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Old 30-09-2018, 03:48 PM   #4
Neville
Super Freak

 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Lerida, Spain
Posts: 166
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First of all, maybe I should explain why there are so many PC clones... see, when IBM made their first PC model (the 5150, released in august 1981) they built it using off the shelf components, and they also allowed other manufacturers to sell their own parts and peripherals. The only part that IBM kept copyrighted was the BIOS, imagining that other PC manufacturers would have to pay for it for years. Unfortunately for IBM, the PC BIOS was quickly reverse-engineered by brands like Compaq and American Megatrends.

Now, today I want to mention two Amstrad computers. The first is the Amstrad PC512 from 1986. Apparently it was very popular in Europe, to the extent this model and the 1640 may have been to Europe what the Tandy 1000 and variants were to the USA: the first affordable PC compatible for many people.



The specs are not too different from IBM PCs of the same era: 512 Kb. RAM, CPU 8086 @ 8 Mhz. and a CGA-compatible Amstrad graphics card, with an extra 640x200x16 graphic mode.

That extra graphic mode is the first curiosity. A few games claim to use it, such as "Maupiti Island" or "Frank Bruno's Boxing", but my guess is that it was especially included for use with the GEM desktop.



Maupiti Island, showing 16 colors.

The PC1512 came with three different startup disks. The first one, you guessed, was MS-DOS 3.2. The second one was a different DOS, DOS Plus, a DOS Variant developed by Digital Research and based on CP/M, an earlier OS shared by many 8 and 16 bit computers.

And the third disk was GEM, a variant of the desktop that was used in other computers at the time, most notably the Atari ST. This variant was also developed by Digital Research.



A PC1512 running GEM.

However GEM wasn't a big success in the PC market, and people soon moved to other software desktops, such as GS/OS, Deskmate and Windows.

The 1512 had a successor, the Amstrad PC1640, this time with 640 Kb. of RAM and an EGA compatible display card.

More rarities? Well, take a look at the pripherals on that first picture: the mouse (and I think the joystick as well) is not standard, but Amstrad's specific. It has a different connector and won't work unless you use the Amstrad drivers.

Well, at least you can emulate the whole thing using PCem.


The second Amstrad model I will mention this time is the Mega PC:



It's a PC compatible with a 386 CPU launched in 1993 lanzado en 1993. It's main appeal is that it has... a Sega Genesis / Mega Drive embedded. I can't possibly imagine who had the idea, but if you want a rare PC clone, you can't go much weirder than this one.

It's also a PC that brings me bad memories, because I accidentally destroyed one of them. I was in college at the time, and this machine was the one me and my friends we used to type our college works. I was told by the owner not to switch off the monitor (IIRC it was a custom one, the machine wouldn't work with regular PC monitors) because it was on its last legs. However, the computer crashed and out of habit I switched off both PC and monitor. From then on the monitor would only show a delicate violet light, but neither characters nor graphics. Damn.

The Mega PC likely didn't have much of an impact. By 1993 386-based PCs and the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive were likely at the end of their commercial lives.

PCem does emulate the machine, but only in regards to its PC side. For the Genesis / Mega Drive there are plenty of emulators to choose.

Last edited by Neville; 09-10-2018 at 06:52 PM.
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