EGTV: Amstrad Arcade ports
3rd place 8-bit wonder. Or is it?
How are you feeling this afternoon? Proudly old? Bored of the now? Then why not have a look at the Amstrad CPC - Arcade Conversions video roundup that our chums at Eurogamer:Retro have knocked together? Here is what Eurogamer:Retro end-boss Chris Wilkins has to say about it:
"Back in the day, my Spectrum was my one and only. I acknowledged the existence of the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, but in no way could they be better than by beloved Sinclair with its mono sound, psychedelic colour clash and dead flesh keyboard.
"Schoolyard 8-bit spats were all too common. I proudly fought in Sir Clive's corner on many an occasion against the blasphemous words hailed towards my home computer by the many C64 and (few) Amstrad owners. They were wrong, oh how wrong they were. It was obvious that they had the inferior machines (not that I had ever actually played on a C64 or Amstrad at that time) and I made sure they knew it.
"Having recently put together the best 25 Arcade Conversions for the Spectrum, my belief that the Spectrum was indeed the heavily clad medal winner of the 8-bit war was re-enforced.
"To add some balance to the debate, I decided to move onto the 'much inferior' Amstrad CPC for the next arcade conversion roundup. To be frank, I was not expecting too much in terms of quality and panache from Mr Sugar's machine.
"It's time to take some large bites out of the fat humble pie sitting smugly on the plate in front of me.
"Bite 1: I cannot believe how detailed, smooth and colourful the Amstrad's graphics are, and with no colour-clash in sight! The look of some games, especially Rampage and Moon Cresta, are highly comparative to their arcade cousins.
"Bite 2: Harmonic AY chip tunes aplenty. I had to wait for the 128K Spectrum for games to sound this good.
"Bite 3: A 'real' keyboard which is even better that the GBP 50 DK'tronics one I gave to my Spectrum for Christmas one year.
"So humble pie eaten, crumbs and all, I am now a convert. I have always regarded the Amstrad CPC as the third place contender in the 8-bit race with the Spectrum and C64 hitting the finishing line well before the bow-legged Amstrad.
"I am now enlightened. I may even consider taking a look at the third place PlayStation 3 in the current battle of silicon - who knows, it might actually be the best machine, if only I could take these damn Microsoft blinkers off. All hail the 360!"
For more from that weirdo, pop along to Eurogamer:Retro!