A Tetris clone, a new Horace game and two text adventures? It's got to be your weekly dose of retro
Retro Mart: The Buzz
In my humble opinion, there are never enough Tetris-esque games, and Buzzsaw+ (Foxton Locks Mix), which is now 99.9% complete (so it should be finished by the time you are reading this), is a rather interesting take on the concept. Presented with aesthetically pleasing multi-coloured software sprites and advanced programming techniques, Buzzsaw+ gives the impression of something more sophisticated than a humble Sinclair ZX Spectrum game, but it's not just a technical demo. Appearing at the top of a Well-like play area are three grouped items of up to three wooden boxes or cute green monsters, and the occasional circular saw blade. Rather than cutting through the boxes, each blade will find the fastest route to the bottom of the play area (determined by how the crates are stacked) and eliminate any of the unfortunate green meanies that happen to be in the way.
If you manage to arrange a complete and unbroken line of crates, these will be cleared from view and points are scored. Sounds simple and familiar? It can be devilishly addictive too. Later levels introduce other cute monsters and explosives, which the wooden crates still survive. If you like your Tetris clones to be filled with innocent-looking meanies, bombs and wooden crates, head over to tinyurl.com/Buzz-Saw-Speccy.
Horace Returns
For some people, Horace Goes Skiing was one of the first games they experienced on a home computer, and it was given free in a presentation pack with each 48K Sinclair ZX Spectrum sold. Well, for a while at least. Last year, Bob Smith converted Horace In The Mystic Woods, the last official Horace game, which was originally released in 1995 for the Psion-3 palmtop machines, to much acclaim. Now The Mojon Twins has brought us Horace Goes To The Tower, an original production inspired by the big-eyed (and usually blue) creature for the old ZX.
![Buzzsaw+ (Foxton Locks Mix)](/ills_small/spectrum_48k/jason_j_railton/tapes/Buzzsaw-Foxton-Locks-Mix-002.gif)
It's presented as a 2D explorer platform affair, in which Horace has to escape some sort of gaming hell because he was considered a sell-out for appearing on the Commodore 64. What he must do is escape from his prison while also collecting the master copies of his C64 games, which must then be destroyed in flames.
If you'd like to help Horace escape from certain doom, get your free download from tinyurl.com/Horace-Tower.
Marlo Files
If text adventures are more your thing, then Richard J. Derocher has recently released The Marlo Files for the Commodore 64/128, which has two "interactive fiction" titles for you to solve presented on one [virtual] floppy disk.
In The Museum Caper, the year's 2012 and a collection of priceless paintings have been stolen from a reputable museum. You must guide Sammy as he investigates this crime in order to catch the culprit. In Dial M for Marlo, it's 2013 and you're on the hunt for Doctor Hiram Fargo, a respectable and well-known scientist. He has gone missing and his daughter has hired you.
Both games are great examples of this niche genre. Point your web browser at tinyurl.com/3th56nw to obtain the disk image.