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Now this is a bit frustrating; at the time of typing RGCD #03 is coming together nicely (with only a couple of weeks to go before magazine's launch at Retro North), the CD artwork is all in place, most of the reviews are done and then *bang* - out of nowhere comes the rather excellent Joe Gunn for the C64 (a game that we'd originally pencilled in for a preview), complete and ready to make your beloved breadbin very happy. Why the frustration? Well, ace though Blast Arena Advance is, we had a GBA game as the cover title last issue and if only we'd known of Joe Gunn's imminent release we would have promoted it to 'featured game' status instead - it might not be as perfect a game as Blast Arena, but it is without a doubt the most accomplished C64 title to grace the pages of RGCD so far...

In his latest project, Georg Rottensteiner (aka Endurion) has deviated from his usual development platform of choice - instead of adding to his library of competent PC remakes he's presented us with a real treat, a brand new and original game for the Commodore 64! That's right - this is no clone or port of a game from another platform, Georg has actually made the considerable effort to design and code a new platform-adventure-puzzle 'em up of such commendable high quality and depth that it puts many commercial C64 releases to shame.

Taking control of Indiana Jo.., ahem, Joe "archaeologist by passion" Gunn, the game starts with Joe discovering a huge uncharted pyramid deep in the Egyptian desert. Your goal is to explore the catacombs within, solve the secret of the Crocodile King and to emerge in one piece - but with over 70 rooms of traps, nasties and tough puzzles it's not going to be easy... Sounds like a standard platform romp, but this is definitely one for the old-school; Joe Gunn is a challenging game from the start, requiring a lot of thought, experimentation, back-tracking and pixel perfect jumps. It's just like being a real archaeologist - well, apart from the jumping of course.

Sure - these screen shots may look pretty basic, but to really appreciate the game you have to see it in motion. The animation of the player and enemy sprites is excellent and fills the game with character. The mummies shuffle along mindlessly, the snakes slither convincingly and our agile hero puts the Prince of Persia to shame (...well, almost) with his athletic jumps, ledge climbing and, err, head scratching. Endurion didn't achieve all this by himself though; Paul Pridham (he of Saucelifter fame) and Howard Kistler have done an amazing job in squeezing so much life into the pixels, and the suitably Egyptian sounding SID soundtrack by Thomas Petersen is both fitting and varied enough to keep you jigging along on your epic quest. This team of Retro Remakes forum regulars have produced a game of near La-Mulana standard on the humble 8-Bit, but unfortunately it's not without a few minor flaws.

First of all, the documentation is a bit weak. I know that it's the dullest part of producing a game, but Joe Gunn is deceivingly complex and novice gamers could probably do with a few hints to get them started. Then of course there's the spelling... English is quite clearly Georg's second language (and he's done an amicable job) but surely one of the other team members could have proof read the in-game text to prevent verbal slip-ups such as "may he rest in piece" from ending up in the finished game. These kind of errors may go unnoticed in 'Engrish' MSX conversions, but us C64 users are an educated bunch whom aren't accustomed to such sloppy spelling, don't you know. However, it sounds like there'll be a bug fix on it's way (probably before this issue is out knowing my luck) because Endurion has recently announced that there are only nine hidden masks in the game (out of ten) - the last one was accidentally omitted from the map. Oh well, he's only human. (Bugs have now been fixed! - JM)

After all the work that's gone into the game I sincerely hope that this isn't the last we'll see of Joe Gunn. Although there's been no mention of a follow-up or sequel to date, there has been talk on the RR forum of possibly porting the game to other retro platforms - which would be fantastic, and no doubt would re-ignite those playground battles of old over 'which is the best 8-Bit'. Endurion and his team should be proud - they've created a modern C64 masterpiece.

(Note that there are three versions included on disc; Endurion's original tape images (German and English) and a more recent 'cracked' version complete with trainers and documentation.