Amstrad CPC - Graphics to die for
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- What are the best Amstrad graphics in games ever! Completely powered by nostalgia and a very tight pocket money allowance. I hope you enjoy, the Amstrad CPC was and still is a wonderful 8bit computer.
So, sit back, relax and enjoy the very best games from over thirty years ago.
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Yes, the CPC could really sing in the right hands. Gryzor still blows my mind to this day.
Imagine if it looked like it does but scrolled. Apparently someone is working on it.
@@ClassicReplayfor me that's the key. The flick screen scrolling means it doesn't play that well. C64 arguably plays better for that reason, as does the NES, even if the still graphics are inferior.
On a decent quality 14" colour TV it looked close to Atari ST levels of graphics and colour, as the slightly fuzzy nature of CRT screens made the graphics smoother and the colours blend to create that Atari ST shading. It's why I am glad I did not have a proper RGB monitor, as it made things too pin sharp and blocky.
The Amstrad had such capability, I do wonder how things may have been had we not had such coding similarity to the Speccy!
I can do any type of game… in color
i just have to add that after watching this video i i must conclude that the amstrad cpc has the best ever color palette of any 8 bit system, be it computer or console, and i go even further: those lush, vibrant, warm, perfectly selected set of colors are better than anything you can see on an atari st, and in some regards they beat the ocs amiga. i bet you couldnt see such beautiful colorscape on a (western) computer until aga and vga (maybe you could have on an amiga or acorn archie, but we didnt...:), and even on consoles only the pc-engine could provide better until the snes. im truly in love with the cpc's colors... (how DARE have they released all those monochrome garbage and asking money for it?? its like releasing a cga game for svga pc's... on cd...)
Exactly, 100% agree with everything you’ve mentioned. The Amiga felt like a massive step up though. But the Amstrad graphics weren’t a million miles away.
Aye, well said. Nothing does colour like the Amstrad CPC (and the Plus). Real eye candy.
My Atari 800 disagrees
I had the Atari 800 XL, brilliant computer
All those great colours and I got bought one with a green screen monitor lol - still the best Xmas present I ever got though
Nice one! Green screen better for your eyes ;-)
No Panza Kick Boxing or Solomon's Key. Truly awesome GFX, surely?
Panza Kick Boxing looked great on the GX4000, but don't recall playing it on the stock CPC. If I did it didn't stand out as much. Solomon's key is a thing of beauty. But a game called Spherical bettered it. But yes, you're correct. Still worth a mention, surprised I didn't mention it as always banging on about it elsewhere ;-)
Problem always was when the graphics move. Generally of the big 3 of speccie, c64 and cpc, the amstrad "still" graphics looked best. Problem was the scrolling/animation/speed etc.
I’ve given great examples where the CPC can sing in the right hands 😉
great video but of course this still misses out many gems released then and nowadays!!
Always room for another video 😉
Thanks for that
As far as colours go, the games on the Amstrad CPC are amazing in this respect, unfortunately the resolution of only 160x200 px combined with a too slow CPU kills it. The 3.5MHz Z80 is simply too slow to handle 16kB video memory (160x200x4bits). Scrolling on the CPC is one big ordeal.
I prefer a higher resolution, albeit at the expense of color capabilities (=ZX Spectrum).
It's much more involved and complex than you make out.
Mode 0: 160×200 pixels with 16 colours (4 bpp)
Mode 1: 320×200 pixels with 4 colours (2 bpp)
Mode 2: 640×200 pixels with 2 colours (1 bpp)
Mode 3: 160×200 pixels with 4 colours (2bpp) (this is not an official mode, but rather a side-effect of the hardware)
The Video modes are known to display pixels with different sizes.
Basically, the Amstrad CPC Video works like a CGA video card from a PC. But extra features like a 16 colours mode exist.
The dimensions in pixels given could be raised with clever use of Fullscreen Trick (often dubbed erroneously as "over scan mode".)
This then allows with a video memory of 24 KB (approximately) to displays on the standard screen up to :
Full screen Mode 0: 192×272 pixels with 16 colours (4 bpp)
Full screen Mode 1: 384×272 pixels with 4 colours (2 bpp)
Full screen Mode 2: 768×272 pixels with 2 colours (1 bpp)
Also the use of scanlines to increase vertical resolution is not "easily" possible on Amstrad CPC.
When dealing with Full screen on real Hardware, the vertical limit of 256 pixels is the "safely displayed zone". As the actually displayed zone may vary depending the time your monitor ran (warmed ?) or from individual hardware to another. The same goes for horizontal display as we deal with old electronic.
CPCWiki
@@ClassicReplay Thank you for the comprehensive answer. The Amstrad CPC is certainly an interesting machine, partly thanks to its history, when it was basically created spontaneously in the style of "I want to do business with home computers, so cook me one in x weeks". It's a pitty that the CPU performance is simply too low to handle such a large vram.
I’m not so sure that’s true. The ZX Spectrum is far more hamstrung than the Amstrad CPC. Just look at Savage (thing of beauty), Pinball Dreams, Alcon 2020 and the upcoming Versperino. Impossible in comparison on the ZX Spectrum.
The C64 had a much slower one
Despite the CPC's flaws, it certainly shone in the graphics department. Er, monochrome, or washed out and muddy? It's a no brainer! Great vid, again. Cheers.
Well said! thanks for the kind words. Please check out my other Amstrad Vids 👍🎄 Merry Christmas
P47 is a fantastic example of Mode 0 on Amstrad. Especially level 2 and it's sunset
100% My only gripe is the screen is a bit small, big border. Plus the game just loops, same as the arcade mind.
what an awesome list !!! A bunch of them are really really master-piece.
I'll have to resurrect my trusty 664 after watching this video, great choice of games, great editing etc!
Cheers dude! I really appreciate it. Check out my other Amstrad vids 👍
Maaaaaaaan I wish I'd kept my 664, it was my favourite Amstrad, kept the 464 keyboard shape but with the disc drive, I had the 464, twas my first computer but the 664 was my true love.
I had ram expansions, rom boards, dual onboard roms, reset switch.. Haha the Amstrad was almost as deep as it was wide by the time you added on all the expansions on the back.
Antiriad looks better on the Amstrad, but plays SO much better and smoother on the C64. same is true for Cybernoid. same is true for pretty much EVERY game in this list actually. the 6502 based systems like NES, C64 and Atari 800 somehow always feel better.. as if everything was running at twice the framerate or something
Don’t agree, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Let’s not mention Chase HQ 😉
Great video and great work!! thanks a lot!!!!
Glad you liked it!
I absolutely loved this. Thank you for this video. The CPC was my childhood, so many good games, but, almost all of these I have never played. I found my original system a couple of years ago in my Mum's shed. I am determined to bring it back to life.
I’m happy you enjoyed the vid. Don’t forget a subscribe and take a look at my other Amstrad vids 👍🏻
You're so kind to the CPC. It had no hardware sprites nor scrolling when the Atari and C64 had it years earlier. All the game movements were left to the Z80 shear force. That's why the playing screen is always so small so the game is not too slow. It only compared favourably to the ZX Spectrum. Coders that made a decent game were mad geniuses.
It had hardware scroll, look up Killer Cobra and Tornado Low Level for an example. Also look up Mission Genocide. Also look up Pinball Dreams 😊
@@ClassicReplayI think this is pure software scroll...
@@ClassicReplay you're right mate, I've checked and it had scroll registers...but it wasn't used often that's why I thought the opposite 🤔. I suppose it was difficult to implement.
It was the third machine so developers didn’t bother 90% of the time. When they did you can see the results are positive.
Check out my Amstrad vid for the best new games Best New Amstrad CPC Games
ua-cam.com/video/GHXtmm5bV64/v-deo.html
Loved this vid. From my childhood memory Sai Combat was worthy an honourable mention IMO.
Thanks for watching. Yes I loved anything like that, another one was Knight Games and Oriental Games
Great video, really gave me some ideas on what games I want to re-visit / purchase. Thanks 👍
Glad you enjoyed! Merry Christmas and please check out my other Amstrad vids 👍
Love the overall presentation of this and your other videos. You are the king of hyperbole and have an unusually soothing voice too. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
i mean, i do really wanna know what 8 bit really stood for?
(besides quick and big money for greedy company men and exploitation of young, talented geeks on both side of consumerism?:D)
but seriously "what 8 bit really stood for" should be the title of a massive pop hit what then would become a question on reichard ösman's house of games 5 years later .
these amstrad stuff looks seriously amazing, if it would move as well as it looks the cpc could be on the level of the sms, or even higher. but sadly they move... i wish they dont even just by lookin at them not to mention playing'em:)
but the static, flipscreen and single screen stuff are seriously wow, and seeing all these games it becomes even more of a shamble and a disgrace that they released all those abismal spectrum ports with the same , yet worse gfx and unplayable framerates. while they could've release all those games with wonderful, almost 16 bit quality gfx (like an amiga in ultra low-res)... and with unplayable framerates (if i think about it it should be an atari st in ultra-low res, even the sound is matching besides the scroll:).
that psuedo-3d wind surfing game however are just awesome, looks amazing and seems just as playable - and smooth. i would've happily have that on my a500 any day (well, maybe any day before 94-5:)
also dan dare III is also very good, thats how a spectrum port should look like on a machine like the cpc. and it moves - just as well as it looks and in all 8-ways! agent x II is also competent scroll wise, not great but still looks perfectly playable (and silky smooth compared to the majority of cpc games released back then.)
anyway this is a great showcase and it should gather some more respect for the cpc! it did it for me big time.
Great read, thanks. What does 8bit stand for? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me it was an era where people were just making it up as they went along, no rules, hardly any guidelines. Computers were only able to store and process a maximum of 8 bits per data block, CPU’s came with massive limitations. But somehow, the best programmers, musicians and graphic artists were able to pull off the seemingly impossible.
Fantastic list! :)
Thanks! 😊
We didn't just get spectrum ports, we even got R-Type running in a spectrum emulator 😂
I still rate the original R-Type port from the Speccy to Amstrad. I ploughed many late nights into it and unlike the Speccy version, you could complete the game.
@@ClassicReplay That's just a testament to your gaming skill, I was, and still am terrible at 80s games... I finished two games ever on my Amstrad (not including adventures) without cheating.. FIREANT & N.O.M.A.D
Wow your voice and accent sounds so much like Scott Adkins... awesome actor martial artist
I’ll take it. Same sort of tone I guess. Where are you from?
@@ClassicReplay new zealand and australia
@@ClassicReplay if you aren't Scott Adkins what his youtube series the art of action... awesome interviews with all the 80s and 90s martial arts stars
Great video! Your videos Inspires me to play my 464 more often 😊
Have you played any of the new stuff? Pinball Dreams, Toki, Alcon?
@@ClassicReplay Sadly Pinball Dreams is 128kb only. But I've played a few newer titles. Love Shovel Adventure!
There’s loads of 64k games available, check out CPC Power
I had one of these loved it.
Not as much as it loved you ;-)
The CPC has the best graphics of any 8-bit computer and it's not even close. Who cares if the game is a little slow when the graphics are in reaching distance of 16-bit machines, well, that's how I feel at least.
There’s plenty where we had both worlds.
You know that the MSX2+ is a 8-bit system, right?
I’d love to own one. I don’t know anyone who owned an MSX2+ 🤷🏻♂️ when did it come out? Was it released in the US/UK…
@@ClassicReplay MSX2+ was Japan exclusive. Even MSX2 was quite rare in the UK (but kinda sucessful in Austria, Netherlands and Spain) the good thing is you can upgrade an MSX2 to an MSX2+ with just changing the VDP.
@@ingoskotton9624 That's a good point. I tend to forget about the Japanese home computers because I have almost no experience with them due to the language barrier.
What's an Amstrad?
~ Typical American ~
Amstrad sold their 6128 and PCW’s in the US, so people should know
I got a Amstrad CPC 464 around 1988 and loved it.
That's great to hear! Wonderful computer...
Would it be possible to have a bigger screen? I know the Amstrad often shrunk the viewport to make things scroll properly but... 😂
Alan Sugar still wants us to suffer in 2022! New Amstrad video coming soon with bigger screen 😉
@@ClassicReplay Thank you!!! 💜
"to make things scroll properly"
Get with the times, mate. That wasn't the CPC's fault. You can "thank" incompetent programmers for that.
There are plenty of examples that showcase the CPC's capabilities to scroll a large screen smoothly.
🃏😄😄🙄🤔🙃🤕🙄😅😆😊😉