Screenshot of 2048 in Mode 0
Screenshot of 2048 in Mode 0
Happy New Year to all CPC fans!

I have reviewed nine games:


Crackers Velus have released a new version of 2048 which features Mode 0 graphics – and the game certainly looks much better as a result! The new version can be downloaded from NVG, along with the original version which used Mode 1 graphics.

Screenshot of 2048
Screenshot of 2048 in Mode 1
Following on from the news about the #CPCRetroDev game programming competition, Crackers Velus have released their own entry, 2048.

Many of you have probably heard of this puzzle game, which was developed by Gabriele Cirulli and released earlier this year as a mobile app and has become very popular indeed. The game involves sliding blocks around a 4×4 grid and combining them to produce higher-numbered blocks. The aim is to produce a block with a value of 2048.

The very simple nature of the game means that 2048 has already been ported to many 8-bit computers, and now it’s the CPC’s turn to get a conversion. You can download 2048 from NVG. Just be aware that once you start playing it, you’ll probably become addicted!

It’s been a long time since I reviewed any games, and since I’ve been off work this week, I decided to test some Spanish games, so here are 11 reviews for you:


Staying on a Spanish theme, I’ve learnt that a CPC game programming competition was held recently, although almost no one outside Spain seemed to be aware of it! Over 30 entries were submitted to the #CPCRetroDev 2014 contest, and the prizes were €200 for the winner, €75 for the runner-up, and €75 for the best game written in BASIC. You can find more information about #CPCRetroRev here.

Now that the rest of the world knows about the competition, will there be more entries from outside Spain in 2015?

Screenshot of Dead by Dawn
Screenshot of Dead by Dawn
MiguelSky has been busy lately. Not only was he working on converting The Prisoner to the CPC, he’s also managed to convert another game! This one is called Dead by Dawn, and it was originally created on the ZX Spectrum using the 3D Construction Kit, which lets you create your own Freescape-style games.

This is not the first time that MiguelSky has converted a Freescape game; earlier in 2014, he also converted a Commodore 64 game called A Chance in Hell to the CPC. Could there be even more CPC Freescape games making their way? Only time will tell...

Dead by Dawn can be downloaded from the Amstrad.ES forum.

The Prisoner title screen
The Prisoner title screen
After several months of delays, Commodore Plus has released the English version of The Prisoner. This text adventure was originally released in Spanish in October 2013 and is based on the British cult 1960s TV series starring Patrick McGoohan. In the game, as in the TV series, you are an unnamed secret agent who has resigned from his job – but you have been abducted and taken to a mysterious seaside village, where everyone is identified by a number rather than a name, and the population is constantly being monitored and indoctrinated. You must escape from this Orwellian nightmare – but how?

You can download The Prisoner from NVG or find out more about the game (in Spanish) at
Commodore Plus’ web site.

Screenshot of Altair
Screenshot of Altair
A new game called Altair has recently been released. It’s an unofficial conversion of a Spanish 1981 coin-op arcade game by Cidelsa. The person behind it goes by the rather bizarre pseudonym of Inmensa Bola de Manteca, which translates to “immense ball of butter” in English. The gameplay is quite similar to Galaxian and it’s quite faithful to the original arcade version (footage of which is available on YouTube). You can download Altair from either NVG or from Inmensa Bola de Manteca’s web site, and the source code for both the CPC and ZX Spectrum versions of the game is also available from the author’s site.

Screenshot of Kamyzol
Screenshot of Kamyzol
Crackers Velus have released their third game, called Kamyzol, and like their previous releases, it’s a puzzle game. Each level contains several rectangular blocks which, depending on their orientation, can only be moved either horizontally or vertically, but not in both directions. There is also one block which is coloured red and must be moved to the exit – but this is not as easy as it sounds, because the blocks are enclosed within a confined space! As you can see from the screenshot on the right, the graphics are very basic, but don’t let this put you off; it’s quite a challenge, and Crackers Velus themselves warn that it may make you go crazy! You can download Kamyzol from NVG.

I have reviewed two games:

Screenshot of Jetpac Sinclair ZX Spectrum Emulator
Screenshot of Jetpac Sinclair ZX Spectrum Emulator
40Crisis has done it again! This time, he has emulated Ultimate Play The Game’s classic 16K ZX Spectrum game Jetpac on the Amstrad CPC. Jetpac was one of the first games that Ultimate Play The Game released back in 1983, and at the time, it set new standards of quality for ZX Spectrum games. Now this classic game can be played on a CPC – but you will need to download the original ZX Spectrum game, and as the Spectrum community is very strict about not allowing Ultimate’s games to be downloaded, you won’t find it on World of Spectrum, so you’ll have to hunt for it yourself.

If you manage to find it, you can download the emulator from NVG, which contains a program that will convert the Spectrum version of the game to a DSK and CDT file which you can play on an emulator or transfer to a real CPC.

Although I owned a Spectrum in the 1980s, I never played Jetpac at the time, but this CPC conversion is a fantastic little game!

I have reviewed three games:

Richard Lamond has reviewed ten games, most of them text adventures:

Title screen of Superpix
Title screen of Superpix
Kukulcan, the administrator of the well known CPC-POWER site, recently released a new game called Superpix. If you like Picross puzzles, then you’ll love this game. Picross games such as iLogicAll and Pix have been released for the CPC before, but Superpix boasts a massive 720 puzzles to solve! It also saves your scores to disc, and if you’re not familiar with Picross puzzles, then a helpful tutorial is also provided on the disc. You can download Superpix from NVG, and there is more information at CPC-POWER.

A new contributor, Richard Lamond, has reviewed eight games: