Classic Replay

The 8-bit era was a fascinating time for home computers, with several iconic machines vying for dominance. Let's dive into why the Amstrad CPC was considered one of the best 8-bit computers, and how it compared to the Commodore 64 (C64), ZX Spectrum, and the MSX. Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC series, launched in 1984, was known for its robust design and built-in monitor, which set it apart from its competitors. It featured a Zilog Z80A CPU running at 4 MHz, 64 KB of RAM (expandable to 128 KB), and impressive graphics capabilities with a palette of 27 colours. The CPC's sound was handled by the AY-3-8912 sound chip, offering three channels of sound. Commodore 64 (C64) The C64, released in 1982, was a powerhouse in the 8-bit market. It had a MOS Technology 6510 CPU running at 1 MHz, 64 KB of RAM, and superior graphics with a resolution of 320x200 and 16 colours. The C64's SID (Sound Interface Device) chip was legendary, providing three channels of complex sound and music. ZX Sp...

In the ever-evolving world of technology, few brands have managed to maintain their relevance and charm quite like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This iconic 8-bit home computer, first released in 1982, continues to captivate the hearts and minds of enthusiasts around the globe. But what is it about the ZX Spectrum that keeps it so firmly rooted in modern-day life? Nostalgia: A Powerful Force Nostalgia plays a significant role in the enduring appeal of the ZX Spectrum. For many, it represents a simpler time when gaming was in its infancy, and the thrill of loading a game from a cassette tape was unmatched. The ZX Spectrum was more than just a computer; it was a gateway to countless adventures and a source of endless creativity. The memories of those early gaming experiences continue to resonate with fans, keeping the brand alive and well. Social Media Presence In today's digital age, the ZX Spectrum has found a new lease of life on social media platforms. Hashtags related to the ZX Spec...

Alright, alright, alright! How's it going, folks? It's your favourite retro channel here, Classic Replay, and welcome to my latest video where we're gonna take a look at the top 30 arcade conversions on the ZX Spectrum!  Now, if you were a kid growing up in the 80s like I was, you'll remember how much we all loved heading down to the local arcade with a pocket full of change, ready to take on all the latest games. But, let's face it, not all of us could afford to spend all our pocket money on those machines. That's where the ZX Spectrum came in - it brought all the excitement of the arcade right into our living rooms! So, sit back, relax, and let's take a trip down memory lane as we count down the best arcade conversions the Spectrum had to offer! #zxspectrum #speccy #sinclair

The ZX Spectrum had a lot of weird 8-bit games. While I cannot confirm or deny whether or not the programmers of the old ZX Spectrum were on drugs, I can say that some of the games that were created for the the 8bit were certainly quite strange at times.  One example is "Jet Set Willy" by Matthew Smith, which featured 'Willy' our protagonist who had to clean up a mansion after a wild party. The game was known for its bizarre visuals and challenging gameplay.  While the reasons behind the oddness of these games may be up for debate, it's clear that they left a lasting impression on many gamers who played them.  #zxspectrum #48k #sinclair #retrogaming

ZX Spectrum | The Six Most Important Games Sinclair Research Ltd. released the ZX Spectrum, an 8-bit personal home computer, in the United Kingdom in 1982. The Spectrum was one of the first mainstream home computers in the United Kingdom, comparable to the Commodore 64 in the United States. The advent of the ZX Spectrum resulted in a surge in firms developing software and hardware for the system, and some credit it with launching the UK IT industry. Head Over Heels, Jet Set Willy, Skool Daze, Renegade, R-Type, Knight Lore, Dizzy, The Hobbit, Way of the Exploding Fist, and Match Day 2 were amongst the top 10 ZX Spectrum games.

The arcade conversion of Operation Wolf with its Uzi sub machine gun was not only a thing of beauty, but a true 1980s treasure. I originally owned and played the Amstrad CPC conversion of which I’m a huge fan and urge you check out. Now for the first time ever, I’m finally playing the ZX Spectrum conversion. But how will it go down when compared to the other 8bits and does it still hold up today? Join me to find out and more…  #operationwolf #Arcade #Taito

33 years of Renegade on the ZX Spectrum. Oh, where did the time go? #zxspectrum #48k #Renegade #Taito #Imagine #ocean #RetroGaming #ZXSpectrumGames @Retro_Fusion @ZXVintage @spectrum48k @zx_spectrum @CrashOnlineUK @ZXSpectrumFans @zx_spectrum_30 

What distinguishes a truly outstanding ZX Spectrum game? Longevity? Graphics? Gore? We debated these issues for a long time. So, here are the results: Classic Replays: 20 of Our Favourite Games!  20ZXSpectrum #ZxSpectrumGames #GamesWeLoved

  The Top 10 ZX Spectrum Games The ZX Spectrum played host to some of the best games of the early eighties. Covering a wide range of genres. Here are my personal favorites. These are games that look at only one vital ingredient, playability. If you're new to the ZX Speccy, these are the games Classic Replay recommends you should look to play first or have in your collection. Naturally, I haven't played every single ZX Spectrum game and these lists are always highly subjective, but I've at least tried to show much thought process and the difficulty involved with nailing a top ten . Please note these are my personal favorites since discovering the ZX Spectrum...   Thanks for your support, leaving a comment, or rating my video! I really appreciate it. Please subscribe and like :)) Thanks.

Speccy ports to Amstrad CPC - The Amstrad CPC is such a flexible computer that its limitations only serve to add extra to its character. Love them or hate them, Speccy ports to Amstrad CPC definitely add to the numbers of games released for our Amstrad computer. Join me in part 1 of Speccy ports to the Amstrad CPC.

My Favourite ZX Spectrum Driving Games is just that. These are in my personal humble opinion the driving games I play the most on the ZX Spectrum. There are loads of other games that I would have loved to include, but these are the driving/racing games I keep coming back to on the ZX Spectrum. What we have here is my personal account of playing my favourite driving games on the ZX Spectrum. Thanks for your support, leaving a comment, or rating my video! I really appreciate it. Please subscribe and like :)) Thanks. Follow us at: https://twitter.com/classicreplay https://facebook.com/classicreplayoff ... https://classicreplay.blogspot.com zx spectrum,games that push hardware limits,best games,spectrum 3d,3d graphics,starstrike 2,extreme,i of the mask,r-type,hard drivin,knight lore,best spectrum games,c64,nes,amstrad cpc,ultimate,manic miner,colour clash,games that defined the,vector graphics,star wars,i robot,shoot em up,zx spectrum games,spectrum,doom,zx spectrum (computer...

Saw this article a while back in Computer Shopper and absolutely loved it. This scan is from issue 348, I had no idea they featured a retro-inspired article once a month in their magazine, I definitely didn't expect to find it here whilst browsing for the latest gadgets. You can click on the image to make it full screen and read it first hand, but it is nice to see a feature on the stuff we grew up with from the eighties. The article talks about the Amstrad models, the 128K Plus 3 with disk drive is the one I had, but I did originally have access to a 48K model, every time we visited my cousin (2-3 times a week) The writer also takes a well-earned playground swipe at Commodore 64 owners, some thirty years later... Great stuff! Make sure you check it out. Well, hopefully, you'll enjoy and it will bring back some amazing childhood memories. It certainly did for me. This guy is a great writer, so look forward to reading more of his articles in future.  

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, ...

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...

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...

I’m sitting here staring at a blank white Microsoft Word background. My head is swimming with random retro thoughts, however, I haven’t got a clue where I’m gonna go with this, but I'll give it a shot.  I've currently been thinking about all these new remakes i.e. The NES, Megadrive and five hundred other devices that are currently available or incoming. Initially, I was really excited by it all, but in essence, these are just more lumps of plastic that I’ve already collected. In 2016, shouldn't we be able to play all our favourite games on a single platform? For sure we have the PC and Raspberry Pie, but I’m thinking more along the lines of a SEGA console that plays all SEGA games, for example; SMS, Megadrive, Game Gear, 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast all in one lovely lump of Japanese plastic. The same goes for Nintendo, Atari and any other console manufacturer, sick of the prospect of buying yet another lump of plastic and feeling restricted to only one genre of consol...

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 ...