CKD – it’s what all the cool kids are calling it

You probably already know by now that Crystal Kingdom Dizzy has received a belated

Is a Kingdom even the ideal governmental form for crystals?

port to the ZX Spectrum, one of the machines the egg-who-wears-boxing-gloves-for-some-fucking-reason made his name on. You might wonder what the point of that would be, considering that the game was already published on the ZX Spectrum back in 1992. Playing it for a few seconds makes you realise what the point was – this is CKD given a complete overhaul with a new, smooth, game engine, superbly reworked graphics and new music and sounds. It’s a huge improvement on the original commercial release (which wasn’t bad in the first place) and a perfect example of what love, care and enthusiasm can create over time. It’d be great to see the same talent lavished on a new game, Dizzy-related or not.

As I’m lead to understand 16th century London sex workers used to say “Get It Here”

Drink-a-penta-milk-a-day

Pentagorat is a new (well, a few months old) isometric platform game for the Commodore Vic-20. Yes, you read

Like someone with a weird accent saying “paint a goat”

that right. Taking the role of a wee dude who looks awfully like ZX Spectrum unofficial mascot Horace, the player finds themselves locked in a weird castle without explanation and has to find their way out. Despite the infamous “fat” pixels of the Vic, it all looks surprisingly good and, even better, moves at a fair old pace. The relatively small memory of the Vic also means that rather than the meandering corridors sometimes to be found in games of this type (yes, Bobby Bearing, I’m looking at you) puzzles and action come pretty thick and fast with most rooms providing some kind of challenge or conundrum to overcome.

Available as a digital file or in good old 1980s format. It tastes great, as part of this nutritious breakfast.