Australia's Retro Gaming and Pinball E-Zine
We got to say, we absolutely played the heck out of anything Epyx made and published for the Commodore 64 back in the day. Still can’t believe they are gone, so this complete history of the once mighty Epyx, from their simple beginnings in 1978 until their fall in 1990, it is a great trip down nostalgia lane.
The documentary is over 70 minutes in duration, so you’ll be staying a while, but not forever! 😉
source: BastichB 64K
We have fond memories of playing Manifred Trenz’s Turrican on our Commodore 64 and later, its sequel, Turrican II on the Amiga. What we remember most fondly were the awesome graphics and Chris Huelsbeck’s brilliant tunes on the Amiga, which elevated this run and gun game to extremely addictive levels. Oh yeah, the other thing we remember was the difficulty level – it was totally off the scale, even rage inducing at times, but that just enhanced its charm.
In the decades that have passed since we first fired up Turrican, it was great to hear that the series was going to make it to new gen consoles, thanks to ININ Games, ensuring new gamers experience what we did some 3 decades ago, rage and all!
So what do you get in this new Turrican Flashback for AU$45.00 on your Switch (and PS4)? Well, you get 4 classic titles from the series, including; Turrican, Turrican II, Mega Turrican and Super Turrican. These are great inclusions, as the four games are faithful to their originals, but we would have loved to have seen the rest of the games from the series make it into this compilation. Aside from this little niggle, what is in Turrican Flashback will keep you well satisfied and possibly frustrate you if you aren’t used to extremely punishing game difficulty.
Oh yeah, you also get Chris Huelsbeck’s iconic scores, painstakingly programmed to ensure the highest quality playback of the original audio across the various sound chips Chris perfected. So we cranked up the volume and enjoyed the 7 minute chiptune that is “The Final Fight” in Turrican II! All of the tracks across the four games are darn classics and will give you a great dose of aural nostalgia!
Moving right along, because if you have played any Turrican title, be it on the C64, Amiga, Mega Drive or SNES, you know what this game is all about and you know what you are getting. If you haven’t played any Turrican game, it is in essence a run and gun game (just like Contra), with a lot of precision jumping, shooting and exploring the terrain from left to right, and up and down. It may sound basic, but the devil is in the overall detail, from the games’ graphics, sounds, music, control, to its easy-to-pick-up and play, but difficult to master premise – you’ll be hard pressed to fault Turrican, unless you dislike the run and gun gaming genre.
For those itching to know what extra tweaks and features are included, well there are quite a few! If you love the curvature and scanlines of old school CRT TVs/monitors, then using the display, scaling and shader features, you can customise the display to the way you remember it looking from all those years ago.
Remember how we said these games are rage inducingly difficult? Well, there is also a “Rewind” feature, which allows the player to rewind part of the game to learn the pattern and overcome the challenge being faced by trial and error. And for those who wish to come back to the adventure at a later time, the save states are there to let you pick up exactly where you left off – a very welcome feature indeed.
The reworked controls are welcome, making the games accessible, even if you haven’t played any Turrican game. All four games felt familiar, but each one presented enough unique gameplay content to have you exploring them for a long long time.
If you love run and game games with gigantic levels to explore, heart-stopping action with a lot of non-stop mayhem and huge boss fights, then you seriously need Turrican Flashback in your life! It is great to have an iconic series like Turrican make it to new consoles for all to experience, from those players that are new to the series, and those of us that have nostalgic ties to it – Turrican Flashback is a great blast from the past!
image source: ININ Games
Disclosure: Turrican Flashback [Nintendo Switch eShop code] was kindly provided by PR Hound for this review.
We got to say, we love the creativity and genius behind these two augmented reality (AR) videos of classic Commodore 64 games, International Karate + (IK+) and Bruce Lee!
Absolute awesome work by Retrohead! If you don’t follow or subscribe to Retrohead’s net presence, we implore you to do so.
IK+ AR
source: Retrohead
Bruce Lee AR
source: Retrohead
The C64 games compilation SHOOT’EM UP DESTRUCTION SET 3 (previously released on tape + disk from Psytronik Software) is now finally available for digital download – only US$2.99 for six games – which is an absolute bargain!
You can read more about (or buy) the compilation right here, however, we thought we’d let you know about the key features about this value packed destruction set:
Oh yeah, this compilation is compatible with the original C64, THEC64 Mini, The C64 (Maxi) and your C64 emulator software!
There are concepts out there, either on paper or physical form that make us go WOW. Turkish Technical Designer extraordinaire, Cem Tezcan always knows how to make us go WOW with his exquisitely detailed concepts.
Cem’s latest fan concept is the Commodore PX-64, based on the portable Commodore SX-64 Executive Computer. Cem states that this concept device theoretically belongs in Commodore’s 1993-94 era, as one last reboot of the iconic 8-bit computer, the Commodore 64.
As mentioned, the style used here is based on the SX-64 metallic – turquoise colouring. However, Cem also created a version in the classic Commodore beige colours too. These concept models are about as close to real life we would ever get – and boy, do they look so real (and gobsmackingly lovely!). Using CAD modelling and PBR texturing, Cem Tezcan’s PX-64 creation is a love-letter for the Commodore community that still enjoys and loves these computers (like us!) till this day.
For now, just sit back and feast your eyes on these beauties!
PS: For more photos of Cem Tezcan’s concept creations, please visit here.
PPS: If you want to drool over Cem’s other Commodore 64 concept, the HX-64, check it out here.
image source: Cem Tezcan via ArtStation
If you have aged like a fine wine, you’ll remember Commodore’s PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) line of home/personal computers produced in 1977 by Commodore International.
For those of you longing for some Commodore PET computer action, here’s 340 (at the time of publication) Commodore PET programs that you can run in your browser!
Thanks to the competitors, judges, sponsors and everyone in between for making the Reset64 2020 4kb Craptastic Game Competition our most successful yet! Also, a special thank-you to Richard Bayliss for once again compiling the official compilation disk. It was an amazing competition with a record 38 entries making the deadline. Each of these games are an outstanding achievement and it was great to have both novice and experienced coders participating and exploring their ideas.
The expert judges this year are Rob Caporetto, Andrew Fisher, Raj Singh, Richard Tappenden, Paul Koller, Louie Dimovski and Andrew Hayes. We couldn’t have done it without the judges, who extensively played, critiqued and reviewed each of the 38 games. There was a lot of variation between scores from each judge, which illustrates just how different concepts appeal to different people! Overall, it was a very close competition and there wasn’t much separating each placing.
The Winner: Fall by Megastyle!
Thanks again to the compo sponsors – Bitmap Books, Protovision, Fusion Retro Books, Freeze64, K&A Plus, Puddlesoft, Megastyle, and Ready64. Please visit and support the competition sponsors. A big mega special thank-you to Ausretrogamer for hosting and publishing the compo updates and continued support!
Judges’ comments and more information about each game will be published in the near future. Until then, enjoy the games (which can be downloaded from the 2020 Craptastic page) and congratulations again to all of the entrants and winners.
1. Fall – Megastyle (28.71)
2. Dots – James (28.57)
3. Jumpin Jalopies – Megastyle (27.71)
4. RodMän Jr – Misfit (27.43)
5. Bring Back My Bones – Commocore, Hose It Out – Oziphantom (27.29)
6. Orcapult – Puddlesoft (26.86)
7. Avoid – James (26.71)
8. Star Lair – Malcontent (26.43)
9. SWYD – Megastyle (26.29)
10. Blockheads – Carleton Handley (26.14)
11. Rainbow Edge Run – Geir Straume (25.29)
12. Makealevel – Monsters Go Boom (24.57)
13. Jump4k – Megastyle, Kung Poo Fighter – Megastyle (24.43)
14. Al-Bert – Derek (23.86)
15. Ewe Woz Ere – DESIGN/chaos, WYR – Malcontent (23.57)
16. Mini Danmaku 64 – Cogitare Computing (23.43)
17. Stacks – Derek (23.29)
18. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter (BASIC 10 Liner version) – Roman Werner, Flappy Space – Megastyle (22.86)
19. Spunk v.s. The Rest – Twain Pain Games (22.57)
20. Plazzle – Goerp (22.29)
21. Dodonuts – DESIGN/chaos (21.71)
22. Make Them Jump 2K – map/Plush (21.57)
23. Snout About – Nick Sherman (21.29)
24. Fight – Megastyle (21)
25. MeteorMath – fancollector1980 (20.57)
26. Parking Ticket – Ruerob (20.29)
27. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter – ZeHa (19.71)
28. Customs – Vk4mx (19.29)
29. Zzaped in the Butt! – TND (18.71)
30. Kugelblitz – Haplo (17.43)
31. Cover Fire! – Jammer (17.29)
32. Country Pop – Tomaes (16.17)
33. 1991 USSR deep space probe control centre janitor – Goerp (15.71)
34. Rescue64 – Syed (12.43)
Dots
Jumpin Jalopies
RodMän Jr
Bring Back My Bones
Hose It Out
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset64 C64 magazine.
Follow Reset C64 on Twitter
While trawling through a few Facebook retro gaming enthusiast groups, as you do, we came across some unbelievably amazing and super droolworthy Commodore 64 creations by John Papas!
What we saw made our jaw drop so hard, that we are still having trouble picking it up off the floor! Just scroll down slowly and take in all the hybrid C64 awesomeness! We love the 64-TX and who needs the SX-64 when you can have the CX-64! To be honest, we want them all!!!
To say we would love to get our hands on any (preferably, all) of these unique C64 creations by John Papas would be the biggest understatement of the year – Simply stunning creations!
source: Australian Retro PC Enthusiasts on Facebook
If you want to truly get back to the mid 80s by typing in your BASIC programs into the Commodore 64, then you are in luck!
Roman Werner (aka: King Roman) has created a couple of type-in games for the C64, so get your fingers ready. You will be kept quite busy as you peck at the keyboard, typing in the BASIC listing for Yahtzee and Black Jack.
Oh yeah, you could cheat by copy and pasting the listings from their respective PDF documents, but that would be cheating! If you really want it to be like the 80s, then type away and be very careful where you put those pokes 😉
image source: King Roman
Development for the 2020 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 clever devs are up to for this most awesome competition.
Best of luck to all the competitors and we can’t wait to try your craptastic creations!
Title: Rainbow Edge Run
Author: Geir Straume
Synopsis: Run along the edge of the rainbow and collect as many gold coins as you can, but look out for the exploding mines!
Title: Jumpin’ Jalopies
Credits: A Megastyle Production. Code by Chris Stanley, Graphics by Roy Widding, Music by Roy Widding & Magnar Harestad
Synopsis: This bouncy little game was inspired by my 1954 Morris Minor, affectionately known as ‘Galloping Gussie’! Driving your clapped-out old jalopy you must climb your way up the multi-storey car park/parking lot, using your hydraulics to bounce your way from floor to floor. Climb higher and higher and watch the sky grow darker as you head above the clouds and up out of the atmosphere! Make sure you don’t crash into any of the other vehicles which are all vying for space because one collision and it’s back down to the bottom to begin again. Play it over and over again to keep improving on your previous best score. Can you make it all the way to the top?
Title: Ewe Woz ‘Ere
Credits: Code by Chris Page, Graphics and sound by Chris, Rose and Brent Page.
Synopsis: A cyborg sheep from the future named Baaary must defend his fields from an invasion of meanies, using just his wits and a plasma spitter. It is a score chasing shoot ‘em up with a single life and an emphasis on energy management.
Title: Kugel Blitz
Credits: Code & Graphics by Haplo, Graphics by Marukpa, Music by Richard Bayliss, Fonts by TCH and CyberBrain.
Synopsis: “How long can you hang on before falling to your death?!”
Title: Orcapult
Credits: By Ant Stiller for Puddlesoft
Synopsis: The best orc is an orc flung at its enemy via a catapult. Assault the enemy tower with your green-skinned payloads and conquer its defences before your catapult is destroyed.
(Note: Screenshot is a WIP and may not represent the final version. Many, many orcs were harmed in the making of this game.)
Title: Stacks
Credits: By Derek
Synopsis: You have to repair the chimney stacks one brick at a time.
Title: Mini Danmaku 64
Credits: Everything was coded, drawn & composed by Alexander Martinelle, Cogitare Computing 2020.
Synopsis: The ever smiling alien flirbzies are attacking. It’s up to you to protect your world by figuring out how avoid the onslaught of bullets and obliterate the aliens at the portal.
Good luck with that!
Title: Hose It Out
Credits: Code & Maps by Oziphantom, Graphics by Lobo, Additional maps by Jazzcat.
Synopsis: A simple puzzle game where you have you put out all the burning fires so you can find a way forward 🙂 Make a path for the water and then Hit the water tanks to make it flow and hopefully put out the fires.
Title: Cover Fire!
Credits: By Kamil ‘Jammer’ Wolnikowski
Synopsis: If you enjoyed ‘Gun Fight’ on arcades and its C64 port entitled ‘The Duel’, you will love this two player title as well. This time we abandon wild west setting in favour of modern military operation in the jungle. Kill your opponent and don’t get yourself killed!
Title: Bintris
Credits: Code by Janne Hellsten, Graphics by Iiro Harra.
Synopsis: The game is called BINTRIS. You play Tetris but instead of tetromino pieces, you play with zeros and ones. It’s a major PITA of a game.
Title: Snout About
Credits: Code, Graphics and Sound by Nick Sherman of Crappertronic, a subsidiary of ArlaGames.
Synopsis: ‘Snout About’ is an action game of risk and reward. The quickest way to build a big score is by extending Ian’s snout far and wide, but your reactions will need to be quick to avoid falling hammers from giving your hooter an almighty and game-ending clonk….
Title: sudspccj (working title)
Author: By Goerp
Synopsis: I had the idea for this game for several years. I was thinking about finally learning Unity to realise it, but that never happened. Then the Craptastic 4K compo came along and I started wondering: maybe I can make the game for the Commodore 64, in 4K? I have a working prototype (which was a struggle at times, having never done any floating point calculations in 6502 assembly and having to to refresh my High School trigonometry), but I’m on track for finishing before the deadline. So what I couldn’t do with a modern day 3D game engine looks to be realised on a 38 year old computer in 4K. I love how restrictions sometimes can focus you to realise your ideas! I’d rather not tell too much about the game itself other than: it’s going to be craptastic!
Title: Plazzle
Author: Goerp
Synopsis: I woke up with this simple idea in my head: make a puzzle game with plasmas. And by plasmas I mean the demo effect. The plasma screen is dissected into rectangles and all rectangles are then shuffled. You have to construct the original pattern by switching two rectangles at a time. The player hasn’t seen the original pattern beforehand and because it’s a plasma it’s moving all the time. The code had to be fast but also small, so it required so called speed-code that was generated at run time. Even then I’m very close to 4K, so a few features will have to be sacrificed for a post-compo edition. The game will have a high-score mode and a random mode. Personally I like playing it and I hope others will too.
Title: Blockheads
Credits: Code and Design by Carleton Handley, Graphics by MonstersGoBoom
Synopsis: A Meat Boy style platform game where you can race against the clock in one player mode or against a friend in the split screen two player mode.
Title: Kung Poo Fighter
Credits: A Megastyle Production. Graphics & Code by Roy Fielding, Sound by Roy Widding.
Synopsis: It’s Kung Poo Fighting! Hit it!
Title: RodMän Jr
Credits: Code, Art and Audio by Misfit
Synopsis: The weirdest son of Rodmän & Rodwina got an own game. You must collect pills & bombs and watch out annoying twins Rod and Dave. Craptastic theme gives something different for the game play. 4k causes a few problems and I removed many good ideas. I’m sure I’ll release a bigger and bolder version later.
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:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Unkle K / Reset64
Official Twitter account for Reset64 Magazine – dedicated to the world’s favourite 8-bit computer!
Follow Reset64 Magazine on Twitter
