Amstrad GX4000
Encyclopedia
The GX4000 was Amstrad
's short-lived attempt to enter the games console
market. The console was released in Europe in 1990 and was based on the still-popular CPC
technology. The GX4000 was actually a modified CPC 6128 Plus computer. This allowed the GX4000 to be compatible with a majority of CPC Plus computer line software.
Initial reviews were favourable, the console had impressive enhanced graphics and sound, a huge palette of 4096 colours (more than the 16 bit Sega Mega Drive
), hardware sprites
and hardware scrolling
. It retailed for £99 and came bundled with driving game Burnin' Rubber. GX4000 game cartridges could also be used by the new 464 and 6128 Plus computers released at the same time, before being discounted to prices as low as £15 in some retailers such as Dixons.
James Harding of The Times
said that the "console was "was promptly outgunned by the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo – it failed the cardinal test of entrepreneurship: stamina."
In total, fewer than 14,000 units were ever sold. making the Amstrad GX4000 the worst selling gaming console in history.
and U.S. Gold
. Notable games were the pack-in title: Burnin' Rubber, RoboCop 2, Pang
, Plotting (AKA Flipull), Navy Seals
and Switchblade
. The last was later released for the CPC range with only minor concessions, mainly colour. The GX4000 was only manufactured for a matter of months before it was discontinued.
(both released in 1985) were dominating the market and did so until around 1995.
the European video game market and was in part due to Amstrad lacking the marketing power compared to the producer of Sega Mega Drive
(released in November 1990 in Europe) or eventually the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
. There was little available software at launch, with some games being released months late or cancelled entirely. To make matters worse, several GX4000 games were simply CPC
games from previous years rereleased onto a cartridge. This was not inspiring and users were not prepared to pay £25 for a cartridge game that they could buy for £3.99 on cassette instead.
Like Commodore's C64GS system, essentially a cut down C64 in much the same way as the GX4000 was a cut down CPC+, Amstrad greatly overestimated how much extra people were willing to pay for the reliability and instant loading times of cartridge technology. Within a few weeks of the initial launch, the system could be bought at discounted prices.
Many readers complained about lack of coverage in Amstrad
magazines, Amstrad Computer User
& Amstrad Action
. Amstrad Action
continued to give coverage for the machine when possible and included a complete run-down on every game released for the console that ran for three issues well after the GX4000's demise.
The designer of the Plus, Cliff Lawson, claimed that the GX4000 was "technically at least on a par" with the SNES and that the machine faltered due to a lack of games and Amstrad not having the marketing budget to take on Nintendo
and Sega
.
Users have complained that the power supplies for the GX4000 literally blew up.
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
's short-lived attempt to enter the games console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
market. The console was released in Europe in 1990 and was based on the still-popular CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
technology. The GX4000 was actually a modified CPC 6128 Plus computer. This allowed the GX4000 to be compatible with a majority of CPC Plus computer line software.
Initial reviews were favourable, the console had impressive enhanced graphics and sound, a huge palette of 4096 colours (more than the 16 bit Sega Mega Drive
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
), hardware sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
and hardware scrolling
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
. It retailed for £99 and came bundled with driving game Burnin' Rubber. GX4000 game cartridges could also be used by the new 464 and 6128 Plus computers released at the same time, before being discounted to prices as low as £15 in some retailers such as Dixons.
James Harding of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said that the "console was "was promptly outgunned by the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo – it failed the cardinal test of entrepreneurship: stamina."
In total, fewer than 14,000 units were ever sold. making the Amstrad GX4000 the worst selling gaming console in history.
Technical specifications
- CPU: 8/16-bit ZilogZilogZilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...
Z80A at 4 MHz - Graphics:
- 16 sprites
- Resolution: from 160x200 to 640x200
- 4096 colour palette - 32 onscreen
- Memory: 64 kBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
, 16 kB VRam, 32 kB ROMRead-only memoryRead-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... - I/O: Audio output, 2x digital controller connectors, Analog controller port (IBM standard), Light gunLight gunA light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
connector (RJ11 socket), Audio & RGB video output (8-pin DIN), Scart connector (audio & video), power supply socket from external PSU, power supply socket from monitor. - Sound: 3-channel stereo; AY-3-8912 chipGeneral Instrument AY-3-8910The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice Programmable Sound Generator designed by General Instrument, initially for use with their 16-bit CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers...
- Game Format: cartridge
Games
In all, exactly 25 games were produced and distributed for the GX4000. The majority of games were made by UK-based companies OceanOcean Software
The British company Ocean Software was one of the biggest European video game developers/publishers of the 1980s and 90s...
and U.S. Gold
U.S. Gold
U.S. Gold was a British video game publisher and developer from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, producing numerous titles on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms.-History:...
. Notable games were the pack-in title: Burnin' Rubber, RoboCop 2, Pang
Pang
-People:*Includes name origin of the alternate romanization of Peng*Pang Juan , military general from the Warring States Period*Pang Tong , strategist and advisor from the late Han Dynasty*Pang Wanchun , fictional character from Water Margin...
, Plotting (AKA Flipull), Navy Seals
Navy SEALS (video game)
Navy SEALS is a 1990 video game developed and published by Ocean. It is based on the movie of the same name....
and Switchblade
Switchblade 2
Switchblade 2 or Switchblade II is a computer game of the run and gun genre. It was released for the Amiga and the Atari ST by Gremlin in May 1991, and for the Atari Lynx in 1992....
. The last was later released for the CPC range with only minor concessions, mainly colour. The GX4000 was only manufactured for a matter of months before it was discontinued.
Reception
The GX4000 was a commercial failure. This was due to the 16 bit Commodore Amiga and Atari STAtari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
(both released in 1985) were dominating the market and did so until around 1995.
the European video game market and was in part due to Amstrad lacking the marketing power compared to the producer of Sega Mega Drive
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
(released in November 1990 in Europe) or eventually the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
. There was little available software at launch, with some games being released months late or cancelled entirely. To make matters worse, several GX4000 games were simply CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
games from previous years rereleased onto a cartridge. This was not inspiring and users were not prepared to pay £25 for a cartridge game that they could buy for £3.99 on cassette instead.
Like Commodore's C64GS system, essentially a cut down C64 in much the same way as the GX4000 was a cut down CPC+, Amstrad greatly overestimated how much extra people were willing to pay for the reliability and instant loading times of cartridge technology. Within a few weeks of the initial launch, the system could be bought at discounted prices.
Many readers complained about lack of coverage in Amstrad
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
magazines, Amstrad Computer User
Amstrad Computer User
Amstrad Computer User was the official magazine for the Amstrad CPC series of 8-bit home computers. This monthly publication, usually referred to as ACU by its readers, concentrated more on the hardware and technical side of the Amstrad range, although it had a small dedicated games section as...
& Amstrad Action
Amstrad Action
Amstrad Action was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console....
. Amstrad Action
Amstrad Action
Amstrad Action was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console....
continued to give coverage for the machine when possible and included a complete run-down on every game released for the console that ran for three issues well after the GX4000's demise.
The designer of the Plus, Cliff Lawson, claimed that the GX4000 was "technically at least on a par" with the SNES and that the machine faltered due to a lack of games and Amstrad not having the marketing budget to take on Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
and Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
.
Users have complained that the power supplies for the GX4000 literally blew up.