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A little-known MSX game created by Konami and released in 1985 has finally found its way to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum thanks to the Spanish developer Retroworks. The title in question is Kings Valley, which is a 2D arcade platform game.

You play as Mancunian Vick, a noted adventurer and tomb raider. Hearing legends of secret and as yet undiscovered treasures in the Valley of the Pharaohs in Egypt, you board the next available flight from Manchester Airport, and with nothing more than instinct guiding your thoughts, you head off to search for the mythical Mystery Jewels and for fame and fortune. And after many days of explorations in the Valley of the Pharaohs, you stumble across a dark and eerie entrance that is well hidden, which leads to many chambers to explore, full of treasures and perils in equal doses!

This game has transferred well from the MSX - with smooth, colourful and well-animated graphics, and an appropriate and ear-pleasing AY chip tune. As is typical of a release of this nature, you can simply download this production for free from www.retroworks.es/kingsvalleyrk_en.html. Whether or not a real media release is planned is unknown, but at a guess it probably won't happen due to this being a port of a commercially owned game. But keep an eye on Retro Works' website, just in case.

If you own a Commodore or Atari computer or console and you prefer console joypads over the traditional joysticks, then the 64JPX may be the device for you. This plugs into any controller port on your machine, and safely allows Sega Mega Drive and Nintendo NES and SNES pads to be plugged in, with several potential game-enhancing 'play modes' too.

Working out of the box, and requiring no programming knowledge, the 64JPX will potentially allow some PC controllers too (with the relevant adapters), such as steering wheels or flight sticks. The enhanced modes includes 'waggle'; for those joystick-busting sports sims such as Daley Thompson's Decathlon, and 'slow-down' for certain manic platform or shoot-'em up games. And, of course, with programming knowhow, any extra buttons available should now be fully-accessible too.

Prices start from $19.95 (USD) plus postage, which currently works out at around 12, with the various adapters and so on starting from just $2. To find out more, head over to www.64hdd.com/b4jpx/64jpx.html

There's a new 40-column Commodore PET emulator available for the Atari XE/XL, which supports sound and joystick controllers as well as (limited support) for Commodore DOS. This may all sound impressive enough, but there's support for machine code too at up to 100% speed of the original game or program, showing just how powerful the Atari 8-bit is, if you ask me (although the fact that both machines have the same central processing unit is helpful).

At the moment, the code hasn't been tested on the real machine, but it's working, oddly enough, in emulation on a modern PC, and has also been tested on other platforms such as the Amiga, obviously emulating an Atari 8-bit in the process. To find out more, head over to the Atari Age forums at tinyurl.com/petari-thread.

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Not even a week has passed since the release of Subacuatic for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and already the Mojon Twins has released a "Reloaded" edition. Featuring a new, more difficult map, this release continues the story of Ferdinand W. Templeton, who has somehow fallen in love with an octopus. This has led him to yet again search the depths of the great oceans in search of hidden treasure.

Storyline aside, this is quite possibly the fastest sequel in the history of video games. It uses the ULA+ enhanced colour mode, which is currently only available in certain emulators (mentioned last week) but will also work with the standard 15-colours + bright black. To grab the download, head over to www.mojontwins.com/juegos_mojonos/subacuatic-reloaded.