Maldita Castilla (Preview) (PC)

If I learned one thing from watching Army of Darkness about fifty thousand times before I turned sixteen it is that knights fighting the undead is pretty much one of the best things ever. So it's no surprise that I jumped on the opportunity to review the demo of Maldita Castilla, the swashbuckling, zombie slaying latest offering from Spanish code maestro Locomalito.

Like his previous games Maldita Castilla does its level best to transport the player to the arcade halls of the 1980s, both with its gameplay and its graphics, and this time around even the screen effects look like a slightly worn out arcade cabinet monitor. But I'm getting ahead of myself, all excited by the cracking job he has done of emulating a beaten up arcade machine in a tatty seaside town!

Satazius (PC)

Evil space pirates have moved in next door to the planet Satazius and devalued all the house prices, so a mass exodus is in progress to a safer part of the universe. Of course, driving huge transporter ships past a group of intergalactic buccaneers probably wasn’t the brightest of ideas so a small, one-person spaceship has been sent into their stronghold to cause a bit of a distraction and hopefully make a mess of the place at the same time. At least I think that’s what the back story is, it arrived in Japanese and Google translate wasn’t exactly keen to help!

Bezerk Redux (C64)

Doing a bit of research for a game review can be an enlightening experience. I've spent many an hour in the dead of night wondering why it was that the robot voice in Berzerk shouts out 'GET THE CHICKEN' at random intervals, and today it turns out that I've been playing the game wrong all these years; this derogatory insult is actually the result of exiting a screen without killing all of the robots first. I'd previously assumed that this was either some bizarre developer in-joke, or that there was a super rare chicken enemy that you had to kill. Likewise, I'd always assumed that Berzerk would have an end screen, or final room (possibly full of chickens?) - but no, it continues forever, so again I was wrong (and disappointed, so it happens).

With an introduction like this you might have assumed that I'm a complete newcomer to the game, whereas in fact it used to be one of my preferred pocket-money eaters in the arcades when I was a kid. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I love robots, so it goes without saying that an arcade game featuring them in any capacity is likely to be a winner in my eyes - and hence why Berzerk, a classic arena shmup all about killing robots whilst navigating through a deadly futuristic maze, became a favourite.

Fairy Well (Preview) (C64)

After years of absence, Wide Pixel Games (the development group behind the modern C64 classic Knight 'n' Grail) are back with another potentially award winning game in the form of 'Fairy Well'. A huge flick-screen collect-em-up arcade adventure, the surprising news is that it's planned for a cartridge release with RGCD as their entry in the 16KB C64 Cart Development Competition; amazingly, Mikael Tillander has managed to squeeze an epic, multi-level adventure into a tiny 16KB!

Retro News Update

I've been away for a week and am currently trying to catch up with work, so yet again I'm afraid I've only got time to post another compilation of byte-sized news snippets and links. Hopefully some full reviews will follow shortly ;)

Perihelion Released For Free (Amiga)

How's this for some retro news? Psygnosis' cyberpunk 1993 role-playing Amiga classic has been released for free by the designer and artist, and can be found here (along with a load of other game-related info). Perihelion is a graphically stunning and very in-depth RPG with some great ideas that have stood the test of time well, and it's a real shame that it didn't become a franchise in it's own right. Definitely well-worth checking out; especially as Edvard has included the UAE emulator set up for people unfamiliar with the Amiga.

Note that it's not legally freeware (although Psygnosis haven't stopped the release), and should really be considered as an abandonware game.

Infernal Edge (PC)

Despite being a prolific Game Maker developer with a large indie following, Infernal Edge is the first release from Lazy Brain Games that I've personally considered worthy of reviewing here at RGCD. It may be little more than a prototype and feature LBG's trademark retina-burning, high-contrast (and quite frankly mediocre) pixel art, but the game still won me over with it's interesting design and classic arcade-style robot-blasting gameplay regardless.

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition - Status Update #3

Three new cartridge competition entries and some impressive development updates landed in my inbox this week :)

Competition Entry #15: Yars' Revenge
Developer: TRSI
Status: In progress

Ulrich Schulz (aka Peiselulli of TRSI) has emailed over a near-complete and already excellent port of the Atari 2600 classic Yars' Revenge. Full screen (all borders used) and with it's simple and timeless gameplay perfectly suited to the limitations of the 16KB cartridge format, the competition has moved up a notch with this entry. Good work guys!

Retro News Update

Unfortunately I haven't got time right now to make a load of individual and in-depth posts, so instead of letting this news become stale, here's a compilation of a few byte-sized snippets for you to digest, with more info to follow soon.

Edge Grinder in Micro Mart (Again!)

RGCD (and our recent Edge Grinder cartridge release) have been mentioned in Micro Mart's retro section for the second time in a fortnight! I'll have to get another batch of carts made up soon. Nice to see Shaun mention Blok Copy too :)

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

There's been significant progress made on some of the projects since the last time I wrote about our cart development competition, so I thought it would be a good time to post an update.

First up, we have the submission of a near complete game - 'Rong - Ron's Pong' from the recently revived Software Of Sweden group. There's not a huge amount I can say about this one other than it's a solid 2-player Pong game with some nice graphics and sound, and there's a preview build available from CSDB.

Edge Grinder in Micro Mart (& Current Status)

This popped up in my inbox today from Tim Harris, the guy responsible for the hardware side of our C64 cartridge project (click image to open a larger version in another window/tab). RGCD in Micro Mart again?
   

   
Unfortunately this good press will not result in any sales as both Not Even Human and Edge Grinder are currently out of stock. However, I will be making a few more of each next month when we release Cosine's C64 version of Blok Copy (T.M.R's RGCD Cart Dev Compo entry) - so I'll keep you posted on that.
   
Remember - if you want to get regular updates from this site (as and when they are posted) you can always click on 'subscribe' or enter your details in the 'subscribe by email' box over on the right. Doing so will ensure that you won't miss out on the next run of cartridges. ;)

Famicom AV & Custom Carts

 
People who've read this blog from the start will know that I've wanted a NES/Famicom for a while now (starting when I first played Blade Buster a few months back). After setting aside a bit of cash via the sale of two C64's, I finally bought a Famicom AV from a Japanese-based ebay seller last week.
 
Upon opening the swiftly-delivered package and somehow (magically?) avoiding the ludicrous import tax clearly marked on the box, I was shocked at how tiny the unit is; the only NES consoles I'd seen previously were those bulky front-loaders, and the Famicom AV is so cute in comparison! The mini dog-bone controller, the aesthetically pleasing cartridge design - it was love at first sight.

Azzurro 8-Bit Jam (MSX/ZX Spectrum)

The latest MSX/ZX release from Spanish coders Relevo Videogames has already received it's fair share of press coverage. Being (quite possibly) the only retro-platform videogame coded as a promotional tool for a drinking establishment - and originally only available to play (and buy) in the Azzurro Rock Pub in Bilbao, Spain - it's easy to see why Azzurro 8-Bit Jam atracted so much attention upon it's launch.

Several weeks later, the excitement surrounding the game has calmed and the MSX and ZX Spectrum ROM/TZX files have finally been made available for free download from the Relevo Videogames site. So, was it worth the wait? Does it live up to the hype?

Ghost Castle & Ghost Castle 2 Special Edition (ZX Spectrum)

There is something iconic about a Spectrum game with a black background and bright primary coloured sprites that makes it instantly almost impossible to dislike. And so with this in mind, and with the Specstalgia Goggles removed, I tried my best to take a hard attitude with these two games, right from the start; since they had already tried to disarm me with their pretty colours and far-too-happy-looking-to-be dead ghost protagonist.

This proved impossible, because playing these two games is like gunning the Delorean to 88 and careening back to the Spectrum Ages, claiming a darkened boxroom and burning your retinas on a ZX Spectrum 48K for the whole night. Ghost Castle, and its sequel Ghost Castle 2 Special Edition, are very much retro games, as opposed to new games made for a retro system. This isn't a bad thing, before you ask.

First Wave Of Edge Grinder Carts Posted!

   
All orders to date are now posted and on their way to you.  Apologies for the delay!