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Indepedent Commodore 64 games published Psytronik Software has just released Richard Bayliss's Sub Hunter, a remake of Sub Hunt (a game originally released by Mastertronic in 1984, for the C64 and VIC-20). With help from Frank Gasking and Thomas Mogensen of the infamous Maniacs Of Noise (the group that did tunes to many famous C64 games, such as Turbo OutRun), this epic piece of coding has taken Richard some four years to finish, and it could well be one of the best Commodore games released this year. In fact, it's Richard's best work to date. This is just one of those titles that cries out to be played on a real machine, too, thanks to the authentic loading music, great gameplay and snazzy packaging.

Coming in the form of a shoot-'em-up, with other components weaved in throughout the game, and I must add, superb SID music, it tells of a top-secret Government experiment that gets dumped out to Sea. Unfortunately, this has an adverse effect on the local aquatic life, which is popular with swimmers and free divers. Many have gone missing, and there are whispers of unusually aggressive genetically affected fish patrolling the water. The task has fallen to you to rescue the hapless divers and put right what has gone wrong, for the good of the local environment. It's time to get into your sub and embark on your quest.

Sub Hunter can be purchased now on cassette from www.binaryzone.org/retrostore, for the paltry sum of £3.99 plus postage. Or, you can wait for a week when I'll give you my full verdict on this piece of entertainment software before splashing the cash.

Classic computing enthusiasts and retro gamers now have something to look forward to as, in March 2009, many will be heading in the direction of sunny Stoke-on-Trent for the first Byte Back Classic Gaming Convention. The event is being held in aid of two charities (to be named shortly), and is happening on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of March, at Bidds Live Music Club.

According to the press release, the event aims to unite gamers of all ages in a celebration of the entire history of video games, from classic arcade machine and Nintendo, all the way up to the latest generation of system such as Playstation 3, XBOX 360 and Wii, which should be good then, as you can happily explain to those younger than 18 years old or so the joys of loading from cassette tape, and thrills of 'R Tape' loading errors.

There will be various competitions and guest speakers milling around, as well as a showcase of 'homebrew' 8- and 16-bit entertainment software. The press release also points out the draw of alcoholic beverages that will be sold to punters too.

Tickets are now available at www.byte-back.info, and confirmed attendees so far include Console Passion, Retro Soft, Cronosoft and Retro Clinic as well as me, who will have two hats on: one representing my work with Micro Mart, and the other with the Commodore Computer Club (UK). So, it should be a good weekend, and one that I'm keenly looking forward to.

I'll likely see you there then.