Nico's blog

My top 10 list of Amstrad CPC games

Follow-up of my previous articles on the Amstrad CPC, this time I am making a list of the top 10 games I enjoyed playing with in the '90s.

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Why just 10 games?

If you've followed my previous articles, you'll remember that I owned an Amstrad CPC 6128 in the 90's (roughtly from '88 to '94), and really loved playing games on it.
In 7+ years, I played a lot of games so I had to make a selection to keep this article short and readable, so 10 seemed like the right number: not too long, and not too short either.

Method used

Rather than looking at a list of ROMs, I picked some games using just my memory, and then ranked them in decreasing order.

This also means that my selection will be very different than yours, and that's part of the fun!

Shortlist

10 - Bruce Lee

• Year of release: 1984
• Editor: Datasoft
• Type: Fight/Action
• Summary: You're playing Bruce Lee, fighting against various enemies, using your fists and feet. You can walk, run, jump and climb.
• My comment: Probably one of the very first games I played on my CPC. Quite basic but I vividly remember the intro music, and I was impressed by all those colors and how easy it was to play.

9 - Ikari Warriors

• Year of release: 1987
• Editor: Elite
• Type: Run-and-gun shooter
• Summary: You're part of a commando and you try to reach the village of Ikari. Enemies are trying to kill you. You can kill them using firearms and grenades.
• My comment: There has been many comparable games released on the CPC, but Ikari Warriors is one I enjoyed playing: it's not too difficult, characters are easy to use, and you could also play with a friend in cooperative mode, which was not usual at that time.

8 - Arkanoid

• Year of release: 1987
• Editor: Taito
• Type: Block breaker
• Summary: You're controlling a paddle-shaped craft and have to break bricks using a ball. Once all the bricks of a level are destroyed, you can go to the next level, ultimately defeating the vilain: DOH (not to be confused with DNS-over-HTTPS, a.k.a. DoH ;).
• My comment: Arkanoid is a well-known game which was released on many platforms. You could compare it with Tetris, as the concept is simple, but it gets more and more difficult as you move up the levels.
  I still like it and the music is still nice to listen to!

7 - Sapiens

• Year of release: 1986
• Editor: Loriciels
• Type: Adventure
• Summary: You play a Sapiens (prehistoric man) seeking food for his tribe. By doing so, you'll meet other persons that you can talk to or fight. You can hunt and will have to build different tools (spears, ...).
• My comment: A real adventure game - you can't just play Sapiens for 2 minutes and stop it, you have to spend time on it, find water, hunt for food, talk with other persons, explore your surroundings - in short, it's like life!
  One downside: the music is a bit annoying after a while :) Also, I believe it's only available in French.

6 - Crazy Cars 2

• Year of release: 1989
• Editor: Titus
• Type: Car races
• Summary: You're driving the legendary Ferrari F-40 in the United States, and have to escape and avoid the Police, who's trying to catch you by chasing you by car, or putting tyre killer spike barriers on your road.
• My comment: I love Crazy Cars 2, but I forgot how hard it is to play! That's also what makes it addictive, but you really have to be motivated to play.

5 - Defender of the Crown

• Year of release: 1987
• Editor: Cinemaware
• Type: Strategy
• Summary: (from Wikipedia) The game is set in England in 1149 during the Middle Ages where, following the death of the king, different factions are fighting for territorial control.
• My comment: I had to choose betwen Defender of the Crown, and Iron Lord, but finally chose the former. I am still blown away by the graphics, almost 35 years later! (Of course the Amiga version was even better, but on a CPC, this was really astonishing). The game requires strategy and attention, fights and jousts are really nice, and winning really takes effort, but this is worth it.
  The only annoying thing is that you have to change disks quite often (there are 3 faces being used by the game), which is simple now with emulation, but was a bit cumbersome when dealing with floppies.

4 - Mortville Manor ("Le Manoir de Mortevielle")

• Year of release: 1988
• Editor: Lankhor
• Type: Adventure
• Summary: You're a private detective whose friend Julia asked him to investigate what is happening in her manor. Upon arrival, Julia is dead
• My comment: Who does not remember Mortville Manor? "The first video game to feature speech synthesis during gameplay". At the time, it was really impressive - even though listening to it today feels like you're talking to robots ;) The game by itself was not easy, and the atmosphere was special but that made the whole game really immersive.

3 - Rick Dangerous

• Year of release: 1989
• Editor: Core Design / Firebird
• Type: Platform
• Summary: Very much an Indiana Jones inspired game, including the very first scene where Rick runs from a rolling boulder :)
  You control Rick, who can walk, jump, crawl, use his gun or dynamite against enemies.
• My comment: Another well known title, and I still enjoy playing it today - super immersive, difficulty is incremental, and you just can't stop playing / trying to finish a level!

2 - Mach 3

• Year of release: 1987
• Editor: Loriciels
• Type: Shoot'em Up
• Summary: You control a ship and have to destroy the enemies ship and avoid mines, while trying to pass under the gates.
• My comment: I'm sure most people would tell you that Mach 3 was not remarkable, and to be honest that's not the best game out there.
  But I have a special feeling about it, as I eagerly waited for it as a Xmas gift, and then of course played a lot with it. And still enjoy it!

1 - The Thing From Grotemburg ("La Chose de Grotemburg")

• Year of release: 1987
• Editor: UBI Soft
• Type: Adventure
• Summary: You find your wife Germaine brutally murdered in your kitchen and have to investigate to find out who or what killed her.
• My comment: Same as Mach 3 : a game I fondly remember as I eagerly waited for it and then played a lot with it. It's actually very fun, albeit in French so the audience is kinda limited :)

Wrap Up

Again, this list is mine, and yours would likely be very different!

In the next articles in this series, I will do in-depth reviews of some of those games - hit me up on Twitter to tell me which ones you'd like me to test!

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Tags: Amstrad, Geek, Emulation, Retrogaming