C64 News Update

There's been a few noteworthy developments on the C64 front lately, and as I'm a bit short of time today to give proper in-depth reviews, I thought I'd just wrap the whole lot up in one quick-fix post rather than let it slip any further.  So, here we go (in no particular order whatsoever).
  

Vandalism News #56 (Onslaught/Wraith Designs)

  

  
Issue 56 of the hugely popular C64 scene diskmag was released at the Flashback 2011 demo party in Australia last week, featuring (amongst many other high quality articles) a positive mention of our cartridge development competition.  If you're into the C64 and have yet to pick up a copy of VN, then I strongly recommend you do so - it's the one-stop shop for all your scene news, neatly wrapped up in a superb joystick driven user interface.
  

Sheepoid Released (Richard Bayliss/Psytronik)

  

  

I previewed this recently and am happy to say that the game-breaking bottom-right corner bug has now been addressed by Richard.  Sheepoid could still do with a two player mode, but it's a corker of a game and more than worthy of the budget price tag.  If I was rewriting the review, this final release would definitely jump to 4/5.  Pick up your copy today from our friends over at Psytronik (£3.99 cassette, £4.99/£9.99 disk version - all including free postage).
  

Frantic Freddy (Spectravideo Port) Released

  

  

Ported and ever-so-slightly updated from a game on the super-rare Spectravideo home computer, Frantic Freddy is a shamelessly old-school single-screen platformer with the titular Freddy rescuing distressed cats and extinguishing rampaging fires in a huge apartment block.  The game is perhaps a little too old school for my taste, with slow-paced gameplay, blip-blop music and very basic in-game graphics (although the title screen by Joe from Crest is fantastic), but even so I have to admit that I love the concept and the attention of detail gone into this conversion.  It's a real 'retro remake' ;)
  

C64 Cartridge Development Competition Update

  

  

New entrants are still signing up for our game development competition, with a total of eight people/groups in the running so far and one game already submitted for testing.  Also, Psytronik have kindly volunteered to sponsor with a prize package, and the cartridge port expanders and easy flash carts are sat here waiting to be given out (each with a copy of Onslaught's excellent Zak McKracken/Maniac Mansion ROM image burnt and ready to play!)
  

Not Even Human / Edge Grinder

  

  

Sales of NEH have been slow but steady, but we've almost sold out of the 20 originally made - there's only three packages left to mail out.  Thanks to everyone who shared the promo video link and blogged it, your help has been massively appreciated!  As soon as more orders come in I'll get another batch made, so don't worry about missing out on this one just yet ;)
  
Work on Edge Grinder continues, with TMR recently dropping me a line to say that 2/3 of the enemies are now in place.  Here's hoping for a summer release!  More news to follow soon.