Does any one remember SPACE HAWKS on the CPC?

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erico

Quote from: Ian Price on 2013-Sep-15
QuoteI just saw a tube with that robocop2 game on cpc, really nice! But quite not as ´pretty´ as the amiga version, which did sport ham images between levels.
Not surprising really, seeing as the CPC was 8bit and limited by its graphic Mode 0 and the Amiga was 16bit and not limited. If you want to graphically compare "like for like" look at other 8bit versions, like the the 64C ... ;)

Oh no, not quite compare. The games I like best are the 8bits if not even older.
As newer hardware came around, so did the will to become photorealistic...I never really got into that and still can´t.

Sure an old hardware push towards that is great, like the demo scene, but over that the gameplay/atmosphere has to hold.

Oh heck, I can almost still see Conan on atari2600´s Adventure...ye the yellow square and the duck dragons.

There is something really special into different aspect ratios, color clashes and the likes..., something fantastic and far from real.
It is great we can try it out nowadays with extended power.

I wonder about recreating those and try to push it further into something new. It sure would make for a great experience. 



erico

Quote from: mentalthink on 2013-Sep-15
I think Alan sugar was wrong with CPC + and this Console, today they are nice machines, but with the Amiga and Atari in the market was a wrong Step.

My guess is that all hardware are great, and so was turbo-R, but it will always depend on software and developers.
They didn´t seem to give much love to those platforms...neither cd32 and so many others.
Atari lynx can fit into that. Slime world and Xenophobe are two titles that justifies buying it IMHO.

I just love the hardware limitations imposed back then. You and team had to be a genius to pull really good stuff. 

Ian Price

It's amazing some of the stuff that demo coders produce even now on the old machines. Shame that the soft-cos of the era never pushed as hard as the sceners do nowadays. Think of the possibilities for the games back then... :(

The difference is the soft-cos did it for money, the sceners do it for the love and the ability to shout "Look at what me and the machine can do together."
I came. I saw. I played.

erico


spacefractal

#79
Im have never heard of Amstrad GX4000 at all, and its look like its the extractly same fail Commomdore did with its C64S few month later:
Released 8 bit machines in a market, that got dominated with various other much better 16 bit machines (Like Amiga and Sega Genesis/Megadrive).

So there was no wonder GX4000 fames got compared with other 16 bit versions and failed big balls with only 27 games released.

PS. yes its look like a nice machine today.

Genius.Greedy Mouse - Karma Miwa - Spot Race - CatchOut - PowerUp Elevation - The beagle Jam - Cave Heroes 2023 - https://spacefractal.itch.io/

MrTAToad

Yes, it failed for pretty much the same reasons as 64GS, and the same failures can be traced to modern companies too really.

Ian Price

The 64GS makes even less sense than the GX4000 (which itself made very little) - it offered no benefits on top of the C64 graphics or sound-wise (IIRC). The C64 offered cart support from day one, so all it was was a box without a keyboard.

The GX4000 never got compared to 16bit consoles of the time as there weren't any in the UK at launch, and even then it wasn't even a blip on most people's radar. Most people have never heard of it. A small British company launching an 8bit console in an era where SEGA were just about to launch the MegaDrive. The MasterSystem and NES had pretty much cleaned up those who wanted an 8bit console, due to having a host of arcade related 1st party games and a slew of excellent 3rd party support. Everyone knew the MegaDrive was coming. Amstrad could never hope to match that. And then a year or so later the SNES arrived.

It's a real shame that the PC Engine never got a release in the UK.That is one machine I would still love to own - and I still might, one day. I don't think it got a European release either, did it? I know it was just about to launch in the UK when it's plug was pulled. Shame.
I came. I saw. I played.

spacefractal

It's seen gx4000 must have been one of the worst game console and/or launch ever. The console seen to been based on 6128+ with cartridge port. So nothing new invention here too. But it's should been a very pretty cool collector item today (just like Amiga cd32 I'm own).

But both gx4000 and 64gs failed totally (dispite 64gs cartridge games could been played on a regular 64, so it's property that commodore was trying to do).

Pc Engine/turbograpx-16 is a very cool console. I'm brought a emutor back then.
Genius.Greedy Mouse - Karma Miwa - Spot Race - CatchOut - PowerUp Elevation - The beagle Jam - Cave Heroes 2023 - https://spacefractal.itch.io/

Ian Price

The 464+, 6128+ and GX4000 all came out at the same time, so the GX4000 wasn't just based on what had been before, unlike the 64GS.

It certainly isn't/wasn't the worst console available and nor was it the least popular or least supported, but it didn't go down at all well that's for sure. It was a nice, compact machine with a few excellent games, but really was too little, too late. Graphically and sonically it was better than the MS and NES. If it had arrived two years before it actually did, history might have been saying great things about it.
I came. I saw. I played.

MrTAToad

Like the 64GS it came too late and was no different to the what was already out there.

Ian Price

Quote from: MrTAToad on 2013-Sep-15
Like the 64GS it came too late and was no different to the what was already out there.
Yes it (GX4000) came late, but it WAS different to what had come before. It was technically the best specced 8bit console in the UK market.

As I stated earlier the 64GS was exactly the same as the C64, just lacking the keyboard. The GX4000 and CPC PLUS range were a major improvement over the original CPC machines.
I came. I saw. I played.

MrTAToad

Dont forget the CPC+ range wasn't exact popular - basing a console on a a machine that didn't sell well to start with probably wasn't a good idea.

Another of AMSTRAD's problems was the lack of advertising.

mentalthink

How says Erico the nice things of this machines are the limitations, only graphically and I spoke about Amstrad it's really hardest do graphics, so you can put any color on you want, and Spectrum, this machina can't did games, and this guys made a lot of awesome games, take a look to Robocop, you can see 2 colors game, but really really nice graphics.

Ian comments about the money , I think this happends only in UK and USA in some enterprises like Ocean , Imagine and some great, but here any "great" (really they were like a Indie Studio , 8 or 9 people picking code) developer makes rich.

And how say Space fractal, the great problem was IMHO the consoles, but not for the devices and capabilities, in example Dinamic, I think the most importat developer in 8 bits in my country knock to the doors of Sega, for develop for Genesis, they don't speak with them, they not were nothing, and you needed a lot of money for develop, something similar now with Xbox or Sony, just 2 brothers made "Navy Moves" , now the done Zack Zero for Sony, and they say in interview the tract with them was a really shit, commites in Pub, when they make a great part of the game Sony tells , this is bad product... and seems the license price goes down a lot.

I lauch when some people tolds me, you have a funny job... yes sometimes it's the hell   :S

If you don't play to Navy Moves, do it, it's really a four best games in all the 8 bits Era IMHO, the great trick was the presentation of the product... Maps, secret codes, manuals with a lof of definitons of the enemies... simply perfect , for 8 yeras old kid, exploids his head  :D :D :D :D

Ian Price

#88
QuoteAnother of AMSTRAD's problems was the lack of advertising.
Do you think the GX4000 and CPC Plus range would have sold more if AMSTRAD did advertise (on tv - they advertised a lot in mags)? I seriously doubt it. Sugar knew that the range would have a limited life-expectancy and knew there was limited interest from people not already interested in the hugely popular CPC range, both here and in Europe - the CPC was massive in France and Germany, with a large following in Spain too.

The PLUS range was excellent, but it was also like the Atari STE, Amgia 600, C128/64C, Spectrum +2, Master System 2, Advance Gameboy SP, MegaDrive 2, PSOne, PSTwo, PS3 Slim and Slimmer - a way to eek out more sales of the system at a good price which were now much cheaper to manufacture (cheaper than the older CPC models). But unlike most of those others, the PLUS range also added new tech to the existing systems.

AMSTRAD didn't advertise on tv any less than Commodore, Sinclair, Enterprise, MSX etc. They didn't need to. The trade press catered for their advertising. Games never used to advertise either, remember. Did that stop them selling?
I came. I saw. I played.

erico

Advertisement for old computers were a subject back on the amiga days (at least around here) specially at the last of its life.

I´m not sure publicity for computers or games did matter much back then.
Here is a tv add for the brazilian coco computer:


I kind of remember seeing it a couple times but I´m sure it did not cause any impressions.

The ads that made a difference for me were the magazine´s.
Thinking about this, most of the great computer magazines were specialized on a single platform...so I guess that´s quite the strong publicity to start with.
I think I still have a huge pile of RAINBOW and CU AMIGA back at parent´s place.
Computer people were more pron to read and spend time with the machine then TV stuff.

While I never saw a cpc around here, I have a hunch it must have had specific magazines too on countries that it was popular.
I think that is all the publicity the 8b computer needed back then.

@space, you have a cd32? Oh my, I´d really like to see mad fighters II(x-fighter) on it, but it never got released, the author dosen´t have it anymore and the  review copy some magazines got hold are also lost forever :(

:offtopic: I hate to fall in love with a game that never got released! The very edition of cuamiga that got me AMOS in the first place had a preview of CYBERSPACE which immediately knocked my head off as to what I believe would have been one of the best games ever.
In case you wonder what the heck is that, here is a link:
http://amr.abime.net/issue_602_pages

check page 46 and 47.

Once in a while, I try in vain, to find info or demo about it on the internets.