About Ground Zero Hero:

Featuring a vibrant hand-drawn art style inspired by The Simpsons and Rick and Morty, Ground Zero Hero challenges players to explore a post-apocalyptic wasteland as they face off against massive hordes of marauding mutants. Pummel piñatas, crunch candy, and absorb the irradiated guts of monsters to unlock new mutations and become the ultimate mutant.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?

Rowan Edmondson: I randomly came across Vampire Survivors before it blew up, and it struck me as something I could put a cool spin on (something about 30,000 other developers also decided).  The immediate things I didn’t like about VS like the lack of animation etc were informative to what I was imagining. 

At the time, VS didn’t actually have vampires in it, so some of the core design ideas were born from “What if Vampire Survivors had vampires and survival”, hence why GZH has a day/night cycle where vampires emerge at sundown, and light survival mechanics (candy meter).

Old School Gamer Magazine:What is your role in the game?

Edmondson: I’m a 100% solo developer – I did literally everything in the game from code to animation to music. (A couple of explosion VFX I paid for but were still heavily modified)

Old School Gamer Magazine:Love the visual identity of the game. What inspired it?

Edmondson: Thanks! It’s probably obvious there’s a huge Matt Groening/Simpsons  influence with a dose of Rick and Morty weird. I don’t really have a default art style – after 15 years as a full time indie, exploring different art styles is something that keeps the process fresh and interesting – but that combination felt
like a good fit for the themes of the game.

Old School Gamer Magazine:How can gamers get their “freak out” in this game? 

Edmondson: It’s all about crafting your ultimate hideous mutant!

Old School Gamer Magazine:What has development been like?

Edmondson: GZH was started almost four years ago, and represents a three year project of effectively working 7 days a week (it takes time when you’re a pedantic perfectionist doing everything yourself). Just about any project spanning that amount of time is going to be a rollercoaster, and this certainly was. 

The different incarnations of starting as RAD Surivor and releasing as an early demo that was totally ignored. The pivot to renaming it to Ground Zero Hero and completely redoing most of the visuals. Pausing development for a year after a second project found a publisher.

Returning to GZH development after that project was cancelled. Waking up to an email from Acclaim wanting to have a call after I’d totally forgotten even pitching to them 

(pretty sure it was late at night and I was hammered when I sent a demo link) and then the subsequent process of teaming up with Acclaim and being a part of the rebirth of the legendary publisher from my childhood. So yeah, quite the rollercoaster.

Old School Gamer Magazine:What makes this game special?

Edmondson: I think genuinely special games occupy their own creative space. Games like Bioshock come to mind – the intersection of visuals and direction and game feel creating something incomparable. I’d like to think the aesthetic, music and attitude of Ground Zero Hero combine to create something pretty singular in gaming,
despite the saturation of the genre.

Old School Gamer Magazine:What games influenced this one the most?

Edmondson: Vampire Survivors and Fallout are obvious influences. But for the creative direction, Sunset Overdrive was a major influence in terms of the whole “happy apocalypse” vibe: rainbows and candy and bullshit everywhere.

Old School Gamer Magazine:Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Edmondson: Signing with Acclaim was the most unexpected part of the whole process. When I started development there was no hint of them coming back, so landing GZH with the home publisher of some of my all time favourite games as a kid (NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Turok) is still kinda crazy to me.

Old School Gamer Magazine:What were the major lessons learned?

Edmondson: I would probably do a hundred things differently regarding project management in Unity. Also, the nature of the genre meant I learned A LOT about optimisation at the back end.

Old School Gamer Magazine:Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Edmondson: Frankly, no. Of course there are time proven mechanics that will always have their place in the medium, but I don’t view the preservation of older mechanics as something important within itself. 

Old School Gamer Magazine:The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?

Edmondson: Hopefully the combination of the aesthetic and attitude elevate GZH to be seen as something fresh and fun.

Old School Gamer Magazine:How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?

Edmondson: This is my 15th year as a full time indie, so it’s hard to concentrate all of that experience into how it manifested through the development of GZH. I would say that in the early years of bootstrapping as indie developers, we could only afford to pay an artist to make a few key assets and I’d then make the rest based on their art style.

Over the years I became fairly profficient at riffing on an existing style, so it definitely equipped me to realise an aesthetic I imagined as a mix of The Simpsons and Rick & Morty. 

Old School Gamer Magazine:How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?

Edmondson: Ideally it’s remembered as fun, amusing nonsense with a banging soundtrack that sold 10,000,000,000 copies.

Old School Gamer Magazine:What’s next?  

Edmondson: Buy one of them gold plated houses. 

Old School Gamer Magazine:Anything else you’d like to add?

Edmondson: Socks then shoes.

The post Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Inside ‘Ground Zero Hero’ appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How was GRIDbeat! born?

Dan Kingdom: GRIDbeat! grew out of a very simple idea I had early in the pandemic. At that point, the concept was little more than a nexus of identical nodes that the player moved between on the beat. When I discussed the idea with the team, one of the Engineers wanted to explore the idea with me and so we created a basic playable version and the game started growing from there.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How does it feel to be affiliated with Acclaim on this?

Kingdom: Having Acclaim as our publisher is a little surreal. The ‘Acclaim’ branding has a lot of heritage associated with it, of course, so seeing the logo whenever you boot up the game always makes me smile.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What was development like?

Kingdom: Developing during the pandemic was strange for everyone involved, but luckily most of us have been working in the industry for over 20 years, so we learned to adapt relatively quickly. Once we had the initial playable concept, we spent about a year just iterating on the core systems and discovering what levels looked and played like.

Luckily, we had a very clear vision of the game style and tone from the playable concept and that helped focus the game throughout development, even when it started incorporating elements we had never even considered, such as narrative elements and boss levels.

One of the things I am proud of is that the core gameplay mechanic never really changed all that much from that initial concept to the final product. It grew and evolved, but the core of it is still that simple idea of moving node-to-node on the beat.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes GRIDbeat! special?

Kingdom: I’m particularly proud of how well the music and gameplay work hand-in-hand. The music is the living beating heart of the gameplay experience, and it’s very rewarding to see how players react to the soundtrack and compliment how much a part of the gameplay it is. The hope during development was always to create something akin to a ‘flow state’ for players, and seeing that happen during early playtesting was immensely rewarding.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How would you explain this game to someone who just sees it online and may be interested?

Kingdom: GRIDbeat! at its heart is a dungeon-crawler with a very simple mandate: move and act on the beat. If you enjoy exploration and puzzle-solving, all set to an incredible, pumping soundtrack then this is the game for you. If you also love music games, then this will also be something you want to check out, as the music and gameplay are incredibly interconnected.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What games influenced GRIDbeat! the most?

Kingdom: Honestly, the games that most influenced GRIDbeat! were the simple vector arcade games of the 80s, such as Battlezone and Asteroids. While the gameplay is of course different, the vision of searing hot neon vector lines and a booming electronic soundtrack were the elements that existed right from the start of development. Later vector-inspired games such as Rez were also a big inspiration, and of course a variety of music games, but the ‘flow’state’ inducing effect of Tetris was also a big source of inspiration.

Old School Gamer Magazine: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Kingdom: I do clearly remember when we added the Mino.Tor opponent for the first time to a test level. The Mino.Tor is a simple, 2D sprite that just moves on the beat and chases after you, but for some reason its presence in the level scared the hell out of everyone when we playtested the level. Maybe it was something to do with the way it snarls and growls at you as it chases you down, or maybe it’s just the relentless element of pursuit, but it was exciting to see how something so simple, without animation or visual effects, could evoke terror in the playtesters. Our lead engineer even had to stop playing for a while because he started getting palpitations whenever the Mino-Tor showed up.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What were the major lessons learned?

Kingdom: I think the biggest lesson we learned early on was to try everything and test often. It’s very easy to get locked into your own view of a game during development, so getting feedback early on from outside the team is critical. Are the controls intuitive? Does the gameplay make sense? Is the core mechanic satisfying? Being able to respond to this feedback is also incredibly important.

Old School Gamer Magazine: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Kingdom: Fun never really goes out of style or gets ‘old’. Game mechanics that younger players might not have experienced can still be just as exciting, but the focus should always be on creating something that is ‘fun’ to play, regardless of where the inspiration comes from.

Old School Gamer Magazine: The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?

Kingdom: Visually, I think GRIDbeat! is very distinct, so hopefully the game catches people’s attention and then once they start playing they’ll find the core systems and music engaging. The game is also quite challenging, so players that are looking for something that is simple to play but hard to master should get a lot out of the game.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?

Kingdom: Having been in the industry for over 20 years now, I’ve worked on pretty much every genre of game and every hardware platform imaginable, so that definitely helps focus the vision of a game as a designer. Trying to stay focused on the core concept and maintaining ‘fun’ at every step is critical, from menus to gameplay.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?

Kingdom: As a huge Rhythm Action fan, I’d love for GRIDbeat! to be remembered as a worthy entry in the music game pantheon.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?  

Kingdom: We’re currently working on the first major update for GRIDbeat!, which will include new levels and some quality-of-life tweaks, and beyond that… Well, Ridiculous Games is always working on at least a few high-concept and slightly crazy games at any one time, so there’s always something to look forward to.

Old School Gamer Magazine: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kingdom: Thanks for the questions. It’s always fun to talk about a game you’ve sunk your heart and soul into 🙂

The post Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Dan Kingdom Talks GRIDbeat! appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

About Astro Burn:

Beyond The Pixels®, a London based transmedia media studio dedicated to bringing modern retro to today’s generation, announced today that they are partnering with 33 Games to launch the collectors edition of their debut title, Astro Burn.  Oozing retro nostalgia on the outside, developed for modern gamers on the inside, the collectors edition will include the Astro Burn USB Cartridge for PC and Mac, and will mirror the game’s release on Steam, GOG and Epic Game Store!

No mere shooter, this modern day cute ‘em up is an outer space adventure that’s out of this world, and guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any retro shooter fans! Astro Burn is a love letter to a gone but not forgotten era of video games, taking inspiration from icons such as Parodius and Pop’n Twin Bee,  and providing a much needed power up for retro fans looking to scratch that itch. Astro the space cat and her quirky companion AL are on a mission to return home, but to do so they need to reign bullet hell over the cute and chaotic critters in their path.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?

HaZ Dulull: The concept really began with one simple moment: I was looking at my retro game collection, those chunky cartridges, old consoles, the beautiful SNES box art, and I felt that familiar spark of nostalgia. I missed the days where you could just pick up a game, dive straight in, put it down whenever you wanted, and still feel that magic. No over-complicated systems, no 20-button combos, just pure fun. And pixel art… it’s timeless. Unlike 3D, it doesn’t really age.

So I started sketching ideas that combined my love for space sci-fi (which runs through all my films) with the classic shoot-em-up games I grew up on: R-Type, UN Squadron, Axelay, and of course Star Fox. One morning, as I was staring at that row of SNES cartridges with a coffee in hand, my cat Mia tapped my arm for food. I looked at her, then back at the cartridges, and it hit me.

What if the pilot of the game was a space cat?

And just like that, Astro Burn was born. (And yes, Mia absolutely got an extra treat.)

Balancing nostalgia with modern polish was the real challenge. Adults crave that 16-bit magic again, while younger players (Gen Z especially) are discovering retro for the first time thanks to things like Stranger Things, Atari’s relaunch, and the explosion of pixel-art indies.

To make it work for both audiences, I focused on simplicity, clarity, and personality, while ensuring gameplay feels smooth, modern, and satisfying. The key was early and constant playtesting. I took rough builds to small game events, handed people a controller, and just watched. Their reactions told me everything: what was instantly fun, what felt dated, what needed tightening.

The game really found its identity in that process, sitting between classic nostalgia and modern accessibility, wrapped in a playful, chaotic, cat-powered universe.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What is your role in the game?

Dulull: Well as an indie developer, I wear lots of hats, so its Game Dev, Game Designer, Game Producer.  

Old School Gamer Magazine: What has development been like?

Dulull: Game development is a rollercoaster, full of highs (“This is incredible!”), lows (“What on Earth am I doing?”), and constant twists and turns where you pivot creatively or technically to make the game better than you first imagined.

I started Astro Burn completely on my own back in March 2025. But as the vision grew, I knew where my limits were. By August, I began bringing in freelance help for the more complex systems, like local leaderboards, datastore logic, and variable structures. By September, I pulled in pixel artists to replace my placeholder art with something beautiful and polished and that included collaborating with the awesome Canadian based Japanese artist Q-Yoneda!

I also imposed a 12-month deadline. I didn’t want to fall into the classic indie trap of building an overly ambitious game that drifts into a five-year production cycle while scrambling for funding. I gave myself a clear financial runway and adopted a game-jam mindset: weekly milestones, iterative builds, fast decision-making. That structure let me evolve the game while still staying on schedule.

Being an indie dev, especially one self-financing, comes with pressure. But I had to make sure that pressure never overshadowed the passion that drove me to make this game in the first place.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game special?

Dulull: Well firstly this game is unapologetically delightfully bonkers!!!  It’s a game that will constantly make you smile (I’ve noticed some of the most hardcore serious players at game conventions we showcase the game at, they would approach all hard faced, but then when they play it you can see them cracking a smile – that’s the special factor this game has, it makes you feel joy!.

The controls are simple, and its only two buttons of action (fire weapon, and trigger Special power moves!). It’s a game anyone can pick up and play without any intense onboarding, and most importantly it’s so insane that it doesn’t take itself seriously, and nor should you as the player too!

Old School Gamer Magazine: What games influenced this one the most?

Dulull: This game is a love letter to the classic cute-em-ups in the mid 90s such as Parodius and Pop N’Twin Bee.  But also other cute-em-ups like Cotton for example.  

Old School Gamer Magazine: What was behind the decision to do a physical edition for PC and Mac?

Dulull: Honestly, it was a pretty natural decision, and not really a market or technical one.

A lot of my network comes from film and TV, and most of them are on MacBooks, it’s just the norm in that world. I rarely knew anyone in Hollywood using a PC laptop. So, if I wanted those people to actually play the game, Mac support just made sense.

Since Steam supports both PC and Mac, and GDevelop lets me build for both pretty easily, it felt like a no-brainer, just making the game accessible to the people around me 😊

Old School Gamer Magazine: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Dulull: Honestly, Astro Burn has been a bit of a rollercoaster, in the best way. It’s full of those weird little moments that ended up shaping what the game actually became.

It all started pretty simply. I was sitting there with a coffee, staring at my SNES cartridges, when my cat Mia tapped me for food. I looked at her… then back at the games… and it just clicked, what if the pilot was a space cat? Gave her a treat, and that was the spark.

The biggest turning point came halfway through development. I’d been showing the game at events, and people loved the cat, but the gameplay felt too serious. That Sunday morning, I went back and played stuff like Parodius and TwinBee, and realised I was playing it too safe. So I did something a bit mad, I mocked up a panda riding a giant mech and threw it online. The reaction was instant. That was the moment I knew… lean into the chaos.

Another big shift came when I met Q Yoneda in Canada / Winnipeg. After I got back to London, he sent over some fan art based on the demo, and I remember thinking, this is it. I couldn’t unsee it. That 90s Konami vibe just clicked into place.

Then there were all the smaller, but equally important moments. Watching players instinctively press A to shoot while I’d mapped it to X, that got changed the same night. Or when people said, “I want to read the story… just faster,” which led to replacing the skip button with a fast-forward.

And then there’s the Meow-doken… which basically came from us asking, how far can we push this? That idea of turning Astro into this giant burst of feline fury just felt right, and it quickly became part of the game’s DNA.

Looking back, all these moments, big and small, are what shaped Astro Burn into what it is now. It wasn’t one big decision… it was a series of instincts, experiments, and just listening to what felt fun.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What were the major lessons learned?

Dulull: The players are always right!! No matter what you think is in your head as a game developer, when the players feedback, take that seriously because they are the players the ones that will be buying your game! It’s like the classic saying “the customer is always right”

Old School Gamer Magazine: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Dulull: 100% if anything, it’s those early mechanics that paved the way for games today, but throughout the decades we have seen games get technologically much more advanced with graphics and immersion but at the same time they have gotten bigger and more complex, and often forgetting that less is more, and working with restrictions (graphically memory etc) leads to out of the box thinking with game design. Yet mobile games rely on simpler mechanics often referencing those retro games, which is why I think mobile gaming is so much bigger than PC and Console gaming combined! (yes, controversial statement but just look at the Matthew Ball Report that was published recently!).

Old School Gamer Magazine: The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?

Dulull: Astro Burn got signed to Publisher – Pixel Doors in Mid-March, and I remember asking them what made the game stand out for them to sign it, and they said it was the most bonkers game they have ever seen, yet it had so much heart and soul in there with the space cat character layered with the retro fun vibe. So far, the trailer has been very popular because of the vibe, perhaps it’s the vibe of the game which makes it stand out. 

I am very fortunate to have found a wonderful and experienced publishing partner with Pixel Doors, we are currently hard at work together getting the game ready for Early Access.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?

Dulull: Having worked on PS1 (omg, that’s now considered as retro too!) games (such as Motocross mania) back in the day, I appreciate the restrictions of creating art work on a 256×256 texture map to fit every component of a character or vehicle and then use UV unwrap to texture onto low poly geometry, but also fast forward decades later working on massive games like DUNE: Awakening, both scales and times have taught me a lot about game development and how to navigate it, and it’s not easy! It’s not for the faint hearted!

The key thing when making games of any scale or genre, is team communication, if you have that (if anything) in a good place, then the process of making games will be fun and creative led and in turn gets the best ideas and results.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?

Dulull: FUN, FUN, FUN!

Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?  

Dulull: We are currently working on some licensed IP projects which we can’t talk about (yet), and also doing some early concepts for the next original title coming out of Beyond The Pixels, although it’s early to announce anything, what I can say is, it will be in the cute-em-up genre and will be even more delightfully bonkers! ☺

Old School Gamer Magazine: Anything else you’d like to add?

Dulull: Please play the demo and Wishlist the game if you like it, we need more support for indies to survive this insane business that we all love.

Follow the Kickstarter project here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beyondthepixels/astro-burn-limited-edition-physical-indie-game

Join the Discord:  https://discord.com/invite/qV9u6krj4c

Play the Demo on these platforms:

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3810660/Astro_Burn/

GOG:  https://www.gog.com/en/game/astro_burn

Epic Games Store:  https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/astro-burn-fdb205

About Beyond The Pixels®:

Founded by HaZ Dulull with a mission to create games in a smarter, more agile way—capturing the same thrill and wonder he felt playing arcade and 16-bit console games as a kid. We use the latest tools and technology to design and produce games that reflect the simple plot and mechanics of the games we loved when growing up on consoles like SNES and the Coin-op Arcades. The simple run and gun / shoot-em-up button-bashing games that require speed, coordination and skills, layered with an engaging story that isn’t complex. Our games are that but delivered with the slick visual design flair, high speed frame rates and graphics fidelity on next gen PC + consoles for today’s generation of gamers, whilst staying in lean and smart game development approaches to keeping costs and schedule as tight as possible. We leverage smart social media and brand partnership strategy to create community for our games from day one.

The post Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: HaZ Dulull Talks Astro Burn appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Enter Acclaim’s Basketball Classic, a three-button retro game experience that in spite of its simplicity, is a magical experience.

Even without licensed teams and players, Basketball Classics gets it done the same way the original Madden and NHL games did, with excellent core gameplay and a level of polish that makes the game fun. Whether in single-player or multi, Basketball Classics is a great time and a game that proves that this new run of Acclaim is taking things seriously.

The Good:

Plenty of Modes: A story mode, season and quickly give the player plenty of options.

Tons of Teams: Although they lack the NBA license, you know who all of these players and teams are. With over 20 years of playoff teams to choose from, hardcore players will salivate here.

Shooting Engine: Hitting 3s just feels awesome.

Great Sound: An ode to Tecmo Bowl, the sound here really gets the player invested.

The Bad:

Too Many Blocked Ducks: The game’s only real setback is that dunking with anyone near you is next to impossible to pull off.

The Verdict:

There are next to no new sports games on the Nintendo Switch, so if you’re hungry for a basketball game on the go, this is absolutely perfect for you. Fans of Tecmo Bowl and RBI Baseball be warned though, you’re going to fall in love.

The post Basketball Classics Review: Stellar appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Recovering the Past: “Caleb Adventure” Brings Retro Heroism to the MSX! Retro gaming fans have a new mission: infiltrate the castle of Baron Buuu-hahaha and reclaim a stolen legacy. In the newly released title Caleb Adventure, players step into the shoes of a hero on a deeply personal quest. The villainous Baron Buuu-hahaha has absconded with Paulo’s prized MSX cartridge collection, hiding the loot deep within his Castle. It is up to you to navigate the treacherous halls and recover the stolen hardware.

Here’s the latest “What to expect from a game which the cover art has a main character cosplaying as Link? Is that a hint of the type of game you might expect? Yes, yes it is. Calebe adventure combines a 2D exploration platformer in the style of Castle Excellent and Maze of Gallious with a top-down puzzle game like Sokoban or Zelda, and somehow, they made it work on a thrilling combination of styles and quite unique gameplay. And with very sharp graphics as well, even on MSX-1 Don’t waste any time and jump into this game, recovering a stolen MSX cartridge collection from the castle of an evil Baron has never looked better!”

• The game shows advanced graphics at the intro screen when booting on MSX2

Links :1) Source

The post Calebe Adventure – A new 2D platformer released for the MSX by Paulo Pereira Gonçalves & Calebe Rodrigues Gonçalves appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The Kickstarter for Annalog only launched on Tuesday, but the NES game has already achieved its initial $7000 goal and then some. The Retro Room Games has confirmed that it has hit its first stretch goal of $10,000 with 28 days left to go in the campaign. Backers are now guaranteed to receive their physical and digital editions of the creepy, machine-centered Metroidvania in October of this year.

The game itself is already finished, and the source code is freely available. The main purpose of the campaign was to fund the production of physical NES cartridges. Now that this goal has been met, The Retro Room Games is eyeing its ultimate stretch goal, $25,000, at which point they will publish a 1990’s GameFAQs style text document providing ASCII art and solutions to all of the game’s puzzles. The first stretch goal, $10,000, guarantees the publication of Game Genie codes for the Annalog.

At the $12,000 level, The Retro Room Games will add pins and sticks for all backers of physical copies. At the $15,000 level, they will produce a short digital 1990’s style gaming magazine article about the game with maps, tips, trivia, and codes. At the $20,000 level, they will port Annalog to the Nintendo Switch. Annalog was developed by mdsteele. It is his fourth retro game title, and the second one which will be published in physical form by The Retro Room Games. The first, Big2Small, can be purchased as a physical cartridge for the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast here.

The post The Retro Room Games Achieves First Stretch Goal for Annalog appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

About Super Fanger, Courtesy of Mega Cat Studios:

Get ready for the wildest game of tag yet. Chase down your friends or evade their pursuit to avoid capture. Tackle dynamic levels and execute special moves to outsmart your rivals. Keep your nerve as you make every twist and turn count!

• 4 maps with signature twists
• Play absurd characters with unique abilities
• Unlockable surprises
• One or two players

Old School Gamer Magazine: Why does the SNES still matter?

Patryk Boczon: The SNES represents the high point of classic 2D game design. It set a standard that many modern retro-style games still try to imitate today. Some of the most influential games ever made were released on the SNES, and they continue to shape how games are designed and remembered.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What were some of the challenges in bringing this one to life?

Boczon: This was the first SNES game I developed, so one of the main challenges was learning assembly programming while simultaneously getting familiar with the technical concepts of the SNES itself. On top of that, I had to explore and establish suitable tools and workflows for development. Altogether, there were many “firsts” involved, which resulted in several steep learning curves throughout the project.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What was the development cycle like?

Boczon: Looking at the different tasks involved, the development cycle was quite varied. There were phases where I focused entirely on implementing new systems, and others where I spent days or even weeks working on sprites, designing maps, or creating music. When adding smaller features, I sometimes moved between programming, art, and audio within a single day.

Playtesting was also an essential part of the process, especially since the game is built around two-player interaction. I’d like to thank my wife for regularly playtesting and providing valuable feedback, which played an important role in shaping the final game.

Old School Gamer Magazine: How has Mega Cat helped bring this vision to life?

Boczon: I initially reached out to Mega Cat Studios because I was looking for a publisher who could manufacture physical copies of Super Fanger. During development, they provided feedback and support when needed but largely gave me the freedom to realize the project according to my vision. They also handled the final quality assurance process, which is especially important when releasing a game on a physical cartridge.

Overall, working with Mega Cat Studios was a very smooth experience. I appreciate the support of everyone who helped make Super Fanger a reality.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s your elevator pitch for this one?

Boczon: Super Fanger is a fast-paced, chaotic chase where grown-ups get to play 16-bit tag.

Old School Gamer Magazine: Who do you think will enjoy this one the most?

Boczon: The initial idea was to create a short but intense two-player couch versus game that you could pop in when meeting with friends. Because of that, I think it will appeal most to players who enjoy local multiplayer and competitive experiences, especially those looking for something that’s easy to pick up and jump into right away.

Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?

Boczon: The connection I made with Mega Cat Studios through Super Fanger led to a collaboration where I’m now developing titles for the NES with them. As for the SNES, I’ve started work on a second game, but it’s currently on hold while I focus on NES projects with Mega Cat Studios.

Old School Gamer Magazine: Anything else you’d like to add?

Boczon: Thank you for your interest in Super Fanger and for giving me the opportunity to share some insights into its development.

The post Old School Gamer Magazine Exclusive: Patryk Boczon Talks Super Fanger appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

On January 30th, Retro Room Games made their Game Boy Advance port of Nebulus available to purchase in their online store. Produced in collaboration with Rebellion, Nebulus is a classic puzzle platformer dating to 1987. Originally released for home computers such as the Amiga and the Commodore 64 back in 1987, Nebulus is relatively obscure in the United States gaming market, as it was renamed Tower Toppler for release in that market. Nebulus also went by the name of Castelian. A port for the original Game Boy was released under this title.

The Game Boy Advance version is a dramatic improvement on this previous port. This new version takes advantage of full color palettes and improved scrolling effects that much more effectively mimic the at-the-time remarkable graphics of Nebulus that effectively conveyed the depth of the scrolling tower. The gameplay of Nebulus revolves around Pogo, a cute green monster that is attempting to destroy eight towers in the ocean by planting bombs at the top of them.

Nebulus retails for $9.99 for access to the ROM file alone. A proper Game Boy Advance cartridge retails for $22.99. Finally, Nebulus is available complete in the box with a physical full color manual for $47.99.

The post Nebulus Ported to the Game Boy Advance appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

It’s Commodore Amiga news time! Welcome to Elevator Action for the Amiga! A conversion by JOTD and team which has now been released as a final ECS build ( Previously released as AGA). A game that was originally released in 1983 in the arcades. Basically you are a spy who has must infiltrate a building with a ton of doors and elevators, hence the name. The important documents for the mission are only in the red doors and you must get to the documents on certain floors and reach the awaiting car near the basement.

For those of you who have never played Elevator Action before in the Arcades or any of the system ports such as the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Famicom, Game Boy, MSX, NES, PlayStation 4, SG-1000, or ZX Spectrum. Here’s what the wikipedia page says about Elevator Action: “The game was a critical and commercial success for Taito, exceeding sales expectations at the time it released. It was the top-grossing arcade game on the Japanese arcade charts for three months in late 1983, and was among the top five highest-grossing arcade “route” games of 1984 in the United States. It has been ported to a variety of home systems, has had multiple sequels, and appeared on Taito compilations.”

Credits:

• – jotd: reverse-engineering, 68000 transcode, graphics conversion
•   sound conversion for the Amiga.
• – no9: music & help with sfx
• – ross: help with copperlists
• – PascalDe73: icon

Links :1) Source

The post Elevator Action – JOTD’s latest Arcade to Amiga conversion [UPDATE] appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

With a look that’ll remind you of several different cartoon network shows and simple, but immersive gameplay, “Tembo the Badass Elephant,” is a blast. Thanks to a budget price and a gameplay style that little kids can enjoy and completionists will go nutty for, it has enough charm to win most over.

It’s that casual gamer fringe however, you know, the ones that made “Wii Sports” the best-selling game of all-time, that’ll get pissed at Tembo the most.

At the same time, this game proves, among a few other things, that Game Freak is so much more than the developer behind the “Pokemon” series.

While a good majority of the game is a non-stop platforming and destruction blast, there’s not always a reward to the frenetic and fun nature of the beast that is Tembo. Needing to kill a certain number of “Phantom Forces,” the main baddies in the game, in order to advance to certain levels, “Tembo the Badass Elephant” can and will become a chore to those who can’t understand why they just can’t move on the next level.

“I finished it, I don’t want to play through it again,” they’ll say. And they’d be right. A choice or difficultly option to allow more casual gamers to progress easier could have done wonders for this game, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. “Tempo the Badass Elephant” isn’t easy and that’s why you’ll love it or hate it.

Taking animation nods from shows the likes of “The Regular Show,” “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” and “The Amazing World of Gumball,” the game has an awesome look that makes the wild and crazy antics of Tembo that much more enjoyable. Crashing through a dozen levels of a building or watching a huge bowling ball roll through enemy tanks is a visual feast and easily one of the strongest points of the game.

But away from the visual look, it’s the easy to jump into platforming action that’ll really get you hooked. It also helps that the plot is ridiculously silly. The world is in trouble from a bunch of baddies and only Tembo, the Badass Elephant can help. Able to jump through walls, crush his opponents and use his trunk to put out fires, he is indeed badass. The gameplay structure is extremely reminiscent of the 16-bit era of platforming and once you master the three or four cool attacks Tembo has and are able to use his Yoshi-inspired jump to your advantage, the game is an enjoyable romp.

Despite the old-school charm here, the game is more than just a tribute to retro platforms the likes of Mario and Sonic. As mentioned before, it’s not just a simple run and jump platformer. You’ll have to think and you’ll die often. Perfection is often rewarded and more often than not, you’ll find a better way to progress. For gamers that would rather just finish a level and move on, “Tembo the Badass Elephant” is not a game they’ll enjoy.

As mentioned earlier, “Tembo the Badass Elephant” is filled with redeemable qualities, but they are ones that require skill and patience in the gamer to fully take advantage of. If you lack either one, you’ll get significantly less out of the game than you should.

Will you play “Tembo the Baddass Elephant”? Sound off in the comment section below and let us know.

The post Retro Review: Tembo the Bad Ass Elephant: Game Freak Calls in the Big Peanuts appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.