Screenshot of Bounty Hunter by Keith Goodyer
Two months ago, Games That Weren’t recovered a game by Keith Goodyer called Time Lords. Now Dean Hickingbottom has found another lost game in Keith’s development discs called Bounty Hunter – not to be confused with Code Masters’ similarly named game.
Bounty Hunter features a heavily armed man wandering around a landscape, shooting aliens, throwing grenades and dodging landmines. The gameplay sounds very similar to Exolon, and indeed, Games That Weren’t has speculated that Exolon may have been inspired by Bounty Hunter, as the name ‘Raffaele’ can be found in the high score table! Surely that can’t refer to anyone other than Raffaele Cecco?! Unfortunately this newly discovered prototype version has no sound, but it does have colourful graphics and lots of big explosions, which are also a feature of Exolon.
As with Time Lords, it’s a shame that Bounty Hunter wasn’t completed, but you can download the prototype of Bounty Hunter from Games That Weren’t. Unusually, in order to play it, you need to boot CP/M first by typing |CPM at the Ready prompt, and then type BOUNTY at the CP/M prompt.
2,500 games reviewed!
Another milestone has been reached today, as CPC Game Reviews has now reviewed 2,500 Amstrad CPC games! Following DaReInt’s release of The Morning Star, I noticed that he has also released two other text adventures in English, one of which I never noticed, so I have reviewed all three of them:
Screenshot of Manic Miner AnthologyManic Miner is arguably one of the most famous games for the ZX Spectrum, and probably dozens of unofficial modified versions with redesigned levels have been released over the decades. Well, if you’re a fan of Miner Willy, you can now play them on an Amstrad CPC! Lachlan Keown has compiled a collection of these levels into a bundle with the name of Manic Miner Anthology. There are ten sets in total, including the 20 levels in the original release from Matthew Smith. You can also play with cheats enabled if you find the going too tough, and if you are using a GX4000 or Plus machine, you can choose one of two alternative looks for Willy if you fancy something different from the plain white outline of the original game.
More information about Manic Miner Anthology can be found on the CPCWiki forum, where you will also find a link to download the collection from Dropbox.
The Morning Star
Screenshot of The Morning Star
Spanish author DaReInt released an English translation of his 2017 text adventure La Estrella de la Mañana towards the end of last month, although I only found out about it very recently. The background story is that the Void is advancing quickly and destroying everything in its path like a black hole. You, Gauvain, have travelled to a remote village in an attempt to find out more about the Void and prevent it from causing further destruction.
The Morning Star has been developed using the DAAD engine and contains AI-generated pictures for each location. It can be downloaded from itch.io, and while it isn’t free, it’ll only cost you $2.00 to download it, and it’s very suitable for people who aren’t experienced at playing text adventures.
I have reviewed five games, all of which are recent releases:
Screenshot of Xevious (Easter Egg)
I think it’s fair to say that US Gold’s conversion of the coin-op game Xevious to the Amstrad CPC wasn’t great; it received a rating of only 4 out of 10 on this site. Well, Nemo Kantio and TotO of Easter Egg have been working on their own conversion, and it was released last weekend, while I was away visiting my family for a few days, which is why I’m only able to announce it on my site now.
Easter Egg’s version is much more faithful to the original coin-op in terms of its presentation, with a vertical overscan screen, smooth scrolling and detailed Mode 1 graphics. You can also configure the number of lives you begin the game with (one, three or five), and when extra lives are awarded. You can download Xevious from CPC-POWER.
Armor Alley
Screenshot of Armor AlleyFitoSoft released Armor Alley a few days ago. Written using the 8 Bits de Poder library, your aim is to capture your enemy’s base. Your base is at one end of the playing area, while your enemy’s is at the other end. You must produce soldiers and send them towards the enemy to capture bunkers, which will enable you to raise funds more quickly to produce more soldiers and obtain weapons. You control a helicopter that can be used to transport soldiers and force the enemy to retreat from a bunker, and thus enable one of your soldiers to capture it. It’s based on the 1991 MS-DOS and Macintosh game Armor Alley, and it’s more of a strategy game than an arcade game. Armor Alley can be downloaded from itch.io.
SDO
Screenshot of SDO
Xevimet4l has released a game called SDO, or to give its full title, Star Defense Operation. It’s a simple shoot-’em-up featuring vertically scrolling levels with waves of aliens that must be shot and destroyed. There are 25 levels, with a boss to be defeated every five levels. It isn’t original, but I found it fun for a few quick blasts. If you want a game that feels like an early CPC release from 1985, you’ll like SDO. You can download it from itch.io.
Roland Goes Racing!
Screenshot of the Plus version of Roland Goes Racing!
Lachlan Keown released a little game called Roland Goes Racing! a few days ago. It doesn’t feature the famous Amstrad mascot; instead, you control a buggy that is travelling over hilly terrain, and when it flies off a hill at speed (which will occur very frequently), you have to use the left and right joystick controls to try to match the buggy’s wheels with the slope of the ground that it will land on, otherwise you’ll crash. There are 255 randomly generated levels, but it may take a while to get used to controlling the buggy and even the first level is a tricky!
Roland Goes Racing! can be downloaded from CPCWiki. If you play it on a GX4000 or a Plus machine, you’ll also be treated to a few enhancements – trees and clouds scrolling by as you progress, and a background gradient on the menu screen.
SwordWork
Screenshot of SwordWork
Japanese developer Inufuto’s latest game, SwordWork, features the now-familiar protagonist dressed in armour and wielding a sword. Each level consists of a single screen laid out like a maze, and you have to collect all the treasure chests while avoiding moving stone blocks and the skeletons that wander around. Naturally, you use your sword to destroy the skeletons, but in doing so, your own character thrusts himself forward, so you need to judge your moves carefully. You can also exploit this manoeuvre to dodge some of the stone blocks. A CDT cassette image of SwordWork can be downloaded from Inufuto’s site, while a disc image can be downloaded from NVG.
The Amstream Amstrad Video Game Awards 2025-2026
Last Friday night saw the sixth Amstream Amstrad Video Game Awards (more popularly known as the Sugars) take place. As always, the awards were hosted by Xyphoe, and this time, there were ten categories, with a new category of “best adventure” being added to the list – and there was also a guest appearance from Roland Perry! The winners were:
Best arcade action game: Reginald and the She Vampires
The winner of “game of the year” was a bit of a surprise; I thought Sonic GX would be a shoo-in. However, The Key: Episode 3 is still a worthy winner and it was my second favourite of all fifteen games that were nominated over all categories. Congratulations to Pakete Soft, and all the teams and individuals who worked on the other winning games!
You can watch the awards show below or on YouTube.
The Sugars 2025-2026 on YouTube
IsaacMaRaMa
Screenshot of IsaacMaRaMaTheQproyect has released a new game called IsaacMaRaMap. It’s a prequel to PERAL, their entry in the 2023 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest which finished in fifth place out of 30 entries. You may have guessed that the game’s name is a play on Pyjamarama, and the gameplay is quite similar – roam around, collect objects, work out what they’re used for, and avoid energy-sapping creatures. You control the Spanish engineer Isaac Peral, and you must build your eponymous submarine.
IsaacMaRaMa is very well presented, with a loading screen from Titan and beautiful graphics and music. It’s available in four languages – English, French, German and Spanish – and you can download it from itch.io, although it’s only available in cassette format.
Arby and Friends
Screenshot of Arby and Friends
David Crespo has released his second puzzle game for the Amstrad CPC – the first one being SkillTeam. Like that game, Arby and Friends is based on an online game of the same name by LukaszM on the Fancade gaming platform. There are 60 levels, and on each one, you need to guide Arby to a target marked by a green circle. Each level is also home to one or more of Arby’s friends, each of which moves in different ways based on their colour or markings on their body, and you have to manoeuvre them so Arby can reach the target. If you get stuck, you can skip a level, although you can only do this up to three times. There’s also a password system that enables you to restart a game from any level you’ve attempted so far.
Arby and Friends can be downloaded from itch.io, or you can even play it in your browser by visiting the link!
Castle Adventure
Title screen of the demo version of Castle Adventure
Easter Egg, the team behind the remake of R-Type back in 2012, has just released their new game Castle Adventure, appropriately enough on Easter Sunday. It’s been in development for over three years, and a few teaser videos have been released during that time, but if you watch the trailer below, I think you’ll agree that it’s been worth waiting for. It’s strongly inspired by the Castlevania games on the NES console. You are a young witch called Val, and you have entered the castle of the evil witch Raven. The game offers 15 levels of platforming action, over 30 types of creature to encounter, ten boss battles, and three different endings. The graphic and music are amazing, and the CPC’s medium resolution Mode 1 has been used to great effect.
Castle Adventure can be pre-ordered from Yogtze’s site. It’s available on either 3″ floppy disc for €30, or a floppy disc-shaped USB stick and SD card for €35, although these prices don’t include shipping costs. The demo version can also be downloaded from the same link.
