The lovable rodent from Pixeljam's original maze adventure returns for another go at navigating a dastardly tricky labyrinth in Ratmaze 2, on a quest to nibble down every single piece of cheese or edible material it could sink it's teeth into.

The first maze is made playable in this version as well, and a scroll mode can now be activated for a clearer view of the rat's surroundings. Expect to encounter puzzles such as those that requires pushing objects into certain areas or finding false walls to uncover hidden passages.

Name: Ratmaze 2
Developer: Pixeljam
Category: Action
Type: Browser

Labels: c0607

Paradroid is a game by Andrew Braybrook that was originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1985.

Yes, I am writing a review of a 22-year-old game. Yes, this retro-review deviates a bit from standard Arthouse Games practice. I justify this deviation with the following two excuses: 1. I never played the game when I was a kid, so it's new to me (and probably new to many of you, too); and 2. there's very little modern grist for the Arthouse Games mill (art games are few and far between). That said, I'm not sure that Paradroid is an art game---more like an interesting landmark in the art of game design.

Okay, first things first: how can you play it? Paradroid was re-released as Paradroid 90 on the Atari and some other platforms. It has a few modern remakes for PCs (see http://paradroid.sf.net, http://paradroid.ovine.net/, and http://freedroid.sourceforge.net/). All of these remakes differ slightly from the original in graphics or gameplay, but they're probably the easiest way to get a taste of Paradroid on a modern computer.

This review covers the original 1985 version for the C64---you can download a disk image of that here: paradroid.zip. I played it on the VICE emulator, and I had to download C64 system ROMS separately (from this package), since they no longer ship with VICE for legal reasons. I unzipped the paradroi.d64 disk image, mounted it as a disk in VICE, and auto-started the program on the disk. I had a bit of trouble here and there along the way (Paradroid is looking for a joystick---or emulated joystick---on port 2), but I was able to get Paradroid running smoothly with a bit of perseverance. If this process sounds too involved, try one of the remakes linked above.

Read the full review over at Arthouse Games.

Name: Paradroid
Developer: Andrew Braybrook
Year: 1985
Platform: Commodore 64
Type: Abandonware

Labels: arthouse, c0607

Chaffinch Challenge is a decent action game by Pete Bunting which features retro-style graphics and a variety of chiptunes for each stage. In it, your task is to guide the frail little bird into the bowels of the earth and beyond while collecting glowing crystals to fill your power indicator.

Use the arrow keys to direct the protagonist while avoiding walls, trees, clouds and just about every single object in the game. Requires a fair amount of arcade skills to complete. Click on the screenshot to begin downloading the file. Seven levels in total.

Chaffinch Challenge
Developer: Pete Bunting
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: click here

Labels: c0607