When these first appeared in the 80's I was busy repairing typewriters in Manchester. Wordprocessors based on typewriters where available but this made them pretty much redundant overnight. So for the next few years we sold these instead and they were a nightmare from a maintenance point of view. There were virtually no spares available, everything being either on the Power supply board for the screen, the motherboard or the disk drive. We usually had to cannibalise a brand new unit to fix an example that had failed under warranty. Amstrad were very slow to supply replacement boards etc and I loathed them as stripped units accumulated in our workshop. Things didn't get any better with the later PC1512/1640 and PCW models, all rather poor components inside compared to IBM or Olivetti. We did sell one to Ken Dodd once who visited the shop in Manchester, in order to keep all his routines on I suppose. I expect he must have had a great memory because these didn't.
Thanks for sharing your story, that's really interesting, and to be honest, doesn't surprise me with regards their overall reliability, it is afterall an Amstrad. Good to hear from a different perspective. The chap I bought this from on my wife's behalf, has loads, many used for spares. I know he'd done the belt replacement on the FDD for me. Since most of this was filmed a while back, I have since RetroBrited, got Locoscript 2, and new printer ribbons, so plan to do a follow up soon.
Between 1989 and 1992 I had the Schneider PCW 8256 "Joyce" with 2x 3 inch drives, the second drive was "high density". Had to sell it to buy my first PC, being 16 years old, money was tight, still regret it.
@@channel4ferrets I gather the Schneider "Joyce" version, was just as popular in Europe, as the Amstrad version was in the UK. The fact that you were still using into the 90s, as many did, shows how useful and versatile a machine it could be. So, I'm curious, as I got my first PC in 1996, what PC did you get?
@@BigDavesRetroShed My first PC was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 and shortly after that in 1994 a Shi-Tec 386SX40. My college (MBO in the Netherlands) organized a "PC at home" project, so I could pay for it in 3 years. In 1996 I found work in ICT so it was the right decision ;)
@@channel4ferrets With your PC purchase ultimately leading on to a career in ICT, it sounds like selling the "Joyce" was absolutely the right decision, at the right time. Thanks for sharing.
I remember when my school library got one. It must have been 1983 or 84. I was issued a 3 1/4 floppy disk to store my work on and shown how to format a new disk. The one and only time I got to use it.
@@bfr0g I don't think it launched until 1985, but must of been quite well suited to a school library, I'm guessing you were running a database of some sort, or maybe wordprocessor notes for your research? I left school in 1983, but remember I'd joined the library team, solely to get use on the Tandy TRS 80 Model III the teacher had in the office.
It's his ultimate mug's eyeful. Same strategy as his hifi systems with one plug. At the end of the day you would have been able to get a far superior computer like the Atari ST with seperate printer and hi resolution monochrome monitor for only about £150 more than this by 1987 (but with three plugs)
@@JesterEric I like the use of his phrase, haven't heard that since Techmoans Amstrad HiFi review. I guess in 1985, when I think both the 520 ST (I moved from the C64 to STe to midi sequence my Roland stuff) & Amiga A500 launched, the PCW didn't really have any competition for some time, at least on price. Really though, they were aimed entirely different markets. The PCW eventually had games, but was pitched firmly as a business system, and in that respect it certainly looked the part, even if it was dated under the hood. At the time I was selling consumer electronics, and since we also serviced & repaired our products, didn't get in to the low end market, not cost effective. We sold tower systems, but from the likes of Hitachi & Technics. That said, I've been amazed how well thought out and versatile this PCW is since using.
£150 is about £540 in today's money, so not an insignificant amount, especially if all you wanted to do was write, and had no need for the extra capabilities of the ST. You might also need to buy a decent wordprocessor - ST Writer or 1st Word Plus might have been bundled, but they were very basic. For example, Arnor Protext for the ST was £99 (£355 in today's money). You'd then have to spend some time configuring the software to work with the printer, which back in those days was often a non-trivial task. The basic PCW was a complete turnkey solution in a box, and appealed to people who wanted an upgrade from a typewriter. Also, the ST has a terrible, mushy keyboard. The Amstrad PCW ones aren't amazing but they're better that the ST's, and they have the advantage of being external. You could easily replace them with something much better, like the Teqniche PCW102 (I have two of those).
@@Zeem4Being new to this PCW, albeit 40 years late, and having owned an ST, certainly for productivity purposes I'd have to agree, and yes well worth highlighting the value aspect, which was, and is quite considerable. Looking back, I'd have loved a PCW back then, always thought it looked cool, but couldn't afford it. My STe came later and was 2nd hand from a newspaper ad (... Remember them?) As I think I mentioned in the video, my wordprocessor into the early 90s, was Mini Office 2 on the C64 with a Commodore printer, very basic setup, but it worked. I preferred this rather than the ST due to the reasons you mentioned. I found the ST was great for games, tracker music, demos and sequencing my Roland R5 & D20, but never used for anything else. I'm glad this video is finding an audience, and I love hearing from other PCW users. There aren't many on Vogons.
![Build A Power Supply - With Junk Box Parts! [The BC-348 Series.]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nX87kwSshZ8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Build A Power Supply - With Junk Box Parts! [The BC-348 Series.]](/img/tr.png)
When these first appeared in the 80's I was busy repairing typewriters in Manchester. Wordprocessors based on typewriters where available but this made them pretty much redundant overnight. So for the next few years we sold these instead and they were a nightmare from a maintenance point of view. There were virtually no spares available, everything being either on the Power supply board for the screen, the motherboard or the disk drive. We usually had to cannibalise a brand new unit to fix an example that had failed under warranty. Amstrad were very slow to supply replacement boards etc and I loathed them as stripped units accumulated in our workshop. Things didn't get any better with the later PC1512/1640 and PCW models, all rather poor components inside compared to IBM or Olivetti. We did sell one to Ken Dodd once who visited the shop in Manchester, in order to keep all his routines on I suppose. I expect he must have had a great memory because these didn't.
Thanks for sharing your story, that's really interesting, and to be honest, doesn't surprise me with regards their overall reliability, it is afterall an Amstrad. Good to hear from a different perspective.
The chap I bought this from on my wife's behalf, has loads, many used for spares. I know he'd done the belt replacement on the FDD for me.
Since most of this was filmed a while back, I have since RetroBrited, got Locoscript 2, and new printer ribbons, so plan to do a follow up soon.
I had one of them, got it cheap from work, lasted years , the originzl printer was great , flat , no jams everything easy
Between 1989 and 1992 I had the Schneider PCW 8256 "Joyce" with 2x 3 inch drives, the second drive was "high density". Had to sell it to buy my first PC, being 16 years old, money was tight, still regret it.
@@channel4ferrets I gather the Schneider "Joyce" version, was just as popular in Europe, as the Amstrad version was in the UK. The fact that you were still using into the 90s, as many did, shows how useful and versatile a machine it could be. So, I'm curious, as I got my first PC in 1996, what PC did you get?
@@BigDavesRetroShed My first PC was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 and shortly after that in 1994 a Shi-Tec 386SX40. My college (MBO in the Netherlands) organized a "PC at home" project, so I could pay for it in 3 years. In 1996 I found work in ICT so it was the right decision ;)
@@channel4ferrets With your PC purchase ultimately leading on to a career in ICT, it sounds like selling the "Joyce" was absolutely the right decision, at the right time. Thanks for sharing.
@@BigDavesRetroShed but I still mis my Joyce ;)
I remember when my school library got one. It must have been 1983 or 84. I was issued a 3 1/4 floppy disk to store my work on and shown how to format a new disk. The one and only time I got to use it.
@@bfr0g I don't think it launched until 1985, but must of been quite well suited to a school library, I'm guessing you were running a database of some sort, or maybe wordprocessor notes for your research?
I left school in 1983, but remember I'd joined the library team, solely to get use on the Tandy TRS 80 Model III the teacher had in the office.
It's his ultimate mug's eyeful. Same strategy as his hifi systems with one plug. At the end of the day you would have been able to get a far superior computer like the Atari ST with seperate printer and hi resolution monochrome monitor for only about £150 more than this by 1987 (but with three plugs)
@@JesterEric I like the use of his phrase, haven't heard that since Techmoans Amstrad HiFi review. I guess in 1985, when I think both the 520 ST (I moved from the C64 to STe to midi sequence my Roland stuff) & Amiga A500 launched, the PCW didn't really have any competition for some time, at least on price. Really though, they were aimed entirely different markets. The PCW eventually had games, but was pitched firmly as a business system, and in that respect it certainly looked the part, even if it was dated under the hood.
At the time I was selling consumer electronics, and since we also serviced & repaired our products, didn't get in to the low end market, not cost effective. We sold tower systems, but from the likes of Hitachi & Technics.
That said, I've been amazed how well thought out and versatile this PCW is since using.
£150 is about £540 in today's money, so not an insignificant amount, especially if all you wanted to do was write, and had no need for the extra capabilities of the ST. You might also need to buy a decent wordprocessor - ST Writer or 1st Word Plus might have been bundled, but they were very basic. For example, Arnor Protext for the ST was £99 (£355 in today's money). You'd then have to spend some time configuring the software to work with the printer, which back in those days was often a non-trivial task. The basic PCW was a complete turnkey solution in a box, and appealed to people who wanted an upgrade from a typewriter.
Also, the ST has a terrible, mushy keyboard. The Amstrad PCW ones aren't amazing but they're better that the ST's, and they have the advantage of being external. You could easily replace them with something much better, like the Teqniche PCW102 (I have two of those).
@@Zeem4Being new to this PCW, albeit 40 years late, and having owned an ST, certainly for productivity purposes I'd have to agree, and yes well worth highlighting the value aspect, which was, and is quite considerable. Looking back, I'd have loved a PCW back then, always thought it looked cool, but couldn't afford it. My STe came later and was 2nd hand from a newspaper ad (... Remember them?)
As I think I mentioned in the video, my wordprocessor into the early 90s, was Mini Office 2 on the C64 with a Commodore printer, very basic setup, but it worked. I preferred this rather than the ST due to the reasons you mentioned. I found the ST was great for games, tracker music, demos and sequencing my Roland R5 & D20, but never used for anything else.
I'm glad this video is finding an audience, and I love hearing from other PCW users. There aren't many on Vogons.
It's a good idea to edit out lip smacking from the audio stream during editing.