https://mastodon.social/@juanfr/113402732490801955 juanfr@mastodon.social - #zxhalloween : Cauldron (Palace Software, 1985)
"Harken witches everywhere, take the challenge - if you dare, Tomorrow night, 'Tis Halloween, when only one shall be Witch Queen..."
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/850/ZX-Spectrum/Cauldron
Software is almost impossibly easy to download, distribute, and access compared to 40 years ago. Everything is bigger, faster, and more flexible, but there’s a certain charm to the ways of diskettes and cassettes that is hard to recapture. That doesn’t mean we can’t try.
By the time you read this, it’s likely that Kontrabant 2 will have already hit the airwaves on Radio Študent in Slovenia. At 9:30 pm Slovenia time (UTC+2 in Daylight Savings Time), if you are tuned to 89.3 FM, hitting record on a cassette tape will capture a buzzing sound that will run until just over 50KB have been transmitted. If all went well, you can load the tape into your working ZX Spectrum or bring it to the Computer History Museum in Slovenia and use theirs to try it out.
The game is in Serbian, as it was originally made for what was then Yugoslavia, for ZX Spectrums mostly smuggled in from Western Europe.
My ZX81 also loaded programs from audio tape cassettes and I remember that some computer shows back then on TV also had a short audio broadcast to allow users to record the audio, and load it into the computers afterwards.
But if you don’t have the computer, missed the broadcast, and can speak Serbian, you can play Kontrabant 2 on the Internet Archive’s emulator.
See arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/05…
#Blog, #gaming, #retro, #Slovenia, #technology, #zxspectrum
When I decided to try to build up some development momentum by restarting the Ray Tracing Challenge but with Dart/Flutter it was a toss up between that idea and deep diving into some retro coding on an Apple II. I briefly thought, "Why not do both?" Har har har. Well, it turns out someone did just that. A ray tracer in BASIC on a ZX Spectrum. #RetroComputing #RetroGaming #programming #ZXSpectrum #BASIC https://gabrielgambetta.com/zx-raytracer.html
RetroGaming Shorts Part 057 - W*H*B
This puzzle game is another example of 45 degree isometric perspective. The basic idea is to roll one or more blocks to place them on the exit.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 056 - Rival Gangs
Rival Gangs is a demake of Grand Theft Auto. I just love the overhead pixel art of the cars and peds. This is what the classic CRPG "Autoduel" could have looked like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjcvtqGxvk
Visit The Cave and talks like this at https://retrocollective.co.uk/
The #demoscene is rich with creativity, talent and tales of the people who contribute to it. Veteren "scener" h0ffman tells us his #story today from the #origins of the #scene to #modern day #demo #parties and all that's involved in being a part of it.
#retrocomputer #retrogaming #amiga #zx81 #zxspectrum #commodore #c64
RetroGaming Shorts Part 048 - Lockdown Town
Lockdown Town is a taxi type maze game, with pretty cute ambulance and covidiot pixel art/animation.
There are no "power pills" to let you take out the covidiots - your only option is to try and avoid them. Fortunately, their movement is random rather than trying to chase you down.
Normally, I prefer a game with smaller sprites and a more expansive maze, but since the monster movement is random, the cramped maze keeps the challenge interesting. Good game design.
RetroGaming Shorts Part 039 - Frantic Pengo 2
This might be the first time RetroGaming Shorts has featured the ZX Spectrum, somehow.
This Pengo clone features sublime 8x8 pixel art, with genius use of color attributes and surrounding tiles to make it look like more than just 8x8. Seriously, this is next level pixel art inspiration.
