finally got it ...yep, 20+ years later ....
The Amstrad cpc 6128, is to my eye, the best system I ever own in my life... why ? well because that the first "real" video game I ever own.
when I was a kid, I use to have game and watch or those old electronics games, but never had a real video game system...
in 1985 the cpc became very popular in France, especially in school. everybody was talking about it , and I was able to see one, and fall in love with it...
I know it would not be easy to get one, I had to use JEDI minds tricks (like in starwars) to convince my sister to get one for the fallowing Christmas...
to convince my dad, was more easy, I told him, a computer will be great to learn and get better result in school ( never happen, the cpc actually ruin my scholarship)
my dad made a deal with my sister and I, to save money during the all year, including the coming Xmas, and he will add the rest ...
done deal ;-)
I spend so many hours on that system ...it is sick, me and my best friend chistophe had so much fun ...
we use to play "target renegade" like crazy...we even finish the game.
I have so many story about the cpc, that we could spend all day and all night just talking about it...
it was my little secret world.
of course I sold it 3 years later to buy the Atari St, better power...and 20+ years later the only thing I wan do is to OWN ONE AGAIN
So I decided to go on a mission, to get one...it was not easy AT ALL
the cpc is not easy to find in the US, I even have to say that it is almost impossible to found one...
so I went to ebay in France trying to get one....
I had to make sure the seller was able to ship it all across the Atlantic, and make sure that it is well wrap so it does not come in pieces ...
after 3 months of intense searches I finally spot one..it was very cheap, BUT when I got the build for the shipping I really cried
the seller ship the cpc in 2 parts, one box was for the keyboard, and one box with the screen and some disk...
it took 3 weeks to come here... I guess it spent some vacation at the customs
enough talk ....HERE IT IS
BUT it is to good to be real...
Now problem time ;-(
the cpc use 220v and in the US we use 110...
so I order a converter on ebay, but the voltage was not enough... so I send it back and got the big unit 1000 watt
Enough to run a mini French nuclear plan :-) next I got some games on disk here and there ...
Now I am facing another problem, only 10% are loading
can it be the disk ? I notice that some of them are loading until the menu, but when selecting the game, it stop or crash during loading...
so I went online and made some research, and found out that it could be a problem with the 3" disk drive...
apparently, the drive use a plastic belt that with age could break or got loose a bit...
so it was time for me to give a little operation to my cpc ...
time to open ....
And here the disk drive... text.
time to remove it ....
I forgot to take picture of the belt but I order 3 of them from a seller in France...brand new...it took 1 week to receive them ...
it was a few screw and stuff to remove and I finally reach that famous belt...
effectively the old belt was not in a good shape
I replace it with a new one ...
put every think back together ....turn it on ....
and YHEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA all the games are loading perfectly !!!!
i have more than 70 disk to check...some of them have multiple games
i also have "discologie" to make back up copy...i had a few spair blank disk, so i did some of my favorite game as back up in case ...
like the old time
NOW IT'S TIME TO PLAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Type Personal computer
Released 1984
Discontinued 1990
Processor Zilog Z80A @ 4 MHz
Memory 64 to 576 KB (KiB)
OS Locomotive BASIC 1.0, 1.1 and CP/M
