CYBORG HELLGATE — Amstrad CPC Edition

The ZX Spectrum Next's CYBORG HELLGATE brought to the Amstrad CPC — now with a LITE build tuned for speed.

Defend the planet against an escalating alien invasion in a frantic Defender-style bullet hell. Rescue humanoids from landers, destroy mutants, build your HIT chain and survive increasingly intense waves of enemies.

The HELLGATE can take you to a humanoid in trouble, or warp you three waves ahead with a bonus if you enter it with enough humanoids aboard.

Collect P pickups and gems to raise your power level and upgrade your laser. Use Ghosto to pass through bullets while destroying anything you touch, or activate Guard to create a temporary barrier that eats every bullet on screen.

Then come the giant MECHRA mechs.

Every fifth level is a boss level, with giant machines filling the screen with fans, rings and spirals. The game never ends — keep fighting until your last ship is gone and chase your highest score, wave, level and mech count.

THE LITE BUILD

The CPC LITE build removes the scanner and hides the status panel during normal play to improve performance. Hold TAB to reveal the score, ships, bombs, wave and other statistics.

The ground is simplified and the starfield is removed. Enemies far away from the player's view become dormant until the player approaches them, reducing the amount of work required by the CPC.

The game still uses the same core gameplay, enemies, pickups, HELLGATE, Ghosto, Guard, bullet hell, levels and giant mechs.

CONTROLS

Q / A — Up / Down
O / P — Thrust left / right
Space / Z — Laser
TAB (hold) — Show the status panel
B / M — Smart bomb
H — Hyperspace
G — Guard
I / N (hold) — Ghosto

Joystick controls are also supported.

Space or fire starts the game.

GAME INFORMATION

Platform: Amstrad CPC 128K
Compatible with: CPC 6128, or CPC 464/664 expanded to 128K
Language: NTC BASIC
Display: Mode 0, 160 × 200, 16 colours
Players: 1

TESTING

Tested in the NTC test harness and in Caprice32 configured as a CPC 6128. The README states that it has not been run on a real CPC.

© 2026 Cyborg Unicorn Pty Ltd