ZX Spectrum vs. Amstrad CPC - 8 games from 1990

Hello and welcome to the seventh episode of ZX Spectrum versus Amstrad CPC games.
In this video, 8 games released in 1990 are shown running on both machines so you can see how different (or similar) they were. Games like Golden Axe, Super Cars, Rainbow Islands, Turrican and more.
Thanks for watching and let me know in the comments section below who "wins".
And, of course, see you in the next RetroNoName episode

[@Peter-MH]

1990 was clearly a vintage year in home computing! Some absolute classics here! 👍

[@ravengaming2597]

I don't understand why so many programmers got lazy with the CPC. That system was capable when programmed correctly. No need for the blatant speccy ports at all.

[@TheTurnipKing]

5 million Spectrums vs 3 million CPCS. It's that simple. You'd more than cut in half your potential sales if you ignored the Spectrum. And the two systems were quite similar on a hardware level (especially the 128ks, even sharing the same sort of sound chip). Producing a Spectrum port to CPC was pretty close to trivial. So it boils down to "how much time and how many programmers do we have to make a good job of it" On top of that you have the likes of the Master System creeping into the market. No matter HOW good you make the CPC version look it's still going to be destroyed by that.

[@somethingsmells5387]

CPC pixel arts is beautiful. The spectrum had better game play.

[@renaudg]

Great video and once again, the CPC looks like a proper 8-bit computer in the same league as the C64, while the Spectrum and its primitive graphics belong more to the late 70s/Atari 2600 era.

[@tofik5939]

👍👍

[@renaudg]

Rainbow Islands on the CPC is the only 8-bit port with actual rainbow colours. On the Spectrum they're monochrome. Monochrome. Rainbows. That's everything you need to know about this machine 😄

[@Maxozavrmp3]

The CPC is more full color, but I still like the Speccy style too.

[@hamphlet]

Neither machine was great at scrolling, but the CPC has much more colourful graphics and none of the Speccy's colour clash issues. The tradeoff, of course, was the lower resolution. Generally, I much prefer the look of the CPC games and I've genuinely been surprised by the quality of some of them. Some great games here, but Grand Prix Circuit was a dogs dinner on both systems.

[@retrononame]

Graphics is better on CPC, no question here, but (at least for me), most games play a bit better on ZX. Can't point my finger on exactly what is the reason - maybe that CPC versions feel a bit more "sluggish".

[@MephProduction]

Amstrad wins most of theses , but all games fairly good on both systems. Spectrum however looked very childish by Amstrad and c64 standards. it really struggled to keep up in the later years.

[@retrononame]

Agree, but most games (at least for me) have "less sluggish" feeling on Speccy. If CPC would support hardware sprites (I know the plus versions did but it was too late by then), then this would be one hell of a 8-bit 80s gaming machine.

[@Edgel-in6bs]

Great vid as ever. When you see the CPC graphics on most, you realize that with some sprites/hardware scrolling, it's 27 colour graphics could have produced some amazing games. NB, never liked rainbow islands on any system, always found it tedious, noting these two are good conversions.

[@retrononame]

Thanks Yes, CPC graphics can be quite good. Although I do have a feeling that the games are mostly more "sluggish" than on (for example in this video) the Speccy.

[@dennyhaynes3]

1. Golden axe, better graphics on the CPC but overall both look an average game. 2. Stormlord, draw, like the colour palette on both games. 3. For graphics the CPC really kicks the spectrum but both games look good to play. 4. Supercars, Spectrum the winner but only just. 5. Rick Dangerous 2, CPC has the better colour palette but I'm good with the spectrum one as well. 6. Magic land Dizzy, spectrum version takes this round. 7. Turrican, CPC better colour but not keen on either game. 8. Grand Prix circuit, I think both versions are poor.

[@retrononame]

Pretty much agree with everything. CPC usually better graphics, but games are mostly "less sluggish" on ZX. At least IMO.

[@renaudg]

Stormlord a draw ?! What "colour palette" on the Spectrum ? It's all monochrome sprites.

[@obregr]

ne vem zakaj,ampk nekako spektruma lešđe a pa he bil cc močnrjši al isti lede konfiguracije?

[@jay1177]

The devs butchered most of those games on the Cpc