Tuesday 22nd April 2025

SkillTeam

A new puzzle game for the Amstrad CPC has just been released. It’s called SkillTeam, and it’s based on an online game of the same name by LukaszM. There are 60 levels, and on each one, you must shift crates and create a path to the chequered flag that marks your goal and lets you proceed to the next level. If you’ve played the classic game Sokoban, then the concept should be very familiar. You can also acquire different skills by collecting coloured crystals; for example, the light blue crystal enables you to pull crates instead of push them, and the red crystal lets you destroy crates. Each level has a password, and the programmer, David Crespo, has even provided the ability to skip a level if you find it too tough, although you can only use this option three times.

SkillTeam can be downloaded from itch.io, and it can even be played online through the RVMPlayer emulator.

Physical editions of Harrier Attack Reloaded now available

Physical editions of Harrier Attack Reloaded, Chris Perver’s recently released conversion of Harrier Attack for the GX4000 console and Plus machines, are now available and can be purchased via eBay for £37.12 (excluding shipping costs). You’ll get the cartridge in a very nice-looking case, complete with an 8-page instruction booklet that includes an interview with the author of the original version of the game for the CPC464.

Friday 11th April 2025

Phantomas en el Museo

The Mojon Twins have released another new game. Phantomas en el Museo is the latest in a series of platform games to feature Phantomas, who first starred in an Amstrad CPC game in 1986 with the release of Phantomas 2 (known as Vampire outside of Spain). Phantomas en el Museo was released for the ZX Spectrum back in 2012, but it has only made its way to the CPC 13 years later. The background story is that the IAACC Pablo Serrano museum on the planet of Zaragoza has been taken over and looted by a criminal gang known as the Malotes. Most of the artefacts have been destroyed, but five of them remain intact, and Phantomas must retrieve them.

I rather enjoyed playing Phantomas en el Museo, and the graphics and music are fantastic. You can download it from itch.io and try it out for yourself.

Thursday 3rd April 2025

I have reviewed four recently released games:

• Bomb Jack Extra Sugar
  
• Impossamal
  
• Longato
  
• Master Piece
  

Following a discussion on the CPCWiki forum about the ratings of some reviews on this site, I have revisited IK+ and rewritten my review.

Saturday 8th March 2025

Bomb Jack Extra Sugar

The wait is finally over; Anthony Flack has released his eagerly anticipated remake of Bomb Jack! It’s been in development for over two years, and Xyphoe played and streamed a preview of the game back in November 2023. The original Amstrad CPC conversion of Bomb Jack is fairly decent, and it received a rating of 8 out of 10 on this site, but Anthony felt that it was possible to develop a version that was more faithful to the original coin-op, and Bomb Jack Extra Sugar is the result.

The most noticeable thing about this remake is the outstanding graphics, which use stippling effects in the CPC’s medium-resolution Mode 1 to provide the illusion of additional colours. The status displays at the top and bottom of the screen feature even more colours! There are also a wide variety of extra options, including four difficulty levels, three game modes (including a ‘remix’ mode that features new backgrounds and level designs), different ways to collect the bombs, and saving of high scores to disc. There’s even the ability to earn trophies for achieving specific goals, but you’ll need to be pretty skilful to obtain them!

Bomb Jack Extra Sugar is one of the best-looking and polished games to be released for the Amstrad CPC for a while, and it’s definitely not to be missed. You can download it from itch.io.

Street Fighter II

Augusto Ruiz and DaDMaN have been working on an Amstrad CPC conversion of Street Fighter II for some time – I don’t know how long, but Cepeceros Podcast uploaded a preview video to YouTube in 2021. Now they’ve released this beta preview so you can see for yourself what it’s like! Five of the eight characters are available for selection, but there’s only one background and no sound effects or music. The graphics and animation are breathtaking; the static screenshot shown here simply doesn’t do it justice.

You can go to Cepeceros Podcast to download the beta preview. Note that it requires at least 128KB of RAM. The developers have also pointed out that they are now using a different game engine, so future versions of the game will probably look different to what you see in this demo.

Thursday 6th March 2025

Longato

Retro Parla has released a puzzle game called Longato, which is an Amstrad CPC conversion of the online game Longcat by Swedish developer Martin Magni. It’s a puzzle game in which you control a cat that actually behaves like a snake – as you move it around the screen, its body keeps growing, and the aim in each of the 50 levels is to make the cat fill the entire area of the level. It’s another puzzle game with a simple but addictive concept that makes you want to keep trying. You can download Longato from Retro Parla’s site, and you can even play Longato online as well!

Wednesday 5th March 2025

Master Piece

Tartessos Games has released another new game for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Master Piece is a puzzle game that uses chess pieces. The aim in each of the 199 puzzles is to move one chess piece and capture another piece each turn, until only one piece remains. Each puzzle has a 4-digit code so you can return to it without having to redo all the previous puzzles. It looks nice, but I’m not sure level 6 can be completed. It’s shown in the screenshot on the right, but counterintuitively, the pawn can only move upwards; normally, computer chess games have the black pieces oriented at the top of the screen, so the pawns move downwards. Master Piece can be downloaded from itch.io.

(Update: After watching a Youtube video from Saberman, I can confirm that level 6 can indeed be solved.)

Vidy Vody

The Cepeceros Podcast has uploaded a video of a recovered Amstrad CPC game to YouTube, which you can watch below. Vidy Vody was written in 1986 by Damian Scattergood, who programmed a few other games for the ZX Spectrum and CPC, such as Moonwalker and Vigilante. The game sees you controlling an astronaut wearing a jet-pack, and it was originally meant to be controlled using a handheld device to thrust and a helmet that would move the astronaut as the player tilted their head! Unfortunately New Concepts, the company behind the game and the device, went bankrupt, so it was never released.

RetroManiac magazine has a feature article about the making of Vidy Vody, although it’s in Spanish. As for the game, you’ll have to wait a little longer, but Damian intends to publish it on the Scattergood Studios itch.io page in the next few days – and you can now control the astronaut using more traditional methods.

Sunday 2nd March 2025

Impossamal

The Mojon Twins have released a new game for the Amstrad CPC titled Impossamal. It was originally released for the ZX Spectrum in 2023 and featured vector-style line graphics, but the CPC version uses filled shapes with a bit more colour. You are Led Baratas, and you have been called to collect ten cylinders from a tunnel filled with traps and obstacles, give them to the God of the Tunnel, and then return to the starting point before it explodes!

However, instead of piloting a normal spaceship, you control a bouncing ball – and if you’re thinking that this game sounds very similar to Impossaball, you would be correct. It may have a simple concept, but the obstacles and traps you will encounter are devious and you’ll want to keep having another go. Impossamal can be downloaded from itch.io.

Saturday 15th February 2025

Roland Retires

A new group called Brick Fabrik has released a platform game in honour of Roland Perry, entitled Roland Retires. As far as I know, the game doesn’t actually feature Roland anywhere, but it was demonstrated at the 2023 Amstrad Eterno event in Málaga and the great man himself was there to see it in action. The story of the game, from what I can tell, is that you have woken up to find yourself with someone else’s face in an unfamiliar city, and you must find all the pieces of a Tardis and collect jewels in order to clean up the city and restore your original appearance.

Roland Retires features colourful graphics and an awesome tune (one of the best I’ve heard on the CPC in a while). More information, and a download link, are available at Brick Fabrik’s site.

Harrier Attack Reloaded

Harrier Attack was one of the first games ever to be released for the Amstrad CPC, and many CPC464 owners will be familiar with it and have warm, nostalgic feelings for it, as it was one of the games in the Amsoft 12-Pack compilation that was included with the machine. Chris Perver has updated it to make use of the enhanced palette and hardware sprites offered by the GX4000 console and Plus machines. As the mission progresses, the sun sets and the sky turns pink as you approach the city – very nice!

There have been a few issues reported; the first release only worked in the WinAPE emulator, and I encountered an annoying bug in the latest version I’ve tried where my plane would crash even though it hadn’t collided with anything. Nonetheless, you can try it out for yourself by downloading it from itch.io. Chris has also written a ‘making of’ document to accompany the cartridge image, and cassette and disc versions are expected to be released soon as well.

Hostias Como Panes

Álex Ramírez used to be a street fighter, but when his girlfriend Lucía is kidnapped by a gang of criminals known as the Ravens, he has to venture on to the city’s streets once more and confront the gang members on their own territory. Hostias Como Panes is a beat-’em-up from Iván Ávila of 21bloques, who was responsible for the platform game Trasgo that was released last year. The gameplay is similar to Double Dragon and there are several nice tunes that play during the game. You can download Hostias Como Panes from itch.io.

Monday 3rd February 2025

MoonRN

Latvian developer Snauts has released a new game called MoonRN for both the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. It’s an “endless runner” platform game in which you control a little running man – but he runs at a constant speed, and the only control you actually have over him is timing his jumps. The platforms are moving and the screen scrolls horizontally too, and if you fall off the bottom of the screen or hit the bottom or side of a platform while jumping, you lose a life. You can download MoonRN from itch.io.

Erinia

The Spanish text adventure Erinia was released for the ZX Spectrum in 2020 and the Amstrad CPC three years later. Now its author DaReInt has released an English translation, which also features graphics. You are Tisiphone, a female prisoner who shares a cell with a companion called Meg, and you have hatched a plan to escape from the prison.

Erinia is available from itch.io, but it is not a free download; you will have to purchase it for $4.00 to download and play it. For that amount, you also get a PDF file of Tisiphone’s diary, which contains hints on how to solve the game. However, I was quite disappointed by the graphics, which despite being in the CPC’s Mode 0 resolution, use only three colours. The thumbnail screenshot shown here may look reasonable, but unfortunately it doesn’t look nice at all on a full-size screen.

Friday 17th January 2025

I have reviewed eight games, all of which are recent releases:

• Babaliba
  
• Gommy, Medieval Defender
  
• The Key: Episode 2
  
• Kolotoc
  
• Krook
  
• Mighty Steel Fighters
  
• Pepper Buster
  
• Tarzanete: A Journey to the Secret Hole