"Imps exist all around us, just beyond the limits of our perception in a parallel universe of infinite variety and beauty. Co-existing with humankind, these pan-dimensional critters are the reason why the occasional sock goes missing from the laundry basket. They are to blame for the disappearance of yesterday’s leftover pasta, or moving your house keys while you sleep.

Two clans of imp herders are in a never-ending battle for ownership of the imps. The enigmatic Moebius clan from the 48th plane of existence are shrouded in mystery, as are their reasons for collecting the imps. The feminine Puckies however have always made their purpose clear - back on their home world in the Z80 quadrant imps are considered a unequalled delicacy (especially when coated in chocolate).

Jumping through space and time, Moebius and Pucky clan members warp from one bizarre reality to another, frantically grabbing as many imps as they can. Who will win today's battle?"

Background Of The PC Remake

When discussing the rise and fall of the remake scene with our good friend Locomalito we came to the conclusion that one of the main reasons behind this was that all the good, simple games had been done. However, an idea started to form... wouldn't it be cool if people were to remake modern 8-bit games on the PC, much like how coders on retro platforms like to demake popular flash and iOS games? Locomalito was intrigued and asked to see some suggestions of decent homebrew 8-bit software that we'd consider worthy of remaking. David Hughes' EFMB was amongst the games sent over - and it was at this point when Locomalito's love affair with Moebius and Pucky began.

Bringing on-board his usual team of Gryzor87 and Marek Barej as well as RGCD and David Hughes, it wasn't long before we had a working prototype. A few weeks later and multi-player and other extra features were up and running. Before long, this simple remake of a little known and quintessentially British platformer had evolved into a mock 1980's coin-op experience - and the initial betas were sent out for testing.

This is where the headaches (or braincrashing - to coin a term from Locomalito) began. No-one, other than fans of the original, could work out how to play it. In play-testing, EFMB with it's bonkers teleporting and screen wrapping mechanics failed catastrophically in exactly the opposite way to how it had triumphed on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was simply too hard and too confusing for non-veteran EFMB players.

A major dumbing-down process began. The difficulty on the early stages was slashed. Instructions were added to the title screen. Levels were tweaked over and over to remove unfair deaths. Bugs were removed by the dozen.

Then finally, an accessible, fair and enjoyable version of the game emerged from the chaos. Hopefully you'll find the end result worth the effort!

Background Of The OUYA Port

After completing work on Gaurodan, EFMB was the obvious next choice of game to port. With it's focus on two-player local gameplay (competitive and vs) EFMB is perfectly suited to the Ouya. Oh, and it is completely free too.

More detailed information can be found on the PC version of the game here (http://www.rgcd.co.uk/2012/07/endles...l-pc-2012.html) and here (www.locomalito.com/efmb.php).