Tag: wonderworm

Many happy returns!

Today marks the 41st birthday of the ZX Spectrum, so I thought I’d mark the occasion by bringing some presents to the party.

Let’s start with a party game. Or more accurately the digital download of Winter Wonder Worm. This isn’t the complete version you get if you purchase the tape from TheFutureWas8Bit – but you do now get 4 levels to worm around in. You can download it from here.

In a bizarre coincidence, the first public release (v0.01) of my long filename browser the ZXUNO and DivMMC / DivIDE devices was also released on this day three years ago. To mark this anniversary, I’ve released v0.24 today as well. This includes some new features, obligatory bug fixes, speed ups and a full rewrite of the .brwscfg configuration program in assembly. You can see me previewing a development version of it in the following video:

Version 0.24 can be downloaded here.

And what’s a birthday party without jelly? I’ve got you covered there as well, especially if you lurrrvve green jelly. I did a mod of my Kempston joystick mod of Snake Pit for Rod Hull so the eggs were changed into green jellies. This probably makes more sense if you were watching certain TV programs on BBC2 back in the 1990s. You can avoid snakes and chow down on jelly here. Here’s a video of Rod playing my green jelly mod:

Enjoy!

Take a worm out for a quick spin

You can now download a playable single level demo of Winter Wonder Worm.

If that leaves you wanting for more worm turning action, the full game can be purchased on tape from TheFutureWas8Bit. This has 6 levels, speed settings and an extra game mode

A cut down digital release will be available here in the future.

This worm IS for turning!

Towards the end of October last year I took a break from my long filename esxDOS browser and started work on something different – a conversion of a homebrew game on the Gameboy Color, called Willy Wonderworm. This is a variant (or twist if you’ll forgive the pun) on the traditional snake game where you control a snake, moving around a screen eating food and getting larger and larger having to avoid collisions with the walls and your own tail. This version lets you twist and turn around in angles rather than restricting you to 90 degree turns.

If I’ve not explained that clearly, I’ve recorded a short YouTube video which shows me playing my version, Winter Wonder Worm and explaining the different game modes.

As I neared completion of the game, I sent a copy to Rod Hull, proprietor of the retro hardware and software website, TheFutureWas8Bit who certainly knows his snake games. He liked it and asked if I wanted to release the game as a cassette on his 699 cassette range.

I will be adding a digital download at some point in the future – however this won’t have all the features available on the cassette release. So for that full on worm rotating experience, head over to TheFutureWas8Bit to buy Winter Wonder Worm as an actual cassette tape! I’m also hoping to publish a longer blog on how the game came into existence, the challenges I faced and how it evolved into the version you see in the video.