#1 - January 2025
Fancy flowers and growing ghosts.
Greetings from beyond the grave!
It’s time once more to open the tomb door, to bring you good readers a fright upon this dark and stormy night.
Sorry, forgot I wasn’t a leprechaun for a minute there. It happens.
Here we go then, back with the spooky tomb of videogames, a collection of videogame related things for you to cast your eyes upon. Some folks will be aware that this is the second run at this! The reason the first one went to the wall was, bluntly, I got COVID and it’s only now, over six months later, that I’m feeling recovered enough to pick things back up.
For those who are new here (hello!), the reason for this place existing is pretty simple - there’s loads of stuff out there that simply does not get a decent mention or coverage anywhere because it’s too small, too niche, too retro. That’s the stuff I enjoy though! So, essentially, this place exists for me to show you that stuff too.
I compile this in a way that I don’t expect anyone to find every link is for them, maybe you might only find one each month! That’s fine and I hope that’s enough for you to come back.
This month we have old games from old friends, virtual reality, murders and incredibly happy flowers. Perfectly normal month, then.
Don’t forget to subscribe if you like this stuff. I’ve turned all the tracking stuff off and it’s all free for everyone and you’ll get one, maybe two posts a month at most.
I will add in some ways to support the site in the near future, I just have no idea what that’ll be yet because, obviously, it defeats the point of running this thing if I lock the links behind a paywall and on top of that, it’d be totally rubbish. I’ve got my thinking cap on.
Anyway!
Thanks for stopping by.
-The Gamekeeper
Links From The Vault
Terry (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV) has announced a long overdue collection of some of their smaller and lesser known games. There’s some great stuff in there. Terry’s Other Games is scheduled for February. (Announcement post)
Kim Justice takes a look at Cyberzone, the UK’s old virtual reality show. (YouTube)
Pico-8 Magic Knight antics courtesy of Minion’s rework of Finders Keepers, I threw in the title screen for this because I’ll take any excuse to doodle Magic Knight, she’s ace. (Itch)
Ghostie Bloom is a quick and lovely Downpour game where you help a ghost become all they can be. (Downpour)
Pixelmusement has a go at Raid Over Moscow on the 64 and does much better than I could manage these days. I’d also forgotten how deep the story gets into its bizarre hawk-world fiction. (YouTube)
Not a videogame but this digital puppetry stuff for Gleeful Beasts is amazing work. (YouTube)
Nitro is a fun GBA racer from our chums at Rocketship Park. V. stylish! (Itch)
I’ve been thinking a lot about Halls Of The Things these past few days and the many hours getting completely lost in its corridors So that’s our first Actual Old Game Of The Month inclusion sorted. Grab an emulator and give it a go. (Spectrum Computing)
Cover Game: Vermitron
Occupying a lot of my time this past week, Vermitron is a mix of tower defence, twin stick shooter and, erm, Pssst. Yep, I wouldn’t have expected that either.
It’s fairly leisurely paced and as such, perfect for my aching brain right now. I’m enjoying methodically clearing each map out whilst looking for watering cans to help grow me a happy space flower. Also, I have a cat.
I’ve been playing through Steam, other platforms are available.
In The Pines, In The Pines, Where The Sun Never Shines is a Bitsy murder ballad. (Itch)
I played a fair whack of Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity for last year’s IGF and it’s really quite something else. I would absolutely recommend giving it a go. (Steam)
RE:Enthused has a look at a bunch of Famiclones (YouTube)
Johnson: A Plane Man improbably plucks a game from some aeroplane safety instructions. Gave me a right old smile. (Itch)
Beyond The Scanlines gets to grips with an unearthed port of the high speed arcade stonker, Stargate. (YouTube)
I need to get round to trying this but rather than wait for me to get my bum into gear, you can give it a shot yourself. Geometry Battle, a twin sticker for the PS1. (Itch)
Dudley Of Yesterzine finds surprises on an Italian PlayStation mag demo disk, the wrong games but with a lovely Net Yaroze game wrapping things up. (YouTube)
Skeletron 2084. Have you ever wondered what Robotron would be like with more skeletons? Wonder no more. Talk about making something I’m going to impulse click on! (Itch)
And that’s us for this month! Until next time, stay safe and don’t have nightmares.
