Top Ten Amstrad CPC Games

[ukmarkh]

[Neil79]

Seriously cool vid mate!

[TFM]

Nice! But why are all 'homebrew' games missing? And this question goes out to ALL top ten vid makers on the CPC.


What's about integrating them? Or make of Top 10 Homebrew.

[dodogildo]

Awesome compilation, thank you!

But how come Amstrad Action gave only 83% to Gryzor? This is crazy. I never realized that back then...

[TFM]

Awesome compilation, thank you!

But how come Amstrad Action gave only 83% to Gryzor? This is crazy. I never realized that back then...

Because it has no scrolling. [nb]The truth is that ratings are purely given due to transfer of money to the producer of a magazine, but nobody want't to hear the truth.[/nb]

[Zoe Robinson]

No Count Duckula 2?


Seriously though, great selection.


You weren't taking full effect of Renegade's twitchy AI however - if you stand in the top-left corner of the first map, baddies can only get you from angles where you can attack them first; which makes most of that level much easier.


Also, nice choice of AA64 for your video thumbnail. That was my first issue, the one with Space Froggy on the covertape. One of these days I'll complete that game. One of these days...

[ukmarkh]

Awesome compilation, thank you!

But how come Amstrad Action gave only 83% to Gryzor? This is crazy. I never realized that back then...

I just don't think 'AA' grasped the idea of Gryzor in its entirety. The series is still popular even today and the CPC version apart from the scrolling issue still play's and holds up well.

[ukmarkh]

Nice! But why are all 'homebrew' games missing? And this question goes out to ALL top ten vid makers on the CPC.


What's about integrating them? Or make of Top 10 Homebrew.

Because this is a video based on the commercial games of the past. But yes, I've already considered a homebrew vid. R-TYPE would be number 1 - OR would it? 

[TFM]

I remember at least #1 candidates right now.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Awesome compilation, thank you!

But how come Amstrad Action gave only 83% to Gryzor? This is crazy. I never realized that back then...

It lost a few points because of it's difficulty, and let's be honest, it was rock hard in places, as well as the some of the enemies almost blending in with the background on the first level (also a valid point at times), lack of sound on non 128k machines and no real reason to play it once you've finished it.

Personally, I find that final point bullshit. I knew many arcade goers that would play the same game again (and finish it) just to show off. 

[TotO]

But how come Amstrad Action gave only 83% to Gryzor? This is crazy. I never realized that back then...

May be because :
- No scrolling
- 2 levels are missing
- Only one area music for all the game and no menu or boss tunes[nb]Here the full game soundtrack :
Title
Introduction
Area 1: Jungle / Area 7: Hanger
Area Clear
Areas 2 & 4: Bases 1 & 2
Area 3: Waterfall
Area 5: Snow Field
Area 6: Energy Zone
Area 8: Alien's Lair
Area 8: Alien Dead
Boss
Credit
Game Over[/nb]

[dodogildo]

May be because :
- No scrolling
- 2 levels are missing
- Only one area music for all the game and no menu or boss tunes

I understand but back then, when I was a child, I never realized these. It was one hell of a game with awesome graphics and incredible pace/playability which was very rare for a CPC game.



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[TotO]

Sure you don't, but the reviewers does.

[EgoTrip]

Can't say I agree with the selection, only two of the games featured I'd include (Spindizzy and Switchblade) but the video is well produced.

[Shaun M. Neary]

To be fair, scrolling was rare on the CPC in 87. It's one of the reasons why Richard Aplin was considered somewhat of a mastermind when he did Flyspy that year.

[TFM]

Scrolling was relative rare, because there were too much spectrum ports. But scrolling on CPC is easy. Doing non-scrolling games in these days (when scrolling would be nice to have) just shows some lack of coding skills imho. Of course a lot of games just don't need scrolling by nature.

[dodogildo]

Sure you don't, but the reviewers does.

I'm still not convinced.
Should a review evaluate how faithful is a game to its arcade original? Or how good is a game by means of graphics, playability, longetivity etc?


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[TotO]

In this case, the game is good with only one stage... 

[Shaun M. Neary]

Scrolling was relative rare, because there were too much spectrum ports. But scrolling on CPC is easy. Doing non-scrolling games in these days (when scrolling would be nice to have) just shows some lack of coding skills imho. Of course a lot of games just don't need scrolling by nature.

Nah, I don't think that Speccy ports are even an issue. All you have to do is take a look at Ghosts N Goblins that came out a few months before Gryzor. Not only did scrolling not exist, but when the next page was loaded, it was flickery, ugly and downright dreadful.

Compared to that, Gryzor was Shinobi! xD

[Optimus]

Nah, I don't think that Speccy ports are even an issue. All you have to do is take a look at Ghosts N Goblins that came out a few months before Gryzor. Not only did scrolling not exist, but when the next page was loaded, it was flickery, ugly and downright dreadful.

Compared to that, Gryzor was Shinobi! xD

I remember Ghost and Goblins had quite nice graphics and sprite animation, there was some kind of hw scrolling but only when you reached the end of the screen. And the music rocked!

[TFM]

Nah, I don't think that Speccy ports are even an issue. All you have to do is take a look at Ghosts N Goblins that came out a few months before Gryzor. Not only did scrolling not exist, but when the next page was loaded, it was flickery, ugly and downright dreadful.

Compared to that, Gryzor was Shinobi! xD

IMHO there were lots of well scrolling games, (Trantor, Sentinel etc.). However the lack of scrolling did never matter for me playing Gryzor. It's just a great game! 

[ukmarkh]

I used to be massively against CPC games that didn't scroll. But a while ago I realised if flip screen is done correctly, as seen in Gryzor, Renegade and many others (Not Green Beret). It is perfectly playable and acceptable and a fantastic way to work-around the CPC's 64K memory limitations.

Games where flip screen works well:

Gryzor (scrolled about two-thirds of a screen), Renegade, Target Renegade, Cybernoid 1 and 2, Prince of Persia, Mission Elevator (Scrolled two floors at a time), Skweek.

But there are lots of systems that used this technique including the NES, as it could only scroll in one direction unless extra memory was included in the cart.

[dodogildo]

Yet Amstrad Action should have gave the points based on players' point of view instead of those technicalities.

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[seanb]

I rarely cared if a game scrolled or not.
I always took it as that was how the game was meant to be so was never an issue.

Besides I never knew any c64 owners so the apparent lack of scrolling was never something brought up.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I rarely cared if a game scrolled or not.
I always took it as that was how the game was meant to be so was never an issue.

Besides I never knew any c64 owners so the apparent lack of scrolling was never something brought up.

In a similar boat myself. As long as it was consistent throughout the game, it never really affected my playing.
Being honest, the only time I was ever impressed by a C64 owner was whenever The Last Ninja loaded.

Of course, it would take nearly 30 minutes for that to happen, and I was usually bored by that stage...