1984 would see the demise of several micro manufacturers, including Dragon Data and Torch
who were snapped up by Acorn.
By October Sinclair had released a new improved version of the Spectrum, with as near a real
keyboard as Sinclair could muster and a larger, more computer looking style.
This was mainly in response to machines like the CPC and its no coincidence that it's design
began the same month the CPC was launched.
Amstrad had it's work cut out and were keen to at least ship the 10,000 machines they
had already produced.
But by the end of 1984, a whopping 200,000 machines were sold to retailers, mostly during
the Christmas 1984 build up.
However, demand among the public for home computers was still falling and only 1.35
million of the 1.7 million micros stocked were actually sold, meaning 1985 began with
a slow start.
Cunningly for Amstrad, they had another ace up their sleeve.
With established foreign export routes, several European countries also welcomed the CPC during
1984.
Marion Vannier was running Amstrad's French operation, and having convinced Sugar she
was up to the task of selling home computers, got to work, towing the same marketing style
used in the UK.
Despite falling pregnant at precisely the most unhelpful time and spending 3 months
in hospital, there was a roaring uptake, and 30,000 machines had been sold by March 1985,
thanks in part to France being fairly void of any mass computing market at the time.
Over in Spain, Jose Luis Dominguez in Madrid, owner of Indescomp began convincing Sugar
to become the authorised distributor for the same reason.
Initially Amstrad weren't interested, but by offering to develop software for them,
managed to wangle his way into Amstrad's offices, where he gifted the games for free on the
basis he could resell the machine in his country.
Sugar agreed on the basis Indescomp would provide another 10 games, and by the end of
1985, over 50,000 machines had been sold.
The Spanish government even tried to introduce a tax on the import of machines with 64kb
or less memory.
This was introduced to promote home grown computer manufacturers, such as Eurohard who
had just purchased the rights for the Dragon machines.
Amstrad got round this simply by sticking an addition 8kb of dummy memory into the machine,
renaming it the CPC72 and pretending that the additional 8kb was consumed by the new
Locomotive BASIC 1.1.
In reality, it wasn't even usable.
Thanks to further agreements with Amstrad, a market also opened up in Germany where the
machines were sold under the Schneider brand.
Between 1983 and 1984, exports made up 13% of Amstrad's turnover, by the end of 1985,
this had quadruped to 53%.
But it wasn't just exports that held Amstrad in good stead.
The computer market had only really fallen out for the lower end systems.
The Acorn Electrons, the Spectrums, the Orics.
Because the CPC was cleverly poised as a credible computer, for many it slipped just into the
upper end of the market.
A market many were seeking to transition into.
Whilst many micros endured heavy price cuts during 1985, the CPC only received modest
price cuts, in line with economies of scale, with the green screen version dropping to
just £199.
1985 also witnessed the first CPC show at London's Novotel, however it was notable that
Amstrad themselves weren't concerned enough to actually turn up.
The continued success allowed Amstrad to move once again.
Warehouse operations were moved to a Shoeburyness plant, and the main offices to a nine story
office block in Brentwood, Essex.
The interior was in quite a state to begin with, apart from one floor which Amsoft took,
allowing the rest of Amstrad to move in shortly afterwards.
The CPC quickly captured some 25% of the home micro market, dominating in France, whilst
coming in third behind the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in the UK.
But in his own words Alan Sugar wasn't even interested in market share.
His only interest was the bottom line, and to some these values felt evident in the CPC.
Some regarding it as a soulless machine.
Amsoft and their user club were doing a good job supporting the machine, but it didn't
feel as organic as perhaps other home micros did.
The popularity of the machine meant many software houses were jumping on the boat, but due to
the similarities with the ZX Spectrum, many games released were just poor ports, failing
to take advantage of the improved hardware, and in some cases actually running slower.
A well made port would look like a Commodore game thanks to the increased colour palette,
but have the speed of a Spectrum, thanks to the faster Z80 processor.
A badly made port would likely look like a Spectrum game with a couple of extra colours
in the title.
However, even at this early stage, there were several stand out titles, and many developers
were smitten with the machine.
Nick Alexander of Virgin software noted that "If you compare the Amstrad with the Spectrum
and C64, our programmers' attitude is that it's superior - the leader of the pack", whilst
Ocean's David Ward noted that "the Amstrad user base is newer and more active than the
other machines.
They buy more software".
It didn't take long for big coin-op conversions to make it to the format, despite Sugar's
dismissive attitude towards such fare, preferring instead to create cheaper clones rather than
buy into big names.
During 1985, spurred on by its success, Amstrad had several other projects already making
their way into production.
The first was released in April as the CPC664.
Essentially a 464, but sporting a disk drive instead of a cassette deck and aimed more
for business applications armed with AMSDOS and CP/M 2.2.
However, the memory proved limiting, and the design, somewhat turgid.
This machine was hastily replaced by the superior looking 6128 just a few months later.
70,000 664's were sold to customers, now somewhat disgrunted given their machine was almost
immediately out of date.
But it was not an intentional strategy.
Sugar had pushed the 664 out, but Bob Watkins, unhappy with its design had asked a designer
to create something nicer on the side.
With rapidly falling RAM prices, Sugar saw the appeal of the new, more professional design,
and launched the improved model in August, hoping to make an impact in the US market
at the same time.
The machine didn't make much of a dent in the IBM compatible dominant States, but it
was very well received in Europe.
Priced at a very competitive £299 with green screen and £399 with colour, Which Magazine
awarded it a Best Buy and it became the computer of choice in the rapidly expanding French
region, with some impressive disk based games following in no time at all.
It even retained a tape port, so that existing 464 software could be played.
The other machine unveiled at the same time was the PCW8256; A PC like word processing
machine, released at the shockingly low price of £399, costing less than most electric
typewriters of the time.
Some sniffed at it's aging Z80 processor and 3" disks, but businesses did not.
The built in Word Processor by Locomotive contained all the basic and handy to have
features they could think of, with Sugar stating advanced functionality was just not in the
mission statement for the kit.
This provided a perfectly easy to use machine, ideal for secretarial use in any business
that didn't see the point in splashing out 10x the price for a PC compatible with additional
printer.
Amstrad's ability to give the market exactly what it wanted was quickly coined "The Amstrad
Effect", and it ensured that City confidence was well and truly restored.
Along with these new machines, the "Truck Driver & His Wife" image had been shifted
to the "Small Business Person, or Professional working from home", with newly recruited agency
Delaney Fletcher Delaney creating advertising campaigns which really hit home this new target
audience.
The tag line for the CPC models was changed to "Who says business and pleasure don't mix?",
whilst over in America, a curious Byte magazine described the CPC as "the closest yet to filling
my criteria for a useful home computer, including good keyboard, 80-column text, inexpensive
disk drive, and support for a mainstream operating system like CP/M".
1985 to 1986 would be a golden year for Amstrad with profits trebling from just under £10
million to £27.5 million and Sugar's paper fortune increased to £188 million.
For each Amstrad employee, effectively £500,000 was being generated.
In May 1986 Sugar reduced his share of the company to 45.4%, raising £25 million in
the process through shares which the market had absolutely no hesitation in buying up.
Sugar was asked why he had reduced his stake and responded
"It seemed to me to be about time that I reduced my
holding in Amstrad in order to develop my interests outside the
company.
But Amstrad will still absorb all my management attention....
I'm not starting a new company.
I'm not building electric car, I'm not funding any new developments.
It's my own money."
The car reference, no doubt, a slight dig to Clive Sinclair and the recent Sinclair
C5 debacle.
Something that would become ever more relevant as 1986 rolled on.
=========== The Boffin meets the Businessman =====================
In January, Sinclair launched the Spectrum 128k in the UK for £179.95.
Sinclair still held 40% of the UK home micro market, and their latest machine would trump
the memory capacity of most rival machines, however all was not well in the Sinclair business.
Sugar had been alerted to this whilst on a trip to Hong Kong by Dixons, who happened
to also have representatives in the area.
Dixons shared some insider knowledge that Sinclair was looking to sell their outstanding
stocks of machines and possibly their business along with it.
Dixons knew this because they had considered the purchase themselves, but due to the complexities
involved had instead decided to alert Amstrad.
Sugar knew that he could make the Sinclair operation more efficient and quickly turn
around a profit on the still dominating brand, and upon landing in the UK acquired one of
the new Spectrum machines and asked his engineers and manufacturing companies to roughly cost
up a cost reduced version of the machine.
Following a tense deal with Sinclair and its creditors, favourable terms were finally agreed
on the 7th April 1986, which would allow Amstrad to re-coup profit within a year.
Buying the Sinclair computer brand, along with it's intellectual property for £5 million,
Sugar also bought out the existing stock from Sinclair's creditors for £11 million and
within a few months created the Spectrum+2 system.
A cost reduced version of the 128k Spectrum, incorporating a tape drive much like the CPC.
This rapid turn out was in part helped by Amstrad coincidentally hiring one of the original
Spectrum designers, Richard Altwasser, just a few months prior, as they sought to bring
their entire computer engineering team in house rather than continuing to rely on outsourced
developers such as MEJ Electronics.
Richard was able to help sure the +2 was in production by the end of July to meet the
Christmas season, with production quickly outsourced to Amstrad's manufacturers in the
Far East and Sugar remarking "We would like to manufacture in the United Kingdom, but
we're a computer company, not a benevolent society.", and demonstrating the exact skills
which would allow Sinclair to continue as a successful brand.
Clive would later comment "Alan makes products in order to make money, whereas I make money
in order to make products."
and it was this exact mindset leading to innovative yet doomed products such as the the Sinclair
C5, which meant Sinclair failed as a commodity product supplier... an area in which Amstrad
excelled.
With the Sinclair line on board.
Amstrad could now claim a 60% market share of the home computer market throughout Europe.
Given their entry to computers had occurred just two years prior, this was one hell of
an achivement.
In September 1986, Amstrad also launched itself into the IBM PC compatible market, with its
PC1512 machine.
Like the PCW this offered a low cost way to get into a professional computing realm, and
it sold rapidly, sparking numerous other machines for Amstrad in the PC compatible marketplace.
It was also around this time with the arrival of a fresh faced advertising executive known
as Thomas Power that Amstrad created it's own marketing department.
Yup, it had survived this far with no official marketing department, other than Alan Sugar
and Malcolm Miller, Amstrad's marketing director.
Whilst all this was on-going you might think that the CPC range may have been allowed to
slide.
After all, the Spectrum held almost twice as much market share.
However, instead the Spectrum was simply positioned as a low end gaming machine, and the CPC solidified
its ground as a more professional affair, that could be kept in the office and used
by the kids to play the same games that other machines had.
Its for this reason that Amsoft was a continually crucial element to the brand, churning out
exclusive titles, and conversions of titles that other developers were unwilling to do.
It's evident from games specifically made for the CPC how much of an advantage the machine
held in the graphical stakes.
Although the Sincalir machines had caught up with the AY sound chip added to the 128k
models, the colour on well made CPC titles was a treat for the eyes, with a brighter
palette than the C64 whilst achieving the same resolution.
The Spectrum was given the 3" disk treatment in August 1987 with the Spectrum+3, around
the same time that the CPC range was witnessing somewhat of a golden age in gaming.
With some standout titles launched continuing through to the end of
the decade.
It might seem strange that during 1988 the Amsoft user club was sold off, but for Sugar,
it had served it's purpose of helping put the CPC on the same ground as other platforms,
and really now served little purpose to the company's bottom line.
To keep sales strong various CPC packages were released in this time, even changing
the monitors to include a TV tuner as prices became cheaper.
Rather than buying a television and a separate computer for your kid's bedroom, you could
get both in one unit, continuing Amstrad's ability to throw common sense into houses
throughout Europe.
One bundle even included 17 games, a joystick, a clock radio and even a friggin' desk.
This really was the ALL-IN-ONE solution!
The Sinclair name would be used one last time in 1988 to try and revamp their IBM PC Compatible
line with the PC200.
A system designed to look like an Atari ST, or Amiga, but be PC compatible.
Unfortunately as IBM compatible technology was drastically behind the Amiga and ST in
terms of gaming and home use at the time, it failed to take off.
=============== The Last Stand ======================
By 1990 Amstrad's profits were £90 million, thanks in part to their re-expansion into
audio and electronics, along with their computing line.
It was now six years after the CPC had launched, and machines such as the Amiga 500 and Atari
ST were permeating into households, replacing the 8 bit crown with 16 shiny bits.
There was speculation that Amstrad might move into the 16 bit range, which may have been
a smart move, but instead, it was deemed time for a revamp.
Although the Sinclair machines were left to their own devices, still selling in the lower
end, the CPC machines which came out of this revamp were styled much more like the Amiga,
bringing a much fresher look into the new decade.
But not only that, these machines had a few new technical tricks to boot.
Known as the PLUS range, dropping the CPC tag and launching in September 1990, a 4,096
colour palette was now standard with 32 on screen at once and 16 hardware sprites were
available along with smooth pixel by pixel scrolling.
Programmable DMA interrupts were even added to take any processor strain from
the AY soundchip.
All in all, some pretty well chosen improvements.
The 464plus was exactly what you'd expect.
A CPC464, but with a few alterations along with the technical improvements.
The cassette deck was still built in, albeit in a deeper position, cutting the elongated
shape of the original unit.
A cartridge port was added, allowing instantaneous booting of games, although the old edge connectors
were removed in favour of more sturdy micro ribbon connectors, rendering old peripherals
useless.
Amstrad claimed that the new PLUS features were only available to cartridge based software.
The reasons for this were to increase cartridge software production and to ensure that old
CPC software would still run without accidentally triggering these new features.
However it was quickly discovered it's perfectly possible to utilise them by sending a specific
17 byte sequence, which some games and particularly graphical demos made use of.
The 6128plus is, as you'd expect, the memory boosted, disk drive equivalent, but lacking
the tape connector of the original 128 machine.
To simplify region localisation issues, the mainboard also lacks a system ROM, with it
instead located on the bundled Burnin' Rubber/Locomotive BASIC cart.
This meant that the cartridge needed to be present to run tape or disk games whilst other
cartridges needed to include their own ROM chip, offering some basic copy protection
measures.
Alongside these models, Amstrad also decided to take a step into the console market, with
the spaceship looking GX4000.
This was a time when many manufacturers were trying to re-purpose their existing technology
to fit into the console market, however just like Commodore with the 64 Games System, it
was just too late.
The GX4000 was essentially a CPC in console form launching for the cut down price of £99
and providing SCART and RF connectors to hook up to your lounge telly.
It sported the same technical improvements of the plus models, allowing the cartridges
to be interchangeable, but in light of the Sega Mega drive and even existing 8 bit consoles
from the big Japanese names, it was too little too late to make an impact.
With just 26 games released on cartridge, many of which just old CPC cassette games
coded into ROMs, it didn't ooze too much appeal, although games like Robocop II and Pang did
provide owners with a glimmer of hope to cling onto.
The GX was discounted to less than £80 within 8 months and disappeared entirely not much
longer afterwards.
Burnin' Rubber, bundled with the entire range, is a pretty good showcase of the hardware.
Featuring colourful visuals, smooth scrolling and some nice car animation.
Combined with the new Amstrad control pads, everything looked the part, but this would
prove to be a case where the Amstrad Effect just didn't have an effect.
The only market with reasonable sales was faithful France, where the 6128 model sold
into the tens of thousand.
Although the PLUS line wasn't the 16 bit upgrade Amstrad perhaps needed, placing it behind
the new competition.
Truth be told, the only thing which really let it down were the continued use of chunky
pixels making everything seem a little more blocky than rivals.
Otherwise it was graphically fairly capable and some games of era really revealed the
potential of the hardware.
Prince of Persia for example came remarkably close to its 16 bit iterations and may explain
in part why the old dog was still able to hang on into the 90s.
The plus range was never a success and was shortly discontinued, with Amstrad moving
into a period where Sugar declared one brand new product should be made per month.
This happened to lead the company further and further into the communications industry
as the 1990s chugged on, developing set top boxes for Sky before being sold off in 1997,
with it's shares split between Viglen and Betacom, before Betacom was renamed itself
to Amstrad PLC.
Since then the Amstrad Emailer was launched in 2000 and the company have essentially moved
into full time satellite box manufacture under the ownership of BSkyB since 2007, with Sugar
stepping down as Chairman in 2008.
But there's absolutely no doubt - in my mind at least - that the Amstrad CPC range of machines
remains Alan Sugar's and Amstrad's most memorable contribution to the world.
The Spectrum range clung onto 1992, before being discontinued, in the ever favourable
lower end market, an area which the Commodore 64 managed to cling onto for even longer,
before Commodore's wind-up in 1994.
In 1993 Amstrad would again take a stab at the PC market with the help of Sega via.
the Mega PC, a that indeed is a story definitely worthy of another day.
The CPC sold some 3 million machines globally, with 650,000 alone in France.
This figure is less than the 17 million Commodore 64s and 5 million Sinclair Spectrums.
But still a significant slice of pie, for a computer which was really only designed
to create a quick profit.
Roland Perry remarked at the time that Amstrad would have been happy to sell 100,000 CPCs,
but the end result by far exceeded their expectations.
Today the CPC still retains an enthusiastic fan base.
Everdrive style cartridges for the PLUS range have opened up the hardware to some slick
programming and just last year, the CPC RetroDev competition was held yielding some nice titles,
splashing colour all over that screen.
Emulators such as WinAPE opens up the library to a whole new generation of users and its
definitely a system which should be experienced at least once.
The Amstrad CPC was certainly a spark of genius and a triumph of common sense for Sugar, but
it was the engineers and support teams around the machine who really put the love into it,
and made it the success it was.
Without Amsoft placing a heavy concentration on encouraging programming among users or
providing a solid support base.
Without MEJ And Locomotive creating something which went over and above the machine's original
specifications.
Without magazines like Amstrad Action and the software houses who grew ever fond of
the hardware, it wouldn't be the machine it turned out today.
All in all the CPC was a triumph of it's time.
It arrived late to the party, but it arrived in style, and the undying love for the machine
continuing into 2017 is certainly testament to this very view.
Thank you for watching the second part of the Amstrad CPC story.
If you haven't seen the first part, then I like your disordered style.
You can view it by clicking to the left.
If you fancy sharing, subscribing, giving a thumbs up or even helping support my channel,
then it's massively appreciated.
Otherwise, I hope you have a good evening.
For more infomation >> My Yasuo And Me (spanish translation) - Duration: 2:39. 
For more infomation >> La inesperada alza del IPC y el inicio del paro en Escondida marcaron la semana - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Construyendo una práctica de meditación estable - Mingyur Rinpoche (sub. esp.) - Duration: 8:47. 
For more infomation >> Andrea Legarreta nos contó por qué estuvo en grave peligro su vida - Duration: 2:27. 
For more infomation >> Sudáfrica: Pelea a golpes durante discurso nacional del presidente Zuma - Duration: 0:31. 
For more infomation >> Vale Saber/// Interesante pre regional de colegios particulares: Prof; Raul Braulio Medina, CONDEBA - Duration: 2:54. 
For more infomation >> Centenario de Toluca: José Saturnino Cardozo, el máximo goleador del club - Duration: 4:00. 
For more infomation >> Cuestiones del idioma/Carlos Díaz/ ExperTV, canal 7 - Duration: 0:19. 
For more infomation >> [] Lucie Jones - Never Give Up On You (Remix Lemanic) [] - Duration: 3:01. 
For more infomation >> Artist Zayn Malik Live
For more infomation >> Peugeot 206 CC 2.0-16V - Duration: 1:22. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai Trajet 2.0i-16V GLS - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> الات لحصد المحاصيل الزراعيه تعمل بكفائه عاليه ناصر دياب👌 - Duration: 5:21. 
For more infomation >> Toyota Aygo 1.0 VVT-i x-play - Duration: 1:08. 
For more infomation >> BMW X5 3.5I HIGH EXECUTIVE 4X4 7P. | NAVI | LEDER | XENON - Duration: 1:34. 
For more infomation >> Hyundai ix20 1.6i i-Catcher Autom..Rijklaar - Duration: 1:33. 
For more infomation >> 18 februarie - Sfântul Ierarh Leon I, Papă al Romei - Duration: 2:09. 
For more infomation >> Program Pierwszy (Jedynka) - 2 bloki reklamowe i Przepis dnia z 9 września 2016 roku - Duration: 10:30. 
For more infomation >> How to Make A CHOCOLATE and STRAWBERRY Valentine's Day Cake (Dairy-Free Option) - Duration: 2:11. 
For more infomation >> FGTS liberado, o que fazer com ele - Meu Dinheiro #5 - Duration: 2:46. 
For more infomation >> Duzz & Shout - Alquimia - Duration: 4:10. 
For more infomation >> Refrescando a Vida - Limpeza de fígado - Duration: 2:49. 
For more infomation >> AFF 2017 - SAI DA BOLHA! ~11 ANOS ~ - Duration: 5:22. 
No comments:
Post a Comment