Thanks for Amstrad advice

I’d like to thank Computeractive for your help with my Amstrad problem in Issue 510 (‘How do I launch my old Amstrad software?’, page 64). The link to the manual ( www.snipca.com/ 25265) was really helpful. I managed to get the ROMBOX up and running.

Most of the floppy disks still worked. I found lots of old DOC and TXT files. This led me to the CPC Mania site ( www. snipca.com/ 25668), which is dedicated to all things Amstrad and where I found a program to transfer my files from the Amstrad to the PC. Graham Gartshore I’m writing in response to Graham Gartshore’s letter in Issue 510’s Problems Solved. Maxam was the standard assembler for the Amstrad CPC, while RODOS and ROMDOS were operating systems (the latter largely superseded the former). Due to the limitations of the 3in floppy A drives installed on the CPC, a number of third-party suppliers provided larger capacity (up to 800K) external 3.5in floppy B drives, which were formatted and read by RODOS or ROMDOS. One thing to be aware of: any formatting of a high-capacity disk can only be applied to the B drive, because the A drive is limited to 360K.

There is still a thriving community of Amstrad CPC users in the UK and across Europe, and new hardware and software is still being developed for these machines. Gareth and others who are interested should visit the CPC Wiki website ( http://cpcwiki.eu, pictured), and its forum. It’s a not-for-profit website for people using the CPC and other Amstrad 8bit computers. Peter Campbell