At first glance, Future Looter looks like Cybernoid but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve; some of the screens are more puzzle-oriented than straight out blasting where in-game enemies have to be persuaded to help the player rather than hinder. It's also easier to play than Cybernoid!

  • External link:   Future Looter at World of Spectrum
  • News source:  FreshBEEP

Amstrad owners had a nice prezzie sat under their trees this year with the release of CNGSoft's eagerly anticipated conversion of Bubble Bobble, or BB4CPC for short. Yes, the CPC has already received one version of Taito's classic coin-op but it wasn't considered to be the best use of the machine so a new adaptation has been produced.

  • External link:   BB4CPC homepage
  • News source:  CPCWiki forum

Dare you enter the Streets of Doom? Having escaped the now destroyed Skyscraper of Doom, the next challenge facing our hero is escaping unscathed from the dodgy neighbourhood he finds himself in by solving puzzles and talking to unsavoury characters. Then it's presumably onwards to the Kebab Shop of Doom before catching the Night Bus of Doom home?

  • External link:   Streets of Doom at World of Spectrum

It looks a little simple, but Escape from the Holy Tower is a headache-inducing puzzle game for the Spectrum that is a little reminiscent of Chip's Challenge; there's a quota of crates to be collected on each stage and the puzzle lies in trying to work out which way around to collect them in order to avoid becoming trapped.

  • External link:   Escape from the Holy Tower at World of Spectrum

Although it could be confused with a seaside town in Devon, Westward Ho! is in this case an educational game that was released in 1986 and based on the near legendary Oregon Trail. And now the Amstrad CPC has been graced with a conversion, so if you fancy getting attacked by wild animals in your sleep, deciding how many oxen to buy or perhaps dying of pneumonia this is probably the place to look.

  • External link:   Westward Ho! at CPCWiki

Ah gawd... we can't cover all of the RGCD 16K cartridge competition's releases one at a time because there's eleven of 'em so here's one post talking about the lot; the releases are Blok Copy (a block shuffling puzzle game), C64anabalt (the other conversion of Canabalt we mentioned previously), Fairy Well (an action collect 'em up with a huge play area), Fortress of Narzod (the Vextrex blaster converted to the C64), Get Em (fast-paced shooty maze action), Jars' Revenge (a conversion of Yar's Revenge), Panic Analogue (paddle-controlled extension of Kaboom!), Rong (a Pong clone), Space Lords (Warlords with beefed up graphics), The Mollusk (bi-directional scrolling with an underwater theme) and Woolly Jumper (a sheep 'em up!).

  • External link:   16K releases at RGCD

Fickle for the unexpanded VIC 20 is a one button puzzle game where the titular Fickle must be told if he should react to spinning barriers or not. The game was entered into this year's Minigame competition by Malcolm Tyrrell, the author of MazezaM on the Spectrum.

  • External link:   Fickle at Denial

Mr SID, who surprised us a few months back with a stunning version of Apple 2 classic Prince of Persia for the C64, has just released what he's describing as a "quick and dirty" unofficial conversion of Adam Atomic's Canabalt. For those not aware of the original, it's a one button game about survival, with the player leaping from rooftop to rooftop at speed. Please note that we've flagged it as "unofficial" because another Canabalt will be turning up soon!

  • External link:   Canabalt at the CSDb