For those interested, we now have a new affiliation with ACT LABS, creators of hardcore computer gaming peripherals. We'll post deals and special offers as they come in!

Check out ACT LABS for hardcore mouse, racing, flight and light gun computer peripherals:

In order to replace the void left by our affiliation with the now defunct Lik-Sang, we have entered into a relationship with Play-Asia. You can check it out under our "Merchandise and Special Offers" section or try it out below:

Spike's Sea Snap Safari: Concept ImageThe prolific homebrew GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex game developers, Vectorzoa, known for cartridges such as "Logo", "Star Sling" and "Spike's Circus" (which I've mentioned previously on Armchair Arcade) have an interesting way for ANYONE to contribute to their next game, "Spike's Sea Snap Safari". While label art and level design contests are popular at AtariAge, this is one of the few times that I've seen one for a non-Atari system.

This looks like fun and hopefully some of the Armchair Arcade faithful will take up the challenge and report on their results. From the Website:

Four-Play (2006, Atari 2600): Title screen for level 1It looks like yet another high quality homebrew title has been released for the venerable Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), this one based on the famous board game, "Connect Four". Nothing terribly earth shattering, but it looks great, has slick packaging and is priced at only $20 through our friends at AtariAge.

Four-Play is a classic board game that has finally made its way to the Atari 2600. Four-Play has easy to learn rules, but don't expect to become a master as easily! Red and Blue take turns dropping marbles into an upright board. The first player to align four marbles horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins! Pit your wits against the computer A.I. at four difficulty levels, or play against a friend in two-player mode.

Includes cartridge and full-color manual. Available in NTSC and PAL60 television formats, please specify above when ordering.

The latest issue:

A2 News and Notes October, 2006

INDEX
* Reading Redux
* Connections, 2006-style
* A Good Time Will Be Had By All!
* Apple I in the 21st Century
* .And Were Live!
* New Digs
* A Fake Disk?
* Software News
* Emulation News
* SignOff

-- Remember the computer magazines Hardcore and The Computist? Or have

From November 6th - 19th, you can get free shipping on all purchases over $25 at the two Armchair Arcade Merchandise stores in our "Merchandise and Special Offers" section. The maximum discount our shop partner provides is $5 and you must use the coupon code FREESHIPPING06 at checkout. Enjoy!

Our standard shop is here and the design-your-own shop is here.

Civilization IV ScreenshotArmchair Arcade is proud to present an excerpt from the book contained within Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles, the definitive Civilization collector's edition recently released by 2K. This chapter is called “One Civ, Many Worlds” in which designer/programmer Soren Johnson writes about the Civ community and its positive impact on the evolution of the game. Johnson, who works at Firaxis, 2K's world-renowned development studio, was the lead designer for Sid Meier's Civilization IV and he programmed and co-designed Sid Meier's Civilization III.

Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles for PC is available for a MSRP of $69.99. For more information please visit http://www.civilization.com.

BEGIN

The following is an excerpt from Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles

Alien Mind for the ZX81/Sinclair/Timex Computers (16K)ANDRE is back with his regular updates for the Sinclair ZX81/Time Sinclair 1000 series of systems:

"SUDOKU" is available NOW at "http://www.zx-team.de/andre". You can now
play the game on your ZX81 or TS1000. The coding and the graphics are
from Stafford White and the speed from ANDRE***.

Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe Edition: Package Contents (Image courtesy 2K)Normally I don't mention new items such as this unless there's something particularly intriguing about it (that's what more mainstream Websites are paid to do), but the packaging for this one is kind of nifty - and - as a proponent of exquisite game packaging, I'm putting this PRESS RELEASE right to the top (click on the image at right to see a larger version):