Dear visitors,

The PDRoms staff can be proud of themself – the alltime record of 450 news from February 2006, has been broken. Last month we had a total of 457 news items.

The main response for this massive boost of news is the very active iPhone homebrew community! Anyway… homebrew coders, keep your work up!

Kudos and warm regards to all homebrewers out there!
Kojote & Team

Dear visitors,

As everyone knows the news-service is back since a while. Actually it was not planed to have the news public that fast again, and the main site is currently using some free RSS to HTML service, which also brings quite a big delay for all news (unless you have access to the beta page).

If you use an RSS feed reader, you are highly encouraged to order the feed and stick with the feed, till pdroms is fully back (which means including file-downloads, interviews, etc…).

As the beta page is password protected but the feed is located there, some RSS feed reader will start mocking – so you need to try if this also applies to your feed reader or not. In case you are using Opera’s integrated feed reader, everything should work fine and flawless.

Also help building up a community and use the webboard which is located at http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb – The webboard for some reason has always been almost dead… anyway… 🙂

And while I am at it, the currect coding compo details can be found at: http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=341 – please spread the word about it, there are still 17 days left and the prizes are quite funky 🙂

Regards
Kojote & Team

http://www.pdroms.org/feeds/news.xml

“Heavy Stylus”, owner of http://www.rgcd.co.uk/ and the guy behind the RGCD, a retro magazine published on CD, has offered the following to our little competition:

1) The winner will get his game on a REAL cartridge,
2) additionally there is the option of getting the game published. Unfortunatly there wont be any money behind, but the good feeling that your game has been pulled on a dozens of cartridges and spread out in a “real and proper” form, directly useable on any GBA. THE RGC shop is already selling two GBA homebrew games on NON COMMERCIAL and NON PROFIT base.

Thanks for supporting PDRC #3.667, Heavy Stylus!

http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=341

RCCD is a new downloadable CD-ROM based magazine containing the very latest retro reviews, features and developer interviews, providing its readers with an essential one-stop resource for all their retro gaming needs. RGCD’s main focus is on the new releases for 8/16-Bit computer platforms, but they also dedicate a good percentage of their reviews and feature space to retro look-and-feel PC-based remakes and independent games.

Release notes:

Well, it’s not been easy, but we’ve managed to complete this issue just in time for distribution at Retro North! RGCD has seen a lot of changes since the last time I sat down to write an editorial – the development team has again doubled in size and we’ve recently started work on a GBA/DS homebrew side-project (see the RGCD online shop for details). As for the magazine itself, in addition to the usual game reviews and previews Issue #03 also contains part one our debut proper article (courtesy of Mike Bevan) detailing the history of indie-gaming hero Jeff ‘Llamasoft’ Minter – and we’ve even included our first serious peripheral review; a write-up of the MMC64 SD-card reader for the Commodore 64 (well, I bought it to play games on, so it still sort of fits the magazine’s remit…)

Successfully completing the magazine within a tight deadline has proven that the possibility of RGCD becoming a bi-monthly publication is not as unrealistic as I’d previously imagined, and it’s definitely a worthy target to aim for. We’re not quite there yet, but with the size of the dedicated team increasing exponentially I doubt it’ll take much longer. In just over 10 weeks we’ve amassed a total of 29 game reviews and 6 extra features, making this issue our biggest yet.

The content is of the usual high caliber, and yet again we’ve further diversified our platform range; inside Issue #03 you’ll find reviews of new releases for the AGA Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Atari XE/XL, Commodore 64, MSX, Nintendo GBA and DS, Sinclair Spectrum and VIC20 – as well as the usual line-up of PC/Mac remakes and retro-style indie games. In addition to this we’ve held in-depth Q&A sessions with Matt Carr (he of the featured Blast Arena Advance cartridge project and Lemmings DS fame) as well as prolific Spectrum coder Jonathan Cauldwell (who talks about his upcoming EggHead title and his passion for Sir Clive’s 8-Bit opus).

Before anyone points out the obvious, I am aware that the last issue’s featured game was a GBA release (which is a bit cheeky in itself because the GBA is not quite retro yet), but I make no apologies for featuring Blast Arena Advance in Issue #03; it’s a cracking game and Matt Carr provided us with the inspiration to start our own cartridge project! Don’t worry though; we’ll re-address the balance in the next issue.

Other highlights include previews of Pumpkin Games’ Doppleganger and the awesome work-in-progress Lead 8K for the humble 2600, reviews of top C64 releases (lost and found commercial gem The Rebels and the Indiana Jones-aping Joe Gunn), Cosine’s latest projects (Kikstart C64 and Reaxion GBA) and our favourites from last year’s MSX Dev competition (Traffic Jam, Daedalian Opus and Malaika). PC retro-gamers are spoilt for choice this issue, with impressive remakes of Turrican (Hurican), arcade favorites Centipede (Millenipede and Spiga) and Robotron (Mechatron) and of course there’s a selection of top original releases such as the boss-battling Fraxy, visually-overwhelming Burn The Trash and turn-based X-Com tribute Urban Legend.

Well, that’s another issue wrapped up! Now I’ve got to burn 100 CDs, print out the artwork and get busy with those scissors…
Contents
Featured Game

* Blast Arena Advance (GBA)

Retro Reviews

* Aqua (Amstrad)
* Barbie Seahorse Adventures (PC)
* Blizzard’s Rift (ZX Spectrum)
* Burn The Trash (PC)
* Daedalian Opus (MSX)
* Elevators Amiss (Atari 2600)
* Fraxy (PC)
* Frogger ’07 (VIC20)
* Gangsters (Atari XE/XL)
* Hurrican (PC)
* Ifrit (English Translation) (PC)
* Io (The Remake) (PC)
* Joe Gunn (C64)
* Kikstart (C64)
* Lemmings DS (NDS)
* Malaika – Prehistoric Quest (MSX)
* Marble Logic (C64)
* Millenipede (PC)
* Reaxion (GBA)
* Sniper (Atari XE/XL)
* Spiga (PC)
* Stranded 2.5 (ZX Spectrum)
* Thrust Advance (GBA)
* Traffic Jam (MSX)
* The Rebels (C64)
* Ultra Violent Worlds (Amiga)
* Urban Legend (PC)
* Zub (PC)

Extras

* Doppelganger Preview (PC)
* Lead 8K Preview (Atari 2600)
* Llamasoft: The Dromedary Years (Part One) (Misc)
* MMC64 (C64)
* Sonic MegaMix (SMD)
* Streambolt Desero (PC)

Emulators

* AtariWin800 Plus 4.0 (PC)
* Blue MSX 2.7 (PC)
* Kega Fusion 3.51 (PC)
* Klive 1.1 (PC)
* Stella 2.3.5 (PC)
* Visual Boy Advance 1.72 (PC)
* WinAPE 2.0 Alpha 13 (PC)
* WinAUE 1.4.3 (PC)
* Win Vice 1.21 (PC)

http://www.rgcd.co.uk/news/2007/08/27/

PDRoms came back to life in March 2007, tho not for the public and parts of PDRoms (to name it: filesection, interviews, top lists) are still down.

Anyway… over 1300 news, supporting and reporting about homebrew releases have been made so far. Specially the boost of the recently exploding iPhone community is giving more news than usual these days.

Let’s hope our coder celeth will be reachable again somehow soon and bring the page fully back, so PDRoms can continue it’s old glory and beeing useful for all visitors out there, who are interested in homebrew releases for various systems!

Regards
-koj

PDRoms Coding Competition (short: PDRC) #3.667 has one full month left for the deadline.

Topic: “Backport”/”Convert” a Nintendo DS homebrew game to Gameboy Advance!

Rules:
[*]You must own all RIGHTS to your submission, this includes sound, graphics, code, simply everything! The use of copyrighted names and characteres should be avoided, unless you have an official permission, which should be forwarded along with your entry. We reserve the right to refuse or disqualify entries, which break any rule(s)!!!
[*]In case of VERY OLD GAMES (+10y), which do not seem to have a copyright holder anymore and which are not distributed commercially anymore, we can make an exception, but you must be still able to proofe that you tried to get in touch with the responsible copyrightholders.
[*]Keep in mind you OWN ALL RIGHTS to your production, this means you are also fully reliable for it. By submitting your production you declare that you did not break any copyright.

Prizes:
[*]Prizes can not be paid out in cash
[*]In case of entries having the same jury-end-score, the entry which has been submitted earlier will be the winner.
[*]In case of teamwork, the team-leader has to make sure the prizes are split proper within the team itself.
[*]The special prize is given to the person with the most “ports”. If there should be a person with equal amount of ports, the one who was sending in things fastest, will win this special prize. – The amount for qualifying is minimum five ports/conversions!!!

#1 – One GBA Micro (new, unused) + One GBADEV.org 2004 Compo Cartridge (new, unused)
#2 – One Qwak GBA Cartridge (new, unused) + 1 x GBAccelerometer (new, unused) + One HAMLib license
#3 – One HAMLib license + One GBAccelerometer (new, unused)

Special Prize:
One GBA Micro (new, unused) + One GBADEV.org 2004 Compo Cartridge (new, unused) + One GBAccelerometer (new, unused) + One HAMlib license
The special prize is given to the person with the most “ports”. If there should be a person with equal amount of ports, the one who was sending in things fastest, will win this special prize.

Entries:
[*]Submit as many entries as you like and have an extra chance to win the “special prize”
[*]No Splash-Screen required, you keep all your rights – even no need to mention PDRoms.
[*]The “ported” homebrew NDS game should be “brandnew” for GBA, already existing ports which were available for the public before 2nd August 2007 are not allowed, unless they are heavily major updated!
[*]You are not allowed to spread your GBA entry to the public before the official results!
[*]You grant PDRoms and its staff members the right to spread your entry freely (we won’t make money with it). We have connections to other important scene pages, so we’ll make sure you get proper attention for your production
[*]Entry should run on a REAL GBA
[*]Write a README with information about your game, this text will be used to present your entry, also add a screenshot!
[*]Please state out, which NDS game you were porting and send the NDS binary along (will not be published)!
[*]Package each submission in ONE compressed file archive and send it to shahzad.sahaib(at)web.de AND kojote(at)pdroms.de (just to be on the save side, due to agressive spam-filters – each entry will be CONFIRMED after max. 2 days)
[*]Entries can be updated by sending an updated archive ANYTIME before the deadline.

PS: If you feel left out: Release a NDS game first and then “backport”/”redo”/”convert” it to GBA and release it with this compo 🙂

http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=341

A new issue of “Retrogaming Times Monthly” has been released. This online issue features:

01. Attract Mode
02. Next Month: Retrogaming Times (Monthly) – 10 year Anniversary
03. The Many Faces of Xevious
04. NEScade — Popeye
05. Apple II Incider
06. Nintendo Realm
07. Old Wine in New Bottles
08. Mastering Sega
09. Game Over

http://my.stratos.net/%7Ehewston95/RTM39/RTM39.html

Tehskeen.net, a scene site with various news about exotic hardware and also homebrew application and game news, seem to have shut down. Not sure what happened, but sad to see another site going which was into homebrew 🙁


-koj

http://www.tehskeen.net/

Most of the feedback so far critizes that you need to “backport” something. Please don’t take “backport” too serious. I’ve changed the description now to backport/convert.

If you have graphics and sound from a homebrew NDS game and the GBA version looks like the NDS version, it will be counted as “backport” 🙂 In simple words, use your resources of the NDS version, the code can be brandnew too.

-Kojote

http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=341

The recently coding competition GBAX 2007 has been brought to an end and the results are out now.

Many apologies for the lateness in announcing the winners. This years competition was our hardest ever to judge. There were half a dozen or so entries that were deserving of the three winning places and we had a truly tough time deciding on them. There can however only be three winners and below you can find them.

1st Place – Sqdef
2nd Place – Ozone
3rd Place – Battlejewels

Winners will be contacted shortly by GP2x.co.uk (GBAX) with further details on how to claim their prize.

As always a wide selection of entries and it seems every year the standard gets better and better. We are already dreading the judging on what next year will bring 😉 Thanks again to everyone that took part in the competition but especially to the coders who make the GBAX coding competitions what they are! See you next year!

http://gbax.gp2x.de/gbax2007.html