Speccy software sprites tv#

That was twice the amount of a ZX-Spectrum without the hardware sprites of a C64. If the CRTC supported double buffering at the cost of half the total RAM, the CPU still had to write 16KiB to draw a whole screen. When it came to animation and video-games however, the great asset turned to be a great in-balance. The uncanny 27 values colorspace of the Amstrad CPC. It was a little bit weird with its three shade per channel but it results in 27 colors available. What was even better about the CRTC system is that developer could pick the palette colors. The CPC on the other end had three modes offering 160x200/16colors, 320x200/4colors, and 640x200/2colors. The ZX-Spectrum could reach 256×192 and the C64 320x200. Besides built-in BASIC, its great asset was its video system which resolution far surpassed its competitors. This way, little Johnny could have it in his bedroom, freeing up the family TV.īased on a Z80 CPU running at 4Mhz with 64KiB RAM, the CPC was the finest machine to program.

Speccy software sprites tv#

My concept was simple: Mum and Dad don’t want little Johnny taking over the TV set, so our computer should come with its own monitor, have a full-sized keyboard and a built-in cassette mechanism for loading software and hit a target price of £199.

On the other side, you have an Amstrad CPC 464 with similar specs except it comes with a screen, has a higher resolution and only costs $472. You will also have to buy a floppy drive ($272) and a TV ($293). It can display 16 colors and also has features you don't understand like hardware sprites and soft-scrolling. On one side, you have a C64 with 64KiB RAM for $149. It is Christmas 1985 and you want to buy your kids a computer. To put it in one sentence, Amstrad took the 8-bit home computer market by storm in the mid-80s thanks to great advertising and low prices. If you are not from France or the UK and if you were not born in the late 70s, chances are you have no idea what an Amstrad CPC is. Sébastien did not know it at the time but like many other French kids he would end up developing an ever-lasting appreciation for that machine, the Amstrad CPC.Īmstrad, the King of 8-bit in France and UK After inserting a floppy disk and typing 'RUN DISC', he was welcomed to the realms of Gryzor, Barbarian, and Renegade. Besides programming, there was an immense catalog of games available. Soon he was spending entire evenings at his desk.

Turning it on brought up a blue background and yellow text home-screen displaying 'BASIC 1.0 Ready' and a prompt. This computer did not have network capability but it was full-fledged with a monitor and a floppy disc unit integrated in the keyboard. As early as 1985, following Laurent Fabius's 'Computers for Everybody' plan, all elementary schools introduced children to Logo programming via star-connected Thomson MO5s. It was not Sébastien's first contact with such a machine. It was Christmas 1988 and 'ordinateurs' were finally starting to find their ways inside French homes. When he was a kid, Sébastien Harelle was given a computer.