Chevy Chase
(Hi-Tec Software, 1991)
Hit the road in a classic 1959 Chevy car as you drive across America to reach your girlfriend. The game consists of four stages, each divided into four sections. You’re racing against the clock, and the other drivers on the road don’t make life easy. As you progress to the next section, the sky changes colour and your time is extended, and at the end of each stage, it’s time to rest and relax. There are also ‘auto centres’ on each stage where you can upgrade your car. The graphics are marvellous and really colourful, and you can even choose the colour and model of your own car. The music at the start of the game isn’t that good, but the game is great fun to play and the difficulty level is just right.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
ChinnyVision.
This is the first CPC game from Keith Sear, who was able to not only learn Z80 programming, but also to deliver this amazing game (both in technical and gameplay terms) in only five months! Chibi Akuma(s) is a deluge of non-stop action, skilfully designed sprites and humour. You take control of Chibiko, who is despised so much that not even Hell will let her in, so she remains as an undead vampire who harms others. The graphics are drawn in Mode 1 but there are more than four colours, and they change as you progress, so the result is magnificent. A tune plays throughout the game. There is a fantastic variety of sprites, and a vast number of them occupy the screen without any severe slowdown. The gameplay is challenging and the grab factor is very strong. Overall, this is something we weren’t expecting to see on the CPC and it will blow you away!
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
Novabug,
Saberman,
Xyphoe.
Perhaps this is as close as the CPC will get to emulating the original Grand Theft Auto – well, the driving aspect of it, anyway. Chicago 90 tasks you with evading capture by the police through skilled driving in an isometric city. You will need to use your map to plot the best route and your gun to slow down the police. The great thing is that the game also allows you to play from the side of the police; you control a squad of police cars hunting the criminal across the city and you can swap between individual cars. This is a very good looking game with smooth scrolling, Mode 0 graphics and cutscenes. The city has real character. The only letdown is a lack of music and depth to the gameplay.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.
Armed with a Thompson machine gun, you play the main role in a gangster movie that takes place in the streets of Chicago. Each time you’re killed, a spectator leaves his seat. When you run out of lives, the cinema is empty and the game ends. Despite an original starting point, Chicago’s 30 (which was released outside Spain as Chicago 30’s) is far from being a good game. The graphics and the music are not bad, and the scrolling is decent, but rather than being a difficult game, it just happens to be boring and frustrating.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
Chickin Chase
(Firebird, 1987)
You’re a male chicken in a farmyard, and along with your female partner, you have to make babies and protect the eggs that the hen lays. The eggs lie in nests on two shelves in a shed, and all the time, various animals enter the shed, climb up the ladder, and eat the eggs. You can scare them away by pecking at them, but if there are no eggs left, you lose a life. You need to make more eggs all the time by entering a small room where your partner is hiding – but then you won’t be able to guard the eggs... The graphics are quite good and some nice tunes are played throughout, and it’s a reasonably enjoyable game to play for a while.
Des Chiffres et des Lettres
(Loriciels, 1987)
Knowledge of French is required in order to play this game properly.
Those of you who are into crosswords, word games and mathematical problems might like this game, but everyone else will probably be bored by it. Play takes place against the computer, and you play alternate rounds of either a word or a numbers game. In the word game, you choose nine letters and try to make a word out of them, while in the numbers game, you choose six numbers and must find a way to obtain another, larger number using the six numbers. It’s like the British TV quiz show Countdown, really, and it’s not very interesting.
You are on a mission to rescue your girlfriend from the evil clutches of the haunted mansion. As you drive there, your car splutters and grinds to a halt. Undaunted, you continue on foot through a spooky forest, an oddly placed cinema displaying a film of the previous level, a ghetto, a scary graveyard, and finally the haunted mansion. Each single-screen level is filled with ghosts, ghoulies and worse. Collect all the blue crosses to progress to the next level. Upon saving your girlfriend, it’s not game over! The graphics are based on the Commodore 64 version and look a little blocky and poor in places. A satisfying tune plays throughout and adds a fitting atmosphere to the game.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
Xyphoe.
Chimera
(Firebird, 1985)
A ghost ship, the Chimera, has appeared over the skies of the USA, which has decided to destroy it. Four warheads have been placed around the ship, and a robot, which you control, has been placed inside the ship to activate them. You must wander the corridors of the ship, finding objects and destroying barriers which are in your way by using the right object; if you use the wrong object, you will be electrocuted! The robot also requires a supply of food and water (eh?) which you will need to pick up regularly. The game uses isometric graphics and they’re pretty good, although like several other games of its type, some of the colour schemes are horrible. A merry tune also plays on the menu. It’s a fairly good game which will take a while to finish.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World.
Chip’s Challenge
(US Gold, 1991)
Chip Callahan fancies Melinda the Mental Marvel, but before he can join her Bit Busters club, she sets him a challenge of completing 144 levels of mental agility and dexterity. Chip has to collect computer chips on each of the levels, but they may lie behind locked doors or across a river or a wall of fire, or they may be guarded by monsters, so you’ll need to find the coloured keys to open doors, and shields, magnets and boots to allow you to walk on fire, water, ice and conveyor belts. The graphics are fairly simple but the high-energy music is really good. It’s a shame that the game isn’t as fast as the music; Chip moves rather slowly and some of the levels are too big. There is a password for each level, though, which is good.
Chloe Aprende a Reciclar
(Churrosoft, 2023)
Little Chloe is doing her bit to help the environment by wandering around her local park and looking for glass bottles to recycle. There are five bottles to collect and she has to take them one at a time to a green recycling container. The park also contains insects that will deplete Chloe’s energy, and she also needs to get rid of the litterbugs who inconsiderately throw their rubbish around by jumping on their heads. Finally, some areas of the park are locked and require keys to unlock them. This platform game was originally released for the ZX Spectrum in 2020, and it features bright, colourful graphics and cute music. However, I found playing the game to be frustrating. It can be annoyingly tricky trying to leap on to a narrow platform without falling, and there are a couple of traps that you can’t escape from if you fall into them, forcing you to restart the game.