Homebrew
Jason Kelk rummages through the latest games from hobbyist creators
There’s been some multiplatform competition news this past month, specifically the Retrokomp competition. This was its second outing and 11 entries were released over a range of platforms, with the top position taken by Tower Of Rubble 64 which is a fast-paced action game where a small figure must survive for as long as possible, avoiding and climbing onto blocks that tumble into the play area. Every now and then a laser beam will appear which must also be avoided.
The Amiga did well out of this event; both Mink Gold Return and Magazyn are single-screen, maze-based challenges, with the former being about high-speed collecting action and the latter, which is a preview for the moment, taking its cues from the venerable Sokoban. Aminer features an advanced mining machine which tunnels downwards in search of precious metals and gemstones with only the occasional break to refuel and drop off its precious cargo, while Choctris is a Tetris clone with some very slick presentation. On top of those there was also an Amiga CD32 release, Pong 4K is a rendition of the classic bat-and-ball game which has undergone a graphical overhaul and features Cd-based audio tracks in the background.
Super Nutmeg is a scrolling platform game for the Dreamcast which contains some very nice graphics and Amigalike soundtracks during play, while Zwierciadlo – which translates as ’mirror’ from Polish – is on the Sharp MZ and challenges the player to lead two avatars to their on-screen goals with just one set of controls. Kikstart.me.uk/ retrokomp-2018 has further information on the entries and relevant download links, although some of these titles are still considered to be works in progress by their developers.
One of the more surreal releases we’ve come across recently has to be Rogue Burger One for the C64; it’s a flip-screen action game and the instructions on the title page boil things down to ‘don’t die, pick up stuff, shoot other stuff’ – that’s perfectly serviceable, of course, but does manage to skip over a few details, such as the player being in control of a flying hamburger. It also serves as a practical demonstration of programmer Leuat’s Turbo Rascal integrated development environment. That’s currently not complete, but there’s enough features working to actually program C64 games or indeed demos, so this may well be something for the programmers reading to keep an eye on. Go to Kikstart.me.uk/ burger-one-c64 for more info.