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Stunt Car Racer Coming To The Commodore Plus/4

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Brrrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrrmmmmm, brrrrrrrmmmmmm

Geoff Crammond’s Stunt Car Racer (SCR) on the C64 was our most played car racing gaming (sorry Buggy Boy) back in the day. Surprisingly, it has held up quite well and is still a joy to play.

Hungarian developer, Gergely Patai, had reversed engineered this superb racing game on C64 and modified its physics to run at 50 FPS – yep, you read that right, 50 (freakin!) Frames Per Second! You can grab the SCR C64 50FPS version here.

To our astonishment, Gergely is now porting this marvel to the Commodore Plus/4! With plenty of limitations to work around, we are darn impressed with Gergely’s achievements and devleopment skills in squeezing SCR to play on the Plus/4. Not bad for two weeks worth of effort!

Gergerly notes the challenges he had porting SCR to the Plus/4:

The biggest limitation was RAM space. The original game doesn’t leave much of the C64’s memory untouched, and the Plus/4 has less accessible RAM while needing an extra 1K for colour information. For the time being, my solution was to remove load/save functionality and the ability to change key bindings, so I’d be able to get a working game and have some breathing room to shuffle things around. At the moment I have a bit over 2K memory left, so I should be able to restore some of the missing bits.

We can’t wait to see the finished product!



BBC Archive: Imagine Software – 1983

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Cast your mind back to 1983, when Imagine Software were the pop stars of video games development!

Now this is a blast from the past! Imagine Software, the video games development superstars from Liverpool were going gangbusters when this video was aired on the BBC almost forty years ago on October 23, 1983. Who didn’t love Green Beret, Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh and Hyper Sports to name just a few.

We all know what followed – the high-profile demise of Imagine a year later in 1984 – but for now, let’s just cast our minds back 40 years and enjoy this vid!


source: BBC Archive



DOOM on the Commodore 64 is so RAD!

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DOOM has been run on a multitude of devices – if it has a screen, then DOOM has ran on it! With this being the case, why not have DOOM run on the trusty 8-bit micro, the Commodore 64?

As you can see from the video below, that is exactly what we have here – a DOOM tech demo going by the title of RAD-DOOM which enables gamers to play DOOM on their Commodore 64 via the RAD Expansion Unit by Frenetic.

The RAD Expansion Unit contains a Raspberry Pi that takes the role of a CPU replacement for the Commodore 64. The graphics are still rendered by the original VIC-II chip. All technical details of RAD-DOOM can be found in Frenetic’s GitHub repo.

The gameplay starts off with keyboard controls, with the 1351 mouse control enabled later on. The special settings menu is visible from time to time where graphics rendering options and screen presets are available.

It’s amazing (and darn awesome!) what is still possible on the 41 year old 8-bit computer! Long live the C64!


source: emulaThor



The Commodordion: The C64 SID Piano Accordion

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It’s great to have friends that look out for you that bring stuff to your attention when you may have missed while being bombarded with stuff on social media.

Our very good friend Cam informed us of this rather cool C64 piano accordion creation, dubbed cleverly as The Commodordion, which turns two Commodore 64 computers into a single darn awesome instrument! But wait, there is more! The bellows are made out of floppy disks! Ok, our mind has well and truly been blown – wow!

image source: Linus Åkesson

Just listen to the gorgeous SID chiptune coming out of that acoustic aerophone! Forget about folksy music, this is our kind of piano accordion.

PS: Learn more about the project: https://linusakesson.net/commodordion/index.php


source: lftkryo



2022 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Comp Preview

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Development for the 2022 Reset64 4kb ‘Craptastic’ game competition is in full swing. Deadline is fast approaching (June 30th) so we thought we’d give you all a quick look at what some of the devs are up to for the comp.

Best of luck to all the competitors and we can’t wait to try your craptastic creations!


Title: Catch 22 *
Author: Cout Games (Cout)
Status: Submitted
Synopsis: The aim of the game is to catch 22 instances of the number “22” from a maze, however the ‘catch’ is you can’t go back where you have walked.

Title: Hard Foam *
Author: TWAiN PAiN Games (Alexander Paalvast)
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: “HARD FOAM” will be a card game like Hearthstone in PETSCII. It has 32 different cards split over 4 suits: Goblin (black), Polystyrene (white), Candy (red) and Soap (cyan) with various mechanics. It has keyboard and joystick and works on PAL and NTSC.

Initially I was developing this for the “C64 Cassette 50 Charity Competition” but keeping it all below <$1000 was a bit too much. But right now it looks quite promising, hitting around 3500 bytes.

Title: Skiddy
Author: Design/Chaos
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: Our game is currently called Skiddy and supports 1 or 2 players – the game is finished and is 4066 bytes. I will hold on to it for a while yet as there is still plenty of space to make adjustments.

Title: Poke *
Author: Protovision (Code: Oziphantom, Graphics: Lobo, SFX: Saul C)
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: The kingdom is under attack, you must defend the realm from these invading bubbles.

Title: Morubotto *
Author: Cogitare Computing (Alexander Martinelle)
Status: Submitted
Synopsis: Morubotto – An amalgamation of the Japanese words morumotto (guinea pig) and robotto (robot).

Dangerous, radioactive, exploding asteroids are descending upon earth. Only Morumotto can save us!

Morubotto is a variation of missile command where instead of controlling crosshairs you control a robotic guinea pig and have to bounce around the level and try to collide with as many asteroids as possible to minimize the amount of damage that the asteroids do to the world.

Title: Infinirail
Author: Goerp
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: A simple tactical game I hope to get finished in time. Technically no challenges, but hope to keep it small enough to be able to add some sound.

No humour or weirdness this time, so it has to be fun to play (uh oh!).

It’s going to craptastic!

Title: Snake Break
Author: Encore (Mikkel Hastrup)
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: The idea is to combine two classic games into one. Progress is about 66%, each of the games have mostly been written, but the big task left is to work on the gameplay, visual effects, write original music and package it all.

Title: Top Hat Challenge
Author: Gazunta (Cameron Davis)
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: Top Hat Challenge (final name TBD) is four kilobytes of collecting top hats, delivering top hats and avoiding falling obstacles! No screenshots yet as I’m keeping the development exclusive on Patreon until release, but I can guarantee it features the most handsome hero sprite ever seen!

Title: Old Mine Hoist *
Author: Geir Straume
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: The objective of the game is to lower a small hoist cage as deep as possible into an old abandoned mine.
The hoist cage swings from side to side, and there are wood obstacles on both sides which must be avoided to prevent damaging the cage. When the cage gets too damaged, it will break off the hoist cable and fall into the abyss, ending the game.

The hoist moves downwards at a constant speed, but you may halve or double its speed by pushing the joystick up or down.

Beware: Some of the deeper mining levels contain old and unstable dynamite, which may explode and severely damage the hoist cage!

Title: Mike Quarter (The Kitchen Porter) *
Author: Arlasoft (Nick Sherman)
Status: Submitted
Synopsis: You are Mike Quarter, a newly hired kitchen porter. Can you keep your job?

Title: Little Nippers 4K *
Author: Richard Bayliss
Status: Submitted
Synopsis: Little Nippers is an animated single button challenge with a difference. It is a casual fun for five minutes challenge in which people are running across the screen. Your task is to launch grumpy crabs from out of the bucket and nip the runners. Scoring will be based on the distance in which the person is running.

Title: Brownfinger *
Author: Megastyle (Docster)
Status: Submitted
Synopsis: The aim of the game is to catch the toilet paper coming from either right or the left side, before it hits the fire. If it hits the fire it’s game over. If a toilet hits you, you are “teleported” to the opposite side as you where.

Title: Delve!: The Goblin Grotto *
Author: Ant Stiller (coding and design), Cal Skuthorpe (art)
Status: In Progress
Synopsis: Delve!: The Goblin Grotto is a procedurally generated rogue-like with a unique 3D view, all created with PETSCII characters. Goblins have holed up in a nearby dungeon so, before the nasty blaggers start eating the local cats and making the milk curdle, you have been tasked to strike terror in their gobliny hearts by fighting your way down to the lowest levels (no-one’s actually discussed how you get back out but you assume that’s just a clerical oversight). This game is impossible to squeeze into 4k so I expect we’ll be cutting more features than you can shake a catapulted orc at.

* game entries with screenshots

So there it is. We hope you enjoyed this Craptastic preview and we look forward to being able to play these amazing looking games after deadline. Of course, there are more registered entries and some real Craptastic surprises that weren’t previewed as well!

As usual, a big thank-you to our sponsors and supporters. Please visit their sites and show them your support:

ausretrogamer

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Unkle K / Reset64
Official Twitter account for Reset64 Magazine – dedicated to the world’s favourite 8-bit computer!

Follow Reset64 Magazine on Twitter

 

 

 

 



Extra! Extra! Reset64 Issue 14 is Out Now!

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Your awesome Commodore 64 magazine, Reset64 issue 14 is out now for your reading pleasure!

If you want to read an awesome contemporary C64-centric magazine full of news, reviews, interviews and everything in-between, then you are in luck – go and grab the latest Reset64 mag right now!

This issue’s theme is all about one of our fave gaming genres, run ‘n’ gun. This page turner of an issue was lovingly put together by like-minded (and very cool) peeps. We love Ant Stiller’s cover art and Del Seymour’s amazing editorial illustrations – it’s just full of eye candy!

Grab Reset64 Issues 14 right here!

Image source: Reset64



C64: Crazy Dog Racing

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As you all may know by now, we love overhead / isometric racing games! So when we saw that Krissz (of Pac-Wor fame) created a cool looking racing game of the Commodore 64, we stood up and took note! Crazy Dog Racing was released years ago, but it had slipped past our radar somehow, so we are glad we have found it now!

The controls take a bit of getting used to, but practice makes perfect. If like games like RC Rro-Am, Super Sprint and the like, then give this one a shot too!

Download and play Crazy Dog Racing from here and have fun!



Cloud Computing With The Commodore 64

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It was only a matter of time that the venerable Commodore 64 would get onto the cloud! Yep, you read that right, you can now dust off your trusty breadbin and use it to communicate with a variety of clients over Azure using a SignalR client written in 6502 assembly!

If you are keen to check this out for yourself, take a look at the SignalR-C64 code on GitHub.

Long live the Commodore 64!


source: moozzyk

PS: Thanks to Matty G for making us aware of this geeky awesomeness!



2022 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Competition

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We’re excited to announce the 2022 Reset C64 4KB game coding competition. This year’s competition theme is once again…. Craptastic!

“What the bloom’n heck does craptastic mean?”, I hear you ask.

It certainly doesn’t mean crap, although it can! Craptastic can mean ludicrous, bonkers, outrageous, funny, wacky, far out, and silly. The theme simply implies that the compo is just for a bit of fun, not a serious coding competition. You are more than welcome to make an excellent game to submit for the compo. Your game may contain some humour or silliness to fit more with the theme, but it doesn’t have to!

2020 Craptastic Comp Winner: Fall by Megastyle

In our previous competitions, some entries were truly excellent, others excellent but silly, others truly awful but funny! It’s just a chance for people to do something a little different if they wish and explore ideas/concepts that wouldn’t normally work well in a more serious compo.

Please remember that this competition is limited to 4KB. Yes, any entry submitted can be no more than 4KB when compressed. If your game is more than 1 file, then all the game files put together must not exceed the 4KB limit. This includes hi-score save files.

We want craptastic game entries. Remember, the key word here is fun. We want both coders and players alike to have fun and enjoy this comp!

Submit your entries to RESET64 (via email) by 30th June, 2022 (23:59:59 GMT).

Take a look at our previous Craptastic compo entries from 2018 and 2020 to help draw inspiration!

RULES

The basic rules for the competition are as follows:

  • The competition deadline is 23:59:59 GMT on the 30th June, 2022. All entries to be submitted to [email protected] by the deadline or will be deemed ineligible.
  • All entrants must register at [email protected]
  • Entrants are free to preview screenshots and videos of their game(s) to other publications/websites.
  • The competition will only begin when there are at least 5 registered entrants.
  • All submitted games MUST be 4KB or less (when compressed or uncompressed), and executable on a stock C64 on either or each of tape, disk and cartridge. Your submission may have a separate docs file (either as a C64 executable or a txt file, which doesn’t count towards the 4KB cap). However, hi-score saver files will count towards the cap.
  • The games must be previously unreleased and be your own work, whether that be by yourself or as part of a collaboration.
  • PAL must be supported, with additional NTSC support optional (but encouraged).
  • Participants may submit multiple entries, either as an individual or within a team. Team entries must be registered by an individual, and any potential prizes will be sent to the registered individual only.
  • Entries should be submitted exclusively to RESET64 by the competition deadline. Please feel free to share your entry as you wish after the competition has ended (after the compo deadline has passed).
  • There will be a panel of judges (TBA), and entries will be scored on a point distribution basis across several criteria. The decision of the panel is final.
  • Games must be submitted as freeware.
  • Games will be published by Reset64 (not necessarily exclusively) on a future disk compilation for the whole world to enjoy, after the competition has concluded. All entries will be made available on the Reset64 itch.io site after the compo concludes.
  • Games must not be released before the competition deadline, or will become exempt from scoring and will be deemed ineligible.

We reserve the right to change, add or delete rules during the competition if deemed necessary!

2nd place in the 2020 Craptastic Comp: Dots by James

SCORING SYSTEM

The scoring system used for Craptastic is very simple. Each game will be scored against 7 criteria, each worth 5 points. An entry can score up to 35 points. When the panel has scored each game accordingly, the totals for each individual game will be divided by the number of judges to produce a mean average. The average will be the game’s final score.

The criteria that each game will be evaluated on are:

  • Originality – New idea or “rip off”? Off the wall ideas encouraged.
  • Concept – Quality of game design, is it fun, is it bonkers, is it craptastic?
  • Execution – Execution of design, taking into account controls and other factors such as execution.
  • Presentation – Quality of graphics, audio and overall presentation. Supremely bad can be seen as a positive in some cases!
  • Gameplay – A measure of how enjoyable the game is to play.
  • Lasting Appeal – replay value, addictiveness.
  • OMG factor – when you see it, do you think “wtf!?” This is the true measure of craptasticness!

If a panel member has entered a game themselves, then the number of points that they can award will be adjusted (in this example, to 5) and they will not score their own release.

NOTE: CSDB will not be used for voting. Also, entries should not be uploaded to CSDB, or elsewhere until after the competition has closed. Feel free to post screenshots or info though.

PRIZES

A craptastic gaming comp requires craptastic prizes, right? We have some fantastic prizes lined up for this year’s compo thanks to some very generous sponsors.

A big thank-you to the following sponsors and supporters:

ausretrogamer

More sponsors to be announced!

Unkle K / Reset64
Official Twitter account for Reset64 Magazine – dedicated to the world’s favourite 8-bit computer!

Follow Reset64 Magazine on Twitter

 

 

 

 



Retrogaming Magz, Comics and Books!

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Planes, trains and automobiles? No, magazines, comics and books, the retro gaming kind!

Last weekend we tweeted a couple of teaser photos of a number of magazines in our collection and promised that we would share more. Well, here they are! Relocating this stuff is always a chore, but the amount of nostalgia we get is priceless, so it is always well worth it.

For those keen observers, you will note that there are no photos of our most favourite 80s mag, Zzap64!, but rest assured, those issues are well preserved and didn’t require relocating. We hope these images bring back great memories for you too!

All images copyright of ausretrogamer.com