Ice Felix HC85

Historia

The HC series of computer were built at a company called Ice Felix founded in 1970, located in Bukarest (Bucuresti). The Company still exists and even has a (web page with some valuable information (HC85=1985/HC2000=1993). As far as I know all HC machines were Sinclair Spectrum clones, built arround the Zilog Z-80 processor. I am not sure if it was a original Z-80 or a east-european clone. HC85 Introduced in 1985 the HC85 was the first machine of the HC line. It has to load its basic interpreter from tape - there was no floppy disk available. The keyboard is said to be quite bad. From [Old-Computers.com] I learned that there were two versions of the HC-85 - the older one in the classic-syle an a modern-version that looks like the HC-90. The classic-version seems to be the rarer one. According to Stefan Marinescu it had the BASIC interpreter in the ROM, so it did not load anything like that from casette - perhaps this is different for the old and the new version? We have to find out .... HC88 According to Bogdan Bordea there also was a HC-88 (same case as the HC-85) with CP/M support. HC90 Unlike the HC85 the HC90 has a built in Basic-Interpreter. HC91 Built arroud 1991 the HC91 was just a facelife for the HC90. From [Old-Computers.com] I learned that there were two versions of the HC-91 - one with a 40-key version with a HC-90 flat-keyboard an a newer 50-key version with a better (more typwriter like) keyboard. The circuit diagramm is also different. HC2000 In 1993 the HC 2000 was launched - the last and the best of the HC machines. It came with a built in disk-drive (double density, 720kB) - there was also a version of the HC2000 with a built in tape recorder. The floppy-disk version of the HC2000 was able to load a CP/M operating system (you had to type PRINT USR 14446 command at the BASIC prompt).