Category Archives: Modern Retro

Vradark’s Revenge, ZX Spectrum Next

The sequel to Vradark’s Sphere on the ZX Spectrum, Vradark’s Revenge is another fantasy-based Roguelike from the same development team, SaNchez, only this time it has been created specifically for the ZX Spectrum Next, which is an enhanced, modern ZX Spectrum remake/variant that first came out in 2017.

Vradark’s Revenge was initially released in 2022 and an emulated version, that runs in Windows, was later released on Steam in 2023 through publisher “Drunk Fly Oy” (which is a bizarre company name if ever there was one).

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Vradark’s Sphere, ZX Spectrum

Vradark’s Sphere is a Roguelike fantasy role-playing game that was created by Aleksander Udotov, for 128K Spectrums, and first released in 2018. To me it is the epitome of what I would call “Modern Retro” (ie. a modern game, made to look old or be played on old hardware), and it looks and plays fantastically well.

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Aliens: Neoplasma, ZX Spectrum

Aliens: Neoplasma is a homebrew ZX Spectrum game that was released by a Russian dev team called “SaNchez” in 2019. The game is for Spectrum 128K models only and is a run-and-gun shooter with platforming elements. It’s available in English, Russian and Spanish (each language is a separate download).

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Donkey Kong [X2016], Commodore 64

This homebrew version of Donkey Kong was created by “Oxyron” for the Commodore 64 and was released at the “X2016 C64 Party” in The Netherlands in 2016, and it’s really rather excellent. Arguably even better than the officially-licensed C64 conversion by Ocean that was released in 1986.

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Beef Drop, Atari 8-Bit

Beef Drop is a homebrew BurgerTime clone programmed by the late Ken Siders and released through AtariAge in 2005. As far as home ports of Data East‘s classic arcade game go, it’s arguably one of the most authentic.

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Snowdown, Commodore 64

Snowdown is a one or two-player Christmas-themed action game that was written by Badger Punch Games and first released for the Commodore 64 in 2020.

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Eye of the Beholder, Commodore 64

This amazing Commodore 64 port of the 1991 Amiga/MS-DOS RPG classic, Eye of the Beholder, was released on 21st November 2022 and is one of the best homebrew remakes I think I’ve ever played. It was written by “Jack Asser“, with the help of a number of other talented individuals, and comes as a CRT (cartridge) file for quick-loading.

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Ion Fury, PC

Ion Fury is a cyberpunk-themed first-person shooter, developed by Voidpoint and published by 3D Realms in 2019. It is a prequel to the 2016 game, Bombshell.

Ion Fury runs on a modified version of Ken Silverman‘s Build Engine and is the first original commercial game to use the Build Engine in twenty years.

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The Dark, ZX Spectrum

The Dark is a rare first-person shooter on the humble ZX Spectrum, written by Russian coder Oleg Origin. It was originally released under the title of Quake in 1997, and was then re-worked and re-released by the original author as The Dark in 2016.

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The Empire Strikes Back, Commodore 64

This brilliant Commodore 64 homebrew remake of Parker Brothersclassic Atari 2600 game first came out in 2022 and it features superb music, great graphics and fun gameplay that mirrors the original 1982 game, but with a few extras to make it a bit more palatable to a modern audience.

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