SAM Coupé
More info
- Creator
- Miles Gordon Technology
- Released
- 1989
- Type
- Home computer
- CPU
- Zilog Z80B
A British home computer from 1989, pitched as an upgraded ZX Spectrum — a technical hit but a commercial latecomer.
The SAM Coupé was built by Miles Gordon Technology around a 6 MHz Z80B, 256 KB of memory and a SAA1099 for six-channel stereo sound. It could imitate a ZX Spectrum well enough to run part of its software library, which was the entire selling point.
The problem was timing. The machine arrived in 1989, the same year the Amiga and Atari ST had already eaten the British market, and MGT went bankrupt in 1990. It became a cult machine rather than a big seller — loved by those who wanted the Spectrum heritage with better sound and a real disk drive.