Released well into the 16-bit era, the GX4000 hit shops in 1990. The GX4000 is largely based on the Amstrad CPC hardware but with some minor updates to its graphical powers.
System Overview
Designed to help Amstrad enter the console market, very much in the same vein that Commodore would try to several months after the GX4000 release. The system did not include a keyboard, tape, or disk drive. Instead, the CPC-based internals is squeezed inside a relatively compact casing which accepts only cartridges.
Reviews of the system were not actually that bad. Especially as it launched many years after the likes of the Amiga and Atari ST had been around. Never intending to compete with 16-bit systems, the system’s low price point helped its case too. But the likes of Sega & Nintendo had pretty much wrapped up the market by this point, so Amstrad was really up against it!
The system experienced exactly what the C64GS did, in that its games were largely ports of existing CPC games. Users could simply not justify paying 3-4 times the price of a cassette-based game, just to play it on the system with improved load times.
Selling an estimated c. 15,000 units, the Amstrad GX4000 is more of a cult system these days. It is attractive to collectors seeking to obtain complete collections as there were only 27 games released for the system.
Amstrad GX4000 Peripherals & Accessories
Aside from the official GX4000 controllers, there were no other official peripherals for the Amstrad GX4000. However many Amstrad CPC peripherals such as standard 9-pin D-connector joysticks and monitors will work with the system.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).