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Here's a neat tutorial from Fabu of Superlevel, with step-by-step instructions for configuring VICE -- that's a Commodore 64 emulator! -- to support online two-player games. As impressive as it is to play a two-player co-op game alone, this could make for a nice indoor activity tonight (or, depending on your commitment, a weekend project).

The only problem is, the tutorial is in German. But! Run his words through the ol' googlerator, and you'll see that the step-by-step how-to mostly makes sense.

One of the two players will need to be the 'server,' of course. From there, the trick to getting C64 multiplayer to work will be 'synchronizing' all your friend's actions with your own, so that together you 'load' each game at just the same instant. So you'll probably need to, ehm, be in an instant message window (or on the phone!) with your opponent. Which, hey! That could be fun, too! I can't imagine it's too much more difficult than mid-90s Doom on dialup.

Probably, though, the challenge ultimately rests with finding another friend who is game enough to also make it through the set-up. Good luck!

[C64 Netplay Tutorial & Download]

In Mountain Maniac you control a man with a hammer whose single aim is to destroy the town at the foot of a mountain for points. He does this by smashing boulders with his instrument of doom, sending them down the mountain Pachinko-style while crushing everything that stands in its way. Occasionally the police force or a yeti might try and stop him, but you can use the mallet to protect yourself by swinging it at them as well.

There is a certain percentage of town destruction that you must achieve to pass each level, and failure to do so equates to a loss of a precious life. An online high score submission feature is included as well, although players must first register for an Adult Swim account before they can post their best achievements up on the site. Continue reading

DotEmu has announced the release of Golvellius: Valley of Doom for the iPhone and iPod Touch. DotEmu specializes in bringing back retro games and this time they have chosen the iPhone/iPod Touch as the platform to release the game on. The game is said to be the Sega Master Systems answer to Zelda. The evil Golvellius [...] Continue reading

Sticky Situation is a shooter with an interesting concept. Both yourself and the enemy are constantly firing sticky darts at each other, and when enough darts have secured themselves firmly to a ship, the weight will become too much and said ship will fall to its doom.

Your own vessel feels really odd to control, as it rotates slightly as it moves, meaning it's rather difficult to shoot in a straight line. Not that you would want to - you'd end up with a face full of darts from the ship you're trying to sink! The tactic here is to keep moving to take the enemies from an angle. It's still extremely difficult though, so it's worth remembering that you can tap the shift button every second to knock a single dart off your ship (you can actually hold shift, but it slows you down and is generally not worth it at all).

All in all, it feels like there is an interesting concept here which could possibly be expanded on. Download it from Anthony L. Romano's Thunderware blog. Continue reading

With high quality first-person shooters like id Software's Doom Resurrection and ngmoco's LiveFire/KillTest hitting the iPhone, I'm not surprised to see this programmers attempting to bring their favorite FPSes to the mobile system, like this unofficial version of Valve's Portal.

The group that uploaded this short demonstration provided very few details behind the fan-made creation, other than it spent three weeks with Unity to make it happen on an iPhone 3G. Hopefully they'll reveal more about continuing the project soon!

[Via Wonderland]

Doom and Cookies is a 1000 Monkeys, 1000 Typewriters game, meaning it's a tabletop RPG created in 24 hours or less (and thus hasn't been playtested). It's a narrativist RPG in which the players are residents of a Victorian orphanage, from which they are attempting to escape as Doom closes in.

Where do the cookies come in? They're used as game tokens in an interesting, and somewhat perverse, way. Before the game begins, the host deposits a bunch of cookies in a bowl. They may be taken and eaten only per the rules of the game. Players may gain cookies by placing their characters in peril; and once a cookie is obtained, it may be used to modify a die roll by one in the player's favor, and then eaten.

In the same fashion as My Life With Master, the game doesn't specify the nature of the Doom or peril that the players face; this emerges during play. And like that game, it provides an emotional tone and structure for the setting, while leaving the players with considerable room for improvisation within that faily open structure. Unlike Master, it still relies on die-rolls for moment-to-moment task resolution.

On the whole, it looks like a game that could make for very entertaining one-session play. As with many indie RPGs, however, I come away wishing that more attention were paid to the setting and tone, and a tad less to nailing down the rules.