Jump to content

Amstrad GX4000

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GX4000
GX4000 with gamepad
ManufacturerAmstrad
TypeHome video game console
GenerationThird
Lifespan
Discontinued1991
Units sold15,000
MediaROM Cartridge
CPUZ80 @ 4 MHz
Memory64 kB RAM, 16 kB VRam
DisplayRGB and composite out
160×200, 16 colours
320×200, 4 colours
640×200, 2 colours
12-bit colour depth
GraphicsASIC
SoundAY-3-8912
Best-selling gameBurnin' Rubber (pack-in)

The Amstrad GX4000 is a short-lived home video game console developed and marketed by Amstrad. It was released exclusively in Europe in September 1990, and was the company's only attempt at entering the console market. As part of the third-generation of consoles, it was the first British-manufactured games console.[a]

Development of the GX4000 was based heavily on Amstrad's existing CPC Plus home computer range,[2] sharing much of the same hardware architecture. This allowed for an easier transition of software, although many of the console's games were direct ports with minimal enhancements. The system featured improved graphical capabilities compared to earlier Amstrad computers and came with custom-designed gamepads, a sleek futuristic design, and support for RGB output—a feature uncommon among consoles at the time.

Despite its technical advantages, the GX4000 suffered from a poor commercial performance, selling fewer than 15,000 units.[3] Critics and consumers cited its limited and unimpressive game library, many of which were simplistic CPC ports, as a major drawback compared to the richer offerings from Sega and Nintendo. The console was quickly discontinued within a year of release, and it has since become a curiosity of British gaming history, often cited as an example of a commercial failure in the home console market.

History

[edit]

Development

[edit]

The development of the Amstrad GX4000 was heavily influenced by the company’s existing line of CPC home computers, particularly the CPC Plus range which was released concurrently. Rather than creating an entirely new hardware platform, Amstrad opted to repurpose and slightly enhance the CPC architecture for use in a dedicated console format. This approach allowed the company to reduce development costs and simplify manufacturing by sharing components and technology between the GX4000 and the CPC Plus computers. As a result, the GX4000 featured much of the same internal hardware as the CPC 464 Plus and CPC 6128 Plus models, including the Zilog Z80A processor and the updated custom ASIC that provided advanced graphical features such as hardware sprites, soft scrolling, and enhanced sound capabilities.

A key design goal during development was to modernise the CPC hardware to bring it closer in capability to contemporary consoles like Sega's Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System. This led to the inclusion of improved video modes, expanded colour palettes, and hardware sprite support—features that had been absent or limited in the original CPC line. Despite these improvements, software compatibility remained a priority; the GX4000 could run games designed specifically for its cartridge format, but many titles were direct ports or slightly enhanced versions of existing CPC software, limiting the system's ability to deliver a distinct or cutting-edge gaming experience.

Amstrad’s decision to base the GX4000 on familiar hardware was also intended to encourage developers already familiar with CPC programming to create software for the new platform. However, the similarities between the systems led to widespread criticism that the GX4000 offered little technical advancement over Amstrad’s existing computers. Moreover, developers were hesitant to invest significant resources into producing exclusive, high-quality games for a system that was seen as technically modest compared to its rivals in the rapidly evolving fourth-generation console market.

Launch

[edit]

After months of speculation, the GX4000 was officially announced along with the 464 plus and 6128 plus computers at the CNIT Centre in Paris in August 1990.[4] The system was launched a month later in four countries, Britain, France, Spain, and Italy,[5] priced at £99.99 in Britain and 990F in France; software was priced at £25 for most games.[3] The racing game Burnin' Rubber, a power pack, and two controllers were bundled with the machine.

Initial reviews of the console were favourable, with CVG calling it a "neat looking and technically impressive console that has an awful lot of potential at the very low price of £99",[6] but while impressed by the graphical capabilities, they criticised the audio and controllers. ACE magazine came to a similar conclusion, stating that the system "puts the other 8-bit offerings to shame bar the PC-Engine".[7]

A marketing budget of £20 million was set aside for Europe,[3] with the advertising focused on selling the GX4000 as a home alternative to playing arcade video games. The tagline for the machine was "Bring the whole arcade into your home!"[8]

Market performance

[edit]

The GX4000 was not successful commercially. Software for the system was short in number and slow to arrive, consumer interest was low, and coverage from popular magazines of the time was slight, with some readers complaining about a lack of information regarding the machine (Amstrad Action was one of the few magazines to support the console). Within a few weeks of the initial launch, the system could be bought at discounted prices, and by July 1991 some stores were selling it for as little as £29.99.[9]

Many GX4000 games were CPC games repackaged on cartridge with minor or no improvements,[3] which led to consumer disinterest, with many users unwilling to pay £25 for a cartridge game they could buy for £3.99 on cassette instead.

Amstrad lacked the marketing power to compete with the producers of the Mega Drive (released in November 1990 in Europe) and eventually the Super NES.[2] There were also problems with software manufacturing, with companies complaining that the duplication process took months instead of weeks,[10] leading to little software available at launch, and some games being released late or cancelled entirely.

When discussing the market failure of the system, the designer, Cliff Lawson, claimed that the GX4000 was technically "at least as good" as the SNES,[11] and that the machine faltered due to a lack of games and Amstrad not having the money to compete with Nintendo and Sega.[11] When asked whether anything could have been done to make the machine a success, he replied that more money would have been required to give software houses more incentive to support Amstrad, and that the games and software needed to be delivered sooner; he also remarked that making the machine 16-bit would have helped.[11]

Hardware

[edit]

Technical specifications

[edit]
Amstrad GX4000 PCB.
The GX4000 offered RGB video capability with the SCART connector in back.
The connectors on the front of the console.

The Amstrad GX4000 is powered by an 8-bit Zilog Z80A CPU running at 4 MHz, accompanied by a custom ASIC that provides hardware support for sprites, smooth scrolling, programmable interrupts, and DMA sound processing.[2] This design allowed the console to offer enhanced graphical and audio features compared to Amstrad's earlier CPC computer range.[12]

The system supports three display modes: Mode 0 allows a resolution of 160×200 pixels with 16 colours, Mode 1 offers 320×200 pixels with 4 colours, and Mode 2 provides 640×200 pixels with 2 colours.[12] The GX4000 features a 12-bit RGB colour depth, offering a palette of 4,096 possible colours, with up to 32 colours displayable on-screen simultaneously—16 allocated for the background, 15 for sprites, and one for the screen border.[2] These limits could be extended through the use of interrupt techniques, allowing for more complex colour effects in games.

For sprite handling, the console is capable of displaying up to 16 high-resolution sprites per line. Each sprite measures 16×16 pixels and can be magnified by factors of two or four in both the horizontal and vertical axes. Each sprite also supports up to 15 true colours from the available palette.[12] Memory on the GX4000 includes 64 KiB of RAM, with 16 KiB of this acting as video RAM, and cartridges can contain up to 512 KiB of ROM.[12] Audio is delivered via a three-channel stereo General Instrument AY-3-8912 chip with support for DMA sound processing.[2] Input and output options include two digital controller ports, an analogue controller port compatible with the IBM standard, a lightgun connector (RJ11), audio and RGB video output via an 8-pin DIN connector, and power supply inputs either from an external PSU or directly from a compatible monitor.[2]

Peripherals

[edit]
GX4000 gamepad

The GX4000 controller is similar to the gamepads of the Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System, and TurboGrafx-16. There are two buttons and a directional controller on the gamepad. A pause button is on the console itself. The controller is connected via an Atari joystick port.

There is also an IBM standard analog controller port, but analog controllers are not widely supported by software.

A light gun can be connected via dedicated RJ11 connector. Multiple 3rd party Light guns were available. Two games have light gun support: Skeet Shoot and The Enforcer. These were both distributed with a third-party gun.[13]

Game library

[edit]

In all, nearly 30 games were produced and distributed for the GX4000.[14][15] The majority of games were made by UK- and French-based companies such as Ocean, Titus, and Loriciels.

Notable games were the pack-in game, Burnin' Rubber, as well as RoboCop 2, Pang, Plotting, Navy Seals and Switchblade.

Many more games were initially announced, such as Toki, Kick Off 2, and Out Run, but later cancelled when the system failed to sell.[citation needed] [1]

There were 27 games on the GX4000, of which 13 are enhanced versions of previously released games on the Amstrad CPC, 8 are released for Amstrad GX4000 only but not for Amstrad CPC and 4 are direct ports from the Amstrad CPC.

Title[16] Genre(s) Publisher(s) Release date(s) GX4000 version
Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax Action Ocean 1990
Batman Action Ocean 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Burnin' Rubber Action Ocean 1990 GX4000 only
Chase HQ II Racing Ocean 1990 Very few copies released
Copter 271 Shooter Loriciels 1991 GX4000 only
Crazy Cars II Racing Titus 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Dick Tracy Action Titus 1991 GX4000 enhanced
Epyx World of Sports Sports Epyx 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Fire & Forget II Racing Titus 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Gazza II Sports Empire Interactive 1990 Unreleased
Klax Puzzle Domark 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Mystical Action Infogrames 1990
Navy SEALS Action Ocean 1990 GX4000 only
No Exit Fighting Coktel Vision 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Operation Thunderbolt Shooter Ocean 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Pang Shooter Ocean 1990 GX4000 enhanced
Panza Kick Boxing Fighting Loriciels 1991 GX4000 enhanced
Plotting Puzzle Ocean 1990 GX4000 only
Pro Tennis Tour Sports Ubi Soft 1990 GX4000 enhanced
RoboCop 2 Shooter Ocean 1990 GX4000 only
Skeet Shoot Shooter Trojan 1990 GX4000 only
Super Pinball Magic Pinball Loriciels 1991 GX4000 enhanced
Switchblade Action Gremlin Graphics 1990
Tennis Cup 2 Sports Loriciels 1990 GX4000 only
The Enforcer Shooter Trojan 1990 GX4000 only
Tintin on the Moon Action Infogrames 1990
Wild Streets Action Titus 1990 GX4000 enhanced

References

[edit]
Notes
  1. ^ Technically, there is an exception to this. The BBC Bridge Companion was released in 1985, however it is considered a single purpose educational device as opposed to meeting the criteria of a home games console.
Citations
  1. ^ "ACE Magazine." ACE Magazine Issue 31 1990
  2. ^ a b c d e f "GX4000 at Old Computers". Old-Computers.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d "Retroinspection: GX4000". Retrogamer. No. 52. p. 64.
  4. ^ Eddy, Richard (September 1990). "Mr Sugar, It's Triplets". The Games Machine. No. 34. p. 14.
  5. ^ "GX-4000 : Sugar casse le morceau". Tilt. No. 81. September 1990. p. 109.
  6. ^ Rignall, Julian (September 1990). "Am 'N' Chips". CVG. No. 106. p. 8.
  7. ^ "CPChoice". ACE Magazine. No. 37. October 1990. p. 119.
  8. ^ "GX4000 Advert". CVG. November 1990. p. 25.
  9. ^ Leadbetter, Richard (July 1991). "Bitesize Amstrad". CGV. p. 78.
  10. ^ "The French Connection". Amstrad Action. No. 77. February 1992. pp. 20–22.
  11. ^ a b c "Cliff Lawson Interview". Retrogamer. No. 11. p. 29.
  12. ^ a b c d "Arnold V" Specification - Issue 1.4. Amstrad PLC. March 1990.
  13. ^ "Trojan Light Phazer - Skeet Shoot & The Enforcer". GX4000.CO.UK - The site for everything about Amstrad’s GX4000 console.
  14. ^ "Amstrad GX4000". Video Game Console Library.
  15. ^ "GX4000/CPC+ Games". CPCMANIA.
  16. ^ "CPC Power".
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amstrad GX4000.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amstrad_GX4000&oldid=1295465837"