• Tag Archives Amstrad

  • CPC Attack (September 1992)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: CPC Attack – Issue Number 4 – September 1992

    The Amstrad CPC was a computer that you probably have never heard of if you live in North America. However, it was quite popular in the U.K. It was one of several 8-bit computers available at the time and survived well into the 1990s as this magazine shows. This computer featured a Z80 CPU. While a large portion of this magazine may have been gaming content it also covered more serious uses of the machine. The September 1992 issue includes:

    Specials

    • Elementary BASIC – Part four of an ongoing BASIC tutorial series. This part covers FOR an NEXT loops.
    • Advanced BASIC – The final part of a four part more advanced BASIC tutorial series. This part covers error trapping and file protection.
    • Demo Time – A machine code tutorial to teach you how to create moving sprites.

    Features

    • Desktop Publishing – Creating fanzines, newsletters and other such publications seemed to be all the rage in the late 1980s to early 1990s. While the Macintosh would come to dominate desktop publishing, such software was available on every platform, including the Amstrad CPC. This article compares three available packages including Stop Press, Page Publisher, and MicroDesign Plus.
    • Fun School 3&4 – A look at an educational gaming series for a variety of age ranges from under 5 all the way up to 11.
    • Reviews – Reviews of a variety of games including Supercars, Captain Dynamo, Silent Service, Italy ’90, Klax, Cyberball, Grell & Falla, Turbo the Tortoise, and 3D Tennis. Plus a few top game charts with Lemmings, First Division Manager, and Dizzy’s Excellent Adventures at the top.
    • Print Out – A review of the Star LC24-200 printer.

    Regulars

    • News – A new disk backup service; a new soundtracker for the CPC called Boo-tracker; Charley’s Comms Rom telecommunications package; Indiana Jones 4 from U.S. Gold; a 20 MB hard drive for the CPC; and more.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about program listings, Atari Lynx, the Amstrad 6128 plus, and more.
    • Pokes, Maps, & Tips – Tips, tricks and hacks for a variety of games including Final Fight, Turtles 2, Midnight Resistance, Supercars, Satan, Double Dragon I+II, Advanced Pinball Simulator, Bonanza Bros., Nebulus, Turrican 2, AMC, New Zealand Story, Scooby Doo, Hong Kong Phooey, Sim City, Batman The Movie, Smash TV, Spellbound Dizzy, Yie-Ar-Kung-Fu, Hard Drivin’ and more.
    • Public Sector – A brief look at a variety of public domain software titles including Rambase 3, PD Planner, Forcefield, Drehdriss, Space Froggy, Lost Phirious, Softarc, Ispell, High Capacity Formatters, Gpaint, Eve of Shadows, Croco Magneto, Formatter, JL-Disc Copers, Powerpage, and more.
    • Q&A – Questions answered about disk errors, connecting a 464+ monitor to a CPC 6128, the Amstrad CPC in Australia, tape drive alignment, monitor problems, viruses, and much more.
    • Next Month – Coming next month, coverage of CP/M, a guide to music on the CPC, more reviews, type in programs, and more.

    …and more!


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  • Amtix (November 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Amtix – Issue Number 1 – November 1985

    Amtix was a relatively short-lived magazine published in the U.K. dedicated to Amstrad computers, mostly covering gaming. Most from North America probably aren’t familiar with Amstrad computers but they were quite popular in the U.K. in the 1980s and early 1990s. Issue number 1 from November 1985 includes:

    Top Games for November

    • Highway Encounter – Vortex and Panayi challenge you to a fight on a long-long road.
    • Dragontorc – Hewson’s mammoth graphical adventure is set to hit the top of the charts.
    • Starion – Can you take on the challenge of saving time itself from alien ravages in this exciting new arcade puzzler?
    • Sorcery Plus – The sequel proves to be better than the original in Virgin’s latest arcade/adventure.
    • Red Moon – Sean Masterson discovers that seeking crystals isn’t easy when it comes to Level 9’s latest adventure.

    Amtix! Competitions

    • Starion – Melbourne House have 50 copies of their exciting new mind-twister up for grabs.Can you make it?
    • Macadam Bumper – How much of a pinball wizard are you? There’s lots of unusual prizes at stake in this one.
    • World Cup Soccer – A chance to meet Ray Clemence and a copy of McMillan’s newest football game in this competition – 50 to go!
    • EEE Dakka Boom! – US Gold want 30 lucky winners to get an RS232 interface and some copies of their new shoot em up release, RAID
    • Daft As Design Design – Are you as loony as these madcap programmer? You are? Good, then you could win a fabulous mystery prize – really you could.

    November Specials

    • The Complete Guide – Robin Candy catches up on a lot of games software in this first part to the complete Amstrad games software guide
    • Previews – We take a look at two forthcoming releases, Doctor Who from Micro-Power, and Scooby Dooby Do from Elite
    • Charge of the Lightpen Brigade – Franco Frey wonders whether the brave cause of the lightpen is hopeless because mice have been nibbling at them…

    The Main Headings

    • Editorial – The AMTIX! team says hello, a few useful bits about the mag, and On The Spot – your letter (well it will get bigger).
    • News – Some astounding ideas from DK’tronics, plus other events and non-events.
    • Amtips – Robin Candy kicks off his regular column to help you if you’re stuck and otherwise to cheat if you’re not. Plus maps for Dun Darach, Pyjamarama, Everyone’s a Wally and The Lords of Midnight.
    • Amtech – Apart form lightpens, we’re also looking at CP/M, tape to disk utilities, a new word processor, Zedis and the Super Power’s DISCPOWER among other bits and pieces.
    • From The Grotto – In keeping with the publishing tradition of suggesting that adventure columns are written by wizards, dwarves, fat-bellied jovial landlords from such charming residences as caves, castles and ancient inns…Meet Sean Masterson, our resident leprechaun in his wee grotto. He’s checking out a few adventures for you and looking at an amazing new Graphics Adventure utility.
    • Strategy – And if that weren’t enough, he likes wargames et al…
    • The Terminal Man – The first episode of our full colour comic strip.

    …and more!


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  • Solomon’s Key (Amstrad)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Amstrad Computer User – October 1987

    Solomon’s Key was originally an arcade puzzle game released by Tecmo. In 1987 and 1988, a number of home ports were released. In addition to the NES version, there were ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Sega Master System (Japan only) and others. There are also a couple of other games related to Solomon’s Key. The Game Boy Color game, Monster Rancher Explorer is an updated port of Solomon’s Key. Also, one of the latest NES releases, Fire and Ice, was a prequel to Solomon’s Key. The NES version of Solomon’s Key was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2006 and in 2013 on both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Consoles. It was also released for the PS4 in 2015.


    This particular review features a version that few U.S. players would probably be familiar with. It runs on the Amstrad CPC computer which was a U.K. based line of computers that were popular in Europe in the mid 1980s. The Amstrad CPC 464 was probably the most popular model and was also the first. It was an 8-bit computer with a Z-80 processor and built-in casette drive (which remained more popular than disks throughout the 1980s in Europe becuase of their lower cost).

    This review comes from the October 1987 issue of Amstrad Computer User.


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