Fancy a bit of free indie gaming? Well check out the whopping selection of 92 games at Gamejolt
http://gamejolt.com/community/contests/
There something for everyone here for Windows, Mac, Flash and HTML5.
The games that I’ve been enjoying are -
Panic Room
Chaotic Mushrooms
Spectrum
…and Invasion: Chaos in the Streets.
This one popped up in my inbox this evening and as there’s been quite a bit of arcade fun going on here over the last weekend, I thought only fitting to give this one a whirl…..and rather cool it is too.
Totally Tiny Arcade – PC (Win) -
As Johnny Joystick, you’ve got 12 minutes to save your arcade from an invading virus, better get in there and sort it out pronto then.
In the arcade, you’ll get to play all manner of fun and familiar arcade games as you race against the clock. Survive that to gain access to the secret room and the final arcade game.
Great gameplay, some really neat touches, (especially on the last game) and an 80′s style soundtrack. Perfect!
Here’s the trailer -
http://totallytinyarcade.com/video.php
You’ll need to wear your extra strength glasses for his one - Jet Set Willy meets Little Computer People in a one screen Mini Willy platform adventure.
Can you find my Willy? 
A-ha, there I am on the right. Although I think I’m going to need some help if I’m going to get through this.
Much better.
Basically, you make your way around the level, jumping and avoiding all the moving nasties and traps whilst collecting the various items dotted around the place – Collect them all to win the game. You’ll die often (or is that just me?) but thankfully there’s a couple of handy checkpoint flags along the way so you won’t have to restart all the way from the very beginning.
It’s quite a nice challenging mini game and one that’ll get you swearing at the screen a few times. Once you get the hang of it, it sh….dammit, dead again!
This is one of a handful of retro inspired (Windows)games by Trevor Story and it’s well worth checking out some of his other releases at - http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/
If you have time this weekend I highly recommend checking out the remake of the C64 hit Aztec Challenge.
Happy Gaming
A couple of game related items worth noting if you haven’t already picked up on these.
Firstly, it looks the the utterly brilliant Fez is finally making its way to PC via Steam with the possibility of Linux and Mac, Ouya (have been following this project for some time now) and iOS versions to follow.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1aj74m/i_am_phil_fish_cocreator_of_fez_ask_me_anything/
I played Fez on my mates Xbox360 after watching Indie Game:The Movie - http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/ to see what all the fuss was about got instantly hooked. Not having an 360 myself, I’m really looking forward to PC release on May 1.
Secondly, a rumour maybe, but there’s an interesting story circulating the interweb regarding the possibility of a new Strider game (XBLA/PC).
Extra, extra, read all about it - http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/19/4122726/strider-game-allegedly-headed-to-xbla-and-pc
Hmm, well this week hasn’t produced much in the way of free game time as it’s all been work, work work. Still, here’s a couple that’s been keeping me entertained this week.
Now apart from a handful of coin-op conversions and messing around with one at the Retro Computer Museum, I’m not overly versed in all things PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 therefore more often than not, I’ll just dive into the archive and see what I can find. This week I came up with a colourful cartoon shooter and so catchy it is, I’ve not been able to get the stage tunes out of my head.
PC Dengin/Air Zonk – PC Engine (1992)
Air Zonk sure is one fine side scrolling shooter. Apparently it’s a spin off of the popular Bonk series of games, again one I’m not overly familiar with these other than the conversion of Bonk’s Adventure on the Amiga (BC Kid).
Air Zonk is colourful, full of cartoon like characters, cool and unusual weapon upgrades, a buddy system where you can fight alongside a computer controlled sidekick ( you can can also ‘interface’ with them to form a super badass Air Zonk!) has some equally weird and wonderful end of level bosses and a whole bag of foot tapping chip tune goodness.
Air Zonk sporting his yellow Z punk do and some of his sidekick friends.
No time to check out those smooth multilayer parallax scrolling backgrounds, there’s a rocket man to take down.
I’ve got no idea what it is, but stay away from that magnet, after all you’re part metal!
One of my favourite power-up weapons, the chomping teeth. Hold down the fire button for a few seconds to unleash a ‘super chomp’ – well, that’s what I’m calling it anyway. Also note the sidekick cat.
I’ve now morphed with the cat to become ‘super happy feline punkbuster turbo’. Weapons switched to furball ‘Bow’ mode.
The only problem I’ve got with Air Zonk is that everything is all fun right up until the last stage – Land of Drool. Not that there’s anything wrong with this stage, it’s just that it’s soooo long and made up of multiple fights with all the previous level bosses, some mini stages then more boss fights, more stages and then a super boss. It’s very easy to loose all your precious lives you’ve been building up and one single boss and if you do, you’ll have to start the whole stage again….a tad frustrating but I’ll keep at it as this is one I’d love to finish.
Here’s a quick peek at the game with the tune from stage one playing out.
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I wasn’t sure about this web/flash based retro puzzle game but the more I got into it and figured out what you had to do it really starts to grow on you.
GunBrick – Web/Flash - http://www.kongregate.com/games/Nitrome/gunbrick
That’s you there…that yellow, white and blue brick.
Press left/right cursor to roll your brick. Hmm, how to get up to that platform above?
Press the Spacebar and you’ll release a fireball and note the kickback will lift you in the air. So, with this new skill, roll left or right to position under a platform and shoot your way up to the top.
I’m gonna let you figure out the rest as that part of the charm of Gunbrick.
Those pesky red guns will fire a steady stream of red blobs of death. Thankfully, the top of your brick (the white bit) is immune to these blobs so point in the right direction and time your movement.
I’ve just rolled over the blue switch which will open the exit for me. But first I’ve got to figure out how to get past this gun turret.
Breaking on through.
I really like Gunbrick, it fun, challenging and contains super sized retro pixels, what’s there not to like..hmm, the music might get a little irritating but other than , it’s a damn fine game.
One most certainly like freebies, especially when its a collection of damn fine indie PC games- Even more so if it includes the hypnotic ‘Zinith’.
The free bundle chaps are back with their second offering of (mainly Windows) based games which you can download and play for absolutely zip.
This particular bundle ends (at the time of writing) in just over 7 days time so head on over to http://www.thefreebundle.com/ at some point soon and take a look at what’s on offer.
Going back to Zinith for a second, checkout the gameplay video below and then imagine playing it, lights off on that big TV you have in the living room…or even a projector. Funky stuff indeed.
Heavy Snow has been causing so much chaos on the road this week especially during the commute to and from work – nearly two and a hours stuck on the M1 one day 
So with free time a little on the short side, so has my game time for week #2.
One game that I have started to re-re-re-re-visit (yup, everyone has played this one) is Super Mario World on the SNES.
SMW is pure fun whether you’ve got five hours or just five minutes to kill and has been the perfect game companion this week. I was spurred on to take another look at this beginning of the week after finding a free web based SNES emulator on the Google Chrome Web Store – thinking it would save me time getting my Snes out of storage and setting it up. Hmm, I can’t seem to locate the URL any more so i guessing Nintendo’s lawyers had a word? Any-ho, there was a whole collection of Mario based games but to be quite honest the emulator sucked and ran so slowly that SMW was practically unplayable.
So, my SNES came out after all and I’ve been dipping in and out of it all week.
I was doing great and racking up quite a collection of lives on the the early stages. but things have started to heat up in the Vanilla Dome. Dome 3 and 4 has really took some beating and am currently fighting with my controller on Lemmy’s castle.
No doubt SMW will see we well into next week and beyond. I’ve only ever completed it once and compared to say SMB3 it’s not as tough…..still, I must be rusty as it’s certainly giving we a whippin this time around.
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Lunch break gaming has been well catered for this week with this a rather simple yet most excellent Flash based, dual stick shooter – Retro Assault - http://www.kongregate.com/games/Zyzic/retro-assault
Controls – check, know thy enemy – check, got my ‘bits’ wallet ready – check. Lets begin.
It all starts off reasonably slow until Wave four when those pesky blue arrow shaped thingiess hone in on your position. Run, shoot and survive until the orange timer bar at the bottom of the screen is depleted.
Level over, time to spend those ‘bits’ on upgrade’s you’ll need em!
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During the week, my mate Max released a beta demo of Cosmic Ark for the Commodore 64. It’s a conversation of the Atari 2600 game by Imagic and is coming along quite nicely and is just as addictive as the original.
There’s still a few bugs to be ironed out but if you fancy a go, you can download the release at CSDB.
http://csdb.dk/release/?id=114953
Pilot your drone ship and rescue the inhabitants with your tractor beam. Don’t stray into the path of the defence towers on the left and right as your mission will be very short lived.
Return to the mothership and repel those planet destroying asteroids.
Cosmic Ark, might look a little basic, but at it core is damn fine arcade game. Being a friend of the author makes it that little bit more special and I’m sure that high score competitions will be played out at many RCM gaming days to come.
Just for fun I created a mock cartridge for Cosmic Ark for Max in Photoshop using a picture of my C64 Simons Basic cartridge and the box art from the Atari 2600 game. I’ve colour matched the box art to the cart , embossed the layer and merged using blur, clone, smudge tools. Pretty crap I know but was fun to do all the same.
Hopefully, more game time next week!
Here’s a new section for my blog (see I’ve even created a shiny new category for it on the right hand side) which will list some of the games that’s been keeping me entertained over the previous week. I wanted to start something like this here at the beginning of January but, well with one thing and another, time just slipped by.
Most of the games listed will be pretty much from older computers and consoles as well as the odd indie games, low-fi causal games and those from the homebrew scene for classic systems. I don’t really play any modern PC games or own any modern console hardware and much prefer those with chunky pixels as you’ve probably gathered if you’ve been catching some of my posts on my blog.
These lists aren’t going to feature huge reviews or anything like because quite frankly I can’t spel 
Maybe a few words and the odd picture or video in the hope that you’ll want to investigate further via a proper website or indeed jog the old noggin into thinking about and old classic you haven’t visited in a while.
Right here goes.
Friday saw the release of an update to Capcom’s Street Fighter X Mega Man game and if you missed it and happen to be a NES Megaman fan then you’re in for a treat….a treat that also happens to be free as well.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man
Now I totally suck at Megaman games on the NES (in fact, is anyone good at these games?) and I remember the Nintendo Gameboy version getting quite a bit of verbal abuse back in the day.
Street Fighter X Megaman is just as balls hard as the originals and I’m finding that I’m not getting very far at it at all…..yet, I just can’t seem to put the thing down, it’s so addictive
Top tip, the level against Blanka seems to be a good starting point as this (and Blanka) is fairly easy to complete.
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Carmageddon – DOSbox/iOS
Still causing Max Damage with the re-released by GOG edition of the classic PC games as well as the updated iPad edition. The first level is still the best and gruesome of them all
Pitch invasion!
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Nano Ninja – web
http://www.newcave.com/game/nano-ninja
A fun little flash game which uses just one control and with it you must guide your ninja left & right and try to figure out how best to utilise this one control to overcome each obstacle.
Moon Buggy – Commodore 16
I’ve played so many versions of Moon Buggy and it’s numerous clones on many systems but am thoroughly enjoying the simple yet hugely playable version on the Commodore 16….and for a C16 game it actually looks and scrolls pretty damn smooth too.
Solar Quest – Vectrex
This plays much better on the real hardware with it’s analogue joystick but my Vectrex is tucked away at present so I’ve been messing around with Solar Quest via the iPad Vectrex app and my iCade. It’s a simple game where you shoot, avoid and collect your bounty all under the gravitational pull of the centre star.
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Moderate Retribution – ZX Spectrum
A brand new game released for never ageing Speccy and quite a nice little shoot em up it is too.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0028022
Gruesome fun this time around with another Flash based game I’ve been playing just lately.
Be the bad guy, unleash a deadly virus that turns it’s victims into a plague of zombies in your quest for world domination mwah ha ha – (secret base and white cat are optional).
Starting off with limited funds to increase your virus potency, unleash it on to smaller villages and towns to help fund your new hobby. Each kill rewards cash and as your virus grows, you can attempt to take on the big cities.
After selecting a destination, unleash the virus with a simple mouse click and stand back and watch your monster go to work. Move the mouse cursor around to collect the rewards. (The game starts off with a handy tutorial level so you can get the hang of it but all is pretty simple really).
Spend small amounts of money on research to increase zombie speed, infection rate, resistance to gun tottin army folk or plump for bigger investments that will help spread the virus more quickly. Alternatively, how about a handful of grenades to knock out government security forces? Later on and with enough money you can even unleash different type of zombie. Woooo!
My baby has grown and ready to be released on Cape Town (sorry Cape Town, no offence!)
Run for your retro 8-Bit style lives, you can’t escape – mwah ha ha HAAAAA!
The gruesome news is recorded by the media.
Africa falls, South America here we come.
If you’ve got a few minutes, unleash your darker side and play Infectonator:World Domination.
Phew, a bit of a crazy week at work in the land of I.T. so free time in the evenings has been a bit sparse these past few days. Still… in need of a gaming fix now an again, I’ve opted for a spot of casual gaming and have been thoroughly enjoying this , flash based bullet hell shooter called Frantic.
You get to pick one of the available three crafts at the beginning of the game ranging from those with greater fire-power, speed or shield. I prefer the first one as it’s low profile makes it a bit easier to duck and dive around the (lots) of incoming fire.
Control is via mouse or w,a,s,d keys – fire is auto.
Frantic needs no explanation, just blast away picking up the odd weapons/health upgrade until reaching the end of level boss. Each downed foe will leave behind gold coins. Pick these up as you can use these to buy further upgrades between levels,
One of the many end of level bosses. Remembering the five rules of Dodgeball will help here
Time to spend all that lovely dosh. What shall it be? – increased shield power, health replenish or kick ass side missiles?
Quoting Mr Palpatine – ‘wipe them out…all of them’
You might have noticed that blue bar in on the left. With each enemy craft you destroy, this bar will fill up until full anf the little ‘lightning’ icon is lit. Hit the Spacebar or Mouse button to activate your time limited super-weapon and smite away.
Frantic really is a gem of a game which plays really well and looks great with it’s minimalistic style. Of course, there’s also the benefit of it being online without the need to install (other than flash of course!).
Great fun and well worth checking out -
http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Frantic.html
If you haven’t sampled the delights of new/old school arcade shooter ’Squid Yes, Not so Octopus’, ‘Death Ray Manta’ or ‘War Twat’ (see previous blog post – http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/pc-indie-gamingbagfull-of-wrong/ then now’s you’re chance as you can pick then all up in one collection for just $1 until the end of Dec. All are DRM free and flippin well fantastic!
Go check them out, you won’t be disappointed.
http://bagfullofwrong.co.uk/bagfullofwords/1463-2/
Had a browse around the Google web app store this lunchtime in search of a casual game and I stumbled across this one.
Flash Doom 2D
Yup, someone has gone and made a homage to classic Doom and turned it into a classic 2D platformer……and rather run it is to play too!
You know the story by now, blast everything, survive, locate the keys to open the doors and find the exit.
It’s got the original weapons and all our favourite nasties are here too. I’m loving the 2D pinkies
Controls are cursor LEFT/RIGHT for movement, UP for jump, SPACE to jump and CTRL (or mouse click) to shoot. Keys 1-9 will swap weapons (when collected) or alternatively 0 will auto swap for the best weapons
IDKFA doesn’t work
Here’s a vid of the game in action, although it was less stutters when I played it myself.
I really getting into the indie arcade games by Rob D. Fearon just lately. They’re loud, bright, twitch-tastic old school shooters that wouldn’t go amiss in a full size arcade cabinet today.
I received these as an extra unlockable in the Deep Space Bundle (now finished) but if you missed it, you can grab these games in the Bagfull of Wrong collection from Roberts own website for a mere 3.99 (or pay more if you wish too…go on…he deserves it).
Death Ray Manta – Blow stuff up to earn points, avoid other stuff, rinse and repeat all played out to a cracking 80′s-esque tune. This game will leave patterns of light dancing around your eyeballs long after you’ve stopped playing it! A real gem and great fun indeed. Definitely one of those ’one-more-go’ kinda games.
Squid Yes, not so Octopus – Superb game title only knocked of the spot by one of Rob’s other game – War Twat (surely the best video game title ever?).
So what do you have to do in this game then?…. Well, blow stuff up, earn points and avoid stuff Again single stick pure arcade heaven and with a background track that sounds flipping awesome-ness. It’s like being transported back to a busy arcade hall of the 1980′s. I especially like the option to toggle on the arcade background complete with phosphor pixel blur.
Fishfishbangbang – Inspired by Bedlam on the MB Vectrex, this game see you standing alone spinning 360 degrees repelling advancing enemy….here they come, how long can you survive?
There’s plenty more action available in this collection and you really must take a look if you long for the thrill of classic arcade gaming. Extra awesome-ness points awarded if you play any of these to Van Halen set to number 11.
‘Syder Arcade is a free scrolling multi directional shoot ‘em up. A love letter to ’90 games for the Amiga and PC. An uncompromised old-school experience, a furious, challenging action game that will bring you back in time, when games were all about skill and perseverance… and also madly swearing at your computer.’
They’re certainly not wrong about that last bit, Syder Arcade is one tough cookie I’m still battling my way through level two.
I picked up Syder Arcade as part of the the Green Light Bundle and has been sitting on my to play pile as i slowly get through some of the other indie gaming bundles….why do they make them so good
A perfect game for a rainy Saturday afternoon.
In the graphics option, you’ll find a whole heap of filters which you can apply so that you can play the game in old school CGA, VGA and Mono mode.
There’s even filters for Commodore 64, Vic 20,ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amiga and Apple classic too.
;
…and without a ram pack too
;
;
ZX Spectrum mode….my eyes!
Although the Greenlight bundle is over, you can still download the playable demo or purchase the game for Mac/Windows from the developers website – http://www.studioevil.com/
Top notch stuff indeed.
I purchased the latest indie bundle called Deep Space when i was away a few days ago as i didn’t want to miss out on such a great bundle. I’ve been trying out some of the games this evening, but being a classic Commodore fan, there’s one title i wax looking forward to seeing again.
Its Armalyte of course, and this bundle includes the awesome-ness remake of the classic C64 game that was released by Psytronik a few years ago. I’ve had this before but for the life of me I can’t remember what I’ve done with the CD and so the inclusion of it alongside some more the cracking space themed arcade games was the perfect incentive to throw down a few quid.
So here I am, eager to give it another whirl but and having a few issues with it. In the event that you buy this game bundle and have the same issue, this might help.
