From Betamax through to Laserdisc, the history of consumer electronics is littered with some pretty spectacular failures.
In the video game world, however, there are few failures as impressive as Amstrad’s first (and only) venture into the console hardware business: the Amstrad Gx4000. Released in September 1990, the machine was basically an enhanced version of the 6 year-old Amstrad CPC (well, a CPC+ if you want to be technical) microcomputer in a fancy console shell.
As a poorly-supported 8-bit computer, the Gx4000 was already outgunned by the existing 16-bit machines (the ST and the Amiga,) and didn’t stand much of a chance with Sega’s well-marketed Megadrive looming on the horizon. Sales started badly and failed to improve – even when retailers started selling their inventory at fire-sale prices. By the middle of 1991, it was clear that the end for the console was nigh.
Because of this early retirement, there were just 27 titles produced for the GX4000 (and, even then, there isn’t even enough titles to cover a full A to Z.) The library itself is quite interesting however: a mishmash of arcade ports, CPC conversions and original games from obscure French developers, so i think i’m going to systematically review every single title for the system. Starting at B. I’m going to put the full list here: The B to Z of GX4000
Meanwhile, onto the first review! here’s Barbarian II