40 Years Later: The Amstrad Amsoft Games Pack

I now feel spoilt. My first computer was the Atari 800XL for Christmas '85. My mum got me four games from the catalogue. They were Ghost Chaser (they had advertised Ghostbusters but it wasn't available on that machine at the time), Activision Decathlon, Bruce Lee and Dropzone. Weakest game on there was Ghost Chaser but Dropzone in particular was a brilliant Defender rip-off. In '88 I bought my next computer with my own money, an Atari ST and that had something like 22 games with it, some that I spent a LOT of time with, like Super Sprint and Ranarama. Would love that pack again.

OMG I was master of Bridge-It - on my GT64 greenscreen and 464 with tape.

I've been subscribed to RMC and TWIR (Hullo Dave + Chris) for years and - honestly - I've never heard to speak so quickly and so excitably about anything other than when you rifle through the cassettes at 5 minutes in :)

What a beautiful upload. I was late to the CPC in my timeline - was toastrack owner until a 6128 was gifted to me in the 2000s, but I can utterly appreciate that sensation you have captured.

Totally getting Christmassy feels now. All the very best to you and your growing family.

Slàinte!

The sound of my jet crashing in Harrier Attack is still ringing round my skull 35 years later..

Oh Mummy, Roland On The Ropes, Sultans Maze, Harrier Attack and Bridge It, I absolutely loved . The rest i never touched them at all when I had this most likely the same time you did.

The green monisyste system came with sucked, but the color TV module was amazing.

I remember buying a amstrad CPC colour monitor advertised in my local paper. I used it with my Amiga 1200 and a adapter cable I ordered from an Amiga mag to make it work on an Amiga. It was a huge jump from the small tv I was using at the time.

I still have our CPC464.

It's hard to explain. But looking at old computers brings a funny sense of happiness inside me. I think it's because it reminds me of the feeling I had when I was a 12 year old discovering my VIC20 and then later my C64 and Amigas. It's a lovely feeling.

Oh Mummy, Harrier Attack and Roland On The Ropes were my gotos from the pack. My mum kepted the EasiAmsword tape until I was able to transfer her work to AmiPro for Windows.
I then recued a CPC6128 and repaired it.
I put these tapes on to disk using a utility that came with a Christmas Amstrad Action along with Lost Caves, Puzznic and Space Froggy - which also holds nostalgia to me. Me being me, I still have it all.

Got my Amstrad CPC464 for Christmas 1987. Absolutely loved it, Roland on the ropes was my favourite, like you started my later career in computing.

How long did it take you to load all these games.
Easily 2 hours of load screens. I admire the patience.
My first computer was the commodore plus 4 with 10 games like fire ant, icicle works and treasure island. This video reminds me of that feeling again. Nostalgia is ok is small doses 😊
Love the video.
🇬🇧

Awesome video. Just came up in my feed. I had an Amstrad 6128. 3" floppy disc drive, and i had a green monitor. I used to connect a tape recorder to it with a cable and load the tapes for the game. Used to love chuckle egg and football manager used to write the games copying from a book. Used to try to run it, and it would say error in line 300 and have to correct it. This video brought lots of them memories back

Blast from the past with the scoring items. Great 👍

That Takes beck cassettes

I had a Amstrad

I paid £16 for Ghostbusters back then

Nope, not me. I loved my Speccy back when i got it in the early 80's, and played on it all year, but Christmas day was family day and the speccy was put in the cupboard for the day. You see, my family hated my love for computers especially my dad who on many occasions would throw it on the floor aftet i had been playing it just because he was mad and needed something to throw that he couldn't care less about. When he had destroyed it, he just smiled and went away happy. Mum always got me another, secretly. After the third, i hid it from him and only used it in my bedroom and hid it away when he was at home. But, he was a really great father all in all and he really loved Christmas. So, one Christmas we had a talk and i explained to him that it really broke my heart when he broke my things, so he promised to stop. And, after 3 years he did. He died in 2002 and i really miss him. Since then, Christmas wss never the same, just another dsy. And as this is going to be my 9th Christmas alone, i guess it still is. But, at least now i can play on my pc with no worries!

My first games as well, amazing memory’s

i got my CPC464 on Christmas 1987 and it came with an awesome Ocean Top 20 hits compilation excusive to Dixons. So many great games to play that morning, Arkanoid, Game Over, Green Beret, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Head Over Heels...was spoilt for choice. Before that id been going round my mates and using his CPC464 which came with all the Amsoft games, spent hours on Fruit Machine and 3D Stunt Rider.

Those games look so great on CRT.

Love this. I had a 6128, but the pack of games on tape still came free with it.

Halfway through watching I got addicted to Xanagrams

i remember my texas instruments ti99 4a playing parsec and beating it over and over , then years later an amstrad 6128 was a great machine but when amiga came booom that was that for amstrad.

I played Harrier attack to Death, back when I was 10

Even though I had a spectrum The amstrad my friend had was so aesthetically pleasing. The green/blue /red buttons. Still remember going to his house and playing mission impossible and paperboy for hours. On his green only monitor 😂

Ahhh… nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

I was obsessed with the Spectrum but never owned an Amstrad, though. But I totally can relate. My introduction was Manic Miner, and as tough as it was at the time, I was mesmerized by it. It was like I WAS the character on screen jumping and avoiding all the traps. Roland in The Caves gameplay-wise seems awful today, but I can see its appeal back in 1984. The concept of extending our experience onto the screen was new and so appealing that even with so archaic graphics we filled the gaps and made it work in our heads. And to add to that we had the arcades that were leaps and bounds ahead of the domestic videogame experience...

My sister had a CPC growing up (I had the Atari 65XE). the games that stuck with me were Traffic, Basildon Bond, Red Arrorws, Starwars (the wire frame shooting game) and, while not good, Roland Goes Square Bashing.

Thanks Neil, most interesting and fun video. Oh mummy looks great! Reminds me of Mr Do for some reason.

Fantastic video! I remember mine came with same set but also Monopoly and a few others perhaps - we got it from Dixons. Thanks mum! I think in 1989...

As an American, the first data cassette game I remember having was Frogger on our Atari 800. I think it took about 2-2.5m to load.

Animal.vegetable.mineral....i remember when amstrad first came out and i also remember the crap pack...years later when sugar bought out sinclair they made this crap for spectrum too..oh mummy 😂😂😂

Best game for the amstrad cpc was bruce lee and the helicopter flight simulater (apache ??) Oh and gauntlet....my mates had anstrad before me..one had the green screen monitor the other the disc drive one ,two brothers...other mate had cmd64 remember his frigtmare , a girly friend had bbc with elite and a gf had acorn..i had all systems bar bbc and cmd64...went for amiga a500, mate went atari st..we took to school one day for a challenge off, there was no clear winner..he showcased psgnosis barbarian myself rocketman (forget the label something like cinemaware)

Who remembers the real xmas games...think first i ever played was on zx81 and was a pi man game..never forget that company. Guy with big long nose and comedy really out there reminding me of monty python. Anyone remember the label ?? Was it pi man ?? They moved across to speccy.

This was a pack akin to cassette 50...which we all bought for the cool as buggery digital watch which at time was coolest thing going one year.

Is that a trs one u got there ????

Is that a trs 80 model 1 next to cpc ???

I collect pre cert horror vids but have huge collection of computers and consoles bought back in 90s when i put adverts in co op and had (mainly) posh women ringing clearing out kids collection for 20quid for huge stacks of gear.😂 see how much they go for now..i rememeber guy selling spectrum tapes for 20p each..id go round and buy 10ers worth, then go nxt week and buy another 10ers for 4 or 5 gos til all best bought. Paid 5er at cat charity shop for spectrum 48k rubber key with tape recorder all leads kempston and about 20 games and 2 early mags. Paid 10er for cmd 64, 2 datacassettes, about 30 games , many in their whsmitb paper bags glorious ,had some beautys , gave away a 128k heat sink speccy for a ps2 always regret that, at tjme was not anything special...apart from never came across another 😮😮😮

At the begining of this video, is anyone else having flashbacks of being shouted at by their dad for putting the tapes next to the monitor? "It will ruin them and I'm not buying you any more!"

Ah memories Roland in the caves/skiing etc Roland in time was a good one, I played fruit machine to death on my green screen. Harrier attack was awesome.

Mr Potter is indeed a -

Holy moly - this brings back memories. I was always on 'Team Spectrum' during the early eighties, but my best mate had an Amstrad and we played this pack to death. We always loved Harrier Attack and Fred (I refuse to call it 'Roland!'), but I haven't given that animal guessing game a single thought for over forty years!

Me and my brother had hours and hours of fun on the 464. But what's this...a colour screen! We had green screen I'm afraid but at the time we still loved it, great to see it in colour. Thanks for the memories.

The "big one" in the game pack is probably EasiAmsword. Or at least it was supposed to. Getting a wordprocessor program was a big thing back then. Even later in the 16bit years selling like a "Wordperfect" or similar was still big business. I think Alan at some point mentioned he had hoped the amstrad cpc would have turned into "a pc at home"-clone-ish, but in most cases it probably ended up more like a gaming machine.

Amstrad CPC was for me the machine that was left field in a way. At school it was you had either a ZX Spectrum or C64. But I knew one school friend who bucked the trend and had a CPC, and was lucky to see it at his house. Looked interesting with it's coloured keys and added tape deck compared to the Spectrum and C64. He had Harrier Attack. And had a quick go, can't remember much else but that moment always stuck in my memory of that only time of seeing a CPC.

If i ever get back to the UK, i will pay you a visit!

Good god! For years I’ve had the memory of the spectrum version of Roland in the cave. I had no idea of the name just a vague memory of it when I played it as a young boy.
I genuinely can’t believe it’s popped up, I am now going to look for it. Thank you. 👍

Sinclair sold the + 2 computer with games under the sinclair brand. They were Punchy, Treasure Island, Oh Mummy & Disco Dan.