Now available for the unexpanded Commodore Vic-20 is a simple, compelling and fun game called Diamond Hunt 2, created by Grey Ghost (also known as Rob Murphy), a frequenter of the Denial internet forums at www.sleepingelephant.com/denial. The game is a single-screen affair, presenting many hazards and roaming nasties to avoid. Once you've bagged all of the precious stones, it's onto the next level. Does this sound familiar? Well, although it has the same basic objectives as a popular 1984 release by First Star Software, it isn't a Boulderdash clone, and in any case, Mastertronic's fabulous Rock Man was released back in 1984 (also requiring no additional Random Access Memory), so there's really no point in trying to better this on the humble Vic. To discuss this release, and to download the disk image for your emulator (or real machine with the correct transfer method or hardware), point your web browser at tinyurl.com/DiamondHunt2

If you have a whole 16K RAM Expander attached to your old Vic-20, then there's a remake of Humphrey Walwyn's classic Commodore 64 game called Take Over, in which you're a revolutionary leader attempting to overthrow a corrupt government led by the evil President Xerxes. You're tasked with occupying the streets and buildings within the capital city and taking over the broadcasting media centres of the radio stations and television networks, as well as other important institutions such as universities and libraries. Forces loyal to the Xerxes government will fight back, so you'll need to play intelligently and strategically to take over the country.

There are many skill levels and scenarios to play through, and you can choose the type of regime to fight against. You can even try overthrowing liberal governments with communist dictatorships. Go to tinyurl.com/VIC-TakeOver, which will take you directly to the archived download.

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Mighty Jill Off is an independently published and developed PC game for Windows, created and developed by Anna Anthropy. This has something of an adult theme to the backstory which I won't go into here, but in terms of gameplay it's inspired by the 80's arcade game Mighty Bomb Jack, which was later converted for the Commodore 64 (as well as the Atari ST and Amiga A500) in 1990 by Elite Systems. Anyway, Mighty Jill Off is now available for Atari's 8-bit XE/XL personal computer range. The general idea is to travel up a very tall tower that's strewn with hazards, such as spikes and precariously placed platforms.

It's an arduous but fun task which is as close to the original PC version as could be created, and it's available from tinyurl.com/MightyJillAtari

If you have any retro-related questions, memories, stories or news, why not email them to shaun@micromart.co.uk, or use the Micro Mart forum, which is available through the website at www.micromart.co.uk. Alternatively, if you prefer retro communication, send me your snail mail by using the address in the letters pages. Make sure you mark your correspondence with Retro.