Sunday 30th September 2001
SITE MAINTENANCE FOR THE NEXT 7-10 DAYS… downloads will still be available. You can mail news to me but nothing will be posted here until it’s complete
Saturday 29th September 2001
Retrospec have not died they are back (with a changed url) and have 2 new releases for you to enjoy!!!. One is John Blythe’s new, well not really new, should I say updated Chuckie Egg remake “Chuckie Egg: The Next Batch“…. the other is Ignacio P�rez Gil’s remake of Abu Simbel Profanation which has been released as a beta because he’s not happy with the graphics and he needs some help updating them.
Well if your capable go to Ignacio’s page at Retrospec and get in contact to give him a hand! He needs it j/k :o)
Other Retrospec related news, Turmoil: The Battle of Wizards, Dan Condon-Jones statically-updated(!) remake of the incomparable Chaos has been taken over by none other than Matthew Smith, he of the excellent Assault Rebelstar remake!
Over to Dan for an explanation…
“I guess I can tell you the news now - Mat Smith of Assault Rebelstar fame is taking the project over - He’s rebuilding the basic game structure from scratch and is then going to bring in some of my more graphical routines to pretty it up. This is probably going to make a better game in the long run I think - Matt isn’t as happy doing the pretty effects as I am, but he’s very good at putting together a good structured piece of code. My game might have looked nice on the outside, but the code inside was a complete mess (It is the first thing I’ve ever tried to write in Delphi) I’m still doing graphics for the game (kind of stupidly cos I’m a much better programmer than I am artist) and I’ll give Matt any help he wants, but it’s his project now. I dropped it for a couple of reasons - Firstly the project was taking an eternity to write and my enthusiasm was waning - funnily enought now I’m not writing it, my enthusiasm is right back up and I’ve just done the graphics for Wizard 2. Secondly - I worked on the game in my lunch breaks - When I started a new job in March I found my new company used Windows NT - no DirectX so no Turmoil.”
So there you have it. Will Matthew do Turmoil justice? I think so but let’s wait and see eh?
What else have we got for you today? How about a Repton “Engine”? Not just a remake but a whole gaming engine which you can write your own levels for! This remake is excellent and as with the original very, very playable…
The most excellent XRick has been updated! NOW WE HAVE SOUND!!!!! Big thanks to the Windows porter Murlock for the news….
…and to finish off, Donkey Kong PC is authored by BB Software, thanks to the authors for pointing that one out!
Friday 28th September 2001
An EXTREMELY large twin update today…
Bomberman x 2: Ablaze & Bomberboy
Puckman x 2: Pac-Bar & Pakus
Mined Out x 2: Mines & Mines!
Blockade x 2: Snake v3.25 & Serpente
Asteroids x 2: Gigaton & Asteroids
Boulderdash x 2: Archibald’s Digger & Boulder Dash
Pong x 2: Pong 32K & Pong 64
Depthcharge x 2: SuperDepth & Submarines
Space Invaders x 2: Invaders 95 & Tiny Invaders (LOL!)
Breakout x 2: Brick Breaker DX & DoomBall
Robotron 2084 x 2: Robotica & Robotron
Tron x 2: Luma Cycles & Pune[NL]Tetris x 2: Teratris & Tetris Advance
Looks like the “Visitors Pick of the Month” was about as popular as a dick in a nunnery… oh well it was a thought and something new to try out. I’ll just have to write the f**king review myself :o(
…and now for the good news, downloads now work with both Netscape and Mozilla as well as Internet Explorer! BUT Opera still refuses to play ball but as Opera is being constantly updated that should soon work too. Hopefully. But don’t hold your breath…
Anyone who has sent in remakes news over the last week be patient, I’ll be updating again tomorrow night… possibly
Saturday 22nd September 2001
Arse. The originals are down again! Aren’t free space providers a pain in the rear? If any of you lot can recommend a good free server who doesn’t delete your account as soon as you’ve signed up and doesn’t balk at zip files then please mail me…
Now on with the show. If you’;ve tired of Dungeon Master Java (you really shouldn’t have) or balked at it’s 11MB download size (you probably have) then we’ve got some welcome news for you. We have another new remake of Dungeon Master, and with a more managable download size too!
Return to Chaos is an excellent trip down memory lane as it has 2 different games to play. The original Dungeon Master AND Chaos Strikes Back! The game looks and plays exactly like the original and just goes to show how good the original really was…
…more remakes include…
…a passable if restricted Lunar Lander remake called Moonshot
Chaos Strikes Back for Windows! Yet another excellent addition to the Dungeon Master archive… every remake in this section rocks so download with confidence!
…another new addition to the Boulderdash archive. Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds! An excellent remake that’s well worth the 3MB download… Thanks to Matthew Clemson for the tip
…some nice remakes for the Gameboy Colour, burn them to a cart or use them on an emulator. Whatever floats your boat… Columns DX - An excellent remake of Columns… SnakEat
A superb multi-screen scrolling Blockade remake… Tetris - Er, it’s Tetris, not bad but not great… Mr Dig - Another Blockade remake, not as good as SnakEat… Snake- Yet another Blockade remake, again not as good as SnakEat
If you look to your right you’ll see my “Pick of the Month” which is currently the most excellent Spheres of Chaos. This is going to change to “VISITORS Pick of the Month”, all you have to do is write a short review about your fav remake in English, German, Spanish or French - the review will be displayed in English. The review can be anything up to 500 words as I use a small font and please mail it to me IN ASCII FORMAT! Not HTML and definitely not as an attachment as I usually delete anything with an attachment. The best review of that month wins and will be submitted to this page on the 1st of the next month…. well get on with it!!!
Right that’s it for today, I”ve been “at it” for 3 hours now and I’m rather tired as I’ve been working since 4 this morning (yes on a Saturday!) so goodbye from me… *yawn* and time for a couple of hours kip *yawn* you can catch me on IRC tonight anytime after 8PM. Bye!
Thursday 20th September 2001
Hi again I’m back earlier than usual (again), all the originals are back online apart from Puzzle Bobble but for how long I don’t know. If they go down again I’ll have to work out another way for you to have them. Persistent is what I am :o)
Monday 17th September 2001
I’ve a few more remakes here for you all. Enjoy.
Breakout is a pretty basic clone of, yes you guessed what *yawn*
Donkey Kong PC - A great little remake that’s true to the original, but is it finished?
Rock Hell - A very authentic remake of Asteroids. Excellent.
RockRush - A loud and proud Boulderdash remake.
Pac-Man - Fun, small, French, and very very old!
and to finish off…. a new section! Midways 1975 classic, Gun Fight!
The next update will be on the 25th of September. I’m working on a couple of things at the moment, one of which is getting the originals back online… please excuse the “welcome” message if you try to download an original. I’m working on it as I type :o)
