Retro Review - Apidya (Amiga)

When it comes to shoot-em-up (or 'shmups' to use the correct parlance) I have always teetered on the brink of becoming a hardcore fan, having spent a brief period thoroughly addicted to Cave's wonderful games. But, like junk food and pop music, the novelty soon wears off and I end up ditching it for something with more depth. However, after many years of playing shmups I can definitely say that the games that hold my interest for more than a few plays are those that have interesting environments to traverse; the beaches of war torn Europe; a city under alien invasion; a forest base or the depths of the ocean.

A Very Amiga Christmas! 16-Bit Festive Gaming Goodies!

A 16-bit Christmas of Festive Freebies 

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas. Tis the season, etc. etc. Yep, it's that time of year again, and thus the obligatory Christmas themed gaming articles appear online. The problem is, when looking at retro games, they are the same every year - unless some clever so-and-so has created a new homebrew game with a festive spin. Sure, I could cover newer indie games that feature Santa, elves, snowmen and the rest, but there are hardly any new ones and those that do appear are so dire they don't deserve the time spend playing (and writing about) them. Hmm, so what's a guy to do? I know, take a look at games on one of the greatest computers of all time, that's what! 

Instant Remedy - Insert Disk 2 - Amiga Remix Album Out Now!

Instant Remedy - Insert Disk 2

Great news for fans of high quality remixes of classic videogame soundtracks : Instant Remedy's brand new album, Insert Disk 2 is now available for your listening pleasure! A follow up to his self titled debut album, Insert Disk 2 focuses on remixing classic Amiga game music, rather than those of the Commodore 64. The first album is one of my favourite videogame remix albums due to it's high quality production, thumping beats and and modernised versions of some of my favourite C64 melodies, so I was very excited to hear there would be an Amiga follow-up, and I have not been disappointed. 

Amiga Homebrew - Fire 'N Ice (Solomon's Key 2)

Underrated 8-bit puzzler gets 16-bit port

A new homebrew game for the Commodore Amiga is always reason to celebrate and this brand new port of a classic, yet little known, NES game is no exception. While many old school gamers will be familiar with classic platform puzzler Solomon's Key, not that many people realise that Tecmo released a sequel in 1993, entitled Fire 'N Ice, exclusive to Nintendo's 8-bit console. Released late in the life of the NES, Fire 'N Ice failed to make much impact as most people had moved onto the SNES. This makes finding a copy of the game difficult and very expensive these days, but thanks to emulation this doesn't stop you from playing it on your PC / PSP / Xbox or whatever other system you enjoy running emulators on (you naughty person!). Now you can also enjoy the game on your Amiga, as lone developer Hukka has ported it to everyone's favourite 16-bit home computer!

Commodore Amiga Special - Modern Amiga Gaming - Gotek USB Floppy Drive

Modern Amiga gaming 

Gotek USB Floppy Drive Special

Recently I have been having a long overdue Amiga revival! For those of you who don't know (have you been living under a rock?) the Amiga is a 16-bit home computer made by Commodore and released way back in 1985. While originally released as a high end computer for business use (yawn) it wasn't long before it became known as a gaming machine thanks to its fantastic graphical capabilities and fun software. A couple of years later the most famous model of Amiga, the Amiga 500, was released and it cemented Commodore's machine as a home gaming platform bar none - It took PC games many years to catch up to the same level!

REVIEW - Putty Squad (PS Vita)

Like putty in my hands

Retro gamers and owners of Commodore's wonderful Amiga computer will be familiar with System 3's Putty games. The first, simply entitled Putty, was released in 1992 to favourable reviews, and gained a loyal fan-base thanks to the zany humour and stretchy protagonist. The sequel, Putty Squad, developed two years later, never made it to the system, instead finding a home on Nintendo's SNES console. This was due to the Amiga being a bit long in the tooth by this stage, and the publishers not wanting to risk releasing the, already completed, game to market. All was not lost, however, as System 3 finally released the Amiga 1200 version of Putty Squad - available as a free downloadable disk image - in 2013, as a warm up to the brand new reboot that is now doing the rounds on the PS4, 3DS, and now PS Vita. So, does the remake do the original justice? And is it still relevant in 2014, when fantastic 2D platformers such as Spelunky, Fez, Super Meat Boy and Rayman Legends exist?

CoinOps & Vision - Bringing the Arcade to your home in spectacular style!

Bringing the arcade to your home

Microsoft's first foray into the console market, the Xbox, appeared in 2001 (or 2002 for us European gamers) and was a huge success. But, while I have fond memories of playing Halo 2, Mercenaries, Brute Force and Tao Feng : Fist of the Lotus with my buddies in our earlier twenties, it is not a console I hold with much regard these days. Aside from the games mentioned above, there isn't much else in the Xbox's library of games that holds any appeal. Even games such as Toejam & Earl 3 and Sega's arcade beat-em-up Strike Out left me extremely disappointed. Add in the fact that it's a fairly ugly brute of a console, with one of the worst official controllers ever made - right up there with the Atari Jaguar and Sega's horrible Dreamcast controller - and you have a machine that I am happy to leave in the past. Until now!

Retro Review - Captain Dynamo (Amiga)

Budget Platform Action

Featuring possibly one of the least appealing protagonists I have seen (ranking up there with Lester The Unlikely), Captain Dynamo is another platform game offering from budget supremos, Codemasters - responsible for popular titles such as CJ Elephant Antics, Bignose The Caveman, and the Dizzy series. Released on a range of home micros in 1992, Captain Dynamo was a late starter for the 8-bit systems, who were now reaching the end of their long lifespans (sob). While the ZX Spectrum & CPC versions look very similar, aside from changes to the colour palette, the C64 appears significantly different, with a surprisingly drab and washed out look. It also features vastly tweaked level layouts, including one of the most irritating first screens ever to grace a videogame. One to avoid then, but how does Commodore's 16-bit machine fare?

Retro Review - Mean Arenas (Amiga / CD32)

The Running (Pac) Man

Top down Maze games are one of the oldest and longest running video game staples. When Pac Man sent everyone maze-crazy in 1980, there followed a decade long tsunami of clones, rip offs and cheap imitators, especially for the home computer systems of the time. With the advent of the 90's, it seemed that these simple arcade eat-em-ups had become stale and developers moved on, but there were a few notable exceptions. While the 16-bit consoles only received a few Pac Man inspired games; such as Zoom and Mr Do, Commodore's Amiga got its mitts on a fair few, thanks to its more homebrew nature, and cheaper disk based format. Most notable of these Pac Man spin-offs is Mean Arenas, which blends dot collecting and enemy avoiding with a deadly game show theme 'borrowed' from cheesy 80's action flick, The Running Man, or Robotron 2048 follow up, Smash TV.

Homebrew Review - Solid Gold (Amiga)

Homebrew Treasure

It's always a pleasant surprise when a homebrew game turns up and genuinely feels as though it could be have been an official release for the system in question. It's even better when the game is loads of fun and gives you bags of entertainment with a dash of nostalgia. Solid Gold, an Amiga homebrew title from Germany's Night Owl Designs, does just that, looking and playing just like any number of other 2D platformers released in the late 80's and early 90's on Commodore's excellent 16-bit computer.

Putty Squad - Commodore Amiga ROM officially released!

With a modern HD reboot almost upon us, System 3 have released the original Amiga ROM of Putty Squad for free. The main selling point of this story is that Putty Squad was never actually released for Commodore's 16-bit home computer as the publishers felt that, in 1994, the Amiga was no longer a competitor in the video games market. This was due to the 16-bit consoles from Nintendo and Sega being the main players at this stage, with the Playstation and Saturn just around the corner. The finished game didn't go entirely to waste, however, with a port released for the Super Nintendo released by Ocean. Now, 20 years later, System 3 have unleashed the final version of the unreleased Amiga version onto the internet, for retro gamers to enjoy via their emulator of choice, or even on the original hardware - if you are lucky enough to still have one.

Review (Double) - Rofaxan 2089 AD & Nostalgya (Xbox Live Indie)

Xbox Indie Shmup Double Review

There's nothing quite like a good Shmup (or 'Shoot-em-up, for the uninitiated). Easy to pick up and play for a few minutes, but with a difficulty level that will see only the most dedicated and hardcore gamer succeed. The genre has been around since the birth of videogames, and has evolved to incorporate many new mechanics to keep the score chasers happy. They can also be an easy entryway for games developers wishing to bring some fast paced arcade action to the indie scene. The only problem with this is that it can lead to a plethora of copycat and unoriginal titles, displaying a distinct lack of imagination. Logging onto the Xbox Live Indie Channel yesterday, I was pleased to see two new shmups that, from the screenshots, looked to be half-decent, which is high praise considering the abundance of utter garbage on the service. Rather than divide the two games into seperate reviews, I have bundled them together because, well, I am very lazy. 

REVIEW SPECIAL - Road Rash Series 1991 - 2003

REVIEW SPECIAL - ROAD RASH series

I have always had a love-hate relationship with the Road Rash series. From the moment I was first wowed by the motorbike racing game on the Mega Drive way back in 1991, to right now, mere moments after an extended playing session incorporating multiple iterations on different platforms, I have found it a frustrating, yet addictive, experience. The series focuses on a motley bunch of oddballs, outlaws and degenerates as they participate in illegal motorbike races across California to earn cash and have the kind of fun that can only be achieved by breaking the law and the bones of your opponents. You qualify each race by placing 3rd or higher, and money earned can be used to upgrade your existing ride or purchase new bikes.

Review - The Chaos Engine Remastered (PC)

..and the point of this would be?


We are seemingly swamped with remakes, remasters and reboots these days. From the recent DuckTales Remastered, Flashback and Superfrog HD, to the forthcoming (today no less) Castle of Illusion reboot, we retro gamers are really being catered for. While the quality can often vary, it is always interesting to see what developers can do with their old franchise to bring it up to modern standards and what new ideas they have implemented to, hopefully, improve on the classic formula. It is, of course, a double edged sword, as high expectations from loyal fans can often lead to the title in question being heavily criticised, often unfairly. 

Coin-Op Classics Special - Mr. Do (Arcade)

Get down with the clown!

Forget Digger, put aside your love of Dig Dug and wipe away those memories of The Pit, for Mr Do is where it's at for all your retro subterranean arcade maze adventures. Mr Do on Super Nintendo is a port of the classic coin-op by Universal that was released way back in 1982 - the time of early character based arcade games like Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and Dig Dug. 

Obscure Retro Gems - Nipper vs The Katz (Amiga)

His Master's Voice

Nipper vs The Katz is a freeware Amiga game that was given away with issue 32 of Amiga Power magazine. It was developed by Graftgold for the high street music store HMV as part of a competition to win £1000 worth of stuff from the shop. Little did I realise at the time that it would be so addictive that I would be sitting here playing it now, trying to better my score, despite the fact that the competition ended 20 years ago.

Awesome Amiga games on your PC - The Easy Way!

Emulation is a wonderful thing. Regardless of your stance on the legal side of it, you have to admit that it is a fantastic way to archive and remember the classic games of yesteryear. With prices for many original copies of old titles skyrocketing, many would never get to experience them without the many excellent emulators available out there. Now, it is even easier for PC users to experience the joys of Commodore's 16-bit machine.

The guys over at http://thecompany.pl/ have lovingly turned all your Amiga favorites (and many you may never have heard of) into easy to run .exe files for your PC. While I am not sure of the legality of this, I do know that they have done a sterling job, and it makes running Amiga games an absolute doddle. With no loading times, instant joypad support (my Xbox 360 controller works a treat), visual filters and compatibility with all versions of Windows, enjoying Amiga games has never been more straightforward.

CHRISTMAS GAMES - Festive Retro Goodness!

Christmas is here, and what better way to celebrate Santa's birthday than to fire up some festive retro gaming goodies! The 'Christmas game' was a popular gimmick in the 8-bit and 16-bit home computer days. Games were cheap to produce and to purchase, so developers could create a quick Christmas game on a small budget and release it at a low enough price for parents to buy for their kids as a stocking filler. There was also the free cover tape given away with the computer magazines at the time. The December issue of a games publication was the perfect place for Christmas games, and well known developers such as Team 17 and Sensible Software produced short, seasonal versions of their hit games for these give-aways. The ZX Spectrum had an excellent Monty Mole game called Moley Christmas, given away with the December 1987 issue of Your Sinclair. The Commodore 64 also got in the holiday spirit, with one memorable title being Frosty The Snowman, given away on the front of Your Commodore magazine in 1990. The Amiga was also home to a wealth of Yuletide treats, with Christmas versions of Cannon Fodder, Lemmings, ATR : All Terrain Racing, and Fire N Ice all gracing cover disks over the years. PC users were not left in the dark either, with an enjoyable Xmas edition of Jetpack, and some frantic platform action in the form of, not one, but three, Jazz Jackrabbit Christmas specials.

CLASSIC GAME - Rick Dangerous (with Lao's Quest Indie sequel)

And you thought Spelunky was hard!

Lets get one thing straight before we begin, Core Design hate you. I mean they actually despise your core being, existing only to make your life as miserable as possible. This may not be true, of course, but I can think of no other reason as to why Rick Dangerous, and its snappily titled sequel Rick Dangerous 2, goes out of its way to punish you so relentlessly, over and over again.