Classic Replay

The Craziest race on the 8 and 16bits! #CrazyCars #CrazyCars3 #RetroGaming #Amiga #PC #AmstradCPC # AtariST I first played Crazy Cars 3 on a display Commodore Amiga on the second floor of WHSmiths. Not only was this game supremely well-programmed, for me it was one of the best racing game I'd played since Outrun in the arcade.  In this particular racer, you competed against other street racers and worked your way through four divisions. You could even increase your chances of earning extra cash to buy a challenge license that enabled you to play a bonus level that you needed to win in order to progress. You would do this by betting against the other drivers and raising funds rapidly should you pull off a win.  The graphics, sound, and controls are some of the best I've seen on the Miggy, unfortunately, that was the last time I played the Amiga version until many years later, the good news is that I had it on the Amstrad CPC and whilst it wasn't in the same division, I playe...

You've probably heard about or seen this hidden rant by Richard Aplin buried deep within the Amstrad CPC version of Shinobi, well if not, here it is, after a bit of tidying...  Ok, now all that game rubbish is out of the way, I would like to begin the customary rant, which programmers often put in their code. It is at the moment 04:04:38 on 04/06/89. It is, if you were wondering, very early on a Sunday morning, and I am sitting here in a totally empty office in the centre of Bristol, (13 Small St, if you want to pop in and say hello!) and I am in raptures at the moment listening to the utterly, ridiculously excellent album 'The Wall' by the utterly, ridiculously excellent Pink Floyd. (It's just got to the classic 'How can ye have any pudding if ye don't eat yer meat?' bit!)I am, as if you cared, Richard Aplin, Project Manager (and the person who gets to rush in at the last moment and finish/rewrite games when someone else screws them up totally ...

If you dig through old ZX Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad magazines, you'll find interviews and a whole treasure trove of information from our long lost almost forgotten past. It's slow going, plod like almost, but every once in a while you might come across something that you've never seen or heard of before, things that can't be found on the internet. For example; I've searched high and low on the internet for information about old game sales i.e. Units sold for my favourite 8-bit games, across many formats, but unfortunately this consistently turns up nowt. However, this hasn't deterred me, my mission is to seek out old information pertaining to these forgotten classics, the information is out there, but mixed up in a mass of detail. I'm quietly convinced this slug like approach has legs, heck I've even approached ex-programmers in a bid to find out as much information as humanly possible. With that in mind, this is what I've uncovered thus far, ...

How a new Dizzy game might look on the Amstrad CPC... I’ve always thought that the Dizzy series, when taken in its entirety, is as wonderful, wacky and varied as anything you see in a Sonic or Mario adventure. But our egg-headed friend desperately needs a comeback, and a Mario game mixed with the speed of a Sonic adventure might just be the ticket to bring Dizzy kicking and screaming back from the success of the 80's. Dizzy is a sleeping giant; why can't Codies see this? He should be up there with Sonic and Mario in terms of brand and mascot; it's almost criminal to keep him under wraps like this. Now for the weird part... He could be revived on the Amstrad CPC, the true home of Dizzy. He could use the Amstrad’s hardware scroll, as seen in Killer Cobra - look at the speed that game runs at! Now just imagine replacing the main sprite with an egg, then force upon him the laws of gravity, stick a rocket up his arse and watch him go. I can just see him now, rolling, bounci...

I was obsessed with Ninja films back in the day, Revenge of the Ninja, Enter the Ninja, American Ninja, you name it, I've seen 'em all, back to back on several occasions. As you can imagine, I collected and played anything and everything with Ninja in the title for my Amstrad CPC computer. I doubt I've missed any off the list, but if it didn't have Ninja in the title, it can do one, and that goes for those pesky Teenage Mutant Hero turtles! I also wanted to include Way of the Tiger and Avenger from Gremlin Graphics, but they failed miserably and were disqualified for lacking the word Ninja. It's not the end of the world, as some of the below games were absolutely brilliant!     Bionic Ninja - Released 1989: Code and Graphics by Brian Cross I played this quite late in the CPC's life, it was a side-scrolling affair, budget from memory, but it definitely entertained me for a few evenings. I probably wouldn't play it today, but back in the day, things w...

In the 1980s, My local fish & chip joint held a striking resemblance to a small arcade hall, I'd never seen anything quite like it, without fail they'd always have the latest and greatest arcade games, it was incredible, absolutely amazing! I spent a ridiculous amount of time there, I'd walk in after a few weeks of not going and be like "will you look at that!", new arcade machines everywhere. The food counter was on the left, but the main reason for the majority of my visits was to play on their growing collection of arcade games. The machines were badly but tightly packed into this tiny right-hand corner of the restaurant. It was a dream come true though, I remember they'd get packed to the rafters, especially after school, sometimes I just went to watch how other people played and completed these games. Throughout the years, this is where I played classics such as Kung Fu Master, R-Type, Bubble Bobble, 1943, Outrun, UN Squadron, Pit Fighter, Bion...

Everyone needs a shiny new game to play on Christmas Day, right? But what happened if that game was a U.S.GOLD title? U.S.GOLD had a bit of an up and down relationship with Amstrad CPC owners. Most of their games felt like quick, dirty cash-in's, with big, bright, colourful graphics and broken controls; worse still, some of their games were riddled with bugs. I'm not sure how you guys feel about it, but for me, playing the vast majority of their games on the Amstrad CPC felt like I was wading through treacle. I felt screwed over on many occasions, but didn't seem to learn my lesson. I'd fall for the same marketing candy time and time again, with the promise that this time, their new game for the Amstrad would be amazeballs! I think the final straw came with the title California Games, the Amstrad version was crap, I suspected nearly every single publisher after that, with the exception of Ocean, I kind of half trusted those guys. Just play California Games on the CP...

It`s time to roll up your sleeves and fight for your life! Grab those nunchucks, tighten that belt and get your shuriken death stars at the ready. Meanwhile, back on earth, this article celebrates all those weird and wonderful fighting classics, powered by pixel push and 3D technology! So kick back, grab a slice of pizza and in no particular order... kick some ass! If I missed off your favourite fighter, it's probably because I never played it, but please comment and recommend all the same. I'm always looking for a good scrap. Virtua fighter 2, Arcade and Saturn, released 1994 The Sega Saturn was butchered by the Playstation, but VF2 (Both coin-op and Saturn version) were the highlight of the 90s 3D proving grounds. Virtua Fighter 2 doesn't get boring, you just improve, with the fight becoming more tactical the further you progress. Master one character and it's back to basics for the next. Virtua Fighter 2 came w...

Have you ever wondered what Amstrad CPC games were exclusive to the Amstrad CPC? The list below is what I know of, some of the games below are truly awful, but then again, there's quite a few games I wouldn't have missed for the world. This is by no means a definitive list of exclusives, and in most cases, you can find these games on the Amiga, ST and Consoles, but you won't find 'em on the ZX Spectrum or C64 (That's if I've done my homework correctly).  There's some real classic amongst this lot, Bumpy is brilliant, as is Bactron and D.Day is a masterclass in arcade strategy. I also found a game I never knew existed in 'Dempsey and Makepeace' a classic cop series set in the 80s. But the jewel in the crown for me is Get Dexter. Star Driver needs to be checked out if you've never played it, it scrolls along like a mode 7 game, the scrolling technique from the SNES, and if you think you're ready for a challenge, try Builderland, it needs...

New games continually arriving for the Amstrad CPC...  I’ve been playing quite a lot of Amstrad CPC games of late, it's quite easy to forget about the commercial world of gaming if you allow retro gaming to take over. Recently there's been all sorts of 8-bit competitions and some seriously good games have come out the other end. The library of new games and projects in the pipeline is phenomenal, for example, I'm playing Magica and Doomsday Lost Echoes on the CPC at the moment, with the classic Amiga game Pinball Dreams arriving shortly. I haven't even mentioned the new games I'm playing on my other retro systems, but what a fantastic problem to have, seriously though I can't keep up.  I have  Uncharted 4 and the new Tomb Raider just sitting idle on the shelf gathering dust, nowhere near enough hours in the day to play 'em all.   My Amstrad CPC in 2016 has a wad of original titles, on par and exceeding in most cases the stuff I owned as a kid. I...

I first played HotShot in 1998, it was a demo that came bundled on cassette with the latest issue of Amstrad Action! I loved it so much, but I was never able to fully experience the game in its entirety. I looked everywhere, but nobody stocked the game, even tried to get it on mail order, but that attempt failed miserably, instead they sent me a copy of Karnov, and I never bothered with mail order again! Strangely, I never to played it under emulation, but now in 2016, I've finally tracked it down, thanks to eBay and it's every bit as challenging as I remember. This is Pinball, Arkanoid and Pong all mashed into one, it feels futuristic and there's a fantastic two player option. No time to spare, I need to get back to being a crack shot! What the press thought!

A good sense of speed in a driving game is one of the most vital ingredients, but is there such a thing as too fast? Not many driving games on the Amstrad CPC move at a fair old lick, but Twin Turbo from Codemasters threw out the rule book, breaking the Z80 speed barrier for Amstrad racers. This game is frantic, nerve-shredding almost, where driving dangerously seems to be the norm. Twin Turbo takes the traditional arcade concept where you race to the finish line over five stages. The car resembles a Ferrari, similar to the F40 seen in Turbo Outrun, only faster! The sense of speed is highly convincing, giving you the feeling that you are up against it, with other cars reacting to your movement. Every race feels dangerous, the pace is fast and weaving through traffic, negotiating corners and desperately trying to see over the brow of a hill requires massive concentration and good reflexes. Unfortunately, accidents will happen, in fact, lots of crashes will happen, this is ...

I've always wanted to own this game on the Amstrad CPC, I own it on the Amiga and it's a great game, but unfortunately I'm looking for a replacement disk, as it no longer works. Despite loving this game on the Amiga, I really like the Amstrad CPC version, obviously, it pales in comparison, but I found it highly enjoyable none the less. So a couple of days ago, I stumble across a copy of CC3 on disk for the CPC, manual, poster and all the gubbins included, with the box in almost perfect condition. I put three offers in before the seller finally settled on what I felt was a good deal for the both of us. Today the game arrived and it's in near perfect condition, I'm gobsmacked. It came bubble wrapped up to high heaven, so I carefully opened, slowly peeling back the layers and there it was, a thing of beauty that I'd been tracking down for almost twenty years, my Crazy cars collection is now complete. The game is actually rather cool, ahead of its time almost...

The Soviets strike again, only this time with innovation! I'm still struggling to understand how this one slipped me by. Twenty-six years later I'm scouring eBay, and the next minute, it's delivered through the letter box. This is basically Tetris with a 3D perspective, created by the same Alexey Pajitnov. There're three levels of difficulty, starting with beginner, advanced and finally expert. Each difficulty settings features its own game speed, with the latter seeming almost ridiculous. WELLTRIS continually chucks shapes at you, this bit being similar to the original, the difference now is that you can rotate each shape around the four outer walls as you watch it fall deeper towards the ground. There's sound, but nothing in the music department, sad really as I half expected the Tetris original, instead I found myself humming the original Korobeiniki soundtrack. The graphics are well defined, but seriously lack any real colour, it's also disappoin...

Yippee! A new Amstrad game called Defence just arrived through my letter box, it's my very own, unique custom personalised edition. It comes in a big plastic box, with many extra features. I've not played it much, but the graphics, presentation and general feel of the game so far are looking positive. I hate to admit it, but I'm finding initial progress quite difficult, but that's probably down to me, as I'm used to modern games holding my hand. Update with more info soon...

I'm sure the #CPC community at large has already played this wireframe wonder from Alberto Rodriguez. I personally can't get enough of it, in fact, I like it so much, I purchased the bugger on 3" Disk. These are exciting times for the CPC community, I can't believe that after decades of being commercially dead, the #Amstrad CPC lives on, and appears to be going from strength to strength. I'd have been happy if everything would have stopped after the remake of R-Type, it was everything I'd hoped for, justice was served, the community could have packed up and gone home at this point, mission accomplished, Badda bing, Badda boom! Thank the heavens they didn't, as what came after, continued to deliver, with the same high standards. It's a very strange thing that has happened, I'm witnessing games and graphics I never thought possible, but equally praying this sweet spot in CPC gaming, won't turn sour. I can't prove it, but I reckon ...

The promise of instant loading, outstanding gameplay, improved graphics, were now and truly into full swing. The front page of nearly every CPC or high street computer magazine were still displaying adverts, as though carts were here to stay. Navy Seals, Robocop 2, Shadow of the Beast and Pang, were cited as some of the best games to happen to an Amstrad in years.   Meanwhile, USGOLD announced Gauntlet 3, whilst continuing to plug away at their lackluster back catalogue, with the launch of Coin-Op Hits 2, it featured terrible CPC conversions of Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, Vigilante and Dynasty Wars, with a half decent version of Ninja Spirit, not sure why they included Hammerfist, It was never an arcade game, to begin with.   The excellent people from Probe announced that Back to the Future, Part III was imminent, featuring four levels of movie action, horse riding, shooting, pie throwing and traversing a moving train. It turned out to be actually rather good and...

The best driving games for the Amstrad CPC range of computers... See the video below... 

Part one of a chronological view of the consoles and games I've played over the years. Please click on video below... 

The RAF had an insane idea, instead of taking off horizontally (creatively speaking that is) why not take off vertically? Early testing involved eight Kestrel aircraft, (the prototype and forerunner of the Harrier Jump Jet) testing involved taking off from unprepared fields and woodlands. The results proved the concept worked, and in the late 1960’s, the RAF placed the Harrier into active service. Although the RAF have long since taken the Harrier out of service, today; the US marine corps continue to use its services and will continue to do so well into 2030! This was one of the first side-scrolling games for the CPC, it was released a year earlier on the Speccy and received favourable reviews. I suppose most people today will think that Harrier Attack belongs and should stay in the scrap yard, but back in eighty-four, not only was it my favourite aircraft, it fast became my favourite game and only aviation medicine. There's no flying skills needed, the manual rests in you...