RGCD at GameCity / Super Bread Box Release Date!

Well, those were a busy past couple of weeks! Huge thanks to everyone who purchased a copy of Bomberland (either as a cartridge or download) - I've almost shipped all of the current batch now, and Skull and Conrad have been really happy with the feedback from players. As a little gift back to you, check your email inbox this morning for a couple of secret passwords that add a LOT to the game. ;)

Between packing and posting Bomberland to destinations all over the world, you might have noticed that we've also launched the website for Super Bread Box and added 'coming soon' placeholders to our shop. We'll be releasing the game to the wild on the 22nd of October at the GameCity festival in Nottingham, giving away 50 Vlambeer 'white label' CD-R copies and Super Bread Box posters for free as well as running a high score competition during the two days we're in the Open Arcade. If you are in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, we'll also be revealing Paul Koller's secret new project (and entry for the RGCD C64 Game Development Competition) and will have a variety of other WIP games and previous Commodore 64 releases available to play at our stand (including Bomberland, The Vice Squad, C64anabalt, Get Em DX, Rocket Smash, Assembloids and many more). We should be easy enough to find - just look out for the massive RGCD banner.

Ok, back to packing computers in boxes. Hope to see some of you there!

Bomberland Cartridge Available! (C64)

Bomberland, one of the most long-awaited Commodore 64 games in recent history has finally arrived and is available to buy now as either a cartridge or downloadable .CRT rom image from our shop!

We're super proud to have teamed up with Samar Productions on this one - developed by a two man team (primarily by designer, graphician and coder Michal 'Skull' Okowicki, with Owen 'Conrad' Crowley providing the audio and support), Bomberland is a hugely ambitious project for a debut game release. Exclusive to C64 cartridge (due to using the rom space as additional memory), the game supports up to five players in the classic multiplayer deathmatch mode as well as offering an epic 36-stage single player campaign over six different worlds, complete with boss fights.

Featuring gorgeous high resolution graphics that give the game a deceptively 16-bit feel, tons of different enemies, C128 enhancements, password saves, game-changing power-ups and multiple play modes, Bomberland supports both the CGA (Protovision) and HIT (by Excess and Hitmen) four-player adaptors and even includes full keyboard support, so you can play it solo on a stock C64/128 without any peripherals!

Bomberland (C64) (2013)

System Requirements

* A Commodore 64/128/GS (PAL/NTSC).
* A joystick/joypad (Protovision or Hitman adapter required for five players).
* A VDU preferably connected to a loud sound-system.
* A group of friend to play with (optional, yet strongly recommended).


Downloads

Download the preview version of Bomberland in .d64 disk format HERE!

The retail version of Bomberland is currently not available for free download. You can buy the game on cartridge or as a download from RGCD here.

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition - Status Update #2

Well, things are getting pretty heated on the competition front now, with some exciting new entry announcements and impressive progress made on several projects. Rather than repeat the list from the previous update (which you can check out here), to keep things concise this time round I'll focus only on the games for which I've received updates.

---

Competition Entry #2: Phase Out
Developer: Ernst Neubeck & Simon Quernhorst
Status: In Progress

Ernst is still working hard on Phase Out, which now has some new in game visuals and over thirty levels designed by Simon Quernhorst. With Simon being somewhat of an expert at mini-game coding (with no less than five C64 games released to date, soon to be six), we're pretty excited about this puzzle game.

Developer Interview: Magnetic Realms

(Further to RGCD's recent review of Inescapable, Matt Fielding of Magnetic Realms kindly took the time to answer some of our burning questions).

As a way of introduction, please could you give a brief paragraph or two about your history in the videogames industry and how/why Magnetic Realms was founded?

My first job was at Future Console Design in Doncaster, UK, where we made the Xploder range of cheat cartridges for the PS1, N64 and later the PS2. We also did some Dreamcast and Gameboy stuff. After I moved back to Australia I worked for Firemint in Melbourne on a few Gameboy Advance and mobile games, and a bit later at Transmission Games where I worked on a couple of Xbox 360/PS3/PC games.

Magnetic Realms was born from my disillusionment with the games industry and the nature of modern (console) game development. Game programming had lost it's fun for me, and I wanted to try and get it back.