A new trailer for Rayman Legends has been apparently leaked and is now available online.

It’s the sequels to last year’s surprise hit Rayman Origins and features stunning visuals a number of new gameplay improvements and the introduction of new characters (although we didn’t like the one that appears in the video). Numerous mini-games have been added, including a fun looking football title, while there appears to be a focus on on-foot races as well, with numerous ghosts appearing onscreen. By far the most interesting aspect of the game however, was nead its end, where Ubisoft shows how items can integrate with Nintendo’s incoming Wii-U. A boy is shown reaching for a rabbid, placing it on the Wii-U’s tablet screen and seeing the rabbid appear in the game. He then starts to reach for an Assassin’s Creed character as the video fades to black…

It’s certainly an interesting idea, and would work brilliantly well with the Pokémon and Skylander’s franchise, but if we’re honest, we are more interested in the fact that ones of the most enjoyable old-school games of last year is finally getting a sequel. No news on a date yet, but we’d imagine it will be appearing to coincide with the Wii-U’s release later in the year.

In a few weeks the Queen will be celebrating her Diamond Jubilee, but today thought turns to another important occasion. Nope, not St. Georges day, but the 30th anniversary of the ZX Spectrum!

Created by Sir Clive Sinclair, the ZX Spectrum was a fantastic home computer with distinctive colourful visuals and a wealth of affordable and original games. Becoming a common sight in households across the UK, it provided many British school kids with their first taster of home gaming, and contributed significantly to the home computer boom in the Eighties with the likes of Rare, Codemasters and Elite all cutting their teeth on the popular 8-bit micro.

It launched a number of classic gaming heroes too, including Miner Willy, Sabre Man, Jet Man and Monty Mole, and was responsible for introducing gamers to the delights of Ultimate’s Filmation. The system was eventually discontinued in 1992, but it managed to leave behind a rich legacy, despite the fact that it never had the same worldwide presence as the Commodore 64.

Even today the Spectrum is still impressing gamers, as Elite has been releasing a steady stream of classic games on iOS devices, with classics ranging from Jet Set Willy, to Barbarian. It’s also just released an excellent compilation comprising of 100 games to tie in with the Spectrum’s anniversary, meaning that some of the best games ever created for the humble 8-bit micro are now available to play on the move.

Inside the latest issue of RG, to celebrate the anniversary, we have a huge feature about the machine’s history and legacy. In it we speak to a number of developers and publishers with a strong connection with the machine, from Ocean Software’s Gary Bracey to Sinclair Research designer Rick Dickinson.

To give you a taster of what’s in store, Elite Systems founder Steve Wilcox (who also contributes to the article) kindly shares with us his thoughts and memories of the Spectrum.

Retro Gamer: What was your first memory of the Spectrum?
Steve Wilcox: My personal ‘first memory’ of the Spectrum is sadly lost in the mists of time. I do however still have vivid early memories of trundling up and down the M1, bringing van-loads of Spectrums (should that be Spectra) from Sinclair Researches distributor, (‘Prism’?) to the eager people of Walsall and its environs in 1983.

RG: How important has the machine been to the success of Elite over the years?
SW: Pivotal. Without the Spectrum, Elite’s early years would not have peppered with the critical and commercial successes with which it was so fortunate to be associated. More than 100 people were directly employed by Elite in those early years and 100s of thousands of people enjoyed some exquisitely executed ‘Spectrum versions’ of great arcade games like Bombjack, Commando, Paperboy and so many others. More recently, since the advent of ‘modern’ mobile games in 2003, the relationships which Elite forged in the heyday of the Spectrum have been renewed and a number of those great arcade games have been central to Elite’s mobile games offering.

RG: Why do you think the Spectrum has found a new lease of life on iOS?
SW: Our view is that the importance which Apple attach to IP (intellectual property) and the effectiveness of their App Review process has been central to the Spectrum achieving a new lease of life on iOS. Prior to iOS (and indeed even today in the case of most Android devices), access to Spectrum games was and is still effectively confined to tacky emulators and illegally hosted game ROMS,via the internet. As a direct result of Apple’s intervention, developers such as Elite can anticipate a return of their investment when creating bespoke apps, like our ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection apps and when carrying out any necessary changes to the original Spectrum games, to create a well-rounded pocket-sized Spectrum experience both on iPhone, iPad and in the future on Apple TV.

Issue 102 of Retro Gamer goes on sale 26th April – this Thursday.

If you love games, this is the book for you. Packed with all the best games for iOS, iPad & iPhone Games Directory shows you how you can turn your smartphone or tablet into a device to rival home consoles. Covering every gaming category on the App Store, over 300 games are reviewed, highlighting the best apps on offer. From Cut The Rope and Angry Birds to FIFA 12 and Scrabble, you’ll find all the games you’ll ever need in this ultimate guide.

Aaron Asadi, Editor In Chief, stated; “The iPad and iPhone are the ideal devices for gaming. Accessible, portable and reliable, they are certainly giving traditional consoles a run for their money. With the book, you’ll discover the must-own games from every category on the App Store, from quick time-wasters to games that will have you hooked for months. If you own an iDevice and you want to find the best games for it, this is the place to be.”

The iPad & iPhone Games Directory is on sale now (24/11) from www.imaginebookshop.co.uk priced £9.99.

If you remember the wonderful days of Dungeon Master and Eye Of The Beholder, you’re going to absolutely adore the brand new game from Almost Human. The 4-player team has created a wonderful dungeon crawler called the Legend Of Grimrock, which is not only a stunning game in its own right, but also pays loving tribute to all manner of classic 16-bit adventures like the aforementioned Dungeon Master. The basic premise is that you control a group of prisoners who have been thrown into Grimrock Mountain for crimes they may or may not have committed. They soon discover a huge many-layered dungeon under the mountain and must brave deadly monsters and vicious traps in order to escape.

Movement in the dungeon is tile-based, combat is handled by simply right-clicking on a party member’s weapon, while spells are cast by combining glyphs in a number of different combinations. It’s a robust, easy-to-use system that will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has grown up on similar games. There’s even the option to control all your movement by simply clicking on onscreen arrows. Other nice touches include the ability to mix and create potions, having to constantly stock up on food and torches to ensure you don’t go hungry or get stuck in total darkness, and solving the many devious puzzles that can be found throughout the huge dungeon. It’s all back up by some fantastic lighting effects and an incredibly moody atmosphere.

Legend Of Grimrock is available to buy now from Good Old Games and Steam. We will be reviewing it in issue 103 of Retro Gamer, and will be interviewing the team about both the game and their love of Dungeon Master in the very near future.

Jordan Mechner’s dad made a lucky discovery recently after stumbling across a box of his son’s stuff while doing some spring cleaning: inside was the original Apple ][ source code for Prince of Persia.  

Misplaced for 22 years, after the discovery Mechner posted on his personal blog that he would be preserving the code from floppy disks and freely distributing it to fans.

Those proficient enough in the ancient art of Assembly, the original programming language the game was written in, will be able to play around with the code to create more levels, port it to more machines (not that there’s many it didn’t grace) and basically just reverse engineer it to breath new life into the classic 1989 game.    

If you’re up for the challenge, the original source code is available to download from Github.

A true computing legend, Jack Tramiel founded Commodore International and Atari Corporation, and brought the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga andAtari STto the world.

A concentration camp survivor, Polish born Tramiel emigrated toAmericain 1947 where he established a typewriter repair business. By the late Seventies, following a period of selling electronic calculators, the business evolved into Commodore Business Machines and was selling affordable models of personal computers ‘for the masses, not the classes’, starting with the Commodore PET.  

Following his resignation from Commodore International in 1984, Tramiel bought the ashes of Atari Inc’s home computer and games console division. After the acquisition it was rebranded Atari Corporation and released theAtari ST, Lynx and Atari Jaguar.

Tramiel passed away on Sunday, he was aged 83.

Fans of the excellent Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together will be pleased to hear that you can pick it up from PSN from a song. Okay, so £7.99 isn’t quite a song, but it’s an excellent price for this truly superb strategy game. Orginally released on the SNES in 1995, it was never translated to other languages, meaning a great many gamers missed out on this excellent strategy game. It eventually turned up on other systems, including the Saturn and PlayStation, but again, there was no English translation.

This was finally rectified in 2011 when members of the original team released a remake that was released worldwide. It included numerous nips and tucks, received touched up visuals and included a mode to offset the high difficulty of the original game. Currently reduced on PSN, it can be downloaded to either the PSP or PS Vita and offers a huge amount of gameplay for its paltry asking price. Just be aware that it’s just over a Gig in size, meaning you’ll need a decent sized memory card to truly benefit from it.