29th January 2009
In this week's retro round up, Shaun brings news of projects for the Dragon 32, Atari XE/XL and even the Amstrad CPC.
Retro Mart: Another Death Chase
Those who owned a Dragon 32 back in the day may well have looked jealously to other formats that had more frequent and bigger releases, which seemed to bypass the technology. For instance, what would have happened if Mervyn J. Estcourt's classic 16k Sinclair - ZX Spectrum game Deathchase (also known as 3D Deathchase) had appeared on the D32? Well, that's what James McKay of JMK Remakes pondered, and (inspired by Richard Wilson's conversion of the same game to the Amstrad CPC last year) now he's making it a reality.
For those who don't know about this endearing 16k game, Deathchase was loosely based on scenes from the popular film Star Wars: Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi, in which Luke Skywalker chased Storm Troopers through a forest on an airborne motorcycle. The task is to guide your bike through similar terrain to chase down and shoot the speeding enemies and avoid the oncoming trees. This fast-paced racer-cum-shoot-'em-up is looking pretty good from the initial demo released by James, which is available from www.tinyurl.com/jmk-dragon. James is hoping to release this title on cassette if he's able to reliably master it to tape, and as a tape or disk image to run on a compatible emulator, one of which can be found at www.6809.org.uk/dragon/xroar.shtml
Extreme Blaster
The long-awaited release of Tempest Xtreem for the Atari XE/XL by The Atlantis Games Group is very nearly here. This game has been on the radar for quite some time now, and is said to be a mix of Atari's original 1980 arcade game and Jeff Minter's popular Atari Jaguar incarnation - known as one of the few Jag releases that was worth owning.
The aim of the game is to guide your ship around the outer edges of a vector-styled tunnel to exterminate the oncoming foes. Bonuses appear intermittently that boost your arsenal, and you have a limited number of bombs that eliminate all visible nasties. My initial impressions of the game are of a hard core, fast-paced and quite challenging blast-fest, which is rather well done. I have a review copy, so expect my verdict within the next few weeks.
This release will be available on a cartridge for collectors, and will retail at no more than $50 USD. For further information, head over to members.tcq.net/video61/tempest1.html, or to grab a playable demo, point your web browser or FTP software at www.freewebs.com/kjmannmusic/tempest/tempdemo.zip
Sort 'Em Out
This week must be one for lower-profile formats, as the Amstrad CPC has seen a new release recently, with the puzzler Sort 'Em by LuBlu Entertainment. Controlling a ramp, you must simply sort out the falling balls into one of two tubes. The blue coloured balls must be directed to the left, and the red to the right - it's that simple. This really is a game for all ages, because pressing the space bar in time will toggle the direction that the balls will go when they land. The disk image is available for your favourite CPC emulator and can be obtained from the wonderful World Wide Web at www.lublu.dk/filer/sortem.dsk
