La Corona Encantada - breaking news

Weeks ago, Karoshi released their MSXdev'08 entry La Corona Encantada, which would end up third place in this contest. The release of a physical Matra cartridge was planned for the RetroMadrid fair (tomorrow!), just as happened with Karoshi's earlier games such as Malaika and Griels's Quest for the Sangraal.

And then, totally unexpected, there was the highly unusual news that the game has been converted to ZX-Spectrum and that it will be released in cassette format at the same RetroMadrid fair! Moreover, it has been unveiled that Azpiri (a well known comic writer, famous for his past works on illustrating most of 8bit game covers back then) was involved in the project! The MSX version of has been expanded too for this cartridge release. Now you can choose to play a version with new graphics (more MSX-like) while the original Spectrum-style version is also still available.

So, now La Corona Encantada is a multiplatform game! The fact that Azpiri is involved catapulted the game much farther than just the oldskool community. The website Eurogamer currently has La Corona Encantada at its frontpage with an attached article about this game.

Tomorrow, at the RetroMadrid fair, Karoshi will launch the two versions. The MSX cartridge costs €19.95, the Spectrum48KB/128KB cassette costs €14.95 and comes with a bonus mini-CD containing goodies. Both releases are packed in a big high quality printed carton box with instructions.

But wait, there is more! Azpiri himself will come to the Karoshi booth during the morning in order to sign copies of La Corona Encantada! This has been difficult to achieve, and especially for Spanish people this is something spectacular. Azpiri has really made a huge amount of Spanish game covers twenty years ago, as can be seen in this interview and on the official website of this illustrator.

In short, tomorrow will be a fascinating milestone in Karoshi's history!

Relevant link: Karoshi forum thread