Atari 2600 programmer Andrew Davie is in the process of developing an all-new graphics engine for the 2600 that is to be included in his next two games. It will open up the possibilities for a much more graphically-sophisticated type of game for the machine, as it allows colour character graphics (CCG - known as Moveable Object Blocks, or MOBs), and will be open for other homebrew developers to tinker with.

There is an MPEG demo of this available on the web that clearly shows a 2600 screen playing a BoulderDash-esque game that ordinarily wouldn't be possible (not easily anyway). The first full game to include this CCG engine will be a port of Sokoban, and then Davie will finish work on the Boulder Dash clone. You may take a look at the demo in action at www.atariage.com/video/andrew_notbd_demo.mpg

Another interesting development comes from homebrew programmer Simon Quernhorst, who is busy continuing his work on a port of the C64 game Aztec Challenge for Atari's legendary 2600. The game, entitled A-VCS-tec Challenge is due out any time soon and will be available to buy from www.quernhorst.de/atari/ac.html. A full review of the game will appear here as soon as possible. Until then, keep a keen eye on proceedings at the website.

DC-Studios, one of the parties involved with the development of the C64DTV, have finally announced the full list of games for the European/PAL edition of the device. It's also going to be referred to as the C64D2TV here, as for some reason they think that sounds cooler.

Anyway, here is what you'll be getting: Alleykat, California Games (the full version - not just a few events), Championship Wrestling, Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid I and Il, Eliminator, Exolon, Firelord, Gateway to Apshai, Head the Ball, Impossible Mission I and I, Jumpman Junior, Marauder, Maze Mania, Mission Impossibubble, Nebulus, Netherworld, Paradroid, Pitstop I and II, Ranarama, Speedball, Summer Games, Super Cycle, Sword Of Fargoal, Uridium, Winter Games and Zynaps.

There is certainly a lot there, so it should keep all you nostalgia- hunters happy! The only thing I need to find out is if the 'Easter Eggs' are going to be any different on this version. I'll let you know as soon as I have the new unit in - for testing purposes, of course.

Forgive me for a minute if I fast-forward to the future and rant on about the virtues of unlimited broadband. Many companies seem to have promised this, and as an AOL user, I was under the impression that I could send and receive any sized files or images, or have I been mistaken?

Apparently not, as I backed up all of my work on my office PC and tried to send it to my home email address. It kept bouncing because the attachment was too big - just over 10MB. So, I worked out that I couldn't send one e-mail attachment at this size, but if I split the compressed folder into four smaller attachments of around 2.5MB and send four emails then AOL didn't have a problem. My question is why?

As a paradox to this, I've been trying to transfer big files between my C128 and my PC. It's easy to do up to 1.44MB, as this is the amount of space on a 3.5" disk, but anything above this needs to be broken down into smaller segments or zipped (if at all possible). That is unless I can get a PC link up and running quickly and easily which would allow me to send and receive data from each machine.

File sharing between a PC and retro computer platforms is something that I've always wanted to do quickly and simply. My first task is to achieve this on my C128. I'll then look at what the possibilities are for the Spectrum and other machines. I'll keep you up to date on how I am getting on, and the problems I'm facing.