Bye Bye Love
…well, if Caff can do Bowie lyrics, so can I!
Anyway, on with the news…
Now we’ve got a little something for you to begin with, rather literally. Its a rendition of Uridium in, wait for it, 32k. Scary what can be done when you get down to byte level really. Its the third in a series of tiny filesized homages to classic gaming from Xperience2003 known as DaShooter and its well worth checking out.
Whilst I’m indulging you with some shooty goodness, straight from the recommended pile comes Ian Prices nifty JetPak remake. Yes, I know there’s loads of them out there, and a fair few oozing polish - but I must confess that this has rapidly become one of my favourite versions. Its a sort of JetPak meets Defender combo, which sounds like it shouldn’t work on paper - but works fab playwise. It was written for the PlayBasic Retro Remakes competition so fingers crossed for a few more goodies to come our way when the entries are in.
Ah, we’ve had a few weeks of forum madness resulting in a couple of mini competitions being thrust our way from our ever more organised than us admin, Mr Caff. The first was to create a valentines game which resulted in me entirely missing the point and creating a game based around the Atari 2600 “classic” Beat ‘Em And Eat ‘Em entitled LoveYouLongTime. Its really not for the faint of heart and contains slightly more than mild sexual references. In my defence, it also only took around 2 hours to throw together. You may possibly be more interested in following the link to grab Smayds most excellent Lumines homage for the GBA which found its way onto Mersey Remakes this week. Its called Luminous and once again, it oozes class.
The current competition which closes this weekend has yielded an entire ruck of Pong variants so far, from the disturbing bowels of Codex comes Pwnged! - where you are one with the ball, to the Rodent inspired insanity of Ikaponga. Yes, someone really has crossed Ikaruga with Pong. Sometimes I fear for the sanity of our forum dwellers. You can find the competition thread here.
Until midweek, when we meet again. Farewell.
Your face is a mess!
And so is my head. I’ve been messing with silly website gubbins most of the day and completely forgot about the news. Sorry, boys and girls. I guess I know how Bob must feel trawling through options and updates now. Not fun!
Anyhoo, you didn’t come to see me to hear me whine, you came here to have a jolly good time, and find out what’s going down in groove town, remakes style.
I have a wonderful threesome from the Revills for you to enjoy, which comprises of:
Firstly, a lovely version of Ghost N Goblins which is very much like it’s arcade counterpart, and will have you pining for a dark room full of sweaty teenagers.
Secondly there is a Super Mario Brothers remake which includes a level editor, so you can get creative and roll yer own.
Last but not least, an early but promising release of Lemmings, which is set to have you jumping for joy - though hopefully not over the nearest cliffs.
Dive in and fill your boots at their site. Be sure to check out his little Artificial Life programs too, while you are visiting.
Our next news is sure to excite the twitchy trigger fingers of all the Julian Gollup fans out there. William Fraser has emailed into Remakes Towers to tell us about his versions of Laser Squad and Rebel Star which are now available to play online. Go kick some alien butt!
These are very accurate versions and you would be forgiven for thinking you were playing them in a Spectrum emulator. I thought I was. If turn based strategy is not your thing however, at a push you could always go and play his version of Sokoban.
Right I’m outta here once more. See you on the other side.
Hello, Good Evening…
and welcome… This is the news at Retro Remakes O’ Clock.
First up, a plea on behalf of the FinishTheRobotron party. NZO has a nearly completed remake of Robotron ready to pop forth into the world, but its being held back as he’s short of a few final graphics to finish it off after his last artist was forced to pull out. It only needs a little more work then its ready, but he needs a few sprites that fit in with the current style - if you think you can help and get this game done and out there, why not nip into his forum thread and lets get this last 2% of graphics finished so that the world can enjoy his game.
Still on a blasty note, Wiebo De Wit has dropped me a mail to tell me about his work on a Geometry Wars 2 clone, its still a WIP and progressing nicely - and if it takes your fancy, he’s dropped a thread in our forum for you to take a peek at. Its called Geo Wars so check it.
Anyone for some vroom vroom? Its update-a-gogo for Brain Games excellent F1 Spirit. For those of you who’ve been in a hole for the past few years, it was originally an entry into our very own 2004 competition and as we don’t get much in the way of racing games round these here parts, its a lovely and quite rare treat to see not only a very good example, but one thats still being updated. Nice work folks.
And finally for my news blitz (hohoho, I’ll never get tired of that one) we have a remake of the old tank-me-do blasting fun that is Battle City in full 3d-o-vision ominously entitled Battle Empire from anC. As its took me a few hours inbetween interruptions tonight to get this news post typed up, I haven’t had chance to check it out yet, so once again I’ll ask you to be my eyes and ears and let me know what you think.
Thats me done for now, so we’ll see you again midweek for some more news. In the time until we next meet, stay safe and don’t have nightmares.
Well, well, well…
It’s Wednesday once again (or possibly first thing on Thursday morning, depending how long this takes to type up) and that means that it is time for your hot caffeine injection.
It’s not a dream - Codex has released his Hunt The Wumpus remake, which you can now enjoy online via the magic of java. It’s a big file, so go make a cuppa while it loads. There is also a downloadable version available if you are that way inclined.
Be warned that this game might drive you batty - but it’s definitely not the pits.
I know it’s not raining Macintosh remakes, but today we have one for your delight and delectation. It is non other than Pac the Mac X which you can enjoy on your Apple flavoured box of goodness.
Brought to you by McSebi, this version includes both of the Pac couple, Mr and Mrs as well as a simultaneous two player mode.
Nazghul! Erm, if you are a hobbit then you have probably just fainted, sorry. But then again, if you are a hobbit, you live in a hovel, don’t have a computer, and won’t be able to enjoy this RPG engine. Coming in three flavours (Windows/Linux/Mac), it can be downloaded here.
You are probably asking why I’m posting about a game engine? Aha, but you need to know that it now includes a full example game, Haxima, which is a remake of Ultima 5. You learn something new every day… So if you like Ultima, Play The Game.
Ok, now it’s “update time in da house”. Here are a few new versions of some great remakes that you have to check out.
Grid Wars v3.1 - Mark Incitti obviously doesn’t have time to eat or sleep or goto the toilet, because he is way too busy updating this amazing game. This Geometry Wars remake has Evolved over the last few weeks from great to jawdropping, and anyone who still hasn’t played it needs a lick ‘o the cat.
The Ur-Quan Masters v0.5.0 - Star Control 2 remake, sir? Suits you! Ooof! Anyone who subscribed to RetroGamer in Ye Olde Days before the collapse and phoenix like resurrection will remember this game from one of the cover CDs. Yet yerselves updated with the latest version, and get out into space.
Tower Toppler 1.1.2 - Last but not least we have a new version of another favourite of mine. This is a remake of the classic title that was also known better by some as Nebulus. At the time it was a new spin the platform game and I still love it to bits. Get it downloaded - treat yourself!
Enough of my mindless drivel, I’m outta here. Bob will be back for the weekend update and give you lots more goodness out of his large sack of remake news.
Once upon a time I was…
…falling in love, and now I’m only falling apart.
Its a sad tale, but entirely true. I once single handedly failed to impress my now good wife by dancing around Rock World in Manchester whilst acting out the lyrics to Total Eclipse Of The Heart. I’m quite surprised she didn’t disown me to be honest.
But what has all this got to do with remakes I hear you ask? Well, colour me purple and roast me in a small pot of onions, if you haven’t worked it out yet.
Yes, those Ovine chaps and Smila have riddled me do a remake of the Incentive Freescape bonanza Total Eclipse, doubtlessly using some form of witchcraft given the development time. Driller is next up on their list me up of games now the engine is in place. Could this mean that we’ll get the set? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, spend some time with Total Eclipse. You know deep down in your heart its what you want.
Flynn has been rummaging in his trousers of death (searching the internet) for the next remake we have for your pleasure. Batrachians is a remake of the Mattel Electronics ribbety classic “Frog Bog”. No sniggering at the back, please. Its available in Windows and Linux flavours for those interested in checking it out.
And still on a frog flavoured tip, I’m afraid I couldn’t find a web page for this one so its a forum link instead.
Whilst on a trawl I came across the slightly bizarre ChronoFrogger. Yes, its a mix of ChronoCross and Frogger, in case you hadn’t worked it out. Go check it out.
Finally for the weekend news, we’d like to point you in the direction of our very own Player Ones article in this months Rodent, which offers an insight into the mind of someone who codes a Sokoban game for the Pokemon Mini. Having seen it running last year at Coders Workshop I must confess to being quite impressed and the article makes for an entertaining browse indeed.
So, thats me done with this weekends update - either myself or Mr Caff will be along with Wednesday with more news, and hopefully something that will appease any TI99ers out there.
Am I late, or am I back in time?
It feels like that latter at the moment. I guess I must have been living in a cave or something for the past million years, because I didn’t know Jack about BC’s Quest for Tires from the C64. I must say I’m pretty pumped up to be able to bring you the news of this new remade version.
Go and grab Quest for Tires PC - it’s tastier than a T-Rex steak. Thanks go to Reafer (the author), for bringing it to our attention. Smokin!
Okie dokie, next up from my little bag of goodness is a totally tubular remake of Pipe Dreams called AQUA, created by Project Dragonfly.
You might think I’m being a bit wet posting this, as the game is in German, but it is very simple to play and see what’s is going on. Also there is not a single mention of Barbie Girl in the game, that I can find, which is a big plus.
Before I go, just a note to keep an eye on this here page, as another big release by a rather popular bunch of remaking guys is hopefully due out before the end of the week. I can’t say pharoah than that.
