I have never owned a Amstrad computer at all but in the company where I did my apprenticeship, a PCW8256 was still used to control an electronical test system. The first game for Amstrad computers I played on an CPC emulator for Linux, though!
to be done
The first computer of Amstrad was the CPC464, a little sensation at that time (1994). Its Locomotive BASIC was very powerful and supported commands for graphic modes directly. The tape drive was included into the computer,that makes it quite compact and the power supply was included in the monitor itself that was always sold together with the CPC464. The floppy drive was external and sold with CP/M 2.2
In 1985, Amstrad introduced the successor of CPC464, the CPC664. The tape drive was exchanged by a floppy driver for 3" disks. The design of the keyboard turned into grey and blue but from the technical point of view, nothing else changed.
In the same year like the CPC664, Amstrad introduced the 6128 which was in fact a 664 with 128kB RAM.
The PCW8256, also called Joyce, was a complete word processor including a floppy drive and a printer. The monitor monochrome. The operating system of this computer was CP/M plus 3.0 which was loaded with a boot disk.
Follow the link to find a Locomotive BASIC command reference
There is a fine CPC emulator for Linux on the web!
