I have made the occasional tweet in the past about being involved in some flash-in-the pan project for this and that (Ho-Hum Piano Dungeon, anyone? Lordy, what the deuce was I thinking…), and they’ve always somehow petered out before they became interesting. Or they just failed to be interesting in the first place. Just to give you fair warning: This could well be just another project. But this is one is far closer to my heart than pretty much anything I’ve coded in the last few years – it is, in fact, a return (*coff*) to a project I abandoned in the days of Firestorm Productions, never to be mentioned again…

This video should instantly tell you what game I mean!

Yes, it is of course an attempt at an 8-bit “demake” of the often-overlooked Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol, released in 1995 by David Allen and now owned and marketed by Decklin over in Decklin’s Demise. What the video shows is the program’s completed first milestone: It can load a dungeon using the file format of the old game, and have a “party” of one character move around and explore, respecting walls correctly. For the next milestone I will add an interface to displays monsters and get the spawn areas (i.e. rooms) to individually populate.

Ten milestones are planned to take this idea far enough for it to be a playable game engine, some bigger and more involved than others, with one further milestone required to add the final content and make it playable. Any and all feedback is much appreciated to keep the motivation at its current high level!

On a related note, if you’ve played Demise, the strangely-titled rough diamond that was the sequel to the first game, you might be interested to know that Demise: Ascension – an update that includes even more content and the ability to run natively on Windows Vista and 7 – has recently gone into a public testing phase. You need only put your money down to order it from the Decklin’s Demise page above and you’ll receive access to all current and future versions. If you’re into retro RPGs with many, many hours of playability, you really should check it out!

If I say “Exile” as the name of a game, what do you think of? If your mind immediately forms an image of Spiderweb Software‘s series of RPGs… well, they’re good games, but you’d be completely wrong.

No, in fact the game I talk of is one of those rare few titles that spans multiple generations of gaming hardware – from the humble BBC Micro to the ill-fated Amiga CD32 – and at each step, has retained its crown as one of the most epic arcade adventures that was ever created. Do you believe you can procedurally generate a world big enough to easily support tens of hours of action-puzzle exploration, and give that world a complete Newtonian physics engine, all in just 64KB of memory? That is what programmers Peter Irvin and Jeremy Smith managed to do. Oh… and did I say yet how bloody fantastic the Amiga version intro music is?

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #13: Henry Jackman – Exile

Yes, you can tell it’s 4-channel MOD music and it has rough edges, but like a Vulcan mind-meld, it also imprints the feel of the game into you using nothing more than a few seconds of instantly memorable synth pad harmony. I’m really glad I chose this music for today’s episode because until now, the MOD version of this had been sitting in my library under “unknown artist”. Now I can finally give Henry Jackman proper credit for composing and arranging this bit of the gaming memory that is Exile.

What the deuce has happened in the past month? There’s been a sudden explosion of indie-related bundles from places on the internet that you never thought existed! Anyone would think it was nearly Christmas or something.

A little while ago it was the Indie Music Bundle to titillate your ears with fantastic vibes, but right now you have a choice of not one, or even two… but four different game bundles to check out – and they’re all asking you to pay as little or as much as you like! One is even completely free to download!

Since a couple of them are also supporting charity, now is a great time if you’re just starting to dip in to the world of indie games and are looking to snag some great deals at the same time as helping a good cause. While it’s possible to take the dimmer view that it’s an easy way for an organiser to make a quick buck, that would be pretty unfair – if you believe in the charitable roots behind a couple of these bundles then they’re doing a lot of good at a time of year when it matters the most. Even if a bundle doesn’t donate part of its proceeds to charity, it’s still a good way to get some games you might otherwise have overlooked for an excellent price. Stocking fillers ahoy!

Read on to see all of the currently running bundles that are clamouring for your attention…

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Since I was lazy enough to miss out mentioning last week’s GMM, I must atone for this grievous display of apathetic behaviour and at least give it some passing mention!

Episode #11: Richard Westall – Arkanoid (Title Screen)
http://youtu.be/5FmhC-2TcR0

You’d think that with there being so many different mixes of the unmistakable Arkanoid title screen theme that it would be easy to find one that was good whilst also being a bit out of the ordinary. Not so, to my ear! Well-known UK remixer Infamous came close with one of his versions but, at the end of the day, I plumped for one of the oldest listed versions by Richard Westall. The original music was, of course, by Martin Galway. If you think my choice of mix is a little boring, well… you’re wrong, of course, but perhaps this week’s offering might be more to your liking…

Episode #12: Mixer – Nemesis the Warlock
http://youtu.be/3YarfFg87G0

Mentioning one musical legend in this post isn’t enough for me. It’s time to double the awesome – so how about a saxaphonistic re-imagination one of Rob Hubbard‘s compositions? The tune was one he made for the computer adaptation of 2000AD’s comic book character, Nemesis the Warlock. In a strangely effective tangent to the comic’s style, artist Mixer decided to jazz it up – with real jazz. I think it works surprisingly well. Treat your ears for a few minutes and see if you don’t agree.

Happy listening – until next time!

That’s exactly right folks! I have a beta key for Path of Exile that is burning a hole in my virtual pocket and I’m going to be giving it away very soon! Not heard of the game? Are you a fan of gritty, Diablo-esque click-kill-loot gameplay? Want to give it a try before the open beta early next year? Well, this may be right up your street.

Wander over to the game’s homepage to learn more about it. If your interest has been piqued enough to give this a try, it’s dead simple for you to stand a chance of getting your hands on the key and start forging your path in the land of Wraeclast!

• Step 1: If you haven’t already, you should save some time and create a Path of Exile account
• Step 2: Follow my Twitter account, @Zolyx
• Step 3: Watch it closely – I’ll tweet the key around 20:00 GMT tomorrow (Friday 2nd December)
• Step 4: If you’re lucky then you’ll be in the beta! Let the devs know what you think!

Without too much further ado tonight I present the tenth Game Music Monday – wahey, we’re in double figures! Still, I should really try and get these posted a little earlier in the day…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #10: J Krafft – IK Hamburg Extravaganza RMX

Today’s arranger, J Krafft, takes one of Rob Hubbard‘s iconic songs from International Karate and changes it into a softer, more ambient mix that is perfect to just chill and unwind with. The vocal samples are a nice touch and don’t sound gimmicky as such additions often can.

Click play and tune out! Hope you enjoy and I’ll see you same time next week.

Cave Story+, the PC port of a Mac port of a WiiWare port of a PC freeware game, has apparently come full circle and is now available on Steam. I am a huge fan of Cave Story and, I like to hope, a reasonable person. Like many others I admire “Pixel“ - Daisuke Amaya - for creating the original version and releasing it back in 2004. Aeon Genesis deserve some credit as well for the English translation patch. It is a charming game that has done a great service in boosting the indie gaming scene. That said, I will most certainly not be buying into this thinly disguised cash-in – and I’m actually shocked and quite disappointed that Nicalis had the cheek to go so far down this road.

So here’s the story: After a chain of poorly-communicated delays spanning through 2009, the $12 / £10 WiiWare release of the game in North America last year was deservedly well-received but expensive and somewhat glitchy. It included one particularly annoying bug with music playback when the original music tracks were selected instead of the default remixed tracks (which some people – including myself – didn’t like). Not only did it take eight months to get these problems patched out but it took ten months after the NA release for the game to get to Europe. Meh. So far, so mediocre.

Then there was the DSiWare release for portable gamers to enjoy Quote’s adventures. Cool. But a year on from the Japanese and North American releases last November, it still isn’t available in Europe, despite a suggestion from Joystiq it would be out around Q2 of this year. It seems likely that Euro gamers will now never see that version due to the incoming Cave Story 3D for the 3DS (which – who’d have guessed? – has also been delayed). Based on their track record, who knows when the 3DS incarnation will arrive in Euroland…

Surely things can’t get any more ridiculous. But wait! Yes they do!

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Greetings, audiophiles!

Back on to the normal schedule of proper GMMs, then. Although my pick for this week has already been featured by others, it’s for good reason – ’tis is a cracking set o’ notes if ever I did lay ears on such a thing…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #9: Lagerfeldt – R-Type (Doppelganger Summer Remix)

R-Type, the arcade scrolling shooter to which quite a lot of other scrolling shooters are compared, is quite challenging, and has a version on virtually every gaming platform there ever was. It also has some darn good music – for the Amiga version this came from Chris Huelsbeck. While the game was innovative for the time, it isn’t to everyone’s taste and some may even have not played it at all – but that’s no reason to stop yourself from enjoying this great remix from Lagerfeldt!