Games

2010-06-28T07:50:27Z

Judy123:

This page covers important facts concerning the Amstrad CPC/Plus games.

With a list of Software houses, and the various and notable technics used in well known games.

For a more complete list of games or game related topics, check the "category:games" at the bottom of this page.

== All-time top games ==

Article moved [[Top games|here]]

== Software Houses ==

*[[A&F Software]]
*[[Activision|Activision]]
*[[Advanced Software Promotions]]
*[[Alligata Software|Alligata Software]]
*[[Alternative Software]]
*[[Americana|Americana]]
*[[AMSOFT|AMSOFT]]
*[[Anco Software|Anco Software]]
*[[Anirog|Anirog]]
*[[Ariolasoft]]
*[[Artic Computing]]
*[[Atlantis Software]]
*[[Beau Jolly|Beau Jolly]]
*[[Blaby Computer Games]]
*[[Blue Ribbon]]
*[[Bubble Bus Software]]
*[[Bug-Byte]]
*[[Byte Back]]
*[[Cascade Games|Cascade Games]]
*[[CDS Software]]
*[[Cobra Soft|Cobra Soft]]
*[[Codemasters|Codemasters]]
*[[CP Software]]
*[[CRL|CRL]]
*[[Cronosoft|Cronosoft]]
*[[Cult]]
*[[Database Software|Database Software]]
*[[Delta Software]]
*[[Design Design]]
*[[Digital Integration|Digital Integration]]
*[[Dinamic|Dinamic]]
*[[DMV|DMV]]
*[[Domark|Domark]]
*[[Dro Soft]]
*[http://www.superiorpapers.com custom papers]
*[[Durell|Durell]]
*[[Electric Dreams|Electric Dreams]]
*[[Electronic Arts|Electronic Arts]]
*[[Elite Systems|Elite Systems]]
*[[Epyx|Epyx]]
*[[Firebird|Firebird]]
*[[ERE Informatique|ERE Informatique]]
*[[Grandslam|Grandslam]]
*[[Gremlin Graphics|Gremlin Graphics]]
*[[Hewson|Hewson]]
*[[Hi-Tec Software|Hi-Tec Software]]
*[[Image Works|Image Works]]
*[[Imagine|Imagine]]
*[[Incentive|Incentive]]
*[[Indescomp]]
*[[Infocom|Infocom]]
*[[Infogrames|Infogrames]]
*[[Interceptor Software]]
*[[Kixx|Kixx]]
*[[Konami|Konami]]
*[[Krisalis|Krisalis]]
*[[Kuma Computers|Kuma Computers]]
*[[Loriciel|Loriciels]]
*[[Lankhor|Lankhor]]
*[[Leisure Genius|Leisure Genius]]
*[[Level 9|Level 9]]
*[[Magic Bytes|Magic Bytes]]
*[[Magnetic Scrolls|Magnetic Scrolls]]
*[[Martech]]
*[[Mastertronic|Mastertronic]]
*[[MBC|MBC]]
*[[Melbourne House|Melbourne House]]
*[[Microids|Microids]]
*[[Microprose|Microprose]]
*[[Microstyle|Microstyle]]
*[[Mikro-Gen|Mikro-Gen]]
*[[Mindscape|Mindscape]]
*[[Mirrorsoft|Mirrorsoft]]
*[[New Age Software|New Age Software]]
*[[Ocean|Ocean]]
*[[Opera Soft|Opera Soft]]
*[[Palace Software|Palace Software]]
*[[Players|Players]]
*[[PSS|PSS]]
*[[Psygnosis|Psygnosis]]
*[[Radical Software|Radical Software]]
*[[Rainbird (software house)|Rainbird]]
*[[Rainbow Arts|Rainbow Arts]]
*[[Romik]]
*[[Silmarils|Silmarils]]
*[[Silverbird|Silverbird]]
*[[Software Projects]]
*[[System 3|System 3]]
*[[The Edge|The Edge]]
*[[The Power House]]
*[[Titus Software|Titus Software]]
*[[Topo Soft|Topo Soft]]
*[[Tynesoft|Tynesoft]]
*[[Ubi Soft|Ubi Soft]]
*[[Ultimate Play The Game|Ultimate Play The Game]]
*[[US Gold|US Gold]]
*[[Virgin Games|Virgin Games]]
*[[Vortex Software|Vortex Software]]
*[[Weeske|Weeske]]
*[[WoW Software|WoW Software]]
*[[Zeppelin Games|Zeppelin Games]]
*[[Zigurat|Zigurat]]

== Copy Protection ==

* [[Lenslok]]

== Loading music ==

=== Cassette ===

Loading from cassette effectively uses all the CPU's time because you have to keep checking the cassette signal to see if it has changed, and you use a CPU timing loop to calculate length of signal.

So to do music and other things during loading requires precise timing. The C64 effectively had interrupt driven loading music and the serial chip handled clocking in of the data bits and signalled an interrupt when the byte of data was ready.

 

I think only Firebird games had loading music on cassette. The music was composed by Melvyn Wright ([http://www.melright.com www.melright.com]). The music data was embeded into the data on cassette. The data was read as a group of 3 bits and 8 data bits. The 3 bits determined if the 8 data bits were for data or for music.

 

This list is not complete, please add more. Will upload YM of the loading music soon.

 

{| class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
|Game
|Loading music
|-
|Booty
|
|-
|Comet Game (The)
|[[Media:Comet_game_%28the%29-loader.ym|Media:Comet_game_(the)-loader.ym]] 
|-
|Harvey Headbanger
|[[Media:Harvey_headbanger-loader.ym|Media:Harvey_headbanger-loader.ym‎]]
|-
|Thrust
|[[Media:Thrust.ym]]
|-
|Spiky Harold
|[[Media:Spiky_harold-loader.ym|Media:Spiky_harold-loader.ym]]
|}

=== Disc ===

The disc system on the Amstrad is "polled" which means the CPU has to keep checking if the FDC (NEC765) has more data to read/write. On the C64 the disc system is interrupt driven.

So to do music while loading requires careful timing and often the use of very small sectors (128bytes).

 

ZapTBalls

The Demo

5KB Demo 3

Midline Process

Orion Prime

 

 

== Games Which use hardware tricks (on old generation cpcs) ==

Useful if you want to dissect games to work out how they did it.

Please move to somewhere more appropiate

 

=== Page Flipping ===

Most good CPC games use the page-flipping technique in order to display sprites and/or scroll the playing area smoothly. In particular, two memory areas (instead of one) are reserved for the screen ram. In each frame, one of the two screens is displayed in turn, by using the hardware (exactly by changing the screen-offset, Reg 12 and 13 of the [[CRTC|CRTC]]). At the same time, the next frame is being drawn in the non-visible screen until the next frame fly back signal. Then, the same cycle is repeated for each following frame.

The big advantage of this technique is that we can use a whole frame's machine-time for our code (with no animation problems that arise when we alter screen ram at the same time the electron beam displays it on the monitor). On the other hand, page flipping eats up a lot of memory area (which is crucial especially for 64Kb machines). This explains why a lot of games have very small game-areas !

=== Hardware Scrolling ===

This list is not exhaustive.

*R3 used to make an approximate byte lenght horizontal scroll (not really smooth)
*R5 used to make smoother vertical scroll (1 line)

{| class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| ''Title''
| ''Year''
| ''Vertical''
| ''Horizontal''
| ''R3''
| ''R5''
| ''Confirmed''
|-
| [[Action Force|Action Force]]
| 1988
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Anarchy|Anarchy]]
| 1988
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Axys|Axys]]
| 1991
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Bob Morane Science Fiction|Bob Morane Science Fiction]]
| 1987
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Builderland|Builderland]]
| 1991
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[FlySpy|FlySpy]]
| 1986
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Fusion 2|Fusion 2]]
| 1988
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Gothic|Gothic]]
| 1988
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Ghosts 'n' Goblins|Ghosts 'n' Goblins]]
| 1986
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Jinks|Jinks]]
| 1988
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Killer Cobra|Killer Cobra]]
| 1987
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Led Storm|Led Storm]]
| 1988
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Legend of Kage|Legend of Kage]]
| 1986
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Leviathan|Leviathan]]
| 1987
| Diagonal
| scroll!
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Le 5eme Axe|Le 5eme Axe]]
| 1985
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Mission Genocide|Mission Genocide]]
| 1987
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Monty Python's Flying Circus]]
| 1990
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Octoplex|Octoplex]]
| 1989
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| Yes(?)
| Yes
|-
| [[Out Of This World|Out Of This World]]
| 1987
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Paraplane|Paraplane]]
| 1992
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Prehistorik 2|Prehistorik 2]]
| 1992
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Prohibition|Prohibition]]
| 1987
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Rick Dangerous 2|Rick Dangerous 2]]
| 1990
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Roland On the Ropes|Roland On the Ropes]]
| 1984
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Sentinel (The)|Sentinel (The)]]
| 1987
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Skate Ball|Skate Ball]]
| 1989
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Skate Rock|Skate Rock]]
| 1987
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
|-
| [[Skate Wars|Skate Wars]]
| 1990
| No
| Yes
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Star Avenger|Star Avenger]]
| 1984
| No
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Stryker In The Crypt Of Trogan|Stryker In The Crypt Of Trogan]]
| 1992
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Super Cauldron|Super Cauldron]]
| 1992
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Titan|Titan]]
| 1988
| Yes
| Yes
| No
| No
|-
| [[Ultima Ratio|Ultima Ratio]]
| 1987
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|-
| [[Warhawk|Warhawk]]
| 1987
| Yes
| No
| No
| Yes
| Yes
|}

=== Rupture (or splitscreen) ===

A technique to split the screen into more than one block vertically. (independant videoram offset) Used to hardware scroll one part of the screen while another is static.
This list is not exhaustive.

{| class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| ''Title''
| ''Year''
| ''Confirmed''
|-
| [[Action Force|Action Force]]
| 1988
| Yes
|-
| [[Axys|Axys]]
| 1991
| Yes
|-
| [[Dynamic Duo|Dynamic Duo]]
|
|
|-
| [[Enlightenment: Druid 2|Enlightenment: Druid 2]]
|
|
|-
| [[Grell and Falla|Grell and Falla]]
|
|
|-
| [[Mission Genocide|Mission Genocide]]
| 1987
| Yes
|-
| [[Octoplex|Octoplex]]
| 1989
| Yes
|-
| [[Prehistorik 2|Prehistorik 2]]
| 1992
| Yes
|-
| [[Skate Ball|Skate Ball]]
| 1989
| Yes
|-
| [[Skatewars|Skatewars]]
| 1989
|
|-
| [[Snowstrike|Snowstrike]]
|
|
|-
| [[Super Cauldron|Super Cauldron]]
| 1992
| Yes
|-
| [[Turrican|Turrican]]
| 1990
| Yes
|-
| [[Ultima Ratio|Ultima Ratio]]
| 1987
| Yes
|-
| [[Usagi Yojimbo|Usagi Yojimbo]]
|
|
|-
| [[Xyphoes Fantasy|Xyphoes Fantasy]]
|
|
|-
| [[Sol Negro(opera)|Sol Negro(opera)]]
|
|
|-
| [[Twin World (Ubi Soft)|Twin World (Ubi Soft)]]
| 1990
| Yes
|-
| [[Warhawk|Warhawk]]
| 1987
| Yes
|}

==Firmware==

The following games are known to use firmware functions. This probably explains why they are poor. If the programmer had used the hardware directly they would have lots more cycles free which they could have used to make the game better.

This list is not exhaustive.

*Xevious

==Shame amongst shames==

*[[Speccy Port]]

*[[Direct Disk to Cartridge Port]]

[[Category:Games| ]][[Category:Games Programming]][[Category:Stub]]

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