| Revival Studios | |
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| Founded by | Martijn Wenting |
| Year | 2002 |
| Vectrex role | New homebrews Vectrex demos |
Revival Studios is a classic game development studio, based in the Netherlands.
The studio develops new games for classic game systems such as the Vectrex, Philips Videopac, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Colecovision, MSX and many more. It was founded by Martijn Wenting in 2002.
History[]
The very first Revival Studios project for the Vectrex was Oldskool +3, which was released in 2002, being programmer Wenting’s homage to the Commodore 64 scene. Performance VX was then created in 2003 (and later released in 2007 on cartridge), which showed various shapes rotating and scrolling around the screen set to music.
Debris was Revival Studio’s first Vectrex game, which was released in 2005 amidst a bit of controversy, as the graphics were bitmapped, rather than being vector (what some Vectrex fans were against upon hearing of this). It was a vertical shooter, having one to two players (along with a co-op mode for the latter), VecVox support, original music, and 16 stages with three different end bosses.
2006 proved to be a busy year, as it saw the release of V-Hockey, helping to fill in a big gaping hole of the very few sports games for the Vectrex. The title allowed one or two players to utilize several hockey moves (steal, block, shoot and save), along with three levels of difficulty to choose from. It also featured VecVoxX support as well.
Also released the same year was Colorclash, which also filled in another hole of the few puzzle titles available for the Vectrex. The game involved shooting various gems that fell from the top of the screen, which “the gems are marked with symbols and the player has to match up the symbol on his ship with the symbol on the gems”[1]. A certain number of gems had to be cleared per level to advance through the game, which also included various bonus items, VecVox support was also provided, as well as the bonus game of Xudoku was included. The Limited Edition also included full color gameplay (due to a special included overlay) and an original Vectrex-sized box.
Also, the Colorclash Slim edition included vector and a bitmap playing modes, unlockable rewards, an internet high score upload feature, modified Atari paddle support, the cartridge and manual and the bonus game of Xudoku, plus the Limited Edition version had an original-sized Vectrex-style box, all copies were numbered and labeled, it came with a high quality overlay, cartridge, manual, and bonus Xodoku game.
3D Scape was a demo where the player could freely fly around a 3-D landscape, and its accompanying cart also contained the Oldskool +3 and Performance VX demos as well. It also had a very limited run First Edition of only 20 copies, which had original cartridge shells and a high quality cover print with a laminated color manual.
Then, 2007 brought about the start of the VexOS development, which is an operating system for the Vectrex. The project originally started only as a bitmap and document viewer, but then began “expanding to a large program that was able to handle all kinds of media”[1], including the ability to run binary and BASIC codes (as well as Vectrex users to be able to write their own programs), several graphics, audio (including Atari YM music files), and document modes (like displaying text files for the latter). It also has a drop down menu for easy navigation, among other features.
Originally starting as a side project, Wenting also began work on the V:Chip Chip8 Emulator, the first ever Vectrex emulator for the machine itself. The original plan was that it was “supposed to be part of the Vectrex OS, but due to its size (9.4kb) its kind of large to include in the OS”[1]. Some of its features that Wenting plans for it to include are 20 built-in roms and the ability to play CHIP8 games and demos.
The same year also saw the release of Vectoblox, another puzzle game having 40 different puzzles, 10 bonus puzzles, unlockable rewards, the ability to upload high scores onto the internet, along with, again, VecVoxX support as well.
Then in 2008, the Climax Slideshow demo was released, featuring pixelart works of Menno Seegers (which were created between 1993 and 1996), having a total of “15 fullscreen bitmap images, which have all been handpixeled in Deluxe Paint and then carefully converted to be displayed on the Vectrex”[1].
2010 brought about the release of Debris Revisited, which was also bitmapped like the original, but had many new features including 16 new levels, new enemies, the unlockable game modes of Reversed (with an additional 16 levels), Hardcore and Invaders, along with two player vs. co-op mode. It also had a new and improved boosting system, a Rewards/Achievement system complete with an internet high score/reward uploading, a level unlock system, pause feature, improved VecVox support and the Astrododge bonus game included.
Coding for Revival Studio’s game Shifted had actually begun in 2008, but it was not completed and released until 2011. It was based on Pesky Marbles, a Java game for cell phones. The player must combine three or more marbles of a specific color next to each other to make them explode so they will be removed from the screen. It also had enhanced gameplay with a separate challenge mode, VecVox support, and contains 90 puzzles.
Future endeavors[]
As it was reported in the January 18, 2012 edition of the Vectrex news, there was a promise from Martijn in a press release of there being new Vectrex homebrews from Revival Studios of MVR Racing and Vector Arcade: Volume 1, along with “some sort of multicart collection of all my unreleased Vectrex stuff from the last 10 years”, the sequel to Debris, and “finally releasing VexOS and VexosBasic”. He is also working on cassette games for several 1980s computer platforms as well, such as the “ZX81/Timex Sinclair TS1000 and TS1500, MSX, Commodore Vic-20, Sega SC-3000 and more”.
Revival Studios catalog, Vectrex[]
- Oldskool +3 (2002)
- Performance VX (2003)
- Debris / Debris Revisited (2005/2010)
- V-Hockey (2006)
- Colorclash / Colorclash Slim (2006)
- 3D Scape cart (2006)
- V:Chip Chip8 Emulator (2007)
- Vectoblox (2007)
- VexOS (2007)
- Climax Slideshow (2008)
- Shifted (2008, released 2011)
(Colecovision)[]
(Commodore PET)[]
- Avalanche (2012)
- Mayhem (2012)
- Down! (2013)
- Stairrunner (2013)
- Shifted (2013)
- Rush (2013)
- Boxing Champ (2013)
- Mage: The Enchanted Crystals (2018)
(Commodore VIC-20)[]
(MSX Home Computers)[]
(Sega SG-1000)[]
- Astro Dodge (2012)
(Videopac/Odyssey2)[]
- Astro Dodge (2011)
- Mayhem (2011)
- Colorclash (2012)
- Mage: The Enchanted Crystals (2012)
- Cavity (2012)
- Stairrunner (2012)
- Air Assault (2013)
- Mage 2: The Dark Mirror (2013)
- Down! (2013)
- Mage 3: The Final Journey (2014)
- Strikeforce (2015)
(ZX81 / Sinclair TS-1000)[]
- Avalanche (2011)
- Mayhem (2011)
- Down! (2012)
- Stairrunner (2012)
- Shifted (2013)
- Boxing Champ (2013)
- Rush (2013)
- Mage: The Enchanted Crystals (2018)
(Other platforms)[]
- Gameboy demo collection (Gameboy)
- Logic Design Demo Collection (MS-DOS)
- Magicboy Robot 2 (MS-DOS)
- MC8: MegaBlinky
- MC8: Twister demo
- MegaChip8 devkit
- MegaChip emulator
- SC8/C8: Superworm V4
- SC8/C8: Astro Dodge
- SC8: Climax Slideshow
- SC8/C8: Trip8 / SuperTrip8 Demo
Links[]
- Revival Studios site
- Twitter account
- YouTube channel