Well, it's finally that time.  You can now play a simple version of the game.

What's included:
-The first area and the first boss.  Upon beating the boss, the game simply resets.

Things that are intentional:
-Passwords not reported at game over screen.
-Continue/end on game over are not selectable.
-Piles of spikes on the room to the left of where you start, preventing movement.  These are not in the real game.

That said, have fun.

There's a slightly newer, tweaked file now in its place.  Replace your old ones with this if you had the old one.

awesome!!

First boss down! Man...this game is truly amazing Sivak. You have created a masterpiece.

Awesome!!!

sweet....

it took a few tries but that boss went down, great game thank you sivak

Beat it! Holy @#$% that was hard to play with the keyboard, I knew it'd be frustrating, but I just had to give it my all and try anyway, must've had over a hundred deaths, 50 or more just on the boss. Thank goodness for those save points. Kick ass though, can't wait to play this using a controller, this should be really fun, in a challenging addicting way.

Nicely done, very tricky game!

Believe it or not, Sivak actually tested most of the rooms he designed with the keyboard.  The testers had to make him go back and play a few with the controller because of how different the response is from the "mushy" A/B buttons.

I've been waiting for this. Can't wait to play the full game.

This is fucking awesome!

wow man, you got some skillz. great work

Hey all.  Glad you're enjoying it.  I have received comments from some places as well as witnessed some things in the campout cam and I may do up a revised demo with a few rooms made slightly easier.

I figure this is the first area, so it shouldn't be a hard one.  Most of these changes are going to be minor, but helpful enough.

I'll announce it when it's done.

Noooooo!  Please don't change the difficulty.

yeah, honestly the first area is very easy. The only real challenge is the boss.

I've done it...  Don't worry.  It's just the first area of about 30-35 screens.  There are still 500+ screens waiting for you afterward. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!

I can tell it's a huge game, 257k rom, OMG. Super Mario Bros is like what 24k.

ATKTOZSZ-invincibility

Yowza! That was tough! I'm glad I don't have blood pressure issues, because this game certainly raised mine a few times. I think it took me about a half hour to get through the stage including the boss, and many dead men.

The second owl (or bat eyeball thing, whatever) in the room with two owls killed me many times, as did the boss. I only happened to kill the boss with a last second shot that made the thorns dissapear. Otherwise I would have been killed after my last shot. I thought I was dead for sure! Thank goodness for the checkpoints.

Going to try the updated ROM now and see what was changed. Thanks for releasing a demo!

Cool, it only took me 4 minutes that time with the new ROM. Only died 3 times.

Slower balls, and it seemed like the boss was slower too?

Hell yea, this is awesome!

The boss had absolutely zero change.  The room with the two horizontal balls and the narrow platform has the ball speed dropped to slow from medium.

^ Cool, yeah... I really wasn't sure if he had gotten slower or if I had just gotten more used to the attack timing. Practice makes perfect. Excellent, excellent game! Thanks again. Looking forward to the release!

This is brilliant, you are are brilliant. Wow I cant wait to buy this one.

Playing this demo was really fun. Brilliant. Thank you. Didn't like the flickering screen while jumping on stairs (changing rooms forth and back), but if it's not easy fixable it's somthing im sure I could manage to live with