Happy GX4000 owners for 7 quids

[Optimus]

Was watching that random old video about the life of PS1 gamedevs, where at the end of the video (8:38) they come out of the story happy with a GX4000 each. They kinda mock it like 7 quids not worth for that crap. Such a funny thing to watch before going to bed, haha.

https://youtu.be/9NCvdlSbAlI?si=MfR8fABIBky-eG9i&t=517

[norecess464]

Thanks for sharing this, @Optimus !

I can completely relate to the mindset of those people. I think I behaved similarly at some point: there was a time when Amstrad machines were just "recent history" to me, with no real sense of nostalgia. Back then, I only cared about "better machines".

As a side note, the reaction ("the GX-4000 is sooooo bad") is actually what fuels me the most nowadays while developing Sonic GX. It feels like sweet revenge, proving that the GX-4000 was actually a very capable console -- if only it had the right software!

[Optimus]

Haha yeah, I think GX4000 has true potential.
People outside of the scene think Amstrad were shitty machines, well they had their flaws and maybe CPC+/GX4000 were too late, but from retro coding perspective I see a lot of potential with the new added ASIC hardware and the extra space in the cartidge. They could have been much better with better software and easier to program certain hardware tricks than a regular CPC.

[dodogildo]

People outside of the scene think Amstrad were shitty machines, 

Exactly. Just like they were wrong about MSX, they are wrong about CPC too. Their loss. 
I try to embrace as many 8 bits machines as I can. It's is very rewarding.. 

[Anthony Flack]

My GX has a sticker on the box saying it's marked down to £5. That's what it took before somebody bought it... sad!

I'm sure there's more than £5 of fun in Burnin' Rubber and if you had managed to pick up Pang or Switchblade along with it, you're probably having a better time than some people were having with PS1 launch titles like Tama or Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game

[Shaun M. Neary]

It's down to revisionist history. And some of it is justified.

Amstrad releasing an 8bit console in the summer of 1990 when the 16bit consoles were due for European release (I believe the Megadrive came out a month or two later), and the Atari ST and Amiga 500 were the direction things had been going since at least 1988 was a bizarre, borderline dumb move. And people unaware of recent developments with the GX, will hang on to that fact like a dog with a bone.

It certainly didn't help that most of the few releases that came out for the GX were ported from their cheaper tape/disc counterparts at over double the price meant that whole thing was doomed to fail from day one. 

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, had this been released in '88, it would have stood a fighting chance against the Master System especially if the software houses were behind it. But you had Ocean and Titus behind the GX4000... and that was pretty much it, and even then they got lazy once the machine came out.

On a positive note however, thanks to the efforts of so many people, the GX has been given a new lease of life with the joystick only ports of existing stuff and the C4CPC, for better or for worse (Look how much the GX and C4CPC goes for now!) is now at the forefront of peoples attention...

I'm not so sure they were mocking it at the end of the video though. I took it more to understand that they paid 7 quid for a 9v power supply and a scart lead, which probably would have added up to that price at the time perhaps?

[Anthony Flack]

Some of the better games were still pretty good, and cheaper than Master System games, but I heard the launch was botched and the games themselves were in woefully short supply. If they had stuck to only the better games and had manufactured enough copies of them, perhaps it might not have been seen as such a bad proposition.

Still, there's so much untapped potential. It's just powerful enough that in the right hands it could almost pass for a 16 bit system. As always it's all about the quality of the games and it's got enough to do plenty with. 

The C64 just got a port of Spelunky, just saying...

[norecess464]

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, had this been released in '88, it would have stood a fighting chance against the Master System

Let me offer a slight variation on the above. ;-)

To be honest, I remember well this time through the eyes of my younger self (not yet a teenager):  the 16-bit consoles were around, but they were the "expensive, out-of-reach" machines.
 
Back then, I never had a console at home -- ever. So anything that was considered a "console" was good enough for me.

In 1990, the 8-bit systems of the time (the Master System and NES) were really appealing to me. In 1992, it was obsolete, but in 1990, still quite desirable.

They were more "affordable" than the 16-bit machines in terms of price (something I could actually ask for as a Christmas gift, for example).

Having an Amstrad CPC at home, for some time I was actually proud of Amstrad's new console and didn't care much about its CPU or technical features. The appeal was there simply because it was an Amstrad machine, and I loved the CPC.

Of course, now as an adult, I can see how flawed the Amstrad's strategy was, and I agree with it being too late, but back then, from the perspective of a kid, it seemed like a great idea!

[Shaun M. Neary]

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, had this been released in '88, it would have stood a fighting chance against the Master System

Let me offer a slight variation on the above. ;-)

To be honest, I remember well this time through the eyes of my younger self (not yet a teenager):  the 16-bit consoles were around, but they were the "expensive, out-of-reach" machines.
 
Back then, I never had a console at home -- ever. So anything that was considered a "console" was good enough for me.

In 1990, the 8-bit systems of the time (the Master System and NES) were really appealing to me. In 1992, it was obsolete, but in 1990, still quite desirable.

They were more "affordable" than the 16-bit machines in terms of price (something I could actually ask for as a Christmas gift, for example).

Having an Amstrad CPC at home, for some time I was actually proud of Amstrad's new console and didn't care much about its CPU or technical features. The appeal was there simply because it was an Amstrad machine, and I loved the CPC.

Of course, now as an adult, I can see how flawed the Amstrad's strategy was, and I agree with it being too late, but back then, from the perspective of a kid, it seemed like a great idea!

I wont disagree on a lot of this. The NES and Master System was still very popular but by 1990, both had VAST game libraries. The Master System was still selling quite well against the Megadrive, however some video stores here also rented out the consoles and games too, so if you couldn't afford to buy them, you could rent one, and the prices didn't stay high for very long with the Megadrive once the SNES came out, it became a price war.

I did have high hopes for the GX when it came out, but when the releases started to be the same as the tape and disc versions, the writing was on the wall and everyone knew it. Even I could see that at 14 and 15... and like yourself, I was an 8bit computer guy, the games were still a damn sight cheaper especially on tape and easier to build a library of as well.

[norecess464]

both had VAST game libraries

Very great point, indeed!

but when the releases started to be the same as the tape and disc versions

Robocop 2, Navy Seals and Pang were the titles that attracted me the most: they weren't available for the Amstrad CPC.
I was a huge fan of the game Batman The Movie. I can remember that I was so disappointed to see that the GX-4000 version did not offer any "Pluses".

[Anthony Flack]

They had a head start for sure, but the SMS library wasn't THAT vast in 1990. About a hundred-ish titles? No Castle of Illusion, no Sonic games yet. But they had Alex Kidd, the Fantasy Zone games, Wonder Boys 1 thru 3, Out Run, Shinobi, Phantasy Star and others. They had more than 23 actually good games.

Still, if the GX launch hadn't been such a disaster I guess they would have anticipated getting up to 50-ish titles before too long. 

[Shaun M. Neary]

both had VAST game libraries

Very great point, indeed!

but when the releases started to be the same as the tape and disc versions

Robocop 2, Navy Seals and Pang were the titles that attracted me the most: they weren't available for the Amstrad CPC.
I was a huge fan of the game Batman The Movie. I can remember that I was so disappointed to see that the GX-4000 version did not offer any "Pluses".

Robocop 2 and Navy Seals became glorified graphics demos as you were lucky if you could get off the second screen on either of those games, they made em so tough. I like a challenge, but I also like to be able to leave my room with my console intact!! Pang is nicely done though, I will credit that achievement despite not being a big fan of that game.

They actually made a meal out of Batman The Movie - that music slowdown on the top of the screens was unforgiveable!

They had a head start for sure, but the SMS library wasn't THAT vast in 1990. About a hundred-ish titles? No Castle of Illusion, no Sonic games yet. But they had Alex Kidd, the Fantasy Zone games, Wonder Boys 1 thru 3, Out Run, Shinobi, Phantasy Star and others. They had more than 23 actually good games.

Still, if the GX launch hadn't been such a disaster I guess they would have anticipated getting up to 50-ish titles before too long.

Sonic was barely a thing by 1990 and the GX release though, Alex Kidd was practically Sega's mascot up to that point. 
Ninja, My Hero, Choplifter, Hang On, R-Type, Rastan were all very playable on the Sega Master System as well. Which is more than what we can say for a lot of the titles that came out on the GX4000. The GX had a lot of turkeys, Barbarian II, Batman The Movie, Fire & Forget II, Wild Streets, Tintin On The Moon, I could go on. 

They found something even lazier than Speccy ports... only they had the audacity to charge over twice the price more for them!

[Anthony Flack]

Yes I think they were so desperate to get the library of titles up to a decent amount for launch, they probably should have cancelled half of them and made sure they had enough cartridges of the better ones available.

I've managed to get to stage 2 of Navy Seals and that's all... it's not a great game either, no.

[chinnyhill10]

I wont disagree on a lot of this. The NES and Master System was still very popular but by 1990, both had VAST game libraries. The Master System was still selling quite well against the Megadrive, however some video stores here also rented out the consoles and games too, so if you couldn't afford to buy them, you could rent one, and the prices didn't stay high for very long with the Megadrive once the SNES came out, it became a price war.

I did have high hopes for the GX when it came out, but when the releases started to be the same as the tape and disc versions, the writing was on the wall and everyone knew it. Even I could see that at 14 and 15... and like yourself, I was an 8bit computer guy, the games were still a damn sight cheaper especially on tape and easier to build a library of as well.

The NES only got any high street traction Christmas 1990 due to the Turtle pack. Before then it was the preserve of catalogue retailers. Nintendo sold a stack of NES's that Christmas simply because it was the Christmas of Turtles and thus the GX got pushed firmly to the side. Amstrad were very arrogant about how the console would do when presenting to software houses earlier in 1990 and many of them were not buying the concept. On the one hand it's Amstrad and they were big, on the other they knew nothing about the console market. So many software houses hedged their bets with cheap ports so they were in with Amstrad if the machine succeeded, but not financially exposed.

Ocean were the exception. They were worried about Sega and Nintendo 'lock in' and the control those companies exerted over publishers. So they were more keen to spend money (and also had enough spare cash to afford the risk).

[Shaun M. Neary]

I wont disagree on a lot of this. The NES and Master System was still very popular but by 1990, both had VAST game libraries. The Master System was still selling quite well against the Megadrive, however some video stores here also rented out the consoles and games too, so if you couldn't afford to buy them, you could rent one, and the prices didn't stay high for very long with the Megadrive once the SNES came out, it became a price war.

I did have high hopes for the GX when it came out, but when the releases started to be the same as the tape and disc versions, the writing was on the wall and everyone knew it. Even I could see that at 14 and 15... and like yourself, I was an 8bit computer guy, the games were still a damn sight cheaper especially on tape and easier to build a library of as well.

The NES only got any high street traction Christmas 1990 due to the Turtle pack. Before then it was the preserve of catalogue retailers. Nintendo sold a stack of NES's that Christmas simply because it was the Christmas of Turtles and thus the GX got pushed firmly to the side. Amstrad were very arrogant about how the console would do when presenting to software houses earlier in 1990 and many of them were not buying the concept. On the one hand it's Amstrad and they were big, on the other they knew nothing about the console market. So many software houses hedged their bets with cheap ports so they were in with Amstrad if the machine succeeded, but not financially exposed.

Ocean were the exception. They were worried about Sega and Nintendo 'lock in' and the control those companies exerted over publishers. So they were more keen to spend money (and also had enough spare cash to afford the risk).

Maybe in the UK but Ireland certainly had the consoles and lots of games for sale. Virgin Megastore were huge in selling it by summer 88. It was nowhere near the seller that the Master System was but that was probably Mattel dropping the ball with distribution while Sega had great marketing and advertising behind it. But to discount the SMB/Duck Hunt action pack for the Ninja Turtles is a horrible insult to its sales. Everyone wanted that gun!

I will agree with you on everything else though. Amstrad bit off more than they could chew at the time. They had a formula that worked in terms of computers but joined the console game with literally minutes to spare, completely unprepared and no time to do so.