GX4000 Review

[@andyukmonkey]

Level 1 of Robocop 2 is a big level, and getting through it the first time is a huge task. Once you've gotten the hang of it it's pretty easy.

[@BrooksterMax]

Great review and attractive machine in my opinion. I think I remember seeing these knocking around in Dixons back the day. and the SCART connector was awesome for the time. I did pick one up a while ago but the limited library meant it didn't hold my attention for long, so I moved it on. Although Pang is an awesome game and always worth a play. A great curiosity item for the serious collector.

[@1sibbo]

Good to see you back doing videos. I have bought many a console on the back of your reviews.

[@ReplayRetro]

+john sibthorpe thanks, hope you enjoyed it

[@benderfender2982]

Regarding the flashcart that was mentioned in the vid. For those that are interested, it should be noted that there is the potential for it to cause damage to your console. The original power supply doesn't have enough juice to run the whole thing. Instead use any regulated DC 9V to 12V 750mA (positive on center pin, GND on outer pin).

[@ReplayRetro]

+Fevronia Maroulis yep, and this is something i'm advising anyone who mentions it to look into, always important people do their homework before using stuff like that with their systems

[@davecates9095]

Great review. Missed them it's good to see you on again. Keep up the good work.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Razor Wolf been away far too long but to be honest the work required to start over on the new PC was daunting and put me off, now i'm back in the swing it shouldn't be an issue. glad you enjoyed the show

[@donny4182]

Really cool video. Had never heard of that system before.

[@kahncrane]

Now this is what I've been waiting for, I like these in depth reviews from you, they are all kinds of awesome, Thank You.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Lost in Time, Like Tears in the Rain Glad you like them, they're my favorites too and are why i started the channel but they also take the most work but they should be more frequent now thanks to me finally finishing the template on the new PC, that and patreon is letting me know what episodes people want so that helps me choose

[@jaxnean2663]

I love the music in the bubble game!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Jax Nean if i remember rightly Super Pang was full of classical music slightly reworked to fit the fast pace of the game, it really added to the pressure, great game and highly reccomended, hope you enjoyed the show jsut as much

[@mightydegu]

At least it outsold the Commodore 64GS. Faint praise, I know. Too bad it came out so late in the 8-bit era. When they actually coded for it and didn't just repackage existing Amstrad CPC games, it's quite impressive.

[@MetalPopka]

Nice Apple Pippin in the background.

[@oddpodshow]

great review, id never heard of this console before. what are those stands you have the gameboys on?

[@ReplayRetro]

+Odd pod just plastic plate stands, all my handhelds are kept on them, it doesn't work perfectly for some stuff but normally with a bit of fiddling they'll hold things

[@oddpodshow]

ReplayRetro ahh cool, they look good

[@electricadventures]

Great review, have always been interested in it as a system from a programmers point of view. Did not realise about the flash card, so I will have to get one soon to give it a go.

[@ReplayRetro]

+electricadventures glad you enjoyed it. if you do get the flash cart be sure to do your homework as you'll need a different power supply to protect the console!

[@TheThatEthanGuy]

Thanks so much for this video! I thought I had seen everything retro gaming had to offer until this video, now my interest has been reinvigorated! :D

[@ReplayRetro]

+TheThatEthanGuy glad to be of service, if there's one thing i've learnt about this hobby its that theres always something you didn't know about, always something new to learn, glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Shuda87]

Wow, this was pretty cool. An interesting little part of gaming history. Graphic wise it seems to even put the Master System to shame.

[@LuggyBro]

so with the controller ports, have you tried to use a Sega genesis controller in there? or an Atari 2600 controller? because to me, the port looked identical to the ones on those consoles!

[@augustwest5356]

wow! I've never even heard of this console! cool video man

[@dreadtheweekend]

Good review. I remember reading about this console in Mean Machines. A lot of the games got really bad reviews, like around 30%. I plumped for the Sega Master System at the time and probably made the right choice. Been tempted to pick up a GX4000 recently, especially as its relatively cheap to get, but having watched your vid, don't think I will now. I certainly wouldn't get much use out of it. A really useful and helpful review, thanks.

[@radiantjet418]

I am guessing it never made it to America? I would love to get my hands on one of these!!!

[@ReplayRetro]

+rAdiant Jet i don't think the system ever left Europe, though i'm sure Amstrad planned to release it or at least licence it the the US, but i suppose it never got enough market momentum to be worth doing it

[@Rebel_Railroad_Productions]

Too bad the Amstrad GX4000 was never released here in the States. Granted, I can still get one (via Ebay or Amazon), it'll just take it a while to get to where I live. But hell, I don't mind the wait.

[@GadgetUK164]

Great review!

[@ReplayRetro]

+GadgetUK164 Thanks, glad you liked it

[@Chenga990]

Another great episode :) It's even better since now you use a video capture card for the games :D

[@ReplayRetro]

+Chenga990 thanks, i'm glad you think it was worth the investment, hoping patreon will fill the hole it made in my account though. i must admit it's much easier with the card, thanks for watching and i'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@JasonVectrex_187]

don't remember watching this video, will have to check it out.

[@dave4shmups]

Excellent review! I live in the USA, and would love to get one of these consoles. SCART to HDMI converter boxes, which can do PAL to NTSC, aren't hard to find. But I have no idea what kind of voltage the GX4000 takes.

[@ReplayRetro]

+David Halligan i'm sure you could use a step up/down whatever converter to get it going or just use an off the shelf adapter to give it the 11V it needs, give me a shout if you get one and i'll be happy to advise :) thanks for your kind words, glad you enjoyed the show

[@theseob]

+ReplayRetro A off the shelf 11v or 5v adapter would do, since the gx4000 uses both. Never figured out why they just didn't use just the 5v input only. Could have reduced the cost of the system even more, instead of having 2 power inputs. That said i use the 11v input myself with a aftermarket 11v laptop powersupply, so it can provide all the power the gx4000 needs when used with the c4cpc flashcart.

[@ReplayRetro]

+theseob i thought you had to use the 11v unless it was with a monitor as it powers the system differently for the needs of monitors + amp versus television?

[@theseob]

+ReplayRetro Well the powersupply of a gx4000 uses a 11v 500mA power supply, the cpc monitor outputs 5v, don't know how much amps, but a cpc464 needs 2A, and a cpc464+ uses 2.4A. Don't know if they have any circuits in the system to convert the voltages. To use the c4cpc with the gx4000 you will need a 11v and at leasta psu that can provide 530mA, a 750mA unit is recommended. According to cpcwiki the 5v line provides to little power when scartoutput is used.

[@aydan1686]

Great video, though you should have practiced some more Robocop ;) haha :) It's a very curious console for me as all these Amstrads, Commodores etc were way before my time. I'm tempted to pick one of these up for the sake of exploring our european gaming roots but I'd certainly go with the SD card option for convenience and seeing the prices of some of the games out there jeez... Thoroughly enjoyed, nice to see you making videos again.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Game Taff that actually was my 3rd or 4th attempt at robocop, i was just ridiculously bad on the first attempts, this time i at least managed to pass the first screen lol Yeah its worth picking up if you like obscure systems, but if you go down the flash card route mate sure you do your homework as it requires a bigger power supply to protect the console Thanks for the kind words, now that i've finally got working templates on the new pc i'm sure i'll be back again before long

[@aydan1686]

ReplayRetro I have no doubt it's very clunky though I mean the speed of that platform was unreal and it's only the first level.. yeah I'm tempted, and I did see about how using the official power supply can damage it which is worrying! Just out of curiosity do you use teleprompter software when talking to the cam? If not then bloody hell, that's a LOT of stuff to memorise, I struggle doing just a few sentences half the time! Though I am new to this still.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Game Taff yeah i run a basic teleprompt, can't remember what its called now but it plays on a very basic old laptop just under the camera, slightly shonky way of doing it but it works :p

[@aydan1686]

+ReplayRetro nothing wrong with that at all it works damn well! If you remember what it's called let me know!

[@seanmckelvey6618]

ah man, this console intrigues to the hell out of me. I really think it had potential as the graphics were pretty impressive for an 8-bit machine. Timing is everything though, if they'd released it in 1985 alongside the NES & Master System they might have had a chance, assuming they could get games worth playing. I dig the design though, the weird "90's future spaceship" aesthetic is neat.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Sean McKelvey yeah it would probably have done much better, though obviously it would probably have been more expensive if it was even doable at all, so it's all relative. Thanks for watching

[@seanmckelvey6618]

Pedro Lambrini I'm considering grabbing one, just as kind of a neat collectible if nothing else. I'd expect it to look and sound great through scart to hdmi and a nice sound system. Even if there's not that many games worth playing, still a cool looking paper-weight.

[@andyukmonkey]

+The Unfunny Chameleon Consoles weren't even a thing in the UK in 1985. It was all about home computers. They could have released the GX4000 it a few years later than that. But yeah 1990 was a bit late.

[@seanmckelvey6618]

andyukmonkey sure, but Amstrad still had some power behind their name as a home computer manufacturer. They could have, in some sense, beaten Sega and Nintendo to the punch by releasing it in '85/86. I understand that consoles weren't as popular as computers in europe at the time, but I doubt it would have hurt them much to try and capture the console market as well. Y'know, here's something for those people who don't feel like messing around with a computer to play games.

[@andyukmonkey]

***** It did pretty well. It was sort of like a cheaper alternative to the Megadrive for children for a long time. But really there were loads of computers and consoles that were all doing kind of well during that period.

[@augustwest5356]

cool video man. this console was fairly well made it seems. it definitely had more muscle than the NES. I think more than anything, it was the 1990 release that killed this thing. had it released as a direct competitor to the NES at the same time, gaming history might be very different.

[@GenMaster]

The lack of dedicated software killed it, not its alleged belated release. The poor thing was riddled with carbon copy CPC ports.

[@IsItModern]

The best part is when you start playing the game. Hilarious!

[@SlavomirG]

+IsItModern He sucks so hard it's unbelievable.

[@ryansease7066]

I have looked on eBay recently and have seen these systems asking for well over $100 USD. Is there any other place you recommend looking at to buy one of the these consoles. Also, you mentioned the homebrew scene for this console. Have you yourself looking into the card they have and tried to use it with the GX4000? Just wondering. Take care and keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more reviews in the near future.

[@CortinasAndClassics]

Great video, sadly I own a dead GX and I'm not sure how to fix it 🙁

[@benderfender2982]

NES "market leader". We're talking in relevance to the GX4000 and therefore with regard to Europe. The NES was never the top dog there. The SMS lays claim to that. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the vid! Got a kick out of all the various connection options and ports on the system. lol

[@ReplayRetro]

+Fevronia Maroulis personally i don't think Amstrad was only interested in the european market though, with such an aggressive marketing budget they clearly had bigger thoughts on their minds, in which case the success of the NES is more likely to be what they wanted to emulate

[@Lemonidas75]

Amstrad did have a software branch of their own ... Amsoft. Problem was that 90% of Amsoft games sucked bad. They were unable to make decent games for the CPC line of computers, so I doubt that they could support a full blown console like the GX4000

[@roasthunter]

Interesting review, I actually bought one of these bad boys back in 1990 and got Robocop 2, switchblade and pro tennis tour. It was very difficult finding games which certainly wouldn't have helped sales, when the extra features were used it was quite good. If I recall a game was £25 which was quite a lot when budget games could be had for £1.99 on tape, although major releases on disk were about £15 so £25 wasn't too bad, unfortunately as you pointed out a lot of the games were straight CPC ports and baring a handful of titles most of the games were terrible for example no exit that is possible to complete in about 10 minutes. You are probably right, had the system come out 2 years earlier it could have been successful.

[@Letstalkretro]

Great video as always. We've been thinking of picking one of these up for a while. Easy to find boxed on eBay but most seem to be Japanese for some storage reason so would need a converter.

[@andyukmonkey]

btw, You can change the controls in Burnin' rubber.

[@toonbat]

Bouncing Robocop? What the hell were they thinking?

[@ReplayRetro]

+toonbat maybe he's an upgraded version with moonshoes?

[@andyukmonkey]

+toonbat Gameplay mechanics?

[@toonbat]

Well, he did get that rocket pack in one of the sequels. Maybe it only works in short intervals, like Starfox's landmaster?

[@SegaCDUniverse]

Great video bro, never heard of this jammy X D

[@ReplayRetro]

+SegaCDUniverse Glad you liked it, thanks for watching

[@augustwest5356]

SegaCDUniverse what the fuck is a jammy?

[@SegaCDUniverse]

just like... a cool thing lol

[@pferreira1983]

You've highlighted good points as to why the GX4000 failed, one that clearly could have been avoided was more exclusive games.

[@tonygallagher6989]

Another problem was that consoles had more of an appeal for the consumer electronics crowd than they did for computer users. In that space, by the time of the GX4000 launch, Amstrad had already earned a terrible reputation for quality.

[@SitarKnight]

Oh man, this system is awesome :)

[@ReplayRetro]

+SitarKnight it's an interesting footnote but i'm not sure i'd go as far as awesome lol, cheers for watching

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

There is an option in burnin rubber to have a fire button to accelerate.

[@waldnew]

in burnin' rubber you there was an options menu and you could set the controls.. but anyhow good review! If it had come out maybe a year or two earlier it might of been a success.

[@waldnew]

duh me ! you said about it coming out earlier in your review!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Waldon Newman ahhh fair enough, i was too eager to get racing, but god only knows why the default is up to accelerate! thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed the show

[@Gambit771]

The market leader was the Master System not the Nes. This isn't America or a place where nintendo revised history is believed.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Gambit771 It's based off of sales figures, which show clearly that the master system never managed to get close to even a quarter of NES sales, though in our household it was what he had and we loved it

[@Gambit771]

ReplayRetro 3 million in Europe shows the Master system was the market leader. Nintendo was always second fiddle

[@ReplayRetro]

Gambit771 in europe generally the SMS performed better (by about 30%) but as a general market the NES greatly outperformed it by more like 300%

[@Gambit771]

I dispute the difference being 30% but yes and you're in Europe. The UK so it would've been about the master system. Either way nice videos

[@GenMaster]

@@Gambit771 Not to mention the fact that the only reason Ninshito ruled the console game industry in North America, is because they imposed an illegal monopoly and Price-Fixing policies, which got them fined with the biggest fines ever issued to a video games company...

[@JomasterTheSecond]

I know of 2 games for this, correct me if I'm wrong... Switchblade and Klax.

[@dumbass3000]

yeaaaaahhhh a new episode!!!!

[@ReplayRetro]

+dumbass3000 :) hope it was worth the wait!

[@RacerC45]

You forgotten how the system can explode when plugged in the wrong way.

[@jaxnean2663]

If only Robocop was as robust as the red car!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Jax Nean yeah, perhaps they should have made him out of similar materials? or maybe the red car would be better at law enforcement anyway

[@Novabug]

Top work. I have heard of this. Slightly. ;)

[@ReplayRetro]

+Novabug haha, knowing you're something of a fan and expert i was wondering what you might think of this review, glad you enjoyed it, hopefully i'll do some 5 minute plays if i can get hold of a few more games :) thanks for watching

[@Novabug]

+ReplayRetro Yes, Nicely done bud. Accurate stats and facts, excellent coverage, very thorough and fair with good insight. The 5v input works with the CM14 monitor, which is the way I play my system. The 11v provides power for the RF modulator as well, but the pack-in CPU was dreadful. A third-party, more powerful PSU is required to use with the C4CPC. I have issue with '27' games...... Gazza 2 cannot be counted IMO. With Robocop 2, Pressing 1 or 2 to start determines weather you play with SFX or Music. ;) and it's not as hard as you think. You can reconfigure Burnin' Rubber's controls. You appear to have the pre-release ROM for Pang also, the commercial copy had different background graphics and had a intro screen and map (didn't start instantly) Sorry, I cannot help it. lol

[@ReplayRetro]

Novabug WOW! some genuinely interesting stuff there! especially about the pang cart, i thought it was fake because the label is just text and its upside down but maybe its actually a prototype of some sort? yeah i figured the extra 6V was for the TV output, makes sense really. As for Gazza 2 i included it purely because while people seem divided on it it does appear to have been released even if it didn't make it on to the shop floor, but who knows for sure

[@1simo93521]

Nice fair review of this much maligned console. I learned quite a lot I hadn't heard before.

[@ReplayRetro]

+Simo Thanks for the kind words, glad you liked it

[@joeb2588]

If it were black or dark gray it wouldn't look so bad.

[@sanicyouth6540]

> that passing sound

[@larsenmats]

quite impressive for an 8bit console. It's like in-between 8bit and 16 bit.

[@TMS5100]

classic AY-3-8192 / YM2149 sounds.

[@ReplayRetro]

+ms3bani it's a great little chip and i think the GX4000 does a really great job with it, that burnin rubber into song is fantastic

[@JampleyDevEs]

I think you can remake most od your videos with better production, you have a nice voice and this topic is more popular now I think.

[@TechRyze]

They clearly knew hardware, but seemed to know nothing at all of games. They're not a gaming company, and were completely dependent on 3rd parties, who generally seemed to behave conservatively where it came to supporting the system. Ocean's support was interesting, but not sufficiently different from what was available for a fraction of the price on the already-prevalent 464. Easy example of this - why on earth is 'up' the default accelerator control in the bundled game, when there are two controller buttons? They were generally out of touch, or that small issue would have been amended. Robocop 2's immediate difficulty in getting post the first screen is the next. Shows a lack of understanding of the console medium. Then there's the Amiga and Atari ST, which were doing very well in Europe by the time that this system came along. The GX4000 was cheaper, but was a downgrade in comparison. Such a shame. Pang is an obvious console-style game, and would be a perfect bundle game.

[@peteralexander2941]

amstrad chose the wrong year to release the gx4000, the system came out in 1990, the same year the mega drive came out in Europe, so it really had no hope, another reason its failure, many of the games were £5 cpc tape games on £30 cartridges, so the games were more expensive than they should have been

[@ReplayRetro]

+Peter Williams i don't think they necessarily chose the year as such, just like Sony didn't choose to release the PS1 instead of the PS4 in 94/95 but yeah if they'd got it out earlier things could have been better and yeah if you watch the video both this point and your point about tape/cart games is made

[@peteralexander2941]

+ReplayRetro what I'm trying to say is that the gx4000 was too little, to late, even if it had been out a year earlier, It would have had some hope, but the writing was on the wall, amstrad just weren't game developers, and the game devs didn't want to work with the machine cos new stuff would be out later

[@inferiordelirium210]

I would imagine if Atari came out with a Jaguar 2 it'd look like this.

[@1sibbo]

Ha ha, for the love of god. Great consol I think I will try and find one.

[@zaxxon9662]

Although Burnin Rubber may look more colourful than the NES or SMS games like Rad Racer/World Grandprix etc it is no faster than the slow CPC conversion of Chase HQ so the impression of speed is pensioner in a small Rover hatchback unlike Rad Racer which is actually quite a fast speed (and that's from someone who doesn't even like the NES.....a complete waste of money on 1982 level of technology)

[@aurathedraak7909]

yay u back!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Aura birdy thanks for the welcome, to be honest i was only away as setting up the templates and file structure on the new PC was daunting and i just kept putting it off, but its done now so hopefully we're back in action :)

[@jaxnean2663]

Robocop 2 needs the AVGN treatment!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Jax Nean it really does! though i'm not sure how much of an episode you can get out of repeatedly falling in a hole

[@drksideofthewal]

Imagine if this released before the NES. Maybe Brittan would be known for its games instead of Japan.

[@ReplayRetro]

+drksideofthewal who knows, you could well be right, though i doubt Amstrad would of had the courage to launch it without a strong console market in the first place, thanks for watching

[@drksideofthewal]

ReplayRetro I always look forward to your reviews, keep it up.

[@Slen_]

I highly doubt that. It’s not only about “systems”. The force of Nintendo was (and is still, to some extent) game design. Cheers!

[@GenMaster]

@@Slen_ The force of Nishito is Price-Fixing and illegal monopolies...

[@Magisktification]

Gotta be the best looking console from the era. Their were to late for the market tho.

[@jaxnean2663]

Maybe in a parallel universe they have GX9000 instead of PS4!

[@ReplayRetro]

+Jax Nean maybe . . . . . not sure it's a world i wanna visit though :p thanks for watching

[@TheLaughingMagician]

kinda looks like a dreamcast but flatter

[@kvarnerinfoTV]

Looks like router

[@DJ-xn9vu]

big fault with gx4000, if you plug the power supply in that is turned on the you plug it in it will kill the amstrad gx4000. which is what happened to mine so i returned it and got a new one lol

[@MegaManNeo]

Hard to see when such interesting devices get dumped big time, the games looked quite interesting but again regardless of their issues which could've been fixed easily. Too bad this thing hit the market SO LATE, I mean it was close from the MegaDrive/SNES release. Ignoring the massively overloaded front and back of the console, the games could easily be played using either MasterSystem or MegaDrive controllers, right? I mean it's nothing but your standard 9pin plug.

[@ReplayRetro]

+MegaManNeo i'm not sure the MS or MD controllers would work, yes they're standard 9 pins but i don't know the pinouts for either off the top of my head so it could be that the up button on a MS pad would be the equivalent of button 2 on the GX for example, worse still it could fry the socket if wired totally differently, the only reason extension cables work is because the pinouts for them are irrelevant

[@joeb2588]

Burning rubber. Acceleration sounds like Atari 2600 grand prix.

[@zaxxon9662]

Z80 needs 2 clock cycles vs Commodore design based Ricoh CPU of NES so no it is not faster from the CPU point of view.

[@pizzamech3000]

It came from space

[@zaxxon9662]

I think the GX4000 is no worse than the NES....just inferior to the better technology of the Megadrive in a different way. The SMS in Japan with enhanced sound facilities, although still falling far short of the 1982 Commodore 64 SID (Sound Interface Device) analog synth on a chip solution as Golden Axe for C64 proves, is still better than the GX4000 as quite a few games demonstrate.

[@SebTH1Games]

Pang.. You mean fucking gohan from dragonball

[@johneygd]

As i could knew, the 16bit generation was the most obviouse reason why this console failed. It should,ve be released 4 years early in my oppinion.

[@ReplayRetro]

+johneygd it was undoubtedly one of the biggest issues for the system. While it may have been a very capable 8-bit machine the marketing hype of 16-bit just made it seem old and out of date. But amstrad weren't ready to go into consoles before then and what will be, will be. thanks for watching

[@itsmatt517]

Too little too late from Amstrad with this one

[@maxbspqr]

PorT :-)

[@gurriato]

Hardware before software, and the hardware is not even that good. I didn't even know this existed back in the day, but I would have given it a wide berth anyways. I had my share of euro trash with my Amstrad CPC.

[@JohnnyBareToes1]

One of the few consoles I have never owned. Been tempted a few times as brand new and sealed ones can be had for about £30. I didn't know that some of the games demaned a high price and I didn't know about the SD cart. So maybe I'll take the plunge sometime :)

[@ReplayRetro]

+StigsWorld some of the games hit absolutely crazy money, we're talking several hundred for a single game as some were so rare! as for the flash cart if you go down that route make sure you do your homework as i believe you need a different power supply for the system to run it safely thanks for watching, let me know if you pick one up :)

[@theseob]

+ReplayRetro you shouldn't use the original powersupply if you use the c4cpc cartridge, since the original powersupply delivers enough amps, causing failure of the system. That said, it was the greatest thing that i bought for my gx4000. Since i have this cart i played my gx4000 a lot more. Great thing about the cart and the fact that the gx4000 is a cpc464 without keyboard, is that a lot of games from the cpc464 can easily be ported for use on the gx4000. So a lot more then 28 games can be played.