Developer Xeif has released Kizuna, a new monochrome platformer for the ZX Spectrum. The game presents its story using a black-and-white comic book style, with each screen designed to resemble a comic panel. Players follow the ninja Hanzo as he escorts a young girl named Hana through a dangerous mission. via indieretronews.com
Games That Weren't has published research into Comic Relief Adventure, a text adventure tied to the 1991 Comic Relief charity event. The piece explains that at the time Comic Relief ran biannually, and that Britain had a thriving home-made adventure scene, with hobbyists using tools such as The Quill, PAWS and Graphic Adventure Creator to build interactive fiction sold by mail order. Magazines and fanzines of the period, including Adventure Probe, regularly covered this independent adventure-making community. via gamesthatwerent.com
A developer from Diode Software has written about rediscovering an old, incomplete attempt at porting Parsec to the ZX Spectrum. Parsec was a side-scrolling shooter with speech for the TI-99/4A, and the developer recalls trying to recreate it in machine code after being inspired by its gameplay, visuals and sound. The attempt stalled due to limited time, memory and skill, leaving only a scroll routine, some ship movement code and graphics believed to have been copied from the original. The developer notes the game was rarely ported elsewhere at the time, aside from a later Coleco version. via andthemurder.com
Publisher Golden Slumbers Ltd. has announced that its upcoming Kickstarter campaign for a new ZX Spectrum anniversary book has already attracted £112,000 in pledges. The book, titled "The Rubber-Keyed Wonder", is written by gaming historian Kim Justice and serves as a companion piece to the 2024 documentary of the same name, produced by Gracious Films and directed by Anthony and Nicola Caulfield. It is timed to celebrate the ZX Spectrum's 45th anniversary, with the crowdfunding campaign set to launch on October 1. The Spectrum, released by Sinclair Research in 1982, remains one of the most influential home computers in British gaming history. via timeextension.com
Developer Furillo Productions has released They Called Him El Pollito (The Legend of the Little Chicken), a new shoot 'em up for the ZX Spectrum with a Spaghetti Western theme. The game is set in the lawless Bernard Valley and casts players as a vigilante chicken known as "The Chick," who sets out after the local schoolteacher and love interest, Rosita, is put in danger. The title leans into genre tropes, blending Western atmosphere with arcade-style shooting action. via indieretronews.com
Developer TCKSOFT has released an updated version of Trashman Anniversary Edition, a free remake of Malcolm Evans' 1984 ZX Spectrum classic Trashman, available for Windows and HTML5. The remake originally debuted in 3D for the Retro Remakes 2004 competition as a 20th anniversary tribute and was later featured in Retro Gamer magazine. This new build has been reconstructed from the original source code so it can run on current systems. Trashman originally tasked players with emptying household bins while avoiding obstacles, for New Generation Software on the Spectrum. via itch.io
Developer brujabit has released The Final Exam, a free, name-your-own-price adventure for the ZX Spectrum 128K. The game is an unofficial fan tribute to Skool Daze, the 1984 Microsphere school simulation by David Reidy and Keith Warrington. Players take on the role of a student named Eric, or a custom-named character, who must recover stolen notes before an approaching final exam, navigating timed classes and breaks. The project was made with AI assistance for code and graphics and is available as a free download on itch.io. via itch.io
Developer Kirby2000 has released a public beta of Super Mario Land ZX, an AI-assisted demake of Nintendo's 1989 Game Boy launch title for the ZX Spectrum 128K. The conversion fits the entire game into a single 128K load, covering all 12 levels across four worlds. It supports both keyboard and Sinclair joystick controls, and reportedly recreates every element of the original, including its submarine stage. Super Mario Land was one of the launch titles for the original Game Boy. via indieretronews.com
An unofficial ZX Spectrum 128K port of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, titled the Adventurer's Edition, has been released as a public beta. The port is based on the Atari 8-bit Adventurer's Edition rather than the original Activision release, and has been tested on the Just Speccy 128K emulator, with validation on real 128K hardware still pending. The developer notes some known limitations, including reduced frame rates during camera scrolling and screen transitions, which are being investigated separately. Pitfall II was originally released by Activision in 1984 as a sequel to the classic platformer Pitfall! via itch.io
Developer Jonathan Cauldwell has made Haunted House, his 1991 ZX Spectrum platformer, available on itch.io as a name-your-own-price download. The game originally appeared on a Your Sinclair covertape in 1992 and tasks players with guiding a character called Izzy through a haunted house, collecting keys while avoiding rotten floorboards. Izzy can perform a super-jump by ducking before pressing upward, letting her reach higher platforms. The release is distributed as a TZX tape file. via itch.io
Developer vnomis has released a Game Boy and Game Boy Color port of The Great Escape, the isometric action-adventure originally released in 1986. The port is free, built with AI-assisted code, and currently listed as version 0.61 on itch.io. The original game, developed by Denton Designs and published by Ocean Software, had players attempting to break out of a World War II prisoner-of-war camp and was known at the time for its ambitious isometric engine on home computers like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. via itch.io
Developer gabicuesta has released Ghost's Revenge, a free homebrew action game for the 16K ZX Spectrum. The game flips the classic Pac-Man formula by putting the player in control of the red ghost, chasing a computer-controlled chomper through a maze while three other ghosts also hunt him down. Catching the chomper first advances the player to the next level, but letting another ghost catch him instead costs a life. The game is available as a download in both English and Spanish versions. via itch.io
