If you get retro gamer, decide on if you want to see the spoiler or not.
I got mine last night.
I got this yesterday. Ikari warriors is reviewed. They say the cpc version has nice graphics but is a bit slow. Again they are not on the side of the CPC. The Speccy one is faster. But the Speccy version was converted from the CPC version. They have an interview. The guy was familiar with the Speccy, got a job to make the CPC version. Bought the computer, read about it and coded the game in a few weeks. So, what I am saying is that having a short time doesn't always mean a poor game. I really loved Ikari Warrior and think it is a great game. Nice graphics and great fun to play. So with the right knowledge and motivation you can make good cpc games in a short time "back in the day".
I Love the Amstrad PCW too! :-[
Quote from: CP/M User on 10:45, 13 August 10
I Love the Amstrad PCW too! :-[
I got one last year.
I have removed the internal 3" drive, but not yet fitted a 3.5" drive.
I was planning to make a demo for it (usual scroller and things like that).
One day I will.
Possibly also a small game.
Really I prefer the CPC, but I think the PCW could be made to do something interesting.
I had the opportunity of obtaining a PCW at one time (think it was an 8256?), unfortunately I didn't and the rest was history for it. I've had a play around with Joyce which is fine, played around with TP on that. Favourite PCW Game would have to be Bounder (plays just as well as the CPC version). I'd imagine an Interlace demo would also work nicely on a PCW (with it's Green Screen and all! ;D )
Dave Shea
What do you think was your best 8bit piece of work?
Ikari Warriors on the Amstrad. Got great reviews, (And one or two people coming up to me and saying 'was it you who wrote...'), and it only took me about 6 weeks start to finish.
http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/interviews/interviews.php?interview=11 (http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/interviews/interviews.php?interview=11)
Spectrum and C64 surfaced about one year after the CPC version
IW was a bastion of gameplay and awesomeness on the CPC. Whining about the speed is so very short-sighted and misses the whole point... Can you really compare the speccy version to this masterpiece? Gawd...
I've done my own spoiler cause I had to get some stuff off my chest!
It's always the same with these whingers, either the game is too fast or too slow, but they never really talk about the Difficulty of the game and certainally whoever judges one version to another version from another version should hang their head in shame, that's not the honest way to review games, it's all about how it should rate as a standard for our machine. True we do criticise when a game has had the graphics taken from a Spectrum, with good reason I should add, the only way to fix that is to make it happen so they ain't graphics off a Spectrum!
I have allways assumed that the Spectrum-version was ported from the CPC one. I have had a look at it at youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NWfGzAowSU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NWfGzAowSU) and its a different game. Faster yes, but all the action is dragged out over a longer map and with mono colorclash looks really bad. Still it probably looks good for a Spectrum.
Speccy version:
[youtube=2NWfGzAowSU]Speccy[/youtube]
Indeed, it's different, and the enemies appear dumber. A decent effort... for a calculator!
Amstrad version:
[youtube=zC1vK7q9NVY]Amstrad[/youtube]
The C64 version was highly praised in CVG, still it doesn't impress me very much[youtube=FZk5GGtvjr8]C64[/youtube]
[youtube=dOExbu1mBpE]YourVideo[/youtube]
Check this too...
Fun. :laugh: :laugh: :'(
Excuse my words, I lived to long in USA ??? ??? But if these bastards try to fuck with the CPC and make even our best games bad, then we have to boykott their rotten paper mag.
Personally I don't really care about what some magazine writes about one of my favourite CPC games, and I know that when people start reviewing stuff and compare it on a machine by machine basis there's going to be biased towards which version hits it on the head. I'm not buying their magazine based on that kind of perspective. It was bad enough when it was rival magazines for the same machine were having a go at one another AA/ACU/CPC Attack. CPC Attack I felt were the worst at it, I only brought a couple of magazines because they had this whole tips section for getting through Rainbow Islands and a couple of other little things, when I read their magazine in more recent times it appeared so childish, about the only thing going for it were the colourful pages, illustrations (cartoons), and other background colourful demo effects. But that doesn't mean I agree with everything which went on in AA or ACU. ACU I found annoying for their lack of telling people what was a BASIC 1.1 program and a BASIC 1.0, though some of their game reviews were over the top giving top marks for games which were reasonable. AA on the other hand I though some of the games they reviewed were overrated or were underrated. Their Second Opinion approach was a good way to put another view in the review. And last of all there's the preference in what Genre of game an individual will take a preference to.
Otherwise there's no point in worrying about what other people think! ;D
Quote from: TFM/FS on 04:58, 18 August 10
Excuse my words, I lived to long in USA ??? ??? But if these bastards try to fuck with the CPC and make even our best games bad, then we have to boykott their rotten paper mag.
:laugh:
Well this magazine in itself is ok. But always when they compare Amstrad it comes out worse when clearly it is above the rest. I think the reviewer has a bias towards commodore all the time and can't accept that the Amstrad has good games.
All they need now is a good Giana Sisters on the CPC and they will change their mind forever ;)
So TFM how long before a release? ;)
Pah! They will give Giana 0.3 points out of 10!
Well, I'm still working on the Orion Prime translation, only levels 5 a 6 are left.
Then I have to release ROManager for Amsdos quick.
Then back to Giana.... ok, will be hard to do it this year. I also lost contact to Tolkin who is working way tooo much and at home.... well, he's building his home now... So I still need a title picture. Hope be both can finish it all till next spring... Maybe it was not that good to take that OP tranlation job, but however, someone has to do it.
Send a letter to them and tell them to only review CPC Only games! If they refuse simply boycott their magazine and start a Anti-Retro Gamer Magazine website (or magazine if feasible) if that will make you happy! ;D
If you add injustice to existing injustice it will become even worse, not better.
But if they treat the CPC mean, then I don't have to care about them any longer. I prefer to invest my energies into friendly forces. May be the force with the CPC!
TFM/FS wrote:
If you add injustice to existing injustice it will become even worse, not better.
But if they treat the CPC mean, then I don't have to care about them any longer. I prefer to invest my energies into friendly forces. May be the force with the CPC!
True, though if there's any sure way of showing how bad they are, give them CPC only games!
Otherwise you shouldn't care about what they think in the same way you shouldn't worry about what others think about things you love. As long as your a good person you have nothing to worry about! ;D
I thought they were spot on with the Amstrad CPC review... Ikari Warriors was way too slow for this type of game, the arcade version ran at a blistering pace, as did the C64 version. The Speccy actually plays a really good game once you get past the graphics. That doesn't mean the CPC version was crap. It still played a good game, but the speed should have been better. Up the speed a notch in Winape32 and you'll see what I mean.
It looked the best of the three, but sadly didn't play as fast as the other two. Still a great game though, and one for the collection.
Quote from: CP/M User on 02:53, 19 August 10
True, though if there's any sure way of showing how bad they are, give them CPC only games!
That's finally the point! Hope they take them ;-)
Quote from: ukmarkh on 15:08, 19 August 10
I thought they were spot on with the Amstrad CPC review... Ikari Warriors was way too slow for this type of game, the arcade version ran at a blistering pace, as did the C64 version. The Speccy actually plays a really good game once you get past the graphics. That doesn't mean the CPC version was crap. It still played a good game, but the speed should have been better. Up the speed a notch in Winape32 and you'll see what I mean.
Ahh... if the CPC version would be faster, nobody would be able to survive more than 2 seconds. And if wouldn't have that nice scrolling any longer.
One of the things ive noticed is that the c64 does indeed have a lot more speed than the amstrad. Sprites fly all over fast and fluid. Very fast indeed. Fast is good of cause but one thing ive noticed is when things are fast .. you also loose accuracy. Ive looked at a couple of c64 videos lately, like with Monty on the Run and Mermaid Madness .. and noticed that the c64 versions are quite different. Sure the lvl design is the same but the gameplay is a LOT more different. Both c64 versions is fast and you can pretty much "rush" thru them as enemies are small and easy to avoid. On the amstrad versions things are a lot slower, but you need to make exact timed moves because ONE wrong move means death (unlike c64 where its easier to simply "beserk" half-blindly thru the game at full speed).
I know people will probably call me "biased against c64" and perhaps they are a right .. i didnt get a c64 untill much later on. BUT comparing the same games with the Speccy versions and i dont find the same "rushed" version, but an well made and playable version. Anyways, my point is: just because its faster dosnt make it better (and in some cases its drags it down).
About Ikari Warriors: I havnt read the current Retro magazine. Ikari Warrior is one of the games that play well on all 8bit versions. The c64 version is probably the fastest one and so its also the one where youll get the most unexpeceted deaths you didnt see coming (unlike the other versions where you know youve done something thatll get you killed).
I assume they at least talked about the special 8 way rotary joystick used on Ikari Warriors arcade machine and how this was implemented on the different versions? The special joystick makes the game quite a bit different to play on the arcade and simulating the same hardware on any 8 bit machine is indeed a great feat (aka nearly impossible at the time). Guerrilla War for amstrad actually managed to pull of a good simulation of the rotary joystick (using keys) but you really need a different mindset to use them.
RG used to be quite worse regarding the systems debate. They wouldn't even print Amstrad screenshots (I sent them a letter on that, and this improved after a while. Doesn't mean it was because of my letter but still.... they did publish it, though, with an appropriate speccy screenshot accompanying it :D ). My idea is that such comparative reviews tend to be a bit superficial - playing for a couple of minutes and going "oh, this is slow, this is fast, this is smooth - we got a winner!" sort of thing, maybe. Who knows.
I was more irked about Rainbow islands than about IW, though I thought IW on the CPC was considered one of the pinnacles of gaming. SLower, yes, but it was really intense AND fair.
I reckon Rainbow Islands is rather cool! ;D What could there be to dislike about it apart from the Tune? Admittedly I know the game progressively gets harder and have only completed the game once, I was a bit disappointed to have the standard completion finale when I did complete it cause I heard there was an alternative ending (maybe I needed the Disc Version?)
Quote from: Gryzor on 09:19, 23 August 10
My idea is that such comparative reviews tend to be a bit superficial - playing for a couple of minutes and going "oh, this is slow, this is fast, this is smooth - we got a winner!" sort of thing, maybe. Who knows.
I think you are right.
The author probably has played the game on his favoritesystem in the day. Plays it again today and what plays closest to his memories does best. A bit odd that they do an interview with David Shea who wrote the CPC-version and then slaughters his version.
RetroGamer:
"We are going out on a limb and say that graphically, the Amstrad CPC version is better than all its 8-bit brethen. "
Seems like it is very hard for them to say that... Like the C64 or Spectrumversion is even close or the Atari 7800, 2600, C16, PC MSX2 or NES. To me and my eye, even the Atari ST and Amiga have inferior graphics in this game
I haven't read it yet - I'm saving it for after the wedding, so there are a few spoilers here for me, but indeed, it's a super-dumb thing to say, "we are going out on a limb...". Wtf? I mean, forget the Speccy anyway, it must have been a reeeeally botched conversion if the Speccy looks better than the CPC; but even with the c64, there are so many games looking better on the Amstrad, not least thanks to the much superior palette... So saying that the CPC might be better with trepidation is really silly.
I think what they were trying to say, is that the amstrad version looked great until it moved. I don't think it's wise to slag off the Speccy version, unless you've played it through until the end. Otherwise we potentially make the same mistake some of you guys are accusing RG of making. It's all subjective at the end of the day, and personally as much as I love my CPC, I have to admitt the Speccy version is the better to play, as was the case with other games of this style i.e. Commando, Swiv and Lightforce to name a few.
You're making an excellent point: that, just as others are bound to be biased, so are we. But what happens is that we're dealing with the underdog, so to speak, and most people are biased the other way so in magazines it comes out the worse...
That said, a mate of mine had a speccy. Sometimes we'd play at his house, some times at mine. But IW was *definitely* a game we'd always play on the CPC!
One cannot exclude the possibility that if their using Spectrum Emulators on their Super charged PCs that they may not even be running it at Realtime (even if Realtime is on). Depends on how good the emulator is, so their advice could be wrong! ::) Wouldn't be the first time it's happened! :-[
I've had Speccy users tell me that ChaseHQ, Robocop and Operation Wolf play better on their machine. In my head this is a blatent lie, a bending of the very word, the 'truth'. Simply put, I think their deluded... but when everyone in the room doesn't share my view, I begin to wonder if i'm the biased one? Maybe we all are, but sometimes blinded by the truth.
However mad they think I am, or however subjective... i'm sticking with the CPC versions.
In fairness, Chase HQ does play better on the Spectrum, though the colourful graphics of the CPC version put it a very close second. Robocop is basically identical, so I'd probably give it to the CPC on graphics. Can't say I was ever into Op Wolf, so wouldn't like to make the call there. I think I'd probably go for Ikari Warriors on the CPC too, don't think the speed difference ever seemed noticable enough to make it an issue myself.
ukmarkh wrote:
I've had Speccy users tell me that ChaseHQ, Robocop and Operation Wolf play better on their machine. In my head this is a blatent lie, a bending of the very word, the 'truth'. Simply put, I think their deluded... but when everyone in the room doesn't share my view, I begin to wonder if i'm the biased one? Maybe we all are, but sometimes blinded by the truth.
However mad they think I am, or however subjective... i'm sticking with the CPC versions.
Yep for the last 25 years we've been biased the debate will continue when we're all dead and buried (or burnt) depending on what takes your fancy! The same rubbish happens between IBM Compatible, Amiga & Atari 16bits alike. Moving on is impossible because there's one sniffling rival out there with a Big Mouth! ;D
Well... shut your big mouth then 'cpm'. ;)