Sugar City
(VoxelTower, 2023)
In Sugar City, sugar has become so scarce that gangs of criminals control its supply. Sarah and her family have emigrated from Colombia to live in Sugar City and try to control as much of the market for sugar as possible – but the gangs are ruthless and won’t hesitate to use violence. This attempt to bring Grand Theft Auto to the CPC finished second in the 2023 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest. You can steal various vehicles and drive them around Sugar City to various destinations in order to undertake missions. The game uses some clever techniques in an attempt to make the scrolling smooth, but it doesn’t always work very well and it can be jerky at times. The sprites also flicker annoyingly when there’s a lot of action on the screen. Despite these flaws, and the occasional bug, it’s fun to play, and it’s impressive to see how much it crams into 64K of memory.
Sultan’s Maze
(Amsoft, 1984)
Six rubies belonging to the Sultan of Baghdad are hidden inside Hampton Court maze. However, the ghost of the Sultan’s bodyguard still roams the maze and is waiting to catch any intruders! Your task is to collect all six of these rubies. Unfortunately, the game is written entirely in BASIC, and it takes ages to draw your view each time you move. Your energy decreases quickly as well, and it’s only possible to rescue one ruby at a time before re-entering the maze; in summary, it’s extremely boring.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World,
Xyphoe.
Summer Games
(Epyx, 1988)
This Olympics-inspired game was originally released in 1984, but it wasn’t until four years later that it was released for the CPC on US Gold’s Gold, Silver, Bronze compilation. There are seven events to compete in – the pole vault, diving, the 4×400-metre relay, the 100-metre sprint, the freestyle relay, the 100-metre freestyle, and skeet shooting. Most of the events are quite good and thankfully don’t involve a lot of manic joystick waggling, although obtaining a good result in the pole vault and diving events seems to be mostly down to luck. It’s also very difficult to beat the computer’s default records in most of the events. Despite these flaws, there is a very varied mixture of events to play which will keep you entertained.
See also: The Games: Summer Edition, Summer Games II.
Challenge your sporting skills in eight different events – the triple jump, rowing, the javelin, show jumping, the high jump, fencing, cycling and kayaking. You can practice an event, compete in some events or play all the events consecutively. Once you have entered your name you can choose from sixteen different countries, and your objective is to get the gold medal and set new world records. The opening and closing ceremonies are nice touches but the game itself is unfortunately a poor Spectrum port, with a small screen size, not the best choice of colours and graphics used, and poor in-game sound effects. There are many events, but the gameplay could be better, and there isn’t enough staying power with this one.
See also: The Games: Summer Edition, Summer Games.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.
Sun Star
(CRL, 1987)
In the 22nd century, stations orbit the Earth and harness the Sun’s energy to grow crystals that are used for interstellar travel. However, things have gone wrong; the disrupter pulses have gone awry, and your task is to shoot them and collect ten crystals on each station before warping to the next one. Each station consists of a 30×30 grid, and you can only move horizontally or vertically. It’s difficult to know what to say about the graphics, since your view of the grid is represented using coloured tiles – it’s certainly unusual, if rather primitive. The constant noise of your engine is annoying, and the game itself is a bit repetitive.
Super Cars
(Gremlin Graphics, 1990)
In this game, you’re battling it out with other cars in the race to win the championship. There are three stages, nine tracks and the hazards increase as you progress. If things are getting tough, though, you can buy some add-ons for your car, or if you have the money, you can get yourself a new, faster car – and in the later stages of the game, you’re going to need to! The graphics are basic but do their job, although the sound effects are useless. This is compensated for by the excellent music, which is only available if you have 128K. The game is made better by passwords which mean you don’t have to restart the first and second stages each time you play.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
ChinnyVision.
Super Cauldron places you as Zmira, a good witch who respects nature. Her powers have been weakened by a curse that has been cast everywhere by a demon. Your task is to regain your powers and remove both the curse and also the evil demon responsible. Along the way, you collect spells that are stored in your book for later use, some of which allow access to otherwise unreachable areas. This game is a multi-scrolling platformer that pushes the humble CPC to its limits in terms of graphics and effects. It looks, feels and performs like a console game!
See also: Cauldron, Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.
Super Cycle
(Epyx, 1987)
Get on a motorbike and race around twelve tracks, and reach the chequered flag before your time runs out. The first few tracks are relatively easy, but on later tracks, you’ll encounter obstacles which you must dodge. Watch out for the other riders, who have a nasty tendency to try to bump you off the road or crash into you! Three of the tracks contain flags which you can collect to gain bonus points. This is a very enjoyable game indeed. The graphics are colourful, and you really get a feeling of speed as you fly past the scenery and the other riders. There are also three difficulty levels, although the lowest one is much too easy! Thankfully that’s not the case with the other two difficulty levels.
The idea of Super Flippard is to make the player experience what it’s like to be a ball in a pinball machine. The problem is you’re not in a pinball machine; you’re actually on a conveyor belt in what seems to be a factory. Perhaps this is how pinballs are put to the test? Who knows? You manoeuvre your ball left and right avoiding holes, water and mines. You can also fall off the edge of the conveyor. You can collect certain items to increase your score, and the further you go the more kilometres are covered. Flippers can push you forward and knock you back, and bumpers are present as well. It’s a colourful game but it chugs along and the sound of the conveyor becomes draining. Chasing a high score is fun in short bursts though.
Based on a 1980s children’s TV series, this offering sees you playing the mighty Super Gran – an elderly lady with super powers! Sadly, this game doesn’t quite portray her too well. Some very large and crude graphics flicker along as you sit in your single-coloured flying bike taking out clones. If you play this any further, you no longer need this bike and see Super Gran in all her glory – a large, flickery sprite. The TV soundtrack plays during the game and even this is laughable. I feel sorry for anyone who owned this!
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
Xyphoe.