A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
AMTIX! Accolades

Introduction
This section of CPC Game Reviews is a database which lists every game that was ever previewed and/or reviewed in the Amstrad CPC magazine AMTIX!, including the period when it was incorporated into Computing with the Amstrad CPC (also known as CWTA). AMTIX! ran for 18 issues between November 1985 and April 1987, and there was also an 'issue 0' which only consisted of 16 pages and was a promotion for what one could expect when AMTIX! was launched. After issue 18, it merged with CWTA, so that it was known as Computing with the Amstrad incorporating AMTIX! The first such issue was in May 1987, and the magazine continued like this until August 1988 when the AMTIX! bit was dropped.

So why have I devoted a lot of my time to browsing meticulously through each issue of AMTIX! and listing each and every review? There are several reasons:

• The most important one to me is that game reviews in magazines are very useful in giving me an idea of the story behind a game, and telling me how to play it - this is necessary when I'm reviewing yet another game for CPC Game Reviews. AMTIX!'s reviews were particularly good at doing both of these, and the database allows me to find a review for a particular game quickly.
• David Wykes has already done a reviews database for another Amstrad CPC magazine called Amstrad Action, and you can take a look at his database here. Amstrad Action was the best known and best-selling of the CPC magazines in the UK. So why not create a database of AMTIX! game reviews?
• It's always nice to compare what the reviewers think about a game, and what you, the person reading this, thinks; opinions are often divided! In fact, to allow for this, if a game has been reviewed in AMTIX!, and also in CPC Game Reviews, you can click on the title of the game to be taken to the review in CPC Game Reviews - although there are still a lot of games which I have yet to review!
• If you're casually browsing through the NVG archive and wondering what game(s) you ought to try out next, this database should be able to recommend some games for you - and CPC Game Reviews is meant to serve this purpose, too.

How the database is laid out
This site is divided into 26 sections, with each section listing the games beginning with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. There is no section for games beginning with numbers, so for instance, if you are looking for 720°, you will find it under the S section.

Each section is laid out in a table with six columns:

• Name - if the game has been reviewed in CPC Game Reviews, it will be written in light blue, and you can click on it to be taken to the review
• Software House - the company that published the game
• Issue - which magazine the review appeared in. AMTIX! issues are shown with the issue number and month and year in brackets; CWTA issues are shown with the initials CWTA and the month and year
• Page(s) - shows where the review can be found in the magazine, if (like me) you have any old copies of AMTIX! and want to read the review for yourself
• Rating - all games are rated as a percentage, except for adventures in CWTA June and July 1987 which were rated out of 10
• Other - other comments e.g. whether the game was awarded an AMTIX! Accolade, or whether it appeared in the Complete Games Index (see below)

At the top and bottom of each table, you will also find a list of all the letters of the alphabet; clicking on any letter takes you to the list of reviews beginning with that letter. If you want to return to this page, click on the "Home" icon that appears at the bottom of each section.

You can also download a text version of the list here.

AMTIX! Accolades
The AMTIX! Accolade was an award that AMTIX! gave to games that scored at least 90%, although this changed when AMTIX! was incorporated into CWTA - most games scoring 90% didn't get Accolades any more, and text adventure games were no longer given Accolades. There is a total of 111 Accolades. Depending on which issue the game was reviewed in, you will see one of the following symbols in the "Other" column if the game received an Accolade:

	Used from issues 1 (Nov 1985) to 11 (Sep 1986) of AMTIX!
	Used from issues 12 (Oct 1986) to 18 (Apr 1987) of AMTIX!
	Used in CWTA from May 1987 to February 1988
	Used in CWTA from March to August 1988

Among the games that didn't receive Accolades in AMTIX! are:

• Alien 8 (92%) - reviewed in the Complete Games Index
• Battlefield Germany (93%) - reviewed in the strategy section of AMTIX!
• Dun Darach (93%) - reviewed in issue 0 (the preview issue) and also in the Complete Games Index
• Grumpy Gumphrey (90%)
• Knight Lore (91%) - reviewed in the Complete Games Index

There are also some games, and a compilation, which were awarded Accolades but which were not given any mark:

• 4 AMTIX! Accolades - this is a compilation and all the games were rated separately
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos - the reviewer felt that "to rate them [Infocom games] would imply that they are somehow comparable with other games which is simply not the case"
• Little Computer People - AMTIX! decided that it wasn't really a game and that it didn't comply with their ratings system

You can look at the complete list of AMTIX! Accolades here.

The Complete Games Index
A lot of games had been released before AMTIX! was around, so over issues 1 and 2, they set out to look at nearly every game that had already been released, and write a brief summary of the game and whether it was worth buying or not (a lot of them weren't, seeing how many Amsoft games were amongst them!). Basically, it was very similar to CPC Game Reviews, but without the screenshots. As mentioned earlier, three games were reviewed in the Complete Games Index but did not receive AMTIX! Accolades.

If a game appeared in the Complete Games Index, the following symbol will be shown in the "Other" column:

Finally...
The lowest score that AMTIX! has ever given for any game is 5% for US Gold's Breakthru.