Reviving a Classic: Dinamic Software’s Iconic Army Moves Returns as Arm Moves Overdrive – A Nostalgic Journey into 80s Gaming

The 80s are considered a legendary decade in entertainment culture. The music, the movies and of course the video games are always recommended. In Spain, this decade is considered the golden age (first?) of Spanish software, and a good part of the credit for that goes to Dinamic Software, who at the time developed countless titles for the Amstrad, Commodore 64, MSX and Spectrum. There was a time when home computers ruled the world, before the first home consoles took over a large portion of the pie in the 90s.

There are many memorabilia from those years, but perhaps one of the most remembered and popular collections is the trilogy Dinamic Army Moves, Navy Moves and Artic Moves. The side-scrolling shooter and platformer that delighted gamers in 1986. And now, 38 years after its original release, it’s coming back in the form of a reboot thanks to a partnership between Dinamic Software and Dunwich Studio, which presents Arm Moves Overdrive. We spoke to Spanish development legend Pablo Ruiz, CEO of Dinamic, and Erik Rueda, CTO from Dunwich, about this modern version of the game to hear about the rebirth process, in the interview below during the ​​IndieDevDay about last.

Reviving a franchise like Army Moves from the past is not an easy task, but the idea came directly from another Spanish development of a remake that reached 2021, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, created by the Valencian Jankenteam. As Pablo Ruiz said:

“I met Ramón Nafria who had done Alex Kidd DX (…) and we thought ‘Is it possible to do something this big with Dinamic titles?’, and we looked at the list and we talked and finally we decided Arm Moves I remember the amazing image created by Alfonso Azpiri, the photographer, and I thought at that time that it was impossible to do this movement on the screen and I said ‘I want to bring this military image to a real and real game with our powerful tools today’ and this animated creation of Azpiri comes to life in the new Army Moves Overdrive”.

It is indeed a difficult process to adapt to the new times, but Dunwich Studio was the right choice for the job, especially as they loved the original.

“It’s a completely new game, everything is new, but of course very respectful, and all the stuff from the original is something we’ve taken, used and named, and we want the two new players who have no knowledge of Weapons at all. , and people who played the original”, comments Erik Rueda. “We want them to play the new game and say ‘okay, I see what you’re doing here, I see the jeep moving, I see the jump, I see the enemy, I see these things, these references, and press the key.”

“But we also want the new players who are playing today to take the game and say ‘okay, this is fun, this is cool, this is something faster, newer, let’s say … more ‘dynamic’.”

We still have to wait a while before we can try this new version of the classic, since the development is still at an early stage, but the idea is to launch it on both PC and the main consoles. “The ’80s are back,” Ruiz said.