MANIC MINER

We're going back to 1983

Manic Miner has been in development by my mate Peter Jørgensen throughout the year. It's a brand-new remake with redesigned graphics and incredibly funky music (sound effects are yet to be completed). Each and every one of the twenty screens is included, but there will also be a few surprising extras (which the retro gaming geek in me is excited about). However, we are wickedly keeping these under wraps for the time being!

Those who have played the original on their old 8-bit computers like the ZX Spectrum or MSX will instantly be at home. The game control mechanics and physics are perfectly replicated; this means it feels just like it should, with authentic gameplay that hasn't been altered (or spoiled, like we saw with Chuckie Egg II).

Note: this is a WIP as there are some niggles to be ironed out. Each level faithfully follows the playable mechanics of the original, but don't think this means we have a boring ripoff. Willy's adventure has received a makeover with YMT audio, and each screen has been designed with painstaking accuracy.

Peter has kept the keys familiar and included extra keys for a few additional features...

• During the title intro, press 1, 2, 3 to change the music.
• Pressing R will display a CPU usage raster for the geeks.
• In-game, use the cursor keys to walk and he jumps by slapping the spacebar.
• You can quit and kill poor Willy anytime by hitting the K key.
• Need a wee? Just pause the game by hitting the P key.
• Crazy fools who don't love the gorgeous thumping tunes can hit M to mute.

Without cheating, I have reached level 14 - Skylab Landing Bay. However, I've never beaten this terrible screen in 40 years on my ZX Spectrum. It's a killer room that blows my mind. Let me know how you do!

Keeping this project quiet has been tough - months of beta testing have been an absolute joy. It's impressive how development progressed into a playable game. The final version is near completion, so you know where to come when it's ready. Genuinely, one of the most exciting Atari ST games released in recent years.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Peter for creating this Atari ST version of Manic Miner. It originally started as a joke, a playful teaser, but it wasn't long before he began programming a playable demo. From there, we created and tested what was nothing less than a crisp clone of the original - with spanky new aesthetics. To think that we now have a (near) complete version of Manic Miner is mindblowing. So, I'd like to thank Peter for all his hard work and kindness. 

This is something I shall always appreciate beyond my meager words.

The latest version is now available to download via the Demozoo website. Go on, grab it now!!

A few words by Peter...

I wrote Manic Miner because I have a friend that was very sad that this platformer didn’t exist for the ST. So I thought that I would make him happy and began drawing the title picture which soon lead me onto designing the intro screen - but I only wanted to make a prant screenshot for April 1st. Sadly, I did not finish in time. But then the idea started to continue on with the programming to see what happens. However, I’ve not made a game in decades because life always got in the way but I wanted to do this remake just to stop my friend from crying.

So you could say that this is a Manic Miner AtariCrypt Edition! (I love that -Steve)

My goal was to make the gameplay feel as close to the original as I could but still take advanced of the Atari ST's hardware. Thus, this is a remake rather than a conversion because I have not used a single piece of the original code. I have spent many hours analysing each level, and I’ve used the original sprites and recoloured them but some needed minor changes to work. The map graphics were changed in a big way, to what I think was the idea was behind each level. I played the MSX version so I could see how the game acts and I also think this is close to the Speccy original.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results and I hope people enjoy playing Manic Miner :-)

Atari ST Music and Game Map

The famous menu screen with its funky music. It's also (kinda) used in the final level.

The first room everyone knows so well and brilliantly reconstructed for the ST!

A confusing level which is actually easier than you think.

Perhaps my favourite level in the entire game. And I've no idea why!

This is the erm, I forget... Oh yes, the 16th level :o)

You cannot tell, but what Peter did with this final screen is legendary!!

This is the level to prove how authentic the game is. Faithfully reconstructed!!

An iconic room and so much fun without being overly difficult.

He's back and dying to be slaughtered once again!

I could never complete this screen as a kid, but it is doable!

Ugh, what is this??? It's a map of our Atari ST game, which you can now download :)

Dungeon

Much thought went into its title!

Dungeon is an adventure released in 1993 by TC Basset for the legends Budgie UK. It uses the Talespin game creator engine, which is something I've personally never encountered before. Upon loading, we are greeted by a creepy dude (with an obvious blood pressure problem), who has an incredible sense of humour. He warns us of the adventure ahead and offers the choice of character, but listen carefully and heed his warnings.

Ultimately, we must battle the evil necromancer, Malik Abdul Aziz, and recover something called The Great Orb of Thoth. The dungeons are straightforward, but infested with hideous creatures, so tread carefully. Hey, it wouldn't be right without monsters! Choose your character wisely, but newcomers are best picking a Warrior or Fighter as they come readily equipped to tackle most beasts. And who doesn't love a free weapon?

With that in mind, let's check out a couple of screenshots of what you're likely to encounter...

No sooner had I begun than the first nasty creature was a blood-dripping zombie. YEAH!!

A couple of steps deeper into the dungeon, and the mother-in-law appears. An old bat!

Then this weird dude appears from the darkness, fancying a piece of me.

Monsters, battles and blood!

You are not alone inside the dark corridors, so stay frosty and be ready for anything freaky that's waiting to jump out: decaying zombies, barbarians, venomous snakes, gnarly bats, and many more hideous creatures are lurking in the shadows. The art of fighting is crudely entertaining and more frequent than you think.

The metallic chinks of your weapons are great, but battles can also be fought magically using potions, and victory ensures a deathly scream - before hearing their bodies crumple to the ground. Each defeated enemy will reveal a hidden treasure chest filled with random goodies, so collect your loot and leggit!! Those that cluck like cowardly chickens may wanna run away? Your choice, but beware, there could be a price to pay...

There's nothing better than exploring a village. Hey, check me out here (and my body)...

The first dingy tunnel takes us into a medieval village.

It actually looks like a nice place. Might stay and enjoy a beer or two?

Mr Muscles is actually me. Yes, me!

Chat and try your luck

Exploration is never a bad idea, so take your time and turn over every stone. Why not chat with the locals? There are interesting characters with super silly personalities, even if conversations are a little shallow. Communication reveals more than you realise, and perhaps you might earn a bob or two and make friends?

A tavern is a safe place to rest and recuperate. Just as with Lure Of The Temptress, they are the place for a chat, and why not order yourself a beer and enjoy a flutter whilst here? Perhaps I had too many beers, but I loved this experience, which constantly entertains with a wicked sense of humour. Those outside this island of ours might not appreciate it, but we Brits always had a daft sense of humour. Well, I had a great laugh!

Fancy a beer? Of course, you do. It's a fact that no man can refuse beer...

  
Being a normal guy, I head straight for the tavern, which opens up a world of new options.

  
I gambled with these likely lads but didn't do very well... Wait a moment, is that a trapdoor I see?

Aesthetics

Graphically, we have a homebrew Dungeon Master wannabe. It's good, well-drawn and often humorous (I believe the funky images were taken from Deltronics' Fantasy Graphic Disk?). I was gobsmacked when the first zombie appeared - to eat my brain - an intense moment lol. Yes, this game has superb pixel art.

There are no atmospheric tunes, but at least the sound effects are all made from samples. These enhance the game's humorous nature: footsteps, knocking doors, groans, and the clang of metal are all good. But it's the horrifying screams that are amazing and make me chuckle. I love the effort gone into this!!

We seem to meet the same type of monster down in a dungeon. Which is great stuff...

Abandon hope all ye who enter here, as each step reveals something scary!

Or even a hideous ... erm ... Viking?

Beat all of them, and then a giant snake appears. Will it ever end?

Sometimes emulation is better than real hardware!

I've never previously experienced a game that uses the Talespin engine, and it's obvious this creator has limits. The problem is an agonising wait between each and (almost) every action, which is quite poor and spoils things somewhat. Oddly, installing it onto a hard drive didn't present much of a benefit.

Every game I play and review is done on my 4MB Atari STe, and I tried my 16MHz Mega STe, but it didn't have the positive effect I'd hoped for. In fact, it made things slightly worse because a few screens suffered palette corruption, and some sound effects didn't play correctly. So, (sigh) I find myself in new territory here, and thus advise using an emulator like Hatari - I sped up those waits by hitting CMD X (Mac).

One final screenshot and it's something no adventurer ever wants to see...

I should have spent more time in the tavern!! At least the great humour remains until the very end.

The CryptO'pinion?

I enjoyed discovering something 'new', and this certainly offered an intriguing adventure filled with silly characters and numerous battles against unearthly creatures. Unfortunately, the Talespin engine itself is slow and lets it down. However, if you can tolerate that, you’ll find this adventure extremely enjoyable.

It has its flaws with that speed, but this is an entertaining and delightful adventure.

Grab yourself the download right now.

Goldrunner

Robb says wow!

It's been a while since I posted something cool in our Music section. So, I went looking for something extra special and then I remembered this gem: a "Dark Rock" remake of the Rob Hubbard original. This completely blew me away!!

Okay, I'll award 100 points to those who can answer this question: What game is this music from? (Noooo, don't look at the post title hehe. Pah, never mind). All credit to Yoshitaka Hojo who you can check out on Soundcloud :)

I'm on the lookout now for other "dark rock" or "darker" remakes of ST tunes...

Yomo

Harrier Attack 

Yomo is an old-skool-styled shoot ’em up by Aaron Fothergill for Mandarin Software. It even managed to place runner-up in the 1989 Games Writer of the Year competition, which is no small feat. I’ve had this one on my bucket list for years, largely because of its 8-bit vibe, which reminded me of games I played as a youngster back in the early '80s. Is anyone else a 50-something and reminded of Harrier Attack?

The action unfolds in a two-dimensional world filled with destructible buildings and an assortment of vehicles, all governed by wonderfully infuriating physics. You play as a tiny stickman tasked with recovering a dodgy nuke dropped behind enemy lines. Naturally, the locals aren’t thrilled about this, and you’re soon under constant attack. They're the baddies, so why not fire off heat-seeking missiles, leap into whatever creaking aircraft happens to be nearby, and cause as much destruction as possible? Going on foot is rarely fun, but if you spot enemy stickmen wobbling across the screen, a quick tap of the fire button will gun 'em down!!

Visually, this is no Bitmap Brothers showpiece, so keep expectations low. The graphics are crude, with tiny sprites and rough scrolling that had my Atari STe crying out in agony. Boy, is the scrolling bad. That said, the sound effects fare much better, with plenty of crunchy samples, the crack of lightning being my favourite.

Yomo is, frankly, a bit pants, yet it’s also undeniably lots of fun. The freedom to jump into almost any aircraft is genius, even if limited ammunition and the fiddly process of resupplying can be maddening in the heat of battle. It’s frustrating and unfair, but if you enjoy blowing things up, Yomo is probably worth your time.

--> DOWNLOAD <--

Rubicon

16-bit games are tough!

21st Century Entertainment released Rubicon in 1992, and is something I've enjoyed for years. It's my kinda game because it's a ludicrous mix of platformer and shoot 'em-up genres. A great run and gunner!! However, I admit I'm also rubbish and fail to reach the third level - sometimes I cannot beat the first!! So, I've whacked on the trainer and played through to the end (watch my video if you don't believe me lol).

Developed by the Fingerbobs, who certainly had a grim view of the future, by 2011, there would have been a nuclear accident which transformed the local wildlife into vicious mutations. Apparently, the situation was so bad that Finland and Russia were evacuated. Okay... It's our mission to kill everything before these creatures find a way to blow us all up!! Tool up, soldier!! So yeah, an original storyline, I'm sure you'll agree?

Hey, wanna see some amazing screenshots? Well, whatever you said, here they are...

Level one introduces us to the unfair mechanics, it's not long before enabling infinite lives!!

It's now that you realise the beautiful artwork too.

I love level two with its enormous enemies and trapdoors, which host something silly.

Oi, pick on someone your own size!!

Right, I'm impressed

The first thing that hits you is the tracker music, which is stereo on the Atari STe and nice (which is high praise from this chiptune guy). Why couldn't other developers go that extra mile? Anyhow, the aesthetics keep on getting better with superb in-game graphics: smooth scrolling across gorgeous landscapes with a wide variety of mutated monsters all intent on killing you. The attention to detail is constantly outstanding, but the animations are hit-and-miss because some are great, whilst others are oddly void of any extra frames.

Sadly, a slowdown occurs when particular (ie, ginormous) enemy sprites are displayed. I must admit that I'm disappointed they didn't also utilise the Blitter along with the DMA - that would have helped with these sprites! Curiously, this framerate drop occurs for unanimated sprites like the Ceratopia, which is surprising after battling a screen-sized skeleton and a squid! But who cares about a little slowdown? Let's play!

I can live with a little slowdown here and there, so let's check out more outstanding screenshots...

Level three continues the theme, but in the snow! That tank driver should have ducked down...

Get out of that tank and fight like a man!

We're Pitfall Harry for level four with sinking stepping stones, spikes and lots of monkeys!

That is gonna hurt...................

I need a big gun!

This game is fun, but throughout the seven levels, it's much the same with different graphics. I loved the last two levels, which reminded me of Thunder Jaws and, of course, Aliens. Our hero has access to lots of weapons, and the single-shot gun initially does the trick well, but it's not long before you need to upgrade to something with a little more muscle because those bigger enemies are nigh on impossible to kill with your peashooter.

Weapons are excellent, but the laser sucks. Thankfully, there are many other weapons to choose from, like the "Scatter" and "Napalm" (my fave). However, we start with zero ammo for everything other than our basic gun, so collect ammo boxes that are periodically dropped in. This isn't bad, but it can be awkward because you must press the required Function Key to choose your desired weapon before making the pickup. I would have preferred random types of ammo dropped to save us from fumbling for the right key before it disappears!!

Nothing makes more sense than a fun and senseless game of killing, so let's see more...

Level five is incredible, with many obscure enemies, so upgrade your weapons!

Check out my flame thrower. Take a closer look!

Level six takes us into deep waters, and I dare anyone not to love every second of this.

I'll kill you and eat you for my dinner. Well, no, I won't, but I sounded macho!

The CryptO'pinion?

Rubicon is fantastic, but doesn't break the mould with any originality. It's stupidly difficult at times, especially on levels two and three. Having said all that, it's another Torvak the Warrior - a game I love to play regularly. I love the action this freakishly weird platform offers - levels six and seven are my favourites.

Rubicon is far from perfect, but it's still bucketloads of fun and definitely worth your time playing.

If you fancy going shirtless and flexing your rippling muscles before taking on the hoard then you have this choice: grab either the floppies or one of these versions for a hard drive: 8BitChip or D-Bug.

The final level has us battling Aliens, Facehuggers, giant eggs, and even the queen herself!!

Alien queen beast! What?? Yowzers!!

Hmm, where have I heard that line before? ;)