23rd October 2008
Shaun's been buzzing about a new puzzler for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum; as well as other developments for the Speccy and Commodore 64
iLogicAll
If you get a buzz out of playing puzzle games, and you happen to be a fan of the mighty Sinclair ZX Spectrum, then you'll probably be pleased to hear about Computer EmuZone (CEZ) Games Studio's latest production, entitled iLogicAll for the 128k machine. This production sees a summer of discontent among the drones and other occupants of a militant beehive, leading to general strikes and a sharp downturn in the wholesale price of honey, leading to recession, and all because the Queen Bee, Paca Beja, wants to force her drones into a 65-hour working week. Her daughter, Maribee, is set to take the reign and herself become the Majestic Queen Bee - not an easy task as there’s a great test for her to undertake and claim the crown, and restore harmony to the hive.
The task in hand is to work out the hidden pictures in the 16 x 16 square matrix. Clues are given in the form of numbers representing blocks on each row and column, for instance, if the numbers 4 and 4 appear as a clue on a particular row, that means there are two blocks of four squares to be filled in. Further clues are given if you look at the corresponding column to where you have placed your marker; if that states a 1, then there is just one block to be marked.
Once you get the hang of iLogicAll, you'll be quickly racing through the earlier levels, and there's a helpful password system to stop earlier stages becoming boring. Time is lost for any mistakes that you make. Logicians can point their web-browsing interface to tinyurl.com/rm 1027, where all of the information about this game, including a free download and a link to the shop (if you want to purchase this game on cassette} can be found.
BipBoi And Pickles
If you're not so much of a fan of the puzzle genre, then all is not lost, as Rob 'Speccyman' Pearmain has recently released a further demo of the rather stylish collect-'em-up BipBoi along with a preview edition of a new platform affair called Pickles And Pearl, both for 48k machines. BipBoi and his friends are unfortunately invaded by the malevolent forces of Zorgonia. The task in hand is to retrieve the stars that have been stolen, with each of BipBoi's friends containing special powers: such as looking cute, or firing shots to dispatch the roaming nasties.
As for Pickles & Pearl, it's a simple case of collecting the flashing rings throughout, very much a tried and tested affair. If you want to try them for yourself, the demos are available on the world wide web at www.peargames.co.uk/downloads/zx141008.zip.
Not Such A New Comer
I've been in touch with the Ultimate New Comer team, who have spent the past few years further developing and fixing the largest Commodore 64 game in history: New Comer.
Covering a massive 14 (5.25") disk sides, this playing game has already been a decade in development. Telling the sombre story of Neil, a convict, dumped onto what is essentially an island prison this adventure and role-playing game isn't always convenient when it comes to loading; however, the new 'Ultimate' version has been put onto three 800k (3.5") disks, or can be run from an IDE device via the IDE64 interface. As well as fixing known bugs that appeared in the original, it takes advantage of any extra processing grunt that you might have, such as the 2MHz mode of the Commodore 128 (switching to the 'fast' mode outside the borders), or the SuperCPU, buffering the data through the extra RAM available, and using the 20MHz speed available by default.
This game is expected to be released by the beginning of December of this year, with further information available from www.newcomer.hu or www.protovision-online.de.
