Alex Higgins' World Snooker

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1985

Presented by the name of snooker's World Champion Alex Higgins, the game is a snooker simulator with top-down view of the table. In the beginning of the game, the player places the cue ball in fixed position on the table. To give it a direction, the cue ball's image is placed in the desired destination's position. Adjusting the force and spin, the player gives a movement to the cue ball. The coloured and/or numbered balls should be put in pockets in a predefined order according to the rules of snooker. The one with the most points at the end of a game wins. The packs of red balls come in variations of six, ten or fifteen. There are two game modes: practice for one player and match for two players. The game is available in English, French, and German languages.

Doors of Doom

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1985

Doors of Doom is an arcade adventure with three difficulty levels, featuring a hapless hero armed only with a laser gun, who has to defeat legions of rogue robots in order to find the missing sections of a weapons system which will allow him to assemble the three Doors, in order to pass the test which will allow humanity to become part of the Galactic Federation. Features an unusual option to allow you to load different scenery files that you can design yourself.

Doors of Doom +

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1986

Doors of Doom + was the disc release of an earlier arcade adventure, also released by Amsoft Gold. Like its predecessor, the game features a hapless hero armed only with a laser gun, who has to defeat legions of rogue robots in order to find the missing sections of a weapons system which will allow him to assemble the three Doors, in order to pass the test which will allow humanity to become part of the Galactic Federation. Where this game differs is that it has three different levels/layouts for you to play through and the scenery designer is now bundled with the game to allow you to design your own levels without having to load in a separate programme.

Floyds Bank

Camputers Lynx - Released - 1983

Monster Mine

Camputers Lynx - Released - 1983

Monster Mine is a maze game viewed from above with the whole maze on the screen and you have to move about the maze collecting gold nuggets. You start at the the bottom of the mine and you need to reach one of the exits at the top of the mine. The maze is the Eldorado Gold Mine full of the nuggets but there are monsters moving about the mine that need avoiding. Each row of the mine has a monster moving along it and if you enter one of the rows then the monster will head towards you at a faster speed. If you touch a monster it is game over and each mine has a different layout every time you play.

Oh Mummy

Camputers Lynx - Released - 1984

The pyramids of ancient Egypt are known to be full of treasure, but it will take a brave man to uncover them, as the spirits have sent guardians to protect them. In this game you play an archaeologist, and mummies are after you. You have to run through a matrix (inside a pyramid), and make sure you unveil every treasure by walking around all 4 sides of each square. It's presented in a 2D top down view.

Oh Mummy

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1984

The pyramids of ancient Egypt are known to be full of treasure, but it will take a brave man to uncover them, as the spirits have sent guardians to protect them. In this game you play an archaeologist, and mummies are after you. You have to run through a matrix (inside a pyramid), and make sure you unveil every treasure by walking around all 4 sides of each square. It's presented in a 2D top down view.

Qabbalah

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1986

Qabbalah is a single person arcade adventure game. Qabbalah is an ancient Hebrew doctrine that explains the relationship between that which is unchanging and eternal and that which is mortal and finite. Part of this teaching is a belief that by tracing the paths of the Tree Of Life it is possible to once again become one with the Godhead. That belief is used as the basis for this game. The player controls a character, or acolyte, who is sending their spirit out to follow pathways along the Tree Of Life. The ultimate objective of the game is to guide the acolyte along a predetermined path through ten spheres of existence to achieve Godhead. Along the way there are objects that must be collected before the acolyte can pass from one sphere to the next. There are also demons, creatures of the dark side, who will sap the acolyte's energy. There are three levels of difficulty and the game keeps track of the highest score of the session. The game is entirely keyboard controlled.

Roland in Space

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1985

Roland in Space is a 2D scrolling platform game where you play a lord of time who must travel to seven different planets and collect the 158 components of the ARNOLD super-weapon. Once complete, this weapon will allow Roland to defeat the evil Maestro and save the universe. The game is a direct sequel to Roland in Time and has similar game-play and mechanics. The player can choose which of the seven worlds they wish to explore from the planet screen. Roland then appears from out of his phone-box like space-ship on the selected planet and can start collecting weapon pieces, represented by flickering blue orbs. Roland can move around the screen using left, right and jump keys. Other keys allow you to scroll the screen independently of moving the character. The landscape is odd in that some of it allows Roland to walk and jump through it and prevents him falling. Some other areas will collapse under him as soon as he walks on it, and there are even invisible semi-solid areas that slow Roland's rate of fall, but will allow him to gain height by continually jumping. Roland starts the game with nine regenerations, but these will easily be lost to fast moving enemies, inconveniently placed traps and falls from reasonable heights. Once all of the weapon fragments on a planet have been collected, the screen flashes. At any time, Roland can return to his phone-box and so back to the planet screen. The collected weapon parts do not re-spawn when the planet is visited again, but the rest of the level does refresh.

Roland in Time

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1984

In this game Roland has been stranded on Earth by his evil nemesis Maestro. His intergalactic time travelling vehicle, the Anti-Matter Space-Time Run-ArounD', which looks a lot like a police box is powered by special crystals and these have been scattered throughout Earth's past and Earth's future. The game's objective is to travel through all fifty three scenes / levels searching for these crystals and avoiding the baddies. The player has at their disposal nine regeneration tanks, aka lives. It can be played with either the keyboard or joystick.

Snooker

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1984

Snooker is a two player game with no computer option so you have to either both players yourself or find a friend to compete against. You can choose to play a 6, 10 or 15 ball game and all of the rules of snooker (such as foul shots, having to select a colour before hitting your shot etc.) are in place. On starting the game, the whole table is shown on screen and is viewed from above. To take a shot you position a cross to where you want to hit the ball and when your happy with your position you hold down the fire button and select the amount of power you want to hit the shot with and the amount of spin you want to put on it via a pair of bar graphs. Clear the table and score the most points to win the game.

Spannerman

Camputers Lynx - Released - 1983

Spannerman

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1984

This is a very good little arcade game, by Gem Software, who seemed to do the better games for Amsoft. Every screen has pipes and platforms and ladders and nasty rats. The pipes start to leak and you have to use your trusty spanner to stop them. As the water leaks out, it starts to fill up the screen from below, if the water gets too high then it covers some of the platforms and pipes. This means to fix those pipes you have to hold your breath, once under water a counter starts counting down from 99, once it reaches 0, you drown (it resets when you come up for air). And if that wasn't bad enough, there are huges rats after you as well AND there is randomly falling debris coming from the top of the screen, which you have to dodge. To get around the rats you can either jump over them or kick them. The action gets quite frantic, with the pipes leaking, the water rising, debris falling and rats everywhere… you are madly trying to run and jump and climb up and down ladders to fix the leaks. You know eventually you will croak from something, it's only a matter of time…

Sultan's Maze

Camputers Lynx - Unreleased - 1983

The game starts with the legend that the Sultan was visiting Hampton Court and was robbed of his jewels while in the maze. His bodyguard tried to recover them but was murdered by the group of thieves. In the present day setting of the game, the player must enter the maze and recover the jewels bringing them back outside. Aside from making it though the maze with out getting lost or tired the player must also be on the look out for the ghost of the Sultan's bodyguard.

Sultan's Maze

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1984

The legend goes that once upon a time a sultan was visiting the maze in Hampton Court. There he was robbed his jewels by a group of thieves, and his brave bodyguard entered the maze to recover them, only to be murdered by the thieves on his way back. In present day, the player is an adventurer who accepts the mission to explore the maze and recover the jewels. The maze is shown in a 1st person view, and the player has to navigate it in order to find the jewels and take them outside. Apart from getting lost and exhaustion, other dangers await him, especially in the shape the ghost of the Sultan's bodyguard, who still haunts the place. Sultan's Maze is a primitive 3D adventure well known to enthusiasts of the Amstrad CPC; in many countries it was part of the free game pack that accompanied the computer.