Updates to Blake’s Sanctum in 2018

Hey guys! Thought I’d better do a end of year post. Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a good new year!

Wow! Blake’s Sanctum has passed 41,500 visitors! That’s 11,500 more visits since this time last year! And on top of that this blog has been going SUPER well with 15,000 visitors which is 10,500 up on this time last year which is amazing as this blog used to hardly get anything but now it’s on it’s way to surpassing the main site! Thank you to everyone for your support! 🙂

Now for the end of year updates. Unfortunately my big new under construction Civilization section planned for 2018 still isn’t ready yet (I’m still replaying through the series haha) however along with the recent big Starflight section overhaul I’ve also done a lot of smaller updates across the site including a number of new game tributes. Some are still under construction but they’re getting there.

New mini site updates:
– Upgraded contents page (pics & icons) in all sections
– Legends of Pegasus tribute in Imperium Galactica section
– BIG Palm Kingdoms series tribute in Heroes of Might & Magic section
– Upgraded Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend tribute in Starflight section
– Hero-U tribute in Quest for Glory section (preliminary page)
– Civizard – Master of Magic PSX tribute in Master of Magic section (prelim)
– Celtic Tales – Balor of the Evil Eye in Master of Magic section (prelim)
– Star Trek Armada 2 Fleet Operations in Star Trek Gaming section (prelim)

New Bubsy games in 2018!

There are a lot of Bubsy haters out there but there are a lot of Bubsy lovers out there too. Personally I loved Busby on my SEGA Mega Drive although I never was able to finish it as it was much harder than the Sonic games lol! I still remember its gorgeous colourful vibrant graphics even today (especially those train and river levels). Darn it I’ll finish it one day (probably through an emulator where I can cheat my ass off lmao)!

I never did get to buy the sequel Busby 2 and apparently I was not missing anything when I didn’t play Bubsy 3D on Playstation as it was labelled one of the worst games on the console which considering how large the PSX library is that is saying something. In fact it was so bad it killed the Busby franchise for nearly 2 decades!

Until recently that is! At the end of 2017 Acclaim released a brand new Bubsy game for PS4 and PC called Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back! It wasn’t a huge hit with reviewers however it must have sold well as now they’ve announced another busy game for 2019 called Bubsy: Paws on Fire which looks like it has some pretty cool alternative game modes such as piloting a Woolies spaceship and first person roller coaster like special levels. Check out the trailers below!

Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back

Bubsy: Paws on Fire

SEGA Master System Visual Compendium Book

I recently posted about the awesome guys at Bitmap books making a hard copy book of the awesome History of Computer RPGs pdf. Well I’ve got to post about this too even if I am rather late on it!

After Bitmap books successful C64, Amiga, NES, SNES, Art of Point & Click Adventure and other releases they’ve thankfully and naturally now turned their attention to SEGA. Being a SEGA kid this was the moment I’d been waiting for! This year they did a kickstarter for a SEGA Master System Visual Compendium book and it was quite successful! I managed to back it just in time but if you missed out then don’t worry they’ll put more up on the bitmap books website in 2019. I missed all the Nintendo kickstarters yet I was able to get the books from their website. What’s arrived so far has blown me away. I love the 3D lenticular slipcase covers! (eg turn the book and Mario will jump & coins will spin). Fingers crossed they do a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) book soon too as that’s my real retro console love!

Original SMS Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2146199819/sega-master-system-a-visual-compendium

Bitmap Books Website:
https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/

Long lost never released Sim City Nintendo game found!

This is pretty cool. Very late in the process Nintendo abandoned it’s 8-bit NES conversion of Maxis’s classic Sim City in favourite of releasing the game in its superior 16-bit SNES system. Copies shown at various trade shows disappeared never to be seen again.. until now!

The awesome guys at the Video Game History Foundation have located and purchased a copy of one of the original trade show cartridges and done a archaeological dig into the cart and done this comprehensive article on its contents and the interesting history of its making (some big names were involved!). They’ve even released the rom for people with emulators!

Check it out here:
https://gamehistory.org/simcity/

 

New Wonder Boy games after all these years!

I should have posted this a while back however Monsterboy has just come out so I guess now is a great time too! Wonderboy 2 in Monster Land for the Sega Master System was the first RPG I ever owned and played. I loved that game so much and loved it’s 3(ish) sequels too, however sadly the series never made it out of the 90s and up until a few years ago seemed forgotten and lost in legal limbo (due to multiple rights holders disagreeing).

But a few years ago it all took off again when a small studio named Lizardcube managed to successfully work out a deal with all licence holders to create a full blown modern remake of Wonder Boy 3 Dragon’s Trap on PC and modern consoles including the ever popular Nintendo Switch! They did an amazing job and best of all you can effortlessly switch between modern and classic mode playing the game with the original Sega Master System graphics and sounds if you wish! Check out the trailer here:

But if that’s not enough another small studio named FDG Entertainment came along and got the lience to create a full blown new Wonder Boy game titled Monster Bot and the Cursed Kingdom with amazing graphics and animation along with gameplay styled similarly to Wonder Boy 3 again with multiple animal transformation characters to play as. They have also released on PC and consoles too! You can see it’s trailer here:

There’s also some great fan games and remakes from the last 20 years based on Wonder boy so I’ll probably do more blog posts and a big website tribute section down the track! 🙂

Remember the Amstrad Mega PC?

Wow talk about a blast from the past! Check out this old advert I found for the Amstrad Mega PC! A hybrid Windows PC with a Sega Megadrive (Genesis) built in too! I remember begging my mum for one as a kid but they were so expensive so there was no chance of that haha! A lot of nostalgic goodness in this pic.