Puzzle Bobble v1.1 menu screen
Puzzle Bobble v1.1 menu screen
Crazy Piri has released version 1.1 of Puzzle Bobble. Among the improvements are:

  • New graphics and animations for the bubbles
  • The addition of a hard difficulty mode that doesn’t show you where the next bubble will go after it is fired
  • Cartridge and Dandanator formats that are compatible with 64K CPCs

You can download version 1.1 of Puzzle Bobble from itch.io, and version 1.0 is still available from the same link.

Screenshot of Paleto Jones
Screenshot of Paleto Jones
Mananuk has converted another of his ZX Spectrum games, Paleto Jones, to the Amstrad CPC. Like his previous game, The Mandarin, which was released last month, Paleto Jones is a platform game in which you must collect gold coins and explore a tomb where your uncle is being held.

You can download Paleto Jones from itch.io. All donations made when downloading the game will be donated to the UNHCR (the United Nations refugee agency), which is to be welcomed given the current crisis in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of that country.

Robert Small has reviewed two games:


I have reviewed Wordle CPC.

Screenshot of Wordle CPC
Screenshot of Wordle CPC
Most of you will probably have heard by now of the addictive word puzzle Wordle that seems to have taken the English-speaking world by storm over the last few months, and which was recently bought by the New York Times newspaper. I’ve certainly been enjoying my daily Wordle fix! If you aren’t familiar with it, you have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, and like Mastermind, you are told if a letter is in the correct position, or if a letter is in the word but in the wrong position.

The concept is so simple that it has already been ported to several retro computing platforms, and it was inevitable that someone would convert it to the Amstrad CPC. That someone is Arnolde, who previously developed the Bejeweled clone Gem Jam for the CPC. Dictionaries are available in four languages – English, French, German and Spanish – and you can download Wordle CPC from the CPCWiki forum. Now you will no longer have to wait for hours for the next day’s puzzle to appear; you can just play as many games as you want.

Robert Small has reviewed Codename MAT.

I have reviewed two games:


Xyphoe’s Nightmare is a new game that is currently only available exclusively on the Antstream streaming platform. It has been developed by Yellow Belly (who was also the man behind Bug’s Quest for Tapes), with the help of some other contributors. Xyphoe himself has stated that the game will be made available to play on emulators or a real CPC in due course – something that I would like to emphasise – but for now, it can only be played on Antstream. You can watch the official trailer on YouTube.

Cover of The Mandarin
Cover of The Mandarin
Mananuk has converted his platform game The Mandarin from the ZX Spectrum to the Amstrad CPC. The story is rather crazy – our hero Mandarino has been recruited to infiltrate an enemy base called The Dying Orange and rescue a small creature who has been kidnapped by an evil empire. You must explore the base and retrieve energy cells in order to activate an emergency walkway and flee the base after you rescue the small creature.

Xyphoe previewed The Mandarin on his YouTube livestream last Friday, and you can download the game from itch.io. Mananuk has programmed a few other games for the ZX Spectrum, and one of them, Black Sea, is in the process of being converted to the CPC, and XeNoMoRPH has posted some gameplay footage of a beta version on YouTube.

AmtixCPC Micro Action issue 3 available soon


Colin Bell, the editor of AmtixCPC Micro Action, has asked me to mention that issue 3 of the magazine is scheduled for release on 25th February 2022. Among the planned features is an interview with Juan J. Martínez (the programmer behind The Dawn of Kernel and Brick Rick, among several other games), and there are also previews of Xyphoe’s Nightmare (which has unfortunately been the subject of some controversy recently) and Black Sea, and of course there will be plenty of reviews of the latest games for the Amstrad CPC.

At the time of writing, it’s not available to order from Retro Fusion Books yet, but when it is available, it should cost £3.99 excluding shipping costs.

Advertisement for issue 3 of AmtixCPC Micro Action
Advertisement for issue 3 of AmtixCPC Micro Action

Robert Small has reviewed two games:

Robert Small has reviewed two games:

Robert Small has reviewed two games:


I have reviewed four games: