Changes

First came the CPC464, the father of the CPC family, released during the summer of 1984 (with production ceasing in 1990). This model used an integrated tape recorder and used 64KB or RAM. It sold around 2 million units in Europe and, technologically-wise, was quite higher more impressive than the ZX Spectrum and on a similar level with the Commodore c64 (with the notable exception of the sound chip; while the c64 employed the splendid SID chip, Amstrad opted for a generic sound chip - AY-3-8912 - with unremarkable features). At its core one would find was a [[Z80]] clocked at 4MHz while the display was managed by the 6845 CRTC along with a gate-array chip.

The CPC464sported CPC464 sported a palette of 27 colours and three distinct resolutions: 160x200x16 colours (mode 0), 320x200x4 colours (mode 1) and 640x200x2 colours (mode 2, 80-column mode).

Because of its use of the Z80, which was also used in the Sinclair models, many of the games found on the CPC were direct ports of the Spectrum version. As a result, they failed to take advantage of the CPC's extra capabilities, leaving users and reviewers with a bad taste in their mouth, a fact situated that was going to last lasted for the entire life of the machines.