Another bit of nostalgia within this post. Back in 1992 I purchased my first PC from Wine Street in Bristol – replacing my ZX Spectrum +3 (by then owned by Amstrad).

Dealerships for each model had a two-page definition of the spec and available options.

A clone of the IBM PS/2, manufactured by IBM’s subsidiary ICPI (Individual Computer Products International) run by IBM exec and General Manager Alan J Willsher for the initial launch (and who on the initial production run would have a personal note embedded in the pre-loaded software) before handing off to Giuseppe Giovanni by 1993.

The accompanying TV advert in the UK , along with advertising literature had the tagline take your mind for a run.

Two videos are available on YouTube – one is embedded below (credit: “Ambra” user), the other prohibits embedding, so a link is provided (credit: “Obsolete Archive” user).

https://youtu.be/A7xNg3L_zms?si=VSYS_1mmfEPDHH6l

Mixed reviews exist online about the quality and reception of the Ambra product line, but mine never faltered during it’s entire lifespan of upgrades and constant running – and did I run it some – to complete an A-level computing project based on statistics.

I opted for the low-end model due to cost, and the specs were:

Hardware Specification

The initial production line shipped with 386 processors (later versions of the Mk 1 would have the same chassis, but had “486” stamped in AMBRA grey on the left had slide of the front panel).

Software Pre-Load

The AMBRA range were shipped with pre-loaded software under a “license non-disclosure agreement”. It basically meant that no floppy disks were provided as installation media. The AMBRA documentation suggested performing a backup of the vanilla hard disk which was estimated at requiring 18 high-density 1.44Mb disks and taking ~ 70 minutes to complete.

A call to customer services could enable the install floppies to posted to you for the various applications. These were sent out on 1.44MB floppy disks and were AMBRA branded – archive.org has a copy of these shown below:

Whilst models varied, the first run of Sprinta in the UK had a preload of:

Creating an initial backup was obviously a good idea, but in the event of needing the install disks, the warranty permitted two calls to customer service to have a set of floppies sent to you which you were required to return – or pay £20 to keep them.

Booting Up & BIOS

The AMBRA line used Phoenix BIOS, as was a popular choice (the other notable BIOS being America Megatrends (AMI). Customised by AMBRA, the BIOS screen looked like this:

AMBRA Intro

The AMBRA Intro was a DOS-based application, which served as an initial welcome the very first time the machine was switched on by the new owner, offering the ability to run the tutorial, load Microsoft Windows, or exit to the MS-DOS command line.

A new user would have been presented with the following screen after switching on (in fact this screen was animated):

INTRO.BAT was a DOS batch file held in the C:\AMBRA\TUTORIAL directory, which simply made a call to the AMBRA tutorial file (TUTORIAL.EXE) with a special attribute:

@ECHO OFF
REM ***  Windows Version of the Intro Start-up Sequence
C:
CD \AMBRA\TUTORIAL
TUTORIAL -M
CD \
WIN/3

A welcome message would follow, which originally was signed by Alan as the new GM for Ambra Personal Computers (I cannot find a copy of that early release of the AMBRA software), this is a later version:

Shortly after the following screen would be shown:

AMBRA Tutorial

TUTORIAL.EXE could be found in the C:\AMBRA\TUTORIAL folder and was executable from DOS, but the preload also included a shortcut icon in the Windows 3.1 Program Manager’s “AMBRA” Group.

The tutorial itself, was specific to the slimline AMBRA model purchased – other models in the first series included the AMBRA Hurdla (a desktop version) and the AMBRA Treka (a notebook version). I believe for each there was a base model, a “plus” model and a “max” model each with varying degrees of features. No matter how it was loaded, the tutorial loaded a main screen with an indicator in the bottom right to your specific model – in this case “sprinta”.

Navigating the options was done using either the mouse or the function keys. It was a quite innovative (for the time) animated user guide outlining the basics of the system, the software, upgrade options and a cheeky game.

The graphics were animated and the information was very informative.

The game could be played with various skins which would shuffle and require you to move them back into place.

BOOTDOS, BOOTOLD, BOOTWIN

Within the C:\DOS folder sat three batch files which would configure the boot-up behaviour of the computer (effectively by overwriting AUTOEXEC.BAT & CONFIG.SYS after taking a backup copy).

• BOOTDOS.BAT – use to configure to boot to DOS 5.0
• BOOTWIN.BAT – use to configure to boot to Windows 3.1
• BOOTOLD.BAT – use to configure to default setting prior to using BOOTDOS or BOOTWIN

@echo off
cls
echo			  Program Name: BOOTDOS.BAT
echo This procedure enables you to configure your AMBRA PC so that it can
echo provide optimum performance for the running of DOS applications.
echo You should only use this procedure if you do NOT wish to use Microsoft
echo Windows 3.1.
echo The process executed is as follows:
echo	   Your current configuration files are backed up for later use.
echo	   Standard DOS configuration files are loaded.
echo You may wish to return to your current/old configuration at a later
echo date. To do this type BOOTOLD from any DOS command prompt.
echo See also BOOTWIN.BAT which restores your AMBRA to a standard configuration
echo suitable for running Microsoft Windows.
echo If you do not wish to proceed with the above process please press
echo			    CTRL+C
pause
cls
echo Backing up your current files:
c:
cd\
copy c:\autoexec.bat c:\dos\autoexec.old
copy c:\config.sys c:\dos\config.old
echo Loading new configuration files:
copy c:\dos\autoexec.dos c:\autoexec.bat
copy c:\dos\config.dos c:\config.sys
echo Procedure completed!!
echo Please press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your AMBRA PC

@echo off
cls
echo			  Program Name: BOOTWIN.BAT
echo This procedure enables you to configure your AMBRA PC so that it can
echo provide optimum performance for running Microsoft Windows 3.1.
echo You should only need to use this procedure if you have altered the
echo original configuration files as supplied with your AMBRA PC.
echo The process executed is as follows:
echo	   Your current configuration files are backed up for later use.
echo	   Standard Microsoft Windows configuration files are loaded.
echo You may wish to return to your current/old configuration at a later
echo date. To do this type BOOTOLD from any DOS command prompt.
echo See also BOOTDOS.BAT which creates a standard DOS environment.
echo If you do not wish to proceed with the above process please press
echo			    CTRL+C
pause
cls
echo Backing up your current files:
c:
cd\
copy c:\autoexec.bat c:\dos\autoexec.old
copy c:\config.sys c:\dos\config.old
echo Loading new configuration files:
copy c:\windows\autoexec.win c:\autoexec.bat
copy c:\windows\config.win c:\config.sys
echo Procedure completed!!
echo Please press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your AMBRA PC.

@echo off
cls
echo			  Program Name: BOOTOLD.BAT
echo This procedure enables you to restore your AMBRA PC to the configuration
echo applicable prior to the running of either BOOTDOS or BOOTWIN and is
echo for recovery purposes only.
echo You should only need to use this procedure if you have executed BOOTDOS
echo or BOOTWIN and would now like to restore the previous configuration.
echo The process executed is as follows:
echo	   Your current configuration files will be ERASED.
echo	   Your most recent set of configuration files as created by BOOTDOS
echo	   or BOOTWIN are restored.
echo If you do not wish to proceed with the above process please press
echo			    CTRL+C
pause
cls
echo Erasing your current files:
c:
cd\
echo Loading new configuration files:
copy c:\dos\autoexec.old c:\autoexec.bat
copy c:\dos\config.old c:\config.sys
echo Procedure completed!!
echo Please press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your AMBRA PC.

AMBRA Mouse Driver

The AMBRA mouse had two driver files provided in the form of executable command files – AMOUSE.COM and AMOUSEL.COM bundled in the C:\DOS directory. I don’t know the difference between them. Other web users have reported they are marginally more memory efficient than the DOS bundled drivers.

Read Me NOW! (AMBRA.WRI)

Within the AMBRA group within Program Manager was a Windows Write file (that was the primitive word processor bundled with Windows 3.1 back in the day).

IBM DOS 5.0

The early production lines shipped IBM rather than Microsoft DOS version 5. Version 5 was released in 1991 and it was final version of DOS which had a shared code base between IBM and Microsoft.

There were a few tale-tale signs that it was IBM DOS 5.0 rather than MS-DOS.

• Within the “Main” Group of Program Manager on Windows 3.1, the usual red MS DOS Prompt icon was substituted for an IBM version – this was actually loading a program information file (.PIF) which was called _default.pif and was stored in the C:\DOS directory. The icon supplied by IBM was called _default.ico and was also hosted in the C:\DOS directory.
• The label of the icon was changed from “MS DOS Prompt” to simply “DOS Prompt”
• Clicking on the icon to take you to a DOS prompt would display the IBM copyright, rather than the Microsoft one.

From about 1993, with MS-DOS 6.0 and later 6.x being exclusively released by Microsoft, later versions of AMBRA machines adopted MS-DOS on the pre-load – this was evident in the second generation of Sprinta (the AMBRA Sprinta II), Hurdla (the AMBRA Hurdla MT) and PK3 Laptop (which succeeded the Treka/Treka Max).

Microsoft Windows 3.1

In the UK, I only remember machines pre-loaded with Win 3.1 as my original Sprinta Plus was. There was only minor customisation to the build mainly to create the AMBRA group within Program Manager, and provide links to the AMBRA Tutorial, Read Me NOW file, Microsoft Works, and Lemmings.

The C:\Windows directory did contain nine AMBRA branded wallpapers (.BMP bitmaps) labelled AMBRA1.BMP…AMBRA9.BMP. The default wallpaper was AMBRA1.BMP configured in tile mode on the Windows background. This was a grey image of the AMBRA athlete logo. I changed mine to the full-colour AMBRA4.BMP having seen it on the demo machine in the computer shop.

Click here to see the nine bitmaps pre-loaded.

Microsoft Works for Windows v2.0a

Succeeded these days by Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works was a cut-down, all in one package offering a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database or a Wizard to help you use it.

Works was part of what Microsoft coined the “Solution Series” – also in the series were Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Money.

this was shown in the Help…About dialog (I no longer have a copy but will provide it if ever found).

Lemmings

Lemmings took up a serious amount of my youthful time. Developed by Psygnosis it had versions for many different platforms. AMBRA bundled the DOS version in the prebuild. It could be run from the Games program group with Windows Program Manager and had a cartoon lemming as an icon. I am searching for this icon and it was…. iconic, and will upload it should it return.

I am unaware in that first production line of other software shipped with the build.

Immortalising the Build

Once I have sourced all the original items, tools and programs, I will issue an archive ISO of the original Sprinta pre-build. I welcome any contributions or donations of original kit to help with this. I would gladly do similar for other builds such as the Hurdla, Trekka, Sprinta II and Hurdla MT.

Any AMBRA/ICPI ex-employees or hobbyists who may be able to assist, please do reach out in comments – please start with “AMBRA Museum” in the comments field. Thank you.