Possibly the coolest news for this week and one I really think is going to get those jaws dropping *AGAIN*, is the fact that thanks to a mighty heads up by our good friend @PixelCNinja, we have been told the Sega Master System version of Super Mario Bros by LackofTrack is available for ALL to enjoy! Yes indeed one of the most eagerly awaited games to come to the Sega Master System as announced some time ago as a proof of concept, is here as a near-perfect port of the NES/FC classic
Back in 1997, childhood friends Dmytro Mosiychuk and Viktor Voloshuk from Lutsk, Ukraine, channelled their deep love for the ZX Spectrum and the iconic Dizzy series into creating their own unofficial fan game, Dizzy - The Dragon Trap. Set in a fantasy realm of their own design called Dragon Land, the project featured new room layouts, graphics, dialogue, and custom AY-chip music. However, by the time they finished it, the Spectrum era was fading fast in favour of modern x86 PCs. Believing they had missed their window, the duo only shared their masterpiece with a handful of close relatives and friends before archiving the completed game away on a standard cassette tape, where it sat forgotten for nearly thirty years until now...
Homebrew team Tedzogh, Dor, aZtOcKdOg, imjustpickle and keyj freely, has officially launched a new demo for its upcoming native Commodore Amiga adventure game, The Adventure of Node. Taking heavy inspiration from classic action-RPGs such as Zelda, the title introduces players to a fantasy world requiring sharp reflexes and critical thinking. While the game is still in active development and today's demo is an early tease, the game is likely to go through a lot of improvements until its final release.
The classic arcade vibe of Wreck-It Ralph has leapt off the cinema screen with a massive new release for the ZX Spectrum Next. While fans have spent years recreating the movie's fictional 1982 arcade hit Fix-It Felix Jr. on everything from mobile phones to the Sega Genesis, a definitive new version has appeared as a port from the Commodore 64 to the ZX Spectrum Next. While Steven Day recently reached out to us to share this exciting news, you can check out the latest footage and details below.
Almost There Games is back with another nod to a nostalgic classic! Welcome to Nelumbo, a modern reimplementation that pays tribute to an iconic Amiga racing franchise. For decades, the Lotus trilogy stood as the absolute pinnacle of high-speed arcade racers on the system, spanning from the ground breaking Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, to the fan-favourite Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, and finally Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge. Nelumbo brilliantly fuses all three legendary titles into one rebuilt package, hopefully preserving the distinct character of the original releases while introducing modern refinements for today's hardware.
Well this is incredible news, and one I didn't expect for a bank holiday Monday. As a classic gaming icon has made a surprising leap over to the Commodore Amiga 1200 as a highly anticipated work-in-progress demo of Sonic the Hedgehog. Titled as Aonic and released by reassembler, this impressive technical feat ports the blue spinning hedgehog over from the Sega Mega Drive to the Amiga. This project over the many months of development, has captured the attention of Amiga retro gamers eager to see how Sega's flagship title performs on the Commodore A1200 hardware.
Amiga owners here's another interesting news story to talk about, as developer Grzegorz Korycki, who was mentioned by us previously for his work on OpenTTD for AmigaOS 68k, is working on a port called AmiGTA1. This ambitious project is a ground-up reimplementation of the 1997 classic Grand Theft Auto engine specifically optimized for native AmigaOS 68k systems. Unlike modern hardware emulators or additional hardware like the PiStorm or Vampire, AmiGTA targets authentic classic setups, requiring a 68020 processor or higher paired with either AGA or RTG graphics. The release adheres strictly to legal boundaries by containing no copyrighted game code or assets. Instead, players must supply their own original PC files, which an included utility converts directly on the Amiga.
The legendary Commodore 64 has just got another great Shoot 'em up for you to try, as retroteamgames has released the final version of their breakthrough prototype called Chrome Horizon. Far from a standard hobbyist project, this title aimed to prove that the "breadbin" still has untapped potential when paired with modern development workflows. In fact not only was this game written entirely in C using the Oscar64 compiler, but it has advanced Raster IRQ multiplexing, supporting 16+ simultaneous hardware sprites, ultra-smooth 50/60fps parallax scrolling logic and a custom SID music routine integration.
Well this is fantastic news and a real hit to the nostalgia, as Rescue on Fractalus!, the ground-breaking 1985 title originally developed by Lucasfilm Games for the Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64, Color Computer 3 and ZX Spectrum is being ported to the Amiga by Vesuri, offering those that remember playing this all time classic a fresh way to experience it. Just beaware however you need an Amiga with 1 MB of RAM — it does not fit an unexpanded 512 KB A500, and has been developed and tested on an A500+ under Kickstart 3.1; also runs on Kickstart 1.3 PAL.
It's time for ColecoVision owners to celebrate as the iconic 1983 military hit Beach Head has un-officially made its debut on the ColecoVision console thanks to Electric Dreams. Originally crafted by Access Software, the multi-stage combat game originally took early home computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad by storm. Thanks to a dedicated team effort from Eric Damain and Adan Toledo, this impressive homebrew adaptation successfully translates the complete, authentic experience to the classic console for the absolute first time, bridging a forty-year gap for eager Coleco owners.
Electric Dreams who has released a number of games such as TAZ and SPACE ZOT is working on bringing over the classic dungeon crawler Wizardry to the 16-bit Atari ST. Originally conceived as an 8-bit project, the developer pivoted to coding a simultaneous 16-bit version to maximize the efficiency of the game's existing data structures. Built using GFA BASIC, the game is already looking promising in its work-in-progress state, with successful hardware testing carried out on an Atari MEGA STE 4.
Well that's enough of the Commodore Amiga, as we turn our attention to the latest release of Fitorian by fitosoft, a rather decent shoot ’em up designed specifically for the Amstrad CPC. Heavily inspired by the golden era of the early 1980s with games such as Galaxian, the game perfectly captures the raw, nostalgic magic of the very first arcade cabinets. It aims to transport players back to a foundational time in gaming history, when design boundaries were still being drawn and every new title felt like an undiscovered frontier of digital entertainment.
Trawling through itch for even more games to feature and I've come across an Amiga game called Sparkpaw: The Stormstone Quest, an action-platformer built from scratch for the Amiga 1200 using mostly AI by mrdig. In this side-scrolling adventure, players step into the paws of Sparkpaw, a spirited amber-orange feline inventor who must navigate ancient, machine-ridden ruins. Armed with a vibrant teal energy gauntlet, this mechanical prodigy is on a mission to cross hazardous terrain and piece together the lost Cores of the legendary Stormstone.