Among the oldsters I comply with on YouTube, I tune into The 8-Bit Guy each time I really feel like significantly studying about retro laptop historical past. On prime of his hardware breakdowns and restoration projects, he semi-recently made a technique sport for the Commodore 64 known as Planet X2. For a while he’s been engaged on a PC-based sequel designed to assist even essentially the most historical of IBM-compatible machines, and lately launched a Kickstarter to additional fund growth, which is sort of absolutely funded after just some days.
Before anybody will get good within the feedback, sure, the screenshot above is from the deliberate VGA mode of the sport. In truth, it’s technically not even a gameplay screenshot, only a mock-up, as proper now the sport solely goes as much as EGA graphics. Planet X3 is designed to scale right down to run on practically any early PC, and be absolutely playable in four-colour CGA, as you’ll be able to see within the Kickstarter pitch/work-in-progress gameplay video under.
Planet X3 is a a base-building RTS sport, designed round a keyboard-only UI and that includes direct unit management. I particularly just like the Starcraft-styled missile silos which you could flatten enemy bases with, when you’ve scouted their territory out properly sufficient to know the precise X and Y coordinates on the map to shoot at. It’s maybe a bit limiting by fashionable requirements, however this can be a sport designed to suit right into a tiny RAM-space and run on 286-era {hardware}, playable direct-from-floppy.
This is clearly a undertaking for true retro-heads. The type of people that acquire and restore historical computer systems themselves, and nonetheless have a chunky outdated CRT or two in inventory, however need one thing a little bit brisker to play on their historical {hardware}. There’s no scarcity of tasks like this currently, with devoted hobbyists nonetheless churning out Sinclair Spectrum and C64 video games on the common, whereas others create new 16-bit console titles on authentic-looking replica cartridges. Limited run collectors gadgets, primarily, however they’re holding the previous alive.
Those desirous to get a style of what to anticipate can decide up the unique Planet X2 (pictured above) off The 8-Bit Guy’s store here, though it does price $20, it does at the very least come on an genuine floppy disk and include a full-colour guide. Unfortunately the total boxed model is now not out there. Those backing Planet X3 on Kickstarter get an analogous deal – $20 for simply the disk and guide – however with $10 download-only choices and a $35 tier to get you an genuine DOS-styled big-box version of the sport.
