Hi all!
In Germany, Chip magazine has published a special issue (CHIP Kiosk - Kult-Computer der 80er - Happy Computer (http://www.chip-kiosk.de/specials/chip-specials/happy-computer-2013)) about retrocomputing this month, also celebrating the 30th anniversary of Happy Computer magazine. It's really very nicely done and with coffee table book-quality photos throughout. They also include a DVD-ROM with emulators and a few videos about the different systems.
They mainly write about computers that were popular in Germany in the 1980s of course, so they primarily cover the C64, Amiga 500, Atari 8 bit and ST, and of course the Amstrad/Schneider CPC (and I think even the Robotron Z80 clones are covered briefly too).
They rate the CPC very positively in the magazine (a bit less so in the video on the DVD-ROM), so as a Amstrad fan I'm pretty pleased with their articles. It's all very nice and balanced and not so C64-centric as some of the other retro gaming special issues I've seen.
What I also like about this issue are their Top 20 lists of games for the various computers. Such lists are always an interesting way to learn about games you did not know before or to rediscover ones you might have forgotten. Hence I wanted to post them here.
So without further ado here's their Amstrad CPC list:
1. Spindizzy Spindizzy - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Spindizzy)
2. Tau Ceti Tau Ceti - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Tau_Ceti)
3. Knight Lore http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1258 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1258)
4. Get Dexter Get Dexter - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Get_Dexter)
5. Driller http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=772 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=772)
6. Bomb Jack http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=448 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=448)
7. Lords of Midnight Lords of Midnight - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Lords_of_Midnight)
8. Head over Heels Head Over Heels - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Head_Over_Heels)
9. Gryzor http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Gryzor (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Gryzor)
10. Solomon's Key http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1983 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1983)
11. Tomahawk http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Tomahawk (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Tomahawk)
12. Tempest http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Tempest (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Tempest)
13. Gauntlet http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Gauntlet (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Gauntlet)
14. Mission Elevator http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1434 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1434)
15. Starstrike II http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Starstrike_II (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Starstrike_II)
16. Ikari Warriors http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1138 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1138)
17. 3D Grand Prix http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/3D_Grand_Prix (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/3D_Grand_Prix)
18. Renegade http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Renegade (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Renegade)
19. Cybernoid http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=55 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=55)
20. Zombi http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Zombi (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Zombi)
And here are the C64 and Atari 8 bit lists—quite a few of those games were ported to the CPC, so this is also interesting. "(CPC)" means there's a CPC version.
C64:
1. Maniac Mansion
2. Winter Games (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Winter_Games (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Winter_Games)
3. Elite (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Elite (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Elite)
4. Pirates! (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Pirates! (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Pirates!)
5. Paradroid
6. Ultima IV
7. International Soccer (Emlyn Hughes IS, which was very much inspired by IS, was ported to the CPC, so I'd count this as yes) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Emlyn_Hughes_International_Soccer (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Emlyn_Hughes_International_Soccer)
8. The Bard's Tale (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=424 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=424)
9. Impossible Mission (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1145 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1145)
10. Wizball (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1670 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1670)
11. Silent Service (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Silent_Service (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Silent_Service)
12. Great Giana Sisters (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1007 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1007)
13. The Sentinel (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1903 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1903)
14. Bubble Bobble (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=483 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=483)
15. Leaderboard (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Leaderboard (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Leaderboard)
16. Gunship (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1032 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1032)
17. Ghosts'n Goblins (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Ghosts_%27n%27_Goblins (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Ghosts_%27n%27_Goblins)
18. The last Ninja (well Last Ninja 2 was ported, so we can say yes here I think) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1281 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1281)
19. Uridium (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2239 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2239)
20. Pitstop II (ported to the CPC but apparently unreleased) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3701 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3701)
And here's the Atari 8 bit list. Not too many CPC ports here, but there are a few:
1. M.U.L.E.
2. Rescue on Fractalus! (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Rescue_on_Fractalus! (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Rescue_on_Fractalus!)
3. Boulder Dash (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Boulder_Dash (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Boulder_Dash)
4. Star Raiders (well, there is Star Raiders II for the CPC at least, although gameplay is quite different)
5. Mercenary (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1392 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1392)
6. Ballblazer (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=359 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=359)
7. Dropzone
8. The Seven Cities of Gold
9. Spelunker
10. Archon (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=294 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=294)
11. Lode Runner (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1311 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1311)
12. International Karate (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1166 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1166)
13. Koronis Rift (CPC) http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1267 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1267)
14. Eastern Front
15. Bruce Lee (CPC) http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Bruce_Lee (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Bruce_Lee)
16. Flight Simulator II
17. Choplifter
18. Montezuma's Revenge
19. Muder on the Zinderneuf
20. River Raid
Cant speak for the C64 and Atari lists, having not played most of them, but in the CPC list there is only 5 games I would consider in my personal top 20 list.
I had Gunship for the CPC
CPCRULEZ ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ GUNSHIP (c) MICROPROSE (http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/gunship.htm?t=Uw==)
On my way to the nearest kiosk.... :)
Bryce.
Quote from: EgoTrip on 19:17, 12 November 13
Cant speak for the C64 and Atari lists, having not played most of them, but in the CPC list there is only 5 games I would consider in my personal top 20 list.
True, that's what I think what makes these lists so interesting. That's also why I think you really have to combine the lists. I mean "Pirates!" is a classic on any platform, it would deserve to be on the CPC list too I think. But they probably wanted to avoid repetition too, so they tried to pick 20 different games for each list. Otherwise the Atari ST/Amiga lists might also be identical more or less.
Quote from: dcdrac on 19:50, 12 November 13
I had Gunship for the CPC
CPCRULEZ ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ GUNSHIP (c) MICROPROSE
You're right. In the magazine, they said something like "What Gunship was for C64 users, Tomahawk was for the CPC." I thought that meant Gunship was not ported to the CPC, but maybe they simply considered it inferior to Tomahawk? Can't say for myself, I've never been a fan of helicopter flight sims (too complicated to fly IMO).
Quote from: Bryce on 20:48, 12 November 13
On my way to the nearest kiosk....
Absolutely, this effort deserves to be supported. For once its not the usual "C64/Amiga was best, everything else sucked" kind of midset. I mean I like the Amiga and C64, but I think the CPC often gets an undeserved bad rap in articles about retrocomputing.
Oh, I forgot, on page 141, they list CPC-Wiki as the recommended CPC site! Combined with a bit of bitching and moaning about what happened to the German CPC forum. :)
Martin
P.S. Sorry about the double-spaced line breaks. Everything looks normal in the edit box, I don't know what's happening here.
And just so R-Type fans don't get upset that their favourite game hasn't been included yet, here are the Atari ST and Amiga lists. Oooh, Midwinter. Oooh, Pinball Dreams. Some really good stuff here. No love for Falcon though, how sad. I spent a lot of time in Falcon on the Amiga. I mean Interceptor isn't bad, but it's far less realistic than Falcon. No Red Storm Rising either. Tsk, tsk. Oh well. ;)
How can they rate Lotus 1 higher than Lotus 2? I mean that stupid permanent split screen alone was so terrible...
Again, I think you have to mentally combine these two lists into one and think of it as the 16-bit list. Still, there are quite a few decent ports to the CPC here too.
Atari ST
1. Dungeon Master
2. Carrier Command Carrier Command - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Carrier_Command)
3. Typhoon Thompson
4. Speedball 2
5. Midi Maze
6. Kick Off http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1240 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1240)
7. The Pawn http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1612 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1612)
8. Oids
9. Virus
10. Prince of Persia Prince of Persia - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Prince_of_Persia)
11. Stunt Car Racer Stunt car racer - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Stunt_car_racer)
12. Sundog
13. Midwinter
14. Arkanoid http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=298 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=298)
15. Starglider Starglider - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Starglider)
16. Tower of Babel
17. Rick Dangerous 2 Rick Dangerous 2 - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Rick_Dangerous_2)
18. Metrocross
19. Goldrunner
20. Xenon II
Amiga 1000/500/2000
1. Lemmings Lemmings - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Lemmings)
2. Populous
3. Turrican II Turrican 2 - CPCWiki (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Turrican_2)
4. Rainbow Islands http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1751 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1751)
5. SimCity http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/SimCity (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/SimCity)
6. Marble Madness http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1356 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1356)
7. Sensible Soccer
8. Formula One Grand Prix (unreleased for the CPC?)
9. Battle Isle
10. Shanghai http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1917 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1917)
11. Defender of the Crown http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Defender_of_the_Crown (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Defender_of_the_Crown)
12. R-Type http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/R-Type (http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/R-Type)
13. Eye of the Beholder
14. Battle Squadron
15. Pinball Dreams
16. It Came From the Desert
17. Lotus Turbo Challenge
18. F/A-18 Interceptor
19. TV Sports Football (yup, this is an American football game)
20. Blood Money
P.S. Now I notice they have an image of the page with the CPC-Wiki mention (bottom right on the right page): http://www.chip-kiosk.de/media/produkte/2013_CHIP_SoHe/Kult-Computer/Community_System-Hilfe_G.jpg (http://www.chip-kiosk.de/media/produkte/2013_CHIP_SoHe/Kult-Computer/Community_System-Hilfe_G.jpg)
CPC-Wiki's 15 minutes of fame it seems! :D
Well, surely a nice magazine for the "whole retro colloctor". But for me as CPC user, 10 bucks for that ... I dunno.
BTW: Gunship is way superior to Thomahawk on CPC. I spend 100 hours or more with Gunship, an excellent game! And yes, there was a German version too. ;)
Also pretty sad that they don't mention the only German CPC forum left. Their effort in retro research is not really poor, but they could have done better. IMHO it's pretty superficial.
I'd say it's a big step up from the usual C64-slanted German retro special issues. Sure, they could have done a better job, but I think the idea was to make something very accessible like the English retro mags. So it's not very technical but more about the games and how the various systems were connected. E.g., the Jay Miner connection and the family feud (Tramiel on both sides) between Atari and Commodore.
The CPC getting mentioned in the same breath as the C64 and Amiga is a big deal I think, especially when they are not just mocking the CPC's lack of hardware sprites or scrolling. And of course there are also economic reasons they have to include more than one system.
It's not perfect but much better than just translating articles from the English "Retro Gamer" magazine or doing a C64 anniversary mag only. And CPC-Wiki gets mentioned, so at least in that regard they've done their homework. For the CPC retro scene this magazine is good news I think and will get quite a few people to become interested in the CPC again because it's not treated like dirt for once. :D
Just picked up a copy and reading it at the moment. What an excellent read :) No serious "Fanboyism" spotted yet.
@TFM: They also mention "Der Verein zum Erhalt klassischer Computer" if that's the German Forum you were referring to.
Bryce.
No, there exist a real German CPC-Forum:
Schneider / Amstrad CPC Forum - Index (http://cpc-live.com/forum)
Quote from: Bryce on 21:28, 13 November 13
@TFM: They also mention "Der Verein zum Erhalt klassischer Computer" if that's the German Forum you were referring to.
OMG! No! They have a defined Commodore bias. The club behind the forum is 100% commodore, and it's no CPC specific forum at all.
The forum I refer to is the only pure CPC forum in German language:
Schneider / Amstrad CPC Forum - Index (http://cpc-live.com/forum/)
With good 50 members it's of course not as big as other fora, but it's CPC specific and in German. And you will get qualified help there. :)
Quote from: TFM on 21:59, 13 November 13
With good 50 members it's of course not as big as other fora, but it's CPC specific and in German.
Sure it only has so few members, because there are other "more important" fora ;) and so there's no reason to advertise it :D :laugh:
I think that 50+ members are very good for Germany. How much active sceners do you count?
Alphabetically ordered...
- Bryce (lifes at the moment in DE)
- BSC
- Devilmarkus
- MaV (ok, Austria, but same language)
- Octoate
- Prodatron
- Tolkin
- TFM
and of course the other forum members.
Ain't that much left.
I gave it up to count them ;)
I've visited it in the past. In some categories there are 70 Threads, but all were started by the same person and 90% of the posts seem to be from that same person. That's not a forum, it's a soap box! :D
Bryce.
Sure, but somewhere we need to start...
To get back on topic, one thing that the magazine only mentions indirectly (p. 102/103) is the trajectory of the German home computer market, which I think was a bit different from the US and UK markets: In the late 1970s/early 1980s, arcade games and home consoles seemed to be far more popular in Germany than computers, so unlike in the UK or US, people did not already have a PET/VIC-20/Speccy in large numbers when the CPC appeared.
In the mid-1980s the youth protection laws were revised amid a big media frenzy about violence in video games, leading to a ban of arcade games from areas where minors had access (Goldene Ära der Arcade-Spiele – Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldene_%C3%84ra_der_Arcade-Spiele#Jugendschutz_in_der_BRD)). That caused home computers to really take off on a wider scale. Also, there were very attractive tax breaks when you e.g. purchased a C64 and claimed it was part of your home office. That's why the CPC came out at such an opportune moment for Germany and was the second-best-selling computer after the C64 for many months (as the CPC sales chart on p. 26 of the magazine shows).
Schneider (Amstrad) was big, really big in Germany in 1985 and this isn't always fully acknowledged. And later Schneider apparently sold the first IBM-compatible PC for less than 2,000 DM, which was a psychologically important milestone. Schneider's PC segment was later crushed by Vobis, which in turn was crushed by Media Markt/Saturn, which is the market situation we still have today.
Martin
Not really feeling that C64 list:
Way of the Exploding Fist
IK+
Creatures
Spy vs Spy
StreetFighter (American Version)
Ninja Spirit
.......
All great C64 games that I would of loved to have seen in the list.
Quote from: Morn on 22:32, 13 November 13
To get back on topic, one thing that the magazine only mentions indirectly (p. 102/103) is the trajectory of the German home computer market, which I think was a bit different from the US and UK markets: In the late 1970s/early 1980s, arcade games and home consoles seemed to be far more popular in Germany than computers, so unlike in the UK or US, people did not already have a PET/VIC-20/Speccy in large numbers when the CPC appeared.
In the mid-1980s the youth protection laws were revised amid a big media frenzy about violence in video games, leading to a ban of arcade games from areas where minors had access (Goldene Ära der Arcade-Spiele – Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldene_%C3%84ra_der_Arcade-Spiele#Jugendschutz_in_der_BRD)). That caused home computers to really take off on a wider scale. Also, there were very attractive tax breaks when you e.g. purchased a C64 and claimed it was part of your home office. That's why the CPC came out at such an opportune moment for Germany and was the second-best-selling computer after the C64 for many months (as the CPC sales chart on p. 26 of the magazine shows).
Schneider (Amstrad) was big, really big in Germany in 1985 and this isn't always fully acknowledged. And later Schneider apparently sold the first IBM-compatible PC for less than 2,000 DM,
I would love to see a scan of this sometime. Especially the sales numbers and more about how well Schneider did with the CPC
Quote from: Bryce on 22:21, 13 November 13
I've visited it in the past. In some categories there are 70 Threads, but all were started by the same person and 90% of the posts seem to be from that same person. That's not a forum, it's a soap box! :D
Bryce.
Well, why don't you contribute? Then there would be more diversity. :)
Because there's a perfectly good Forum here and it's in English, so it will be read and contributed to by much more international members.
Bryce.
The point was to have a German forum. There are still a lot of people who don't like to do everything in English, because it's tedious for them.
For me for example it's very hard to read technical documents in non-German... So it's very sad, that for example Kevin's CPC documents dont exist in German, too...
Sure, I know English, but knowing a language and really understanding it, is a different pair of shoes (At least for me)
Back to topic... the # of units sold of computers in the 80ies would be really interesting. :)
I can buy you a copy and send it over if you like?
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 22:34, 14 November 13
I can buy you a copy and send it over if you like?
Bryce.
Thanks for the offer. :) I will move at the end of the month. After that I can order it from here. :)
Oh, nice effort on their part! Really nice. More publications should do that...
Also, Morn, thanks so much for the link to the scan :)