CodeJunkie starts weekly review column

CodeJunkie, coder of OutCaST (the excellent ST emulator for the GP2X), has started a new feature over at his blog.  Entitled ‘Game of the Week,’ CodeJunkie intends to eschew the obvious (Lemmings, Civilization, Dungeon Master), and instead highlight those ‘lesser known’ titles that people new to the platform might miss. First up he delves into SWIV.

It’s great to get CodeJunkie’s view of these games; due to his experience of programming an Atari ST emulator, he has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Atari ST, and can provide commentary on how they utilize the CPU and any unusual programming tricks they employ.

Go there, be happy!

First Impressions #3: Civilization intro

As per a request by Alignn over on my YouTube channel, I have added the intro to Sid Meier’s Civilization. Not as cinematic as Another World or Epic by any stretch, and not particularly technically difficult to produce either. Well realised, with atmospheric music, it certainly sets the scene for your future of empire building.

Well, there you go. Awful scrolling, well composed but poorly executed music, no attempt at animation. Yet somehow it just works.

Read my Civilization review here.

Sideways – prototype

Jamie Woodhouse (author of the rather spiffing ST game Nitro and Amiga’s Qwak) has made available his playable prototype of Sideways, a sidescrolling (figures) shoot ‘em up that features more than the odd nod towards classic shooters Uridium, Goldrunner and Xenon.

Jaguar XJ220 review

It’s been a long time since my last post (real life gets in the way once more!) and there have been a couple of developments on the ST gaming scene while I’ve been away – more on those later. Meanwhile, lets have a closer look at Oberje’s release of his Jaguar XJ220 conversion. If you’ve read my previous post you’ll know that an ST version of the classic Amiga racer was planned but canned before it saw the light of day (for more details see the Guardians of the PaST entry). With a gentle prod from the Guardians, Oberje compiled the playable code he had and made it available for us to enjoy.

Though not quite complete enough to get the full review treatment, I have got a gameplay vid and some screenshots to show you.