The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595. Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes(65,536 bytes) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.
Jet Set Willy is a platform video game written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time.
Manic Miner is a platform game written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith. It was published by Bug-Byte in 1983, then later the same year by Software Projects. The first game in the Miner Willy series, the design was inspired by Miner 2049er (1982) for the Atari 8-bit computers. Retro Gamer called Manic Miner one of the most influential platform games of all time, and it has been ported to numerous home computers, video game consoles, and mobile phones.
Little Computer People, also called House-on-a-Disk, is a social simulation game released in 1985 by Activision for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and Apple II. An Amiga version was released in 1987. Two Japanese versions were also released in 1987, a Family Computer Disk System version, published in Japan by Disk Original Group (DOG) a subsidiary of Square, and a PC-8801 version.
Rush'n Attack, also known as Green Beret in Japan and Europe, is a run-and-gun and hack-and-slash video game developed and released by Konami for arcades in 1985, and later converted to the Nintendo Entertainment System and home computers. Its North American title is a play on the phrase "Russian attack" due to its Cold War setting. It was ported to home systems and became a critical and commercial success for arcades and home computers.
Monty on the Run is a computer game created by the software house Gremlin Graphics and released in 1985 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 16, written by Peter Harrap for the ZX Spectrum with the iconic in-game music on the Commodore 64 provided by Rob Hubbard. It is the third game in the Monty Mole series.
Winter Games is a sports video game developed by Epyx, based on sports featured in the Winter Olympic Games.
Beta BASIC is a BASIC interpreter for the Sinclair Research ZX Spectrum microcomputer, written by Dr Andrew Wright in 1983 and sold by his one-man software house BetaSoft. BetaSoft also produced a regular newsletter/magazine, BetaNews.
Konami's Ping Pong is a sports arcade game created in 1985 by Konami. It is the first video game to accurately reflect the gameplay of table tennis, as opposed to earlier simplifications like Pong. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Famicom Disk System, MSX, and ZX Spectrum.
Summer Games II is an Olympic sports video game developed and published by Epyx in North America, and published by U.S. Gold in Europe, based on sports featured in the Summer Olympic Games. It is a sequel to Summer Games released by Epyx the previous year. Summer Games II was originally written for the Commodore 64 and ported to the Apple II, Atari ST, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Amiga.
F-15 Strike Eagle is an F-15 Strike Eagle combat flight simulation game released for Atari 8-bit computers in 1984 by MicroProse then ported to other systems. It is the first in the F-15 Strike Eagle series followed by F-15 Strike Eagle II and F-15 Strike Eagle III. An arcade version of the game was released simply as F-15 Strike Eagle in 1991, which uses higher-end hardware than was available in home systems, including the TMS34010 graphics-oriented CPU.
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular!, known in Japan as Donald Duck (ドナルドダック) and based on the British home computer game, Alternative World Games, is a child-oriented sports game that was released by Kemco for the Nintendo Entertainment System on September 22, 1988.
Blagger is a platform game created by Antony Crowther for the Commodore 64 and released by Alligata in 1983. A BBC Micro port was released the same year, Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC and MSX in 1984, Commodore 16 and Plus/4 in 1985 and Amstrad PCW in 1987. In some countries this game was released under the name Gangster.
William Wobbler is a video game developed by Antony Crowther and released by Wizard Development in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
Loco is a video game developed by Antony Crowther and released by Alligata for the Commodore 64 in 1984. Loco is a clone of the 1982 Sega arcade game Super Locomotive. The game was later ported to the ZX Spectrum and Atari 8-bit computers. The ZX Spectrum port was developed by Richard Stevenson and Nigel Speight. The music for the game is a version of Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe 5 and 6 by Ben Daglish.
The ZX Spectrum's software library was very diverse. While the majority of the software produced for the system was video games, others included programming language implementations, Sinclair BASIC extensions, databases, word processors, spread sheets, drawing and painting tools, and 3D modelling tools.
Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s.
Ghostbusters II is a 1989 action game based on the film of the same name. It was published by Activision for various computer platforms. British studio Foursfield developed a version for Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, which also got ported to the MSX by New Frontier. It features three levels based on scenes from the film. Dynamix developed a separate version for the DOS, also based on the film. The non-DOS versions were praised for the graphics and audio, but criticized for long loading times, disk swapping, and the final level. The DOS, Commodore 64 and Amiga versions were the only versions released in North America.
