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.
Castle Adventure trailer
Time Lords
Screenshot of Time LordsGames That Weren’t has revealed yet another Amstrad CPC game! This one is called Time Lords, although it’s only a playable preview version rather than a full game this time. According to Games That Weren’t, Keith Goodyer was working on this game, which sees you playing a spacesuit-wearing character armed with a laser, walking left and right and shooting enemies, a bit like Exolon.
There are only a few screens, no score is kept, and you’re invulnerable and can’t die, but based on what I’ve seen from playing this preview, it’s a shame that Time Lords didn’t progress into a full game. The demo can be downloaded from Games That Weren’t.
Following on from the release of two text adventures inspired by the Alien film franchise, two more Alien-themed games have been released for the Amstrad CPC.
Alien the Xenomorph
Screenshot of Alien the Xenomorph
The first game is Alien the Xenomorph from CapaSoft. Here, you play the Xenomorph, and you must collect all the alien eggs to ensure the survival of your species. On each screen, there are several eggs, as well as armed human and robot guards who must be avoided or destroyed with your acidic saliva. Collect all the eggs and you go to the next screen.
Alien the Xenomorph, like CapaSoft’s previous games, has been developed using Multi-Platform Arcade Game Designer. This time, Mr Capa has enlisted the help of Titan to draw the graphics and create an impressive animated loading screen, while the music has been composed by Warlord. You can download Alien the Xenomorph from itch.io.
Axis
Screenshot of Axis
Aliens have overrun the Axis lunar mining colony, and you must escape – but the only way to reach the cargo bay is through a maze divided into sectors. Furthermore, the doors are locked and you must obtain keycards to open them. It’s a straightforward maze game featuring nice graphics and digitised sound effects; watch out for the scream when an alien grabs you and you lose a life!
Screenshot of Punch ChessTeam Moritz have released a new game called Punch Chess. It’s based on an Atari 2600 game of the same name by kamaleon70 that was released in 2023, and while it involves chess pieces, that’s where any similarities to chess end. In Punch Chess, you control a knight who is positioned between two chessboards. Various chess pieces appear from either end of the screen and move horizontally, and you must move the knight and press fire to punch the pieces, trying to score as many points as you can while avoiding contact with the pieces.
Each game lasts only about one and a half minutes, but it’s an interesting diversion if you want a quick game to play and you’re short on time. Punch Chess can be downloaded from itch.io.
New York Warriors recovered
The previously unseen introductory screen for level 4 of New York WarriorsGames That Weren’t continue their quest to recover lost computer games, and their latest success story for the Amstrad CPC is New York Warriors. “Hang on a minute!” you may be thinking. “New York Warriorswas released, and you’ve even reviewed it!” Well, two versions of the game exist – one on cassette, and another on disc. Unfortunately, due to a mastering error, the disc version is incomplete; the game is supposed to use both sides of a 3″ disc, but the second side is blank, so you can only play the first three levels – until now!
The author, R. Fred Williams, still possessed his development discs after all these years. Thankfully they were still readable, and with a bit of help, the contents were recovered. The disc version requires 128KB of RAM, but it contains music and additional cutscenes and animations that are lacking in the cassette version. You can download the full recovered version of New York Warriors from Games That Weren’t.
