Mechwars Arena, Torn Metal and physical editions

Hi! Today there are as many as 4 different news items. To avoid confusion, I've given each one a title.

Games that bring people together

Among all the games on our beloved Speccy, a separate category is occupied by the few that bring people together. Guessed it? Yes, these are games you can play simultaneously with a friend or even several friends. Unfortunately, there aren't very many such games, and it's all the more joyful that they keep coming out. In our vaults we've accumulated several such games from different authors, but I'll present them one at a time so each can be examined in detail. So, today's game came out back in the autumn. It's called Mechwars Arena, and the author is the ZXBITLES team. This game is about the dark future of the planet, where governments use people's basic instincts to control society. They turned mechanized machines into entertainment and stage gladiatorial fights. You must take control of one of these machines. Meanwhile, your comrade can control a machine on the opposing side. Who will win? The game goes down perfectly on a warm summer evening in a small company. You can, like in the good old days, beat up a school friend or a work colleague and rejoice in your victory. The game is already published on ZXOnline; if you haven't downloaded it before, you can download it now, and while you're at it, thank the author for the work done and the great idea. Curiously, the game runs on a classic 48K Spectrum, and even excellent 1-bit music fit in there!

About Torn Metal

There's been progress on the anticipated RTS game Torn Metal – the authors are actively drawing graphics, writing music, and sketching mission scenarios. The game engine is fully ready and there's even a demo version, which I was forbidden to release, as well as a video report on the work. If you haven't seen it yet – take a look. Judging by everything, the game is turning out interesting and unusual. In the sense that there are very few such games on the Spectrum.

About physical editions

Hooray, we've found a way to resume sales of physical editions of games on the site. Unfortunately, there are restrictions. We had to block payment for physical editions via Paypal for EU residents (sorry, guys!) to avoid double taxation, but payment by plastic cards via Advcash works – it's a good, proven, and secure system. Moreover, when paying via Advcash, VAT is not charged – a small thing, but nice. And you can also offload some seriously depreciated crypto (what else is it for?). The second restriction is the inability to ship physical goods to Russia. Yes, that's how it is for now. But we're working on it. By the way, if you've long wanted to buy something physical on ZXOnline – don't delay, since restocks of physical editions of these games probably won't happen.

About the Egyptian pyramids

The Pat Morita team, which developed the game Shovel Adventure, which, by the way, took as many as 5 places in various nominations in the ZX Online Awards 2022 competition, decided to make a version of the game for the ZX Spectrum Next. To this end, the authors launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. The required threshold of $3000 was reached in a couple of days, which was expected (the game is fire!), but this whole movement is interesting to us primarily because for donations the authors promise very, very tasty gifts like physical editions on cassette, an SD card with inlays, posters, and much more – in short, take a look just in case. Well, that seems to be everything for today. In the near future, expect new games you can play together with a friend, and other news. Thank you for reading to the end!