Screenshot of The Dragon's Forest
If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books, in which you make choices and move back and forth through the book instead of reading it in a linear fashion. The Dragon’s Forest is a new release by Lachlan Keown for the GX4000 console that recreates this format by using the joypad to confirm what you want to do next. What makes this game special is the fantastic video animations that accompany each location – something that I don’t recall seeing on any Amstrad CPC game previously. It has to be seen to be believed; a static screenshot, such as the one on the right, doesn’t do it justice, but Lachlan has uploaded a video to YouTube that shows the animations, and you can watch it below. The Dragon’s Forest can be downloaded from Dropbox.
Gameplay footage of The Dragon's Forest
Nick
Screenshot of Nick
Nick is a construction worker who stars in David Crespo’s third Amstrad CPC (and ZX Spectrum) game. Nick is building a road network, but the sections of road have been jumbled up and Nick must rearrange them so they are all connected properly. Like David’s previous two games, SkillTeam and Arby and Friends, Nick is based on a game by LukaszM on the Fancade platform. There are 50 levels of increasing difficulty, each with a password so you can return to a level without having to play the previous ones. Nick can be downloaded from itch.io, and you can also play it within your web browser from the same link.
Super Cableman
Screenshot of Super Cableman
Éric Cubizolle, better known as Titan, has released a new game called Super Cableman. The inspiration behind it came from a competition to write a program for the Amstrad CPC in only two lines of BASIC. One attempt was based on the Etch-a-Sketch toy where the user traces lines on a screen, and Titan has expanded it to a full-blown game with nine screens consisting of diverse scenarios. The first screen sees you guiding a cable through space debris towards an astronaut, while subsequent screens see you in a cave, a forest, the depths of the ocean, and even on a circuit board. This may be a simple “guide a line through a maze” Tron-style game, but Titan’s beautiful graphics, complemented by music from Pulsophonic, make it something special. You can download Super Cableman from Titan’s site.
Bomb Jack GX
Screenshot of Bomb Jack GX
Last Friday saw the launch of Bomb Jack GX – an updated version of Anthony Flack’s Bomb Jack Extra Sugar adapted for the GX4000 console with hardware sprites and full use of its enhanced palette. It doesn’t include all of the additional features and game modes in Bomb Jack Extra Sugar, but Anthony has fiddled with the difficulty level to make it as close to the original arcade game as possible – and believe me, I found it pretty difficult! Then again, I need a lot more practice at it... Bomb Jack GX also offers the ability to save your high scores if you are using it with the new PicoGX device that enables you to play GX4000 cartridge games by storing them on a microSD card, like the C4CPC, which has been discontinued for a while.
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.
