Be Excellent To Each Other

April the 11th 1984 at Westminster School in London, Alan Sugar assembled the media inviting them to meet Einstein, William Shakespeare, Archimedes and Monet in a carefully choreographed press launch masterminded by Nick Hewer. However as it turned out Hewer had scoured the country for namesakes rather than invent a time machine.

At a time when everyone and their dog were launching computers on a monthly basis, Hewer’s intriguing invitation to the media worked. The press piled into the school and saw a swish press launch with an added ingredient missing from Sinclair launches, actual working machines that the journalists could use especially jetted in straight from the production line at Orion in South Korea.

While Sinclair would claim machines would be available in 28 days and would demonstrate prototypes, Amstrad had actual production CPC’s on display and ready for use complete with working software. While the machine wouldn’t hit the shelves for 2 months due them arriving by sea, Amstrad proved their machine wasn’t vapourware at a time when Sinclair, Acorn and Elan were constantly missing deadlines to show their own hardware.

The CPC went on to sell 3 million units and spawn 6 different models (discounting the 472 which was a ruse to avoid Spanish import tax). It quickly established itself as the 3rd place player in the home computer market in the UK, holding that position for the remainder of the 80’s. As the 90’s came and the 8 bits declined, it was overtaken by the Amiga and shunted into 4th place but still level pegging with the Atari ST even as late as 1992.

After many fallow years on the CPC scene, today the machine is thriving with 3 or 4 commercial grade games being released per year. And that genuinely isn’t overselling them, as you'll see many of them are superior to even the best games the CPC had to offer when it was at it’s commercial peak.

It’s this revival that has caused me to want to look at the CPC’s catalogue again. Not a top 30 list of games, but 30 games spread across the machines 30 years. Here’s 30 distinctly Amstrad games and CPC high points as BEEX Proudly Presents ’30 games for 30 years’:



Harrier Attack (1984)



When Amstrad sent out the prototype systems for software houses to produce the first games for Amsoft, Harrier Attack was the first game to arrive back at Amstrad. So it is in effect the first ever CPC game.

You fly your Harrier jet from an aircraft carrier over an enemy occupied island, fight off other planes, avoid anti aircraft guns and then bomb the crap out of the enemy city before landing again on your carrier.

It’s primitive but fun and would have been one of the first games most CPC owners played (for years it was included with the 464’s £100 bundle of free software. It is also the first computer game I ever saw or played!

Shiny and sexy it isn’t, but you have to start somewhere.



Roland In The Caves (1984)



Another early Amsoft game, this is Bugaboo The Flea under a different name (a fact overlooked when people write about Bugaboo). It’s basic, frustrating and has keyboard only controls but the sense of terror as the pterodactyl bears down on you is palpable. You won’t play this game for long, but you probably won’t play it in the dark either.



Sorcery + (1985)



The critically acclaimed Sorcery stood out on all platforms on release, but the CPC version seemed to be extra special. One of the first games where the CPC had a game that was quantifiably better than it’s 8 bit rivals. Building on this, Amsoft encouraged Virgin to produce an enhanced disk only version for their new machines.

With improved graphics, extra screens, high scores that saved to disc and an arcade style attract mode (specified so it could be left running in shops to show off the machines), Sorcery + wasn’t just a cut above other CPC software, it was a cut above anything the other 8 bits had to offer as well.


Yie Ar Kung Fu (1985)



Direct from the arcade, a rather faithful conversion of the fighting game that kept me amused for hours. Street Fighter 2 it isn’t, but it’s still rather fun.


Spindizzy (1986)



An isometric puzzle game with lots of action and a real test of skill and dexterity. Ported to lots of platforms and even received a 16 bit sequel (Spindizzy Worlds), the CPC is where it all started and that is why it makes this list. Try it, it’s great.


Solomon’s Key (1986)



A really nice conversion of the arcade game to the CPC. It’s pretty faithful, looks great and plays well. With 44 levels this puzzler will keep you going for a while. Pity both the arcade original and the CPC version have been pretty much forgotten about.



Get Dexter (1986)



Known in France as Crafton et Xunk (sounds like a techno band) this is an isometric puzzler with a curious sense of humour and a sci-fi setting where you are followed around by your companion, a kind of disembodied foot! Although an isometric puzzle game you can’t lump this in with the Ultimate games or Head Over Heels. It’s really a game all of its own. Also received a port to the ST the following year.



Head Over Heels (1987)



It’s the definitive version of the best isometric platform game around. Forget Ultimate, this is the pinnacle of the genre. Sure you could play the Spectrum version but you’ll miss out on the CPC’s colour and the extra graphics and sprites. In fact the extra bits that Ritman added over the Speccy original didn’t make it to the ST and Amiga versions!



Bombjack 2 (1987)




This was a bit of a duffer on the C64 and Speccy, but something just clicks with the CPC version. Very playable with some colourful graphics and great arcade action. People assume that Bombjack was an arcade conversion but in fact it’s an entirely new game. And one on the CPC it’s well worth playing.



Feud (1987)



“Press fire to begin. Prepare to die”, proclaims the title screen. Never was a truer word written.

Battle against your brother (controlled by the computer) to collect ingredients for spells and then use those spells to destroy him before he destroys you. And he will destroy you, again and again. But you’ll go back and try again because next time you are going to beat that bastard AI brother of yours. In all my years of playing computer games the AI player in Feud is the one I take the most personally and most want to beat. Every time you get so temptingly close to beating him, he beats you. But next time I’ll get him… next time.

Cracking soundtrack, nice chunky colourful graphics. It you are going to play Feud then this is the version to play as recently recommended by Ste Pickford himself on that there Twitter.



Dizzy (1987)



No matter how much Speccy owners try to claim the egg as their own, fact is that Dizzy started life on the CPC before being ported to the Speccy like all of the Oliver Twins Codemasters games. With it’s flickery primitive sprites why pick this over the later games? Well Dizzy is where it all started and is actually the purest distillation of the series. All its faults are carried over to the later games, it’s just the later games have better graphics. Play Dizzy, then move on to the later games by all means but this is where it started.


Cybernoid 2 (1988)



No CPC list would be complete without a Raffaele Cecco game. But which do you chose? Stormlord? Exolon? For me Cybernoid 2 just edges it. While the game is short, it has fantastic fast moving graphics and music which take it above the other 2 games. But most importantly it plays well. If you enjoy games like Blood Money on the 16 bits then this is the closest you’ll get on the CPC.



Werewolves Of London (1988)



Freely wandering around the streets of a city, murdering passers by, targeting victims and avoiding being locked up or shot at by the police. GTA or Werewolves Of London?

When Ariolasoft went bust, Mastertronic picked up the nearly finished Werewolves of London and stuck it out at just £1.99. That’s right not even at £2.99, but £1.99. While the Speccy and C64 versions were a bit naff, the CPC version is enormous fun marred only by sprite slowdown when there is a lot going on.

Yes the game isn’t perfect probably as a result of it being unfinished, but I can’t overlook just how relevant it feels today when every game allows free roaming around a city.


Robocop (1989)



Chart number 1 for 18 months, probably the biggest selling CPC game of all time and famously not reviewed by Amstrad Action (Ocean didn’t send them a copy), Robocop is an iconic game just because of how many copies it sold. Why it sold so many, I’m not even sure. But it is a competent arcade game in the Ocean mould and plays just as well as it’s iconic Spectrum cousin.



Chase HQ (1989)



When Chase HQ was released, the CPC version was slightly overlooked by the multiformat mags. The brilliance of the Speccy version was never in doubt but they preferred to drool over the 16 bit versions instead.

However history has now shown that the 16 bit versions were actually tosh and the CPC version is just as fantastic as the Speccy version but is in full colour. Personally I can’t choose between the CPC and the Speccy version (both are brilliant in different ways). One thing everyone can agree on though and that is the C64 version is hilariously terrible.


Rick Dangerous (1989)



Look, I think Rick Dangerous is a load of all balls with it’s insta-death test of memory gameplay. But everyone else disagrees with me and says it’s one of the best CPC games ever. It makes this list BUT IT DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT!



Castle Master (1990)



You there. Yes you, with your Xbox and your GTA V. Imagine a time when games were 2D only and solid 3D graphics were incredibly memory intensive for 8 bit hardware. Then Incentive invent Freescape (using CPC’s fact fans) which allowed objects to be manipulated in 3D in real time without using much memory. From a heartbeat we go from Driller to GTA V via Star Fox.

So why Castle Master over Driller? Well Castle Master is the pinnacle. The engine runs as fast as you could wish for on a humble 3.5MHz Z80 that has to chug around 16k every frame. The game is immersive, fun and atmospheric. It’s also great for humiliating any C64 owning chums as the Freescape games are like wading treacle on that platform with a frame rate measured in years not seconds.



Switchblade (1990)



One of the most thoroughly modern feeling games to hit the CPC. This is proper console style action. You are Hiro, last of the blade knights and you must explore and fight your way through hundreds of detailed screens to find the parts of the Fire Blade. Just as you think it’s all getting a bit samey, giant end of level style baddies pop up.

Originally put out on cartridge for the GX4000, Gremlin also put out a version for the standard CPC that is hardly missing anything over it’s bigger cartridge brother. While not quite as pretty (no Amiga style gradient skies) the gameplay is just as good. A truly classy platformer that got completely overlooked because people were falling over themselves to buy 16 bit machines. Shame on you, CPC Switchblade is great.



Pang (1990)



A cartridge only game makes this list. Unlike Switchblade, Pang was never made available for the conventional CPC, possibly due to the way it relies on the hardware capabilities of the Plus machines to throw around the sprites smoothly.

It’s a great and faithful conversion of the arcade game with chunky colourful graphics and splendid audio. For memory reasons some of the level tunes are omitted but other than that it’s all here. It has a fluidity and speed that even the ST and Amiga versions lack. Only gripe is some slightly iffy collision detection.



Burnin’ Rubber (1990)



I thought long and hard about the definite CPC racer. Chase HQ isn’t an out and out racer so it came down to WEC Le Mans and Burnin’ Rubber. Despite only running on the Plus machines Burnin’ Rubber edges it, as it’s in effect an enhanced WEC Le Mans.

Bundled free with the GX4000 and Plus machines, Burnin’ Rubber often gets overlooked. But it’s a great racer with some lovely graphics. Yes the frame rate is a little choppy but look at the colours and the fantastically defined sprites. You throw yourself around the course and get a real sense of speed. It’s one of the few 8 bit racers where you can improve and beat your times just by slipstreaming and taking corners at the right angles. Watch the sparks fly as you scrape another car, and watch as day turns to night and back into day again as the hardware takes full advantage of the on-board 4096 colours.

There were lots of things wrong with the GX4000, but Burnin’ Rubber wasn’t one of them. I don’t think there is a better 8 bit racing game.



North and South (1989/91(UK)



For years the CPC was the market leader in France which meant that French software houses went to effort above and beyond anything you’d see in the UK. No such thing as a Speccy port as it had virtually no market share. North and South is in fact a port from the 16 bit machines but loses nothing in it’s gameplay. Superbly realised and superb fun as you take sides during the US civil war.



The Addams Family (1991)



1991 was a thin year for CPC games, but Oceans final release for the CPC really stood out. A platform game in the style of Nintendo and Sega machines, The Addams Family was a cute console style game. Hard to understand now, but jumping on baddies to kill/stun them felt entirely new as a CPC gamer. A fun game and one that made its way to budget fairly quickly as well.



Lemmings (1992)



Even when Lemmings came out on the Speccy at the end of 1991, nobody dared believe that the must own 16 bit title would be making its way to the CPC. But it did.

OK so there is no way you pick this over playing the Amiga version, but it is worth a look if not just to see how well Pysgnosis did. They might have used the CPC’s 4 colour mode, but instead went for the chunky 16 colour mode resulting in a faithful if blocky rendition of the classic game. There’s a huge selection of levels and you’ll recognise the tunes. Only downside was the £19.99 cost for the disk version. Seems a 16 bit game demanded 16 bit prices!



Super Cauldron (1993)



When Titus bought out Palace Software it was announced that the CPC would be getting a version of the soon to be released Super Cauldron to satisfy the still strong French market. So what would have been a 16 bit only game also ended up with a CPC port. And what a cracker it was as well. With no concessions to having to also shoehorn the game into the miserable Spectrum, the developers were able to go all out and put together a console quality platformer on the humble 8 bit machine. It probably sold all of 3 copies in the UK which means it’s rather overlooked, but it’s still great.


Fluff (1994)



Sold all of 10 copies as it was released in 1994 and was for the Plus machines only which means many people missed out on a great game. 60 colours on screen, pixel perfect scrolling and 12 levels, it’s a Sonic inspired platform game without Sonics turn of speed. While Amstrad Action overhyped it (and caused the game to be rushed to release resulting in some bugs) it’s a fun platformer that shows the CPC still had some life in it.



Star Sabre (2007 with 128k update in 2009)



Warning: The clip has distorted sound unless you turn the Youtube volume control down from max.

Just as it is aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, pixel perfect 25fps scrolling in CPC games is usually considered impossible to achieve. Star Sabre takes a cracking Gradius/R-Type clone, gives it the kind of scrolling you’d usually only find on machines with hardware assistance and throws in a thumping 128k soundtrack. Ok so the sprites are tiny and the playfield an odd shape but it’s a huge technical achievement and a fantastic shoot-em-up to boot. It’s fun, it looks great and is a game that puts all of the CPC’s commercially released shoot-em ups to shame.



Orion Prime (2009)




Point and click adventures on the CPC were few and far between. BAT was highly rated but 2009 gave us Orion Prime an adventure with stunning graphics spread across two floppy disks. The game had a limited release of 175 boxed copies before being placed online for free download. Even if you don’t like point and click adventures this one is work a look because it looks so wonderful.



Sub Hunter (2011)



A port of a new C64 game, Sub Hunter sees you control a submarine through 25 different levels rescuing swimmers from the murky depths. What makes Sub Hunter different is the variety of game play. Some levels are almost like horizontal shoot-em-ups, other levels are single screen and require you to manoeuvre your sub to the sea bed or just shoot monsters.

It’s an enormously polished game with ‘just one more go’ gameplay.



R-Type (2012 Remake)



Take one lauded, but to be honest rather shoddy Speccy port and take some talented CPC coders, and you get the new remake of R-Type that proves that it didn’t have to be the case the CPC had to receive shoddy Speccy ports.

R-Type had to be ported to the CPC in just 2 weeks. Luckily Speccy R-Type was quite good but the updated version takes things further. Upgraded from the CPC’s 4 colour mode to 16 colours and with the full arcade soundtrack, this version actually compares well with the Master System version.

While the CPC will never be the system of choice to play R-Type on, this game is a huge technical achievement and plays well. There’s life in the old dog yet!



Bubble Bobble (2013 remake)



Another remake, but one that doesn’t go overboard with the bling. The coder set himself a 48k limit (leaving 16k for screen memory) meaning this enhanced game will still work on all CPC’s with it’s improved graphics and music. It’s actually a brilliant version of the game in its own right.

A really good and faithful version of the arcade game for you to enjoy on your CPC.



So that’s the 30 games. You’ll almost certainly disagree, but I repeat this isn’t a list of the 30 best CPC games. It’s 30 games spread across the 30 years since the 12th of April 1984. Play them, enjoy them!

If you want to read more about the history of the CPC and how it was developed in just 9 months by a company previously only known for hi-fi gear, visit here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/12/archaeologic_amstrad_cpc_464/?page=1



Finally, my own 6128 with SD card floppy emulator. 2014 technology married with a 1985 vintage machine.

Superb. Brilliant read. Thank you.

Brilliant

I want to do a list of Atari 8-Bit games (no where near as complex) for when you get your 65XE

I must have imagined this then...

Great stuff Chinny, thanks.

"Speccy Port" means a game that has been ported to the CPC from the Spectrum with no allowances for the superior hardware. Usually done fairly quickly like R-Type was so that the code isn't even properly optimised resulting in a slower game.

North and South was ported to the CPC from the lead 16 bit version and released in France. Then all 3 8 bit versions were released in the UK in 1991 at the same time. It's fairly easy to port Z80 code between the CPC and Spectrum which probably explains why the French language option remains in the Speccy version. Amstrad had tried to sell the +2 and +3 into France but with little joy. Otherwise why bother including it?

Can't wait for the 65XE to arrive. It'll make up for receiving yet another broken Spectrum 48k!

I only had three of them

Wasn't trying to produce a definitive list, but 30 games to cover the 30 years.

Would love to see if we could do a high score challenge on Star Sabre. It's fast become one of my favourite shooters on any format (nb: I am shit at it).

Great thread, Chinny.

Just a random CPC question, did many games use the improved power of the Plus, or was it a sub-format with only very limited games support like the Commodore 128?

Very limited selection. You had most of the cart games (except for the cart games that were just lazy CPC ports). On cart Burnin' Rubber, Pang, Navy Seals, Robocop 2 and Switchblade are the best examples of using the hardware to good effect. Hardware sprites, hardware scrolling, loads of colours and DMA sound like an ST.

The extra hardware was supposed to be locked to cartridge only (in order to boost cart sales). However when the cartridge format failed Amstrad generously released the key needed to use the extra hardware. Turned out it was just some I/O commands that unlocked the extra features combined with a hexadecimal key.

From then on a few games were released on tape and disk with extra functionality. The main ones were Fluff (as seen above), Styker and the Crypts of Trojan (a Codemasters budget game) and Prehistorik 2. There was also a AWFUL version of Space Gun which was somehow ported to a Plus only disk game straight from the Spectrum complete with attribute clash!

CPC Plus Prehistorik 2:


Standard CPC Prehistorik 2:



Prehistorik 2 came on the same disk so worked with all CPC's. If you had the Plus hardware it used it for extra colours DMA sound and some extra features. However in order to maintain backwards compatibility the game doesn't make use of the CPC Plus's hardware scrolling or sprites (leading to slowdown and the odd scrolling technique you often see in CPC games). I think it's quite clever how the coder has made one game that works with all machines though.

Can we get a check over when those palm trees in prehistoric were done as they look remarkably similar to the ones in Sonic's Green Zone?

It's after Sonic so we can assume it's a homage.

Just read an interview with the games programmer and turns out that when he finished the CPC version, he then ported the game to the Gameboy for which he reused a lot of the CPC code including the sprite handling routines. Although the Gameboy had hardware sprites, turned out they couldn't handle the size of sprite required.