Amstrad GX4000 | The Retro Shed
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- čas přidán 27. 04. 2020
- In 1990, the 4th generation of video game consoles was in full swing and Amstrad also wanted a slice of the action. They launched the GX4000 games console to get in on the act but it was a complete and utter failure. This week we take a look at Amstrad's little wonder and find out just what went wrong!
- Hry
Back in 3rd grade in 1995 France, i traded a beloved GameGear for this monstrosity in the schoolyard on a afternoon just before the summer holidays. Felt betrayed, swindled and rummaging my pain for the entire summer months. This thing being a letdown is an understatement. Thanks for this trip down memory lane and its batch of PTSD.
Ah mate! I feel for you. Thanks for sharing that with us. Yes I think I would also feel let down having swapped a Sega Game Gear for this thing! As I said, had this been released some years before it would have been quite a good little system. But as it was - far too little too late.
@@TheRetroShed appreciate your answer and your video was super informative, especially for some games and ports that were quite good. Burning Rubber, although looking pretty decent bored me to death in minutes. Wished the console came in with Robocop 2 instead!
I did the same with an NES and after a week I grew the courage to tell my parents of my regret. Thankfully they got it back the next day with all my games.
😅😅😅
impressive to see the 1990 console widescreen mode :D ;)
That multicart is rad. And the graphics look great!
Brilliant video!! Loved this one!!!!
Thanks for the upload! Great video again.
Mike O'Barr thanks Mike! I don’t suppose you ever saw these in the US?
I remember seeing these for sale in Dixons, they ending up in the bargan bin in no time.
I was only talking to someone this weekend about them. The problem is they were too little too late when they were released. In 1990 everyone wanted the new 16 bit consoles and an aging 8 bit computer (which is what this was based on) was never going to sell well at all. Worth having one in the collection? Hmm. Jury is out on that!
Never had one, hard to find but ...you know me, would grab one for sure.. :-) Great vid again!
You aren't missing anything with this one - save your coins and buy something else.
Thanks for the vid, hope you are all safe and well. Never seen this console before, interesting.
Steve Wall thanks fella! Same to you. Stay safe and enjoy the vid. :)
british
I think that you have to bear in mind that the Master System done really well in the U.K. and I think that was the market that Amstrad was going for but sadly most publishers took the cheap route and just ported CPC games to it.
Dean Swain absolutely but the Master System was launched in 1985. The market for 8-bit was dying if not dead in 1990. If it was only released earlier it would have had a fighting chance!
The Retro Shed The Master System didn’t launch in the U.K. until 87 though, then in 1990 the NES even started to become more popular in the U.K. when Nintendo released the Turtles bundle so it wasn’t all 16bit action by that point. Admittedly 8 bit systems were looking tired by then as the 16 bit computers had really started to get a grip on the market. I remember it all very well as I used to work for a games shop in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
This looks like better hardware than the NES. Up there with the Sega Master system. Too bad so little dedicated software were released
Nice video as ever :)
Thanks for the shout out too
Did you try Switchblade? One of my favourites with great music by the late Ben Daglish
Karl Pantling-James yeah I did! Didn’t get far and the capture card wasn’t running. Quite good. I got the sequel on the Amiga.
Nice one, interesting!
Amstrad bought the Sinclair brand in 1986. The Amiga 500 wasn't available then. Little software was available for the Amiga 1000 and Atari ST. The Amiga 1000 was very expensive. People still bought 8-bits the C64, Amstrad CPC and the new Amstrad made Spectrums. The japanese consoles weren't available. "People that knew their stuff wanted Amigas, STs and Super Nintendos" - you mentions this with the 1986 takeover. The SNES came 4 years later
Perhaps I wasn't clear but by the time the GX4000 came out, 1990, most gamers knew that the future wasn't going to be an ageing 8-bit console. By 1990 this thing didn't stick a chance! 1986 of course was a different story. Had this been released then it would have day way better than it did! ;)
Burnin Rubber looks great
It's such a weird mix of tech; including SCART and 8-pin DIN and RF all at once, yet the plastic body is cheap as F, including square instead of rounded stamp-outs.
The video ASIC is also pretty good with enough large hardware sprites, scrolling, 4096 colour palette, 32 on-screen before line-interrupts to swap palettes (16 bg, 15 sprites, 1 border colour) and DMA support. It's pretty clear most games never came close to fully exploiting the hardware ... Spec-wise definitely the best 8-bit console ever, but years too late (like you said).
Dawwwg Online yes it can handle some nice visuals if only it was programmed for properly. I mean Robocop 2 looks more like a 16 bit title than 8bit. Burnin Rubber is also visually nice - just sluggish to play. Another machine that suffered from cheap ports from its parent 464 devices.
BEST 8 BIT EVER WAS THE SUPERGRAFX LOL
Just bought one of e-bay unboxed still factory sealed for £60 super excited .I be doing a unboxing video breaking them 30 year old seals lol
Nice one! Will check that out when it’s live. :)
I leave you on your own for 5 minutes and you get that thing out!! Well really!!!
Dean Hedger the poor thing was crying out for attention!
You are wrong about its specs....this console is based on the cpc+ range not the old cpc one. I remember that it had a pallete of 4096 colours, it could have a maximum of 32 colours on screen, hardware sprites and also had lightgun support! This was weak for a 1990 console but obviously much more capable than an old cpc in the right hands! Actually it is better than an nes or mastersystem.
Can You plug in a genesis controller like you can on the 2600?
Nick Pavloff you probably can I suspect.
Pinout schematic
Sold mine to Criag !
I have a soft spot for gx4000 i know its bad
ginger hippy gaming 42 I know. I feel the same for underdog consoles and computers. You can’t help but like they! But like the Commodore 16.
Ugh., was given a brand new one (probably still have it somewhere, can’t remember) only had Burnin Rubber!, bored within minutes 👎🎉
I know this is an old video but seriously, "the genesis, or as us Brits would know it, the mega drive"??? You mean the mega drive but as Americans would know it, the genesis? 😒
Apart from that one little gripe, great video.
Ha ha. Yes that’s a good way to look at it ;)
@@TheRetroShed sorry it's something that bugs me with some English CZcamsrs. Especially when they don't even refer to it as the mega drive and just call it the genesis. We all know it was the mega drive everywhere in the world apart from America.
Anyway, great video. I'll have a browse through some more 😊
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