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title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params
title categories types origins years cpus params
Amstrad PC 1512
Computers
Professional Computer
United Kingdom
1986
Intel 8086
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PC 1512 /media/museum/photos/amstrad_pc1512_2s.jpg /companies/amstrad Amstrad
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NAME PC 1512
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MANUFACTURER Amstrad
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TYPE Professional Computer
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ORIGIN United Kingdom
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YEAR 1986
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KEYBOARD Full-stroke professional keyabord, with function keys, numeric keypad and editing keys
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CPU Intel 8086
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SPEED 8 MHz
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RAM 512 KB (up to 640 KB)
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ROM 16 KB
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TEXT MODES 40 x 25 / 80 x 25
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GRAPHIC MODES CGA graphic modes : 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 + Amstrad specific mode : 640 x 200 / 16 colors
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COLORS 4 (CGA colors) / 16 (Amstrad Mode)
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SOUND bipper
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I/O PORTS Centronics, RGB, RS232, Mouse (proprietary), Joystick, 8 bit ISA slots (3)
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BUILT IN MEDIA One or two 5.25'' disk-drives
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OS MS-DOS or DR-DOS
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POWER SUPPLY PSU built-in
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PRICE Monochrome 1FD: $799 - 2FD: $899 - 10 MB HD: $1299\ Colour versions: add $200 (USA, March 1987)\ From £490 to £1090 (UK)
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AMSTRAD PC-1512 Model with color monitor and double disk drive (2 x 360 KB) /media/museum/photos/amstrad_pc1512_2.jpg
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UK ADVERT (1986) November 1986 price list:\ Monochrome - Single drive: **£399** + VAT\ Monochrome - Dual drive: **£499** + VAT\ Colour - Single drive: **£549** + VAT\ Colour - Dual drive: **£649** + VAT Optional 10 MB hard disk: **£300** + VAT /media/museum/pubs/amstrad_pc1512_ukadv_1.jpg
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FRENCH ADVERT (APRIL 1987) "Compatible with you know who.\ Equiped like nobody.\ Priced like Amstrad". Single drive, monochrome monitor = 4997 FF + VAT\ Double drive, monochrome monitor = 6290 FF + VAT\ Single drive, colour monitor = 6890 FF + VAT\ Double drive, colour monitor = 8190 FF + VAT\ Single drive, 20 MB hard-disk, monochrome monitor = 9990 FF + VAT\ Single drive, 20 MB hard-disk, colour monitor = 11890 FF + VAT /media/museum/pubs/amstrad_pc1512_pub-fr_1.jpg
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DMP 2000/3000 PRINTERS /media/museum/hardware/amstrad_pc1512_dmp2000-3000_1.jpg
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The Amstrad 1512DD home page http://www.amstrad1512.co.uk/ Site is dedicated to the Amstrad 1512DD and other Amstrad 1512's.
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Amstrad PC Finnish commercial (1987) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQfi8iG-Gk Length: 10 s
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Christine Earl (United Kingdom) Sunday 15th May 2022 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 .
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AirTC (Ukraine) Sunday 9th August 2020 Oh!! It was my second PC. First one was Electronika BK-0011.
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Krzysztof A. Majewski (Polska) Monday 24th February 2020 I am looking for DOS 3,2 on 5,25"disk for Amstrad-Schneider 1512 HD
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diamondgod (West Virgina) Monday 24th February 2020 it looks so old and I like it
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Kes (UK) Tuesday 17th October 2017 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.
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T (North London) Saturday 14th January 2017 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
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Misses Robata Wednesday 14th December 2016 POOP! CGA graphic modes : 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 MUCH BETTER! Amstrad specific mode : 640 x 200 / 16 colors
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Awesomespace (The Netherlands) Saturday 27th June 2015 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!
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Zoe (UK) Saturday 6th September 2014 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
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Daniele (Rome - ITALY) Wednesday 27th August 2014 the 1512...\ my very first PC\ I learned everything about computer with it\ really really cheap for that time\ the best, and was british!\ $-)
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Pedro Renato (Portugal) Monday 2nd June 2014 This was one of the first computers I used!
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John (united kingdom) Sunday 9th February 2014 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.
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Alan Questell (North Carolina, USA) Friday 30th August 2013 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.
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Barry (United Kingdom) Wednesday 6th March 2013 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
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Joao Marques (Portugal) Sunday 29th July 2012 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
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Tom Horton (England) Saturday 12th May 2012 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
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Ian Ward (UK) Thursday 26th April 2012 My Brother in Law is still running his milk business on the HD20 version.
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Henk Siewert (The Netherlands) Monday 23rd April 2012 Hallo,\ I have 5 1/4 and 3 1/5 inch system floppies.\ If you need one just email me on info@swtrocketry.com
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John (Spain) Wednesday 22nd February 2012 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
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David Meggitt (United Kingdom) Sunday 5th February 2012 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).
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David Meggitt (United Kingdom) Sunday 5th February 2012 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).
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PETE (U.S.A.) Saturday 14th January 2012 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 !
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Dave (USA) Wednesday 28th December 2011 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.
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Luke (USA) Friday 14th October 2011 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...
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Simon Thursday 15th September 2011 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.
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JORGE GOMES (Portugal) Thursday 25th August 2011 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 ?
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TGH (Suffolk/UK) Saturday 20th August 2011 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...
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Michael King (UK) Wednesday 27th July 2011 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
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Vlad (Ukraine) Monday 2nd May 2011 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
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Henk Siewert (The Netherlands) Tuesday 29th March 2011 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.
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Graham (Australia) Tuesday 8th March 2011 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.
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Tom Rattray (Edinburgh, Scotland) Thursday 13rd January 2011 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
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Freeway_Speedmaster (Athens, GREECE) Wednesday 24th November 2010 - 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! :-)
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Jörgen Svensson (SE) Wednesday 10th November 2010 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!
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citokinch (london ontario) Wednesday 27th October 2010 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.
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BUTCH Friday 8th October 2010 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.
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Sean D. Thursday 16th September 2010 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.
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Marty H (Australia) Sunday 29th August 2010 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 $2000 at the time so this was it. But it carried my mum through university from 1992 to 1995, using the Ability software package, which combined word processor, spreadsheet, database and modem communication software. I learned some MS-DOS (and so did my mum!) using the included tutorial disk. The computer eventually broke down in 1999 - the hard drive had failed but a replacement HDD was hard to justify because we didn''t really need the computer, and I thought a replacement would be hard to find and/or expensive. It wasn''t much but I have indispensable (to this day!) knowledge and a foundation in computers because of this thing.
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Fredrik Larsson (Sweden) Tuesday 20th April 2010 My father bought the Amstrad PC1512 in 1988, just a year before I was born. 22 years later and the computer still works perfectly without any blemishes. I grew so fond with it that I kept and maintained it over all these years$ 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!
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Lars (Germany) Saturday 18th October 2008 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.
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Remi Dumont (France) Tuesday 24th July 2007 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 ?
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Alejandro Corral (Earth) Sunday 10th June 2007 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.
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sakis (greece) Thursday 3rd May 2007 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?
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Kaitz (Estonia) Wednesday 1st November 2006 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.
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stanislav pecho (Czech Republic) Tuesday 15th February 2005 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 :))
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topaz (germany) Thursday 3rd February 2005 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.
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ian Henderson (uk) Sunday 21st November 2004 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
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1512 lover (UK) Wednesday 10th September 2003 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
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jose luis (tarragona / spain) Thursday 29th May 2003 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)
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_ (_) Friday 27th September 2002 I brought one in Greece from U.K., without electric fan, in Dec 1986 and it still works perfectly. Sept. 2002
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eb (Grenoble (France)) Thursday 9th May 2002 Est-ce que quelqu'un est intéressé pour acheter un Amstrad PC1512 en parfait état de marche?\ Si oui, envoyez moi un petit mail
/museum/amstrad-pc-1640
/museum/amstrad-ppc-512-640
/museum/ibm-pc-at
/museum/ibm-pc-model-5150
/museum/ibm-pc-portable-model-5155
/museum/ibm-pc-xt-286
/museum/ibm-pc-xt-model-5160
/museum/ibm-ps-1
/museum/micronique-hector-xt
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https://web.archive.org/web/20230608143035/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=183 2023-06-08

The Amstrad PC 1512 was launched in 1986. After the Amstrad CPC 464, the CPC 664 and the CPC 6128 (three home computers based on the Z80) and the PCW 8256 and the PCW 9512 (both dedicated word processing computers based on the Z80 as well), Amstrad decided to make its first low-cost PC clone. It was a great European success, capturing more than 25% of the European computer market (impressive now and phenomenal then).

This cheap computer was, however, complete and offered more than some others did. The small power supply (57 W) was integrated into the monitor.

Eight models were offered: The PC 1512 SD/DD (with one or two 5.25" floppy disk drives) and two models with hard disk (HD10 with 10 MB hard disk and HD20 with 20 MB hard disk). FD and HD versions could be acquired with a monochrome or colour monitor.

The Amstrad used an "enhanced" CGA graphic mode, which could display 640x200 pixels with 16 colors (or grayscale). It was sold with MS-DOS 3.2, DR-DOS plus 1.2 (an operating system from Digital Research), GEM (a graphic interface, also used in the Atari ST, TT & Falcon), GEMPAINT and GEM BASIC.

The mouse port, although using 9 pins like a COM port, is proprietary to Amstrad ... The port is female and is only for use with an Amstrad mouse. The special PC-CM monitor provides power to the system unit by a large 14-DIN connector.

Charles Da Silva adds:
Digital Research brought all its support to the Amstrad PC with its DR-DOS, expecting it to know the same success as the CPC and PCW series. The problem is that, near to the launch, Sugar decided to also include MS-DOS, destroying all D.R. hopes to get even on Microsoft...

Andrew Balls comments:
The PC-1512 was CGA-compatible software wise, but the display had a round DIN connector instead of 9-pin D and the signals were different: I vaguely recall that they were analogue instead of digital and perhaps had composite sync. It has been many, many years since I looked at these. The PC-1640 had proper TTL EGA on a 9-pin D.

Rond Ofstad adds:
On the earliest versions of the 1512 model SD/DD you could get a HardCard. It was a controller card with onboard 10 or 20 MB HD.