From the Vault: 2008

It’s been a grindfest at times, but I’ve finally completed my “Trawled the Archives” badge. So here you are ladies and gentlemen the final installment of our trip down memory lane.

Ahhh, 2008 a good time…feels like only last year we were having deathmatches with aliens, a good jump with the Mighty Jill, drinking coffee and loo cakes with guards and seeing the optician about bleeding retinas.

But all good things must come to an end, but that does not mean the end of all good things. So onwards and upwards! Once more into the breach! Head for the fruit and then finish off the dots…

Greenie: The Helicopter Hero – The Talented Mr Jayenkai does a remake of Hero
Phoenix – A finished (well v0.975) project from Minion? Rarity=value so grab it now!
ASS – Advanced Shiny Simulator – Remake of the arcade maze game Orion by Soks
Rip Off – Soks blesses us with another shiny vector remake.
Karl’s Treasure Hunt – Another Musti platformer
Mondo Agency – Cactus screws with out heads in that bizarre way of his
Centipong – Jayenkai mashes together Cetipede and Pong to produce a gem
Blocks’n'Bricks – You could do a lot worse than this written in 48 hour breakout game
Way of the Exploding Fist – One of the original beat-em-ups and still good
Quantasm – Bask in the glow of Ovines lovely vector remake of the Bedlam for the Vectrex
Loocmotion – Slide the train track puzzler remake
Blockman – Nice twist on the Pacman theme by Jayenkai
Nekonikoban – Pacman style game for a 3 hour compo
Petit Strikers – Tiny little shooter again for a 3 hour comp
Hickory – Custey mouse platformer
Frank’n'Stein – Platform remaking machine Musti turns the handle and remakes the make-your-monster game
Manic Miner – PeeJay gives us everything we need in an update; old and new graphics, extra levels and speed settings
Danger Mouse in the Black Forest Chateau – Great graphical update of the cartoon adventure by PeeJay. He’s the Ace! (Win/Linux/GP2X)

Alien Deathmatch – Jayenkai does a great 2D top down space station shooter
Mighty Jill Off – Great tribute to Bomb Jack
Raiders of the Pharaohs Tomb – Sequel to the 2600 game Raiders of the Lost Ark, done in the same style
VAX Super Robot – Version of the you-move-and-the-robots-move-towards-you puzzler/arcade game
Project Future – Graphical arcade adventure remake by Soks. Think Sabre Wulf in space
High Noon – Java version of the C64 wild west shooter  (Win/Mac/Linux)
Q-Bix – Tetris  with various twists and turns and rotates…see what I did there?
Alien Shitstorm – Space Invaders type game done by the author as a coding test of PlayBASIC
Blox! – One of those frustratingly addictive puzzlers with over 100 levels to suck your life away (Win/GP2X)
Tetroid 2012 – A tetris sleeve to showcase some “experimental” electronic music (their quotes)
Puzzobomb – Jayenkai turns his skill to puzzlers and creates a version of Puzznic with bombs
Go Bear Go! – Sokoban style puzzler (Win/GP2X)
Lone Wolf DS – Turn-to-page-X style adventure gamebook based on the Long Wolf stories (DS)
Samurai Railroad Mansion – Bank Panic style reflexes game. Open doors. Kill baddies. GOREgeous graphics
Snake Dual Screen – DS homebrew version of everyones favorite game (DS)
Tempest – The classic vector shooter with level editor and BlitzMax source code

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future – More quality stuff from talents of Ovine; it’s the C64 version of the arcade adventure
TwinTrix – Klax Tetris style arcade puzzler
Hotblox – Remake of Twintris the Amiga Tetris game
Dr. Dobb’s Challenge – Award winning platform game by Endurion. With source available
Asteroids – Online Java version so you need never download again
Solitaire Settlers of Catan – Java version of the board game. “Solitaire” because you can play against the AI
Alien 8 – Ultimates isometric space adventure gets a stunning graphical update
Lunar Lander – Danjo does the classic game with updated graphics and levels
Debris – Danjo again, this time with an Asteroids clone
PicrosST – The Picross puzzler remade for the Atari ST (ST)
PSP Nicky Boom – PSP version of the Amiga platformer (PSP)
PSP Nicky Boom II – The second installment of the platformer (PSP)
War Twat – Mind bending area shooter insanity from Mr Robert “If I’m not odd my name’s not Bob” Fearon

Detritus – FPS 3D asteroids style game (Win/Mac/Source)
JezzballDS – DS version of the arcade puzzler
Invaders: Code Neon – Glowy version of Space Invaders
Wings of Fury 2 – Graphically impressive side-on-3D plane shooter
Saber Wulf – Lovely graphical update of the classic Ultimate flick screen arcade adventure
Bubble Dizzy Wii – The Wii gets a homebew featuring everyones favourite egg (Wii)
Magic The Gathering – Cards and wizards and all that stuff
Caverns – A remake of a remake. A ZX81 version of The Pit remade in true ZX81 style
Trans Am – Another one of the famous Ultimate portfolio gets remade
Planet of the Jellies – Experimental (Mental Experiment?) Match-3 Space Invaders by Petri “Crayon Physics” Purho
Thrustburst – Nice version of the classic cave-flyer arcade game SFcave
xRickDS – Rick Dangerous the platformer done for the DS (DS/source)
Cubes – Highly enjoyable multiplayer version of the 3D light cycle game Knot in 3D
Space Fighter – Funky 2D space shooter battler with asteroids style craft. Four ships enter. One ship leaves.
Castle of Fire – Nice updated tribute to the 2600 game Dragonfire
Ant Attack 3D – Full 3rd person 3D take on the Spectrum classic
Ben There, Dan That! – Simply brilliant point-n-click-n-laugh adventure game. Can I mention it in the same sentence as Monkey Island? Ooo I just did.

Pacozyx – Pacman builds a house
Defender – Nice online Java clone version
Kennedy Approach – Remake of an Air Traffic Controller game for the C64
Blazing Wings – Nicely authentic remake of Wings of Death the Amiga vertical shooter
Batty Builders – Retro style remake of the Atari 130XE wall building arcade game
3D Starstrike – Everyone’s favourite Uncle does a quality remake of everyones favourite Star Wars rip off
Attack of Mutant Fruits from Outer Space – Space Invaders with bells, whistles and tomatoes (Win/Mac/Linux)
Mission Extreme – Chunky pixel retro run’n'jump shooter
The Hobbit – Clone of maybe the most famous graphical text adventure for the Spectrum
RetroRocket DS – Thrust style deathmatch game for up to 4 players. Also with the original Thrust levels (DS)
Guru Logic Champs – Addictive block puzzler based on the GBA game
Phantomas Saga 0: Uprising – Another lovely looking platform adventure remake from CEZ
Graviroids – Online Java Asteroids, but with gravity between the rocks and you. Cool twist.
Super 2D Adventure Simulator – Arcarde adventuring the way it used be in the 80s

Shmantis – Remake of the platform shooter Phantis aka Game Over II
Wizard of Wor – Online clone of the maze monster shooter for 1 or 2 players
Love – Superb retro graphic retro platformer done in a tiny screen
Broken Sword 2.5 – Impressive follow-up/inbetweener to the classic Broken Sword adventure series
Nuts about Nuts – Cutesy Space Panic style arcade game with Squirrels
HSR: Horizontal Shooter Redux – Nice trippy space shooter from the prolific Jayenkai
Consumer CULTure – Robotron style retro game, but without guns. You do have some bombs though
Raiders of the Lost Ark – Whip cracking arcade remake
Raid Over Moscow – PC remake of the no longer PC multistage arcade game, but keeping it non-PC (still with me?)
Boulder Rocks 3D – BoulderDash, but thankfully side-on-3D
Millenipede – Nice version of the insect killing classic
Quasimodo – Demo of Hunchback
iLogicAll – Spectrum! version of Picross (Spectrum)
Gauntlet Revisited – Remake of the monster bashing maze meandering classic
Gearworks – Nice connect-the-gogs puzzler from Jayenkai
Assasin Pong – Pong with bullets

It can’t end with Pong…So here’s one from the 2009 archives

Kid Icarus – Parthena’s Castle – Platformer for your mobile phone or Java enabled browser (Browser/J2ME /MIDP2.0)