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A game has been put into the public domain by the group Genesis Project, which is currently being developed for the Commodore 64 by the coder known as 'Malcontent'.

Katabatia uses simple UDGs (User Defined Graphics) and the default symbols found on the famous 8-bit micro (which are sometimes referred to as PETSCII) rather than hardware sprites. It therefore has the look and feel of the superb Sword of Fargoal released by Epyx for the VIC-20 and C64 in 1983, although this is so far a more difficult game.

The good news is that this is an entry into RGCD's 2012 16KB Cartridge Competition, which has helped to successfully revive the humble games cartridge as a popular format on the aging bread bin. To check out the other eleven entries, head over to RGCD, and to download the Katabatia preview, go to www.csdb.dk/release/?id=110628

Also released by Genesis Project is something that I missed first time around: a remake of Matthew Smith's epic Manic Miner, which was first published by Bug Byte Software in 1983. This is for the C64 and is based on the Speccy original from that year, written in the programming language C. It lacks the music and sound effects from Miner Willy's first outing, but Manic Miner 2010 is an excellent and faithful conversion by Stefan Wessels. It is available from www.csdb.dk/release/?id=110632.

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Paul Jenkins has released his latest text adventure game (that's 'interactive fiction' in new money) for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which is called Bounty. The scene is set in a rough a far-off galaxy, which is quite a rough part of the universe by all accounts. The local law enforcement agencies are certainly struggling to cope, and therefore authorise inter-planetary bounty hunters to do its bidding. With a short life expectancy (as a bounty hunter), the rewards are certainly great for those lucky enough to be able to claim them.

It's down to you to help one of these hapless heroes struggle through to capture some of the most-wanted from the locale. Taking control of a novice hunter, this game is set to be the first in a series and is also likely to be the easiest too, which makes it an ideal re-entry point for those like me who were entirely perplexed by text adventures in the first place.

To find out more, head over to tinyurl.com/bounty-spectrum, which contains the links to the download as well as some hints and tips, should you need them.

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Platform: Commodore VIC-20 + 3K RAM expansion
Developer: Steve McCrea
Publisher: Self published (tinyurl.com/kweepout-vic)

Steve McCrea's Kweepout is a fast-paced 2D bat and ball game, which is not too dissimilar to Atari's 1976 hit Breakout, but with some elements of Taito Corporation's (decade later) Arkanoid thrown in for good measure.

Set in the year 6502AD, there has been an invasion of the malevolent Kweepoids, who have blocked the space lanes and intergalactic superhighways, severely disrupting trade and annoying commuters. After negotiations have failed, a top-secret research laboratory has created a solution, breeding a bat to smash through the blockades and return the free flow of traffic throughout the nebulous once again.

The graphics are on the cute side, and this brick-smashing concept works well on Commodore's first commercial colour computer. As with Arkanoid, there are the various upgrades, such as a stretched bat or a laser upgrade, to collect. These occasionally fall from obliterated Kweepoids and are limited in time or number. And while there's no obvious way to control the bouncing ball other than to meet it at the bottom of the screen, this hardly distracts from a fun, simple and skilful implementation of an age-old idea.