Amstrad PCW 8256 Computer, Games & Batman Footage

[kmment]

i enjoyed this review, i used to see these are 'proper' computers back then and it does look pretty good, like you could do all sorts of things on it not just games

[marcel911]

I remember having to use one of these in 1988/89 at work. As a WP it worked very well I thought.

[wubble78]

My mum did her PhD on this, the dot matrix printer was constantly screeching. And we only had Dr Logo and Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Otherwise it was pretty cool to have a serious looking computer in the house.

[dogmansun]

when I was at secondary school, we had a room full of these in our IT classes Archimedes for proper IT learning, these were for typing practise. Funny thing is, the only useful thing I learned at school was to touch type (as I am doing right now).

Good to see Batman again. I had that on the spectrum and loved it (its in the same line as knightlore as I recall). loved it, but was totally rubbish at it.

[cebudave]

This was my first computer back in 1987, also had this game and was able to complete it.

[P5ychoFox]

@cebudave Same here mate. I ordered Batman by mail order in 1988 but they were out of stock and they sent me the text adventure game Time & Magik instead. Glad to finally own Batman now :)

[mab06]

I had this too. I recall another similar isometric game that I can't find any mention of and I wonder if anyone else remembers it. The main thing I remember is that it indicated day and night in game time by showing a sun or moon sumbol, and the main character for some reason turned into a werewolfe each night. Didn't seem to make him more aggressive.. just looked hairy with pointy ears. Any ideas? Very similar in appearance to Batman. Fairlight looks similar too.

[wubble78]

@mab06 The game you're thinking of is called Knight Lore.

[MattTheSaiyan]

Before my time but looks kinda retro-cool and fun.

[s2pideleprank]

your monitor look like a microwave

[kraut1x]

Great video! And a great mashibe

[Lachlant1984]

Did you say this uses 3 inch diskettes? They look more to me like 5.25 inch diskettes in that they don't look like they have a shutter on them, are the disk jackets/cartridges flexible as they were on 5.25 inch disks? Have you ever owned or used an Amstrad CPC?

[P5ychoFox]

@Lachlant1984 Yeah they're 3 inch discs with shutters. I have a CPC 464 and a 464 Plus :)

[LarryBundyJr]

How close is this to the Amstrad CPC version?

[P5ychoFox]

@LarryBundyJr It looks identical to me - just in green :)

[theshoeburger]

it's so fantastically, blissfully unaware that it's both totally obsolete (even when it was released), incompatible with IBM, Apple (and even itself later on!), and had uselessly small floppy space and memory. they try so hard.

[P5ychoFox]

@theshoeburger Yes but it was cheap :)

[RetroGamerVX]

Bloody hell, £10, where you get that from? I agree, you don't see much on this system as it's not that much loved as it was mainly used for word processing. It's important to document it :o) the operating system is on disk? Screwed if the disk fails, hope you have loads of copies, can you copy this on a dos system? I think it's the nes version that looks like this one :o)

[P5ychoFox]

@RetroGamerVX I won it on ebay - cost a bit to post though :) yes you need the CP/M disk to load stuff up. Luckily it came with a copy. I've no more copies but you can copy these disks to a PC via a special cable I think. I should back it up :)

[dartsma464]

Very nice to finally see such a good game on the AMstrad PCW. Is this the best version. Looks like it...

[P5ychoFox]

@dartsma464 Thanks, I've not played any other versions but I do like the graphics on the PCW version.

[amurphy245]

Wow looks awesome im loving that green display,i never heard of this computer before.

I want one :D

[P5ychoFox]

@amurphy245 Thanks. Back in the day I played games on this thing for hours & hours until it got so hot the house stunk of burning plastic!

[1msx2go]

Great vid mate...had one of these computers at work back in the day, though we weren't aloud to play games on it. I think batman is an excellent game as well as head over heels, even today...I will still load them on the MSX. Thanks for sharing :D

[P5ychoFox]

@1msx2go Thanks, glad you and all those who have commented below enjoyed it. More to come soon.

[ash81b4u]

Nice video mate. Never really seen one of these in action before. Look forward to more videos.

[shaurz]

As a kid one of my friends had an Amstrad wordprocessor which we played games on. I'm not sure if this is the same one. It had an amber and black screen. I can't remember the games much, all I can remember is one had bomber planes...

[mariosonic190]

Hey, nice review man. I've been aware of the PCW 8256 ever since I started collecting vintage computers; shortly after I started collecting consoles, but never bought one 'cause I though it was just a business computer with no games released for it.

Over 200 games for it? Wow, that's a lot for a computer intended for business. I might look into getting one now. =)

I like that version of Batman; it looks quite good.

[P5ychoFox]

@mariosonic190 Thanks! Let me know if you get one and if you need any help fitting a new belt :)