I finally have a working, 10 complete level, demo of Outback Jack, and I’m proud to be at a stage where I feel able to share it with you.
It’s a ZX Spectrum inspired platformer, with a few twists (Later)
Complete with attribute clash and various nostalgic control methods!
Mobile support is not implemented and likely won’t be added either, as I feel it kind of detracts too much from the essence and feel of true 8-bit Home computing for my liking.
I may add more to this, if people would like to see it…
Let’s just see how it goes!
Select ‘Kempston’ on the title screen for Joystick/Gamepad support.
The game can also be played with a variety of other authentic, nostalgic, retro 8-bit home computer keyboard layouts…
Such as:
Q,A,O,P, Spacebar, Z (Up, Down, Left, Right, Jump, Fire)
‘Cursor’ = Numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 (Left, Up, Down, Right, Jump, Fire)
Arrow keys with Spacebar and Z.
Plus ‘P’ or ‘Start’ to pause and ‘C’ to toggle ZX Spectrum style Attribute (Colour) clash.
Enjoy!
cool game dude a
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I cant get it to work …i was looking forward to some ‘jet set willy’ esq retro spectrum action. Love the graphics but only space bar seems to work. I tried arrow keys number keys and number keys and q to z.
It’s natively setup for gamepad, press one of the options on the title screen to select control method…
A = Arrow keys, Space, Z
K = Kempston (Joystick support)
C = Cursor (Numbers 5-0)
Q = Q,A,O,P, Space, Z
Then press Jump to start!
Its great! - i think you need a ‘press space bar’ on the loading screen and possibly the old spectrum loading noise. It’s sadly just as unforgiving as the original games and my timing skills have faded a little…but don’t make it any easier. I really like the fact that you’ve tried to keep the sprites two colours only. I did ‘Click Track Jack’ last year - a complete mess of a game in retrospect- so the link caught eye!
Everything in this game is on point! Looks and feels very professional and I hope there is more to come. Any plans on releasing this as a commercial title?
I hadn’t really thought about it, i suppose it began as just a test project, so I’m surprised to see me get this far with it to be honest.
I definitely plan on making more to it and expanding it to a possible 50 level size, with extra power-ups along the way, but I’m not sure that it’s good enough to actually ask money for.
Maybe an itch.io release with donation enabled, or a very low asking price?
It’s food for thought, but I’m glad that you enjoyed it, and that you took the time to feed back to me, thank you kindly.
Thank you, I’m glad that you enjoyed it, even down to respecting the 8-bit, brutal precision jumps. 
I appreciate your feedback!
Not bad, nice retro graphic style, you even kept the annoyingly long loading screens that were a thing back in the Spectrum days.
Thanl you, I tried my best! 
Will you do an Amstrad conversion?
Thank you!
I’m thinking of adding an actual load screen animation including line by line drawing and colouring, complete with the liney side bars and code sounds too…
But all skippable with the press of a button if needed!
I’d probably get the best results from actually making it a genuine Speccy screen, load it with and emulator and capture the video, which I could then use in my game.
Technically, it would still prompt a geniune speccy to load the screen too, if you output the audio to one, as the code sound would be 100% accurate this way!
Hahaha… I doubt that…
No disrespect for the CPC464, but the Speccy was my boi!
Plus, the thought of going through the process of making the style system specific all over again is daunting!
I suppose it could just be one of those lame ports that just looked identical to a Speccy game anyway? 
