Ideas for new CPC games (Skilled homebrew developers out of ideas, look here!)

[cwpab]

Let's talk about what kind of games could be ported or created from scratch for the Amstrad CPC, so that perhaps some homebrew developers read us and use some of our ideas.

Examples:
- Clones of old arcade games that the CPC still lacks
- Totally new games
- Demakes of 3D modern games like Shadow of the Colossus (lol)

For example, I would say:

- The second video game evern and the first one with "sprites": Spacewar (1958)
- The classic arcade game Tank Batallion (1980) or its sequel Tank Force (1990).
- A demake of Shadow of the Colossus just for the lulz (you can do the map, but good luck with the battles! Intelligence over strenght would be required: maybe turn it into a text game?)

[cwpab]

I forgot to add:

- Ports of Space Quest, etc., potentially making a version of Sierra's AGI aimed at creating CPC games.

[Cwiiis]

Something I've been highly tempted by is to try to port Maniac Mansion - it should be very feasible, given it ran great on C64 and NES and you have the potential for enhanced graphics vs those two platforms, especially if you used the Plus colours and sprites... I wouldn't feel bad if someone beat me to it

[andycadley]

Maniac Mansion has always been a tempting one, I remember a thread on an Enterprise forum (of all places) where people were picking apart the C64 version to see how feasible it was.

Amongst the many other ideas I've had floating around is a GX version of Green Beret. It's just about perfect for the Plus sprites and could scroll nice and smoothly...

[abalore]

I would like remakes of a lot of CPC games that have good design but are poorly coded, like Saboteur or The Great Escape. The performance and graphics can be greatly improved, probably because the originals are direct spectrum ports.

Going to the cartridge domain (512k available), many arcade ports can be improved, like 1942, Commando, Flying Shark, or implemented, like Legendary Wings. Alcon2020 is a proof that better things are achievable.

Some modern games are not a big deal for the CPC stock hardware, like Faster Than Light (FTL), Geometry Dash (a game that can work well in character based horizontal hardware scrolling).

Also, some advances have been done in game theory and AI since the 80s, so better chess games can be done, or other board games.

Lastly, using cartridges, probably faster 3D engines can be done by massively using precomputed tables, and improve the performance of Freescape engine or games like Elite.

[ajcasado]

I'd like to play a game inspired in Heroes of Might and Magic, at least a cut down version with farming (troops and resources) and battles in the gameplay. The Game Boy Color version could be a good source of inspiration.

[cwpab]

Maniac Mansion would be cute, but the problem is the cursor: how many CPC users have a mouse? If done, I would either 1) make an option to quickly move the cursor throught interactive objects in the screen by pressing a key or 2) release the game with a USB-to-CPC-port mouse adaptor.

For this reason, I would chose to port Sierra "AGI" games (first Space Quests, Larry and King's Quest games). Hell, I would chose to port AGI itself to allow potential graphic adventure designers to easily create such games on the CPC.

For example, we could call the tool "CPC Quest Maker". Firstly a paint tool called CPC Quest Paint would be created so you could paint the game screens there. Oh and instead of blindly copying AGI, a key feature introduced in SCI (Sierra's AGI's follow up) could be introduced: the use of the full screen for the graphics, with the text bar appearing only when you type.

I'm not sure about memory limitations, but if King's Quest was ported to the Apple II, "CPC Quest Maker" should be possible. Another potential option would be, instead of typing every verb and noun, having the ability of pressing up and down to make words appear on the text bar. The words would scroll trought a list that would change in each screen.

[dodogildo]

Maniac Mansion would be cute, but the problem is the cursor: how many CPC users have a mouse? If done, I would either 1) make an option to quickly move the cursor throught interactive objects in the screen by pressing a key or 2) release the game with a USB-to-CPC-port mouse adaptor.

On C64, Maniac Mansion plays perfectly without a mouse. Zak mckracken too. Couldn't CPC adopt the same mechanics?

[cwpab]

I wouldn't call moving a pointer with the cursor keys "perfectly".

[dodogildo]

Yet, both games are perfect.

[XeNoMoRPH]

Put aliens on the Game , top  hit 

[Prodatron]

Since more than 20 years I am dreaming about developing Warcraft for the CPC. It's still on my list.
There is already a version for the ZX Spectrum called "Black Raven" though I am not sure if it would run on a normal Spectrum.

[Ygdrazil]

Alien Breed... for CPC plus!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aSztV1QLo

/Ygdrazil

[Jean-Marie]

I'd love to see Hat Wizard on CPC ! Such a brilliant & innovative platformer, with a beautiful OST.

[MiguelSky]

I wouldn't call moving a pointer with the cursor keys "perfectly".

OPQA+Space or any similar both hands combination of keys gives a more accurate cursor handling, imho.

[dodogildo]

I wouldn't call moving a pointer with the cursor keys "perfectly".

BTW on C64, both games (Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken) are played with JOYSTICK not cursor keys. SCUMM interface was very clever and well designed from the very beginning. Especially on Zak, it works great.

I'd very like to see one of those games on CPC one day.

[cwpab]

I wonder if a CPC disk could handle the conversion of an "Escape from Tenopia" or "Escape from the Kingdom of Frome" (published in Spain as "Planea tu fuga de Tenopia" and "Planea tu fuga de Frome" book.

There are 4 books for each collection, they're "choose your own adventure" books but there are no bad endings and there are a lot of maps and some cryptographical puzzles instead.

The first book in the first series, "Tenopia Island", is available online on PDF format (I bet you can find the rest too, I have them all in PDF in Spanish) and you can see it has around 130+ pages with probably 30+ illustrations. The amount of text is not very high, and obviously the lines of code needed to create these simple menus would not be very high either, so it's just a matter of whether a CPC disk can handle all these monochrome images.











In my opinion, such project would fit quite well with the CPC, much more than some modern projects, due to it's intense 80-ness.

PS: There are reviews of these 2 series in https://gamebooks.org/Series/140/Show and https://gamebooks.org/Series/141/Show .

[cwpab]

Oh by the way, those maps still look cool today... I loved those books as a kid. Apparently some people (adults in the present) don't like them because they're not as complex as other "game books", but others (also adults in the present) say they're still engaging books (especially the best 3 or 4 of the total 8 ) because they offer some nice puzzles.

One thing that was pretty common (and you could argue stupid) in these books was that the second time you visited a place, you could do things you couldn't do before ("If you've been here before, go to page X" ). But you know what, who cares. I'm sure if this was available for the CPC, all of us would play from start to finish. 

[MiguelSky]

There are some similar books already for CPC, as the "Disquette Dont Vous Êtes le Héros" series converted by Roudoudou. Maybe the engine could support this kind of games.

https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=18599

[dodogildo]

I have to admit, as a 50+ year old geezer, the only thing I still like about these books is the cover art (or maybe the maps). How about we spend the limited time we have left in this world to create more playable games?

[migans]

Hi everybody! I'm new in this forum so hello 

I loved CPC version of Rainbow Islands, lots of memories, but I believe a rework on 128 kb would be just awesome (like Bubble bobble4cpc or arcade pacman if only I had them when I was a child ... ) 
Fix scrolling, some improved chip tunes, and it would be perfect!


And my regards to all homebrewers whose work makes me feel like a child again !!

Marco

[abalore]

I'd love to see Hat Wizard on CPC ! Such a brilliant & innovative platformer, with a beautiful OST.

There is some good stuff there. It's like a mix of platform and Sentinel. And the objects cutting the lasers are nice.

[cwpab]

I think a conversion of Abe's Oddysee would be a great idea because 1) the game is super fun, 2) it's doable on the system and 3) it would make many people discover the CPC:

[cwpab]

Here's another idea: Jack Attack, a C64 exclusive. Perfect to create a clone for other 8 bit machines. You can kill enemies by jumping on them and move blocks left to right as they fall: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7GeU6ufaJU

[GUNHED]

Let's talk about what kind of games could be ported or created from scratch for the Amstrad CPC, so that perhaps some homebrew developers read us and use some of our ideas.

Examples:
- Clones of old arcade games that the CPC still lacks
- Totally new games
- Demakes of 3D modern games like Shadow of the Colossus (lol)

For example, I would say:

- The second video game evern and the first one with "sprites": Spacewar (1958)
- The classic arcade game Tank Batallion (1980) or its sequel Tank Force (1990).
- A demake of Shadow of the Colossus just for the lulz (you can do the map, but good luck with the battles! Intelligence over strenght would be required: maybe turn it into a text game?)

Look, the point is not the lack of ideas - really not! 
The point if the lack of: 
number_of_coders * available_free_time

But nice idas anyway!