Another two games from the CPC Retrodev contest on display here, this time it's the winner and runner up.
Space Moves is an absolutely rock hard run and gun game, presumably an unofficial sequel to the original Army Moves. Frogalot is a puzzle platformer type thing, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the classic Nebulus. Both are worth checking out if you're into the kind of low key fun that Amstrad CPC homebrew games offer.
The second annual CPC Retrodev competition results are in and no less than 35 games have have been entered this year, a pretty impressive array for a system that's often somewhat overlooked. Organised by the University of Alicante (where else?) this seems to be a really popular event in the CPC calender and to top it off all the games will have a cassette release at some point, though only last years games seem to be available at the moment. I haven't had change to play all the games yet, but so far RUNCPC is my favorite, despite placing so low down the list.
Presumably named for the purported home of the hardware, not where this software originates from (it's German), Houston Tracker 2 is the complete music tracking solution for the TI 8x range of programmable calculators. If you're wondering what a music tracker is, well, it's a piece of software that let's you create music. Most classic systems have tracker programs, including some well known examples like LSDJ on the GameBoy and Soundtracker on the Amiga.
It's a pretty impressive achievement for the platform, especially considering that these calculators aren't supposed to have any sound output at all. Cleverly this software makes use of the calculators serial port for sound output and the results are pretty impressive as the above video demonstrates.
A quick video of a new ZX Spectrum homebrew game from Russia. Entered in the 2015 Chaos Constructions party, it's a remake of a classic Electronika BK0010 game, and it definitely has an 80's 'arcade adventure' feel to it.
If you're wondering what the original looked like, well here it is in all it's Soviet era 8-bit glory.
I don't think the soundtrack on the above is the original one, it must have been added by the uploader. If it had any sound at all it would have been fairly sparse.
Another video from Austria's finest retro gaming YouTuber, this time featuring a a selection of three Vectrex hombrews including an all new title, Marine Fox. I could listen to this guy talk all day.
Yep, the other re-imagined ZX Spectrum has arrived, the one from Elite Systems. Unlike the Vega it's not a plug and play, but essentially a Spectrum shaped Bluetooth keyboard with an accompanying 'app' that lets you play some Speccy games. The keyboard was always the very worst feature of the original Spectrum and it was only the original and very first models in the Spectrum line up that had the rubber membrane thing. Later models, like the Spectrum + and 128 had much nicer, if not actually good, keyboards to remedy this problem. I'm not sure what the sales figures were, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that later Speccies with better keyboards outsold the rubbery original. It seems odd then that Elite would focus their recreation on the crappiest and most quickly abandoned part of the Spectrum, but I suppose it's iconic and maybe get's peoples attention.
A Spectrum with a less crappy keyboard
I've no idea what the app is like, I'm guessing it's a Spectrum emulator with paid downloads, but everything I've read is a bit light on details. By the sound of things it will function as a 'normal' Bluetooth or wired keyboard with a lot of devices, so you may well be able to use it with your favorite PC emulator or even Word if you're really that way inclined.
Another new release for the C64, this time with what seems to be an unusually elaborate physical release available from Protovision Software. The 'Coward Edition' at just 35 EUR comes with the game in a nice tin box, an 80 page manual and a keyring. The 'Hero Edition' at 55 EUR comes with all the above plus a certificate, CD, high quality pentagram and best of all a 'low serial number'. There will apparently be a download only version available in due course, without any of the goodies obviously.
Hero Edition
What's the game like? I have no idea, but it's good to see these kind of ambitious releases on old platforms.
