First Steps - AMSTRAD CPC464 User Manual

Amstrad 64k Microcomputer <v1>
©Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc
and Locomotive Software Ltd.
BASIC 1.0
Ready
Tune in the TV set accurately until the clearest picture is seen. The writing will be gold/yellow on a
deep blue background, although it will vary according to individual TV alignment conditions.
If your TV has a rotary programme selector knob, turn the tuning control until the above picture
appears and remains perfectly steady. (Again, at approximately channel 36).
As the signal passes through all the various stages of the process of first being modulated, and then
being demodulated, a certain amount of deterioration of the video signal will occur. The results
cannot be as good as those obtainable by using a direct video interface monitor, and depending on
the quality of your TV, you may find that the 80 column text mode (mode 2) produces results that are
not perfectly clear, in which case you should use mode 1 for text entry whenever convenient.

1.2 First steps

You are now ' plugged in' : the power supply should be connected, the video lead hooked up to either of
the monitors or the modulator option, and you have switched on. Your computer is now waiting for
an input:
The ' switch on' screen display, ie. the ' Wake Up' message, is the only ' built-in' text that you can
display without first entering additional instructions through the keyboard.
If you are familiar with the BASIC programming language then there' s a good chance that you will
already have entered a brief program to ' get aquainted' . AMSTRAD BASIC will be familiar in many
respects, and just to get you going, we will show you a brief program that you can enter that will
display all the built-in characters that are available from the computer. This is the character set,
which is the term used to describe the complete range of numbers, figures and other printable
elements of the display that can be called up by typing at the keyboard.