1977 – 1992retired
Atari 2600
“Fifteen years, one joystick, and a cartridge slot that never said die.”
“Britain's first homegrown console: sleek, RGB-ready, and gone before the kettle boiled.”
The GX4000 was Amstrad's one and only swing at the console market, launching exclusively in Europe in September 1990 as the first British-manufactured programmable games console. Built on the hardware of Amstrad's CPC Plus home computers, it sported a sleek futuristic design, custom gamepads, and RGB output—a rarity among consoles of its day. It looked like the future, and for a moment it seemed Britain might have a
But a £20 million marketing budget couldn't paper over a game library of mostly simplistic CPC ports, which paled beside the offerings from Sega and Nintendo. Sales were poor, and Amstrad discontinued it within a year of release. The GX4000 now rests as a curiosity of British gaming history—Amstrad's only console, retired with its dignity largely intact.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“Fifteen years, one joystick, and a cartridge slot that never said die.”
“A computer in console clothes, it never quite decided what to be and we loved it anyway.”
“It dialed up the future through a Famicom, then hung up politely when the call was done.”