Amstrad CPC portable
Well....if I recall, it runs on 5volts, so could be plugged into a small powerbank and run standalone.
Many moons ago - maybe 10years ago? I sold off an entire room of specific Amstrad machines, hardware extensions, software, etc... I literally had "everything" you could have ever got for the Amstrad range.
I had one of those little obsession phases, where I started by just getting a CPC 464 and monitor to remind me of the one I had back for xmas 1984/1985... and then it grew to getting the add-ons, the original add-ons mind you, like ROM boxes etc... and then it migrated into getting the 6128 machines and dual 3" external disc drives and then I got a mythical 664 machine - all fully working and operational.
Then I did what I couldn't do back in 1984/1985, I figured out and wrote an Assembler game called 'Scarab', it was an egyptian based collect 'ankh' symbols from around the screen whilst having 3-4 baddies moving around and they were coded to seek you out, drain your health and you died if they took too much health. It was actually pretty good, even if I say so myself. However, once that was done, I felt that life was complete & I had scratched the itch from my childhood. I then put the entire room up for sale, I think it was for something insane, like £800 - I know for a fact I spent about 5xtimes more than that on getting all the rare bits - I even bought modern style USB drive adapters to replace the disc drive units in the many 6128 machines I had, so I could just take the software that I'd acquired and stored for usage in emulator usage and copy over to the real hardware. I remember getting SONY PS1 5" screens & figuring out how to wire them up to be the output for the Amstrad CPC 464 machine itself, it was really good quality! I still had that breadboard & wiring knocking around for ages. Like everything else, those PS1 screens are now worth a fortune!
Anyway, we wanted to use the room for something else, so I sold the whole lot & the guy who came to pick it all up was amazed - if he kept it all he'd be a very rich man by todays prices, but I suspect he sold off quite a bit at the time and just kept the rare/rare pieces.
My vision for the Amstrad machines and the SONY 5" screens was to make a luggable computer that I could take to client meetings with me, as a "talking point", also something for them to "remember me by" and I could take notes etc..etc... using it - this vision never became reality, sadly enough.
And then today, I saw this video:
well...well...well...
I suppose the technology has moved on quite a bit - fitting an OLED/LCD screen into the tape unit is a brilliant idea and hooking up the SD-Card adapter means you don't need any moving parts at all - okay, I might have a wander off over to ebay and see what is up for sale.
BLOODY HELL! the prices are insane! I'm now kicking myself for selling when I did and for the price I sold for....but hey-ho, a bit like the old MK1 an MK2 Ford Escorts I had, I can't go back in time and store them in a garage for 30-40years with hindsight..... wow....okay, maybe I can persuade myself to buy just a CPC 464 or even a CPC 6128 that has a known working keyboard and I have lots of screens knocking around left over from other projects and the 5v power is easy peasey, it's a bit case....
or should I just stick to my Atari 800 XLs and leave this potential rabbit-hole as it is.... ooo I wonder if I remember seeing a CPC 6128 case in the loft the other day, I don't think it was a machine, just the case & keyboard.... well that could be bit-banged via an arduino and then I could put a Raspberry Pi PICO inside it and then still have an OLED/LCD screen connected and run a CPC emulator and that wouldn't co$t me much to do at all.....
hold my (non-alcoholic) beer - I'll be right back!... (goes to find a ladder to get up into the loft)
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