One of the most copied games attempted by many fledging programmers back in the early 1980s usually involved shooting Invaders from the unknown regions of Space, and as if there isn't already enough of this sort of thing about, Darren Lee has created Repel for the unexpanded Commodore VIC-20. The quest is to manoeuvre your single-shot space tank to avoid the onslaught of enemy bombs dropped by the six rows of alien scum. One point is accrued for each of the nasties taken out, and a bonus shuttle craft passes every-so-often, which can also be dispatched. Although boasting 100% machine language, Repel is either too easy or too difficult, in my opinion. However, other players may like this attempt at replicating the arcade experience on the humble 8-bit. It can be downloaded straight from robert.hurst-ri.us/files/repel.prg, which will work on any good emulator or on a real machine if you have the power to transfer it across.

Another shoot-'em-up, but this time for the C64, recently appeared thanks to a group called Tristar and Red Sector Incorporated (TRSI), called Fortress Of Narzod, which is a port of a 1980s Vectrex game. Recreating the 'lined graphics' look impeccably, and including a high score table that's saved to disk, Fortress Of Narzod puts you in control of an armoured craft, which must travel through heavily protected pathways. Your bullets will bounce off up to two walls, and can rebound back to kill you, and with the quickly progressing enemies heading straight for you, play can become a little fraught. Although it's not itself original, it feels refreshing to play a C64 shooter that doesn't involve scrolling, and there's lots of variety both in attack waves and course designs to keep things interesting. To grab this free download, point your FTP software or web browser at https://csdb.dk/release/?id=77706.

And finally, if you want to meet fellow Commodore enthusiasts at a dedicated meet, and you either have the weekend of 19th to 21st June 2009 off, or happen to live in the North East of England, then the Commodore Computer Club (UK) is holding its third meet on the aforementioned date. The main event is expected to be on the Saturday, but general chat and socialising activities will be taking place on Friday evening. The club chair, Peter Badrick, has an ongoing restoration project of a Commodore PET 2001, and there will be a very special SX-64 on show. More information will be online soon at www.commodorecomputerclub.co.uk, and just to note that non-members are more than welcome, but there's a 2.50 signing-in fee.

Jonathan Cauldwell has released yet another game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which is his 50th entry into the World Of Spectrum database, and also makes him the most prolific programmer in the Speccy's long history according to the site. With a bit of a departure from normal, Kuiper Pursuit is a 3D space blasterama featuring British space ace Winston Spalding who, when on a routine patrol, spots enemy fighters amassing in the Kuiper belt. He suspects that they're preparing an attack and sets out on a one-man mission to protect the solar system. The game is played in a fast-paced asteroid belt with Star Wars-styled attackers heading right at you. This game is a little difficult, and +2A and +3 users are advised to use 'USR 0' mode, which basically means typing that into 128 BASIC and pressing 'Enter'. You may use the infoseek facility on the World Of Spectrum website mentioned above to search for this game, or check out Jonathan's website.