The Toker had these comments to make:

Well thank fuck that is all over.

That's been nearly eight months of hard work over and done with, and at times I thought I wasn't gonna finish, nearly as much as I wish I hadn't of started now. If I mention competition's next year then you have permission to give me a good kicking, with hobnail boots on, with real nails.

Over 300 pre-registrants was great but now I realise I would never have coped with that many reviews, not in two months anyway. However at the time it didn't stop me being disappointed that we received only 70 odd entries. And some of them WERE odd. I've had the pleasure of reviewing some great games, but by god was there some rubbish in with those gems.

Me and STompy (and a few others) worked our tits off to breathe life into this competition, it was at deaths door when my first purge of sponsors failed. STomps convinced me to revive it, and got to work bringing in some quality sponsors. And I mean quality, after all without them there would have been no competition. In return I hope we have offered them some decent coverage, with an advert in every single game whether it be downloaded from the web or loaded from a cover disc. Thank you to all the entrants for supporting the sponsors, and in turn thank you to all the sponsors for some wonderful prizes.

As to the programmers, artists and musicians who toiled long hours over there entries (or 25 mins in some cases I reckon), well you can all give yourselves a pat on the back, one in seven of you won a prize for your efforts. I hope you learned a lot from it, I know a few people will, and a few people who already have such as The Caffiene Kid. I decided to give my personal Joystick prize to Caff for proving to himself that he CAN write a decent game, despite all his self doubting. Trashman came third, but nearly never got started at all. It was to be his second entry til he had massive computer hassle which put him out of action for over a week. Because of this he wasn't going to do it, didn't feel he was good enough until a few of us in IRC encouraged him to start it, nay more bullied him into it. Remaking it wasn't without its problems either but after just over three weeks we had a finished remake. The rest is history ... or will be, but the important thing is Caff learned a lot about his remaking abilities along the way.

I also want to say a big thank you to Martyn Carroll at Retrogamer for an excellent article and cover disc, more coverage for Retro Remakes, you remakers and for the sponsors as well.

Personally I also think its great that the winning entry was created with a Click type tool, Gamemaker in this case. This should settle the argument which says you cannot write a decent game or remake with these click and build tools, Legend of Shadow proves it.

Will there be a competition next year ? Well the way I feel at the moment its a big no. I got pissed off with the amount of arguments this one caused. Its been said before, we do all this for free and personally get nothing out of it, well except for this year when we had a load of grief about the silliest things. During the competition my average work week has been 60hrs, on top of admin'ing the site and most of what time I have had spare has been spent on the competition. We don't win any prizes, yet we work just as hard as you lot on it, if not harder. If there is a 2005 Competition in will be a vastly different format, with many more people helping out, because I aint going through all this again just for the hell of it !!

In signing off a final thank you to Oddbob for stepping in at very short notice to fill Flynn's reviewing shoes - top bloke, to STompy for all his help, to Hitm4n for being Hitm4n and to anyone I may have missed.

Ohhhhh and congratulations to all the winners too ....

Hitm4n had these comments to make:

You're actually reading this waffley bit? Well okay, but don't expect anything funny or profound.

Firstly massive thanks to the other Retro Remakes admins who set this compo up. Without their work it wouldn't have happened. Secondly, and equally, many thanks to the sponsors. Without them it also would never have happened. Thirdly, and just as equally, thankyou to everyone who entered. The games in the end is what this is all about.

If you have "issues" with any of my reviews PM me, EMail me or pop into IRC. I stand by them and will be happy to be set straight if you think i'm wrong. I'm happy to dish out advice too, if thats what you'd like.

I think overall the better remakes in this compo have grown in numbers even though the overall count dropped a little. Most obviously due to the lack of a "prize for all" and due to the quality of the winners of last year. To the lower scorers: You need to check out the top rated games and see what we expect from you next time (if there is one). To you winners: Well done smart arses.

My only tip for some of you is make your game decision quickly, choose your platform, choose your partners in crime (if you need them) and get stuck in. To be a winner takes work, dedication and a passion for the game you are remaking. And please just code 1 game! A few people entered 2 lower scoring games when they were probably capable of 1 high scoring game. Only TCK managed 2 top scorers but he's a bit special, and well Peejays just a cybernetic coding machine!

Congratulations to all the winners, and massive thanks to Kochon for writing Picture Mixture. My competition highlight.

STompy had these comments to make:

I made it, woo hoo!!

Firstly, I feel the need to be honest and admit to feeling the pressure reviewing all the compo games, for the second year. With work, personal projects and helping people with various bits and pieces I found it hard to find the time, or to be more honest, find the willpower needed to sit down and review the games. Its not something I often felt like doing after a 0800hrs to 1800hrs job, but its done and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.

I am going to skip the pleasantries because you all know the score, its such the done thing that its quite embarrasing to go through the task of writing down feelings when my reviews already describe what I thought of the games. The people that actually know me realise what I am all about and if I felt any individual praise was deserved I emailed or sent a private message over the forum to them, bit more personal, bit more my style. I would however like to publicly thank the sponsers, without you the competition would have been rather dull. Better thank the entrants too then, without you the competition would have been empty! Empty and dull... Not exactly the best two words in the world so thanks, thanks alot and look what I have gone and done, thanked people!

I haven't decided whether or not I'll like to be part of a competition next year, should one take place. This year has been quite the chore sadly, the forum during those 3 months went, at times, from bad to worse. We do all this for free, its a free service and everything you see or do on the site is provided by us because of our love for the scene. To be moaned and whinged at because the rules aren't fair or you're going bald at an early age isn't and WASN'T fair at all. If you didn't like the rules then you simply could have opted to not enter, rather than make us feel like shit! So I doubt I'll bother next year, the buzz and the excitement of the competition was unfortunately drained, in its entirety.

A special hug goes to Spooky for creating the best remake of Splat EVER!! If you had added an enhanced mode for sound and graphics I think you would have most certainly been in the main top 10. Of course, many other games in the competition excited me, its just that Splat is a childhood mega favourite of mine and its so bloody perfect I could kiss the guy!

What else? Yes! I would like to announce how pissed I was with having to be a deciding factor in whether or not the game "Spellbound" got through. It was one of the games I was MOST looking forward too and it was a hard decision to make. One of the team members thankfully made that decision easier by acting the part of what I can only describe as being a "spoilt kid". You left it too late to upload and sadly you missed out by seconds! I was gutted but hopefully we will all see it one day, please!

Anyway, I've wibbled on for far too long and I would just like to say a final thank you to everyone who entered the competition, we appreciate everyone's effort and if you got a bad review then please, please, PLEASE try to understand that it isn't personal, take it on the chin and set yourself up to make the biggest remake our scene has seen. Afterall, you have got to start somewhere! Nobody can make the best game without finding there feet first...

Oddbob had these comments to make:

Well,well,well - what a turbulant couple of months this has been. Having to rush an entry together in the last month to make sure I made a show, then having to pull out in order to make sure that there's still 4 judges doing the reviews after the departure of Flynn from Remakes.org. Its been a crazy time, and whats more insane - I've enjoyed every second of it.

I've reviewed over 70 games entered into the competition and I've seen some god awful stuff, some pointless stuff - but none of thats important. What matters to me, is I've had the pleasure of playing some excellent entries that blew my socks clean off.

When I was first asked to review, I figured I'd have a rough idea of what my top 10 would look like. By the time I'd finished reviewing the games - the top 10 in my head had become completely transformed by some wonderful surprises. And thats why I no longer care about the trash entries. I've had the privilege of seeing some people excell themselves in an incredibly short time scale and make the competition worthwhile, from a players point of view, from a judges point of view and for the better of the Remakes scene in general.

To all those who doubtlessly will soon know who they are - I thank you, one and all - and hope that this isn't the end of what we see from you and may you go from strength to strength, bolstering the community in your wake. To those at the bottom of the table, don't give up because you've got terrible reviews - instead, do better - improve and show the world what you're really made of.

Finally, to those that didn't make it on time - I hope to see the projects completed soon.

Thanks people, without you - the community is nothing. And thanks to the Admins for organising this in the first place.