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With 2005 having been such a good year for new games, I'm personally looking forward to some great original titles for 2006. Already on the cards are a couple of Amstrad CPC titles, namely Stranded (originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Bob Smith) and another being some unknown (at least to me) project by some guy named Jonathan Cauldwell.

What I'm looking forward to in the coming year though is what the virtual bedroom coders are best at, and that's quality. We're still awaiting the final version of Pinball Dreams (for the C64), which is looking completely wicked, and that man Cauldwell will be carrying the flag for the ZX Spectrum with what are likely to be some of the most polished and original games to date. Alongside these, I'm hoping for some of the underdogs to see life in the next twelve months. Times Of Lore for the Oric is still in development, and it has not gone unnoticed that the Atari 8-bit machines has seen some new productions recently, including a port of the C64 game Reaxion by Cosine (Designs), released in the last days of 2005.

This points to growth in the number of those bedroom coder-types, helped along by many websites, small publishers, forums, and gaming competitions. One particular competition brought about a complete revival in MSX homebrew games during last year, and I hope that this can be maintained at its current level. I'm absolutely appreciating the amount of games and other entertainment-based software that have been made available, usually for free, and (if it helps projects to get finished) am more than willing to review anything I can get my hands on!

Homebrew hardware and modifications haven't been something I've paid a lot of attention to recently, but regardless. These sorts of things happen because of people's interest in the hardware and their will to innovate rather than something driven by market forces. So, although there are always teething problems with such developments, these are usually worked out and corrected because people want them to be. Therefore, I'm looking forward to firing up my Commodore 128 with the new version of Wheels at some point in the near future, or (if this still doesn't see a public release this year) WiNGs should adequately fill the gap until it's finished.

This year will see the 25th anniversary of the famous ZX81, arguably one of the most important home computers in British history. Ironic then that it's going to be the German group, the ZX-Team, who will hold the biggest celebration of the iconic machine. Well hey, the least you could do is head over to www.zx81.de to find out more about the group's activities, don't you think? Or get yourself a ZX81 emulator if you don't have the original hardware. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the ZX-Team's bash, but I certainly plan to celebrate the ZX81's life somehow through these pages. I'll have to put my thinking cap on.

What I'm most looking forward to over the coming months is a chance to start enjoying retro again. Unfortunately, circumstances have meant that my life has been a little hectic and I'm therefore overdue a good few hours playing 3D Monster Maze or tinkering with my Commodore machines. Enjoy the coming year, and I'll be back again next week.