Amstrad PC1640 System Disks

The successor to the Amstrad PC1512 (see here) was the PC1640. This was basically the same as the PC1512, but with 640k of RAM.

I didn’t own a PC1640, but while my nostalgia is for the PC1512 (which I did own), the PC1640 – with its greater RAM – is the more powerful machine and thus probably what most retro computing fans will want to emulate in a virtual environment like PCEm these days.

Like the PC1512, the PC1640 came bundled with a set of colour-coded 5.25″ floppy “System Disks” that contained the needed operating system and utilities. These disks were:

• Disk 1 (MS-DOS): Red
• Disk 2 (GEM Startup): Blue
• Disk 3 (GEM Desktop & Locomotive BASIC2): Green
• Disk 4 (GEM Paint & Hard Drive Utilities): Yellow

Note that unlike the PC1512 disks, there is only one operating system included here (MS-DOS and not DOS Plus), signalling that already (in 1987) Microsoft was dominating the OS market.

As with the PC1512 disks, these disks were unique to the machine they came bundled with and are quite hard to find now. I am therefore again providing a set of all four floppy disks here in the form of IMA images, along with instructions on how to use them on a real or virtual Amstrad PC1640 PC.

As these disks were sourced online rather than my own images, I can only assume that every PC1640 included all four disks, even those lacking hard drives, since Disk 4 also contains applications for GEM as well as the hard drive utilities. This is presumably why the last disk is nowhere near as rare as the HDD utility disk from the PC1512 set!

Although still technically copyrighted, Amstrad as it was is long defunct, and the included OS and applications here are *very* out of date and useless on modern machines. I hope given this, nobody minds me making these disks available.

The included readme contains much more information on this package, it’s history, my own notes and how to use it.

Download Links:
Amstrad PC1640 System Disks

Amstrad PC1512 System Disks

One of Amstrad‘s earliest machines, the first computer I ever owned in fact, was the PC1512. An 8086 8mhz desktop machine with 512k of RAM, CGA graphics, and a unique base/monitor setup where the monitor acted as the power supply for the computer. My machine had the base standard 5.25″ floppy drive and no hard drive, although more expensive models had twin floppy drives or even a 10mb or 20mb hard drive!

The machine came bundles with a set of “System Disks”, colour-coded 5.25″ floppies that contained the needed operating system and utilities. The disks contained:

• Disk 1 (MS-DOS): Red
• Disk 2 (GEM Startup): Blue
• Disk 3 (GEM Desktop & Locomotive BASIC2): Green
• Disk 4 (DOS Plus & GEM Paint): Yellow
• Disk 5 (Hard Drive Utilities): Maroon

Machines like mine, with no hard drive, only came with four disks.

These disks were unique to the Amstrad PC1512, and are quite rare to find online. Retro computing enthusiasts and nostalgic Amstrad fans looking to restore an old Amstrad PC1512 unit or emulate that model computer in a virtual machine such as PCEm need these disks for the full, official experience. Yet while the first four disks are rare, Disk 5 is nearly impossible to find!

I am therefore providing a set of all five floppy disks here in the form of IMA images, along with instructions on how to use them on a real or virtual Amstrad PC1512 PC.

Although still technically copyrighted, Amstrad as it was is long no more, and all the included OS and applications are *very* out of date and useless on modern machines. I hope given this, nobody minds me making these disks available.

Note that while disks 1-4 are true images of the original floppy disks, disk 5 is a “reconstructed” image as the only source I could find for it was the “loose” files/contents in an archive rather than an actual image file. The disk should work as if original, however, and has been tested.

The included readme contains much more information on this package, it’s history, my own notes and how to use it.

Download Links:
Amstrad PC1512 System Disks