How accurately can you pinpoint the date you got your CPC as a kid?

[cwpab]

How accurately can you pinpoint the date you got your CPC as a kid and what logic did you use to find out?

In my case:
- My dad bought Spanish "AMSTRAD USER" magazines until around April '87
- I had Spanish "Micromanía" magazines from around April '89
- My dad pressumably bought a 6128 in late '85/early '86
- He had a Spectrum before where I played Cookie one day around '85, it looks like he liked to change computer every 3 years for a more modern one
- Recent Jan 1989 "letter to 3 magi" (Spanish "2nd Santa" on Jan 6) found shows 2/3 items I asked for were CPC games ("the Batman game", possibly Caped Crusader, and La guerra de las Vajillas or "The War of the Dishes", Spanish text adventure parodying Star Wars)
- I remember we visited a dad's friend one evening and getting lots of copied games in 10+ disks, it was around 17h-21h and the last hours was already super dark so it had to be around November

So everything points to some point around 1988, possibly September, when my dad decides to buy a 8086 PC and put the 6128 in my room. Possibly the first months I spent playing "Time Man" and "Hangman", maybe Bustout ("Rebotes" in Spain) as the most exciting one, as I remember playing those in my new room (we bought a new house in 1987) until that key visit happened.

Around the same time, I also started to buy superhero comics more suited for 12-30 year olds than 8 (Byrne's Superman mostly, dead bodies usually depicted and sexual undertones here and there), and I remember reading the april 89 issue drawn by Mignola (instead of Byrne himself) in the kitchen while leaving Saboteur 2 on in my room.

The comic book thing should refresh my memory, but it doesn't. I don't associate CPC with Superman enough... Damn! But yeah, it must be somewhere around mid 88.

What's your case/investigation?

[Prodatron]

24.12.1987, around 19:00

Very easy, as I collected most of the money, and my parents added the last missing bucks, and so it was the xmass present for this year.

[eto]

May or June 1986

It was just a few months before the price dropped from 1598DM to just 998DM.

[xesrjb]

Oktober 1985  studying electrical engineering...

I saw the CPC on an exhibition in Düsseldorf 

xesrjb 

[retro space]

30-4-2024
At least that is what Ebay says....
Still a kid somehow.

[Urusergi]

Amstrad CPC 464 + colour monitor and Mag Max game.

Makro Spain, Canillejas, Madrid 1987. First saturday of september (fifth) at 17:00 approx.

I bought the magazine 'Amstrad Semanal Especial nº100' right in front of the Makro exit, where there was a newsstand

[VincentGR]

CPC 6128 + GT65 
June 88"

[d_kef]

1-8-87 around  17.00

Got it as a birthday present. The best birthday present ever. 
In fact the computer store didn't have a 6128 with a color monitor available so my dad suggested  to get the green monitor and replace it with a color one a week later when they would have had it available. 
Fortunately they accepted and I happily received my 6128 on time. 

d_kef

[lmimmfn]

December 86, my folks smuggled the 364/colour monitor from Derry to the south of Ireland, customs stopped us, found the 464 but luckily only charged my dad 30 punt(about 40 euro ex inflation) and let us have it(could have confiscated it or charged ludicrous import duty).

We got to use it Christmas day 86, my dad stayed up until 3am Christmas day morning playing Harrier Attack, the first and only time he played computer games.

My brother is still pissed we got the 464 when he was looking to get a leather jacket that Christmas lol, he never played the 464 much, mainly Fruit Machine for a few weeks after we got it.

[dodogildo]

Damn! I fully remember my first evening with my CPC 464 ( spent on playing Harrier Attack on a green monitor   ) but I can't pinpoint the exact date. It must be 86-87 school year, that's for sure. 

[cwpab]

Several points:

- Interesting how Harrier Attack gets star treatment in the first CPC day. I can only assume there was nothing better. I admit I was hypnotized when playing as a kid, I loved the simple but effective graphics and sounds. Of course, having Bruce Lees, Saboteurs and Matchday IIs, it wasn't my favorite game. I was also confused by what was going on, what were those "groups of black dots" in the sky? Were they birds? Bombs?

- A very useful factor to remember the 80s and 90s is always the football world cups or euro cups. It worked really well for me to remember stuff I did as a teenager and young adult in 94, 96, 98, 2000, 2002... Without living the drama of seeing Spain lose in all those competitions, the memories of those summers would be much more fuzzy. Sadly, I still wasn't watching these competitions in 1988, as I started with Italy 90, so I can't use that  data to remember more stuff. Nowadays I want Spain to lose, but that's another story.

- Another interesting aspect of this are the questions... "Was I too young to be playing video games?" Some "experts" recommend starting not earlier than 9 years old (I started at 8 apparently, but I know some start at 4-5!).

[Skunkfish]

December 25th, 1991. It wasn't the Commodore Amiga we were hoping for, but it was perfect! 

[GUNHED]

How accurately can you pinpoint the date you got your CPC as a kid and what logic did you use to find out?

Well, the accuracy is precise to the hour. The kind of logic is from memory.
More important is the type of verification: That's the paper bill.

[Prodatron]

December 25th, 1991. It wasn't the Commodore Amiga we were hoping for, but it was perfect! 

Wow that was late! I already thought that I would be one of the more later ones.
But really cool! Was it a CPC classic or a Plus one?

[Rabs]

I guess between April and June 1985, probably more towards April.

Why because, because I bought an CPC 664 with my apprenticeship money before I even knew about the 6128. Best investment I ever made, got me through university and the start of 35+ year career in IT.

Still use a 664 today in preference to the 6128 

[norecess464]

My brother got the 6128 Xmas 1988. The computer was initially in his bedroom.
Then, it became the "family computer" (located in the corridor), and me (cf. the 8yo kid) I had regular access to it
Then, it became "my" computer ahah and it landed into my bedroom.

[norecess464]

December 25th, 1991. It wasn't the Commodore Amiga we were hoping for, but it was perfect! 

LOL. Few days later it was 1992. While I love the Amstrads, I think I would hate being you in that time ahah

[lmimmfn]

December 25th, 1991. It wasn't the Commodore Amiga we were hoping for, but it was perfect! 

LOL. Few days later it was 1992. While I love the Amstrads, I think I would hate being you in that time ahah

I agree and no disrespect to anyone as i absolutely love the Amstrads but by 1990 I really needed a 16bit and that year I upgraded to an Amiga. The biggest improvement I could see/hear was Audio on the Amiga.

The Amstrad years were truely amazing though.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Late October 1986, My mother had lugged that bad boy CPC464 from Northern Ireland complete with colour monitor. Apparently someone else tried to take it by mistake when it was being unloaded off the bus and my mother nearly decked said person. The monitor was seemingly mistaken for someone elses Television.

I was 10 years old but I certainly grateful. Who the hell gets a new computer six weeks or so before Christmas? I absolutely treasured that thing right up until 1991 when Dublin's night life became calling just before my 16th birthday, although I would return to it again in 1994 and be it either real hardware or emulation, I never really left it since. My CPC464 is still a go to machine (albeit heavily expanded) for my Amstrad gaming.

[BSC]

Nice thread! So here is my story:

- I was interested in and knew home computers since the early 80s due to Kaufhof, Karstadt and Quelle in downtown Cologne. Originally, around 10 years old, I wanted a VIC20 for it's fancy bright case
- Because most of those machines were not affordable, my mum at one day came home with a used Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 16k of memory. My in-between computer before the CPC, but also my first.
- Around the turn of 84/85, my uncle bought a Schneider CPC 464 with green screen to learn for his programmer education. Since I regularly hung out at his place, I learned about the Welcome tape, awesome Locomotive basic and early games like Oh Mummy, Electro Freddy, Blagger
- Between that time and December 1985, I was still a regular at Kaufhof or Quelle, meeting the local kids to chat, dabble with Basic and exchange games, mostly on tape since I could go and play those games at my Uncle's place
- Xmas 1985 was the great day: I finally got my own CPC 464, also with a green screen and I spent a LOT of time with it instead of doing homework or learning for school
- A while later (exact dates escape my semi-old brain by now) I got a used disk drive and even later a color monitor. But I do remember how desperately I wanted that disk drive and I was quite envious of my mates. I still have my very first 3" Schneider disk which I bought for 13 D-Mark (around 7.5€) back then, long before having that disk drive

One of my oldest friends I met at Kaufhof almost exactly 40 years ago. I made more friends through the CPC in the years to come and I am also still in touch with a handful. I also owe my job as a software developer to those times.

[djaybee]

-June '84, I had a 464 w/ DDI-1 as a loaner for summer, from a computer club at my father's company, which had received the machines early but wouldn't use them until September. That's the one on which I learned to code.

-December '85, my family bought our own CPC 6128 for Christmas, it was our first computer, and our only one until my middle brother's Atari ST in May 1989.

[Bryce]

My CPC464 with GT65 Monitor was a combined Birthday / Christmas present. I know the year (1985), but the exact date was somewhere between late November and early December. It came with the "Games Bundle" (10 Amsoft Tapes). I loaded "Oh Mummy", played it for about 10 minutes (which is probably less than the time it took to load) and then, much to the horror of my father, proceeded to disassemble it to find out how it worked.

Bryce. 

[Devlin]

My current 464? April 2010.

My original 464? inherited some time around 1992-1994(but technically not mine), after my dad got an Amiga.

My dad got his first 464 within 3 months of launch, based on what i've been told.

[cwpab]

Kaufhof or Quelle

Are these shops in Cologne?

[cwpab]

much to the horror of my father, proceeded to disassemble it to find out how it worked.

How old were you?