Hi all,

Sorry for filling up your mailboxes; here's something I received from Blitz Games (who gave us a talk last Wednesday).

Win an Xbox 360 and support charity. Retro Ball & coding competition – supported by Blitz Games.

10th November 2005. Leamington Spa, Warks, UK. Leading independent videogame developer Blitz Games and Retro Ball organisers (www.play4charity.co.uk) today remind all amateur gaming enthusiasts – that only 13 days remain to enter the coding competition. The winners of the competition, judged by industry veterans The Oliver Twins, will be announced at the forthcoming charity event - The Retro Ball – which takes place over the weekend of December 3rd and 4th in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

In addition to the competition, visitors to the event will be able to play on gaming machines dating from the early 80’s right through to the current time including classic arcade cabinets, pinball tables and a wide range of computers and consoles – from the ZX Spectrum to today’s PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Andrew Oliver, Development Director Blitz Games commented, “We’re delighted to be actively involved in The Retro Ball. The response to the event and the competition has been excellent. It’s very encouraging to see such enthusiasm for videogames from the past and the present and to know that all proceeds will be going into cancer research and support for victims of this devastating disease.”

Chris Wilkins, organiser of The Retro Ball added, “ I am extremely pleased to have the Oliver Twins and Blitz Games associated with The Retro Ball event. The weekend is shaping up to be a unique gaming extravaganza with some amazing prizes to be won! ”

Tickets are selling steadily and the event is due to attract over 400 people with the aim of raising and donating £2,500 to the Everyman charity in aid of cancer research.

The event also has a number of gaming celebrities coming along including Jon Hare from the infamous Sensible Software responsible for such classics as Sensible Soccer, Rob Hubbard/David Whittaker (C64 musicians) and Gary Whelan (the official Galaxian world record holder).

Chris Wilkins, organiser of The Retro Ball added, “ The support I have received from the games industry ‘Retro’ veterans has been amazing. All have volunteered to participate in a Q&A session at the event and also to challenge visitors to the games they were responsible for developing. If you have always thought of yourself as unbeatable at ‘Sensible Soccer”, why not come to the event and challenge the game designer himself, Jon Hare, to a game!!”

About The Competition

The Retro Ball (www.play4charity.co.uk) coding competition that is being run in partnership with Blitz Games (www.BlitzGames.com) and Retro Remakes (www.remakes.org).

Entrants – amateur - are tasked with developing a highly playable game either of original design or based on an original idea, i.e. a remake. The developer can use any programming language and tools available to them to produce the game but the use of C or C++ is desirable.

The Oliver Twins are the sole competition judges and will select the top 3 submissions after the 4-week deadline has elapsed. The top 3 authors will be invited to The Retro Ball and stay at a top 4* Hotel on the Saturday evening courtesy of the Twins. Their games will be made available for visitors to play at The Retro Ball event.

The winner of the competition will be announced at The Retro Ball at 7pm on December 3rd.

Prizes for the event are:

1st Prize XBOX 360 + game 2nd Prize PSP + game 3rd Prize Nintendo DS + game

The 3 finalists will be assessed by Blitz Games during the weekend of the event and if suitable will be offered a career with the Oliver Twins within the games industry.

If you fancy your chances at winning this competition then wander over to http://www.retroremakes.com/comp2005/index.php to read up on the rules and how to enter.

For further information please contact: Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley T: +44 (0) 1608 645756 E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk M: +44(0)7966 449130 www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk

About Blitz Games Blitz Games is based in Leamington Spa and was founded in 1990 by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver and now boasts over 130 staff. The Oliver’s are responsible for developing over 100 games since the early 1980s and their company has three new titles planned for release in the next year, including Pac-Man World 3 and Bratz: Rock Angelz. Also currently in development is next generation original title Possession. The company continues its huge long-term investment into BlitzWare, its in-house technology, which provides one of the best game development environments of any independent developer. www.BlitzGames.com.

Volatile Games is a division of Blitz Games focused on developing Mature Content Games. www.VolatileGames.com

About Retro Remakes The Retro Remakes community is an extremely talented bunch of developers, designers and hobbyists that remake the classics of yesteryear on current technology. The organisers of the Retro Remakes website are organising and running the competition.

Ken.