Retro Asylum 102 - The 8bit Wars Special - Does the Amstrad CPC win?

Swainy · 12:30, 28 November 14

Guys, you are going to like this one! Plenty of Amstrad action!!!

iTunes - Podcasts - Retro Asylum Podcast by retroasylum.com

This week Dean Swain, Paul Davies, Steve Erickson and our special guest Chris O'Regan, host of Spong.com's 'Sausage Factory' take sides and prepare for battle in our 8 Bit Wars Special. Paul tries to maintain order and decide which comes out top out of the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad.
Will there be 8 bit tears before bedtime?!
Check out our Official Retro Asylum YouTube channel for more retro discussion
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCC9rIvCKoW3mdbuCsB7Ag

Any feedback is more than welcome and please leave us an iTunes review if you haven't already.

[Post edited - please keep sponsors out of the post...]

MacDeath · 19:14, 28 November 14

Alan Sugar is both still alive and richer than the other twos... Amstrad Wins.

TFM · 20:10, 28 November 14

Cant listen 2 hours... but like in all advertisment driven media, the c64 will win. And we all know that the CPC is the best machine - by far.[nb]Except some trolls, but what can one do.[/nb]

Swainy · 20:16, 28 November 14

Quote from: TFM on 20:10, 28 November 14
Cant listen 2 hours... but like in all advertisment driven media, the c64 will win. And we all know that the CPC is the best machine - by far.[nb]Except some trolls, but what can one do.[/nb]

So wrong. Firstly Retro Asylum is a non profit podcast and secondly the C64 does not win.

MacDeath · 00:11, 29 November 14

As usual they choose the CPC464... had they taken the CPC6128 it would be a no contest.

Quoteand secondly the C64 does not win.

I hate speccy fanboyz...

sigh · 01:41, 29 November 14

Quote from: Swainy on 20:16, 28 November 14
So wrong. Firstly Retro Asylum is a non profit podcast and secondly the C64 does not win.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!! I haven't listened to the podcast yet!!!

No more spoilers Swainy!

Now get back tofinishing Double Dragon and sort out Renegade 3 while your at it

Swainy · 20:35, 29 November 14

So guys, have you had a listen to it yet?

sigh · 20:42, 29 November 14

I usually listen to podcasts at work, so it will be monday for me.

TFM · 21:03, 29 November 14

Cool job!

Would be nice to have a 10 - 15 min. version, 2h is just too much, never have so much time at once.

sigh · 21:07, 29 November 14

Quote from: TFM on 21:03, 29 November 14
Cool job!

Would be nice to have a 10 - 15 min. version, 2h is just too much, never have so much time at once.

I have to disagree. Retro are now only doing podcast fortnightly and no longer weekly, so I welcome longer episodes.

TFM · 21:16, 29 November 14

You missed the point. I don't say to make only short episodes, I thought it would be great to have a summery of 10-15 min.

Swainy · 22:54, 29 November 14

Quote from: TFM on 21:16, 29 November 14
You missed the point. I don't say to make only short episodes, I thought it would be great to have a summery of 10-15 min.

You could listen to it over a number of days. I think we spend roughly 20 minutes talking about each game.

TFM · 00:49, 30 November 14

Yep.... Have to do that.

ivarf · 12:08, 30 November 14

Loved it. Listened to it last night. See my other answer over at retrogamer.
By the way, bomb jack on the c64 sucks because of the large sprites. You can not collect the sprites in order because of this. I have never played the game on spectrum? Is it really better than the excellent amstrad version? The amstrad version could have looked better, but plays so well

Swainy · 14:42, 30 November 14

I honestly do think that the Speccy version is better. Fire it up on an emulator and let me know what you think.

TFM · 22:38, 30 November 14

Well, i only can tell from youtube. Amstrad and Spectrum versions seem to play equal well, however sometimes I have the impression that the spectrum version is a bit delayed. Bot let's not be nitpicking.

But Grafix and Sound are way better on the CPC. So CPC clearly wins.

ivarf · 10:41, 01 December 14

Quote from: TFM on 22:38, 30 November 14
Well, i only can tell from youtube. Amstrad and Spectrum versions seem to play equal well, however sometimes I have the impression that the spectrum version is a bit delayed. Bot let's not be nitpicking.

But Grafix and Sound are way better on the CPC. So CPC clearly wins.

Bomb Jack: The graphics is not good for a CPC game. They look like they have been transfered fast from another system. Colours look all wrong. Bomb Jack CPC needs a graphics remake done by a pixelartist

Optimus · 11:28, 01 December 14

Well, I am surprised the CPC wins over the C64. I am gonna listen the 2 hours anyway and find out why.

Carnivius · 11:33, 01 December 14

Seem to recall Retro Gamer did a feature and rated the CPC one the best 8-bit version.

I dunno. Never played any of the conversions myself. There was a Bombjack machine in the small arcade near where I lived back when it came out. It was hardly touched though. I played it a couple times when most of the other machines were in use but I can't say I was fond of it.

Just had a look at the C64 version. Looks somewhat cramped compared to the others. Big sprites, less space to move about.

Optimus · 11:40, 01 December 14

Well, C64 wins in many games because of proper hardware scrolling, char modes that you can use for neat tricks, true parallax layers for example, hardware sprites and all that.

CPC wins in colors. Z80 could help in faster 3D but wasn't optimized for Z80 in many 3D games I think, speed doesn't look much different than C64 versions in many old 3d ports.
Sound, I love the YM and I love the SID too. Out of nostalgia, I prefer hearing YM tunes. Many people from C64 think YM is shit, because they can't appreciate anything less than SID?
I have friend who finds the SID sound obnoxious and prefers the YM, although he never had an 8bit computer, just a NES. They are both chippy sounds anyway, worse than digital.

I think many C64 games stand because of smooth scrolling. Sprites seems smaller, because not many hw sprites.

I don't know about the quality of the games, the gameplay though. I don't know that about spectrum either.

Carnivius · 11:57, 01 December 14

Quote from: Optimus on 11:40, 01 December 14

I have friend who finds the SID sound obnoxious and prefers the YM

I prefer YM too. I like the meaty percussion in various SID tracks but I often find the sounds for the actual tunes often overdone and 'squelchy' sounding. SwitchBlade is one example where I most certainly prefer the Amstrad music to that of the C64's version (which I find painful, but then that game is just frickin' hideous on the C64 anyways).

I'm quite fond of a lot of NES tunes. Generally very clear sounding while still having nice percussion sounds. When done properly anyways.

I'd still take 'chippy' sounds over the bland, forgettable, boring 'movie scores' of the majority of modern games. I just want a frickin' tune to whistle or hum along to while I play a game. Is even that too much to ask of these days?

Optimus · 12:20, 01 December 14

Quote from: Carnivac on 11:57, 01 December 14
I'd still take 'chippy' sounds over the bland, forgettable, boring 'movie scores' of the majority of modern games. I just want a frickin' tune to whistle or hum along to while I play a game. Is even that too much to ask of these days?

True that! I am still wondering why almost no tune from modern games stays in my mind? Is it just nostalgia or modern game music is not memorable?

Bryce · 12:27, 01 December 14

Quote from: Optimus on 12:20, 01 December 14

True that! I am still wondering why almost no tune from modern games stays in my mind? Is it just nostalgia or modern game music is not memorable?

8-bit tunes were happy tunes. Modern games usually have dark, depressing tunes unless you happen to have some Wii kids games.

Bryce.

arnoldemu · 14:07, 01 December 14

another cracking good podcast.
Enjoyed it a lot.

Re: Gauntlet and two player.

This is true of any 2 player game on the CPC. It's the classic "keyboard clash". This means you press 3 keys a "phantom" key is pressed.
It is worse with 2 players on joystick, they will cause really bad clash and you'll end up controlling the other player.

But it also did it with keyboard and joystick together.

It's a hardware bug in the CPC, the joystick port needs extra electronics to fix it and stop them clashing.

Probably ok on the Plus. They fixed the joystick ports on that. I bet they tried to play a game on GX4000 and found the clash was really bad and fixed it LOL.

sigh · 15:12, 01 December 14

A very good podcast.

I also agree that bombjack does better on the spectrum.

The only one I do have a disagreement on is Light Force.

As for the 8 bit sounds, the SID chip for me has a fullness that the AY doesn't reach. Having played a C64 and CPC in tandem through my 8 bit days (my best friend owned a C64 and lived 10 seconds away from me) the the variety of different sounds that could be produced from that machine was and still is incredible. There were a handful of tunes that had a nicer rendition on the AY than SID, but I always found that it was down to the composer themselves.

I do enjoy 8 bit chippy tunes, but the modern day scores are far more engaging to me as they most often change during the game in accordance to what is happening on screen. I like how the music in fighting games intensify when the health is low, or when silent music is used as a build up.

However - sounds effects and music is incredibly important to me in games whether it be 8 bit or not.

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Retro Asylum 102 - The 8bit Wars Special - Does the Amstrad CPC win?