Sorry for the delay in news updates - it`s been a busy time for me on the home-range.

Anyway - the biggest news of the last few months has been a hat-trick of new games heading to the CPC.

First up from the Cronosoft stable are Star Sabre and Balloonacy.

Star Sabre is the first complete game by forum member Axelay and has been three years in the making. Axelay has kindly made the full game available to download but I would strongly recommend that if you are a fan of the CPC then you should hold out for the release of the game on tape, which we expect to be in the next few weeks, because nothing beats loading up a new game on your trusty CPC.

Ballonacy is the latest game by long-term community member and friend of CPC Zone, Kevin `Arnoldemu` Thacker (what is it with these emulator writers moonlighting as game developers?!!). A four-level playable demo is available from the Cronosoft website and again I would urge everyone to buy it. Hey, it`s Christmas coming up! Buy lots and give them to your friends and family as stocking fillers!

If you`re too much of a skinflint to shell out a measly couple of pounds to help encourage programmers old and new to continue on new CPC gaming products then Spanish site CPCMania have just the job for you. Magical Drop is based on a 1995 Data East arcade game and has been brought to the CPC by Oscar Sanchez.

Richard `Executioner` Wilson has been taking time out from developing the ever impressive WinAPE emulator and beavering away on his latest game project, A CPC+ conversion of the classic Konami arcade `Frogger`.

I won`t patronise anyone by explaining what Frogger entails but suffice to say this is an excellent conversion, if I do say so myself.

Have a look at the pics, and then click here to download your own copy of the game.

As mentioned, this is a CPC+ only game so dedicated Caprice users will also need to download a copy of WinAPE.

With CPC versions of Space Inavders and Acornsoft`s Pac-Man under his belt, who knows what The Executioner`s next conversion project will be - watch the forums for all the latest conversion and new project news. /cheap plug

As ever, I appear to be a couple of weeks behind the times but just in case there`s anyone out there slower than me, I thought I`d better post information about a new interactive fiction game (that`s text adventure to you and me) available for download!

El Paciente 106 sees you waking up in a hospital room with no idea as to how you got there. In order to complete the game you have to follow the clues across the city and ask people to help you, gleaning whatever information you can from them.

Another release from CEZ Studios, and programmed by Artaburu, the game is available in Spanish and English versions from their website

To discuss this item of news or any thing else CPC related for that matter, head over to our forums!

Being a suspicious old soul, I was somewhat dismissive when a new member of the forum claimed to have a working copy of the long assumed unreleased follow up to Chase HQ. Needless to say, it was with great interest that I read his latest post with links to screen shots of the case and the game running on a GX4000. If this is genuine, then it is undoubtedly the best find in the dozen years or so since AA went out of circulation.

Without wanting to cause offence to our member or doubt either his integrity or motives, I will remain cynical on the subject until I have seen the game running for myself.

Check out the screen grabs to make up your own mind and then pop into the forum to see if you could help convert this lost treasure for use in emulators (if only to shut me up and leave egg all over my face!!!)

A recent flurry of GX4000 cart "discoveries" has prompted much suspicion around the CPC scene lately and has prompted me to issue a warning to any collectors of some dodgy, underhand dealings on the world wide web at the minute!

In the same week as a working copy of Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigations is reported as being in existence (see above for more details), two ebay listings appeared for games which had no cart releases made - Saboteur by Durrell (1986) and La Abadia Del Crimen by OperaSoft (1988).

Upon examination, it would appear that these games have been converted by the seller onto a cart rather than released by the respective companies. Closer examination of the Saboteur case will show that it uses the same artwork as System 3`s Last Ninja (add to that the fact that Durrell`s last CPC release was Chain Reaction in 1988 and it makes it doubly unlikely that they would`ve published Saboteur two years later on a medium that was never going to take off...)

More worryingly still, forum member deepfb reports that La Abadia Del Crimen did not work properly on the Plus Range so, in effect, you`d be buying faulty goods...

Of course if you`re desperate for a Cart conversion of the slightly above average Saboteur then be my guest, but otherwise avoid like the plague... he says as ebay bids push up towards £120....

Bit of old news for most of you I`m sure... (hey! get off my back I`ve been busy! ;)) but in case it`s passed you by, there`s a new CPC version of Columns available to download from Binary Sciences. Coded by Eliot with Graphics from Slyder and sounds by Napo, the game can be picked up from here

Apologies Olivier for the delay in posting this news for you!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water... Nich Campbell (he of CPC Games Reviews fame, maintainer of NVG and an all-round top guy in the scene) has dipped his toe back into the murky world of Spectrum conversions and has produced a CPC version of Jonathan Cauldwell`s entry to the 2004 Minigame Competition `Area 51`.

You can download directly from NVG and check out CPC Game Reviews for more details.

Long-time forum members will remember Cronosoft re-releasing Jason Davis` text adventures `The Smirking Horror` and `Yarkon Blues` with the promise of more to come. Well, after quite a few teething troubles and an almost unbearable wait, Cronosoft have released Jason`s other text adventures `Yarkon Blues II` and `Help Inc` along with a brand new title in the form of Kevin Thacker`s conversion of `Stranded` from the ZX Spectrum.

The games cost £2.50 each (with £1 p&p to the UK and £2 for the rest of Europe) and can be ordered directly from the Cronosoft web-site.

Thanks to Nicholas Campbell for the heads-up.

It certainly is a busy time at the moment in the CPC world, and to be honest its not before time. Two brand new adventures have recently been released, well we say new but apparently they were written a long time ago but until now have never seen the light of day.

The games are called "Codename Midnight Sun" and Trapper and the author (John Betteridge) is currently selling them on eBay. Providing a link to the auction might seem a little silly because its bound to end before many of you get a chance to look, so we suggest searching your local eBay for these great new/lost titles.

As if this isn`t enough, it looks like Cronosoft are about to release Yarkon Blues 2, Iron Sphere and Stranded! more news when we have it.

CPC Adventure, a text based adventure game originally written in French has been translated to English so now we too can enjoy this rather nifty little adventure.

You can download the brand new English release (thanks to Clement Bohic) right here, obviously you need a CPC emulator to play but don`t worry you can find links to plenty of those in our download section.

Yes, you really did just see the word "New". It`s fast becoming a trend in the CPC world as more and more developers push out brand new games for a machine that has long since met its maker and resides only in the home of the enthusiast and the collector.

This new title by Raúl Simarro has 3 levels and over 150 screens of platform action and is written for the CPC 664 and 6128.

You can find full details and download the game here.