Mag the Magician - A ZX Spectrum Homebrew review!

In the village of Telerin the wise rule, the wise can do magic, and only they have the recognition. But Mag is not a wise man, and they will not let him be unless he recovers the five pages of the great book of spells. So begins the latest release from Spanish homebrewers Radastan: Mag the Magician.

May the Fourth be with you: Star Wars Retrogaming

Well, it’s that time of year again when we all suddenly become sci-fi nerds and amusingly misquote Star Wars for 24 hours, so to celebrate the geek in-joke turned global holiday that is Star Wars Day, we present a quick round-up of some unofficial (and frequently rubbish) Star Wars related retrogaming you may or may not be aware of.

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.

Ooze - A slime filled ZX Spectrum Homebrew Review

Regular visitors will have seen Andy Johns' latest Spectrum homebrew previewed here over the last few weeks; well, the Ooze is out of the jar now and all over my Spectrum - but that's another story. What's important here is that the game has just been released, and it turns out to be quite an entertaining way to pass an hour on a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Saboteur spawns sci-fi comedy ebook: The Kempston Interface

It’s an age-old question: where can I find retrogaming inspired fiction featuring a sentient ZX81 and a hi-vis ninja? Well, thankfully, a Sinclair reviewer of this parish Steve Trower, has provided the answer: in The Ambivalence Chronicles - a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits.

Crappy Crates - A very festive ZX Spectrum Review by Steve Trower

Well it's almost Christmas, and you know what that means, right? You got it, it means there's some poor chav working overtime in a warehouse somewhere, possibly for a company with a river-based name, we don't know. He's constantly shuffling boxes from remote corners of a warehouse into the despatch area, while being chased by giant Christmas puddings, weird little aliens and that big blue monster out of Sesame Street, mumbling something about crappy crates while his supervisor is out of earshot.

Stela II - The Secrets of Doctor Malfario - Steve Trower's latest review of a new ZX Spectrum game

When our illustrious editor said he was sending round a Stella or two, I was fully expecting a Christmas bonus fresh from the Artois brewery in Belgium. Obviously he realised that wouldn't make for a particularly relevant review, so instead I got Stela II, fresh from La Moderna software house in Spain.

The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits

And now for something completely different: The Chip Whisperer - Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - is a science fiction comedy story by IRN's occasional Sinclair reviewer, Steve Trower, released as a kindle ebook. The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits, is the retrogaming inspired, time-travelling, dimension-jumping tale of an ordinary retro collector who sets out to buy a ZX81 on eBay, and instead finds himself mixed up in the shady shenanigans of the mysterious Assembly of Newly Uplifted Systems.

Thanatos - The ultimate 80's Dragon flight simulator? (Review)

Today's review will take us back into the mists of time, to an age of myth and magic, of sword and sorcery, of dragons and knights fighting over a fair maiden. Back, specifically, to 1986, where Mike 'The Knight' Richardson was defending the Kingdom of Durell against the forces of the underworld, assisted by his tame dragon, Thanatos the Destroyer.

Ghostbusters - A Ghostly ZX Spectrum Retro Review by Steve Trower!

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your retro gaming room? Have you or your family ever seen a bad reboot of a classic 80s movie? If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals... Ghostbusters

Universal Hero - ZX Spectrum Retro Review by Steve Trower

Far back in the mists of ancient time, spirits were brave, the stakes were high; men were real men, women were real women, and Sinclair ZX Spectrums were real Sinclair ZX Spectrums. And thus was Ultimate's Jetpac forged. This, though, is not Jetpac's story; rather, this is the story of one of the games it inspired: Universal Hero, released by Mastertronic in 1986.

Hopper - ZX81 Retro Review by Steve Trower

In the early 80s, when video games were just starting their migration from the arcades to the living room, it was common for games programmers to take their inspiration from the more popular arcade games, and so we ended up with a million and one variations on Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Frogger - and landing fairly obviously in Frogger's pond is Hopper, released for the 16K ZX81 by Personal Software Services (PSS) in 1982.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ gets an Indiegogo campaign

Just a few short months after Clive Sinclair's latest offering, the ZX Spectrum Vega, was released, the crowdfunding campaign for its successor has begun. The team at Retro Computers Ltd, with the backing of Sir Clive and Sky (now owners of Amstrad's intellectual property rights), have taken all the good stuff that went into the original Vega and added an 'increased colour palette', stereo sound and a built in LCD screen to make an improved and truly portable Sinclair experience.

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.

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Stunt Car Racer

Stunt Car Racer is a 3D racing game by Micro Style, released in 1989 on all the main platforms of the time, and as a budget title three years later on the Kixx label. The action takes place on a raised roller-coaster style track, such that had this come attached to a Hot Wheels licence no-one would have been surprised. Your car is delivered by crane to the start line, and your task is to race one on one against a series of competitors - preferably without coming off the track.

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Back to the Future Part II

You’ve probably seen Back to the Future mentioned on the internet quite a bit of late, and just to enter into the spirit of things, after re-watching Jaws 18 in readiness for the sequel, I fired up my hover-converted Spectrum +2 to sample Image Works’ 1990 movie tie-in Back to the Future Part II – which, as is the nature of movie tie-in games, has a tenuous link to the film of the same name.

Edd the Duck - ZX Spectrum Retro Review by Steve Trower

This month Children’s BBC celebrated its 30th anniversary, which gave them an excuse to dust off Andi Peters again, and gave me an excuse to rummage in the broom cupboard for the classic CBBC inspired game, Edd the Duck. Edd was, of course, the green-haired aquatic side-kick of Andy Crane (before he went off to do his own game reviews on Bad Influence!) from 1988, and in 1990, at the height of his fame, he starred in this little platform game by Zeppelin.

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Splat! by Steve Trower

Released in 1983 by Incentive Software, ‘Splat!’ was ‘a totally original game’ in which the player must explore a seven level maze, looking for edible stuff while avoiding death by drowning or treading on a spike, and most importantly, not being splatted against a wall. My challenge now is to see how long I can actually keep writing about what is, in essence, a maze game; thankfully, it is a maze game with a twist.

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Penetrator

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Spectrum gaming was so new and, ahem, basic, that software houses felt the need to show off that their latest game was ‘written entirely in machine language, and takes up almost all of the 48K memory.’ And it was into this brave new world that Melbourne House released Penetrator in 1982, boldly proclaiming it ‘the fastest and most exciting game for your 48K Spectrum.’ A bold claim, Melbourne House; shall we put it to the test?

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Paperboy

It is an important and popular fact that back in the 1980s I funded my computer gaming time by delivering newspapers. This fact is in some small way commemorated by the fact that, in a time of mid-life crisis, the first game I loaded up on my newly acquired rubber-keyed Spectrum was Paperboy. There was no deep reason for Paperboy; it was never one of my favourites, but, having been bought at some point between packing my old +2 away and acquiring a 'new' Spectrum, it was the first game that came to hand.