Changes

The practise many GX4000 cartrige of some cartridge game developpers had developers was to directly put an almost unchanged Game form game from the CPC OLD library into a cartridge for the Plus/GX4000.A game which had small changes (often just using the Plus's palette) was called a "Almost Direct Disk to CartridgePort".

Some time such games even had to be lighted from some features (graphical page) as the 128Ko only Cartridge was a bit short of Bytes compared to a 3" == Disk.vs Cartridge ==

Of course this didn't helped the The most common size of [[PlusCartridge|cartridge]] range at all used was only 128KB which had less capacity compared to a 3" disk. The standard DATA format had 178K of useable storage and was almost as shamefull as later (1990) disc games had around 210KB of usable storage on each disc.This meant that a direct Disk to Cartridge port would need to have something removed so that it would fit into the [[Speccy Port]] techniccartridge space.(It is worth noting that 256KB ROM and 512KB ROM (maximum capacity for a rom) can be used with cartridges but probably because of cost reasons most used 128KB ROMs. )

This A small number of games on tape/disc (e.g. Bloodwych) used tape/disc to store game state (so play could continue after), but there was a cheap and fast no way to shortly release store game state on Cartridge games. (i.e. the cartridge contained an EPROM and the ACID protection chip only, no EEPROM or RAM).

As a result, implementing Of course this direct disk to cartridge didn't help the [[Plus features on existing games could be impossible without massive reprogramming if such games already used well ]] range at all and was almost as shameful as the full 64Ko Ram[[Speccy Port]] technique, but it was done because it was a cheap and fast way to quickly release games.

Yet Another problem came from the fact that both the 464Plus and GX4000 (essentially a 128Ko Ram would allows additions of Hard Sprites or DMA sounds more easily on a 64Ko cut down 464Plus) had 64KB ram . As a result using old the Plus features to the full was not so simple if the gamewas to run on these systems.

Most == Almost Direct Disk to Cartridge Port == Most games were with CPC and PLUS versions are "Almost Direct Disk to Cartridge Port" , a "Direct Disk to Cartridge Port" with small modifications. The use of the extra Plus features varied a lot. Some didn't use much, others used more. == Examples of Direct Disk to Cartridge Ports == These games are identical in look to the CPC versions with no use of Plus features: *[[Batman The Movie ( Cartridge )]] *[[Barbarian 2 ( Cartridge )]] *[[Mystical ( Cartridge )]] These could have benefited from using the Plus 4096 colour palette as a minimum. Please visit their respective pages to read more about these games. == Examples of Almost Direct Disk to Cartridge Ports == Some other cartridge games looked almost the same as the CPC version, but did use some few extra PLUS Plus features where still implemented . Some examples:

But it *[[Operation Thunderbolt ( Cartridge )]] *[[Klax ( Cartridge )]] *[[Tintin On the Moon (Cartridge)]] This was still better than nothingthe direct ports, because it could give a more "16bit version look". Please visit their respective pages to read more about these games. == Examples of games developed using lots of Plus features == All cartridge games should have followed the example of these games: *[[Pang ( Cartridge )]]*[[Navy Seals ( Cartridge )]]*[[Plotting ( Cartridge )]] All these games were developed with the Plus features in mind, and all cartridge games should have been of this quality. == Side-by-Side comparison of ported games == *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZBzhKoGdI Batman the Movie, Barbarian 2 & Operation Thunderbolt] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRDlE0f8GaI Klax, Mystical & Super Pinball Magic] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPEeqIEgO_0 No Exit, Panza Kick Boxing & Wild Streets] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LaHwU5A0gk Crazy Cars 2, Fire & Forget 2 & Pro Tennis Tour]

Thankfully most of those games were known as good games on the CPC. The bet was that it would still make be a good games game on [[Plus]] standard.

Yet peoples saw no interest to buy people were not interested in buying an expensive Cartridge cartridge with so no or few adventages, as they often had advantages when the Cracked Disk CPC versioncould be bought for cheaper and played on the Plus.

Most UK prices: in 1990 when the Plus/GX4000 was released, cartridge games with OLD were sold at £29.95, while disc versions were normally £14.99 and PLUS tape version are "Almost Direct Disk to Cartridge Port"was £9.99. Blank discs were £2.50 each.(Source Amstrad Action October 1990)

Yet French prices: in 1990 when the Extra PLUS feature could vary a lotPlus/GX4000 was released, cartridge games were sold for 250Fr , 150Fr for disc and 100Fr for tape. Blank discs were 20Fr each. (Fr = French Francs, pre-Euro currency in France).

Batman == The present and Barbarian 2 could have make great use of 2 button padles and a 4096 colour palette...future ==

It is nowadays a common feature to modify existing Old CPC games to take advantage of some plus features, mostly the [[Plus]]'s bigger palette, but often these remain on disk.With [[No$cart]] these could be converted to cartridge and made into "Almost Direct Disk to Cartridge Port", just by modifying the Colours palette to match the [[Plus]] capability.

Yet heavier modifications can be seen tooMost cartridges were the original games released from the GX4000 era so these ideas were mostly applied to games. To apply this to utilities you would need to have drivers to access disc/tape for storage, or include the OS/firmware in your cartridge.

As most cartridges were Now that the original Games release from the GX4000 era, it was mostly applied to games, yet the crack operation of the ACID protection chip is known, and production the development of modern era Cartridges (or multi-ROM cartridges) various home brew cartridge hardware solutions may lead to Direct Disk to Cartridge Port applied to any knid kind of softwaressoftware or new cartridge games that make fuller use of Plus features (See [[Converted_GX4000_games]]).