Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256
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From: jones on 31 Oct 2009 08:32 "Tom" wrote in message > Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256 > http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/10/30/remembering-the-amstrad-pcw2856/ My introduction to computing was with an Amstrad PCW8256, and got my first taste of playing with graphic and DTP. Don't tell me they are again sought after. I just got rid of mine, even shedding a silent tear for it. Aaaahhh the good old days :-( Katherine
From: SG1 on 31 Oct 2009 17:42 "jones" <jones(a)nowhere.com> wrote in message news:4aec2e58$1(a)dnews.tpgi.com.au... > > "Tom" wrote in message > >> Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256 >> http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/10/30/remembering-the-amstrad-pcw2856/ > > My introduction to computing was with an Amstrad PCW8256, and got my first > taste of playing with graphic and DTP. > > Don't tell me they are again sought after. I just got rid of mine, even > shedding a silent tear for it. Aaaahhh the good old days :-( > > Katherine I have a keyboard from a later model Pommy machine. Made in Taiwan of course. It is an Amstrad PLC Model KB7A. > >
From: Tom on 1 Nov 2009 01:21 jones wrote: > "Tom" wrote in message > >> Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256 >> http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/10/30/remembering-the-amstrad-pcw2856/ > > My introduction to computing was with an Amstrad PCW8256, and got my first > taste of playing with graphic and DTP. > > Don't tell me they are again sought after. I just got rid of mine, even > shedding a silent tear for it. Aaaahhh the good old days :-( > > Katherine > > I actually still have my 8512 which had another 256 ram and a double sided floppy in the lower slot.
From: jt august on 3 Nov 2009 19:26 In article <hch310$hob$1(a)aioe.org>, Tom <nla(a)iinet.com> wrote: > Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256 > > October 30, 2009 by JLister | 1 comment > > The primary purpose of the 8256 was as a word processor; indeed PCW > stood for Personal Computer Wordprocessor. (There are stories it was > originally planned to be WPC but that this was rejected as, at the time, > that acronym was more commonly used for a Woman Police Constable.) And > it has to be said that it did this well, via the built-in Locoscript > system. It also had a remarkable reputation for virtually never > crashing, which was of course a major benefit of simplicity. > > Another notable characteristic of the PCW8256, which it certainly didn�t > share with the Mac, was its price. Launched in 1985 for �399 (equivalent > to just under �1,000 or $1,600 today) it was around a sixth of the price > of the cheapest PC at the time and at one point had a 60% share of the > British home computing market. On my side of the Pond, my father bought one for $399, or about 2/3 the Brit price. My father loved the world processor, and upgraded to LocoScript II when it came out. > Perhaps the most noteworthy quirk of the machine, however, was that it > used 3� floppy disks rather than the 3.5� versions which became > established as the standard. In 1995 when I began my journalism > training, we were instructed to bring two of these disks with us. By > this stage they were virtually impossible to find and my coursemates and > I were unimpressed when we rolled up to start our courses and discovered > that the university�s PCW fleet was long retired and that finding the > disks had simply been a test of our resourcefulness. Amdek was developing these disks and proposed them to Apple for the Mac standard. Apple went with the 3.5 design instead, thus killing the AmDek programme. Here in St Louis, an electronics liquidator bought the entire production run from a test production run of AdDisk 3 inch disk drives for Atar 8-bit and IBM/DOS compatible machines. I have the Atari version in my collection, an A/B primary unit, and a C/D add-on unit. One thing on the PCW8256 not mentioned in this article above was that it sported a surprisingly good implementation of BASIC, which both my father and I used extensively. Mallard BASIC, if I recall correctly. The floppy drive eventually went south on us, and my Dad had to retire the machine. To my dismay, he simply chucked it. I would have liked to keep it and find a different unit with a salvageable drive so as to keep it in my extensive computer collection. jt
From: Tom on 4 Nov 2009 03:57 jt august wrote: > In article <hch310$hob$1(a)aioe.org>, Tom <nla(a)iinet.com> wrote: > >> Remembering: The Amstrad PCW8256 >> > One thing on the PCW8256 not mentioned in this article above was that it > sported a surprisingly good implementation of BASIC, which both my > father and I used extensively. Mallard BASIC, if I recall correctly. > > The floppy drive eventually went south on us, and my Dad had to retire > the machine. To my dismay, he simply chucked it. I would have liked to > keep it and find a different unit with a salvageable drive so as to keep > it in my extensive computer collection. > > jt I have packed away a PCW8512 (two drives and 512 memory version) in its original box with the printer and heaps of floppy disks. Was working last time it was used. Interested?
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