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General Category => Games => Topic started by: fano on 18:50, 17 April 18

Poll
Question: About a new 'commercial' game :
Option 1: Digital version on SD card (for C4CPC) + manual - 15-20€ votes: 3
Option 2: Physical cartrige 40-50€ + manual votes: 21
Option 3: Digital version only + digital manual (for DIY/EPROM/C4CPC) 15€ votes: 12
Option 4: Would be interested in something but pricing is too expensive (please comment about version) votes: 1
Option 5: Nope, i prefer classical free homebrew votes: 4
Option 6: CPC only ! votes: 2
Title: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 18:50, 17 April 18
After discussion here : http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gx4000-article-from-the-pixel-empire/ (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gx4000-article-from-the-pixel-empire/) , i was wondering who would be interested for a new commercial game for GX 4000 / Plus range.I have actually no project for this range (as i'm already involved in other projects) but that may be interesting to know if GX/Plus community would be interested in a such project for future devellopers.
I put pricing as indication, that can vary.Same thing about possibility to product cartrige plastic case, i don't know about 'pro' finition instead of 3D printed cartriges.
Who would be interested with a such project ? please vote even you're not interested in such project.To finish, i'd say there is no good vote, everyone is free to be interested ;)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: tjohnson on 19:05, 17 April 18

Quote from: fano on 18:50, 17 April 18
After discussion here : http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gx4000-article-from-the-pixel-empire/ (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gx4000-article-from-the-pixel-empire/) , i was wondering who would be interested for a new commercial game for GX 4000 / Plus range.I have actually no project for this range (as i'm already involved in other projects) but that may be interesting to know if GX/Plus community would be interested in a such project for future devellopers.
I put pricing as indication, that can vary.Same thing about possibility to product cartrige plastic case, i don't know about 'pro' finition instead of 3D printed cartriges.
Who would be interested with a such project ? please vote even you're not interested in such project.To finish, i'd say there is no good vote, everyone is free to be interested ;)


It would be great to get a new game that uses the features of the plus models in a good way rather than some of the shonk we've seen in the past.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: HAL6128 on 19:32, 17 April 18
Interesting. But, what do you think, would be the difference between a commercial and a homebrew game? (Quality? programming experience, Professionality?...) Your version of R-Type for example is free and one of the best Games.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: andycadley on 19:45, 17 April 18

I think it would vary greatly based on what it was, I'd not fork out a lot for a physical cartridge just because it was a physical release.


I have some ideas (and a smattering of code) for a GX release at some point but trying to find time, particularly after spending all day coding, is the perennial problem. More titles that show off what the GX hardware is capable of would always be a good idea though. :)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 19:48, 17 April 18
I would pay over the odds for a GX4000 version of Outrun!


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 21:19, 17 April 18

Quote from: HAL 6128 on 19:32, 17 April 18
Interesting. But, what do you think, would be the difference between a commercial and a homebrew game? (Quality? programming experience, Professionality?...) Your version of R-Type for example is free and one of the best Games.
Thx, i'm not objective so i can not say if it is one of the best CPC game but i'm very proud of it  ;)
Let's say the idea comes from my personnal experience, i've worked on project for other machine than CPC.Just finished a game for Colecovision and noticed it is usual to have new games in cartrige format for Colecovision.That comes for NES and MD too.
For 'commercial' game, i meant quality (i meant quality in the way they can be compared in quality with some console games of 8/16 bits era) games where authors are paid (note i didn't said homebrew games can not have quality, there are a lot of quality homebrew on CPC)
Maybe knowing if GX/Plus users are ready to follow this way may motivate some CPC devs and makes come some from other machines.As author, i can say making a game that is liked is a very great thing (i see regulary great feedback from R-Type and that makes me very proud), getting a bit of money of your passion is cool too and know someone would pay for a game you made is really great.
I hope this pool will open the debate and i'd like moderator pin the subject when the pool will be closed, it could be usefull for future dev in the choice of a project ;)


Quote from: tjohnson on 19:05, 17 April 18It would be great to get a new game that uses the features of the plus models in a good way rather than some of the shonk we've seen in the past.
For me this is obvious, GX/Plus range need games especially develloped for them.Without lazy programming but without dealing with state of art, it is possible to make great games for theses machines.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Sacrosanct on 11:03, 18 April 18
Colour me interested. Specifically, platformers/shoot 'em ups would be particularly good on the GX/Plus machines.
I voted for the "SD/C4CPC" version, because the extra storage/memory that the SD option provides can in turn make for better, bigger games, if the latest demos released for that format are any indication. I usually opt for physical media myself, but in this case if it means giving up the physical version for a more enriched game, then I'm all for it.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: kawickboy on 13:57, 18 April 18
40€ for a really gorgeous new game in opposition of some early jaguar homebrew (cheap pong-clone coded with the atari2600 basic then ported to jaguar, worst than a speccy port) why not.


A bubble bobble-like with gameplay improvement taken from bubble symphony, parasol stars, snow bros 2 -4 players mode !- would be a nice beginning. Taking inspiration from Fire&Ice (the master system port isnt' so bad), Toki, Cabal too.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: CraigsBar on 14:06, 18 April 18
Quote from: kawickboy on 13:57, 18 April 18
40€ for a really gorgeous new game in opposition of some early jaguar homebrew (cheap pong-clone coded with the atari2600 basic then ported to jaguar, worst than a speccy port) why not.


A bubble bobble-like with gameplay improvement taken from bubble symphony, parasol stars, snow bros 2 -4 players mode !- would be a nice beginning. Taking inspiration from Fire&Ice (the master system port isnt' so bad), Toki, Cabal too.
I'd pay 40 easily for a physical cart in the style of ghost on the MSX [emoji6]

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: roudoudou on 14:38, 18 April 18
What will be the cost of a real cartridge, since an additionnal chip is needed to emulate the ACID chip protection? Plus the box, plus the eeprom, ...
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: tjohnson on 20:47, 18 April 18

Quote from: roudoudou on 14:38, 18 April 18
What will be the cost of a real cartridge, since an additionnal chip is needed to emulate the ACID chip protection? Plus the box, plus the eeprom, ...


Making a pcb would be relatively cheap, the expensive part would be making the case and the box.  I don't know the actual costs but low volumes would probably make it prohibitive.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Phantomz on 20:56, 18 April 18
I still want to run the new R-Type from cart, would be great if you could make it run in 64k from cart to make it GX4000 friendly, if not, I'd still love it for my plus.  ;)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: CraigsBar on 21:57, 18 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 20:56, 18 April 18
I still want to run the new R-Type from cart, would be great if you could make it run in 64k from cart to make it GX4000 friendly, if not, I'd still love it for my plus.  ;)
It should be fine if we get a version of the tool to convert a 80track dsk image right?

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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Phantomz on 23:47, 18 April 18
Quote from: CraigsBar on 21:57, 18 April 18
It should be fine if we get a version of the tool to convert a 80track dsk image right?

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

No, the disks have protection for some reason, even though I thought it was a free download.  ???
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 07:53, 21 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 23:47, 18 April 18
No, the disks have protection for some reason, even though I thought it was a free download.  ???

Really? That makes me sad [emoji17]


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Gryzor on 08:28, 21 April 18
Cartridge; I'd prefer a SD but the original physical form would fetch more on eBay has more sex appeal for me...
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 11:56, 21 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 23:47, 18 April 18
No, the disks have protection for some reason, even though I thought it was a free download.  ???

I believe it does not use the firmware, and has it's own built in disk reader that directly accesses the CPC disk hardware (probably to save the 8k of ram the firmware uses)...

And free to play is not the same as free to modify and redistribute - so even the disks are protected, that's up to the author.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Phantomz on 12:30, 21 April 18
Quote from: keith56 on 11:56, 21 April 18
I believe it does not use the firmware, and has it's own built in disk reader that directly accesses the CPC disk hardware (probably to save the 8k of ram the firmware uses)...

And free to play is not the same as free to modify and redistribute - so even the disks are protected, that's up to the author.

That's true and fair enough.

I was just stating that it's protected so we won't be able to convert to cpr for the plus machines even if a new version of nocart is released.

I believe a few plus owners might like to run this from cpr / cart, I know I would.

It needs 128k so it will only work on a 6128 plus, therefore no modification ( key remapping ) would need to be made.

Basically, if we can have a free to play disc/s to play, it would be nice to have a free to play cpr if possible.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 12:41, 21 April 18
ChibiAkumas EP1 uses the standard firmware functions, works on 64k, and is 2x180k disks in size, so should fit on a cartridge if you have a cartridge emulator that works with 360k disks.

It's opensource, and you're totally welcome to convert it if you wish... also the new 'V1.666' version that is coming soon has CPC+ palettes for better colors.

EP2 is too big at 4x180k.. in theory you could remove the 256k content to shrink it down, and maybe it would fit, but I'm not willing to remove content from my own game... but again, I have no problem with someone else doing the work and releasing it.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 23:59, 21 April 18
Quote from: keith56 on 11:56, 21 April 18
I believe it does not use the firmware, and has it's own built in disk reader that directly accesses the CPC disk hardware (probably to save the 8k of ram the firmware uses)...

And free to play is not the same as free to modify and redistribute - so even the disks are protected, that's up to the author.

Yeah, but it sucks not being able to play it on my GX4000


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 04:00, 22 April 18
Quote from: ukmarkh on 23:59, 21 April 18
Yeah, but it sucks not being able to play it on my GX4000
even if it didn't use a custom loader, it wouldn't work on your GX4000, because it needs 128k minimum... and in fact, because they saved around 8k-10k of ram by writing that loader -if they hadn't used a custom loader it would actually needs more memory to make it work, so it would probably need 192k for the same functionality.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 07:04, 22 April 18
Quote from: keith56 on 04:00, 22 April 18
even if it didn't use a custom loader, it wouldn't work on your GX4000, because it needs 128k minimum... and in fact, because they saved around 8k-10k of ram by writing that loader -if they hadn't used a custom loader it would actually needs more memory to make it work, so it would probably need 192k for the same functionality.

If you were to write a game for the GX4000 like R-Type, how would one go about it, would you need to cram and only access each level in 64k chunks? Just curious as I know very little about the GX4000 and it's cart storage or access.


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 10:33, 22 April 18
simply put the cartridge appears as 32 banks of 16k rom, that appear at the &C000-&FFFF... of course this means they're read only.

the 'Disk emulator' cartridge conversions have a 'Fake Amsdos' on them, which intercepts disk commands, and reads the data from this rom into the normal place in ram - of course this means you need the same ram as the original game.

If you were writing from the ground up, you would keep things that never need to change like Sprite data in the ROM, and just use the 64k for the 2 screen buffers (32k), variables and other things that need to change.

The trouble is, that if the game uses self modifying code, generated level data etc, then that data cannot work straight from rom.. so really, a game which is going to have the function of a 128k game, but run on the 64k GX4000 needs to be designed with that in mind from the start.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Shaun M. Neary on 10:53, 22 April 18
Quote from: keith56 on 10:33, 22 April 18
The trouble is, that if the game uses self modifying code, generated level data etc, then that data cannot work straight from rom.. so really, a game which is going to have the function of a 128k game, but run on the 64k GX4000 needs to be designed with that in mind from the start.

Stupid question, but can two versions of the same game not be put on the cart? Like a 64k and a 128k version of the game? Might be worth considering though.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 11:04, 22 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 23:47, 18 April 18No, the disks have protection for some reason, even though I thought it was a free download.  ???
Nope, there is no protection, i just used my own FDC code because it's faster and smaller.Chany hacked the game and made a file version, maybe you can try with this version (btw i don't think the game would fit in a 512K cart)

Quote from: Phantomz on 20:56, 18 April 18I still want to run the new R-Type from cart, would be great if you could make it run in 64k from cart to make it GX4000 friendly, if not, I'd still love it for my plus.  ;)
If i remember well i gave the sourcecode, if someone wants, no problem.On other side, a 'real' GX version would involve some serious rewrite of the rendering system to take adavantage of the soft scroll for example.This would improve dramaticaly the speed of the game =)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Phantomz on 14:16, 22 April 18
Quote from: fano on 11:04, 22 April 18
Nope, there is no protection, i just used my own FDC code because it's faster and smaller.Chany hacked the game and made a file version, maybe you can try with this version (btw i don't think the game would fit in a 512K cart)

@fano (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=87) Thanks for the information, I thought it was protected.  :doh:

The FDC still stops it being friendly with nocart.  :(

I didn't realise there was a hacked version by Chany, have you any idea where it might be possible to download it from?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 15:31, 22 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 14:16, 22 April 18
@fano (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=87) Thanks for the information, I thought it was protected.  :doh:

The FDC still stops it being friendly with nocart.  :(

I didn't realise there was a hacked version by Chany, have you any idea where it might be possible to download it from?
You may try there as we asked some sites to avoid this version because it slaughtered our work : http://cpccrackers.free.fr/Downloads/Chany/RType2012_Chany.rar
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Phantomz on 16:00, 22 April 18
Quote from: fano on 15:31, 22 April 18
You may try there as we asked some sites to avoid this version because it slaughtered our work : http://cpccrackers.free.fr/Downloads/Chany/RType2012_Chany.rar

@fano (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=87)

Thank you for the link  :) even though as you said " it slaughtered our work "  :(

There are to many files on the disks to use with nocart, maybe someone might be able to make it run from cart, I'm not sure.

Do you know if your original or this hacked version work on the M4 Board ?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 19:32, 22 April 18
Quote from: Phantomz on 16:00, 22 April 18
@fano (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=87)

Thank you for the link  :) even though as you said " it slaughtered our work "  :(

There are to many files on the disks to use with nocart, maybe someone might be able to make it run from cart, I'm not sure.

Do you know if your original or this hacked version work on the M4 Board ?
You can remove some files i think and keep only one level to test.I don't know at all but original should work on any expansion RAM that works like original CPC.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 04:08, 23 April 18
Quote from: Shaun M. Neary on 10:53, 22 April 18
Stupid question, but can two versions of the same game not be put on the cart? Like a 64k and a 128k version of the game? Might be worth considering though.

Yes it's perfectly doable, but everything extra you support means you have to 'up your game' in terms of planning and design, and means more testing and debugging...
The new ChibiAkumas has currently taken me 350 hours of development time (I've been running a timer)... at the moment, the last six weeks has just been testing and debugging... and much of the reason it's so hard is I'm testing on ZX+3 (DSK), ZX+2 (TRD), MSX2, MSX+V9990, CPC6128+,CPC6128,464+ and 464... it's really tough.

Say I had supported GX4000 and CPR too.. and it added just 10% to the development time (probably a realistic minimum)... we'll that's another 35 work hours, and the problem is, there's a breaking point - take on too much and you'll never complete the project - and end up with nothing to show for it...  I'm pretty sure that's the main reason so few new games support CPC+ or 64k... it's just narrowing your target platform to a comfortable minimum... and when the games are being made for fun, who can blame the developers for that?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 12:17, 08 May 18
Quote from: roudoudou on 14:38, 18 April 18
What will be the cost of a real cartridge, since an additionnal chip is needed to emulate the ACID chip protection? Plus the box, plus the eeprom, ...
Sorry i didn't reply you before, i must say i don't actually have a precise idea, it's not possible to get original GX game boxes but a cardboard boxe is not that expensive, 512K eprom is not that expensive too, maybe Gerald could light us about ACID replacement cost.The bigger overcost would be sadly the cartrige plastic case :/ (when looking audience, the 3D printed case is the best option, have to see to cost and quality we can have with this)


Btw, still 9 days to finish the poll and i must say i was expecting more potential  ::)  (this is not the whole GX/Plus potential but that give an idea)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Skunkfish on 18:08, 08 May 18
SD card option is interesting. I guess this would pop straight in the C4CPC and make it work like a regular cart? (I.e. instaboot)


Out of curiosity, how many C4CPC's are out there now?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 21:06, 08 May 18
Quote from: Skunkfish on 18:08, 08 May 18
SD card option is interesting. I guess this would pop straight in the C4CPC and make it work like a regular cart? (I.e. instaboot)
Yep, there is not difficult as you can already do this with C4CPC  ;)
About how many C4CPC, i think only Gerald knows.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: dragon on 02:10, 09 May 18
I not sure if a normal sd fit, (all microsd come with adapter now) . But maybe as game case you can use ps vita game cases. They are cheap and easy to find new. In case of sd card use.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 03:10, 09 May 18
Quote from: dragon on 02:10, 09 May 18
I not sure if a normal sd fit, (all microsd come with adapter now) . But maybe as game case you can use ps vita game cases. They are cheap and easy to find new. In case of sd card use.
Normal SD doesn't fit in C4CPC but using a SD adaptateur to protect µSD card seems a good idea ;)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: GOB on 11:21, 10 May 18
For me Physical cartrige 40-50€ + manual.
I hate dematerialised format and object is also important than game.
A good manual is welcome.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Shining on 08:14, 12 May 18
Quote from: tjohnson on 20:47, 18 April 18

Making a pcb would be relatively cheap, the expensive part would be making the case and the box.  I don't know the actual costs but low volumes would probably make it prohibitive.


Spoke with bryce about this some time ago. Using asic-emulator and low volume we came to a pcb-price of about 18-20€ including 512kB EPROM. I've a resin-solution for casing (copy from original) made from a model constructor pricing about 10 €. So you only pay about 30 € for the hardware.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: chinnyhill10 on 08:42, 12 May 18
Quote from: Shining on 08:14, 12 May 18
[size=78%] I've a resin-solution for casing (copy from original) made from a model constructor pricing about 10 €. So you only pay about 30 € for the hardware.[/size]


Casing is a big expense. I know someone who has had injection moulds made for VIC 20 carts and while horrifically expensive to do, once the costs are covered the cost per unit is small. But you have to have enough of a user base to justify it and you'll never be able to do that on the GX4000.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 10:06, 12 May 18
Quote from: Shining on 08:14, 12 May 18

Spoke with bryce about this some time ago. Using asic-emulator and low volume we came to a pcb-price of about 18-20€ including 512kB EPROM. I've a resin-solution for casing (copy from original) made from a model constructor pricing about 10 €. So you only pay about 30 € for the hardware.
Interesting, add game, manual and box and we are at 50€, i'd be interested to see resin case quality.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 10:41, 15 June 18
Quote from: fano on 18:50, 17 April 18
After discussion here : http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gx4000-article-from-the-pixel-empire/ , i was wondering who would be interested for a new commercial game for GX 4000 / Plus range.

That's an interesting thread. I really enjoyed reading it. Whilst I never owned a CPC+/GX4000, just a normal CPC, I recently discovered the CPC+ features and really love them.

Do we have some numbers concerning the CPC+ user base? For example on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_GX4000) we read that Amstrad sold only 15,000 GX4000 units. But what about the CPC+ (464+ and 6128+) ?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: amijim on 19:53, 18 June 18
Hello there , i am 35 years old and in my childhood i had an 6128 plus bought new by my father as a present for me for..... ,actually for no reason and this was the best lesson in my life but this is another story.Since then i had a lot yet i lost interest in all games except the one i used to play as a child in commodore 64 ,amstrad 6128plus and amiga 1200.Today i have a son of 3 years old and i guess my generation loves to spend more time with the children and there is no better way for than playing and learning and here comes your question.As a father i spend a lot for my child and i could happily spend 20 euros every 3-4 months for a game in my beloved retro home computer.I guess i am not the only one but Xifos game is a remarkable outcome.I could easily pay 20 euros for his game in cluding 4mhz games.But they have to be plus games because the lagging in the cpc original scrolling pause i think would be problematic for the your generations.For us it is okey , we are all used to it but the new generations i think not.I vote for digital c4cpc or dsk edition.Payment should be a thing of trust and understanding.The key question is how much time Xifo spend on his game?If it is half a year programming days he should get at least half a years half time salary.I guess 4000euros for every game.We should be at least 200 patriots paying 20 euros for him to invest his time on us.I think it really worth it.We are thousands out there who could spend 20 euros for a nice game.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 20:22, 19 June 18
Quote from: amijim on 19:53, 18 June 18
Hello there , i am 35 years old and in my childhood i had an 6128 plus bought new by my father as a present for me for..... ,actually for no reason and this was the best lesson in my life but this is another story.Since then i had a lot yet i lost interest in all games except the one i used to play as a child in commodore 64 ,amstrad 6128plus and amiga 1200.Today i have a son of 3 years old and i guess my generation loves to spend more time with the children and there is no better way for than playing and learning and here comes your question.As a father i spend a lot for my child and i could happily spend 20 euros every 3-4 months for a game in my beloved retro home computer.I guess i am not the only one but Xifos game is a remarkable outcome.I could easily pay 20 euros for his game in cluding 4mhz games.But they have to be plus games because the lagging in the cpc original scrolling pause i think would be problematic for the your generations.For us it is okey , we are all used to it but the new generations i think not.I vote for digital c4cpc or dsk edition.Payment should be a thing of trust and understanding.The key question is how much time Xifo spend on his game?If it is half a year programming days he should get at least half a years half time salary.I guess 4000euros for every game.We should be at least 200 patriots paying 20 euros for him to invest his time on us.I think it really worth it.We are thousands out there who could spend 20 euros for a nice game.
That was the goal my friend, to have an idea about how many people would be interested to reward Plus/GX dev for making a (QUALITY) game and to have an idea about audience choices.I must say the result is a bit disapointing...
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Xyphoe on 21:03, 19 June 18
Quote from: fano on 20:22, 19 June 18
That was the goal my friend, to have an idea about how many people would be interested to reward Plus/GX dev for making a (QUALITY) game and to have an idea about audience choices.I must say the result is a bit disapointing...
Oops. I'm a huge GX4000 fanboy and I missed this thread and poll! See? Maybe a lot of people weren't aware and perhaps spend more time on Twitter etc than forums these days. I don't know.
But I'm 100% interested, and would pay up to £50 for a proper physical release.

The choice of project though is key to it's success (duh!), and the best chance of success is 'remaking' an existing famous game - most likely one that didn't appear on the Amstrad or the conversion was poor. You saw how massively popular the R-Type remake was? I'm still staggered by the response I can see in terms of views and comments on the videos on my channel - it far exceeds any other 'homebrew' Amstrad project by a considerable margin. (And so yes - I can help to promote and hype the project like I did before with R-Type with trailers and teaser videos, etc!). That Super Mario Bros demo I put a video up of a few months got a huge amount of views very quickly too.... which leads me to some suggestions....
#Super Mario Bros

I think there's been two attempts and work in progress already, not sure how far these are. But maybe you could turn yours into Super ROLAND Bros, using the various Roland sprites for different power-up states - and go off and make your own game design with a homage to the original Super Mario? I'd like to see this on the Plus/GX4000 though with the available hardware sprites / scrolling for a smooth fast experience.

#Outrun
Someone's already mentioned it above. We desperately need a decent version of this!!
#Street Fighter II
Already in the works and quite far in I hear though.I think they are the 'top 3' on anyones wish list.However if you want to make your own game from scratch - because you'd be more passionate about it - go for it! Although as I said above, it wouldn't generate as much interest.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 21:15, 19 June 18
Quote from: fano on 20:22, 19 June 18
That was the goal my friend, to have an idea about how many people would be interested to reward Plus/GX dev for making a (QUALITY) game and to have an idea about audience choices.I must say the result is a bit disapointing...
Seeing how few units of the GX4000 have been sold (only 15,000) and probably the CPC+ units were in a similar low magnitude (I'd still be interested in hard numbers concerning the sold CPC+ units), it's probably a financial risk today to produce a commercial CPC+ only game (including GX4000).
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: tjohnson on 21:58, 19 June 18
Yeah i suspect physical releases of gx4000 would have limited up take, i wonder how many active users for them.   They come up regularly on eBay and no shortage of buyers but don't make amazing money, still more than the 10 or 20 quid that dixons sold them at when it flopped, i pity the idiots that spent £99 on one..... Sob

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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 00:33, 20 June 18
Quote from: Xyphoe on 21:03, 19 June 18
The choice of project though is key to it's success (duh!), and the best chance of success is 'remaking' an existing famous game - most likely one that didn't appear on the Amstrad or the conversion was poor.
You are 100% right, but as a developer I wouldn't persue a remake, unless I had authorization from the original developer... as the project could get killed by a lawsuit at the last minute... especially if you're planning to profit from it (I don't think TotO made any money selling his game at $15).. and all the time you'd spent would be for nothing.

Quote from: Widukind on 21:15, 19 June 18
What could be done, would be a decent game which comes in a standard version for standard CPCs and in a parallel version for the CPC+/GX4000 using the extra plus features. The developers would use the same code but different "render paths" (hehe). A bit like with Atari ST and its STE.
ChibiAkumas does this to some extent, the original game was CPC only when it was 90% complete, and the CPC+ sprites were added at the last minute... The new version added CPC+ color palette too... I plan to do a similar thing for future games too.. release with limited CPC+ support (cpc+ palette but no sprites).. then release an enhanced version with sprites if the feedback is good... the reason for this is the CPC sprite code is the same for CPC/MSX/ZX etc... but the CPC+ code has to work with the hardware limits, so it's all custom code.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: kawickboy on 13:46, 20 June 18
Quote from: fano
That was the goal my friend, to have an idea about how many people would be interested to reward Plus/GX dev for making a (QUALITY) game and to have an idea about audience choices.I must say the result is a bit disapointing...


Don't underestimate the retrogaming general scene. Yes, the inquiry in this website didn't get many answers but remember r-type128, orion prime for exemple and recently the ghost'n'goblins remake. Thoses games are now famous in thoses communities. Many retrogaming webstes and boards mentioned them. You and Toto were invited to retrogaming meetings to show your work. In the french community Atlantis is now well-known for his Athanor saga.


GX4000 is well-collected now. In fact, too many people still believe that copter271 and panza cost 300€ due to 2 or 3 strange spanish auctions 15 years ago. But even common games like batman or klax and other cheap conversions are sought after.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 16:10, 20 June 18
Quote from: kawickboy on 13:46, 20 June 18
Don't underestimate the retrogaming general scene.
Yes indeed.

Does anybody know how the number of CPC retro users compares to the number of C64 retro users, very roughly ?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: andycadley on 18:38, 20 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 21:15, 19 June 18
Seeing how few units of the GX4000 have been sold (only 15,000) and probably the CPC+ units were in a similar low magnitude (I'd still be interested in hard numbers concerning the sold CPC+ units), it's probably a financial risk today to produce a commercial CPC+ only game (including GX4000).

I don't really get that argument, the market at this point is so tiny that making a standard CPC game isn't going to give you a significantly larger user base than a Plus title.


Quote from: Widukind on 21:15, 19 June 18What could be done, would be a decent game which comes in a standard version for standard CPCs and in a parallel version for the CPC+/GX4000 using the extra plus features. The developers would use the same code but different "render paths" (hehe). A bit like with Atari ST and its STE.
That really, really cripples what you can do though. If you look at perhaps the biggest example, Prehistorik 2, there is no way it would have had to have that jerky push scrolling if it wasn't for the need to be able to work on a standard CPC.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Captain Past on 20:29, 20 June 18

I'm definitely interested in new GX4000 games, and I would happily pay for a good quality commercial release.
In all honesty, as someone who didn't grow up with an Amstrad CPC and who doesn't feel particularly nostalgic for that system, mainly because of the new Ghost'n'Goblins port, right now I find the GX4000 actually more interesting when it comes to homebrew than the classic CPC range, simply because it is more suited for the games that I like to play. Plus I want to see what more can be achieved on that console.
Now, that of course doesn't mean that I don't appreciate a lot of the new games for the classic CPC computers, and I'm glad that with poly.play there finally is a publisher who is selling nice boxed new CPC games (on disk). But I have to agree with andycadley: when creating a new game, supporting classic CPC computers and the Plus range at the same time is like shooting yourself in both feet, at least when creating games that could benefit from having hardware sprites.
Poly.play would also be the address to point questions to about how many copies of new CPC games can be sold nowadays.

Quote from: Widukind on 16:10, 20 June 18
Now for example there's a nice C64 retro game "Sam's Journey", and its authors wrote on their website (https://www.knightsofbytes.games/) in March 2018 :
1,250 units in the starting three months, well that's not bad, isn't it?
Even though the C64 community is of course bigger, those 1250 units of Sam's Journey are in no way representive of how many copies of new C64 can be sold. The last numbers I've read for the best selling new games are actually 1000 units lower, and games of average popularity probably sell like a 100-200 copies (including the digital download sales which are usually very cheap).
I imagine something like 50 copies could maybe be sold of a new GX4000 game, which probably is about as many as a new CPC game ond disk/tape is selling (I'm really just guessing here). So making money can not be a factor for creating new games for these formats anyway. But hopefully there are still some people like Xifos who do it for the fun and fame :)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 22:25, 20 June 18
Speaking from a personal point of view, GameDev is a 'loss leader'...
The majority of my patreon backing comes from people following my Youtube tutorials, as does the majority of the positive feedback I get... youtube vids take a week where as gamedev takes 8 months ... so they also take less time and cause less stress.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, people in the retro community are more interested in youtuber video creators than game devs - last time I said It I was speculating, now I'm saying it first hand.

Heck, it is what it is, but I'm not stupid, I'm going to allocate my time and effort to what I get the most positive return for, I'm trying to shift things so future games will be based around the code created for the tutorials, and will be more multiplatform to attract a larger possible audience, but if I had to give something up, I'd ditch the gamedev, and keep up the youtube vids - that's just common sense.

The other problem is, supporting more platforms means less platform specific features, so things like CPC+ sprites and hardware scrolling are not likely.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: dthrone on 08:56, 21 June 18
Quote from: andycadley on 18:38, 20 June 18
That really, really cripples what you can do though. If you look at perhaps the biggest example, Prehistorik 2, there is no way it would have had to have that jerky push scrolling if it wasn't for the need to be able to work on a standard CPC.


I totally agree with this.  It's what concerned me with the announcement that the new Toki would be on classic cpc and plus, there's no way the game is going to be anywhere near as good as it can be unless they are developed separately and just share a few graphics etc.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18
Interesting inputs! Thank you.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: kawickboy on 11:20, 21 June 18

C64 like Atari 8 bits, is a platform well sold in the USA and we are talking about a homebrew for the classic C64. 1250 units sold within Germany, UK, Italy, Scandinavia and USA isn't so far in fact. CPC orders are coming mostly from France, Spain & UK.

[/size]I don't think Orion Prime sold more than 200 units but it was a free download at the same time and some people don't want to pay anything in retro (that's another problem). But are we talking about a one batch release or "as long as it's sold" release ?
[/size]
[/size]Binaryzone didn't publish their charts. Not more than Polyplay. The 1st sold cheap game with a simple but useful package, the 2nd one more expensive games with a luxury content. As both are selling quality games charts would be interesting to know.
[/size]
[/size]CPC+/GX4000 carts is a specific "market", not  inside the CPC market. Some people do collect GX4000 carts and don't care about CPC. Most of the hardware were sold in France and UK. And even there, when i read Amstrad Action it seems that it was really hard to find carts in UK stores and the games were published monthes after the franch release.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: tjohnson on 12:21, 21 June 18
I can a attest to the fact it was hard finding games for the gx4000 when it was released.  I bought pro tennis at the time not because i really wanted it but because it was pretty much all i could find and just wanted some games for my new console.  There was department store, long gone, in Kingston on Thames that stocked a few where i bought 3 games from but i don't recall anywhere else stocking games.   No wonder it was a failure really when there was no software available for it and much was direct dump of existing games.

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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: andycadley on 21:22, 21 June 18

Quote from: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18In case the CPC market is as tiny as the CPC+ market, I still can't see a reason to skip the CPC market just because it's as tiny as the CPC+ one? :-)
To be clear, it's not about skipping the CPC market - if you have a game that works well on the old hardware that's great and you should totally go for it. And it's a "nice to have" if it "lights up" a bit on the Plus hardware in the way that, for example, Chibi Akumas does.

Quote from: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18
To create a game in two versions for both CPC and CPC+ is of course a challenge, like I said, but I think well worth the effort. On the PC we always had to do it this way, isn't it? Most of the code base (logic etc) is shared between both versions, but the graphics "driver" path is different.
It just doesn't work like that in reality though. If you construct a scroll engine around the Plus pixel scrolling, for example, you can't then just "swap in" a slightly different routine to do the same on an old school CPC. You have to re-write everything that even vaguely goes anywhere near the display logic (and that's most of the code). You may have to redesign levels to cope with less fluid movement, redesign all of the graphics to cope with the lesser choice of palette and flat out remove or replace some functionality that the old school CPCs just can't do. The alternative is a "lowest common denominator" approach where you're really just targeting the original hardware and not really taking advantage of what the Plus has to offer.


PC games waste a lot of CPU time making those kind of scaling decisions because they have a lot of it to spare, every cycle on a CPC or Plus game is likely to be very precious.


Quote from: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18
So you, Captain Past, noted that the well selling C64 retro game Sam's Journey is the great exception. That's unfortunate to hear, but very important to know. (Do we have numbers, by the way?)
The C64 was a vastly more successful system than the entire CPC range combined and still has more of a global reach, so it's frankly just a better target if you want a financially viable retro platform. Even the Speccy is more likely to be able to support the cost of development than the CPC and I honestly doubt you'd make any real return on sales there either.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 10:44, 22 June 18
Quote from: andycadley on 21:22, 21 June 18PC games waste a lot of CPU time making those kind of scaling decisions because they have a lot of it to spare, every cycle on a CPC or Plus game is likely to be very precious.
Yes, but still the best optimisation in order to reduce cycles is the proper selection of algorithms and models.
Also, since a game needs a separate binary for the CPC (.dsk) and for the Plus (.cpr), the scale decisions – in contrast to PC games – would be done at compile-/assembling-time and not at run-time.

QuoteThe C64 was a vastly more successful system than the entire CPC range combined and still has more of a global reach, so it's frankly just a better target if you want a financially viable retro platform.
That's true.

However, I always prefered and still prefer the European home-computers (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Acorn Archimedes) because they were better for us to learn how to program with their excellent OS, BASIC and Assembler.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: fano on 10:56, 22 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18However, when doing an indie retro game today, the prospect of it returning some pocket-money wouldn't do any harm.
I would not present like this but i totaly agree the idea.

Quote from: Widukind on 09:06, 21 June 18Do we know some numbers concerning how many CPC retro fans are out there interested in new CPC games, in contrast to CPC+/Gx4000 retro fans? The poll in this thread indicates the CPC+/Gx4000 retro fans knowing this website.

In case the CPC market is as tiny as the CPC+ market, I still can't see a reason to skip the CPC market just because it's as tiny as the CPC+ one? :-)
My point was not to skip the CPC market as main effect but it is a side effect.My goals when doing a Plus/GX game is to use their features, the game design itself would relies on the Plus features (mainly soft scroll, hardware sprites, DMA channels and ROM storage), it's not possible to transpose this on classical CPC without losing original design.

Quote from: Widukind on 16:10, 20 June 18Now for example there's a nice C64 retro game "Sam's Journey", and its authors wrote on their website in March 2018 :
1,250 units in the starting three months, well that's not bad, isn't it? (Digital download version for 20 €, and boxed edition for 45 €.)
Impressive, i think it's close to a just good NES/MD game.

Quote from: kawickboy on 13:46, 20 June 18
Don't underestimate the retrogaming general scene. Yes, the inquiry in this website didn't get many answers but remember r-type128, orion prime for exemple and recently the ghost'n'goblins remake. Thoses games are now famous in thoses communities. Many retrogaming webstes and boards mentioned them. You and Toto were invited to retrogaming meetings to show your work. In the french community Atlantis is now well-known for his Athanor saga.
Please don't misunderstand me, i think you know i have an idea about CPC/Plus scene.R-Type has been and is still a great success, i'm very happy how community received it, i see it on social medias at least every week, reviews, speak about it with a lot of people, btw i officially released the source with assets lately to allow a Plus cartrige port.My question was a bit different, i know a good game would be greatly received by community, the question was more about attractivity of the Plus 'market' for some homebrew devs.

Quote from: Xyphoe on 21:03, 19 June 18#Super Mario Bros
I think there's been two attempts and work in progress already, not sure how far these are. But maybe you could turn yours into Super ROLAND Bros, using the various Roland sprites for different power-up states - and go off and make your own game design with a homage to the original Super Mario? I'd like to see this on the Plus/GX4000 though with the available hardware sprites / scrolling for a smooth fast experience.
Remember seeing some messages about this, i think that could be a great idea.People who would make it must take the time to do a great job, that could be a future reference in terms of quality.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Shining on 13:40, 22 June 18
Due to the lack of existing hardware, I don't think a plus-game will get more "customers" than a classic-cpc-one.


Defence was a game not for any kind of players and I "sold" about 25 copies for classic 128k CPC. Since I gave Polyplay Pentomino for free, I cannot give any numbers here.


Like keith, I'm always sad about the lack of feedback, nevertheless a plus-exclusive, cartridge-exclusive game is definitely in my pipeline for a long time now and I researched about cartridge-cases for over 4 years. Now, that I have a solution here, I can move on...


I don't care about the market and I don't care about multi-platform, I care about CPC and nothing else...
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: GUNHED on 13:54, 22 June 18
Not completely off-topic I hope: How much would one Cartridge-Shell cost?


What would be the best way to get them?

Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 14:28, 22 June 18
Quote from: Shining on 13:40, 22 June 18
Since I gave Polyplay Pentomino for free, I cannot give any numbers here.
I have ordered it, so you have at least one sale!

I'm sure that people on here will hate it, but the patreon model works well for me, people who make a $1 a month donation get weekly updates with behind-the-scenes info, early access to the game etc, and it helps me keep going through the times my motivation is drying up.

I don't know if there's any other ways for fans of game developers to make small contributions to the ongoing development to in exchange for behind the scenes info or input into the games final content,via a platform like Patreon, Twitch or Youtube livestreams?

Essentially boxed copies of retro games are selling for the same price today as they did in the 80's, despite 30 years of inflation,  the lack of mass production and big publisher backing and 3 inch disks being rare as hens teeth..., if you wanted to encourage more (or better) development through financial reward it would seem to me some kind of 'alternate revenue stream' is needed.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Shining on 20:32, 22 June 18

Quote from: GUNHED on 13:54, 22 June 18
Not completely off-topic I hope: How much would one Cartridge-Shell cost?




What would be the best way to get them?


As I said to you in the past, I'm not very interested in selling them but to produce a game on cartridge. If there is an interest, I can collaborate with bryce to give a complete solution: catridge with eprom  + case. Now that I have a shell-solution which satisfies me, I need a pcb-solution. But paying the initial-costs alone keeps me away from it at the moment.  I discussed that with Bryce already. To get a price, I can live with, there is a need to produce a minimum of 100 pcb (costs about 16-18€ without EPROM but with all other stuff including acid-emulator). And I cannot pay that amout of money. I do not know, if there is a general interest by others to get something on cartridge, now that the c4cpc exists. But for me, I sometimes want cartridges with my own stuff on it (like a special system cartridge or something like that). Perhaps it is worth to do a poll about cartridge-solution.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Maniac on 21:19, 22 June 18
I'd be pretty interested if it was the right product for my tastes. But I guess there lays the issue; you can't please everyone! A take on a popular genre such as a platform game would likely fulfil that. Something along the lines of Mayhem in Monster Land or similar seems a good fit for a Plus game to me.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: GUNHED on 00:17, 23 June 18
If we could get Cart-Shells I would take about 100.  :)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 02:41, 23 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 10:41, 15 June 18
That's an interesting thread. I really enjoyed reading it. Whilst I never owned a CPC+/GX4000, just a normal CPC, I recently discovered the CPC+ features and really love them.

Do we have some numbers concerning the CPC+ user base? For example on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_GX4000) we read that Amstrad sold only 15,000 GX4000 units. But what about the CPC+ (464+ and 6128+) ?

Lots of GX4000's were sold off cheap in the U.K. hundreds of thousands, there must be at least 500,000 that were sold off in the end. I remember one warehouse in Sparkbrook, Birmingham selling 'em for £25 each, another shop selling 'em for £50. These warehouses literally had thousands.


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: keith56 on 03:50, 23 June 18
Quote from: Shining on 20:32, 22 June 18
To get a price, I can live with, there is a need to produce a minimum of 100 pcb (costs about 16-18€ without EPROM but with all other stuff including acid-emulator). And I cannot pay that amout of money.
Could something like this be funded in a Kickstarter fashion?

If someone such as yourself has freely contributed software/demos/etc to the community before, I'd happily donate some money to help them with a project like this, even if there was no 'reward' to me on completion... I mean, I can't give money to every newcomer with an idea... but if someone with a solid reputation and reasonable chance of success has a good idea that could help the CPC community, but needs funding to help attempt it, that's the kind of thing I'd say people should be supporting if they can to help the CPC platform flourish.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Captain Past on 09:06, 23 June 18
Quote from: Shining on 20:32, 22 June 18
I do not know, if there is a general interest by others to get something on cartridge, now that the c4cpc exists.


I have exactly one donor cart which I'm using for Ghost'n'Goblins. In good faith that there will be more games worth putting on cart I would be interested in having a few of them (ready to add an eprom, complete pcb/shell/acid solutions) here just in case. I definitely prefer real carts over handling naked eproms to play games.
And I agree that some kind of crowdfunding to get the initial funds (and hopefully even the price down a little more) is a good idea.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: amijim on 14:05, 23 June 18
Hello there,it seems it is getting pretty hard to estimate the numbers.I suppose there are thousands of active amstrad users.It needs the pluses advanced technics to tease our eyes in 2018 yet i agree there is the retro old cpc market that may be needed to fund such an effort.First thing would be to lower the price or maybe a kickstarter would help more so as to gain publicity or the project to be funded by amstrad lovers who no longer have any active interest in a new game but would help donating  a couple of thousand euros only for the cause and because they can.Since i see some more motivation is needed,i will offer  a week of free vacation in my small hotel in Greece for any member putting his time in a game for amstrad.I may end up with no money but this means i will have more time loading games on amstrad.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ukmarkh on 17:04, 23 June 18
I'd pay a small fortune for a decent Outrun effort on the CPC or Plus, in fact a racing game for 2018/19 is definitely needed.


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Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: ivarf on 12:40, 24 June 18
Quote from: ukmarkh on 02:41, 23 June 18
Lots of GX4000's were sold off cheap in the U.K. hundreds of thousands, there must be at least 500,000 that were sold off in the end. I remember one warehouse in Sparkbrook, Birmingham selling 'em for £25 each, another shop selling 'em for £50. These warehouses literally had thousands.


Who says that there was 15 000 GX 4000 sold? Cliff Lawson at Amstrad?
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 13:38, 24 June 18
Quote from: ivarf on 12:40, 24 June 18Who says that there was 15 000 GX 4000 sold? Cliff Lawson at Amstrad?

No, it would be nice to have such an accurate source.

I only quoted a vague source on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_GX4000) , which could be untrue of course:

QuoteThe GX4000 was both Amstrad's first and only attempt at entering the console market. Although offering enhanced graphics capabilities, it failed to gain popularity in the market, and was quickly discontinued, selling 15,000 units in total.[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_GX4000#cite_note-Retroinspection:_GX4000-3)
...
[3] "Retroinspection: GX4000". Retrogamer Magazine Issue 52 Pg64.
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: roudoudou on 14:41, 24 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 13:38, 24 June 18
No, it would be nice to have such an accurate source.
I only quoted a vague source on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_GX4000) , which could be untrue of course:
or maybe we can contact them (but i did not see any contact form/mail on their website)
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: kawickboy on 10:21, 25 June 18
A great game should attract customers originally not amstrad-compliant. A platform game like psycho fox/parasol stars, an action rpg like zelda/golden axe warrior or wonderboy 2/3, a racing game, a bomberman-like etc... Du to pier solar, beggar prince etc... some rpg fans came (back) to megadrive. Some people bought a lynx only for playing zaku (heir of pc denjin/air zonk).
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: Widukind on 10:43, 29 June 18
[ot]A friend told me that the publisher Protovision of the C64 retro game  Sam's Journey wrote in their recent newsletter that they now sold 2000 copies (since Christmas 2017).

I know that there's been a lot of factors which helped the propagation for this game already before it's been published (including hyping), so it's not 1:1 comparable to other retro games. Nevertheless it shows that there can be a huge interest in retro games.
Well, let's see. Interesting times for sure.[/ot]
Title: Re: What about a new 'commercial' game for GX/Plus range ?
Post by: amijim on 21:04, 29 June 18
I just found out who Fano really is.I didnt know you are behind Easter egg and the brilliant r-type.You are already welcomed for free vacation in Sept in Greece for your hard work back in 2012.I will send you now a PM.Together will all team of Easter EGG.Kudos to Easter EGG team.
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