Backlog Journey: Maybe It's Time for an Indie Royale Round-Up
 From the fine folks at Indie Royale comes the fantastic five+ game May Hurray Bundle that features Dungeon Defender, Containment: The Zombie Puzzler and Digital Eel's Data Jammers: FastForward, Brainpipe: A Plunge to Unhumanity and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space--plus extra goodies. Now that's worth cheering for!
Tips: Buy early and save $. As more people do, the price goes up, so hop in soon. Beat the minimum. Knock the price down for others and show your support by paying more than the current price. Please note that this bundle will self destruct in one week. For more information, simply teleport to the website.
Shrapnel Games' Spring MADNESS Sale
That's right! Spring has sprung and the folks at Shrapnel Games have gone MAD again, offering discounts on every title in their catalog including Data Jammers: FastForward, the polygonally retro racing destruction game, Brainpipe: A Plunge to Unhumanity, the cult psychedelic arcade obstacle game, and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, the award winning instant space opera with exploration, high adventure, real time combat and other really wild things. Go see but be careful! Games will rot your brain if you play too many of them. Not!
|
Gear Up, Alien Sportsthings!
|
Go Where the Fishing is Good --and Strange
AKA D I G I T A L E E L G A M E S
 Hot stuff! Brand spankin' new from Shrapnel Games (publisher of our own Weird Worlds, Brainpipe and Data Jammers games), Total Eclipse is a compleat pen and paper fantasy roleplaying system in downloadable .pdf form. With years of tweaking (eek!), prodding (ouch!) and honing (hey!) behind it, designer Steve N. Jackson (yes there's another one!) has created a fast, fun and easily extendable story playing system, now available officially and in a convenient affordable way. So, intrepid adventurers, be sure to giveTotal Eclipse a look-see, then get out your dice, download and start (role)playing!
Ripcord out.
 Hot off the hyperwire: Space Game Junkie is presenting a new series of articles about Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, and has posted the first installment today. Part after action report, part narrative of play, Brian Rubin gives a good overview of what Weird Worlds, a kind of "instant space opera", is all about. More details and observations will folow so be sure keep a third eye on the Space Game Junkie website!
Ripcord out.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT DATA JAMMERS: FASTFORWARD
"A casual game with fangs."
- Adam Niese, Pixelsocks
"The Digital Eel guys have done it again: another outrageously retro, tongue-in-cheek, weirdly beautiful, and very inexpensive video game. As if Brainpipe weren't enough, now it's Data Jammers: Fast Forward. What Atari might have produced if they had had a sense of humor and a better CPU. I don't normally flack video games, but these guys' imagination and polish consistently impresses me -- and there's only three of them."
- Ernest Adams, Facebook post
"Data Jammers: FastForward is reminiscent of all that is good in the world. Or at least some of the things that are good in the world, like Tempest and speeding through cyberspace."
- Adam Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
"The colourful, vibrant wireframes, and hypnotic collage of abstract 3-D models screaming past at a million miles per hour is very satisfying on an aesthetic level. If ever there were calls for examples of videogames to be considered as legitimate art, Digital Eel's creations would be amongst the first I'd proffer."
- Steve Blanch, Bytten
"What makes the game a real pleasure, however, are the two things as which Digital Eel always excels; the use of code to produce trippy graphics, and the excellence of the music. Playing Data Jammers is like being at a rave, with glowing Tron-like visuals and a danceable techno score; indeed, weaving and gyrating through the game feels a lot like dance as well."
- Greg Costikyan, Play This Thing!
"Audio is superb, as we've come to expect from this developer. It's a kind of eclectic mishmash of electronica and ambient noise that is, although not quite as good as the brilliant soundtrack of Brainpipe, still light-years ahead of most of its peers."
- Steve Blanch, Bytten
"The enemies and effects are imaginative, and the controls very smooth."
- Greg Costikyan, Play This Thing!
"A lot of thought went into righting the wrongs from the arcade era, and it pays off in smooth play."
- Adam Niese, Pixelsocks
"The game has virtually no lag even when the screen is full of objects. An absolute must for a game this fast paced."
- Patrick Gibbons, GDN
"The FPS is brilliant."
- Weldaar, The Spotlight
"The gameplay is intense, immediate and chaotic... or is it? Data Jammers is definitely one of those games where you can suddenly just “feel in the zone”."
- Steve Blanch, Bytten
"Speed freaks and high score nuts alike will defiantly be able to appreciate this game."
- Patrick Gibbons, GDN
"A precision machine: well-crafted from sound principles. This is a game to get if you’re looking for a solid action title."
- Adam Niese, Pixelsocks
It didnt have enough time to-- Leave me alone! Noooooooooo. Whoa. Slow it down. Time to react... Go! Slow it down... Yeah! No idea what that was... Ahh... Slow it down. --Balls! Nooooooo! There's so many!!
- Weldaar, The Spotlight
"It's quite fun."
- Weldaar, The Spotlight
Infiltrate Ouroboros, crash the system and save the world!
Windows - STEAM | DRM-free: SHRAPNEL GAMES
Latest Reviews: BYTTEN | PIXELSOCKS | Vintage Video Games TV
Dear Friend Phosphorous Has Passed Away
 Digital Eel sadly mourns the passing of Bill "Phosphorous" Sears, Digital Eel co-founder, illustrative artist, designer, musician and very close friend. His attitude and personality were amazing. We wish each one of you could have met him. You'd have liked Bill right off of the bat. That kind of fellow who put everyone at ease with a gentle heart and a playful sense of humor.
Bill was also a great ally in the indie game cause. The best, and authentic --the real deal. Having spent well over a decade in the clutches of the commercial end of the game industry, his goal was to champion the indie spirit bravely, proudly, in every way he could, and he sure did, with his humor, his illuminating words and with his wholly original and always upbeat (but never "cute") artwork.
Bill was steeped in underground art influences, lowbrow art, funny animal comics, the hot rod "kulture", Mad magazine in its heyday, Basil Wolverton, the legendary Zap Comix --a lot of surreal psychedelia and heavy on the counterculture, but Bill was mostly interested in the great drawing. And he must have practiced an awful lot because by now he'd taken drawing and painting, whether on canvas or with Photoshop, to places no artist has ever gone. This can be said with no doubt.
Bill died suddenly of heart related troubles. He was in his late 50's and left us far too soon. Bill is survived by his wife Glenda, his daughter Leeah and his son, Corbin, and our heartfelt condolences go out to each one of them. There will be a gathering for Bill but details are pending and it could be a while before it happens. Feel free to contact Digital Eel if you'd like to be in touch, and visit our memorial website for Bill to share thoughts, memories, messages, photos and more.
Godspeed Bill. We miss you dearly already.
Ripcord out.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
|
