Very encouraging reactions, guys!
Actually, I was pretty surprised to find out that quite some people didn't know the (great) original!
To ro, Huey, Xan0ri, jltursan and Rikusu; Yeah! Sweet Acorn must be one of
or the FIRST MSX game(s) ever to make a (big) impression on my childhood's memory!
Clarifying: I was 4 years old in 1984 and I grew up with MSX, like most of you guys.
As you know, the original was just a 16kB game, but I always thought the concept to be genious!
From then, for me the game has been an excellent example of a truly original game concept, all neatly worked out AND extremely fun to play!
Since I grew "older", the idea of trying to reconstruct what "Taito" would have done with the very same concept, only with more available memory/colours/etc... made more sense as my "understanding" of (MSX) game mechanics increased a little bit throughout the years.
...This thought has always been somewhere on the back of my mind, until recently, when I decided to finally materialize it...
So it didn't come up
that spontaneous.
Just think of it... Sweet Acorn, only with multiple player modes, more enemies, more weapons, more graphics, more music... boss creatures... worlds to explore... even more fun!
To wolf_: Hehehe, I actually remember, as a child being confused about this "language-gap" you described, and because of this very game.
Like I blame Undeadline for mixing up the Dutch/English words:
Woud/Forest and Bos/Woods...
It makes no sense!
To Rikusu: At "mentioned party", I already had *some* solid stuff of this project, and there was a lot more I wanted to show you, but as my house turned into a zoo when time passed (due to several other alcoholic people and such.. hehehe) and you and me got more and more drunk, it just, well... We went to sleep, and you went home, you know.

For the rest: Like yum said.
To yum: Actually, contrary to what one might believe when screen 5 is involved, the game engine revolves around 8*8 cells for a change.
It just proved to be more efficient in simulating the fashion of Sweet Acorn stage building!
To jltursan: So... Have you actually got "threats" from this "Aiky" coorporation?
As it seems, their site is offline...
So I looked at the Taito site... Not a trace of Sweet Acorn to be found, BUT:
Legend of Kage
2?!? OMG OMG OMG

...I'll quit looking at their site immediately.
To all:
- UPDATE -
* Player control is now 100% like the original
* Projectiles (acorns) work straight but not diagonally yet
* Standard enemies have to be programmed yet
* An enthousiastic Acorn-fan who has "a little bit better" (note: understatement) coding skills than yours truly (= me) is helping as we speak!
* It looks like 2 very talented graphic-artists are to be involved in this project
* There will be several different multiple player-modes
* You will be able to create, play, save and share your own "Panics" (stages)!
* As soon as we got, like, 2-3 stages which are fun to play and which showcase the possibilities well enough:
You'll immediately see it here! Sure thing!!!
Your comments and help are ever welcome, and with that, together we'll try to make Acorn 2 a worthy sequel to a great game which does not deserve to be absorbed into the so oblivious mists of game history!
Greetings,
John/DemonSeed, on behalf of the Acorn 2 development team