Commodore 64 Platformer 'Beyond The Ice Palace' Returns With Brutally Difficult Sequel

Definite Castlevania vibes, which is fine by me. Looking forward to seeing reviews of this one.

This looks like my style, looking forward to a review. Just completed FIST and Megaman 11. Spring break is here so I'm gaming while my wife works

@Apebitmusic great minds think alike...

I'm still salty that Commodore 64 Virtual Console was only available in Europe, not in North America. When can I play Jumpman on Switch?

I'm playing it now, it's a nice game even if the character is a bit heavy and slow in movements. However it's not really a metroidvania, but an action platformer where it's possible to revisit the levels already completed just to get other rewards and items. The main problem in my opinion is the slowness of the character which makes the optional backtracking a little boring..

Interesting to see gas as a power-up. Boogerman you are not alone.

Already have it pre-ordered along with The Messenger, Tevi and Silver Axe from VGP.

Looks like a lot of fun!

Wallachia was okay. I didn’t play Ganryu 2 but it’s on my wishlist. This looks like it has some potential. But I don’t know. At this point I have so many retro throwback platformers that I don’t know if I need any more unless they’re exceptional. I’ll wait for the reviews.

The original was released on all popular 8bit and 16 bit formats when released . I have the original on the Sinclair Spectrum.
And yes the original is hard as nails as well.
Elite Systems originally released the game

I hope it's co-published by good old Elite Systems (which published and developed the original game). Elite Systems was probably the best publisher overall when it came to porting the big arcade titles especially for the ZX Spectrum. They were VERY thorough when they ported arcade games; they had actual modded arcade cabinets at their HQ (probably slowed down the games) and studied what happened on screen.

There was no help whatsoever from the mainly japanese publishers back then, I understand. They had to figure out everything themselves; from graphics to AI to music (they weren't even allowed to use the original music in most cases - but had to compose something themselves).

Oh, I would love to have to have some of those games on the Switch Lite instead of the PSP's small screen; Commando, Bomb Jack, Paperboy, Space Harrier, Scooby-Doo, ThunderCats and even 1942 and Ghost 'n Goblins. All great ZX Spectrum games published by Elite Systems back in the mid 80's.

I did have the original on the C64, got the cassette version for £1.99 at the time. it was hard, but if you were good you could probably finish the game in 20 minutes. This is a strange release, I saw from some clips where the original music is used later in the game, but it doesn't have much resemblance to the original, which to be fair was very simplistic. It looks like a quite good game, but it's a shame it doesn't at least include an emulation of the original (though would need a bit of work to run properly, as would have been 50Hz on the Amiga and the C64 I think). Nice to see some comments from other posters mentioning Elite, reminds me of scanning through cassette tapes in WH Smith in the 80s.

@shgamer

Thanks for this post, you reminded me of this great company. In the case of Elite Systems, the company name turned out not to be a coincidence. In fact, the best ZX Spectrum arcade ports, my favorite childhood games, were programmed by them. I didn't even remember that. All of these games were incredibly tight in terms of controls and gameplay, and they pushed the limits of what that little box could do musically and graphically, even though they came out quite early in the Spectrum's life cycle.

I'd love to see an Elite Systems collection on the Switch, although it's probably not going to happen due to copyright issues.

@Bydlak None of the ZX Spectrum versions of the games I mentioned had any music though. They were all released around 1985-87 when the 128K Spectrum (with the added AY 891X sound chip) barely had released. The C64 and Amstrad CPC versions probably had music, but Bomb Jack and Paperboy for example weren't very good on the C64 (or the Amstrad CPC?).

Elite Systems (the Wilcox brothers), I heard, more or less bet all their money on the licensing contract for Commando (their first Arcade conversion, I believe) in late 1985.

They had Nigel Alderton (of Chuckie Egg fame) and Keith Burkhill doing the coding in a very short time (to be able to release it before Christmas). They each got £10.000 for the effort, but then had to work almost around the clock (sleeping a few hours on the office floor a day - talk about crunching!).

They even had clause in their contract reducing their salary for each day they were late. They did end up getting a few days late, but the Wilcox's were so happy with their effort, that they didn't use the clause in end (graphics were done by Karen Trueman and Rory Green).

Yeah, the British computer industry was just as crazy as the Japanese (or the American).

@shgamer

Wow, these stories deserve a movie or TV series! Set against a broader social panorama of Thatcher's Britain and with some Adrian Mole nostalgia vibes.

Speaking about music, you got me indeed! Must have been a projection of my aging brain. No music at all and even the sound effects were barebones. Top notch gameplay and graphics though!

@Bydlak Yeah. Have you played the ZX Spectrum port of Space Harrier (also by Elite Systems), coded by yhe aforementioned Keith Burkhill (Commando etc.) with it's "chequerboard" surface/background? If you have and have a bit of understanding of how much data you have to "move" from one area of the memory to have that "chequerboard" AND have the game's graphics running on top of that, and that even with pseudo 3D/sprite scaling (ok, I don't think there's actual sprite scaling going on - that would be too crazy - just lots of predefined sprites in different "sizes" probably).

Keith Burkhill was known in the industry as being probably the most technically accomplished ZX Spectrum coder (when it was about getting as much "juice" out of the processor at least - Mike Singleton was extremely technically advanced too - but on another level).

Keith apparentlty even used "racing down the beam" (the old Catode Ray Televisions were entirely analog, projection each pixel in quick succession to the screen every 50th of second (PAL TV versions)) techniques known from the Atari VCS/2600, that didn't even have a screen memory.

These old home computer had something called Borders around the main area of the screen where the "action" took place so to speak. And the idea with "racing down the beam" is using the time where the beam is not doing anything, because it's in the Border "area", to actually execute code in between the lines being "drawn" in the main ("action") area. Simply to get as much "juice" out of the processor as possible.

Yeah, it's extremely difficult to get the timings correct, but they did get it right on the Atari VCS/2600 (out of neccesity), so why not ;-.

@shgamer

I played Space Harrier, of course. While it may have been groundbreaking in terms of programming, it never appealed to me as a kid. My favorite 3D space shooter on the ZX Spectrum was Buck Rogers, probably less innovative but more engaging in terms of gameplay.

Anyway, the things you just said about using the "race down the beam" are fascinating! Your knowledge of the history of game coding is impressive, and you are able to present it in a straightforward and not overly technical manner, which I think is a rare talent. Have you ever thought about writing articles or posting YT videos on the subject? Could be a hit!

Why every metroidvania nowadays has to be soulslike???

ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 games tended to be "brutally difficult" because it was the only way to prolong the life of a game, since those computers had such a reduced storage space and game maps had to be small. I don't see the point of keeping the "brutal" difficulty on this day and age. Cool for those who enjoy those kinds of games, I guess, but definitely not for me.

@NinChocolate According to AlleyCat's comment up above, it's not really an Igavania.

"Mom! Can I get this??"
"You've got Castlevania at home."

(in all seriousness, it does look good though!)