I have reviewed five games, three of which were released recently:
As this will be my last update before Christmas, I would like to wish everyone who visits this site a merry Christmas! 🎅
As this will be my last update before Christmas, I would like to wish everyone who visits this site a merry Christmas! 🎅
Darkula64

Hyperdrive

Tenebra

New reviews
Robert Small has reviewed two games:
Robert Small has reviewed Jaws by Screen 7. Unusually, there are two versions of this game, both by the same developer (Intelligent Design), and the second version only seems to have been released on a compilation from Ubi Soft called Top 25. Robert’s review is for the original release.
Hyperdrive

Sente Mini Golf

You can watch videos of the normal CPC version and the Plus version on YouTube. There are more screenshots on CPC-POWER, although there’s no indication yet of when it will be released.
The organisers of the 2022 #CPCRetroDev contest have announced that there were mistakes in the scoring of games, which has adversely affected the results of the top five games.
One of the rules of the competition was that entries would receive points if they included some sort of gesture to the game Lárcenas Legacy, which was the winner of the first #CPCRetroDev contest back in 2013. Two of the top five entries, Dire Dare and Deep, Deeper, Deepest, contained a gesture, but they didn’t receive the 25 points that they were entitled to. If the points had been awarded, Dire Dare would have finished in second place, and Deep, Deeper, Deepest would have finished in fourth place.
Because of this mistake, the organisers have decided to award a tie for second place to Dire Dare and Penguin Attack (the original second-place finisher), and a tie for fourth place to Deep, Deeper, Deepest and Druid & Droid (the original fourth-place finisher). The final placings and prizes for the PRO category are now:
It’s good to see that CNGSoft and Carlos Pérezgrin eventually received the recognition they deserve, and hopefully there won’t be any such mistakes in future contests.
One of the rules of the competition was that entries would receive points if they included some sort of gesture to the game Lárcenas Legacy, which was the winner of the first #CPCRetroDev contest back in 2013. Two of the top five entries, Dire Dare and Deep, Deeper, Deepest, contained a gesture, but they didn’t receive the 25 points that they were entitled to. If the points had been awarded, Dire Dare would have finished in second place, and Deep, Deeper, Deepest would have finished in fourth place.
Because of this mistake, the organisers have decided to award a tie for second place to Dire Dare and Penguin Attack (the original second-place finisher), and a tie for fourth place to Deep, Deeper, Deepest and Druid & Droid (the original fourth-place finisher). The final placings and prizes for the PRO category are now:
- Best game: Castaway (The T Team) – €400 prize
- 2nd= best games: Dire Dare (CNGSoft) and Penguin Attack (Pat Morita Team) – €300 prize awarded to each developer
- 4th= best games: Deep, Deeper, Deepest (Carlos Pérezgrin) and Druid & Droid (Leosoft) – €100 prize awarded to each developer
It’s good to see that CNGSoft and Carlos Pérezgrin eventually received the recognition they deserve, and hopefully there won’t be any such mistakes in future contests.
Missile Command

CPC Game Reviews has been revamped
You may have noticed that CPC Game Reviews has also been revamped slightly. I’ve spent several months on and off rewriting the code for the site and finally bringing it into the 21st century! There is now a search bar at the top of each page to enable you to search for reviews of your favourite games, and you can now view news articles all the way back to the beginning of 2014. If your browser window is wide enough, you should also see a screenshot and a link to a random review from the site on the left of the home page.
However, some features have been removed in the meantime. All of the scans of advertisements have gone, as the prevalence of ad-blocking software on browsers meant that users couldn’t see them! The database of Amtix! ratings has also gone, although in the long term, I hope to bring this back and display them against each individual review. I’ve also removed the page of links to other Amstrad CPC sites, as it was getting too out of date, although again, I may bring it back in the future. At the moment, I want to focus on the site’s main theme – reviews.
Please feel free to e-mail me at nich <AT> durge <DOT> org and let me know what you think.
As the World Cup begins tomorrow, I have reviewed two World Cup-themed management games:
New footage of Vespertino released
Back in 2019, Batman Group uploaded a teaser of their racing game Vespertino to YouTube. It was so impressive that some people (including me) struggled to believe – or indeed, denied – that they were witnessing an Amstrad CPC game, and the footage was fake.
Well, Batman Group has released some more footage of Vespertino being developed and the code being assembled in WinAPE, in response to recent claims that the project is a hoax. The video shows the car selection menu with the 3D rendered rotating cars, and a car driving slowly along the race track. It’s enough to convince me that, yes, Vespertino is real and the original footage wasn’t faked. There’s still no indication of when it will be released, but Batman Group has tweeted that they have a surprise for the CPC community before the end of the year and to “stay tuned”.
The new raw footage can be viewed at files.fm, and Xyphoe has also uploaded a video with his thoughts on the new footage, which you can watch below.