Today is November 27th, a long time since my last post. Recently my new job as a daddy took over retrogaming and nerdy stuff. But now that the baby is fine and asleep, I’m back in action.
In a rush of disclosure, I have to admit that during the long hours rocking the baby, I spent a while on eBay and I bought an Amstrad CPC Hit Squad collection of games, and a brand new-old joystick. On top of that, I managed to collect from a neighbour an amazing Commodore 64 (this is the second of my collection). I didn’t tell my wife but sooner or later she will see the new toys filling the gaming room which, remarkably, is now also the baby room.
Enjoy the trip to Tape 6, Side A!
- Ninja, Entertainment USA, Steve Coleman, 1987
- Five a side soccer, Mastertronic, 1986
- Kwah!, Melbourne House, 1986
- Hollywood or bust, Mastertronic, 1986
- Terrormolinos, Melbourne House, 1986
- The Apprentice, Mastertronic, 1986
- Rad Zone, Mastertronic, 1986
This side is nothing special, but playing “Five a side soccer” reminded me how desperate I was for football games as a child.
In the late eighties, the magazines were praising Dino Dini’s Kick Off!, and I could only dream the colors and the fast paced action, on my monochrome green screen. Being a CPC464 owner, I could rely mainly on the poor conversions of the Commodore64 games, which most of the time were disappointing.
The first football game I bought was World Cup Soccer Italia 90, a very good game for the CPC. I played it a lot with my dad, and that was when my mother started to regret buying me a computer. The graphics were pretty good also on the monochrome screen, the goal camera was pretty realistic, and the gameplay was the best I had experienced before.
During the summer of 1991 my parents took me to the UK for the first time, and I managed to step into a videogames shop in London, a dreamy place for the 10 years old me. Went back home with Football Manager 1 and 2, Gazza 2 and Microprose Soccer.
Football Manager 2 was a revelation, the managerial part was awesome. You could not play the game, but the matches were enjoyable. How much time did I spend watching the simulated matches? I can’t say, but I recently tried again the game and it still rocks after 30 years. To me, this is the most remarkable football game on the Amstrad CPC 464.
I will not deal with the disappointment I had with Kick off 2 on the CPC. I was crazily happy to put my hands on such a beautiful game, but the conversion was quite dull. The shiny big box is still there in my collection to remind me that life gives you lemons, sometimes.
The end of the CPC period came quickly, in 1993 my father bought an IBM 80286, and soon after Sensible Soccer came, but that is another (love) story.
Too Old For That 