The Amstrad Times.

[Dave Moll]

The Amstrad was also my first PC-compatible after upgrading from a BBC Micro. The four AA cells to maintain the system clock and system memory settings had to be non-rechargable as the 4.8V from rechargeables wasn't enough. I don't think mine got connected to anything from which it could contract a virus!

[Mike Phelan]

What a wonderful read, David. I have always admired Alan Sugar - someone who started from zero.

[M3VUV51]

to me amstrad always and always will=crap!!

[greg_simons]

Originally Posted by M3VUV51

to me amstrad always and always will=crap!!

Have to agree, amstrad was to my mind at the time synonymous with poor quality cheaply made tat with a short service life, compared to the solidly built stuff from jvc and Ferguson they were flashy junk and did seem to mark a departure from expensive but well made equipment with service back up etc to flimsy throw away stuff that couldn't be easily repaired, non the less very happy days, all gone now, along with quite a few old works colleagues.
Greg.

[Pfraser]

Amstrad products certainly weren't the best in terms of design and build quality. But at least Alan has been honest about his 'mug's eyeful' approach.

You could argue that Amstrad served as a technological enabler. The first 'proper' computer I used was his desktop word processing setup, with a green display, clacky & uncomfortable keyboard and a dot matrix printer. Not the best, but the IT training centre I attended had been able to create a new course based around these Amstrads.

A budding musician I knew had a clunky and somewhat ugly Amstrad twin cassette ghetto blaster, loaded with extra features not normally found in that price bracket. It didn't sound particularly brilliant, but it helped him to create and learn.

[TonyDuell]

One great advantage (to me) of Amstrad computers over many other makes was that component-level spares and circuit diagrams were available -- in fact easy to obtain.

I still use an Amstrad PPC640 as the base for a floppy drive tester. It's never given me any problems.

[electronicskip]

I remember that the Loudspeakers were for ever blowing on their tower systems , but apart from that I don't really recall putting out too many service calls for faulty video recorders etc.

[Richard_FM]

My gran had an Amstrad stereo with built in cabinet for many years which always seemed to work well.

The first video my parents had was an 4600 which lasted from 1987 until 2004 with only a belt needing to be changed.

The CPC range of computers would get you a reasonable amount of street cred, I always liked the colour coded keyboard in that very 1980s black & primary colours style.

I've got mixed feeling about Sir Alan, it's impressive that he's managed to be a rags to riches story, & The Apprentice shows he doesn't suffer fools gladly.

In the early days of Sky, Amstrad was almost the default maker of satellite receiving equipment for them.

[AC/HL]

It is now, Sky owns what is left of Amstrad.