Category: Programming

Bitnamic Software announces `Laserbirds` – a new game for the ZX Spectrum

Bitnamic Software, a Portuguese-Brazilian joint-venture has announced its new exclusive ZX Spectrum release. Laserbirds is a shoot’em up game and your mission is to destroy aliens known as Ornitoids, a powerful enemy that has excellent earing and memory as well as great hierarchical organization capability. The enemy’s AI is a strong selling point of the game. The waves of Laserbirds,…

Jäästä – a graphical text adventure is the second entry for MSXdev’20

Jäästä is a graphical text-based adventure for the MSX1 where you play a penguin and your objective is to buy a “hatching day” gift to your friend Paula. In order to do that, you need money you don’t have. There is where your adventure begins. The premise is simple and the game is short but well-executed. I’ve played the whole…

Dot Attack – First MSXdev’20 game sets the contest bar high

Dot Attack is the very first contestant for the 2020 edition of MSXDev. Released at Beuningen 2020, the game developed by the group N.O.P is a colourful gunfight two-player game where the cowboys duel. Only the fastest will survive! The duel doesn’t end with a simple fast draw because cactuses and other elements can be on your way preventing you…

ZX Spectrum Next “Zero Day” Update now available

As the first users start to receive their ZX Spectrum Next, they have already available an update for the Next Core, NextZXOS and support programs. The update brings all enhancements made after the Next got into production. In a recent Facebook post, Phoebus Dokos lists the changes: includes Lords of Midnight by Matt Davies (aka WAHH Industries™) AND Night-Knight by Mr. David Saphier…

12th Kaz Compo announces the best Atari games released in 2019

Kaz Compo is a traditional celebration for the Atari homebrew developers promoted by Atarionline.pl where the best games of the year are chosen by popular vote. The results for the 12th edition have come out. The best game of 2019 according to the voters is The Rescue Expedition. Created by Kamil “Gorgh” Trzaska, Michał “Caruso” Brzezicki, and Krzysztof “Kaz” Ziembik…

2020 BASIC 10-Liner Contest is Live and celebrating the 10th anniversary!

One of the most expected and respected contests in the retro computing community is turning 10 years old and ready to roll! The Tenth Edition of the BASIC 10-Liner has started and already waiting for your submission. This edition’s rules are pretty much the same as last year’s. BASIC games can be written for all 8-bit computers, as long they…

Crackpots – A new game for the Commodore 64, ported from the original Atari 2600

Crackpots, a game originally released for the Atari 2600 in 1983, has been ported for the Commodore 64 by Antonio Savona, with graphics by STE’86 and music by Saul Cross. Very similar to Kaboom!, in the game, you control Potsy, a gardener. Your task is to throw potted petunias at the bugs that are crawling up the building to devour…

Have you missed the first ‘ZX Spectrum Next’ wave? There is still hope!

If you hang out on the ZX Next Facebook group, it is relatively common to see people asking how to buy it if you are not a backer of the first campaign, which points to an increasing interest in the machine we learn to love to wait (!) It looks like there is still hope for those that missed the…

2020 Reset64 4KB ‘Craptastic’ Game Competition is on!

How much silliness you can fit in 4Kb? Ausretrogamer, the Australian retro gamer e-zine, has announced the 2020 Reset64 4Kb game coding competition. As the previous editions from 2016 and 2018, the theme is “craptastic”, and we have to quote Ausretrogamer post as it explains it properly: “Craptastic can mean ludicrous, bonkers, outrageous, funny, wacky, far out, and silly”. My…

Prince of Persia for Atari 8-bit gets a new update!

The amazing work by the Atariage user rensoup (and many others) continues and he has released the second playable level of the classic Prince of Persia. The update includes: one playable level (L2) PMG overlays with repositioning for the player (not for the enemy yet) preliminary music by Vinscool a lot more animation frames redone by TIX fix: random button…