What are the best non-British-developed CPC games?

[cwpab]

Another interesting question: What about Italy? They have more people than Spain, and they weren't doing particularly bad economically.

Was it a C64 country? Why didn't we see more Italian game developers in the 80s?

[dodogildo]

Another interesting question: What about Italy? They have more people than Spain, and they weren't doing particularly bad economically.

According to this article, large-scale software piracy in the 80s seems to have hindered the development of the gaming industry in Italy: https://genesistemple.com/a-swashbuckling-tale-of-italian-software-piracy-1983-1993

"Italy is the only European country where counterfeiting has been, for such a prolonged period of time, not only blatant, but produced and sold on a national industrialized scale."

[ZorrO]

I know it's off-topic, but if anyone is interested in situation of gamers in different countries, i.e. the popularity of different platforms or level of piracy, I recommend reading links on this page:
https://hg101.kontek.net/GOTW/GOTWindex.html
e.g. There was no less piracy in Poland than in Italy.

[MartinJSUK]

Constructive criticism of a game that I mentioned is fine, thanks. Bit of an ego-kick to read that MGT was too easy, it's not something I noticed (maybe there's something in the instructions which would make it simpler?).

I know Skweek well from the Amiga, and the Amstrad version gloriously showcases its lovely bright colours, but the choice to make it flick-screen also shows the big limitation of the machine (or at least of almost all commercial games, not just Spectrum Ports), poor scrolling. Hence so few of the original games designed for it being dependent on scrolling. From a quick play I'm not sure how much it affects the gameplay, but I'm concerned there'll be moments where a screen-flick puts you right next to enemies you slide into or get attacked by without a fair chance to react.

Army Moves is quite nice (part 1 at least, not tried part 2), I've always been fond of Moon Patrol style games. People who think its excessively difficult probably don't realise that SPACE fires a second horizontal weapon to deal with the tanks (or are playing the even-tougher 16-bit version). Lovely graphics and music too. Super Ski has really impressive 3D, though quite naff sound, not sure of it as a game. Asphalt is a really neat concept, though maybe a bit repetitive.

Italy was definitely C64 then Amiga dominated, the biggest companies were probably Idea and Simulmondo, neither of whom did much for the Spectrum or ST but were prolific on the Commodores.

Very off-topic but - Shaun, which systems were biggest in Ireland, was it similar to the UK with the Spectrum on top at first and the C64 gradually overhauling it and staying big for slightly longer, with the CPC a strong third? I'm curious as my maternal grandparents were Irish, though from different areas and they met here.

[eto]

Constructive criticism of a game that I mentioned is fine, thanks. Bit of an ego-kick to read that MGT was too easy, it's not something I noticed

Sorry, that was not meant as criticism for the game as such. It's a great game. The criticism is related to the "fun/money" ratio. To me it was too expensive for how long I had fun with it. The map was surprisingly small and once I figured out all the puzzles the game had zero replay value. If you didn't pay for it then it of course never had that disappointment factor.

I also didn't say it was easy, I said it was "small". It's not easy per se - I had to start drawing a map to progress beyond the first few screens (my first time drawing a map) - and then all of a sudden it was finished much faster than anticipated and I still remember that I had A LOT empty  space on my piece of paper that I thought I will need to draw the map.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Very off-topic but - Shaun, which systems were biggest in Ireland, was it similar to the UK with the Spectrum on top at first and the C64 gradually overhauling it and staying big for slightly longer, with the CPC a strong third? I'm curious as my maternal grandparents were Irish, though from different areas and they met here.

Unsure if I could answer this accurately, only with people I knew I had machines. Ireland was quite a poor country in the 80s recovering from an utter miserable economic meltdown at the end of the 70s. But yeah C64 and Speccy owners were almost neck and neck by the time 87-88 rolled around with the CPC coming in next, but there were still a strong number of Atari XE/XL owners, and you could still get some of their budget releases in local book and record shops, and it wouldn't be surprising to see a Vic20 floating around too.

[cwpab]

I'm going to make a humble recommendation especially if you speak at least some Spanish, but also to the British, French, German, Greek and Australian users in this forum: the Spanish text adventure Megacorp.



No, the girl is NOT in the game. Ha! But nice cover, yes (what you see is actually an advertising including the cover). The way many Spanish games used top professional artists for this was super cool.

So what about the game? Well, if you speak Spanish or know many Spanish words, it's a must play because it has just the right difficulty (no timed sections, no dying of hunger, no moon logic...). Also, it's sci-fi, which is a nice break from the typical medieval fantasy setting.



And what about the people who don't speak any Spanish or can only get to "hola, ¿dónde está la playa?". Well, for those, I have some instructions:

- You can move with n, s, e and o; and show the inventory with i.
- You can redefine screen with r and have a detailed description of the screen with d.
- Looking is very easy: "exa" for "examina", same as adventures in English. For example, in the screen above we could type "exa nave" to look at the ship.
- The game accepts imperative, which in Spanish is different from infinitive. The manual include many sample verbs already in imperative that you can try. Three verbs you will need are "coge" (pick up), "abre" (open), "pulsa" (press) and "dispara"/"dis" (shoot). Also, special verbs "sal" (get out) and "entra" (get in) are needed.

And that's it! It can be a fun way to learn some basic Spanish while you explore an intriguing sci-fi setting. I hope you enjoy it! (CPC Power link: here)

[ZorrO]

This cover reminds me of Lorna's comics.

[Skunkfish]

I'm going to make a humble recommendation especially if you speak at least some Spanish, but also to the British, French, German, Greek and Australian users in this forum: the Spanish text adventure Megacorp.

My wife has been learning Spanish on Duolingo for the past year or so. I'm tempted to give this a go and see if she can act as my translator

[cwpab]

@Skunkfish Go ahead! By the way, careful with the screenshots in CPC Power: 4 of the 6 images contain already written commands that are solution to puzzles! Only the loading screen and the street with aliens are spoiler free.

In case anyone tries, I forgot to add that you can chain several actions separated with comma ("n,n,abre compuerta,e" would go two screens north, then open a gate and then go east) and in this game, the actions automatically inserted after commas with this method are done faster than usual, which can help.