The 20 Greatest Amstrad CPC Games of All-Time

[@TheLairdsLair]

Full Top 50 Games List: 50 - Green Beret 49 - Sabre Wulf 48 - Captain Blood 47 - Flying Shark 46 - Get Dexter 45 - Total Eclipse 44 - Alien 43 - Klax 42 - Saboteur 2 41 - Knightlore 40 - Rampage 39 - Zynaps 38 - Commando 37 - Renegade 36 - R-Type CPC 35 - Rainbow Islands 34 - Thanatos 33 - Turrican 32 - Buggy Boy 31 - Exolon 30 - Daley Thompson's Decathlon 29 - Ghostbusters 28 - Spindizzy 27 - Sorcery+ 26 - Cybernoid 25 - Prince of Persia 24 - Double Dragon 23 - Fruity Frank 22 - Bomb Jack 21 - Super Robin Hood 20 - Oh Mummy! 19 - Treasure Island Dizzy 18 - Elite 17 - Gauntlet 16 - Chuckie Egg 2 15 - Roland In Time 14 - Operation Wolf 13 - Boulderdash 12 - Gryzor 11 - Golden Axe 10 - Head Over Heels 9 - Roland on the Ropes 8 - Harrier Attack 7 - Batman The Movie 6 - Ikari Warriors 5 - Chase HQ 4 - Dizzy 3 - Jet Set Willy 2 - Target Renegade 1 - Robocop

[@Tan_Kavdoru]

we need chapters and game titles on screen

[@ccfc147]

Where is Wonderboy!

[@jasonburton1977]

who dares wins was my favorite game if anyone remembers

[@twankistevenson3884]

When the software houses could actually be bothered making a proper CPC port rather than just lazily slapping over the speccy version?.. more than a mstch for tje C64 and Speccy

[@nilz9397]

It's a great list. I had an Amstrad CPC6128. I'm glad Head over Heels made it as well as Robocop. I'm surprised the Batman developed by the same guys who did Head Over Heels isn't on there. As well as Rainbow Islands, Slapfight, Freddies Hardest, Madballs, Game Over, Phantom Club, and Mikie. And a few more I forgot to include Green Baret, and Arknoid.

[@Peter-in8uc]

Rainbow Islands is a very surprising ommison from this list - a fantastic version of the game on the Amstrad. Thanks for the video on the most under-rated 8 bit, some great memories and Robocop is a worthy winner - what a game for the time 👍

[@TheLairdsLair]

I agree, I thought it would make the list easy,

[@n057828]

The sounds and graphics my gosh!

[@WeSombreGhosts]

I loved Chucky Egg 2 on the C64 as someone had mentioned huge game never completed it.

[@jasonburton1977]

thanks for video.....rembered all the tunes as much as the games nice 1

[@Sui2807]

I never had many of those games on my 464 as a kid(I had Oh Mummy, the two Roland games, Harrier Attack and Boulder Dash), but from what I did have, my favourites were, in no order: Sorcery, Boulder Dash, Fantastic Voyage, Manic Miner, Roland In Time, Batman(the isometric one), Three Weeks In Paradise, Everyone's A Wally and Herbert's Dummy Run. Damn, I miss those games!

[@peterkelly4567]

I was suprised that Manic MIner didn't make the list.

[@mza5817]

I loved Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and had a soft spot for the Yes Prime Minister game.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Daley Thompson’s Decathlon only just missed out on the Top 20.

[@imranahmad2733]

My nephew had the green screen CPC, I think my favourites on it was Harrier Attack, Roland in the Caves, Roland on the Ropes and Ghostbuster 2, alot of the games in the video I played on my spectrum +2, but those where my favourites on the CPC.

[@baz8755]

Sorcery/Sorcery+,Manic Miner and many of the Ultimate games are noticeable by there absence

[@TheLairdsLair]

Sorcery only just missed out on the top 20.

[@Nyctonaut]

I was born in 1990, so these were all before my time. But I've recently been emulating these platforms on my rp3+. I'd love to have been able to go back and really experience these how they felt when they were released rather than with the knowledge of all that came after. I have most of these titles right now, and now that i know which ones were favorites, I'll be giving 'em a go in my free time today. Always love getting new videos from your channel. Thanks!

[@renaudg]

Puzzling selection ! Did you ask in international groups as well ? I don't think many of us in France or Spain (where the CPC was most successful) would have put any Amsoft or Dizzy games in the top 20. Robocop, Operation Wolf, Chase HQ, Gryzor for sure. But where are Barbarian, Rick Dangerous, Prince of Persia, Savage, Bomb Jack, Cybernoid, Double Dragon, Get Dexter, Skweek, Crazy Cars 2 ? Each of those is either the best conversion of the three 8-bits or an Amstrad exclusive.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yes, lots of French, German and Spanish people voted too. A lot of the ones you list are in the wider top 40.

[@markdillon5494]

As a C64 owner in my childhood I was always jealous of the wonderful Amstrad colour palette. Bright, colourful and vibrant. The C64 in contrast was....brown. The Amstrad lacked in many other ways graphically compared to the C64 but that Amstrad palette always looked great on screenshots in magazines.

[@kyletitterton]

Off the top of my head... Ikari Warriors, Gryzor, Blasteroids, Colony, R-Type... got I loved that computer!

[@kyletitterton]

Most of the Dizzys.

[@kyletitterton]

Bubble Bobble

[@arostwocents]

Id LOVE a Mario Kart romhack called Micro Karts - with all characters based on famous characters from the Spectrum/c64/Amstrad and tracks redesigned to be based on famous games. That would genuinely be incredible.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Funnily enough I used to work with a games publisher that owns a lot of the old I.P. from the 8-bit home computers and proposed exactly that. They never took me up on the idea sadly.

[@arostwocents]

Great to see some of the hugely improved ports developed from scratch make the top of the list, rather than copy and pasted from Spectrum. Ive not tried several of these on Amstrad and will check them out 👍 Surprised Donkey Kong didnt make the list, its up there with the 7800 version for me. Surprised some of the modern homebrew didnt finish higher with the incredible remakes of RType, Mario Bros et al being on the next level compared to Speccy copypasta jobs. I understand though as its primarily led by nostalgia rather than objectivity. Awesome video. Thanks Dr Laird for all your tireless work to entertain us ❤

[@arostwocents]

Is it Amstrad or c64 that received the stunning Toki remake? I thought that was Amstrad? Definitely deserved a place in the top ten if it was. Edit: might be confusing the awesome Spectrum Toki with screenshots of an Amstrad one in development into one game in my mind maybe lol

[@TheLairdsLair]

All 3 have had modern remakes of Toki

[@jdblick1002]

I don't recall Roland in Time with mine, but I definitely had Roland on the Ropes, and also Roland in the Caves, which I guess, a modern day equivalent would be Jump King? (although single screen) I had the green screen monitor variant. Awesome video brings back many happy memories of playing in my bedroom in the 80's. Thanks!

[@xenorac]

Why was the colour palette so lacklustre on the Dizzy games?

[@TheLairdsLair]

Because they used the high-res graphics mode which can only display 4 colours.

[@xenorac]

@@TheLairdsLair Ah thanks, back in the day I was using a Spectrum and had no idea there was different graphics modes on the CPC.

[@ianchandler6086]

Afewtoo many naff spectrum ports on there for me. No Spindizzy,Sorcery or Trailblazer.

[@TayWoode]

Anyone remember the magic knight series? Finders keepers, spellbound, knight time, stormbringer. And Cauldron, Sorcery, the apprentice were cool too

[@TheLairdsLair]

Of course, great games, I have interviewed the creator David Jones several times and he's featured in one of my books.

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks

[@Ian-xq4rt]

Loved my 6128, so wish I kept it

[@alexandermirdzveli3200]

IMHO. Some nominees are more than questionable.

[@TheLairdsLair]

This is what people voted for!

[@ianbarrett4166]

Target renegade amazing game and music

[@colinmcdonald2499]

3:30 wow! Best 8 bit computer ad ever... Outta France!

[@FatNorthernBigot]

This is pure nostalgia, as I'm an old fart. If the CPU was just a little quicker, it would of trounced the competition.

[@arostwocents]

C64 maybe, it was too expensive to ever tackle the Spectrum. C64 was too expensive for a huge number of people. There's no way my Dad would have spent a grand in today's money on a games machine (although he probably spent way more than that building a huge Spectrum game collection 😂)

[@lostxj]

I love the colors on that thing. They totally makes up for the chonky pixels. And I agree. With just a little more power to smooth out that frame rate and give it just a touch more capability it would have dominated.

[@mashk]

CPU was fine for the time, now if it had hardware support for sprites and scrolling. Which funnily enough they did with the plus range machines. Far too late though.

[@xxnoxx-xp5bl]

​@@arostwocents I respectfully disagree. The Speccy was cheaper and provided plenty of fun, while the C64 had bragging rights as the 'best' system around. Who puts extra money down to be in the middle?

[@maxheadroom22and26]

The four 8 bit computers i like the most are C64, Atari 8 bit, MSX2 and CPC. I like the colourful graphics of the CPC if it's not using the Spectrum mode. Scrolling is choppy though and sound is only ok. This list shows one big disadvantage to me: Except the Amsoft games you had all the other games on C64 too! Most (all?) of them on Spectrum also. Some of these games seemed to be better, at least the graphics, on CPC though: Chase HQ, Head over Heels, Elite. Are there any exclusives (or at least not on C64 AND commercially sold, no later homebrew), that are fun to play?

[@TheLairdsLair]

See the Amstrad CPC Exclusives video that is linked in the description. But the CPC has very few actual exclusives, especially compared to all its 8-bit rivals.

[@alexxbaudwhyn7572]

Cpc464 unknown in usa at the time, other than what I saw in ads in ST Format magazine 😊 I relied on UK magazines during my St years

[@TheLairdsLair]

I was an avid ST Format reader myself, great magazine!

[@tsangarisjohn]

My buddy had one, I had an Atari ST , and another one of my friends had an Amiga. All cool systems 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@timwilcox5158]

great video.. my CPC just has the green screen monitor.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Mine has a green screen too.

[@TroyTempest777]

Harrier attack was great..jut don't bomb your own ship when you take off!😂 Robocop was awesome,especially the second level..the shoot through the skirt scene just like in the film! Another great movie game was the Untouchables..based on the Kevin Costner gangster movie. Was a great computer to play on,and games were pretty affordable to kids

[@adamlee7025]

Great Saturday morning video.. I never owned a amstrad had a specky instead .question .is there a copy of hero quest on the amstrad if so how does it hold up to the specky version??? Gr8 video ❤

[@TheLairdsLair]

There is and it's very similar to the Spectrum version.

[@STR82DVD]

I had no idea that the Amstrad had 20 great titles mind you, I'm Canadian so we just didn't get this here or if we did, it failed in terms of market penetration.

[@rylodinson]

Sorcery ! that was the game that made me jealous I don't owned an Amstrad CPC 464 back in the days

[@TheLairdsLair]

That only just missed the top 20.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

I recused myself from voting . I never played the CPC. Really excellent ports on that thing! Gauntlet, operation wolf, golden axe. Others too. Makes me wonder if the system had any major downsides in that era?

[@TheLairdsLair]

No hardware sprites or scrolling so everything is very CPU intensive.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

@@TheLairdsLair Thanks. So it intrigues even more that so many very good or great ports were made from what you said. Specificaly the ones I mentioned.

[@miggy4eva980]

And to think, the Amiga was released only 7 months later and look at the chasm in performance. This unwatchable mess of pixels accompanied by ear bleeding beeps and blops was actually par for the course before the amazing Amiga came along. I watched all of this video just so I could appreciate what the Amiga was at the time

[@isayoldchap1]

The C64 versions of most popular games were far smoother and had played better than the Amtrad counterparts. I was envious of friends with C64s. There were some exceptions of course, but the C64 trounced the Amstrad when it came to music and sound effects. The graphics on the amstrad were more saturated which looked good in screenshots but the frame rate was never great and the sprites tended to flicker quite badly at times. Still, fond memories of certain games that made the most of the system's capabilities.

[@vasileios6301]

TMHT should have been on the list. Overall CPC6128 is the best 8bit home micro for me!

[@faenethlorhalien]

Ah, imagine, if back in the day, 2 years after the release of the Spectrum, with all the progress in technology that implied, if Sugar had had the intelligence to realize that CP/M was dead and had decided to fit his new Amstrad chip with a 6502-based processor. Let's say 2 Mhz, which was not out of the question by 1984, and the same 64 ram... with the amazing pallette of the CPC and the sprite capacity of the 6502, it would have TROUNCED over the C64 in Europe. Ah, what a big, big mistake.

[@TheLairdsLair]

The CPC was originally 6502 based but the story goes that they couldn't get the custom graphics chip to work with the 6502 properly and it would have taken too long to redesign so went with the Z80, which the design team were much more familiar with.

[@arostwocents]

​​@@TheLairdsLairinteresting! Was the Spectrum 128k ever meant to actually be improved?

[@TheLairdsLair]

Yes, the Sinclair Loki project, which was ultimately cancelled when Amstrad bought Sinclair. The Loki team left, set up on their own as Flare Technology and then developed the unreleased Konix Multisystem and Atari Jaguar.

[@shiva_MMIV]

The sprite capabilities of the C64 were due to the custom chips, not the 6502 itself.

[@DavidB-rx3km]

BUT WHERE IS [insert game I loved as a kid but I didn’t vote for]??!!??!!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Pretty much sums up this entire comments section!!!!

[@EmperorKonstantine01]

No one in my Nerd community ever bought an Amstrad in the 80's, we all went commodore or Apple. However i did have a keen interest in thsi computer but it wasnt all that popular and games were not abandunt or no one had any Amstrad to swap software.

[@TayWoode]

Same, everyone at school had a C64 except me and two other guys so we’d always swap and copy games from each other

[@Mr.1.i]

There are games that are excellent on the c64 and zx spectrum but the title was crud on the amstrad,there are also games on the amstrad that were brilliant but the titles were detritus on the c64

[@dizzydevil79]

Teh is commode of course but I think Amstard is slow

[@dizzydevil79]

Teh Amstsard Commode 64 is more superiors too the Sinclare Commode 64

[@FoxnDiz]

So many games missing, and a fair few unworthy titles. You at least needed Rainbow Islands & Richard Aplin's Double Dragon in there.

[@TheLairdsLair]

1. These are the games that about 300 people voted for. 2. If you looked at the pinned post with the full Top 50 you will see that both those games feature.

[@georgen1693]

No combat school

[@samsoul75]

Big smile on my face when I saw this old french commercial, nice souvenirs 🙂

[@moterov4]

Do people seriously not vote for any homebrew games worthy of being in Amstrad's top 20? Seriously, are Dizzys, Rolands, Willys, etc. better games than "Pinball Dreams", "Operation Alexandra", "Alcon'2020" or "Baba's Palace" among many others? Well, now CPCRetrodev has closed, dead. The quality and quantity of new jobs, declining. The message that this community gives to developers is: "dedicate your leisure time to something else, because your work is not valued here".

[@TheLairdsLair]

Only R-Type CPC got any votes, as I said in the intro.

[@robsmall6466]

I have a feeling the majority of voters saw this as a commercial list and therefore were not aware they could include homebrew. Otherwise Pinball Dreams and a few others mentioned would be there. There are loads of homebrew still being released despite the RetroDev comp being up in the air. I would of had P47 in this list commercial or otherwise

[@TheLairdsLair]

I always make people aware its all games, but with nearly all these lists nostalgia always wins out. There are only 3 videos I've made where homebrew had any real presence (Atari 7800, MSX2 and Commodore/+4) and even then the top 20s were dominated by commercial releases.