Locomotive Software
Encyclopedia
Locomotive Software was a small British software house which did most of its development for Amstrad
's home and small business computers of the 1980s.
It wrote or contributed significantly to the ROMs of the Amstrad CPC 464, Amstrad CPC 664 and Amstrad CPC 6128 home computers, the Amstrad PCW
wordprocessor and the later Amstrad-manufactured ZX Spectrum
+2A, +2B and +3 machines, amongst others. Its Locomotive BASIC
for the CPC range was fast and highly-featured implementation of BASIC for the time and later led to the development of Mallard BASIC
for Amstrad's CP/M
+ machines. Locomotive was also responsible for the ports of the CP/M operating system to Amstrad machines - initially 2.2 for the CPC464 and CPC664 and later CP/M 3.0 ("CP/M+") for the CPC6128, PCW range and Spectrum +3.
A later Locomotive BASIC was BASIC2 for Digital Research
's GEM
GUI
, as supplied with the Amstrad PC-1512
and PC-1640 range of PC clones.
The company also developed the LocoScript
word processor for the PCW, which was a complete bootable environment in its own right with no separate underlying operating system
. The company later produced a PC version of this software but it was not hugely successful - partly because it was a DOS application, just as the PC market was moving to Microsoft Windows
, but also because in the more competitive environment of PC wordprocessors the program compared poorly to incumbents such as WordPerfect
.
The same team later went on to develop the Turnpike Internet client
for Windows, which was for many years distributed as their standard access software by pioneering dial-up Internet access provider Demon Internet
.
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
's home and small business computers of the 1980s.
It wrote or contributed significantly to the ROMs of the Amstrad CPC 464, Amstrad CPC 664 and Amstrad CPC 6128 home computers, the Amstrad PCW
Amstrad PCW
The Amstrad PCW series was a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. When it was launched, the cost of a PCW system was...
wordprocessor and the later Amstrad-manufactured ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
+2A, +2B and +3 machines, amongst others. Its Locomotive BASIC
Locomotive BASIC
Locomotive Basic is a proprietary dialect of the BASIC programming language written by Locomotive Software used only on the Amstrad CPC...
for the CPC range was fast and highly-featured implementation of BASIC for the time and later led to the development of Mallard BASIC
Mallard BASIC
Mallard BASIC is a BASIC interpreter for CP/M written by Locomotive Software and supplied with the Amstrad PCW range of small business computers, the ZX Spectrum +3 version of CP/M Plus, and the Acorn BBC Micro Z80 second Processor....
for Amstrad's CP/M
CP/M
CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
+ machines. Locomotive was also responsible for the ports of the CP/M operating system to Amstrad machines - initially 2.2 for the CPC464 and CPC664 and later CP/M 3.0 ("CP/M+") for the CPC6128, PCW range and Spectrum +3.
A later Locomotive BASIC was BASIC2 for Digital Research
Digital Research
Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world...
's GEM
Graphical Environment Manager
GEM was a windowing system created by Digital Research, Inc. for use with the CP/M operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors...
GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
, as supplied with the Amstrad PC-1512
PC-1512
The Amstrad PC1512 was Amstrad's mostly IBM PC-compatible computer system, first manufactured in 1986. It was later succeeded by the PC1640.It launched for £499 and sold very well, as it was one of the first cheap PCs in Europe...
and PC-1640 range of PC clones.
The company also developed the LocoScript
LocoScript
thumb|right|400px|The opening Disc Management screen in LocoScript 1.40. The "hidden files" are the LocoScript software.The word processing software package LocoScript by Locomotive Software was introduced as one of the programs bundled with the Amstrad PCW, a personal computer launched in 1985...
word processor for the PCW, which was a complete bootable environment in its own right with no separate underlying operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. The company later produced a PC version of this software but it was not hugely successful - partly because it was a DOS application, just as the PC market was moving to Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, but also because in the more competitive environment of PC wordprocessors the program compared poorly to incumbents such as WordPerfect
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
.
The same team later went on to develop the Turnpike Internet client
Turnpike (software)
Turnpike is a British-developed software suite for Microsoft Windows, originally written by Chris Hall and Richard Clayton . The suite, which comprises a combined email and news client as well as a separate program for handling the Internet connection aspects, first appeared in 1995...
for Windows, which was for many years distributed as their standard access software by pioneering dial-up Internet access provider Demon Internet
Demon Internet
Demon Internet is a British Internet Service Provider. It was one of the UK's earliest ISPs, especially targeting the "dialup" audience. It started on 1 June 1992 from an idea posted on CIX by Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems Ltd. The branch in the Netherlands started in 1996, and was sold to KPN...
.