website/content/museum/ice-felix-hc-85.md

---
title: Ice-Felix HC-85
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Romania
years:
- '1985'
cpus:
- Z80
params:
  name: HC-85
  company: /companies/ice-felix
  company_name: Ice-Felix
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: HC-85
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Ice-Felix
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Romania
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1985'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Spectrum Basic interpreter
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Mechanical 40 keys + Reset switch
  - label: CPU
    value: Z80
  - label: SPEED
    value: 3.5 Mhz.
  - label: RAM
    value: 48 KB
  - label: ROM
    value: 16 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 32 columns x 24 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 256 x 192 pixels
  - label: COLORS
    value: 16 (8 colours in mormal or bright modes)
  - label: SOUND
    value: Beeper (10 octaves)
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 34 (W) x 25 (D) x 4 (H) cm.
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Tape recorder, Joystick x 2, RGB, TV aerial, AC adaptor
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: External AC adaptor. Built-in power regulation
  - label: PRICE
    value: 15000 LEI / 300$ (Romania, 1987)
  tabs:
  - photos
  - hardware
  - links
  - docs
  photos:
  - title: 'EARLY MODEL #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: This picture was found by **Grecu Cristi** in a Romanian math book released in 1989. It was probably the very first case version.
    image: null
  - title: 'EARLY MODEL #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The case is different from the more common HC-85. But are they internal differences?

      Thanks to the [Pocket Computer Museum](http://pocket.free.fr/) for this picture.\
      This model is Arthur's property.
    image: null
  - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Photo taken from first HC-85 brochure.

      Thanks to **Zeno Mateescu** from Romania
    image: null
  - title: HC-85 LOGO
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Even if the key were not very well aligned, the quality of the keyboard was better than that of the Spectrum.\
      The keys arrangement and the functions of each key was exactly the same as those of the Spectrum but in only one colour, which was not very convenient.\
      Note the reset switch located beside the 'Zero' key.
    image: null
  - title: MOTHERBOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      All the active components (chips) mounted on this board seem to have been manufactured in Eastern Europe.

      **(1)** Tape recorder audio signal filter area\
      **(2)** 32 KB RAM memory area\
      **(3)** 16 KB RAM memory area\
      **(4)** Video signals management area\
      **(5)** TV-UHF modulator\
      **(6)** Video RGB connector\
      **(7)** 2 x joystick connectors\
      **(8)** 16-pin keyboard connector\
      **(9)** Z80-A processor\
      **(10)** Expansion / Bus connector\
      **(11)** 16 KB ROM area\
      **(12)** Power connector\
      **(13)** Tape recorder DIN plug
    image: null
  - title: PROCESSOR & ROM CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: REAR CONNECTORS CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Inside the TV-UHF modulator.\
      RGB and joysticks connectors.
    image: null
  - title: REAR CONNECTORS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** Tape recorder DIN plug\
      **(2)** Expansion / bus connector\
      **(3)** 2 x joystick DB-9 connectors\
      **(4)** RGB video output DB-15 connector\
      **(5)** TV-aerial output plug
    image: null
  - title: WARRANTY SEAL
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      This small cup filled with pink wax covers one of the six screws used to close the case.\
      If the cup is empty, the warranty is void!
    image: null
  hardware:
  - title: ICE JOYSTICK INTERFACE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      ICE Felix made several peripherals for its HC series, among them:\
      • this joystick interface,\
      • A Sinclair comptatible joystick,\
      • A tape recorder\
      • And even an optical pen.

      The joystick interface is Sinclair Kempston compatible; it uses port 1 of the computer. The jack is used to plug in an optical pen.

      Thanks to **Grecu Cristi**
    image: null
  - title: ICE SINCLAIR COMPATIBLE JOYSTICK
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to **Grecu Cristi**
    image: null
  - title: ICE TAPE RECORDER
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The mecanical part of this tape recorder looks strongly "inspired" with the one from Spectrum +2.

      Thanks to **Grecu Cristi**
    image: null
  - title: ICE LIGHT PEN
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The light pen is a very simple device, containing a photodiode. It is connected to the jack of the joystick interface. When the electron beam is crossing the area of the screen where the light pen is positionend, it sends a signal to the interface, that resets bit 1 of port 191 of the HC.

      Thanks to **Grecu Cristi**
    image: null
  links:
  - title: Bucharest university
    url: http://www.csit-sun.pub.ro/research/history/
    text: Technical files about some computers manufactured by Ice-Felix (Romanian)
  - title: Ice-Felix company
    url: http://www.felix.ro
    text: Website and history of the Ice-Felix company (Romanian)
  - title: Romanian users group
    url: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RomanianHomeComputer/
    text: They have rare documentations, programs and useful PC utilities for Romanian computers
  docs:
  - title: INTERFATA 1 HC - USER'S MANUAL
    url: http://george.chirtoaca.googlepages.com/
    cover: null
    text: |-
      [**INTERFATA 1 HC - USER'S MANUAL**](http://george.chirtoaca.googlepages.com/)written by Ice-Felix

       compiled/archived by George Chirtoaca\
       type of document : PDF\
       size : 3 MB\
       source : [george.chirtoaca.googlepages.com](http://george.chirtoaca.googlepages.com/)
  comments:
  - author: Anton (Bucharest)
    date: Sunday 13rd April 2014
    text: The price was 14.000, that$s mean 1120$ in that times
  - author: wolfy (bucharest / romania)
    date: Friday 24th August 2012
    text: |-
      Actually the best Romanian Spectrum clone was Cobra, the computer designed and built at ITC Brasov. It was able to run both Basic and CP/M and used only cheap integrated circuits which were much easier to be found by enthusiasts who wanted to build their own computer.\
      Actually a whole black market industry existed which reused defective motherboards dumped by the factory and chips imported from DDR or URSS. I am quite proud to say that I assembled a few systems myself...
  - author: Ciprian (Bucharest Romania)
    date: Thursday 27th August 2009
    text: I''d like to add that the keyboard was really low quality . It had a couple of steel blades that were kept apart when the key was not pressed. When you pressed the key a plastic spacer $ped down and the springs would come together and close the circuit. Well, the blades used to get stuck apart and not touch even if you pressed the key. This used to happen very often.
  - author: Ion Tzuica (Chisinou)
    date: Wednesday 14th July 2004
    text: 'Between the HC-85 and HC-91 weren''t major aspect differences. But the mainboard is completely different at these two computers. HC-85 had a MMN-80 CPU, eight ROM chips... totally more than 50 chips, more than the HC-91. The performance was the same. The computers from ICE Felix were the best roumanian Spectrum clones. They give no errors, comparative with their rivals, CIP, JET, etc. We can still find HC-85, HC-91, CIP-03 , sometimes JET for sale, at second hand, in Roumania, for a very low price: about 50.000 lei (1,6 USD). CIP-04 and HC-2000 are very rare models. There are a few people who had such wonderful computers, but they will never sell them! After 50..100 years, I think these rare computers (eventually working) will cost ten times their weight in gold!'
  - author: Bogdan (Iasi, Romania)
    date: Tuesday 10th December 2002
    text: Actually, the image represent a HC-90, a latter model; the first one was even more poor quality in manufacture and had some significant differences in exterior design. However, it was identical with the HC-90, shown here.
  related:
  - /museum/ice-felix-hc-2000
  - /museum/ice-felix-hc-91
  oc_id: 629
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20221203204323/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=629
    date: '2022-12-03'
---

In 1985, despite of the severe limitations of the political system, the Romanian computer company ICE-Felix, located in Bucharest, started to design and produce Sinclair Spectrum compatible computers.

The company was founded in 1970 and became the main computer equipments manufacturer in Romania. Several mini and microcomputers were developed, based initially on the French C.I.I. company licence.

The HC-85 was the first manufactured model. It was primarily intended for the Romanian schools and universities. As the engineers could not use the Spectrum / Feranti gate-array chip, they replaced it by a whole of logical chips that carried out exactly the same tasks.

The plastic case and the keyboard were of poor manufacture quality. However, the machine looked solid and the motherboard printed circuit was same quality level as the Western productions of the time.