r0x (Extended Play) Post-Mortem

Well, here we are, just shy of two weeks after launching r0x EP onto the unsuspecting public, so I figured that it would be a good time to type up a brief post-mortem about how the game has performed out there in the big wide world. To be honest, I might have to revisit this at some point to add more info, or at least write a follow-up, but for now this will do. Grab a coffee/tea/beer and let's get down and dirty with the numbers!

Elansar Cartridge Available! (Jaguar)

"Welcome to the Island of Elansar. Will you uncover its mysteries?"

After two years in development, Orion's Myst-inspired adventure has migrated from its PC/Mac/Linux and Atari Falcon roots and has finally arrived on the Atari Jaguar in 4MB cartridge format (limited to 75 copies)! Explore the beautifully rendered tropical island, taking in the sights and sounds, solving logic puzzles and making good your eventual escape in this classic-style first-person perspective point-and-click adventure.

Full Circle: Rocketeer Available! (Atari Jaguar CD)

"Flying through space is no picnic. Commanding an intergalactic space vessel isn't all plaid blankets and wicker baskets. All manner of peculiar happenings might ruin one's day. Take planets for instance. They're big. Really big. Often rather solid, too. For these reasons alone, it's usually advisable not to involve yourself in any sort of altercation with one, particularly when travelling through hyperspace.

This was now something Space Corps Commander Gwyn Williams knew only too well, as, from his vantage point high in the upper atmosphere, he observed the fragments of his vessel scattered over the surface of this particular example of Big Solid Planet. Sliced into three sections with the ship's cargo falling from orbit all around him, he wondered how this day might possibly get any worse... Ah! Of course! An onslaught of deadly rocks - simply perfect!"

Following the Jaguar CD releases Kobayashi Maru: Final and Jagware Collection 1.0, Reboot and RGCD are back with another serving of unashamedly old-school arcade goodness in the form of Full Circle: Rocketeer. Rebuild and reload your crashed space craft whilst fending off endless waves of hostile aliens and meteors in 16 unique levels spread over 4 worlds! Full Circle: Rocketeer features 50/60 FPS fluid gameplay (PAL/NTSC) powered by Reboot's Raptor game engine, 8 channel digital sound (music and effects), collectable bonus items, online high scores (via webcodes), MemoryTrack saving and ProPad controller support.

The physical release comes cellophane wrapped in a clear DVD box with full colour, double-sided printed inlay on a full face printed, glass-mastered CD, direct from the factory (100% professionally produced in the UK). Instructions for each game are included on the inside of the inlay. It requires no additional hardware to run other than the Jaguar CD console itself. As an added bonus, a vinyl Reboot sticker will be included with every order.

Priced at £21 (plus £4 UK/Europe shipping, £5 rest of world) Full Circle: Rocketeer is available to buy from our shop page today!

Jagware Collection 1.0 Available! (Atari Jaguar CD)

Jagware presents a new Atari Jaguar CD compilation of four puzzle games from four groups; Do The Same from Cerebral Vortex, Diamjag by Orion, Atomic Reloaded from The Removers, and Beebris by Reboot - all four of which support online scoreboards. But that's not all - also included is an exclusive early look at the alpha build of 'Project II', Reboot's ambitious forthcoming horizontal scrolling shmup.

CVSD's Do The Same is a beautifully presented tile-rotation game where your goal is to match a given pattern of blocks in as few moves as possible (and before the time runs out). A highly polished release featuring backgrounds based on hand-crafted clay models and 112 levels to beat, Do The Same was previously available on CD in very limited quantities - now those who missed it in physical form have the chance to grab it again!

Next up is Atomic Reloaded, a logic puzzle game inspired by Thalion's Atomic in which you are tasked with creating molecules from their component atoms by moving them around a maze. Described as 'Atomic as it should have been', Atomic Reloaded features 82 original levels guaranteed to challenge even veterans of the original!

Diamjag is an early release from the prolific Jaguar coder Orion, in which you must guide a ball-like character around 28 single-screen mazes collecting diamonds - the catch being that when your ball starts rolling you wont stop again until you hit a wall!

Reboot, the organisers of this project have contributed Beebris, their updated Jaguar conversion of one of Law's old Atari ST releases based on a 'popular tetronimo game'. With four game modes, each with forty levels of difficulty, Beebris remains one of Reboots more popular additions to the Jaguar homebrew catalogue.

Jagware Collection One is a superb compilation of games, but if you want further incentive to pick up a copy you may wish to consider that all profits made through sales of this Jagware release will be going toward funding future Jaguar hardware development by SCPCD, creator of the JagCF and the Jagtopus 4-cart programmer - the format on which future cartridge games will be distributed.

The physical release comes cellophane wrapped in a clear DVD box with full colour, double-sided printed inlay on a full face printed, glass-mastered CD, direct from the factory (100% professionally produced in the UK). Instructions for each game are included on the inside of the inlay. It requires no additional hardware to run other than the Jaguar CD console itself. As an added bonus, a vinyl Reboot sticker will be included with every order.

Priced at £24 (plus £4 UK/Europe shipping, £5 rest of world) Jagware Collection 1.0 is available to buy from our shop page today!

RGCD News Update

Hey there - let me start this post by wishing you all a belated Happy New Year! There's a reason for the recent inactivity here at RGCD towers - my ancient old desktop PC (built in 2005) decided to finally die once and for all after months of random crashes and automatic turn-offs. This meant it was time to upgrade - and a direct result of this has been me wasting away the hours playing loads of new games that my old PC couldn't cope with. Fortunately, the novelty of having a new computer has now finally worn off and it's back to business as normal.

So, what has been cooking on the back burners here at RGCD? First off, and following on from my last post, the C64 competition cartridges have now all been sent out to their new owners across Europe, each housed in a neat little box designed by Redcrab of Goin' Sideways/Genesis Project. I'd like to say thanks again to everyone for making the 2012 competition such a success, especially Tim Harris for providing the hardware that makes this all possible, and Enthusi for his vital technical support.

Kobayashi Maru: Final Available! (Atari Jaguar CD)

"Xu's United Nations Tetrad are under simultaneous attack from The Ebil Alliance. All that stands between TEA and the XUNTS is you and your warpships. You are the only officer capable of piloting these ships and are therefore the last hope of all XUNT-kind..."

Kobayashi Maru: Final is the first of several proposed Atari Jaguar releases from Reboot to be published in physical format by RGCD. Following our glowing review of an earlier build back in 2011, this version has been further updated and fine-tuned following player feedback for commercial release. Use your rotary controller (adjustable to allow for sensitivity of your particular spinner) or regular Jaguar pad to steer your warpship in this arcade space shooter, battling countless drones and huge boss craft in ever-tougher waves of attack. Featuring subtle use of the Jaguar's RMW graphics capabilities, background graphics blend together as you tear around in the upper atmosphere over four worlds.

Kobayashi Maru: Final runs at 50/60 FPS (NTSC/PAL) written utilising a version of the new Raptor Engine by Reboot and it can be played with either a rotary controller (such as Chaos Reins, Tyrant or Jonathan Ascough pad) or a regular Jaguar joypad. This retail version features updated graphics, new sound effects, webscores and of course supports Memory Track game saves. The physical copy comes cellophane wrapped in a standard DVD box with full colour printed inlay on a full face printed, glass-mastered CD, direct from the factory (100% professionally produced in the UK). It requires no additional hardware to run other than the Jaguar CD console itself.

Priced at £24 inclusive of UK/Europe shipping, and £25 for the rest of the world, Kobayashi Maru: Final is available to buy from our shop page today!

Degz (Atari Jaguar)

It was back in the bleak December of last year that I reviewed Kobayashi Maru, a 360-degree shooter for the Atari Jaguar with bright, summery graphics, and so it seems fitting that now in the sweltering British "summer" I'm having a crack at a Jaguar game set in the cold vacuum of space.

Degz is both an homage to the classic arcade game Scramble and a demonstration piece to show off the RaptoR engine that the game's producers Reboot are working on, and comes packing a solid, atmospheric chiptune soundtrack to go along with its fast-paced sideways-shooter gameplay. And what gameplay! I actually hurt my hand playing this game. That's not a flowery confabulation, I literally got cramps in my left hand from hammering the fire button (there's a version of Degz with autofire enabled for those of us who don't want to ruin their careers as hand models or whatever) and still with a hand that keeps clawing up and making me wince as I type this I can't hold it against this fun little blaster.

Kobayashi Maru (Atari Jaguar)

The Atari Jaguar has always been an object of aspiration for me, probably due to being a massively impressionable teenager when it first came on the scene. Later in life I almost spent a stupid amount of money sourcing one from eBay during my days of running up student debt, but like my ill-advised attempt at Vectrex ownership I was finally beaten by someone with stronger nerves and a bigger bank balance. Strange then, that I have never actually installed a Jaguar emulator until I publicly called dibs on reviewing Reboot's rotary Jaguar shooter Kobayashi Maru.