Not quite a classic, but...

From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de>
Date: Mon Jul 26 15:00:06 1999

> Someone wanted 80 pounds (about $125 US) for an Amstrad NC200 laptop. Manual is
> copyright 1992, CE mark on case dated 1993, so not quite a classic, but...

> Rather a nice machine - screen looked like about 80*8 (I didn't count) or 80*10
> characters, all pixels addressable. Processor probably Z80 (*) - the manual
> wasn't very informative, and the owner wouldn't let me dismantle it :-(

> Has a strange custom spreadsheet, a word processor, a VT52 emulator and a port
> of BBC BASIC in ROM, and 128K bytes of RAM.

> Since the owner wouldn't take offers, I didn't buy it - L80 is far too high; I
> would have offered L50 absolute max - can anybody tell me what I've missed, and
> what sort of market price it has (I'd guess thrift store $10, Ebay $100 but I
> don't know)

> (Owner's daughter pointed out that another potential purchaser or two had looked
> at it and said it was v. cheap. Since they lost interest as soon as I told them
> it wasn't PC compatible, I didn't read too much into that. Heck, you can get a
> 386 laptop for L80 without difficulty...)

> (*) I finally found that the port of BBC BASIC includes a Z80 assembler instead
> of the usual 6502. Thus my guess as to CPU. BASIC ran "FOR A=1 TO 10000:NEXT"
> in 6.75 seconds as measured on the internal clock, so I'd guess at 4 MHz, but
> that's just guesswork...

:)) It has - nice machine - I skiped one two weeks ago - the seller
asked for DM 70,- just way to much for the naked unit - maybe if
it would have been with all original stuff (and packing).

Servus
Hans

--
Traue keinem Menschen der 5 Tage blutet und immer noch nicht tod ist.
Received on Mon Jul 26 1999 - 15:00:06 BST

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