Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi guys,

Just letting you know that after a few years since my last releases in 2012 and 2013 (Avalanche, Mayhem, Down!, Stairrunner, Shifted, Rush and Boxing champ) i've been developing a new game for the trusty old ZX81, called: Mage - The Enchanted Crystals

In contrast to my previous game, which were a bit smaller and very arcade like, this is a more complex game with a larger world to explore. You

While working on his latest and powerful spell,Wizzy's father was being watched by others. As a precaution he captured the spell inside a crystal and divided it into 4 pieces, which he buried inside the mines, just south of your village. It is now up to you to collect these pieces and bring them together inside the enchanted chest to ensure the spell doesn''t fall into the wrong hands.

The game should be finished within the next few weeks and will become available on cassette tape (because of the flakey nature of ZX81 tape recording in the past, you will casette, instructions and everything you need + digital file to record the game yourself) as well as a digital download.

Here's a preview of what the game will look like.


This game will soon be available on my website at http://www.revival-studios.com/sinclair.php , where you can also find information about the other games i've developed for the ZX81. The game will be part of a trilogy, so expect more releases for the ZX81 in the near future

Kind regards,

- Martijn / Revival Studios

Looks interesting

Mark

Welcome back to the fold - it has been a while since I came across anything you had written and you have produced some really nice games - I loved the ZX81 ones

Thanks,

Devlopment of the game is nearing completion, i've been playtesting it for the last couple of days and i am excited about the release as it is my largest game on the ZX81 so far.

Also, just letting you guys know that the digital downloads for my other games are now available via http://revivalstudios.itch.io, so you can donate whatever you like for most stuff and try the other games yourself.

Same goes for the other platforms like the Commodore PET, Commodore VIC20 (and C16/+4, C64 and Speccy in the near future) for those interested.

revivalstudios wrote: ↑Fri May 18, 2018 11:16 am Also, just letting you guys know that the digital downloads for my other games are now available via http://revivalstudios.itch.io, so you can donate whatever you like for most stuff and try the other games yourself.

Thanks for this, I've always wanted to buy your games but that extra VAT tax always put me off, seemed unfair that the tax doubled the price, especially for a digital download.

Regards;

Greg

Unfortunately, there is no option since the EU (and various other countries around the world) have brought in tax on digital items. The main issue is that the EU and one or two other countries did not use a minimum threshold, so as soon as someone sells something digitally for €1 they have to work out which country the buyer is in, charge VAT according to that country's rate, and then register for VATMOSS and hand it over to their own government...

Even worse, if the buyer is a business or located in the same country as the seller, the rules don't apply and you could be in trouble for charging VAT where not relevent.

Because of that, digital downloads are just too expensive to administer by a small business so they have to use platforms such as itch.io and pay their fees on each sale also.

Buyers can always use a VPN service to pretend to be located outside of the EU and hope PayPal doesn't say which country their account is registered in.

The EU has realised that this was a mistake and was supposed to introduce a threshold of €10,000 worth of digital sales before you need to go through this, but as of yet, that has not happened (it was supposed to be 2018 but I think has now been pushed back to 2020!)

Just wait until the EU brings in the planned changes to introduce the same approach (and same threshold!) to physical goods - that will be a complete nightmare!