Homebrew Extra Retro Gamer 276
- andrewrfisher
- 3 minutes ago
- 13 min read
We have three different Mega Drive cartridges to test this month, highlighting just how much interest there still is in the popular 16-bit console. 8-bit fans can check out a forthcoming game where you paint the platforms you walk on, and the final issue of a long-running MSX disk magazine. The highlight is our main feature, with a superb single-screen platformer heading to a less common format.
(Note: the original intention was to have photographic screenshots of the Mega Drive games, but the results were not as successful as the earlier Jaguar attempt. That is why they were ditched, and images provided by the game makers were used.)
QUICK LINKS:
NEW NINJAS NEEDED
Interview with Sarumaru (designer) and Tater Pants (programmer):
What got you into making your own games?
Well, I’ve always wanted to make games, but just didn’t have the know-how to do so. I would always draw game mock-ups with my characters on paper as a kid and in my teens. Once I started working on digital art, I began putting together more convincing-looking game mock-ups. I even illustrated some in MS Paint with my ninja cat character from The Nyanja in the early 2000s (who was named Nekomaru at the time). So when I finally met the programmer, Tater Pants, I was finally able to bring my idea for a game to reality.
How did you choose the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² as the target platform?
The TurboGrafx/PC Engine has always had a soft spot in my heart since I first laid eyes on the game “Ys Book I&II” for the TurboGrafx CD in 1991. But it wasn’t until I started working on my webcomic, The Henshin Engine (now known as FX Unit Yuki), that I was able to make my dream of releasing a PC Engine game a reality. I was a longtime member of an online PC Engine/TurboGrafx community, and it’s where I met the programmer, Tater Pants.
What games inspired the design of Nyanja?
I am a huge fan of one-screen arcade platformers like Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros, etc., and had an idea for a similar game with our own little twist on the mechanics for a single-screen game like this.
How did you come up with ninja cats as the heroes?
Originally, I had created our kitty ninja hero in the early 2000s. I renamed him to Nyanmaru, gave him a female cat partner named Nekomi, and created a story around this cat world in the pseudo-Edo period in a land called Jipang. “Jipang” is the word that Venetian Explorer Marco Polo used to describe Japan in his travels.
What is your development environment?
As far as I know, the code is all written line by line. But I’ll let Tater answer this one.
Tater Pants: Don't really have one... all of the code is written in Notepad++ and compiled with batch files on the command line (and this applies to both the PCE and PC versions).
How are the graphics being made?
All the character sprites are being created traditionally with Photoshop, pixel by pixel, limited to 16 colours per sprite. A couple of the backgrounds used real references, and some use photo elements that are then digitised and redrawn to fit the aesthetic.
Who is involved in creating the music and sound?
The composer's name is Sergio Elisondo, also known by his stage name, Sergio, and the Holograms. Sergio has worked on numerous projects, including other indie games, and created his own game titled Ninja I&II for the NES. He’s a talented guitarist, composer, and also has the ability to compose traditional chiptune music for games with “trackers.” He is currently working on a Game Boy game.
Games like this typically use food as bonus objects - how did you come up with the Japanese foods used as items?
Being set in a pseudo-Japanese world, I found it fitting to use foods of the region. One particular food item that appears as a high-point item is the tempura shrimp, a favourite food of our ninja hero, Nyanmaru.
Many of the stages feature wraparound (from top to bottom or left to right) - how difficult is this to design and program?
Tater Pants: wasn't hard at all... for left/right, all I did was extend the map to offscreen areas for collision purposes and set the X coordinate to the other side of the screen, and top/bottom is just looking at the Y coordinate of an entity and setting it to the top of the screen if it gets too low on the screen.
How did you come up with the boss designs, and how difficult are they to create?
The idea behind the Shadow Kitsune Gang is that they all wear Kitsune (Fox) masks. The bosses consist of four generals and their boss, the Kitsune Queen. I went back and forth with the designs for these characters several times, trying to come up with a balance of character types and sizes. The sprites themselves were a bit of a challenge, as each boss is about four times the size of the hero characters, so it becomes harder to animate at times, depending on the detail. This was especially the case with the last boss design.
How many worlds/zones will the final game have?
There are 7 worlds, with 10 stages. Each world introduces at least one new enemy type, with each world having its unique boss.
How much more needs to be done to finish the game?
I would say that at this point, the game is about 85% complete. There are some things we may add, though, depending on time and resources.
Will you be trying to make a physical release as well as a download?
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, we currently have a Kickstarter campaign going on right now that’s been fully funded, but your audience can still pledge for it for all the Kickstarter exclusive goodies :) And yes, digital versions of both the TurboGrafx/PC Engine game and the Steam/PC versions will be available.
When do you expect the game to be finished?
We hope to have the game ready for shipping by November of this year if all goes according to plan.
Do you have any more projects in development?
Yes, I currently have two other games I am actively working on, along with another in the planning stage.
What would be your dream project to work on, and anyone you would want to work with?
As a kid, I always wanted to create art for a game company like Hudson. I wondered what it would be like to make my own game for my favourite console at that time. But nowadays, I am perfectly content with creating stories and art for my own games :) However, I do hope to work with other talented programmers! So if you know any that are looking for contracted work, send them my way ;)
What other PC Engine homebrew games have you played and enjoyed?
There is a homebrew called Jessie Jaeger in Cleopatra's Curse, developed by Bold Game Studio, whom I know personally. The game has lovely character art and colourful sprites by the talented Michirin. It’s a Montezuma's Revenge kind of game, and I highly recommend checking it out. MindRec's VAX Collection is also another PC Engine homebrew I enjoy. I am also looking forward to Special Ninja Squad, currently in development.
For more on the game, visit the Kickstarter page at bit.ly/nyanja-kickstarter for more, or try the demo at bit.ly/nyanja-demo
You can still pre-order the game via https://www.sarumaru.com/
NEWS BYTES
Amiga: Krogharr the Berserker is the scrolling beat-em-up from Tigerskunk, currently $12 on itch. (1 Mb RAM, any Amiga) bit.ly/krogharr-amiga
Apple II: Colin Leroy-Mira has converted Shufflepuck Café, with mouse controls and a clever two-player mode via a null modem cable. bit.ly/shufflepuck-apple
BBC Micro: Alec Barker released the underwater maze game, AreGo: Deep Sea Rescue. bit.ly/arego-bbc
Book: Shaun McClure has published How To Design Adventure Games, available in paperback and Kindle. tinyurl.com/DesignAdventureGames
Intellivision: John Hancock’s block-breaking puzzle game Block ‘Em Sock ‘Em has been converted and is $9.99 to download. bit.ly/blockem-intellivsion
PC: Check out The Utterly Splendid Adventures of Horace by Langford Productions, recreating the classic character’s games. bit.ly/horace-pc
PET: Fill the screen and dodge the Qix in Qixie by Milasoft. bit.ly/qixie-pet
PICO-8: Defeat the sleepwalkers with your crowbar in C.R.E.W. by the Plush Girls. bit.ly/crew-pico8
Vic-20: Anders Persson updated his game Tribbles, with computer opponents and up to eight players at once (requires 8K memory expansion) bit.ly/tribbles-vic
ZX Spectrum: DF Design has released Sam Fox Pin-up Poker, with Northern Games creating a physical cassette version soon. The chips and clothes are down at bit.ly/pinup-zx
Thalamus Digital released digital downloads of Sanxion: The Spectrum Remix and Delta Charge for Spectrum owners at $1 each. thalamusdigital.itch.io/
ZX81: The Asteroids-style Crazy-Roids by Adrian Pilkington requires 16K of memory. bit.ly/crazyroids
CHAMPION CODER - IAPETUS (SANDRO MESTRE)
From: Algarve, Portugal
Format: C64, Acorn Electron, Thomson MO5/TO8, Oric, ZX Spectrum
Previous games: Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle (C64, 2010), Uwol Quest for Money (C64, 2012), Sir Ababol (C64, 2012), Zezito and the Lost Stars (Electron, 2025)
Working on: Zezito in the Glittering Caves (MO5, C64, Spectrum, Electron)
Sandro was previously interviewed in Retro Gamer issue 82, and now returns with a new character, Zezito.
What got you into programming your own games?
Since I received my first computer as a Christmas present, I wanted to program my own games... my friends and I were always discussing game ideas and creating graphics for those games, but the real truth was that at the time, we didn't know enough programming to implement those ideas! We spent countless hours typing in game code from the magazines.
Did you own the computers you develop for, when you were younger?
Some of them: the Timex and the C64. When I was younger, I had a ZX Spectrum clone, the Timex TC2048, which was produced here in Portugal, and some years later, I bought a new C64C and a second-hand Atari 800 XL. Now I have added other machines to my small collection: the Acorn Electron and the Thomson MO5, MO6 and TO8D.
What inspired your character Zezito?
Zezito is the little Portuguese kid of my youth who played in the town streets or in the country with his friends, inventing their own worlds and adventures, before we started having computers, that is, lol. My parents had a shop in town, but we lived in the country, so it was nice to experience both worlds; having friends both from town and the country was amazing, and Zezito represents these kids. Regarding the name Zezito, Zé is a diminutive form of the proper name José in Portugal, and to make it even more affectionate, I have added -ito to Zé, getting Zezito - which literally means Little Joseph.
What tools and development environments do you use?
Usually Visual Studio Code, grafx2, Aseprite, Charpad and Spritepad, plus machine-specific tools such as cross assemblers or other languages' cross compilers for the CPU I am targeting at the time. I also code my own tools in Python, Java or C when needed; these usually are level data and/or graphics related, for example, the program I created in Java to compile software sprites for the Thomson Machines or the program to convert binary data to Forth usable code.
What inspired Lost Stars, and how big is the castle in terms of screens?
I was inspired by flip-screen platform games such as Vampire / Phantomas 2 and Sir Ababol.
Glittering Caves has an interesting "paint the platforms" mechanic - what inspired it, and how easy was it to do?
I have always wanted to code a game with the “paint the platforms” mechanic; I liked Amidar and much more recently when I saw Night Knight by Juan J. Martinez I decided to do something about it, it took me a while to pick a game idea but eventually when creating some graphics I saw that I had what was needed to go ahead with the project. Coding the game was not hard; I had a working version of the game engine ready in a couple of weeks. Because it was the first time I was programming in Forth and it is completely different from the other languages I was used to (people say it is a bit like doing things backwards!), debugging code was a bit time-consuming; the code without comments can be quite cryptic! So, for the more complex routines I created two versions, one with comments in case I needed to go back to it and another without comments to be fed to the interpreter, as it is faster the less characters we have in the code listing and Durexforth works on the real machine, it is not a cross interpreter. I am hoping to code some more games using Forth as I really enjoy coding in this language. Kudos to the team behind Durexforth for creating a modern Forth for the C64.
The games are available from your itch page, but would you be interested in making physical copies?
Certainly, I would love to do physical copies of these new games.
What was your experience like in converting the two Mojon Twins games to the C64?
That was quite a while ago! I did learn a lot working with the Mojon Twins, and I love their games. Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle was programmed in Assembler from scratch, and I asked a lot of questions on their forum to know more about the mechanics of the game, etc, so it would be close to the Speccy original. I would do a lot of things differently today, though. The other two games, Uwol Quest for Money and Sir Ababol, were ported to the C64 as an excuse to use C language / Assembler and see what could be done on the C64 using the CC65 6502 C compiler. These were faster to port because I could use the logic of the game coded in C by the Mojon Twins. I also had quite a bit of assembler routines, mainly to mimic the functionality of the game library they were using to code their games for the ZX Spectrum. I really enjoyed the process and learned a lot programming the versions of those games for the C64.
Do you have any other projects currently in development?
At the moment, I am finishing Zezito in the Glittering Caves for the C64, which I am coding using Durexforth. This game started as an excuse to program a game using Forth. It has really been a rewarding experience! I have also started versions for other machines, but these are programmed in assembler. The more advanced version is one for the Thomson MO5, a French machine based on the Motorola 6809. The other two versions are a bit behind, and they are for the Acorn Electron, Timex TC2048/ZX Spectrum. I also want to code the C64 version of Lost Stars. I have done some of the graphics already.
What would be your dream title to develop?
This is something I always wanted to do, program a game for the C64 like those of the legendary Jon Ritman, Head over Heels or Batman, but using more of the C64 capabilities, for instance, more colours on screen using Sprites and multicolour mode. It is a challenge due to the constraints of the bitmap mode on the C64, but I am sure it is doable.
Zezito in the Glittering Caves is now available for C64 and Thomson MO5, along with Zezito and the Lost Stars for Acorn Electron, from:
DATABURST - REVIEWS
Coloco DX
Format: Mega Drive / Genesis
Credits: Tuxedo GameDevs
Price: 54,90 Euros (cartridge)
Web: bit.ly/colocodx
Originally a Spectrum and Amstrad game (available for free download at tuxedogamedevs.com), we previewed this conversion in RG243. Playing like Space Taxi and Thrust, your craft can pick up extra tools that require battery power. Your best completion times for the thirty levels and extra modes unlocked are saved to the cartridge. A fun and interesting take on the genre for console fans.
[Score] 86%
DaemonClaw – Origins of Nnar
Format: Mega Drive / Genesis (tested), PC and Neo-Geo to follow
Credits: Neofid Studios with BitbeamCannon
Price: 69,99 Euros (cartridge), 79,99 Euros (cartridge plus Steam download)
Web: bit.ly/daemonclaw
By completing Arcade Mode, the player can unlock Tag Team (two players alternating control), Survival, and Boss Rush modes. Excellent animation and detailed backgrounds look the part, with decent sound effects and music. The difficulty is high, particularly during the boss fights, and the controls need mastering. A stylish but challenging game which feels similar to Neofid’s previous titles.
[Score] 84%
ZPF
Format: Mega Drive / Genesis
Credits: ZPF Team (Mikael Tillander, Perry Sessions, Jamie Vance), Mega Cat Studios (Publisher)
Price: TBC
Web: bit.ly/zpf-megadrive
[Body] 90 words
Kickstarter backers are receiving this impressive horizontal shmup with three playable characters across three settings (Fantasy, Future, and Alien). The graphics are fantastic and varied, and the soundtrack is excellent. The fact that medals are collected automatically is helpful, but not starting with a Continue proves frustrating. The options menu lets you tweak the difficulty, easing you into the fast-paced action of this excellent shooter.
[Score] 89%
PROCESSING - FUTUREDISK 50 (MSX)
Interview with organiser Koen Dols:
How did the FutureDisk series start?
We started in 1992 at an MSX club. In every region of the Netherlands, there were MSX clubs where people gathered to play games and develop software together. When printed MSX magazines disappeared from store shelves, disk magazines became the medium for reading all the MSX news. I founded FutureDisk together with Dennis Lardenoye, who was fluent in Japanese and later became responsible for the first fan translations of well-known MSX games such as SD Snatcher, Xak, and Fray. Programmers, graphical artists, and musicians from the MSX Club joined us.
Other disk magazines folded, and FutureDisk grew bigger and bigger — until it came to an end in 2000. The MSX scene in the Netherlands had reached a low point, and everyone was starting their professional careers.
Why have you chosen to stop at disk 50?
When we started our reboot in 2021 with FD46, I quickly realised that writing a magazine was an incredible amount of work and hard to combine with having a job, a family, and everything else that comes with it. In the final month before release, creating a new issue became a job on top of a regular job. And at that point, a hobby starts to feel a bit like work, too.
The software (mini-games, demos) doesn't really need a strict deadline, but a magazine still needs to have some news relevance, so you're working with deadlines.
Fifty was a magical number we had once set out to reach, and thanks to our reboot, we made it. It’s also a good moment to stop — while we can still deliver quality and floppy disks are still readily available.
What special items do you have on this 50th issue?
FD50 turned out to be a very content-rich edition. It includes a mini-game by the creators of Pampas & Selene. It's called Nora, and it’s a kind of Tetris where you have to form words. There's also Sweet Acorn 2, an MSX2 version and spiritual successor to the original Taito MSX-1 game.
Peng Pong is a mini-game where you play volleyball with penguins. There are also two patches included on the floppies: one translates the intro demo of Burai into English, and the other converts the entire game Seed of Dragon into English. A special version of Bungarua, the MSXDev winner, and a preview of NightStalker, a new Castlevania clone, complete the package. Oh, and of course, there’s a packed magazine — available in both Dutch and English.
How can people get the physical disk, which is a limited edition?
I'm afraid the physical disk will be sold out by the time this article is published, but we might consider producing a second batch. Let's say people can send an email to futuredisk@outlook.com to express their interest. A digital edition is, of course, also available. All news from us can be found via our X account @FutureDiskMSX.
Where can people find the previous issues?
Nearly all FDs can be played and read via: www.futuredisk.nl
We also have an idea to put all FutureDisks on a single cartridge, but that plan is still in its early stages. First, we need to recover from creating this final edition.
NOTE: The Nightstalker preview was featured as a screenshot in the magazine - issue 280's Homebrew column will have more on the development of this promising Castlevania-inspired title.
Issue 282 was published on 28th August 2025
This blog published on 24th November 2025
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