Magic Engine, programmed by brothers David & Cédric Michel (chapeau pour votre grand émulateur) has been around for a while now. The first generation ran on MS-DOS, and I am proud to state that I registered it as soon as I became aware of it.

System: NEC Turbo Duo (Super CD)

Release Date: 2006

Developer: MindRec

Rating: Good

Meteor Blaster DX Signature Edition is the latest and most elaborate version of the long-running series of homebrew games in NEC's Super CD format from author Bt Garner and his company, MindRec.  Signature Edition is essentially the same Asteroids-inspired product as the other DX games, save for some slight graphical tweaks, a hidden extra ship, a hidden extra demo, an upgrade to the Loop bonus game, and personalization options.

Frog Feast - Sega CD Version - 2005 (RasterSoft)File this one under "surprised". It seems that RasterSoft has developed and released Frog Feast on cartridge for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive compatible), which is also available on Sega CD, SNK Neo Geo CD & MVS, IGM PGM and Capcom CPS-1 formats. Other versions planned include Commodore Amiga CD32, FM Towns Marty, Philips CD-I, NEC Turbo Duo and Atari Jaguar CD, though all of those have preview versions already available for download. RasterSoft has also seen fit to release the source code to several of the versions.

Frog Bog - Original Intellivision Version - 1982 (Mattel)It seems the game was inspired by Mattel's original 1982 classic Frog Bog, which also spawned an Atari 2600 version called Frogs and Flies. It seems though that Mattel itself was inspired by Gremlin's 1978 arcade game, Frogs, which utilized a background overlay. While is some ways Frog Feast is actually graphically less rich than the Mattel version(!), it's refreshing to see a homebrew game inspired by something a bit different than the norm.

After having purchased Meteor Blaster DX Signature Edition for the NEC Turbo Duo/PC Engine (it's in Super CD format) many months back, I was presented with the opportunity to review it for an upcoming issue of Video Game Collector magazine. Of course, me being me, I volunteered to both review the product, provide photos and interview the author, who was quite agreeable.