| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ SPANNERMAN (c) AMSOFT ★ |
Popular Computing Weekly | Cahiers de l'Amstrad Magazine |
Looking good The first titles for the new Amstrad computer have been released. In the months before the release of the machine, Amstrad were busy arranging with a variety of well-established software houses for programs to be available in time for the launch of the machine (other hardware manufacturers please note). Obviously a 'standard' has not been built yet for the machine and these first programs are not going to push the machine to its limits, such as some of the more recent programs on the Spectrums. Looking ai a range of new packages I chose Spannerman by Gem Software. On loading what you get looks rather like a Commodore 64 game I think, perhaps because of the monitor, the graphics were a little better — the details of the man's overall and cap were clearly visible. The sound was marginally worse — certainly it ought to be worse using as it does the same boring old sound chip as 80% of all micros but I did like the ‘nut tightening' noise. (Note to hardware designers, the new Yamaha sound chip available for some of the MSX machines is going to make even the Sid look pretty silly — be there or be square.) The game is pretty good although infuriating. You control Spannerman whose job it is to repair a series of leaky pipes (a thought — if Spannerman is 'a man who uses a spanner in his job' then could a journalist be called Typewriterman?) before a building floods. Aside from the sheer logistical problem of moving from leak to leak, various unlikely objects are tumbling down threatening to biff you on the head. There is a variety of life-threatening rodent that scampers back and forth along the pipes that can only be thwarted by a swift kick (shades of The Young Ones here). 1 liked the game, and it represents not a bad start for the machine at all—in terms of programs what we might have in the Amstrad is the Commodore 64 plus better (slightly) graphics plus better (even ex-cellet) Basic plus (possibly much) faster run times, minus sound quality. Things look good.
Popular Computing_Weekly |
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Page créée en 093 millisecondes et consultée 3957 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
