First review: Armalyte (official PC remake)

If you’re as excited about this game as I am, you want ANSWERS NOW. You don’t want me to explain (again) the plot, basic gameplay or critical reception of this classic Commodore 64 game.

Instead, let’s fire up the remake, and dive right in…

Review: C64 – The Last Amazon Trilogy

Let’s go back… to the days of Informer & Rhythm is a Dancer…

The Last Amazon & its sequel, were originally produced in 1993 for the Psytronik label. Alf Yngve had already made quite a name for himself in the Shoot ’em up Construction Kit (SEUCK) scene, with playable games that often went beyond the usual expectations. But due to a lack of advertising budget, the Commodore 64’s dwindling market share, and a reluctance in the market to pay for ‘enhanced SEUCK games’, Psytronik’s business model was in real trouble. The Last Amazon games were never finished for commercial release. But instead of simply disappearing, they were distributed free on the front of Commodore Zone magazine.

Fifteen years later, emulation and the internet had both helped to re-invigorate the C64 scene, and Psytronik Software rose from the dead. CEO Jason ‘Kenz’ Mackenzie found the old Amazon games, and in late 2008, set to work on improving them. He added new loading screens. He asked ‘SEUCK powerup maker’ Shaun Coleman to add extra weapons to the Amazon games. (The Shoot em Up Construction Kit never included ‘weapon upgrades’). Richard Bayliss (of Sub Hunter fame) added fancy new frontends to the games, plus some music (in the style of Matt Gray).

If that’s not enough, Last Amazon creator Alf Yngve had another ace up his sleeve. He obtained a copy of Jon Wells’ Sideways SEUCK editor. This modification of the original editor allows the creation of horizontally scolling games. Alf utilised the sprites and background graphics from the first Last Amazon game and created a brand new sideways scrolling ‘Special Edition’. Thus, THE LAST AMAZON TRILOGY was created.

I’m going to review each game individually, starting with the original…

My Retro Gamer website reviews

Retro Gamer is the world’s only magazine dedicated to old-school videogames. In August last year, they launched a new (much more interactive) website, including a user review section (Cryptically titled “Retrobates”).