Classic Replay

Thrust is an easy game to describe, it's like Asteroids mixed with a splash of Moon-lander. You can tell from the word go that the guts of those classics have been well and truly assimilated, whilst retaining their addictive qualities. Visually, Thrust is less than interesting, I remember it having a half decent loading screen, but that was your lot. If you were willing to forego a little colour and didn't mind a bit of light thinking, Thrust was a real treat. Graphically it's very simple, you guide a spaceship where Gravity can work for or against. At first, it starts out easy, but on later stages, you've got to actively and precisely use the ship's thrust in order to prevent crashing into the scenery. I can't remember why you have to do all this, but the story mentioned something about the resistance planning a massive attack on the Intergalactic Empire, ring any bells? Anyway, your mission was to fly in, grab the Klystron pod and escape in two pieces. Be...

Winner of the Amstrad CPC 16K Rom competition This 16K horizontal scrolling shoot-em-up pits you amongst a host of truly nasty aliens who fire nasty things at you. Make sure your trusty trigger finger is up to the job as this is one serious onslaught waiting to happen. Watch below...

"When I'm on the road, I'm indestructible. No one can stop me... but they try." Scripted by Tim Shafer and Dave Grossman, this 1995 colourful adventure involves an unlikely hero who must travel on a journey of self-discovery. There's Motorcycles, mayhem and murder to contend with in a bid to save everything he knows. Set in a totally polluted apocalyptic future, Full Throttle puts you in the role of Ben, the leader of a biker gang called the Polecats. Enter Mark Hamill as Ripburger, he wants to turn Corley Motors into a minivan empire, by downsizing the workforce and streamlining manufacturing through robotisation. He's already trashed Ben's bike, beat up his gang. And now he wants to frame Ben for a murder he didn't commit (Boo! Hiss!) Completely taken by surprise, Ben must now regroup, compose himself and get set for a head-on collision with Ripurger. Full Throttle is played out using the keyboard and mouse. You start proceedings in a dumpste...

On patrol... Amstrad, Speccy, Arcade and C64 Robocop the movie is stunning, the prime directives still resonate in my head even today. I recall from one scene good old Murphy getting blown to smithereens and in another ED-209 powering up with the immortal words - 'Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply'. The game is every bit as enjoyable as the movie and in some ways just as memorable. I'd already experienced Operation Wolf, Chase HQ, Gryzor and Combat School, but nothing prepared me for what I was about to receive. Delta city had never looked so good, it was littered with dark alleyways, ruined building and crime infested streets. Scenes from the movie were cleverly replicated, including the hostage and drug factory encounter. You could never walk more than a few feet without all hell breaking lose. You start out all guns blazing... ultra violence a plenty. The weapons were as devastating as seen in the movie. In between the horizontal scroll...

Super Monaco GP is a cherished gaming memory of mine. It was loosely based on the famous street race in Monaco and for a while, probably my favourite racing game. Super Monaco GP put you behind the wheel of the stupendously famous Ferrari V12 641, the very car that Alan Prost and Mansell once whizzed around in. I was really good at this game, would play it for weeks, if not months on end. In fact, I still play it today, more-so on the Mega-CD, as that was the version to feature CD-quality sound, music and voice overs. You were presented with three game modes, Arcade, World championship and Free Practice. In the arcade mode, a qualification lap would quickly establish your position on the grid. Then it was onto the starting line. Everything looked the same, only in this mode you had to contend with a position indicator, once you made it near the front, you pretty much needed to hold that position, otherwise, it was game over. It wasn't long before I completed the arcade mode a...

With the original Amstrad CPC now firmly in its twilight years, Radical Software decided they would give the CPC one last push in order to squeeze out that very last bit of power. This is an interview I did with Georg a few years ago now, enjoy!   What have you been upto? Earlier this year I finished my graduation in Social Psychology. Since then I’ve been working as project manager in a market research institute near Hannover. How did you get involved with computers? My parents bought my siblings and me a Schneider CPC464 in late 1984. They hoped that it would help us with our homework or finding a job later in our lives. Shortly afterwards it helped us to spend our leisure time – that’s at least something. Does the amount of attention old programmers get on the web surprise you? Not really. I've been following the talk and discussions on some of the 8-bit forums on a more or less regular basis throughout the years. How do you feel about your o...

It's amazing what I've recovered from my failed H.D.D. Here we have an old Kevin Toms interview from a few years ago, maybe 2009 at a guess, can't believe I nearly chucked it. Hope you all enjoy... lots more to come.   Q: How do you feel about Football Manager all these years on? I am proud of what I created and that it gave so much to a lot of people. Q: When did you realise you wanted to become a programmer? At school and I don't think I really knew what a programmer was, when I decided that. Q: Have you ever thought: 'Wow, I did a great job'? It's not normally what I think. Other people have said I should be more aware of it. Q: How has life changed for you since the 80's? My life is quite ordinary now, apart from the occasional recognition. Q: What are the ten greatest games you've ever played? It's the simplest games that have always drawn me in. I don't like to have to work hard to learn to play. So classics l...

Rod Lawton started out as the production editor for 'ACE' magazine, he later went on to 'Amstrad Action' and was one of Future Publishing's longest standing editors. He lasted just over three years at the helm of 'AA' from December 1989 until 1993, and covered over 39 issues. Q: Before computers and gaming, i.e. the dawn of time, what were your aspirations back then? I was really into photography and, second to that, writing for a living. Q: How did you get started with 'Amstrad Action'? I got a job at Future Publishing as a production editor (the closest I could get to writing at the time) and worked my way up through the ranks. Q: What was it like working at 'AA' towers, and do you still keep in touch with future and the crew? There were lots of late nights but lots of fun too. Things were a bit more anarchic back then, and magazine teams could develop a personality for the mag without publishers having to pass it...

A while back I interviewed Bill Harbison, one of the chaps responsible for the likes of ChaseHQ and Batman... two of my favourite 8-bit games. I thought I'd lost the interview due to a system failure. Here it is, recovered from my now dead hard drive . So, how did you get into the games industry? I had owned a ZX Spectrum for quite some time back in 1988 and, as well as playing games, I was interested in creating art simply for the delight of seeing my work on a television screen. I progressed to taking pictures from arcade games and mocking up a screen of what that game might look like on the Spectrum. After comparing my screens to actual Spectrum conversions I thought that mine were as good or maybe a little better than the ones I'd seen, so with that in mind I targeted a few software companies with my work. After about a year of trying and almost ready to give up, I was offered a position at Ocean Software Ltd in Manchester. What are your fondest memories of...