Blaze Entertainment has announced the next collection of games, The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 for Evercade devices. It will feature 5 of the best games from the British development team that was dubbed as “rock stars,” the Bitmap Brothers. It is number 22 of the Evercade lineup and is set to be released in September 2021. Pre-orders will go live later this week.
The Bitmap Brothers, who are not actually brothers started out in East London in 1987. Their debut was the game Xenon for the Atari ST and Amiga in 1987. They were the first developers who used the pop-culture era of the 80s to give themselves a “cool” image. The Bitmap Brothers consist of Mike Montgomery, Eric Matthews, and Steve Kelly. The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 consists of a wide range of games from the developer’s early beginnings with combat sports title Speedball and the sequel, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe. Also, part of Collection 1 is the follow-up to their first game, Xenon 2: Megablast, and the top-down steampunk shooter The Chaos Engine. The last game in The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 is Speedball 2100. The Bitmap Brothers Collection will be launched with the Evercade collectible clamshell, retro-styled case with a bespoke cover and manual.
“It’s great to bring the Bitmap Brothers to Evercade,” said Evercade Marketing Manager, Sean Cleaver. “It’s one of the collections that we’ve been asked about from the beginning of Evercade and one we’ve been excited to bring to the Evercade devices. The Bitmap Brothers hold a special place in the heart of many gamers from the late 80s and early 90s, not just in the UK but around the world. And with the upcoming release of the Evercade VS, it’s a great showcase of multiplayer and co-op gaming from one of the British Games Industry greats.”
The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 is the latest of Collections coming to Evercade this year. April saw the release of Jaleco Collection 1 and PKO Collection 2. In May, the Indie Heroes Collection 1 and Worms Collection 1 were supposed to be released but both cartridges have been delayed and will now release on July 30, 2021. August sees the release of Code Masters Collection 1 and Mega Cat Studios Collection 2. In September, this new Collection will be released as well as the Intellivision Collection. Lastly, November is the release of the Evercade VS.
All of Evercade’s scheduled releases for this year will be announced by May 28 in time for cartridge and hardware pre-orders.