Crappy Crates - A very festive ZX Spectrum Review by Steve Trower

Well it's almost Christmas, and you know what that means, right? You got it, it means there's some poor chav working overtime in a warehouse somewhere, possibly for a company with a river-based name, we don't know. He's constantly shuffling boxes from remote corners of a warehouse into the despatch area, while being chased by giant Christmas puddings, weird little aliens and that big blue

Stela II - The Secrets of Doctor Malfario - Steve Trower's latest review of a new ZX Spectrum game

When our illustrious editor said he was sending round a Stella or two, I was fully expecting a Christmas bonus fresh from the Artois brewery in Belgium. Obviously he realised that wouldn't make for a particularly relevant review, so instead I got Stela II, fresh from La Moderna software house in Spain.




Stela II is, in fact, a new puzzle/maze game in which your mission, should you choose

The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits

And now for something completely different: The Chip Whisperer - Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - is a science fiction comedy story by IRN's occasional Sinclair reviewer, Steve Trower, released as a kindle ebook. The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits, is the retrogaming inspired, time-travelling, dimension-jumping tale of an ordinary retro collector who sets out to buy a

Thanatos - The ultimate 80's Dragon flight simulator? (Review)

Today's review will take us back into the mists of time, to an age of myth and magic, of sword and sorcery, of dragons and knights fighting over a fair maiden. Back, specifically, to 1986, where Mike 'The Knight' Richardson was defending the Kingdom of Durell against the forces of the underworld, assisted by his tame dragon, Thanatos the Destroyer.

Thanatos is a sideways scrolling fry-'em-up,

Universal Hero - ZX Spectrum Retro Review by Steve Trower

Far back in the mists of ancient time, spirits were brave, the stakes were high; men were real men, women were real women, and Sinclair ZX Spectrums were real Sinclair ZX Spectrums. And thus was Ultimate's Jetpac forged. This, though, is not Jetpac's story; rather, this is the story of one of the games it inspired: Universal Hero, released by Mastertronic in 1986.




At some point a chap by

Hopper - ZX81 Retro Review by Steve Trower

In the early 80s, when video games were just starting their migration from the arcades to the living room, it was common for games programmers to take their inspiration from the more popular arcade games, and so we ended up with a million and one variations on Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Frogger - and landing fairly obviously in Frogger's pond is Hopper, released for the 16K ZX81 by Personal