Thursday 26th July 2001
I’ve been *very* busy over the past week or so sorting out some hosting or another so I can get binary downloads back up.
My efforts have been rather unsuccesful so I’ve decided to fund the hosting out of my own pocket… What?! I hear you say… How is he going to afford that? Well I’m going to be selling a few items on eBay in August to fund the first years hosting on a un-named server which will cost me around �80.00-�100.00 per year for unlimited space and bandwidth which is rather cheap don’t you think? There will be NO AD’S on the new site… I refuse to deal with ad’s and market forces anymore, but I will be accepting donations via snail mail and maybe Paypal to keep the site up and running. I’m not actually expecting any donations so any I do receive will be a bonus!
When will the binary downloads be ready? I’m looking at a Christmas relaunch, I will have (hopefully) finished all the html and php work and uploaded 500MB+ worth of stuff by then! The index page will look just like the old one but the archive pages will have changed as the games will no longer be rated and the remakes will be listed in alphabetical order (0-9, A, B, C, D, etc) and not by the game remade (Bomberman, Boulderdash, etc)…. 27 archive pages rather than the 100+ I did have is a lot easier for me to maintain!!!
All this work will be going on in the background so expect updates to be around once a week till December…
…oh, I better give you a new link whilst I’m here, Arturo Tuya and Richard Jordan both sent in exactly the same link on exactly the same day. Spooky or what? Anyway it’s a new work in progress remake of Mikro-Gen’s Three Weeks In Paradise… I hope it gets further than this one :o)
Saturday 21st July 2001
While I’m busy thinking of what to do with the links or binaries situation, here are some more submissions for you all to enjoy from our freind Arturo Tuya… Embattle (Tron), Bikini Blocks (Tetris) phwooar!, Pacoman (Pacman), Blast from the Past (Jetpac), and RockRush (Boulderdash)
….and we also have exclusive news of a new Head Over Heels remake which is in the works. I look forward to Head Over Heels 2 with baited breath…! Thanks to Jorge R.S. for the tip
Please excuse me for the short news item. I’m still flummoxed as to what to do!
Friday 20th July 2001
Well, it seems that the links only site is unravelling a little as some of the links seem to be disappearing left-right-and-centre… the original Retro-Remakes had hundreds of downloads which removed the requirement for visiting the homepage and clicking on a dead link. Damn. Time to get me thinking cap on…. I don’t want a site full of dead links and I’ve not got the money to fund an unlimited bandwidth/1GB+ space server.
Do I restart the hosting with someone and have ad’s up again? That annoyed a few people, me included especially when pop-ups started appearing.
I know I won’t be rating the games whatever happens so the only time consuming part would be uploading the binaries. Any input on this from you lot would be appreciated.
Thursday 19th July 2001
!!STOP PRESS!! I had to give you this news as quickly as possible because I am positively wetting my pants and generally jumping on the spot and acting silly because… ter der ter der ter! Trashman is getting the remake treatment!!!! Oh f**k me! Cheers to Richard Jordan, author of the awsome Klass of 99 for making me cream my pants :o)
Wednesday 18th July 2001
Well, here we are 20 days from the relaunch of Retro-Remakes and you peeps already want me to start rating the games again! I am no longer going to rate remakes against each other. The authors do this in their spare time and to be frank deserve better than an opinionated gobshite like moi giving them a hard time over a hobby of theirs… that’s the way it is and is the way it will always be. Respect to the programmers…
Ok rant over and to the new remakes on show… our friend Arturo Tuya found a couple of newies… a remake of the Sinclair ZX81 piss-de-resistance 3D Monster Maze. Now does that game bring back memories or what? I was ten years of age when I played this game at my friends house and I never repeated the same gaming experience again until 1993 when I had a go of Doom 2 (I missed the Doom boat!). Ok sad reminisances over onto the next one, a remake of the MSX? (Arcade I think) game Tank Battalion… never played it before but it reminds me of an old Speccy game which I can’t quite remember the name of… oh well.
Saturday 14th July 2001
Er… forget what I posted last time I’m bored so I updated today instead!
Mark from Blitz Showcase kindly mailed me with a link to a few of his own remakes programmed in Blitz Basic.
Blitzatron is a remake of Robotron.
Ms Blitzman is a remake of Ms Pacman.
Blitzum is a remake of Quantum.
DeBlitzer is a remake of Defender…. and he also has remakes of Gauntlet and Marble Madness on the go. Busy bloke isn’t he? :o)
Blitz Showcase also had a few links to some tasty looking remakes and I could hardly pass them by could I? So I also added: BobblePuzzle Hires (Puzzle Bobble), Frogger, Centipede, Smash TV 2001 (Smash TV), Breakdance (Breakdance), Blitz Blaster (Bomberman), Super SpaceWalk (SpaceWalk), Bendertron (Robotron), Mr Worm (Slippery Sid), Chuckie Egg: The Next Batch, Pingy Pongy (Pong), Snakes (Slippery Sid), Space Rock (Asteroids), Scramble Clone, Bletritz (Tetris), Stupid Snake! (Slippery Sid), and Thrust Deluxe!!!!
Thanks again to Arturo Tuya for helping to find some great remakes… a remake of Abu Simbel Profanation is another obscure feather to add to his cap!
Some finds of mine whilst I’ve been doing nothing… Cool Columns, Hyperium (Asteroids), Rock ‘n’ Spin (Repton), Freetris, ElectrObalz (Arkanoid), Multitet (Tetris), Space Invaderz, Tetriz, JTris, Minefield (Mined Out), Tetris, CRTetris, Rockslide (Boulderdash), Pure Tetrix, and Vitamins (Dr Mario)!!!
