 disks which I would like to convert to PC floppies. Can anyone help? Preferably by someone in The Netherlands. Many thanks.
- author: Jeff Joseph (USA)
date: Monday 19th June 2017
text: If anyone is still interested in letting go a PCW please email jeffrey_josph@yahoo.com. Must be willing to ship to USA. Please give description (RAM, drives, $ disks included, software, condition) and how much you want. Thanks.
- author: edward (London UK)
date: Wednesday 29th March 2017
text: |-
I have an Amstrad PCW 8526 Personal computer Have everything it has almost never been used if anyone is interested ?\
Have printer discs etc etc
- author: Robin (Honey Brook, Pa. U.S.A)
date: Friday 30th December 2016
text: |-
I have a 1985 Amstrad PCW 8256 new in box , never\
Used. Lots of extra discs and printer ribbon .
For sale , serious inquiries only.\
R1974vw@hotmail.com
- author: Brian Mindt (ND/USA)
date: Tuesday 20th December 2016
text: I have a PCW 8256 for sale. we bought it new and almost never used it. maybe 5 hours of time on it. have a few discs with it. email ironstallioncycles at hotmail. com or call 701-845-5196
- author: Dan (Texas, USA)
date: Sunday 15th November 2015
text: |-
hi,\
I am a British computer collector living in Texas. I am trying to hunt down an Amstrad PCW expansion pack that gives the PCW a serial/parallel capability. Would love to hear from someone that is willing to sell one of these.
- author: Phil Sketchley (uk)
date: Thursday 26th February 2015
text: I HAVE A PCW 8512 WITH DISCS AND PRINTER STILL IN ORGINAL PACKAGE. IF ANYONE INTERESTED PLEASE CONTACT ME ON P.SKETCHLEY@BTINTERNET.COM
- author: Wim (The Netherlands)
date: Saturday 13rd September 2014
text: |-
I have a Schneider Joyce Computer, complete.\
Seems to be working but the drive belt of the top drive needs to be repaired. See http://www.fvempel.nl/amstradcg/metia/edefpcw.html\
Lots of disks, software, manuals (most in Dutch).\
Someone interested?
- author: Cumbrianet (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 17th May 2014
text: HI, is there anyone here would willing to help (online) with Pcw 8512 rebuild/repair
- author: Stephen Tweed (UK, England)
date: Sunday 1st September 2013
text: I have about twenty CF2 discs. One is a Locoscript 2 disc. Free to a good home if you pay the P$P
- author: lester (western australia)
date: Wednesday 7th August 2013
text: |-
I have a amstrad 8512 in good working order with all parts, computer key board printer 3 inch disc programs printer tapes book every thing for sale\
regards lester
- author: Manu (Belgium) (Ostend/Belgium)
date: Monday 18th February 2013
text: |-
Update: In time of my last posting, i have back my original PCW 8256 the person that had it, all those years died :( , only needed to repair the drive belt, and working like new. - Now i have my original Schneider PCW Joyce 8256, a spanish Amstrad PCW 8256, Schneider PCW Joyce 8512, Amstrad PCW 8512 (upgraded 8256 and upgrade 3,5 inch drive), another Amstrad 8256 for daily use, and one Amstrad 8256 for spare parts. and before i forget also Amstrad PCW 9512 with Daisy Wheel Printer, and 7 Matrix Printers.
In 2 years time, i expanded my collection PCW Software boxed, from Desktop Publishers, a lot of Games, and many other tools, also extra hardware like, Memory upgrades to 1,5 MB ! for a PCW, and Mouse and handheld scanner... Books..
To Andy it was not all horrible, as kid it was hard to find in belgium PCW software and hardware, and its nice to see all these things working today days.
The PCW made me start my Retro Computer Collection, now i have around 67 Computers, 12 connected for direct use. Apple, Amstrad, Schneider, Commodore, Epson, Sharp,..
From all my computers, even today the PCW is my favorite.
- author: Andy (England)
date: Tuesday 10th April 2012
text: Some interesting comments on the old 8256, most of them fond memories... I used to go to typing classes at our school back in the day, our school had hundreds of these things. We also had one new from Dixons - £499 all in I believe, our Grandad bought it for us thinking it was a PC - must have been totally swindled by the sales guy! Ooops! Me and my brother wanted a PC so much! The 3" disks were impossible to buy new, and to top it all off it just could not do what a PC could, even a PC that was 10 years older than it. It didn''t even have standard I/O ports. I remember having Microdesign 2 and painfully trying to use it to do something simple and it being impossible to implement. That was all the software we had, but one of my friends let me borrow Thomahawk which was slow, rubbish, and kept locking up. CP/M was a bit of an oddity too - most people were using DOS, or even early versions of Windows by the time this hit the market! Taking a step back for a moment, it was a wordprocessor
first and foremost - the printer quality was good, but I''d rather chop my hands off than type on that poor quality keyboard for any length of time - it was horrible! Locoscript was impossible to use, not intuitive in the least bit. All-in-all I must agree with Dave, it was indeed a glorified Typewriter!
- author: Robert Fleeman (UK)
date: Thursday 23rd February 2012
text: I am mourning my Amstrad \*512 and cannot write my memoirs. Julia, or anyone, have you still got one in working order for sale?
- author: julia (united Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 12th July 2011
text: i have an amstrad pcw8512 for sale complete with printer and instruction manual if anyone knows anyone who would like it, all in good working order of course
- author: manu (belgium)
date: Saturday 18th June 2011
text: |-
Hi, a few weeks ago i, found on eBay a fully working Amstrad PCW 8256(repaired the drive belt), and another one i got free of a friend, Schneider PCW 8512, both working perfectly, and now i can run again my 23 year old software i made on my original Schneider PCW 8256, :)\
Question to Andrew, can you give me the PCW 8512 dongle information, i want to find one.. to all software, drive belt''s.. i am intrested: contact me on: kolva@pandora.be - and feel free ask questions about the PCW $-) thanks
- author: ck123
date: Tuesday 15th March 2011
text: |-
Emulator portable\
http://www.transdata.net84.net/pcw_8256.html
- author: Andrew (UK)
date: Tuesday 30th November 2010
text: |-
I regularly help a lady who swears by the Amstrad and Locoscript pro and who interact with others in her business/charity via email and the internet.\
As a result I myself do a lot of swearing, inwardly to myself of course..\
These computers are interesting as a stroll down memory lane ,but please please dear lady get a modern computer with word and office so I don'' t have to struggle with incompatible printers and converting documents to preper ones that everyone else can actually access and read.!! Please don''t promote these old machines and programs as being "better" than modern ones they aren''t!!! If that is all you had of course they were wonderful, in their day.....!!
- author: Jamie
date: Wednesday 24th November 2010
text: Where can you get drive bands for these beasts?
- author: Zoltan G-Wagner (Sweden)
date: Tuesday 5th October 2010
text: |-
I got two computer systems\
Amstrad PCW 8512 System – with disks $-))\
both in good condition.\
I want to sell them.\
zolle at lund.riksnet.se
- author: Blakkar (UK)
date: Friday 24th September 2010
text: Re Herwig (Belgium)''s comments. I have a dongle that enables me to connect my PCW512 to my PC, and also a PC version of Locoscript that enables me to open the files on the PC. The texts can then be converted and imported into MS Word, so there should be no need for Herwig to retype all his old documents.
- author: Herwig (Belgium)
date: Wednesday 22nd September 2010
text: |-
I still have several PCW256, upgraded tp 512 internally.\
Several... it''s not a joke. 2 in running condition, 2 for parts. Allthough I don''t use them anymore, except a few times in a year I need to access some old files. I did chance rubber belts several times, and I have a bag full of these driving belts. I also cleaned all belt drive parts from grease/dust at that occasion. It had been routine $)\
I used them intensively, often with no switch off for weeks continuously. The total amount of hours these machines have been running are just uncountable.\
I had many professional programs written in Mallard Basic, the most used was a building heat loss calulation program, based on the Britisch Standard on heat loss $ insulation of buildings.\
I did all my (technical) textprocessing, on PCW (from 1985 onwards to 2006...) , painfully experiencing afterwards how excessive much hours of typing and editing have been accumulated $ stored on these 3" disks... I still use PDF versions of Locoscript files, that don''t need editing for reuse.\
In a way, a few defects that damaged discs lead to loss of some part of my old data.\
I am not considering the PCW''s a museum pieces yet. Probably, I''ll need them at least 5-6 years more, until I''ve got time to retype most of my old library... $)
- author: CPASTU (USA)
date: Sunday 12th September 2010
text: Just bought a \*broken\* PCW off ebay a couple weeks ago. My Mom used to use it in the late 80''s-early 90''s when my Dad was stationed in the UK. Their computer broke long ago and they disposed of it. I thought it would be cool to try to access her old data (she wrote children''s stories). Sure enough all I had to do was replace the old band drive band with a regular old rubber band and it accesses all her old files perfectly. I''m really shocked in how great a shape the data is still in after all these years.
- author: Robert Milne (UK)
date: Thursday 9th September 2010
text: Some time in the mid-80''s I wrote a Mallard Basic programme for the Amstrad PCW range$ it was called "FELIX", the Filename and Extension Lister and IndeXer. It read the names and locations of every file on all your floppies, storing the results in Drve M, a virtual disc drive prior to transferring the catalogue to a floppy. Then, when you couldn''t remember where a file was, you simply asked FELIX. The software was favourably reviewed in both dedicated magazines at the time, but sales were abysmal to non-existent.... I doubt if anyone remembers it.
- author: Sandy (Hometown, USA)
date: Tuesday 31st August 2010
text: I have the 2 original diskettes and the manuals from the 8526/8512 in excellent condition. The diskettes were never used except to make copies of them and they were carefully stored in a clean dry place. Make me an offer through my website link above if interested. Thanks!
- author: Sandy (Hometown, USA)
date: Tuesday 31st August 2010
text: |-
I owned 2 of the Amstrad PCW 8256 machines. The first was purchased in 1986 for $500 USD at sears. The second for $400 sometime after when they began closing them out. I ran my business using Locoscript and even designed custom templates to look more professional. The issue with these machines mainly was that the belt that operated the disc drive would stretch over time and the drive would not be able to read the discs without errors. when the belt went on the older one, I began using the newer one. I ordered 2 replacement belts because my understanding was that they deteriorated with time as well as usage and that it would not be long before it happened to the newer machine. Replacing the belt was the first computer repair I ever performed. I recall that it was tricky because if you turned something the wrong way or held it upside down, a pin would fall out and the machine would become a doorstop. I worked from hand-written directions supplied with the belts that turned out to be pretty good (thanks to a USA guru named Harvey?).
Eventually I handed down both machines (one at a time) to my Dad. The newer machine''s belt finally gave out a second time earlier this year (2010). I told my dad that it is not worth fixing anymore and that he would have to move to a modern PC. He is not happy! Once he commits to make the move, I''ll look into getting his discs converted, but I told him that it may no longer be possible.
- author: Webmaster (France)
date: Monday 14th June 2010
text: |-
@Stuart
3.5'''' disks were the usual ones.\
Amstrad systems used the weird 3'''' size disks.
- author: Stuart
date: Monday 14th June 2010
text: |-
I use to use an 8256 and, IIRC, it was an unusual three-and-a-half inch floppy disk.
But I stand to be corrected.
- author: Erik (Australia)
date: Saturday 24th April 2010
text: |-
My grandparents owned, and still do, an Amstrad PCW 8256. They bought the system for my mum''s brother who was at university at the time so he could write his assignments etc. The floppy disks were strange. They were sort of like the 3.5" diskettes going out of fashion today, but they were half an inch shorter and the opening for the magnetic coated plastic inside looked like a 5.25" disk opening. The only differences that I could recall was that the PCW 8256 had 1 disk drive (it was single sided: you had to boot LocoScript, eject the disk, flip it, re$ it, and then press F1)and 256 KB of RAM, whereas the PCW 8512 had 512KB RAM and 2 disk drives. Don''t know if the PCW 8512 had double sided disk drives or not. The printer was a dot matrix system, which was pretty cool (for the 80s), and you could set it to tractor feed or friction feed (which is what a lot of electric typewriters used). It had no games, but if you were skilled enough you could make a Dots and Dashes game with a LocoScript file and then print out the result.\
You could use the Amstrad PCW as a CP/M system, which I thought was neat, but I never tried it myself.
- author: Alex Taylor
date: Friday 3rd July 2009
text: 'Dave (UK): so you''''ve got a typewriter that will do spreadsheets, DTP and relational databases?'
- author: Roger (UK)
date: Wednesday 11th March 2009
text: |-
After 20 years use the drive belt disintergrated. I replaced it only to disrupt the wright-protect mech.
Does anybody want my 8256 for free with discs, books and manuals? Though I would like some help deleting the files from the discs.
rogier@cat3home.wanadoo.co.uk
- author: Silas Denyer
date: Wednesday 27th August 2008
text: |-
My Mother wrote several books on her basic, unexpanded PCW8256. The biggest drawback was that you could only save a document to disk which was AT MOST half the disk size, as the new version was saved first before deleting the old version.
Thus it was very easy to write a long document only to be told it was too big to save!
On the plus side, the PCW also shipped with dBase to run over CP/M, so you could run a "real" business on it.
- author: Dave (UK)
date: Tuesday 12th August 2008
text: Glorified typewriter. Period.
- author: Madcrow (USA)
date: Sunday 12th August 2007
text: |-
I got a used PCW from someone and while it boots, I can't seem to actually use LocoSript. I can't figure out how to select a menu item! (The logical choice of Return doesn't do squat)
Any help here?
- author: Welsh Dog (Sydney)
date: Thursday 7th June 2007
text: |-
The Amstrad pcw8256 was for it's time \*the\* best machine on the market and a total knock-out for value.
I bought one as soon as they were available and I honestly believe that without I would never have passed my first degree!
The machine was a little underpowered as a computer maybe, but as a Wordprocessor it was far and away the best out there. Locoscript was way ahead both of its time and the rest of the market.
When you bag it remember that at that time it cost £4k for an IBM (I still have a catalogue!) and £450 for the PCW... competition?? I think not.
- author: Alex Taylor (UK)
date: Friday 29th December 2006
text: |-
Andrew J's negative comments here are wrong for so many reasons. Why berate a computer that simply doesn't meet your needs? Most of the arguments presented seem to be comparing apples to oranges.
The £100 XT computer might have been much cheaper than the PCW. However the XT would have cost £3000 or so when new. Comparing new and second-hand computer prices is meaningless.
If the supplied BASIC didn't do the job, get another programming language! The PCW's just another CP/M computer, so there's Turbo Pascal, Hisoft C, and a whole load of other BASICs out there.
"Worst piece of electronics hardware"? In what way? I have loads of them, and other that the cheap 3" drives, they still work fine. To me that would seem to indicate a reasonably good piece of hardware (except the drives, of course).
Spell checkers were available, including LocoSpell for LocoScript itself, and the spell checkers from other word processors such as Protext. You may have had to pay extra for LocoSpell, but don't forget that with most computers of the time, you would have had to have paid loads of extra money just for the word processor itself - which may not have included a spell checker.
The ZX Spectrum 48K had colour and sound, but stored programs and data on audio tapes, only had a 32-column screen, had no in-built connection for a printer, and a poor keyboard. I like the Spectrum for many reasons, it was my first computer, but it's not a word processor or business computer.
Trying to compare new and second-hand computers by price is strange and futile. Trying to compare computers that aim at different market sectors is also odd, because they'll have a completely different mix of features and price points.
One of the PCW's minus points is of course the 3" disks. However it's worth bearing in mind that 3.5" drives can be fitted to older PCWs, and Amstrad themselves switched formats by the eary 90s.
The PCW was very good at what it did, and offered a lot for the price. In the mid-80s, it eliminated the typical hassle of buying a computer, software and a printer and then trying to get them to work properly together. It did it at a low price by using the out-going and unfashionable but well-proven 8-bit CP/M technology, in a market sector that didn't care about that kind of thing, only wanting something to do its job with a minimum of fuss.
- author: Andrew J (UK)
date: Sunday 26th February 2006
text: This 'computer' if it so can be called, has got to be one of the worst pieces of electronics hardware ever made. So it was meant to be a dedicated word processor, it didn't even have a spell check or thesaurus facility. It used those silly 3" disks that were difficult to find, nothing else used them, and they couldn't store much information at all. What else could you do with it, nothing. Mallard BASIC was pants, no functionality at all. What could you do if you had no disks? Nothing! No built in program/BASIC in the ROM here, oh no!! Most other computers of the day allowed you to do something productive as soon as the machine was turned on. The point is, I dumped my crappy PCW 8256 as fast as I could, and bought a 2nd hand IBM PC XT for £100, about £400 cheaper than that PCW. With my IBM I could word process in style with Display Write 4, including spell checking! Also, I could program and compile my own utilities and programs. I could find other software titles for my IBM, and
I still use it today from time to time. It had a hard drive and a decent sized capacity floppy drive. DTP on the PCW? Micro design 2 was primitive and difficult to use. I spent hours trying to do something productive and trying to learn something on this heap of junk. Needless to say, I learnt a lot more on my IBM XT than I ever could have from that PCW. Also, CP/M was crumby, although popular at the time of 8bit micro's 16bits was the way forward, IBM was using an 80286 at the time Amstrad was stuck with a Z80!! I remember picking up a ZX Spectrum 48k for £5 a couple years after I owned the PCW, and thinking that it was infinitely better - instantly on and useable, program away, store on something that is readily available and cheap, colour and graphics!! ZX was miles better! Anyway, the PCW, shouldn't be called a 'computer' at all, at best it was a crumby word processor, nay, a text processor! I shudder every time I think about it. Can't wait to dump it on Alan Sugars lawn and drive
off! What was he thinking? Where is he now and what is IBM doing? Point proven.
- author: Neil MacGregor (Huntly Aberdeenshire Scotland)
date: Wednesday 15th February 2006
text: I have 1No. Amstrad 8512 still working and three pcw printers plus locoscript books and 30 3inch disks available cost of postage delivery only.
- author: Maida (Barcelona)
date: Sunday 12th February 2006
text: |-
I own an Amstrad PCW 8256 which is still working, what I would need is ink for the printer or if someone is interested in having it I would welcome offers.!!!\
Kind regards to all the collectors\
Maida
- author: Jaume de la Vega Cercos (spain)
date: Sunday 24th April 2005
text: |-
My father got one 8256 from 1987 to 2002, and all those years worked ok, only the drive belt problem in the year 1995 replaced by one almost identical (a bit short) from an old stereo, considering the fragile substitute the machine worked fine until 2002 when an accident moving the table broked the screen...
I still remember making some nice homeworks with the locoscript (made the schoolwork with a computer in 1993 was astonishing). I also learned to play chess with a game in the amstrad (also cached the taste for programming with mallard basic)...
Also remember because the printer tape shortage (old times but older computer) Forces us for a time to use charcoal paper instead of ink...
- author: Teresa Griffith (Charlton, South East London)
date: Saturday 9th April 2005
text: |-
Hi guys
I've enjoyed reading these messages. My son learnt to program on an 8256 and it was directly responsible for me obtaining two secretarial jobs back in the 80s. Because it was an unusual machine if an office used it you were streets ahead of the IBM girlies whom incidently I envied madly. Anyway here I am now in the world of Windows and IBM so if anyone wants my old 8256 please do let me know.
Many thanks
Teri
- author: Perry Spiller (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 2nd March 2005
text: I had an 8256, then 8512. I added a "daughter" board called something like Cirtech. The details of which are sketchy in my memory. But it expanded the RAM exponentially (for that era) and I recall it boosted the Hz to 8. I also bought a 1200/75 modem. I had to reverse the dialing sequences, because UK 999 = NZ 111. I even ran an HP Laserjet printer from ye olde PCW. I still have everything, in boxes - somewhere! I've yet to see a modern pop-up database to beat Locofile. And I'm still looking.
- author: Keith (UK)
date: Monday 21st February 2005
text: The Amstrad PCW8256/8512 also had an external extra RAM, the Locomotive Power Pack (LPP512). Which is what I'm looking for at the moment as I've just jiggered mine, leaving many of my documents inaccessible.
- author: Andy (NW England)
date: Thursday 3rd February 2005
text: |-
I remember buying one of these for use at home when I first started college. Our college had a room full of them, for us to type up our work on. We all used Locoscript 1 and some of us even had Locomail as well! We also used a basic DTP program, but i can't remember what it was called. I also remember purchasing an external 3 1/5" disc drive because the discs were cheaper, and the most amazing graphics program of the time 'MicroDesign 2' (these cost me about £150 together). I also remember buying over the years, a centronics interface so that I could use a 'real' dot matrix or bubblejet printer, Locosript 2, with 'mail, 'spell and 'file - and some time after that, Locoscript 3 !!! (now that could handle colour printing !)\
We must have used it for about 8-9 years before it finally died on us altogether, and we had to buy something else. I only threw it away about 5 years ago when I moved house (I must have been sentimental about the old thing).
- author: Mike King (spain)
date: Tuesday 21st September 2004
text: |-
Hi\
Amazing what you can come across browsing around. I used PCW8512's for years.\
I remember when Amstrad launched the PCW8256 as a "PC for less than the price of an electric typwriter" - £199.\
The Amstrad Ad showed a PCW on a desk with a bin full of busted up computer parts beside it with the caption "it's all over now, baby blue!"\
As a word processor it was as good as any around at the time but we had to switch off and run the cpm operating system to do anything else.\
Around '87 or '88 we may have well had the first European email system.\
Telecom Gold had a secure mailbox system based in London and via a 300 baud modem and the telephone line we comunicated, between the UK and Spain, at the speed of around 1 char/second.\
In the end we decided that it would never catch on and bought at fax machine instead.
Mike
- author: Tim Casswell (Llandovery)
date: Saturday 31st July 2004
text: My father is suffering the early stages of Alzheimers and his Amstrad 8256 is also showing similar symptoms. It doesn't seem to boot up and I have no experience of it. Can anyone give any ideas for how we might get it to work. Or how we might be able to transfer his addrss list onto PC or MAc compatible formats. Or just printing out the data? Thanks repies to tim@creativeconnection.co.uk please.
- author: Ketlan Ossowski ( )
date: Saturday 12th June 2004
text: |-
I had a succession of 8512's over about ten years and the extras that became available made it into an extremely useful machine - in particular, a wonderful DTP programme that along with a hand scanner from the same company (I think, Creative Technology) gave a major boost to productivity.\
People used to tell me how crap it was compared to the average PC (probably 2086 at that time) but still asked me to produce their leaflets and posters for them.\
This and the addition of a half-decent bubblejet made the 8512 a great little machine - and a lot more reliable than most of those on the market today.
- author: Keith Patterson (U.K.)
date: Friday 9th April 2004
text: I still have this computer for sentimental purposes. I bought it in 1986 at Sears while I was in college. Believe it or not, I feel that it was way ahead of its time. I had some games for it too like Adventure (maze of twisty passages all different). The only reason I stopped using it (@1992) was because I could no longer find the printer ribbons for it.
- author: Corinne (Delaware (USA))
date: Wednesday 3rd September 2003
text: I am in possesion of two Amstrad PCW8256 computers. My father purchased one from Sears years ago to write a book of his life story. He then purchased a used one to utilize for a needed printer part. Unfortunately the book was never completed as Alzheimer's has taken his ability to operate a computer as well as recall his life memories. I am not very familiar with this computers capabilities but in reading some postings it seems that users truely enjoyed it. I believe one of the systems I have is in working order and wonder if anyone close to my location would be in need of it.
- author: Paul (London)
date: Thursday 24th July 2003
text: |-
Hello, I am new to this forum, so please forgive me.
I used to own a PCW8512 a few years back, but the thing broke down and got chucked away. After a rose-tinted spectacle moment i bought a PCW8256 off Ebay, so I could use some of my old software and files.\
The most dissapointing thing is that my version of Batman, by Ocean, does not seem to work. It worked the first time i put it on, but now it jut fails. i turn the pcw on, put the disk in, and all I get is a flashing screen and a sort of grinding sound which repeats a few times before stopping and emitting a beep.\
I was wondering if you knew what the problem was, and whether you know where I might be able to get a replacement, or copy of a disk.
Sorry to have bothered you with such a long query.
Yours
Paul
- author: Marek Twardowski (Gdynia, Poland)
date: Friday 21st February 2003
text: |-
Hello,
Congratulations on very interesting site!
Back in December 1987 I have purchased the Amstrad PCW8256 for USD 400. .\
The machine was incredible! I used it until late 1996, when I changed into Pentium 133 IMB clone, with much regret. However, the LocoScript was so slow, that when it wound a text 30 pages long you could indeed make yourself a coffe, drink it, clean the dishes, etc. On the other hand it had several functions which I miss until today - like the KEEP function.\
Later on I had some trouble with the floppy (the rubber drive band went slack), so I had to purchase a similar band for a tape recorder, cut it in necessary length and fasten the ends with some Superglue. However it was just a stopgap measure and had to be repeated every two months, so finally I settled for a 1.2 MB 5.25" floppy drive, downgraded to 720 kB, fitted externally, in support of the 3" drive. All my archives were stored on 5.25" floppies.\
My friend purchased his PCW8256 half a year earlier, for GBP 400 (quite a difference, isn't it!). He had similar problems, but he was better off so went straight to 3,5" floppy.\
At that time the cost of ribbon for the dot matrix printer was prohibitive (here in Poland of course - comparable to our monthly wage !!). Therefore I used to remove the ribbon casette, take a carbon copy paper, put it over the paper and print. The needles hit the carbon paper and the result was excellent.\
Later I got the DBase2 and could use my PCW for other applications as well.\
Transferring data between PCW and IBM Pcs was another story. It became important for me in early 1990. I have found a program to do it, however it could be done only via a 5,25" disc. On my PCW I could prepare text files in DOS (for IBM XT computer), but I could not import them. Therefore I had to go to my other friend (living in another city!) and he could transfer those files to CPM files on his Amstrad CPC256 computer.\
Those were the days!
Best regards,\
Marek Twardowski\
Gdynia, Poland
- author: Doug Eyre (USA (Hewitt, TX))
date: Wednesday 3rd April 2002
text: |-
I was in the USAF at RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom when the\
Amstrad came out and they sold them in our base exchange. The nearby\
town of Thetford had a computer store that sold me a kit to upgrade to\
an 8512.
I loved the machine and when I was ready to leave the USAF for\
retirement, a short notice job opportunity arose,
I had three hours to write a resume and a cover letter. I wrote and\
printed that one resume and cover letter on the PCW. As a result of the\
letter and resume, I have been employed in my present firm since October\
of 1988. If that machine had never done another thing for me, it helped\
me get my job!
I had the opportunity to visit the US on temporary duty and went to a\
Sears store in Richardson, TX. While in the store I saw a PCW for sale.\
I asked the salesman if he had any additional software for the machine.\
He looked at me like I was from outer space and made it very clear that\
the machine was strictly a word processor. He walked off with his nose\
stuck in the air.
I immediately yanked out the word processing disc, flipped it over to\
the side that had the Mallard Basic on it and quite quickly wrote a four\
line basic program that printed and scrolled across the screen, "I AM A\
COMPUTER, NOT JUST A WORD PROCESSOR!" and started it running. I called\
the salesman back and pointed at the machine and made the comment, "It\
knows more about what it can do than you do!" and I walked off. I don't\
know if the salesman ever was able to figure out how to turn the machine\
back into a word processor again!
There were countless programs available for the machine. Obviously any\
graphics were strictly limited to black and green but for general use in\
that day, the machine was exceptionally advanced and reasonably priced.\
I used the machine extensively for church management while I was in\
England in a mission work for the Church of God out of Cleveland, TN. I\
used spreadsheets for my checkbook management and the machine even ran\
dBase II. It played King's Quest as well.
As another aside, the printer used a ribbon that could be bought from\
Radio Shack for one of their printers. The printer did a very good job\
considering that it was a dot matrix.
I sold the machine to a contractor who just wanted a simple word\
processor in 1995. It was a good machine and worth every penny of the\
original $399 that I paid for it.
- author: John Palmer (Dorset, England)
date: Tuesday 12th February 2002
text: I used my "Joyce" in 1985 to write a program in Mallard Basic simulating a "runaway" condition (like Chernobyl) in the reactors of Britain's nuclear submarines. And it worked too (but for completion of program I sometimes had to leave Joyce running for 48 hours!) This historic Joyce is now for sale or giveaway to someone who will love and respect her.
related:
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content/museum/amstrad-pcw-9512.md
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 compiled/archived by Charles Da Silva\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Amstrad.CPC](http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/)
comments:
- author: Sam
date: Thursday 14th November 2013
text: |-
Becky, pretty sure 499 was the retail price back then! As this site mentions, they sold 700,000 of these! Since demand for them isn''t quite what it was, a bit of basic economics tells me you might get 10 or 20 quid for it, if someone really wants one.
Collectors of old computers are nearly all private individuals reliving their past, and appreciating the specialness that''s hard to explain. We''re usually not rich, and we''re certainly not insane!
Perhaps someone online will be grateful to get it off you cheap, postage will be a bugger though.
- author: Becky Platt (Weybridge UK)
date: Sunday 29th September 2013
text: |-
I am hoping to get some advice. After having a clear out I have come across a working (I think!) Amstrad pcw 9512 and wanted to know the best place to sell this?
Can anyone recommend somewhere that would buy vintage computers and also what sort of price I could expect as I saw £499 on this site but wasn''t sure!
Any help would be great as would like to sell ASAP!
- author: Keylogger software (USA)
date: Tuesday 6th November 2012
text: Keylogger for Mac application is used to trace and record keyboard actions, chat sessions using Gmail, facebook accounts.
- author: Stephen Page (Scotland)
date: Thursday 28th June 2012
text: I am reliably informed that if your having difficulties getting ribbons for your PCW 9512 try looking for ribbons for an Olympia Carrera II, they are the same.
- author: Fred Sheehan (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 27th February 2012
text: |-
@Adam Campbell and any other user of this type of PC
You can transfer all of your old word processor documents to a newer computer running Microsoft Office or any compatible, like the free Open Office suite.\
This would allow you to compile a document containing all of your chapters.
All word processors, including your old Amstrad support saving files as Rich Text Format (.rtf) and this will preserve the document with it''s main formatting like paragraphs, tabs and new lines, and can be imported into a newer word processing document with ease. (important, you have to look for the ''import as'' menu it is not ''automatic'' to import it in some programs)
I used to have the earlier Amstrad PCW 8512 with the green monochrome screen and had to do this for all my college assignments as the local college only accepted word documents double spaced.
Hope this helps!\
Fred
- author: Chris Ze Miller (Shropshire,UK)
date: Tuesday 31st January 2012
text: In the mid 1980s the only dedicated wordprocessor on the market and displayed at The Which Computer Show cost £8000.I cant remember the makers name.My need was for a machine to produce a mail order catalogue that had fractions on its keyboard because I was dealing in old fishing tackle and fishing reels were in sizes 31/4 inch$3 1/2 inch$3 3/4 inch$3 1/8 inch etc I went round every computer sales team at every show and no one did fractions on their keyboard or could grasp how to get around it and I came to the conclusion all the computer companies were employing car sales reps who looked pretty but knew f all about their products! The £8000 word processor had these fractions but as I had just bought my shop freehold for £18,000 I wasnt about to spend half as much again on a machine! In January 1988 I bought my Amstrad 9512 which had fractions on its keys!It cost £582.22 including VAT which I got back.Within a week I was posting a mail order catalogue worldwide at 15 characters
per inch on A3 sheets using the daisywheel printer and a Nashua Photocopier.It was fantastic and I did not have to go to evening classes to learn how to use the machine nor read copious amounts of text in the instruction book.But from that day to this I have still not transferred all my printed material to a modern Windows environment.Sadly the 9512 has a little battery in it which died some years ago and now my Amstrad does not work as a result.I dont know how I would transfer my CPM86 discs to Microsoft Word but in answer to Adam.Recently I bought an A3 colour copier,scanner,printer and my ambition is to scan all my old mail order catalogues (which were A3) into my new Windows 7 computer and pray the character recognition software (ocr) recognises my Amstrad daisywheel 15 characters per inch print!
- author: adam campbell (London, England)
date: Friday 14th October 2011
text: |-
Dear any 9512 user,
I have written a novel with 14 chapters. All are on SEPERATE FILES. I have been asked to submit the novel on ONE FILE only. I have tried and tried to attach the chapters and have got as far as attaching 11 together - then half way through trying to attach chapter 12 to 11 I am told my disc is full. However I have loads of room left on the disc! What am I doing wrong? I just need all 14 files on ONE FILE. The publisher wants it emailed that way. I already have a company that can transfer an amstrad disc to a modern computer disc.
Any ideas?
With many, many thanks,
Adam Campbell
- author: adam campbell (London, England)
date: Friday 14th October 2011
text: |-
Dear any 9512 user,
I have written a novel with 14 chapters. All are on SEPERATE FILES. I have been asked to submit the novel on ONE FILE only. I have tried and tried to attach the chapters and have got as far as attaching 11 together - then half way through trying to attach chapter 12 to 11 I am told my disc is full. However I have loads of room left on the disc! What am I doing wrong? I just need all 14 files on ONE FILE. The publisher wants it emailed that way. I already have a company that can transfer an amstrad disc to a modern computer disc.
Any ideas?
With many, many thanks,
Adam Campbell
- author: adam campbell (London, England)
date: Friday 14th October 2011
text: |-
Dear any 9512 user,
I have written a novel with 14 chapters. All are on SEPERATE FILES. I have been asked to submit the novel on ONE FILE only. I have tried and tried to attach the chapters and have got as far as attaching 11 together - then half way through trying to attach chapter 12 to 11 I am told my disc is full. However I have loads of room left on the disc! What am I doing wrong? I just need all 14 files on ONE FILE. The publisher wants it emailed that way. I already have a company that can transfer an amstrad disc to a modern computer disc.
Any ideas?
With many, many thanks,
Adam Campbell
- author: Noobsaibot73 (Spain (Madrid))
date: Thursday 30th June 2011
text: |-
Amdrew, check the drive belt, in old 3" and 3 1/2 drives is a very common problem, with the passing of time this rubber is degradated and, as a result of this, the drive is not able to read disks.
Check this and replace the drive belt if it''s damaged (if your PCW has installed a 3" drive you can use a drive belt for the CPC6128 which is available on many ebay shops at a very low cost).
Keep in mind that Amstrad 3" units have a pin in order to check if the disk is write protected or if it''s not, take care of this and try to maintain this pin in it''s position or your drive won''t be able to check if the disk is protected or not.
Hope this will be of any help for you. Kind regards.
- author: Amdrew
date: Tuesday 21st June 2011
text: |-
PLEASE HELP! I have recently aquired an Amstrad PCW 9512. However when I $ the boot disk the flloppy drive lights up, but it does not boot. Any suggestions will be appreciated at:\
nigelferguson6@gmail.com
- author: Jeff (USA)
date: Monday 10th May 2010
text: |-
For folks looking for help with the Amstrad PCW\
spare parts/tips/etc\
http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/lux/sitemap.html
- author: Gavin White (Ireland)
date: Saturday 20th November 2004
text: |-
I NEED HELP! I have information which I need printed or even better converted form my 3" 9512 disc onto more accessable format. I have four discs holding my university dissertation and other undergraduate essays. I lost the only hard copy of my disseration while moving house and would really love to access it again. CAN YOU HELP!!!!!
Gavin
- author: zelez (Czech republic)
date: Friday 2nd May 2003
text: |-
Hi, I'm looking for boot diskettes for PCW 9512. Thanx in advance 4 help\
Pavel
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content/museum/amstrad-penpad.md
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subtitle: ''
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 compiled/archived by Charles Da Silva\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [Amstrad.CPC](http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/)
comments:
- author: Nick (UK)
date: Friday 23rd April 2021
text: I wrote the spreadsheet for this piece of junk, so I spent a lot of time using it. It was innovative at the time, but the handwriting recognition was really poor which let it down. My spreadsheet was good though $-)
- author: Roger the Dodger (UK)
date: Monday 29th April 2013
text: |-
Hi. my (ex) wife bought me one of these when they were reduced to £50. It was great in theory but the processor wasn''t fast enough to keep up with handwriting, and the handwriting reader never managed my handwriting. The main problem was unit was driven by three AA cells if I remember right, and the memory wasn''t backed up with a lithium cell so I had a battery failure and lost all the data. As I was using the thing as my diary and contacts list, I lost all my work (needless to say I didn''t have a backup, so it was as much my fault).\
Losing all my diary entries caused so many problems and so much work to put right I have never since used an electronic diary - only a paper one.\
After the loss of all my data I never trusted the unit to work and I can''t remember what became of it after that (I probably sold it or smashed it up)
- author: Tom Geller (USA)
date: Wednesday 30th June 2010
text: |-
Hi, Diego. I doubt you''ll get this (or care if you do), but I just unpacked an old PDA600 that had been in storage and found that it, too, had that melting problem $ it was like it was covered in honey. Disgusting! I was able to clean it off with rubbing alcohol, a rag, and lots of elbow grease.
I suspect the sticky stuff was the rubberized coating it used to have. Once it''s removed, it''s covered with a sort of plain, slick plastic. Good luck!
- author: Silas Denyer
date: Wednesday 27th August 2008
text: |-
Like many, I bought one of these from Tandy. It was a great idea in theory, but too flawed in practice. The main problem was that it was just too bulky to carry around!
I gave mine to a friend who used it in an industrial setting. There it was great - he hooked it up via serial link for interrogating water treatment plant controllers on-site.
If Amstrad had produced a rugged version with some decent comms software and an SDK (and $ped the bundled software, to be honest) they could have shifted thousands of them!
- author: Newbieold (UK)
date: Tuesday 17th October 2006
text: Hi Diego, ive just aquired a PDA600 and it has the same sticky problem as you, I read elsewhere to rub the unit with alcohol (for an hour or so) and it wont remove the logos - not tried it myself yet but will have to, its so damn sticky!
- author: Diego (NJ, USA)
date: Monday 18th September 2006
text: |-
My Penpad seems to be melting....\
I guess that at some point it was cleaned with some product that should not have been used, and now it's sticky, just as if the plastic material was melting very slowly.\
Anyone has any sugestions about how to solve this problem?
- author: S-Denmark (Dreamland)
date: Thursday 14th September 2006
text: |-
From the page: "However, Amstrad's approach with the PDA600 was very much more primitive with users only able to input one letter at a time in a box at the bottom of the screen."
This is actually incorrect -- that description sounds more like Palm machines. The PDA600's screen was divided into a grid of small boxes, into which you wrote individual characters. So you couldn't write freehand, but you could write separate letters and see them. There was no box at the bottom of the screen, or anything like that,
- author: Rezty Felty (UK)
date: Wednesday 26th October 2005
text: I was given one of these as a gift by my boss in 1994. I loved it and thought it worked quite well, but it was too fragile for me - 6 months after I started using it, i was looking up a number in it while in an airport phone kiosk, and it slid to the floor, shattering the glass screen. I think i still have it laying around somewhere if anyone is interested in the parts.
- author: David (Cambridge UK)
date: Thursday 28th October 2004
text: |-
My Amstrad PDA600 was a completely unexpected christmas gift. I had spotted them for sale in Tandy for 50quid and said how cool thay looked. I received the PDA, 2meg PCMCIA card and leather cover.
The text recognition was basic, but did the job once you learnt to write in the style it wanted. My PDA served me well through college and I still have very fond memories of it.\
David
oc_id: 876
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608090329/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=876
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subtitle: ''
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- title: Amstrad PPC 640 with hard disk
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxKBeEvtew
text: 'Length: 9:28'
comments:
- author: Jack Ungerleider (USA)
date: Monday 13rd December 2010
text: I had one of these and have to agree that the screen wasn''t that bad when compared to others of the era. I had used it with an adapter for Shortwave radios that allowed you to decode various types of transmissions. I sold it to a guy at a swap meet who was going to use it for a packet radio terminal. He liked the full keyboard and the "convenient" size. :-)
- author: Curtis Burisch (Johannesburg)
date: Tuesday 19th October 2010
text: |-
I had one of these things, and it really was a truly horrible piece of hardware.
The screen was so bad that even with an anglepoise lamp positioned directly over it, you could barely read it. Who came up with the idea of a non-backlit black-on-dark-green LCD?? It''s just nuts.
And yes, it will run on 8 D-cell batteries. Good luck getting an hour''s use out of them! Running on batteries is a hideously expensive proposition.
I ran MS-DOS 3.3 happily on this machine. I bought it second-hand with no software, if I remember correctly.
If you have one of these, just toss it in the bin. It really doesn''t deserve to be remembered.
- author: David Frith (United Kingdom)
date: Wednesday 20th November 2019
text: |-
I remember a 640 coming into our company''s possession in the late 80''s. We ran our business systems on an IBM S/36, and our month end processing took all week-end. I had to drive to the factory 2 or 3 times every month-end weekend to check the processing was OK, and fix any errors if necessary and prod it along again. We had a PC in the systems office with a S/36 terminal emulator in it, and it also had a modem (for sending BACS payments).\
So, when we got the PPC640, I was able to transfer the S/36 console to the systems office PC, and take the PPC home, and dial in and use PCAnywhere to run the PC which had the S/36 Console. Absolutely brilliant for its day. What used to take a few hours out of my weekends now took a few minutes. I don''t remember any complaints about the screen.
- author: Dmitry (Russia)
date: Tuesday 4th June 2019
text: |-
Hello,\
I have one in my collection - it’s Amstrad PPC512DD with two floppy drives. Unfortunately my PC does not have a cover for battery compartment. Could you please help me to get this item without buying the whole machine? Is there either a source of spare parts for Amstrad PPC? I love my vintage laptop and going to set it in the best condition possible. Would be very grateful for any assistance.
- author: Cameron (Canada)
date: Friday 26th April 2019
text: I still have one.In case with books and all cords.Except for the slew of D cell batteries one needs to have on hand if no plugs or 12v car holes are around it worked like a charm. And you can play some basic games on it.Reaaaaal basic.It is next to me right now. I like to take it to cyber cafes and plop it on a table just to see what people do and how they react.lol
- author: Jes Woodland (United Kingdom)
date: Friday 30th March 2018
text: I actually have a fully functional PPC640 complete with original power supply,manuals and discs in the ''handy'' carry case!
- author: Ronnie
date: Thursday 11th January 2018
text: |-
I have the "User Instructions" book if anyone wants it.\
Free as long as you pay the postage.\
FL, USA
- author: Jeff Joseph (VA USA)
date: Tuesday 31st January 2017
text: |-
LCD screen was par for the era. Was useable. This Amstrad had a full-size keyboard with a numeric keypad, an unusual feature for a portable. Also outstanding was that the modem was 1200 baud. Every other portable from this era only had 300 baud.
The 8 Mhz V30 was a fast chip for the day, and ran CP/M-80 2.2 with a software package like 22nice. I use it to run KAMAS, Out-Think, Supercalc, and Wordstar on the Amstrad. Download 22nice and 22disk from www.CPM80.com.
- author: Alan
date: Wednesday 9th March 2016
text: I bought one of these (the 640) when they first came out. We used it almost entirely to drive an lcd panel that sat on an overhead projector and let you project onto a standard screen. For us it was a great buy, about six hundred pounds less than a standalone modem that could do the same speed, for remote demonstrations to potential customers. And no fan meant it was silent. That unit and the lcd panel made a teriffic sales tool and really helped convince customers we were a state of the art ncompany. It was cheaply made - but the tosh 486 laptop i had later cost six thousand pounds...
- author: sarah langan (United Kingdom)
date: Tuesday 20th October 2015
text: |-
anyone know what power lead this requires and where I can get one?\
I have a PPC512 but no lead so can''t tell if it works (want to sell it)
- author: Drwh0 (Spain)
date: Thursday 8th January 2015
text: |-
For Nigel Ferguson (UK), the problem with keyboard is solved doing this:
Unmount keyboard, separate the 2 plastic keyboard membranes (with your problem both seems one), try to separate from each other (don´t worry both are independent in spite that it seems glued), after that clean both with alcohol or something equivalent, after that mount again and problem solved.
Is the very same problem that suffers CPC+ machines
Hope it helps you
- author: Nigel Ferguson (UK)
date: Tuesday 8th July 2014
text: I recently purchased a PPC 640. When it starts up it displays "Check Keyboard" and stops. Looking at the manual shows that this occurs when the PPC thinks a key is pressed during startup. I have checked the keyboard and all the keys appear to be not pressed. If any of you have any ideas please email me on nigelferguson6@gmail.com
- author: chris (uk)
date: Friday 9th August 2013
text: Hi i just fired up my one which i had in the loft from about 1990 when i bought it new , it still works perfectly!! they built these babies to last )
- author: Tristan Mumford (Australia)
date: Saturday 10th November 2012
text: I have one of these, along with its backpack case. Still worked last time I tried it. Wasn''t masochistic enough to try the modem. Plays Prince of Persia just fine though.
- author: srichey
date: Tuesday 4th September 2012
text: I bought one of these back in 89 along with some cheap word processing software and a 9 dot matrix printer. Piece of crap setup, but soooo much better than using a typewriter. It got me through my first couple of years of college.
- author: James Khoury (Atlanta, GA, USA)
date: Monday 23rd July 2012
text: Back in early June, a friend of mine gave me a PPC640 and some floppies. Indoors, the screen is nothing to phone home about but it at least offers proper aspect ratio. Also, outdoors in sunlight the screen is very nice to look at. The computer serves mainly as a conversation piece. I love the styling and keyboard so maybe I''ll find a use for the machine one day.
- author: Ken (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 25th February 2012
text: I was given one of these when I worked for ICL over 22 years ago. OK, it was primitive, and the LCD screen was dire, but it had a full-size keyboard and I was able to work from home with the internal modem. It ran Windows 2, though this required 3 floppies - boot, then overlay, then program and data files - shutting down involved swapping floppies in the reverse order! I was the first person in our team to get MS Word 5 (for DOS) working, ahead of the rest of the guys with their ICL desktop PCs. When I customised mine (with my company''s agreement) with a 20Mb HDD in place of one of the FDDs, and added a CRT monitor it became a useful PC.
- author: neonblade (Northern NSW, Australia)
date: Monday 28th November 2011
text: |-
Look for one of these in the movie "The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"
First computer I ever owned!
- author: Gordon McIntosh (UK)
date: Wednesday 6th April 2011
text: I used one of these to develop and run a purchasing system in DBASE IV for a company I did my degree placement year with. I had no problem with the screen - the company did buy an external hard disc for it which made it much easier to use.
- author: Mike Blais (Canada)
date: Tuesday 22nd February 2011
text: I had one of these laptop also. I created a boot disk with just MS-DOS 6.2 and the driver for a zip-100 on the printer port, I stored everything on zip disk including Word Perfect V5.1. It only had 1 720 k 3.5" floppy because the other drive gave me problem so I try to repair with no luck. It also had 640 kB of memory with v20 cpu, equal to 8088. No hard was found on the one I had. I miss that computer.
- author: John Elliott (UK)
date: Friday 15th October 2004
text: |-
James: The PPC boot floppies are at
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/cliff.lawson/files.htm
- author: JoenDave (England)
date: Saturday 15th January 2011
text: This is gonna sound stupid but where are the dip switches located on the amstrad PPC 512? Everywhere i can find says "they are located at the back" but i can''t seem to find them at all. any help would be greatly appreciated :)
- author: Brett G (Australia)
date: Thursday 25th November 2010
text: |-
This was my first computer when i was a kid. We used it as a fixed desktop with an external monitor. My dad won it in a comp at work which was the only reason we had a computer.
I have fond memories because I bashed out my first code on this machine running DOS 6.0.
The screen was useless, near unreadable so as a "portable" computer it sucked and the batteries lasted minutes but still nostalgia plus for me.
- author: MARCOS PASTORINO (uruguay)
date: Sunday 23rd May 2010
text: I have a portable computer ppc 640 who belonged to my dad. I would like to sell. I kear offers. Tahnsk you. Bye
- author: John (UK)
date: Saturday 7th February 2009
text: Still got one with an 85Mb hard disk. I seem to remember that up to 120Mb was available at the time. It has worked under MS-DOS 6.0 without any problems, but mine stays with reliable v3.3 and the necessary virtual drives C, D, AND E. Try Google for disk availability.
- author: Ean (Canada)
date: Friday 18th July 2008
text: |-
My mother owned one of these with a version of WordPerfect running from floppy disks.
I used to play with it sometimes as I was always programming or fiddling with things and one day I made it stop working.
I didn't have the instructions so I thought I bricked it and it ended up in a closet for a long time.
Now that I read the wiki article on it I think I simply turned the LCD off. :C
D'oh! Stupid bastards making it a 6-switch dip switch! XD
Okay, so I changed the setting... now which of !6 settings is it again?
- author: Jaume Von Vega
date: Tuesday 1st April 2008
text: |-
I forgot it, but i checked the Tech. information and seen some things off of the reality.
The keyboard is described as mechanic, but the feedback feels more membrane than mech...\
Battery life : 1 hour happens only with hard disk models, floppy only's lasts about 6-8 hours. The sound is handled via a true loud speaker, no a beeper
- author: Jaume Von Vega (Catalonia)
date: Thursday 20th March 2008
text: The LCD screen is not (that) poor, at lest isn't worst to other LCD's of the era... You just need to adjust the contrast to get a crisp and pretty fast image (You can play PC Man whitout ghosting!)
- author: James Tramm (Flagstaff, AZ, USA)
date: Sunday 5th September 2004
text: |-
Hi,
I just picked up an Amstrad ppc512, and need a boot disk. If anyone can help me out finding one it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
- author: A Hodson (uk)
date: Sunday 29th February 2004
text: I have a PPC640. I + a 2nd floppy drive & mono monitor. I learned to use the LetterPerfect word proccesor on it. Any1 have GEM for it?
- author: Jaume von vega (catalonia)
date: Thursday 12th February 2004
text: 'i have a 512 with 640 Kb and when i opened it for put a second floppy drive i found a: ¡HARD DISK! of 20 Mb'
- author: Jaume von Vega (Catalonia)
date: Monday 9th February 2004
text: |-
I recently bought a ppc 512 at ebay, and i want to know if the 3.5 drives heritages the rubber belt problems common to the 3" microdrives and if i cant switch it for a standard 3.5" drive.\
thanks
- author: Nigel (Shropshire)
date: Wednesday 23rd July 2003
text: |-
I have read elsewhere that the centre "pin" is the positive and the outer ring the negative. Spec of13.8v 1.9a. However I should think an approximate 12v would work.
Now does anyone know if I can power the PPC from an Amstrad PC1512 monitor - the type with a power-supply built in? It appears to have a DIN plug which matches that on the back of the PPC. If so, this sounds a good option of use at home etc!
- author: TuX (France)
date: Monday 12th May 2003
text: |-
Hi\
I'd like to know if someone knows the polarity of the power supply cause i've got a ppc512 without original power supply and a 12v ac adaptator.
thanx\
TuX
- author: JaC (Poland)
date: Friday 27th December 2002
text: |-
MSDOS v. 3.30 was distributed with PPC512, contained on single 360kB 3.5'' disc (can e-mail).\
Later I used MSDOS 4.01, but that was on three separate diskettes. The biggest software I was using: Framework III, preparing my master thesis
- author: salvador (Spain)
date: Saturday 7th December 2002
text: I've recently moved and have rediscovered in a corner my old amstrad ppc 512. I'd be happy to sell it with all its accessories. It works perfectly.
- author: Lucie Maycock (England)
date: Tuesday 17th September 2002
text: |-
I have a friend who has one of these portable computers, he wants to know where he can get some disc's for it? Can anybody help me?\
Please?
- author: parkan (NYC)
date: Saturday 31st August 2002
text: I have one of these as well, although it is not a very interesting piece of hardware and it is stashed away in the closet. I have two boot disks and I would be happy to make an image of one and send it over to you, just email me at the above addres (remove the brackets areound the @ first, of course).
- author: Roy (Netherlands)
date: Wednesday 26th June 2002
text: |-
I have one to. I think it is important to use DD disks. You can make them easily by putting tape over the right hole on your boot disk. It might work.\
If you have tried other ways, I would like to hear them.
Greets,
Roy
- author: nico (france)
date: Sunday 5th May 2002
text: I have one here with carrying case, boot disk, power supply, cords,etc... that is available for sale or trade. Mail me if interested...
- author: severine (????)
date: Wednesday 10th April 2002
text: je suis a la recherche des drivers PPC 512 / 640 je l'est ai perdu cela fait trois jour que je fait des recherches sur internet mais pas de reponse pourriez vous me conseil ou me dire ou trouver ces drivers
- author: PdR (UK)
date: Sunday 3rd February 2002
text: To my shame I have one, and to my shame I'm trying to get it to work (and failing). Was there a specific type of MS-DOS that the PPC needed to use to get the very nasty looking screen to work?
related:
- /museum/amstrad-pc-1512
- /museum/amstrad-pc-1640
content/museum/apf-imagination-machine.md
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forum_thread: 574
photos:
- title: IMAGINATION MACHINE
subtitle: ''
@@ -134,25 +135,6 @@ params:
- title: APF Imagination Machine Demo
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzppKYQzcQ
text: 'Length: 2 min 34 s'
comments:
- author: APF user
date: Thursday 20th April 2017
text: |-
I went through five of these that were defective in various ways before I gave up and got my money back. The version of Basic was abysmally slow, and it did not have things like trig functions.
The specs looked great and it looked like the complete package, but it just didn''t deliver on its promises.
- author: Lance (United States fl)
date: Sunday 6th March 2016
text: cantstump22@gmail.com is my contact Email
- author: Lance (United States fl)
date: Sunday 6th March 2016
text: I found one and I''m holding it right now. One Imagination machine and two of the detachable consoles. I''m not sure who I should talk to or what I should even do in order to sell it. Please contact at CantStump22@gmail.com if you have any suggestions or offers
- author: John (again) (Maine)
date: Tuesday 13rd March 2007
text: I learned BASIC on the IM-1 in the 7th grade. Great memories. I used to program up in the spare bedroom with a b/w TV that my folks could spare. When I'd finished a significant bit of programming, I would lug the big thing downstair to view on the big family TV to check the colors I'd programmed!
- author: John (Maine, USA)
date: Monday 30th May 2005
text: The Imagination Machine was my first real computer. I had a C64 after but wow I still remember opening the box and the huge machine coming out of it. I really learned to program on that machine.
related:
- /museum/apf-m1000-mp1000
software:
content/museum/apf-m1000-mp1000.md
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forum_thread: 1261
photos:
- title: MP 1000 SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
content/museum/apf-match.md
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forum_thread: 641
photos:
- title: INSIDE
subtitle: ''
@@ -86,10 +87,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: Elisha (male) (USA)
date: Monday 9th June 2003
text: I think pong systems are cool !!!! I just recently found a pong system at a flea market..... its made by APF the same company that made match ...... this one is called TV FUN...... it works but i think there are some accesories missing or else it doesnt work right ?? If anybody has any info please post a note asking for my e-mail...... thanx
related:
- /museum/a10-telespiel-9010
- /museum/alex-video-spiel-tg-621
content/museum/apf-tv-fun-model-401.md
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forum_thread: 983
photos:
- title: TV FUN - MODEL 401A
subtitle: ''
@@ -71,37 +72,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: ''
comments:
- author: ronald bowen (north alabama)
date: Saturday 7th January 2012
text: I have apf tv fun gome looks just like the apf 401 but is labaled 402 and has gun. just got it out of some junk stuff.
- author: Ant (Los Angeles)
date: Saturday 2nd April 2011
text: My parents bought this for my brother in the 70''s. This was my first video gaming experience. Whats strange is they say it was made for the England market, so how did my parents buy one in the states? At some time they must have decided to sell here. I''m trying to put together a personal timeline so would be great if someone could provide that info
- author: charlie oliver (usa)
date: Sunday 6th March 2011
text: APF TV Fun (Model 401) I got one it has the 2 cylinder and also a cool looking Gun :) QC
- author: Jonathan Allen Scher (Bowling Green, KY/United States)
date: Friday 8th October 2010
text: I was wondering if there are still APF TV Fun Pong consoles left. But the one I''m looking for specifically is the model 442. The APF TV Fun that has two cylinder controllers. You know what I mean? It is for my future review of old games so I was wondering if you have one or somewhere else you know where I can buy one?
- author: Scott
date: Saturday 2nd October 2010
text: AC adapter is 9V 500 mA tip positive
- author: Steve (Kansas)
date: Wednesday 9th December 2009
text: Hey Zach, in case you ever get this message, I was wondering if you could provide me with detailed information on the specifications for the AC power cord. I have the system, but I lack the AC cable. I''m fairly sure I can buy a modern one to replace it, but I need the exact output settings so that I do not damage the internal circuitry. Any information is very appreciated. My email is Beesson6606(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks a lot!
- author: Zach (Midwest)
date: Monday 25th February 2008
text: I just acquired a APF Tv fun Model 401..It works and such, also has the box and manual (box is in rough shape). Anyway anyone know a value of this thing.
- author: Mike (Seattle, WA)
date: Wednesday 19th January 2005
text: This was the first video game my parents bought for me. I thought it was sold under a different brand/name though. I recall they bought it from a local Fred Meyer store and paid around $50 USD for it (which was quite a bit in those days). Other pong systems were selling for about twice that, so this was a real bargin.
- author: alex compton (texas)
date: Tuesday 27th July 2004
text: yeah if you put the switch to computer it should work
- author: jim bramlet (Pennsylvania)
date: Tuesday 13rd July 2004
text: Does anyone no how to hook up the apf tv fun model 401 to a tv. It has a cable running out the back and when i plug it into the video in outlet no picture comes up but i can hear the sounds.
related:
- /museum/a10-telespiel-9010
- /museum/alex-video-spiel-tg-621
content/museum/apollo-7-squale.md
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- hardware
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forum_thread: 234
photos:
- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -170,13 +171,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/appolo7_squale_ss3.jpg
comments:
- author: Denis Faivre (France)
date: Saturday 26th December 2020
text: 'Believe it or not: one of my relatives won one of these computers by answering with my help a phone quiz on Radio Arc-En-Ciel, a local radio. I remember there were 2 questions to be answered: 1) How many bits in a byte? and 2) Which processor is powering the Squale? :-) The machine had a really sturdy riveted metal sheet case. If I recall correctly the user manual was a tiny paperback, the machine was pretty buggy and therefore useless, so it soon landed in a closet. Unfortunately, 30 years later I don''''t know what happened to it.'
- author: Andrew Fiori (Canada)
date: Monday 12th September 2005
text: Does anyone have a Squale that they are willing to sell? I am interested in purchasing one, preferably with the S-BASIC manual.
oc_id: 224
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230130203607/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=224
content/museum/apple-1.md
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forum_thread: 83
photos:
- title: MOTHER BOARD
subtitle: ''
@@ -102,87 +103,6 @@ params:
 source : [http://www.chez.com/apple1](http://www.chez.com/apple1)
**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
comments:
- author: Achim (Germany)
date: Wednesday 23rd June 2021
text: All known Apple-1 are listed in the Apple-1 Registry. https://www.apple1registry.com
- author: Joe Cassara (USA)
date: Tuesday 4th November 2014
text: |-
The story of Apple and Commodore is a little more nuanced than what you''ve written in this entry. For a more complete account, I suggest you check out Brian Bagnall''s book \_Commodore: A Company on the Edge\_.
Jack''s (actually, Chuck Peddle''s) interest has nothing to do with this machine''s "popularity".
- author: GSGeek (Quebec, Canada)
date: Monday 22nd April 2013
text: new
- author: mc shop (itv ad)
date: Monday 22nd April 2013
text: |-
newead dkfas sdkf\
dsg dgfsdfg dsfsdfs dfss\
dsgsd dsf sdf sd\
caosed
- author: cfg
date: Monday 22nd April 2013
text: dfg
- author: rj (ulster uk)
date: Tuesday 22nd November 2011
text: |-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$EmwW_6kUdHw
please post this link to youtube\
hope yu can find your way to the real great sam sites on the net
- author: Dana (Los Angeles California)
date: Monday 10th January 2011
text: I owned an apple 1. It came with 4 K of memory and I added another 4K so I could load Basic, from tape of course. I sold it to a computer shop in Reseda California about15 years ago, for $100. I wish I had it back now.
- author: Anders (Sweden)
date: Saturday 6th November 2010
text: 'There is a site on the internet that sells a replica of the Apple I that you can use to try it out yourself: http://www.brielcomputers.com/replica1.html'
- author: Artfact
date: Thursday 5th August 2010
text: |-
At Auction on Artfact LIVE, August 16 is AN APPLE I (APPLE-1) EARLY PERSONAL COMPUTER WITH OPERATION MANUAL, designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer Co., Pala Alto, CA, c. 1976, the fully assembled circuit board is displayed as a wall plaque with metal frame and measuring 9 x 15.5 inches. History behind the item - About 200 units were produced with an estimated 30-50 still known to exist.
Check it out!!
http://www.artfact.com/auction-lot/an-apple-i-apple-1-early-personal-computer-with-1-c-b8a066d9bb
- author: Xterra (USA)
date: Tuesday 6th July 2010
text: According to Wikipedia, the Apple I was basically just a motherboard, without case, without keyboard, without monitor. It seems like a bunch of work to me! Nowadays, you could buy a "build-your-own" computer kit, but it wouldn''t be any kind of work like this, hoo hoo!
- author: Daniel
date: Tuesday 6th January 2009
text: No, the Apple I did not come in a case. Whoever bought it, and wanted to, would have to build it. The wooden case is just a surviving, and pretty, example.
- author: Wills ward (USA)
date: Sunday 3rd December 2006
text: Is it made out of wood?
- author: Niles (Spain)
date: Wednesday 2nd March 2005
text: There is a real Apple 1 at the Science Museum of London. I was shocked when I saw it! :P
- author: Stephen (California)
date: Thursday 10th February 2005
text: I am into the apple I and similar microcomputers, and out of nostalgia I want to design an apple I-based microcomputer with a casset interface and make my own programming language and burn it in a ROM (as crazy as it sounds, it's true!) Although the only way I have ever even played with an apple I is through an emulator, I still think they are very cool indeed!
- author: ernest (mexico)
date: Monday 22nd November 2004
text: 'COUMO: the way to save data in the apple I was in audio casettes, with a ordinary casette recorder and the casette interface, visit applefriter.com'
- author: ernest (mexico)
date: Wednesday 19th May 2004
text: what was the EPROM card for???
- author: GSGeek (Quebec, Canada)
date: Thursday 8th April 2004
text: Counterfeits... hmmm, maybe some creative people could clone the motherboard then stuff it with appropriate IC's of that era and voila! A new generation of Apple 1s. Getting the BASIC PROM content could be trickier tough (and getting software for it :^).
- author: Cuomo (Toronto)
date: Thursday 25th March 2004
text: |-
i was looking at the Apple 1 and figured out that it had some memory and a keyboard...but what was it used for?\
What did the user do with the saved data? could you save data?\
please explain why anyone would spend money on this computer!
- author: Jon Jarmon (Tacoma Washington)
date: Sunday 26th October 2003
text: |-
The Apple 1 is one of the most sought after collector items for vintage computer collectors.\
It's value is around $30,000.Only around 250 were ever sold.Beware of counterfeits though.\
Most counterfeits are just Apple 2's components in a wooden box and are easy to differentiate from an original apple 1.\
The original Apple LISA(The first model only) can be worth upwards to $10,000 with original packing manuals,software and in excellent operational condition.
oc_id: 67
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230427093615/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=67
content/museum/apple-ii-571.md
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forum_thread: 562
photos:
- title: TOP VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -555,46 +556,6 @@ params:
- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: David (USA)
date: Friday 20th October 2017
text: Just got my old Apple $$+ out of a box... Z80 CP/M card, 80 column card, speech synth, 75/110/300 baud modem, and 2400 baud modem, dual disk drives. so fun. and a gazillion floppies. PR$6.
- author: Edward (Tennessee/USA)
date: Friday 10th August 2012
text: |-
I bought my first computer $ an Apple $$+ in mid-eighties for about $400 (second hand). Black screen with green text, ALL CAPS :D\
Didn''t use the full capabilities of it $ but really became obsessed with "Snake" and the old game from Infocom $ "ZORK-3". Also liked the crude graphics of "Castle Wolfenstein".\
Brings back memories...I may have to get it out of storage and fire it up!
- author: Pär (Sweden)
date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
text: |-
I bought an Apple II+, the euro version.\
It had 48K ram, two 140K disk drives and some extension cards: 80-column card with printer output, CPM card with a Z80 CPU (enabled me to use CPM O/S and program in Turbo Pascal!)\
Awsome machine. I programmed in assembler and found out that the 1 MHz 6502 would easily outrun the 4 MHz Z80! Wow what a wonderful CPU 6502 was.
- author: Mark ((North Carolina, USA))
date: Friday 7th October 2011
text: My parents bought me an Apple II+ back in 1981 and I have to say it changed my life. I learned to program on it and couldn''t wait to explore what it had to offer. It truly was an exciting piece of equipment. Does anyone remember the MockingBoard voice synthesizer? That was cool to play around with. It the reason I''m in the IT field today.
- author: Ted (Canada)
date: Friday 19th August 2011
text: I bought an Apple II+ clone kit PCB from a Toronto-based retailer, Exceltronics, with the intention of upgrading to higher-capacity memory chips. I wanted to use 2732 and 4164 devices on a separate interface card, while disabling or removing the OEM chips from the motherboard. I didn''t finish that project - kept the pre-programmed 2732''s.
- author: Wayne Dyrness (Kent, WA USA)
date: Monday 10th May 2010
text: I bought the Apple II+ when it first came out. It came with 48K memory. I spent $269 for additional 16K. I still have the computer, monitor and all the software. There were not a lot of programs available at that time. I taught myself how to program and wrote an audio cassette labeling program, that I used and sold to other studios. I later wrote a book, "Apple Programming Secrets ''They'' Didn''t Want you to know." It was published by Prentice-Hall as part of their computer learning series. Since then, I''ve owned most every model of macs since the Mac Plus came out. I still write software today. But my fondest memories are of my old Apple II+ days.
- author: Alistair Martin (UK)
date: Monday 6th November 2006
text: Nothing technical to report. Programs I recall were a thing called Visicalc (Father of Excel!) and the Lemonade game. However, I do remember, as a student teacher, going along to the computer department and finding a brand new Apple IIe lying untouched in the corner. Computer techs - at that time - thought that personal computers would "never catch on". I showed them how to set the machine up - they had no interest nor idea. This teacher training college still exists (as do some of the satff!!!) so I can't mention the name.
- author: Darren Harley (australia)
date: Friday 7th July 2006
text: hi im looking for information on a apple2 model super64 mark2 looks to be like a early model 2 but has a numeric keypad as well..it has a hand scratched serial on the motherboard and no revision number..the serial is 2513..i can find no refrence to this model can somebody help..it also has a 2708 eprom burner..and a sam lingo 1983 soundcard..it has a label super64 mk2 on the top of the case factory...and a large stuk on apple sticker of the multicolourd apple wif bite outa it..there is also a 128k memory expansion card not installed in the machine..couple pal vid cards and automatic 80 collum card...thanks for any help identifying this strange machine..email me for pictures im happy to oblige...Darren
- author: Jay (New Jersey, USA)
date: Tuesday 14th December 2004
text: Over a year since the last contribution. I LOVED this machine. Taught myself BASIC from tapes on the High School Library's brand new Apple II+ in my Freshman year. Also played around with the school's Trash-80's, but I enjoyed the colorful world of the Apple. I think it was the intro of the closed-system Mac that was the death of users not knowing what makes a computer run.
- author: Yves Mc Donald (Quebec, Canada)
date: Wednesday 1st October 2003
text: Huh? What? Only one (now two!) post for such a popular computer? The Apple \]\[+ wasn't shiny when it comes to sound and graphics but it was versatile... and a great learning tool. It was my introduction to computer science and electronics. I'm still amazed by the the Disk II interface design. That was the time when users knew what was inside their computers. Can we say the same today witn Windoze machines?
- author: Steve (New Jersey)
date: Tuesday 30th April 2002
text: The best thing about the Apple \]\[ was the large user community. This supported a wealth of technical publications, enabling hobbyists to get the most from their toy. Do you remember Nibble and Call-A.P.P.L.E.? They were two of the best, and there were lots more monthly and quarterly magazines.
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- /museum/apple-ii-clones
content/museum/apple-ii-clones.md
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- title: LASAR II - LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
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- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: Andres (Boston, MA, USA)
date: Thursday 15th August 2019
text: I "think" I just bought one of these clones, but still trying to understand exactly what it is. It looks similar to the Lazar II clone, but the power supply and motherboard are original Apple ones, so I guess somebody changed the case.
- author: Brian S (Australia)
date: Sunday 2nd September 2018
text: That should read "Apricot" :-)
- author: Brian S (Australia)
date: Sunday 2nd September 2018
text: I had an "Aprocot" back in the mid 80s. The motherboard was in a box with a separate keyboard.
- author: Spad (France)
date: Saturday 24th June 2017
text: To answer Vincent''s post. I just brought my old Golem back from the attic.
- author: infinite100
date: Friday 15th August 2014
text: |-
The most famous/infamous clone was the WOMBAT, trade name of a Taiwanese system sold in Australia. I think it was made by Bondwell, better known for CP/M systems.\
Apple sued the distributor for patent/copyright infringement, winning the case and then going on to close down all the other clones.
- author: Pär (Sweden)
date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
text: |-
I bought an MPF II (Microprofessor II) that had 64 K RAM, 16 K ROM and used external cassette player for storage. It had RF output so I could use the TV as monitor.\
It was pretty small, smaller than todays iPad but twice the thickness. It had a small keyboard on it but the external keyboard with rubber keys was a must.\
It also had Joystick of course and with it came a couple of games that were fun to play with friends on the TV.\
The O/S was the same as on Apple II and it had of course a 6502 CPU @ 1MHz.\
Cool little box. Regret selling it.
- author: Vincent (Belgium)
date: Wednesday 4th May 2011
text: I do remember one of them, that I almost bought. It was for sale in France for around 6.500 FF (1000€) in 1983, and it was called "GOLEM". It case was almost identical to the Apple II, except for the grey color.
- author: mrkoolnerd (usa)
date: Saturday 15th January 2011
text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_II_clones this is a incomplete list but there is a lot here on the list not sure if this helps any
- author: Thomsonicus (Poland)
date: Saturday 10th February 2007
text: cool video!
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- /museum/apple-ii-571
content/museum/apple-iic-plus.md
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- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: Matthew Hamilton (United Kingdom)
date: Monday 29th March 2021
text: Do you know or know where I could find sales figures for the Apple IIc Plus specifically? I have only been able to locate numbers for the entire Apple II series as opposed to individual models. Many thanks.
- author: Mat Payne
date: Sunday 7th October 2012
text: my parents still have one of these in their basement. still works as well! I wonder how much they are worth these days
- author: G.Y. (Georgia, USA)
date: Sunday 24th September 2006
text: If I think I'm correct, this was the computer I remember using in Elementary School, I was in 7th grade. My teacher would set us up some work to do on this computer. Wow times have changed, now I'm 32. Commodore64 was my first computer that I got from parents, me and my brother would play games on it alot. We were around 15 yrs old at the time. Today Im on a Dell 8200 that I got back in late 2001. When you look at these computers it brings back memories.
- author: Rev (Dallas, TX)
date: Sunday 7th May 2006
text: The Apple IIc+ was my families' first computer, and later became my first computer. I remember staring at the green glow coming from the screen, and playing variants of classic games. I can still hear the ticking from the disk drive, and the long waits for papers to print. Good times.
- author: Thor Madsen (Chicago)
date: Monday 15th March 2004
text: |-
I "married" into the Apple IIc. When I went back to finish my degree, I spent many a night writing term papers on this and waiting for them to print out on the dot matrix. I used the the included VisiCalc - or was it AppleCalc? - to put together our first household budgets.
Man, that monitor stand was one heavy weapon!
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- title: SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
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- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: Malachi McCoy (United States)
date: Friday 14th October 2016
text: |-
We had a iic as a kid growing up!!!
It had a COLOR screen and a 7 color dot-matrix printer. Top of the line at the time. My friends had Compaq''s and Atari''s!!!
- author: manbearpig
date: Tuesday 13rd May 2014
text: i was just wondering, how much is this thing worth? found one in my basement, and it works, so is it of any value?
- author: Erick (USA)
date: Friday 28th March 2014
text: This computer makes a brief appearance in the move 2010
- author: Dagmar
date: Thursday 4th November 2010
text: Our first computer was a Apple IIc(1985) too and in Germany nobody trust at that time these strange boxes. But we loved to learn programming Basic and it still is working. From a trip to USA we brought our first game the "Wishbringer" and it was exciting to play it!
- author: Tom (USA)
date: Monday 27th September 2010
text: The Apple IIc was my first computer also. I learned about computers in jr. high and high school on Apple II''s and IIgs''s, so when a friend wanted to sell hers I bought it. Had lots of fun using Appleworks like in school, plus playing games like Wavy Navy and Typhoon of Steel on it. Like Stephen Tripodi said, the bootup was always noisy, but that sound is nostalgia to me now.
- author: Stephen Tripodi (USA)
date: Monday 30th January 2006
text: Ahh.... good memories. I had a IIc as my first computer. It was on this machine that I first learned to program computers, with the built in Applesoft BASIC. I fondly remember playing such games as Super Munchers and Flight Simulator II on that tiny 9 inch green monochrome monitor. One thing I also remember is the awful grinding noise the built in drive made when booting up. The first time I ever used the thing, I thought I had broken something. :-)
- author: Thierry Legros (France)
date: Thursday 29th December 2005
text: I have seen this Apple IIc into the movie "Explorers" from Joe Dante with Ethan Hawk. This is the computer the guy uses to connect his extra-terrestrial electronic board which creates a force field
- author: Alex (Minnesota)
date: Monday 19th December 2005
text: I recently found an Apple IIc in my garage. I remember playing it in the early 90's when my aunt gave it to our family. We kept using it until at least 1996 or 97. I was really excited when I found it. I need to get more software though... Most of my disks dont work.
- author: Aran Carrigan (USA)
date: Wednesday 9th March 2005
text: 'The IIc had two odd problems: It had a TV out just like the C64, but it didn''t respond usually. Another problem was that the PSU tried to store energy, but it constantly got hot even when the computer was turned off.'
- author: Chris (North Carolina)
date: Tuesday 8th June 2004
text: i have a lot of old computers and i love to collect them. My favorite types are apples. I have an apple //c that is my most favorite of all of them. I will be asking around for some accessories for it.
- author: Ricky (Maryland)
date: Monday 22nd December 2003
text: I just found one of these machines at a yardsale a few months ago, they gave it and about 50 peices of software to me for free! It was made before my time but I love old electronics so I thought Id give it a try, Its a great old machine! By the way, anyone who dosent have a monitor, just plug it into the video plug on your tv.
- author: Tim (Portland OR)
date: Thursday 20th March 2003
text: |-
The Apple //c was my very first computer and fully responsible for getting me hooked on computers. It was a gift for my 6th birthday from my grandfather, grandmother, mother and father. They all pooled the money together because "This could be something big some day". Little did they know it would lay out my professional career.
I remember spending hours exploring what exactly the computer could do, running any piece of software I could come across, coding dinky programs in basic.
A great system, I'm almost tempted to try and locate it and boot it up again.
- author: Ken Duncan (Nth Ipswich, Australia)
date: Tuesday 23rd April 2002
text: My first computer also, purchased Apr 86. Spent many late nights at friends place learning about computing, (and drinking lots of beer-thanks Wayne). Added Applied Engineering 1mb RAM card (run Appleworks in RAM-no disk access required), 3.5" external drive and 5.25" external drive. Loved programming in AppleBasic. Added in a lot of the Beagle Bros enhancements (Appleworks was great!)
- author: Isaac Johnson (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
date: Tuesday 5th March 2002
text: my first computer (..tear..). Wonderful machine - brittle power cord plug. They even had a cool optical mouse for it with a graphics package.
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- /museum/apple-ii-571
content/museum/apple-iie-platinum.md
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- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: Henry (usA)
date: Saturday 13rd January 2007
text: Check out my Page
- author: Henry (USA)
date: Wednesday 18th October 2006
text: |-
How to remove Cards
Remember the Slot!!\
Grasp the sides of the card with your hand and pull, be careful! NEVER WIGGLE THE CARD FROM SIDE TO SIDE!!! Rock it BACK AND FORTH. Carfully. Do NOT FORCE IT! You should never tocu the golden 'teeth' on the bottom of the card; this can distort data that is transferd through them or ruin the card forever. When you put the card back in, do the same manuver as befor, but push (not too hard). The components (all that stuff) face away from the power supply. Sometimes there is a label that show you where it should face.
- author: Henry (USA)
date: Wednesday 18th October 2006
text: |-
Want to see if you Apple IIe Platinum is in tip top shape? Simply press Control-Option- Reset\
Patterns will appear on the screen and will stay for a few moments as the machine searches for any problems it has. If you hear a sound and see the messege
System OK
Then great!
If not, the problem may be one of the cards inside. Open the Apple IIE and CAREFULLY remove ONE card at a time and run the test. Repet the process with each card, one at a time. This is a great way to look for problems with your Apple IIe Platinum. Good Luck!
- author: Henry (USA)
date: Friday 14th October 2005
text: |-
If you need a monitor for your Apple IIe Platinum you can use a television. Yes that's right! All YOU need is a TV or a VCR with the yellow, red, and white cords. These can be found in any electromic store where a TV can be purcahased. What you need is the YELLOW cable. It hooks right in to the IIe platinum and connects with the\
TV/ VCR.\
What you need\
-A Yellow Video cable\
\- A TV/ VCR with the RED, White and Yellow jacks.\
Look at the "rear side" of the Apple IIe platinum and in the lower left hand corner farthest left is where the jack pluggs in.
Good Luck!
- author: Henry (US of A)
date: Tuesday 24th May 2005
text: |-
When you want to add a device like a floppy drive and the 12 slots in the back are empty, you'll need a controller card. Other devices like- Printers, a mouse, RGB moniter, etc, must have this too.\
A printer or modem you need a Super Serial card made by Apple. These ar't made any more but can be found on EBAY.COM
- author: Link (Hyrule)
date: Friday 8th April 2005
text: I have about 12 Apple IIs, II+s, IIc's and IIes and this is the one I use. It's the newest machine, I have it on ethernet, and it has the numeric keypad. Best IIe ever!
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- title: IIE CASE
subtitle: ''
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- title: Apple II videoclip
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SoWRCy21pY
text: 'Length: 3 min 03 s'
comments:
- author: Brady (USA)
date: Thursday 28th June 2018
text: I work for my school''s IT department and recently found one of these tucked away in a closet covered in decades of dust. The school decided to junk the thing but after cutting through miles of red tape and talking with an administrator that I had impressed in the past I managed to save it. I am happy to say that it is in perfect working order, is in beautiful condition, and won''t be going anywhere near a junkyard for a very very long time.
- author: TransParent (CT/USA)
date: Wednesday 17th January 2018
text: My first job out of college in 1981 was in the Environmental Hygiene Laboratory at Olin Corporation in New Haven, CT. We had an HP data acquisition system connected to a Teletype terminal. The HP system needed to be booted up using a key, input switches and a series of three paper table rolls. This system did the data integration for up to four of our Gas Chromatographs (all HP 5710A''s). In 1984, my boss purchased a Varian Vista 402 to replace the HP system. He wanted a computer for the laboratory but could not get it justified. Varian was smart - they had a "Vista Plus" package to go along with the Vista 402 Data Acquisition system. The Vista Pus package was an Apple IIe computer with dual floppy drives and a serial cable to connect the DA system to the IIe. It also came with a small assembly language program to transfer the data from each channel (up to four - one for each GC) to the IIe when it completed it analysis on each sample. I wrote a program to display the data for
all four channels (needed the 80 column graphics card). In then enhanced the program to store the data, perform all of the calculations (blank subtraction and spike correction) that we used to do by hand and then write a nice neat report listing each sample analyzed and the concentrations of up to 15 components in each sample. My boss loved what I had done. No more errors by doing hand calculations and then the secretaries typing our results into the Xerox word processor as a neat report to send to the Industrial Hygenists!
- author: Ivan (Ohio, USA)
date: Tuesday 31st January 2017
text: Oh wow. This was probably my favorite computer to ever program on. I learned on an Apple $$ first and foremost. Then, we upgraded to the Apple //e with the extensible 80-column card in it. Added another 128K RAM board, and then eventually a Z-80 card so I could run CP/M. I used the Oraca macro assembler as well as the Aztec C environment where I first learned C as well as what a Unix-like environment was like. This is where my geekdom started, all self-taught (Apple Integer Basic, Applesoft Basic, machine language, assembler, Pascal and then C). Miss those days.
- author: Kelly Roach (Harlingen, TX, United States)
date: Thursday 14th May 2015
text: |-
Ah, the workhorse that was the Apple //e. I had once owned both one of these and a IIplus, and had many a fun hour writing programs for these two rugged computers (their Disk II units failed long before they did.)
With only rudimentary graphics and sound capabilities, these were among the most extensible 8-bit computers of their time, with parallel and serial cards, an 80-column card (one model with an extra 48 kB of RAM,) and even a Z80 Softcard for CP/M!
I still kinda wax nostalgic when I think about these computers.
- author: Jason (Ohio, USA)
date: Saturday 2nd February 2013
text: I actually bought seven IIe computers along with some monitors and parts a week ago for $40. People around here have just been hauling these computers to the dump and recyclers and I thought I would try and save at least a few! It''s been fun to work on them. :)
- author: frank (Monterrey Mexico)
date: Wednesday 5th December 2012
text: |-
Anyone interested in an Apple IIe need to sell it because I have some debts if anyone is interested please contact me to my email\
  frank-garcia89@hotmail.com
- author: JP (Canada)
date: Thursday 19th July 2012
text: I was driving along last week through an area in Ottawa where it was Garbage day and I found full Apple IIe System complete that works! I love Old technology that works, but what should I do with it NOW?
- author: David Roberts (USA)
date: Thursday 22nd March 2012
text: |-
My Apple //e died today, 3/22/2012, somewhat. There was a whoosh sound followed by a pop sound, then an odor of something hot, but no smoke. I turned it off and opened it up but could see no indication of trouble.
Afterward, when I turned it back on everything seemed normal..?? But after an hour or so of working normally, neither disc drive was able to read a disc although the disc would spin. Nor could I change anything on the monitor screen with the keyboard.
Both drives spin but neither could read or write. The keyboard could not change anything on the monitor.
DIAGNOSIS NEEDED and solutions requested.\
Thanks,\
Dave
- author: David Roberts (USA)
date: Thursday 22nd March 2012
text: |-
My Apple //e died today, 3/22/2012, somewhat. There was a whoosh sound followed by a pop sound, then an odor of something hot, but no smoke. I turned it off and opened it up but could see no indication of trouble.
Afterward, when I turned it back on everything seemed normal..?? But after an hour or so of working normally, neither disc drive was able to read a disc although the disc would spin. Nor could I change anything on the monitor screen with the keyboard.
Both drives spin but neither could read or write. The keyboard could not change anything on the monitor.
DIAGNOSIS NEEDED and solutions requested.\
Thanks,\
Dave
- author: Sharon Gondek (MN)
date: Monday 12th September 2011
text: If anyone else has an interest in the AppleII stuff, email me @ sharong311@aol.com. It is too much stuff to pack and ship so know that it is in MN.
- author: gaparoonie (United States)
date: Wednesday 31st August 2011
text: i have 3 working apple IIe''s with software (educational mostly). printers too.
- author: ronwoch
date: Thursday 25th August 2011
text: Sharon I would be interested. Email ronwoch at gmail
- author: ronwoch
date: Thursday 25th August 2011
text: Sharon I would be interested. Email ronwoch at gmail
- author: Sharon Gondek (MN)
date: Wednesday 24th August 2011
text: I have enough Apple II stuff for a reasonably complete museum. Includes the Apple graphics tablet, repair manuals, Thunderscan, printers, etc. Is anyone out there interested?
- author: Amin (United States)
date: Tuesday 8th March 2011
text: |-
I need Parallel interface card(model $ 7720) for Apple IIe.\
does anyone help?
- author: Edi G.
date: Sunday 13rd February 2011
text: |-
Hi there\
i found 1 unit of IIe + monitor.\
what should be the price that i can get for this item on the free market?
Thanks\
Edi\
edigemail@gmail.com
- author: Hans ( Canberra ) (Australia)
date: Monday 5th July 2010
text: |-
I am still running my 2e\
details are on my site,\
http://members.iinet.net.au/\~hal01/public_html$20copy/Apple_2e_hardware_software.html
- author: Dylan Malama (Wellston, Mi)
date: Saturday 5th June 2010
text: 'I own an Apple Iie Enhanced, but just two weeks ago, something catastrophic happened: I was carrying it down to my basement when I tripped over two steps and tumbled to the cement. my Apple''''s speaker was smashed, and my motherboard was junk. I still have lots of parts models, but I need some time to fix it.'
- author: JM
date: Wednesday 2nd April 2008
text: |-
Paul, the game you are looking for is called Agent USA. Here is the wikipedia link. I remember it too and we loved it.\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_USA
- author: Paul (Lansing, MI)
date: Sunday 7th January 2007
text: |-
I am looking for a game that I played back in elementary school on an Apple 2E (I think… about 80% sure). I am not sure what the game is called. It might have the word Crystal in the title, but if I remember correctly, you played a guy who would walk around and plant crystals that would then multiply over time. But there were bad guys who would come and take them away if you didn’t collect them back up again.
In my memories, the layout of the game was 3ed person looking down and had a very Atari 2600 look and feel to it. Also I think you started each level by getting off a train, each board would be like a new town or level… but that might not be correct for this game… it has been a while.
If anyone knows what the name of his game is, please let me know. I would love to find it if it is available.
- author: John Orton (Milwaukee, WI.)
date: Tuesday 28th November 2006
text: |-
I am hunting for a copy of Jenny of the Prairie for the Apple IIe.
Thanks
- author: Geno (St. Louis, MO)
date: Friday 30th June 2006
text: |-
My brother and I spent many hours playing video games and programming our 2e. It was a big step-up from our TI-99.
The old 2e was quite tough to stand up to our abuse.
Some of our favorite games included Ultima, Castle Wolfenstein (the original), a game where you served beer at a bar, Jaust (a game where you flew a bird into other birds and collected eggs), Lode Runner, a Karate game (very good graphics) and flight simulator. We usually copied the disks of our friends since we could not afford to buy them. Various copy protection schemes were being used unsuccessfully and nefarious people would release underground software to get around them (just like modern times).
Learned to hack binary files by using Norton Utilities (the original) to read each disk sector for ASCII code that could be changed and customized.
My grandfather and I made a light pen from a magazine article.
My mom learned to like/hate the computer as I soon was spending all of my time messing with it. The career path didn't turn out so bad, however.
- author: Josh (Texas)
date: Saturday 17th June 2006
text: I customized my Apple IIe into a wider but short in heigth case. and secured the keyboard to the top of the case. I placed the system and a monitor on a metal rolling cart, and I take it outside with my telescope at night, and I wrote star plotting software in Applesoft basic. And thats what I use it for!
- author: baxter (newark,ohio)
date: Monday 24th April 2006
text: I have some apple 2e software and I would like to run it on a newer Mac--os 9.1--- Is this possible? They are on 5 1\\4 floppies and I have extra drives to plug into the powermac. will it work??
- author: Alex (New York)
date: Friday 17th March 2006
text: Is there any way to figure out if my Apple IIe is worth anything. I just found it in my brother's closet. I don't have a monitor for it, so I figured I could sell it, hoping to cheer someone up somewhere.
- author: Lynette (Anchorage, Alaska)
date: Saturday 11th February 2006
text: I've got some 5.25 floppies which were created on my Apple lle in the 80's. Does anyone out there have the ability to retreive the files?
- author: Ora Fleischer (Littleton, Colorado)
date: Friday 2nd December 2005
text: I am 82 and pretty much housebound caring for an ailing wife, so i can't get out to look for stuff. I touched my first computer (a Quadra) about two years ago and it seems I have a natural affinity for Macs. Anyway, someone gave me an Apple lle yesterday with the monitor, 'profile' hard drive and 'silentype' thermal printer.Unfortunately no cables, also a few keys are missing. Does anyone have these items they would part with? I would be able to reimburse for shipping costs.
- author: Josh (California)
date: Monday 12th September 2005
text: |-
I am trying to remeber the name of a 2e game I used to round 1990 (game may have been older than me) that was a scrolling style adventure with graphics\
where you had to type the commands in and recieve a response -\
the story line had something to do with people living in trees and elders. you could even harvest grapes and so forth.
- author: Austin Erwin-Martinetti (USA)
date: Wednesday 19th January 2005
text: |-
The Apple \]\[e was the first computer I ever saw as a kid; perhaps the\
first thing I saw as a kid. Mine has a nice history behind it, but\
finished off with an ending I would have liked to have rewritten. When\
I was about the age of 3, my brother and I (10 at the time) used to\
love playing on the old Apple. We used to spend many hours playing\
Oregon Trail, Sticky Bear, Lemonade stand, and other games. One of\
the games, I remember we nicknamed "number dumber" because the disk\
had no label. The other side was a cheaply made pinball sim. The game\
had 4 floors, and you, as a stick man, had to ascend and descend the\
ladder, collecting the numbers 1 through 10, while evading enemies.\
The second level resembled the game Donkey Kong. I remember calling my\
mom constantly to read what was on the screen for me. This was usually\
around 8:00 or so, and my brother was walking to school. I used to\
drive her (as well as my dad) crazy with the buzzing of the disk\
drive, and the sound FX from the games, as it was out in the living\
room, next to our Macintosh Classic. One day when I was four, the disk\
drive broke. What it would do was, it would power up properly, but it\
wouldn't do anything; no matter what, it remained at the bootup\
screen. Later on, I asked my dad if he could fix it. He couldn't.\
Instead, he handed me two of the original\
"Disk \]\[ 5 1/4" drives and an interface card and said "Here. If you\
can't get this to work, I'll help you when I get home" and went off to\
work. Later on in the day, I was studying the IIe carefully, looking\
where to put the card in. I detatched the cover and studied the ports.\
Uninstalling the redesigned drive controller, I figured that the board\
would go in the spot where the old one was. Figuring out eventually\
how to set it up, I carefully booted the computer. It worked. After\
boasting to my parents for several hours, I resumed normal play. A\
year later, my brother seemed to lose interest in it, and gain\
interest in the Classic. Also,\
we bought a modern Pentium-based computer in early '97, and put in the\
desk next to the Classic. It was a HP 7000 tower series computer. We\
got a 693C printer along with it, and a software bundle, including\
children's book software such as "Sam I am", 'Lil Howie's Math\
adventure, etc. Around kindergarten, I proclaimed the computer "mine".\
I moved it to my room, including all the software and the monitor. I\
was so happy with it there, I even wrote "Austin's Computer" on it\
with a yellow colored pencil next to the //e logo. Then one day around\
2nd grade, one of the disc drives nearly caught fire, and started\
smoking ( it seems pretty funny to me now, so don't worry about\
laughing about it :) ). I simply replaced the drive with the other. It\
worked for a while. Eventually that one broke too. My guess is it was\
due to my inept handling of the I/O card. I later noted that one of\
the disc capacitors used to control the 2nd drive was broken off when\
I installed it in '95. That wasn't the only computer having a bad day.\
The HP's motherboard got damaged somehow. We replaced it with a newer\
8380 series in '98. Many other things happened over time until we got\
our handbuilt P4 computer made by my crafty brother (with some of my\
help) :P. The 693C printer is working. It is being used by my dad in\
his home office, and been replaced by a 950C that I fixed. As for the\
Classic, it's still kicking. It's in my room, along with my handbuilt\
P3 and my commodore 64, vic-20, 3 vcrs, and my laptop, electric guitar\
(which i'm getting pretty damn good at), etc. My //e was sold to the\
computer recycling center by my dad around '99 or so (boy was I mad!)\
since the disk drives broke. At the age of 12 now,\
I've exanded my horizons into much more interests, but computers still\
hold a special place in my heart. I'm looking in to buying another //e\
just for nostalgia's sake, or because I would\
like to look into buying more 8-bit computers.
P. S. If you know the name of that "number dumber" game, please tell\
me. I would like to\
atleast play it again on an emulator.
I know it was quite long, but thanks for listening!
- author: Stephen Knotts (USA)
date: Saturday 27th November 2004
text: I bought an Apple IIe off eBay and I have NO disk drive, and no use for it, but it's the only computer in my collection. I love it.
- author: Joe (USA)
date: Thursday 14th October 2004
text: |-
TAMARA - Found this little site - its a start.
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs4MAJORSITES.html
- author: Joe (USA)
date: Thursday 26th August 2004
text: ANTHONY - name of game is "sabotage".
- author: Linda (Canton, MI)
date: Sunday 22nd August 2004
text: Trying to remember a game we played on the Apple IIe where you would gather 'memstones' by answering questions correctly. You build a home out of these memstones so that the hurricane at the end of the game doesn't blow you away! Can anyone help? (Science Island????) Who made it?
- author: Anthony (Ft Lauderdale, FL USA)
date: Friday 20th August 2004
text: Looking for a game I used to play around 1983. It was a arcade style game, had a gun turret in the center bottom portion of the game, and using the arrows keys, you had to shoot down parachuters. If you didnt, they would land and climb up to the turret, if enough landed, they would climb onto the top of the gun turret and blow you up. If you shot the parachute and not the person, the person would fall to his death below. If there was a person below, he would fall onto of him and thus killing both. Anyone know the name of that game ?
- author: Webmaster (France)
date: Tuesday 13rd July 2004
text: |-
You will find this game on this FTP site :\
ftp.apple.asimov.net/\
in the following directory:\
pub/apple_II/images/games/simulation/
enjoy
- author: Philipp E. Bornstein MD (Springfield/Illinois/USA)
date: Monday 12th July 2004
text: |-
I am seeking an old Apple II or IIE game entitled Three Mile Island. It is a simulation game of an atomic pile. Objective is to prevent melt down.\
thanks
- author: Qbman (USA)
date: Tuesday 11th May 2004
text: |-
The apple IIe is NOT really a DOS system, it mainly ran thru BASIC\
And used ProDos (which is NOT the same as DOS)
- author: Andrew (Ontario, Canada)
date: Tuesday 16th March 2004
text: I can help with any Apple II questions you may have. Please email me if you need something answered, or want some software copied; I have games, disk-copying utilities, word processors and lots more stuff.
- author: Tony Buser (Lansdale, PA)
date: Sunday 30th November 2003
text: |-
Jay, the game you're thinking of is Robot War. There's a few projects that are remaking it at:
http://robowar.sourceforge.net/\
http://www.robotbattle.com/
- author: Melanie (florida)
date: Sunday 5th October 2003
text: oops, my last post had the wrong email, the correct email is above. If you can offer me any help, I would greatly appreciate it....Thanks again
- author: Melanie (florida)
date: Sunday 5th October 2003
text: I have jusy recently been given an Apple IIe computer. I am unfamiliar with DOS based systems. . I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how to work it. I was thinking this would be a good way to introduce my 5 year old to computersIt came with many floppys, including apple worls startup, 3.3 dos, etc. The computer works, when you turn it on, Apple//e comes up. But I do not see any prompt. And I do not know how to load any of the disks. LOL I am a windows XP type. Any help or advise would be appreciated. Thanks.
- author: jay chap (usa)
date: Thursday 25th September 2003
text: I was wondering if someone could tell me the name of a game I played on the apple iie as a kid (1987/88)? I think it was made by Spinnaker or Broderbund. The best way I can describe it is that you controlled (programmed?) pod shaped robots to accomplish certain tasks like picking up items, turning on/off switches, and possibly turning on other robots? This is the best I can do...Does anyone know the Name of the game/program I'm talking about?? Thank you so much!!
- author: Matt (New Zealand)
date: Wednesday 14th May 2003
text: I just got my IIe Platnum like yesterday and know I hardly play on my newer one! Its awesome
- author: michael (u.s.a)
date: Monday 31st March 2003
text: I have 4 iie's. 3 are the platium with color monitors. one has a duo drive. the other one is the orginal iie with a green monitor. I have over 200 disks for them. I still haven't tryed them all yet. Of all the old computers i have the iie is my favorite.
- author: Jonathan Adams (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
date: Friday 13rd September 2002
text: The Apple IIe was the very first computer that I used. This was back in 1990 when I started 4th grade. I have my own Apple IIe now.
related:
- /museum/apple-ii
- /museum/apple-ii-571
content/museum/apple-iigs.md
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@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ params:
- emulators
- links
- docs
forum_thread: 86
photos:
- title: MONO AND COLOUR SYSTEMS
subtitle: ''
@@ -305,195 +306,6 @@ params:
 compiled/archived by Arnaud Brossard\
 type of document : PDF\
 source : [www.apple-iigs.info/](http://www.apple-iigs.info/home.htm)
comments:
- author: Skel (Burlington, Ontario, Canada)
date: Sunday 24th March 2019
text: |-
The Apple IIgs was one of the biggest blunders Apple ever did! The Machine had an amazing graphics ability, fantastic sound system, the disk drives were whisper quiet and fast, the computer''s appearance on the desktop was pleasing, backward compatibility, and it''s operating system was the forerunner to the modern Mac one. A lot of care and time went into engineering this beast.
There was just one problem - the blunder was not the fault of the machine. NO, the problem was: Apple''s management was not interested in pushing it and preferred the Mac instead! BIG MISTAKE, if this had become the Mac, they would probably have millions and millions of more Mac users today! Such a waste!
I remember in my senior year in high school, the computer science department had brought in a whole room of these. The Apple IIgs was just better than the first few versions of the Mac at the time and we all preferred to use the IIgs than the Macs! I learned Pascal on the IIgs. I still have fond memories of this computer!
- author: Robert (usa)
date: Friday 31st October 2014
text: the elementary school i went to in the 90s had a whole computer lab full of these about 50 to 60 of them the only thing we could do on these was word processing or play a bunch of educational games like wild west math or number muncher they even had orgeon trail they were there until i was in the 5th grade back in 96-97 thats when the school upgraded to macs if i remember correctly they were perfoma macs
- author: Tyler (us)
date: Friday 17th October 2014
text: |-
I have a bunch of equipment for Iigs for sale
3 x iigs rom 1 machines all working\
2 x memory expansion cards\
2 x iigs keyboards\
2 x apple keyboard II\
7 x adb tank mouse\
4 x 3.5 drives\
1 x 5.25 drive\
3 x iigs color rgb monitors\
System disks\
Modems
and also a rare system it is a Woz edition and in very nice condition it contains the rare hundred megabytes Vulcan internal drive with applied engineering vulcan card along with a rAm gs card and 3.5inch drive and a 5.25 drive all working with a perfect condition RGB color monitor with the Word Perfect corporation asset tag on itplease email me at A9163161094 at Gmail for pictures info and
- author: Bob Murphy (USA)
date: Monday 8th October 2012
text: |-
Need help with GS/Imagewriter II setup:\
When printing a program listing, I am getting overprinting (lines more than 80 columns printing on 1 line). Must be a line feed problem? I''ve tried setting Imagewriter dipswitch SW 1-8 to both open and closed to no avail. Can anyone solve my problem?\
p.s. printer outputs single lines without a problem.
- author: David Guzman (PR)
date: Tuesday 28th August 2012
text: |-
I remember this little thing, together with the Amiga this was the other computer I wanted to buy back there. I couldn''t because my brother needed a PC compatible for college so my mother bough a PCjr instead (and even those were very expensive back then) and I still enjoyed that one but I would have probably bought an Amiga 1000 and/or a IIgs back there if we could have afforded them. :)
The IIgs was great machine too, it was backward compatible with the software for the Apple II, it had great graphics (much better than the older II), great sound, it had new tricks up it sleeve, and even a great GUI like the Mac. It was also much faster than the older IIs. Great machine and I don''t know if this was me but I always tough that the aesthetic design of the exterior of the machine was very, very nifty and very cool! As a matter of fact today I still think that!
If I had a little bit of more cash I think that maybe I would acquire a IIgs CPU and monitor chassis and maybe mod it and retrofit a newer computer inside of the CPU chassis (even if it was one of those miniitx or nano itx PC boards, I don''t care!) and retrofit an LCD display in the monitor case! Yes even if it was PC! There are many options with that, one could run it as a PC and put Windows Blind skins, new Mac like icons, cursors, Mac like wallpapers etc. that made it look like an Apple machine, and/or run an Apple II emulator in it or perhaps use the PC innards to turn it into a Hackintosh!! ja, ja, ja! Maybe put the innards of a Mac mini in it but I just don''t know at the moment if it would fit inside, I just know that it would be way cool and bring back a lot of nostalgic memories. Woohoo!! That would be so cool to do!! Ja, ja, ja.
I love computers, I have a more let''s say PC cosmopolitan attitude toward them, I am just as happy using a PC as I could be using a Mac or a Linux if it just works good enough, I''m happy with it so this would be very cool to do.
I was astounded to see that Apple withdrew this machine from the market instead of continuing to evolve it but Apple wanted to push the Mac as their main PC only so they cancelled it at a moment when the II line still had a lot of respect of the community and good penetration in the education sector, that was so sad.
I many times tough that perhaps this strategy wasn''t so good from Apple, perhaps if they had continued to advance this line they would have covered not only the Desktop Publishing market that they captured with the Mac but they would have continued to capture a great part of the education sector and maybe later on they could have somehow merged the two architectures or make them very interoperable and maybe today the Mac would have had a larger market share, perhaps.
- author: Amanda (us)
date: Tuesday 23rd November 2010
text: i have a iigs computer that i am wanting to sell if anyone is interested email me at rocketchic20@yahoo.com
- author: Kyle (NH, USA)
date: Tuesday 3rd August 2010
text: Sorry Im just basking in IIgs glory. I remember back in the day we had only one of these machines in our elementary school that could actually use a modem and communicate with other schools lol. Wow what an event that was, to actually communicate with a school from accross the country... I actually enlisted my Dad to come into our school and teach us ablout telecommunications, for he at the time worked as an IT for a little company called Sungard Data Recovery Systems. I will never forget my Dad teaching my 3rd grade class about this new horizon in technology :) Thanks Dad. Youre the reason I still have one of these incredible machines.
- author: Kyle (NH, USA)
date: Tuesday 3rd August 2010
text: |-
I have a IIgs Woz Limeted edition sitting right here next to me. I love the GSOS operating system and the colors/graphics are second to none. I am currently looking for some more memory and a SVGA card for it. I heard some loony actually ported Quake to this machine.... Imagine that, a machine from ''86 able to support a game from ''96. The IIgs is definately the greatest system I have ever used.\
(PS: YES I have used an Amiga so all you Amiga fans can be quiet, I still prefer the IIgs...)
- author: MaryAnne (Irvine, CA USA)
date: Wednesday 9th June 2010
text: I still own an Apple IIGS and it looks brand new $ still works! My first Apple. I''m a huge Mac fan, will be keeping this for my geeky home office museum. :-)
- author: Poopskin the liar (Naperville, Illinois)
date: Friday 13rd June 2008
text: Well, i may have been born in 1994, but i have quite a interest in many old computers, particularly the IIGS and the LISA. in a few days, i'll be procuring a IIGS off ebay! Man! i feel so geekily ecstatic!
- author: Skel (Oakville, Ontario, Canada)
date: Saturday 31st May 2008
text: The Apple IIgs was a beautiful machine. I remember back in high school using them. Indeed, I learned to program PASCAL on an Apple IIgs in that very classroom. I still have those floppy disks and although that classroom is now filled with the latest model of PCs and the IIgs's are all but a memory, I never got around to formatting those disks - there has always been a soft spot for me with these computers. Quite frankly the Apple IIgs was the only Apple computer I've ever really liked, why they rather abruptly discontinued with it's product line I'll never know.
- author: Henry (USA)
date: Monday 21st January 2008
text: |-
Hi
After reading your comment on the forum I thought I would share some\
of my ideas with you on what the problem could be with the Apple IIgs\
you found. A reason why you might have gotten a spark is because you\
hadn't waited after the computer was turned off to install the cards.\
Hopefully the machine was off while you were working :) But the reason why\
spaks fly every time it turns on, hmmm..
The issue might be with the RAM cards you installed with the\
machine. Try this: Remove all the cards from the slots and make sure the\
circuit board that would hold the cards is completly free of dust. If it\
isn't, use a can of compressed air to clean out the dust. Aersol cans of\
compressed air can be found at any office supply store (OfficeMax,\
Staples, ect). Pay close attention to the slots where those cards go when\
cleaning and look for any obstructions (like dust clumps). Once the\
circuit board is dust free WITH CAUTION start up the Apple IIgs. If there\
aren't any sparks, turn off the computer, wait about 15 seconds, and put\
ONE of the cards in. Again, make sure the card itself is free of dust\
specially the goldfingers (those golden like teeth that go into the\
slot. Make sure the side of the card with the components is facing AWAY\
from the power supply. Repeat the test by turning the computer on again\
carefully. If there are sparks, remove the card and then repeat\
this same test with the other cards, one by one.
Remember to excercise extreme caution when working.
The Apple IIgs is a great computer to use and play some of those\
nostolgic games from the 80s and early 90s. The GS had great Graphics and\
Sound; Hence the name. The Apple IIgs shows the great quality that Apple\
Computers had then and still have today. I have collected a few old\
Apple Computers and really enjoy using them for fun once in awhile.
Some good places to find Apple IIgs peripherals, software, accesories\
is at\
-Ebay.com\
-DigitalDinos.com
Hope I could help,\
Henry
- author: Eric (USA)
date: Thursday 16th August 2007
text: |-
I found an Apple IIgs in one of the old computer rooms the other day. It has no hard drive or floppy drive. But a few days ago, I accidentally caused the computer to make a spark. when trying to switch out the RAM location (I've already realized that you put the ram in by slot cards. I didn't put any of the kind of RAM we use these days.) I put it back to the way I found it. Now when i start it up, I get a whole bunch of static. Can anyone help me?
Email me, please. I don't check forums very often.
- author: Henry (usA)
date: Friday 19th January 2007
text: Hi, I can answer questions for you on this page! Just send a message!
- author: Henry (USA)
date: Monday 18th September 2006
text: |-
Do you ever have trouble accessing the Control Panel Program? I know I do. But, to make it easier, try, Apple - control - escape at any time. When you are finished with the control Panel, you can resume what you were doing. I don't know if this is works with all of the ROM versions,\
but try it. :)
- author: Max (from Italy) (Italy)
date: Wednesday 28th June 2006
text: |-
Hi,\
I have found one of these, but it have 110 Vac power supply. I know it's possible to modify some internal jumpers into power supply to switch off one duplicator so it can use 220 Vac (European mains), but I don't know what jumpers rules! I have an Astec power supply. Thanks for any help you may provide. Max
- author: Henry (same as one below) (USA)
date: Friday 16th June 2006
text: To answere your question Karen, you can use a RCA video cable to plug in to the TV or VCR. This conncets to the video cable port next to the RGB moniter port. The image will appear on your screen in color. (You may need to check your TV set up if you are having difficulties.
- author: karen (Australia)
date: Tuesday 2nd May 2006
text: |-
Hi,\
I was wondering how i would go about locating a working screen/terminal for an old Apple IIgs i have - the screen on my current one appears to have died.
- author: Poe (California)
date: Friday 2nd September 2005
text: Ah, but multitasking and internet is possible. You'll need about four megs of ram and a multitasking program called Soft Switch. As for the internet, it is mainly text based and slow. Ah, but the software base... you have to love it!
- author: Renzin (USA)
date: Wednesday 3rd August 2005
text: My school has truckloads of these Apples in a storage room. I guess they really must've liked them. I really don't know why they don't wanna get rid of them. I'd like to get my hands on one.
- author: GSGeek (Ste-Therese, Quebec)
date: Thursday 14th July 2005
text: |-
You said it Poog. It had most of today's desktop features (and Apple's unique Eject command... with burp! sound :^), less multi-tasking and Internet (or TCP/IP) support. It had Apple Talk however, which was fine in classrooms. A hard drive really enhance GS experience.\
Hmmm... regular keyboard of Mac are probably useable since the GS supports ADB (Apple Desktop Bus).
- author: poog t(^^t) <-that's me (America)
date: Friday 3rd June 2005
text: |-
hey, can I use a regular computer mouse for this computer? What about keyboard (they have these awesome LED glowing keyboards at thinkgeek.com and I thought it would be funny to hook it up to my 'gs.) ?\
Oh, and this computer is so freaking awesome!
- author: Henry (Again) (US of A)
date: Tuesday 24th May 2005
text: |-
When you turn on you IIgs and get:\
-CHECK STARTUP DEVICE-\
Don't Freak out! It's perfectly normal. You see,\
It's looking for a floppy drive with a program disk in it to read. The start up device is the floppy drive(s) and/or the hard drive. WARNING! THE APPLE IIGS CPU DOES NOT HAVE A HARD DRIVE. It's a sepereate Pheripheral that is external; always out side of the CPU. If you have purchased a "new" Aple IIgs without software, YOU NEED software to run it. Software on floppies for the Apple II.T he Apple IIgs can run any of the previous Apple II series software. That's the best part about it!
- author: Henry (US of A)
date: Tuesday 24th May 2005
text: |-
You can change the speed of your Apple IIgs by using the control panal program that is built in. To access it, turn on the unit. When the Apple Computer inc. 1977-1987 screen comes up press CONTROL-OPTION-RESET. Press as many times as you need to then the control panal application will come up!
P.S. Hold down keys if nessesary.
- author: zach (merrick, ny)
date: Monday 3rd January 2005
text: i remember using these bastards in 1997 in the first grade (as you can c, i'm not very old) and having Apple IIG's in the classroom. boy... you got really far when on this machine.
- author: Gabe (Houston Texas)
date: Sunday 14th December 2003
text: Im a comp tech at a school district, and we still got a lab of these little bastards. We never have problems with them. I remember using them when i went to elem school. OMG.
- author: Yves Mc Donald (Quebec, Canada)
date: Thursday 10th October 2002
text: 'Apple IIgs hardware on a standard PC? Certainly not as far as interface cards are concerned: PC and Apple buses are not compatible. Joystics, mice and keyboard? Forget it, they use different serial buses. Memory chips - IIgs are propably too slow . You could probably salvage SCSI hard disks but what''s the point? They must be of 40 Mb capacity. Just leave your GS as it is and enjoy.'
- author: raf (israel)
date: Sunday 22nd September 2002
text: can i use any of the apple IIgs hardware on a standart pc computer?
- author: techfury (not telling you)
date: Thursday 27th June 2002
text: That message is just asking you to insert a disk and reboot.
- author: Matt Taylor (South Carolina)
date: Wednesday 29th May 2002
text: I recently picked up an Apple IIgs. I would really like to get it up and running the best that it can, ( a hobby project ). I know noting about apple, but am learning. I have a message across the screen that says "check startup device " I am guessing that this is the "screen of death" for the Apple IIgs. Does anyone know where I can purchase hardware/software for the Apple IIgs ? thanks for all your help.
- author: Fabrice Montupet (France)
date: Monday 25th February 2002
text: 'If you want to see the names of the guys who designed the Apple II GS: when starting the computer without any disk or HD, the following message appears "CHECK STARTUP DEVICE". Then press simultaneously the CTRL + OPTION + APPLE + N keys!'
oc_id: 71
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230426111454/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=71
content/museum/apple-iii.md
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- hardware
- links
forum_thread: 87
photos:
- title: LARGER VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -231,34 +232,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: All about Apple II user groups
comments:
- author: David Lowry
date: Monday 22nd August 2016
text: Steve Wozniak said that the reason the apple /// was so utterly horrible was because it was designed by the marketing people rather than the engineers. He said that the engineers were forced to put in EXTRA chips in the computer to DISABLE the extra memory! It crashed, and was just junk. I am amazed at how expensive these crap-balls are on Ebay.
- author: Doctor Jest (USA)
date: Saturday 3rd August 2013
text: Steve Jobs was the one that insisted the Apple III had no fan and was completely quiet.
- author: Allison Divette
date: Sunday 18th November 2012
text: The Apple /// was a failure because it was badly engineered and designed.
- author: yaglourt
date: Thursday 13rd January 2011
text: |-
Jobs leave apple in 1985, 2 years after the apple III\
it''s true that Jobs wanted a silent computer (15 years in advance), whence the overheating\
but it''s not the only cause of the failure
- author: wally
date: Monday 13rd September 2010
text: Steve jobs had nothing to do wit the Apple 3. He was ousted and creating the NeXt computers. He didn''t return to Apple until 1997 where he bought out PowerComputing PowerMac Clone Company.
- author: Peter F. (Suffolk, UK)
date: Wednesday 23rd January 2008
text: One of the great touches this computer had was its 2 speed cursor control, press the arrow keys just a little harder and it would click down to cause the cursor to wizz along.
- author: Link (Hyrule)
date: Friday 8th April 2005
text: I've read that the case design and consequent overheating problems was at the direct insistence of Steve Jobs, who didn't like the noise of a cooling fan, and didn't want to sully the clean aesthetics of the case by adding ventilation slots.
- author: Malc (UK)
date: Tuesday 22nd April 2003
text: I had an Apple III at work in 1984. I wrote some programs in Basic to automate some office processes. Ours had a 5MB Profile hard drive that sat between the base unit and the monitor. It also had a CPM card (Presumably with a Z80 processor) but we had no disks for it. Unfortunately I left the job before it was disposed of. We had a Superbrain before it and I wish I had gotten hold of that!
oc_id: 72
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230426111455/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=72
content/museum/apple-lisa-lisa-2-mac-xl.md
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- docs
- videos
forum_thread: 275
photos:
- title: THE APPLE LISA 2
subtitle: ''
@@ -237,46 +238,6 @@ params:
- title: Using an Apple Lisa
url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8523205173324245268&hl=fr
text: 'Length: 6 min 07 s'
comments:
- author: Guitardo (Brasil)
date: Wednesday 24th March 2021
text: Why a site like this doesn''t'' have an article about XEROX ALTO?
- author: Anton Kashirin (Miami, FL USA)
date: Friday 13rd November 2015
text: |-
Hello, I am doing a project on the apple Lisa and the GUI I thought it would be great that I could interview someone with good knowledge on the topic and you seem to be a great person with a lot of knowledge of Apple could I interview you in a brief email interview?
Sincerely Anton Kashirin
Contact pl212401@ahschool.com
- author: Gus Carrau (Argentina)
date: Friday 18th October 2013
text: In 1984 I bought a LISA 2/5 with a 5Mb profile disc and a dot matrix printer. The system was revolutionary for this year and some Microsoft SW were released. I used the first versions of Excel and Words that were very useful. It is still working although it is a museum device for electronic design.
- author: DABLIK (Czech republic)
date: Tuesday 13rd April 2010
text: HEllo. i want a old computer. please sends mail to danielsaf@dablik.cz
- author: David Werling (USA)
date: Monday 15th December 2008
text: |-
While it was billed as an expensive, overpriced executive tool, for which I got in some hot water with the East Providence, RI city council, I actually purchased the system in 1983 with a grant to do what our dumb terminals on the city''s UNIX mini could not do$graphics.
I was the senior city planner responsible for producing the stats, graphs, maps and plans for the city. With the LISA, I and the in-house graphics artist produced our final documents probably saving the city the cost of the "expensive" Lisa. It was, however, a little hard panning around the small screen and the dot-matrix proofs where not much to look at because desktop publishing with the Laserwriter had not been invented yet.
- author: Peter F. (Suffolk, UK)
date: Wednesday 23rd January 2008
text: |-
The software company I worked for had one of the very first Apple Lisas. It had two profile hard drives wobbling on the top and run an Apple Pascal compiler.\
The on/off switch was software controlled and took ages to close all the open files as it powered down.\
Also the computer had its own unique serial number that you could use to 'lock' and written application to run on (ie software piracy)\
I also remember the fabled twiggy drives and disks but these were quickly updated to these new fangled 3.5" disks.
- author: Werner-T Niemann (Cologne (Germany))
date: Tuesday 26th June 2007
text: I saw this computer in 1984 and for, I thougt this is a piece of the future. Compared to other computers of this time, it was a revolution. I was a beginning of a new era.
- author: Renzin (USA)
date: Wednesday 3rd August 2005
text: A great machine. I heared one in perfect condition might go for $10,000 USD (the origanal price) if it was in perfect conditon. I recently saw one on eBay for $999 USD!!!! It was in reasonable condition with 1 floppy and a SCSI hard disk.
- author: Jhon Deere (tennesee)
date: Tuesday 24th May 2005
text: OMG!!!! THE LISA IS THE BEST COMPUTER IN THE WORLD!!!!!
related:
- /museum/apple-macintosh
- /museum/apple-macintosh-color-classic
content/museum/apple-macintosh-color-classic.md
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- emulators
- links
forum_thread: 1017
photos:
- title: FRONT VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -195,31 +196,6 @@ params:
- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: Andy (Kentucky USA)
date: Monday 2nd February 2015
text: I worked in Educational Sales at Lexington Computer Store. The entire sales staff got Color Classics as our main workstations (this would have been around 1994). We use FileMaker Pro databases to help us run quotes for clients. We would often $ to B$W mode because it was so much faster than color mode.
- author: Chris (Michigan)
date: Wednesday 20th June 2007
text: |-
I've said that my School ones are in good shape, but now they're gone. My elemtary school is being torn down and replaced with a new one after 87 years in town.
So sad, Of the computer's.....I will never know their fate.
- author: William Burnett (USA)
date: Thursday 31st August 2006
text: This was my favorite computer I ever owned. I traded it for a PowerPC and I regreted it. This was not a fast computer but it had heart. The footprint was wonderful and for a 10" screen it had lots of work area because the display was so crisp. After more than 10 years away from Macs I am back to using a new iMac Intel. It is a great machine but sometimes I miss my little color classic.
- author: John Beeler (USA)
date: Wednesday 14th June 2006
text: Many people and groups around the world like to super-upgrade Color Classics. It seems quite easy to do. I found a site where a guy had OS 9 and a DVD-Rom drive working with his CC.
- author: Patrick Laign (Surrey, BC)
date: Tuesday 1st November 2005
text: I remember using these back in grade 1. These netwerked to dot matrix printer made for one noisy computer class. Typing is clarisworks and playing primitive games. Good times :P
- author: Christian Benvenuto ( )
date: Thursday 30th June 2005
text: |-
Well, i have to say i used this computer in school before and it's a fairly good computer.
I noticed the ones my school had, normally had bad overheating problems when it occured but otherwise they worked fine and barely got viruses. I believe my school still has them and that's confirmed due to a recent visit....A whole lab full of them still in good shape....
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content/museum/apple-macintosh-ii.md
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- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: Dean Filliol (Canada)
date: Thursday 25th March 2021
text: I was wondering if I could get some feed back about the value on these computer parts I picked up this is what''s on the motherboard Macintosh II Apple computer 1987 820-0163-03 630-0140 The cpu is Motorola 68881RC16A OB79C8726 Thanks Dean any Info
- author: Régis Schmidt (France)
date: Saturday 20th August 2016
text: The first Color Macintosh of the lab. It drived a double-line CCD sensor for astronomical applications.
- author: mike brohez (United States)
date: Wednesday 16th November 2011
text: i need to talk to a macII owner about software copy
- author: Ernest
date: Saturday 15th October 2011
text: |-
To Wally from Ohio, I think your statistics are a bit skewed. I would like to know how a 15Mhz difference in CPU speed (25Mhz of the A3000 to 40Mhz of Mac IIfx) would result in a 10 fold performance increase.
I could go on at length as to why the Amiga was superior to the Macintosh. The Amiga 3000 started at just over $3000, while the Mac IIfx started at $9000 and went up to $12000. For less than half the base price of a Mac IIfx I could have added a few extras to an A3000 that would run circles around even a higher end Mac IIfx.
Hardware aside, even the AmigaOS was superior to MacOS. The first AmigaOS supported true pre-emptive multitasking since it''s initial release in 1985. A feature that Mac didn''t get until OSX was released in 1999.
While Mac and Amiga did at times play leap-frog with each other capability wise, Amiga held it''s lead for the first 2+ years of it''s release and continued to release hardware that would outstrip a comparable Mac at a fraction of the Mac''s price tag.
- author: MIKE T (USA)
date: Thursday 10th February 2011
text: I have an Apple II, I was just wondering how much they go for. Like on ebay?
- author: wally (Ohio, US)
date: Thursday 6th January 2011
text: |-
The best thing about the Macintosh IIfx was that it stripped the then competing Amiga 3000 system 10 fold. A 40 MHz 68030 CPU was used and the Amiga 3000 only had 25 MHz
It was the only 32-bit clean variation of the Mac II series.
- author: Markus (Germany)
date: Wednesday 4th August 2010
text: |-
The Mac II series was quite good, for the most part.\
It was possible to swap the motherboards of the Mac II for the one of the Macintosh IIx or IIfx. THAT is compatibility. Every Mac II could have been upgraded with a FDHD SuperDrive upgrade, including disk drives and some chips (and the IWM disk controller was swapped in for a SWIM, compatible with OS/2, DOS/FAT 12 and Apple II ProDOS disks). And the design of the case still lookes good. But RAM was limited to 8 MB (due to the 24-bit addressing mode used) without Mode32, and limited to 20 MB with Mode32, but WITHOUT the SuperDrive upgrade. Maximum Mac OS is version 7.5.5 for Mac II and Mac IIx because of the "32-bit dirty" ROM.
- author: Erik N (Australia)
date: Friday 4th June 2010
text: I used to own a Mac II - well, my dad had one at his work and they were giving them away when I was 4-5 years old. I got one complete with working monitor, played games and stuff on it, sold it last year - but to this day I am still puzzled at how high resolution high quality images could fit on a 3.5" 800k disk.
- author: Andrew Pantini
date: Tuesday 1st April 2008
text: |-
I was working for an Apple computer dealer (yes, they had dealers in those days), when the Mac II came out and it was the hottest thing since sliced bread. Because Apple had made inroads in the desktop publishing market, this was highly prized by publishers because it was much easier to expand than the all-in-one Mac systems.
Two things stand out that come to mind. The first was that this was the first computer I knew that could support large monitors. It was not uncommon for customers to purchase 21 inch color monitors that would allow them to lay out publications in a side-by-side page format.
The second is the price. This was a VERY expensive computer - nearly $4000 just for the box and it wasn't uncommon to spend another $5000 on a large color monitor and 24-bit video card.
- author: Ricardo (Earth)
date: Friday 9th March 2007
text: The Macintosh II was a ultimateley expandable Mac for times, you can run it uo to System 7.5 which. The Mac II was an important computer in the Desktop publishing era.
- author: Link (Hyrule)
date: Friday 8th April 2005
text: Yes, the bondi iMac did use VGA. The internal monitor connects to a standard DB15 port inside the case.
- author: Thor Madsen (Chicago)
date: Monday 15th March 2004
text: Talk about a great design. I once sold graphic systems - and walked through setting up a card/software in a PC and then this. Nightmare v. Pleasure. The next day I went out and bought a Mac SE.
- author: The Clothist (Seattle)
date: Friday 2nd May 2003
text: Glad to see the Mac II in it's fair place in a museum such as this. I believe that the original Macintosh II series computers were some of the best products Apple ever put out, and I have gone to lengths to rescue them from garbage dumps, etc., and find them good homes. As a matter of fact, I am writing this on a model IIsi ^\_^
- author: Bennett Harris (Racine, Wisconsin)
date: Saturday 15th June 2002
text: Are you selling your Mac2 becase if you are I would be quit interested
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- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: Tim Healey (USA)
date: Friday 13rd May 2011
text: |-
I have a virtual museum of old Mac computers, each which run perfectly. I have a Quadra 700, that I still ue for graphic work, a PowerMac7300 with extra ran 128mb that I still use for Photoshop and designing agds and addition I have a Mac Clone, a G3 I believe. AQll 3 run perfect and still do the work they inteneded. Is there anyone inerested in buying these wonderful machines? I may keep the PowerMac7300. Actually it''s a PowerMac7200 with the guts of of a 7300. Let me now. Thanks!
By the way, all come with working monitors and have preloaded software like outlook express, Quarkexpress, photoshop, Adobe acrobat etc.
Tim healey.
- author: Torin Darkflight (Iowa, USA)
date: Friday 6th August 2004
text: It is the Mac Plus which made an appearance in the comical Scotty/"Hello Computer!" scene of Star Trek IV. I've always loved that movie, and that Mac.
- author: kamil alrustom (United Arab Emirates)
date: Thursday 26th August 2021
text: I have MacIntosh plus 512/ 800a s new still running with a floppy with games. including the original bag and the original manuels. how much I can sell all of them. thank you for
- author: Dan Banov (Canada)
date: Wednesday 14th April 2021
text: I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
- author: Dan Banov (Canada)
date: Wednesday 14th April 2021
text: I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
- author: Dan Banov (Canada)
date: Wednesday 14th April 2021
text: I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
- author: Lorenzo
date: Thursday 17th October 2013
text: |-
Ho da vendere dei prodotti Apple come macintosh plus con scatola originale e accessori. Stampante e scanner Apple.\
Per info.\
lorenzo.manna23@libero.it
- author: JayDee (The Netherlandss)
date: Saturday 30th March 2013
text: |-
@ MARCY BRONFMAN (Croton on Hudson, NY/USA)\
If the Mac Plus computers are in good shape and still work I''m interested in buying them.
- author: MARCY BRONFMAN (Croton on Hudson, NY/USA)
date: Sunday 24th March 2013
text: I HAVE 2 USED MACPLUS COMPUTERS AND A DIREC50 HARD DRIVE TO SELL. ANYONE WHO''LL COVER THE SHIPPING COST CAN HAVE THEM.
- author: Jim (Canada)
date: Friday 19th October 2012
text: |-
I had two of these$ one a 2MB RAM with a 40mb external SCSI HD, another 4MB RAM and 80 mb SCSI HD.\
These were the first really capable Macs having SCSI, memory slots and a full keyboard.\
This was the first Apple of any kind that I bought and it was an easy transition from the GEM based Atari ST GUI that I was used to previously.
- author: Nate (Ohio, US)
date: Saturday 4th August 2012
text: |-
My dad recently retired from teaching. He brought home a very curious looking screw driver with a long narrow shaft and a star bit. I asked him what it was. "Nate," he said "Do you remember the Mac Plus you used to play Stuntcopter, The Manhole, and Cosmic Osmo on? This drill bit was used to upgrade the RAM on the machine so it could run Cosmic Osmo when we got our first CD-ROM drive."
We ran that machine with all the RAM capability we could muster :-) It was a solid computer that taught me math, and how to read and type. I still remember playing Spectrum Holobyte''s Mac port of Tetris on it.
Wonderfully solid machine. I still have my 800KB Educorp Floppy diskettes in the house.
- author: Janet Todd (USA)
date: Monday 14th May 2012
text: |-
I have a Mac Plus IBM\
Ram Model $ a9m030\
Serial $346170.. Was wondering if it is worth anything or should I just toss it.
- author: david darlow (wa,spokane)
date: Friday 20th April 2012
text: i have a mac 1mb that was the original assembley line model that everyone that helped produce signed on the inside of the case,,,,any comments
- author: Jen (bradenton, Fl)
date: Monday 26th September 2011
text: I have one of the few clear plastic first laptop apple made and they only made about 100 of the clear plastic ones back in 1989 and I have the regular laptop (first one made, but not the clear plastic). How much are these worth. Thanks, Jen
- author: a hau (midwest us)
date: Friday 26th August 2011
text: I have a mac 512 with an internal thunder drive? It weighs quite a bit. I turn it on annually and admire my MacPaint, MacDraw, MacWrite and Excel programs in thei rgrand simplicity!
- author: bob (usa washington state)
date: Friday 19th August 2011
text: I have a Mac Plus from way back, what is it worth, where can I get a fair market value for it. thank you
- author: John (RI)
date: Tuesday 19th July 2011
text: I found one of these in a garage, still operating after 15+ years in storage. I still use it :)
- author: kelly kime (usa)
date: Monday 16th August 2010
text: |-
Hey your teach would love to revisit lode runner!\
I ust'' to live in surfers...helensvale....worked @ shooters the night club....sold wine during the day. Miss u guys.
- author: Will M
date: Monday 14th June 2010
text: The Mac Plus could actually run any os from 1.1 to 7.5. Not just 3, as the description states.
- author: Nigel (Southport, ENGLAND)
date: Tuesday 11th May 2010
text: My first Mac, won in a competition by someone who decided they did not want it, and gave it to me. Thus started my love affair with Macs. I filled up the memory, and bought a hard disc for it and used to run Illustrator, in the days when you had to render what you had drawn and Photoshop. It was sad to upgrade to a newer Mac, but great to get a colour monitor.
- author: Erik N (Australia)
date: Friday 7th May 2010
text: My IT teacher still has the same Mac Plus from all those years ago - 24 years old and still running fine! There is only one problem - my IT teacher only has one disk for it, and that is the tutorial disk.
- author: Brian Ingram (Atlanta, GA)
date: Thursday 23rd January 2003
text: Along with the TI 99 4/A, the Mac Plus was the computer that I grew up with. From the first time I used it as a child, I was amzaed at how easy and intuitive it was to operate. Ever since then, I have been a lifelong admirer of Apple and its Mac OS. To this day, I still own the same Mac Plus and boot it up on occasion to play around with, even if for nothing more than using it as a nostalgic time machine. I will always hold a deep connection to the Mac Plus for all that it allowed me to appreciate about how great and simply elegant a computer could be.
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- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: Mark Davis (Portland, OR USA)
date: Monday 29th March 2021
text: While working at Prometheus Products in the late 1980s, I designed an internal 1200 bps modem for the Mac Portable. Apple made a machine available to us, along with detailed engineering documention, expressly for this purpose.
- author: Jeff Meyer (Silly-con Valey)
date: Monday 21st September 2015
text: |-
With all due respect, this article needs a deep fact check against the Macintosh product timeline and performance comparisons.\
e.g. the Macintosh Portable was introduced and discontinued several years before the Macintosh II. I suspect that some of the comparisons are being confused with the PowerBook product family.
- author: scott mccockmunchington
date: Monday 2nd December 2013
text: i found this laptop to be of the upmost quality and not only exceeding but also shattering all my preexisting presumptions! great buy! what a steal! i am a flaming homosexual
- author: Anon
date: Saturday 9th October 2010
text: Look where the Mac is today!!
- author: walmartcartpusher
date: Saturday 18th April 2009
text: |-
Macintosh Portable Disk Eject in Space
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$e_MfM4j09ME
- author: Henry (Pflugerville TX)
date: Thursday 7th September 2006
text: |-
Mac Portables are becoming rare, especially in working order. They can still be found once in a while on eBay in "as is" condition for under $50, to which you will need to add another $50 or so to rebuild the battery (you can buy the lead-acid cells which go in the battery), and you will need to find whatever parts are missing (AC adapter, hard drive, etc.). There is a hobbyist who buys, fixes and sells Portables on eBay.You pay a premium, but you get a working system with software & carry case. My sense is that the prices have bottomed out, and will rise from here on, though I wouldn't invest my retirement savings in old Macs.
The first Mac laptops were not made by Apple, they were made in Boulder, CO by Outbound. The big drawback to the Outbound, and the Atari Spectre as well, is they needed a set of Mac Plus or SE ROMs to run, so you had to buy and gut a Mac. This added a lot of cost, but in the case of the Outbound, when at home the portable could dock with the ROM-less Mac and use it as a second display screen.
- author: Mark (Boston)
date: Friday 25th March 2005
text: I was tempted to buy a rather expensive Macintosh Portable off of Ebay, but did not know how much they are worth, and at what rate they are gaining value. If any one knows the answer to this it would be vary helpfull to me.
- author: Aleks (Toronto)
date: Wednesday 4th August 2004
text: The Macintosh Portable was NOT "the first laptop computer with a GUI interface" as stated on the web page. The Atari Stacy laptop had a GUI interface (GEM by Digital Research) and was released befotre the Mac Portable. And in fact, if you plugged in a commercially available product called the Spectre GCR, it ran the MacOS as well. That's right, the first Mac laptop was not made by Apple at all, but rather by Atari. Which is fitting, since Steve Jobs worked at Atari (made Breakout) before working at Apple! :)
- author: Joseph (New Jersey)
date: Thursday 29th April 2004
text: Can you show a screen shot of what the screen looks like? (It's O.K. if it dosn't work or you cant get a picture.)
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url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: Joshua Carle (United States)
date: Monday 6th June 2022
text: I have one with all working components as well as extra ram chips plus Mac bag to go with it all that I would sell to someone
- author: Allison Divette
date: Sunday 18th November 2012
text: I had an SE 30 growing up and it crashed. It did the arpeggio sound the doo doo doo doo
- author: Scot K (NYC - USA)
date: Friday 7th October 2011
text: I''d be interested in one of SE 30''s. that was my first PC $ when i upgraded many years ago, i didn''t have the foresight to hold onto it for nosatgia, plus, it would make a great prop for a project i am working on. skeating622@hotmail.com
- author: SpringheelMac (Holloman AFB, NM USA)
date: Friday 26th August 2011
text: |-
Joe-
If you are serious I would gladly take one or all of them off your hands. Would you like to arrange this?
- author: Joe (Camarillo, CA USA)
date: Wednesday 17th August 2011
text: I have a few of the APPLE SE 30 laying around. does anyone want them. FREE come get them.
- author: Jamie
date: Wednesday 24th November 2010
text: You can also replace the ROM SIMM with an IIfx/IIsi one. This enables 32-bit computing and 128MB of RAM
- author: STu
date: Friday 1st October 2010
text: Got one freshman year in 89 along with an ImageWriterII printer and still have the thing. Went through engineering school (the thing ran Mathmatica!!!) first and later loaded up SoftPC and wrote programs on it for the computer science degree. After that it got moved to the office at the internet startup (95) so we had at least one Mac to figure out how to get them online. If I had the room it would be running now with the old Pyro!!! screen saver instead of boxed away :-(
- author: Jan (The Netherlands)
date: Saturday 20th October 2007
text: |-
Yes, a great little Mac!\
I have one with 8Mb, system 7.5.3 and a network card.\
It is the oldest computer in my network, but it can run a webbrowser and an e-mail cient!
- author: Raps sucks (West Covina)
date: Friday 9th March 2007
text: |-
i used these at my school in the 1990"s these were great, stoled one of the new units and i have the SE right next to me .\
This to me is a bussiness computer
- author: '? (?)'
date: Thursday 23rd November 2006
text: |-
My school had these...\
Great Machines!
- author: Cary Groneveldt (New York City)
date: Saturday 15th April 2006
text: |-
I am the absolutely proud owner of an APPLE "Macintosh SE/30" computer & it's the best boxmac APPLE Computer makes!
Later!\
8^ \]
- author: Nate Arnold (USA)
date: Tuesday 18th October 2005
text: 'This was certainly a classic. The upgrading was a pain. To upgrade the RAM on this macine you needed the following tools: A Sadering Gun (Its Ram didn''t come in sticks at the time), a screwdriver, and a Parybar and Rubber Mallet (To help crack the case open). I still remeber the smell of saudered silicon (it lingers in the computer room) My father had to. I recently aquired one and am still trying to get it open to get the hard drive reconnected and working.'
- author: Aran Carrigan (USA)
date: Friday 4th March 2005
text: People might think a kid would take these seriously, but I did! I fiddled around with it and upgraded it from the OS 7.0.1 to 7.5 and it still works like new! (I had to do something to it. It used to belong to my school.) I'd say it's best computer I own.
- author: mark (Cincinnati)
date: Tuesday 5th March 2002
text: |-
this is one of the best computers ever made. my old boss at a college computer department bought one years ago from a woman who had been using it to run a design and publishing company; when he took it away, she cried.
we used SE/30s as network testers because they are so portable and reliable. they are great for writers because you can tote them around all over and type wherever you please: on the porch, in your hotel, etc. I own two SE/30s.
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url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: BoctorPoo (USA)
date: Monday 9th January 2012
text: I have one of these with an 80MB HDD and a superdrive. It''s one with the word "SuperDrive" printed underneath the standard name on the front, which is allegedly rare. Only 50 dollars on ebay though.
- author: Kam (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada)
date: Friday 7th October 2011
text: Many years ago I opened up my MAC SE and discovered the signatures of the Apple team (incl. both Steves!) embossed on the inside of the back ''shell'' of the body/hood! You just need a torx driver that''s at about 8" long to undo the screws on either side of the SE''s top handle/slot.
- author: Ryan (USA)
date: Sunday 31st October 2010
text: I just picked one of these up for $20. Just for personal satisfaction, how can I get this little classic on the net and since it came with no disks but the software is all loaded, how can I back each program up to floppies?
- author: He who hides
date: Thursday 30th September 2010
text: I just bought one of these off ebay for 60 bucks. It works great but it smells like cow poop(EEEEW!).
- author: Kyle (USA)
date: Thursday 12th August 2010
text: I have one of these Mac SE machines right next to my Apple IIgs. One of the things that goes regularly on these is the original cylindrical fan that cools the machine. They become loud and stop blowing any air. I am attempting to fit a newer fan to the machine as we speak tho. Absolutely worth it on this amazing computer. FYI, Mac OS 6.0.8 is available to download for free at Apple''s support page if you want to at least test out your crashed machine.
- author: Azorean (USA)
date: Monday 15th June 2009
text: I have Mac SE too,stills running like new,sometimes I play games on it.
- author: Josh (redding)
date: Wednesday 12th September 2007
text: |-
I got one from my old teacher for free
and it crashed...
i barly know what to do with it i need the set of flopy disks,... and i dont know where to find them...
- author: Miesa (USA)
date: Wednesday 6th June 2007
text: i just resurrected my dads old Mac SE from the far reaches of the garage. i would like to get it up and running, for my own geeky fun. and a little bit of nostalgia. any help would be appreciated. you can email me.
- author: bluekatt (netherlands)
date: Monday 18th September 2006
text: |-
the mac se runs mac os 5 til 7.5.5\
7.5.5 is freely downloadable from apple.com as 19 floppy images
- author: Jyri P. (Estonia)
date: Saturday 8th October 2005
text: A Mac SE is used to hold the door open at my local Macintosh shop.
- author: jacob cline (USA)
date: Tuesday 27th September 2005
text: what software does a mac SE run on it
- author: Len Hopkins (USA)
date: Friday 10th December 2004
text: I am the lucky owner of an SE that has 2 800k floppies and a 40mb hard drive inside. I have had the case off and to my dissapointment, there are no signatures on the inside. But, I did find that you could a put another hard drive in it if you were so inclined. There is space above the PDS slot that would do nicely.
- author: Martijn Derks (Vlijmen (Netherlands))
date: Monday 30th August 2004
text: I found an old Macintosh SE/30 and I haven't got any software for it. When I turn it on, a disk with a question mark on it appears. I looked this up, and I found out that I need software. Who can help me out?
- author: Nighthawk (Ontario, Canada)
date: Tuesday 7th January 2003
text: I have a Mac SE. It has 4 megs of ram, a 1.44 SuperDrive and a SCSI 170 meg HD. It runs OS 7.5.5. I got it for $10(Can) with a Laser Writer. This little mac works as good as the day it was new. An excellent computer. It was sold for $3900(US) when it fitst came out. This model of Macintosh was the \*first\* Mac to have both a boot-up tone and built-in speaker.
- author: Dave P. (UK)
date: Tuesday 22nd January 2002
text: I've got a Mac SE so I thought I'd attach a 200 meg external hard disk to it, and install System 7.5(.5) on it. Guess what - it worked!
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url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
text: Discussion of Macintosh software system
comments:
- author: macaholic (USA)
date: Thursday 21st April 2022
text: 128K Mac was upgradable - there was a guy at our college who upgraded them to essentially a 512KE as we were told only engineers needed a 512K - what they didn''t realize is that if you wanted to write more than a 4 page paper in MacWrite, you also needed a 512K...
- author: Paul Fedorov (Canada)
date: Friday 2nd June 2017
text: Contact me at Paulfed44@outlook.com , looking for any vintage macintosh looking to buy
- author: Paul Fed (Toronto Canada)
date: Monday 28th November 2016
text: HI I am looking for an affordable apple Macintosh
- author: David Lowry
date: Monday 22nd August 2016
text: It''s amazing how much the price gap is on these old macintosh computers is. I have seen systems that turn on and ONLY come with the computer for more than $600, but i has also seen systems that turn on but just have a few more scuffs on them selling for less than $5.
- author: Mark Powell (UK)
date: Saturday 7th February 2009
text: |-
I had the misfortune of blowing up one of the first Mac''s in the UK. Working for (what was then) one of the biggest dealers in the Country, I was told to get the new Mac out the cupboard and power it on. No-one mentioned the 240/110V converter.\
Bang - puff of smoke $ dead Mac. Oops.
- author: tomswift (usa)
date: Thursday 27th March 2008
text: a ? disk icon on the screen of mac performa 550 probably means dead HD. replace HD. download os 7.5 from apple.com (free) onto floppies. will take 16 floppies for whole os. good luck...
- author: jewel king (Molalla, Or.)
date: Tuesday 11th December 2007
text: |-
I have a (vintage) Mac Performa 550 that needs a system 7 utilities disk to get it back up and running again. When I turn it on, the screen comes up with an icon of a blinking disk with a question mark in it. I don't have a system 7 back up disk and was wondering where I could get one?
If I can't get the old Mac.hine running again, I am planning to sell the entire works. I have lots and lots of programs , 2 printers, a Suma Graphics drawing tablet, Original manuals , an extra extended key board and more , more , more. Am just wondering if some one in the vintage Mac field could give me an estimate on how much it's all worth before I put it on the market. But, before I do that, I'd rather see if I could get it fixed. Thank you
- author: jewel king (Molalla, Or.)
date: Tuesday 11th December 2007
text: |-
I have a (vintage) Mac Performa 550 that needs a system 7 utilities disk to get it back up and running again. When I turn it on, the screen comes up with an icon of a blinking disk with a question mark in it. I don't have a system 7 back up disk and was wondering where I could get one?
If I can't get the old Mac.hine running again, I am planning to sell the entire works. I have lots and lots of programs , 2 printers, a Suma Graphics drawing tablet, Original manuals , an extra extended key board and more , more , more. Am just wondering if some one in the vintage Mac field could give me an estimate on how much it's all worth before I put it on the market. But, before I do that, I'd rather see if I could get it fixed. Thank you
- author: Carlos (Ilheus - Bahia - Brasil)
date: Wednesday 24th January 2007
text: I would like to receive details of the original mac case (cabinet). The sizes, the angles. A CAD project/drawing would be fantastic! I want this to try to build a clone. Thanks in advance. Kind regards
- author: Oliver (Berlin)
date: Monday 5th June 2006
text: |-
Where and when was your Mac born ?
Decode following facts about your old Mac from its serial number:
\* Manufactured in,\
\* Year of production,\
\* Week of production,\
\* Production number,\
\* Modell ID,
http://myoldmac.net/FAQ/Mac-Serialnumber-decoder-e.php
- author: Chris (Vermont)
date: Monday 19th December 2005
text: how much are these things worth? If anyone can e-mail me a rough figure it would be appreciated!
- author: Renzin (usa)
date: Wednesday 3rd August 2005
text: Another great computer! Compare the price of this mac to the latest power mac g5. Some people, sadly, have gutted their old mac and used it as a computer case with a window.
- author: qwerty (mars)
date: Friday 25th March 2005
text: |-
Well Dave, I think you might have a bit more luck on the mini-fourm for the lisa, since that's what you need info on.\
hope I was helpfull Dave.\
Sincerly,\
Qwerty
- author: Dave Catherman (CT)
date: Friday 21st January 2005
text: How is a Manufacture Date code deciphered on a Lisa 2 Model A6S0200? The date code I have is 4300 and the serial number is A4300021. When was this machine born? Thanks! Dave.
- author: qwerty (canada)
date: Saturday 15th January 2005
text: I absolutly love these little brown macs.i currently have a lage colection of them.does anyone know where i can find a orignal 128k to help my colection?if so, please e-mail me
- author: Tim Wilson (Fiji)
date: Saturday 13rd November 2004
text: Yes, "Macintosh" is a kind of apple. The Mac computer was the dream of Jef Raskin, who wrote the manual for the Apple I, and he named it after his favourite type of apple.
- author: Tim Wilson (Fiji)
date: Saturday 13rd November 2004
text: |-
Exact time the Mac was introduced? The stockholders meeting began at 10 am. By 9:45, all 2600 seats were filled, and there were still over 100 people trying to get in. The reason for that is that the "George Orwell" 1984 ad had been screened on Sunday, early in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, and had left everyone stunned.
(Info from "West of Eden - The End of Innocence at Apple Computer", Frank Rose, 1989)
- author: mortb (Sweden)
date: Wednesday 10th November 2004
text: I've heard somwhere that Macintosh is a kind of apples. Don't know if this is correct though.
- author: Rami (Binyamina, Israel)
date: Thursday 20th May 2004
text: |-
Does anyone know the origin og the name MAC(intosh). is it just the codename for the project. The Apple computer names (i.e. Apple and Lisa) had meanining.
Thanks in advance.\
Rami.
- author: Terry (Oklahoma)
date: Tuesday 27th January 2004
text: does anyone know the exact" time " that the Macintosh was introduced on January 24th, 1984? If you look back on a calendar to Jan. 1984, that day is a Tuesday. If you think about it most major introductions have taken place on a Tuesday, but at what time.???
- author: Jon Jarmon (Tacoma Washington U.S.A.)
date: Sunday 26th October 2003
text: |-
I found 2 of the original Macintosh computers.The First Mac's just say Macintosh on the back of them.\
Apple computer only sold around 120,000 to 150,000 of the original Mac's between Jan 24 1984 and Sept 22 1984.After that period of time Apple changed the roms a little bit and renamed it the Macintosh 128k to differentiate it from the released Macintosh 512k,both released after Sept 22 1984.The serial numbers on both of mine are #2336 and #5132 indicating that they were sold after the first week of introduction.I believe that only around 1,500 are still around today in operational condition.The ones that I found needed repair and I had to replace their power transistors on the analog boards.I had to repair one of the sony 400k drives but both are working fine now.The extremely early released Macintosh computers have a date code of 1983 Apple computer on their logic board.Apple sold 6,000 Mac's in the week after introduction,72,000 Mac's by day 100 and reached the 100,000 sold mark after 6 months of time.I still haven't found the exact number sold so I just made an estimation.
related:
- /museum/apple-lisa-lisa-2-mac-xl
- /museum/apple-macintosh-color-classic
content/museum/applied-technologies-computer-in-a-book.md
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forum_thread: 1032
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- title: LARGE VIEW
subtitle: ''
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subtitle: ''
text: from Bits & Bytes magazine
image: null
comments:
- author: Andrew Wright (Australie)
date: Saturday 23rd July 2005
text: There are two of these on display at the Melbourne Museum, hooked up to a 'bee, that Andrew and I saw a while back.
- author: Andrew (Australia)
date: Saturday 30th October 2004
text: |-
Ah, yes, the Microbee C-I-A-B. my dad and his brother Grahame were the founders of what turned into the microbee user's group. good times, says dad. back when most computers had memory measured in kilobytes instead of gigabytes. i still have some older computers my dad owned, like a Toshiba T-1100 Plus......
andrew
oc_id: 1059
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608212613/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1059
content/museum/applied-technologies-microbee-128.md
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- software
- emulators
- links
forum_thread: 457
photos:
- title: FRONT VIEW
subtitle: ''
@@ -199,28 +200,6 @@ params:
- title: The Bee Board
url: http://microbee.no-ip.com/beeboard/
text: Forum and documentation repository for Microbee
comments:
- author: Michael Otway (Australia)
date: Sunday 29th November 2015
text: Being equipped with a Z80 CPU, these "128K" units could only access 64KB for programs and data. The other 64KB was set aside as a RAM drive. The RAM drive wasn''t all that useful though, because (unlike their 32 and 64K models) they used DRAM not SRAM, so the RAM drive data was gone once the computer was switched off.
- author: Charles Thomas
date: Friday 29th May 2015
text: Heh, Kung Fury gets hacked back in time on one of these. :D
- author: Peter Larsen (Sydney, Australia)
date: Sunday 8th August 2004
text: The Network you describe was very popular in schools here in Australia also. It was called StarNet, and in it's most common configuration could support up to 30 or so client machines. It was a 19,200 baud serial network, the client machines having "StarNet Adapters" while the server was generally a 56k disk system model with a "StarNetwork Multiplexer". Software would be loaded on the server, then "pushed" through the serial link to the client computers and run from their RAM. Some units would have a "battery" switch so you could plug in, load software, then unplug and keep it in memory while you moved the machine elsewhere.
- author: Martin Hultén Ashauer (Sweden)
date: Sunday 22nd September 2002
text: |-
I've had a MicroBee all my life and it still works alltho some buttons dont work propperly like the '0' button, so I have to write '11' instead of '10' when i'm basic programming. Its a nice computer and i have some software but not much. If there is anyone that owns ant software to the MicroBee and is willing to give/sell it to me mail me @: Martin_ha@yahoo.com\
//Martin H.A.\
Proud MicroBee Owner
- author: Christian Johansson (Sweden)
date: Saturday 2nd March 2002
text: |-
When I went to school in Eslöv in Sweden in 7th-9th grade between 1986-1989, we had a computer room filled with Microbee computers. There was one server that the teacher handled. The rest of the computers that the pupils used were clients. Computer science was a special subject at the time. We did not use computers in ordinary subjects like mathematics and Swedish.
/Christian
related:
- /museum/applied-technologies-microbee-32
oc_id: 462
content/museum/applied-technologies-microbee-32.md
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- software
- emulators
- links
forum_thread: 297
photos:
- title: EARLY MODEL
subtitle: ''
@@ -144,47 +145,6 @@ params:
- title: The Bee Board
url: http://microbee.no-ip.com/beeboard/
text: Forum and documentation repository for Microbee
comments:
- author: Laurie May (Australia)
date: Sunday 20th November 2022
text: I have a 32k Microbee but no instructions for cables etc. My grandson is interested, having done some computer studies. Where may I find such documentation?
- author: ChickenMan (Australia)
date: Friday 25th February 2022
text: Happy 40th Birthday to Microbee that was initially released in the Feb 1982 issue of Your Computer. Still going strong today :)
- author: Star wallace (Australia)
date: Friday 7th August 2020
text: |-
I have one in box for sale never removed from box.
Starnzak@gmail.com
- author: Star wallace (Australia)
date: Friday 7th August 2020
text: Hi
- author: Mark Cowan (Australia)
date: Monday 18th May 2020
text: I remember these from my primary school years. We thought they were crap but it seems the real problem was teacher training. I recently watched a YouTube video of a guy demonstrating them and it looks like they were actually much better computers than anything we ever saw.
- author: Vex (Australia)
date: Friday 6th February 2015
text: Had one of these as a kid did any of you play that yacht around Australia game where you had to type in distance+compass direction,,,I think been about 25 years since I played. What about that one where you were some manner of cargo ship captain going from port to port in trade hoping to avoid pirates but if you were really lucky you had the opportunity to bribe the pirate boss at the beginning of the game? So many memories so few names to stick on them
- author: Benjamin Ashcroft (Newcastle, NSW, Australia)
date: Thursday 14th August 2014
text: |-
OMG. I remember this computer well. I was around 2 years old when my parents got this computer direct from the manufacturer down in Hornsby.\
We had the version with the tape deck and programs usually took about half an to load. My first game I ever played was Frogger in green screen....I also remember playing a game that involved going around a set course and you had to avoid hitting the sides or any obstacles dotted around the course but I can''t remember the name of it!!!
- author: Michael Tooth
date: Sunday 29th June 2014
text: |-
Had several Microbees$ one was the Computer-in-a-Book CPM other wise known as the "Chook in a book" because of its drive noise\
Great fun
- author: Shane Doyle (Australia)
date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
text: I remember building one of these when they came out. Used to write software for them for a guy named Peter Sinke who had a computer shop and sold the Microbees and the software I wrote. Great fun at the time, miss those old DIY days !
- author: microbee
date: Sunday 22nd April 2012
text: Microbees are back, check out http://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/
- author: Scott Tester (Sydney Australia)
date: Saturday 9th August 2003
text: Is there any place that I can download the manual for the microbee 32k. I'm looking for the exact code to the guessing game that was found in the manual.
related:
- /museum/applied-technologies-microbee-128
oc_id: 287
content/museum/asaflex-6.md
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- title: GUN
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/asaflex_6_gun.jpg
comments:
- author: Userboi
date: Thursday 9th August 2018
text: |-
"VINTROPEDIA - Vintage Computer and Retro Console Price Guide 2009"
Says the system came out in 1977 and prices it at 15 euro
(By the way that book has like 14k systems so probably a good place to look for missing info on the ones you have on this site)
oc_id: 658
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230613001056/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=658
content/museum/asci-systemx.md
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forum_thread: 741
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- title: COVERED SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
@@ -71,22 +72,6 @@ params:
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/asci_systemx_taperec_1.jpg
comments:
- author: Michael (USA)
date: Wednesday 4th December 2013
text: Was lucky enough to find four of these that were being thrown out by a school.
- author: TC (US)
date: Saturday 31st December 2011
text: |-
The ASCI System X also had an RS-232 port and an available expansion board with BASIC on ROM. IIRC BASIC was launched from the monitor by:
G\
F836\
D
The BASIC board could eat itself if a user POKEd at the wrong addresses.
ASCI''s marketing catchphrase for the System X was "a system so updated, it can''t be outdated". I''m not gonna hold my breath waiting for a USB 3.0 interface though. :)
oc_id: 758
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230210082457/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=758
content/museum/atari-1200-xl.md
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forum_thread: 37
photos:
- title: 1200 XL
subtitle: ''
@@ -295,68 +296,6 @@ params:
- title: Atari Home Computer laser disc - Conclusion
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQDQWvwZ-2w
text: 'Length: 1 min 30 s'
comments:
- author: Mark Brzozowski (New York)
date: Saturday 16th September 2006
text: |-
There is one detail I would like to correct. I can remember very clearly that Atari 1200XL WAS sold in Poland (i.e. Europe) at the time. I used to go to this store and check out latest electronics and when I saw the box for 1200XL, I was hooked. The computer looked very elegant and futuristic at the time. I would go back there every couple of weeks. It was months later (sometime in the fall) when I went there again and noticed that 1200XLs were gone and replaced by 600XL and 800XL. Was very upset, as these didn't look as nice to me as the 1200XL model.\
It was years later that I got to own 1200XL. Now I have two of them with original boxes and one of them is in M/NM condition. Even the new smell is still there:).\
I don't think I noticed that it was mentioned that the original keyboards, though great, stopped working after a while, so they had to be replaced. I have one sitting right here (just in case) that was made by Mitsumi and has a sticker from Radio Shack. One of my computers has this slight problem with the keyboard. I have to press the key few times, sometimes harder, for the keystroke to register.\
As for compatibility, I can play Bounty Bob Strikes Back (1984) cartridge just fine (for example).
- author: Steve
date: Thursday 7th June 2018
text: Just to let you know the Photo of the inside of this with the IC''s identified is incorrect. You have POKEY and ANTIC round the wrong way!
- author: Jeff (USA)
date: Tuesday 3rd April 2018
text: I have an Atari 1200XL and it works like a charm, and still looks like it was 30+years ago. If you have this one, keep a hold on it! I find that mine works better than my 800XL...just perspective.
- author: zozo (france)
date: Thursday 30th October 2014
text: i have one in 1988 but ... je n''est pas fais grand chose avec les jeux ne se trouvaient plus ! j''ai preferé le commodore plus/4
- author: ScottInNH (USA)
date: Thursday 8th September 2011
text: |-
I got one of these in 1983. The keyboard was awesome. I used to type and store my programs on tape which had recorded music on it (the 1010 only used 1 track to record data, but it would read data from both left and right tracks. Just enter a POKE command to silence the data squench and you could listen to music while loading.. neat!). It took a while but I typed in nearly every Antic and Analog program listing.
Later got the 1050 floppy + US Doubler chip.
This model did not last long not because of compatibility, but because of cost. The cases were heavily shielded to comply with older stricter FCC regs which were not needed anymore. So while the 1200XL was cheaper to build than the 800, it was not cheap enough, and the 800XL was built with less shielding and a cheaper keyboard.
The one thing I always hated about the Atari though was the fact that all the games catered to 48K ram due to the large base of Atari 800s (though I always thought those users upgraded... and probably did). This held back game quality and you could see many C64 games using all 64KB but the Atari one cutting corners to run in 48K. The other thing bad was the BASIC language was very slow.. if anyone remembers TurboBASIC which was FREE software (much later on).. it blew away everything and had near machine language speed. Some really smart Polish programmer wrote it out of disgust for Atari Basic''s speed.
I tossed my 1200XL (regrettably) in 1997 during a move, along with a 1020 plotter and other neat stuff. I also had a 520STfm, but sold it.
The 1200XL got me into programming, and that''s what I do today.
For those who still have these computers, you can get expansion for it including IDE hard drive interfaces, SD card readers, Ethernet networking (wired.. but you can plug it into a cheap wireless access point). It will work with a modern LCD display as it had a decent NTSC signal (not sure about monitor mode.. maybe that works also).
Favorite games were Alternate Reality, FireBug (a free game in a magazine), Archon, Blue Max, and Rescue on Fractalus.
- author: Anonymous
date: Thursday 8th September 2011
text: The 1200XL suffered from poor marketing on the part of Warner Communications. It is the best 8-bit computer of the early 1980''s. They produced \~120,000 units in 1983. The sales flopped when 3party software had issues. They originally shipped with version 10 operating system. The rev 11 is almost identical to the 600/800XL OS and fixed many bugs. Don''t know if they actually shipped with Rev 11 since the production run was less than 6 months. It had the highest quality MOBO and about 2/3 were manufactured in the USA. The last Atari to be made in America. This unit is considered by collectors as the crown jewel of the released 8-bit line. The 1400XL and 1450XLD were never retailed tothe public. They can still be had today on EBAY, but the chronic troblem with aged units is the mylar membrane on the keyboard assembly. Almost 100$ failure rate after almost 30 years. The broken traces can be repaired with conductive pen. A must own for a serious collector.
- author: Anonymous
date: Thursday 8th September 2011
text: The 1200XL suffered from poor marketing on the part of Warner Communications. It is the best 8-bit computer of the early 1980''s. They produced \~120,000 units in 1983. The sales flopped when 3party software had issues. They originally shipped with version 10 operating system. The rev 11 is almost identical to the 600/800XL OS and fixed many bugs. Don''t know if they actually shipped with Rev 11 since the production run was less than 6 months. It had the highest quality MOBO and about 2/3 were manufactured in the USA. The last Atari to be made in America. This unit is considered by collectors as the crown jewel of the released 8-bit line. The 1400XL and 1450XLD were never retailed tothe public. They can still be had today on EBAY, but the chronic troblem with aged units is the mylar membrane on the keyboard assembly. Almost 100$ failure rate after almost 30 years. The broken traces can be repaired with conductive pen. A must own for a serious collector.
- author: Larry Hampton (Oklahoma/USA)
date: Friday 11th March 2011
text: On 12-06-1983, my parents purchased an Atari 1200XL from Sears for $599.99 in Quail Springs Mall, the maintenance agreement was $53.05. 5 days later on 12-11-1983, they purchased an Indus GT disc drive for $449.99 from Wizard''s in Quail Springs Mall.
- author: Jon A ( USA ) (USA)
date: Thursday 11th November 2010
text: I got one of these from a friend who had won it in a Movie Channel contest. I loved my old Ataris.. I originally had only the basic cartridge, but eventually had collected the microsoft assembler, the assembly cartridge, a couple game carts, a 1541 ( modded of course ), an Atari plotter ( the little 4 inch wide one ), and a modem. It was absolutely the greatest machine to tinker with, and became my introduction to the world of IT.
- author: Scott (USA)
date: Wednesday 19th December 2007
text: |-
I spent many hours learning to program computers on an Atari 1200XL. They keybaord was fantastic. I had it connected to the Atari I/O box, with a 1200 baud modem and a Centronix parallel printer. I later added 4 floppy drives from both Atari and 3rd party manufacturers, and ran a BBS system from this machine. A friend had four 1 megabyte 8" floppies connected to one for his BBS. I later replaced it with a 130xe from which I soldered more memory directly to the motherboard for 320K of memory using bank switching to access. Much like the IBM PCs did with "Extended Memory" later on.
The Atari's were so hackable in their hardware it was hard to keep the screws in them as each week I would see more information on the BBSs on how to upgrade them to bigger and better performance.
- author: Steve Scott (USA)
date: Wednesday 17th May 2006
text: I didn't have a problem with the compatibility. Although I had the compatability chip,I never needed to use it. There were many, many games available. I know I had a bunch stored on disk, with that really cool file system they had. Many of these games were independantly developed.
- author: PvK (Seattle)
date: Friday 1st February 2002
text: |-
Actually, 1200XL's are compatible with most Atari software. Some pre-XL software has problems, but almost all of them are fixed by booting with the translator disk.
PvK
related:
- /museum/atari-1400-xl
- /museum/atari-1450-xld

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