Best cpc game

[steve]

I have seen several complaints that most cpc software was simply ported from the spectrum without any real attempt to use the cpc's special features, so what games have really pushed the hardware and made best use of the machines features, not necessarily the "best" game as in most fun, but best as in makes best use of the machines hardware?.

[fano]

Not really speaking of CPC special feature , the most important is to use correctly CPC habilities not to make Speccy emulator on CPC 
Raphael Cecco games are for me good examples of good CPC usage 
Prince of Persia is another example of great CPC game , one of the best if not the best !

[MacDeath]

Barbarian was not bad.
Rick Dangerous serie too.

But a game like BAT is clearly unreachable by a Speccy per exemple, as it relies a lot on awesome graphics...


Typical exemple of CPC games using it well :

-When you have a sweet use of 16colour mode (Spanish or french games, but also english games sometimes...)
-Sweet use of full screen/overscan display... as in Arkanoid, Titan or Donkey Kong and...er...GhoulsNghost (yet bad exemple)
-When the 4 colour mode actually display no attributes designed graphics, as would a PC-CGA display look... ported from 16 bit with reduced colours, not ported from speccy with reduced colours too...
French games where often like this (Iron lord, Night Hunter, Skate Ball...).


So any game with great graphics is actually using the CPC specifical features...
Because CPC wasn't awesome concerning Animation or Sound, yet ycould manage to be quite good when properly handled...

But a game with proper gameplay, average sounds and animation and awesome graphics could manage to be great.

[Xyphoe]

I have seen several complaints that most cpc software was simply ported from the spectrum without any real attempt to use the cpc's special features, so what games have really pushed the hardware and made best use of the machines features, not necessarily the "best" game as in most fun, but best as in makes best use of the machines hardware?.

Cool topic
If you want something more defined then specify and define what you mean by 'special features' I guess.

But I'll start off with...

Speaking CPC only (ie not Plus games) that make use of stuff like overscan, enhanced sfx/music, digitised music, etc -

Orion Prime
Megablasters
Xyphoes Fantasy
Fres Fighter II
Prehistorik II (overscan gameplay)

even Crazy Cars II for using overscan picture and digitised music on the title screen! Although the game kinda sucks.


Plus games -

Fluff
Prehistorik II (again!)
that-one-with-the-silly-name-involving-pushing-an-egg-around-the-screen ("Call &BD10'n'oeuf")
D-Day
Frogger
Space Gun (rubbish game though)
L'Aigle D'Or Le Retour
Rick Dangerous 6128+
(and these are the GX4000 carts that are not just the old CPC game dumped....)
Burning Rubber
Pang
Navy Seals
Robocop 2
Pro Tennis Tour
  Tennis Cup II
Copter271
Dick Tracy
Enforcer
Skeet Shoot
World Of Sports
No Exit


Oh and some games that have been patched for the Plus (although most have been hacked to fix the keyboard scan lockout)

[AMSDOS]

Sorcery would no doubt have to be one of the earlier ones which set the scene utilising a split screen effect (Mode 0 & 1). Before that there's 3D Stunt Rider(?) - jumping your Motorbike over the Buses. Not much of a game, but the scrolling effect over the buses is nice!    This was the game from the guy (DJL) who brought in the Speedlock loaders to protect games.

[MacDeath]

Sorcery would no doubt have to be one of the earlier ones which set the scene utilising a split screen effect (Mode 0 & 1).

Yeah, definitly the split screen is non-speccy.

Then Antiriad is typically Amstrad : great graphix and split screen...

Screens also sometimes feature more sprites than C64 version (but inferior sounds and slowier animation on CPC...)

[TFM]

Trantor, Gryzor, Driller, Starfox, Starglider and others ... provide nightmares to the c64 

[Xyphoe]

Trantor, Gryzor, Driller, Starfox, Starglider and others ... provide nightmares to the c64 

Careful ... you'll have the C64 fanboys screaming like banshees that Gryzor doesn't scroll! 

(it's still the best version!  )

[ukmarkh]

The problem is; the claims below are all highly subjective... and on the best CPC games, one mans meat, is another mans poison. For me the best games i.e. the one's I spent the most time with are as follows:

10. Football Manager 2
09. Wec-le-mans
08. Operation wolf
07. Gauntlet
06. Renegade
05. Target Renegade
04. Fued
03. Robocop
02. Rick Dangerous
01. Head over Heels   

Gryzor was a great game also. I quite liked the look of Trantor, but it was overly difficult and didn't have much depth. Starglider is a mess on the CPC, way too slow. And someone mentioned Antiriad, a game I really enjoyed. Oh, and let me just add Avenger, great game. 

[Cholo]

Well, donno about the techy bits but these games are really nice:

- Savage (the warrior part is just as awesome as Trantor).
- Deliverance
- Castle Master/Total Eclipse
- Most infogrames games (North & South, Hostages, Sim City .. looks and plays nearly like their Amiga versions).
- Extreme
- Batman the Movie
- After the war
- Stormlord
- Turrican series
- Bloodwych
- Klax
- Nexus
- Werewolves of london
- Satan
and pretty much anything spanish 

[Gryzor]

Trantor looked and sounded bloody fantastic, nothing like it (well, Savage), but indeed it was so hard it's not a good game. But it blows most stuff dead out of the water...

[AMSDOS]

MacDeath wrote:

Then Antiriad is typically Amstrad : great graphix and split screen...

I think another game which uses a simular technique and has nice graphics is Auf Wiedersehen Monty.

I vagerally recall while playing Kong Strikes Back on one of the older emulators having some kind of Colour Switching trick in it too, which I presume is CPC specific. Anyone notice this? I only mentioned it cause the emulator I was using wasn't emulating it quite right and it stood out.

[TFM]

About Trantor, if you lock in a terminal, then press all the keys "probe" at the same time, you will not loose any life-energy any longer.

And is has depth, you just have to find it ;-)

[ukmarkh]

About Trantor, if you lock in a terminal, then press all the keys "probe" at the same time, you will not loose any life-energy any longer.

And is has depth, you just have to find it ;-)

So to find depth, you have to cheat... doesn't sound like much of a challenge to me. I have no issues with the quality of the graphics, or presentation, but I'm still not convinced there's that much of a game in there. But there you go, opinions eh?

[Gryzor]

I'm just itching to point out that its intro is kick-ass as well!

[TFM]

I'm just itching to point out that its intro is kick-ass as well!

Oh yes! Definitely one of the best! Well, we don't that much on CPC. Btw: The intro of Fres Fighter Turbo II is also really great, as the game.

@UKMarkH: Take a look at Black Land if you like Depth and a good Story

[ukmarkh]

Will do... i've already had a quick blast with it eons ago, and promised one day I'd go back in.     

[AMSDOS]

CP/M User wrote:

I vagerally recall while playing Kong Strikes Back on one of the older emulators having some kind of Colour Switching trick in it too, which I presume is CPC specific. Anyone notice this? I only mentioned it cause the emulator I was using wasn't emulating it quite right and it stood out.

Yes I've just had another look at this one. It appears 3 quarters of the screen is Mode 0 and at the bottom the Status Bar is in Mode 1. This game appears as if it was quite tricky to do, cause it appears all the sprites and objects would had needed to have been done in Both modes. But towards the bottom of the screen it turns from Blue to Green Background, I'm guessing that's where the mode change is made, though it maybe just a colour switching routine to make it divide like that - there's a Type-in from AA17 (which is on the CPCWiki) which demonstrates this and something like that on Kev's website. The one in the Ocean game shows no signs of colour flicker at the divide though if that is what's been used! 

[TFM]

Kong strikes back has a color split, but no mode split. So nothing must be drawn twice :-)

[AMSDOS]

Well I've attached a screenshot of it which shows Mode 0 Text and the Mode 1 Text for the Status Bar at the Bottom. I'm thinking now the Mode 1 text is restricted to the Status Bar cause some of the "$" signs which are in the playing area appear to be Mode 0 - even below the Background Colour Swap! If it's all Mode 0, their've done a really good job making it appear like Mode 1 text! 

[Gryzor]

Wtf? I had no idea about Kong Strikes Back... (goes to play)

[andycadley]

Looks like Kong Strikes Back has a mode split in the bottom sixth of the screen, with a couple of colour splits down there too. There may be another colour change where the background goes from blue to green, although I don't think it's strictly necessary judging from the screenshot alone.

[TFM]

Yes, at the bottom there is a Mode 1 split. BUT the game itself runs in a color split. So all the Sprites are moving around in Mode 0. Only the numbers are dispalyed in Mode 1.

There is no more color split at the bottom, they just use the border in the same color as the paper.

[AMSDOS]

KSB appears to make some clever use of the tricks the CPC can do! Of course it's quite an early Amstrad game (1985 I think), the status bar for instance while appears in Mode 1 features 7 colours in it! 

[TFM]

KSB appears to make some clever use of the tricks the CPC can do! Of course it's quite an early Amstrad game (1985 I think), the status bar for instance while appears in Mode 1 features 7 colours in it! 

Yeah, but not more than four in one scanline (excluding the border).