Worst Ever Amstrad CPC Games

[AMSDOS]

Amsoft (Bridge-it, Atom Smasher, Galactic Plague, Electro Freddy, Haunted Hedges, Rol-Ahoy, Rol-Caves, Rol-Run, Home Runner, Hunchback, Punchy, Mr Wong's, Qabbalah, Sultan's Maze, all sports related Amsoft games)

I got to Level 4 in The Galactic Plague, it's certainally not the sort of game you can have a cup of Tea while playing it, though when I got stuck into it, I got to Level 4 which was really nasty (I've just got to it a second time - HS1050). If you loose some lives while playing those early levels and get to the next one, you go back to 3 ships which is nice. For an AMSOFT game I think it's better than Home Runner, Roland on the Run and Bridge-it. Mr. Wong's Loopy Laundry suffers only cause you run out of spray, give them Infinite spray and the game would be so much better cause it gets hard when a third monster appears on the second level which makes it unfair (expecally if you're out of spray!  ). Roland in the Caves is just awkward, even though the graphics are so nice. I haven't played Sultan's Maze (at least I don't think so), Atom Smasher or Qabbalah, but the other games you mentioned are alright, especally Haunted Hedges which feels so slick! 

[redbox]

Mr. Wong's Loopy Laundry suffers only cause you run out of spray, give them Infinite spray and the game would be so much better cause it gets hard when a third monster appears on the second level which makes it unfair (expecally if you're out of spray!  ).

Had completely forgotten about this game and I remember running out of spray...!

Thanks for the reminder, will have to play it again 

[khisanth]

Count Duckula 2
Supergran
Saracen
Dandy


Outrun nearly made me cry with how bad it was.

[khisanth]

Oh as for Chopper Squad (wow totally forgotten I had that game), sure it was crap but I kind of enjoyed playing it in a weird way

[AMSDOS]

Oh as for Chopper Squad (wow totally forgotten I had that game), sure it was crap but I kind of enjoyed playing it in a weird way

Did you ever get beyond Level 9? Sadly it didn't take me long to get beyond only to find it bombed out to a blank screen!    AA1 thought it had "good frantic action", though they thought it suffered from "Slow Movement is Frustrating" - whatever that means cause I didn't see any slow Movement only Good Frantic Action!    AA thought the "Graphics and Sound are Poor" - at least I thought they were recognisable and relevant toward the action of the game and that AA thought the game was "Unoriginal" - I thought who cares it's only a game, stop trying to re-invent the bloody wheel!

Where Chopper Squad suffers for me is it's too easy, you can sit around on the Left-hand side of the screen on Level 3 watching your score mount up as you shoot the aliens on that level and once you have the 4 alien critters all overlapping one another simply make your escape via the edge of the screen - the overlapping alien will turn around and follow you the other way. If you're fast enough you can fly over it or under it, the trick is not to sit on the blue ground cause the alien will crash there and another alien will appear on the right hand edge of the screen. Levels 3 to 9 are pretty much the same thing cause they behave the same and once you work out shooting them only makes more appear away from the main pack shooting them on those levels is almost pointless!    The only difference with Levels 3 to 9 is the pace of the game which isn't a great deal. I wouldn't say it would be the worse game ever though it's no classic. At least it's better than duds like Commando, Elite and Myth which just try to hard, though simple people like me only require simple games, those 3 games lay expectations out for specific demographic who know what the deal is when they come to play them - works the same way as a TV show - e.g. "Star Trek" appeals to a specific audience.

[khisanth]

how can you call Elite a dud??? 

Myth was pretty good enjoyed it a lot. Commando was okay.

[AMSDOS]

how can you call Elite a dud? ?? 

Okay can I ask you if you liked Dragontorc?? In responce to your question all I can say is it's very difficult to make a game which is going to receive high marks from everybody.

Myth was pretty good enjoyed it a lot. Commando was okay.

Fair enough, if you enjoyed them then that's all that matters.

Remember Bubble Bobble and how there was a group of people who were unhappy with it? When I play the CPC Version of Commando, I suppose you could say is simular to those who wanted to fix up Bubble Bobble. I haven't played Bubble Bobble at the Arcades though, so I thought what the CPC had was fine, though Commando on the CPC seems to be increased in Difficulty to the extent you go nowhere even if you've tried a few things which annoys me so much! 

Myth doesn't do anything for me, it's not because it's a Speccie Port cause I enjoy playing games like Uridium, Fantasy World Dizzy, er? Bionic Commando    I thought there was a problem with the Collision Detection in Myth cause I was punching things which were complying with it and the Initial Difficulty of the game makes you want to ditch it and move onto something else.

[khisanth]

No I don't think I have played Dragontorc.

Elite is one of the most respected and highly rated games for the majority of gamers who played it back in the 80s. It is a game that even if you dont like it, you can see how well it has been written and designed.

Bubble Bobble - I had played the arcade version and whilst the CPC version is nowhere near as good, I really enjoyed playing the CPC version.

Myth - I liked the graphical style,animation and the gameplay. I don't think I finished it though, but I can see how for some people they would not like it.

I find that back in the day people tended to not have the money to buy loads of games, so when you got a game for Christmas even if it was bad or generally thought of as being crap you still played it, you spent time on it and you would often discover it had some merit. Often these are the games that become cult games. Take chopper squad or galactic plague for example. Everyone will slag them off, but I got enjoyment from them because I spent time playing them as I did'nt have other games to play at the time.

It's the same with computers, I looked at ZX81s in the 80s and thought they were awful. Yet the ZX81 owners would rave about them because they had committed to them and looked beneath the surface and discovered the good points.

[khisanth]

All things considered, I love the fact that every game will have it's fans. That somebody somewhere will enjoy it,which is the most important thing.

(even ET or Pacman on the Atari 2600!)

[AMSDOS]

Elite is one of the most respected and highly rated games for the majority of gamers who played it back in the 80s. It is a game that even if you dont like it, you can see how well it has been written and designed.

I simply throw this one away for the complexity of it and yes I never got the actual game itself complete with Box and Instructions, it was merely a give away with AA100 with their instructions which probably doesn't do the game justice, though you don't really need a lot of instructions to get stuck into a game, but Elite I've seen more Hints, Tips and Suggestions in it's day to see a Comprehensive Book being written on this game alone! 

The other issue which I felt was a point of relevance is games which get High-scores doesn't necessarily stack up with other reviewers. Take Head Over Heels for example - AA20 95% as a Full Price Game, AA58 Re-release on budget 62% True it's still not the worst game ever, the mind simply wonders what is going on. If you look at Reviews from other magazines for instance games like Spaghetti Western got 88% in ACU October '90, AA60 gave it 37%, simularly T-Bird got 86% in that same issue and AA60 gave it 55% That ACU issue had one game which was comparable to the review AA had in Zeppelin's World Soccer - 76% in ACU and 66% in AA60, and the other game which was on totally different ends of the scope with ACU and AA was Mike Read's Computer Pop Quiz with 80% in ACU and 39% in AA60.

I just hope nobody sets up a site to rant about the games a lot of people would like (I wouldn't personally). Such an idea would only be there to annoy people big time, which is why I say if you enjoy that game then that's all that matters.

[khisanth]

Elite has a very simple goal. Make money. Fly through space, shoot things, buy things and then sell at a profit.  The real beauty was that you could choose how you wanted to play. Be a space pirate, mine asteroids,bounty hunter or play as a peaceful trader.

Magazine reviews are notorious for often being biased or written by the wrong person (someone who HATES sports and sports games reviewing a football or athletics game for example). Games companies would and some still do tell you to give their a game a good review score otherwise they will not send you review copies in future.  A famous example was someone who reviewed Kane and Lynch for Gamespot.com. The publishers of Kane and Lynch sponsored the show and when this guy gave it a bad review he got fired !!! They claim he was fired for other reasons...

[tastefulmrship]

Elite has a very simple goal. Make money. Fly through space, shoot things, buy things and then sell at a profit.  The real beauty was that you could choose how you wanted to play. Be a space pirate, mine asteroids,bounty hunter or play as a peaceful trader.

Off-Topic: ShowHide

[/b]
I grew up with ELITE on the BBC-B, which was far superior to the CPC attempt, which was very disappointing for me as I had 'bigged' the CPC machine up to my BBC & C64 owning cousins. However, when the 16-bits took over, FINAL FRONTIER was simply the pinnacle of Braben's vision! (A view not shared by critics) It nearly destroyed my A600, I played it so much!

With the CRCT techniques being used these days in demos (MOODY from VANITY for one), I think a 25Mhz stipple-filled vector version of FINAL FRONTIER would be pretty impressive on the CPC... well, 128Kb machines! More BLUE DANUBE, anyone?

[MaV]

25Mhz stipple-filled vector version of FINAL FRONTIER would be pretty impressive on the CPC... well, 128Kb machines!

What CPC are you actually talking about?

[tastefulmrship]

What CPC are you actually talking about?

The 128KB ones. Mighty machines that they are!
Maybe the PLUS might be a little better, as it has doody colours and all that stuff!

[MaV]

The 128KB ones. Mighty machines that they are!
Maybe the PLUS might be a little better, as it has doody colours and all that stuff!

But they don't have 25MHz. I guess you meant 25Hz double-buffered vector graphics.

[tastefulmrship]

But they don't have 25MHz. I guess you meant 25Hz double-buffered vector graphics.

Oops! That blasted M! Sorry!
25Hz I guess it is!

If it's possible to get 50fps from CPC vectors then great, but I assumed 25 would be sufficient. Is 25 even possible? Could it be maintained in a gaming environment (ie enemy/planet positioning, HUD updates, keyboard checking, sounds, etc)?

(Ok, way off-topic now!)

[MaV]

If it's possible to get 50fps from CPC vectors then great, but I assumed 25 would be sufficient. Is 25 even possible?

Since we are off-topic, just a short answer: 25Hz vector graphics, I'm afraid, won't easily be possible (simple objects perhaps?). Take a look at Starglider or the Demo by Odiesoft.

[TFM]

Starglider is a wonderfull and quick game. For 3D vectors and filled vectors take a look at Starfox and Starstrike. Z80 rulez!!! (Compare how slow it is on a c64  )

[MacDeath]

The 128KB ones. Mighty machines that they are!
Maybe the PLUS might be a little better, as it has doody colours and all that stuff!

I can only agree...

But concerning Elite, it was another case of quite straight portage I guess.
The 256x192 display is a clear sign of this.
But Ok, the 3D window manages more clashless colours than ZX speccy.

Same with Fighter Bomber, quite an incredible 3D game on CPC, yet...


Such games should have been a 128K games but... actually very few "real 128K RAM games" were  really produced...

Even the awesome Pirates! is... slightly C64 ported (Graphics I guess) which is a bit sad because it could have had really impressive graphics "almost as good" as some 16bit versions.

[Xyphoe]

I grew up with ELITE on the BBC-B, which was far superior to the CPC attempt, which was very disappointing for me as I had 'bigged' the CPC machine up to my BBC & C64 owning cousins.

Out of interest, what were your issues with the CPC conversion? I thought it was amazing playing it, but hadn't seen the other versions. From what I looked at on YouTube ages ago it seemed the Beeb and C64 versions played a bit smoother and faster... but was that it in terms of issues?

[ervin]

Oops! That blasted M! Sorry!
25Hz I guess it is!

If it's possible to get 50fps from CPC vectors then great, but I assumed 25 would be sufficient. Is 25 even possible? Could it be maintained in a gaming environment (ie enemy/planet positioning, HUD updates, keyboard checking, sounds, etc)?

(Ok, way off-topic now!)

It would be awesome, but 25fps would be highly unlikely, simply due to the fact that the CPC's screen display takes a fair bit of memory, and updating that memory each frame takes time.

On top of that you'd have to factor in the vector calculations, plotting the lines, managing the HUD and instrumentation elements, the 3D scanner etc. etc.

We can but dream...

I don't know much about the Beeb, but the C64's screen memory is only 1kb, and thus is very fast to update (though that version Elite is very flickery).

Having said that, take a look at Starion or Battle of the Planets. They may not run at 25fps, but they are very fast and smooth, and make you wonder how good Elite on the CPC could have been. 

[Xyphoe]

Having said that, take a look at Starion

Heh ... and someone listed "Starion" as one of their worst ever Amstrad games too!
I tried it out the other night, and quite liked it!

[tastefulmrship]

Out of interest, what were your issues with the CPC conversion? I thought it was amazing playing it, but hadn't seen the other versions. From what I looked at on YouTube ages ago it seemed the Beeb and C64 versions played a bit smoother and faster... but was that it in terms of issues?

ELITE for the Beeb was its 'Killer App' and brought me years of space piraty goodness! (Go Imperials!) The clunkiness of the CPC version was too much for me to handle and I dismissed it pretty quickly. I guess I didn't play it enough to really get into it as I already had the Beeb version that sat on the same desk as my CPC! It was simply a matter of turning my head around.
And then, of course, FINAL FRONTIER arrived for the Amiga, that replaced my Beeb on the desk, and I never looked back at ELITE!

On top of that you'd have to factor in the vector calculations, plotting the lines, managing the HUD and instrumentation elements, the 3D scanner etc. etc.

We can but dream...

That's why the great Lord Almighty invented look-up tables! ^_^
But maybe we'll see a decent ELITE clone on CPC one day... ...

Heh ... and someone listed "Starion" as one of their worst ever Amstrad games too!
I tried it out the other night, and quite liked it!

That would be me, again. I remember loading this up on my 464 and spending 20 minutes playing it before giving up and returning to 3D Starfight and Roland in Time! (How sad?)

[AMSDOS]

Space Harrier I reckon should be quick enough for anyone! 

[TMR]

I don't know much about the Beeb, but the C64's screen memory is only 1kb, and thus is very fast to update (though that version Elite is very flickery).

The BBC is very similar to the CPC and the memory overhead for Elite's screen is about the same per pixel i think.

C64 Elite runs in a bitmapped screen mode, so 8,000 bytes of screen RAM in use - it's also just the Beeb code ported and not using the extra RAM for double buffering, the flickering is there on both but more obvious with the slower refresh speed.