 Welcome back to the 1980s. Nostalgia is a funny old game. And let me just clear something up here. If you don't have a friend who owned an Amstrad CPC back in the day, you're the problem. Oh, and by the way, this is not a history lesson about the Amstrad. This is more a video about those graphic artists out there that saw all those specky ports to the Amstrad CPC and thought, ugh, we've got to do better than this. So, like me, they just wanted a quality on the Amstrad. And the Amstrad graphics, including the colour palette, left a positive early impression. And I couldn't think of a better way to kick this video off than with Trantor, the last Stormtrooper. It not only looks terrific, but it's doing all the things that the Amstrad isn't supposed to be able to do. It's one of Amstrad's many Rembrandts. And Coda David Perry and graphics artist Nick Brutey did the Amstrad proud. Now this was a big deal back in the day. There was nudity long before you could type naked in your search engine. Kids had Stormlord. It's a fantastic, in fact, it's a masterclass of an adventure from Raphael Seaco and the graphics and sound alone are stunning. In fact, for a while on the Amstrad CPC, in my humble opinion, it was the best looking game I'd seen for some time. Suffice to say, it makes great use of the Amstrad's colour palette. There were two things guaranteed from anything released by Dynamic Software. The games were brutally difficult and they nearly always came with pretty graphics. After the War Scrolls nice and it makes tremendous use of the Amstrad's colour palette. And if you're into mindless blasting, this takes some beating. What's also interesting about this is the graphics modes are split between the top and bottom part of the screen. So the game area is in mode zero and the scoring area is in mode one. David Perry and Nick Brutey strike again on the Amstrad with Savage. The whole thing is finished in 16 colour throughout the three stages. And whilst it's no PlayStation 5 in the graphics department, back in the day this was pushing the Amstrad CPC nearer to its limits. But just look at it, it's a thing of beauty. It's so smooth, it's fast and the little touches to the animation you can see haven't gone unnoticed. Unconvinced more than ever. When I look back at the Amstrad CPC graphics, I feel so lucky to have owned this computer. The Amstrad was where it was at. I think if the computer would have been released maybe a year earlier and sold a few more million, not only might it have been the lead platform, we'd have probably seen a hell of a lot more games. With this level of quality, I seriously want to celebrate this game as a work of art. And look at that, goodness me. It must have been so exciting to work as a graphic artist on the Amstrad. I remember buying this and I was really impressed, especially with the graphics and the way the waves came at you and the colour in the background. So I added it just because at the time, I guess it was that shock value. And I loaded it up recently just to see if I'd imagined what I'd originally played in the graphics department and it still looks good. And the bonus is there's a good challenge. I know it doesn't scroll, but just look at it. It's absolutely fabulous to look at throughout, throughout all the levels. There's no question for me, this is one of Amstrad's finest and it came from Ocean as well, Ocean Software. And we have to remember that this would have been released in 1987. And the strength of the game is it just gets better to look at the further you progress. It's a cult classic on the Amstrad CPC and I've not spoken to anybody that doesn't love it. It's not perfect, things don't move as smoothly as I'd prefer, as I'd like, but the abundance of 16 colour and the well-defined sprites. Yes, there's a little bit of flicker on the main sprite, but apart from that, the rainbows actually look like rainbows unlike the other 8-bit versions. And this video isn't even scratching the surface. There's boss fights, there's all sorts of different levels. It's a fantastic little arcade conversion and it's done the Amstrad the 8-bit proud. This is actually one of my favourite platform games on the Amstrad CPC. It's also one of the best looking. My wife and I are watching the Adams Family spin-off on Netflix Wednesday and that's really good, but it reminded me of this game so I went back in and played it for a little bit and it's still bloody good. It's also worth tracking down a long play of this game and you'll get a sense for how big the game is and how well done the graphics are throughout. Ah, Xenon, terrible idea to add this one. But it's all fuelled by nostalgia at the end of the day and I remember loading this up and I was quite impressed with this. I thought it was a decent attempt of one of the best 16-bit shooters. I also think we did well to get this as a hand-me-down. I'm not sure if anybody in their right mind would play this today, but I'm just making the point that back then I thought it looked really good. This is basically Thundercats. Hear the magic, hear the roar. It's a difficult game, but if you persevere with it you can really get some fun out of it, some enjoyment out of it. I've played it on all the 8-bits, the Commodore 64, the ZX Spectrum, but I prefer the Amstrad. The scroll is decent, the animation is decent, the graphics are really colourful and this is another game from David Perry and the graphics from a guy called Nigel Brownjorn. Try as I might. I can't get off the first level. I used to be fantastic at this game and the second level sees you riding around in the head of the Statue of Liberty, flinging fireballs at all sorts of monsters and ghosts coming towards you and from memory the Marshmallow Man is at the end of the stage as well and it looks terrific. The chap called Steve Green did the graphics and he also later went on in 2004 to do the graphics for Sirius Sam. Remember kids, stay puffed. Every 8-bit owner knows about Batman. On the Amstrad it's probably one of the better games and I suspect it would feature in anybody's top 10. I personally love the graphics in this game. I absolutely love the detail, the sprite animation and the fact that you can flick your rope out and you're transcended to the other side of the screen instantly. Just love everything about this game and especially the graphics. Absolute thing of beauty. Here's another terrific game on the Amstrad that hardly ever gets a mention. I really like it I especially like the first level and the third stage which is a shoot and up section. For me it represents everything that was great about 8-bit what it stood for and I especially love the graphics in this game. They are some of the best. So I'm not sure why it doesn't get talked about more but enough of that we're here for the graphics and for an 8-bit these more than hold up. Good old Danny Boy. He can't beat Nick Brutze and David Perry. A strike again with Dandere 3. The first two Dandere games. I quite like them. I thought they looked really good. Especially the first one because it had that comic book style but the controls were a bit iffy. What we've got here is quite majestic. They really pulled out all the graphical stops. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and remind myself that this was an 8-bit and Amstrad CPC. Graphically it's easily one of the best. I've included Agent X2 purely for this level alone. The other levels you could take or leave. You know I just remember being blown away by the smoothness of the scroll and the look and feel of the game. The visuals are done by Mark Wilson, Steven Tatlock and John Tatlock and like the graphics just listen to that music by Tim Folin. Truly magnificent. Barbarian is the reason I look down on all 8-bit computers equally. I wouldn't have been surprised back in the day if this had been running on an Atari ST or later on the Commodore Amiga. It's that good. Pound for pound the Amstrad CPC is not only the heaviest 8-bit computer Oh gosh, it was often capable of the most beautiful display as well. I can't think of anything sensible to say about this game. It's a really good racing game, bike game and the animation on the bike is fantastic. The speed update is probably on par with Martex, Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix. But I think the thing that captures it for me the thing that pulls me in is how fast everything is and how good everything holds together and looks at top speed. I think it's safe to say that this is probably the best shooter map on the Amstrad CPC. It's also probably one of the best looking. I mean, the Amstrad CPC is one of the most peculiar computers which is, you know, one of the reasons I do rather like it and people waste lots of their time trying to criticise it and yes, things could have turned out better but I also think people should be rather more patriotic about it. It's British. I think most of us remember ZX Spectrum ports as a bad dream. The Amstrad CPC was the third machine and by that very existence that means it was top of the pile and we had every right to expect games that took the machine near its capability and this one looks flipping brilliant. It was a disgrace that we even got Speccy ports when you see things like this and I'm one of those wingers that moans about them all the time. This was one of my big delusional moments on the Amstrad CPC back in 1986. I was convinced that this arcade perfect. I mean I saw screenshots in computer and video games and other magazines at the time but until I'd actually played the arcade version this was like a honeymoon period for me and compared to a lot of the games on the Amstrad around this time this one really stood out. Get Dexter looked absolutely amazing but this second one took it to another level I remember thinking my god what's going on the original took me by surprise the second one I just wasn't expecting caught me cold. This was just the boost the Amstrad CPC needed at the time and I talked this game and the Amstrad up like there was no tomorrow. The best thing is it's all beautifully designed and really well animated. I first remember seeing the Commodore 64 version and I was like oh gosh that's absolutely appalling so I wasn't holding out much for the Amstrad CPC arcade conversion I still had shades of outrun in my mind but the one saving grace is that I remember the same people that worked on Wettelmans were working on the Amstrad version of Chase HQ and just look at it it's bloody marvellous God I remember this one it's completely bonkers in fact I've mostly forgotten how it works but what can't be denied is the quality of the graphics that absolutely brilliant you just have to make sure you see this game because it uses the Amstrad colour palette and graphics in the way it was intended you probably can't see it now but back in the day this amazed me there's a lovely metallic sheen to this game it really stands out it's got that techno feel to it I just remember having lots of fun with it and it was from Ocean Software and when I saw these graphics I thought to myself I've got lots to look forward to this is the way it's going to be from now on and look at that little left hand side scrolling printer it works really well brilliant it's definitely one of my favourites and it's one of my favourites to look at now according to Amtix February 1987 they said that the graphics are very colourful better than the Commodore 64 version and it's a very highly polished piece of programming so I'll definitely take that and it's always nice to know have it confirmed that we've got one over the Commodore 64 it's one of my personal favourites and I absolutely love the graphics stay away from those ghosts yeah I'm not sure what to make of this one as a game I preferred Pacmania you just couldn't see enough of the screen for this one and it was really difficult to finish the graphics though I think personally just up things a notch I love the colour that's being used and the smoothness of the scroll why on earth didn't Pacmania look this good? still back in the day I played the tape out of this now although I found this one a little bit boring a little bit too slow but graphically it doesn't really put a foot wrong so it wasn't utterly miserable I think it's biggest failure is that it's just repetitive and yes it's another example that the Amstrad CPC can do shoot-em-ups and it can scroll perfectly well and just look at all those sprites on screen at once I mean my problem with this game Mr. Heli is that anybody I knew back in the day that knew anything about anything told me that games like this wouldn't work on the Amstrad CPC you know not just from 64 fanboys or ZX Spectrum fanboys from anybody anybody who had a vague idea of how this stuff worked so when I saw this it was like come of the hour come of the computer now I can't remember if this game hit the bottom of the barrel you know if it was any good or not but I remember the graphics and I really like them they really stood out and they get bigger and bolder and better the more you play in fact I don't think there was anything wrong with this game other than it was really difficult but I think the graphics are good I like them I think this one Squeak went down really well and it's probably one of the better games on the Amstrad but it looks absolutely terrific massively cute but terrific I think on the 16-bit versions the game actually scrolls and according to computer and video games back in 1989 they said incredibly even cuter sprites than on the ST and the Amiga versions talking about great graphics not many games on the Amstrad can hold a candle to sorcery in fact Amtix back in November 1985 said to date graphically the best arcade adventure yet for your Amstrad and I don't think many people would argue with that there's lots of fantastic looking games on the Amstrad some I haven't even covered but yes this is up there I imagine that many will argue that this is the best graphically on the Amstrad CPC and computer and video games back in July 1991 they awarded this game 94% but they said that they were amazed by the quality of the Amstrad conversion the animation is as show-stopping as ever the game plays great and there's loads to keep you occupied can't argue with that this is late in the Amstrad's life Super Cauldron it's doing things in 64K that I wasn't even aware the Amstrad could do and it's also one of the best games I've played on the Amstrad I think it also pushes the Amstrad the tablet and the multi-directional scroll further than it's probably been pushed before and when I say that I mean from a stock Amstrad CPC 64K machine now this is a special game on the stock Amstrad CPC it's 128K to run but it's an even better game on the Amstrad Plus machines well I say it's a better game it just looks better, infinitely better but for a stock Amstrad CPC this is a thing of wonder a thing of beauty it's absolutely magnificent it's delightful it's a shame that this game doesn't feature any sound but it's got everything and if you played it on the Amiga then you'll understand how good it is for an 8-bit even the text in the comic book sections has a nice feel about it it's just a really well put together package you can tell, you can see that whoever did the graphics on this game it was a real labour of love they really understood the Amstrad colour palette I remember the first time I saw this winter games and it did, it blew me away and I remember shouting at everyone come and have a look at this, it's unbelievable I was probably only about 8 I love looking back at all of these games I mean there's not much to look forward to at the moment in the UK I mean we've had Brexit we've had three Prime Ministers, two Monarchs a Recession, a European War Exit from the quarterfinals of the World Cup again apparently we finished second in the Eurovision but nobody watched that so the only thing I look forward to outside of my family and relate to right now is retro gaming and none made a bigger impact on the Amstrad CPC in the graphic department in Xypho's fantasy the gameplay, the controls are a little bit ropey but as you can see, look at that look at that and there's so many games I haven't even mentioned Akari Warriors, Renegade Target Renegade, Combat School in fact Dragon Ninja from memory looked really good, it was a nice scroll Gauntlet was really good as well and Gauntlet too in fact Gremlin Graphics released Nigel Mansel, World Championship in the latter stages of the Amstrad's life and that was pretty special as well Graphically there's a lot to celebrate about the Amstrad CPC it really did hold its own and as time's gone on there's been really good progression in the Amstrad community it's more alive now than ever the game that I would cite as probably having the best graphics of all time is Pimbal Dreams and we've still got Vespatino to come so I hope you've enjoyed this video don't forget to like, subscribe, leave a comment and let me know if there's a game I missed now, if you've watched up until this point next are some honorable mentions enjoy