El Culto
(Tartessos Games, 2023)
You have travelled to a village in the mountains whose inhabitants are living under a constant blanket of fear, and your goal is to uncover the source of this terror. You will need to explore the village, enter some of the houses and talk to the inhabitants to learn new information and gain access to some locations. You also have a gun that you can use to shoot enemies, including strange purple zombie-like creatures that respawn constantly on each screen. You also need to watch the clock, although collecting scrolls will give you extra time. This is a simple game, but I don’t really like it. The graphics are colourful but nothing special, and while the tune in the background adds to the atmosphere of mystery, it plays very quietly. However, the game feels rather dull and lacking in variety, and having to shoot zombies over and over again is an annoyance.
Curro Jiménez
(Zigurat, 1989)
In 19th century Spain, the French army is occupying large parts of the country. Now they have amassed enough firepower to destroy the entire country – but one warrior, Curro Jiménez, has the courage to confront and defeat the French single-handedly! You must travel on foot, on horseback, and even on a hot air balloon, through towns and across countryside to reach the French army camp. You are armed with a gun to shoot the French invaders, and along the way, you need to collect treasure chests to obtain dynamite; some chests may give you an extra life instead. The graphics and animation in this game are stunning, and unlike many Spanish games, it’s relatively easy to make progress, although jumping over the barriers when you’re riding a horse can be frustrating.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
The Curse of Rabenstein
(Puddle Soft, 2020)
While travelling on a long journey to Strasbourg, your coachman loses his way in the Black Forest and stops to check his maps. He asks you to go to a village nearby to find a place to stay for the night. The village has an inn and a stable, but after you take the horses to the stable to rest and then return to the clearing where the coachman stopped, he has disappeared – and so your story begins in the cursed village of Rabenstein. This text adventure is full of atmosphere and mystery, with astonishingly beautifully drawn pictures accompanying each location, in the style of Level 9’s later releases. However, it’s not particularly large, and experienced players should have no problems completing it fairly quickly, but while it’s not much of a challenge, it is nonetheless quite enjoyable to play while it lasts.
The Curse of Sherwood
(Mastertronic, 1987)
A portal of evil has fallen on Sherwood, and it’s up to Friar Tuck to go to the castle and destroy the portal. The game involves lots of exploring and killing various creatures and humans, while working out which weapon to use. There are also some objects to collect, but you’ll have to find out what they’re used for. Despite the game using the CPC’s four-colour, medium-resolution Mode 1, the graphics are extremely blocky, and the sound effects are equally awful – yet for some reason, it’s still not all that bad a game; it’s just that getting through the swamp is extremely difficult.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World.
Cursed Be the City is a Gothic-themed text adventure that was created using GAC. You play a character called Ashar, and begin your adventure bound to a rack in a dark and damp dungeon. You must find a way to escape this horrid place of misery and fear before the torturer burns out your eyes! As you can tell, this adventure is very dark in places and is not suitable for young children. Once you escape the dungeon you will eventually learn of your preordained quest. The location descriptions are generally rich with detail and it soon feels like you’re reading a book. A lot of the characters in this one do have strange names, though, which makes your quest a bit confusing at times. If you’re a fan of horror novels, then this one may appeal to you.
Custard Pie Factory
(Tynesoft, 1985)
You have returned from a long holiday to your job in a custard pie factory, only to find that all production has stopped – and as the repairman, you must fix and restart all of the machinery, otherwise you will be sacked! This is a platform game in which you must explore rooms in the search for the objects that will activate the machinery, and each object is often to be found a long way from where it is to be used. There is also a range of enemies to be found in most rooms, which will sap your energy if you touch them. Both the graphics and sound effects are basic, although a lot of colour is used, but the main problem is that movement of your character is slow, and it takes a long time to go from one place to another, which makes a potentially good game boring instead.
Cutthroats
(Infocom, 1986)
Times are tough on Hardscrabble Island, and you dream of getting away from the island – so when someone invites you on a diving expedition to hunt for treasure, it’s an offer you can’t refuse. However, many of the characters on Hardscrabble Island are dodgy, and you’ll be working with some of the dodgiest characters of them all – and one of them is a traitor... There are two variations of the game, but I’ll leave it to you to discover them. This is a great text adventure from Infocom with enough mystery and excitement to captivate you for some time.
Cyber-Chicken is the final version of Cyber Huhn, an entrant in CPCWiki’s 16KB ROM game development competition held in 2013. This version has many differences compared to the original one. To begin with, the game displays a magnificent overscan image. As the game begins, the player can now see the cannons that fire shots at the cyber chickens. The scrolling is smooth and fast, while the graphics, although lacking a background, are detailed. The chickens zoom in as they approach you. The sound effects are reasonable and the gunshot sounds increase and decrease in pitch, and the game also includes several tunes. The gameplay is fast-paced and entertaining; because of the high score table, you can attempt to beat the best scores. Overall, a highly entertaining and original idea placed in the type of game that is rarely seen on the CPC.
Cyberball
(Domark, 1990)
American football has become robotic in the 21st century, and it’s more violent than ever. Fourteen armoured robots tackle and clash with each other, attempting to get a touchdown before the ball explodes – it’s actually a bomb! It sounds great, but the game is poorly executed. Rather than being a straightforward arcade game, the game constantly stops for you to choose your tactics, and there are dozens of strategies. It interrupts the flow of the game and becomes its major downfall. The robots also move very slowly, which again ruins things. The graphics are good and the tune on the menu is nice, but I can’t understand why the CPC magazines liked this game so much!
Someone was a fan of Alien – at least that’s the impression this game gives the player. You arrive at an installation on board a flying saucer. You’re then ‘tubed’ to the surface below. Once on the surface you can descend down through its various levels (once again via tubes). There are swarms of robots out to get you, which are bizarrely animated – more zombie than robot. You can dispose of these with your gun. Then there is the alien – a bit of a star in my opinion. You can’t kill the alien (that’s done later), but it will eat the robots. You search for useful objects and will eventually even get to drive a little car to move around the levels more quickly. Graphically it’s quite good – all Mode 0 with the alien being the highlight. There is an excellent piece of music as well. The gameplay is a bit samey but it’s an interesting game.