Previous Next

8-bit games developer Bob Smith has released Factory Daze for the 128k Sinclair ZX Spectrum, which is set in the midst of the worst of the current world recession. Spotting a growth industry in the mass production of bio-degradable toys that are bundled with children's meals at fast-food outlets, Smith Toys Inc., install an automated production line to handle the orders. All was fine until one night the machine started making the wrong toys, and worse still, many were malformed and broken. Needless to say, neither the purchasers nor the children were happy about this turn of events. And rather than paying for a whole new facility, the toy manufacturer decides to hire someone to oversee the production.

The game works by selecting the correct mould to stamp the toys into shape, which come in four parts, so there are up to as many settings on the production line. Early levels start off sedately enough, and you have five 'Wizards' at your disposal, which will automatically recognise the coloured plastic below and select the correct settings, leaving you to focus on other parts of the production process. These should really be saved for later levels, as things can become a bit frantic.

Factory Daze has some superb Lee du-Caine musical scores, and additional graphics provided by Jonathan Cauldwell and Javier Vispe. It's also free to download, coming in TZX format and available from the World Of Spectrum archives, as well as Bob's website. With 29 unique and challenging levels to complete, as well as 49 unique toys to be made, and a boast of 100% machine language and zero colour clash, it's certainly a game that will pass a rainy day or two.

Konami's 1981 arcade game Scramble is being reworked for the Commodore 64 thanks to a team of developers headed by 'Mirage' from the Dutch-based group Focus. From the preview, little seems to have changed from the original version except for the graphics and music, which is a good thing, because there wasn't ever a good conversion for the old bread-bin shaped micro - not one that I can remember, at least. I do, however, vividly recall that the BBC Micro had a cracking rendition of this game, and it was on my high school's 'Econet', so not all of my Information Technology lessons were a complete waste.

Getting back to this C64 preview, for those of you who don't know what Scramble is all about, the task was to navigate a ship across terrain (scrolling horizontally from right to left) which had a limited supply of fuel and many enemy missiles and crafts to destroy or avoid. Two weapons would aid you. The first fired forward, and the other was a bomb that was dropped from your craft. If you managed to destroy a canister marked as fuel, you would receive a partial refill, and the proceedings would become more claustrophobic as you travelled through caverns and other such perilous places. A very early preview can be downloaded from the Commodore Scene Database (CSDb) at https://csdb.dk/release/?id=81924

You will need to use the site's search facility for Skramble 2010, and you can also join up and discuss this release. Membership to the site is free and is one of the best sources of new C64 software, although it's mostly demo-related.

Previous Next

While on the subject of shoot-'em-up, Jason Kelk has released a preview via YouTube of another horizontally scrolling blaster called GR9 Strike Force. According to Jason, "This is GR9 Strike Force, the C64 game I'm writing for [release at] Retro Reunited in September 2009 [12th and 13th]."

There isn't a lot to look at right now, except for the basics of what should be a good old-fashioned 2D blaster. If you would like to see for yourself though, point your YouTube-capable browser at www.youtube.com/user/TMR6502.