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Thank you for your kind message! I've been thinking about another project for the 16k ZX Spectrum, but I know this one wouldn't fit in 16k. I stuck with the 16k machine for my ZX projects because assembly language programming is tedious and I thought the 16k machine was least likely to exhaust my patience or to allow feature creep. I'm not ruling out writing 48k games, which Chambers probably would be, but that's probably something for the more distant future. I still have a lot of DOS projects in my head!

Not as it stands, no, the two platforms are incompatible. I got out my Series 5mx the other day though and am thinking about a port of the game in future. That won't necessarily be soon, perhaps not even in the next year, but it's on my list.

Joltima looks like so much fun! I hope you enjoy playing with the Series 3 as much as I do.

Thanks for your comment! I'd definitely recommend getting hold of these machines, but there are things you have to look out for because of their age. The issues I can think of right now are: (i) check for evidence that it works; in online sales you want pictures of the machine switched on, with a screen display lacking blotches or missing vertical pixel lines, (ii) check that the hinges and surrounding area aren't cracked or broken.

If you find a machine that looks fine there might still be minor problems with it that can be worked around. The machines have a metal tongue that sits between the two AA batteries, and in a few of my machines that's broken or missing, but you can still power the machine up by inserting a piece of foil between the batteries to make the contact. The batteries are awkward to put in with this problem but you get the knack of it soon enough.

Since these machines are battery powered, all you really need are the computer itself. But to get 3rd party software onto them you'll also need the 3-link, a serial cable with a dongle in the middle containing a ROM with the comms software (a Series 3c or 3mx don't need the dongle as they have the software in ROM, but their cable still has a bespoke connector at the Psion end). And to connect to a modern machine you'll need a USB-to-serial adapter.

You'll probably want memory cards for storage too, proprietary cards called SSDs (solid state disks) on the S3 family. There are two types: Flash SSDs, where space is not freed up by deleting files and are therefore more suitable for archiving or storing the software itself, and RAM SSDs that work like modern storage and are therefore good for files that get saved often. I especially recommend a Flash SSD for installing software to so that it's not taking up main memory, especially on machines with 128k or 256k of memory.

I hope this helps; if you need more information let me know!

Thanks Andrew! I'm glad you enjoy it.

Looks like it. I had to add the Psion tag myself! I hope you enjoy playing with it.

I love much of what Psion put out in the consumer market, from the Organiser II to the EPOC32 machines. I especially love the ability to develop on the device itself. The original Series 3 is my current favourte - enough power for the projects I want to do, without the extra complications of stylus input or the need for better artwork.

Thanks for your comment, and Merry Christmas to you!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! One of the game's flaws (copied over from the original 2010 Psion version) is that the random starting position isn't necessarily balanced, so the map itself can skew the difficulty in one direction or another.

It probably takes a few games to get the strategies down. I can't say how many, as I was learning as I was writing it (the original version 15 years ago). But you might also have just been unlucky. If your cities are far away from the barbarian invasion and there's a bunch of mountains or forests in the way, they'll have chance to build up their numbers before you get there.

Sorry, I took down my Github recently and haven't updated all the old blog posts. You can download the source code from my web site now: http://dos.cyningstan.org.uk/downloads/7/barren-planet

Here's my WIP, a simple little strategy game with CGA graphics. It's more or less done, I just need to finish the title screen music and the manual cover. I've been a bit distracted by real life stuff, and by working on my game programming library (part of which is a utility to build the aforesaid music), so progress has slowed down a little.

Thanks! I've bookmarked your blog now and look forward to future articles. As for dying: have you checked the 1-page Quick Start guide? If you're dying early and often, you might not be buying the right equipment for your character. The quick start guide gives you hints at what equipment best matches the skills your character has.

Yes! In the DOS version, launch with "chambers -p". In the Windows version, you can make this change in the chambers.conf file in \Program Files (x86)\The Chambers Beneath\dosbox\. The -p parameter switches to the "nostalgic" CGA palette of black, cyan, magenta, and white.

This is wonderful! I first found it not long after you made it, and I keep coming back to it whenever I want to make a relaxing cat-filled journey without leaving my chair. I take it easy and try to make my passengers' ride as smooth as possible.

The game also works in the nostalgic headache-inducing cyan and magenta too!

That might explain it. I'm hoping to some games from the jam tomorrow, health permitting. If I do stream, I'll include this game so the VOD will catch any oddness (or any stupidity on my part).

It's a week ago so I can't be certain, but I *think* I opened the actions menu. The only option I could see was the opposite, "put down" or "drop" (again I can't remember the exact wording as it was over a week ago). I'll give it another go when I get chance and see if I missed anything.

I had a quick play with this and want to play it more. I saw a key card on the floor but don't see any controls above for picking it up. Is it possible to pick up items yet?

Thanks for the kind comment!

The menu system is inspired by that of Battle Isle 2, holding fire while selecting the option. Since the default is context sensitive, it means you can just tap fire to do the most likely option (move when pointing to an adjacent empty square, heal when pointing to an adjacent injured colleague, attack when pointing at an enemy, etc). But the shortcuts are useful when the thing you want to do *isn't* the default option.

This particular game is just a proof of concept for the tactical combat engine. I hope to make other games in the Star Cadre series with a variety of campaign modes. So in future you might be able to take Medic Usteme's career further.

Thanks! I'm intending to buy the digital version of the whole next issue once it's out. I bought issue #002 and I'm enjoying that at the moment.

Cool, thank you! I look forward to BrewOtaku #003 coming out!

Some examples from the early CGA era might be good candidates to DOS-ify the project a bit more. Bouncing Babies and Sopwith come to mind, with their simple mechanics. Although Spacewar is older than DOS, the DOS version is well regarded. I'm sure there are some obvious DOS exclusives I've forgotten.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it.

Yes, there are only five keys for Barren Planet... or seven if you count the choice of Control, Enter or Space for Fire. I *should* have added shortcut keys to it, but that didn't occur to me until after it was released.

Thanks! But it looks like you confused Barren Planet with Ossuary - these are the Ossuary keys :-)

Thank you!

Thanks! I thought it was about time to add the alpha keys, now I have a Book 8088. The new controls have been quietly retrofitted to the version in CGALIB itself now.

Your son sees snowmen, I see weird looking ghosts (especially in the thumbnails).

That's looking really good! I'm glad you're finding CGALIB useful! In my latest update I forgot to expose the screen attributes too, but it's relatively simple to do. I'll probably get around to that once another update is necessary.

The new bitmap editor is still a bit limited (24x24 tiles, and only 24) because it's really only there to get people started. Your own is probably better for your purposes. For my own projects I'll probably continue using The GIMP to make screen-sized collages of bitmaps and writing a bespoke asset maker for each game to grab the bitmaps.

I'm looking forward to seeing where your RPG project goes.

I especially appreciate the support for MDA. My first PC was briefly MDA, until I upgraded it to Hercules. I'd have loved it back then, since the games I could play were few and far between.

You've got the gist of the game. It's a remake of a traditional robot chase game from the 1970s or 1980s. Get all the robots on each level to destroy themselves, teleporting only when necessary to survive. Once all the robots are trashed, you go on to another level with more robots. Eventually you will die, in true 1980s game style. The doors and terminals are for decoration only.

I've tried other palettes but settled on this one (with a red background instead of the usual black) as I find it a bit more attractive than the default black/white/cyan/magenta. The Barren Planet or Team Droid palettes would be better but I'm trying to use a different palette for each game I release. There's always the monochrome option if you don't like the colours :-)

Thanks! There's not much additional functionality in this version (only the alphabetic movement keys), but it's certainly handy for people to download and play as a single .com file.

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it.

Thank you!

Looking at these screenshots makes me feel excited for the game. I'm planning to make something similar one day, but with a very different art style. Good luck with it!

I hope you enjoy the levels! :-)

Thanks! Tiny BASIC is a good subject for a first attempt at an interpreter or compiler, which is why I think there are so many implementations old and new. The only disappointing thing is that there isn't a bigger library of programs for it, given that it's been around in one form or another since the 1970s. I'll go an have a look at those discussions now.

https://cyningstan.itch.io/team-droid

Ah I see, thanks. So it just looks like I've been unlucky enough to be hit every time I tried it!

I especially love the ancient mythology theme, it makes a nice change from the usual Tolkienesque fantasy theme that you usually see with this kind of game.

This looks really interesting! I've had a quick play with it and have a question: when I press 1 to advance up the track, it doesn't advance but just passes my turn and my power bar disappears. The monster can then attack me and then I have to start raising my power bar from the bottom of the track again. Am I misunderstanding the purpose of "advance"?