The A-Z of Amstrad CPC Games

[TheBuff1]

Hi all


I was listening to the Retro Gaming Discussion Show podcast the other day and saw that they did A-Z shows on various systems (Speccy, Mega Drive etc) but no Amstrad of course! So this got me thinking why not do my own! Now the games mentioned here might not be the best or the most enjoyable but they all mean something to me and I thought it would be nice to compare with everyone else's A-Z.


Apologies if this has been done before or you're sick of lists like this but hey it's just a bit of fun! The only rule I have kept to is that I had to play it back in the day so there a few gaps!! So without further ado here is my A-Z list of Amstrad CPC games:


A - Arkanoid
B - Batman: The Movie (honourable mention Barbarian)
C - Colony
D - Dizzy (honourable mention Destructo)
E - Empire Strikes Back, The
F - Fantasy World Dizzy (honourable mention Feud)
G - Gauntlet (honourable mentions Ghostbusters and Gregory Loses His Clock)
H - Hobbit, The
I - Ikari Warriors (honourable mention IK+ & Italy 1990)
J - Jet Set Willy
K - Kentilla (honourable mentions Knight Tyme & Kane)
L - Leaderboard
M - Manic Miner
N - Night Raider
O - Operation Wolf
P - P-47 The Freedom Fighter
Q - Can't think of any game I played that began with Q!!!
R - Rainbow Islands (honourable mention Robocop
S - Spellbound (honourable mention Streaker)
T - Treasure Island Dizzy (honourable mention The Trap Door)
U - The Untouchables
V - Can't think of any game I played that began with V!!!
W - Werewolves of London
X - Xanagrams (oh dear!)
Y - Yogi's Great Escape
Z - Can't think of any game I played that began with Z!!!

[Gryzor]

Seriously? You couldn't think of Vindicator or Zynaps?


[EDIT - I read what exactly you wrote after posting] Or you never played them?

[dirtybb]

Here is mine


A - Astro Attack
B - Billy la Banlieue
C - Captain Blood
D - Deflector
E - Exolon
F - Fruity Frank
G - Gryzor
H - Head over Heels
I - Into the Eagle's nest
J - Jack the Nipper
K - Knight Lore
L - Le passager du temps
M - Macadam Bumper
N - Nebulus
O - Operation Wolf
P - Pirates !
Q -
R - Rambo III
S - Sorcery
T - Tensions
U -
V - Victory Road
W - Wec le Mans
X - Xevious
Y - Yie ar Kung Fu
Z - Zaxx

[gerald]

L - Les passagers du temps

Was that a mix of "Le passager du temps" and "Les passagers du vent" ? 

[dirtybb]

Was that a mix of "Le passager du temps" and "Les passagers du vent" ? 

Hahaha
Yeah, i played both, but my earth goes definitely to "Le passager du temps" (list edited)

[TheBuff1]

Seriously? You couldn't think of Vindicator or Zynaps?


[EDIT - I read what exactly you wrote after posting] Or you never played them?

Yeah I never played them back when I was a kid - shocking I know 

[TheBuff1]

Here is mine


A - Astro Attack
B - Billy la Banlieu
C - Captain Blood
D - Deflector
E - Exolon
F - Fruity Frank
G - Gryzor
H - Head over Heels
I - Into the Eagle's nest
J - Jack the Nipper
K - Knight Lore
L - Le passager du temps
M - Macadam Bumper
N - Nebulus
O - Operation Wolf
P - Pirates !
Q -
R - Rambo III
S - Sorcery
T - Tension
U -
V - Victory Road
W - Wec le Mans
X - Xevious
Y - Yie ar Kung Fu
Z - Zaxx

Wow a good contrast to my list, plenty that there that I never came across. Did anyone play a game beginning with Q?!

[||C|-|E||]

Huuum... it is quite difficult because many of my favorite games begin with the same letter, buy anyway, these are the games I played the most back in time (they are not necessarily the better, but what I had available  ).

- A - AMC (Astro Marine Corps)
- B – Baby Jo
- C - Cozumel (La Diosa de Cozumel)
- D - Dustin
- E - Exolon
- F – Forgotten Worlds
- G - Game Over
- H – Hero Quest
- I - Ice Breaker
- J - Jabato
- K – Knight Force
- L - LED Storm
- M – Mario Bros
- N - Navy Moves
- O -  Orion Prime
- P - Psyborg
- Q - Quartet
- R - Rescate Atlántida
- S - Savage
- T – Turrican I and II
- U -
- V - Viaje al Centro de la Tierra
- W – Wings of Fury
- X – X-OUT
- Y -
- Z - Zombi

Of course, nowadays the game I play the most is Doomsday Lost Echoes! 

[EgoTrip]

Some of these I really struggled to find a game I liked starting with the letter.

A - Anarchy
B - Blues Brothers
C - Chuckie Egg
D - Donkey Kong
E - Exolon
F - Fruity Frank
G - Gauntlet 2
H - Hydrofool
I - Impossaball *
J - (no idea)
K - Knight Lore
L - Loopz
M - Magicland Dizzy
N - (no idea)
O - Oh Mummy *
P - Pipe Mania
Q - (no idea)
R - Ranarama
S - Spindizzy
T - Turrican 2
U - (no idea)
V - (no idea)
W - Wild West Seymour
X - (no idea)
Y - (no idea)
Z - Zub

[dcdrac]

Uridium

[Cholo]

Tried to think a bit "out of the box" so its games i had(has) but perhaps not the "best" one but instead the "second best" one.

A - Asphalt
B - Bravestar
C- Combat School
D- Doomsday Blues
E- Explorer (the cover looked really flashy & it was cheap, lol)
F- Firelord
G- Gunstar
H- Helicopper
I- Its a Knockout
J- Jack and the Beanstalk
K- Krackout
L- Lightforce
M- Metal Army
N- Ninja Scooter Simulator
O- One man and his droid
P- Park Patrol
Q- (no idea)
R- Raid Over Moscow
S- Solomans Key
T- Terror of the Deep
U- (no idea)
V- Vindicators
W- West Bank
X- Xeno
Y- Yes Prime Minister
Z- Zorro

[Puresox]

Anarchy
Battle beyond the stars
Cholo
Dun Darach
Exolon
Finders Keepers
GridIron
Hunchback 2
Impossiball
Jet Boot Jack
Killer Ring
Laser Squad
Mission Jupiter
Netherworld
Out of this World
Pasteman Pat
Quack a Jack
Rasterscan
Stuntman Seymour
Thunderbirds
Uridium
Vampire
West Bank
Xenophobe
Yi ar Kung Fu
Z the game

[sigh]

After Burner
Batman the Movie
Continental Circus
Donkey Kong
Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters
Fast Food
Gryzor
Hyper Sports
Ikari Warriors
Jetbike Simulator
Klax
Lemmings
Mission Genocide
Nigel Mansell Grand Prix (Martech)
Operation Wolf
Prince of Persia

Q(none)

Renegade
Starion
Target Renegade
Untouchables
Vindicators
Werewolves Of London
Yie Ar Kung Fu
X Out

Z(none)

[Shaun M. Neary]

Aliens
Batman The Movie
Combat School
Deflektor
E-Motion
Flimbos Quest
Gauntlet II
Hunchback II
Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
Jackal
Klax
Leaderboard
Magicland Dizzy
Nebulus
Operation Wolf
Pacland
Questor
Renegade
Silkworm
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - The Coin Op
Untouchables
Vindicators
Wonder Boy
X-Out
Yie Ar Kung Fu
Zynaps


Also just to show off.


1942
2112 AD
3D Pool
4x4 Offroad Racing
5th Axis
720 Degrees
10th Frame

[||C|-|E||]

Silkworm was definitely second in my list. I love the game and I finished it with my cousin after a playing marathon 

[TheBuff1]

Wow! Thanks for all of your contributions guys. I love it that there is quite a different range from of all us and shows that although our trusty machines came out later than other 8 bits there was still a wealth of games available. There are plenty on your lists that I have never experienced before as well but will do now!

[Shaun M. Neary]

Wow a good contrast to my list, plenty that there that I never came across. Did anyone play a game beginning with Q?!

Yep, played a few. Questor is the one I put on my list.


There was also Quartet, Activision's conversion of the Sega arcade. It was awful though. Q10 Tank buster was a budget release which also sucked shit. Qabblah was also one of the later Amsoft games which also wasn't great.


So out of all the games I played beginning with Q, Questor really was the best out of a bad bunch. Quest For The Golden Eggcup was meant to be a really good text adventure, but I just wasn't a fan of the genre.

[||C|-|E||]

It is crazy, I know, but I loved Quartet back in time 

[Carnivius]

A - Addams Family (or Astro Marine Corp)
B - Bubble Bobble 4 CPC
C - Chase HQ
D - Dan Dare III (or Death Wish III)
E - Exolon
F - Frogalot (or Fast Food)
G - Golden Axe
H - Hero Quest
I - Into The Eagle's Nest (or Island of Dr Destructo)
J - Jungle Warrior
K - Kane
L - Lorna
M - Mission Elevator
N - Night Hunter
O - Operation Wolf (or Oh Mummy)
P - Prehistorik 2 (or Potsworth & Co)
Q - Quick Draw McGraw (or Q10 Tank Buster)
R - RoboCop (or Rampage or Rex or Rick Dangerous 1 or 2 or R-Type128k)
S - SwitchBlade! (or Satan or Stryker & The Crypts of Trogan)
T - Turrican II (or either Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles game)
U - UN Squadron
V - Vindicators
W - Werewolves of London (or War Machine or Way of the Exploding Fist)
X - Xenon (or X-Out)
Y - Yogi's Great Escape
Z - Zona 0

[AMSDOS]

Nobody ever played Quack-a-Jack?

[Puresox]

I listed it and I love the game , don't think anyone else cares for it though.

[AMSDOS]

I listed it and I love the game , don't think anyone else cares for it though.

Overshadowed by Spindizzy methinks    Though it's a mixture of BASIC/Assembly, though performs adequately.

[Puresox]

Out of that popular game type of the early days I think it is a pretty good example of the genre

[Shaun M. Neary]

Decided to go a bit further into detail with these. I know some of these are obscure choices. So here goes.

Aliens

This game was just so large. It kept me occupied for months in 87. I never got to finish this one, I don't do cheats, so needless to say, there are many games on my bucket list that I still have to complete.

Batman The Movie

Loved this one! I actually prefer this to Robocop, even though the main sprites movement is pretty much the same. Was a big fan of the movie, I still am to this day, although the Batwing on level 4 is very frustrating, It usually leaves me with one life left if I'm very lucky, leaving me shit out of luck for the final level.

Combat School

Another one I never got to finish until recently. The fight with instructor level had a bug in it which crashed the second I landed a hit in, oddly enough I could take all the hits until I died and it was never a problem!

Deflektor

First ever puzzle game I ever got to play which got the ball rolling on a genre of games I would become hooked on. A lot of people credit Tetris for that, but this was mine.

E-Motion

The most bland looking game you'll ever see, but it kept me going for a long time, in fact, I wasted quite a warm summer in 1990 clicking away at this one.

Flimbos Quest

Doesn't really need explaining. It still frustrates me that during this period of the Amstrad, that some of it's best work was release as the ship was pulling out of the harbour. As I'd discover from books over the years, a lot of the programmers had a very difficult time working with the machine that by the time they'd finally mastered it, the 16bit market had really sunk it's teeth into the consumer. Shame.

Gauntlet II

Was a massive fan of the arcade, played it before I played the original too as in my home town, there wasn't really much to do until a snooker hall opened up in 87, and this was one of the games that featured in it. A four player option in the arcade was so immense, so I was just happy that a two player option was still a thing as so many conversions dropped it (Ninja Warriors, Bionic Commandos, Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja, etc).

Hunchback II

This was just old school classic fun! Plus it loaded from tape in about two minutes, enough time to run downstairs, grab something to drink and go back upstairs again. Good times.

Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade

I couldn't really care for it's bland pale blue graphics, but when I'd seen some of my friends still running on a green screen monitor, I'd realised how much I'd taken colour for granted and that it was all about the game and not it's appearance. Nice mix of difficulty as the game progressed too. It'd been reviewed in the first AA that I'd bought for years, AA 49, the Shinobi demo issue (which would get me in a habit of buying it for further years), so I'd obtained a lot of games that had been reviewed by it.

Jackal

This game gets cursed from a height by a lot of people but I loved it. I loved a lot of the Konami classics from the mid 80s if truth be told, so when I got my hands on Konami's Arcade Collection at the end of 88, they got played to death, including this one. I distinctly remember one of my exams being cancelled in 89 and we were all sent home, and firing this one up to play it. I think I'd played it early in the morning before I went to school too. Priorities!

Klax

I remember being really excited when Domark and Tengen buddied up for a rake of coin up conversion, and being disappointed by quite an amount of them, Xybots, Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters, Badlands and STUN Runner being a few of them, so Klax was a real diamond in the rough.

Leaderboard

I enjoy pitch and putt, but Golf actually bores me, the poncey clothes, the sheer snobbery in the clubs, and it's about as interesting to watch as paint dry, but Leaderboard did have a simulator feel to it too, especially if you were able to memorise all the clubs and the distance they made your ball go, it became a very satisfying game to play. World Class Leaderboard trumped it a couple of years later too.

Magicland Dizzy

I actually didn't get to play this one until 1993! The sales of the Nintendo and Master System had skyrocketed during the 80s, and with the Megadrive surfacing in the early 90s, 8 bit software was getting harder to come by unless you found em in some corner of a rinky dink shop down a side street. I enjoyed this one more than I did Fantasy World Dizzy, but I wished that this, and subsequent games would have taken advantage of the full screen.

Nebulus

One for the 'I can't believe it's not an arcade conversion' pile. And probably my favourite non licenced games. I only finished this properly back about five years ago. Shame it misses the bonus stages, but it's still so good, that you can almost forgive it.

Operation Wolf

Wasn't to impressed with it in the arcade, I couldn't quite get the co-ordination right using the gun controller, even if it was quite revolutionary for it's time, but loved it on the Amstrad. I could never get past level 4 because my tape version wouldn't load level 5. Upon trying to play it now, I'm lucky if I can get past level 2 now!

Pacland

Another one I loved in the arcades as a kid. This actually looks and plays quite well on the Amstrad compared to the coin op, it's a real faithful conversion which is why I love it so much. Many people gasp in horror when I list it in my top ten. I remember Kev Thacker and Dave Wykes thinking I was batshit crazy when I listed it as my favourite at the time in 95, but I was into a lot of odd games that year, including Buggy Boy!!

Questor

I have no excuse here, it's the best of a bad bunch out of the limited range beginning with Q that I'd actually played. It's pretty decent as far as graphic adventures go though, but I get bored of Graphic Adventures easily as I find myself going around in circles a lot.

Renegade

A lot of hate for this game here regarding it's controls, but I found it a piece of piss on the CPC to get used to them. On an emulator nowadays, it's completely unplayable on a controller, so it's keyboard or bust. It's a bit of a shadow of it's arcade counterpart, such as the over the shoulder throw that's missing from it, but for early 87, it's one of the better games that came out that year.

Silkworm

So much two player fun that happened in 1990 as a result of this! Loved it in the arcades as well. Graphically, it's a little bland due to the lack of background, which could have been taken care of (look at the awesome P47 Thunderbolt for example!). I was always the jeep btw.

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - The Coin Op

Another example of the Amstrad's capabilities taken advantage of, but it was too little too late. This was the game everyone was waiting for after the disaster of it's predecessor the year beforehand. Although I think turtle power had run it's course by the time the game finally saw the light in 1991.

Untouchables

What was it with speccy ports, that all my favourite games were several shades of blue?! You can blame AA's christmas 89 covertape for wanting me to get my hands on this one. Another one I never finished, but it was a fun little jaunt of a game.

Vindicators

Another Domark/Tengen conversions that did quite well. The graphics were a little blocker than they should have been given the machines capabilities, but this was another one that kept me occupied during 1990.

Wonder Boy

Loved, loved, LOVED this in the Arcade. The CPC version is a little slower, but it's still perfectly playable. The difficulty really ramps up once you get past the fourth boss. Sadly, it's one of those kind of games where some people can find it a bit slow and plodding that they end up switching off the monitor and ramming something else into the tape deck instead. Only got to finish this one four or five years ago too. Lack of game ending sequence was disappointing to say the least.

X-Out

After the balls up that was R-Type, this was welcomed, even if it was slightly delayed on release, the wait was well worth it.

Yie Ar Kung Fu

Where Street Fighter's origins really began. I'm actually back playing the arcade version of this again due to setting up my PS2 with OPL and getting it to load PS1 games too. The CPC version is nicely done, didn't take too long to load from tape, and no multi load hell to deal with. I love pre 87 games so much for that factor alone.

Zynaps

Pre R-Type if I recall correctly, and like typical Hewson's catalogue of games, fiendishly difficult to say the least!

Not bothering with the numbered ones, I figured you guys have read enough!