Gordon the Sewer Rat has recently been made homeless, but he isn't doing too badly; there's a lovely stockpile of yummy cheese for him to eat, if only he can avoid the other creatures who are showing an interest... or the aliens whose homeworld has become devoid of life-giving Cheddar!

  Web link:         CPCWiki entry for Sewer Rat

Oops, i totally forgot to post about this; the MSXDev '09 has started and already has several in-development projects listed and even a completed game! For those unaware of this venerable competition, the MSXDev been running since 2003 (there is information about previous competitions on the current website) and each year has seen a varied selection of interesting games released, so it's well worth keeping an eye on their official website.

  Web link:         MSXDev website

Robert Hurst has just released another VIC 20 game and after producing his own rendition of Pac-Man with the rather spiffy Quikman 2008, he's taken a gander at another classic from the early 1980's; Omega Fury is Robert's attempt at a sequel to Bally Midway's Omega Race in fact!

  Web link:         Robert Hurst's VIC tribute website (with downloads)

Those delightful Mojon Twins have decided that a Nanako-shaped gap in their back catalogue needed filling; the original game, titled Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle and released on the Spectrum by CEZ GS, has just been put out for the Amstrad CPC as well so both machines have the first and second installment of the scantily-clad series.

  Web link:         Entry on the Mojon Twins website

MetalBrain has kindly plonked an announcement on the Oldschool Gaming forum about a new game and indeed label; RetroWorks is a Spanish team of 8-bit developers and action game Gommy Medieval Defender their first, very colourful release. Gommy is defending the castle walls, he's perched at the top of the battlements and armed with boulders which must be lobbed down at the attackers clambering up the brickwork.

The RetroWorks website is currently only available in Spanish, but the download on the Gommy Medieval Defender page contains both Spanish and English language versions of the game.

  Web link:         RetroWorks website

Andy Remic writes novels, in particular he produces science fiction novels involving lots of gore and zombies. So when after finishing his latest work BioHell, when his thoughts turned a game based on what he'd written, Andy could have taken the usual route and farmed the gig out to one of the big developers (a few approached him, apparently) for an FPS or sandbox or even done a Tom Clancey and started churning out scripts for several games... instead he went one better and got down and dirty with the programming in order to wrote a text adventure for the Spectrum. We now like Andy Remic just because of that!

  Web link:         BioHell on Andy Remic's website

There are quite a few puzzle games around for the 8-bits and W*H*B from Bob Smith isn't an exception on that front as such... but where it does stand out is the lovely looking isometric graphics, a neat variation on the "get to the exit" action puzzle game (the block is rectangular, it can only leave the level if positioned correctly over the exit) and a selection of level designs provided by various World Of Spectrum forum bunnies. There's also an impressive 48K beeper soundtrack which comes courtesy of Mister Beep.

  Web link:         W*H*B on Bob Smith's website

ZX81 maven Andre Baune has just announced on the our forums that his latest game has been released; Cannon War is, as the name suggests, a chance to let loose with a large piece of military equipment at a computer player as it attempts to do some damage in return and we can only applaud that sentiment here at Oldschool Gaming since we like stuff that goes "bang!"

  Web link:         Andre's website

Another new Spectrum release and here's what was posted to the Oldschool Gaming forums about it: "British space ace Winston Spalding is on a routine patrol around the edge of the solar system, when he spots enemy fighters massing in the Kuiper belt, possibly preparing for an attack on a base on one of the outer planets. With no friendly forces in the vicinity, Spalding heads into the fray to tackle the enemy head-on." Jonathan Cauldwell's Kuiper Pursuit is a remarkably fast into the screen shoot 'em up that reminds just a little of the action in the classic Deathchase but with more freedom of movement. And asteroids, of course.

  Web link:         Jonathan Cauldwell's website

We love a good conversion here at Oldschool Gaming, in fact the various members of the team have done a few of their own over the years... but this one is just a tiny bit different; Fortress of Narzod has been converted to the C64 from... the Vectrex - and it's a shoot 'em up as well, so that's even better still!

  Web link:         CSDb entry for Fortress of Narzod

It's late and you're out after a live gig but still young enough to be living at your parents' place and still worried about what time you get in; that normally wouldn't be problematic, but tonight your entire world looks like a platform game!

  Web link:         Entry on the Otocom website

Less than a month after their last release Phantomas Tales 1: Marsport, the Mojon Twins return along with their bikini-wearing heroine Nanako. This outing for the scantily clad adventurer is called Nanako Descends To Hell so that would explain the lack of anything more stout in the clothing department, she's expecting it to be somewhat warm! Her mission this time is to collect four pieces of an ancient artefact and return it to the first screen of the game whilst using scissors, axes and holy water in order to survive amongst the demons.

  Web link:         Entry on the Mojon Twins website

After the Amstrad CPC port of Mervyn Estcourt's Spectrum classic last year, now there is another way to enjoy rushing through a forest and blasting anybody else doing the same because James McKay's conversion of 3D Deathchase is now available for the Dragon 32 and 16K Tandy Color Computer.

  Web link:         Entry on James McKay's website

Another year(!), another release from Cosine... yes, it really has been an age and a half since their last product and there's just a hint of irony in the air as well because the latest release, Blok Copy DTV, is the same game as the last one! Well okay, not entirely the same because, although it plays pretty much identically to the original Commodore PET version, this port sports some shiny new 8 bits per pixel graphics and has a superb SID soundtrack by veteran C64 musician Sean Connolly rather than the beeper tune that was cobbled together for the PET.

Blok Copy can either be played with a modified C64DTV or using the DTV emulation that has recently been included into VICE.

  Web link:         Entry on the Cosine website

When the worms party, it's like they're playing Light Cycles but with more variation on the movement - instead of snap turning through 90 degrees like Automan is steering them, up to four worms can instead create pretty, swirly patterns on the screen under player control, making this an interesting twist (if you'll excuse the appalling pun) on the original.

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry

Another new Amstrad CPC release, this time from Morris and titled Eternal Light. The objective is to explore the game map and collect all ten pieces of the light (represented by red lanterns in the game world) whilst avoiding the creatures that roam about the place..

  Web link:         Megaupload link

A mysterious civilisation has been mining "cubic gold" from Mars and titualr anti-hero Phantomas has decided that he'd quite like a piece of that action; y'see, Phantomas wants to retire and needs a bit of cash first... Phantomas Tales 1: Marsport is a platformer that has been developed for both the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by some former members of CEZ GS, the Mojon Twins.

  Web link:         Entry on the Mojon Twins website

Yes indeed, there's some news from our friends over at CD-based disk magazine RGCD, number five is indeed alive!

We won't list everything but there are reviews of recent releases such as Sub Hunter and the rather spiffy Enforcer 2 preview for the C64 or the superb SplATTR on the Spectrum and yours truly seems to have cornered the market on previously unreleased shoot 'em ups with write ups of Sirius and Plutos on the Atari 7800 (both being written by Kevin "Zybex on the C64" Franklin), World Reborn on the Gameboy Advance and the released but somewhat "misplaced" The Alien Team for the C64 that was recently located by Games That Weren't.

Of course there are lots more reviews and articles in this new issue, but we're not going to tell you what they are because you should already be opening another tab or window in order to tootle over to the RGCD website for a proper read!

  Web link:         RGCD website

Meteor Storm is a very short game about meteors and stuff, so this is an equally short news entry to match. It can be downloaded here. Simples.

  News source:    Denial

Yeah, so a version of Frogger with a release date of 1992 on the loading picture... you're probably wondering why this counts for the Oldschool Gaming news, right? Because it was only released a few days ago, and the original Amstrad CPC version, released in 1992, was written by author Dean Hickingbottom for his wife, how romantic! Anyway, it's the classic frog hopping game but with more detailed cartoon style graphics, so worth hopping over for a look at least.

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry
  News source:    Speccy Live (translated by Google)

Pig Perambulator sees the player take on the role of an eleven-year-old boy whose only task is to wander from one side of the screen to the other, then back again. That would be it, if there wasn't a pig firing missiles at him and some yellow... stuff (since the game's instructions are rather vague about it as well) bouncing around the place.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry
  News source:    Atari Age

Originally written in 1986 and then added to some nine years later, 2009 has seen the final release of Michael Kircher's BASIC rendition of Moon Patrol for the unexpanded VIC 20; drive your moon vehicle along, jumping ground-based obstacles and shooting at airborne ones until you reach the safety of the moon base. The game itself can be downloaded here and there is more discussion over at Denial.

  News source:    Denial

With what has to be the most dramatic name so far of 2009, Rafal Miazga's Skyscraper Of Doom is an arcade adventure in the style of the Dizzy series about... erm, a skyscraper. But not an ordinary skyscraper, this one is doom-laden because it happens to be on fire and you're trying to get out in one piece.

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry

Originally released for the Spectrum and MSX in 2007, Computer EmuZone Game Studio's attractive puzzler BeTiled is now available for Amstrad CPC owners to enjoy; the gameplay is based on PC casual gaming legend Bejeweled where the player has to swap pairs of tiles over to create groups, which are then removed from the play area. As reported previously, Computer EmuZone Game Studio are closing up shop (the developers will continue to produce games, it's merely the label that won't be continuing) and BeTiled is the last Amstrad CPC game released by them.

  Web link:         BeTiled at CEZ GS

Bable Bable is a relatively short (but still fairly sweet) game based around the idea behind Taito's classic Bubble Bobble but with the bubbles replaced with expelled stomach gasses. Yes, you get to burp at the nasties in order to knock them out of the play area! Bable Bable is an incredibly simple game since there is only the one player, a single kind of attacker and not too many screens to pass through, but considering how cold it is outside right now...!

  News source:    CSDb entry for Bable Bable

Ten Ten Duality is a maze game with a difference, the player is given control over two squares, each in a different maze and must place both on their respective exit points at the same time; that objective might sound simple, but getting it right isn't going to be easy! It can be downloaded from this thread on Denial.

  News source:    Denial

DemoMania isn't actually a demo despite the name and having a page on scene resource Pouet.net, instead its a nicely presented, simple action game where demo-related 3D objects fall from the top of the screen and must be deflected back up by an Arkanoid-style bat controlled by the player.

  Web link:         Pouet entry
  News source:    Speccy Live (translated by Google)

For those of us in the U.K. it's turned rather wintery, the Oldschool Gaming update is accompanied by a blanket of snow... but at least we've shovelled enough of it away from the web server that three new reviews can be added!

There are a couple of interesting nuggets for fans of platform-based gaming, because both Bomb Jack for expanded Atari 8-bits and Blue Star for the unexpanded VIC 20 have platforms and nasties galore. And for those with a more violent outlook on life there is the C64 blaster Sub Hunter to wade into (if you'll excuse the water-based pun) so now there isn't any need at all to go outside and freeze your tootsies off!

Doris is in love... in this case love manifests itself as hearts dotted around the play area that she must collect, whilst manoeuvring between the blocks that fall from the sky; but love is fickle and the hearts fade away, if Doris either fails to collect one before this happens or takes a blow to the head from a plummeting block the game is over.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry
  News source:    Atari Age

Actually, i'm guessing a little as to the title of this little puzzle game for the Atari 2600, taking my cue from the name of the ROM image on the Atari Age thread. The objective of Mimpy is to arrange a group of Tetris shaped but, rather than falling down the screen, the player simply has to place them all within a limited space without any gaps or overlaps.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry
  News source:    Atari Age

Goodness, it's Christmas all over again! Or it seems like it at least, since the final fruits of the MSXDev tree have fallen, ready to be gathered by hungry gamers... that probably would've worked better during the summer but never mind. In order of arrival, there is an MSX version of I Need Speed by Metalbrain for Computer EmuZone Game Studios (see the previous news item about the Spectrum version), single screen arcade action in the form of Danger Team's Danger Tower, MSXDev stalwarts Karoshi Corporation have a platformer titled La Corona Encantada and i need a break and a cup of tea to relax before the second round!

Next up was Pwnd by Vampier and a variation on the perenial classic Snake, Tomb of Genghis Khan from Impulse9 is more platforming action, there's a typing game from Muffie called Hose Diogo Martinez: The Bussas Quest, Magical Stones developer Dioniso has Sp8 Invaders and Arnold Metselaar slid neatly under the wire with 70 minutes left before the competition closed with a dice game called Limaribu. Phew! The competition is now closed for new entries and everything released can be downloaded from the MSXDev '08 website; voting for the winner has now started.

  Web link:         MSXDev website

I Need Speed is, as the name probably suggests, a racing game for the Spectrum (and MSX, see the next news posting) developed by Metalbrain and released by Computer EmuZone Games Studio and it allows up to two human opponents to race against each other or computer-controlled drivers. According to Metalbrain's post on our own forum where this game was announced, this will sadly be the last Spectrum game from CEZ GS.

  Web link:         Computer EmuZone Games Studio

The MSXDev is getting near to its conclusion so there'll probably be a burst of releases over the next four or five days. Formula Dice by Luca Giglioli is an unusual attempt to merge the high octane world of racing with... erm, turn-based statistics; build up your own racing car and support team to be as good as possible.

  Web link:         MSXDev website

Sort 'Em is simplicity itself to play; coloured balls drop from the top of the play area to the bottom and the player has a little ramp that directs them off horizontally; blue balls need to go left, red should be filed to the right and changing the direction is a simple tap of the space bar. Sounds simple because it is simple, but there's some playability there. It can be downloaded here.

  Web link:         CPC Zone forum entry

There are some career paths that are more dangerous than others, the obvious ones are working for the emergency services or military but, if new MSXDev release Bakerman is anything to go by, so is making bread! The objective is to pick up the flour, take it to the oven, collect the baked bread and put it into the delivery lorry... whilst avoiding the demons that are patrolling the corridors of your bakery!

  Web link:         MSXDev website

As the name suggests, Bomb Chase - 2009 Special Edition is something of a revision of the now seven year old Bomb Chase (the fourth update so far) in order to expand the game a little, add some cosmetics and remove the remaining bugs.

  News source:    CSDb entry for Bomb Chase - 2009 Special Edition

Tempest Xtreem is a souped-up implementation of David Theurer's seminal arcade blaster for the Atari 8-bits which also takes some cues from the re-working given to the game by Jeff Minter. The classic into-the-screen blasting action is all there, along with the AI drone, some of the speech samples and a great POKEY rendition of the Tempest 2000 soundtrack. Video 61 are taking pre-orders at the moment (see the link below) and hopefully a distributor for Europe will be found soon. And for those who are unsure if they need a superzapper in their life, there is a playable demo - you'll have to cut and paste this URL to a spare browser window, the domain doesn't seem to like external linking: http://www.freewebs.com/kjmannmusic/tempest/tempdemo.zip

  Web link:         Ordering page at Video 61
  News source:    Atari Age

The Comp.Sys.Sinclair Crap Game Competition returns for 2009... only slightly confusing matters since the 2008 competition is still running! The competition this year is being run by Guesser and as with the previous years the objective is to produce a game that is... well, crap and how that crapness manifests itself is down to the developer, so bad execution, flawed gameplay or just sheer hyperbole on the part of the programmer are all options.

  Web link:         CSSCGC 2009 website
  News source:    World Of Spectrum

It's time for more Oldschool Gaming goings on, because we've got a couple of festive frolics for all our loyal visitors! Firstly we'll tak a right guid-willie waught with Universe: Unknown, a piece of Konami-inspired hardcore scrolling shoot 'em up action for the MSX released a couple of years ago for the MSXDev competition. And as if that weren't enough, we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet with Quikman 2008 for the unexpanded VIC 20, for those fancying some action with a Pac-Man flavouring to it.

And just in case old acquaintance should be forgot, there is the Oldschool Gaming Review Of 2008 as a hugely vague attempt at covering at least some of the high (and not-so-high) points of the last twelve months. And now i'm wondering if trying to work the lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne" into the news wasn't a ridiculously stupid idea...

Nonocross has nothing to do with the red robot of Ulysses 31 fame (although he did get cross once in a while) and instead is a Picross style puzzle game where the objective is to make pictures from numerical clues... apparently these games are based around nonograms although that does make it sound vaguely like a doctor should be consulted and a cream applied!

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry

Nothing says "Christmas" quite like golf. Well okay, there are the presents, pudding, turkey, that fat bloke (Fat Chris i think?) and stuff like that but golf as well. And here's Jonathan Cauldwell's latest outing, Albatrossity, which has to be the most twisted round of golf (or perhaps crazy golf would be more appropriate) ever played! The course is viewed from the side and the player must choose one of three attributes for the ball (sticky, steel or rubber, each making a difference to how it moves) before thwocking it one towards the pin, avoiding the hazards and patrolling nasties along the way.

  Web link:         Jonathan Cauldwell's website

Ah the fresh snow, turkey left-overs and Christmas games that come out on the 25th of December when all good little site admins are in a state of catatonic shock due to excess eating - Joe Dixon's Frosty The Snowman 2 is one such release! Taking it's inspiration from the original Frosty The Snowman (released on the cover cassette for Your Commodore in 1990) one or two players control a titular blob of frozen water each and must guide it through over thirty tortuous screens on a mission from God Santa. There are holes to jump over, conveyor belts temporary floors that disappear to reveal spike pits, bouncing Christmas puddings and bottles of bubbly to negotiate, all accompanied by "Christmassy" music including covers of "Fairytale Of New York" by the Pogues and Band Aid's "Do They Know Its Christmas"...!

  News source:    CSDb entry for Frosty The Snowman 2

The MSXDev 2008 competition has delivered it's first offspring and it's a muppet! Peek-A-Boo stars lovable tickle-enjoying creature Elmo and is aimed at pre school children and younger; the player is presented with Elmo's room and, when he pops up from hiding in one of four places, must move the joystick towards that part of the screen. Yes this is very much for children (and for the very young there is another mode where space is pressed to make Elmo appear) so park little Johnny in front of the MSX this Christmas!

  Web link:         MSXDev website

There isn't much that can be said about Mockatetris once the salient points have been covered, things like it being a Tetris variant and developed by one Rafal Miazga. At first glance, Mockatetris comes across as nicely presented and stands out a little bit because it isn't a straight clone of Alexey Pajitnov's design, instead utilising an extended set of shapes, some with five blocks, the new additions requiring different strategies to dispose of cleanly.

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry
  News source:    Speccy Live (translated by Google)

Coming from the Feeding Frenzy school of game design (the one that Katamari Damacy graduated with honours) and written in an impressive twenty four hours, the objective of Roll Up is to consume anything smaller than yourself; there is a time limit however and the objective is to amass as much... erm, mass and therefore score as possible.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry
  News source:    Atari Age

Learn to steal like a professional by attending Thieves School and graduate in the Stealing Arts... at least, that's what World XXI Soft would like you to do since their new game is all about a twisted Hogwarts-inspired educational establishment for the light fingered. Although a demo version hasn't been uploaded to the Thieves School subsite yet, there is a video of the game itself running (which features a very nice piece of music, "bonus points" are available to anyone who spots what it is) and some screenshots.

  Web link:         World XXI Soft website
  News source:    World Of Spectrum

Despite the title resembling an Adam Sandler film, Click! is actually an action game where the objective is to... umm, click on objects with a mouse, Koala pad, light gun or joystick to remove them from the screen in order to prevent it filling up completely; that's easier said than done however, because if either the object in the middle of the screen (which changes regularly) or any other object that resembles it is clicked, the player loses control of the cursor temporarily. This is a Christmas edition of the game (and a second version will be released to coincide with the new year celebrations) so the items slowly littering the play area are all related to the festive season. Bah humbug and so forth.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry
  News source:    Atari Age

Despite the name, SAM Style and Shadow Maker's Go (referred to as Transition at the original news source) doesn't appear to be a direct version of the board game but since the game is in Russian, nobody here at Oldschool Gaming towers has actually worked out how to play the thing yet! Go was released along with the vote pack for the ASCII virtual scene party.

  Web link:         WOS Archive entry
  News source:    Speccy Live (translated by Google)

Those lovely bunnies over at RGCD are in the process of issuing more copies of both Kikstart C16 and Invasive Action on cartridge, both for the C64. Both games come with professional-looking packaging, are reasonably priced and can be downloaded either from the relevant parts of Cosine website or Gamebase 64 for those who want to test drive the games themselves before they make a purchase. There are more titles planned for release in the relatively near future as well (one cartridge image has already been completed) so more fun for those of you who like their games in likkle boxes... that light up!

  Web link:         RGCD shop page for the cartridges

I Project is Simon Quernhorsts fifth game for the Atari 2600 and involves navigating through caverns and avoiding obstacles in a helicopter - despite that description being familiar, the game itself is top view so isn't based on the various Flash games where pressing fire makes the copter go up and releasing lets it descend. As with his last release Shotgate, Simon has a limited run of cartridges available from his site as well as some more information on the game itself and a couple of screenshots.

  Web link:         Simon Quernhorst's I Project page

Following on from the first Game Theory, this sequel is more of the same but with improvements; the general gist here is that a series of Wario Ware-inspired minigames into an unexpanded VIC and the player is challenged to see how well they can do in these tightly-timed situations. More information and a download link can be found in this thread on the Denial message board.

  News source:    Denial

One thing that always raises a happy little smile is reading about programmers who are unexpectedly reunited with their old works. This is exactly what happened to Robert Hurst who cut his teeth on an unexpanded VIC 20 in the early to mid 1980s and the subsequent story of how Quikman was not only recovered but, on realising it wasn't as complete as he'd ever wanted it to be, finished is documented over a couple of blog posts here and here which are both worth a read.

  Web link:         Robert Hurst's VIC tribute website (with downloads)
  News source:    Denial

Based on the Flash game of the same name and developed by developing dervishes xxl and Miker, Loops Of Zen presents its player with a box full of pipe segments and in order to progress to the next level they simply have to rotate the parts until there are no open ends in the system; on the early levels that isn't such a demanding task but as the game progresses the size of the system expands - there isn't a time limit, just pipes... lots of pipes, they're everywhere! [Gibber!] For those who like slow-paced puzzles that start out deceptively easy, the file can be grabbed here.

  News source:    Atari Age

The name should be a teensy hint but just in case... Paddle Pong is a version of Pong for the C64 and whilst a new version of Atari's bat 'n' ball basher isn't exactly unusual there is one unique "selling" point here; Paddle Pong uses paddle controllers for that authentic arcade experience.

  News source:    CSDb entry for Paddle Pong

As people all over the UK get themselves ready to burn effigies, eat far too much food and launch fireworks in celebration of someone a while back trying to knock off parliament, what better way to celebrate than to play lots of new 8-bit games? Well, if we're being honest just about anything is an excuse to play 8-bit games and Halloween was fun this year!

Anyway... for a starter, Amstrad CPC Plus owning fans of the classic arcade titles now have the option of spending absolutely ages pretending they're running a coin-op emulator on their machine with the scarily accurate conversion of Frogger. And for those of you out there who like to take a spaceship into a hostile region and spray the residents with super-heated plasma we've taken a look at some Space Invaders inspired Atari 2600 action with Rainbow Invaders and then Teradyne Warrior for the C64. Finally, we've got something for fans of challenging puzzle action on the C16 and Plus/4, the tile-shuffling Trans Logic 2.

VICtoria Gold Edition is a turn based strategy game which tasks the player with being the Emperor of Rome. Although the game itself has been around for a while, we did manage to miss it previously - this latest version requires a 16K expanded VIC and uses some of that space for some very nice graphics. It can be downloaded here along with a cover image and manual (please note that it's hosted by Geocities so the file may not always be available due to their bandwidth restrictions).

  News source:    Denial

Newcomer's to the world of Atari 8-bit publishing, GR8 software (which includes conversion king XXL amongst it's members) announced their first release yesterday evening - rather appropriately for Halloween it came in the form of Hobgoblin and is a conversion of the Atlantis platformer of the same name, taking most of it's cues from BBC Micro version of the game and adding extra cosmetics in the process such as soundtracks and presentation graphics.

The game itself is similar to Ghosts 'n' Goblins apart from being flick screen, the player must sally forth into the darkness of the local haunted forest, hacking and slaying the re-animated corpses, hobgoblins and anything else that gets in their way. At the time of writing there are a limited number of cartridge versions of the game available to purchase but be quick if you're interested because it won't be long before all of them are sold!

  Web link:         GR8 Software's website
  News source:    Atari Age

In the universe of Not Even Human there are two alien factions warring with each other but there are no bullets fired or punches thrown. Instead the action itself takes place within a single-screen arena where two players must each take control of a group of eight creatures; placing them next to each other either causes both to lose or gain energy depending on if they're friends of foes and the overall objective is to drain the opposing team entirely.

  News source:    CSDb entry for Not Even Human

Here's a colourful new release for the 264 series, Trans Logic 2 by Skoro of The Assassins is a puzzle game where the player is presented with two panels containing coloured tiles and the objective is to shuffle the contents of the left hand panel around until it matches up with the one on the right; the twist is that individual tiles cannot be moved and instead entire rows or columns need to be shifted about. Unlike the original Trans Logic (which was released on the C64 over fifteen years ago now and later converted by Murphy of Gentlemen Software) this sequel will happily run on a 16K machine with a SID card.

Oh, and for those who weren't previously aware the Emucamp.com domain and therefore subdomains are no longer active; the new URL for Plus/4 World is Plus4World.com

  News source:    Plus/4 World

Maribee is a young bee on a mission; her mother, queen bee Paca Beja, has overworked the poor drones and now there is civil unrest amongst the honeycombs. Maribee must try to regain control in order to prevent total economic collapse in the beehive and, as everybody except possibly certain politicians know, the best way that can be achieved is by making pictures based on numeric clues! And if you were thinking that this is a somewhat surreal plot for a Picross-style puzzle game, that was just the edited highlights - the original is far more... erm, involved!

  Web link:         Computer EmuZone Games Studio

Although a fair few home versions of the Tehkan action platformer Bomb Jack exist, one of the machines that didn't see a conversion was the Atari 8-bit. But yes, considering the opening of this paragraph it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Atari 8-bit owning fans of Bomb Jack can now enjoy it in their own homes because a dedicated group of developers have put together a very impressive-looking conversion. The only caveat is that their machine must have a 320K RAM in order to run the program.

For those with appropriately sized Ataris who can't wait to be gathering bombs in exotic locations, the conversion is available for downloaded here whilst the article linked below which is automagically translated courtesy of Google gives a little more detail about the project as well as screenshots and a gameplay video.

  Web link:         Translated Atari Online article
  News source:    Atari Age

Triumph's latest game is called Nipik II and appears to be a single screen action game for 128K Spectrums. The player is a cute, blobby creature that has been charged with collecting green potions and yellow power-ups (some of which have negative effects) from within a dungeon - just like me last Tuesday really. Some of the graphics during play are interlaced which can be rough on the eyes after a while but apart from that it seems fun to play and everything is rather cute. Nipik II can be downloaded here and that archive contains a number of different image files of the game in assorted formats.

  News source:    World Of Spectrum

Here come the winter months and, traditionally, an increase in the number of 8-bit releases and if all goes to plan we'll be getting a few more reviews into each update as well including a couple of the exciting recent releases. There is only the one new review this time around but it's well worth giving some further attention to since we've been playing Bob Smith's SplATTR on the Spectrum, as put out by those lovely bunnies over at Cronosoft.

After waiting what seems like ages (in fact it has taken four years from initial prototypes to the final release), Sub Hunter by Richard Bayliss and Frank Gasking has finally been completed! For those unaware of the project, the player gets to take to the seas in a battle submarine, blowing away the enemy subs and mutant sealife whilst rescuing passing swimmers.

Initially, Sub Hunter will exclusively be available from Psytronik on cassette but after a month or two the entire game will be released onto the web for a free download and, for those wanting to try before they buy, theres a four level demo downloadable here.

  Web link:         Sub Hunter in the Psytronik shop

Yes, everybodys favourite tractor-driving yokel returns for another Spectrum outing; Farmer Jack - Treasure Trove is the third in the series and this time sees Jack's fields beset by archaeologists after a Roman coin mangles his combine. The only option is for Jack to collect as many coins as possible and donate them to the local museum before the locust-like time team ravage his land, collecting more than the Tony Robinson wannabes have gathered.

Bob describes Farmer Jack - Treasure Trove as being based on Pac Man with influences from Lock 'N' Chase and it's available for free download from his website.

  Web link:         Bob Smith's website

Well, we say "released" but it's more a case of it being published soon and a preview being available for download from the author's own website; Kev Thacker, who has previously been responsible for bringing us the CPC and C64 conversions of Bob Smith's Stranded, has been soldiering away on Sudoku, which started life as a solver for the popular numerical puzzle and evolved into a complete game for both the CPC and Spectrum over the three year development cycle. Sudoku will be available from Cronosoft in the near-ish future, but for those eager puzzle solvers who are wanting to try before they buy, those aforementioned demonstration versions can both be downloaded here.

  Web link:         Kev Thacker's website

Yes, the summer is officially over (not that we could actually tell from the weather or anything) and autumn is upon us; and that should hopefully mean that many 8-bit developers will be returning to their bedrooms and ongoing projects.

The Oldschool Gaming staff haven't been resting though and the result is that we've got three reviews to peruse; in particular there are a couple of Spectrum puzzlers from Cronosoft in the form of Stranded and Stronghold, alongside a dose of MSX-based platforming action from Karoshi Corp., the stone-aged, leopard skin clad Malaika: Prehistoric Quest. From the time of the dinosaurs to dimensional bridge between worlds; proof if it were needed that gamers get to travel!

Rallybug is the full version of the Spectrum game that Jonathan Cauldwell originally wrote for this year's Retro Fusion event; it was initially a basic scrolling platformer but the player now collects letters to use in a game of Hangman against the computer in order to replenish his fuel tank. Naturally, for the sake of younger children or those who might prefer the original game, Rallybug can still be played in its original Fusion format and it can be downloaded from Jonathan's website

  Web link:         Jonathan Cauldwell's website

That joke doesn't work as well when it isn't June, does it...? Never mind, here are a couple of new Oldschool Gaming reviews for August to cheer you all up and keep me indoors on a lovely sunny day too... not that I'm sulking about that or anything! [Pout] There are two new additions to the site this time around, Shoot 'Em Up Designer from Cronosoft is a Spectrum game about flower arranging and the C64 title Cavelon64 is a chilling morality tale. Not really, they're a fabulous game development tool and a simple "dodge the balloon through the caves" action game respectively. Had you fooled for a moment though, didn't i... oh, apparently not.

Simon Quernhorst has just announced an interesting release that he is making available for sale as a cartridge and then as disks; Shotgate is a puzzle game that bears a bit of a resemblance to a 2D Narbacular Drop (which later evolved into Valve's Portal and was written by mostly the same team) in that the player is armed with a device that fires connected inter-spacial portals that stick to the floor, ceiling and walls; when the player passes through one of these portals, they reappear from the other and the objective is to reach the exit of each screen within the time limit and without running out of ammo.

The cartridge comes with nice packaging, features both Shotgate and a second game called Konfl1kt (a two player shoot out game) and there'll only be a limited run of twenty units before the disk versions are available for sale. For ordering information, have a look at the link below.

  Web link:         Simon Quernhorst's website

Not to be confused with the Ocean title of a similar name, Cavelon 64 by Timo Brueggmann is something of a quest where the player has to guide a balloon through a series of twisting, turning caverns (apparently in a place called Morgor). During this tortuous journey there are also assorted moving barriers to avoid that attempt to pop the player and lots of evil, twisty bits to weave through as well.

  News source:    CSDb entry for Cavelon 64

As usual, the summer months are the quietest time for new 8-bit games but there is at least one new title for the Spectrum; Myth 2 - Return To Hell is, as the name should suggest, a follow up to the rather fabby Myth. The file can be downloaded here and there is a World Of Spectrum thread here that explains the rather fiddly process of getting the TRDOS image running under emulation and indeed discusses which emulators can actually use it.

  News source:    World Of Spectrum

Developed by Leif Bloomquist, Six and Robin Harbron, NetRacer is a top down, vertically-scrolling car racing game for the C64... that supports up to eight players (wait for it) over a local area network or the internet! Sadly, there are no network adapters connected to the C64s here at Oldschool Gaming Towers but fingers crossed there'll be a chance or two for some of us to try the game properly in the near future and it will at least run, albeit less than interestingly, in a single player mode if no outside world is detected.

  News source:    CSDb entry for NetRacer

The MSXDev competition has just finished regenerating into it's sixth incarnation; as with the previous installments, the games released must be targeted at a base configuration of MSX1 (although titles which have optional support for more powerful machines in the series are welcomed) and the majority of the entries are registered with the competition site as they're being developed so interested parties can follow the competition as it runs. At the time of writing, one entry has already been added to the site in the form of Qbiqs, which looks to be based on the slightly obscure but rather fabby Quarth.

The deadline for entries is January 2009 with the results being announced at the end of February. Considering the previous entries, we're rather looking forward to seeing what gets launched this time around.

  Web link:         MSXDev website

The second Forum64.de 1,024 Bytes Game Competition for the C64 has closed, giving four entries in total; fourth place is a horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up called Flakeshake, Flapper is one of those helicopter in the cave games where the player has to keep pressing the fire button to keep it in the air, P1x3l-Pushr is a teeny version of Sokoban and the winner is 1K-Mini-Bash, a scaled down but very thorough clone of Boulder Dash.

  Web link:         Forum64
  News source:    CSDb entry for the competition

Blimey, hasn't it been a busy month for VIC 20 releases! The fourth release in as many weeks is Go-Moku, the second game from Nino Porcino, and for the unexpanded VIC. This time he's written a version of the paper and pen or board game that sees players trying to win "territory" by strategically placing their counters. This version contains a computer opponent that has been some time in development too, so it should be an interesting match for most players and there's also a C64 port of the game available for download from Nino's website.

  Web link:         Nino Porcino's website
  News source:    Denial

Some would say that making another version of the seminal bat-and-ball game Pong for the Atari 2600 is a bit like taking coals to Newcastle these days but Bong, developed by Michael Becerra for release during the 2008 Minigame competition, is a little special; not only is it open source, it features one player against computer AI and two player options and even a pause mode, all squidged so that it fits into a tiny 2K ROM.

  Web link:         Atari Age forum entry

Since the nights are getting shorter and the weather a bit warmer (well, unless you're in the UK in which case it's been bucketing it down) we're off out for a bit of a ramble; first off there's a spot of eco warrioring in the industrial wasteland (or Milton Keynes as it appears on most maps) to do, demolishing factories that are pumping out green, sludgy pollution in Toxic Slime on the Oric, then going underground where the brass bands play and feet start to pound with Mr. Mole for the MSX and finally our reviewers go where no reviewer has boldly gone before, the Amstrad CPC port of Area 51 no less!

Based on a Nintendo Game And Watch game, Parachute is a simple action game from Glen Richards,the developer of Frogger '07; like his well-received previous release, Parachute requires an expanded VIC 20 to run; the author mentions that the game isn't a 100% perfect conversion of the original game but it seems he's got it pretty close nontheless. A disk image can be downloaded here.

  News source:    Denial

Welcome adventurer to The Evil Castle, called so because it is a castle and... erm, evil! As a brave and very likely foolhardy soul, you've decided to pop your head around the portcullis and do a spot of monster slaying. And business is good because this particular Evil Castle comes equipped with six in-house monsters, the most terrifying of which has the fear-inducing name Behemoth. Fortunately, the castle has it's own little shop rather like those found in hospitals but, rather than dry sandwiches, energy drinks, a highly limited choice of magazines and wilting flowers, this one is stocked to the gills with flaming torches, armour, magical amulets and a couple of weapons to boot - so now all you need is skill, cunning, bravery (which were all out of stock) and some cash, good luck! The game can be downloaded here, it comes with a PDF manual and needs a 16K RAM expanded VIC 20 to play.

  News source:    Denial

Mariano the Dragon - Capers in Cityland sees cutesy titular dragon Mariano on a quest to save his imprisoned friends; they were all locked away for failing to complete a series of tasks that varied from painting storage drums and collecting stars to a bit of espionage and now our small, scaly friend has to take on those very same tasks in order to get the keys to release everybody else. Although they have previously released titles on one machine and subsequently converted them to others, Mariano the Dragon - Capers in Cityland is the first time that Computer EmuZone Games Studio have simultaneously released a title on both Spectrum and CPC.

  Web link:         Computer EmuZone Games Studio

Back in 1982, Commodore released a VIC 20 game on cartridge called Raid On Fort Knox. Some twenty three years later and, on a rainy afternoon in 2007 with nothing on the telly, Nino Porcino had the idea of taking the game he remembered from his childhood and disassembling it - as you do (or is that just me?) But things took an Oldschool Gaming style turn at this point because, once he had this disassembly, his next decision was to put it back together in a interesting new way and Return To Fort Knox was conceived. It's taken a while to get to the maternity ward because Nino knew exactly how he wanted the remixed game to be and put a lot of work into that vision; the number of active guards in the game was increased to fifteen, a new "freeze ray" feature added and eight shiny new levels were created from scratch, but after all that work father and child are doing well and receiving visitors.

  Web link:         Nino Porcino's website
  News source:    Denial

It's time for the Oldschool Gaming May update and for this one we have three new reviews to tease you with and for a starter there is some hardcore action in the form of an Atari 8-bit port of Jeff Minter's seminal shooter Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time. Of c