ZUIKI, the creator of the X68000 Z, announced earlier today on social media that it will be bringing out ZOOM Pack II — a new collection of games for the miniature machine featuring the action RPG Lagoon and the mech sidescroller Genocide 2.
Zoom Pack II is the second entry into a series of retro compilations from ZUIKI drawing on ZOOM's X68000 back catalogue and is the result of an agreement that was originally teased all the way back in December 2022.
It follows the release of ZOOM Pack I (which contained the games Phalanx and Genocide) last year and will be specifically designed to take advantage of the X68000 Z hardware.
When it comes to the games included in this collection, most people reading this will probably be more familiar with Lagoon from its SNES port (which was released across North America, Japan, and Europe), but the X68000 version of the game was actually released first in 1990.
Genocide 2, on the other hand, never saw an official release outside of Japan or Korea. It was originally released for the X68000 in 1991 and was later published by a bunch of different companies for FM Towns, DOS, and Super Famicom.
Admittedly, we've known for a while that ZUIKI was planning to rerelease Lagoon and Genocide 2 at some point in the future, as the games have previously been mentioned on the Z-Club livestreams and at events. But up until now, we didn't have any precise info on a proper release date or any information on how these games would be packaged or distributed, so this new information is very much appreciated.
According to a press release, the pre-orders for the pack will go live on June 8th on ZUIKI's website at 19:00 JST, with those who make reservations through the site being able to receive a special jacket for each title as well as a Lagoon-themed world map.
The collection is expected to cost ¥5,478 and is ultimately scheduled to be released on August 8th, 2024.