Christmas Was Better In The 80s!

It should be said at the outset that I possess about as much musical ability as a 16k Spectrum: I can make noises, but under no normal circumstances would they be considered musical. So when I came up with the idea of re-writing a classic Christmas song with a more retro-gaming friendly lyric about an hour before Christmas Eve, it should come as no surprise that it neither rhymes nor scans properly.

2015 Amiga CD32 Christmas Community Compilation Special!

It's nearing the end of 2015 and what a way to go for Christmas day, as we have another Earok Amiga CD32 release! Welcome to the ' 2015 Amiga CD32 Christmas Community Compilation Special', which is jam packed full of 101 games for you load up on that godly console. Following up from last years collection of 50 games or demos recently put out by the community this one aims to be so much better with unreleased games such as Putty Squad and Mutant Leaque Hockey as well as high quality PD games such as Gravity Beam, The Game , Mr Beanbag and much much more!

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM INDIE RETRO NEWS.

Here we are again with another Christmas and what a year it has been, full of incredible indie games, new homebrews, and lots of lost and found retro specials that have amazed even our own writers. From C64 games such as Caren and the Tangled Tentacles, Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade, Sams Journey and Commando Arcade SE, to the Amiga specials such as Blaze, Putty Squad and Smarty & The Nasty Gluttons. But that's not all we've had to enjoy, as we've had month after month of Amiga CD32 conversions thanks to Earok(+team), Amiga - PC releases from our good friends The Company.PL and new ZX Spectrum games such a Knightmare 2 ZX,  Rabbit in Wonderland and the massive high quality Castlevania Spectral Interlude!

Games That Weren't & Onslaught C64 Christmas update 2015!

Oh what a time to have a C64, especially so near Christmas, as Onslaught together with Games that weren't C64 have released probably the biggest load of C64 goodness we've seen this year. It is the ' Games That Weren't Christmas update 2015 ' which packs in some rather eye opening games that have either been lost and found or cracked, fixed and updated. Games such as Flimbo's Quest Preview , Nuker Preview V2 , Worron , Wildfire Preview, Sputnik Preview, Quantarallax Preview and Firefighter Mario, all ready to be played and enjoyed.

Christmas Gift Hunt - Another festive ZX Spectrum release

With less than one week to go till Christmas day when kids go crazy and open their presents, just think back to a time when an 8-bit retro computer is all we wanted. Computers such as the excellent ZX Spectrum, which today has got another homebrew release in the form of a very festive game from Stephen Nichol called ' Christmas Gift Hunt '.

Vectrex - XMAS CART 2015 is now available for order

" Ho Ho Ho ", yes it's that time of year again when all those Christmas games come out for both young and old to have a jolly good time. Today's mention is our very first Vectrex article with the announcement for Binary Star Software's ' XMAS CART 2015 ', which is now available for order priced between £23 and £35. Coming in two different versions such as the regular edition with lovely Santa design, you can also order the limited edition, which differs from the regular edition by including a small LED Christmas tree attached to the cartridge which flashes in response to game events.  These cartridges will be awarded to 5 customers (order numbers will be randomly selected by computer).

Elves' Dreamland - A very Jet Set Willy Christmas release for the Amiga

Another very late mention (1am!) is a brand new homebrew release for the Amiga that really gets you into that Christmas mood. Welcome to ' Elves' Dreamland ' by nittamituaki; a cute and colourful Xmas 2D platformer, designed just for that special time of year.  Featuring 200 items to collect, a lovely Christmas tune and enemies to avoid, Elves' Dreamland was created by the map editor of Jet Set Billy, with all the graphics and music made by nittamituaki himself. But that's not all, as 7 out of 8 levels were actually based on commercial retro games such as Santa's Xmas Caper for Amiga/ DOS,  Plum Duff for the ZX Spectrum and many others!

A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year Amiga release from RGDS Podcast

When I was a teenager I was probably the only one who celebrated Christmas months in advance, I even had Christmas lights up in my bedroom window for Nov 5th, much to my Mothers annoyance. But what I remember the most year in year out, was having my Amiga connected up to a big CRT TV and a Christmas tree on my left hand side *Sobs*. But I'm not the only one who celebrates Christmas early, as Aaron White wanted us to mention his ' A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year Amiga release from RGDS Podcast ' last month. However we agreed to hold it back at least until December, and with just about three weeks to go, here is Aaron Whites next Amiga album, with 10 classic tracks for you and your family.

Christmas Chaos Dizzy - Dizzy and his pals feeling very festive!

A very Christmas release today, even though it's not Christmas, as Adam Markey (Adz.M) has released his very latest festive Dizzy game ' Christmas Chaos Dizzy '. A fan based Dizzy release featuring many of the Yolkfolk villagers in the Kingdom of Zakeria. You once again play as Dizzy on another adventure, and with the lands covered in snow you decide to do some exploring. But little does he know that his exploration soon leads to a series of tasks with characters to talk to, puzzles to solve, and nasty things to avoid such as rodents and traps.

Xmas Crazy +5 - Homebrew Arcade fun cracked by Excess for C64

You can just tell it's Christmas with all these lovely festive games being released, and one which caught our eye was the latest crack by Excess of a 2005 Christmas game "Xmas Crazy". A difficult game indeed, but still fun, as you drop the coloured gifts into the same coloured boxes. Just watch out for the evil character on the other side shooting at you.

Target Renegade (101% +7DG +Pic) - Beat em up classic cracked for the C64

Here's a great Christmas gift for all you C64 owners, as Hokuto Force has cracked Target Renegade; a side scrolling beat em up classic from the 1980's. Originally released by Ocean Software on their "Imagine" label this was probably one of the best beat em ups of it's time and is also noted by it's brilliant sound track. Thanks to Hokuto you can watch the cool intro, play with very smooth precise controls and cheat to your hearts content with the trainer!

X-bEnCh - One of the best Amiga launchers 0.99 XMAS pre-release!

Yes I know we said we wouldn't be back till after Christmas, but when the announcement of the latest Xmas pre-release of X-bEnCh 0.99 hit our news box we just had to shout it out. For those of you who has an Amiga with an internal CF or can play WHDload games through WinUAE, this a launcher your Amiga will thank you for. Developed by JimNeray, X-bEnCh is one of the best Amiga launchers that has many other cool features as well. It can autoscan your hard drive to find all the whdload games available and organize them in an easily usable list. X-Bench can also manage manual listings, internal script systems and has an integrated CLI. The best thing is though, that this launcher uses very little resources and is compatible with many Amiga set ups. A highly recommended launcher for the Amiga and it's free! See change log for latest details

Merry Christmas from Indie Retro News!

What a great year it has been, full of cool retro products for us to review such as the SD2IEC, C64SD, Mega Everdrive and the C64p. We've also come across some fantastic Amiga titles, from the hard drive installable Ambermoon and Evil's Doom to the PC playable Amiga titles from The Company.PL and of course not forgetting the Amiga Earok CD32 releases. Also new to us this year was our huge interest in the Homebrew scene, the Amstrad, Amiga,C64 and even the ZX Spectrum. We've even put some free titles on our site for the retro fans like Eye of the Beholder and even Shannara!

Let us also not forget our new affiliates which joined us including, CIA,Dungeon Crawlers, GOG.COM to FireFlower Games & Photon Storm. It has also been a year of Kickstarter games and brilliant Indie titles, especially the latest Cinemaware overhauls with Wings and the latest Rocket Ranger Reloaded. I'm also hugely grateful to our staff who write up some lovely articles, from Alistair, David, Dan, Illisia and the rest of our fine team. But to end the article for our Christmas holidays, a huge thanks to every one of our readers that visit us from around the world, especially those of you who follow us on our Facebook pages (Dizzy, Dungeon Crawlers & Indie Retro News) and Twitter.

Above all I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year! See you after Christmas :)

Atomic Santa : Christmas Omega - Christmas platforming fun

You can tell it's Christmas with all those lovely Christmas tunes on the radio and flickering coloured lights in the windows, but what if the North Pole was nuked and poor Santa and Rudolph killed in the blast. Well that's exactly what has happened in the Atomic Santa: Christmas Omega game from Jay Tholen. You play as Santa himself, given new life by the elves in a submerged facility after an attack by the Illuminati. Santa is ready to kick ass in this latest Action Platformer release and thankfully Rudolph even has a nose laser beam!

Santa vs. The Meanies: Present Defender - Retro classic with a Christmas theme

In 1981 Williams Electronics released Defender, an all time classic multi-directional arcade shooter featuring 2D graphics as you defeat waves of aliens while protecting astronauts on the surface. But what if I told you there was a more recent title that turned the game on it's head with a Christmas theme? Welcome to "Santa vs. The Meanies: Present Defender"  by psychicparrot, where you play as Santa stopping waves of Meanies from pinching the presents out of the houses that he's just delivered to!

Super Retro TRIO Console - 3 in one retro system NES / SNES / Genesis / Megadrive (HARDWARE REVIEW)

Moving on from the Amstrad's, the C64's and the ZX Spectrum, today we are going to look at a rather cool retro based console sent to us by funstock, who previously sent us the Commodore 64 : A visual Commpendium. This is the Super Retro TRIO developed by Retro-Bit; an impressive looking (NES / SNES / Genesis/Megadrive - 3 in 1 System ), that can play those old console games without actually having to switch consoles. Today we are going to give you that hardware review and give our final opinion from both myself Neil and my other staff writer David.

Retro Asylum Christmas - Aaron White's great Christmas Amiga Album

Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away.... Ok I'll stop singing now, but Aaron White (@aaronub4t on twitter) has just sent me an ADF copy of his compilation of great pro-tracker Christmas tunes (Retro Asylum Christmas) which are a collection of tracker songs that are sure to be very festive for the upcoming season of Santa and Snow.

International Karaoke + - Christmas comes early for the C64!

Jingle Bells and most of the Christmas greats are now available to play through an International Karaoke + software for your C64! Listen to the best in Christmas SID music as you try to sing your way through the word based lyrics and keep up with your friends. Featuring songs such as Greensleeves, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree and more! Released by Digital Express, this is one of the best C64 Karaoke releases by far!

Snowbrawl in HELL - Indie Arcade game based on the 8bit classic Hunchback

Game Type : Arcade
Developer : Jay Griffin
Game Info Quote : Just a fun little free mini-game, compliments of the season. Inspired by the old UK classic 8-bit favorite, "Hunchback"
Release : Now, Free
Systems : PC,Ouya, Browser Based

Happy Christmas to all!

I would just like to wish everyone that comes to Indie Retro News a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope you all have a great time of playing some fantastic games either Retro or Indie and continue to visit my little home. I'll still be posting on and off, however much of my time will be spent with family and giving out the presents. So to sign off just for now, don't panic! Here's some Christmas 8-bit remixes :)