BitPack

BitPack is a digital compilation released in 2013 for Windows, bundling two classic games from The Bitmap Brothers. The collection includes ‘Speedball 2 HD’, a high-definition remake of the futuristic brutal sports game, and ‘The Chaos Engine’, a top-down steampunk shooter. This commercial package serves as a double pack for fans of the developer’s iconic titles.

BitPack: Review

In the vast and often unceremonious landscape of digital compilations, where forgotten franchises are bundled and sold for a pittance, lies BitPack. Released with little fanfare in December 2013, this package from Mastertronic Group Ltd. presents a curious case study: a pairing of two cult classics from the revered Bitmap Brothers, yet delivered in a form that feels more like a digital afterthought than a celebratory collection. This review will dissect BitPack not merely as a product, but as a historical artifact—a well-intentioned yet flawed attempt to bridge the chasm between the golden age of 16-bit gaming and the modern HD era, ultimately serving as a poignant reminder of the challenges inherent in preserving and presenting gaming’s foundational works.

Development History & Context

To understand BitPack, one must first appreciate the titanic legacy of The Bitmap Brothers. Founded in the late 1980s, the studio became synonymous with a specific brand of polished, high-octane, and visually distinctive gaming on platforms like the Amiga and Atari ST. They were auteurs of the pixel, crafting experiences that combined brutal difficulty with an undeniable, cool aesthetic. By 2013, their classics were revered, but largely trapped on aging hardware or in emulated states.

The gaming landscape had shifted dramatically. Digital storefronts like Steam were becoming the dominant force in PC gaming, creating a hungry market for nostalgic re-releases and remasters. Into this void stepped publishers like Mastertronic, a company with its own long history in budget software, now specializing in curating and re-releasing retro titles. Their vision for BitPack was likely straightforward: to leverage the enduring appeal of The Bitmap Brothers’ brand by packaging two of their most iconic properties.

The compilation is a peculiar hybrid. It contains The Chaos Engine (known in some regions as Soldiers of Fortune), a seminal 1993 run-and-gun shooter, presented here in what appears to be a direct port or emulated version of the original. Alongside it is Speedball 2 HD, a 2013 high-definition remake of the legendary 1990 futuristic sports title. This pairing is the core of BitPack’s identity and its fundamental contradiction: one game is a preserved relic, the other a modernized reinterpretation. The technological constraints are no longer those of the 16-bit era, but of a new age—the challenge of updating art and code for high-resolution displays while retaining the soul of the original experience. BitPack stands as a testament to this ongoing struggle in game preservation.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

BitPack, as a compilation, possesses no overarching narrative. Its themes are instead inherited from the two distinct worlds it contains.

The Chaos Engine is a masterpiece of steampunk Victoriana and bio-mechanical horror. Set in an alternate 19th century, the plot involves a brilliant inventor, Baron Fortesque, who creates a thinking machine—the Chaos Engine—to solve the world’s problems. The machine, as these things do, becomes sentient and malevolent, twisting reality and creating a army of cyborg monstrosities. The player selects from one of six mercenaries (each with unique attributes, like the Preacher’s scripture-quoting or the Navvy’s brute strength) to venture into the mutated countryside and destroy the engine.

The narrative is delivered through brief intro text and environmental storytelling. The themes are classic and potent: the folly of unchecked technological ambition, the blurring line between man and machine, and the nature of greed. The mercenaries are not heroes; they are in it for the money, a cynical but refreshing take that grounds the fantastical events. The dialogue is sparse but memorable, primarily consisting of the mercenaries’ barks and the Baron’s desperate communications. The story of The Chaos Engine is not complex, but it provides a perfectly adequate and thematically rich backdrop for its explosive action.

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, in contrast, is almost purely systemic narrative. The “story” is the rise of your team, Brutal Deluxe, through the leagues of a violent, corporate-sponsored future sport. There is no dialogue or cutscenes beyond the announcement of matches and league standings. The narrative is generated by the player’s actions: the acquisition of a star player, the heartbreaking loss in a championship final, the strategic decision to upgrade your team’s armor or invest in a better throwing arm. The themes are those of corporate domination, ruthless competition, and sporting glory achieved through literal violence. It is a cold, metallic world where points and cash are the only morality, and its lack of a traditional plot is its greatest strength, making every victory feel earned and every defeat a personal tragedy.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The gameplay within BitPack is a tale of two deeply engaging, yet fundamentally different, loop-based systems.

The Chaos Engine is a top-down, twin-stick shooter (though originally designed for a joystick and one button) that operates on a mission-based structure. The core loop involves:
* Selection: Choosing two mercenaries (controlled by a single player and an AI companion or a second player in co-op) from a roster of six, each with unique weapon specialties and statistics.
* Execution: Navigating maze-like, isometric levels, obliterating a bestiary of mechanical and organic enemies, solving simple environmental puzzles (often involving collecting keys), and gathering the all-important diamonds that serve as both score and currency.
* Progression: Spending accumulated cash between levels at a shop to purchase weapon upgrades, health restoratives, and special items like maps and keys.

The game’s genius lies in its punishing but fair difficulty and its strategic depth. Ammunition is limited, forcing careful management. The level design is intricate, rewarding exploration. The enemy AI, while pattern-based, is aggressive and requires constant spatial awareness. It is a masterclass in design where every system—combat, economy, and exploration—is perfectly intertwined.

Speedball 2 HD offers a completely different, but equally compelling, loop:
* Management: Between matches, you manage the Brutal Deluxe team. This involves buying and selling players, healing injuries, and upgrading your arena with better goals, side panels, and even illegal “shock” floors.
* Competition: On the pitch, the game is a fluid blend of hand-to-hand combat and strategic ball play. The core mechanics are simple—pass, throw, punch, steal—but the emergent complexity is staggering. Do you go for the 2-point goal or the 9-point star shot? Do you pummel the opposing team’s star player into the infirmary, or focus on pure scoring?
* Ascension: The goal is to win matches, earn cash, and climb from the second division to become the legendary league champions.

The HD remake attempts to modernize the controls, but the core loop remains intact and is as addictive as ever. It is a perfect “one more match” game, where a single, last-second goal can feel as triumphant as any boss defeat in The Chaos Engine.

The User Interface is where the compilation shows its age. The Chaos Engine retains its original, clunky menus and tiny text, which can be a strain on modern displays. Speedball 2 HD features a cleaner, more modern UI, but it lacks the pixel-perfect charm of the original’s presentation. There is no unified front-end for BitPack itself; it simply presents the two games as separate executables, a stark reminder of its nature as a basic bundle rather than a curated museum exhibit.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The aesthetic divide within BitPack is its most visually striking feature.

The Chaos Engine is a masterpiece of 16-bit art direction. Its isometric world is drenched in a gloomy, oppressive atmosphere. The pixel art is incredibly detailed, from the gnarled, metallic trees and pulsating organic sacs to the intricate designs of the mercenaries and enemies. The color palette is dominated by murky browns, greens, and metallic grays, punctuated by the bright flashes of gunfire and explosions. This is a world that feels truly corrupted and dangerous. The sound design is equally iconic, with a soundtrack by Richard Joseph that blends ominous, driving melodies with industrial soundscapes. The sound effects—the chattering of the Sentry Gun, the squelch of a Slime, the Preacher’s booming “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!”—are forever burned into the memory of anyone who played it.

Speedball 2 HD represents the challenge of modernization. The original’s graphics were clean, bold, and incredibly fast. The HD remake replaces the crisp pixels with 3D models and high-resolution 2D backgrounds. While functional and certainly clearer, this new art style loses some of the gritty, industrial charm of the original. The players and arenas look cleaner, almost sanitized, draining away a bit of the original’s dystopian edge. The soundtrack, however, remains a synth-rock triumph. The main theme is legendary, and the in-game music perfectly captures the high-energy, corporate-sponsored brutality of the sport. The sound of the ball clanging off the post, the roar of the crowd, and the satisfying thwack of a well-placed punch are all preserved and enhanced.

Reception & Legacy

At its launch, BitPack was met with a resounding silence. It garnered no critic reviews on major databases like MobyGames, and player reviews were nonexistent. It was a niche product for a niche audience, released without marketing into a crowded digital marketplace. Its commercial performance is unrecorded but was likely modest.

The legacy of BitPack is therefore not one of the compilation itself, but of the legendary titles it contains. The Chaos Engine is rightly remembered as one of the finest co-operative shooters of all time, influencing a generation of games with its blend of action, RPG elements, and atmospheric world-building. Speedball 2 is the undisputed king of the cyber-sports genre, a game so perfectly designed that it has seen numerous imitators but no true successors.

BitPack’s own influence is negligible. It stands as a minor footnote, a digitally-preserved time capsule that proves the enduring quality of The Bitmap Brothers’ work, even when packaged in an underwhelming manner. Its true value is as an accessible, if imperfect, way for new generations to experience these classics. However, its failure to provide any meaningful supplemental material—historical context, developer commentary, art galleries—represents a missed opportunity to truly honor its contents. It is a preservation effort, but not a celebratory one.

Conclusion

BitPack is a paradox. It contains two of the most brilliantly designed, endlessly playable, and culturally significant games to emerge from the 16-bit era. The Chaos Engine remains a tense, atmospheric, and deeply strategic blast, while Speedball 2 HD offers one of the most rewarding and addictive management-action loops ever coded. As individual experiences, they are close to flawless.

Yet, as a compilation, BitPack is a hollow vessel. It offers no curation, no historical context, and no enhancement beyond the basic act of making the games available on a modern platform. The inclusion of the Speedball 2 HD remake alongside the original-version of The Chaos Engine creates a jarring aesthetic and technological dissonance. It is the video game equivalent of a bare-bones DVD release with no special features.

The final verdict is thus split. For the games themselves, BitPack is an easy recommendation for any student of game design or fan of classic action. They are masterpieces, and their presence in any form is welcome. However, as a historical package and a piece of curated media, BitPack is a disappointment. It is a functional, but passionless, delivery system for two works of art that were created with nothing but. Its place in video game history is secured solely by the giants whose shoulders it stands upon, a quiet and unassuming custodian of a legacy far greater than itself.