MSXdev'17 - The MSX Competition results are in and the winners are...

Once again it's time to give a shout out to the MSXdev’17 competition as we've recently found out, not only are there a lot of awesome games to play, but the competition is officially over with winners announced! Yes indeed after all this time featuring every game in the competition, we are pleased to say that XSpelunker won in the MSX Classic category, ΧΙ∧∃Χ (Zevimodoki) in the MSX Freestyle category, and XSpelunker and Draconic Throne share the MSX Community Prize!

Contradiction - A recommended retro-styled action indie-game!

Are you bored and looking for something to play that doesn't require an emulator or a download on to a work computer? ;) Then look no further than Games by Michi's latest addition of ' Contradiction ', which is not only free to play but you can play it right now in your browser. This game that takes its inspiration from Contra as an action shooter, puts you in control of Commando Billy Lancer of the Contradiction unit on a mission to take down Dr Hiorishita and his bionic horrors!

Thunder Blade - Another remake to enjoy and again on the Pico-8 (Online Playable)

Pooyan isn't the only game to appear on the Pico-8 as a remake, as we've also seen a remake of the 1980's Arcade flight shooter ' Thunder Blade', which was released by Sega and appeared on many different systems such as the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, Sega Master System, TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum and even the Nintendo 3DS! As someone who has played this game all those years ago, it's nice to see such a game on the Pico-8 but the game currently is only an early version 1.

Pooyan Remake - 1980's Arcade game remade for the Pico-8 ( Online Playable )

We haven't featured many Pico-8 or browser based games lately so to change all that here's a lovely little gem developed by David called ' Pooyan Remake '. Now if you haven't heard the name Pooyan before, you'll probably be interested to know it was an Arcade game released in 1982 by Konami, and featured Mamma Pig defending her home and rescuing her baby piglets(Pooyan) from menacing wolves that in the first stage are floating down to get you using balloons.

Juniper Keep Assassins - A retro inspired action platformer that's pretty cool!

Putting aside the homebrew retro games for the moment as we are now looking towards a new action platformer called ' Juniper Keep Assassins ' developed by Crowno for the A Game By Its Cover 2017. This game which I found today, came across as a mix between Switchblade on the Amiga, with a hint of Ninja Gaiden blended with some sort of cute anime look. It features colorful graphics, smooth animations, wall climbing abilities, a great retro inspired chiptune and plenty of enemies to defeat with a variety of moves.

Sewers of d'Oh! - Ultrabrite's Arkanoid inspired game on the Pico-8 is great!

If you remember Arkanoid; an arcade game first developed by Taito in 1986 and Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh in 1987, with the bat like device scrolling from side to side at the bottom of the screen, bouncing an orb back and forth and smashing blocks for a high score, then you are really going to enjoy Ultrabrite's latest Pico-8 and PC browser based game of ' Sewers of D'oh!', which is free to play!

PicoBreed - Alien Breed from the 90's gets a Pico-8 Demake

What do you get if you mix the movie Aliens with an Amiga top down shooter styled to that of Gauntlet? You'd probably get Alien Breed, which was released in 1991 by Team 17 as a fantastic action packed game, that required you to blast away Alien swarms while also trying to find that lift shaft down to the next level. Well if you remember that game, I know I do, you'll be pleased to know gabrielcrowe has done a demake of the game on the Pico-8 as a fun homage to the original.

Dungeon in a Bottle - A very challenging platformer that will keep you coming back for more!

For those of you who are stuck in doors with not much to do and fancy a challenge, then come and check out Andrew Jones and Joe Hanna's acrobatic platformer ' Dungeon in a Bottle ' which is freely available to play online. Originally developed for the Ludum Dare 38 : A Small World, and made in 72 hours, ranking 37th out of 1840. You play as a treasure hunting protagonist sucked into a deadly magic bottle. He must use his acrobatic skill to traverse the dungeon within and escape with as much loot as possible.

Neohabitat - A relaunch of the first MMORPG, originally dev'd for the C64!

Many of you probably didn't know this (I know I didn't) but in 1986 LucasArts, with development by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar, released a beta of the massively multiplayer online RPG of ' Habitat ' for the C64; a first attempt at a large scale commercial virtual community that was graphic based. Each person in this large world had to have a C64 and had to be able to connect via a modem and telephone, which for many probably caused very high phone bills. And on that note today's news is something pretty special, as The Museum of Digital Art and Entertainment have released Neohabitat - a relaunch of the first massively mulitplayer online roleplaying game, Lucasfilm's Habitat.

Mystic Realm Dizzy - Dizzy finally makes an appearance on the Pico-8!

While many of us are still celebrating the 30 year anniversary of Dizzy, and finding it hard to put down the latest Dizzy remake of 'Crystal Kingdom Dizzy' on the ZX Spectrum, we are pleased to share with you a Dizzy game made on the Pico-8 as Mystic Realm Dizzy! Unlike all the fan games that have appeared on the PC and the special remake on the ZX, Dizzy has made an appearance on the Pico-8 and has been made by SophieHoulden with music by gruber (a brilliant pico-8 version of the Amiga Magicland Dizzy theme).

The Story of Zeldo - A love letter to Zelda but on the Pico-8!

It has been some time now since we last featured a Zelda style game, so we set out to change all that by finding one that is both enjoyable to play and is more than a standard fan game. So here we are with 'The Story of Zeldo', a love letter to Zelda, but this time surprisingly enough on the Pico-8 developed by alanxoc3 that is also available to play in your browser!

The Internet Archive adds early Macintosh software to its ever growing library

Some time ago we mentioned some of the best websites to play classic retro systems online. Systems such as the CPC, NES, MSX and loads more were completely playable directly through your browser. One such site called "The Internet Archive" had a massive game list from the 1970's through to the 1990's, all emulated in JSMAME containing hundreds of titles from text based software to games. Well they've just gone one big step further and have now added early Macintosh Emulation to their ever growing archive.

Mystery World Dizzy - The Oliver Twins latest NES announcement gets a full review

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that if you’re reading Indie Retro News, you’re well aware that 8-bit megastar Dizzy has just turned the big 30, so rather than teach granny to, um... never mind, let’s just have a look at the new game shall we? Well, I say new, but in actual fact Mystery World Dizzy was supposed to have been released on the NES way back when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was just a mediocre teen movie, but instead those shrewd Oliver Twins decided it would be better to hide it in a desk drawer until the future came, and release it to hungry fans once 8-bit was cool again. Probably.

Bootyful Demake - 1980s Booty gets a freely playable Pico-8 demake

Way back in 1984 Firebird released the Pirate style Arcade Puzzle game 'Booty' for the Amstrad CPC, C64, Commodore Plus/4, and ZX Spectrum. In this game you played as a cabin boy that has to steal treasure from his pirate masters, which meant avoiding other pirates, parrots and booby trapped treasure. The only way to grab this booty was finding the right keys to the right doors, and of course the final key to complete the game. If you remembered this rather nice game, you'll be pleased to know nate2squared has done a Pico-8 demake, which is also playable in your browser.

AscDungeon - Antonio Marcelo's fabulous ASCII playable platformer

Antonio Marcelo has recently contacted us through our inbox about his latest game ' AscDungeon ', which is not only free to play and available online, but is a platformer made using ASCII! In this ASCII platformer you play as the mighty adventurer warrior Kharlazan, son of Khadar. His tales are told throughout the land in Tavern and Inns, and it's one such story ' Escape from Berdolock's Dungeon ' that YOU will be a part of, a place of dark magic and danger...

Super Mario Bros Pico-8 - Surprisingly decent Demake of a classic on the Pico8!

Throughout the months there have been numerous demakes and retro inspired games released on the cool little handheld the Pico-8 such as Wolfenstein 3D, but this latest demake which is still a work in progress has nearly blown me away. As you can see by the screenshot above, today's game is none other than the hit classic NES game 'Super Mario Bros', which has been partly demade by Sascha217 to fit on the handheld device!

Tetris Mix - 1980's Tetris classic comes over to the Pico-8 as a first preview!

One of the most popular games of all time was a tile-matching, block rotating puzzle video game first released in 1984 which became a huge hit on the Gameboy in 1989.  It just had to be the classic 'Tetris'; a game that caused many people to spend hours playing to the point of addiction. Although we've had numerous clones over the years some of them good and some of them rather bad, today's Tetris is known as ' Tetris Mix ' and is available to play online or on your Pico-8.

Thrust 30 - A truly awesome version of Thrust aims for a Greenlight success

Earlier this month we did a big feature of HayesMaker's Thrust remake known as ' Thrust 30 ' for PC, Mac and Linux. It is a 2D vectored game that celebrated the 30th anniversary of Jeremy Smith's "Thrust", which puts you in control of a fast moving ship that could blast away defences, take out power stations and tractor orbs from deep underground and out into space. Well you'll be pleased to know after our recent feedback saying it was a recommended game with a bloody awesome soundtrack by Matt Gray, it's now going through a Steam Greenlight campaign with a demo that needs all your thumbs up.

Dreamworld Pogie - A 'new' old game by The Oliver Twins gets a Kickstarter

Well this news came as a complete surprise to us, as once again The Oliver Twins has found a game in their rather large and mysterious attic, Dreamworld Pogie. Now many of you may remember Wonderland Dizzy being found as a source code and graphics on a once long lost floppy disk, that needed a ton of work to get it to a final state. But I bet you haven't heard of Dreamworld Pogie! That's because this lovable looking arcade platformer was going to be another side step away from the Dizzy franchise and was due to be released on the NES, but sadly never happened at least until now.

Thrust 30 - Hayes Maker Games celebrates the 30th anniversary of Jeremy Smith's "Thrust"

I'm sure many retro gamers will remember Thrust, which was first published by Firebird Software Ltd and released in 1986. It also originally came on a multitude of systems including the Atari 2600, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Electron, Vectrex, and ZX Spectrum. In fact it was such a popular game, over the years we've had many remakes and ports and this time in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Jeremy Smith's Thrust, Hayes Maker Games with music by legendary C64 composer Matt Gray has made available his version that is playable on PC / Mac or any other HTML5 enabled device!