Homebrew Extra Retro Gamer 278
- andrewrfisher
- 7 minutes ago
- 28 min read
Recent changes to the “de minimis” rule for parcels posted to the USA have caused problems for homebrew creators. European publishers initially suspended orders and shipments until the rules were clearer and postal services set up new systems. Broke Studios and the Homebrew Factory took a different approach, partnering with Daylen Games to handle distribution over the Atlantic. Let’s hope the new and upcoming games featured here are not affected by postal problems.
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BASIC BEGINNERS
For those wanting to program in Sinclair BASIC, we talk to two people who have been learning and experimenting themselves.
Interview with Alex Cooper (AnimatedALex):
What got you into programming games in Spectrum BASIC?
Back in 1986, at the age of 11, I started experimenting with BASIC. I made a game called Monster Trucks. It was nothing spectacular, but still, it was my first attempt, and I was proud of it. Back then, though the outdoor life interested me more, being with friends and BMX bikes took priority. Later, my Dad upgraded our 48K Speccy with an Amiga 500, so the BASIC programming kind of faded away, until The Spectrum from Retro Games Ltd became available. I was able to revisit those past memories and learn more about BASIC, so my programming journey once again started, and my first game, said to be the first game released on The Spectrum, ‘Speccy’, was my first try. https://animatedal.itch.io/speccy
How easy is it to use The Spectrum for programming?
Using The Spectrum is exactly the same as using the original, one difference being that you have no need to worry about cassette players, as it’s instant on a USB stick. The keyboard and the look of The Spectrum tick all the right boxes for me, as it’s just as I remembered it back in the 80’s.
Do you use another emulator or real hardware as well to test?
Yes, I use the FUSE emulator, and I also use an emulator on my phone, it’s called Speccy. I use these emulators mainly for testing games out that I’ve programmed on The Spectrum just to see how they perform.
What online resources have you used?
Online resources, the main ones, would be PDF files from the original Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC programming book and the book series Step-by-step programming by Ian Graham. I have recently purchased these in good old-fashioned book versions, as I prefer reading from a book rather than a screen. Other online facilities would be decisions on my Facebook group, The Spectrum learning BASIC. There are some very knowledgeable programmers on there who are always keen to help or share techniques and methods.
How do you choose a particular type of game to try and create?
Recreating the ZX Spectrum classics, well, I put the question out to my YouTube viewers. I’ll sometimes do a poll asking which game to tackle next.
If it’s an original game of my own idea, then I have to take into consideration what is achievable with BASIC, as speed is the biggest issue. Most importantly, it needs to be playable.
How do you create the graphics and sound?
The graphics I create using graph paper, drawing up an 8X8 box and filling in the shape/character I have in mind. I also use a ZX Spectrum 8-bit character builder online, designed by bigbadmick2000.
The sounds, I just experiment with, really. The Manic Miner recreation I had help from another programmer, Damien Redmond. He’s a lot more musical-minded than I, and he puts together some amazing riffs using the Spectrums BEEP command.
What are the biggest issues you have to face when working in BASIC, beyond the obvious speed restrictions?
Biggest issues, well, yeah, speed being the main one. Colour clash has caused me some issues, and trying to get everything to work in an organised routine, as this has a big impact on the running speed. GO TOs and GO SUBs have to be thought about; planning out the organised way in which the code needs to be placed helps in the long run. So planning is essential, keep the main game loop tight and tidy, and you’ve a chance of getting some half-decent results. Introducing more than one moving character, and we are back to a speed problem again.
Have you enjoyed recreating classic games such as Deathchase and Manic Miner?
The recreation of the ZX Spectrum classics so far has been great; it has got my brain working, that’s for sure, and I’ve really enjoyed the projects. I also try compiling the BASIC afterwards using Mcoder 3, and that has helped even more, as it completely solves the speed issue. If anything, it’s too fast, and as strange as it sounds i have to go back to the BASIC code and slow it down, and then recompile again. It can be very time-consuming. But the whole point of these challenges is to use BASIC only, although Death Chase, my version being Death Crawl, I did release it on my itch account as a compiled version, as the BASIC version was embarrassingly slow.
What games are you currently working on?
The game I am working on at the moment is a recreation of JetPac, but with a slight twist, as I’ve Miner Willy as the main character. Therefore, it’s named as JETPAC-WILLY. So far i’m very happy with the results, and it has had a good response from my YouTube viewers, so I will continue to add more to it, and I may go down the compiled route with this game too.
Is there a particular type of game or character you would like to work on?
I would like to try and do a BASIC version of Sabre Wulf, or Atic Atac. If, however, I was to steer away from ZX Spectrum games, then maybe a BASIC try at DOOM, or even Minecraft, but they both may be a little too ambitious to achieve.
What would be your main advice for someone wanting to program in BASIC?
Anyone wanting to start programming in BASIC, go for it!! The great thing about it is it’s available as soon as you switch The Spectrum on, boot it up in classic mode and get programming. There are plenty of books available on eBay, and online resources, a lot more help than we had back in the 80’s, that’s for sure. I started programming seriously on the release of The Spectrum. I’ve now got 15 games all written in BASIC available for download on itch, so if I can do it, so can you.
Interview with Grace E:
What got you interested in programming Spectrum BASIC?
The answer to this question may sound rather silly to some! Essentially, a series of seemingly random events led me to rewatch a certain film, in which, during one of the early scenes, a character shows a demo of his ZX Spectrum game. At a pivotal moment of the game, it stops as he hasn't “programmed that pathway yet.” I kept replaying that scene in my mind and thinking, “Okay, but what happens after you choose either of the options? I want to know!”
I could not get the idea out of my head. As a result, after playing a variety of Speccy titles and finding and reading a bunch of books on the Spectrum Computing website, I found myself up at an ungodly hour, surrounded by notes and diagrams. I eventually scaled everything down quite a bit, because I wanted to remain realistic and avoid becoming overwhelmed, as I had not written a single line of code of any kind for a while… Or even thought of writing anything, let alone a game, but that’s a story for another time!
“Okay, so… Print this, then if this, then that, or that, and if not, then you’re dead, sorry, mate! Right, that’s a little boring, let’s figure out how to add some ‘easter egg-y’ type stuff…” I’m going to be honest, everything initially crashed and burned spectacularly. However, once I identified and corrected the (most ridiculous and embarrassingly obvious!) errors, and got everything working as intended… It felt absolutely brilliant. So, naturally, the next step was to start taking said thing, changing it, and making it a little more complex…
Throughout this process, I was – and still am – not only learning basic Sinclair BASIC, but also developing a deeper understanding of the Speccy itself, and, by extension, the history of the British video game industry. I found myself fascinated and just a tad bit obsessed… I risk sounding overly dramatic, but it felt somewhat as though this entire new world had opened up before me.
Why did you choose text adventures/interactive fiction as a starting point?
Storytelling has always been a vital part of my life, and I have been set on becoming some kind of writer ever since I realised I could channel my overactive imagination – rather than letting it stress me out about everything – into weaving plots and creating characters. I experimented with writing short stories and other assorted bits and bobs throughout my university years, but somehow everything always kept referencing video games…
Another recurring issue was that my stories always ended up branching and converging before coming back together again, and I found the idea of a traditional narrative – with a clear beginning, middle, and end – extremely limiting. Of course, there are choose-your-own-adventure books and various forms of experimental writing, but video games feel fundamentally different to me. There is something almost magical in the feedback loop you enter while playing, a quality I do not think can be easily replicated in any other medium.
There is also the matter of linearity and everyday life. Traditional stories are by nature linear – but life doesn’t always work like that! We have all, at some point, found ourselves stuck repeating the same mistakes and ending up back at square one. Not quite the hero’s journey we were expecting, right? I think more stories should show that.
In any case, this – combined with my deep and near-lifelong affinity for older machines, and the discovery of just how many text adventure/interactive fiction games were made for the ZX Spectrum – ultimately led me to focus on creating games of this kind. Not only at the very beginning, but also with a view to the long term. It simply makes perfect sense to me!
What is your process for designing a game?
First of all, I find a soundtrack! For my Bandersnatch demo (not that Bandersnatch, the other one…), it was Tangerine Dream and The Birthday Party; for The Tea Party, it was Danny Elfman’s soundtrack for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland; and for Neon Warden, the game I am currently working on, it is the soundtracks from Llamasoft’s TxK and Polybius, with some Autechre thrown into the mix.
After spending sufficient time daydreaming about the plot, I take a portion of the story and visualise both the beginning and the end in my mind before writing it all out in detail on paper, this time including the middle sections. I then daydream a little more, repeat the process with other parts, and eventually bring everything together!
I do not begin writing any code until I have a sufficient amount of material to work from, as I find the use of placeholders somewhat disruptive to the overall flow. If I find myself getting confused – and that, admittedly, happens more often than I would like – I visualise the story so far as well as where I’d like it to go alongside the code, and piece it together in my mind like a puzzle: “this goes there, and that goes there.” This often involves a fair amount of muttering and sitting in front of the monitor with my eyes closed… Either that, or I take a break and play Polybius or continue making my way through my Speccy backlog for a bit to clear my head.
Once I feel that something is complete, I, of course, play through it several times to ensure everything works exactly as intended before sharing it with anyone. I spent a short period working as a QA tester back in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it, so this part of the process is pretty fun for me too!
I know I could easily streamline everything by working directly on my laptop, using modern software to plan everything out and organise the workflow. However, I want the experience of designing a Speccy game to be as “authentic” a journey as possible! I believe it is important to remember that the process of creating something – whether it is a game or a pumpkin pie – is just as meaningful as the final result.
What online resources have you used?
Spectrum Computing and the Internet Archive have been absolutely invaluable resources!
For the Bandersnatch demo, I decided it would be interesting to use only books that the character from the film would likely have read and learned from, specifically, those published before 1984. These books turned out to be one of the reasons I fell in love with the ZX Spectrum!
There is something quite distinctive about the tone in which they are written. It is not the dry, instructional “do this, then the result is this…” style. Instead, they are full of personality… Almost as if someone were explaining code to me over a pint, which I found quite lovely.
Do you work directly on a real machine or in emulation?
Working directly on a real machine is, for me, the ultimate dream – even if that may seem somewhat odd to some, as I am well aware it is not the most efficient approach.
Unfortunately, both of my machines – a 48K named Eugene (no, not that Eugene, the other one) and a +2A named, rather unimaginatively, Pax – were purchased untested, and I have yet to send them off for repair! So, it’s emulation at the moment.
What are you currently working on?
Neon Warden, a text adventure/interactive fiction game set in Blackpool during the summer of 1983, involving interdimensional travel via arcade machines! I am fascinated by the idea of older machines serving as portals to different dimensions, and, additionally, this project allows me to cohesively weave together my love of both cyberpunk and steampunk. I want to ensure I execute this idea properly, so the development process is bound to take time!
The initial concept came to me after reminiscing about playing a very old pinball machine a good few summers ago, at a place called Pinball Station in Warsaw, Poland. It was a genuine formative experience, and it prompted me to reflect on everyone who had stood in front of that machine before me, and where it might have originally been placed – a milk bar, perhaps, or a pub, or somewhere else entirely. One particular comment I heard about the machine from someone who worked there has stayed with me, too – “she’s a bit temperamental and stubborn.” It struck me that older machines often have a kind of personality (very, very true for the Speccy!) – a quality I feel is largely absent from most modern hardware.
I’m also working on some smaller side projects – mostly just little things that live on my hard drive – as I continue to learn and refine my process. One of them was a recent text adventure I created for my daughter, a whimsical little storybook-like tale involving talking badgers. And pottery.
Is there a particular game you would like to make?
Well, if I somehow manage to figure out interdimensional travel myself, and get my hands on the book that the game from the film was based on…
Seriously, though, I am doing my best to incorporate everything I would like to include in a game into Neon Warden. As it is a little bit of a coming-of-age story, I want the experience of playing it to feel as though you are sixteen again, when the world (or, in the protagonist’s case, worlds) feels full of possibility, but also somewhat unnerving and a little confusing until you reach a certain point when things begin to slowly make more sense, but only after you’ve made some silly choices and learned from the inevitable mistakes you’ve made…
That said, I’d also like to eventually make games that are visually more complex and exciting, throw in some snazzy graphics or mini-games in there!
Would you enter a game jam or competition with your games?
Both of those things sound just a tad stressful, but you never know!
What would be your main advice to someone starting out in programming BASIC?
My main advice for someone starting out would be to simply start and allow yourself to experiment and make mistakes.
Just come up with an idea for a game, any idea, and learn how everything works as you progress! It is very easy to feel overwhelmed, but once you actually begin to write and understand what each part does, it is bound to click. And, once it clicks, it’s very likely that you’ll want to have it continue clicking, as it's rather addictive… Do not worry if your initial experiments are absolute monstrosities, with code resembling not even spaghetti, but half-melted strawberry laces.
Also, very importantly, have fun with it! One of the things I find truly beautiful about Speccy games is that they are full of a certain kind of a slightly manic (pun not intended, I swear!) enthusiasm, and a little weird. Some are extremely weird and precariously teeter on the edge of fever-dream territory. We need more of that kind of weirdness!
NEWS BYTES
Atari ST: Monos51 released Hero Fantasy: The King’s Sword (ST/STE with 512K). https://bit.ly/herofantasy-st
ColecoVision: CVBasic has been updated to v0.9, with Haroldo’s online compiler now supporting NES/Famicom builds. https://bit.ly/cvbasic-online
Dreamcast: The DreamSDK development environment (incorporating KallistiOS – see RG277) has been updated to Revision 4. https://www.dreamsdk.org/
Game Boy: The GB Competition 2025 received over 100 entries, including Sheep Split, Polar Peril and DMG vs Super Game Boy (which cleverly mixes SNES and Game Boy graphics). https://bit.ly/gbcompo2025
MSX: Arcade game Guzzler, previously only on SG-1000, has been ported by Mastropiero. https://bit.ly/guzzler-msx
NES: Retro Bro’s scary sequel, Hobo Albo’s Halloween Adventure, is free, with donations going to the National Coalition for the Homeless in the USA. https://bit.ly/albo-nes
Sinclair Next: Haplo converted his excellent puzzle platformer, Shift. https://bit.ly/shift-haplo
Oric: Raxiss converted the early DOS game PutUp, with the full 30-level version now available. https://bit.ly/putup-oric
PICO-8: The Picky Horror Show from Heracleum recreates the C64 game based on Richard O’ Brien’s risqué musical/movie, with new characters to control and added difficulty levels. https://bit.ly/pickyhorror-pico8
Plus/4: TCFS, Unreal and Csabo released their brilliant Donkey Kong port. https://bit.ly/donkeykong-plus4
SNES: The SNES Game Jam attracted great new releases. https://bit.ly/snesdev2025
Vic-20: Aleksi Eeben finished his Ultima trilogy by converting Ultima I (requires 35K). https://bit.ly/ultima1-vic20
ZX Spectrum: JuanGM released his 128K sequel, Rebearded Fantasy. https://bit.ly/rebearded-zx
CHAMPION CODER - Mas of KTB Productions
[Info]
From: West Midlands, England
Format: Enterprise 128 / ZX Spectrum
Previous games: Painter Man, Throbbin’ Headache DX, Throbbing Heartache, Welcome to Chump Town
Working on: DiaTanX (Enterprise)
Mas explains how he converts MPAGD games from the Spectrum to the Enterprise 128.
Mas: At the time of writing, I’m working on porting my latest Spectrum game, DiaTanx, to the Enterprise; this involves a little re-write and a restructuring of the screen layouts to allow me to add some in-game music to the game.
However, I’m also in the early stages of a couple of future games; one which is going under the working title of “Hairy Legs” which will be a full screen, scrolling platformer, another which will be a single screen platformer which is currently untitled but will probably have some sort of pun about “getting ahead” (as you control a head).
I also need to complete work on a couple of games that stalled out; the first of which is a game with a slightly Lemmings vibe called “John can’t jump,” where you drop ladders (and things) to guide “John” to the exit. The other will be an alternative version of my game, Shovel Duck II, but with some sort of RPG feel. Think more NES Zelda than Pokémon. But we will see.
I will also be looking at converting Shovel Duck II and Money Mouse from the ZX Spectrum to the Enterprise; they are next on my list to convert over.
There is also a third “Throbbing” game on the horizon with Robby and Roberta, but that’ll be around Christmas time if all things go to plan.
Outside of MPAGD, I’ve written a couple of BASIC games for the annual CSSCGC.
And I always have ideas for other games; a future one I keep thinking about will be something called “Postman’s knock” where the aim will be to get back to the depot with a van full of parcels; so timing your delivery attempts right for the moment the home owner is in the bathroom and unable to answer the door or something… but that’s for future me to look at and decide if there’s actually a game in there, or whether it’s just an amusing/ relatable concept.
I know you didn’t ask, but I find that game ideas come to me all the time. Sometimes, like “Postman’s knock,” it’ll be a thought that just pops into my head. Sometimes, it will be almost organic and evolve out of something unrelated.
Games like Painter Man, DiaTanX and Welcome to Chump Town came into being answering questions on the MPAGD forums. Chump Town evolved from something I put together to demonstrate the process of collecting blocks while Adventure mode was switched on.
Painter Man and my latest game, DiaTanX, evolved from code I’d created to help other MPAGD programmers with their own Maze game. In fact, my “unnamed Head game” is directly related to a simple demo I put together showing how to make sprites invisible / hidden without needing to destroy or respawn. Etc.
When did you start writing your own games with MPAGD?
So, I started writing games with MPAGD late in 2023 (if the timestamp on my archive files can be trusted). My learning process saw me create a character (Dollar Bill – a duck who was initially obsessed with money), and a random conversation saw me take Bill and frame them as the hero of my first game, Shovel Duck. Like many people new to MPAGD, I was following the great tutorials put together by Minilopretro ( https://www.minilopretro.com/), which gave me a nice framework to get going; and since “getting going,” I’ve not stopped yet!
Of course, the “when” is only part of the answer; there is a why? Why do people write games? For me, if I step back in time, there is the 13-year-old me thinking that the thing I want to do as a career would be to write games for the ZX Spectrum. Of course, 13-year-old me was fairly naïve and could not have foretold the improvements and technological jumps the electronic world was about to make. If you could have told me that in a few years, Home Computers would go from 8-bit to 16-bit; that Sega and Nintendo would arrive with consoles that eclipsed everything we’d seen with Atari’s much-loved 2600. I wouldn’t have believed it.
Fast forward to the pandemic, and the release of the Evercade handheld console. I managed to pick one of these up from Game in one of those brief windows between “lockdown-not-in-lockdown-lockdown-again” and loved what Blaze was doing. At some point in 2023, talk on the official Discord was going around about what needed to be done to become a developer for the Evercade. The sorts of tools people who’d put together games for their Indie Heroes and other modern retro Indie games. Also, late 2022 had seen the release of the first home computer cart for Evercade: the C64. Anticipating that it wouldn’t be too long before the Spectrum joined its old playground rival, I started looking into options – and found MPAGD by Jonathan Cauldwell; someone I recognised as the creator of those Egghead games on the old CRASH magazine cover tapes back in the day.
And here we are today. I always liked that MPAGD could produce games for several systems, not just the Spectrum. I was definitely very happy to see some old favourites like the Dragon 32 being included as a platform target, as well as obscure machines I’d seen photos of in magazines, but not really seen in the flesh. Such as the Enterprise or MSX.
What got you interested in the Enterprise as a format?
Like many stories, my involvement with the Enterprise was a happy accident. Or a case of being in the right place at the right time. I’ve always liked helping people and sharing knowledge, and there is a thriving MPAGD community out there. I started by asking questions, and now I’m mostly answering questions. One such question came from the author of the Spectrum game, “Frankee goes home,” about problems targeting the Enterprise to port the game. I had a look, tried a few things, and was able to replicate the problem.
My attempts to get this working led to me being contacted by someone who knew the person responsible for the Enterprise version of the MPAGD Engine code (Noel Persa). Noel was great at the assembler, and everything needed for the engine, but didn’t really know enough about the AGD/MPAGD way of coding to put the engine through its paces. I volunteered my services to both help them out and to get a little more knowledge of this quirky little system.
(As part of which I learnt it has quite the following in Europe, particularly in Hungary, due to machines being available into the 1990s, and there being an active community engaged with supporting and developing for it to this day).
How did you come up with the process of transferring games to the Enterprise?
While I would love to say I came up with it, it was born out of many conversations on the MPAGD support forum with Noel and others. Once a reliable method was worked out, I set about documenting it so that it could be shared with others.
It is a fairly simple process; you create your code targeting the ZX Spectrum or MSX. You then export your game as you would normally do; this generates a “gamename.agd” file, which you can then use with the Enterprise tools to port your game across quickly and easily. The complication comes when you want to add music or transfer bespoke routines; Noel has worked hard to port the most common methods for music used on the Spectrum and made them available as part of the engine. Again, I then set about documenting those methods so they could be used by others to add their games to the unfortunately small selection of games available for the system. Noel is an expert in the Enterprise system; I feel fortunate to have been able to work with them in bringing the Enterprise MAPGD engine from Beta to something that can be used to reliably for others to bring their games to this system.
Going forward, every game I can bring to the Enterprise, I will do.
You specify Enterprise 128 in the game descriptions. Is this a technical requirement of MPAGD, or do you need the extra memory?
In many cases, the games themselves will just need 64K of memory. However, I believe the way the memory is arranged in the Enterprise is that this 64K is split between Video Ram, program code and data; by targeting the 128K, the extra ram allows for no contention of this shared memory.
I discovered this while I was working on Chump Town; the “3rd section” of that game is a simple shoot-‘em up. On the Spectrum, many sprites were being handled on screen without issue. On the Enterprise, using just the 64K meant that there was a significant drop-off in speed.
Speaking with Noel, it was explained how the Enterprise uses memory and that 128K should be targeted rather than 64K to avoid these issues.
Additionally, some of my games are “a little large” and barely fit on the 48K Spectrum, so transferring these requires the extra memory for all the game code to work correctly (and in some cases, even run).
How easy is it to transfer Spectrum graphics and sound to the Enterprise, and what changes do you make?
When you make a game with MPAGD, there is very little in the way of built-in sound options. I’m sure that many people’s first venture into writing code (after the obligatory: 10 PRINT “NAME IS COOL”: GO TO 10 ) would be to make the computer BEEP out happy birthday or the funeral march or something similar. When you come to attempting something like that in MPAGD, the best you can get is simple sound FX. To get tunes in, you must use tools like Beepola or something like Vortex Tracker II and then import that music into the game.
Once Noel had ironed out some of the bugs in the engine (I think we’ve identified most of them now, and more importantly, Noel has fixed them) I asked if there was a way to transfer the output from these tools from the Spectrum to the Enterprise; I gave some examples of each engine (as they would be if used in a Spectrum game) over to Noel, and after a couple of days had the Enterprise version back.
This made it incredibly easy to transfer tunes; essentially, you “lifted” the song data and copied it into the appropriate engine and then added that engine to your Enterprise game in the same manner you would if it were a Spectrum game.
Graphics were even easier; when Noel put together the Enterprise version of the engine, a decision was made to “effectively emulate” the Spectrum screen. Quirks and oddities and all. Which means your graphics and sprites just transfer straight across.
The Enterprise version can be told to use the ULA+ palettes (if one is available); ULA+ being a more recent add-on for the Spectrum that gives an increased range of colours.
Maybe in the future, additional options will become available (as the Enterprise has several graphics modes); I think if people start looking to target the Enterprise as their primary machine, rather than porting across from another source, then Noel might be encouraged to add additional support. We’ll see what happens in the future.
Could you give a brief description of the inspiration and idea behind each of the games you have converted so far?
Brief … I’ll try, but I’ve often joked that I’m neither brief nor concise; I know the words, but… I’ll try; feel free to edit down as appropriate, though. In no particular order.
Painter Man. In this game, you simply want to change the colour of the walls of your castle on a Bank Holiday weekend, while avoiding robot lions who have inconveniently escaped and roam the castle. The inspiration for this is a bit of Pac-Man, a bit of Burger Time and a lot of those “change the colour of the floor” games you see from time to time. This game was one where I’d written some code to help someone (with a different problem) and had an idea of how I could turn it into a game.
Welcome to Chump Town. This game came into being off the back of a problem someone was having with adventure mode in MPAGD. It has three sections; the first you have to collect money and keycards, the second you have to build and fuel a rocket ship and the third you have to shoot alien invaders as you try to escape the planet; as for the inspiration… well, this game was written when a certain president came into power and some of the things that happened the first few weeks of his term of office. That, and Jet-Pac.
Throbbin’ Headache DX/ Throbby Heartache. At the beginning of the year, I wrote a little game while struggling with some cold/ flu thing. That game was Throbbin’ Headache and saw you collecting Paracetamol to get better. (Collect all items, move onto the next screen.) This was followed by a Valentine-themed sequel, Throbby Heartache, but with cherubs replacing robots and hearts replacing pills. A Deluxe version of Throbbin’ Headache came later with improved graphics, sound, and extra levels, and the DX version was ported to the Enterprise. Inspiration, other than getting the flu, was from a conversation about the jump mechanism in the game Butch Hard Guy, which was created by someone who must have hated gamers (because jumping was awful in that game). I took that conversation and went, how about making jumping everything in a game. The Throbby series is the result, with a third game planned to appear later in the year.
And finally, for the moment, I have Noon 30 Shovel Duck featuring Dollar Bill. The first game I wrote using MPAGD was a fairly simple multi-screen platformer collect ‘em up. I’d created the character of Dollar Bill during my “learning experiences” with MPAGD, so it felt only right to stick Bill in front of my first game.
The inspiration from the game came from someone who used to frequent the official Evercade Discord; they had the idea that people would “Noon 30” something and go home early (rather than spending extra time); although for me, Noon 30 meant more that “I’d been working on it in my lunch break” – and I got through a lot of lunch breaks. And the whole digging shovel mechanics was inspired by Shovel Knight.
Are you working on anything new at the moment?
Yes! For the Enterprise, I’m working on porting my most recent game, DiaTanX (which is more of an action puzzler than a combat game) to the Enterprise; I should complete that (assuming no complications) in the next few days. This game needed a little rewrite and a reworking of some of the screens to free up memory and make room for some music.
After that, I have two projects that are in the beginning stages of being worked on; one being a scrolling platformer with the working title of “Hairy Legs” and the other being unnamed but likely to have a “Head” related pun, like “Get ahead” or something similar. “Hairy Legs” is currently more of a “proof of concept,” but one with potential.
I also must complete working on a game I started what feels like forever ago, called “John Can’t Jump.” I had put the game on pause until I was able to get hold of some graph paper to do my level designs. I do have graph paper now, but in the meantime got a little distracted. Now I tend not to add a game page to itch.io until I have the game complete and ready to download.
Are there other formats you would like to work on with MPAGD or in another way?
I do have a soft spot for the Dragon 32. It was one of the first home computers I had access to (one of my cousins owned one, and my childhood “best friend” owned one for a long time, before moving on to the Spectrum). I’ve fond memories of playing “The King” (Donkey Kong clone), Tron and Frogger. That and my friend did get the old cassette 50 compilation tape that, at that point, came with the free calculator watch.
MPAGD does support the Dragon 32, and I’ve had a little tinker, but nothing has turned into an actual game (yet).
It does seem a natural progression for a lot of Spectrum MPAGD programmers to move to the MSX. I might have a look in that direction too in the future. And of course, I’ve seen announcements that the next MPAGD might support the ZX81!
I know there is a lot of interest in the Spectrum Next, and I’ve seen the sorts of things people are putting together, and it looks impressive. I think there’s a 3rd (I think it’s the 3rd) Kickstarter starting sometime this month (July) for another production run of Spectrum Next machines, so I might consider picking one up; finances and circumstances aligning.
What MPAGD games have impressed you over the years?
What have I been impressed by? Well, initially it was games from Minilop Retro (I’m a big fan of Cocoa; I’ve heard there’s a 3rd game in the works and from some of the early screen/ mechanics preview about a year ago, it looked well-polished, technically brilliant and likely to be a lot of fun again)
Jet-Set Steamboat Willie by Sloanysoft was a lot of fun. And included some great tunes from Lee Bee.
S.C.I.O.N. by Sausageware games is one of those games that does things you don’t expect MPAGD to allow; I like it when people “push the envelope” or whatever the appropriate phrase is. MPAGD is a very powerful tool, and it’s nice seeing it be used for different styles of games.
I have to mention Frankee Goes Home; it’s a fun and beautifully animated little game, and the game that saw me targeting the Enterprise.
There are so many talented people out there with great ideas; I’m definitely thankful that Jonathan Cauldwell created MPAGD and other tools that enable people to get those ideas out of their heads and onto our screens.
What would be your dream project?
Probably one where everything just goes right, and I don’t have to make compromises for memory. Seriously! I don’t know how people did it back in the day; the handful of K you have to develop your games gets eaten up so quickly.
I generally aim for a “good 1980s pocket money budget title” feel to my games.
Maybe one of these days I’ll go for a “splendid 1980s have to save up for a few weeks big box Ultimate style title” game feel.
Update:
Following on from the ZX Spectrum version, DiaTanX is now available for the Enterprise. There are two versions. One with 18 levels and background music, and one with all 20 of the Spectrum's levels, but no background music.
After putting out DiaTanX, even though I've plenty of games to get on and write code for, I've been putting together a proof of concept for some sort of driving game (possibly inspired by the British Grand Prix last weekend).
Now MPAGD doesn't usually "do" driving games, but I have an idea of how to make it work... We'll see if it turns into something, but I think it's a concept with potential. (I like trying to get things working that "shouldn't work" in the engine. Some of these get released, some of these remain in my "I'll return to this one day" folder :-) )
Also, over the past couple of days, an MPAGD build suite for the AgonLight/Console 8 has been made available. This is definitely in an early BETA state but has a lot of potential, and I can see myself targeting that in the future (especially if it can be moved out of BETA with the full MPAGD engine functionality available, etc.)
DATABURST - REVIEWS
Yandex RGB Competition 2025
[Info]
Format: ZX Spectrum
Credits: competition run by the Yandex RGB museum
Price: Free
Web: https://yrgb.org
The competition offered cash prizes, attracting 15 great entries judged by the fans and a panel of Spectrum celebrities. Honourable mentions go to Cindy Block (where you shoot blocks to clear the falling shapes, based on Konami’s Quarth/Block Hole) and Kubanoid (Stardust’s colourful puzzle game), who shared 3rd place in the Sound category. We also enjoyed Frostland, a strategy game where you must survive in an icy land (inspired by the Frostpunk games).
3D racing game Travel Unlimited (developed by Manu & Kit) got 3rd in both Gameplay and Graphics, with options to upgrade your car.
Runner-up was the tough but good-looking run & gun platformer Asymmetry, also by Manu & Kit, taking the Graphics prize.
The overall winner, with 1st in Gameplay and 1st in the Audience vote, was Cubic by Gogin (Sergei Smirnov). The plot sees Hexatron, the Lord of Chaos, destroying the Sacred Talisman and a plucky young Cubic called Bix trying to retrieve the six pieces hidden at the top of the six Great Towers. At first, you are just climbing vertically up the platforms. Picking up the 3D cube means you can rotate the platforms in the style of Fez and Nebulus. With new mechanics gradually added, a great soundtrack, and those amazing graphics, it was a worthy winner.
Verdict: Another classic Yandex RGB competition, with incredibly playable games.
Go! Go! Pogogirl
[Info]
Format: Mega Drive
Credits: Space Pants Games
Price: $10 digital download / £16 cart only / £38 boxed
Andrej Ohsat’s PC original has reached modern consoles, and Space Pants created this Mega Drive adaptation. The unusual control method, cute graphics, and bouncy soundtrack draw you in, but even with new features added in the tougher later levels, it might not last a seasoned player forever.
[Score] 81%
OutRun GB
[Info]
Format: Game Boy Color
Credits: Rocketship Park (Shane McCafferty – code & graphics, Sloopygoop - music)
Price: Free
[Body] 90 words
3D racers Nitro and Hero GP were practice runs for Shane’s well-made take on the Sega classic. Sloopygoop’s soundtrack is brilliant, and the excellent graphics represent the different courses nicely. The gameplay is great fun, and the later stages become more challenging. This is a bite-sized, nostalgic treat.
[Score] 85%
PROCESSING - Halls of Talamh Domhain (NES)
Grayson Wendell of Sleepy Bits Games:
What games inspired you, and the overall look of the game?
The Wizardry series, Swords and Serpents, Silent Debuggers, and Shin Megami Tensei have all played a part, whether it be inspiring the exploration, combat, and/or vendors. The Diablo series has been a big inspiration for looting and crafting. Additionally, the design work of Alan Lee, Wētā, Four Horsemen Studios, and D&D have been great visual references.
How did you design the user interface?
Dungeon Crawlers on the NES have always featured many text-heavy menus, making them intimidating for most new players. One guiding principle of my interface design is to minimise the use of text and menu windows, in favour of pulling things into the game world, such as the combat menu appearing inside a tome carried by one of the protagonists, Lorcan.
Selecting combat actions with the d-pad was a natural extension of avoiding text lists, since the player needs to choose between multiple attacks. The mini map display doesn’t quite fit into the game world, but I felt it wasn’t worth occluding more of the exploration view to add additional framing.
From a technical point of view, how are you moving around such large graphics and creating the 3D look?
While I’m not ready to reveal all of our secrets, I will say that this is all possible thanks to creative use of the MMC3 mapper, the same cartridge hardware used in Super Mario Bros. 3, among many other NES games. We’re carefully programming everything in 6502 assembly to get the absolute most out of the hardware. The monsters and NPCs are using typical techniques for NES sprites, along with the work of a very talented artist.
When are you hoping to publish, and will there be physical carts as well as a digital download?
Right now, we are targeting an earlier 2026 release. While most of the artwork and a good portion of the programming is complete, there’s still a ton of music to chart and testing/tuning to be done with all the gameplay systems. As with our previous NES games, we will definitely have physical carts and digital ROMs for sale!
Retro Gamer issue 278 published 23rd October 2025
This blog published 10th February 2026
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