RGCD

Panic Analogue Cartridge Available! (C64)

2012-02-28T00:43:00.002Z

That's right... Panic Analogue is now available to buy on cartridge from our shop!

Goin' Sideways and RGCD are proud to present to you 'Panic Analogue', a fast-paced and highly addictive analogue paddle controlled game for one or two players. The game was developed as an entry for the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition (2011) and came third place out of 11 entries. Easy to learn, almost impossible to master, each of the 14 procedurally generated levels are carefully designed to challenge every kind of gamer - as well as offering almost unlimited replayability.

Your objective is to keep poor little Redhead alive, trapped in his cave. It's a cruel world in there with droplets of water and fireballs constantly falling from above. In order to survive he has to collect every water droplet in his mouth to stay fresh, and keep his torch alit by catching the fireballs. If a water droplet hits the torch things will go very wrong - and swallowing a fireball of course also leads to pure catastrophe!

NTSC and PAL compatible, Panic Analogue even works on the GS - the only requirement being a pair of analogue paddles. The original Commodore variety or Atari 2600 'Tennis' controllers will do fine, and the game website even gives instructions for making your own!

The transparent red, internally LED-illuminated cartridge is packaged in a box designed by Redcrab and comes complete with a printed manual and credit card sized vinyl-coated sticker. As always, I will endeavour to ship out games within a week of purchase, but it may take a little bit longer depending on how many orders come in.

Jars' Revenge (C64) (2011)

2012-02-27T23:29:00.000Z

System Requirements

* A Commodore 64/128/GS (PAL/NTSC) (8580 SID Recommended).
* A joystick/joypad.
* A VDU preferably connected to a loud sound-system.

Downloads

Download Jars' Revenge in .bin/.crt cartridge format HERE!

BONUS! Download mp3 recordings of the soundtrack HERE!
BONUS! Check out TRSI's 'Meet Linus' music collection in C64 .prg format HERE!

Introduction

The C64 scene has waited almost 30 years for a decent conversion of Atari's 2600 classic "Yars' Revenge". Thanks to Peiselulli and Linus from Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated, that wait is now over.

Jars' Revenge is a full-screen (using all border space), PAL and NTSC compatible 2012 update of a timeless console shoot 'em up developed as an entry for the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition (2011). The game is currently cartridge only as it actually uses a few bytes of the available ROM space as extra memory (have fun with that, crackers!)

As it is a remake of an Atari game (with the IP still in use), obviously there is no way that we could get away with officially selling copies of Jars' Revenge here at RGCD. Sorry about that. We have, however, provided the cartridge .rom for free download above - so you are welcome to make your own cartridges or use the file in an emulator.

Playing The Game

To play Jars' Revenge you will need either a real C64 (and a method of transferring the game over to it) or an emulator. For emulator users, we recommend VICE, as it works on a variety of systems and is very user friendly. Just download the emulator and attach the cartridge images via the 'File -> Attach Cartridge Image' option.

Like the original, Jars' Revenge is deceptively complex for a simple looking game; upon it's release last year the most common complaint was that people just didn't understand how to play it! Hopefully the following paragraphs will settle this issue once and for all.

JAR - Fly simulator under direct user control.
ENERGY MISSILE - Missile shot by Jar, removes cells.
QUOTILE BASE - Laser-base like object on right side of the screen, behind the shield.
SHIELD - Energy shield protecting the base, composed of cells.
CELLS - Elements of which shield is composed.
DESTROYER MISSILE - Guided missiles put out by the base to destroy Jars.
CANNON - Appears on left side of screen and traverses the screen horizontally.
SWIRL - Whirling pinwheel fired by the Quotile base to destroy Jars.
NEUTRAL ZONE - Glittering path in the centre of the playfield. When in the zone, a Jar cannot operate fire commands and cannot be harmed by Destroyer Missiles. However, the Jar can still be destroyed by a Swirl in the zone.

The primary objective of the game is to break a path through the shield and destroy the Quotile base with a blast from the Cannon. The secondary objective is to score as many points as possible.

The shield is the red area in front of the base. It appears in one of two shapes, as an arch, or a shifting rectangle. The shield is made up of cells. The Jar scout can destroy these cells by firing at them with energy missiles, from any location on the playfield, or by devouring them on direct contact. (The Cannon can also be used to destroy the cells, but this is a waste of a powerful weapon.)

The Jars' movement is controlled by the joystick plugged into port 2. The screen wraps from top to bottom, bottom to top. This means that if you fly the Jar off the top of the screen, it will appear at the bottom, and vice versa.

The fire button has two separate firing functions: it will fire an energy missile in the direction the Jar is pointed, or operate the Cannon when it is on the screen.

Press SPACEBAR to pause game, use joystick to leave pause mode.

Once a path has been cleared through the shield, the Cannon must be used to destroy the base. To call up the Cannon, the Jar can either eat a cell, or run over the base.

The Cannon appears on the left side of the playfield, and moves in a direct line with the Jar. This means the Jar is in its line of fire. It is important therefore, to aim the cannon at the base, fire it, and fly out of the way fast!

The base shoots off two weapons: Destroyer Missiles and Swirls. The Destroyer Missiles home in on the Jar and the player must do his best to dodge them. Periodically, the base transforms into a Swirl. This Swirl winds up and rushes off after the Jar. A Swirl can be destroyed with the Cannon by hitting it either at its base location, or in mid-air. As a player's score increases, the Swirl becomes increasingly dangerous.

The glittering path down the centre of the screen is the Neutral Zone. This area will protect a Jar from Destroyer Missiles but not from Swirls. While in the Neutral Zone, a Jar cannot fire any energy missiles of his own.

When a Jar is hit by a Destroyer Missile, a Swirl, or his own Cannon, he dies. Each player has four Jars (turns) to play in a game. Additional Jars can be earned (details below).

Scoring

Points and bonuses are rewarded to the player for the following activities.

Cell, hit by Missile (69 Pts)
Cell, devoured by Jar (69 Pts & 100 Bonus)
Base, destroyed (1000 Pts)
Swirl, destroyed in place (2000 Pts)
Swirl, destroyed in flight (6000 Pts & 1UP)

Score-Based Game Evolution

When your score hits these milestones the game will react by ramping up the difficulty significantly :)

70,000 Pts - Swirl triples in frequency and sometimes fires instantly. Neutral Zone vanishes on every 4th level. Shield turns blue.
150,000 Pts - Swirl returns to normal frequency but will also change direction in mid-air to hit you. Shield turns grey.
230,000 Pts - Swirl again triples in frequency and sometimes fires instantly. Shield turns pink.
300,000 Pts - Shield moves two times faster. Shield turns brown.

Promotional Trailer

Below is a promotional video of Jars' Revenge running on a C64c with 8050 SID chip. If people want a high-quality downloadable version of this I can upload it to the server upon request.

Hints

When you destroy the base, or a Swirl, there will be an explosion, during which the Jar stays on the screen. Use this opportunity to make up your own victory dance.

The base continually changes colours. The colour sequence is your cue to the appearance of a Swirl, and gives you warning to plan your attack and defence.

If you fly over the base as it changes to a Swirl it will destroy you, so be careful.

Credits

The following people made this game possible.

Code, Graphics & Sound Effects
Peiselulli (Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated)

SID Music
Linus (Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated)

Playtesting
James Monkman (RGCD)

NTSC Testing
Raymond Lejuez (C64 World)

Cartridge Hardware
Tim Harris (Shareware Plus)

Jars' Revenge is a TRSI production, Copyright 2011. Cartridge version of Jars' Revenge Published by RGCD, 2012.

Attention Video Game Journalists...

2012-02-24T14:27:00.000Z

RGCD are looking to add two new writers to our current team, so if you've ever fancied yourself as a bit of a journo, here's your chance to get involved!

Ideally we'd like applicants to be able to commit to writing one 500(+) word review per week. You'll start off with set assignments, but after a trial period you'll be given free reign to suggest and cover whatever interests you (within the spectrum of retro/indie gaming, of course).

A good knowledge of the history of videogames, arcades, home computers, consoles and the indie scene is essential. Previous experience of writing reviews (for a website, magazine or even on a personal blog) would be preferable.

What can we offer in return? Well, to be honest... not much. For reviews of commercial indies you'll be purchased a free copy of the game and you'll also have access to the occasional pre-release and exclusive title (as well as an invitation to beta test some exciting internal projects). In addition to this, RGCD has become a popular site for indie and retro heads since it's relaunch last year and as such it will also act as a decent platform from which you can further promote your own work.

Drop us a line via our contact page if you are interested.

The Blackwell Deception (PC)

2012-02-24T13:22:00.000Z

Point 'n' Click adventures are going through somewhat of a commercial renaissance of late, having been pretty much ignored for years. HD remakes and directors cut's have graced the digital marketplaces, and actual retail boxed releases of some new P'n'Cs have snuck onto shelves, albeit with a whimper rather than a fanfare.

Of course the retro indie community never truly abandoned Point and Clicks, and Chris Jones's AGS (adventure game studio) development environment has been at the heart of this active scene since it's creation over a decade ago, with countless games having been made on it – of wildly varying quality.

The Blackwell Deception is the forth game in a series of AGS driven games written by Dave Gilbert (no relation to Monkey Island designer Ron Gilbert), and continues on from The Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound and The Blackwell Convergence. Whilst each game is technically a stand alone affair, they are probably best enjoyed as a quadrilogy, containing references to previous games and a setting that, on its own, makes little sense and is given no real introduction.

Blackwell Deception casts you as Rosangela Blackwell – a struggling journalist turned professional psychic investigator – and Joey - her 1920's era wisecracking ghostly companion. The game is contolled via a clean mouse driven interface – with right click being 'look at' and left click serving as a multi-purpose action button (pickup, use, etc). Puzzles are a mixture of dialogue trees, inventory use and some clever clue combinations that make use of Rosa's beloved 'MyPhone' accessory. Any clues that are (automatically) stored there can be used as conversation points when talking to characters, or – when accessed directly – can be combined to create further clues. The MyPhone also serves as a phone, an email client (which is not used massively within the game), and an internet search tool (which is used). Pressing TAB (or using the autohidden menu bar at the top of the screen) swaps control to Joey. He is less able to interact with the world than Rosa – only being able to blow small objects around – but being a ghost he is able to walk through doors. Handy! Together Rosangela and Joey help ghosts to 'move on' – in a setting that feels like the offspring the film Ghost crossed with a Raymond Chandler hard-boiled detective novel.

Aesthetically this game shines – the film noir style music works excellently, the voice acting is (mainly) excellent, and the great low-res art is an example of how lovely games could look in the era of Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Full Throttle et al. (Although not quite as lovely as the previous game, The Blackwell Convergence). The absolute best part of this game though, is the script and the puzzles – which is exactly how it should be with an adventure game. The solutions are logical, there is a nice (admittedly linear) progression through the game, with sensible numbers of inventory items and locations available at any one time rather than overwhelming the player with options. The writing is funny (with Joey providing the bulk of the light relief) and occasionally quite affecting, as we explore some of the decently deceased's rather sad lives. This lightness of touch is more akin to the writing within the Broken Sword series of games, rather than the more overtly comedic Lucas Arts games previously mentioned. Throughout The Blackwell Deception the characters come across as rather more naturalistic and mature than Guybrush Threepwood or the Day of the Tentacle caricatures, and thus a genuine empathy can be evoked rather than it all being based around witty one-liners (although there are plenty of those too). It takes a great deal of skill in scripting (and voice acting) to pull this off, and successful examples are rare (in the mainstream or indie game development world).

The Blackwell Deception is of moderate length – perhaps 6 hours – although this flew by, as I was enjoying the game so much. Unusually for a P'n'C game there is still some fun to be had once the game is over in the form of a Director's commentary – something Dave Gilbert has done since his game 'The Shivah' (an fascinating adventure based around a crime solving Rabii). With this commentary option turned on there are various spoken interjections explaining the game making process, as well as various commentary and blooper hot spots to click on throughout the game. It is amusing and fascinating insight - particularly if the thought of making and selling an AGS game has ever crossed your mind.

Overall a slick interface, an engaging setting with fair puzzles and great audio work make The Blackwell Deception the pretty much ideal point and click game – however it has to come with the caveat that this game is probably only at its best when played after the previous three games – which, whilst they are also excellent games, are not quite as perfect as this one is (particularly The Blackwell Legacy - the first in the series).

The Blackwell Deception comes unreservedly recommended for players of the previous games, although individuals sufficiently interested might be better placed to look at the previous games beforehand.

Via Steam: The Blackwell Deception is £6.99 or £14.99 as part of the Blackwell Bundle of all four games (with the first three individually retailing at £3.99 each). Buy the game here.

Via Wadjet Eye's own website: The Blackwell Deception (DRM free) costs around £8, and the first thee games are bundled together at around £12. Download the demo or buy the game here.

Note: Whilst the demo that is available showcases the interface and aesthetic nicely, it does very little to introduce newcomers to the characters (presumably relying on the player's experiences with the previous games/demos).

Zombie Incident (MSX)

2012-02-24T13:09:00.000Z

One of the first reviews I ever wrote for RGCD, back when the magazine still came out on a compact disc, was of an MSX game - and for a while now I've been eager to get back to the old MSX, while continously kicking myself for passing up the chance to pick one up at a car boot sale a few years ago. With the judging of the MSXDev 2011 game development contest going on right now and games already entered for the 2012 contest it's looking like a bumper season for MSX gamers and reviewers, and I was chuffed to fire up the top notch blueMSX emulator and have a crack at Zombie Incident, one of the nine entries in the 2011 contest.

Inspired by the Mojon Twins' Cheril Perils, nenefranz’s Zombie Incident is a screen-by-screen platformer that pits the player against a castle full of zombies of varying species, on a quest to collect eight stars and escape the castle. And at the finish of an incredibly hectic weekend in this reporter's personal life it's quite simply a treat to play.

A chilly palette of nocturnal blues and blacks sets the scene visually at the outset of the game, following a neat intro that recounts the story so far, and can conveniently be fast-forwarded through. The zombies (and not just human zombies; birds, spiders and what are either snakes or caterpillars with spines are also present in zombified form) are cutely realised in bold colours, and crumble down to cartoony skeletons before finally being put to rest by our heroine's good old fashioned platformer jump-on-the-head attack.

Zombie Incident is a deeper game than a cursory glance at a screenshot would suggest. For example, flying against 8-bit platformer conventions, each screen's bad guys remain dead once killed, which is a neat trick and certainly not what I'd expected. Pressing F5 brings up a map, which is inarguably a luxury in 8-bit platform games, and a large energy bar with many small increments takes away the three strikes and out gameplay that goes hand in hand with platformers.

It's a lot of fun as well, of course, and the wall-jumping function especially adds a lot to the game, making for acrobatic leaps over (and onto) the heads of the bad guys. There's a nice sense of progression as the blue shades of the citadel give way to the earthtones of the upper caverns, and the browns in turn give way to exotic purples and gloriously loud greens of the lower levels of the caves, while John Hassink's spooky score rattles along happily in the background, gelling well with the gameplay and becoming more urgent when the character's life bar is dangerously low.

Unkillable enemies are thrown in to make things a bit tougher, and the limited range of enemy types doesn't really bring the game down, as the system of varying toughness based on sprite colour adds extra diversity. The game's ease of play may be a deal breaker for some players, it's a game purpose-built to be quite forgiving, with the aforementioned extra big health bar, and it even gifts the player with an increase to the character's health when she eradicates all the zombies in any given screen. Even the pools of what I assume is acid aren't instant killers, and in all honesty the game does lack any real heart-in-mouth moments of tension.

In spite of its ease of play, and a few other minor flaws (although it appears that all the bugs of the previous build were fixed with this latest release) Zombie Incident is a skilfully put together game with a fair amount of replay value, enjoyable casual gameplay and endearing graphics that wears its personality on its sleeve.

Download the game here (from the MSXdev website).
Run it using blueMSX (freeware).

4 Joysticks

Maritrini, Freelance Monster Slayer (ZX Spectrum)

2012-02-05T23:17:00.001Z

As a self-proclaimed 'super-fan' of The Cure, I am somewhat ashamed to confess that I played Maritrini, Freelance Monster Slayer for three days straight before a rusty cog in my brain turned and I made the following observation. Maritrini's five stages, each made up of four levels, are named after famous songs by the band. This certainly called into question both my commitment to Smith and the boys, and my so-called powers of deduction – especially as it took Stage 3, Lovecats, to finally make it click. I'm not proud, but still, bonus points for Maritrini from this reviewer!

Maritrini has been unceremoniously sacked as the star of her own TV show Maritrini, Monster Slayer. Like any good entrepreneur she is undeterred and sets up as a freelancer, only to be contacted out-of-the-blue by the former Director of the series, Paul Duran, who asks her to rescue his kidnapped daughter. She has been taken by an evil organisation – the type that specialises in genetic manipulation and turning human beings into bloodthirsty monsters. She heads to the grounds of Mr. Duran's mansion, and strikes out into the woods (A Forest, Cure fans) to get her back.

Maritrini is a top-down blaster in the vein of Gauntlet. Each level is a sizeable, beautifully presented maze full of detailing appropriate to the setting, whether it's a deserted schoolhouse or a secret laboratory. Maritrini must find the exit to progress, but to get there a horde of monsters must be slain and keys to the locked doors blocking her path must be found. Each level is populated with numerous spawners – or generators – that spew forth a variety of monsters at a reasonable alarming rate. The game is heavy on the trigger-finger, especially as each spawner takes around 10 to 12 shots to destroy and those pesky monsters do tend to get in the way of your bullets! Each maze is well designed, but progression does tend to be rather linear until you reach the later stages.

The graphics and presentation in Maritrini are superb throughout. Unlike many similar games, including Gauntlet, the levels are hugely detailed and extremely colourful with not a hint of the dreaded colour-clash. I would argue that some of the texturing of floor areas is unnecessary and, although the game does avoid feeling cluttered due to its excellent design and presentation, it is rather tough on the eyes. This is mainly due to a slight judder in the scrolling, which becomes noticeable because of the high level of detail.

The soundtrack to the game is fabulous, with four in-game theme tunes that are highly atmospheric as well as title and interlude tracks. A particular highlight of the game is the stylish introductions to each of the five worlds which feature an action shot of Maritrini, a snippet of storyline and a tremendous Cure-inspired ditty. The in-game sound effects are weaker; they lack the punch required for a shooter of this nature.

This is a fine game that makes good use of the hardware at its disposal, but nonetheless it does have a few weaknesses. Firstly, I found the controls slightly less responsive than I would have liked, slightly spongy, making both rapid fire and switching direction when in battle irksome. This is a long game, with 20 large levels, and although there is good variety graphically and in terms of enemy type, there is no variation in game-play. There's a lot of shooting to be done, and it gets quite repetitive, especially as diagonals aren't used for either firing or for enemy movement. In fact, without exception, the monsters you face will pretty much line up for you to shoot them and their movement is entirely predictable.

The big negative, for me, is that the game is too easy, even though it does take some time to play through. I am a huge fan of the sophisticated password system that enables you to save your game and statistics after every level – but it allowed me to complete the game at my first attempt! You begin the game with 200 energy points, but because there is no upper limit, by the time I reached the last level I had 2,000! Maritrini is far too generous with energy boosters. If you clear a level, you receive additional energy based on how many points you scored, so if you wipe out all the spawners you are guaranteed a good return. This is the game's main issue and the difficulty could be easily tweaked to increase the challenge.

Download the game here (from the Mojon Twins website).
Run it using Spectaculator (shareware) or Klive (freeware).

Pineapple Smash Crew (PC)

2012-02-04T23:31:00.001Z

At first glance Rich Make Game's Pineapple Smash Crew ticks all the right boxes to guarantee an RGCD 5/5 award; excellent nouveau-retro presentation, Commodore Amiga composed chiptune soundtrack, procedurally generated content and balls-to-the-wall fast-paced, intense and explosive arcade gameplay. It's cartoonified representation of the Warhammer 40K tabletop wargame universe (Space Hulk anyone?) combined with a promise of Cannon Fodder-esque squad-based tactical combat had me hitting that 'buy now' button before even watching the trailer, and my first few plays were a nostalgia-laden and enjoyable voyage of discovery full of eye-popping explosions and some of the most innovative weaponry design I've experienced outside the realm of first-person-shooters. And yet, if I had to summarise the game in a single line my final verdict would have to be "Close, but no cigar".

Don't get me wrong - PSC is extremely close to being excellent. Playing the game as a squad commander in a company of space mercs, the goal of the game is to loot an endless battlefield full of alien-infested spacewrecks in order to ultimately retrieve the co-ordinates of a lost Mothership bursting with enough wealth to set you up for life. Controlled by an intuitive WASD and mouse configuration, you move through each module of the wrecks and essentially blast everything using your standard laser cannons and a wide variety of 'lobbable' weapons, grabbing as much loot as you can carry.

Normally in shoot 'em ups it's the primary weapons that take precedence, but PSC is all about those lesser used hand-thrown projectiles, in particular the titular 'pin-and-pineapple' grenade. Normally added to games in limited quantities as a way of removing obstacles or reducing a boss enemy's health, in PSC grenades are plentiful, varied and without a doubt the star of the show. Starting with an arsenal limited to standard grenades and missiles, by successfully looting wrecks you'll soon gain enough experience points to unlock new types of thrown weaponry, ranging from gun turrets, health fields, teleporters, bullet bursts, black holes and numerous other weird and wonderful toys.

At the beginning of each skirmish you are presented with your four mercenaries - the original squad of which you can actually rename - and if they survive (and collect enough loot) they are rewarded with a promotion, a new armour skin and strength increase. This does create some sort of personal attachment to your troops, but unlike the clearly influential Cannon Fodder there is no poignant graveyard showing the tombstones of your fallen heroes and thus they are soon forgotten. So when my initial team of Stylus, O'Toole, Uglifruit and Mr. Dennis ate spacedust I didn't really care who else fell during battle after them.

After this brief introduction it's on to making your choice of spacewreck to salvage - each of which has it's own risk value, size or class and mission type (kill everything in certain areas, find a number or artifacts or move all the toxic containers into decontamination units). To begin with these missions seem varied, especially when combined with other aesthetic parameters such as ship damage and whether or not the power is still on, but you'll soon identify which offers the best reward to match your playing style and most likely pick the same type over and over again (the toxic ships are particularly challenging in comparison to the other mission types).

Of course it would be a rather dull affair if the derelict craft were devoid of hostile life, but thankfully PSC delievers a decent range of resistance; vicious aliens, marauding droids, gun turrets, braindead space zombies and huge boss enemies are all present onboard and determined to spill your mercenaries entrails across the deck. They're pretty tough too (especially on the higher difficulty missions) and the boss battles are suitably epic encounters, but nothing that your collection of grenades can't handle.

Each of your four mercs can hold a single grenade type and you swap between them by simply selecting the lead soldier out of the group via the mouse wheel (or Q/E on the keyboard). In order to succeed some tactical play is required; there's no point in picking up loads of grenades of the same type when you can hold a mix of offensive and defensive weapons to be utilised in battle. And as mentioned previously, they are extremely well designed and massively satisfying to use - in fact when you get used to the system you'll be questioning why on earth it hasn't been done before. However, unfortunately the quality here just makes the few minor issues that I have with the rest of the game stand out that much more.

I bought the Steam version and was surprised to discover that the game was sold with no documentation (and the in-game help sadly doesn't cover all aspects of the game, leaving a fair amount for you to work out on your own), no intro sequence or background story and no achievements. There's no online or offline high score table, and in fact at the time of writing the game doesn't even have an icon in my Steam game library. Then there's the total lack of control options (and this game is just screaming out for dual-analogue joypad or 360 controller support). But more than anything, the game just needs a bit more variety; before long, regardless of the fun to be had in the initial hour or so, it just starts to feel a little too samey too soon.

Also, there are other aspects of the game that feel like missed opportunities. Each ship is laid out as a map of square arena-like modules that are connected in a pattern shown on the map grid in the top-right corner of the screen. Target rooms are clearly labelled, and then there is also a computer room on each ship from which you collect fragments of the Mothership co-ordinates (by way of a percentage). Upon encountering a computer for the first time and seeing the 'access console' message pop up I immediately expected a spoof Intex Systems screen to open a la Alien Breed, but what is this? A single black window containing tiny text giving some details about the origins of a space war that's not been mentioned anywhere else in the game so far? No shop in which to spend my credits? Is this the way that the game expects you to learn about the universe in which PSC is set? Well, colour me underwhelmed. Some sort of encyclopaedia of entries that are unlocked and viewable from within the main menu would have worked better - who wants to read a screen of faux-history during the middle of a fire-fight? That's one sure way to break the flow of an arcade game.

More variety in ship textures and furniture (those crates and tanks soon become old), a few more alien types exclusive to certain missions and perhaps even some infrequent random encounters or events would make a huge difference. As it stands, PSC gives away all it's surprises too early - apart from the later grenade types (that take time to earn), you've seen all the game has to offer in the first hour. PSC's promise of almost infinite variations of spacewreck is true to a point; it's just let down by the fact that these infinite variations are just too similar.

I'm genuinely sorry that this honest review sounds a little harsh - especially considering that PSC is a two-man production that has clearly been a labour of love. However, for the introductory Steam price of £6.29, I can only recommend the game in it's current state to fans of the genre or to those of you who are only looking for a few hours of explosive old-school gameplay and not the endless variety that the blurb promises. Rich has mentioned that he plans to add extra content to the game over the coming months, and as a customer myself I really hope that this comes to fruition. Pineapple Smash Crew is a unique game with huge potential, sadly let down by a lack of variety when it comes down to anything non-grenade related.

Buy the game from the links available here (from the Rich Make Game's website).

Hack Slash Loot (PC/Mac/Linux)

2012-02-03T00:40:00.000Z

From the outset I should say I really wanted to like Hack Slash Loot more than I end up doing. It is a procedurally generated turn based dungeon crawler/rogue-like, with deliciously retro 8x8 pixel graphics with lovely music. These are factors that are definitely in HSL's favour, and I should be fawning over it and singing its praises – but unfortunately I have mainly been frustrated rather than entertained... and therein lies a problem.

The game can be driven entirely with the mouse – which is a nice streamlined way of doing things (or utter heresy, depending on how pure you like your rogue-likes), and hovering the mouse over the stats bar gives helpful explanations. All well and good, but with clicking on an adjacent square to move, a foe to attack, or on yourself to skip a turn it can be very easy to misplace your clicks, especially if a slightly zoomed out view is adopted. But lets put this down to my lack of mouse skill, rather than a problem with the game per se.

On to the meat and veg of the game. Aside from loot to loot and enemies to slay, what should good all dungeon crawlers have? A. Character classes – well yes, HSL has classes, oodles of 'em (30+), but all but three of them are initially locked. And how, you may ask, do you unlock them? By failing in the game. That's an unusual mechanic, and I can't decide if it is a stupid design choice or a stroke of genius. If you die a lot, you unlock better characters. On some level this makes sense – if you're dying you need the better (and thus easier) starting characters – but the initial three are so underpowered your repeated deaths may well have dissuaded from playing the game before you unlock the better ones.

Rogue-like players get used to dying, repeatedly. It's part of the game, but Hack Slash Loot punishes you mercilessly – and it feels like the stats are stacked against you from the outset. Quite often I didn't make it from the first room, having started in a closed chamber with an enemy that I couldn't defeat. This overwhelming feeling of futility is exacerbated by non-regenerating health and very few ways of replenishing it (aside of some very uncommon random pick-ups).

Assuming you do happen to defeat the first few enemies encountered, there are numerous quests to take on – and perhaps it is a case of choosing the right hero for the right dungeon – but I couldn't shake the feeling of relying on luck rather than any skill on my part to make any progress. Character development – through the picking up of weapons/armour - is very light, and encounters with each enemy become exchanges of blows and feel like rolling dice with health being slowly worn away whilst waiting to roll a double six to win, or a double one to lose. At some point the desire to start again, and die, with no particular likelihood of progressing any further than the last attempt wore on this player's patience and the game was exited – although something did make me continually return to it, perhaps just to see if I was missing something, or could get a bit luckier this time.

Overall the aesthetic in Hack Slash Loot is very nice, and I noticed there is some randomization-massaging going on behind the scenes (meaning you are more likely to start near items that you dropped when dying on a previous game) but I would be reluctant to recommend this game for $10, although the forums on his website suggest that author David Williamson is listening to user feedback and making changes to the game that may improve it. For now the free demo gives a very good flavour of the game, so potential customers can see if they'd like it – but I'd also suggest trying the excellent Cursed Loot (XBLA) and Desktop Dungeons (PC/Mac) for other (possibly more enjoyable) dungeon crawling outings.

Download the demo/buy the game here (from the David Williamson's website).

EFMB: Endless Forms Most Beautiful (ZX Spectrum)

2012-02-03T00:07:00.000Z

It is always fascinating to see art in its developmental stages – bootlegs of The Beatles demos, DaVinci's Last Supper sketches or Oliver Hardy's pre-Laurel short films. With this in mind it is interesting to note that with EFMB: Endless Forms Most Beautiful we can trace a parentage that stretches back to 2010, a Philatelists Odyssey – Dave Hughes's entry in the 2010 comp.sys.sinclair Crap Game Competition. This was an unplayably slow BASIC game, and begat his much better game Stamp Quest in 2011. Dave has further refined his programming skills (in very public view on the W.O.S. developers forums) and has now given us a new year's present of EFMB – and a corker of a game it is too!

You play as either Mobius (or Pucky, if you prefer) and collect stationary Aliens (or Imps, if you so choose) that are distributed amongst a single screen set of platforms. These platforms are patrolled by baddies who follow fixed paths left and right. As well as walking about, you can (by standing on one of the abundant teleporters) jump to the platform above or below. Teleporting off the top of the screen moves you to the bottom platform and vice versa, and walking off the left/right of a platform wraps onto the other side of the screen – but you emerge on the level above/below respectively. Thus you have many many ways of moving between platforms.

Initially there appears to be very little challenge in EFMB, with each stage feeling much the same but with a few extra baddies to (easily) avoid. And then, around stage 6 things start to get challenging. Very challenging. Some of the baddies have stopped patrolling and move towards you if you are on their platform – whilst others start using the shortcuts off the edge of the screen. Also collecting an alien (or imp) carries the chance of it turning into a bomb that will detonate a few seconds later (by which time had better not still be on that platform) – and from time to time you must avoid the deadly attribute snake which rolls down the screen one platform at a time. Chaos and twitch gamplay ensues. To somewhat even the odds you can collect the cup of tea and a biscuit that occasionally appears rendering you invincible for a short while - Dave Hughes obviosuly shares my own feelings towards the restorative powers of a well timed cuppa.

Rather than having lives, your progress is tracked through which of the ten stages you are on – with death meaning you are put back to retry the previous stage. This works as a great adaptive difficulty level – as you improve at the game you get further through – so you end up (typically) oscillating between a few stages that tax you. But here's the clever bit... the levels are pseudorandom: the layout, alien sprites, colours and floor graphics are varied – so even the same numbered stage can look and feel quite different. This simple design choice makes the stages feel fresh (and sometimes rather bizarrely coloured) each time you play.

Add to this an amusing choice of language and a great set of (non-random) sprites (with Mobius, Pucky and the Baddies all being very nicely drawn and animated) - plus some nice programming touches with rainbow colours and a good front end... and you have a delightful arcade game that oozes one-more-go appeal.

Upon initially running Endless Forms Most Beautiful you are asked for your favourite four letter word (presumably to generate a random number seed for all the procedurally generated choices in the game) – and despite initially feeling like the games is a programming exercise in randomization rather than a game (hate), EFMB will soon win you over and your four letter word will become love. Because 'hooked' has more than four letters.

Download the game here (from the World of Spectrum site).
Run it using Spectaculator (shareware) or Klive (freeware).

Retro Blazer (Preview) (PC/Mac/Linux)

2012-01-29T20:49:00.000Z

I love Quake. I've got a major soft spot for the game which might be in part because it was a game I played a hell of a lot of during my awkward teenage years and for a while was practically all me and a few of my friends talked about during school hours. I used to get up early on weekends to play direct-dial deathmatches against a mate with a faster modem, and got reamed every time.

Quake was a dingy, moody game and if it was a bathtub it would have really awful tidemarks all the time, and probably some dubious matter clogging the plughole. I loved how it was shot through with Lovecraftian themes and as a teenager I was pretty much contractually obliged to think Nine Inch Nails, and therefore the game's sinister and brooding soundtrack, were awesome. Also it had nailguns. So witnessing the Darkplaces engine, a souped-up version of the Quake engine, used to make a game that looked as bright and hi-res and just visually loud as Retro Blazer just had to be done.

Retro Blazer is a galaxy away from the muddy, grim visuals of Quake, and looks just wonderful; and seeing these sights through the eyes of the Darkplaces engine is weird, like playing a Bizarro World version of the cistern-crawling FPS we all know and love. Retro Blazer drops the player in a day-glo dungeon of bright lights, weapons that fire balls of energy (even the shotguns!) and good old fashioned exploding barrels. Because life's not been the same since villains realised it was a silly idea to leave them around their bases.

I know I'm banging on about the graphics and haven't mentioned the gameplay, but bear with me because there's a lot more to write about. Retro Blazer may use an engine descended from the one that ran Quake, and the walls, floors and ceilings (and sky when it's visible) are rendered in three dimensions. Everything else, however, from the energy packs the player picks up, to the bad guys themselves and even the aforementioned exploding barrels are the kind of two-dimensional sprites that anyone who has ever played the first two Doom games, Duke Nukem 3D or about 97 other first person shooters from the 1990s will easily recognise, and that was it for me. Totally hooked on the nostalgia drugs RetroBlazer injected into my eyes while it had me distracted. It's like the contents of a can of Red Bull acquired sentience and crashed Quake and Duke Nukem 3D into each other. In a disco. In space. A few more pictures will probably do a better job of explaining how great the graphics are, and I'd better start writing about the gameplay.

Fast, exciting, tough at times (but it's the Quake engine so you can save the game at any time instead of waiting for a scene change or a magical rabbit or whatever) and all in all relentless; that's how Retro Blazer plays. Firefights turn quickly into heart-in-mouth teethclenchers and in true 90s FPS fashion the bits where you aren't fighting with stuff go past quickly because there's always another laserfight around the corner, and this game doesn't muck about with long exploration sequences. And you need keycards of various colours at various points in the game. Glorious!

Quickly recapping, it's really nice to be able to save the game when you want to. Playing hunt the save point or having to keep retrying entire portions of a level just to get to a point where you can actually put down the controller without losing half an hour's play sometimes don't always sit right with me, and this (I guess you could call it "retro" but it would make me feel really old and I'm not 30 yet) function gels well with the equally old-school difficulty curve of the game.

Elsewhere the weapons are a little underwhelming - the shotgun let me a down a little in firing spheres of green energy and not angry clouds of buckshot death, but that's probably because my love of shotguns in first person shooters borders on a fetish. Still, they fit in well enough with the game's visual style and neon-soaked sci-fi atmosphere. I was undecided on the music before the soundtrack hit its stride on the third level, where the pacing of the music and the level design sync up neatly.

The gameplay of Retro Blazer isn't flawless but there's very little I could find wrong with it that wasn't based on personal prejudices. I agree with the Editor that it this game really is a breath of fresh air, and the fact that this is only the alpha build of the game is certainly impressive. I thought hard about whether I should give a five joystick rating to such an early build of a game. Then I loaded Retro Blazer up again and it made my decision for me.

Download the game here (from Retro Blazer website).

Second Opinion

Doom is still a game (and very likely always will be) which is probably in my top 10, if not top 5 games. I have been somewhat active in the Doom community (which is quite lively and has a backlog of almost two decades of occasionally great custom made stuff). I like Quake too, and played a fair share of other popular and not so popular games of this ilk back then and even made level for quite a few of them.

The level design was the first thing in Retro Blazer which struck me as "retro", and "retro" here would be used in a derogatory sense. I like the graphics in this a lot, they are indeed a fresh breeze as far as FPS games go. But the level design, really? Wolfenstein 3D was what came to mind, with it's always similar looking, completely non-memorable locations that make navigating the levels less than fun, and especially so when there are actual maze contraptions thrown in for good measure.

Retro, the game even has it in it's name; although it is something I can not really understand, other than perhaps some people might like this kinda stuff. There are a lot of things I would never touch with a 10 foot pole, and yet others like them so I can't really judge them for that. The only thing I can do is look at this game from the standpoint of a person who has played games actively for a quarter of a century now and whom also works in the gaming industry. The way the game plays feels very dated. Yes it is fast, but it is also confusing due to the lack of variation in level design. Often I find myself wondering which of these five doors in this square room I have already passed through - and most of the time they lead to more square rooms...

Another thing I did not really enjoy was the fact that the peashooter weapon, while graciously having unlimited ammunition, does not auto-fire. It is not fun to tap your mouse button a lot. I don't know where this design decision came from, but in my opinion it does not make any sense.

Concluding, I have to say that I did not play this very far. Why you ask? Quite simply, it bored me to death. Also I saw some videos of further levels, one of which gets into a proper maze after a while - and because mazes themselves are not annoying enough (I played through all of Wolf 3D and the Nocturnal Missions, so I've had my fair share of them) in Retro Blazer there are guys on the walls of the maze lobbing grenades at you (did I mention you can not aim up?). This I guess was made to create some kind of tension, but it just looked cheap to me. Then after you made it through the maze you get to walk on top of the maze walls and show those grenade lobbing bastards what you are made off. Funny enough in the video below the guy at some point fell down the walls back into the maze, but he gracefully edited the footage with a nice fade-over effect to spare us watching him get back up again.

So all I can say is, while I am sure there are people who will enjoy this, I am not one of them and if you are the kind of person that likes their shooters with a bit more intricacy in design and level layouts then you probably won't either. The nostalgia alone just does not do it for me any more.

ptoing.

Streets of Doom (ZX Spectrum)

2012-01-28T22:28:00.000Z

In many a classic Spectrum game the ultimate goal was to rescue the girl, or to win her heart. But more often or not, when you got her, you realised it wasn't worth all the fuss.

I fought past motorcycle gangs and knife-wielding thugs in Renegade, then took one look at my date and decided I should have run off with one of Big Bertha's leather-clad minions. The cover artwork for Athena promised a heroine both buxom and scantily-clad, but when it loaded up we got a blobby dwarf rather than a statuesque goddess. As for Daisy, of Yolkfolk fame, well – she certainly had curves, but they weren't in the right places to make her appealing to the gentleman gamer!

Yes, you could argue that the lack of attractive ladies in Speccy games has something to do with the graphical limitations of the machine. However, Rafal Miazga has shown me with Streets of Doom that it is possible to have an in-game love interest that provides a little genuine motivation for the player. Much of this action adventure involves trying to win over prospective girlfriend Alice, your 'pretty neighbour' who you rescued from the flaming Skyscraper of Doom in the first game of the series.

In Skyscraper, to be honest, I thought Alice was a bit plain, but it would have been churlish in the extreme not to help her escape. Well, lucky I did because she appears to have had a makeover between the two games and, in the introductory cut-scene at least, is quite the smouldering temptress. And, even better – our hero has a date with her.

Now, unfortunately, your character, Ron, is something of a bad-boy who by his own admission has little success with women. So when he turns up at Alice's flat having slept in an alleyway and smelling like a brewery, he gets short shrift from her. Thankfully, you saved her life yesterday – so you get one more chance. Your mission is to clean yourself up, deadbeat!

There's a lot more to the story than this – it's an atmospheric, pleasingly noir-ish mystery involving supernatural forces that gradually unfolds across the two games, with the third game still to come. It's not essential to play Skyscraper first, but I would certainly recommend it to maximise your enjoyment of the story. In terms of game-play, the emphasis lies heavily upon problem solving by interacting with characters and objects. There's not much actual action, but plenty of trudging back and forth with different items! I don't mean this as a criticism, as I love this kind of game, but if you do get a bit stuck, it can quickly become tiresome. The game is reasonably close in style to Ceasefire (which had more action but suffered from very awkward object manipulation) and much earlier, Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach.

Graphically, the game is superb, with colourful, attractive, flip-screen backdrops throughout the game. The central character, Ron, is well-drawn and animated, and in my opinion – if not Alice's – very much looks the part in a sweeping black trench coat. Other characters are static and of more variable quality, with some of the lowlifes in the slums looking a bit less convincing. The story and significant interactions are relayed using 'comic strip' style cut scenes – which are of excellent quality of such that I do not remember seeing in another Spectrum game. There are also some really creative backdrops that give the game strong individuality. I loved the rooftop escape from the burning building in Skyscraper, and in Streets, the dockyard scene with the statue of Uriel, God of Flame, dramatically looming in the background. Although I have to say I wasn't so sure about the stereotyping evident in the Red Light District's 'Big Johnny' gay club, where all the clientele sport leather waistcoats and caps!

Use of sound in the game is absolutely minimal, with only the occasional bleep when actions are performed and the plod of Ron's footsteps to be heard. This is one area where the game could be improved, although the silence does help to create an eerie atmosphere for the story.

Ron can carry two objects at once, and there are many more in the game, so it is soon necessary to choose a location as an object repository. Some objects are in plain view but most must be uncovered by searching scenery, speaking to characters, or solving problems. What I really like about the puzzles in this game is that some of them require Ron to be carrying two objects at once, which does add a level of sophistication that many graphic adventures lack. The solutions are logical and pitched at a sensible level of difficulty, being challenging enough to provide a sense of achievement when progress is made.

I really enjoyed Miazga's narrative voice in this story. Ron is a 'me against the world' kind of a guy, existing on the fringes of society, and because of his rough edges, it makes him a more compelling hero. The story is very well written, but one or two minor errors have crept into the text – of the sort that only a non-native speaker would make. I would suggest that with a quick proof-read by a native English speaker this could easily be remedied. 'Ron' is not a commonly used name for heroic characters – but perhaps these games can help fight the prejudice that it is a name only for grandads...

Streets is clearly run on the same engine as Skyscraper, but a number of improvements are clear to see. The puzzles are better and there are no objects secreted in obscure places, frustrating the player. The graphics have improved, including the central character, and the occasional bugs evident in Skyscraper do not appear in the second game. One or two niggles remain – chiefly that in some instances you need to stand in exactly the right spot to perform an action, but the only way to tell where is trial and error. I would also like to see trudging back and forth minimised – perhaps by using shortcuts (hail a cab?) or being able to transport more items at once (using a backpack). It would also be positive if more use were made of multiple levels in the game, which would add some variety. Ron can jump very nicely, but it's rarely necessary to do so. Streets can be a little cruel; our poor hero can be killed at the drop of a hat – but in the days of emulation a regular snapshot can circumvent this issue.

I really enjoyed this game: it is slickly presented and well designed, with an excellent storyline that holds the attention. If you like fast-paced games full of action, however, you need to look elsewhere. I look forward to the next instalment, where with any luck I will rescue (and no doubt win the heart of) the lovely Alice.

Download the game here (from the World of Spectrum site).
Run it using Spectaculator (shareware) or Klive (freeware).

New Cartridge Packaging

2012-01-27T23:17:00.000Z

Don't panic - we haven't gone and changed the packaging we use for our C64 cartridges again. In fact, this short post is just to let you know that we've finally got around to converting over the boxes of our C64 cartridge back-catalogue to the newer format used for the past three games (Blok Copy, Fortress of Narzod and C64anabalt).

Compare these two photos; the first being the mish-mash of old boxes, with the newer, uniform sized ones below. I know which I prefer on my shelf...

...and that's the point of this post. Those of you who've followed and supported RGCD's cartridge project since the start probably have an equally varied collection of boxes - and if like me you'd prefer a bit of standardisation now that we've settled on a readily available type of packaging that works (and doesn't need to be hand spray painted or imported from Austrailia as dead warehouse stock), you may be pleased to hear that you can purchase new replacement boxes for our older games at the low cost of £1 each.

To make an enquiry, drop us a line via the contact page stating what boxes you are after (and your location) and we'll reply as soon as possible with a quote including postage and details of how to pay. Replacement boxes requested together with a cartridge purchase will not incur an additional postage cost.

Retro News Update

2012-01-27T00:30:00.003Z

Wow. Those orders for C64anabalt really kicked my ass. It's been ages since I've had a chance to post anything here, but as I've recently just about caught up with the 100+ orders placed for the game I figured that another Retro News Update was probably over due. (Oh, and for those of you still wanting to grab a copy of the game, please note that I will be removing it from the RGCD shop at the end of the month).

Anyway, let's have a quick look back at what we missed over the past couple of weeks :)

Phantomas Tales #4: Severin Sewers (ZX Spectrum)

First of a fistful of new ZX releases, The Mojon Twins' 128KB Severin Sewers is the long-awaited 4th installment of the Phantomas Tales series, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Phantomas 1 & 2 by Dinamic. It's a pretty challenging affair thanks to the addition of a very limited view-range in the lower dark areas, but despite it's initial difficulty there's no denying that Severin Sewers is a really decent game - and your quest to retrieve those elusive 15 gold coins on each of the four levels can be made considerably easier if you consult this complete game map :)

Maritrini Freelance Monster Slayer (ZX Spectrum)

...and if one Mojon Twins game in a month wasn't enough, the single-player Gauntlet-esque 8-way scrolling maze-shooter Maritrini Freelance Monster Slayer was released today! I've only had a chance to give it a couple of plays so far, but what I've seen has left me impressed. Could this be the best MJ release to date? Hopefully we'll get a review of this uploaded soon.

EFMB: Endless Forms Most Beautiful (ZX Spectrum)

Using a combination of procedurally generated and collectable invader/imp sprites (a-la Invaders: Corruption), randomly selected enemies to avoid and colour schemes to confuse, Endless Forms Most Beautiful is a bugged-out 8-Bit trip.

At heart EFMB is simple single-screen arcade game (wrapping both vertically and horizontally), with your goal being to collect all the imps or invaders whilst avoiding bad guys via the use of teleporters. Add a few power-ups to the mix and you have a classic game with a modern twist. Recommended.

Gloop Troops: The Lost Crown (ZX Spectrum)

With the release of Little Shop of Pixels' 128KB Gloop Troops 2 planned this year, they recently made their previously iOS exclusive special edition of the original game available for Spectrum gamers. Gloop Troops: The Lost Crown is a collection of levels that didn't make it into the limited space of the previous game and has been coined as 'Gloop Troops 1.5' by the developers - something to keep fans happy whilst they wait for the bigger, bolder sequel.

Similar to the single-screen classics of old, Gloop Troops is a game about collecting stars within a time limit whilst temporarily stunning enemies with the titular 'gloop'. It's a fab little game - and when you consider the other releases above, January has been an excellent month for the ZX scene. Here's hoping that the quality output continues in 2012.

Slayin' (PC)

Now followers of the indie-scene may well have already heard of this addictive little browser-based game, but what you might not know is that Pixel Licker is currently working on a downloadable offline version for PC owners. There's an early build up already that is well worth checking out, but stay tuned for an enhanced version soon.

Retro Blazer (Preview) (PC/Mac/Linux)

It might only be an alpha build, but this extremely retro and ludicrously fast-paced hardcore FPS is a real breath of fresh air. Maybe it's the vivid neo-Amstrad style colour scheme, or perhaps the fluid combination of contrasting modern pixel art and high resolution HUD graphics - there's something about the aesthetics of Retro Blazer that just ticks all the right boxes for me. Based on the 'Darkplaces' Quake engine, you'll probably want to WASD-ify the archaic control scheme, but after you've done that you'll soon be running around blasting stuff with a huge nostalgic grin on your face.

Nitronic Rush Update (PC)

RGCD's favourite futuristic racer Nitronic Rush received an update with a new Christmas themed stunt level and a few minor improvements. If you haven't given it a go yet, then I urge that you download and play this fantastic game at your earliest opportunity. Also, fans of the in-game dynamic soundtrack will be pleased to hear that the first track from the forthcoming OST album has also been uploaded to torcht's soundcloud page. It kicks like a mule.

Hack Slash Loot (PC/Mac/Linux)

Hooray - I just love it when a game finally makes it from publicly funded beta to full final game (especially when I've paid towards it)! And what a result; Hack Slash Loot is everything that the early version promised - it's the perfect coffee-break roguelike. Hopefully we'll get a full review up soon to replace last year's preview, but in the meantime grab the demo and let us know what you think.

They Came From Verminest (PC)

OK, I'm showing off a bit here because (unlike me!) you can't actually play Locomalito's ace 50's B-movie reimagining of Galaga just yet... The game is basically complete and thorough bug-hunting (pun intended) is underway, but it's actually the cover artwork and home-filmed promotional trailer holding up the release (that's a test photo of the movie set above). So what can I tell you about Verminest? Well, it's a hardcore - as in Hydorah-hard - shoot 'em up with a suitably kitsch bonus video mode that plays just like a classic 80's coin-op. Everyone I've showed it to here at RGCD towers loves it, and hopefully you won't have to wait much longer to get your hands on a copy yourselves.

Meet Linus (C64)

And finally, a retro gaming curveball to end this newspost... Meet Linus is a collection of recent C64 game music by Linus and features the 8580 SID soundtrack to Fortress of Narzod, Minestorm, Spike and Jars' Revenge - and as a fan of all four it has been keeping my PSU brick nice and toasty under my feet whilst typing this update - so thanks for that Sascha :)

Hydra Castle Labyrinth (PC)

2012-01-24T23:03:00.000Z

RGCD briefly mentioned Hydra Castle Labyrinth in one our first news posts last year, a platform adventure game by indie gaming mogul E. Hashimoto (Buster). Now with the release of a patch translating almost all of the in-game text to English I bravely volunteered for the hard and painful job of playing and writing about this delightful little dungeon basher.

On firing the game up the first thing that seized my attention was the soundtrack, an insanely upbeat and incessantly enthusiastic score that makes me want to quit my job to run around dungeons stabbing things. I let it run for a good few minutes before I even left the first screen, and happily enough the gameplay fails to disappoint. There's an obvious touch of the Castlevania/Metroid series all over the game, but with the cutesy dial turned to maximum and then ripped off. The game sees our hero, a superdistorted knight with an enormous helmet (stop sniggering in the back) tackling various enemies while attempting to escape from the dungeon in which he has been imprisoned. There's a fair amount of leaping and falling, and a metric ton of backtracking, which is par for the course in this kind of game.

Hydra Castle Labyrinth undeniably delivers excitement and tension (at one point I found myself saying "shitshitshitshitshit" over and over again because I had to make what I was convinced was going to be a difficult jump over lava with only about a centimetre of health bar left) but one little crack in the game's superstructure niggles at me, and I can't let it lie. The inability to jump off ladders really bugged me. The game overall plays really smoothly, but it really clunks up when every gamer instinct tells you you should be able to leap off a ladder, and you're instead forced to climb up or down the whole thing.

That's my one and only beef with Hydra Castle Labyrinth, which is otherwise a solid, fun and charming experience. The graphics and gameplay are a reminder, as if one was needed, of just how great a time the heyday of 8 and 16-Bit platform adventure games was. There are some well thought out graphical flourishes; I especially like the little cloud of dust kicked up when our hero is injured and falls from a height, and the pink bubbles that rise from the character when he's been poisoned by gas are cute in a dying-slowly-from-poison sort of way. It's quite a short game, but there's enough challenging gameplay to stop the player blasting through it in twenty minutes then uninstalling it. Running it on a laptop led to a bit of lag, with some quite heavy CPU usage, but it ran fine on my much older desktop PC (a hideous Frankenputer made of the corpses of at least three other PCs). I'm told that the game is automatically compatible with PC joypads, which is a nice feature that unforunately I couldn't test.

Hydra Castle Labyrinth isn't without its flaws, but the pros of the game outweigh the cons. As freeware it's a total steal; I've seen much worse games on sale for actual money. It's also really pleasant to see new platform adventure games of a high quality are still being released.

Download the English-patched game here (from the RGCD server).

C64anabalt Cartridge Available! (C64)

2012-01-08T20:39:00.001Z

Here's the news that many of you have been waiting for... C64anabalt is finally available to buy on cartridge from our shop!

C64anabalt is an official conversion of Adam Atomic & Danny B.'s award winning single-button 2009 indie game Canabalt for the 8-Bit, 64KB RAM, 1Mhz Commodore 64 home computer developed by Paul Koller (Paulko64). This particular version was designed to run from a 16KB cartridge (although there are also tape and disk versions available for free download as well).

The game was developed as an entry for the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition (2011) in which it achieved second place, and the name C64anabalt was suggested by Adam Atomic himself. The physics and procedural algorithms are based on those documented in the original game's open source code.

There are two versions of C64anabalt available; one with a SID chip conversion of Danny B.'s original score by Mikkel Hastrup (Encore), and an alternative build featuring music from the PC indie game ThrustBurst by Andreas Slotte (Ghormak). Unfortunately it wasn't possible to fit them both into a single 16KB ROM, so we've made two versions available to order or download.

Please note that C64anabalt is compatible with NTSC C64's, but lacks the static parallax background cityscape (the background scrolls instead) and it stutters slightly at high running speeds (due to the NTSC machine having less CPU time available). The game also plays fractionally faster than the PAL version. None of these issues severely affect the play of the game, but it should be noted that the game was coded specifically for PAL machines.

The dove-grey cartridge is packaged in a box designed by Adam Saltsman and comes complete with a printed manual. I will endeavour to ship out games within a week of purchase, but due to these being custom built with separate soundtracks it may take a bit of time (depending on how many orders come in).

Marbled (Atari XE/XL)

2012-01-07T12:25:00.009Z

It's been a while since I was really gripped by a puzzle game. This might be because I'm not especially great at them. I'm not that good at Marbled, but it keeps me coming back for more through its sheer quality of production.

Marbled is a game for the Atari 8-bit XL/XE series of computers. It's something I had to keep reminding myself because it trumps a lot of games I've played on those platforms in style and presentation, to the point of occasional disbelief. The graphics are out of this world, the music is both up-to-date (drum and bass beats on an 8-bit micro always sound so cool) and rich, and clearly sounds like a tonne of work has been put into it. Marbled is descended from an Amiga game called Marbles released in 1991, and as a man who fought on both sides of the Amiga-Atari wars of the eighties and nineties I feel I can get away with saying that Marbled's audio-visual style is more like a Commodore 64 game than an Atari 8-bit job. It's brighter looking and better sounding than the Amiga game it calls grandfather, and all the razzle dazzle is backed up by quality gameplay- this isn’t some tarty tech demo that pushes its format to the limit at the expense of entertainment playability.

The mechanics of the game are fairly simple, swapping squares around on a platform in space to allow your marble safe passage to the end square, sometimes collecting crystals on the way. The levels become head-scratchers very quickly, and I can't lie and say it's an easy game. But it's so satisfying. My fist was in the air once every five minutes in my first play of the game because Marbled is hard not in a punishing way but in a rewarding way.

The slick production helps too, it's a pretty game with a brilliant soundtrack that makes you not mind that you keep failing, and it’s damned addictive as well. There is a bit of a graphical hitch with the marble flickering at the side of the screen a fair bit, and playing this emulated I did have an issue with button presses not being registered, but in fairness this control issue could easily be a problem with my hardware or my emulator.

Getting back to the difficulty curve of the game, Marbled has gameplay I associate with my days of non-stop 16-bit gaming, engaged in holy communion with an Amiga for weekends at a time, gameplay that knocks you back and beats you up but it’s still enjoyable and victory is all the more sweeter when (or if) it comes.

Marbled is a credit to the venerable Atari 8-bit micros, which always deserve more love, and to the team who designed it. I'm diabolically shit at it but I continue to play it, knowing full well I'll probably never complete all 92 levels because it's so scandalously fun. I always try to avoid mentioning how great it is that people are still pushing the envelope of old formats in both performance and game design (because it's like going around telling astronomers that the sky is blue, everyone reading this knows that developers all over the world are doing amazing things with old machines) but damn, this game makes me disbelieve the fact I'm playing an Atari 8-bit machine. There's been a few points where I've felt I wasn't playing an 8-bit game at all.

Download the game here (from Fandal's website).
Run it using Altirra (freeware).

Dig-N-Rig (PC)

2012-01-06T10:06:00.008Z

I have to say that I was almost glad when this game crashed my prehistoric laptop a couple of hours into playing it. That's hardly a glowing testimonial is it? But it wasn't my first play-through of the game, and my relationship with Dig-N-Rig had become worryingly akin to that of an addict and their addiction. I was deriving no real pleasure from playing any more – but conversely I could not stop either. I've felt these levels of despair before (step forward Peggle), and I knew I was doomed, but the unreliability of my laptop has saved me. Without such an archaic computer I might never have been able to stop mining in order to type the words you now read.

Let us start with a little context : DigiPen Institute is a college that runs game design courses, and who's student project pieces seemingly dominate the Independent Games Festival each year. Significantly, 2005 saw the release of student game Narbacular Drop – who's programmers were famously scooped up by Valve and the game concept retooled as Portal. Then in 2009 DigiPen students created Tag: The Power Of Paint – who's programming team then joined Valve and the mechanic of their game integrated into Portal 2. Thus it is always worth keeping an eye on DigiPen’s student work – if only for a glimpse as to what Portal 3 potentially might involve.

And so then to Dig-N-Rig. This quietly released game is by Syntactic Sugar Games (a team of four DigiPen students), and is a 2D affair mining game involving the moving your 'Diggit 6400' robot to mine for minerals, and rigging conveyor belts and ladders to get the mined ore back to the surface. More ore means more money to buy more rig and upgrade your digging tools. Soon you’ll be buying bombs to clear areas a little more quickly, and buying a jetpac to help maneuver around.

The failings within Dig-N-Rig are easy to spot – it starts with very uninviting tutorial pages with tiny text, and the game is very easy with little reward for completion. The ‘rarest’ ores are not particularly rare (if you look skyward), and thanks to no penalty for removing built platforms/conveyors, there is little need for strategy in rigging anything other than a vertical shaft of belt, with a horizontal conveyor platform that you move as you dig deeper. The abundance of ore makes it easy to upgrade everything, and Dig-N-Rig becomes an exercise in compulsion rather than gaming. But herein lies the juicy centre – oh what compulsion! Like Tetris or Peggle this game tasks you with tidying up, and if your OCD sets in you will lose your life to strip-mining every inch of the play field and will be unable to stop until you are complete. And then you will start all over again. Whilst you perform your Sisyphus-style task, you will encounter some lovely touches - the game has a great ANSI art style about it – and the different areas that you mine have distinct graphical identities and music to enjoy. The aesthetic and overall feel of the game is gloriously retro – resembling a weird DOS implementation of Boulder Dash at times. The more robust physics engine and the slightly strange default control method (movement of Diggit is mapped to WASD keys, and the mouse is used to place rigging or use the menus on the HUD) give Dig-N-Rig a very strong sense of identity.

Whilst it is tricky to envisage how the Dig-N-Rig mechanic might be used within the Portal universe, this game has been mentioned in the same hushed tones that Narbacular Drop and Tag: The Power Of Paint were, so don't be too surprised if Chell one day finds herself obsessively mining and constructing conveyors. And hating herself for her addiction.

Download the game here (from the DigiPen website).

Future Looter (ZX Spectrum)

2012-01-03T09:23:00.000Z

When the World of Spectrum email notification popped up in my inbox announcing the release of Future Looter my interest was immediately piqued - could this be some sort of sci-fi rogue-like based on space piracy? Or perhaps some sort of futuristic interstellar salvage sim? Well, actually no. After checking the screenshots it was apparent that the game was in fact more akin to a cut down Cybernoid clone, but with it's well-balanced blend of dexterity-taxing fast action screens and enemy path-based puzzle elements I have to admit that I wasn't disappointed for long.

Background on the game is rather light - other than a few lines posted on a forum about a corrupt Space Federation, rare star crystals being mined and the obligatory 'Resistance' (or Free People as they are referred to here), there is no real story or in-game mission brief to speak of whatsoever. However, with a name like Future Looter it's clear what you're supposed to do - get in there, steal everything and get the hell out (preferably in one piece).

From the outset you know that this is something special - the loading screen with it's super colourful blocky graphics is really stylish and the title screen music by Mister Beep sets the scene for your space raiding nicely (he seems to write music for just about every ZX game these days, doesn't he?). And then with either a tap of the spacebar or joystick fire button, your mission begins.

Starting in a rather Cybernoid-esque setting (complete with lava spewing volcano), you have to progress through the linear sequence of flip-screen rooms, grabbing glowey diamonds and other treasure whist blasting cute aliens and avoiding hazards. A few screens in and you'll meet the main enemies - squares with eyeballs that follow a fixed movement pattern (either turning right or left after colliding with a wall) and their diagonal flying cousins-of-Galaga - and it's these critters that you'll be using to clear some of the more puzzle orientated rooms.

Puzzle rooms normally present the player with an impassible obstacle such as a wall of mines or a force-field. The mines are simple enough - by destroying destructible scenery you can simply guide the aliens directly into them, but the force-fields are a bit trickier as they are only removed from play when all of the mines on screen have been eliminated. Don't panic if you get stuck as there's always a reset icon available - but note that using it will cost you a life, so avoid making too many mistakes. Also, although the early puzzles are almost insultingly easy, the last few in the game really present a challenge and are some of the undisputed highlights (and life-eaters) of Future Looter.

In contrast, the action-based rooms require quick reflexes and an even faster trigger finger - you'll meet indestructible bullet-firing gun turrets and missiles that launch towards you as you fly over them - some of which are near impossible to avoid. Luckily the harder screens often offer the player shield power-ups to soften the blow, and thankfully the missiles do not respawn when you die.

Future Looter plays fast and features some really nice graphics, with colour clash kept to a minimum (only present when colliding with enemies). The unusually coherent map design has been well thought out (you can see the entire game map here) and as mentioned previously the action/puzzle mix and related difficulty curve is well-balanced and fair. However, with only three levels the game is a bit too short - I beat it well within an hour of loading it up for the first time. Also, and somewhat disappointingly, there is no victory screen when you complete the game - after collecting the last star crystal you are dumped back at the start of level one, and the lack of a high score table or proper game over screen means that there's little reason to continue. It's a shame really, as even the addition of a simple breakdown telling you how much loot you scored (or if the second loop of the game was actually harder with more enemies, etc.) then there would be an incentive to play again, but as it stands I can't see myself coming back to Future Looter any time soon.

I would love to see a 128KB expanded version with additional levels and enemies; it seems a shame to leave such a great concept limited by 48KB of memory. As it stands, despite it's brief length Future Looter is a highly enjoyable action game and certainly one of the best ZX releases of 2011. Recommended.

Download the game here (from the World of Spectrum site).
Run it using Spectaculator (shareware) or Klive (freeware).

2011 C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition Results

2012-01-02T16:28:00.000Z

Although the results of the our 16KB Cartridge Development Compo were announced over at the Commodore Scene Database some time before Christmas, until now I've not had a chance to update this website. So, here at last are the long-awaited full results including feedback from the judging panel.

As already explained over on the competition page, the scores were calculated using mean averages with the highest achievable score being 44 points (if all judges had scored a game 11 points in all categories). I won't bore you with lists and tables of who scored each game what, instead I have listed the games below in order of placing with the final scores and comments.

Before continuing I'd like to say a massive 'thank you' to everyone involved - 2011 was one of the best years for C64 gaming in decades because of your work and dedication. I can only hope that 2012's competition will be as good.

Fairy Well (Wide Pixel Games)
1st Place (35.5556 Points)

"Lovely downbeat presentation (with the music working particularly well) with functional in game sound effects and lovely graphics. Three playable characters classes (and thus play-styles), and procedurally generated maps too. All in all very nice rogue-like-lite/platformer/explore-em-up. Excellent work." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Surprisingly complex for a modern game. Graphics are cute. Unique design and story. Finding keys and opening stuff is not my cup of tea but Fairy Well manages to motivate me to try harder to see whats next. Congratulations on this one!" (Enthusi)

"Although it initially doesn't blow you away like C64anabalt, there is a heck of a lot under the hood here which is revealed more and more as you play. Firstly there are around 200 odd randomized flick screens to fly around and explore (creating some unexpected longetivity/replay value), a shop to purchase items, a map showing your progress and some solid graphics and sound. There is also a character selection screen with three characters offering different skills to give you three unique ways to play the game. Plenty of depth and longitivity overall with some nice touches throughout. Technically very impressive for a 16KB cartridge, and yet another I'd love to see more done to beyond the 16KB cart limitation. My favourite game overall from the entire competition as a result of all the above." (Frank Gasking)

"Despite not being as instantly gratifying as some of the other arcade-style releases in the competition, Fairy Well is my overall favourite. It's a hugely ambitious game for a 16KB competition, beautifully presented and very replayable. I love the fact that there are three different game modes and the cute boss fights. Classic old-school adventuring, and well worth persisting with to see the ending." (Heavy Stylus)

"Knowing what a genius Mikael Tillander is I knew I was in for a treat with his game - and oh boy, I was NOT disappointed! It's great fun exploring this amazingly vast game and the atmospheric music gives it a pleasant laid-back vibe. I will definitely be playing this one some more in the future. Excellent stuff!" (Kenz)

"The scope of what the game achieves in 16KB is quite staggering. Sadly it's marred by being a bit too easy and slow-paced, but if it was further developed allowing for more memory, it would become an even better game. To this reviewer at least." (Mayhem)

"A search and rescue mission to find three crystals and rescue four princesses. A flick screen afair similar to Knight 'n' Grail, only this time the main character has the ability to fly. The maze like levels will demand a lot of time and effort to negotiate and mapping may be necessary - just like the good old days. Dangers lurk around every screen so it's a patient and methodolic approach needed. Great visuals and music throughout." (Nreive)

"A lovely, haunting soundtrack makes for surprisingly atmospheric gameplay in this sedate but tense floaty fey platformer. Three different playable characters keeps the experience fresh, but the randomised level design here hinders the game a little; one run through I found the first of the three crystals needed to complete the game on the second next to my start point, although this is a minor gripe at best." (Ruari O'Toole)

"Remarkably large play area considering the size of the cartridge." (T.M.R)

C64anabalt (Paul Koller)
2nd Place (35.1111 Points)

"Well... it is Canabalt. It looks like it, and feels like it. A one button classic, and as such a worthy addition to the Commodore canon of games. The music throughout is pleasant, and the 'frustration/one-more-go' factor is all present and correct. In lesser hands this would have been embarrassing, here it is pretty much perfect." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Close port of an existing game. Quite stylish! A bit repetitive though - ironically I still wish it was less random, at least after game over. I dont know the original well and my judgement is not at all based on 'closeness to original'. It looks very advanced and gives much joy in short time but not very long-lasting (to me). Very well suited for 16KB! Feels very well polished and not trimmed to limited memory range at all." (Enthusi)

"I still can't believe that we've been treated to two superb conversions in the space of a week or so! A simply amazing conversion, matching a good chunk of the Flash original. As a game, there is not much of an aim apart from getting as far as possible - but there is still plenty of fun to keep beating your distance and levels are randomly generated. Controls are responsive and tight as with the original. I would like to see a larger version done afterwards to see what Paul could additionally squeeze into the game as it seems some features have not been included due to the cartridge restriction. Just about edges the unofficial conversion, though would love to see the best bits from both games combined with all memory used :)" (Frank Gasking)

"What is there not to love about this? With it's grey-scale colour scheme the original Canabalt looks as though it was designed for the C64, and Paulko64's version (based on the original source code) is very true to Adam Atomic's one-button smash. It won't win any prizes for originality (as a port), but technically the game is outstanding. And the best news yet is that Paulko64 plans for further enhancements in the retail cartridge version!" (Heavy Stylus)

"This is just awesome - a superb 'twitch' game with really stylish graphics, clever graphical effects and tons of replayability (must... get... further!) How is this 16K? HOW?!?! It's fast, it's smooth, it's fun, and it got a whole load of votes from me. Good work!" (Kenz)

"A conversion, and therefore suffers the slings and arrows of its origin. Occasionally unfair, sometimes too random, it however retains a definite one-more-go hook and its simple control scheme and premise make it an instant winner." (Mayhem)

"Superb run-'em-up with a continued pressure to perform more outstanding well timed jumps. The visuals are fantastic with some superb scrolling and animation. The graphics may be small but they are clear enough with a well detailed main sprite. A suitable upbeat soundtrack plays throughout." (Nreive)

"This game is so addictive it should come with a warning sticker. A simple concept combined with challenging gameplay and cool, crisp black and white graphics, backed up with a driving chiptune soundtrack makes for a game with huge replay value. The randomised levels make for a new experience with each run and the use of distance ran as a score means the player is constantly challenged to do better next time." (Ruari O'Toole)

"An excellent conversion of the original, exciting and frustrating in equal measure." (T.M.R)

Panic Analogue (Goin' Sideways)
3rd Place (30.2222 Points)

"A great update on the paddle style of 'bomber' game - these style of games have replayability a-plenty, feeling like updates of game and watch games, and this one - with it's nice title music and graphics is no exception. Simple, yet compelling fun." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Nice idea and design. A bit unlucky choice to support paddles only but does indeed play very well with them. Wonderful animations and graphical setup. Plays fast, easy to grasp and nicely rising difficulty." (Enthusi)

"A Kaboom clone set in a cave - could be simply labelled as that, but you would be wrong. Panic Analogue is a very good clone of the Atari classic, but with a slight twist where you must alternate your character between someone who can catch fire and who can catch water (sort of like Ikaruga's ship switch mechanism). The game must be played with paddles, which seems like a bit of a bind - but is well worth digging out on the real hardware. Controls with the paddles are very tight and responsive, which the game requires with its twitch reflexes required later on. The "Panic" does indeed start to set in around level 6 and gradually increases until you turn into a frenzied mess. Not only will you lose a life if you die, but you are punished further by being pushed back a level - nice idea :) Presentation is simple, but effective overall, with solid music/effects and graphically the game is sound, with nice animations on the main character." (Frank Gasking)

"Being paddle controlled only will be off-putting for many, but really this is a game that deserves to be played. Panic Analogue is an amazing debut game release from a new group, with AAA quality presentation and music throughout. I love the random element of this well structured game, although I think that hiding the character behind the forground of the cave is a bit cheap. One of my favourites in the competition, maddeningly addictive, well designed and perfect for a bit of casual old-school fun. Analogue control for life!" (Heavy Stylus)

"This game is GREAT! I just love the main character, he literally is oozing with 'character'! The idea is really simple - drink the water or deflect the fireballs, but it's the amazingly responsive controls that make this a winner. I wonder if this game could be modified to work with a NEOS mouse? I'd love to play it on a real C64 using a mouse!! Simple but brilliant stuff." (Kenz)

"A cross between Kaboom and Ikaruga essentially. It's another simple concept that's been repeated many times since, but this one is more than competant, controls well, and has a good difficulty curve. And those are important factors for any successful game." (Mayhem)

"After getting to grips with the paddle controles - how long has it been since I've used a paddle? - I really enjoyed this neat little puzzle/arcade game. Neat little gameplay, great visuals, sound and addictive gameplay. One of the better games." (Nreive)

"With a brilliantly spooky theme tune that echoed in my head after I put down the controller, Panic Analogue is an absorbing paddle game that kept dragging me back for replays. The graphics are wonderfully atmospheric, with the player peering into the cave inhabited by our hero Redhead and watching as he strives to not accidentally swallow fireballs." (Ruari O'Toole)

"A decent Kaboom! variant, although I feel it would've been better with more control options." (T.M.R)

Space Lords (P1X3L.net)
4th Place (27.7778 Points)

"Warlords was fun on the 2600 - and it's more fun here, as it's prettier by far. Initially unimpressive as it's just a reworking of such an old concept - but paddle support, 4-players and good AI and mulitiplayer and multiball shenanigans make this a really fun diversion." (Andy Jenkinson)

"C64 port of a classic. Cute graphics, nice gameplay. Could use >16KB maybe but its quite enjoyable. Could be faster maybe, would make a perfect party-game then. Very detailed considering its simple idea and 16KB limit." (Enthusi)

"A Warlords clone/conversion for the C64 has been well overdue, and Space Lords was a huge surprise when released. It is brilliant, with many features from the original and some good AI built in too. Actually, some credit is well due for the AI that has been included, as it means that many can play the game compared to the original Warlords if you don't have any friends. Presentation is simple, but does the job - with name entry for each player. Graphically functional, the game features some cartoony creatures to defend. Sound wise, it is a little bit quiet - with no music, and minor effects in the game. Overall a welcome surprise at the end of the competition, which means yet another Atari classic has made the transition :)" (Frank Gasking)

"Submitted just minutes before the deadline, Space Lords is a great conversion of Atari's Warlords that (like the original coin-op) supports up to four players. Graphically it's gorgeous and as a party game it totally rocks, but sadly the compo version lacks music. A great effort and debut game release nonetheless!" (Heavy Stylus)

"Another fun game here! A simple idea - defend the walls of your googly alien's base in a corner of a screen using a breakout bat - and try to deflect the ball/comets into the walls of your enemy. Nice graphics, functional sfx, great playablility, smooth movement (and it gets nice and hectic once more balls come into play). Like this!" (Kenz)

"The C64 hasn't had many Warlords style games, so I was pleased to see one here. Bonus points for supporting the four player adapter. However not being able to catch the fireballs is a major flaw, along with the wide-reaching arc of the bats themselves, making it hard to attack other players." (Mayhem)

"Excellent puzzle game where the player is tasked to defend their little monster by moving the paddle across the defensive wall deflecting oncoming balls. With several balls flying around, things can get pretty hectic and soon requires super fast reflexes. Some great visuals and multiplayer option round things off nicely." (Nreive)

"Space Lords is a surprisingly tricky bat and ball/base defence game with colourful alien antagonists reminiscent of the metropolitan clientele of the Amiga's Shufflepuck Café. Multiball bonuses toughen the game up, and it's quite easy to knacker your own base if you aren't too careful." (Ruari O'Toole)

"Visually beefed up Warlords on the C64 and it even manages a good single player game." (T.M.R)

Jars' Revenge (Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated)
5th Place (25.1111 Points)

"Theme tune was pretty nice... And it plays like the 2600 'classic' Yar's Revenge. Executed very nicely executed, although the slightly arbitrary play style may be off putting for some." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Technically most impressive take on an all time classic. Very clean style and fully polished. Well presented. Instant need-to-play-more factor. Great game. Thank you for this one!" (Enthusi)

"I was a bit sceptical when I saw that a Yars Revenge conversion was being done after previous attempts in the past. I am a *huge* fan of the original 30 year old VCS game, and I knew it would be tough for some parts to be faithfully replicated. Well, the developers have done a very solid job! .. It looks and feels great, with as much of the raster effects from the VCS copied as possible, with a touch of SID awesomeness yet again from Linus. It is very very close to the original, and plays out in the same way, getting faster and faster - a classic high score based game. My only niggle was that the main character was a little too slow and needs speeding up a notch, plus the death sound effect misses a little explosion sound to finish off :) Finally, presentation is great, with an amazing hi-res logo and hi-score features. A welcome surprise for me overall :)" (Frank Gasking)

"The 2600 classic finally gets ported to the C64 - and what a conversion! Full screen gameplay (all borders), awesome music and effects - there is nothing to fault here at all. Awesome on every level." (Heavy Stylus)

"I must confess I *never* played the original game on the Atari so I had no clue as to what was going on. I figured out I was controlling a little insect type thingy that could move all over the screen - but couldn't fire when I was in that statickey mess in the middle. There seemed to be a slow-moving rolling pin following me around the screen that I avoided - and the idea of the game seemed to be to remove the blocky forcefield around the evil 'Jar', tag him, and, then let the ROD OF DOOM that appears when Jar has been tagged, smash him to smithereens. An odd game. Love the retro sound effects tho'!" (Kenz)

"The 2600 game was always a little old, a homage to Star Castle with new gameplay features. It is pleasing to say this retains all the playability of the original. However the ramping up of difficulty is too spaced out and needs to be lower, as it's far too easy and boring early on before you can reach 70,000 points." (Mayhem)

"A single screen shooter with minimal visuals and sound along with some decent gameplay." (Nreive)

"A slickly done Yar's Revenge port, Jar's Revenge has fast and smooth gameplay and preserve's the original's sense of tension as the player guides their superweapon after devouring (or shooting) the shields defending the objective. A great SID chip soundtrack backs the gameplay up with panache." (Ruari O'Toole)

"A close to spot on version of Yar's Revenge... "Atari" should be taking notes!" (T.M.R)

Woolly Jumper (The New Dimension)
6th Place (23.7778 Points)

"A forced scrolling platformer, with lovely graphics and nice music - although the very strange 'jump' arc, and very short levels make this less satisfying than it could have been. The colour themes work really well in the levels, creating different 'feels' very effectively." (Andy Jenkinson)

"A nice surprise here. Strange theme but smooth gameplay which is easy to pick up. Level of difficulty motivates to play. A nice plug-n-play." (Enthusi)

"There isn't anyone more prolific at game development for the C64 than Richard Bayliss at the moment. However, Richard has been criticised of sometimes rushing out the same ideas rather than spending time creating something different. Shaun Pearson has teamed up brilliantly with Richard to produce a game which is not only gorgeously presented, but is plenty of fun too and feeling like a classic Codemasters game from 1992. Presentation is simple and effective, with a great "sheepy" title tune and logo - the sheep's death sequence is pretty cool too. The in-game tune does grate quickly though, and the jumping is a bit quirky - also it wasn't always clear which parts of a level would kill you. I'd like to see this one expanded a bit outside of the compo and see what else could be added - the levels in particular could do with being lengthened. A great solid effort from Richard, and probably one of the best games he has produced." (Frank Gasking)

"Shaun Pearson's graphics take this cute and challenging little platformer to the next level. Woolly Jumper is certainly one of Richard's better games to date, but it would have scored higher from me if the levels were built with some sort of procedural algorithim instead of being fixed - after you've beaten it there is little replay value here. I'm looking forward to seeing the enhanced 64KB version in the future." (Heavy Stylus)

"Graphically, this game is SUPERB - the backgrounds and sprites look awesome and I love the little Sheepie you control. So cute! Unfortunately, the inertia feels all wrong. It's really tricky trying to accurately blast baddies and the jumping just feels too "gluey". It's also too easy to die when the scrolling suddenly stops at the end of the level while you are in mid-jump! This is a great shame as with tighter controls this could have been a cracking little game - it still gets top marks for visuals and music tho'!" (Kenz)

"It isn't immediately obvious what each power-up does, or which bits of the scenery will kill you, so there's a learning curve in place. As you restart a level when you die, then having them not so long that it becomes frustrating is a good design idea. Another game that might benefit from expansion with more memory available to it." (Mayhem)

"As expected, aesthetics are top notch. Gameplay is good, but let down by some suspect ledge detection when jumping onto them. Pretty hard gameplay with lots of enemies oncoming while negotiating levetated ledges." (Nreive)

"Ensuring The Mollusk isn't the only animal-centric game in the running, Woolly Jumper is a sheep-oriented platformer with forced scrolling, a similarly heart rending (but this time also a bit funny) death animation with the sheepy leading man gazing wide eyed at the player as he falls to his death, and sharp graphics. Some death defying jumps are thrown in the player's path, and as with many of the other games in the show the soundtrack is pure SID chip fun.
" (Ruari O'Toole)

"The jumping is a little odd but this is a reasonable scrolling shoot 'em up." (T.M.R)

Fortress of Narzod (Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated)
7th Place (22.8889 Points)

"Great vector based shoot combining a dose of space invaders with a pinch of crazy golf. Music and sound effects work excellently. Very impressive indeed - and unlike anything else in the competition presentation wise. Very well done." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Port of a well known evergreen. Technically impressive, though a bit on the slow side. Stylish but slightly boring steel-grey-theme. Feels VERY polished (docs, style, highscore). Gameplay is simple and fun but the lack of AI reduces replay-motivation a bit (I know this is a very clean conversion but I'm judging the (very good) final product here)." (Enthusi)

"A wonderful conversion from the Vectrex of the pong/space invaders styled blaster. Looks great, sounds great and plays great too. The music is breathtaking from Linus and gives the game some extra punch from the original. There are also some clever gameplay aspects crammed in, and as well as the multiple screens of play there is also some impressive presentation to wrap things up. If you didn't play the original years back, then you may find the game a little simplistic, but the game does what it sets out to achieve. Only thing missing is the screen overlay! ;)" (Frank Gasking)

"It may be an oldie, but it's still a goldie :) TRSI's port of the Vectrex shmup makes a welcome addition to the C64 cartridge library (and this competition). Great stuff." (Heavy Stylus)

"This is interesting - a conversion of a Vectrex game on the C64... Not quite as 'glowey' as the original version (unless I set my TV contrast to self-destruct-hyper-radiation levels) and is lacking the cool vector explodey effects of the original - but it IS 16K after all! I rate this game 'quite neat' (and I've found I'm very good at blowing myself up - oo-er, matron!)" (Kenz)

"It is certainly very much like the Vectrex game, one that was never an especial favourite of mine though in the vector canon. Having said that, it plays well enough, is challenging, and a worthy alternative if you can't play the original." (Mayhem)

"The black and white visuals make it very hard to spot incoming missiles, which in turn can bring the game to an abrupt ending. Yes, possibly an accurate conversion of the 1980s classic game, but it still doesn't make it a great game at the end of the day." (Nreive)

"In my student loan, free money from nowhere days I was engaged in a fierce eBay bidding war over a Vectrex which I thankfully lost, so Fortress of Narzod had me excited instantly. The Veccy experience, minus coloured overlays, is transported over to the C64 quite well, although to be fair I've only ever played emulator Vectrexes (Vectrices?). While probably not stretching the breadbin's processing muscles very far the gameplay is consistently fun and satisfying, and there's something iconic about the stark linear graphics." (Ruari O'Toole)

"A solid shoot 'em up, having to dodge rebounding bullets is a nice touch." (T.M.R)

The Mollusk (Achim Volkers)
8th Place (22.6667 Points)

"An unashamed arcade game, with a quite unusual control mechanism. The difficulty in the game in increased by the acclimatisation to these control (much as in Defender in the arcade). The game eases you in somewhat more gently though, and jaunty presentation (tune and GFX) help draw in the casual player." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Beautiful idea and design. Plays fast and smooth though the gameplay itself is too limited. I enjoy watching everything and swimming along but long-time-motivation lacks a bit." (Enthusi)

"Achim has recently produced some cute little games, and The Mollusk is another to add to the list. I'd say this is his best yet, and is a very original and clever concept. Graphically looks great (animation on the Mollusk is superb!), though needs a bit of parallax and presentation is a little simple compared to the other games. Controls take a little getting used to at first, but give it time and you'll make a good investment. Gameplay doesn't vary too much between levels, but the addition of jelly fish, eels and sharks make progression harder and pose a good challenge when combined with the controls. The music is yet another new set of tunes from Sean Connolly, who had to really cut down his player to get the tunes in around 2k in total - he did very well. Great unique idea, plenty of fun to play." (Frank Gasking)

"One of the strongest games in the competition (in my opinion) and very original in concept. The controls take some getting used to, but there is a lot of game on offer here and the presentation is superb. I would have liked to have seen the levels wrapped horizontally (like Defender) - hitting walls on the sides of the ocean is a bit odd. Achim's best game to date, and one to be proud of." (Heavy Stylus)

"Very nicely presented game but I didn't quite get the controls... Am I meant to I eat the fishies with my butt and kill baddies with inky farts while swimming backwards? Life as a Mollusk is too complex for me! I do like the underwatery graphics and had some fun swimming with the fishies tho'!" (Kenz)

"The controls take a little getting used to, it almost reminds me of Defender in a way. Reverse, turning around, making sure you move in the correct direction to attack rather than release ink. Once past that, it transforms into a fairly entertaining little game." (Mayhem)

"For some reason, The Mollusk reminds me of Sub Hunter. Nice aesthetics, but gameplay is a little lacking in excitement." (Nreive)

"The Mollusk is a side scrolling eat-em-up, casting the player as the titular, tentacled, hungry creature in a hunt for food of the live and swimming variety. It also boasts a heartbreaking death animation, where our heroic squid-thing floats pathetically up to the surface on being hit by one too many anchors. It's a creative idea and earns The Mollusk a respectable score in the concept category." (Ruari O'Toole)

"Slightly confusing to begin with, but a solid action game after that." (T.M.R)

Get 'Em (Endurion)
9th Place (19.1111 Points)

"The presentation here makes no concession to the last 30 years! A fairly simple concept - yet a quite hard pac-man-'em-up with shooting and procedurally generated mazes. Overall it's far too hard, it is sometimes unfair, and nearly impossible to put down. Brilliant." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Technically simple but clean game. Not a complete port but based on known concept. Fun to play and coming with some surprising extras (bombs etc). Doesnt feel too polished but it is enjoyable." (Enthusi)

"Don't let looks deceive! What originally looks to be a very simplistic Pacman clone, evolves very quickly into a fun Pacman/Robotron style game (best way I can describe its gameplay) which is based heavily on 'Forget Me Not'. It is quite comparable and does a good job of replicating the addictiveness of the original and has plenty to keep you playing for a good length of time. Overall it felt like a classic Synapse game from 1984, who produced some great titles in the C64's early years. Although fun to play, presentation does let the game down pretty badly compared to the other entries, with very simplistic graphics and sounds throughout. Do not let that put you off though, and be sure to have a good game of it!" (Frank Gasking)

"I absolutely love this port of Forget Me Not and wish that I could have placed it higher on my votesheet, but sadly the presentation lets it down a little. Hopefully Endurion will continue work on this for a retail version - a game like this is just asking for a competitive two player mode!" (Heavy Stylus)

"This is sort of like Pac-Man - with a bunch of other stuff going on! It reminds me a bit of Hungry Horace on the Speccy - well, kinda. It starts of simply enough - move around the maze and eat the crosses - but things get real busy, real quick! I like the way it adds to the Pac-Man concept by having bombs that distort the maze, enemies that leave goodies to snaffle - and there's even a cameo from a snake/centipede type dude!" (Kenz)

"Reminds me of Venture with that large, smiling face. Winky definitely could have done with the power-ups on offer here to boot. Random mazes make it more a game of skill, although sometimes it is a little too hard for its own good. Definitely a keeper though." (Mayhem)

"A puzzle - gather crosses and key to unlock exit. Power ups and extras along the way. Although at first glance, a Pac-Man clone, this is much harder, with the task of gathering crosses and a key before progressing onto the next level. Difficulty is set very high with frequent spawning enemy on speed." (Nreive)

"Get 'Em is heavily inspired by a game I gave a great review to earlier in the year, so this was a tough one for me. A slower, less gonzo take on Forget Me Not, Get 'Em does a solid job of evoking the iOS pac-man-esque shooter/chomper in a more C64 friendly format." (Ruari O'Toole)

"A challenging and unusual twist on maze games." (T.M.R)

Blok Copy (Cosine)
10th Place (13.3750 Points)

"As a puzzle lover I was looking forward to this - but, like a sliding block puzzle (or Rubick's cube) success becomes a rote series of movements designed to swap particular arrangements of blocks - or trying to 'undo' the visible movements at the start (Like playing 'Simon' in reverse). Nice music in game, and clean presentation though - although the front end is a tad utilitarian." (Andy Jenkinson)

"Very colorful (a bit too colorful for my taste) cute puzzle game. Overall seems pretty polished. If you like this kind of game, this one might be just right." (Enthusi)

"Another great game from Jason Kelk, sort of comparable to a flat Rubik's Cube type of affair. Well presented, with superb music by Sean Connolly and a simple but addictive game with responsive controls. It isn't a very complex concept overall however compared to other entries, but is still fun to play if you like your puzzlers. Only slight criticism is that the blocks/numbers are a bit hard to make out. I'm looking forward to the VIC 20 edition of this one too! :)" (Frank Gasking)

"The first game submitted for our compo, and the only puzzle game in the line up. Blok Copy isn't a game that everyone will love, but it is well designed and each screen is randomly shuffled (providing a fresh challenge every time). It's a good and solid release, and the only reason it doesn't place higher on my votesheet is because of the superior quality and gameplay of some of the other releases. Better luck next year Cosine!" (Heavy Stylus)

"I must confess I struggled with this game. I was initially impressed with the presentation (the front-end looks great) and the music was cheery enough. The main problem I have with this game is the in-game graphics. I found the bloks too indistinct and spent more time squinting atthe screen than actually unscrambling the patterns - which is a great shame. It's a bit like playing with a rubiks cube where each side is made up of a different magic eye picture... Well, okay, it's not that bad! ;)" (Kenz)

"Slow, relaxing, a game you can chill out to. However, given that the "solution" is rather presented to you at the start of each round, means it is almost a memory contest instead to remember the reverse of the moves needed to solve the puzzle. Somewhat defeating the object of the game." (Mayhem)

"A fairly decent enough puzzle game with okay aesthetics and gameplay." (Nreive)

"I've never been a big fan of puzzle games, and Blok Copy was up against some storming contenders, but despite my lack of enthusiasm for puzzlers something about Blok Copy kept drawing me back to playing it. It's a sharply, smartly built game, difficult but rewarding." (Ruari O'Toole)

Rong - Ron's Pong (Software of Sweden)
11th Place (5.1111 Points)

"Simple game, nice presentation - but in honesty it looks like a demo scene release rather than a game (which I suspect it should be viewed as). As a proof of concept... yes. As a game... less so." (Andy Jenkinson)

"A bit strange Pong variant. Colorful, nicely presented but gameplay itself is a bit slow/boring." (Enthusi)

"Good presentation and sound, and a solid representation of Pong. Unfortunately there is not too much else to say, as at the end of the day it is just another Pong clone. Additionally the game is only two player, with no AI of any shape or form to play against. It sounds all pretty negative so far, but actually - if you manage to find someone to play against, it is a good Pong clone and one of the better ones out there. Unfortunately the competition in comparison just blows it away." (Frank Gasking)

"Pong without paddles - now that's just 'rong'. ;) On it's own, Rong isn't a bad game (the music and presentation is pretty decent actually). However, unfortunately it pales against the other high-quality competition entries, and Kribust's Paddlepong is still the ultimate C64 Pong as far as I'm concerned. Still, a great effort and first game. Well done Ron and Wolk! :)" (Heavy Stylus)

"This didn't really float my boat I'm afraid - mainly because it's a two player game and there was only one of me available to test the game at the time of writing this review - and it was no fun playing with myself (erm, so to speak!) It's nicely presented and all that, but it's still a two player only PONG at the end of the day, so the appeal was a tad limited." (Kenz)

"It's Pong. To be honest, there's not a lot more that can be said there. No paddle support and a lack of AI weigh heavily against it though." (Mayhem)

"Nothing too much wrong with Ron's Pong, but the C64 hardware is hardly stretched here." (Nreive)

"There's not much to say about Pong that hasn't already been said a million times! Ron's Pong is Pong, and it's a lot of fun as a two player game. Maybe it's an unintended gameplay factor but I found myself constantly distracted by the text scrolling along the bottom of the screen, and made a single-player game out of taking control of both paddles in an attempt to keep the ball bouncing long enough to read what Software of Sweden had to say about themselves.
" (Ruari O'Toole)

"An average implementation of Pong..." (T.M.R)

Escape From The Holy Tower (ZX Spectrum)

2012-01-01T20:51:00.000Z

Party like it's 1982! It takes an extreme degree of nostalgia to grow misty eyed over the days when games looked like Escape From The Holy Tower (by Jelvion games) does. With its obvious UDG screen design, and gawdy colour scheme, this aesthetically resembles only the very earliest Speccy releases (or possibly a magazine type-in game). Movement is strictly by character squares – you'll get no smooth scrolling here, or even custom font here m'lad – if you are looking for high-sheen presentation then move along.

But hardcore puzzle gamers are made of sterner stuff though, and won't let an ugly finish (or the fact that the backstory / instructions are in Spanish) get in the way of a game – so lets see what is under the hood here...

Escape From The Holy Tower has you playing as a diabolical being, however a divine power has you locked in a tower – thus it is your mission is to escape so you can continue 'possessing bodies and sowing evil in the world'. (Thank you Google Translate). This setting manifests itself is a simple get–the-keys to open-the-doors, collect-the-booty and get-to-the-exit. Green arrow tiles can be crossed in in only one direction, cyan walls can only be crossed once, blue teleporters teleport you to and fro, and all the yellow boxes must be collected before the exit can be reached. The magenta tile steals any held keys, so some strategy is needed in planning the order of collection. There are ten levels of tower to complete, before escaping – and this will honestly not take the average gamer very long to complete as they do not present much challenge. As well as being all rather easy, the order of the levels places some very easy ones quite late on – meaning a rather strange feeling difficulty curve.

Controls are the classic Q, A, O, P (or Interface II joystick) to move the protagonist, and 'R' can be used to restart a level a limited number of times when you have gotten trapped – effectively acting as your lives.

Whilst there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this game it is all rather slight, and it has a very dated look, with little to recommend it above other (better) puzzle games. Perhaps younger gamers who are not put off by the presentation might enjoy the easiness, and the inclusion of a level editor – available as a separate free download – is a decision to be applauded. Perhaps with some fiendish level packs, puzzle enthusiasts would have something to get their teeth into – but at the moment this provides 10 minutes of distraction and nothing more.

Download the game here (from the World of Spectrum site).
Run it using Spectaculator (shareware) or Klive (freeware).

Bubble Bobble 4 CPC (Amstrad CPC)

2012-01-01T13:38:00.006Z

Bubble Bobble is one of those games that are very difficult to dislike. It's relentlessly charming and pathologically upbeat, with lead characters that are so instantly loveable if you dropped pictures of them on a desert island whose inhabitants had no contact with society you would be guaranteed a dragon-centric Cargo Cult within seven days.

The original port of the game to the Amstrad CPC, however, was inarguably one of the poor relations of the franchise. It lacked the spirit that made the arcade version so great, and it is an unadulterated pleasure to play a new, shiny port of the game that shows what could have been done with more time and effort.

Bubble Bobble for the CPC, abbreviated concisely by the developer into BB4CPC, underlines the excellence that can be achieved by one person working alone on a labour of love, for absolutely ages, without the pressures of working in a commercial development environment with deadlines, managers and budget restraints. The bangs and whistles, the panache and the cuteness, the occasional fiendish difficulty and the pathologically infectious theme tune are all there in spades.

Normally when I review a game I give it a quick blast, then turn it off to make some notes before continuing to play it until I get a bit sick of it. When I fired up BB4CPC I played until Game Over five times in a row before I even opened my word processor. The gameplay is just as absorbing as some of the best ports of Bubble Bobble, and is even close to the quality of the original arcade game.

The graphics show the game up as a labour of love; the amount of effort put into giving the game the classic Bubble Bobble look shines out from the screen at all opportunities, and (I say this with only a limited knowledge of the CPC's inner workings) I get the feeling that the graphical capabilities of the computer have been pushed pretty hard to get this game looking the way it does.

BB4CPC performs well in the audio stakes too, the requisite sound effects and music are all there, and I actually got a rush of excitement the first time I heard the sound the dragon's breath attack made! Maybe that's an overreaction on my part, but I honestly would have a hard time arguing against this game's soundtrack being of a high quality.

It's nice to see that the release is still being tweaked, with an early problem with the water bubbles causing the game to crash being fixed quickly, and other than a bug issue that I've personally never experienced finding things wrong with this game is a tough job. BB4CPC has been put together with a deft hand and an eye for detail, and most importantly an apparent love for the original material. At this moment in time the only negative I can dig out of my BB4CPC experience is that the theme tune is probably going to be stuck in my head for at least the next week.

Download the the game here (from the BB4CPC site).
Run it using WinAPE (freeware).

Zooming Secretary (NES)

2011-12-29T00:47:00.001Z

Like most people of my generation I've done my fair share of temp work. Call centres, shelf stacking, data entry, administration and filing... all tedious and soul destroying jobs that I would never have imagined could result in an enjoyable and addictive game design. However, Shiru and PinWizz have somehow taken the combination of phone answering, filing and a variety of office stereotypes and lovingly moulded them in to an excellent arcade title for the NES/Famicom. Underpaid and overworked office minions of the world, Zooming Secretary is a game written for you.

Shiru (who is also responsible for coding the Genesis/Megadrive port of UWOL in addition to several other commercial-quality homebrew NES games) mentioned to me a few months back that he was involved in a new collaborative NES game project, but even with knowledge of his previous work I never expected anything quite as brilliant as Zooming Secretary. Part platformer, part puzzle, part workplace simulator and entirely satirical, the design is original and modern yet fits perfectly at home with the existing library of classic 1980's family-friendly NES games.

Playing the role of a secretary in her trial period at a new job, you have to work your way through an increasingly difficult week without being fired for failing to answer calls on time. Each single screen level (wrapping on both horizontal and vertical axes) consists of an arrangement of platforms and staircases upon which are placed a number of phones and filing cabinets. When a phone rings, the topic that the call is about is represented by a symbol above the handset - and your task is to run to the matching filing cabinet then answer the call before the phone rings off. It starts of simple enough, with day one based on a symmetrical level with only two phones and two cabinets, but the difficulty soon ramps up with devious platform placement and a variety of obstructive NPC's thrown into the mix. The boss slows you down with his unhelpful remarks (just like in real life) and chatting with the office gossip-girl can leave you confused and swap over the topic currently held in your single-track mind. Then there's the delivery guy knocking people over and the oh-so-essential and distracting office romance - although thankfully there is also a coffee machine to provide you with a caffeine-fuelled speed boost to help you overcome all these obstacles. It's a simple yet compulsive concept that would work equally well as a browser-based casual game or modern console indie title, so to see Zooming Secretary make it's debut on the original 'family computer' is particularly exciting.

Regardless of the solid design, it's the presentation of Zooming Secretary that really makes it special. PinWizz's graphics are full of character and charm, and the minimal background music and varied sound effects give the game a more authentic and tense atmosphere than any in-game music module ever could. The little general knowledge factoids displayed on the top of the screen as you answer calls may well add to the nostalgic edutainment feel of the game, but it's the game over "you're fired... and rehired" message that brings a smile to my face every time - if only the real world office environment was so kind. Add to this the comprehensive .pdf manual, labels for both NES and Famicom cartridges (should you wish to make your own) and freely downloadable source code, Zooming Secretary is a perfect retro gaming package.

As with Shiru's last NES release - a port of the excellent ZX Spectrum (and now PC) game Alter Ego - the only complaint I have is that Zooming Secretary is a little too short. With just eight levels in total the game holds limited replay value, and the absence of lives and it's addictive gameplay means that with a bit of determination it isn't too hard to work your way through the game in one sitting. However, this doesn't detract from it being one of the best and most original modern NES games that I've played in years. I cannot wait to see what Shiru delivers next.

Download Zooming Secretary here (from the Shiru's website).
Run it using Nestopia (freeware).

Kobayashi Maru (Atari Jaguar)

2011-12-22T17:05:00.008Z

The Atari Jaguar has always been an object of aspiration for me, probably due to being a massively impressionable teenager when it first came on the scene. Later in life I almost spent a stupid amount of money sourcing one from eBay during my days of running up student debt, but like my ill-advised attempt at Vectrex ownership I was finally beaten by someone with stronger nerves and a bigger bank balance. Strange then, that I have never actually installed a Jaguar emulator until I publicly called dibs on reviewing Reboot's rotary Jaguar shooter Kobayashi Maru.

Straight out of the box Kobayashi Maru shows itself off as a seamlessly built, smoothly playable shooter which takes a fair few tricks from the playbook of arcade classic Time Pilot. There's something very Atari about rotary games to me, probably in no small amount due to the Atari 2600's Combat, which still stands tall as a brilliant game, and Kobayashi Maru has some big shoes to fill.

Happily enough the dedicated Atarians at Reboot have produced a cracking game with brilliantly paced gameplay, backed up with suitably arcadey visuals. Kobayashi Maru (which thankfully doesn't have a similar difficulty level to the Kobayashi Maru scenario of Star Trek lore) is a top notch top-down shooter. Making use of an early build of the Raptor engine the team are working on, the game sees the player's fuji-shaped spaceship zipping between trickily designed waves of enemies, rescuing (or accidentally shooting down) innocents flying with balloons, and facing off with quirky, well designed bosses. The background clouds float about convincingly, adding to the general feeling of being in a swirling, high altitude dogfight.

The visuals are the right side of cartoony with some nice graphical flourishes, like the player's death animation which sees their space fighter swell upwards towards the player's viewpoint, getting blockier as it does so in a mode 7 fashion. Gameplay is paced well, with levels short enough to make getting back to that last bit where you Game Overed not a chore. A particularly deft touch is the fact that the ballooners, who can be picked up for bonus points, when shot fall from the sky but can still be rescued. This means hitting them accidently all the more heart rending because there's still a chance to - oh, too late. It also allows for the ability to blast them from the sky so they can free-fall to the player's craft, allowing speedier acquisition of bonus points- shooting civilians and efficient time management have never been such a happy couple!

I've been happily thrashing around the aerial arenas of Kobayashi Maru for more than a week now, with no sign of losing interest. I've no idea where Reboot plan to take the Raptor engine, but with their level of craftsmanship and grasp of quality gameplay I can safely predict more quality products following on from this lovely little shooter.

Download the game here (from the Reboot website).
Run it using Virtual Jaguar (freeware).

Second Opinion

I was going to type a detailed review of Kobayashi Maru myself but Ruari beat me to it. Thankfully, my offer of writing this second opinion has been made extremely easy as I pretty much agree with Ruari's review - but I'd like to add that if this comes out on a cartridge I will most certainly buy a Jaguar to play it on. I'm a total sucker for Time Pilot, and this excellent tribute to the seminal coin-op is without a doubt Reboot's best game to date. Simple, well executed and incredibly fun, Kobayashi Maru is a Jaguar homebrew classic.

J. Monkman.

Kobo Deluxe (PC/Mac/Linux)

2011-12-19T00:13:00.001Z

I first discovered Bosconian on one of those ultra-cute Namco "Direct-to-TV" joysticks that were popular at the start of the last decade and it instantly became one of my favourite classic-generation shoot 'em ups. There was something so gratifying about flying freely around 8-directional space, blasting asteroids and enemy fighters and of course obliterating the well-defended alien space stations. I drained several sets of AA batteries whilst 'in the zone' and to this day still prefer the Jakks TV port over the original ROM emulated via MAME (but admittedly that is possibly because the controller itself is so cool). In fact, it was around the point when I debated whether or not to buy an AC adapter for the game that I first read about Kobo Deluxe... a quick download later I was well and truly hooked and the DTV ended up on ebay shortly afterwards.

Kobo Deluxe takes everything that made Bosconian great and injects it with a healthy dose of awesomeness. Similar to the classic, your dual-directional firing ship will face asteroids and a variety of enemies (in often ridiculous numbers) - but it's the heavily-defended procedurally generated enemy bases that steal the show. Unlike Bosconian's simple destroy the six outer pods or take out the core stations, Kobo Deluxe's bases range in size from a few cells to multiple screens and are constructed by a series of nodes branching out from the central core via indestructible arms, each ending in a weapon pod that relentlessly launches either bullets, bombs, missiles or enemy ships in your direction. In summary, they're tough bastards to crack.

Although the smaller stations can be taken out by a few lucky stray shots, on later levels it is often necessary to blast away defences on the outer branches and navigate through the maze-like superstructure, destroying the base from within - a victory that (for this gamer at least) brings back childhood memories of watching the Millennium Falcon's final strike against the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. But, that's enough reminiscing - let's look at how this aged indie stands up against modern game design.

Presentation wise the game is pretty solid, with well-rendered graphics (the asteroids are particularly impressive) and plenty of colour and variation considering the limited scope of the game. With it's large side mounted HUD and demo-style logo effects Kobo Deluxe could easily been mistaken for a 90's Amiga game - which can either be considered a good or bad thing, depending on your stance when it comes to home computers and consoles. However, despite the sound effects being appropriately arcade-like, the music is disappointingly weak in contrast due to the audio system supporting midi instead of mp3 or tracker modules (which in my opinion would have suited the game far better).

Despite being incredibly fun to play, the actual design of the game is questionable in places as well. Kobo Deluxe is deliberately difficult (like the classic coin-ops of the past), but it is often made harder still due to the limited screen size (regardless of what resolution you use) resulting in you being unfairly killed by bullets fired at you from an off-screen attacker. Also, I find it impossible to decide whether or not the 'continue where you last died' level system is a good or bad thing... On one hand it allows any player with a bit of determination to see all 50 levels, but then it also means there is no reward for players who do manage to develop the ninja skill level required to beat the game on one credit. There are also the four different difficulty modes (in addition to classic) to consider, introducing unnecessary features such as shields, cannon overheating and different firing styles to a game that really wasn't designed for them. Thankfully, at least only classic mode scores are used for the high score table.

One final issue that I found a little irritating is the joypad support - the game refused to play ball with my 360 controller and there is no in-game calibration or button reconfiguration, regardless of the fact that just about every other facet of the game is open for alteration in the extensive menu system. However, there is hope for improvement; with Kobo II currently in development, David Olofson recently emailed me to advise that he plans to return to Kobo Deluxe to add a few final tweaks and fixes in the near future.

Kobo Deluxe isn't a game for everyone, but it has been and remains to be one of my favourite PC shooters. Not that it's limited to the PC platform of course; as an open source SDL project there's a build for just about every operating system out there, including many consoles and handhelds. The running requirements are low enough so that the game will run on just about anything (including netbooks) and the timeless gameplay of the classic mode is guaranteed to keep retro enthusiasts happy as they endlessly battle the alien hordes in their effort to shoot the core.

Download the game here (from the Kobo Deluxe website).

Retro News Update

2011-12-15T01:31:00.000Z

'Tis the season to be jolly (so they say), but 'tis also the season to be incredibly busy with little time for reviewing, so here's an early Christmas delivery of stuff that we haven't had time to feature over the past couple of weeks.

The festive period always delivers a stocking bursting with new retro releases, and this year is no different with some exciting games, freebies, previews and bundles. So without further a-do, here's the news.

Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe (PC)

Our original review of Andrew Morrish's Super Puzzle Platformer is still the most viewed post on this blog - and with it's gorgeous low resolution visuals and maddeningly addictive game-play it's easy to see why. A mash-up of Mr. Driller and arcade shoot'em up, Super Puzzle Platformer's design was pure genius and far too much fun to be wasted on a simple browser-based prototype, so myself, Simon from Pixel Prospector (and quite possibly many, many others) begged for a further enhanced version - and now several months later Andrew has announced a fully-fledged deluxe version is in the works. With multiplayer, new levels, new obstacles, unlockable characters and "lots of other shit", Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe could well be the Super Meat Boy of 2012. Yeah, it looks that good..!

The Humble Indie Bundle 4 (PC/Mac/Linux)

...and talking of Super Meat Boy, if you haven't picked that up yet (whaaaat?!) then The Humble Indie Bundle 4 is an essential purchase. Pay what you want over the next 13 days for Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, Super Meat Boy, Shank and NightSky HD, and if you offer higher than the average price (currently just five and a half US Dollars) you'll get the epic Cave Story+ and Gratuitous Space Battles added for free. It is an insanely good offer and for a good cause, so don't miss out.

Kobo II (PC)

The much-loved cross-platform 80's Bosconian-style shmup Kobo Deluxe is receiving a sequel in the form of Kobo II, a downloadable tech-preview of which was recently announced over at the game's official homepage, Pixel Prospector and IndieDB. As a massive fan of the original (which in turn was actually an enhanced remake of the Unix-based xkobo) this has really made my Christmas, despite being a very early build and sadly lacking (for the moment) the chain-based destructible enemy space stations that made Kobo Deluxe so much fun to play.

The game has been given updated dual analogue controls and the final version promises a more sophisticated physics-based revision of Kobo Deluxe's classic arcade game-play, with multiplayer, new enemies, splash damage, multiple player ships, tonnes of weapons and quite possibly "lots of other shit" (deliberate misquote). Check it out and pre-order for just $3 now.

Johnny Platform Saves Christmas (PC/XBLIG)

It wouldn't be a Christmas update without at least one Yuletide 'em up, so please join me in raising a glass of mulled wine to Ishisoft for releasing the formally XBLIG exclusive Johnny Platform Saves Christmas as a free PC download. It's a clever little puzzle/platform hybrid with retro aesthetics, robots and Christmas hats and certainly worthy of your time.

Hyper Princess Pitch (PC)

Nothing quite says 'Merry Christmas' quite like a brick-throwing, train pile-driving Princess and a screen full of bloody explosions, making Daniel's Hyper Princess Pitch the perfect gift for the more sensitive loved ones in your life. This tribute to Midnight Synergy's DOS 'classic' Operation: Carnage (which MS have kindly made available for free download, DOSBox users) might look crude but it's massively enjoyable and probably the Christmas game of 2011. Deck the halls with blood and entrails...

Mayhem (Philips Videopac/Magnavox Odyssey2)

...and now for something retro. Revival Studios are back with another game for a system that I know very little about, Mayhem for the Philips Videopac and Magnavox Odyssey2 (what?). Available to buy on cartridge (but not for download) for 44 Euros (including shipping) from the trailer, Mayhem looks like a frantic little avoid 'em up with ultra cute low res sprites and high-speed action. Hopefully our very own Videopac/Odyssey2 expert Flemming Dupont will be ordering a copy in the near future and writing up his opinions of the game.

Protovision 4-Player Games Compilation (C64)

Our good friends (and kind sponsors) at Protovision have compiled their four four-player games and four-player adapter in a superb strictly-limited C64 bundle for forty pounds (should have been forty-four just for the sake of saying four an extra time). Including their classics Bomb Mania, Hockey Mania, Team Patrol, Tanks 3000, this is a great collection and well worth picking up (as long as you have three friends to play them with). Sadly there is no download option available, but Milo has assured me that they will send the disk image to any customers upon request. (I need to get myself a copy of this in the new year...)

Virtual Jag Update (PC/Mac/Linux)

The Atari Jaguar is a notoriously complex piece of hardware, to the point that only recently has emulation reached a level where it can actually play some of the more complex games - and more importantly, support homebrew - on modern day hardware. Virtual Jag has recently been kicked back into life and in the past few months has seen not one, but two updates and now fully supports the collection of games released by our Atari pals at D-Bug (*cough*) err, Reboot. So if you've got an up to date PC, download it and give their awesome Time Pilot-apeing Kobayashi Maru a blast.

Anyway, there's probably a whole lot more news we should have included but this will hopefully keep you going for a little while :)