Amsoft Presents…

Written by chinnyhill10 on 16/12/2009  –  Filed under: Articles

Tags: amsoft, amstrad, Electro Freddy, Harrier Attack, Roland, Sir Alan Sugar, Sorcery +

If you owned a CPC the chances were that the first game you ever played was by Amsoft, Amstrad’s own in house software publisher. But why did a computer manufacturer decide to publish its own games and why did Amsoft vanish virtually overnight?

Early in the CPC’s development, Alan Sugar identified the need for there to be plenty of software for his new wonder machine. New home computers were being launched on an almost monthly basis. What the yet to be knighted captain of industry realised was that no matter how good the machine, it mattered not one jot if there wasn’t a wide library of software available.

With that in mind he decreed that Amstrad would ensure there were 50 titles available for the CPC’s launch in April 1984. Amsoft was set up with the task of attracting as many developers as possible to the platform. By Amstrad’s own admission the objective wasn’t quality, but quantity, the aim being to establish as large a software catalogue as possible in the few months prior to the CPC’s launch.

Time was very tight and with no “real” machines available, prototypes were instead sent to developers. Outwardly these looked almost identical to a standard CPC 464 but inside they were quite different. Each machine was hand wired and contained two circuit boards, the second of these holding the components that would eventually be scaled down into the Amstrad custom chips found on the retail CPC’s circuit board.

With Amstrad only producing a limited amount of prototypes, each developer would only have a short time to develop their game before the machine had to be sent elsewhere.

Come the CPC’s launch in April ‘84 there were indeed 50 launch titles ready, all of which bore the Amsoft brand and all of which were of variable quality. Luckily the buying public didn’t know or expect any better and Amstrad’s strategy worked. Whereas machines such as the Dragon and Oric looked starved of titles several months after their launch, the CPC had a large catalogue of games ready to go.

Beyond the CPC’s launch, Amsoft continued to publish games. They presented a lower risk option for established software houses to test the waters for the CPC platform. Amsoft didn’t write games themselves but would market, publish and distribute them for you. Even 8 bit giant US Gold first dipped its toes into the CPC market via Amsoft.

Conscious of the poor quality of some earlier releases, in ‘85 Amsoft launched the “Amsoft Gold” label. The idea was these were higher quality titles that were set apart from earlier Amsoft titles. The disc only Sorcery + was one such title.

But Alan Sugar never wanted to permanently run a software publishing outfit, and the original objective of Amsoft had been successfully fulfilled. By now there were many publishers supporting the machine, and even the publishers who had started out using Amsoft to test the CPC waters had moved on to self publishing. So towards the end of 1985 Amstrad began to wind the company down - they did still publish some games as late as 1988, but these were restricted to titles that would be bundled with the CPC, and were often already available to existing CPC owners via their original publishers.

By the time Amsoft finally shut its doors it had published over 110 pieces of software, over 80% of which was published in the first 18 months of the CPC’s life.

It is true to say that Amsoft games were often mocked for being low quality, but that is somewhat missing the point. The truth is that there were some great games in there. Indeed the likes of Lords of Midnight and Manic Miner might not have appeared on the CPC if it wasn’t for Amsoft.

Incidentally, Amstrad also made a foray into the world of magazine publishing at this time. Amstrad Computer User started out as an in-house publication and for the first few years ran from offices at Amstrad’s Brentwood HQ. Even Official Playstation Magazine isn’t that blatant!

The Games

With over 110 titles covering every conceivable genre, Amsoft provides a fascinating snapshot into the 8 bit games available in this period. Below is a selection of just some of the games available, each ranked using the unique Up To Jump rating system (S,A,B,C,D,E,F.  S being “must play”, F being “dire”):

Ones To Play:

Sorcery +

It’s amazing how this game was almost totally airbrushed from CPC history by the 1990’s. Sure, better games had come along by then, but back at the tail end of ‘85 this game was collecting high scores in the computer press. Sorcery was already an impressive game, but Sorcery + is a CPC and disc only update that contains a whole new selection of screens.

Essentially it’s just a standard collect-em-up where you collect objects to kill enemies and release your fellow sorcerers. But for its time the graphics and sound were stunning. So stunning in fact that Amsoft ensured the game had a demo mode so it could be left running on CPCs in shops.

There was also great touches. Achieve a sufficient high score and it would be saved to disc forever. A small thing but something never seen before on the CPC and rarely since. The game used split screen modes - later this became commonplace, but at the time, the sight of the gameplay area being low res 16 colour and the score area being 4 colour medium res appeared impossible.

Perhaps it hasn’t stood the test of time, perhaps people got bored of this kind of game when Dizzy came along. But at the time this game sold more CPCs than any other. It really does deserve to be dug out and played because it is an all time CPC classic.

S

Roland In Time/Roland In Space

From the moment the Doctor Who theme fires up on the title screen you can see where this is going. Today the BBC copyright department would be all over Amsoft but 1984 was a simpler and less litigious time.

Of course Roland is the official CPC mascot, much like Sonic is to Sega. But whereas Sonic looks pretty much the same the same game to game, Roland changes his appearance more times than the good Doctor himself.

This time around Roland is traveling through 10 time zones to collect crystals. The screens are inventive and fun and the game is quite big. It is just essentially Jet Set Willy but that doesn’t detract at all as in many ways its just as fiendish and far more polished than the Matthew Smith classic.

The follow up game, Roland In Space, is much the same except has an innovative (for the era) scrolling landscape that allows you to explore in any direction as opposed to the one screen at a time approach of Roland in Time.

The game dated quickly and might not seem worth a second glance today. But, just perhaps, these two games have more to offer than Jet Set Willy ever did.

B

Electro Freddy

A great if simple game. All you have to do is push the items in your uncles electronics warehouse onto the conveyor belt while avoiding your angry uncle who looks like Sir Clive Sinclair. Your uncle also likes to throw ZX Spectrums at you in much the same way Sir Clive chucked that ashtray through a window in the BBC 4 drama recently. Did the programmers have some first hand experience?

A simple game but actually good fun. Would love to have it on my iPhone.

C

Harrier Attack

Conversion of the popular Spectrum and Oric  game from Durrell. Basic but fun and strangely addictive. If you like Harrier Attack also check out Operation Hormuz from a few years later. It’s effectively the same game but vastly updated.

C

Lords Of Midnight

Everything you’d expect from the Speccy classic. Admittedly it has a little less colour than the original but this is a fantastic port bought out under the Amsoft label. Luxor the Moonprince himself would find this a joy to play.

A

Roland In The Caves

This makes it in by the skin of its teeth. Roland has fallen into a cave and must escape. Luckily the planet’s weak gravity means that he can jump really high. However he is stalked by a pterodactyl that wants to eat him. The aim is to jump your way out  of the cave.

The game is frustrating, difficult, annoying and repetitive. Why do I think you should play it? Simple, the sense of reward when you do finally rescue Roland is immense. It’s actually not a bad little game, it’s just rock hard. The graphics are fairly good for the era and it’s genuinely atmospheric. Play it with the lights out and you’ll soon be worried when that pterodactyl is closing in on you.

It’s also a game that for much of the CPC’s life came bundled free with the 464 as part of Amstrads “£100 of free software” pack, so it was effectively free.

Go on, I’ll have just one more go.

C

Worth A Look:

Oh Mummy

A simple arcade game where you run around avoiding the mummies and collecting treasure. By modern standards it’s terribly repetitive with an annoying tune and is dead easy to complete. But as an 8 year old I thought it was great!

D

The Game Of Dragons

Collect the gems while avoiding dragons and eggs that fall from the sky. It’s very similar to Chuckie Egg but without the speed and charm. That said the ability of the baddies to fly between levels and for you to drop the eggs on them does present an added challenge.

D

Splat

The classic Speccy game we all know and love but with more colour and polish. You can even change the colour scheme to suit you and there is an onscreen display showing how much of the level is complete.

Sadly the scrolling is really jerky which is a shame as this version has many advantages over the Speccy version.

Why isn’t this rated as a must play despite getting a “B”. Well because frankly although it’s a cracking game if you don’t want a headache from the scrolling you’re better off with the Speccy version.

B

3D Stunt Rider

These days games don’t even enter development before a detailed research phase. Focus groups, market research, etc.

Back in 1984 things were a little different. Rumour has it that Alan Sugar asked his son what kind of game he’d like to play. “I’d like to play a game where I could be Eddie Kidd like on the TV” came the reply. And so 3D Stunt Rider was born.

Yes this could possibly be the only game in history where you have to ride a motorcycle over a number of double-decker busses. The game starts off in a first person perspective before switching to a side on view for the jump itself.

For the first few goes its quite fun before you realise there is nothing more to it. Pity the poor people who forked out full price for this! Still worth a download for the 5 minutes of entertainment it will give you.

D

Doors Of Doom

Written by Amsoft stalwarts GEM Software. The game looks good but essentially all you do is wander along (slowly) trying to find the pieces to a door (of doom presumably). Occasionally some purple baddies shoot at you, you shoot back, and eventually you die. The game does look good but there’s not much gameplay there.

D

Mr Wongs Loopy Laundry

Mildly racist arcade game which sees Mr Wong needing to run his laundry business while items of machinery have run amok. The graphics and sound would be more at home on the BBC Micro but the game is oddly playable if you can put the casual racism to one side. Also available for the Spectrum and MSX.

C

Roland Goes Square Bashing

Unusual puzzler written by Durrell (and often omitted from their softography) where you have to find a safe path across some blocks suspended in space. The problem is that as you leave a block it disintegrates so there is no back tracking. Presumably the Roland name was tagged onto it to ensure this puzzler got the attention it deserved.

That said if you hate puzzlers it’s probably a D not a C

C

Spy Hunter

Competent early arcade conversion for the CPC but not a patch on the C64 version. You can’t help but think the developers were still getting to grips with the machine.

C

Rock Hopper

It’s a Boulderdash rip off. Still, that wasn’t a bad thing in the days before Bolderdash proper made it to the CPC. However it is very basic and you can’t pull off some of the tricks you can in the actual game of Boulderdash (digging underneath a rock will cause it to fall on you).

D

For curiosity’s sake only:

The Gems Of Stradus

Doom meets The Hobbit. It’s an adventure game but there’s graphics (very basic though) for every room and you control your movements with the cursor keys. Other actions need to be typed in, e.g. “pick up key”.

The graphics are basic but draw fairly fast. However its no surprise if you press the escape key to find the entire thing is coded in BASIC. Still that doesn’t detract from an adventure game that at least tries to make itself accessible even if it is very limited.

E

Sultans Maze

Take 3D Monster Maze, remove any sense of speed and excitement and you have Sultans Maze. That said, if you have an emulator you can speed the game up to 800% and suddenly the offensively slow redraw rate becomes less of a problem. Still pretty weak though, Monster Maze it ain’t.

E

Haunted Hedges

Well below average Pacman clone only notable for it’s semi 3D viewpoint.

E

3D Invaders

You have to play this game. Not because it’s good, but because it’s awful! Take the neat concept of space invaders played in a 3D isometric view, give it terrible graphics, unresponsive controls, dreadful sound, make it slow, annoying and then charge full price for it.

Terrible dross and possibly one of the worst commercially release games of all time. The only place this game would have looked good would have been on Cassette 50.

F

Centre Court

A flickering dot judders its way across the screen. I wait…  Eventually it reaches me. I miss. I go and play something else.

F

Punchy

Poor Hunchback rip-off. Hunchback is a great game, this is a load of old rubbish. Avoid.

E

The games listed above are just a small selection from the Amsoft catalogue. While it’s true to say there are few outright classics in there, there are lots of games that are worth a look for curiosity’s sake. It has to be remembered that the CPC was still a new machine and developers hadn’t really got to grips with it. However few machines have gone to market with such a large catalogue of games available and Amsoft’s legacy perhaps wasn’t a classic collection of games, but ensuring the CPC endured so that we would get those quality games from other publishers.