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Press release:
Rebellion, Blaze Entertainment, and Evercade today announced with great pride and joy that the “Bitmap Brothers Collection 1” cartridge (highlights some of the best games in the history of the Britsh game development studio Bitmap Brothers) is coming to Evercade devices this September (2021).

This new collection, in partnership with owners Rebellion, features 5 of the best games from the British development team that was dubbed as “rock stars”.

The games on this release come from the home console releases of these titles, and are:

The Chaos Engine
Speedball
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Speedball 2100
Xenon 2: Megablast

The Bitmap Brothers hold an esteemed place in the British Games industry. Starting in East London in 1987, despite not actually being brothers. Debuting on the scene with 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. Exuding style and displaying great creativity in curating their public image, the trio of Mike Montgomery, Eric Matthews and Steve Kelly became as synonymous as the games themselves, making The Bitmap Brothers a legendary gaming name.

In this collection, we will be able to play a wide range of games from the iconic developer from their early beginnings with combat sports title Speedball and its sequel, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, the follow up to the aforementioned founding shoot ‘em up, Xenon 2: Megablast and the much-lauded, top-down steampunk shooter The Chaos Engine. We round off this collection with one of the later releases from the team with the PlayStation release, Speedball 2100.

The collection has been curated by the Evercade team and the current rights holders, Rebellion in order to create a great collectible package with the Evercade collectible clamshell, retro-styled case with a bespoke cover and manual. The collection will be number 22 of the Evercade lineup and will be released in September 2021. Pre-Order announcements will be made on Evercade social media later this week.

“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.”

Please see our updated timeline with the release date included for The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1.

All of our scheduled releases will be fully announced by May 28th in time for cartridge and hardware Pre-Orders. Make sure to follow our social media channels for the latest news and teases.

About Blaze Entertainment
Blaze Entertainment, formed in 2018, is the creator of the Evercade – a retro gaming console that uses cartridges to deliver officially licensed curated collections of retro and retro-inspired video games. Launched in 2020, the Evercade line-up has grown to over 200 games and continues to grow, with partnerships including Atari, Bandai Namco, Interplay, Codemasters, Team 17, and many independent game designers and publishers.

Based in the UK, the Evercade has found a passionate audience around the world of retro enthusiasts, offering gamers a high quality and low entry retro option providing nostalgia for gamers and a physical range of releases for collectors.

Find out more at evercade.co.uk and Facebook or Twitter.

About Rebellion
Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of Europe’s biggest independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breathtaking intensity of Sniper Elite 4, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.