Amstrad-ing To Like This!

My parents came home with a computer one day. I had no idea where they got it from & being honest I still don't.  My memory is a little fuzzy as the Amstrad was just a foot note in my gaming life but I think I owned the 386SX.  The floppy disks were 8 half inches which was a crazy big, to give you an idea check out the image below (far left is the 8 half floppy, far right is or was the standard floppy).

For the time I had with Amstrad (which was not long as it disappeared one day with out a trace) I did two things on it. Use paint which was great fun & play the two games I had. One of those games was
called The Dam Busters. The objective was to destroy dams, to do this you had to; set your route, fly your plane to a dam & then blow it up - simple, easy - no, no it was not.  Getting your plane off the runaway into the air was not too bad but the flight to your destination took a long time.  Once near the dam you had to be at the right altitude & speed. If you dropped the bomb too early you, fly too fast or be at the incorrect altitude you would fail.  The moment was over quickly & although you had multiple bombs (3 if I remember correctly)  you had to fly a distance away before retrying your approach.

I don't have that much patience now I had even less then so I usually got frustrated & walked away from it. I then would go back to it the next day looking forward to playing & then realise why I had quit it the day before.

The game I loved on the Amstrad was called Sleuth (turns outs out that's not the name or I just can't find it anywhere - I never had the original box just a copy).  It was a basic top down image of house, black & white.  Your character a detective who was a small white cube. A murder was committed & through asking questions & investigating rooms you had to work out who the killer was & how they did it (yes it sounds like Cluedo but it wasn't already check FYI I used to watch the show on TV).  I loved trying to work out who the killer was & going through the different rooms even though with the exception of their size there was no visual difference. I remember in one of the hallways there was a secret door way which led to as you can guess a secret room.  There was not a lot there really but occasionally the killer was waiting for you.

It was a great game & I loved playing it.  I just wish I knew what it was really called. If anyone knows please let me know.

That is all I have for my first PC but I will leave you with the image of the great Amstrad & my Alienware Aurora A3 as a reminder as to how far we have come with home computers.