Tuesday 13th October 2026

Once again, there’s been too many new games for me to look at, so here’s a selection of recent releases, including three from Devil-System.

Alien³

Alien³ was released for various 16-bit and handheld consoles, as well as the Amiga, in 1992 and 1993 – but surprisingly, it was also released for the Commodore 64 in 1993, when you would think that the market for new C64 games would be too small to be worthwhile. Now Devil-System has converted the Commodore 64 version to the Amstrad 6128plus. The spaceship Sulaco has landed on the penal colony of Fiorina 161, and Ripley must rescue the prisoners and kill the Aliens. There are 15 levels to explore, and you’re armed with four types of weapon with which to defend yourself. Devil-System has done an amazing job with this conversion, and it makes great use of the Plus’ extended palette and hardware sprites and scrolling. You can download Alien³ from Devil-System’s site, and I would urge you to do so and play it!

Castle CPCStein and Aliens: Hadley’s Hope

I’m going to deal with Devil-System’s other two games together, because they’re very similar. The 1993 first-person shoot-’em-up Doom is arguably one of the most influential video games in history, and a well-known quote among computer enthusiasts is, “Can it run Doom?” Well, the Amstrad CPC may not run Doom, but Devil-System has released two games that attempt to mimic the gameplay of its predecessor, Wolfenstein 3D.

In Castle CPCStein, you must make your way through eight floors of the castle armed only with a pistol, and then enter the Führer’s bunker and kill him, while in Aliens: Hadley’s Hope, you’re exploring the colony of Hadley’s Hope, now almost totally devoid of human life, and you must find the Alien Queen and kill her. Both games allow you to configure the size of the playing area and the level of detail, as the poor CPC really struggles to render the 3D scenery. The enemy sprites and collectible items also look extremely blocky. You can download Castle CPCStein and Aliens: Hadley’s Hope from Devil-System’s site, and the source code for both games can also be downloaded from the same locations.

Probotector

Nintendo’s NES console is the latest machine to be targeted by Oldschool is Beautiful’s efforts to convert games to the Amstrad CPC using Claude, and the game in question is Probotector, which was released in North America in 1988 and was known as Contra over there. Amstrad CPC fans will probably know Contra better as Gryzor, which is a fantastic game by Ocean Software – so fantastic that CPC Game Reviews rated it 10 out of 10.

Inevitably the CPC conversion of Probotector doesn’t match the excellence of Gryzor, and I’m left wondering why Michel Louvet of Oldschool is Beautiful decided to convert this particular game – even more so when he’s already released Contra 4 CPC, which adds scrolling to Gryzor but otherwise retains the original look and feel! Nonetheless, if you want to try it out, you can download Probotector from itch.io.

Vespertino World Racing

Seven years after BG Games showed their first preview of their spectacular racing game Vespertino to the world on YouTube, they have published a rather enigmatic poster announcing that Vespertino World Racing, as it is now known, will be presented on the Juanje Juega Twitch channel on Sunday 25th October 2026 ay 7:30pm CET, or 6:30pm GMT if you’re living in the UK or Ireland! Will this be the moment it’s finally released? Mark the date in your calendars and diaries...

Saturday 10th October 2026

The deluge of new games for the Amstrad CPC shows no signs of stopping. Since my last update, there have been too many for me include here, so I’ve picked seven games that have caught my attention and listed them in alphabetical order:

Block8

Block8 is a puzzle game from TonioOo which is similar to Tetris, except that pieces are placed on an 8×8 grid and you must form columns or rows of eight blocks. If you followed the #CPCRetroDev contest, you may recall an entry from the last year of the contest in 2023 called Forms. The gameplay of Block8 is almost identical to Forms, but the presentation is better in my opinion. You can download Block8 from CPCRulez.

Bolt: Escape from the Factory

DD Studios have been rather quiet on the CPC scene for a long time, but now they’re developing a number of new games, and the first of these is Bolt: Escape from the Factory, which has also been released for the ZX Spectrum and MSX. Bolt is a robot who is trapped in an old factory, and he must escape – but his battery is almost flat, so he has to collect energy cells to replenish it. There are 20 rooms in the factory and 114 cells to be collected. You can download Bolt: Escape from the Factory from itch.io.

Bubble Ghost

Bubble Ghost was released for the Amstrad CPC by Ere Informatique in 1988, and it’s a pretty decent game that got a rating of 8 out of 10 on this site. Infogrames later released Bubble Ghost for the Game Boy in 1990, and this version has now been converted back to the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum by Kirby2000. You control a ghost, and you have to blow a bubble through a maze of screens without causing it to burst. You can download Bubble Ghost from itch.io.

Flicky

Flicky is a platform game from Sega that originally appeared in the arcades in 1984, and asic28 has converted it to the CPC. You control a blue bird named Flicky, and on each level, you must collect all the little birds called Chirps and return them to the exit, while avoiding Nyannyan the cat and Choro the lizard. There’s a lovely overscan loading screen, and the music retains all the cuteness of the arcade original, but the in-game graphics are messy, and while asic28 states on the game’s itch.io page that “no generative AI was used”, there is some scepticism about this claim. asic28 has also been behaving unethically over a conversion of Gold Mine Run by Juan J. Martínez to the CPC, by allowing payment for the game even though this is forbidden under the licensing terms of the original version (more details about that on the CPCWiki forum). You can download Flicky from itch.io, but it requires 128KB of RAM.

Pedrisco

I love tile-matching games – BeTiled! is one of my favourite games for the CPC, and Pedrisco is a very similar type of game from vosges6128. There’s a grid full of coloured gems, and you have to swap them around to create a horizontal or vertical line of three or more consecutive gems of the same colour. It features power-up gems as well, and you can also collect bonus gems that you can use at any time to replace another gem in the grid. It’s very colourful indeed, and it looks even more beautiful on the cartridge version. You can download Pedrisco from itch.io, and vosges6128 has also released versions for the Sega Master System and ZX Spectrum.

Quantum Hop

Tonsomo Entertainment released Quantum Hop for the ZX Spectrum earlier this year, and now it’s been released for the Amstrad CPC. It’s a simple and short puzzle game with only 12 screens. You control an astronaut and you have to manipulate switches and lifts to enable you to unlock the exit that will take you to the following screen, while avoiding contact with mutant chickens (yes, really!). You can download Quantum Hop from itch.io.

Tetrarka

Last but not least is Tetrarka – a game that blends Tetris and Arkanoid. The game starts with you playing Tetris, but once you clear ten lines, a bat and ball appear at the top of the screen and you’re now playing Breakout. Once you lose the ball, it’s back to playing Tetris and the process repeats. It’s an interesting concept, and it’s one of the best adaptations of Tetris I’ve played on the Amstrad CPC, but the movement of the ball in the Breakout section is too slow and its angle of movement doesn’t vary enough to enable you to reach some of the bricks. Tetrarka was originally written for the Amiga, and now it has finally been converted to the CPC, with some AI assistance, by Eh Les Vilains ! You can download Tetrarka from their web site.

Thursday 1st October 2026

The amount of games being released for the Amstrad CPC has turned into a deluge over the last couple of weeks, mostly thanks to AI tools such as Claude Code, and it’s becoming somewhat overwhelming.

Gyro Power

First up is a racing game for the 6128 Plus machine – sorry, GX4000 owners, it requires 128KB of RAM – from Sebus called Gyro Power. In the future, people race on unicycles, or gyrowheels, on public roads. You are competing in one such race, and you have to complete four stages while dodging cars and trying to knock the other competitors off their gyrowheel. Gyro Power exploits the Plus’ graphical capabilities to good effect, and the music is good too, although the scrolling of the road looks a bit strange and there are some glitches with the sprites when you complete a stage. You can download Gyro Power from itch.io.

Astro Invasion

Next is Astro Invasion – a space shoot-’em-up by Tom Gun Software, based on the 1980 coin-op arcade game Astro Invader. You control a spaceship at the bottom of the screen, and an alien spaceship releases lots of small aliens into columns from the top of the screen. Once a column fills with aliens, one alien falls down from that column and explodes once it lands at the bottom of the screen. The action quickly becomes hectic as you frantically try to shoot aliens and dodge the explosions! Astro Invasion retains the look and feel of the original coin-op game, and it has also been released for the Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 computers. You can download it from Tom Gun Software.

Rollerball

Michel Louvet of Oldschool is Beautiful is continuing to use AI to convert games from other Z80-based machines to the Amstrad CPC. Rollerball is a pinball game that was originally released for the MSX in 1984. It’s a fairly competent conversion, but don’t expect it to match the quality of Pinball Dreams. The sound effects are nice and suitably jingly, although the lack of colour in the graphics makes it feel more like a Spectrum port. There are four difficulty levels, but the expert and ‘pro’ difficulty levels have jerky scrolling that makes the game almost unplayable. Rollerball can be downloaded from Oldschool is Beautiful’s itch.io site, but note it requires 128KB of RAM.

Outrun 2026

This is another conversion from Oldschool is Beautiful that really caught my attention. The original Amstrad CPC version of Out Run, released by US Gold, is notoriously awful; I rated it only 3 out of 10. This new version has been converted from the Sega Master System and it is claimed to have been developed entirely using AI. While it’s still far from perfect, and it isn’t finished yet, the scrolling is much faster than US Gold’s effort, and you can listen to any of the three iconic tunes from the original soundtrack. In my opinion, Outrun 2026 needs some improvement, and it also requires 128KB of RAM, but even in its current state, it’s a lot better than the US Gold version. You can download it from Oldschool is Beautiful’s itch.io site and see what you think.

Galaga

Revive8Bit has released two more games that have been developed with AI assistance. Galaga is an unofficial conversion of Namco’s highly acclaimed 1981 coin-op arcade game. It’s colourful but I found it lacking in challenge, and the graphics are a bit messy and blocky. However, the author is continuing to make improvements to it, so the latest version may be different. Go to a video by Revive8Bit of Galaga on YouTube and download the game and instruction manual from the links in the pinned comment.

Loukoumas: The Great Sausage Chase

The final game I’m going to mention for now is a platform game from Revive8Bit. Loukoumas: The Great Sausage Chase features a cat who loves sausages. You control the hungry cat, and you must gather five sausages from 29 rooms in the house in which Loukoumas lives – and you can’t leave a room until you’ve obtained all five sausages. You have to beware of the robot vacuum cleaners and a canary who flies around each room. There are only a few sound effects and the graphics are extremely simplistic, but that actually gives the game a certain charm, and I found it to be a rather fun little game. Go to a video of the game on YouTube and download the game and instruction manual from the links in the pinned comment.

Saturday 26th September 2026

Frogger Junior Deluxe

We should all know what the classic game Frogger is about – guide a frog across a busy road, leap on and off logs floating along a river, and place the frog in one of several slots at the top of the screen. Several Frogger clones have been released for the CPC, and Team Galaxy and Crazy Piri have teamed up to bring us another one. Frogger Junior was originally released for the Spectrum Next in 2024, but now it’s available as a cartridge image for the GX4000 console, which you can download from Titan’s site. The ever-prolific Titan has provided the graphics, and as always, they’re really colourful and a sight to behold.

Three new games from Oldschool is Beautiful

Oldschool is Beautiful is a YouTube channel that has been producing videos about retro gaming since 2013, and now its owner Michel Louvet has tried his hand at getting Claude Code to convert games for other Z80-based machines to the CPC, with mixed results.

First up is Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park, which was released for the ColecoVision console in 1983. You control Anna Lee, one of the Cabbage Patch Kids, and you have to guide her through a park filled with obstacles. It seems to be strongly inspired by the Atari 2600 game Pitfall, and the CPC conversion is rather good. The repetitive music and sound effects may get on your nerves after a while, though!

The second game is CPC Tennis – a conversion of the Nintendo Game Boy game Tennis. There are two separate conversions – one for the CPC, and another for the GX4000 and Plus machines named Super CPC Tennis, which features hardware sprites. Both versions are quite faithful to the Game Boy version, and even though it isn’t intended to be a realistic simulation of tennis, I think it’s one of the better tennis games for the CPC.

Tortues is the third game, and it was originally released for the relatively little-known VG5000 computer in 1984. You control a turtle, and you have to rescue sailors from ships that are about to sink and transport them to a safe house – but stay away from the piranhas! The VG5000 didn’t have a reputation for great graphics, and Tortues is no exception, but if you ignore how ugly the game looks, and the occasional graphical glitch, the gameplay isn’t that bad.

All three of these games can be downloaded from Oldschool is Beautiful’s itch.io site.

Monday 21st September 2026

Roland and MEJ Build

Earlier this year, TheQproyect released an arcade adventure called IsaacMaRaMa. Now they’ve developed another game featuring two of the engineers who helped bring the Amstrad CPC to fruition – Roland Perry, and Mark-Eric Jones, or MEJ. Alan Sugar enters the Amstrad headquarters and orders Roland and MEJ to infiltrate the offices of his competitors – Sinclair, Commodore and ASCII Corporation (who designed the MSX standard) – and steal the schematics of their respective computers. If you’ve played IsaacMaRaMa or any of the games starring Wally Week and his family, you’ll know what to expect with Roland and MEJ Build – wander around, collect objects (you can only carry two at a time) and use trial and error, and a bit of intuition, to find out what to do with them.

Roland and MEJ Build was first presented at the Retroalacant event in Alicante earlier this month, and it’s now available to download from itch.io.

Tiny Quest

It isn’t often that Commodore 64 games are converted to the Amstrad CPC, but Outsoftware has done just that. Tiny Quest is a platform game that was released for the Commodore 64 in 2020. Mr Cube has fallen in love, but his new partner is located far away – and Mr Cube also has no money left to buy something for her, so he has to collect coins along the way. Mr Cube has to bounce from platform to platform, collect a coin on each screen and avoid a variety of hazards, but the time limit on each screen is very tight, and if you’re too slow, you’ll lose one of your five lives. The time limit makes for a really hectic but enjoyable game, and it features very colourful graphics, although the palette is bit too bright for my liking.

You can find out more information about Tiny Quest on the CPCWiki forum, where you’ll also find a link to download the game. Note that it requires 128KB of RAM to run.

Thursday 17th September 2026

Snake-Pit

While browsing CPCRulez, I noticed a new game called Snake-Pit. It’s by a mysterious author, or team, named ‘Claude and Human’, and it’s a conversion of the BBC Micro game of the same name. I’ve never heard of Claude and Human before, but I guess they’ve used Claude Code to convert the code from 6502 assembly language to Z80. Using AI tools such as Claude Code to aid in programming Amstrad CPC games seems to be a growing trend over the last few months, and it can be astonishing what they can achieve.

I had never played the BBC Micro version of Snake-Pit before, but it’s a simple arcade game in which you must eat as many eggs on the screen as you can while avoiding seven coloured snakes. At the beginning of the game, all the snakes are trapped, but the red snake can also eat eggs and will break free and eventually release the other snakes. Once all the eggs on the screen are eaten, you can get your revenge on the snakes and eat them! If you manage to eat all seven snakes, the process repeats. You also have only one life... You can download Snake-Pit from CPCRulez.

Sunday 13th September 2026

Homeplanet

Revive8Bit has released another game. The latest one is called Homeplanet, and it’s a strategy game set in space. A giant mothership is travelling towards a planet – a journey spanning several generations – but it is under threat from the Vekhar. The mothership is part of a fleet of spacecraft which is divided into squadrons, and your mission is to guide the mothership towards the planet. As with most strategy games, it’s fairly complex, and despite an in-built tutorial, I haven’t had an opportunity to read the manual thoroughly and try to play the game properly. If you’re interested, Revive8Bit has uploaded a YouTube video, where there should be a pinned comment containing links to download the game and the instruction manual.

Ronald in the Maze

Denathorn Games has released their first Amstrad CPC game, called Ronald in the Maze. Ronald (not Roland!) was camping in the woods when he was abducted by aliens and transformed into a blue blob. You must guide Ronald through a series of mazes, collect coins and find the exit while avoiding contact with the aliens. Basically, it’s a Pac-Man clone, and it’s only available for the GX4000 and Plus machines. You can download Ronald in the Maze from the CPCWiki forum (which thankfully is now up and running again after spending several weeks offline during the summer!).

New reviews

I have reviewed three games, all of them text adventures:

• El Cuervo de la Tormenta
  
• The Secret of Barron Wood
  
• Wet Wings
  

Thursday 3rd September 2026

Three games from Retro Parla

Last week, news broke about a ‘new’ game from Retro Parla called ¡Aparcao!, although it turns out that it’s been available on GitHub for nearly six months – and there are two other games on the Retro Parla GitHub site that also went unnoticed! If you’re not familiar with Retro Parla, it’s the name behind the cute puzzle game Longato from 2025.

¡Aparcao! is based on the puzzle game Rush Hour. Vehicles are laid out on a tiled board, and you must slide the vehicles horizontally or vertically so you can create a path for a red car to slide off the board. However, the board is only 6×6 tiles in size, and each vehicle can only slide along one axis (either horizontal or vertical), so movement is rather restricted, and you’ll often have to move vehicles to one place and then move them back again. That’s all part of the challenge, though, and there are dozens of puzzles to solve. The graphics are nice and colourful, if a little blocky, but it’s a shame there’s no sound at all.

Kessel Run is a very simple arcade game that sees you in a spaceship dodging oncoming ships, aliens and meteors on one of the most dangerous routes in the galaxy – the Kessel Run. Can you survive for more than 12 seconds in each of the three difficulty levels before your shield runs out? The graphics are basic but functional, and it’s good if you’re looking for something to play quickly for a few goes, but as with ¡Aparcao!, there are no sound effects or music.

The final game, Rubik’s Race, is based on the board game of the same name, in which you have to recreate a coloured pattern on a 5×5 tiled board by sliding tiles around. One- and two-player options are offered, but the two-player mode requires two CPC machines to be linked together via the expansion port. It looks appealing with its vivid colours, but just like the other two games, there’s no sound, and the lack of a timer to show you how long it took to solve a puzzle means this may not hold your interest for too long.

Sunday 23rd August 2026

I have reviewed six games:

• Brick Blaster
  
• Liezere
  
• Misterio en la Catedral
  
• Nick
  
• Q*bert
  
• Super Cableman
  

I have also rewritten my review of Crystals and revised its rating.

Tuesday 18th August 2026

Fowl and Furious

While I was away on holiday, Revive8Bit released another game in addition to the five that were released at the beginning of August. The latest one is called Fowl and Furious and it’s inspired by the hugely popular 2009 game Angry Birds. You have a team of either birds or green pigs, and using a slingshot, you must aim and fire the members of your team at structures in which members of the opposing team are hiding, causing them to collapse. I don’t recall any other games like this on the CPC. The graphics are colourful, albeit basic, and it’s fun for a while, but the scrolling is jerky and there is some screen corruption when the structures collapse.

Revive8Bit has uploaded a YouTube video, which contains a pinned comment containing links to download the game and the instruction manual.

Crystals

Last month, I reviewed a little-known game called Crystals. In my review, I questioned whether I had been playing an unfinished preview version. It turns out that I was! CPCManiaco has supplied a disc image of the 1992 release by DMV-Software. My original review will remain for now, but I intend to rewrite it when I get an opportunity to play the final version.