Retro Gamer forum

Drooling big time, I tell you, since seeing your double page advert for your next issue in the current Retro Gamer.

Picture the scene. It's coming up to Christmas 1984. I'm 13 years old. All of my friends have either Spectrums or Commodore 64's. The one poor lad who has a Dragon 32 is shunned by his peers. I live in a relatively poor family. Hell, I rely on free tickets to purchase my school dinners. My only hope lies with my grandparents, whom own not only a car but a colour television. I hint at the Amstrad CPC464, simply because I see it in a home shopping catalogue at the time and, being the canny kid that I am (and STILL am), think that the fact they can pay for it over X amount of weeks will go in its favour.

Roll forward to Christmas morning. The big box in the centre - the big UNWRAPPED box in the centre, (devoid of christmas wrapping because, I presume, it is too big) with the words AMSTRAD written on the side of it gets my mouth watering. It can't be a bicycle, I reason, because they don't make bikes.
And it can't be clothes either because surely they don't make clothes.
It's got to be a... computer!!!
I tear the box to shreds and pull out the beautiful, oh so beautiful, Amstrad CPC 464 with Colour Monitor and pack of 12 games.
It is going to be a very, very, merry Christmas....

My Grandad said he would buy the Amstrad issue because he had a 464+ in the early Nineties. It'll be the first issue he's ever bought.

Ash wrote:My Grandad said he would buy the Amstrad issue because he had a 464+ in the early Nineties. It'll be the first issue he's ever bought.

How old is your grandfather? 37?

C4 wrote:

Ash wrote:My Grandad said he would buy the Amstrad issue because he had a 464+ in the early Nineties. It'll be the first issue he's ever bought.

How old is your grandfather? 37?

Mine would be 103 if he were alive today.

Please don't put a picture of an Amstrad on the front cover!

How about a naked picture of Alan Sugar with a 464 covering his boyhood?

paranoid marvin wrote:Please don't put a picture of an Amstrad on the front cover!

Not if you want to sell the magazine

As I have to buy mine in a newsagents I would have to hide it inbetween two copys of Big-Jugs monthly.... The shame of being seen walking out my local WHSmiths with a magazine about an Amstrad..... After you with that gun...

I assume the Amstrad section will have a perforated edge so it
can easily be removed the mag?

paranoid marvin wrote:I assume the Amstrad section will have a perforated edge so it
can easily be removed the mag?

You are all being mean to me, do you hear me? MEAN MEAN MEAN

Hey , at least you didn't get the Dragon!

There's always someone worse off!

I believe there will be some ZX Spectrum stickers for you to put on all the CPCs to avoid embarassment.

Compromise. Alan Sugar pointing to a Spectrum and saying "You're fired"

Just remember, Alan Sugar bought all rights to the Sinclair Spectrum for £3 million, which at the time was just ONE MONTHS PROFIT for Amstrad!!

GetDexter wrote:Just remember, Alan Sugar bought all rights to the Sinclair Spectrum for £3 million, which at the time was just ONE MONTHS PROFIT for Amstrad!!

But not the UK profits. You can't always understand the minds of the French!

The Amstrad was a great machine in every way. It was reliable, was great for programmers and had its share of truly great games too. Some of the early games were rubbish, but so were the early games on every other platform. I'm really at a loss to work out why some people hate the machine so much, especially when compared to the Commodore or Spectrum which had their strengths and weaknesses but were by no stretch of the imagination in a different league.

Looking forward to your coverage.