Retro Video Gamer

After seeing homebrews, music and other posts created about the Amstrad CPC, I was surprised to not see a thread dedicated to this computer.  So, I figured I'd start one.  For those unfamiliar with this computere, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The Amstrad CPC (short for Colour Personal Computer) is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.

The series spawned a total of six distinct models: The CPC464, CPC664, and CPC6128 were highly successful competitors in the European home computer market. The later plus models, 464plus and 6128plus, efforts to prolong the system's lifecycle with hardware updates, were considerably less successful, as was the attempt to repackage the plus hardware into a game console as the GX4000.

The CPC models' hardware is based on the Zilog Z80A CPU, complemented with either 64 or 128 KB of RAM. Their computer-in-a-keyboard design prominently features an integrated storage device, either a compact cassette deck or 3 inch floppy disk drive. The main units were only sold bundled with either a colour or monochrome monitor that doubles as the main unit's power supply.[2] Additionally, a wide range of first and third party hardware extensions such as external disk drives, printers, and memory extensions, was available.

The CPC series was pitched against other home computers primarily used to play video games and enjoyed a strong supply of game software. The comparatively low price for a complete computer system with dedicated monitor, its high resolution monochrome text and graphic capabilities and the possibility to run CP/M software also rendered the system attractive for business users, which was reflected by a wide selection of application software.

During its lifetime, the CPC series sold approximately three million units.

Here is a video review of the system...

My first computer!

Amsoft (Amstrad's internal softare house) made loads of games starring 'Roland' for this, unfortunately they didnt understand that if you want to adopt a mascot he should actually look the same throughout! Roland in the Caves starred a small flea like jumping creature whereas Roland in the Caves he was a Indiana Jones esq tomb raider 8)

So, Roland was a shape shifter? 

https://youtu.be/bhzEZcfinsI

So, I really love the reviews this dude puts out, and considering how little I know about this computer in general, I found this really useful. He doesn't get into computers like this often, so this sort of stuff is really fun to watch when he puts them out.

Not a computer i owned as a young lad but i could tell you some stories about my mate and hes obsession for Elite..

One of my best mates when I was at school called Nic had an Amstrad CPC464 with a green screen and we used to rip the piss out of him all the time.

I only really remember playing 2 games on it when I went round there - a football management game called FA Cup Finals (or something like that) and a stupid game that came with the computer called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral where the CPU would try to guess what it was you were thinking of by asking questions. We would always win by using something really stupid.

It had a great version of Jet Set Willy. It's full title was Jet Set Willy 2 : The Final Frontier and had an extra section in space. There was a rocket on the roof and if you went into it it launched and took you there.

It comprised mainly of a large space ship to explore but you could go to the transporter room and beam down to a planet or back to the house. In the ship there was a room called the Cartography room and as rooms in the game were discovered, squares were added to this screen that made up a map of the whole game. Rather cleverly, the map was usable as platforms which enabled you to reach the top of the screen to grab one of the collectables. Great game.

I think it had exclusive levels in it but I might be wrong?

Chase HQ wasn't bad if I remember correctly - got the colour modulator around the same time I got that so I could play it on the TV in colour (had the green screen version). Remember playing a lot of Bubble Bobble, Bombjack, Spindizzy and Cybernoid II on it. Also had a US Gold compilation for with Leaderboard, Gauntlet and Infiltrator that I enjoyed.

It had a nice version of BASIC and I have posted elsewhere on this forum about that. I wrote several games in BASIC for that I found enjoyable to do and then play with my brothers and cousins. Basic stuff like Video Poker, Hangman etc but it was a bit of a kick to play something you had written yourself.

Watch that later thanks.

Really interesting video actually, I enjoyed it.

The CPC library is sort of what brought me here.

I'm a Yank. I've no stakes in old 8-bit European computer wars. It's just not my nostalgia. But have you seen what the CPC can do in the right hands? The palette alone is a rainbow of laser bright giant pixels burning your retinas away in that distinctly 80's arcade style. Looking at it on the internet, for the first time, it tapped into something more primal than raw nostalgia, because it looked exactly like what I wanted a computer to look like, when I was still a kid looking at doctored screenshots in magazines I couldn't afford. How had I never heard of it?

A look at the overall library soon explained everything. For every piece of retro art like Dan Dare 2 and Satan, many more programmers had used a Spectrum port friendly high resolution mode that was just 3 extra colors away from being monochrome. And the colors they ran with were hate crimes for the eyes - Midnight Resistance could have been a tasteful black and white, but, oh, no, they had to trim it with asphalt grey and deadly agent orange to really bring home the horrors of war. The Dangermouse sequel, despite sneaking extra colors outside of the gameplay window, is like looking directly into the sun with all that yellow. Even Dizzy the Egg was slimed with an unnecessary radioactive green - because why should the bloody egg only be white? No, you need all 4 colors available on every single screen, in order to really get your money's worth. The critics will accept no less!

To be fair, he's clearly a mutant egg. Maybe it's an origin story.

Anyways, my point was, this was all too fascinating for me to sit out, and not develop opinions on. Once it led me to the C64 vs. Spectrum war, with the legendary SID chip and hardware sprites verses the color clash and the pure ingenuity of people able to afford their first computer...

Well, I was addicted to the tale. Few in America have any idea that there was anything exciting happening in 8bit outside of Nintendo, and this was all more exciting than any hardware war before or since.

Anyways, if you want to know more about the CPC library, you could do worse than visit the site which hooked me in the first place:

CPC Game Reviews (http://cpcgamereviews.com/a/index.html)

I never heard of the CPC until I joined RVG. Living in the Puerto Rico growing up, it was just not something I would have heard of.

We have an Amstrad CPC6128 on display and it's working well. I did have to change the disk drive belt last year but apart from that, it works great. We do need more software on disk though.
See the Amstrad CPC6128 on display here RetroGamer (https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/hardware/amstrad-cpc-6128/).

Pete   :)

The Amstrad CPC 6128 was my first computer. I hold a dear love for it, follow the community, code for it, learn more of it's hidden potential. I must have three of them and they are still working. I love when a computer from 30 years in the past still works, and you can somehow make a use of it. Besides gaming, which has potential but spoiled from hasty spectrum ports, I adore how professional it is sometimes for an 8bit, nice sturdy dark grey case, it's own monitor, good keyboard, great basic, fast 3" disk loading, a highres 640*200 for applications that need many characters per line.

Some of CPC hobby games that show capabilities:
https://youtu.be/GX4TDduqOXs
(Shoot em up with smooth scrolling. There are more from the same author, but this I find more playable.)

https://youtu.be/yM1BSm3Bsho
(great adventure game on CPC (we miss those), with amazing intro)

There are also improved remakes of old games like
https://youtu.be/kHH1V-zOlZk

and

https://youtu.be/lT5-jpa4-DI

remakes.

To continue with this list, briefly, I will mention one CPC demo that is probably the best so far.
https://youtu.be/YJosZfm560Q

And one project that for me is the most impressive thing I have ever seen in 8bits, is the
https://youtu.be/Ish4ReOjdIw
operating system. More information here (http://www.symbos.de/). Although it was created for CPC originally, it's been ported to MSX and might be ported for Enterprise 128 and maybe Sam Coupe and whatever computer has Z80.

@TheWhispersOfSpiders and @Optimouse

two amazing posts, i am now in the market for a CPC so i need your input here..

Would you get a 128k version or the original, is it worth while?

got to say this looks awesome

http://youtu.be/GX4TDduqOXs

I prefer the 128k because most demos need that.
But 64k is great for most games. Most recent hobby game developers prefer to target the 64k. But few great stuff (Orion prime) need 128k I think. Also, there must be a 64k version of Star Sabre, I think it's missing the music and some bosses.

Amstrad CPC. You come for the impossible 12 Pack, you stay for the laggy BASIC type-ins.

Or in my case, I attempted to beat Rolcaves for weeks straight. In green screen mode.

Figured I'd share this video that covers new homebrew titles for the Amstrad CPC.  Enjoy...

Checking out earlier posts in this thread - that Bubble Bobble remake is impressive stuff. I had the original and despite it being a poor looking port I did play it an awful lot. It was OK to play - esp. on the old green monitor!!  :)

That remake looks great though.

I was impressed with that Bubble Bobble game when I saw it.  Probably the best one on the video.  :)

The other conversion I played a lot of on Amstrad was Bombjack.Looks rough now but I got a lot of fun out of it. I remember it controlling well and judging by this video it moves quite well so it probably was as responsive as I remember. :)    It uses the low resolution mode so things get a bit ugly but it means it's colourful and fast. Pity more games didn't use this mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8NHjsrdjU8

I created a couple of nice card games on the Amstrad using BASIC. I created a casino poker machine simulator and a version of Poker Solitaire. What a pity I have lost the tapes I stored them on - there's probably a way of getting them converted to files nowadays to play on an emulator.    :(

I code up Poker Solitaire whenever I learn a new programming language. Here's the version I created to teach myself Javascript and basic HTML :)     Still works!! This must be close to 15 years old now.

https://www.davykelly.com/pokersolitaire

That is cool!  Good thing you didn't use Flash! 

Heh. Yeah. I also coded up a version as a Java applet. That won't work now because of security features in browsers.  Coding something up in Javascript on a web page is pretty much future proof now.

That's good!  I'm sure you can find IE somewhere any play anything.  Security was not its strong suit!