Editing Amstrad CPC (section)

==Models==
The philosophy behind the CPC series was twofold, firstly the concept was of an "all-in-one", where the computer, keyboard and its data storage device were combined in a single unit and sold with its own dedicated display monitor. Most home computers at that time such as [[ZX Spectrum]] series, [[Commodore 64]], and [[BBC Micro]] relied on the use of the domestic [[television]] set and a separately connected [[tape recorder]] or [[disk storage|disk drive]]. In itself, the all-in-one concept was not new, having been seen before on business-oriented machines and the [[Commodore PET]].

Secondly, Amstrad founder [[Alan Sugar]] wanted the machine to resemble a "real computer, similar to what someone would see being used to check them in at the airport for their holidays",<ref name="Newkey-Burden2010">{{cite book|author=Chas Newkey-Burden|title=Sir Alan Sugar: The Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vW5MQQAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=John Blake|isbn=978-1-84454-891-0}}</ref> and for the machine to not look like "a pregnant calculator"<ref name="Sugar2010">{{cite book|author=Alan Sugar|title=What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nSLXRgAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-74933-7}}</ref> – in reference presumably to the [[ZX81]] and [[ZX Spectrum]] with their low cost, membrane-type keyboards.

[[File:Cpc464.computer.750pix.jpg|thumb|Children playing ''[[Paperboy (video game)|Paperboy]]'' on the CPC 464 in 1988]]

=== CPC 464 ===
{{Main|Amstrad CPC 464}}
The CPC 464 was one of the most successful computers in Europe and sold more than two million units.<ref>{{cite web|title=OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum|url=http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=84|website=www.old-computers.com|access-date=27 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325035533/http://www.old-computers.com/Museum/computer.asp?c=84|archive-date=25 March 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The CPC 464 featured 64&nbsp;KB RAM and an internal [[cassette deck]]. It was introduced in June 1984 in the UK. Initial suggested retail prices for the CPC 464 were £249.00/[[Deutsche Mark|DM]]899.00 with a green screen and £359.00/DM1398.00 with a colour monitor. Following the introduction of the CPC 6128 in late 1985, suggested retail prices for the CPC 464 were cut by £50.00/DM100.00.

In 1990, the 464plus replaced the CPC 464 in the model line-up, and production of the CPC 464 was discontinued.

=== CPC 664 ===
[[File:Schneider 664 en.jpg|thumb|A ''CPC 664'' main unit (German Schneider-brand variant)]]

The CPC 664 features 64&nbsp;KB RAM and an internal 3-inch floppy disk drive. It was introduced on 25 April 1985 in the UK.<ref name="Special Feature: Happy Birthday!">{{cite magazine |title=Special Feature: Happy Birthday! |magazine=[[Popular Computing Weekly]] |date=1 May 1987 |pages=14–18 (18) |url=https://archive.org/details/popular-computing-weekly-1987-05-01/page/n17}}</ref> Initial suggested retail prices for the CPC 664 were £339.00/DM1198.00 with a green screen and £449.00/DM1998.00 with a colour monitor.

After the successful release of the CPC 464, consumers were constantly asking for two improvements: more memory and an internal disk drive. For Amstrad, the latter was easier to realise. At the deliberately low-key introduction of the CPC 664, the machine was positioned not only as the lowest-cost disk system but even the lowest-cost CP/M 2.2 machine. In the Amstrad CPC product range the CPC 664 complemented the CPC 464 which was neither discontinued nor reduced in price.<ref>The CPC664, ''Amstrad Computer User'' May 1985, P. 42-46.</ref>

Compared to the CPC 464, the CPC 664's main unit has been significantly redesigned, not only to accommodate the floppy disk drive but also with a redesigned keyboard area. Touted as "ergonomic" by Amstrad's promotional material, the keyboard is noticeably tilted to the front with [[MSX]]-style cursor keys above the numeric keypad. Compared to the CPC 464's multicoloured keyboard, the CPC 664's keys are kept in a much quieter grey and pale blue colour scheme.

The back of the CPC 664 main unit features the same connectors as the CPC 464, with the exception of an additional 12V power lead. Unlike the CPC 464's cassette tape drive that could be powered off the main unit's 5V voltage, the CPC 664's floppy disk drive requires an additional 12V voltage. This voltage had to be separately supplied by an updated version of the bundled green screen/colour monitor (GT-65 and CTM-644 respectively).

The CPC 664 was only produced for approximately six months. In late 1985, when the CPC 6128 was introduced in Europe, Amstrad decided not to keep three models in the line-up, and production of the CPC 664 was discontinued.<ref name="InterviewPerry">{{cite web|title=Interview de M. Roland Perry |lang=fr|publisher=Amstrad Forever|url=http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/article.php?sid=38|access-date=2 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221414/http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/article.php?sid=38|archive-date=20 July 2011}}</ref>

=== CPC 6128 ===
[[File:Amstrad CPC6128, keyboard removed.jpg|thumb|CPC 6128 main circuit board.]]
The CPC 6128 features 128&nbsp;KB RAM and an internal 3-inch floppy disk drive. Aside from various hardware and [[firmware]] improvements, one of the CPC 6128's most prominent features is the compatibility with the CP/M+ operating system that rendered it attractive for business uses.

The CPC 6128 was released on 13 June 1985 and initially only sold in the US.<ref name="Special Feature: Happy Birthday!"/> Imported and distributed by Indescomp, Inc. of Chicago, it was the first Amstrad product to be sold in the United States, a market that at the time was traditionally hostile towards European computer manufacturers.<ref>''Amstrad Computer User'', "User News...", August 1985, p. 7.</ref> Two months later, on 15 August 1985, it arrived in Europe<ref name="Special Feature: Happy Birthday!"/> and replaced the CPC 664 in the CPC model line-up. Initial suggested retail prices for the CPC 6128 were US$699.00/£299.00/DM1598.00 with a green screen and US$799.00/£399.00/DM2098.00 with a colour monitor.

In 1990, the 6128plus replaced the CPC 6128 in the model line-up, and production of the CPC 6128 was discontinued.

===The ''plus range''===
In 1990, confronted with a changing home computer market, Amstrad decided to refresh the CPC model range by introducing a new range variantly labelled ''plus'' or ''PLUS'', ''1990'', or ''CPC+ range''. The main goals were numerous enhancements to the existing CPC hardware platform, to restyle the casework to provide a contemporary appearance, and to add native support of cartridge media. The new model palette includes three variants, the ''464plus'' and ''6128plus'' computers and the ''GX4000'' video game console. The "CPC" abbreviation was dropped from the model names.

The redesign significantly enhanced the CPC hardware, mainly to rectify its previous shortcomings as a gaming platform. The redesigned video hardware allows for 16 [[Sprite (computer graphics)|hardware sprites]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Original Arnold V Specs |url=https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Original_Arnold_V_Specs |website=CPCWiki |access-date=8 January 2025}}</ref> and soft scrolling, with a colour palette extended from a maximum of 16 colours (plus separately definable border) at one time from a choice of 27, increased to a maximum of 31 (16 for background and 15 for hardware sprites) out of 4096. The enhanced sound hardware offers automatic [[DMA transfer]], allowing more complex sound effects with a significantly reduced processor overhead. Other hardware enhancements include the support of analogue joysticks, 8-bit printers, and [[ROM cartridge]]s up to 4 [[megabit|Mbit]]s.

The new range of models was intended to be completely [[backwards compatible]] with the original CPC models. Its enhanced features are only available after a deliberately obscure unlocking mechanism has been triggered, thus preventing existing CPC software from accidentally invoking them.<ref name="ArnoldVSpec">{{cite web|title=Arnold "V" Specification 1.4|last=Lawson|first=Cliff|publisher=Amstrad|url=http://web.ukonline.co.uk/cliff.lawson/arnold5.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001118214900/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/cliff.lawson/arnold5.htm|archive-date=18 November 2000 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Despite the significant hardware enhancements, many viewed it as outdated, being based on an 8-bit CPU, and it failed to attract both customers and software producers who were moving towards systems such as the [[Amiga]] and [[Mega Drive]] which was launched a few short months after the plus range. The plus range was a commercial failure,<ref>[[Retro Gamer]] issue 83, From the Archives: Radical Software</ref> and production was discontinued shortly after its introduction in 1990.

====464 plus, 6128 plus====
[[File:6128plus es.jpg|thumb|A ''6128 plus'' main unit (with Spanish keyboard layout)]]
The ''464 plus'' and ''6128 plus'' models were intended as "more sophisticated and stylish" replacements of the CPC 464 and CPC 6128. Based on the redesigned plus hardware platform, they share the same base characteristics as their predecessors: The 464 plus is equipped with 64&nbsp;KB RAM and a cassette tape drive, the 6128 plus features 128&nbsp;KB RAM and a 3" floppy disk drive. Both models share a common case layout with a keyboard taken over from the CPC 6128 model, and the respective mass storage drive inserted in a case breakout.

In order to simplify the [[Electromagnetic compatibility|EMC]] screening process, the edge connectors of the previous models have been replaced with micro-ribbon connectors as previously used on the German Schneider CPC 6128. As a result, a wide range of extensions for the original CPC range are connector-incompatible with the 464 plus and 6128 plus. In addition, the 6128plus does not have a tape socket for an external tape drive.

The plus range is not equipped with an on-board ROM, and thus the 464 plus and the 6128 plus do not contain a firmware. Instead, Amstrad provided the firmware for both models via the [[read only memory|ROM]] extension facility, contained on the included ''Burnin' Rubber and Locomotive BASIC'' cartridge. This resulted in reduced hardware localization cost (only some select key caps and case labels had to be localized) with the added benefit of a rudimentary [[copy protection]] mechanism (without a firmware present, the machine itself could not copy a game cartridge's content).<ref name="ArnoldVSpec"/> As the enhanced ''V4'' firmware's structural differences causes problems with some CPC software directly calling firmware functions by their memory addresses, Amstrad separately sold a cartridge containing the original CPC 6128's ''V3'' firmware.<ref name="GrimwareCartridges">{{cite web|title=Amstrad System Cartridges|publisher=grimware.org|url=http://www.grimware.org/doku.php/documentations/hardware/amstrad.cartridge.released|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201131141/http://www.grimware.org/doku.php/documentations/hardware/amstrad.cartridge.released|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 February 2010|access-date=22 March 2010}}</ref>

Both the 464 plus and the 6128 plus were introduced to the public in September 1990. Initial suggested retail prices were {{GBP|229}}/{{currency|1990|code=FRF}} with a monochrome monitor and {{GBP|329}}/{{currency|2990|code=FRF}} with a colour monitor for the 464 plus, and {{GBP|329}}/{{currency|2990|code=FRF}} with a monochrome monitor and {{GBP|429}}/{{currency|3990|code=FRF}} with a colour monitor for the 6128plus.<ref>Paris in the Spring, ''Amstrad Action'' Issue 60, September 1990, P. 34-36</ref>

====GX4000====
[[File:Amstrad-GX4000-Console-Set.jpg|thumb|The Amstrad GX4000]]{{main|Amstrad GX4000}}

Developed as part of the ''plus range'', the GX4000 was Amstrad's short-lived attempt to enter the video game consoles market.  Sharing the plus range's enhanced hardware characteristics, it represents the bare minimum variant of the range without a keyboard or support for mass storage devices.<ref name="ArnoldVSpec"/> It came bundled with 2 [[paddle controller]]s and the racing game ''Burnin' Rubber''.

===Special models and clones===

====CPC 472====
[[File:472 es.jpg|thumb|CPC 472]]
During the August holidays of 1985, Spain briefly introduced an import tax of 15&nbsp;000 pesetas ({{€|90.15}}) on computers containing 64&nbsp;KB or less of RAM (Royal Decree 1215/1985<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1985-15514|title=BOE.es - BOE-A-1985-15514 Real Decreto 1215/1985, de 17 de julio, por el que se modifican determinadas subpartidas del arancel de Aduanas.|website=www.boe.es |pages=23677 |lang=es}}</ref> and 1558/1985<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1985-18847|title=BOE.es - BOE-A-1985-18847 Real Decreto 1558/1985, de 28 de agosto, por el que se aclara el alcance del mínimo específico introducido en la subpartida 84.53.B.II del Arancel de Aduanas, por el Real Decreto 1215/1985.|website=www.boe.es |pages=27743–27744 |lang=es}}</ref>), and a new law (Royal Decree 1250/1985<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1985-15611|title=BOE.es - BOE-A-1985-15611 Real Decreto 1250/1985, de 19 de junio, por el que se establece la sujeción a especificaciones técnicas de los terminales de pantalla con teclado, periféricos para entrada y representación de información en equipo de proceso de datos.|website=www.boe.es |pages=23840–23841 |lang=es}}</ref>) mandated that all computers sold in Spain must have a Spanish keyboard. To circumvent this, Amstrad's Spanish distributor ''Indescomp'' (later to become ''Amstrad Spain'') created and distributed the ''CPC 472'', a modified version of the CPC 464. Its main differences are a small additional daughter board containing a CPC 664 ROM chip and an 8&nbsp;KB memory chip, and a keyboard with a [[ñ]] key (although some of them were temporarily manufactured without the ñ key). The sole purpose of the 8&nbsp;KB memory chip (which is not electrically connected to the machine, so consequently rendered unusable) is to increase the machine's total memory specs to 72&nbsp;KB in order to circumvent the import tax. Some months later, Spain joined the [[European Communities]] by the [[Treaty of Accession 1985]] and the import tax was suppressed, so Amstrad added the ñ key for the 464 and production of the CPC 472 was discontinued.<ref name="CPCWikiCPC472">{{cite web|title=CPC472|publisher=CPCWiki|url=http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/472|access-date=17 August 2011}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=September 2020}}

====KC compact====
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[[File:KC-compact-1.jpg|thumb|right|The Kleincomputer KC compact]]
The ''{{Interlanguage link multi|KC compact|de}}'' ("{{lang|de|Kleincomputer}}" - which means "small computer" - being a rather literal German translation of the English "microcomputer") is a clone of the Amstrad CPC built by [[East Germany]]'s ''{{lang|de|[[Volkseigene Betriebe|VEB]] Mikroelektronik Mühlhausen}}'', part of ''{{lang|de|VEB [[Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt]]}}'', in October 1989. Although the machine included various substitutes and emulations of an Amstrad CPC's hardware, the machine is largely compatible with Amstrad CPC software. It is equipped with 64&nbsp;KB of memory and a CPC 6128's firmware customized to the modified hardware, including a copy of [[Locomotive BASIC]] 1.1 modified in the startup banner only. The expansion port is a [[VEB Robotron#K 1520_bus_standard|K 1520 bus]] slot. The KC compact is the last 8-bit computer introduced in East Germany.<ref name="KCCompactDocu">{{cite web|title=KC Compact Documentation|url=http://www.sax.de/~zander/kcc/kcc_bw.html|access-date=11 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220160912/http://www.sax.de/~zander/kcc/kcc_bw.html|archive-date=20 February 2022}}</ref> Due to the [[German reunification]] happening at the time of the release, only a very small number of systems were sold. The KC compact can be emulated by free software ''JKCEMU''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=JKCEMU - Kleincomputer-Emulator (in German) |url=http://www.jens-mueller.org/jkcemu/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=www.jens-mueller.org}}</ref>

====Aleste 520EX====
In 1993, [[Omsk|Omsk, Russia]] based company Patisonic released the Aleste 520EX, a computer highly compatible with the Amstrad CPC 6128.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Aleste_520EX|title=Aleste 520EX - CPCWiki|website=www.cpcwiki.eu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aleste520.narod.ru/aleste.html|title=Aleste 520EX|website=aleste520.narod.ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://zonadepruebas.org/backup/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1076 |title=Spanish page |access-date=10 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313034418/http://zonadepruebas.org/backup/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1076 |archive-date=13 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It could also be switched into an [[MSX]] mode. An expansion board named ''Magic Sound'' allowed to play [[Scream Tracker]] files.

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