The Sega vs Nintendo wars of the 80s and 90s are well documented and are considered to be the thing of legend. Lesser known, but by no means lesser in nature were the home computer wars that were occurring at around the same time. In Australia during the 8-bit era we had the Amstrad CPC vs Commodore 64 war. In other countries you could substitute Amstrad for another computer such as the Apple 2 or add the Spectrum into the mix. In the spirit of these childhood playground arguments I am writing a companion piece to Mike’s “Childhood Memories of the Fond Kind (Commodore 64)” article, coming at it from the point of view of the Amstrad owner.
I was introduced to Lord Alan Sugar’s mighty beast at the age of 7. My junior primary school had 2 Commodore 64s that were rarely used, and my computer experience up to that point was limited to moving a cursor around a maze that was taped on to the monitor. Prior to starting at the primary school we were given a tour of the grounds. Upon entering the school’s computer room I was hit with a sight so wonderful that I could barely look upon it. There in front of me was a room full of Amstrad CPC 6128 computers.
That black plastic, the uniform monitors, the sleek built in disc drives… how could you not love these machines? During the following year when I started primary school I had my first taste of what it was like to use them.
The first thing I noticed was how much faster the built in 3” disc drives were. I remember sitting at the desk loading my first program expecting a bit of a wait, when “BAM”, the program had loaded. The program in question if memory serves was Kuma’s Fruity Frank (a Mr Do clone). Yes, in our first computing class we played games as a way of introducing us to the computers. When you think about it my computer teacher was a genius. Right from the get go he focussed on the fun aspect of computing and got his students hooked.
As well as Locomotive Software’s version of BASIC the Amstrad CPC used CPM, which was a precursor to DOS. Through CPM we would regularly have “Logo” classes. This involved the little triangle in the middle of the screen known as a “turtle” which would draw to the co-ordinates you entered. It was boring, but if you finished your work early you could play games for the last 5-10 minutes of class. Now that’s what I call incentive!
When your typical 8-9 year old is exposed to something that they really want what do they do? They beg & harass their parents until they get said item. Naturally I was no different and in the December of 1989 my parents relented and purchased an Amstrad CPC 6128, 5 days before Christmas.
We purchased it from Radio Rentals at Port Adelaide which has long since closed down. My Uncle worked there and sold it to us at discount. While I was there I remember seeing a mountain of Amstrad Computer User magazines with Konami’s “Jailbreak” on the cover. I had already been given the previous issue of the magazine with a face hugger from the Alien movies on the cover. I can’t remember where I obtained this from though…
My Uncle gave me a copy of the magazine along with the computer and we went home and fired it up. He assured us that it came with a game, but all I could see were 2 system discs with CPM 2.2 on one and CPM+ on the other. After much digging around I discovered a demo of “Roland in Time”. Sadly it was just a rolling demo, so I still had nothing to play. I suspect my parents were a bit miffed at my Uncle over that one.
Anyway, a trip to Plaza Computers (which also closed down many years ago) fixed that problem. My father decided we would be purchasing a “Sega Ozisoft 6 pak” (no that’s not a typo, they left the “c” out of pack) for $40, so I never got to choose my first game. I guess I was taking my time deciding and he saw 6 games and figured it was a bargain. It wasn’t a bad choice though, as the games that were on the “pak” were:
- Into the Eagle’s Nest - Shockway Rider - Ace - Batty - International Karate 1 & 2
I remember playing “Into the Eagles Nest” more than any other. It was basically an overhead version of Wolfenstein where your character invaded a Nazi castle to rescue the allied soldiers inside and to then blow it up.
At school we Amstrad owners stuck together and I became fast friends with my buddy for many years, James. We played many video games together on the Amstrad CPC, NES and SNES before he moved away during the N64 years. We see each other rarely now, though I think it’s been at least 11 years since we last caught up. This is where a lot of experts have it wrong: Computing was never an antisocial activity. Whether someone is antisocial or not is purely down to the individual, but that’s something I’ll cover more in another topic.
Let’s fast forward to the mid 90s, I forget exactly when. I was in the throes of SNES fandom and when my parents suggested selling the Amstrad I wholeheartedly agreed with them. Yes I was an idiot, I can admit to that now. So the Amstrad was sold to my cousins. A few years later I tried tracking it down, but they had sold it on and the people who they sold it to no longer had it. I have no idea what eventually happened to it.
In 1999 my Mother suggested that I sell my SNES as I hadn’t played it in a while. Remembering this incident I steadfastly refused to do so. It was her suggestion that if I was going to keep it, then maybe I should purchase some new games for it. In that instant the retro gaming collector inside me was awakened. 2 years later I had another Amstrad CPC 6128 as well as the CPC 464 which contained a built in tape drive rather than a disc drive.
My childhood was back and this time it was here to stay!
Mike’s next “episode” will be about games, so to go along with that I will be covering some classic titles for the Amstrad CPC series of computers. Since there are so many I’ll just stick to my favourites. Until next time…
Music is a powerful thing. It can bring out different feelings & emotions in people, whether they be happy, sad or nostalgic. I felt it would be interesting to focus on the latter, as in which music makes you feel that childhood gamer who was plugging away at the latest game on their Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, or Commodore 64, or maybe you had a NES or SMS. Maybe you’re from the 16-bit generation & the Amiga, ST, SNES or MD were where it was at. Each generation of gamers experiences a different generation of music from the one before it. I can’t speak for each & every retro gamer out there, but I can share my experiences with you & what music brings those memories flooding back for me. Let’s have a look:
Lately I have been filling my trusty iPod Classic with 80s/early 90s music. This is the era I can honestly say I have the fondest memories of & it was that transitional 8-16 bit era changeover. The Amstrad, Commodore & Spectrum machines were struggling to keep a hold on the video game marketplace but were being replaced by the Amiga, ST & PC machines. As for consoles, the Sega Master System & Nintendo Entertainment System were also seeing out their final days to eventually be replaced by the Super Nintendo & Megadrive/Genesis. Portable gaming was also starting to make a dent in the video game world, with the Gameboy, Gamegear & Lynx starting a new type of console war, which didn’t last long & had a very clear winner.
As for me I lived that transitional period through my Amstrad CPC, Gameboy & Super Nintendo. I got my Amstrad CPC a week or 2 before Christmas in 1988, my Gameboy in 1991 or 2 & my SNES either a bit later that year or early 1993. Childhood memories fail me at times.
Let’s take a look at the Amstrad CPC part of my life & check out the tunes I was listening to during that era. First thing’s first though: why does music remind me so much of gaming from that era? Well I suppose the obvious answer is that I listened to a lot of it. Why you ask? Well during the 8-bit era a lot of video game music was very hit & miss, & that’s if the game had any music in it at all. Don’t get me wrong, the Amstrad CPC was able to play some great tunes & infact it shares the same audio chip as the Atari ST. With a lot of games though, it seemed that music was tacked on as an afterthought. Consequently if a game had either no music or bad/repetitive music the radio would be put on to provide a bit of background noise. Later on it just became habit in some cases, the radio would go on & so would the video game.
Artists that bring me back to that era are:
Crowded House
Split Enz
Madonna
Michael Jackson
Duran Duran
R.E.M
U2
The Police
I don’t necessarily like every song from that period, but they all bring back the memories of playing games like:
Jack the Nipper
Double Dragon
Rampage
Head Over Heels
The list goes on. The games listed above were favourites of mine & listening to a bit of “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran or “History Never Repeats” by Split Enz makes me think of those times where I would be sat infront of the Amstrad CPC6128 which was on my blue desk, a box of 3” discs sitting on one side & some Amstrad magazines on the other. Later on I would have a tape drive & of course everyone had their favourite joystick or controller. I was always a keyboard player as I wasn’t a fan of using joysticks (though I had one) or controllers until I got a Gameboy, so I’d traditionally use the following configuration of keys:
UP - Q
DOWN - A
LEFT - O
RIGHT - P
FIRE - SPACE
But I’m getting side tracked. Let’s move onto the Gameboy:
At this stage I still had my Amstrad but every Sunday I would go travelling with my Father. Normally we would go to my grandparents down at Port Adelaide & visit relatives who lived in between (my father has 8 siblings). Coming from my former home in Para Hills for those who don’t live in Adelaide, that’s about a 1/2 hour drive & a decent amount of time to get some gaming out of the way. When I got my Gameboy it went everywhere with me. I got very good at playing on the go in a shaky car, but while the radio was on, I didn’t listen to it. My Father’s taste in music was very different to my own & even today when he goes driving he has to have the radio tuned in to some AM station that plays the oldest music known to man.
Before we would leave on these early morning trips I would listen to “Take 40 Australia” on SA FM. If we left early enough I would take my walkman with me & continue listening to the show rather than endure the horrors of AM radio. So imagine if you will, I had my walkman clipped to my side with headphones around my neck when I wasn’t listening to anything & my Gameboy in a black Gameboy carrier slung over my shoulder. I must have been a sight, but hey, it was the early 90s!!
Music that featured on the radio during that era included:
Crowded House
B52s
Michael Jackson
Madonna
R.E.M.
Vanilla Ice
MC Hammer
Right Said Fred (Remember them? “I am too sexy”)
These songs bring back memories of:
Super Mario Land
Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly
Terminator 2
I was still playing my Amstrad a lot during this time as well while I was at home. The problem was that due to the availability of Amstrad games in Australia a lot of the games I played were on Amstrad Action covertapes, but there were exceptions. Some of those games from that early 90s period include:
Space Crusade (A demo on an Amstrad Action covertape)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Target Renegade
Just a bit of “Love Shack” by the B52s, or “Weather With You” by Crowded House brings back memories of taking Mario through his first Gameboy adventure. A little “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice or “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer makes me remember playing the Space Crusade demo that came with on an Amstrad Action covertape over & over again. It was only 1 level of Space Crusade but it was so much fun & took over an hour to complete that I played it over & over again. I always thought that Target Renegade was a bit of a poor man’s Double Dragon, but I still played it. From memory my friend James liked it more than I ever did.
Let’s jump forward to the Super Nintendo era. I started this era as I left the last by listening to “Take 40 Australia” on Sunday mornings (though I think it changed timeslots sometime around here), but by 1994 I had my first job & by 1996 I was buying myself CDs. It was during this time I became a massive Crowded House fan, which is rather ironic as they were in the process of breaking up at the time. They have since reformed thankfully & are still as good as ever, even without the deceased “Paul Hester”. Now, you can’t be a Crowded House fan without being a fan of the original Finn Brothers band Split Enz & I was a huge fan of them too eventhough they broke up in 1984. The Finns weren’t the only musicians I was listening to during this time, though “Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House” got a lot of spins in my CD player. I also started to get into Blur with their “Great Escape” album. My friend James started to get into Green Day so I was exposed to a bit of that as well. I believe the Offspring also featured a bit during this period & the Presidents of the United States of America. They were the first “fun” band I remember listening to.
This was the era of Megadrive vs SNES, of Street Fighter 2 vs Mortal Kombat & Of course Mario vs Sonic. It was also the era of an ARIA award winning comedy duo who were on the radio every weekday: Tony Martin & Mick Molloy. The Martin/Molloy albums were 3 of the finest comedy albums ever released. I bought them as they were released & remember sitting there playing either one of those, or one of my music CDs while plugging away at:
Brawl Bros
Turtles in Time
Super Mario World
Street Fighter 2
Bomberman
James had a Super Wildcard, which was a SNES backup system. This meant that the world of SNES games was open for us. All we had to do was hire a game we wanted, James would copy it & every time we got together we could play it. When I got access to the Internet that world expanded to include downloadable ROMs. Yes I used to partake in a bit of illegal activity with ROMs, but I’ll save that discussion for another day & another article. Some of the music from that later era reminds me of those days of playing all those SNES games with the Super Wildcard.
(Above: Tony Martin & Mick Molloy)
It was also during this time I started to get into PC gaming. A nightly ritual for me would be to get home from school, listen to Martin/Molloy on the radio while I played Warcraft 2. Warcraft 2 was an addiction for me, the same way that World of Warcraft is for a lot of gamers today. When you had played all the missions you could create your own levels which really made the game stand out from other real time strategy games of the time.
On a down note, Warcraft 2 was also the game that taught me about video game addiction. It is the reason I don’t play World of Warcraft or any other game people become addicted to quite easily.
I’ll leave the reminiscing there. As I mentioned at the start of this feature. I’m getting a lot of this music on my iPod. I have since bought another Amstrad CPC (my parents sold the first one), but I never got rid of my SNES or Gameboy. I also kept all the albums from that day, except Blur’s “The Great Escape”. My little sister swiped that one… Well that happens.
That’s my musical history & the video games I was playing when I first heard some of these tunes. Let us know which songs or artists remind you of playing old video games on the forum. It would be interesting to compare notes with some of you.
First thing’s first: The Teenage Mutant WHAT Turtles? Well in certain parts of the world, most notably the UK, the word Ninja was not seen as something that should be associated with a childrens cartoon. Consequently the word Hero replaced the word Ninja. This carried across to all ports of this game released in these territories & the arcade game itself. For this review we’ll be calling it TMNT because that’s how I roll. Now with that out of the way let’s get started…
Back when the TMNT arcade game came out everyone was anticipating ports to all the popular systems of the day. What we got was this…
Being released across all mainstream systems the TMNT platformer was met with mixed reviews. A lot of people were happy they could control their heroes in a half shell, but at the same time were disappointed that it wasn’t the arcade game. I fell in the earlier crowd & loved this game when it first came out, but there was that lingering disappointment that it wasn’t a side scrolling beat em up. Looking back 20 years later has my opinion changed? Let’s have a look at the game & find out.
The first thing to mention is that the Amstrad version is a little different to other versions of the game, so let’s cover that first. The main differences are:
- The Turtles cannot kill Foot Soldiers while above ground in the overhead view
- The Turtles cannot swing their weapons up & down
- Donatello’s staff doesn’t have a back swing that was useful for killing enemies behind you
Obviously there are other smaller differences from version to version, but those are the main ones you’ll notice right away.
With these limited controls you would think this would hamper the gameplay, but if you think that you’d be wrong. Yes the ability to swing your weapon up & down would help in certain situations, but I didn’t find myself missing it. The Amstrad version doesn’t lay on enemies as thick as the NES version, so without the ability to swing up & down you just have to get used to timing & moving around a bit more than other versions.
With the NES (& most other conversions) each Turtle was unique. Raphael had the shortest weapon & was useless while Donatello had the longest & was used the most (& normally died first). With this game all 4 Turtles are the same & their weapons swing out the SAME distance. So Donatello has a very short Bo staff & Raphael has very long Sai. The only reason for changing Turtles is purely so you can use your favourite. Some people may find the lack of individuality between Turtles disappointing, but Amstrad Action weren’t all that bothered by it back when they reviewed it & neither was I… back then. Today it seems a bit pointless but at least I can use Raphael (my favourite) all through the game.
A lot of the enemies from the other versions have been replaced. Mousers are no longer present, the chainsaw guy is gone, & Bebop isn’t even in the game. Instead you fight Rocksteady twice, first when you’re in the sewer attempting to rescue April, & the second time when you actually DO rescue April. Lazy programming, or system limitations? I’m leaning towards the former myself…
Well you’ll never end up seeing Bebop, because…
… the ONLY villain in the game other than Shredder & the Technodrome is Rocksteady…
The graphics are bright & colourful, though like most Amstrad games you play in a reduced screen. When you’ve played enough Amstrad games you get used to this so I wasn’t really affected by it. The jumps are really easy. Anyone who has seen the Angry Video Game Nerd’s review of the NES version will remember him ranting about the dodgy jumps. With this version the jumps are timed. What I mean by this is that your jumps take roughly 2 seconds regardless of what height you jump from. If you jump from a place close to the ceiling you will stay in the air for the full 2 seconds & can move along rather than hitting the ceiling & dropping back down in frustration.
The controls are spot on whether you use the keyboard, CPC+ / GX4000 controller or a regular joystick. For some reason I prefer to use the keyboard… It’s just personal preference I suppose.
The lack of animation with the characters is very noticable. The Turtles running is nicely animated, but when they swing their weapons it’s a quick 1 frame change & then back again. Rocksteady & Shredder have no animation frames whatsoever & just float around the screen. Your normal enemies have a couple of frames for them to walk around, but that’s it.
Another thing to note is the lack of sound. During the game there is no music at all, though the title screen has a dodgy sounding beat playing. When you see Shredder on the screen before the game starts you get that grinding noise as the text appears, a similar grinding noise takes place when the Turtles use their weapons, or when the Turtle Van runs over something or shoots, but that’s it as far as the sound goes.
I can’t review this game without mentioning the underwater scene where you need to disarm the bombs. It’s actually very easy on the Amstrad version & has none of the headaches the NES version offered. There’s no electric weeds & tight spaces. You just have to avoid the electrodes & go through them when they switch off.
One positive thing I would like to mention is the box art. Here’s a closeup of the Amstrad boxart:
Let’s compare it to the NES box art:
Yes it’s true to how the Turtles looked back in the 80s comics, but this wasn’t the early 80s & this game wasn’t designed as a video game version of the comics. The content in the game clearly shows that it is based off the cartoon, which is what the image for the Amstrad box art represents. As you’ll notice above the Amstrad version did use the NES box art image as the title screen.
One memorable thing about the game is the manual. Who remembers the brown paper in the middle pages with the codes written in black? All the home computer versions had this same manual. I found it REALLY difficult to read those codes today. I don’t know if it’s because something has happened to the colour of the manual, or it’s the lighting in my house, but it wasn’t a fun experience. That was back in the days where various types of copy protection were used.
With all the limitations in the game you’d think this is actually worse than the other versions available, but I personally find it better. The simpler controls, less overload of enemies & better jumps make this version of the game stand out. At the same time it’s not a great game, let’s be perfectly blunt here. It was a disappointment when it first came out on any system regardless of how much you enjoyed it & it hasn’t aged well. As for this version, there’s no Bebop, the main bosses that are present just float around & don’t actually attack & there’s no music. Personally I feel this was rushed out to market so it could be released at the same time as the other versions.
When Amstrad decided to release upgraded versions of their CPC computer line & the GX4000 console not too many companies offered their immediate support for the product. The thing to keep in mind is that we have an English company taking the battle to Nintendo & Sega… It was never going to work at this point in time & the fact that a lot of Retrospekt readers have probably never heard of these later Amstrad machines is a testament to that. The CPC+ & GX4000 systems were never released outside of Europe inspite of the fact that the original Amstrad CPC range was quite successful in Australia.
Not many games were released that took advantage of the extra hardware in the CPC+ / GX4000 range, though these machines were compatible with a majority of the old CPC games… at least the CPC+ machines were. The GX4000 also had the same hardware but only had a cartridge port (which was absent on the earlier CPC machines) & no expansion options. This meant the GX4000 could only play new games. With this in mind most companies just continued making standard CPC games & ignored the GX4000. One company who did offer their support for the new hardware was Ocean Software, who had been big Amstrad supporters for many years.
In the late 80s / early 90s Ocean was the company who had all the big licenses, & the Capcom classic Pang was one of them. It’s a simple concept of travelling around the world, having 1 or 2 characters who would shoot their harpoons at the bubbles that would bounce around the screen. When you hit a bubble it would split in 2 until it was so small it just popped when it was hit next. Power ups could be obtained including:
Other options & fruits appeared throughout the game as well, but some of these so called “Power Ups” didn’t help at all depending on the level. The gun for example is not able to break barriers which may be essential to releasing a bubble so you can pop it & complete the level. So too with Dynamite, it bursts all the bubbles on the screen down to their smallest level. This can be a problem if you have a big bubble or a couple of medium sized ones, as you can fill the screen with tiny bubbles which are hard to avoid.
Enough of that, how about the Amstrad version? Well I grew up with an Amstrad CPC & always wanted this game when it came out having seen it in Amstrad Action. It would be 15 years before I had a chance to import a GX4000 with Pang & have a chance of playing it. I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. While it’s not arcade perfect, for an 8-bit system the Amstrad version of Pang is nothing short of brilliant.
Both players are present, which is a feature even the Super Nintendo version didn’t offer (though I think we can put that down to lazy programming). The backgrounds are all represented in that chunky Mode 0 way that only the Amstrad can do & the levels & music appear to be all there. For those who don’t know, Mode 0 is a graphical mode on Amstrad computers that while offering the lowest resolution of the 3 modes available, allows the use of the most colours.
As for the colours, Pang makes use of the extra colour pallette included on the new Amstrad machines & really shows us the reason the CPC+ & GX4000 were released in the first place. It’s a pity that the system didn’t get much of a chance to showcase this with other games. The main characters are animated nicely & everything is drawn as close to the arcade original as possible.
The controls are superb & if you can forget this is an 8-bit system for a few minutes you won’t be able to tell the difference between this & the arcade machine… apart from the Amstrad controllers of course. A lot of people don’t like the CPC+ / GX4000 controllers, but I don’t mind them. If you’re a “hater” you can always plug in a Master System, Megadrive/Genesis or generic controller as the Amstrad range all use standard 9 pin controller ports.
Presentation is superb & the title screen quickly switches to a tutorial which you can skip by pressing a button on the controller. The platforms that can be destroyed are present, as are all the power ups. Even the animals make an appearance, such as the snail, bird & crab. One nice thing to note is that if only one player is in the game then only that player will show up on the victory screen, whether it be player 1 or 2. The attention to detail is brilliant.
The only place this game is let down is the music. The music from the arcade is present & correct, even if it does sound 8-bitty. The problem lies in mixing the music & sound effects. It seems the system can’t seem to handle playing the music & putting in a sound effect. The music falters ever so slightly when a harpoon is fired, but when you have the gun then things really start to get bad. Shooting repeatedly is not a good idea for the audiophiles out there, even if it is a good game tactic. It must be said that this “faltering” is with the music only & does not slow own the gameplay.
Overall inspite of the music problems Pang is a superb game, but it’s restricted to the CPC+ / GX4000 machines due to the extra hardware inside. If you own a standard CPC you might want to look at “Zap ‘t’ Balls” which is a decent Pang clone which LOOKS like a CPC+ game. The author was able to use a few little tricks to achieve that effect & it too looks superb, but we’ll save that for another possible review later on.
Pang is brilliantly presented, makes use of the extra CPC+ / GX4000 hardware & is just a damn fun game to play. I give it 92%
