The man behind the brand, Hackney-born Alan Michael Sugar, famously started in business selling car aerials from the back of his £50 minivan. He called his company A M S Trading – which he shortened to Amstrad. After car aerials he quickly moved on to selling other goods such as transistor radios, intercoms and cigarette lighters. All of these products were bought from importers or wholesalers and sold under the Amstrad brand name. However, Alan Sugar’s ultimate aim was to create his own, original products.
I was 10 when I discovered and got my first Amstrad CPC-6128. This computer was magical and I still remember all the games I used to play with back then. This computer reminds my childhood, the best times of my life with my friends around games, magical moments and thrills when you finally finish a game, which you played on and on anyway and knew every little single details of it. You have made the best times of my childhood, happy times, innocent ones where everything was new and magical. I will never forget the first time I have unboxed my CPC-6128 and played on and on. I would give anything to travel through time and go back in 1986. Thank you for having being the companion of the best and most innocent times of my life.
The Amstrad 464 was the most perfect computer. It lead to me wanting to work in the games industry, and I did. I used to play Roland on the Ropes all the time alongside every game I could lay my hands on from OCEAN and Mastertronic. It was a machine I would spend all my time playing on, something that inspired me and eventually I would find my way into the games industry working for GT Interactive on games such as UNREAL and DRIVER. Without the Amstrad 464 I wouldn't have dreamt about working on games and eventually my career lead me through marketing at GT Interactive, Infogrames, ATARI and Bandai Namco. To me the 464 for special and it's a computer I will never forget about.
Back in the late 80's, I worked as a sales engineer for a small computer dealer, Kyle Micros in Glasgow. Based in the West end, surrounded by solicitors, lawyers, small businesses, it was ripe territory for word processors. We literally could not keep up demand for the PCW9512. I remember receiving deliveries of 100's of the units , humping them up two flights of stairs, setting them up the. Jumping in black taxis to deliver, install and train. I vaguely remember a very senior Amstrad guy visiting us. He couldn't believe how many we were buying and probably came to check us out. Pretty sure we were on of the biggest Amstrad dealers in Scotland. It really was a game changer of a product and I have fond memories of my time at Kyle Micros. Then followed the Amstrad PC's, video cameras, integrated TV/VHS player & the HI-FI's. Really a great time in tech.
