Classic Replay

Programmers: Team Easter Egg (2012) One small ship for man, one giant leap for the CPC ... Some twenty years after its launch, R-Type is back for the CPC. It's horizontal blasting like you've never experienced before, and lacks nothing of the coin-op original. In fact, this is the ultimate 8-bit home computer conversion. The facts: This is without question, a massive improvement over the Amstrad original. Graphics look tremendous, although perhaps a little gaudy in places. Sound is spectacular, considering most Amstrad games produced sound effects that could be bettered by a man, two spoons and a piece of paper, but that's not the case in this version - the programmers have produced some of the best music and sound effects ever heard on the CPC. This along with the gameplay, combine to provide an amazing conversion of the coin-op classic.     What's it like: R-Type on the CPC is a vault of mystery - unexplored and holding new secrets. It's ...

Designer Racing: Motor racing is dead! Long live anti-gravity racing! This old skool, but futuristic racer, used to be my crack pipe of gaming. Wipeout is a white knuckle adrenalin rush, from start to finish. The opening sequence sets the game up nicely, and the boys at Psygnosis should have been knighted on the presentation alone. What's it all about: The year is 2052, and Anti-gravity racing has become the biggest show in the Solar System. This ballistic racer puts you in the cockpit of a souped up craft. In the Championship mode, you must race across six massive circuits in a bid to secure first place. The tracks contain all sorts of crazy swerves and curves, and on the later tracks, you'll need to rely heavily on the air brakes. How does it handle: There are two racing classes in Wipeout. These are Venom (beginner) and Rapier (Hard as nails). If you're skillful enough to complete all six tracks, and finish top of the points table...

The legendary mystic Sword of Omens has been stolen by the demonic, mummified sorcerer Mumm-Ra. The sword holds the Eye of Thundera, the true source of the ThunderCats' power. It’s up to you to go get it back, before Mumm-Ra and his mutants raise all hell on Third Earth. Along with M.A.S.K, Transformers, Centurions and Starfleet, Thundercats stands heroic as one of my favourite childhood cartoons of the 80's. The Thundercats logo has been burnt firmly into my cerebral cortex forever. Along with the 'Thundercats are on the move, Thundercats are loose' opening theme... Thundercats, hooooo! Before all you budding hero’s set out from the Cat’s Lair, know this! Mumm-Ra’s stronghold of evil is heavily fortified, and then some.  Thundercats comprises of fourteen levels, each is a straight line dash, from beginning to end. The priority is to cover the distance within sixty seconds, shooting and chopping your way to the next level.   Each level is in...

The number of great looking games on the CPC might  be few and far between, but can anyone remember a beauty from Gremlin called “Switchblade”? There are in my opinion few games that can hold a candle to Switchblade in the looks and playability department. (Bloody long time we waited to). On something of a crusade to prove just how good Switchblade is, I’ll go as far to say that in a straight fight, Switchblade blows away shed loads of competition; Gryzor and Resistance included. Switchblade is a classy-looking 2D platformer, its visuals are undeniably endearing, but for me it’s the feeling you get from playing. You play a young superhero known as ‘Hiro’, the last protector of the Blade Knights. The trouble is ‘Hiro’ has lost his sword; the ‘Fireblade’. It got  smashed whilst out jogging in the Underc...

Once again,  it’s up to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come to the rescue! Once again Shredder’s after world domination and has kidnapped April and your sensei Splinter (a giant rat) in order to hold them, until completing his plan. April and Splinter are being hidden deep within the bowels of the Technodrome, which just happens to be heavily fortified and primed full of traps. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  is an action packed game based on the late eighties/early nineties movie and cartoon series of the same name. You play as the Pizza eating Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, and have the ability to swap between turtles at the beginning of each battle.  Gameplay takes place from a side scrolling perspective, with most of the action taking place on foot. In addition to each turtl...

Imagine a game with countless doors. Opening one, you find yourself outside of  a well known food chain. Behind another is a music store or ammunition shop, and yet another is filled with evil-red eyed Zombies offering to kill you with a single bite. You’ve heard of Disney Land, well this is Zombie Land, a monstrous shop till you drop of pain. Zombi is loosely based on ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ You control the actions of four survivors – Alex, Sylvie, Yan and Patrick. Your helicopter has run low on fuel, and in an emergency you have to land on the rooftop of a nearby shopping mall. Your mission is to get more fuel and fly the hell outta there. Just like in the film you must navigate your way through a vast shopping mall whilst trying to avoid flesh eating Zombies and contact with other surviving humans hell bent on stealing your ride. Zombi is an adventure game which incorporates animated point and click graphics, as opposed to an arcade ...

Set in ancient Persia, Jordan Mechner’s game follows a tale loosely based on the book ‘One Thousand and One Nights’. The story goes; many moons ago a rich Sultan is called to arms in a bid to protect his land against the enemies of Persia. Whilst away fighting in a distant land the Sultan’s Grand Vizier made an illegal claim for the throne.  The Viziers evil knew no bounds, and his insatiable desire for death and destruction seeped throughout the Persian kingdom, destroying the very fabric of Persian life.  Only a rag-tag unlikely hero is prepared to stand against the Grand Vizier, a humble man with dreams of glory, who one day hopes for the hand of the Sultan’s daughter. The Prince, our hero, is imprisoned, since Jaffar (the Grand Vizier) also has designs on the Princess. Knowing about the history between them, Jaffar also imprisons the Princess, giving her an ultimatum and one hour to decide, marry him or die.    The game starts with an amazi...