{"id":1106,"date":"2023-10-26T16:35:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2025-12-22T12:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:22:12","slug":"amstrad-notepad-nc200","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/index.php\/amstrad-notepad-nc200\/","title":{"rendered":"Amstrad Notepad NC200"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The NC200 was the successor to the NC100<\/a> (deliberately skipping the NC150, which I don’t know much about other than it was never released in the UK – and I don’t have one). The NC200 is styled more like a laptop than the NC100, with a larger screen which flips up in a half-clamshell way, (like a smaller version of the Toshiba T3200<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amstrad also labelled it User Friendly, and unlike the Pen Pad<\/a> it is. Mostly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"NC100\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The NC100<\/a> was first in Amstrad’s Notepad series. It’s design is a flat A4 slab. The screen is short and wide and the keyboard is full sized and not bad to type on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NC200, however, has a taller, backlit and hinged screen. The body is thicker to accommodate the fact that its screen now folds and also has to accommodate a 3.5″, 720K floppy disk drive. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The display is actually twice the height of the NC100 at 480 x 128 pixels. It’s also much clearer to read with an excellent backlight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The keyboards on the two models are very similar except that the up-cursor is now coloured white. This is due to the fact that it now has a spreadsheet on function-White (more about that below). It also makes use of White in menus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"NC100\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Due to the floppy disk drive and the backlight, the power requirements are greater in the NC200 than for the NC100. The batteries are therefore beefier. They are C-type rather than AA and there’s five of them too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As before, the memory is backed up through the use of a CR20332 lithium button cell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The software, like the NC100, is all on ROM. This ROM is quadruple the size of the one on the NC100 and also resides under a trapdoor in the bottom. The much larger ROM, unlike the NC100 houses a spreadsheet and slightly tweaked software.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Connectivity on the NC200 is the same as the NC100, in that it has a centronics printer port and an RS-232 serial port. The serial port is faster though (now 19200 baud).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The most notable feature addition (apart from the much improved screen) has to be the floppy disk drive. It’s compatible with MS-DOS 720K formatted disks. If disks are formatted on the NC200 though, the internet tells me that the sector interleave used makes them much faster in the NC200.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • CPU: Z80 running at 4MHz.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Display: 480×128 pixel (80×16 character) monochrome, backlit LCD with contrast slider.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Full size qwerty keyboard (with coloured keys used in menus).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • ROM: 512Kb.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • RAM: 128Kb.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 720K 3.5″ floppy disk drive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • PCMCIA slot (for RAM memory cards).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Centronics parallel printer port.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • RS-232 serial port (19200 baud).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Power: 5x C-type batteries, CR2032 memory backup.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • External power jack: 7.5V centre-negative.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sound: 2 channel speaker (with no volume control).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Software<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    The Address Book and Diary (apart from minor cosmetic differences) behave the same on the NC100 and NC200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Both are pretty basic: The address book has fixed labels and you can search the entries; The diary has entries by day (with no times) and, on power on, will alert you if one is set for today. If you want alarms, you have to set an alarm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    The calculator on the NC200 is functionally the same, apart from a calculation log and a display of the memory contents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    The time manager still contains the alarm set\/view\/edit and the timezone manager. It also now contains the means to set the time and date. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    The serial terminal on the NC200 seems to be a slight enhancement over the one on the NC100. It’s a little less basic. You press Function-S to get to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    On the NC100 you just get thrown into a plain screen (the terminal emulator itself). On the NC200 there’s a dialog first that explains the Menu key. It’s not much, but it enhances ‘User Friendly’ a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Pressing Menu, instead of taking you right to the settings page, now takes you to a submenu with file transfer options (as well as settings, of course).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    The NC200, just like the NC100, contains a copy of BBC BASIC. The version on the NC200 is 3.12 vs 3.10 on the NC100. I image the difference is just in the screen size. You press Function-B to get to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    The Word Processor on the NC200 isn’t much different than the one on the NC100. It has been visually enhanced for the larger screen, but it’s use is still a bit odd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    The main new addition to the software suite is the fully fledged spreadsheet. When you press Function-White you get the same sort of new\/load\/print menu you get when you start the word processor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    As well as creating a new file or opening an existing file, the NC200 also has a number of demo files built-in. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    The main screen gives a list of the letters that you can use. These select commands. The Menu key tells you what they mean and gives basic help. Pressing a letter often starts a command and waits for more input. Pressing Menu at this point gives help too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \"NC200\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    The spreadsheet supports macros and graphs and all the other usual features you expect of a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The other software additions to the ROM are around the floppy disk drive. The principle of it’s use is not as the primary method of storage. To work in this way would be a burden on the battery. Instead, like on the NC100, you access your files on the RAM disk. From there you then copy them to disk at the end of your working day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pressing Menu from the List Stored Documents item on either the Word Processor or Spreadsheet menus gives a list of things you can do with files. This includes C to copy files to disk, L to list disk files and F then F to format a disk. If you press L, you get a disk directory and from there you can press Menu for activities specific to disks. From here you can copy files back to memory, rename and delete files and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Diary and address book entries are contained in two special files (“ADDRESS BOOK” and “DIARY FILE”), and you can copy them to a floppy disk. In that case they appear on disk as “ADDRESSB.OOK” and “DIARYFIL.E”. You normally can’t see these files or BBC BASIC program files in the internal file list. You have to go to the system settings menu (press Menu from the top level menu screen). There you need to switch “Document sizes and date display” to “Shown”. This confused me when I read it in the manual but it enables those things and also shows you the rest of your files too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can also use PCMCIA RAM cards as ‘disks’ but since I don’t have any and they are hard to come by (and hard on the wallet I imagine) I haven’t tried any of that stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n