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The rather excellent Advanced Space Battle, created by More.Gore software, is finally on the verge of being released by C64 heavyweights Protovision. This game, which has been some time in the making, is a turn-based strategy game for all of you intergalactic warmongers out there in which up to four players can battle it out to take complete control of the galaxy. It will be available in a deluxe-boxed addition on 5.25" and 3.5" floppy disk, price to be announced shortly. For more information, head over to www.protovision-online.de.

On the hardware front, the C64 is yet again doing rather well with the further development of the IDE-64 interface. In the latest revision (version 4) the device has been shortened by some 11cm, and includes a port for the RR-Net adapter to allow the popular Ethernet port (by Individual Computers) to be connected. To be included is a second IDE port, for connecting a Compact Flash card (with appropriate adapter) and two other IDE devices to it. Performance has been boosted by some 20% over version 3.4, and it will include an USB port to allow the card - and therefore the computer it's connected to - to interface with your PC or Mac. More information about this neat device can be found over at www.ide64.org.

Issue 23 of the electronic-based Retrogaming Times Monthly fanzine is now available for your reading pleasures. This publication, formerly called Retrogaming Times, has been going for over eight years now, which by my reckoning must be a record. For the latest issue, you'll get to meet the many Faces of Donkey Kong Jr,, find out why you should buy a Commodore VIC-20 (like anyone really needs to know that), and read about some early Nintendo games from 1985.

To get your online retro fix, head over to my.stratos.net/8E/E4/hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm. Also there is the complete archive of every issue from the first, if you want to read some, err... retro retro.

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Everyone's favourite egg-shaped Speccy hero is in his forth outing thanks to the mind of Jonathan Cauldwell. In this latest game in the series, called EggHead Entertains, you must navigate EggHead’s house and locale to find the ingredients to cook Shelley a nice meal. As always, things aren't straightforward, and there are roaming mutants and the like out to stop your progress.

The AY music included is a rather interesting little ditty, and the game is to the high standards that you would expect from the world's leading Speccy homebrew programmer. However, one thing that did concern me was the loading screen, as it appears that EggHead is offering Shelley chicken and chips for tea, and I'm not to sure if a mutant egg would be too impressed with eating its genetic forbearer, but perhaps I'm being a bit fussy here.

EggHead 4 will be available from Cronosoft soon, and the place to get your copy is over at www.cronosoft.co.uk. If you want to try out other Cauldwell games, including EggHead 3, there are a bunch of free downloads from members.fortunecity.com/jonathan6/egghead/ and also a word document called 'How to write ZX Spectrum games' which cites programming examples with easy-to-understand explanations for those who want to learn from the master.