Great article looking at ZX Spectrum vs. Commodore 64

[SimonB]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... mmodore-64

Also, look out for some snippets from the ZZap! writers in the left column.

[Abyss]

Nice article.

OF course we didn't need such an in-depth analysis to know that the Speccy was better...

[gdh82]

Instinctively knew that too. hehe

Although a ZX man back in the day my mate had a C64 so it was the best of both worlds for me. Must admit I probably went around his more than he mine! Always in awe of the C64 scrolling, the multi-colour sprites and that SOUND but I always was and always will be a spectrum fan.

Great read anyway, took me back. Interesting to read how the limitations of the spectrum hardware lead to various innovations.

[SimonB]

I had a BBC B while my mate had the Speccy ... the I upgraded to the C64 and the rest is history!

[Tripod]

Where's my old machine, the Amstrad CPC? Beats both of these easily.

[Abyss]

Where's my old machine, the Amstrad CPC? Beats both of these easily.

Loved it, but it was horrible for games! Either blocky 160x200 graphics or Spectrum ports with less colour and speed at 320x200.

OK, there were some great games for it as well (Renegade and Match Day II cme to mind), especially given the memory and disk drive of the CPC6128, but in general, gaming wasn't the CPC's focus.

[Tripod]

Rubbish. Ok, admittedly, there were some bad ports straight from the Speccy, but just compare the screenshots of games that got a decent conversion. Ghost 'n Goblins is shown in the article, here is the Amstrad version:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/cpc/ghost ... creenshots

Batman and Head over Heels (Ritman and Drummond, yeah):
http://www.mobygames.com/game/batman_/screenshots
http://www.mobygames.com/game/head-over ... creenshots

Exolon:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/exolon/screenshots

Yie Ar Kung Fu:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/yie-ar-ku ... creenshots

Sorcery:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sorcery/screenshots

The list goes on. And definitely check out one of my old favorites, Amstrad exclusive, Get Dexter, great graphics and gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOBGG8lLuAI

[manicx]

The CPC was a great machine when the developers were actually coding for the CPC. The easy option was simply to convert games from the ZX to it and they were killing it. Same Z80 code, same graphics in Mode 1. I have seen games on the CPC that were so much better than the C64 or Spectrum versions. For example, checkout Chase HQ, Robocop, Operation Wolf, Gryzor, Pang and so many others

And just to prove how good some games could be on the CPC, see this remake of R-Type compared to the original crap one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_GDjT1tivo

Also, see Xyphoes Fantasy... I think one of the best games for CPC even though it was made when the CPC market was really small. Shows what the machine was capable of (they even managed to use the sound chip PROPERLY)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe3RfKKhokM

The C64 also had some amazing games. System 3 were doing miracles. SID was (and still is) one of the best chips used in a home computer.

[Abyss]

Hehe, such discusisons never get old!

Exolon (as well as Cybernoid I/II) were fantastic on the CPC - Raf Cecco was the master of quality and colourful flick screen shoot-em ups.

Jon Ritman games were almost the same, but he used Mode 1 (320x200 4colours) to port Spectrum games better than most - at least he utilized all the colours (but all mode 1 games were slower than their Specturm equivalents - the result of the same processor speed but less bits to be moved around).

Get Dexter was fantastic, I liked it as well. Sorcery was boring, whereas I've never played Yie Ar Kung Fu.

Still, few games were created to the CPC's idiosyncracies... because it didn't have any. Sound was good, but not exceptional. Games were either (Very) blocky colourful affairs or slow monochrome attempts. Nah...

Buyng the CPC (it was sold as Schneider in Germany, right?) tought me many things about computing. The machine was overall nice, the keyboard was nice, the disk drive brought a new compuring age, Locomotive Basic was very nice. Still, as a gaming machine, I believe it was flawed.

Even the Spectrum's keyboard, horrible for typing, was better for playing games. This machine magically worked for gaming!

[Tripod]

Those games look awesome, Nikos! Cheers. I always thought that the CPC was better, it just came out too later and everybody had C64s or ZXs already and too soon the Amiga ruled them all. That's the reason most games are just bad/mediocre ports and don't do the (slightly) superior hardware justice. I recently watched an interview with... heck, can't remember, a programmer from back in the days, and he said producing all the versions was a nightmare, so many imitations to work around.

True that the rubber keyboard of the Spectrum was great for gaming, I wonder if anybody ever tried working, coding, even typing a letter with it. And considering the small size it was a great machine anyway. The Amstrad (or Schneider in Germany) tried to be more mature, of course. Those 3'' (non-)floppy discs were nice and at least the 6128 even looked elegant.

[Binary]

The C64 also had some amazing games. System 3 were doing miracles. SID was (and still is) one of the best chips used in a home computer.

+1

There are people still composing amazing things on the SID: http://remix.kwed.org/