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PCW-8256 found in the wild, USA.


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Hey all!

I found this little green screen nugget in a pile of CRT's that was in line to be destroyed.

I spied the only white monitor in a pile and pulled it out and saw that had a disk drive and the words GREEN SCREEN WORD PROCESSOR on the bottom drive bay door.

I completely over looked the fact that it was an AMSTRAD and got a chuckle out of it and put it back near the pile in a cart and moved on.

Later that evening I was watching some YouTube videos on classic computers and when one of the videos was completed the next video in que was for a AMSTRAD PCW-8256 playing BATMAN.... I realized shit... I just had my hands on one of those and I have been collecting since the 90's (mostly console stuff but I know older computers to an extent) and I have never seen this but I knew AMSTRAD was a UK based company and honestly never knew they had released macines here in the states.. Anyway so I called back down at the e-cycle place (thrift store that is also a state registered e-cycle center) and asked if that ugly little white monitor was still sitting in the cart and the lady on the phone said " Yes, its still sitting here, you want it?" I said I would like to get it contingent we can power it up before hand, I was told to come on down.

Anway I got there it, turned on green screen lit up the room like a ravers glow stick and the drive made a horrible noise " I knew what it meant" the person helping said "Oh damn that sounds like shit" you still want it? YUP, i'll take it. 2.99+ tax and here it is.

I had to find a PCW keyboard and I read up that the 9512 is compat so I found one for a reasonable price. waiting on a drive belt and some software being shipped to me from the UK from a very helpful individual, I am still looking for games!

I am also interested in trying to get this to work for the PCW-8256 http://www.ebay.com/itm/HxC-floppy-emulator-programmed-Gotek-drive-FREE-US-Shipping-/331823543879?hash=item4d42397647:g:mkIAAOSwDNdVhyBD

TL;DR Found a sweet old computer and I cannot wait to bring it back to full functioning life!

Thanks for reading!

PCW-8256_zps84wnd406.jpg

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Wow!

 

I can already see that the keyboard is not the right one, as it's a model for a 9512 (as written on it, duuh).

It's a pretty cool find, really.

Since you're goign to have a very hard time finding anhy kind of programs for it, I will strongly suggest you to replace the first tape drive with an emulator like the HCx Floppy Emulator. Then, you can put the original drive into the second slot to keep it used.

But that's just my two cents.

 

Anywa, you have a nice little machine that will allow you to fiddle with CP/M+ if you want, and dozen of Amstrad CPC games ported to the PCW.

 

And 3$ for a PCW? You're very lucky.

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Hey CatPix!

Yes, the Keyboard is from a PCW-9512 after doing some reseach before I bought the PCW-9512 KB found John Elliott's PCW page and the 9512 KB can work.

Seen here.

http://www.seasip.info/Unix/Joyce/pcwkbd.html

Anyway, I am in the process of trying to find out what I need to do to get the HxC drive into one of these units!

Edited by Shinju
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Hm, an e-cycle place where you can cherry pick and buy items from? Or do you hold a special position that would entitle you to do that? Although most of the electronics found at the recycling place over here is dull or junk, many of us would love if that was an option. Actually they recently switched from steel wire cages where you would position your used electronics inside, to deep containers that you just drop it into, probably to prevent theft. I have also noticed that every flat screen monitor or TV they get, they spray with green paint all over so it can't be picked, repaired and sold. The CRTs however, they don't bother painting over.

 

Good find, and I hope you enjoy it!

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Hey CatPix!

 

Yes, the Keyboard is from a PCW-9512 after doing some reseach before I bought the PCW-9512 KB found John Elliott's PCW page and the 9512 KB can work.

 

Seen here.

 

http://www.seasip.info/Unix/Joyce/pcwkbd.html

 

Anyway, I am in the process of trying to find out what I need to do to get the HxC drive into one of these units!

 

Just to correct myself :

Programs for the PCW aren't hard to find in disk images. But on physical media, they are uncommon (and expensive), even in Europe, so the floppy emulator is a good way.

Plus this way you have 100% reliability to boot it, as you'll have Locoscript and CP/M on mass storage.

You can still have fun and write blank/copied 3" disks to have the "I read from a floppy" feel, if you fit the escond drive into the free slot.

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Once I read about a hack to replace the 3" floppy drive on a ZX Spectrum +3 with a 3.5" one, but I don't know if the corresponding hack can be done on other computers using the same type of disks. If you feel like experimenting, it could be worth at least looking up to see if it is possible. Of course the HxC floppy emulator is an even easier way to do it, and possibly it involves some adaption of signals already as I think the HxC generally is meant to replace 3.5" drives.

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carlsson,

 

You should say I have "special privileges" at this particular venue.

 

I have saved and repaired 300+ flat panels from ending up in landfills over the past 4 years or more.

 

I have seen other e-cycle places cut cords and smash screens on purpose to hinder scavengers, I have also saved some very high end home audio from being metal scrapped too.

 

Anyway, I hope to get this ole timer back up and running I just got my replacement floppy drive belt in from the UK and installed it and the drive is all nice and quite now heh.

 

Now I am just waiting on some software!

Edited by Shinju
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I sold these at Sears during the 80's in the US. They were imported and sold as glorified Word Processors. If the customer wanted anything additional they had to order it from overseas. The 3" disk drive was an odd duck.

 

It worked very well as a Word Processor IIRC.

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Does this system have any graphics capabilities, or is it just text-only?

Yep, it boast the Amstrad CPC "Mode 2" which is 768×272 pixels with 2 colors (1 bpp).

It's more than a "word processor". It was designed to be used like a word processor by default/at boot, and it did very well, using all kind of clever tricks (Locoscript used the Z80 RAM limit of 64 Ko, and the extra RAM in the 256/512Ko were used as a virtual drive : Locoscript.png

Drive M here.

The advantage was that you could save your file on drive M, the open one, in a fraction of second (as opposed to saving on a disc, swapping it, opening the second one).

It wasn't multitasking, but it was so fast, that it came close.

 

CP/M was modified to allow the use of the extra RAM, and of course programs could be made to use that, and 256Ko on a Z80? Plenty'o RAM to mess with the high resolution mode in a game, making up for the lack of scrolling and sprite support.

And there was only a beeper.

There is one expansion moduel that add a sound chip, but it's rare and only a very few games use it so it's not a huge requirement.

 

 

 

Also, for people willing to program, I guess discovering the CP/M OS on a PCW can only be a good experience :)

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Once I read about a hack to replace the 3" floppy drive on a ZX Spectrum +3 with a 3.5" one, but I don't know if the corresponding hack can be done on other computers using the same type of disks. If you feel like experimenting, it could be worth at least looking up to see if it is possible. Of course the HxC floppy emulator is an even easier way to do it, and possibly it involves some adaption of signals already as I think the HxC generally is meant to replace 3.5" drives.

The 3" drives are all the same on all Amstrad machines so this should work.

 

One thing that might not be needed would be the face A and B switch, as latter models of the Amstrad PCW had drive units with a double reading head that would read the whole floppy as one floppy instead of two floppies like the CPC and Spectrum do.

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In this thread, it is said that the 8256 has the same connector as the CPC, whatever it means for you.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/pcw-9512-hxc-installation/

 

Assuming it will work the same, here are some wiring diagrams that probably will take a while to digest through:

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/DIY:Floppy_Drives

http://perso.numericable.fr/~ckckck/C64/Amstrad/AmstradInternalFloppyEmulator.html

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I was just reading that in Poland, possessor of Unipolbrit Spectrum clones delivered with a 3" floppy drive replaced them with 5"1/4 floppy drives :D

The 3" drive is compatible with the Shugart standard used by 3"1/2 and 531/4 (and even 8", BTW) drives, so they should be adaptable with not much pain.

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Good find, I passed up two or three of those back in the late '90s and sort of wish I hadn't because of the rare floppy drive. So now I have a few CP/M disks for them, and no way to read them. Also, this was the 3" drive type that was used for the Famicom disk system and can probably read/write those disks.

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In this thread, it is said that the 8256 has the same connector as the CPC, whatever it means for you.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/pcw-9512-hxc-installation/

 

Assuming it will work the same, here are some wiring diagrams that probably will take a while to digest through:

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/DIY:Floppy_Drives

http://perso.numericable.fr/~ckckck/C64/Amstrad/AmstradInternalFloppyEmulator.html

 

Someone linked me to a site that sells converted floppy cables and I cannot seem to find it, thats what I get for not book marking sites right away like that!

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My CP/M+ and other disks are here from the UK today, I'll update with photos ect of it working when I get home from work this evening.

 

Super excited!

But the next hurdle is the HxC emulator!

Edited by Shinju
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Bruce, I am afraid you may be mislead on the Famicom. It uses a 2.8" disk that is a bit different technology than the 3" disk. I'm quite sure those two are not compatible, and that there isn't any other system that is physically compatible with the FDS either, although there were plenty of odd formats in the range between 2.5" and 4" that all look similar.

Edit: Or hmm.. they look to have the same dimensions, although Wikipedia and other sources imply they're not.
http://cromwell-intl.com/technical/quickdisk-recovery.html
http://www.famicomdisksystem.com/disks/

Edited by carlsson
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Well nevermind!

eff'in UPS lost my package.... So damn typical. They never seem to miss a beat when it comes to bills and money owed ect but when you expect something fun or a package, seems to get lost in the shuffle and you get a Sorry about your luck bit...

Bummer!

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Bruce, I am afraid you may be mislead on the Famicom. It uses a 2.8" disk that is a bit different technology than the 3" disk. I'm quite sure those two are not compatible, and that there isn't any other system that is physically compatible with the FDS either, although there were plenty of odd formats in the range between 2.5" and 4" that all look similar.

 

Edit: Or hmm.. they look to have the same dimensions, although Wikipedia and other sources imply they're not.

http://cromwell-intl.com/technical/quickdisk-recovery.html

http://www.famicomdisksystem.com/disks/

 

The Mitsumi Quickdrive that Nintendo selected is indeed different from the 3" Amstrad discs.

The 3" Amstrad disc is technically a "real" floppy, with an index and a reading head that move independantly from the rotation, all things that obey to the Shugart norm.

 

The Famicom disc is a kind of oddball; the reading head is mechanically tied to the rotation of the disc, so data is stored on it in spiral. It's more like a K7 tape on a circular magnetic support. It's why no matter what data you read on the FDS, the reading time will always be of 8 seconds, as it's the time needed to read the spiral (the reading speed is fixed).

It's also why the FDS tend to crap out over time, as the reading head can not adjust it's position; if the speed is off, it will not read the spiral; if the starting point is off, it won't start to the spiral. etc etc etc.

 

But to correct one thing, the FDS is the Mistumi Quickdrive which was sold as an optionnal drive on some 8 bits computers (as QDD drives). You CAN use Quickdrive floppies in a FDS; if written properly with a special Nintendo header and all, it will work. In Japan, there were "clip-on" added to fool the FDS to think that QDD floppies were real Nintendo floppies (the Nintendo part is added, comapred to an original QDD).

 

qdd.jpgmaxwell_quick_disk1.jpg

A simple bent wire glued to a QDD floppy can fool the FDS.

 

But Quickdrive disks and drive are very rare so it's still a better option to use a FDS to write FDS floppies.

Edited by CatPix
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That is where I was coming from too, but I got confused for a bit. Now I realize that e.g. Maxell sold the 3" ones (Amstrad CPC etc) as CF2, while they had 2.8" Quick Disks as QD2. Although relative dimensions in this picture may not be appropriate, when put next to eachother the differences on the two types of disks are shown.

post-5454-0-47433000-1462920937_thumb.jpg

 

Anyway, the second link shows that Quick Disk media was available from other vendors for use in e.g. typewriters, and with a bit of modification they could be made to work in the Famicom Disk System.

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