That Amstrad Feeling
Why did on wet afternoons and at certain times your CPC make you feel good to be at home playing certain games that genuinely made you feel good I like the feel when I got back from a long day at school and I'd take off my school uniform get into my normal clothes and load up a game that made me feel at home again weather it was Terminator 2 Judgement Day or Operation Wolf there's certain games that took you away from everything and let you escape into unknown worlds I think that's why in those days we had some great arcade conversions that you'd played on holiday and read in your favorite magazines that a software house had just snapped up the rights to convert what you'd spent pounds on trying to further your game you found in the arcade, so finishing at school and coming home and been able to load up the likes of say Operation Wolf was so cool when you were a kid, and having the Amstrad's bright color palette to bring a arcade smash to life was a great benefit after school, that's what the CPC did it really did have in those days the small amount of technology to pull off a arcade hit on a humble 8 bit system and it did it really well for example the CPC could produce huge characters on screen that were similar to the same style as the arcade original, it was the closest thing you were going to get other than spending more money on the arcade version. On one occasion after school my mum shouted me the Class A game of the movie tie in to Terminator 2 Judgement Day which I thank her for even today, it was a grey smoggy afternoon and I went home and played T2 Judgment Day and it got me away from thinking about the weather that day with it's high production value and brilliant graphics and every stage was based on a section of the movie I remember loading it and been presented with a a digitized title screen of a terminators face and thinking my CPC's got some kick then once it loaded the first level had two big characters on screen of me been the terminator who has to have a one on one fight with the bad terminator of the movie I thought this is great to be home on wet day playing a game of this quality then eventually after beating the first level I was on a motorbike going down the canal been chased by the bad terminator trying to doge obstacles and such games like that give you the real Amstrad feeling. Long live evenings after school and my best friend the Amstrad CPC 6128 to help me enjoy the evening. Some games have a certain effect on you that last for years it's like when I was really young and my brother had heard about Dragons Lair on a friends Commodore 64 and I had to play it how intriguing it sounded and the day came when I got hold of a copy and it just changed my life how brilliant it was from the unforgettable opening level of the falling disc and the cloud people trying to blow me off the falling disc were you'd have to run into there wind blowing from them until the disc stopped and you'd carefully navigate Dirk The Daring onto a platform to complete the first level of a unforgettable game and then there was the second level where you'd have to time your moves against skulls and skeleton hands with leaping backwards or striking with your sword, amazing in those days and highly addictive. It's possibly because that was how to use the CPC to it's limits when big things come in small packages, you were so impressed when your CPC could produce those addictive games that you look back at in those days it had more of an effect in comparison to today's games. With innovative games coming out the wood work you were really surprised by what you were playing I remember and still do playing a game called Nemesis The Warlock it was strange the way a completely new game could get you fixated like that, but I had a bit of a ruckus with my brother and unfortunately and something happened to the tape as a way of revenge from my brother so to this day I've never played it again I might try getting a Rom to revisit it and see in action again. I do wonder why in the CPC days why movie tie ins never seemed to fail in comparison to the high budget licenses today. They were always true to the movie and they were based on the action movies you loved.
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