Most liked posts in thread: MANU's aMAZING MARVELLOUS MICROs

What a shame they are all stuck in the basement like that, but sadly I don't have enough space to display them all, lacking of a "man cave" here, and of a retro-computer enough compliant wife, (but she is adorable as she accepts all that stash of junk as long as it is invisible to her eyes). But it may change in the next few months as we are currently looking for a house to buy (or have build?) in the vicinity, where I intend to have a dedicated room for them.

I also had the idea to present each of them obscure French 80's computers you probably never heard about to the community on videos, but never started, due to the lack of space for shooting and tinkering at will. But never say "never", so, maybe one day...

It is good to see pictures of this too short day guiding Andy & Bev in Chateau de Breteuil, where they were welcomed by 85 y.o. Marquis le Tonnelier de Breteuil himself who presented some of the paintings, and talked about his life, and all that in English, s'il vous plaît!

Thank you Andy, next time we meet in East Yorkshire, just for a: "Ey up lad, haa's it diddlin?"!

 

Hehe, yes this is a pure French piece of retro-hardware that we have here. To be comprehensive, there was 3 versions of Alice: the early 4K version depicted in the video, a later Alice 32 version (8Kb RAM + 8Kb Video RAM + 16Kb ROM) with the same crimson casing, and even later the Alice 90, an upgraded Alice 32 with 32Kb RAM but a different shaped case.


Matra Alice 90

The capabilities of the Alice were near of what the Oric or the ZX Spectrum can offer I would say. It was mainly aimed at learning BASIC computing (like the ZX 80/81).

The version I have is the Alice 32 with all the cables and the dedicated red tape recorder, I also have the 16K RAM expansion and the manual, but I do not have the box.

As for Radiola, it is a French electronics brand founded in 1922 who later became a Philips subsidiary. In the 80s they are known to have manufactured a small form-factor 8-bit computer called VG 5000.
Andy, do you want to show us a picture?

 

Evening, chaps.

I don't know about you but I'm enjoying Klyde's stories better than mine. And did you notice his recall of T.G.A.C.C.R.R. tales was very similar in that it involved a very long tape-loading experience. Fortunately, I knew the tape was a good loader as me and Aidy had tried it many a time and I thought our version did give you 1-2 visual cues early on (or did we turn up the TV volume, from time to time, and listen in to those hellish data screeches as the code was being loaded - you knew if it was good as loud meant it was loading whereas low and barely audible meant it had gone askew and would never load in a month of Sundays). Whatever, I also recall Bounty Bob Strikes Back taking FOREVER on tape... my god, that was a lot of code (64K?) and you could make 100 cups of tea for the whole street whilst that fecker loaded BUT it was a quality game back then and always will be IMHO). Does anyone know of a longer computer game title, btw?!

I'm also enjoying his more indepth discussion of the Thomson and french model micros and I am absolutely certain he's gonna hit us with more and before we knows it our exotic retro micros database will be expanded to the max... and we'll all need to give us RAM packs a wobble to fit in any further retro info... but all good stuff nevertheless. Formidable!

What I'll do then fellas is wrap up the final few pics I took that day on our glorious visit to see Manu and Isabelle so that he can progress this thread and give you lads a lot more "meat on the bone" than I can offer.

So, here we go then with the last epi-sod exploring the delights of Klyde's collection:

First up, it's A for Amstrad - a very nice example indeed of a CPC664 - in lovely condition, well done fella.




and then we have this "rare" beast - apologies as it's not the best pic you're ever gonna see of an Amstrad...???



I'm not sure what model it is - a french variant of the 464 plus CPC? I've just spotted this:



but it aint the same - once more, Manu will enlighten us!

And of course A is also for Atari and Manu has a Flashback games system:



C is for Coleco Vision - can you see it boxed in this pic below plus he's holding a vintage looking "TV game" there which appears to be a HANMEX?


ABOVE: some lovely looking vintage controllers there too...reminiscent of the Mattell Intellivision...
Talking of which there looks to be one boxed-up here to the right of the Atari 400:



...and if you need a controller, Klyde has dozens!!



Staying with the Cs we now have a lovely example of a breadbin C64:



E seems to be for ExelVision - what on earth is this little beaut (an infra-red remote controller?) No doubt Manu will get us up to speed:



Hector is a name that rings a very distant bell - here in Hector's House we find another intriguing glimpse of some hardware that is all boxed-up but what could be inside? Klyde will know and will show and tell when you are all sat down quietly with your bags of Monster Munch and tins of Lilt / 7 Up.





Has he got any manuals, literature and technical books?

Too right - I think Manu has a bookshelf in the apartment and I also spied these on one shelf - no doubt there are more boxes and shelves groaning with guide books too!!



Moving through the alphabet now fairly rapidly we come to one of Sir Clive's specials - a Speccy Plus!


ABOVE: Looks to be in immaculate condition, guys.

It's going to be SO GOOD when you finally get the opportunity to display this little lot, Manu.

It was an absolute pleasure and a privilege to come over and see you and Isabelle last September and we look forward to... greeting you here in East Yorks one fine day with a few EY OOOPS and How's tha doin, lad?! And of course, making a return trip to see you once you guys are all set-up in, as Paul foresees it, your 500 bedroom chateau - then you could put us all up, all our micros could have a room each, and we could begin Europe's first retro micro theme park and charge tourists an arm and a leg to play Jet Set Willy on a Kray supercomputer!!

Many thanks once more, Manu - a real treat seeing you lovely folks in your comfortable home and being so well looked after whilst we were with you - our visit to the wonderful chateau will stay forever in our memories as a special day and you folks were such fantastic hosts so we thank you very much once more for all your kindness and hospitality which we look forward to returning.... one fine day.

Merci bien, Manu et Isabelle.

PS. The cave / cache of retro micros "end of level" guardian also looked after us really well and I was relieved I wasn't dragged off into this beast's lair... A BIENTOT!!

 

Yes this is correct, it is an Amstrad 6128+ from 1990, the last Amstrad 8-bit computer, and yes, the very old looking console is an Hanimex.

The last two obscure computer are even more obscure than the previous ones, I even didn't know they existed a couple of years ago.

First, let me talk about the Exelvision EXL100 (no relations with a famous Microsoft software):


Exelvision EXL100 main unit and stock keyboard

And no, it is not an audio amplifier, but a French 8-bit computer from 1984. Exelvision was founded by former Texas Instruments French engineers, hence the use of TI chips for CPU, video, and sound, 34Kb of RAM and 32Kb of ROM.

It came with a rubber keyboad (above), but you could also buy a more comfortable mechanical keyboard (I have both).

The lighter gray plate is in fact a drawer revealing 2 (pretty bad) joysticks.


Exelvision joysticks

The EXL100 wanted to be high-end and inovative: Noticed that there is no cable between the keyboard and the unit? The keyboard and the joysticks used a surprisingly working good infrared connection (as long as you stay in the range).

Moreover, the EXL100 is also known to be very good at speech synthesis out of the box (for the era).

In the video below, the game itself is not very interresting (tennis), but try to listen to the referee anouncing the scores (in French, bien sûr)!



Games could be loaded by cartridge (you can see the port on the front face), or by connecting a tape recorder, it also existed a very rare disc drive (EXL135).

EXELTEL (an upgrade of the EXL100 equipped with a modem), with the mechanical keyboard, a tape recorder and an EXL135 dual disk drive on top


After Alice, let me introduce you to our second character, hereby named Hector!

Hector was born in 1981 and came fitted with a Z80, 16Kb of RAM and 16kB of ROM, and a built-in tape recorder. It existed with a white or a brown case.


Hector model 1, (mine is brown)

Hector received various upgrades through the years:
Hector 2HR in 1983, 48Kb RAM (HR stands for... High Resolution It was capable of 243x231x4 in graphics mode),

Hector 2HR+ (same as above plus better sound capabilities),

Hector HRX (64Kb RAM and Forth Langage in ROM, instead of BASIC),

Finally the ultra rare Hector HR+MX in 1985 (same as above but BASIC, Forth and Assembly langages altogether in the same ROM).


Hector 2HR+ BASIC version


Hector HRX, 64Kb and Forth in ROM!


Ultra-rare Hector HR+MX

An RPG game, "Le donjon du dragon" (Dungeon of the Dragon):


Leave your comments, lads!

 

A 400 mini at sub 50, yeah, I'd have one purely for the model.

 

Wow. That is a lot of Atari gear Manu has tucked away. Lovely to see a Ti and Video Pinball systems as well.

What does our man in France intend to do with this treasure chest?

 

That's a LOT of gear there Klyde, as you say, some stuff I'd never had heard of. Always warms the heart to see a great looking 400, feeling jealous..

Looking forward to seeing more, wishing you and the family the best, good luck in the Olympics..

Paul..

 

Hey OOP! Manu it's great to get your feedback and warm greetings today - this place isn't the same without you, buddy - by god we've missed you and of course our other dear retro friends who have also been busy elsewhere and we completely understand that life has so many demands on folks in terms of family, work, health and other hobbies plus a bit of sleep and looking for a new home etc to set up a proper MAN CAVE - yes, we like the sound of the latter so let us hope that comes to fruition for you guys real soon

OK, I will continue with more revelations from the realms of this rich source of most excellent micros and what a collection we have here today, madames et monsieurs, ladels and jellyspoons, as we gaze once more into the depths of Klyde's Klassics...

So, who or what is Alice? I throw this question out to the audience and as Klyde has suggested already, he would do the subject more justice than I can possibly muster within the limited recesses of my knowledge of the subject.


ABOVE: Manu has bagged his Alice but what other examples exist out in the french fields?

Well, it would appear that this manufacturer aimed its product at french filles - yes, the gals were the target audience and if she was called Alice then what better a gift for her anniversaire ou cadeaux a fete noel than a smart red micro with her ruddy name on it!! BINGO or as the french like to say VOILA!


ABOVE: Name your child Alice and then buy this micro for her birthday or Xmas gift - sorted, 80s families. In this illustration, Alice meditates with an apple whilst the sodding micro levitates in the background - that's living all right.

Here's one if you like unbagged/unpacked and ready to plug in and rock n roll and what we can clearly see here is that it is not very big - about Atmos sized, Manu? :



So, the next question is, I can hear you hollering Paul, what can it do, Baz, does it play Oric Golf etc? I'm gonna hand you over at this point to an ex-pat living in France who was also curious enough to want to know more about this mystic Alice micro - so here we go, over to 8BitsintheBasement who can maybe explain a little more...




I hope you can now see the Tandy and green screen Dragon similarities going on here, folks and... only 4K? Jeez. Mind, it would have encouraged some "tight" programming from those early pioneer BASIC bedroom coders who would have cut their teeth on this little beast before, perhaps, going on to bigger and better things, eg. Amstrad CPC464 or Atari ST?? It's an intriguing possibility and I would like to know if Manu has played with this micro much or can add more details as he is bound to know more than my limited databanks on this interesting little red devil...

COMING UP NEXT TIME...

WHAT THE HECK IS A RADIOLA, Klyde, and where do I stick it?!

 

So you own a Dragon I presume

As you say, what a great collection, bit sad it's down in a cellar, but seeing how much Manu has it's nigh on impossible to show it easily.

 

Yeah know the answer but I'll let someone bag the prize

 

Well, it looks like I'll screech this one to a halt with a G.A.C.C.R.R. abbreviated answer, folks.

The Atari Activision release was indeed a nailed on classic:



Played this ace racing game night after night after night (helluva long tape-loader too) with me mate Aidy during the summer of 86 and we'd often load it up about 9pm, sometime after The Bill / TOTP had finished, and we'd finally knock it on the head about 1-2am in the morning... we were that hooked. This and the 2 player head to head Mig Alley Ace combat sim game from Microprose... my, those were the days, fellas.

Aye, the VG5000 version looks a little garish colour-wise and a little "basic" with the descending/passing cars, but hey ho, it's an old title now and it's not going to be of a formula 1 standard, more F3-F4 but lots of credit to Philips for releasing it at all.

Right then, moving on through Klyde's klassics what do we have oop next, Baz? Klyde was asking for the Thomsons to be shown but as far as I can see I have shown the images I took that day, buddy, right at the beginning of this thread - by all means you may well want to discuss them in greater detail.

Ah, have found these additional pics:




ABOVE: Another shelf groaning with Klyde's collectibles - we seem to be looking at boxes of game controllers and additional memory RAM packs plus other Thomson equipment stored here such as PSUs and more machines? I'm hoping Klyde will expand on his full collection of this "micro for the people" which is very much a french family affair.

For now, I will just choose an appropriate You Tube retro clip for anyone completely unfamiliar to this range of French educational machines such as the models MO5, TO7 etc...



and



...and find here some nice Thomson video game intros - mainly of the adventure and dungeon and dragon genres:



(the 1st of which was also an Oric release, by the way)

Would it be fair to compare the Thomson range as the french answer to the British Acorn BBC Micros series, Manu, eg BBC Model A, B, B+, Master etc? Certainly, my first impressions are of high resolution software, colourful, detailed artwork and good quality music/sound examples/ We have some impressive graphical output screen shots shown here (which would not disgrace an Atari ST), ie.





ABOVE: Nicely detailed loading screens for the time period 83-86 I would say...

and another model I've just found (he's got SO MANY!!) - the Thomson TO8D - I'm betting the D may stand for disk version? :


ABOVE: Was this the final Thomson in the series? Klyde will know, regrettably, I don't but I'm all ears

Finally in this thread tonight, I would like to show you another marvellous Manu micro from his classy collection:

You will have heard of Sega and their well-known consoles but what do you know about this little black beauty, eh, mes amis??


ABOVE: The Sega home computer SC-3000 - another rare bird in my experience...

What can we discover online about this mythical beast?

I bid you un bon nuit et reves doux as I bring the curtain down on this thread, this evening, with another collector's clip and perhaps Manu will also tell us more when he gets a moment - we're working him hard in this thread

 

Nice work Andy. I enjoyed the little end section about the Sega. My mate has a couple in his shop along with some games but apart from that I've never really seen or heard much about them.

 

Yes of course, you all have found the answer, US Rallye was a clone of Activision's The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (Do you know a game with a longer name?).

I have a story about Road Race back in the day, so let's go for a Story Time with Manu!

"Back in 1984, when I was 13, I had an Atari 800xl with a 1010 tape recorder for Christmas. Loading tapes was not reliable as you know, and Road Race tape doesn't have a loading screen, so I tought my tape was bad, and since there was no display on screen I used to reset the compter after a short while.

One day I wanted to give it another try, and again: black screen. But this time, as I was p*ssed, I left the computer alone and did something else. And after maybe 10 minutes, guess what happened: the game was loaded!

This event taught me to be way more patient with computers... especially when loading tapes!"

As for the Thomson computers, I almost have got the complete series, I don't have the MO5 "Michel Platini" special edition (a white MO5 sold in a sport bag with Michel Platini portrait), nor the MO5e version (e stands for "Export", for MO5s sold abroad), nor the ultra rare TO16 (a Thomson branded 8088 IBM PC).

I have the MO5 (both gummy and mechanical keyboard), the MO6 (A MO5 with 128Kb RAM and a tape recorder embedded, also sold as the Oliveti Prodest PC128 in Italy, I am pretty sure @AlexDrito has got one), the TO7 and its revision TO7/70 both in gummy and mechanical keyboard, the TO8 and TO8D, and yes, the D stands for "embedded Disk drive", and the TO9)


MO5 Michel Platini Special Edition


Thomson MO6 a.k.a. Oliveti Prodest PC128


Thomson TO7 gummy keyboard


Thomson TO8 not the "D" version (no 3.5' embedded drive, you had to buy an external one, and yes, I have got one)


Thomson TO9+ (Yes it looks like a PC but no, it is an 8-bit computer in a desktop case and separate keyboard!)

And since I have a personal story about the TO7/70, let's go for Another Story Time with Manu!

"In 1993, a good friend of mine sold me his TO7/70, with a tape recorder, tapes and litterature. I liked to play with it, and later I stored it to my parent's house. In 2006 my parents sold the house, and I thought my TO7/70 was gone, either trashed, or donated to someone...

Years later, around 2018, my brother knowing I was starting a collection went:
- By the way, I have your TO7/70 computer, recorder, tapes and books I saved before the parents sold the house. Do you want it back for your collection?

- Sure!

So the TO7 I have is not *any* TO7, it is my own long lost TO7!"

And finally the Sega SC-3000, a pre-MSX 8-bit sold in Japan, Australia & New-Zealand, Italy, Finland and also in France under another brand: the Yeno SC-3000.

But all that is only a part of the retro computers and consoles I own. And I realise that I even don't have a list of them all, I don't exactly know what is in my collection... What a shame.

So this is what I plan to do in the next days, I have some other obscure French systems you probably never heard of, to show!

Stay tuned, there is more to come!

 

I didn't name the game deliberately, as I reviewed said game for the C64 in a trade mag. Lovely set of computers etc Manu. I do hope they all get a little love from time to time, and they are no just sat in the dark all the time?

Even if it's only to dust them off and make sure they still work.

You must set up a display in your 55 room château

 

And yes, I forgot, the Thomsons computers were used at school from 1985 for computing learning, just like the BBC Micros were in the UK.

I'll try to have a room to display them in our new house, Paul, yes.

 

"Passengers of the Wind" is a 1986 RPG video game derived from a famous French comic book series by François Bourgeon that I recommend you read (not for children!). 5 books were drawn from 1979 to 1984 plus another series of 4 books from 2009 to 2022. It was a very feminist story for the 80s, it also featured English characters who did not have the best role in the story, at a time (18th century) when England and France were not the best friends...

I don't know the videogame.

I have found a downloadable English version here if you are interrested: Read online, Download he passengers of the wind comic (zipcomic.com)

 

Loving all these photos of exoctic computers!

The Amstrad above if I'm not mistaken is the CPC 6128 Plus, with built in floppy drive.
The picture that really got me all geeked out though was the Olivette Prodest PC128. One of the first ibm compatibles I really wanted was the Olivettie Prodest PC1. It just looked amazing seeing it reviewed in a very early issue of the now defunct Computer Shopper magazine. Even today I still have a hankering for one of them.




And how about this contender for longest game title

 

This might interest you chaps

 

Some great posts there from Al and of course Klyde.

Really, really enjoyed reading the full details of what these marvellous micros can do and as you say, Al, the speech synthesis really stood out on that tennis game for the Exelvision. The Hector was pretty cool too - that Dungeon adventure looked like it was pretty good for the day and generally speaking I was impressed that the french home micro market seemed pretty much as varied as the UK one (from say 83-86), ie you certainly had more choice than just a Sinclair, Commodore or Amstrad. No doubt just like the UK, the smaller manufacturers couldn't keep pace with the big boys and in the end the big 16bit hitters from Atari and Commodore went on to dominate the market and the rest... like the dinosaurs, just died off one by one.

The main thing here is that everyday is a learning experience and I doubt any of us here outside of France, had any idea that you guys had so many makes and models which were completely different from our own so it is fascinating to see them and learn about their capabilities... anyone for an ALICE then?? Al??

Or maybe you're feeling like a bit of Mad Dog, Paul, and are tempted by a Thomson??



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17650009...jhhFi0+DiT83bPT42N2Jxwx/MD|tkp:Bk9SR7TW6uujZA

Thank you once more, Klyde - great explanations, examples, clips and anecdotes - a thoroughly enjoyable thread and we lurved our visit to see you guys nearly a year ago (gawd, the time has flown by) so it truly was a case of everyone's a winner.

Merci beaucoup!

 

It's a nice read, but I'm not tempted to get any more computers these days. That might change if I see a super cheap Atari 400, but I doubt that is going to happen

 

How about a 400 Mini when they go under £50 Paul? Although I have hardly touched mine I'm glad I bought it anyway as it looks so cool next to it's (very) big brother Atari 800.

This is a really interesting thread so far, loving Klyde's collection.

 

More Alice here....

 

Thanks for posting, Al.

Just watched that inbetween the olympics coverage and I enjoyed it a lot.

I think we've all learn a lot about Alice and the early IT days/systems in France.
I remember Minitel in the office of my ex-fiancee's parent's home and they quite liked their little Ceefax type system through the phone lines.
Brought it all back to me and I see it finally ended in 2012 (we split in 2008 so it lasted a bit longer than us!)
Cheers, Al.
Cheers, Manu - all very interesting stuff.

 

Pixel Addict magazine has been running a regular feature on obscure computers and a lot of them were French. Probably all in your basement

 

I looked at a couple of video's earlier including the ones above. A very nice looking little machine, especially in the black livery. The PacMan style game reminds me very much of something similar on the Philips VideoPac G7000 which I'm guessing is a close relation.

Either way, very cool to see these computers that have history across the sea