Introduction
The Plus system cartridge is essential to the 464 Plus and 6128 Plus systems because it contains the Operating System, Locomotive BASIC and AMSDOS. Without this cartridge, you cannot use the Plus as none of the system ROMs are contained within the machine (unlike the classic CPCs). This method was used as it meant that it would be very difficult to copy other cartridges (such as games) because the operating system is not present when another cartridge is inserted.
The cartridge also included the game Burnin' Rubber to showcase the Plus range's extra hardware capabilities and to ensure that every user had something to play when they purchased the computer.
English System Cartridge
Contains the Plus Operating System (v4), Locomotive BASIC v1.1, AMSDOS and Burnin' Rubber game. This cartridge is for use with the English keyboard version of the 464 Plus or 6128 Plus. The colour of the label of the cartridge is Yellow.
Front
Back
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French System Cartridge
Contains the Plus Operating System (v4), Locomotive BASIC v1.1, AMSDOS and Burnin' Rubber game. This cartridge is for use with the French keyboard version of the 464 Plus or 6128 Plus. The colour of the label of the cartridge is Green. On the back of the cartridge on the right-hand lower corner you can see the letter "F" for French.
Front
Back
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Spanish System Cartridge
Contains the Plus Operating System (v4), Locomotive BASIC v1.1, AMSDOS and Burnin' Rubber game. This cartridge is for use with the Spanish keyboard version of the 464 Plus or 6128 Plus. The colour of the label of the cartridge is Blue. On the back of the cartridge on the right-hand lower corner you can see the letter "S" for Spanish.
Front
Front
'Downgrade' System Cartridge
A French cartridge was made which contained the classic CPC Operating System (v3), Locomotive BASIC v1.1 and AMSDOS. This cartridge was made to address the Plus range incompatibilities with some software designed for the classic CPC range.
Front
Back
PCB Front
PCB Back
Patched Cartridges
Due to the annoying 'f1/f2' menu presented on the Plus range, programmers have patched the Plus system cartridges in several ways to remove the menu.
One method was to replace AMSDOS with ParaDOS. This had the benefit of having the ParaDOS disk ROM available without a ROMboard, but it also disabled access to the Burnin' Rubber game.
Another method was to patch the Operating System ROM to skip the menu meaning the Plus went directly to BASIC, much the same as with the classic CPCs. Users can still access the Burnin' Rubber game by using a RSX command (either |GAME, |JEUX, |SPIEL or |JUEGO) as this feature was included in the original Plus system cartridge.
Original Plus System Cartridge
Patched System Cartridge with menu removed
Patched System Cartridge with ParaDOS
Amstrad CSD
The Amstrad CSD was a system containing a 464PLUS motherboad and an additionnal Mainboard enabling to switch beteween 12 different game (or whatever) cartridges.
The System was supplied with some sort of JukeBox OS cartridge.
Downloads
Downloads of the system cartridges are available here. Where applicable, the CPR file is for use in emulators (such as WinApe) and the BIN file is the actual ROM image which can be used with EPROM programmers to make your own cartridges.