Classic Replay

It suddenly dawned on me the other day that the Amstrad CPC version of Stunt Car Racer might not be the best version. For some unknown reason, the C64, Speccy and more importantly 16-bit versions completely escaped me. That's not saying the Amstrad version is bad, just that I watched a video the other day that compared all versions, and just watching the 16-bitters blew me away. I always thought the Amstrad CPC version was really fast, too fast if that makes sense, those dips, hills and corners came at you at pace, giving the player less than a second to react in some cases. But the Amiga version really opened my eyes to how superior 16-bit computers were in comparison to my trusty 8-bit. At that time as well, I also had an Atari 800XL, but unfortunately, the games on that system were really hard to find, the ones I did find were absolute classics, in fact, the best tennis game I played until Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast was a game called Real Sports Tenn...

I’m a bit late to the party with Taito Legends 2, but if you haven’t experienced this wacky selection of sometimes bizarre arcade games, including football champ, with a control setup that includes ‘shoot’, ‘pass’ and ‘punch’. Then you’re really missing out!   I can’t help but gush over Elevator Action Returns, it’s fast, ultra smooth and offers the best elevator experience I’ve ever had. Then there’s the 1995 Space Invaders comeback, Attack of the lunar loonies, where you get a round of applause for completing a stage, before moving into a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up and boss stage, it’s completely bonkers but massively fun and ultimately cute.   Don Doku Don is a game I can’t even remember, but boy is it fun. It’s nothing to look at, but it’s a really good platformer in the style of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. Suffice to say, I kept playing because the challenge is fitting nicely within my skill set. Gekirindan is one of my favourite games of the compila...

I was just digging through a mountain of my old books and magazines and noticed an old letter I received from Amstrad Action back in the day. Chris Anderson was the publisher and claimed I was one of the first 500 people to have taken out a subscription with Amstrad Action. The letter makes for an interesting read, especially when you consider I renewed and they sent me a free copy of the masterpiece that is Thrust and the wonderful Starstrike 2 . Happy memories and happy days that I thought I'd share with you! Enjoy the contents of this letter from Amstrad Action. 

Game: Take the Bullet Developer: Scotland based Red Lemon studios System: Sega Dreamcast Dreamcast games I never knew existed? This shooter is set in the sixties, you are a highly trained bodyguard who must protect a presidential candidate, from a well-known gang, called the Children Of Gabrielle. What's amazing is that this game has over twelve missions, over fifteen or more different weapons, with a wonderful option to play from either a first-person mode or third person view, but get this, Red Lemon  were also developing the game to work with the Dreamcast's  official lightgun. The mind boggles at such a thought, can you imagine the likes of Virtua Cop or Confidential Mission where you're fully in control of where you walk? From what I've read thus far, this would require the use of the D-Pad, freely running around in this type of game would have been amazing and most likely a first. That's exactly what the developers were hoping for here, throw the a...

I found this old Nintendo article the other day, I took it from a free a mag, called Shortlist from back in September 2015. They basically interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto (director and designer) from Nintendo. The article gives massive insight Shigeru Miyamoto and the people who worked with him, it's reassuring to know that the people testing the game just didn't want to go home, played it into the wee hours of the morning, obviously up and being paid overtime for ironing out all of those nasty mushrooms bugs. Anyway, below you'll find a high-resolution scan of the entire article, hopefully, you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did...

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 ...