Hey hey! Sorry to wake you up, but here’s the announcment you’ve been waiting for…

Poing! PC version 1.0.1c features a few small aesthetic fixes but, far more importantly than that, also comes with 2 new levelsets (that’s a whole 16 new levels) contributed by Poing fans around the world.

You can get the goodies from the Poing! PC homepage. My most sincere apologies for the delay – happy Poinging!

This is a game that I’d really love to see completed. Detonate! is a side project of Terry Cavanagh whose games you may recognise under the banner of Distractionware – he’s also the dab hand responsible for recent flash hit Don’t Look Back [link], which I still haven’t gotten around to playing… but I digress. For a couple of reasons, it’s not entirely sure that Detonate! will see the light of day, but I still reckon it’s deserving of a mention in the small hope I might encourage its development!

Many years ago I played an Amiga game similar to Atoms [link], a title that was itself based off a C64 game called Overload. The aim is to place atoms on the game grid and eventually make them kersplode into adjacent grids, capturing enemy atoms. If you do this enough and wipe out all opposition, you win. Simple, but addictive – and quite strategic, too. I’m a bit surprised that the concept hasn’t been picked up for a modern platform, and so I did a little happy dance when I unearthed this gem of a WIP.

This style of gameplay has a lot of potential, especially considering the “retro” versions are fairly plain. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this!

Breaking news! IT’S BACK!
RGCD #5 is now available!

And with it comes a spifftastic and star-studded selection of reviews, articles and extras covering a year’s worth of retro gaming. You thought it was dead, didn’t you? I’ll admit that I was thinking the same at one stage. Fortunately it is not so! James Monkman and his band of merry men have come up with the goods and, after some turbulent times, the mag should hopefully be back on a regular update schedule again.

Thrustburst is the featured game (though if I had my way it would’ve undoubtably been Qwak instead), with reviews of Rana Remake, Noitu Love 2, 3D Starstrike, Self Destruct and Rom Check Fail amongst the many PC titles you can read up about.

In the authentic “modern retro” corner there’s Sirius, Loops of Zen, Sub Hunter, Animal Party, Wizard of Wor (for the Speccy!), Plutos and the trip-off-the-tongue Crocodingus in Cube Island to name but a mere few.

This just scratches the surface! Honestly, there’s more stuff in it than I could cover in a week of posting – 45 articles and over 47,000 words, to be exact – so get your browser over to the RGCD homepage to download your copy today for a right proper blast from the past.

Oh, and if you look carefully, you’ll see some of this mysterious “writing work” that I was on about the other week, since yours truly is now a RGCD contributer. It was indeed a very cool thing to be given the chance to write for one of my favourite retro mags. Why James wanted to involve a nutter like me we’ll never know… I suspect it may be best not to wonder too much on that

Anyhow – happy reading, ’til next issue!

There aren’t very many games out there that can boast a twenty year history so I want to give a hearty clap on the back to Qwak by Jamie Woodhouse, a quintessentially retro platform game that has recently seen a long-awaited PC release. It’s so brilliant I really am going to give it a serious plug – please, visit the homepage and give this game a try! You won’t regret it, I promise

I’ve got some very fond memories of playing Qwak from a coverdisk on an Amiga magazine many moons ago, and this new version’s demo has gotten me addicted once more. In a similar spirit to Bubble Bobble, two players can team up – or maybe even compete – in collecting a whole spectrum of fruity goodies and bopping enemies on the noggin to progress through the levels.

The gameplay is still as fast, simple and horribly morish as ever. But keep in mind… bright green ducks are for life, not just for Christmas…