I recently picked up an Amstrad CPC 464 home computer system from 1984. Just like Commodore Plus/4, the hardware is all underneath the keyboard, and the games are played from cassette tapes, though this time the cassette player is built into the console itself. The CPC uses its own monitor which supplies power to the console via an extremely short lead, resulting in players being literally inches from the monitor, unless they choose joystick controls and have a sufficiently long controller lead. Anyway, with the system I picked up 73 games, so there's many more of these reviews to come, but for the first I picked out the three most exciting games I could see.
Game: Harrier Attack
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Durell Software
Release Date: 1984
As one of the CPC's previous owner's favourite games (according to a list I found), I was expecting a fair amount of Harrier Attack. As the game's title would suggest, players pilot a Harrier jet through hostile skies taking on ships, anti-aircraft fire and other planes. I used a master system controller as a joystick, so the movement buttons were mapped to its d-pad, and the rockets to button 1. The only slightly disappointing control related feature was that despite there being a second button on the master system's controller, the space button on the keyboard was used for bombs.
A difficulty level from 1-5 is selected at the beginning of the game, and this governs how much anti-aircraft fire the player can take, as well as how intelligent the AI opponents are. Completing the game at difficulty level 1 will take players onto difficulty level 2 and so on. Getting to the end of a stage is fairly easy, and should only take 3 or so minutes at half-speed. Points are awarded for blowing different things up with the finite number of bombs and rockets provided, and there's an extra 2000 bonus points for landing at the end of each level.
The game's graphics are simple and perhaps a little behind par for the time. The scrolling effect of the game can be fairly jerky and offputting, but I didn't find it too hard to get used to. While there's no music, there are some decent flying game style sound effects, and explosions sound far better than they would on the Atari or similar consoles.
Overall this is a simple but fairly effective shoot 'em up which is held back by the simplicity of its graphics, and being restricted to moving in lanes instead of freely. The choice of 2 weapons is good, and multiple difficulty levels mean that the challenge is never too great or small. With a good soundtrack and some slightly better graphics, this could have been a much better game, however.
Rating: 45/100
Grade: D
Game: Trollie Wallie
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Players
Release Date: 1986
The 'Players' cartridge label was reserved for games sent in by players of the Amstrad CPC who had programmed their own games and sent them in for evaluation. Only games that were approved by the company were then distributed to owners of CPCs everywhere. Trollie Wallie is one of those games, and it's a platforming/maze style game where players are tasked with collecting 40 items for a shopping list and checking them out, 5 at a time in a huge maze like supermarket level.
The controls are fairly sound as only the d-pad and one jump button is used. The jump itself is of a set length, and non adjustable once initiated, leading to a need for angle and distance calculations before you lift off, as there are many obstacles which can kill the player. A lot of the paths and platforms that lead to vital items are moving or appear and disappear, which makes the game pretty tough. I managed to find and check out 5 items out of the 40 after about 15 goes.
Graphically the game is once again fairly simple, although there's a near NES level of detail afforded to some of the shopping list items, even if the main character looks far too scary to be a mascot of anything. Nothing is explained in the game, so it'll take a while to get used to what everything does, around the level, however once you know, it's easy to remember. The title screen features an enjoyable remix of the song 'Popcorn' although there's no in game music once the game has begun.
Overall Trollie Wallie seems like a game that's lost a lot of its fun and charm with age; it seems extremely outdated and doesn't control all that well by modern standards, but I can see kids in the 1980s dedicating a couple of hours towards trying to beat the game. Personally I don't think I'll ever come back to/complete the game but it's nice to see what the indie developer community was producing in 1986.
Rating:
Grade: E
Game: Paperboy
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Elite
Release Date: 1987
Paperboy seemed to find its way onto every console under the sun, and the CPC was no exception. I remember being distinctly disappointed with the Commodore Plus/4 version of Paperboy due to its poor control scheme and graphics, but the CPC version seems to have fared much better in both of these aspects. The general aim of the game is the same as in all versions of Paperboy; deliver papers to the houses who subscribe and break the windows of those who don't. Although this version doesn't give you much indication of who subscribes and who doesn't, I aimed for every mailbox, window and other target available, and was rewarded with points for each one hit, so it wasn't too much of an issue. At the end of each stage there's a BMX style course with targets to aim papers at, which adds a fun twist.
There were still a couple of problems with the game however; due to the angle of the road as it scrolls upwards, most obstacles were hard to avoid, especially drain covers and anything directly in front of the player. Also because there's no real guidance as to where to deliver the papers to, it becomes more of an arcade style ' get the high score' game, which gives it less replayability once you've played for a while.
Graphically the game is bright and features a good level of detail for an 8 bit console, the scrolling is a little choppy but not too bad. Most of the game's problems come from the fact that the player's bicycle is only afforded a small triangle in the bottom right of the screen. There's not any music or sound effects within the game, which is a little disappointing, but the gameplay is more important.
Overall this version of Paperboy seems to feature the best of both worlds, in terms of graphics and gameplay despite having some minor problems. While I've not played the NES version, I'd say this is a strong competitor to it. 8 bit consoles have their fair share of arcade style games, and this is one of the better ones.
Rating: 43/100
Grade: E
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