Commodore Club

Jammin’ at the Commodore Club

June 24, 2015 By ausretrogamer

It had been a while since we last attended the Amiga Users Group’s Commodore Club day. Going to one of these club meets is like a family reunion you look forward to – you know you will see people you know and like, and you are assured to have lots of fun. Well, it is safe to say, we had lots of fun playing games (terribly) and catching up with our great Commodore friends.

The highlight of the day was playing Throwback Games’ Jam It in four player mode on the C64. This pre-release basketball game even had our teams (Tweeters vs Slackers) and player names (I was MagicBoz) hard coded in by Leigh White, the brains behind the one-man-developer-shop at Throwback Games. We will interview Leigh in an upcoming feature to get to know him a little bit better and find out about his creation, Jam It, and its official release details. For now, I want to keep on jammin and slam-dunkin!

Welcome to Casa Commodore

A box of C64 goodies. Let’s play lucky dip!

The C64 control deck! This is the nerve centre

Meticulous organisation of the C64 5.25″ floppies

The remastered Ghosts’N Goblins – it’s an absolute beauty!

The battle of Xpiose: Dr Curlytek vs Zen Mare Retro

Gonna have some Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road action!

The C64 deck in 4-Player Joystick Mode!

This stik is slik!

Run for your life!

Ice Skating (Hat Trick) battle: Reset Magazine Ed (Kev) vs The Doctor!

The lads [L to R]: Rob, Stacey and Kevin getting ready to fly some taxis!

Ashton Kutcher’s* dad’s creation – Space Taxi! *may not be true

The beautiful Commodore 128D comes to life!

The A1200 – Now you are playing with power!

Na na na na na na na na… BATMAN!

Anyone for some Pooyan?

C16 power!

The 1200 can make anyone feel like a Hero!

Oh that lush screen!

Amiga 2000 represent baby!

Getting ready to Jam!

Jam It 4P battle: Tweeters vs Slackers! Who will win?

Oo’er, I love me some Jam It stats!

And the winner is……..

Leigh White playing his creation!

The aftermath!

Commodore Club – Going Out With A Bang!

December 29, 2014 By ausretrogamer

On a warm Sunday afternoon in December, just before Christmas, the Melbourne Amiga User Group held their final Commodore Club meet for 2014.

The final meet had everything, from the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, to the CD32 and the Amiga 4000 beast. There were a few rarities present, the Paravision SX-1 and FMV module for the CD32 – security was quite tight around these two items (Ed: and so it should be!). There were magazines and controllers aplenty, with not one, but two Battlestations for those that like to play as if they were in an arcade.

The highlight of the meet is always the people. Playing games is secondary, especially when you have your behind handed to you in Hat Trick on the C64!

In between the festive mood and feverish discussions, there were pizzas consumed by the bucket-load and fizzy drinks downed to quench our thirst.

As 2014 draws to a close, so does another Commodore Club event for the year. We are already looking forward to reconvening in 2015! Have yourself a Happy Commodore New Year!

The SX-1 and FMV module! I’ll tuck these into my bag…..

Giving the Amiga CD32 some boost juice!

The Amiga CD32 in its fully glory

Code in Assembler, like a cracking boss!

Drive Power!

Man your battlestations!

Look at all those lovely connectors!

This makes life easier

Lightning fast loading!

Serby says it’s Doritos Crunchy Crust pizza or bust!

Play to win

Love me these publications!

A classic C+VG Book of Maps!

Hints and tips, 1985 style

Taking control one last time for 2014!

Commodore Club: Under the Hammer

August 19, 2014 By ausretrogamer

Carrying the tradition of August being Commodore month, the Commodore Club held their annual auction at the weekend. There was a fair bit of loot on offer, from the C64 and Amiga, to the Atari 2600, N64, SNES and other classic systems.

Paul the auctioneer kept the formalities to a minimum and ensured the smooth running of the bidding processes – once the gavel dropped, there was no mucking around. What transpired was some friendly bidding wars amongst the modest crowd. Weird and Retro’s Serby cleaned up with the winning bid on the C64 cassette games, but I ensured I got in on the action with winning the C64 Breadbin andC64 compilation game pack auctions. The usual suspects (Stacey, Rob and Pedro) also got in amongst the action and scored themselves some impressive vintage goodies. By the end of it all, everything that was up for grabs was gone.

Once the auction wrapped up, it was down to business of playing some old school classics. The Commodore Club day is one of those monthly events that you should not miss! Are you coming to the next one?

Let the auction begin!

Paul whips the crowd into a frenzy

The Commodore 64 cassette loot

Sussing out what to bid on

Oo’er the 1942 – never seen one in the flesh, till now!

Amiga represent

Mmmmm, juicy C64 compilations

I really really wanted to win this lot! Alas, Serby did

Smash that gavel on Rolf!

I wonder if I could just borrow these for a while….

My winning lot!

Serby’s WaR chest!

Oh that gorgeous A3000 is begging to be played

Auction over. Game on!

Getting Cosy At The Commodore Club

July 21, 2014 By ausretrogamer

On a chilly winter’s day, things were getting quite heated at the Commodore Club meet; from Paul trashing yours truly in a ‘Brazil v Germany’ scoreline in Hat Trick, to Weird and Retro’s Aleks ‘Serby‘ Svetislav smashing my time record on Micro Hexagon. I was definitely off my game (Ed: pun fully intended)!

Win or lose, it is always fun playing old school games with friends in the comfort of a nice and warm (Ed: non-hostile?) environment. When it’s cold out there, the Commodore Club is the place to be at. Bring on next month’s meet!

Line’em up baby!

Yours truly impressing the lads in Micro Hexagon!

Brazil (yours truly) v Germany (Paul) = FIFA World Cup 2014 scoreline!

After being brutalised in Hat Trick, I had to test out the equipment. It wasn’t faulty!

Paul (aka: ZenMareRetro) having a crack on Jeff Minter’s Lazer Zone

Get to the choppa! Do it now!

Commodore Club Day

June 19, 2014 By ausretrogamer

Something special happens every third Sunday of the month at the Wadham House Craft and Hobby Centre. Courtesy of the Melbourne Amiga Users Group, the Commodore Club Day (#CommodoreClub) is a love-in of sorts for anyone that is (or was) into the great home computers from Commodore. Even if you aren’t a Commodore fan, you are still most welcome.

The Commodore Club Day is filled with like-minded people, and of course, the hardware – from the Commodore 64 to the Amiga 1200 and CD32. The biggest buzz for us is always the people. It is great to catch-up with our friends and have a yarn about our experiences with the great beige pieces of plastic.

Of course no club day is complete without some friendly gaming rivalry. On this particular occasion, Kevin Tilley from the C64-centric magazine, RESET, created a four-player, four game competition between yours truly, Ant Stiller, Rob Caporetto and Kevin himself. The competition was fierce, but fair. There was adulation and pain in the battle to find out who reigned supreme on the C64. I hate to do this to you all, but you will have to wait for issue 4 of RESET to find out who was hot and who was not!

As they say, all good things must come to an end. It is always sad to wrap things up at the Commodore Club Day, but it is never a goodbye, it is always, till next time!

The Terminator made its presence known!

Bomberland 64 mayhem ensued

Weird and Retro’s Serby was preoccupied while the Doctor kicked ass

Feel the power of the Amiga

Weird and Retro’s RGCD cartridge stash

The C64 4-player competition is ready to go!

Pedro enjoying some Amiga time

Paul’s ever impressive Amiga setup. This is just the tip of the iceberg

Games begging to be played!

8-Bit Battle: Atari XEGS vs Commodore 64

January 19, 2014 By ausretrogamer

Every third Sunday of each month, the Amiga Users Group gets together to showcase, demonstrate, play games and most importantly, chat with other like minded passionate enthusiasts and collectors.

On this occasion, the club meet was hijacked to pit two 8-bit home computers, the Atari XEGS and the Commodore 64 in a tussle to find which reigned supreme in the 1-byte realm. There was a SX-64 thrown in for good measure, but that never factored in the Atari versus Commodore war.

The Team Atari versus Team Commodore battle royale was the brainchild of Weird and Retro’s Aleks Svetislav (Serby). In his usual selfless way, Serby brought monitors, computers, joysticks and a shed load of games for everyone to enjoy and for the battle to take place. My attention went straight to the obscure games that Serby had in his swag, like Jars’ Revenge for the C64. But there was no time to admire the stash, there was a war waging on the tables!

The two 8-bit systems had battles with each playing their respective versions of Wizard of Wor and Assembloids. Let me say, Assembloids is one heck of an addictive game. Serby warned me about it’s addictiveness – it is fantastic! Before I get sidetracked, my impression of Wizard of Wor was that it looked, sounded and played better on the C64 (sorry Serby!). In regards to Assembloids, it was a dead heat – it looked and played great on both the Atari XEGS and the Commodore 64. The other games played were Missile Command and River Raid. Both of these games were made for the little Atari – they were awesome on the XEGS.

There were no arms or legs lost in this battle, only a few sore thumbs. So, who won this battle of the 8-bit home computers? I’d say it was dead even. Whichever side you were on, you couldn’t lose. Long live the Atari and Commodore!

Weapons Of Mass Destruction