As if we need reminding that the Atari XE/XL format could have held its own against the might of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Capcom's 1985 arcade hit Ghosts 'N Goblins is currently getting the remake treatment for the old Atari technology. The port comes thanks to the Polish coding community, which is certainly a fruitful place to look for many developments related to the Atari 8-bits (with a little help from online translation tools as appropriate).

The game was officially converted to many home computers by Elite Systems, circa 1986 - though, despite an (incomplete) C16 version being released, Atari users didn't get a look in. Well, now it's one of those "let's see what you could have won" moments, with the caveat that the game will likely be much more complete, and polished, than it would have been back in the 1980s. I suppose a good game, done well, is worth the wait.

Although only a rough demo is floating around at the moment, there's enough there to see that the coders are on the right track, and probably on track to produce something as good as any previous 8-bit version. The relevant links are available through the ever helpful Atari Age (AA) forums at tinyurl.com/AtariG-G which is probably the best place for English-speaking Atari fans that I've so far found.

And, whilst I was trawling the AA forums, there is a very neat three-dimensional environment for the All-American micro, which uses many 'advanced' techniques not easy to do on other machines of the era, such as ray-tracing. The program is called PM 1.5, and simulates a fairly realistic binary world at a good speed unlike, for instance, the famed Freescape environment on the C64 (although there was always Stunt Car Racer by Geoff Crammond to put any doubts to bed about the Commie being unable to handle 3D at a reasonable speed).

Again, point your web-browsing software at the following discussion thread, and take a look for yourselves: www.atariage.com/forums/topic/152979-pm-1-5.

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Sticking with the Atari XE/XL, there's a new game (again from Poland) which is a sort of Boulderdash clone, starring Laura, from ArSoft Corporation. It sees you control our heroine through perilous mines to collect and hoard the treasure therein; featuring functional, but good enough, graphics and a well-done title screen with music. The game looks to be a frenetic and very playable (at the moment, only video preview clips are available), and there is no mention as far (as I can tell) of a release date or method, but at a guess it'll be a download of some sort, whether free or involving some sort of payment.

It's games like those listed here this week that demonstrate that familiarity doesn't always breed contempt, as some of the most popular 8-bit games are either clones or straight remakes, which isn't in always a bad thing.

Anyway, to find more, type tinyurl.com/PrjLaura into your online translation service - unless, of course, you understand Polish.

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Paul Jenkinson has created an interesting, and very playable, free download for the 48K Speccy called Kyd Cadet. Marooned on a dangerous and abandoned moon, you must help Kyd to escape by refuelling his rocket. Obviously, things aren't as simple as that, as nasty and harmful roamers are out to stop him, and quick reactions are needed to guide our hero through this 2D platform game. Get the free download for your favourite emulator at tinyurl.com/KydKadets.

Also released for Sir Clive's wonder-machine is Ghost Castle, by CodenameV and Jarrod Bentley. It's a logical arcade puzzle game, in which you must help our cute-looking ghost escape the castle. Doing so requires you to collect a series of coloured keys in the right order to escape to the next level and eventually break free.

Get it now from the indispensable World of Spectrum archives at tinyurl.com/GhstCstl.