Sugar - snippet of Alan from the past

[Channel Hopper]

Just found this in a long lost set of files.

Unsure why I would have it, but theres a date of 1987 on the next column, and the photo seems to back this up (didn't know Sir Alan was from Liverpool)

 

[rolfw]

I had one of those PC 1512 machines, cost me over £1,000 then and £500 for a dot matrix printer.

Didn't have any problems with it though, upgraded it from twin floppy to a hard drive, 200 Megabytes I seem to remember and played Elite and Hitchiker's guide on it, hitchhiker's being a text only game.

 

[PoloMint]

We had a PC 1512 too! :-rock

200 MBytes Rolf? Very fancy, ours had a "hard card" of about 30Mbytes I believe. Before that we had an Amstrad CPC 464, tape driven, I used to play Harrier Attack on it, it took 60 seconds to load from tape, some of the other tapes took 15-25 minutes.

 

[rolfw]

You may be closer to the truth on the hard drive, perhaps it was much smaller, but it was so many years ago.

 

[spiney]

Amstrad was orignally a British company making cheap Hi Fi (anyone remember the products?). Alan Sugar then made lotsa money by combining all audio separates into 1 unit (with single power supply, hence much cheaper).

The 1st Amstrad "business computer" was the PCW, sold as a dedicated word processor (locoscript), with built in printer. It also had cp/m (which in those days ran on many different 8080 microprocessor systems, before we had DOS), so you could use it as a general purpose computer. I used one, and remember it well, it was unique.

A particular problem was the floppy disc format, as Amstrad chose three and a quater inches, whereas PCs first standardised on 5 inches, then three and a half! So, you could swap discs between different Amstrad PCWs, but could only communicate with other computers running cp/m via the serial port.

The 1st Amstrad "PC" was nothing special, as there were by then many PC clones, including Dell etc.

(Multi-process mp/m almost became the operating system for PCs, but instead we got the horribly dire DOS, only because Bill Gates missed a meeting!).

For the PCW see: www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=189 .

For cp/m see: www.gaby.de/ecpm.htm .

For Gates/ Kildall see: www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_43/b3905109_mz063.htm .

 

[Llew]

I remember buying an Amstrad car radio from the man himself in the '70's - he'd set up a display of them in what I remember as a barn somewhere in the wilds of Essex, which took me an age to find.

I thought it quite a reasonably sensitive stereo/FM radio, but pretty limited output audiowise.

Still, that's all I could afford having splashed out on a nice new Alfasud. The car rusted to bits eventually (terrible build quality came out of Alfa's Naples factory), but the radio still worked fine...

Llew

 

[gameboy]

Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, usually known as Amstrad, is a company formed in 1968 by Sir Alan Michael Sugar in the UK, and based in Brentwood in Essex, England. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar TRADing. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1980 and delisted in 1997.

 

[spiney]

So, Llew, your babemagnet car slowly became a rustbucket, leaving only a working Amstrad radio behind? Yeah, isn't life just like that!

 

[Llew]

Hee hee, I think the colour put most of 'em off (a pukey shade of green, I'd set my heart on the TI version, and it was the only one available in the showroom).

Four years on, and the front wing crumbled away. No factory rust treatment of course then. Probably made out of old pizza trays.

Happy days.

Llew

 

[spiney]

hmmm, you're saying these rusted away faster than British Leyland cars?

Amstrad tended to be low-tech "cheap and cheerful", so their products often worked and lasted well (exactly the inverse of Sinclair!). However, I've just been reading about DRX100 tuners (above)!

 

[gameboy]

(exactly the inverse of Sinclair!)

How can you say that - I'm writing this now on my 68k Spectrum!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Hee hee, I think the colour put most of 'em off (a pukey shade of green, I'd set my heart on the TI version, and it was the only one available in the showroom).

Four years on, and the front wing crumbled away. No factory rust treatment of course then. Probably made out of old pizza trays.

Happy days.

Llew

The TI version has a lot of problems with the engine management, so the carb version lives on, even though it had less power.
If you want to relive your youth, theres quite a reasonable condition Alfa33 for sale at our local breakers (boxer 1500 I think) . roadworthy, and requiring £200 sovs. I even have a manual and two spare pistons somewhere in the lockup.

 

[Llew]

Wandering off the thread subject, still -

EMS? Not in my '75 TI. Twin carb, boxer engine, inboard discs. A joy to work on. Pity about the body though.

Still run a Golf MK1 GTI, again no EMS, only management it gets is from yours truly

Llew

 

[spiney]

Yeah! How much is it if the EMS module goes? .......

 

[Channel Hopper]

Wandering off the thread subject, still -

EMS? Not in my '75 TI. Twin carb, boxer engine, inboard discs. A joy to work on. Pity about the body though.
Llew

????? no EMS , Carbs ?

The TI version had a rudimentary injection system (courtesy of the Lancia garages if I remmeber correctly). The non TI version was the one with the rather long inlets and a central carb stuck in the middle.

or am I in cloud cuckoo land ?

 

[Llew]

You're right CH, twin choke, not twin carbs. Memory playing up again.

Definitely a TI (Turismo Internazionale, not Injection) - the one with a rear spoiler. (Normally aspirated). No EMS.

Details, for those desperate to know them (click on 'gallery','alfasud ti') -

http://web.genie.it/utenti/a/alfasud/E-home.htm

Llew

PS Still have the service book, front cover same colour as the paintwork to remind me of the terrible taste I had back then in colour choice (turquoise, all the rage for bathroom fittings in the '70's)...

 

[Channel Hopper]

You're right CH, twin choke, not twin carbs. Memory playing up again.

Definitely a TI (Turismo Internazionale, not Injection) - the one with a rear spoiler. (Normally aspirated). No EMS.

Details, for those desperate to know them (click on 'gallery','alfasud ti') -

http://web.genie.it/utenti/a/alfasud/E-home.htm

Llew

Theyre lying

Seriously there were fuel injection versions of the 33, inclusing a 16valve boxer , though I may have got the TI suffix ass about t*t (IE?). Absolute flyers, just like my old VW Scirocco Storm, but that was more to do with rust halving the weight.

 

[spiney]

Back to the Amstrad PCW, I forgot to say ......

The PCW - which appeared well before the Amstrad "PC" - was a huge success because it directly copied the previous audio systems strategy, ie, just one power supply inside the processor/monitor single unit, the printer also getting power from that, so the "whole package" was ridiculously cheap, compared with PC equivalents.

Locoscript was about the best Wordprocessing package, at that time, with pull-down on-screen menus (most alternatives still used command lines!). The "near letter quality" dot matrix printer was great, when most only had 9 pins, and 24 pins was very expensive, and laser printers were still rare (and inkjets not yet invented!).

The above links mention a "700 page manual", but most of that was actually an exhaustive list of all cp/m commands, which most people never used, and in fact the wordprocessing was very user friendly (for that time).

 

[BGonaSTICK]

LOL, I had an Amstrad CB901 CB radio in my Mk1 Escort. Do I win a prize? Thankfully I progressed onto the Cobra 148 GTL/DX

 

[Channel Hopper]

Just delving into the shed tomight , and I find three CB rigs, a York, a Uniden and ala peice de resistance, a Harrier AM/FM hybrid with USB/LSB switch.