9th October 2021
Robert Small has reviewed two games:
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Introduction and FAQ
Text only version List of games reviewed List of advertisements AMTIX! reviews list Links to other CPC sites Acknowledgements
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5th October 2021I have reviewed six games:
A note about CPC Soccer 22 – both CPC-POWER and CPCRulez combine it with CPC Soccer in their respective databases, but the author, VoxelTower, treats it as a separate game on his itch.io page, and I have done likewise and kept Missas' review of the original game. 4th October 2021There's been so much news about new and forthcoming games recently that it's difficult to know where to begin! 
Title screen of Los Amores de Brunilda Los Amores de BrunildaRetroworks has released a new game called Los Amores de Brunilda. This graphic adventure was released for the ZX Spectrum in 2013 and the MSX2 in 2019. You control Fray Gonzalo, one of two monks who are making a pilgrimage. During their journey, they stop at a village to get some rest, but Fray Gonzalo's companion falls victim to the curse of Brunilda – the ghost of a woman who committed suicide in the house where they are staying. Like Retroworks' most recent CPC release, The Sword of Ianna, Los Amores de Brunilda is designed to run only on the Dandanator hardware device, which enables the creation of games that use up to 512KB of ROM. Because of this, you can only play the game on a CPC that has this device, or on an emulator that supports the device, such as CPCEC or Retro Virtual Machine. It is an excellent game with cute and beautiful graphics and very atmospheric music, and you should definitely try it out if you haven't done so already. There's even a choice of seven languages, including Basque and Galician; I don't recall ever seeing any other Amstrad CPC games that support these languages! You can download Los Amores de Brunilda from Retroworks' site, or watch their trailer for the CPC version on YouTube. Bug's Quest for TapesIt was announced on one of Novabug's livestreams very recently that Yellow Belly's game Bug's Quest for Tapes is now available to download from CPC-POWER! As you may know if you visit CPC Game Reviews regularly, the original plan was that it wouldn't be made available to download for free until after Play Expo Blackpool, which is taking place on the 23rd and 24th October 2021. However, CPC-POWER accidentally made the cassette and disc images available for downloading – oops! Yellow Belly has said that he doesn't mind, though, so go ahead, download it and enjoy! Bubble QuestÉdouard Bergé (Roudoudou) recently released a YouTube video of a game he has been working on for the GX4000 and Plus machines called Bubble Quest. The footage dates from 2020 and development of the game has been delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but it looks amazing; it's hard to believe it's running on a GX4000! The gameplay is very similar to Bubble Ghost; you have to guide a bubble around the screen while avoiding any contact with walls and other hazards. Let's hope that Roudoudou can find the time to finish developing the game. In the meantime, you can watch the footage below, or watch it on YouTube. Video of beta version of Bubble Quest on YouTube (footage from 2020) Puzzle BobbleCrazy Piri has nearly finished their unofficial CPC conversion of Puzzle Bobble, and it is scheduled for release on 24th October 2021 (there's a countdown on their web site). You can watch a replay of a livestream of the game being played on YouTube. Arctic MovesRetrobytes Productions has released a short trailer on YouTube for Arctic Moves. After the release of Navy Moves, Arctic Moves was planned as a sequel, and while it eventually saw a release on the PC in 1995, a CPC version never happened – but it looks like Retrobytes Productions want to right that wrong! There's no gameplay footage in the trailer, but it looks like they aim to release a CPC version of Arctic Moves some time in 2022. OctopusThe Amstrad Eterno festival took place in Barcelona on the 25th September 2021 after being cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the games that was previewed at the event was Octopus by Cyrille Gouret. Octopus is a game for the GX4000 and Plus machines that is based on Nintendo's Game & Watch handheld game of the same name. As far as I can tell, it can emulate the LCD look of the original Game & Watch handheld, but there will also be a deluxe version with much better graphics. You can watch a preview of Octopus for the CPC on YouTube. New reviewsAs well as all that exciting news, there are also some new reviews to read. Robert Small has reviewed two games: 25th September 2021
Screenshot of CPC Soccer 22 CPC Soccer 22Last year, VoxelTower released CPC Soccer to much acclaim (including a 10 out of 10 rating on this site) and comparisons to Sensible Soccer, which is widely regarded as an excellent football game for 16-bit machines. Now he has released an updated version called CPC Soccer 22 with many improvements. The most obvious of these is that the action is now presented in the CPC's 16-colour Mode 0 instead of the four-colour, but higher resolution, Mode 1, so teams and players now have more appropriate colours of shirts. Other additions include five different types of pitch that affect the behaviour of the ball, cutscenes where the referee approaches a player to give him a yellow or red card, and a cursor to show where you're aiming when you're taking, for example, a goal kick or a corner. Even with all of these new features, the game still fits into 64KB of memory. You can download CPC Soccer 22 from itch.io and offer an optional donation. A review should be coming fairly soon. New reviewsRobert Small has reviewed two games: 13th September 2021
Cover of Siemb Chronicles: Arkos the Traitor ESP Soft has released a new game called Siemb Chronicles: Arkos the Traitor. It's based on events from two previously released games – Dinamic's Game Over, and Galactic Tomb – another game from ESP Soft. In Game Over, Arkos faithfully served the evil ruler Gremla until he decided to revolt against her increasing lust for power. Now that she has been defeated, you, the hero of Galactic Tomb, have travelled to the planet of Hypsis, where Arkos is based, in a mission to overthrow him. Siemb Chronicles features the same excellent style of graphics and music as Galactic Tomb and is well worth downloading and playing. You can download the game from ESP Soft's site, and you can also buy a physical cassette release from Hobbyretro for €8.75 excluding shipping costs. Video of Siemb Chronicles: Arkos the Traitor on YouTube 31st August 2021Bug's Quest for MacmillanAs previously mentioned on this site, Novabug held his second charity fundraising stream for Macmillan Cancer Support on YouTube, auctioning 20 copies of Yellow Belly's new platform game Bug's Quest for Tapes, with every penny going to the charity. The target was £664, but it was easily smashed, with a total of £2,500 raised! One bidder even donated an utterly astonishing £464! Once again, congratulations to Novabug and Yellow Belly for raising so much for a very good cause. You can watch a replay of the YouTube stream below, and you can still make a donation via JustGiving. Novabug's Bug's Quest for Macmillan fundraiser on YouTube 28th August 2021
Cover of issue 1 of AmtixCPC Micro Action Amtix! magazine relaunchedChris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books has relaunched the Amstrad CPC magazine Amtix! Originally published by Newsfield Publications from 1985 to 1987, Amtix! focused on games, but it was less successful than its ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 counterparts, Crash and Zzap!64, and it only lasted for 18 issues before merging with Computing with the Amstrad. Now Chris is planning to relaunch Amtix! as a quarterly publication called AmtixCPC Micro Action, with each issue containing 60 A5-size pages. The first issue should be available from Fusion Retro Books now, priced at £3.99 excluding shipping costs. You can also subscribe to AmtixCPC Micro Action via Patreon to show your support. New reviewsRobert Small has reviewed two games: I have reviewed Dr. Roland. 21st August 2021New reviewsShaun Neary has reviewed two games: Bug's Quest for TapesNovabug has uploaded a video to YouTube that shows what the physical copies of Yellow Belly's game Bug's Quest for Tapes will look like. All of these copies will be auctioned on a YouTube livestream that is scheduled to take place on Saturday 28th August 2021 at 21:30 BST (20:30 GMT), and all the proceeds will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. This is intended to be the only opportunity to purchase a physical copy of the game – once they're sold, that's it! However, images for use with emulators will be available to purchase at a later date, probably at the end of October 2021. YouTube video showing the production of copies of Bug's Quest for Tapes 15th August 2021Robert Small has reviewed two games: I have reviewed four games, and given that the English football season has now started, I thought I would include a couple of football management games (even though I'm not a fan of the genre): 8th August 2021Yellow Belly has released a promotional video for his game Bug's Quest for Tapes, which you can watch below. It's looking very promising, although some of the sprites shown in the later part of the video are of a somewhat, er... dubious nature! Promotional video for Bug's Quest for Tapes on YouTube 25th July 2021New reviewsRobert Small has reviewed two games: Bug's Quest for TapesYellow Belly is in the process of developing a platform game called Bug's Quest for Tapes, and it's getting close to completion. It's based around Novabug's YouTube livestreams where he tests and plays a few cassettes from his collection of Amstrad CPC games every Saturday evening. In Yellow Belly's game, you control Novabug and you have to collect as many tapes on each screen as you can. Once the game is completed, the plan is that Xyphoe will play and attempt to complete it on one of his YouTube livestreams every Friday evening, and if you would like to purchase a physical copy of Bug's Quest for Tapes, Novabug will be auctioning twenty copies on one of his livestreams, and all proceeds will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. In the meantime, a few screenshots of the game are shown below.
12th July 2021Robert Small has reviewed two games: Incidentally, the British astronaut Major Tim Peake stated in an interview in The Guardian newspaper that Tomahawk on the Amstrad CPC is his favourite computer game. Cool! 8th July 2021Robert Small has reviewed two games: I have rewritten my review of One Man and His Droid and given it a higher rating. It was originally one of the first reviews I wrote for this site, and at the time I didn't really understand how to play it! Now that I do, I can appreciate it better and give it a fairer rating. 1st July 2021
Screenshot of Dr. Roland John Lobo has released a new game called Dr. Roland. It's a clone of the Nintendo classic Dr. Mario that was originally submitted to the 2020 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest. However John's entry was disqualified, probably due to the organisers of the contest being worried about potential ligitation from Nintendo. If you've never played Dr. Mario before, it's quite similar to Tetris or Columns; you have to manoeuvre falling capsules and destroy viruses by aligning them so that there are four elements of the same colour in a row or column. Dr. Roland can be downloaded from itch.io for free. 13th June 2021AeonAnother new game has been released! This one is called Aeon and it has been developed by VincentGR and Kukulcan, who is better known as the maintainer of CPC-POWER – a site that I'm sure all Amstrad CPC fans will be familiar with. The game has been developed using Multi-Platform Arcade Game Designer and consists of four parts, and it features several marvellous tunes that have been converted by Jonah Ship from the ZX Spectrum, and cutscenes before each part with Mode 1 screens that use a lot more than four colours, thanks to some clever technical trickery. If you want to see what the game is like, you can watch a YouTube video of Xyphoe playing all four parts, and you can download the game from CPC-POWER. I have also written a review (continue reading below for the link). Xyphoe's playthrough of Aeon on YouTube New reviewsRobert Small has reviewed two games: I have reviewed three games: 3rd June 2021
Screenshot of Open Tower Defense Roudoudou has released Open Tower Defense. As the name suggests, it's a tower defence strategy game where waves of enemies come from the left-hand side of the screen, and you have to place fortifications to prevent them from reaching the right-hand side. The enemies become increasingly powerful, which means that you continually need to buy and build more fortifications and spend credits upgrading existing fortifications. The tower defence genre isn't totally new to the CPC – Shining released Defence in 2016, which received a 10 out of 10 rating on this site – but Open Tower Defense is a pretty decent version. You can download the game from the CPCWiki forum. 30th May 2021I have reviewed three games, including a new one that was released a week or so ago and which I forgot to mention in my last update – oops! Robert Small has reviewed two games: The Sword of Ianna has been available on the CPC for nearly a year, and if you're not already aware, it only works on the Dandanator hardware device. To the best of my knowledge, Retro Virtual Machine and CPCEC are the only emulators that currently support emulation of this device. If you haven't played it before, I think it is well worth the effort of trying to get the game to work in one of these emulators! 27th May 2021
Proposed box artwork of Hibernated 1: This Place Is Death (Director's Cut) Hibernated 1: This Place Is Death (Director's Cut)Back in 2018, Stefan Vogt released the text adventure Hibernated 1: This Place Is Death, and it was very highly praised (including an 8 out of 10 rating on this site). Since then, he has spent many months rewriting and greatly expanding it, and now he has released Hibernated 1 (Director's Cut). This new version has been developed using the PunyInform engine, which generates code that is compatible with Infocom's Z-machine. In short, you can create much larger and more complex adventures with PunyInform than you can with DAAD or PAW (two engines that were used in the development of the previous, 'classic' version of the game). In Stefan's words, "If Infocom had been asked to recreate the classic Hibernated, the Director's Cut would have been the outcome." Stefan also plans to collaborate with poly.play to produce a physical release of Hibernated 1 (Director's Cut) that will come in a grey box, similar to Infocom's own "grey box" releases, some of which were released for the Amstrad CPC and PCW. In the meantime, you can download the digital release of Hibernated 1 (Director's Cut) for the CPC and PCW (and around 20 other formats!) from itch.io. The Sean McManus Software CollectionFollowing my announcement earlier this month about being able to play some Amstrad CPC games online at Amstrad CPC Games, Sean McManus has updated his site so that you can play some of his type-in listings online using the same online emulator. A number of Sean's type-ins were published in Amstrad Action and Amstrad Computer User in the early 1990s. 10th May 2021Play Amstrad CPC games online!A new site, simply titled Amstrad CPC Games, has recently been launched. If you visit it, you can play around 30 great Amstrad CPC games, such as Arkanoid, Bomb Jack, Commando, Gryzor and Ikari Warriors, in your web browser – no need to download or launch an emulator! All of this is possible thanks to Andre Weissflog's hugely impressive Tiny Emulators set. New reviewsI have reviewed five games: 6th May 2021New reviewsRobert Small has reviewed two games: Also, after watching Xyphoe play Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge on one of his live streams recently, I have reduced the rating on my review to 9 out of 10 (it was previously 10 out of 10). I still think it's a great racing game but it doesn't deserve full marks. XeNoMoRPH's YouTube channel added
I've added links to videos on XeNoMoRPH's YouTube channel on my site. This channel is run by Joseph Antony and it features short gameplay videos of modern Amstrad CPC games and some of the less well known releases from the CPC's golden era. 21st April 2021
Box artwork of Red Sunset Red SunsetBitmap Soft will be releasing a limited edition physical version of ESP Soft's wonderful shoot-'em-up Red Sunset, and you can order a copy now. You'd better be quick, though; the first batch of 25 copies sold out within a day, and the second batch of 25 copies will be the final batch! The box (see the image on the right) will include an A4 poster, an A5 manual, stickers, and a copy of the game on 3″ disc. The cost is £25.00, excluding shipping. E-mail: nich <AT> durge <DOT> org |
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