Dead but not buried - Amstrad GX4000

Amstrad's GX4000 video game console was released in 1990. It was the company's brief foray into the video game console business. The console was debuted in Europe in 1990 and shared hardware architecture with Amstrad's concurrently released CPC Plus computer series. The GX4000 was not a commercial success. During its career, the system's software was few and slow to come, and consumer demand was poor. In total, around 25 games were created and released on the GX4000. The pack-in game Burnin' Rubber, as well as RoboCop 2, Pang, Plotting, Navy Seals, and Switchblade, were notable games.
Converted GX4000 Games
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[@misterretrowolf1464]

Great video! Loved the fact you went through all the games. Much appreciated.

[@ClassicReplay]

Glad you enjoyed! 😊 did you own one back in the day?

[@Mark-nh2hs]

Love Ghosts n Goblins and Ghouls n Ghosts - addictive yet hard. With catchy music.

[@ClassicReplay]

Have you played the GX4000 conversion?

[@Mark-nh2hs]

@@ClassicReplay no. I played Amstrad CPC versions and the 8/16 bit console versions and Mame versions. I will have to give it a look.

[@d1btd3265]

Cool to see all these games. I'd already moved from 464 to Amiga when this came out, but the promise of sprite scaling did get my interest. Was still hoping for a game of outrun standard at home. Burning rubber didn't look like the one though.

[@ClassicReplay]

I have a theory that the majority of Amstrad owners eventually moved on to the Amiga. Almost nearly everyone I knew that owned an Amstrad later had an Amiga. Where C64 and Speccy owners moved onto consoles asap. The GX4000 could have found a niche market, for how long and how many sales I'm unsure. But the hole thing was botched to fail from day one. I bought one, but you couldn't get any games, it was a travesty.

[@GreenTeaViewer]

I just love the design! I want a 3D printed one now

[@ClassicReplay]

Design of the console?

[@GreenTeaViewer]

@@ClassicReplay yes the physical exterior

[@ClassicReplay]

Keep me posted, I’d happily have this for the Raspberry Pi

[@eto6197]

me too... with space for a Raspberry Zero 2 this would be awesome

[@newsummitpersonaltraining7011]

great video. Long live the GX4000!!

[@ClassicReplay]

C’mon Sonic 😊

[@shamus2503]

Navy Seals was nails :)

[@ClassicReplay]

100% but I saw someone complete it once. I’ve got within a whisker, but difficult without snap shots

[@Novabug]

Been banging on about the GX for decades... finally its getting exposure outside of my and xyphoes channels. :) lovely stuff. Excellent video. (My design cover for BR was better tho! :p)

[@RetroUnlim]

Greetings!

[@gamegenie8213]

I much prefer you cover art for Skeet Shoot as well.

[@Gambit771]

The nes (not en-knee-es) was dead in the water in the UK with the master system running supreme. The turbografx was released in the UK, maybe not officially but twice and with NEC's blessing.

[@ClassicReplay]

😉

[@TechRyze]

The Mega Drive absolutely had SCART support.

[@ClassicReplay]

Yes, but it wasn’t native/standard. The GX4000 could use any standard scart cable. The Megadrive needed an official SEGA scart connector. There’s a good article here segaretro.org/SCART_Cable_(Mega_Drive_2)

[@TechRyze]

@@ClassicReplay Sure - however it was easy to buy a SCART cable for the original MD at the time. I bought one in early 1993 for around £10 from Virgin Megastore

[@trip2themoon]

Would like to see a GX4000 conversation of R Type. The Amiga CD could have been great if they had managed to get some of the Japanese developers on board. I'm surprised that no one has really bothered with new games for the CD 32.

[@ClassicReplay]

I’m with you. The AGA was a step in the right direction but people preferred the Japanese marketing hype.

[@robsmall6466]

Klax isn't identical. It has very slight graphical improvements that are, granted, difficult to see. Dick Tracy has hardware scrolling that isn't present on the ordinary Amstrad game. Crazy Cars 2 features an in game map which uses hardware scrolling and isn't in the ordinary Amstrad version. Fire and Forget 2 features additional presentation ( cutscenes ) that are not in the standard version I believe ( could be wrong on that one ). No Exit benefits from enhancement over the standard Amstrad version. Navy Seals has really good hardware scrolling. Switchblade on GX4000 uses hardware sprites on occasion. Not well used but they are there. Don't think you included Robocop 2. Very hard but good looking. DMA sound was a strength of both the GX4000 and Plus range along with additional colours, hardware scrolling and sprites and cartridge support for quick loading. Nice footage 👍

[@ClassicReplay]

Thanks for letting me know, it’s good to know that there was some improvement over the stock Amstrad CPC games.

[@robsmall6466]

@@ClassicReplay It's mostly admittedly slight improvements. Almost spot the difference levels. The biggest one is Dick Tracy. The standard Amstrad game didn't have scrolling and so Titus took the time to implement it. Another plus point is exclusives like Robocop 2, Navy Seals, Burnin Rubber, Pang, Copter 271 ( rumour has that it is unfinished but got released anyway ). I'd say the first four of those make the GX4000 worthwhile. There were a lot of cancelled games ( Toki for example ) and Chase HQ 2 would be nice to see more of ( doesn't look as good as Chase HQ on standard Amstrad though )

[@GenMaster]

@@robsmall6466 Dick Tracy also has practically 16-bit, big hardware sprites in mode 1 (320×200), with their own, independent from background graphics, 16 colours out of the 4096 available, as opposed to the CPC version which has mode 0 (160×200) sprites that use the 16 available inks (both for sprites and background graphics) out of the 27 in total.

[@robsmall6466]

@@GenMaster 👍

[@DjSteveF]

Love your vocal pace and the way you explain, very interesting and drew me in, I want to purchase one now!

[@ClassicReplay]

Awesome! Thank you! It is a great console that will play so many games.

[@arostwocents]

NES sold extremely badly in the UK and SMS sold badly. The UK wasnt ready for the console market. Particularly when micro games were almost equal but cost £4 instead of £30

[@ClassicReplay]

I wouldn’t say SMS sold badly, the UK wasn’t considered a major territory for SEGA at the time. Saying that 270,000 Master System units were sold in the UK, compared to 100,000 NES units… That’s a lot of consoles considering the UK wasn’t ready, plus the Atari 2600 up until about 1990 was still the number 1 selling console, UK sales were 1.5 million. So stuff you’re claiming doesn’t appear accurate 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Chris558576]

I paid £10 for mine in a second hand shop. Its never been out of the box.

[@ClassicReplay]

Keep it that way, good retirement fund

[@filiepgeeraert8301]

I don't understand that anyone thought this could compete with other game systems from that era. They made a big deal out of the 4096 colour palette, but those were only there at 160x200 (32 simultaneously visible). I had an Amstrad CPC6128 (not the + version), and I always felt that if it had had hardware sprites and the 16 colours at 320x200 instead of at 160x200 games would have looked massively better. 160x200 is simply too low a resolution to make anything look decent. Even the supposedly fantastic Burnin' Rubber looks extremely blocky. Sure it is nice to have the extra colours, but without a resolution upgrade this would never compete with the other systems of the era. I see you complaining about the missing clouds in Fire&Forget II for example, I just wonder: how would they show them with only 160x200 available for the whole image? Those other systems were always displaying at a higher resolution, even if some of them had a smaller colour palette available. It's also a bit funny that Alan Sugar said it would have been different if it had been a 16 bit system. Sure, if it had been a 16 bit system with 512Mb memory, a fast CPU, higher resolution, better sound, ... it would have been different, but then it would have been a completely different system. For me, Alan Sugar always wanted to make things just a tad too cheap, and that way those systems lacked power.

[@ClassicReplay]

On reflection, the limited library of games and lack of backwards compatibility stopped it dead in its tracks for me. It didn't lack power in the way you suggest, as it had dedicated hardware for the sprites and scroll, hence freeing up the CPU to perform other tasks. In fact hardware wise it's the most powerful of the 8bit consoles with the exception of the hybrid PCEngine. ASIC: Support for sprites, soft scrolling, programmable interrupts, DMA Sound. Maximum colours onscreen: 32 (16 for background, 15 for sprites, 1 for border) plus maximum onscreen colour counts can be increased in all Modes through the use of interrupts.

[@filiepgeeraert8301]

@@ClassicReplay, best 8 bit? But 16 bit was there already. And yes, it did lack power because of the low resolution 160x200.

[@ojbeez5260]

You can get enforcer and the light gun for as little as £300 now on ebay!! Much cheaper than the usual asking prices of £700 - £900 etc.

[@ClassicReplay]

Not something that really interests me to be honest as the light gun games I can play using emulation. If it came down to something more sensibly priced, I’d buy one. But no more than £60

[@ojbeez5260]

@@ClassicReplay Thing is they are very simple , just LED and resistor and plastic lens inside a gun case with a plug on the end.

[@itsmatt517]

That Sonic game at the end looks an awful lot like the first Sonic game on the Master System and Game Gear, wasn't the GX4000 supposed to have been more capable than those consoles?

[@ClassicReplay]

I think the point is, you didn’t need a Nintendo or Sega console, had arcade and other games been programmed directly to US and UK hardware platforms, the world wouldn’t have known any different. These UK and US based platforms were more than capable and we let the Japanese swipe the carpet from under us. But yes, on paper it was more capable.

[@itsmatt517]

@@ClassicReplay But the original release of the Famicom was in 1983 and the SEGA Mark 3 (Master System) in 1985 and it wasn’t until 1990 that a British console could potentially do better (and by then 8bit was on it’s way out)

[@ClassicReplay]

That’s not accurate, we had the Archimedes, far more powerful than anything coming out of Japan, plus the ST and then Amiga followed. The ZX Spectrum and C64 (released 1982) including Amstrad released in 1984 were capable. Look at Chase HQ and Robocop on the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad, no other 8bit console got close to the playability of those versions. Look at Donkey Kong on the Amstrad, best ever conversion to the home. The C64 came with a cartridge slot in the back, it was a console + Computer since 1982. Everything Nintendo and Sega were doing had already been done in the west. Marketing was the difference…

[@itsmatt517]

@@ClassicReplay We were talking about games consoles here + Atari and Commodore were American

[@Weird.Dreams]

What was worse, the GX4000 or the 64GS? 😁

[@ClassicReplay]

I had both, I'm not sure why both consoles didn't find a niche market. I had Flimbo's Quest, Fiendish Freddy, International Soccer, Klax, Rick Dangerous, Stunt Car Racer, Microprose Soccer and ChaseHQ2. All great games!

[@GenMaster]

The 64gs, hands down. It came out in '92, two whole years after the GX4000 and was just a repackaged c-64. No hardware improvements at all, as opposed to the GX4000 which was vastly improved over its predecessor. A blatant, shameless con job the 64gs.

[@eto6197]

It's a bit problematic to base the recommendation for a GX4000 primarily on the C4CPC as the C4CPC has not been available for quite some time and it's unknown when and if it becomes available again. If you don't have a C4CPC or can find one, don't get the GX4000. The only other option to get games to the GX4000 are real cartridges. Official cartridges are rare and expensive. You can build your own cartridges, but of course that is inconvenient and expensive, if you want to have a decent library. A Plus (464 or 6128) at least can be expanded with other hardware, so you have access to the games library without soldering your own cartridges. It's also worth noting that Alcon 2020 is a CPC release, not a GX4000/Plus release. Playing it on a GX4000 is actually not my preferred way as it supports 6 channel sound on the CPC and Plus computers (with additional hardware of course). Another downside of the GX4000 are the controllers. Except for the original gamepads no other controllers and almost no joysticks will work with it out of the box and will need some modifications. Joysticks (with few exceptions) don't support a second button and no other gamepad (to my knowledge) is wired correctly, so it can be used without modification. If you can do simple soldering it's relatively easy to modify SEGA gamepads and you can even create gamepads from NES controllers, but you usually at least need a new cable (hint: Sega megadrive extension cables are perfect). Don't get me wrong, I love the GX4000 and especially its design. It's just not that easy with this console like with the much more successful consoles with better availability of peripherals and add-ons.

[@ClassicReplay]

Great comment 👍 GX4000 is cheap as chips to purchase, in fact someone gave me two for free about a year ago. The Plus is an expensive purchase. The GX4000 can use other hardware devices that are still available that will allow to store multiple games. I personally never had any issues with the game pads, I found the Master System game pads a bit hit and miss if I’m honest. Many games have been converted to work properly on the GX4000, games otherwise inaccessible to the console previously. I think the GX4000 version on Alcon has a few console features, but don’t quote me on that. Plays bloody brilliantly though, especially with new higher frame rate. Two player interaction is great using the console. Plugs into any screen, including the original monitor through dedicated scart, or HDMI converter. Only downside I found is not having 128k. Do this and even better. I can easily take it anywhere with me, hook up and play CPC and GX4000 games everywhere. CPCWiki can help you source hardware, plus I bought a C4CPC as a backup from someone recently. So they’re still available if you know who to ask.

[@eto6197]

@@ClassicReplay then you are lucky - or get that stuff more easily as you are doing this great content here :-) I waited 2 years until I finally could get a GX4000 for "not too much" but still quite expensive and every single person who asked for a C4CPC on the forum over the last couple of months had to read the "not available" statement. I really don't want to say that the GX4000 is bad - it's not bad - it's great - but it's not easy for everyone to get one or to get the right accessories. At least not at the moment. Regarding the alternatives for a C4CPC: if you could share them, that would be fantastic. Just a few days ago I asked on the CPCWiki forum and the only options were self-made cartridges with max. 4 games on EPROM or a very expensive cartridge from the US which nobody has everyseen or tried out. Regarding the game pads, I also don't have a problem with them. But if you need a replacement, it's again rare or you have heat up the soldering iron. Btw: The GX4000 can be upgraded to 128K. It requires of course soldering but has been done several times. It's unfortunately not as easy as other stuff for the CPC.

[@ClassicReplay]

Are you in the UK? GX4000 consoles and other items such as Gamepads are available. Car boots are great for such finds. It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but will get back to you.

[@eto6197]

@@ClassicReplay no, Germany. The GX4000 is extremely rare here, so I have to rely on Ebay - and even if I look internationally it's rarely showing up for an acceptable price. I do now have a GX4000 including gamepads. Got it for 130€ which seems to be a good deal. I also modified another 6 different gamepads and arcade sticks (for curiosity) to be compatible with the CPC and GX4000, so I am fine on that side. I also have a C4CPC, but I am looking for another one as I want one for the Plus and one for the GX4000 - but it's impossible to get one for a normal price. An alternative to the C4CPC would be great, but I am not aware of any.

[@ojbeez5260]

@@ClassicReplay You can always get the RETROPADS off eBay for the GX4000 which are much better than the stock ones. Also an actual Joystick for the GX4000 is coming out soon.

[@EricBarbman]

The games footage are exactly the same as Dubbloseven's GX4000 video - are you the same person?

[@ClassicReplay]

I downloaded the games and footage from Arcade Punks. I actually own all the games but have no way of attaching my GX4000 to my HDS60

[@zdp-189]

Is there basically an "Everdrive" for the GX4000 now!! I was so happy to finally get one for my Jaguar, and the games for the GX4000 are even more obscure and Im sure expensive on ebay or to find anywhere. That might make it worth trying to own one like wanted for fun...when I try emulating GX4000 through Launchbox/MESS on my PC, it doesnt run full speed or well on lots of games I've tried.

[@ClassicReplay]

If you watch the video, it explains what you need towards the end 😉 JavaCPC or Winape32 give decent emulation. Then there’s RetroVirtual Machine

[@zdp-189]

@@ClassicReplay hmm yea I never tried either of those yet- will definitely download tomorrow to try out w my ROMs. Thanks again, and for great vid!

[@Oribaa90]

In a couple of days I will get my "Everdrive"-like cartridge. The BackBit Pro cartridge. There is also the C4CPC cartridge but you can't get it anywhere.

[@hyp3rvirus]

does anybody know how to fix Scart video. I can play only RF? btw what is about everdrive?

[@ClassicReplay]

You just need a scart cable, picture is rock solid

[@hyp3rvirus]

@@ClassicReplay I barely found it in Spain, I guess previous owner put a RCA-Scart due to he didn't know about RGB converter. On forums it has been already discussed.

[@kyma1999x]

gx 4000 is undoubtly more powerful than nes, and it could be better or at least pair with master system if coded properly. master system titles were usually far superior compared to gx library but simply because sega and 3rd parties partners used to code them with great effort and care, whereas most amstrad games where poorly developed sometimes very fast... infact sonic and ghost 'n' goblins beeing homebrew project made by passionate amstrad coders working without marketing pressure times show its real capabilities. recent c64 achievements made by people who really spent time to learn how to squeeze every cycle out of it show again that programmer/human makes difference, there are obvious limits in every techie stuff, a c64 could not do what really an amiga does, but deep intelligent programming really makes difference. GX market failure I think it's a combination of factors, it was released too late in a market full of japanese consoles with 16 bits beeing the big thing to catch, so probably not great interest around it by software houses to invest lot of time and effort developing great titles for the system.

[@ClassicReplay]

From what I've heard from programmers over the years, the NES is a good all-rounder, liked by many the world over. There's no doubt the GX4000 can do more but it's equally hamstrung somewhat by its cartridge size and measly 64k of physical memory. The NES has Sprite and hardware assist, the GX also has this, but it's implemented in a less user-friendly sort of way. If given time, the programmer would be able to deliver NES/Master System results on par or slightly above, but the effort involved to achieve similar results is more and sometimes projects are abandoned when programmers realise this. The 6128 Plus is a different beast, the extra memory really helps, but the cartridge limits still apply. On the C64, people claim that there's games on that system that are technically better than on the Amiga, but that for me just shows that the Amiga wasn't pushed on a consistent basis and suffered from Atari ST ports similar to that of the ZX Spectrum to Amstrad CPC. As for the GX, I still believe even in 1990 it could have found a niche market, but Amstrad really did screw up on the distribution for software. I personally remember how painful getting hold of software was on day one. Plus, they put the wrong games in carts, for example I purchased Switchblade after reading a Mean Machine mag review, waited for what felt like an eternity, only to get home and find out the game was actually No Exit. I lived it, the pain of owning this console was just that. So, I believe it's too easy to say it failed because it was too late to market. There just wasn't enough quality software available to purchase and people quickly worked out that £25 was too much to pay for titles already available on cassette with little to no improvements. If they would have released it with Pang, Burnin Rubber, Robocop 2, Toki and Chase HQ 2 as launch titles day one, I dare say it would have sold nearer to around a million units. That's just my two pence worth.

[@eto6197]

@@ClassicReplay 64KB RAM (48 considering screen and 32 if double buffering is used) is plenty when you can put all static code into ROM. The NES has 2KB RAM, the Master System has 16KB RAM. Cartridge size on all systems was in the same range. Max. 512KB for Master and GX4000, NES a bit more. A great example is Alcon 2020 which is crammed with 512KB of ROM data but runs happily with only 64KB of RAM, even though it uses double (or even triple?) buffering for the screen. 64KB RAM is only a limitation for those homebrew CPC conversions from the CPCWiki page as they still run solely in RAM. The software used for conversion includes a disk drive simulation. Games are loaded from a ROM drive to RAM like it would happen on a real disk drive.

[@AshtonArcher]

Poor form to mention a website then not providing the link to it!

[@ClassicReplay]

Google is your friend ;-)

[@williamwright9079]

Whats the link for Zepher s website , please. I must have missed it.

[@ClassicReplay]

gx4000.co.uk

[@basshunter2007]

Sega master system was much better than nes

[@ClassicReplay]

Sales figures would suggest otherwise. But on resolution SMS has the edge.

[@retrotronics1845]

Amstrad, and Commodore, watched in disbelief as tens of millions of Americans bought rubbish 1983 Famicom technology games via late 1980s NES games on carts for 40-50 dollars and wanted some of that profit action so decided to make 8bit consoles of their own. They both bailed on their 8bit consoles when they realised the NES US phenomena was a fluke one off event only for USA and was NOT replicated in the more sophisticated EU market where people were more interested in rumours of the Atari ST console for 199.99 in 1987/88 let alone Amiga 500 being dropped in price. Amstrad and Commodore would never do well in the USA, not even SEGA SMS did well there vs NES :)

[@ClassicReplay]

There was room, even if they’d have done everything correct, launched with ten games, it still would have only found a niche market impo 👍

[@retrotronics1845]

@@ClassicReplay Problem is Commodore and Amstrad expected them to sell like hot cakes and take off like NES sales. Cartridge costs are massive and small individual production runs don't really work for niche consoles I guess is the reason why they disappeared.

[@mrchrisknight315]

All the games look like shit. Why would any one have bought this when you could buy much better systems.

[@ClassicReplay]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@arostwocents]

SMS FAR outsold Nes. This video seems like its produced by a kid who doesnt actually understand the European market at the time. NES was almost irrelevant in the UK. Neo Geo was not a competitor to micros ffs 😂 on the list of what was out you list tonnes of stuff that didnt have a foothold but didnt list the actual dominant systems of Spectrum, c64 and Amstrad or the incoming Amiga

[@ClassicReplay]

I'm not a fan of your insults, not constructive in the slightest and if it continues you could face a ban. Saying that, let's address some of your claims. Whilst it is true that the SMS had some success in Europe and the UK, it's also essential to remember that the NES had established a presence in the UK and European market. We all know how that turned out. But even today the European market is unique, with different preferences and there's no real dominance. Preference can change with each iteration of hardware. But let's stay on the NES for a little while, factors like marketing and distribution were low key for Nintendo at the time, as yes there was competition at home from already established 8bit home computers, Nintendo would need to buy their time and go after the European market with their next iteration of console. So already established home computers influenced this. It was the same for MSX when they hit UK shores, the market was already awash with home computer systems such as Amstrad, Spectrum and C64. Now onto the NEO GEO, there's no official sales figures for the UK I can find. Although not a direct competitor to home computers, home computers were still around and popular whilst it still carved a niche and raised an eye-brow as a high-end gaming system. Everyone wanted one but couldn't afford it. Some of my friends were lucky enough to own one, but at £120 a pop for a game, it was never going to be mainstream, but the idea was sound and its hardware definitely set it apart. You're absolutely spot on about the dominant computers during that era. The Amstrad less so, but the C64 and ZX Spectrum were hugely popular, whilst in parallel so were the Atari ST and later established Commodore Amiga.

[@reagandow850]

Great video. I’d love to see a video of some of the great conversions that have been made for this system. Do you have any interest in making a video like that?

[@ClassicReplay]

I think it would need to be focused on the Amstrad Plus computers with 128K. Most GX4000 collectors don’t currently have 128k for their consoles. If that’s what you mean?

[@arostwocents]

Why are the videos comparing to Amiga rather than Amstrad? Is the video maker confusing the two? 😂😂😂

[@arostwocents]

Without comparing them to the games of the Amstrad you can't see the big issue with this system, that the games were already out on micro exactly the same.

[@arostwocents]

There was some potential here if they had come a lot earlier, as so much of the Amstrads actual library is terrible ports when modern homebrew shows how much the system was capable of. Games built for Amstrad do compare favourably with other 8 bits, but most people already owned a micro and the expensive Amstrad only sold to rich kids, where the small numbers meant it didn't get unique versions that used its power

[@arostwocents]

You've got to show the standard Amstrad versions to see why this didn't sell. The Amiga versions doesn't actually tell you anything. The Amiga was a LOT more expensive than this thing.

[@arostwocents]

Zero first party software cannot be overestimated as an issue too. They should have got the Miner Willy license and cloned Mario. Willy v Thatcher in Northern Land based on the North.

[@ClassicReplay]

That’s not entirely correct, Burnin Rubber, Navy Seals, Pang, Panza, WOS, Robocop 2 didn’t make it onto the stock CPC. The comparison with the Amiga is that some of the games I mentioned weren’t far off 16 bit quality. Pang on the GX4000 was actually better.

[@ojbeez5260]

Games should have been £10 to £15. Barbarian 1 & 2 should have been released on the same cart, enhanced for £10. Cartridge with many classic games for the CPC on one Cart should have been released (Robocop/Chase HQ etc...) Games Packaging should have been a VHS box - making games cheaper to manufacture. Should have got rid of the ASIC chip license fee payable to Amstrad. Should have come with 1 light gun and 1 controller. Only top games should have been allowed. Should have been 128k.

[@ClassicReplay]

I like it, but Amstrad would have still screwed up distribution 😑

[@orlandoturbo6431]

How was all these games produce for this 8 bit system but not the TurboGrafx-16 or PC Engine.

[@ClassicReplay]

I don’t think the PcEngine was a big deal in Europe

[@orlandoturbo6431]

If only the TurboGrafx16 had these games it would have sold like hot cakes.

[@ClassicReplay]

While it was successful in Japan, it struggled to gain traction in other regions, including the UK. I can only speak for myself when I say there was a distinct lack of marketing and advertising for the console in the UK

[@orlandoturbo6431]

@@ClassicReplay TurboGrafx16 needed western style games.That's why I say the games on the Amstrad GX 4000 would have been perfect for the TurboGrafx16.

[@basshunter2007]

Was just a cpc that used carts only

[@ClassicReplay]

Technically yes, it shared similar hardware in sound and CPU. It had a bigger colour palette 4096, full hardware sprites, and dedicated hardware for horizontal and vertical scroll. For an 8bit it really was quite powerful.

[@mohammedjhangir3453]

You couldn’t buy any games

[@ClassicReplay]

You could get them, but only from Dixons or mail order.

[@jediknight2350]

amstrad only made crap.

[@ClassicReplay]

We will have to agree to disagree. The Amstrad CPC series of computers were really good IMPHO 👍