The CPC-464 changed my life for the better! I was just a year into my training as an electronics engineer when I bought a CPC-464. Almost three years later, I completely understood this device (including the gate array [for video] - only the floating point part in the ROM was magic for me). I learned to program on the 464, first BASIC, then Z80 assembler. With three programms sold, programmed in BASIC (boring but lucrative) I had enough money again to develop myself further. Because ... then, at some point, home computers were obviously dead. That's why I bought a PC (80286 with 512 KB RAM and two floppy drives) with MS/DOS, learned C, programmed a few games, sold seven of them, made good money with it, wanted to be able to do more and that's why I studied computer science. After graduation I got a lot more money for my work - and since then it's enough for everything I enjoy. THANK YOU Amstrad/Schneider ... for the CPC-464! THANK YOU Zilog ... for the Z80 ... and Rodney Zaks for his bible! BTW: if you have never programmed complex things in assembler, you will never understand how BEAUTIFUL computers are. It's not the youth's fault, because it's no longer necessary nowadays. Nevertheless, they will never be able to grasp the true beauty. There is only one and zero. A few registers, a program counter, a stack pointer (both also just registers). Actually, they are all just LOAD operations. Even in Doom or Battlefield, that's all that happens!

@koraymemmi8550

6 ай бұрын

That is a good story. Well done sir :) Can you name a few of your games?

The Pharmacy that my mum worked part-time in was using a CPC464 to run the printer that printed the medicine labels as late as 2010. They had to load the software from tape every morning when they opened! The owner retired and sold the business - or I'd have absolutely no doubt they'd still be using it.

@Kn270

6 жыл бұрын

if it aint broke dont fix it lol

@calabiyou

6 жыл бұрын

That's great.

@billant2

5 жыл бұрын

By now they probably added a dial-up modem too lol

@janullrich7341

5 жыл бұрын

wondering where they bought the cartridges for the printer in 2010

@tristan6509

5 жыл бұрын

@@janullrich7341 they are probably using standard thermal printer paper, receipt printers haven't changed that much, which is why all of them is still text based..

Robocop theme ***goosebumps*** ... So many memories!

Great series! And subbed. This was the computer my grandfather (A computing pioneer who worked on early valve machines and was my hero, RIP) brought me, and spent the next year patiently teaching me basic and then assembler as an eager teenager. And now I'm a 40something programmer. Thanks amstrad. Thanks grandpa. And thankyou Nostalgia nerd.

@NeuronalAxon

6 жыл бұрын

What sort of things did your grandpa do, do you remember?

Man, I'm getting all nostalgic. I use to have an Amstrad CPC 464 as a kid in the 80s... And I also had a zx-spectrum. I remember programming my own games in basic and then send them into SOFT, SINCLAIR USER, AMSTRAD MAGAZINE and so on. Great video... Thanks for the walk down memory lane...

Wait - did Barry Norman seriously just tell us that if our kids buy pirate videos, they'll become junkies? Nice scaremongering Bazza. I'm never buying your pickled onions again.

@davidt-rex2062

7 жыл бұрын

When did Barry Norman start selling pickled onions? Are they grown in his allotment?

@cwxdaf152

7 жыл бұрын

I work in a supermarket and can confirm that Barry Norman does pickles now. I don't know when this started but the brand symbol is a clapper board.

@davidt-rex2062

7 жыл бұрын

There you go - you learn something new every day.

@russelledwards001

7 жыл бұрын

ZygmaExperiment that IT crowd episode. ..

@liamb5697

7 жыл бұрын

Oh you're giving Barry far to much credit. He was saying every pirate video the parent buys makes it more likely their kids will become junkies.

*I remember the first time I illegally downloaded software. This is what happened* : It was Sunday night I downloaded a game. Finished my homework was a straight A student. I woke up the next morning addicted to Marijuana. This wasn't enough so by the end of the school day they found me in the bathroom OD'ing on heroin. By Tuesday I was expelled from school lost my job before I was even old enough to get one was separated from my wife and kids who I had not even met and kids that weren't even born! That's how bad illegal downloading is.I am now serving multiple life sentences for the murders I committed that day to feed me habit. Was it worth that free copy of DOOMII ? Definitely that game was fucking awesome I would do it all over again if I could. Thank you free downloads!

@SE09uk

4 жыл бұрын

Hows your life of crime doing and how are your shipmates doing?

@sinicalypse

4 жыл бұрын

you know that downloading illegal software is the computing equivalent of overdosing on heroin, right? That's right junkie, if you download/ed illegal software you are dead to me! #FormallyYourHumbleHeroAndNarrator

@jb0nd38372

4 жыл бұрын

@@sinicalypse I'm dead to you too; I just downloaded a car.

@dacypher22

4 жыл бұрын

You should have known this would be the outcome.

@SeverusStudios1980

4 жыл бұрын

I think we were cell mates for a while dude..... LMAO

*basks in some UK Gaming history* You know, whether someone likes Sugar or not. You gotta admit, the man started at the bottom, and climbed his way to the top. Respect.

@gentarofourze

6 жыл бұрын

Thats if you don't know/hear about the rumours he got the cash for his startups through organised crime, though if thats true you can call that a form of success too as he knew what to do with the proceeds of crime.

@OpenKeith

5 жыл бұрын

organized crime is very fun, 10/10 would reccommend

@brucecharlie8613

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah by selling shit to the public and neglecting his kids which he openly states in his autobiography - the guy knows business but he is a arse to say the least

@sinicalypse

4 жыл бұрын

Two words -- #TottnumbHotSpur -- #RespectDenied

@beardyface8492

3 жыл бұрын

You gotta admit, the man started at the bottom, and still goes back there to feed.

This my 2nd video of yours I've watched tonight. Your research is impeccable and your manner is incredibly endearing. You sir, are a pro.

These are all well researched, well delivered, well scripted and well edited. I look forward to your future content, I've gone and binged all of yours over the past couple days.

I really like this "Story" series. BBC documentary level quality right there!

I'm shocked this only has 58K views. The production value of your videos is remarkable. Please keep it up, look forward to further stories.

A big thanks to NN for this video. I am from the US so this machine was never on my radar. But it exemplifies what's so great about those 8-bit machines. And it must have taken a huge amount of work to put this together so thanks so much for doing it!

I bought one of the first CPC464s available in Chesterfield on Pre-order. Never regretted it. In my opinion, the best 8 bit system produced. It may have been superseded by the later disk drive versions but I had moved on to the Amiga 500 by then. Thanks for the video. I admire Alan Sugar, who started from nothing, far more than the likes of Branson and Sinclair.

@wolfgangricklefs2938

6 жыл бұрын

Bill Fox: The only thing I missed were sprites, everything else were very good and expansible - if you wanted you could use nearly 4 MB RAM which was fantastic for that time (for me 64 KB was enough but just for the case - bought a vortex disk drive soon and used it until 1992). In addition I bought an Amiga 500 in the 80s - and later Amiga 1200 which I still have.

This was a brilliant, informative watch. Can't wait for part 2.

Brilliant video, just briilliant. The simplicity is quite stunning, and that's what brought me to the device. I even learned to program on this thing when I was a kid, the Amstrad/Schneider 6128 manual was just amazing.

that was insightful to the history of our gear of the past. thanks for taking your time to create it for us.

Really enjoyed watching this. It was edited perfectly and held my attention throughout. Loved the Sir Alan Sugar impressions as well. Good job

Excellent video! Brings back fond memories of playing my grandad's 464 with green screen. The Roland games, Harrier Attack and Oh Mummy! Great times!

This is an excellent video. Thank you for taking the time to research the material and produce it in such a professional manner. I didn't know much about the Amstrad CPC growing up since I was all about Commodore. Starting with the Vic20, C64, Amiga500, Amiga 3000. I learned so much in this video.

I just realized the quality of your documentaries. You reveal many details about the engineering of complicated devices. You present the important features such as the exact processor model used showing emphasis on how these machine really work instead of repeating the usual marketing creative speech.

Kinda ironic that Sugar had the CPC and Spectrum, machines that suffered the most from the tape-to-tape piracy he helped to create in the first place by marketing machines with the Japanese dual-tape mechanisms. The other big cassette-based system, the C64, with its dedicated tape deck with on-board ADC, really didn't get along with copied tapes; at least, the cheap decks my friends had would never successfully make copies. They all had to come round my house where my dad had separate tape decks where we could alter the recording level (and, IIRC alter the biasing to effectively up the treble response) to make usable copied tapes. I'd learned this trick with the VIC-20 which had the same setup.

Fascinating. Looking forward to part 2!

Just stumbled upon your channel and I just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying watching your videos. Keep up the good work, and thank you.

Excellent video as always. Always look forward to these stories.

A very well made documentation about this important piece of European computer history. I learned programming computers in the 1980ies with my CPC 6128 using its Basic, Assembler and Turbo Pascal 3.0 on CP/M. Thanks for bringing back memories of that time!

I remember my mum cutting out the mail order sheet from a magazine to order me the disc drive addon... she put a letter in saying could they send it ASAP because it was my birthday soon. We actually got a letter in the box with a happy birthday and a free copy of “Through the Trapdoor” on disc. I could not contain my excitement and my mum couldn’t believe it.

Thank you for this. There are other documentaries that bash Amstrad out of fanboyism, so it's great to see old Arnold given a proper hearing. :)

Another excellent 'docu-video' of a very standard. Keep up the good work, we really appreciate it !

Great video. The 464 was my first computer as a kid. Still remember the sound of those tapes loading.

@tonyquigley8274

5 жыл бұрын

The anticipation crember it well

@metalhammer303

5 жыл бұрын

Same here, my dad got me a second hand one in the early 90s as I was badgering him for a master system... Imagine my surprise when I found out you could play games on compact cassette 😂😂

@jb0nd38372

4 жыл бұрын

I had a c64 never had a 464, was that a cross between the 64 and a 486?

Very well done and edited. Congratulations on a job well done! ... and thanks for doing it. Keep it up!

Such an awesome trip down memory lane ;) Thank you, Pete!

Absolutely awesome video Nostradamus Dude. That 1/3 hour just whizzed by. Also appreciated the pre-micro Amstrad part. Fascinating!

Excellent video. Looking forward to part 2. Great work.

Very fond, and happy memories!!! I myself used my friend's CPC464, having moved from Oric1 before my parents brought me the CPC6128 (thankfully) 🙂🙂❤👍👍👍

@somebodyjohnson6220

4 жыл бұрын

oh my god, I moved from an Oric 1 to a CPC6128 !

This is me and my brother's first computer, not sure of model version. But my Uncle gave it too us prior to receiving a second hand Master System. I might need to DM you as have so many questions, your the only one I've seen writing on this subject properly. Thanks dude 👍🏻

What a very interesting video. I used to own a CPC464 and later, a CPC6128 and wrote some moderately successful text-only adventure games for them. Your presentation brought back some great memories. Looking forward to Part 2 now.

I love your content! How is it you don't have triple the subs?!?!? Keep up the great work. One can really tell you put a lot of time and effort into your videos. Its a refreshing change from what most of youtube is.

I'm glad the ol' PCW got a look in at the end. That machine got me through college and into professional programming. Thanks Alan!

We had one in our house, was an awesome machine! Thanks for reminding me of some of those excellent games.

HUGE fan of the CPC 464, which my Dad brought for the family in 1987. Really led me to appreciate computers and spawned a love for programming in BASIC. The Amstrad CPC 464 is why I love computers today.

Ahhhhhh, Fools and Horses, love that show. For some reason I much more enjoy watching old shows from Britain than I do here in the U.S.

Great video, very well produced and a wealth of information.

Excellent stuff sir. The replacement drive belt for my 6128 arrived today so I've got a mighty case of Amstrad fever!

Superb as always!!!! Loving it!!!

as usual masterfully made to be exciting and very very informative, one of your best videos to date by far buddy, keep up the good work and god bless.

I really, really enjoyed this - it's a fantastic documentary. Many thanks.

awesome first part mr nerd, i love these documentaries, better than anything on tv!

Moving from a Commodore VIC 20 to a Amstrad CPC 464 was a massive upgrade. Going from 3.5K of user memory to a colossal 48K, meant I could run and write real applications. The tape drive worked reliably too, unlike the old VIC a tape drive which hit and miss add-on on a good day. Never had any trouble with it and with brand loyalty moved on to a Amstrad PC1640 later. Thanks to Sir Alan Sugar, I ended up as Senior Systems Analyst doing a job I loved.

I attribute my gambling problem entirely to Amsoft's Fruit machine, damn you Paul Aitman! *shakes fist*

I had the CPC 6128. It blew up. I got an Amiga 500 with the refund.

Great work, I can't wait for part II, hurry up! ;)

This video deserves a like for the Robocop music on the background alone

2 thumbs down??? great video mate, was a great time to be a kid. loved my cpc and its great to see it getting so much love on the interwebs these days. look forward to episode2

all my childhood explained :) Amstrad stereo, CPC 6128 was my first computer, once upon a time in the suburbs of Paris France. my dad never drove a lory nor his wife :) thanks for the insight! walking on the path, I later became a londoner too ...

I had a 6128 and it was awesome

@shayneoneill1506

7 жыл бұрын

Likewise. It was a fantastic piece of kit

Great video, thanks. I was an owner of the Original CPC, it was my 2nd computer (Vic:20 was 1st), and I kept it until the Atari ST Launched. I still rate it as the easiest home computer to program, due to the cursor copy function (something you didn't mention). Thanks.

Impressive stuff again, Nostalgia Nerd!

Nice episode. Love these retrospectives

Great work! Nice attention to detail with the editing.

My dad had an amstrad cpc 464 with about 40 cassette games and a joy stick and when we moved houses my mum through it all away. r.i.p a chunk of history :'(

@scottbreon9448

6 жыл бұрын

*threw it away THROUGH = TO THROW something THROUGH something THREW = PAST TENSE OF THROW

YES i have been waiting for this :3

Loved this story. Wish we had seen it in the US. Huge thanks. Probably my third viewing.

Loving your vid's keep 'em coming! You're really taking me down memory lane what with the recent Amiga Story, and now this. Had a 16k Speccy for a year in '85 then got a 464 complete with green screen (Steve Davis Snooker!!!) in '86. My CPC lasted from '86 through to '93 (when I finally got an A600) in no small part thanks to Amstrad Action magazine and their brilliant cover tapes. Would happily defend Arnold's honor against the Commy! The CPC was the best 8-bit micro of them all! Can't wait until I'm finally replaying and reviewing these games over on my own channel.

@alonecoder600

2 жыл бұрын

The best 8-bit micro is a ZX Specturm clone named ATM-Turbo :) Just read the specifications and see the games and demos :)

I had one, the colours! Not seen anything like it since! Great videos, these belong on TV!

Subscribed a wonderful video, i can't wait to see part 2 and to check out more of your content. Thank you :)

Fantastic work. Thank you.

Amstrad CPC128 was my first machine, a "Bar-Mizva" gift, back in 1987. This brought up some memories, thanks :)

@bennysh

3 жыл бұрын

@@stonecodfish2365 Actually I'm an Atheist so religion does not play a role, but hey, at least I got my first machine because of it :D

I loved my Amstrad as a kid, mine had the joystick port on the left side so must have been the revised model, I got mine in 1986/7 and lasted until 1995, all my friends had Spectrums. I loved my Amstrad though, seeing Roland on the ropes takes me right back

Great video about a computer i never owned. :) And you were featured on retro hour podcast also. Best friday evening!

Nicely done.

Wow, Stuart Ashen, Guru Larry, and Slopes. You 4 are my favorite youtubers.

Amazing Video I cant wait for Part 2 :) You are amazing you really made my day :)

Thank you for this informative video mate :) I never knewo the story of Amstrad :) Looking forward for P2!! Hope all is well with you.

I was hoping you where gonna do a story on these, thank you and subscribed!

It is amazing - and kind of sad - what lively electronics industry britain used to have. Today, it just feels like only banking and hoolganism are left.

Brilliant! Loved this video! 🖖👍

1000 thumbs up, greetings from germany from a CPC-Fan

21:50 FUED!!! I played that game for hours, especially sneaking in and out of that green dude's herb garden. He sure was pretty agressive for being so good with flowers and stuff. And that rude red dude's sprite attacks were op af. I can still hear the sound as I watched my guy sink into the grave. Dududududu-ddududududu-duu The CPC I had as a 7 year old was a hand me down in my family and my dad would take me to the library to learn about BASIC 1.0. I'd make my own buggy text adventures that just consisted out of piles of if statements. It was a thrilling, wholesome and awesome experience, to grow up in a family that supported learning about computers. It really helped me in my life and in my career. I'll stop the nostalgia, beautiful video on a thing of my childhood! /subbed

Great history lesson, well explained

I loved my cpc 464. Worked hard doing a paper round to pay for it but with all the great games and graphics it consumed my childhood (harrier attack /oh mummy etc) whilst nowadays I'm not keen on his attitude I have a nostalgic feeling regarding home computers in the 80s..as many people have.. Think in retrospect the c64 is/was a superior computer regarding sound and graphics even though it was more expensive and didn't come with monitor... Still fun though!

Great video, i really liked it.

The Amstrad screenshots always looked nice on game packs seemingly combining the resolution of the spectrum with the far better colour than the c64. Never seem to move that well though

@somebodyjohnson6220

4 жыл бұрын

HEy they were some games that moved beautifully, problem many times with Amstrad is developers were a little lazy so the games were the spectrum games with coloured sprites if you were lucky. But games developed natively for Amstrad, comes to mind Freddy HArdst, Trantor, Zynaps ... were really cool !

@ZxSpectrumplus

2 жыл бұрын

In general games on Spectrum and C64 were a lot smoother and faster. The Spectrum was pretty much like the Amstrad with similar Z80 CPU, but the Amstrad has a lot more colors to move with no help from sprites and such, hence slower. I will take the less colorful version of the Speccy over the Amstrad to be honest. The C64 was the best in general, smoothest with decent color (but the color palette was kinda bland and dreary). Frame rates > all when it comes to gaming. LOL.

@iantellam9970

2 жыл бұрын

@@ZxSpectrumplus Looking at some of the homebrew and demoscene stuff over the last 10 years on the CPC, you can see how under utilised the hardware was. It can do some pretty incredible things in the right hands.

Excellent video, looking forward to part 2. I have always had the opinion that the CPC was a jack of all trades and like all such things whilst it could do a lot it couldn't do them as well as dedicated machines. It wasn't quite as fast as the Speccy or C64 but did have individual advantages over one or the other but never both. It is certainly a far better computer than the Electron and probably the Atari 8-bit (although I don't have much experience of the Atari line). Speaking of, I'd love to see you do a story about the Atari 8-bit computer line.

Brlliant!!! Thanks for this

Ahh the CPC464, the first machine I ever gamed on

Great video, thank you! Just one remark - the music at 10:53 comes from game called Platoon and was composed by David Whittaker. I don't know why it's called "Cassette Loader" in the video description.

Great video! Thank you

Oh cool, the amstrad penpad. I had one of those back in the day. I only really used it for quick sketches and taking notes, but it was a fine device for doing those two things.

Good video Guv. Like the clips of Micro Men, it is a fav of mine. Funny how Alan says we are not a load of experts throwing electronic components in a plastic box, when a few years before he was throwing electronic components in a wooden box. Ironic,lol.

You got me at 21:10 . Wow it's been nearly 30 years since I have seen that game

My first computer, many happy hours spent on that thing.

great video again,i gruw up with loads of amstrad stuff my dad would normaly buy TV video Combo Hi Fis and PCs,he had a mate who ran a rumbelows and he used buy all is stuff from him,but i never had a CPC i had a Spectrum and C64 my next door had a CPC and the games looked like spectrum ports with a bit more colour (more colour than a spectrum WOW lol) and i can always remember my spectrum tapes having Amstrad games on the other side and use want try them,i dont know how the CPC was but i always remember our Amstrad Stuff being Broke in some way or another

had a 464 early 80s, loved it then sadly got a snes which i realy did not have as long as games way too expensive, sold the amstrad all the mags games mp1 modulator everything for £15 early 90s regretted it ever since even had a 6128 at some point.

Absoutly love ur videos

Thank you so much, this is the fairest and most detailed CPC 464 history i've seen. It was a fantastic machine, and the basic interpreter taught me how to program. The C64 and sinclair machines were only for games, the CPC had a very good version of basic indeed and the whole package felt like you owned a 'real' computer. I hated the Spectrums my friends had, the keyboards were terrible, all the games may as well have been in black and white. The CPC had a slightly faster version of the Z80 CPU than the spectrum, but those colors meant the games ran slower. But, that was a trade-off and I far preferred playing the CPC versions of games. Oh Mummy was great, btw as was that whole software pack the machine came with.

Damn, so much nostalgia. My dad had one of these [though I think we connected to a TV not it's own monitor,] and I loved playing Roland on the ropes & Oh Mummy on it.

I had 464 and still have cpc 6128, in Greece the CPC 6128 was one of the best selling computer

Oh. There is a part 2. Maybe I should have gone there first. This is still bloody good though, better than your competition. Sir Allen would be proud of you.

Can't wait for part 2! Hoping the 6128 makes an appearance.