A Rich Vein
As the actress said to the bishop “just a quickie before I forget”…
Manic Miner 3d is a one level demo of Manic Miner but in 3d! Who’da thunk it? In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 billion years and have failed to evolve correctly, Manic Miner is of course the first outing of everyones favourite top hatted, party going, housekeeper fearing Willy. Which, if you’ve been hiding under said rock long enough - you still won’t have a clue what I’m wittering about. Just get to the site and have a peek, alright?
Enjoy.
Just a pair …
Last years Retro Remake Competition seemed to entice a lot of pre-registrants, over two third’s of whose games never saw the light of day. One of the more impressive looking ones was Orc Attack by Jim Riley.
I am pleased to reveal that Jim didn’t give up after missing the deadline and has taken the time since to soup up the remake with better graphics/sounds. It’s quite a fun game lobbing hot oil at Orcs but does get just a little tough.
Hot on the heels of Frank’N'Stein that coding wizard Gilby has released his remake of Epic’s Light Heart, cunningly entitled Light Heart 2005, with music by the ever impressive Rockfistus. Never having played the original I was well impressed by what is really a single screen Boulderdash type challenge. The levels get tougher and tougher tho so don’t say I didn’t warn you !!
Who will watch the watchers?
Joy and jubilations abound, the uber talented Mr Momor has been locked in a box filled with tyres and small woodchips for a number of months now busying himself on a rather excellent Mobile Phone port of his benchmark remake Sentry. In case you’ve been stolen away on a desert isle for the past few years and have never encountered the joys of Sentry, its a remake of the Geoff (brumm brumm) Crammond classic The Sentinal and putting it rather bluntly, it rocks. Why are you still here? Go, get Sentry.
Giles Williams contacted me a few weeks back to let me know that work progresses still on Oolite. As usual there’s a whole bagfull of improvements and updates for you to check out, including a Tiger compatible version and the Linux version entering the beta phase. Well, rub me down with a Thargoid and call me Mac!
I’ve heard a rumour of Aliens breeding, so that can only mean one thing…yes! 1up / FlashJesterpunk /Jesterpunk/ Wassisnamenow has finished his rather cracking remake of the ol’ classic Alien Breed with graphics by Bapsilon, the uber high score wizard and one of the folks responsible for the graphics for the PC conversion.
Nibulus is a rather stupidly addictive mix of Nebulous and Snake which has kept me addicted for a while now. Its a simple game to play but very very difficult to stop playing. Its a lovely game to go back to for the odd 5/10 minute run on too. Highly recommended. Have fun with this one.
And the award for the best game of the year so far, though technically not a remake, goes to our very own Rockfistus - the warped genius behind last years competitions Ascii Shinobi. I really don’t want to spoil it for you by giving too much away, however, you can find it nestling in our forum in an inconspicuous manner here. Feel the love. Feel the beauty. Buy Ajax.
Finally for today, a small pidgeon has dropped a tiny note onto my desk to inform me that the English translation of Goody is now available for download. There’s a few mirrors, so if you follow the link to our thread and pick one that you fancy and grab this excellent remake now.
I’m still in mourning now there’s no Doctor Who to watch on a Saturday night, so please - if you have any news to brighten my day. Click the orange button at the top of the page and contact-me-do.
Start Boppin’
Had a nice email from Jennifer Reitz and as it was so nicely put I will use it to form the news piece :)
“My name is Jennifer Diane Reitz, and I am a long time lurking fan of Retro Remakes. I wanted to let you fine folks know that I have a game to offer to the pile, as it were.
I and my partner Stephen Lepisto are ‘Accursed Toys’, and once, long ago, we mattered just a tiny bit to gaming. Before we founded and sold ‘HappyPuppy.com’, we made games, mostly for the Amiga and early DOS machines. Our most infamous work was Boppin’, a subversive little puzzle game with a very strange and rude story.
Long story short, we are re-releasing Boppin’ for free, in a version which (finally!) runs under Windows on the PC.”
Equinox
After six months in the making, from the coding talents of Darkside and Rockfistus, and the sexy graphical skills of Ric Lumb and others, you can finally get your hands on Equinox, the latest remake from Spacetime Games.
It’s a remake of Rafaelle Cecco’s platform shooter Equinox by Mikro Gen. Traverse around eight levels, disarming the nuclear threat by using the various tools dotted around, whilst splatting aliens left, right and centre. Once the level is disarmed its time to find the exit pass and move onto the next one.
I’ve been following this once almost since the start, having tested many a beta version, and can honestly say its a cracker :)
Its all over now, Baby Blue
The One Switch Competition results are in, the winners announced and much rejoicing in the direction of Scottige, Ovine and Danjo, takers of the 1st,2nd and 3rd places respectively. A big thank you to everyone who entered, there was some exceptional idea’s and entries all for a good cause, and of course huge thanks to the non stop promotional machine that is Barrie at One Switch, for its his cause that everyone who’s entered this competition has supported.
Of course, this competition would also have not been possible without the support of our sponsors. Our very own and wonderful Tokes (cheers mate), forumites and remakers Caff and Codex and of course, George Bray from Coders Workshop. All of whom stumped up some great prizes when the prize fund was looking as dismal as a very dismal thing before their kind and generous offers.
So, I guess its thanks all (and to Aleks at the Guardian for some great promotion), without all of you this would have just been a crazy idea and I loves you all I does.
