Play Zolyx online!

Brought to you by the power of the Java Commodore 64 emulator created by Joakim Eriksson. Hope it brings back some memories

Meantime, as some parting shots for the week, here’s the last of my mentions…

• chickhack [link, pictured left] – gets a mention for being a C64 game, of all things! Play it emulated on something like WinVice.
• Nyctos [link, pictured middle] – are you afraid of the dark? Lots of ‘orrible nasties are lurking where you can’t see them, that’s for sure!
• Expedition [link] – an ambitious exploration / settlement-building roguelike done in Java. See a video of it in action here.
• Cypress Tree Manor [link] – looks very good, but only available in Python source code for now. If you fancy some zombie escape survival, take a gander at it.
• The Favored [link, pictured right] – likened to Robotfindskitten [link] in reverse (whatever that means), this is actually one of the better entries and worth checking out if you don’t mind being cruel to helpless bunnies.

Hope you enjoyed this little bit of coverage of the roguelike world! Coming tomorrow: probably nothing at all. Oh, maybe a Dalyn’s Quill update, but then again, maybe not…

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!

Perfect! Just in time for all of us to have a nice, comfy playthrough before Christmas, the 2008 Retro Remakes competition entries are now available to download! A big congratulatory slap on the back must go to everyone who got something together during the three months of coding time, and special thanks to the RR staff for braving the piles of paperwork and getting it all organised.

A quick note, though. Keep in mind that RR’s bandwidth is limited and goes through the roof at times like this, so try to avoid hitting refresh every couple of seconds if the page isn’t loading for you. Go have a nice cup of tea, perhaps with some digestive biscuits (or even ginger nuts if you’re so inclined), then try again

Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to make time to have a proper hands-on with a few of the entries. Blast Passage, Mini Saboteur, The Kiwi’s Tale and Revenge of the Punched Tape immediately catch my eye – Retroman and Cosmic Prison Commando might get a look too. Bonus points for the most bizarre combination of two 8-bit games has to go to Tetroid, however… it’s Metroid, with Tetris blocks in it! What on earth is going on there?!

On a closing note, this is the second time that (for various reasons) I didn’t have chance to put an entry in for the compo myself so I’m a little sad, but come hell or high water it will be third time lucky when – indeed, if – the competition rolls around again!

Until next time… let’s retro!