Hardware

West coast computers sam coupe

Apologies if im on the wrong link.
I’ve found my brothers old sam coupe elite 512 computer in parents loft.
And was wandering if its worth selling or keeping.
It says west coast computers on the bottom left of the keyword and top right says elite 512.
Also found its box which says mgt on it.
Ive managed to power it on and logo screen comes on.But ive not done anything else , just powered it on.
Is it worth anything .
Any info or help would be great.thanks

Quazar

Colin Piggot

Interface to use the Commodore 64’s SID soundchip on the SAM Coupe.

Quazar

Colin Piggot

A new ROM for the SAM Coupé for use with the Trinity Ethernet Interface. On starting up the SAM a 1K code chunk will be fetched from the 128K EEPROM onboard the Trinity and executed. Currently this bootblock fetches in B-DOS from the Trinity’s EEPROM to save you having to boot DOS from a floppy disk when you turn the SAM on.

Colin Piggot / Quazar

Colin Piggot

Originally built up as a piece of custom hardware on request, the SAM Coupé Debug LCD gives a 4x20 ASCII display so debug messages (or any other text!) can be viewed without having to print text on the normal Sam screen.

Velesoft

Velesoft

8-bit DMA interface for Z80 based machines including the Sam Coupé.

Full details at http://velesoft.speccy.cz/data-gear.htm

Quote:

“DATA-GEAR is DMA interface for 8-bit computers with Z80CPU. DATA-GEAR is connected to socket for Z80CPU, there’s no need any hardware modifications in your computer. DMA chip use direct access to memory or port. Transfer of linear data block (max. 64kB) memory to memory / memory to port / port to memory / port to port. For computers with max. CPU speed 4MHz is used Z80DMA chip, but for faster computers (SAM COUPE=6MHz, ZS SCORPION TURBO=7MHz …) is need use DMA chip at 6-8MHz. DMA chip is programmed via port 11(#0B) = MB02 compatible. On board is extra switch for change programming port to 107(#6B).

Max. speed of data transfer on ZX128+ is 17.3 kB(17727 bytes) / frame = 865.6 kB(886350 bytes) / second”

STEVES SOFTWARE

S.J.NUTTING

SC_AUTOBOOT

SCASSEMBLER April 1990
SCSPECLONE September 1990
SCAUTOBOOT 1990

SCFILER January 1991
SCCOMPRESSOR 1 April 1991
SCCOMPRESSOR 2 November 1991
SCDISC PROTECOR 1991?

SCDISC CLONE March 1992
SCPD3 March 1992
SCMONITOR April 1992

SCDTP March 1993
SC24 PIN DUMPER August 1993

SCWORD pro April 1994

SCCLIPART November 1995

SC_HD LOADER June 1996

All instructions for installing, manual, adverts, and my personal notes
are in the pdf file included in the large image file.

Assemble source for most of my products and a way to verify I have given full permission
can be found separately with “SC_Assembler source files” image file on this site.

SamCo

In the later days of SamCo a 256kB model with no disc drives known as the GameStar was released, presumably to attract the tape-based ZX Spectrum owners and then get them to upgrade with the Memory Expansion and Sam Drive.

West Coast Computers

The Sam élite was a re-packaged Sam Coupé with the addition of:

1. 512kB Memory Expansion as standard
   
2. A Floppy drive (with Drive 1 in the right hand bay instead of the left)
   
3. A parallel printer interface
   
4. Modified ROM version 3.0 (called 3.5)
   
5. Black feet instead of blue
   
6. Un-sprayed External PSU in Amstrad grey.

The Sam Drive slim-line floppy drives from Citizen had been withdrawn them from the European market in 1990 and were replaced with standard 3.5 inch drives which required some modification to the front drive plates for the faces to stick out.

MGT

Information originally from Tim Paveley taken from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

In the last quarter of 1989 MGT launched the Sam Coupé. MGT was already known in the ZX Spectrum world for a range of hardware that they sold. The Sam was their pride and joy, and unfortunately to be their downfall.

The SAM name comes from a working name in the early design phases of ‘Some Amazing Machine’ (or ‘Some Amazing Micro’ or even ‘Spectrum Advanced Machine’ depending on who you talk to) and the ‘Coupé’ was a nickname from two sources: one being an ice cream sundae called the “Ice Cream Coupé” and the other because the machine resembles a fastback car in profile with the feet as the wheels.

The design of the SAM Coupé was produced by the Nick Holland Design Limited in Cardiff with the keys set back from the edge of the casing so as to provide a support for the wrists.

The internal PCB is a T-shape to accommodate the floppy drives, one story of the time is that ‘when they fed in the board shape the CAD program fell over’ although a sad fact of buggy CAD code than the romantic notion of a radical design departure!

This was a time when the 16-bit machines, the Atari ST and the Amiga, were really being to take off. Sales in computers such as the Spectrum was in rapid decline. The Sam was aimed to fill this gap, a powerful 8-bit machine with specs that in cases out performed those of the 16-bit machines, at an 8-bit price. It was hoped that current 8-bit owners, particularly Spectrum owners, would jump on the nicely priced Sam rather than a more expensive 16-bit machine.

See the Sam User Manual and Sam Technical Manual

Sinclair Research

See World of Spectrum