It's awesome that it now runs normal CPC games with your cart dufer so you don't have to play crap anymore. If homebrewers can make a hardware plugin keyboard that plugs into the GX4000 spare jack without the joypad in it I'd imagine you could play all the computer ones non converted but only 1 player would be available on those due to the keyboard being plugged in. But then they could make a multitap as well to fix that problem.
+Daniel Cordell I really do want a CPC but the price is just a killer for me :( It's not too bad as there's still several hundred games that have been converted to work on the GX.
Especially if you want to go all the way with the 128k revision to get the most for your AMSTRAD money as if the lower k version is almost the same amount of expense for only a few pounds more or less depending how sought after revisions are it's probably worth it for the extra grunt but for a lower grunt version huge prices are definitely ripoff. lol. If those later 128k versions are compatible with GX4000 stuff as long as you keep your cart even better as the full library would be playable on the better computer as long as one pad is kept for multibutton games or you have a megadrive pad if they work on AMSTRAD.
I watched this and the Batman one, and I agree with your conclusions about this console. It looks terrible. It's interesting to speculate about what could have made it successful. Maybe, they could have stuck with the basic idea of a Z80 based system but then absolutely tricked out the graphics hardware like the PC-Engine? As it stands, that platform absolutely KILLS the GX4000 even though it was released three years earlier. The hardware that was released looks like it could maybe compete with an Atari ST, if pushed to its limits, and presuming the game was designed around its strengths. If there had have been a shot at ending up with something decent at the end of it, British 8 bit games devs might have been willing to give it a go. I know that the Acorn Archimedes had a lot of early momentum as it was partially compatible with the BBC Micro, and as a result, a lot of the Arc devs were old BBC Micro devs. Maybe, they could have made the games a bit cheaper? For example, would it have been possible to release some of the slightly enhanced CPC games as five-on-a-cart, for about 20 quid? That /might/ have been worth it.
+rhydermike Reading back on the history of the time it seems Alan Sugar was more interested in flooding the markets with different devices and the console was just a cheap, quick n easy way to get the sort of sales Nintendo were enjoying.
It's awesome that it now runs normal CPC games with your cart dufer so you don't have to play crap anymore. If homebrewers can make a hardware plugin keyboard that plugs into the GX4000 spare jack without the joypad in it I'd imagine you could play all the computer ones non converted but only 1 player would be available on those due to the keyboard being plugged in. But then they could make a multitap as well to fix that problem.
+Daniel Cordell I really do want a CPC but the price is just a killer for me :( It's not too bad as there's still several hundred games that have been converted to work on the GX.
Especially if you want to go all the way with the 128k revision to get the most for your AMSTRAD money as if the lower k version is almost the same amount of expense for only a few pounds more or less depending how sought after revisions are it's probably worth it for the extra grunt but for a lower grunt version huge prices are definitely ripoff. lol. If those later 128k versions are compatible with GX4000 stuff as long as you keep your cart even better as the full library would be playable on the better computer as long as one pad is kept for multibutton games or you have a megadrive pad if they work on AMSTRAD.
Nice mate
I watched this and the Batman one, and I agree with your conclusions about this console. It looks terrible.
It's interesting to speculate about what could have made it successful. Maybe, they could have stuck with the basic idea of a Z80 based system but then absolutely tricked out the graphics hardware like the PC-Engine? As it stands, that platform absolutely KILLS the GX4000 even though it was released three years earlier. The hardware that was released looks like it could maybe compete with an Atari ST, if pushed to its limits, and presuming the game was designed around its strengths. If there had have been a shot at ending up with something decent at the end of it, British 8 bit games devs might have been willing to give it a go. I know that the Acorn Archimedes had a lot of early momentum as it was partially compatible with the BBC Micro, and as a result, a lot of the Arc devs were old BBC Micro devs.
Maybe, they could have made the games a bit cheaper? For example, would it have been possible to release some of the slightly enhanced CPC games as five-on-a-cart, for about 20 quid? That /might/ have been worth it.
+rhydermike Reading back on the history of the time it seems Alan Sugar was more interested in flooding the markets with different devices and the console was just a cheap, quick n easy way to get the sort of sales Nintendo were enjoying.
The PC Engine's processor is also much faster than a Z80.