Games World
Paul Brett with the latest gaming news.
Welcome to this issues gaming column. This will be a shorter column than usual, that isn't because no gaming development work has been happening, but rather because a lot of projects have yet to reach the stage where they are ready for a proper release. One of these is a new MegaDrive emulator for the RISC OS platform.
PicoDrive
Adrian Lees, he of Aemulor fame (takes of shoes and kneels down - ED) has been working on a RISC OS port of the PicroDrive emulator for RISC OS. PicoDrive emulates the Sega MegaDrive, also known as the Genesis in America. A test release was made earlier this month but a proper release will be due shortly. The RISC OS version of PicoDrive has it's own website at http://picodrive.acornarcase.com.
At present all that is shown is a place holder graphic. I suggest you go and check the site out every few days in anticipation of what could easily be one of the most exciting gaming releases of recent times. Can you imagine playing Sonic the Hedgehog on your Iyonix? Well it's going to come true very soon.
More Magnetic Scrolls
Last issue I included a copy of the Magnetic Scrolls interpreter and the games Myth, Pawn and Jinxster. So you will have had a couple of months to try and complete at least one of these. This time I am including copies of two more of these great games, Fish and Corruption. If you only ever play one Magnetic Scrolls game then it just has to be Fish (I totally agree - Ed). I will include two more games next issue, enjoy.
More 32bit games
Michael Foot recently announced that Alan Buckley had updated his ports of Cybertron Mission, Dare Devil Denis and Guardian to also work on the A9. At the same time the games were also updated to use higher screen modes and to support the use of outline fonts for the on screen text. All of these games are converted from original BBC B titles:"These games was converted to RISC OS directly from the BBC games of the same name. The conversion process takes the original BBC game code and converts each processor instruction to a comparable routine under RISC OS. This means that instead of having to rewrite the game from scratch and trying to get everything the same, I now have an exact conversion that looks, plays and feels the same as the original." Michael explained on the newsgroups.
the new versions can be download from http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot under the RISC OS Software link. They can also be found in the software directory on this issue of RISCWorld.
BugHunter
Following on from the release of BugHunterII by Ian Richardson the original BugHunter has now been released as freeware. This was originally available as part of a two game pack by Minerva. Tho other game being a moon buggy type side scrolling event. BugHunter is great little puzzle platformer and is very easy to play. The aim is to squash the bugs and get to the exit on each level.
The controls are the normal Z and X keys for left and right. In order to squash a bug you need to pick up an item and drop it on the bug in question, this can be done with the Shift key. Pressing this once will pick up an item, pressing it a second time will drop the item you are carrying. If you are not carrying an item then you can also use the Shift key to jump from one place to another/
That's all from me for this issue. I have already lined up a range of gaming treats for next time, you will just have to wait and see what they are.
Paul Brett