Here we are with another hot news story with the release of Broken Altars, a unique game for the Commodore 64 by prominent homebrew developer drmortalwombat. Combining resource management with tactical reconstruction, the game introduces a standout feature rarely utilized on vintage hardware: native mouse support. While Broken Altars is uniquely optimized to deliver its best experience using a mouse and keyboard setup, the developer has ensured that standard 8-bit configurations are fully supported. Players who prefer a traditional experience can easily navigate the entire game using just a classic joystick, or a joystick paired with a keyboard.
In this archaeological adventure, players step into the boots of Fumbling Fred, a celebrated scholar of antiquity. Fred is highly regarded in academic circles for his uncanny ability to piece together ancient ruins using incredibly vague, highly questionable historical records. While his scholarly achievements have earned him prestigious laurels, Fred is equally notorious for "discreetly" keeping a portion of the treasure he unearths. Flush with undisclosed cash and official institutional funding, Fred embarks on his grandest mission yet: restoring sixteen ancient altars that were reduced to rubble millennia ago.
The gameplay loop balances field excavations with strategic puzzle-solving:
- The Campaign: Players begin their journey equipped with nothing but a standard, low-tier pickaxe to dig up gold and scattered fragments of the monuments.
- The Marketplace: In between excavation runs, players can visit an in-game shop to spend their hard-earned currency on advanced tools.
- The Reconstruction: To progress through the game's 16 levels, players must purchase ancient papyri. These scrolls reveal the original architectural layouts of the altars, allowing Fred to properly assemble the collected stone shards and unlock the next stage.
This is actually an impressively inventive game. Like all of drmortalwombat's games of late, you start with nothing and have to power up your tools and abilities.
ReplyDeleteThe music is not very noteworthy. I was glad I could turn it off. Sadly, there are no sound effects, so I play in silence.
Even though I don't enjoy isometric-like games, I am so impressed with what drmortalwombat's made here.
As usual the game is made and released in silence, without any of the fanfare we're used to these days. This game, however, seems to have been released without game-breaking bugs.
You toggle between Music, Music+Fx,Fx and mute so maybe you just need to keep toggling to get the sound fx
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