Topic: General news

I've just seen a new update from our friend Gasman over on Demotopia. He's just uploaded the entire music collections of Baze, C-Jeff, Megus and MMcM. That's over 3800 tunes from the demoscene. You can also find all of Relict's Screen$ too. Time to play bandwidth pacman.

The high street magazine Retro Gamer is bi-monthly and probably will turn monthly, has alot of Spectrum content. The first issue has sold on eBay for inflated prices like 25 pounds Sterling. While RISC OS still has a high street magazine Qercus, even though there are few users left. This shows there is market for a Spectrum journal in colour, in newsagents. To make this happen please sign the petition, "The longest journey begins with a single step". The site does not always work, so try again later if the domain name does not resolve. I think this to stop their servers being overwhelmed.

A supporting website has been created for Apology, the second-place ZX 1K intro at Forever 5. The site features a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the intro, including complete source code, and also includes the tracker specially made for the occasion, so that you can try your hand at composing your own 6-channel AY melodies.

Adding to the ever-increasing ranks of pocket-sized gadgets you can play Speccy games on, Symbian Series 60 mobile phones (including the Nokia 3650, 7650, 6600, and N-Gage, Siemens SX1, Samsung SGH-D700 and Sendo X) now have a Spectrum emulator, Spectrian. The developers, White Cloud Software, have released a free evaluation version alongside a full-price version which supports snapshot saving.

Antique Toy 2004, the second edition of the online music and graphics contest, has been announced. The competitions cover various categories from mainstream to alternative, and entries are accepted until 1 June 2004. Read on for the complete rules. Update: a revised version of the rules has been published, adding Diver to the graphics compo organisers and fixing a translation bug

Thanks go to Jorge Canelhas, one half of the Retro Review team, for letting us know that issue 5 of the 'zine is finally ready, after a year of waiting. The paper copies will be sent out in the coming few days, tho' if you're a subscriber you can download it now from the website. The issue includes details of the Dr.Boy (a cheap console), in interview with the CO of SPC, and ooh, other stuff.
The announcement comes with an apology for the delay, blaming busy schedules. Hell, I know that feeling! Glad the issue is on it's way. Reminds me... I should let them know my new address.

Here's a thing. I recall from late last night when I did a webcheck, that the Ramsoft website was updated. And indeed, it was updated on the 9th (yesterday). But I really don't know what's changed. Sorry. Check it out, see if you can spot any newness. Add a comment if you find it :]

I was just checking out the Internet Movie Database and was interested to see a film all about the scene's own beloved Hellboy. Ehm... perhaps it's a different Hellboy. Hey, gimme a break, I'm at work so I don't have access to real news.

Thanks to Edy of Wierd Science Software for informing me about their new website. On there you can find their new game, "TV Game", which uses a wide-screen 288x192 display. Kinky. There's also a hint at an entry into the Forever competition - not available for download, but it's listed in the "Chemicals" page. Hmm.

Ok, so it's not quite ZX-related (in fact, not at all ZX-related), but I thought it was worth mentioning a workshop that's going to be run at the upcoming Classic Gaming Expo in July. The workshop is one of two relating to M.A.M.E, the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, and it's titled "Learn how to build your own Arcade Machine." Yeah, it sounds quite cool, and will even provide you with the bits you need if you have the cash to spare. Hmm.