Ghosts 'n' Bloglins

Now that work on the Psytronik release of Joe Gunn has been completed I can concentrate all my efforts on the next release - Creatures!! The disk mastering was my first task of the day and this turned out to be pretty easy as the Psytronik disk version will be almost identical to the original 1990 release (hey, if it ain't broke ... etc.) As an extra bonus I decided to add a Creatures 2 demo to the disk as there was a bit of room left on Side 1. The demo is the nifty one that was given away with Commodore Format (featuring the CF office in the snowy backdrop).


Once I'd sorted out the disk contents and tidied up the disk directories a bit I then set about producing a new instruction sheet for the disk version. This actually turned out really nicely as I designed it to suit an A4 sheet that is folded into quarters. When it's folded you get a nice cover pic (featuring Smila's excellent artwork) and all the Creatures instruction text fitted on the page perfectly. Job done! As I was in "instruction manual mode" I also finished off the tape inlay - making sure all the correct bits of text were in bold and that there we no spillong mistooks anywhere.

My final bit of Creatures work today was the floppy disk sleeve. I love having custom-designed glossy disk sleeves on the Psytronik games and the Creatures one turned out really nicely - once again Smila's excellent artwork makes an appearance and the predominantly white design works really well. Yet another job done. All that's left to do is the disk label now so you can expect to see a pic of the complete Creatures packaging in the next blog entry :)

Another interesting Psytronik development is a game preview that appeared on the Lemon 64 forum. The game is called Knight'n'Grail and it's a visually superb arcade adventure that is kind of like Ghosts 'n' Goblins with the graphical style of Draconus (one of my fave budget games). As soon as I saw the preview I contacted the author to see if he would be interested in releasing the game on the Psytronik label and he agreed! It looks like it will a disk-only release and Smila is already on-board to do the artwork so that's another cool C64 release to look forward to. The game is still being worked on at the mo so keep an eye on this blog for update reports. In the meantime, here's some screenshots from the game for you to drool over:


See you next time!

Kenz / www.psytronik.com

The Mighty Blogg

Greetings Programs!

Lots of cool stuff happening with Psytronik this week. Firstly, the cover artwork for the deluxe disk version of Creatures has now been completed. The final box art has been approved by Apex who said looks (to quote John Rownlands) "f***ing awesome"! John is actually off to Cyprus to visit Steve (Rowlands) this week so I quickly posted him a mockup of the Creatures box - here's a photo of it that I took before I posted it to John - at the moment this is the only one of these in the whole world, ever!


I received the tape mastering software for Joe Gunn this week from Richard Bayliss which works a treat. Trev 'Smila' Storey also sent me the last bit of artwork I needed for the tape inlay so I got that finished off and the game has now been added to the BZ store (click HERE for the product info). I'm very pleased with this release as it's a great little game (well, I say little - it spans seventy screens!) and the artwork all came together nicely with a nice 'Indiana Jones in Egypt' type theme - here's what the finished tape looks like:-


So that's the first Psytronik release for 2009 sorted out! It looks like Creatures will be the big release for February and I'll also be focusing on The Last Amazon 1 & 2 twin pack as I'm busting to get that one released. Keep your peepers peeled for more info on those!

And finally, guess who I received an email from this week? Graham 'The Mighty Bogg' Marsh, that's who! It's always cool to hear from SID musicians (being the massive SID music fan that I am) so a few jolly emails flitted back and forth and a copy of his CD was duly posted for him to check out. After reading the interview with him that appeared on c64.com I realized I actually had a copy of his 'lost' Christmas demo that he mentioned in his interview and managed to reunite him with the demo which he hadn't seen for 25 years! Neat eh?

Anyway, enough of this crazy jibba-jabba (the hutt)

See you next time!

Kenz / www.psytronik.com

One Man & His Blog

Hiya folx,

Here I am with my second ever blog entry - typed in dynamic Kenz-o-Vision (or something). Anyway, the last week or so has seen me doing battle with the Christmas order backlog - and I managed to blimmin' clear it too! So all the recent Binary Zone & Psytronik orders have now been sorted and the goodies are winging their way to lots of happy retro gamers around the world. Yay!

With the order backlog defeated I can now turn my attention to the new Psytronik releases for this year. I'm very pleased to announce that one of the first Psytronik C64 releases of 2009 will be 'Creatures' by Apex Computer Productions. This was originally published by Thalamus back in 1990 to mucho critical acclaim and earned itself a lovely shiny Zzap! gold medal. The 2009 re-release will feature brand new artwork by Trevor 'Smila' Storey - and you can see a preview of the stunning new design from Smila below. Neat eh?


And some more good news for C64 fans - a special collectors edition of the excellent 2007 game 'Joe Gunn' will soon be available! For this release Psytronik will be teaming up with fellow retro software publisher Cronosoft and we will be both be releasing the game on tape. I don't have set release dates for either Creatures or Joe Gunn as yet but I will post updates on the progress of the games in this here blog.

I've also started work planning a new website for Psytronik Software. As the 2008 releases were really well received and received some really great press I've decided Psytronik deserves its very own website rather than just a sun-section on the Binary Zone site. This will give me more room to include various sections in the website including the latest news, details of new releases, upcoming releases, press, history, this here blog, downloads, info on how to submit a game for release and so on. The new site is still being designed (mostly in my head) at the moment but I'll keep ya posted on the progress of the site in this blog.

That's yer lot for now. See ya next time!

Kenz / www.psytronik.com

Captains Blog, stardate 02/01/2009

Greetings retro chums!

Welcome to the first ever Psytronik Software blog entry - tapped in by the Captain of the USS Binary Zone - Kenz!

I've decided to keep a blog this year as a way to bring you all the latest Psytronik Sofware news and info as it happens. But what the hecky-flip is Psytronik Software some of you may be thinking? It's basically a software label devoted to retro gaming systems - new games released on old systems like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum etc.

Last year was absolutely AWESOME for Psytronik. The initial releases received some excellent press and were really well received. The year climaxed (oo-er) with the Psytronik release of Mayhem in Monsterland - the only game to ever be awarded a perfect 100% score by Commodore Format magazine!


Things went a bit berzerk right at the end of 2008 with me releasing SEVEN C64 disk titles simultaneously. I'd had LOTS of requests for C64 disk versions of the Psytronik games (which were only available on tape up to then) so the disk versions were eagerly snapped up by C64 fans.

Unfortunately the overwhelming demand for the Psytronik disks resulted in a bit of an order backlog which I'm currently wading through as quickly as possible. A big chunk of my Christmas break was taken up processing orders and I'm hoping to have the order backlog completely cleared by next week at the latest (fingers crossed!)

So that's the very latest news from Psytronik Software - keep an eye on this blog for exclusive news and info about the Psytronik releases which will be posted each time I have news about the games.

Keep it RETRO!

Kenz / www.psytronik.com