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As if fans of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum don't already have it good enough, Bob Smith is putting the finishing touches to Stranded 2.5, which features the so-called anti-hero Tyche.

As it turns out, he was on the side of good after all and only built the bridges between his world and Moosh's for the purposes of fair trade and interplanetary co-operating. It is Moosh who has turned bad, and by imprisoning Tyche, he plans to take over both worlds. Tyche must now daringly destroy all of the new bridges that Moosh had built in his wake and end Moosh's reign of terror.

There has been a downloadable demo available for a while now (from www.bobs-stuff.co.uk/S25_1127.tzx), and the final cassette version should be available shortly from Cronosoft (www.cronosoft.co.uk) along with the emulator image, but before all of that, you'll have the final verdict right here within the next few weeks, so keep reading.

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Aside from the Speccy stuff, Cronosoft is readying the Dragon 32 Gauntlet clone Glove for release. This game is by famed remaker James McKay, and was originally written for the Tandy Color Computer 2, but also works on the Dragon, thanks to the compatibility between the two machines. This too will be getting the Retro Mart treatment in good time, with more details being found at www.jmk1.freeserve.co.uk.

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Reverting to Speccy developments again, two recent games seem to have dropped under the radar here. These are Metal Miner, developed with Jonathan Cauldwell's excellent Platform Game Designer, and Jet Set Willy X, by Twibright Labs. While the former is limited by the software that it was created on (though PGD is nonetheless superb), the latter is an entirely new piece of code inspired by Matthew Smith’s legendary works, with many alleged improvements over the original masterpiece, and can be downloaded from ronja.twibright.com/jswx.php. And to get Metal Miner, head over to the infamous World of Spectrum website (https://www.worldofspectrum.org) and use the Sinclair Infoseek facility to find it. If you're having trouble, simply search for 'Cronosoft' and a list of titles will appear, including that one.

The European Commodore 64 group Protovision has announced that the StereoINSid project (which allows the adding of a second SID chip to your C64 or 128) is available to pre-order now and will be going into full production very soon. A little soldering may be required, and it can be pre-ordered complete with a second SID chip or not. Features include stereo effects, less VIC-II noise (for those of you with sharp enough hearing to notice it), optional stereo input to connect your radio/CD/cassette for filtering or sampling, stereo jack output to your headphones or speakers, and, of course, a second addressable SID chip, allowing three more voices, which some software (mostly demos) support.

Apparently, this is fairly easy to install and is compatible with most existing software, so it should work with few problems. It will come with its own utilities anyway, so you'll have everything that you need. To order, and for more information, head over to www.protovision-online.de or e-mail contact@protovision-online.de.

Protovision is once again stocking the MMC64 card reader, for those of you who want to use standard MMC or SD cards on your favourite 8-bit. All postage and packaging is free if you live in the European Union, so it might be worth spending a few Euros to boost the power of your C64 this Spring.