Archie MacLean's classic beat-'em-up IK+ is currently making its way to the Atari's 64K 8-bit machines thanks to the Polish enthusiast Pawel Rosowski. The game, which was updated in April 2006 (yes, I missed the update back then, sorry), is currently available in demo form as a downloadable disk image or .exe file for your emulator, and is very close to the original C64 version.

IK+ is my all-time favourite game in its genre so I'm rather eager to see this neat production finally finished. While we're all waiting, I'll recommend that you download the latest demo from www.uce.pl/ikplus/info.html, where you can also find out more information about this project, and even send your words of encouragement to the programmer.

Reported on the www.raww.org news portal, the folks over at Papaya Labs have found a DivIDE compatible 6GB storage medium that will give even the most storage-needy Speccy users ample space for their files. It was discovered by accident with the purchase of a Lacie Carte Orange 6GB USB, which had inside its casing a Seagate ST1 series CF card. After the disassembling of the device, Papaya Labs discovered that it worked with the aforementioned Speccy upgrade with the right CF to IDE converter. To find out more about this, head on over to www.parayalabs.co.uk/?p=30.

Also in the news for those of you who like to add such things to your 8-bit, Garry Lancaster's Plus3e upgrade which allows a nice hard drive to be added to certain Amstrad varieties of Spectrum has recently been updated. The latest version, v1.28, features bug fixes and speed increases where necessary as well as MultiFace 3 and even DivIDE compatibility. All the latest news is available over at www.worldofspectrum.org/zxplus3e.

News has reached me that this year will certainly be the end for most of Commodore Scene's activities. The magazine will see a big final issue after over a decade of being one of the best C64 and 128 fanzines ever. The CS-Doom 64 challenge has finally been closed and there is now no chance of the importing service continuing. On the bright side, Allan is determined to get the Commodore to VGA adapter finished and working with all varieties of 8-bit Commodore machines, and he's also planning another 'CS Get Together' for the autumn or winter so that we can all meet, maybe for one last time, to talk about the important things in life, such as Commodore and the wider 'retro scene'. It's also likely that there'll be a new game or two as well as a few demos on show at the next meet, so if you're interested in attending, go to www.commodorescene.org.uk immediately and email Allan, stating your intentions.

There's still the opportunity to get hold of the final issues of the 'zine too. Who knows, they might be collector's items on day [Editor's Note: Please give Allan plenty of support as he winds CS down. He was supporting Commodores before the recent retro boom, and before it was fashionable to do so, and he really, really deserves your support].