2019 saw the first steps of Bitmap Soft, a software house focused on releasing new games for old systems. Covering the C64, Amstrad and Atari 2600 as well as the Spectrum, Bitmap Soft started with a varied and interesting offer for retro fans, with some other promising titles just around the corner. Its two founders, Jamie Battison and Darren Doyle, tell us about the past, present and future of their project

How did you get involved with the retro scene in particular, and what made you create the Bitmap Soft label?
Darren: I think the reasons behind starting up our own software house was that Jamie and myself were very interested into homebrew titles. Although I admired them greatly, Jamie was the driving force behind the project and wanted to be radical in his approach to really have some amazing software get released and create a unique label for 'New-Old' software titles.

Jamie: I have been involved in the retro scene for a long time. I am not as well know as many would expect considering I have ran Retro Video Gamer (www.retrovideogamer.co.uk) for over 20 years, I guess I missed the boat in terms of what that site could have achieved but it was that very site that introduced me to Darren, we formed a great friendship and worked on many retro related projects together.

One of those projects was an Atari 2600 game called RVG Blast, developed for us by a forum member with the aim of creating a limited run of physical games. Sadly, this never got off the ground for one reason or another.

As the years went by, we started to do interviews with developers of homebrew games and what struck us at an early stage was the sheer amount of games being released for all manner of systems. We got a feel for the thirst people had for 'New-Old' games.

How satisfied have you been with the state of business so far (sales, customer feedback etc.)?
Darren: The response to our first two releases has been nothing short of phenomenal. When we begin to create awareness within a day we had nearly had the stock sold, which was such a high for Jamie and myself, and made it clear that we had done something good. Plus I think our unique style to customise artwork with cassette colour styles is very exclusive to us - we think had really made people fall in love with the releases, so yes, I believe we've impressed those that needed to be.

Jamie: Yes, one thing that has been received well is the fact we are not hiding that the games are freely available to download. What I would like to highlight though is that our versions are enhanced for tape. There are some changes for copyright issues, minor updates within the game and so on, and we are looking at offering these updated versions as digital downloads to those that purchase the game.

Darren: The Incredible Shrinking Professor and Rubicon, both for the ZX Spectrum, will be coming real soon, while a world-first exclusive of a technically ground-breaking title for its content alone called Cousin Horace, again for the ZX Spectrum, was sold out a few days after its release. After this, we will be focusing our time on other platforms with a potential twelve titles in the pipeline spanning across a couple of computer formats.

Jamie: As Darren mentioned, we will be releasing John Blythe's The Incredible Shrinking Professor and Rubicon at some point this quarter of 2020. I must stress that both are available for free from the Rucksack Games website, the versions we will be releasing will be enhanced versions, some will be minor adjustments for better use in tape format and so on. For the ZX Spectrum, we also have an extended version of Dirty Dozer, as well as Octu Kitty. Recently, we also struck a deal for distributing the two games of Sophia on tape, both coming with an exclusive bonus level especially created for this release and unavailable anywhere else.

The C64 will see us releasing a port of Unhallowed on disk, kindly converted by Stefan Vogt from Puddle Soft. On the Amstrad front we have teamed up with ESP Soft and will soon be releasing Galactic Tomb, and we hope a few more, as the Amstrad needs more physical games. There are a few more on the horizon but I would have to be tight lipped about those now until we are 100% on a release.

Finally, we are running a beat 'em up compo on itch.io from January 2020 until 1st July 2020, we are open for developers to submit their games to potentially get it published with us. As a spin-off from that and not Bitmap Soft related we have setup the RVG Squad - a group of developers that may need help from other developers to get a game complete, the idea being that we may as a band of people create a game ourselves. See the retrovideogamer.co.uk forums if this sounds interesting to you.