Here we are with another shout out for this classic game called Castlevania, as I have been informed through Facebook, that Thelen is still working on a pretty stunning looking Castlevania game for the Atari XL/XE VBXE called Catslevania. A new version of the game, that looks graphically superior since its first tease way back in 2022. To coincide with this news, Saberman has done a new gameplay video which gives us another look at this early development!
Castlevania was and still is an incredible action platformer, that even today can be played via emulation or through an NES and give you hours worth of enjoyment. Now however thanks to Thelen, not only can you try out the latest build of the game for the Atari XL/XE as shown by the video above, but when finished if you have a VBXE it will hopefully be the next best thing for fans of Castlevania. For further information make sure to check out the forum thread here which has more details of the development including the work in progress version download.
I have mixed feelings about this, to the point I'm not even sure games like this qualify as "Retro Gaming". VBXE is a piece of modern hardware, that's essentially a fantasy console, like Spectrum Next, Commander X16 and Aquarius+, which has little in common with original hardware and is several orders of magnitude more powerful than anything available in 80s and 90s.
ReplyDeleteJust look at the Amiga and the pistorm, with some games requiring such power. As long as games are still developed for stock hardware too, I'm happy :)
Delete... indeed VBXE probably "improves a bit too much" the original HW:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZilR5dq7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGct75y1R-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BeMQe7yBmQ
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o51S_ylNP4A
😮🤔
VBXE brings the A8s graphics chip up to around the Amiga level, but everything is still driven by the 8 bit CPU. Not my cup of tea, but still very much in the "retro" area of capabilities, imho.
DeleteIn an alternate reality, I wish this board was integrated into the XE's when the were released. I probably wouldn't have bought an Amiga, but back to reality the whole idea of retro demos and games being produced in the 21st century is to push those 80s machines to new limits.;
DeleteThe first VBXE game that makes me want VBXE for my 65XE. Looking really, really good.
ReplyDeleteVBXE dates back to 2006, so it's retro too.
ReplyDeleteGive it a slightly higher resolution and it’d not even look like an 8-bit game any more. Does my 800XL want this? Hmmm.
ReplyDelete