10 Reasons the Amstrad CPC 6128 Is My Favorite Retro Computer

My entry for the #RetroFair2020 due to the cancelled Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest. Just a quick presentation about my personal reasons for why the Amstrad CPC 6128 is my favorite retro computer.

I suspect this should be particularly interesting to people outside of Europe since the Amstrad CPC had very little presence there. I hope it provides a good introduction and makes you want to learn more about it.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:37 Great BASIC
01:11 Good Keyboard
01:47 Disk Drive
02:25 128K of RAM
02:52 CP/M
03:24 Games Catalog
04:00 Disk Support
04:35 Best Colors
05:04 Simple Architecture
05:41 Homebrew Scene
06:39 Conclusion

Some good Amstrad CPC emulators:

Amstrad CPC software:

List of games shown
03:42 Black Tiger
03:45 Crafton & Xunk / Get Dexter
03:49 La abadía del crimen
03:55 Eden Blues
04:39 Sorcery
05:24 Total Eclipse
05:34 Mercs
05:44 El tesoro perdido de Cuauhtemoc
05:54 Jarlac
06:02 Pinball Dreams
06:12 Jet Set Willy

Connect with Noel's Retro Lab:

[Diamondblade]

FANTASTIC VIDEO! My father got me the CPC6128 back in 1985 (I was 7 back then). Used to spend hours playing games on it, though my father also used it a lot for word processing. I sorely miss my father saying to me when I was a child: ''Your school report this term is excellent! For that we are going to buy you a computer game tomorrow!'' I used to get mega-excited over that! Downloading an app onto my iPhone just isn't the same as my parents taking me to town to buy a game then me in a rush to get home and play it!

[Jsarson]

I had an Amstrad CPC464 when I was young. I have fond memories of the games and the hours I spent with it learning simple coding 😊

[RMCRetro]

Great choice, I LOVE my 6128 having only had the 464 back in the day. Pride of place in the collection.

[friedbertmoessner]

It was my favor eather that time and I still have that computer. It was sold here in Germany from the company "Schneider". Thanks for your video :-)

[d_rrr_vince]

Still have my first one which was also my first computer ever.
Discology is a killer app, never seen an app like this anywhere.
Although an Amiga guy, CPC is in my heart.

[davewarrender]

Had one at 17, wrote my first serious programme on it, a full word processor with wrap around typing, auto adjust wording. As well as highlighting . Plus store facility to disc or direct print out. All done in its basic. Brilliant beginners comp when learning to programme, the manual was great too

[MGForums]

I wish I still had my 6128. That manual was so comprehensive, an a-z of all basic commands with a description of their use, it was excellent. I wrote a few basic games. One that really stood out was a fruit machine simulator that was honestly better than any of the commercial ones available. I incorporated a feature builder with holds, nudges, stop-a-reel, cash builder, hi-lo gamble etc, everything you’d expect from a real fruit machine at that time and most importantly the reels actually spun fast unlike the codemasters game.

[jorcasce]

This is incredible, this was my first computer back in 1987, I was 9 years old and my dad got it to me. Looking back the best present was the manual. I learnt to program thanks to that manual!

[robertcraane]

I had one... .wish i could find one... Loved that thing, and in a way it made my career in IT and later music! And it looked so much more modern and exiting back then! Wow, so glad to see the old girl again!

[Warlock_UK]

I really loved our Amstrads that we had when I was a kid, I spent many years programming on it from '84 to around 1990 when I got a C64 in my room.

[jonyballistic]

Absolutely terrific video! The amstrad with the disc drive was my first home computer. Learned programming on it. And oh the games! Starglider, mercenary, tau ceti. Thanks for this vid, great work

[fallwitch]

I just want to say you are an amazing dad for teaching your daughter to program. Just found your channel and love it. Looking forward to watching more/

[ervinpoljak]

had one back in 1986 ;) Great experience....played Samantha Fox Strip Poker and The Bard´s Tale ~ |CPM ! and yes.... Logo - this is what i liked back then :)

[stephenbranley]

We had a fun programming challenge at work the other day. After offering solutions in C and Pascal I also wrote a solution in Locomotive BASIC on a CPC emulator :)

[ctrlaltrees]

Another great video, Noel!

A friend had a CPC6128 when I was a kid but it's a system I know absolutely nothing about. This is a really good introduction.

[curiousottman]

I find it just fascinating that there are so many retro machines I’ve never heard of let alone used. Being in Canada we had the standard array of commodore, Atari, Apple, IBM and radio shack machines back in the day. Why did these machines never make it across the pond in any major quantities?

Really nice video. My only complaint is that it’s far too short!

[SelfIndulgentGamer]

I got one of these free today and found this video to be really helpful. Thanks :)

[ChristosFrantzolas]

Noel, Hi! The 6128 was my 2nd computer (yeah my first was a ZX, you guessed it) and I still have it but I hesitate to power it up often since it is might blow something and I like it as a fully working souvenir. Having said this, I wish to add to your excellent video that the expansion port of the 6128 carried all signals necessary to drive a second floppy so you could use an external 3.5 inch floppy (from an IBM clone) and with just a ribbon cable (and a power supply for this external drive) you had a physical B: drive with cheap 3.5 floppies. I also remember that with a simple switch on a select line you could also choose the floppy side without having to physically flip the disc!! Great times, eh? Thank you for your fine work, Christos.

[urmeli]

Love that machine. I started programming on the CPC 6128 and have been doing it professionally until this day. Recently re-bought a 6128 on ebay, a disk emulator and an HDMI adapter. The colors look so great on a TFT!

[georgebachaelor]

nice one bro - 6128 was the bomb back in the days. What it was also good for was the business / home school related software. TASMAN 6128, MINI OFFICE 2, things like that were my goto software for completing school work essays, assignments and reports :)