CGN Newsletter #26 – Feb. 11, 2022
The spice must flow...
Dune II Demake Launched for the Pico 8
Paul Nicholas has ported Dune II: Battle For Arrakis to the Pico 8.
Nicholas (also known as 'Liquidream') spent three year of his spare time adapting the seminal Westwood RTS to the popular retro-style Pico 8 game engine. UnDUNE II is a fully-functional port, including all three original campaigns.
More details here.
Dynamic Mission System Added to Gunner, HEAT, PC!
The latest Patreon build of Gunner, HEAT, PC! has finally added the long-promised dynamic mission system.
The dynamic mission system is the first iteration of a work-in-progress feature that allows the game to generate a fully procedural mission from limited instructions or constraints. We've included a brand-new 8x8 km map to run these missions in. Currently, the mission generation is limited to attack and defend scenarios with flexible positioning and some minor variability in vehicle types, numbers, and intel. In future updates, we will improve and expand this system, and eventually it will become the generation tool for dynamic missions in the GHPC campaign mode.
The latest build also adds night vision goggles and a new impact audio system.
GHPC is a spiritual successor to M1 Tank Platoon, intended to combine simulation-level realism with accessible arcade-style controls; an antidote to the endless grind of today's free-to-play online tank games.
More details here.
Cliffy B Will Voice His Own Audiobook
Clifford 'Cliffy B' Bleszinski has revealed that he will be narrating the audio-book version of his upcoming autobiography Control Freak.
Best known as the creator of LawBreakers and Radical Heights, Cliffy B has accrued many other achievements in his long and storied game development career – and soon you'll be able to hear all about them from the man himself.
If this book is anywhere near as entertaining as his Twitter posts, it should be quite a read.
More details here.
Leonard Tramiel Launches New Blog
Leonard Tramiel, son of the legendary Commodore executive Jack Tramiel, has launched a new blog. It contains amusing anecdotes from the heyday of 8-bit computing, such as the time Sir Clive Sinclair pressed his face up against a tinted glass wall to try and sneak a peek at a VIC-20 prototype, and the time Bill Gates lost his cool when an Easter Egg he tried to sneak into Commodore BASIC was removed without his knowledge.
At one of the many computer trade shows over the years I had a really funny interaction with Bill Gates. I was doing demos on the PET and answering the questions of those that walked by. I noticed a large group of people approaching, but at first I didn’t recognize anyone. As they got closer I saw that it was Bill Gates leading the others around. There was a translator repeating what Bill said into Japanese.
When they reached me Bill walked up to a PET and typed WAIT 6502,10. This caused the machine to hang and he froze. I said, quietly enough in the loud hall that only he could hear, “Bill, there’s nothing at 6502 so that’s just going to freeze”. He turned and gave me a look that was a perfect example of a look that could kill. I knew what he was doing so I turned to the group and said something along the lines of, “Microsoft BASIC is a valuable part of this machine”. Bill relaxed and the group left the suite.
...There was a bit of special code, now known as an Easter Egg, that, when the location was 6502, would print MICROSOFT! the number of times indicated in the second parameter. He was expecting this to print the name of his company on the screen to indicate that it was his BASIC in the machine. What he didn’t know, until then, was that the Easter Egg had been found and removed...
8-bit aficionados can read more of Tramiel's reminiscences here.
The Best Gaming Tweets of the Week
