General Update

Well, it's been a busy week!
I have been on annual leave from work, which usually means for me, a hell of lot more work, and this week turned out no different. I did at least get time to do a few things and continue work on some bits and bats, so, what have I been doing...

1. Getting drunk a lot!
2. Fixing Kyd Cadet III and wondering why no one noticed the silly naming and hidden messages!
3. Preparing to re-release with an additional second level (extra 34 rooms) if I can get it to work.
4. Working on the next issue of the magazine.
5. Trying to make progress with the next episode of The Spectrum Show.
6. Eating pizza

As you can see, things have been pretty busy and that doesn't even take into account the new dinning furniture, dealing with charity shops, gardening, parcel deliveries, sick relatives and the odd few hours relaxing!

I have also just noticed that this weekend is usually the time I release The Spectrum Show (usually last weekend of the month), but because of the above, it will be a bit late...sorry!

I'll try to get it out next weekend... now.. where's that bottle of wine....

Read more »

Kyd Cadet III - Spectrum

The third in the Kyd Cadet series takes our young hero into new territory. No more nice guy, Kyd is now fully trained and ready for action.

The Eyeburx home planet is being attacked by an unknown intelligence, and Kyd Cadet has been sent to investigate.

After some initial probing, he discovers a plot to take over the galaxy by the destruction-happy Driodand race. More than that though, he discover the attack is imminent, and is being controlled from a central computer on the Droidand's home planet.

With no time to report back, he heads off to take up the challenge, collecting a light weight pulse rifle on the way.

Landing on the planet he is immediately besieged by Droidand robots but he must succeed in this new, very dangerous mission.

Oxygen is scarce, and Kyd only has a short supply. Luckily there are oxygen pods scattered around that can be used to re-fill his tanks.

Many thanks to R-Tape from WOS for the help in getting this game released.

Kyd Cadet 3 was reviewed in Retro Gamer magazine and awarded 88%.
Click to read.




Download the game
Kyd Cadet III - The Eyeburx Plee

Screenshots

Read more »

Kyd Cadet 3 - The Lost Game

Let me set the scene...

About five months ago I completed work on Mk2 of Kyd Cadet 3. I say Mk2, because I have a 80% complete platform game that was supposed to be the third in the series, but I lost interest towards the end.

This is another attempt to add a third instalment of the Kyd Cadet series, but the game-play has changed from a platformer to a kind of Exolon clone.

After a good few months of work, the game was complete along with a loader and loading screen, however, this is where fate stepped in. The version of AGD (Arcade Games Designer) I used had a known (but not to me at the time!) bug that corrupted the game code when you tried to save out the final game.

After a lot of messing about, I gave up and got very drunk. I even tried to load the code into a newer version, but this also didn't work. So, there it sat... and as other projects came along I completely forgot about it.

Today I was going through my hard drive and looking at all my half-complete games, and found it. Kyd Cadet 3 - The Eyeburx Plee, fully playable and finished. I had a few plays through to make sure, and it was 100%. So now what?

I have put out a plee on World Of Spectrum for some assistance, and hopefully I can finally get this game released. More as it happens....

Here are a few screenshots...

Read more »

The Spectrum Show Magazine 2

The Spectrum Show Magazine issue 2 is now available for download from the link (top right).

Like previous issues, this takes a lot of content from the video show and places it in a magazine format. There are also items not in the show, and extended reviews of certain games.

I have changed the layout a lot to make it look more professional and take into account that most magazines have side by side pages. If you viewer allows you to view this way, then things will look all the more improved.

This is third iteration of this issue, having spent ages trying out different layouts. I think I am happy with this one... at least for now.

If you want to write a review or feature for the next issue, please get in touch.

Enjoy.

Read more »

Out Of Space!

I have been trying to re-arrange the content of this blog and upload some stuff, mainly house keeping things, but one important file. The next issue of The Spectrum Show magazine is complete and ready to release, however, I have just discovered I am out of space on my FTP site.

My host (Virgin Meida) give a nice 200mb, but my account is still the old NTL one, which only has 50mb!

I now have no room to upload the new issue, so I am having to create a new virgin account, set up the hosting for it and then transfer all the content across! BUT... because the account is new - I can't complete the task of setting up the space yet!! GGGRRRRRR!!!!!

This will not affect any files currently here, as the hosting is totally separate and I still retain the old NTL one. Once my new space is ready,I will move everything across and then change all the links. Then I can upload the new issue.

Update: (9:50pm)
The new FTP is now active. I will begin moving stuff across tomorrow so the new issue will be released then.

Read more »