Ignacio Castellano Munuera<\/span><\/h5>\nHome computers arrived to Spain in the 80s but they were not neither the Apple I nor the IBM 5100; in Europe the hegemony was in the hands of\u00a0Amstrad<\/strong>. It was a time in which videogames just existed in arcade games in game rooms. Amstrad was used just as an emulator of these machines, with the limitations that emulating these games with 64 KB meant \u2013 which is much less than the images we work with today.<\/p>\nAlthough microcomputers were almost unknown, all teenagers wanted one of these machines and they had to convince their parents to spend\u00a060.000 pesetas\u00a0<\/strong>(360 euros) on it.<\/p>\nTo achieve this we were not alone: we had the help of advertising.<\/p>\n
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Amstrad advertising was carried out all over Europe.<\/p>
Its advertising campaign emphasized in written media, such as newspapers and magazines specialized in informatics and technology.<\/p>
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As we can see in these advertising campaigns, this computer was showed as a machine from the future willing to help adults both in the office and at home, and for young people was an excellent fellow student too. Any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence, computers had nothing to do with those which appeared in advertising.<\/p>\n
The first thing we did was to assemble the computer, something simple since it just had three cables which fit just in three positions.<\/p>\n
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This image was the home screen of an Amstrad CPC-464 with color screen.<\/p>
We can appreciate that it corresponds to the first versions of CPC-464, 64 KB of memory and the BASIC version which had incorporated.<\/p>
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The\u00a0home screen<\/strong>, had no windows, no buttons and no graphic interface, just a couple of lines of information and a blinking cursor.<\/p>\nWe were afraid of breaking it and we used to call our neighbor, who already had one, so he or she could explain us how it worked. Our neighbor just told us where to insert the games and which was the best of that moment.<\/p>\n
With all this information we turned off the computer and we went to the\u00a0fnac\u00a0<\/em>of that time (the gas station of the town) to buy our first game. My first videogame was the fantastic\u00a0Game Over<\/em>\u00a0and it cost me 500 pesetas (3 euros).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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I had the\u00a0Amstrad CPC 464<\/strong>, with color, and the storage medium was the cassette.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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The storage medium of these computers was the cassette tapes. The maximum storage capacity was from 5 to 10 million of bits (1 MB).<\/p>
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When we already had the tape with the game, we introduced it, pressed\u00a0Play<\/em>\u00a0and waited. Nothing happened, so we had to call again our neighbor. What it came next was an instruction of BASIC:\u00a0RUN\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(also CTRL+ENTER); the computer answered\u00a0Press PLAY then any key:<\/em>\u00a0So we pressed\u00a0PLAY<\/em>\u00a0and then the space bar (this was our first conversation with the computer and it was fantastic).<\/p>\nCassette tapes were classified according to its duration: 45, 60 or 90 minutes; in this case the\u00a0Game Over<\/em>\u00a0had a 45 minute tape each for face. The charge had a speed of 1200 bauds. In order to charge a game like this which occupied 57 KB, which are 466.000 bits, at 1200 bauds per second, 6 minutes and a half were necessary to hear these sounds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The reading\/writing was sequential, so if there was an error the charge had to be reset.<\/p>
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Games were not economical, prices were between 500 to 3000 pesetas (3 and 18 euros), a significant value for the economic situation in Spain at that moment. For this reason\u00a0pirated copies<\/strong>\u00a0were everywhere. Even radio stations emitted the game in order listeners could recorded them, but this used to fail.<\/p>\nWhen the game was charged and ready to be used our feelings were indescribable, it was a new way to play at home and we had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
We spent thousands of hours playing, until be on the verge of a wrist sprain due to the\u00a0Q-A-O-P-Space\u00a0<\/strong>key combination. Generally, after being so many hours playing, people turned off the computer, but some, as me, continued a little more. We had curiosity about the new machine and we used to ask ourselves things such as: why have we written\u00a0RUN\u201d<\/strong>?Does it work in small letters?<\/p>\nAnswers to these questions were found in the book that came with the CPC.<\/p>\n
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This BASIC manual was given with the buying of an Amstrad CPC-464 together with another that explained the start-up and the computer working.<\/p>
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In the manual we could find basic notions about the programming language of BASIC and produce our first codes:<\/p>\n
10 CLSWith this type of codes which identified odds and evens and by executing\u00a0 SOUND<\/strong>,\u00a0DRAW<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0PLOT<\/strong>\u00a0we immersed in the programming world, although this code had nothing to do with the professional codes of Amstrad videogames. Most complex codes were on magazines as\u00a0Microman\u00eda<\/strong>\u00a0(publication that still remains). Inside these magazines we could find programs in BASIC to run them in our computers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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La pulga<\/em>, Indescomp 1985<\/li>Harrier Attack<\/em>, Amsoft 1984<\/li>Gauntlet<\/em>, U.S. Gold 1985<\/li>Ghost & Goblins<\/em>, Elite 1986<\/li>Kung Fu Master<\/em>, U.S. Gold 1986<\/li>Army moves<\/em>, Dinamic 1987<\/li>Renegade<\/em>, Imagine 1987<\/li>Robocop<\/em>, Ocean 1987<\/li>Barbarian<\/em>, Erbe 1987<\/li>La abad\u00eda del crimen<\/em>, Opera Soft. 1987<\/li>Fernando Mart\u00edn<\/em>, Dinamic 1987<\/li>R-Type<\/em>, Electric Dreams 1987<\/li>Double Dragon<\/em>, Binary Design 1989<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<\/p>\n
As we can see in the video, the evolution of this type of games was huge. But when Amstrad games were similar to those of today, Europe was invaded by other machines that could produce better quality videogames, the video game consoles. The first relevant were\u00a0Sega Master System<\/em>,\u00a0Nintendo Entertainment System<\/em>(NES<\/em>) or\u00a0Sega MegaDrive<\/em>. On the other hand,\u00a0compatibles PC<\/em>\u00a0made their appearance in the market, they came from IBM PC. Due to that, IBM PC decided to create computers without hardware used license, so hundreds of companies started from the copy of IBM PC computer components in order to create their own models. These computers were called\u00a0IBM compatible<\/em>. One of the first compatible computers was the Amstrad PC1512, created in 1986.<\/p>\nThe arrival of these computers and video game consoles was the end of\u00a0Spanish software companies<\/strong>, protagonists of the\u00a0Golden Era of Spanish Software<\/em>, leaders in all Europe for its development capacity in creating videogames and foreign games adaptation quality.\u00a0Indescomp, Zafiro Software, Topo Soft, Gamesoft, Delta Software, Animagic, CompuLogical, Dinamic, Iber Soft, Iron Byte, Positive, Opera Soft, Zigurat, New Frontier and Sortrapa<\/em>\u00a0are the names of the companies that exalted the Spanish software to the highest level.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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Spanish companies were globally recognized due to the imagination and quality of its projects.<\/p>
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All of them have counted with great computer technicians internationally recognized. It should be emphasized two of them\u00a0Dinamic<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Indescomp<\/strong>.<\/p>\nIndescomp was the company, guided by Jos\u00e9 Luis Dom\u00ednguez, which was in charge of the distribution of the first Amstrad CPC in our country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n\nOn the other hand, Dinamic, guided by brothers Ruiz and Santiago Morga, was the developer of the most successful titles for Amstrad CPC and Spectrum.<\/p>\n
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