To boldy go ... Sub Hunting!

Greetings, Programs!

Here's an interesting little Psytronik related tidbit for ya ... I recently discovered that an "Enterprising" individual (pun intended) had ported Sub Hunter onto the somewhat obscure Elan Enterprise computer! This rather unexpected conversion is based on the amazing Amstrad CPC conversion by Paul Kooistra but has been tweaked for the Enterprise to include elements from the C64 version. So lets fire it up and have a looksee, shall we?


In order to get the Enterprise version of Sub Hunter running on my PC I downloaded a copy of the ep32 emulator. Once the disk image containing the game had been dropped into the emulator I was ready for some Enterprise Sub Hunting ACTION!


As you can see from the picture above the colours on the loading screen are based on the Commodore 64 version. The intro begins with the hi-res Psytronik logo from the CPC version and features an identical intro to the CPC - although the colours of the intro pics have been changed from the CPC sepia shades back to the monochrome C64 style. The nice parallaxed section of the intro is also present and correct and the marvellous intro theme from the CPC version can also be heard in all its glory.


Once the main game has loaded you will see the front-page once again contains elements from the C64 version (the animated bubbles) and the rippling logo reflection is also present. Unfortunately, although the credits for the original Sub Hunter authors (Frank Gasking & Richard Bayliss) are visible there is no mention of the author of the CPC version (Paul Kooistra) on the title page of the game. This is a very annoying oversight as the Enterprise conversion is based on the CPC code! Tut-tut.


Anyhoo, hitting fire launches your Sub into action and you will see straight away that the actual game is almost identical to the Amstrad CPC version of the game. The colours seem to have been toned down slightly which makes seeing the swimmers you have to rescue a bit easier but everything else is pretty much the same as the CPC version (although this version of the game does suffer from slow-down at times).


Aside from a few technical issues and the annoying lack of credit for all the hard work Paul Kooistra put into his CPC version of the game this is a pleasing conversion of Sub Hunter and it's nice to see the game running on another system. It would have been nice if the person responsible for the Enterprise port had contacted Psytronik first as at least I could have ensured that the game contained the correct credits - but apart from that, the Enterprise conversion of Sub Hunter is well worth a look. It's also worth noting that Hervé Monchatre has been helping out with this version of the game and produced specially modified versions of his amazing CPC tunes for the Enterprise version. These sound much better than the glitchy tunes that were present in earlier versions of this port. He also requested that Paul Kooistra was reinstated into the credits scroll in this game - which was duly done. Nice work Hervé!


If you would like to play Sub Hunter on the Enterprise you can get the ep32 emulator HERE and here's a link to a .zip file that contains the disk image of the game:- Sub Hunter Enterprise Version. The .zip file also includes a ReadMe.txt file that contains instructions for loading the game into the ep32 Enterprise Emulator.


Thanks for reading!

Kenz / www.psytronik.net

Sheepoid - The making of the artwork

I've been following the progress of the latest Richard Bayliss C64 production Sheepoid since it began and as the project took shape my Psytronik senses started tingling. The game is an homage to the classic Jeff Minter game Laser Zone which was released on the VIC-20 and C64 in 1983 and later on the C16 and Plus/4 in 1986.

Laser Zone on the Commodore Plus/4

For Sheepoid, Richard has taken the basic concept of Laser Zone (control a horizontal and vertical gun turret, blast weirdy meanies, avoid blasting goodies) and has improved the graphics, presentation and music for his C64 remake / tribute "Sheepoid".

Sheepoid on the C64

As Richard was planning on releasing Sheepoid at the 2011 Retrovision event I asked him if he would be interested in doing a Psytronik release so we could present the game at the event as a fully packaged Psytronik release. Richard gave this idea the thumbs-up so my next thoughts turned to the game artwork. Seeing as the game featured a level called The Mutant Camels Are Back this suddenly reminded me of a picture that Alf Yngve drew many years ago for a Jeff Minter issue of my Commodore Zone mag that never materialised:-

Llamas Attack! Previously unseen artwork for an
issue of Commodore Zone that was never made.

I always liked this image of Llamas attacking from space and thought this would make a cool cover for Sheepoid. I sent Alfs pic to my chum Mat 'Preferred Image' Recardo to see if a 3D rendered version was possible - and as luck would have it, Mat had a Llama object that he could use! So some swift rendering work later and Mat sent over the splendid design you see below:-

Llamas attack - in 3D rendered-o-vision!

The next thing needed was a logo for the game. I initially dabbled with a B-Movie style logo (similar to the "LLamas Attack!") logo in the Alf pic but in the end decided to use the Sheepoid logo from the front-end of the actual game - which I recreated in hi-res, tilted at a jaunty angle and then coloured in retro-arcade logo stylee.

The nice colours in the logo made me decide to go one step further and give the artwork more Yak-appeal by continuing the colours around the edges. After the the addition of game screenshots and extra text blurb the official Sheepoid Retrovision poster was born!

The yaktastic Sheepoid promo poster!

Now that all the artwork elements had been produced the next step was to the adapt the design for the Psytronik packaging. Using the premium disk edition artwork template I tweaked the artwork to fit on the packaging and you can see the end result below:-

Ta-daaa! The finished Sheepoid disk packaging.

And there you have it! That's how you go about creating the box artwork for a Psytronik release (for techno-buffs who are listening). The game was officially released at Retrovision in May 2011 and is now available on tape and disk for the Commodore 64 exclusively from the Binary Zone Interactive Retro Store.

Thanks for reading!

Kenz / www.psytronik.net

Some good news, some sad news

Firstly, the good news ...

In February last year I recorded a special Psytronik Software episode of my retro game music podcast One Man & His Mic. The 1 hour show featured music from almost all of the Psytronik releases available at the time from Sceptre of Baghdad right up to the PC version of Armalyte. The show was included as a bonus extra on the Armalyte CD-ROM and you can read all about the making of the show in this Psytronik blog entry HERE.

As over a year has now passed I've now made the show freely available to listen to and download on the One Man & His Mic webpage. And that's not all! Rather than just plonk the existing 1 hour show online I've completely remastered and extended the show by an additional 20 minutes. It now features FIVE extra tracks including the superb in-game theme from the C16 / Plus/4 title Adventures in Time, a remix of the theme from the C64 game City Bomber (which will hopefully be released on the Psytronik label at some point!), the sublime intro theme from the Amstrad CPC version of Sub Hunter and MORE! To listen to the show scoot on over to the OMAHM Series 2 webpage and fill your boots ... er, or your ears.

One Man & His Mic - Psytronik Software Special

01. Sceptre of Baghdad Intro (DJ Skitz)
02. The Sceptre of Nu Baghdad (Kate Z)
03. Archetype - FZ vs JMJ Remix (FeekZoid)
04. Nukenin & The Ronin Title (TMR) [C64]
05. PsykoZone Intro (FeekZoid) [C64]
06. Sub Hunter Title (Maniacs of Noise) [C64]
07. Escape from Arth Title (FeekZoid) [C64]
08. Mayhem in Monsterland Title (Tonka) [PC]
09. Creatures Remix (Infamous)
10. Creatures 2 Redux (Infamous)
11. Joe Gunn in-game (Laxity) [C64]
12. Armalyte Loader (Martin Walker) [C64]
13. The Path Of Destiny - Knight 'n' Grail Subtune #2 (Project N.A.)
14. Knight 'n' Grail - Good Ending Orchestral Mix (Hans Axelsson)
15. The Last Amazon Title Tune (Richard Bayliss) [C64]
16. The Wild Bunch (Jon Wells) [C64]
17. Star Sabre In-Game Tune (Targhan) [Amstrad CPC]
18. Armalyte PC Title Tune (Infamous) [PC]
19. Adventures in Time (Luca / Fire) [Plus/4]
20. City Bomber - KateZoid Fusion Mix (Kate Z)
21. Sub Hunter CPC (Herve Monchatre) [Amstrad CPC]
22. HyperViper (Jamie Howard) [C64]
23. Sceptre of Baghdad Outro (DJ Skitz)

And now the sad news ...

I'm very sorry to have to report that my good friend Paul Hadrill (aka DJ Skitz) passed away peacefully on February 16th 2011 after an incredibly brave five year battle with a brain tumour. Paul was a very popular member of the C64 remix community and as well as producing many fine C64 remixes he also regularly hosted live radio shows on SLAYRadio and attended many retro computer events and gatherings. He also contributed the opening and ending tracks for the OMAHM Psytronik Special mentioned above. Paul was a close personal friend of mine and will be missed by myself and many people who got to know Paul through his radio show and contributions to the C64 scene. He may be no longer with us but his memory and excellent remixes will live on. Farewell to my most excellent friend, DJ Skitz.


Thanks for reading,

Kenz / www.psytronik.net (09/03/2011)

Gentlemen, start your engines ... !

At the end of last month I received details about a PC game that the author asked me to evaluate for possible inclusion in the Psytronik Software range. The game was a top-down racing game called AutoCross Racing, programmed by Kevin Murphy. Kevin had included some screenshots of the game with his initial email and as soon as I saw the screens I just knew I would like this game!

Vrooom, whizz - now, this looks like FUN!

I'm a big fan of retro style top-down racing games and used to spend hours playing games like Super Cars 2, Roadkill & Micro Machines on the Amiga. So as soon as I saw the screenshots of the game and the video of the game in action I was already won over - and this was before I had even PLAYED it! I just had a good feeling about it.

It came from the desert!

A few days later the game arrived at the Psytronik HQ on CD-ROM and after a quick and easy installation I was ready to roll. And the good news is the game played just as well as I had hoped! I was instantly hooked on AutoCross Racing - it has a really cool retro racing vibe to it. It's really quick and easy to get into, it plays like a DREAM and, most importantly of all, it's FUN!

Some serious peddle being put to the metal!

Everything about this game just seems to WORK. You can adjust the camera height to view your car from a comfortable distance, you can even switch the camera to the other cars in the race if you wish. The music by Dafunk is great - and as another nice touch you can also add your own music to the game by simply adding mp3 files to the Music folder! So I was soon whizzing around the tracks with remixes of classic C64 tunes like Formula 1 Simulator and Miami Vice playing. Fab!

Beep! Beep! Coming through! *CRASH* Sorry Mister!

As the game would be getting a release on CD-ROM as well as a digital download the next thing I would need is some ARTWORK. The game didn't actually have any cover art at this time so I contacted my good chum Mat 'Preferred Image' Recardo to see if he wanted to help out with this release (as I know he is a bit of a fan of driving games). I sent the game to Mat and he very quickly delivered a beautiful 3D rendered image that very nicely captured the feel of the game (in fact, it looked just like the game - but in 3D!

Mats rendered cover image for AutoCross Racing

I then took Mats cover image and, using the Armalyte CD-ROM box as a template, created the final box artwork for the game which you can see below. I was very pleased with how the artwork turned out as it matches Armalyte very nicely - especially when you put them side by side on your games shelf! I think this has got to be one of the fastest Psytronik releases ever - it went from the initial email from Kevin to being a pretty much ready for release in approx two weeks!
The full game will be released by Psytronik Software later on this month - but you can try it out RIGHT NOW by downloading the excellent playable demo which is now available on the Psytronik Software DOWNLOADS page. And you can also find more information about the game on the main Psytronik site (click HERE).

And finally, a bit of techno-trivia for you. Kevin Murphy was a name already familiar to me as he co-wrote the C64 title Flubble & Squij that was ALMOST released by Psytronik Software back in the 1990s! So with AutoCross Racing it's nice to see a game by Kevin getting a proper Psytronik release at long last. :)

Thanks for reading!

Kenz / www.psytronik.net (06/02/2011)

Does whatever a Spider can ... !

Greetings fellow blogonauts!

Back in 2009 Psytronik Software published a very jolly platform romp for the VIC-20 called Carling the Spider ... The idea of the game was to manoeuvre weeny little Carling the Spider around several screens collecting glittering diamonds - just like real spiders, er, don't. Out to thwart Carlings jewel grabbing expoits are the diabolical BALLS OF STEEL who like nothing better than squishing little spiders.

The game was produced by Joe Dixon who managed to cram the whole kaboodle into an unexpanded 4K VIC-20. The game proved to be popular with VIC fans as it featured excellent Chuckie Egg style gameplay, responsive controls and was nicely presented to boot.


So why am I enthusing about this 2009 release? Because the game can now be downloaded for FREE! Simply head on over to the Psytronik website and grab yourself a copy of this nifty little platformer (click here to visit the download page). The free package includes both the PAL and NTSC versions of the game in .D64 format along with a text file that contains the game instructions along with info about how to run it in an emulator.

Carling the Spider 2!

And more good news for Carling fans - Carling WILL be returning for another adventure at some point - but this time on the VIC's bigger brother, the C64. We can't give away too much info about Carling 2 yet as the game is still being developed - but the work-in-progress screenshot below shows it's definitely something to look forward to! Keep an eye on www.psytronik.net for more info about the game.


Thanks for reading!

Kenz / www.psytronik.net

Psytronik Software in 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
(Cue fireworks, clinking glasses, much dancing around and one big mother-hubbard of a hangover!)

Yep, here I am at last with a long overdue blog update to bring you all the latest news from Psytronik Software. Apologies for the huuuge delay since the last blog update, it was caused by a combination of various real-life issues which meant the development of new Psytronik releases had to slow down for a while ... But just because I haven't been able to update this blog for a while doesn't mean nothing has been happening with Psytronik - quite the opposite in fact! There's lots of exciting releases in development at the moment, I just haven't had the chance to sit down and type up the info about them all - until now! One of the first New Years Resolutions I made was to update this blog at least once a month from now on - so here's your January update from www.psytronik.net!

1,000 Kung-Fu Maniacs NOW AVAILABLE!

So lets get this New Year off to a very good start with a brand new release from Psytronik Software! The creative genius that is Alf Yngve never ceases to amaze us with his incredibly inventive C64 games and his latest offering is no different. 1,000 Kung-Fu Maniacs is a crazy side-scrolling beat 'em up set in the Ninja infested town of Blapsville. You are the MASTER OF AWESOME and are on a mission to find a missing toy robot - the only thing that stands in your way is a city filled with creeps, hoodlums, Ninjas and ... erm, MIMES?! The game features enhancements added by Richard 'Sub Hunter' Bayliss and superb soundtracks by Jon 'Sceptre Of Baghdad' Wells. And the good news is you can now download the complete game for FREE from www.psytronik.net and you will also be able to buy fully packaged Psytronik versions of the game on tape and disk later in January 2011. PREPARE FOR AWESOME!


Adventures in Time - Now Available for C16 / PLUS4!

The Psytronik disk version of this great game just managed to sneak into the Binary Zone Retrostore right at the end of 2010. Adventures in Time is a brilliant platform romp for the expanded C16 and Commodore Plus/4 that features a cute snorkel-headed hero who gets zzapped through time. The game features an intro sequence, excellent background graphics, nicely animated sprites and a simply wonderful soundtrack!


HYPER VIPER - Coming Soon! (C64)

Hyper Viper is a C64 conversion of a game released on the MSX way back in 1985. Jamie Howard has done a fine job converting the game onto the C64 which looks and plays just like the original - but now has improved presentation and music! The game features an officially licensed version of the track AM180 (you may remember it from the movie 28 Days Later) - You can hear the original version of the tune in the video below:-

Hyper Viper will be released on tape and disk for the Commodore 64 early in 2011. Keep an eye on the Psytronik website for more details!

SUB HUNTER (AMSTRAD CPC)

Another Psytronik release for 2011 that I'm very excited about is SUB HUNTER for the Amstrad CPC. The CPC version of the game has been produced by Paul 'Star Sabre' Kooistra and he has done an absolutely incredible job in converting the C64 game onto the Amstrad CPC. All the features and levels from the C64 version of the game are present in the CPC conversion (including the gorgeous parallax scrolling) and the game also features a selection of fantastic soundtracks by Herve Monchatre. The Amstrad CPC version of the main game itself is now complete and Paul is currently working on a separate intro sequence for the game which will be released later this year on tape, disk and as a FREE DOWNLOAD for the Amstrad CPC. More info about Sub Hunter CPC can be found on the Psytronik website.


AND THAT'S NOT ALL!

Those are only a few of the new releases currently in development here at the Psytronik HQ. I'm also hoping to release another game for the PC later this year, a follow-up to the Shoot 'Em Up Destruction Set for the C64 and there will hopefully be a Psytronik release of a sequel to a very famous C64 game ... Keep your peepers peeled on the Psytronik site and this blog for more info!


Thanks for reading, see you IN THE FUTURE!

Kenz / www.psytronik.net (02/01/11)

Psytronik website down but not out!

You may have noticed the Psytronik Software website has not been working recently. Don't worry Psytronik fans, we currently have a team of boffins working on the problem and normal service will be resumed very soon. The actual website itself is fine, the bit that has broken is the all-important part that joins the domain to the website. As a temporary fix you can access the fully armed and operational Psytronik Software website by heading along to:-

www.psytronik.net