20th January 2011
The Colour Personal Computers from Amstrad and Commodore are in the news this week as Shaun discovers...
Retro Mart: Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting!
Now available for the Commodore 64 is an Alf Yngve creation in which you play the Kung-Fu King known as the Master of Awesome, and, as the title of this particular 2D side-scrolling beat-'em-up suggests (It's called 1,000 Kung-Fu Maniacs, by the way), it sees you battling against hundreds of skilled street fighters in the search for a missing toy robot - obviously something worth scrapping for if you ask me.
Based in the town of Blapsville, various enemies will try to stop you in your tracking, including hoodlums and mimes, as well as highly skilled Ninjas. The music has been provided by Jon Wells (creator of Sceptre Of Baghdad and Escape From Arth for the C64), and some neat additions to the code has been added by Richard Bayliss (most famous for the sublime Sub Hunter, also for the C64). This will be published by Psytronik on cassette tape and diskette, and the relevant virtual images to run on an emulator are available for free at www.psytronik.net. Prices for the real-media versions will be announced through the same website.
If you'd prefer to go back to basics, now available for the popular 8-bit bread bin is a remake of Atari's classic Pong, written by the German-based group Data-Land. This aged bat-and-ball game can be played by one or two players (and thankfully against the computer with decent artificial intelligence). There are a few things within that may be customised and set as default if you like. For what it is, Pong Machine is a good effort and is a faithful (no-frills) game that does everything that you'd expect. You can download it from the Commodore Scene Database.
Keep Cashing In
After a successful appearance on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum followed by the C64 and C16, UWOL: Quest For Money by The Mojon Twins now has an official sequel, but not quite where you'd expect it to be. In James Pond style (the sequel of which appeared on the C64 without the first game gracing the platform), UWOL 2 CPC is now available for the err... Amstrad CPC. This title is also known as UWOL 2 Quest For Money, just in case you needed some clues on loading this neat 8-bit production.
Anyway, it continues the story with our hapless hero, Uwol, finally collecting enough cash to ensure a comfortable retirement, but being any star of a computer game, there are always complications around the corner. On his way home, he was startled by a mysterious guardian, thus falling into the great Phantomas' Electric Garden down a very steep sloop. In the process, Uwol has lost every euro cent of cash and must be guided to re-collect all of his takings so that he may finally enjoy a more comfortable life.
On taking the challenge, this sequel is presented in the form of a screen-by-screen 2D platform game with some well thought out screens to challenge even the most seasoned of retro gamer. Further details are available from mojontwins.com/juegos_mojonos/uwol-2-cpc
