Amstrad CPC 464 Plus (1990)

Features

CPU: Zilog Z80A 4 MHz
RAM: 64 kb
ROM: 32 kb
Text Modes: 20 x 25 with 16 colors, 40 x 25 with 4 colors, 80 x 25 with 2 colors
Graphic Modes: 160 x 200 with 16 colors, 320 x 200 with 4 colors, 640 x 200 with 2 colors
Colors: 32 maximum (in low resolution) among 4096
Sound: 3 stereo voices, 8 octaves +1 noise channel
I/O Ports: Light pen / gun port, Stereo sound output, Centronics port, Extension port, 2 Joystick ports (Atari) + 1 analogic, Cartridge slot, RGB monitor DIN plug
Keyboard: QWERTY / AZERTY mechanical keyboard
Built In Media: Tape-recorder (without tape counter)
OS: AMSDOS, CP/M 2.2 and CP/M +
Built In Language: None [AMSDOS + Locomotive BASIC 1.1 + Burning Rubber (a game) on included cart, needed to boot]

Usage

MESS currently supports cpc464p emulation with

one “cassette” (cass) device, for tapes in .wav and .cdt format
one “cartridge” (cart) device, for cart dumps in .bin and .cpr format
up to two floppy drives, “floppydisk1” (flop1) and “floppydisk2” (flop2), for disk images in .dsk format.

Also notice that a “snapshot” (dump) feature is available for .sna files and that the “printer” (prin) is emulated as well.

This system requires full keyboard emulation to work correctly. At startup, full keyboard emulation mode is enabled by default. Whilst in full keyboard emulation mode, some key associated functionality may be disabled (like the ESC key for EXIT). The keyboard emulation mode is toggled using the “Scroll Lock” key (by default).

History and Trivia

Amstrad CPC 464+ and CPC 6128+ were the successors of the Amstrad CPC 6128. Amstrad tried to prolong the life of the old 8-bit Amstrads, which suffered from competition with the new 16-bit home computers (like the Amiga and Atari ST).

Amstrad made some important modifications to maintain the level of its machines, the CPC 6128 Plus became 95% compatible with the CPC 6128 (using the same operating systems AMSDOS and CP/M 3.1). However, some software did not run on the plus range and Amstrad official statement was that the programmers where lazy and used bad programming in some software resulting in crashes on this machine.

Several new features were added: 16 sprites (16 colors each), fine hardware scrolling, increased color palette, an enhanced sound chip, a cartridge port ,and a redesigned keyboard. Some of these features were not even present (yet) on certain 16-bit computers (Atari STf didn't have hardware scrolling or sprites and the Amstrad sound chip was better than the Atari one!). regardless, this new version of the CPC didn't last long.

As Atari did with the 65-XE when it reached the end of its life, so Amstrad made a game console from the Amstrad CPC Plus hardware called the GX 4000. This console used the same programs as the computer but were supplied on cartridges.

(info from old-computers.com)