Amstrad revival- hopeful revisionism?

Gassage

Lord Sugar reboots the famous Amstrad brand for his grandson's business 17 years after selling it to Sky | Daily Mail Online

For those of us who grew up in this era, Amstrad for audio products was an absolute joke. 

They were the Reliant Robin of hifi and audio- cheap, terrible sound and build quality and probably even worse than the infamous Tandy Radio Shack 'Realistic' products of the day.

Having any Amstrad products growing up would result in mirth and piss taking of endless proportions.

Now, whilst SurAlan is great value on TV, claiming the brand was anything other than cheap overpriced tat is a leap of faith.

Or am I wrong?

boogieman

No you’re not, it was mostly absolute crap. Sticking lots of flashing lights and sliders on a PoS does not make it work better. 

Gassage

boogieman said:

No you’re not, it was mostly absolute crap. Sticking lots of flashing lights and sliders on a PoS does not make it work better. 

Do you remember the expose when they opened one of his cassette radios that boasted a new surround sound live on a TV show and they discovered the surround sound consisted of a cardboard tube attached to the speaker?!

boogieman

Gassage said:

boogieman said:

No you’re not, it was mostly absolute crap. Sticking lots of flashing lights and sliders on a PoS does not make it work better. 

Do you remember the expose when they opened one of his cassette radios that boasted a new surround sound live on a TV show and they discovered the surround sound consisted of a cardboard tube attached to the speaker?!

Ha ha yes! 

digitalscream

You're absolutely not wrong - Amstrad computers were basically a ZX Spectrum in a posh-but-poorly-made frock.

As I recall, they tried to move into the x86 PC business with a couple of IBM PS/2 clones, which utterly failed to get anywhere in the market (and for good reason).

Gassage

digitalscream said:

You're absolutely not wrong - Amstrad computers were basically a ZX Spectrum in a posh-but-poorly-made frock.

As I recall, they tried to move into the x86 PC business with a couple of IBM PS/2 clones, which utterly failed to get anywhere in the market (and for good reason).

Nothing compared with the mighty Research Machines 380z WITH colour card.

And a piece of paper printed with grid squares for Cesil programming.

monquixote

I have fond memories of my Amstrad CPC464 as a kid, but I'm sure we got it because my dad was too tight to get a Commodore. 

They eventually became a company that made set top boxes which is why Sky bought them and so they would have built things like the Sky+ box which I always thought was a nice piece of hardware for the time.

Fingers657

Amstrad amplifiers in the early 70s used to leave Audio stores on a Saturday and you could put money on them coming back by the next Saturday .Absolute shite.

Tannin

I can think of three or four Amstrad products which were truly excellent. Yes, Amstrad occasionally used to make nice stuff. 

(But only by accident. Hey, if you throw enough turds at the wall you are bound to get a Guernica or a Mona Lisa once in a while, or at least a Blue Poles.)

TTony

I'd say there's enough residual value in the brand and its associations to make it a good move.

It'll be easier for his grandson to build a business under the recognised brand than it would be under a completely new brand.  Saves a huge amount of brand-building investment and time in getting a new business up and running.

Also, the association with Sugar is invaluable.  If you're under mid-50s, you'll probably not remember the dodgy Amstrad products, but you will associate Sugar with Amstrad and Sugar as being a succcessful business man (because you're aware of the Apprentice).  Therefore Amstrad must have been a success ...

Yes Amstrad sold some shit products, but unless we had direct and personal experience of those shit products (I don't), we'll maybe remember the name more for its successes (putting PCs in homes that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford them.

Teetonetal

monquixote said:

I have fond memories of my Amstrad CPC464 as a kid, but I'm sure we got it because my dad was too tight to get a Commodore. 

They eventually became a company that made set top boxes which is why Sky bought them and so they would have built things like the Sky+ box which I always thought was a nice piece of hardware for the time.

As a kid, I won a competition for a CPC6128+ which had Amstrad's GPX console built in, as well as a disk drive and expanded memory. It was actually a really great machine  with a good version of basic and some great games - just released as the world moved into 16bit with Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, so it never stood a chance.

That was the only Amstrad product I ever owned and forms my whole opinion of the company, which is that they made good products

goldtop

The Amstrad PCW8256 was a huge success - deservedly so (even with their use of 3" floppy disks!). And the Amstrad PC-compatible forced down the price point for all UK PCs. 

The stereos were ... as he himself called them ... "a mug's eyeful". They even had a go at the portastudio market with one of them. Huge ugly cube it was.

Tannin

The PCW8256/PCW812 were indeed brilliant bits of design. I STILL miss their unmatched editing abilities with 36 dedicated cut/copy/paste buffers accessed by simple, easy-to-remember dedicated keys. 40 years later, no PC (or Mac) has ever gone anywhere near matching that feature.

Another top-class product was the ... er ... was it the PC3586? Can't remember the model number now, it was a very small form DOS/Windows PC, non-standard, non-upgradable, not very powerful, overpriced - basically typically Amstrad, except (for some crazy reason) the very high quality mechanical keyboard, very small by keyboard standards but every key in the right place and made so nicely that you never felt cramped. I traded two or three in for not much back around 1993 or so, threw the computers away and kept the keyboards for my own use. Sadly, I threw the last one in the bin just a few months ago: it still worked perfectly but I no longer had anything with a PS/2 socket to plug it into. 

DesVegas

I spent many a happy hour on my CPC464, i wanted a ZX Spectrum of course but my dad said Amstrad was the future

oh well.. i still had fun, 

i know nothing else of any other Amstrad products

Sporky

boogieman said:

Sticking lots of flashing lights and sliders on a PoS does not make it work better. 

But it makes it look awesome...

randella

Gassage said:

digitalscream said:

You're absolutely not wrong - Amstrad computers were basically a ZX Spectrum in a posh-but-poorly-made frock.

As I recall, they tried to move into the x86 PC business with a couple of IBM PS/2 clones, which utterly failed to get anywhere in the market (and for good reason).

Nothing compared with the mighty Research Machines 380z WITH colour card.

And a piece of paper printed with grid squares for Cesil programming.

I went to school in Oxfordshire. Whilst the rest of the country's educational establishments were getting involved in the BBC's Computer Literacy programme, Oxon county council decided to back the local boys. Cue years of Research Machines kit - those 380zs weren't bad machines but they had little of the software support in primary education that the Acorn computers generated. 

The later machines felt like little more than slightly hobbled x86 PCs. They're still going, so someone's buying their stuff.

robgilmo

Didnt Amstrad make gaming machines before PC's were invented? The one with the shit tennis game and the motorbike that you had to steer on a 2D road?

DiscoStu

Was it Amstrad that came with the green screen monitor? Awful thing.
Load of old tut!

goldtop

DiscoStu said:

Was it Amstrad that came with the green screen monitor? Awful thing.
Load of old tut!

I think the only type of phosphor that was viable for CRTs for decades meant that all early CRTs were green. And that far pre-dated any Amstrad computer.

WYNIR0

Amstrad set the high water mark for Alan Sugars ongoing business activities. 

monquixote

DiscoStu said:

Was it Amstrad that came with the green screen monitor? Awful thing.
Load of old tut!

I had one, it was great: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Amstrad_CPC_464-IMG_4849.JPG

It was only a green monitor if you wanted it really cheap, you could buy a colour monitor or hook it up to a TV if you preferred.