About The Company – Amstrad

Amstrad Logo

Set up by now well-known entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar in 1968, Amstrad started life producing low-cost TV and audio products. It was not until the 1980s that they moved into the Home Computing market. This was an attempt to capture market share that had been dominated by Commodore and Sinclair up until that point in … Read more

All About The Amstrad GX4000

Amstrad GX4000

Released well into the 16-bit era, the GX4000 hit shops in 1990. The GX4000 is largely based on the Amstrad CPC hardware but with some minor updates to its graphical powers. System Overview Designed to help Amstrad enter the console market, very much in the same vein that Commodore would try to several months after … Read more

All About The Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC 464

First released in 1984, the Amstrad CPC is a range of personal computers made by Amstrad. System Overview The CPC is Amstrad’s Home Computer of the 1980s, and also one of the best-selling computers of the 1980s, at least in Europe. Not hugely popular outside of Europe, the CPC was designed to compete directly with … Read more

Punchy – ZX Spectrum Review

Punchy ZX Spectrum

Punchy, developed by Issi and released originally in 1983 by Mr Micro Ltd, gathered more attention from the 1986 re-release as part of the Spectrum +2 bundle, the Soft 888 pack. It is actually a reworked version of a game called Hunchy, also developed by Issi earlier that year. Following potential legal issues over similarities with Century Electronics … Read more

How to get started playing Retro Games

atari joystick

Sega, Nintendo, Atari, Commodore, Amstrad, Sinclair – All names synonymous with classic consoles and computers in the 80s & 90s and now, Retro Games.  These two decades saw the highest highs and the lowest lows of the emerging gaming console and computer industries. Corporations battling it out to capture market share, to playground arguments about … Read more