{"id":2338,"date":"2021-04-13T09:39:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T09:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museoupdating.webs.upv.es\/nuevaweb\/?page_id=2338"},"modified":"2021-04-13T09:41:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T09:41:14","slug":"amstrad_cpc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/museo.inf.upv.es\/en\/amstrad_cpc\/","title":{"rendered":"Amstrad microcomputers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amstrad microcomputers: my first computer<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ignacio Castellano Munuera<\/h5>\n

Home computers arrived to Spain in the 80s but they were not neither the Apple I nor the IBM 5100; in Europe the hegemony was in the hands of Amstrad<\/strong>. It was a time in which videogames just existed in arcade games in game rooms. Amstrad was used just as an emulator of these machines, with the limitations that emulating these games with 64 KB meant \u2013 which is much less than the images we work with today.<\/p>\n

Although microcomputers were almost unknown, all teenagers wanted one of these machines and they had to convince their parents to spend 60.000 pesetas <\/strong>(360 euros) on it.<\/p>\n

To achieve this we were not alone: we had the help of advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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[hana-flv-player video=”https:\/\/museoinf.webs.upv.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/AnunciosFlash2.flv” width=”375″ height=”375″ description=”” player=”2″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”false” \/]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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Amstrad advertising was carried out all over Europe.<\/p>\n

Its advertising campaign emphasized in written media, such as newspapers and magazines specialized in informatics and technology.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As we can see in these advertising campaigns, this computer was showed as a machine from the future willing to help adults both in the office and at home, and for young people was an excellent fellow student too.
\nAny resemblance to reality is pure coincidence, computers had nothing to do with those which appeared in advertising.<\/p>\n

The first thing we did was to assemble the computer, something simple since it just had three cables which fit just in three positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Pantalla<\/a><\/td>\n\n
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This image was the home screen of an Amstrad CPC-464 with color screen.<\/p>\n

We can appreciate that it corresponds to the first versions of CPC-464, 64 KB of memory and the BASIC version which had incorporated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The home screen<\/strong>, had no windows, no buttons and no graphic interface, just a couple of lines of information and a blinking cursor.<\/p>\n

We were afraid of breaking it and we used to call our neighbor, who already had one, so he or she could explain us how it worked. Our neighbor just told us where to insert the games and which was the best of that moment.<\/p>\n

With all this information we turned off the computer and we went to the fnac <\/em> of that time (the gas station of the town) to buy our first game. My first videogame was the fantastic Game Over<\/em> and it cost me 500 pesetas (3 euros).<\/p>\n

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I had the Amstrad CPC 464<\/strong>, with color, and the storage medium was the cassette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The storage medium of these computers was the cassette tapes. The maximum storage capacity was from 5 to 10 million of bits (1 MB).<\/p>\n

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When we already had the tape with the game, we introduced it, pressed Play<\/em> and waited. Nothing happened, so we had to call again our neighbor. What it came next was an instruction of BASIC: RUN”<\/strong> (also CTRL+ENTER); the computer answered Press PLAY then any key:<\/em> So we pressed PLAY<\/em> and then the space bar (this was our first conversation with the computer and it was fantastic).<\/p>\n

Cassette tapes were classified according to its duration: 45, 60 or 90 minutes; in this case the Game Over<\/em> had a 45 minute tape each for face. The charge had a speed of 1200 bauds. In order to charge a game like this which occupied 57 KB, which are 466.000 bits, at 1200 bauds per second, 6 minutes and a half were necessary to hear these sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The reading\/writing was sequential, so if there was an error the charge had to be reset.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If we wanted to charge for example a megabyte we needed 116 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Games were not economical, prices were between 500 to 3000 pesetas (3 and 18 euros), a significant value for the economic situation in Spain at that moment. For this reason pirated copies<\/strong> were everywhere. Even radio stations emitted the game in order listeners could recorded them, but this used to fail.<\/p>\n

When the game was charged and ready to be used our feelings were indescribable, it was a new way to play at home and we had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

We spent thousands of hours playing, until be on the verge of a wrist sprain due to the Q-A-O-P-Space <\/strong>key combination. Generally, after being so many hours playing, people turned off the computer, but some, as me, continued a little more. We had curiosity about the new machine and we used to ask ourselves things such as: why have we written RUN”<\/strong>?Does it work in small letters?<\/p>\n

Answers to these questions were found in the book that came with the CPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Basic\"<\/td>\n\n
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This BASIC manual was given with the buying of an Amstrad CPC-464 together with another that explained the start-up and the computer working.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In the manual we could find basic notions about the programming language of BASIC and produce our first codes:<\/p>\n

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