The Pop-Culture E-Zine
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!
Solitaire – also known as Patience – is one of the most famous and most addictive computer games in the world. Did you know it was installed as a free game on Microsoft computers as a smart way to get people to engage with the new technology of a mouse? It’s the perfect way of getting someone used to dragging and dropping objects around a screen.
Today, there are many versions of the card game, such as Spider Solitaire and Freecell, but they all have one thing in common – it can be frustratingly difficult to win. If you would like to improve your performance, read on for some little known and hacks and strategies. Luck is the main thing that determines whether you will win or lose, but targeted strategies will undoubtedly enable you to get the best out of a game.
If you had just one trick to winning at Patience, here it is: Turn over as many face downs as possible.
Preferably choose a left column (where there are fewer cards), and concentrate your efforts on it. You will hopefully free up a slot, allowing you to put down a card from another column and turn over an additional one. This is particularly appropriate if a King is immediately available to occupy the slot.
Likewise, try to clear in priority the right columns which contain the most hidden cards. Indeed, it is usually on this side that the cards that block the card game are found.
Finally, while this advice goes without saying, quickly play your Aces, 2s and 3s.
An essential strategy for the card game is to give the cards lying down priority over the deck of cards. Here is an example:
Let’s say you have a red five on the pile and a red five in one of the lower rows. If it is now possible to add one of the cards to a black 6, then you should take the 5 from the bottom row.
The cards from the rows always have priority over the pile so you can create space to layout more kings.
Work the cards from right to left, so try to clear the larger piles first. If you have managed to free a row again, you do not immediately place the next best king in this free row.
Do not try to occupy empty rows again immediately but leave them blank until you really need them; this allows you to stay mobile.
For those initiated into this card game, you can draw the cards three by three.
However, by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Shift keys on your keyboard while pressing the left mouse button on the card pile, you can deal the cards one by one. This is ideal when you have a card you are interested in but cannot use in the three cards turned over.
For Instant Win, press Alt, Shift, and ‘2’, although as this game is only played against yourself, there is little point in our opinion.
The 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10s are cards that are not easy to play: plan well the three or four moves which will follow once you have moved them. The main objective should remain to reveal hidden cards.
Do not rush if, by chance, you find yourself at the start of the game with Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 of the same suit. Indeed, the higher cards will undoubtedly be invaluable to you in building up your columns (for example, with the 4 of another color, which is just waiting to be moved) and thus win your game.
The two most popular variations of classic Solitaire, also found on recent versions of Microsoft Windows, require even more skill.
In addition to the previous strategies, here are some tips specific to these game modes:
Start your stacking with the strongest cards and, if possible, of the same suit.
Always keep at least one or two columns free to be able to proceed with exchanges more easily.
Clear a column at the start of the game if it contains an Ace, even better.
Do not add too many cards to a column with low height at the top, as it will only be more difficult to free it.
Avoid using all four empty boxes at the same time, at the risk of getting stuck shortly.
Finally, here are some hacks to help you win at Freecell, although these really come under the category of cheating!
Hidden Freecell Game Modes
Well there you have it folks, a few strategies, tips and tricks to help you play better and win at Solitaire, no matter the version. Be warned though, we are not responsible for loss of your productivity 😉
The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), a nonprofit that brings old video games back to life by preserving, celebrating, and teaching their history, has recently unveiled the Video Game Source Project, an effort to save and study source code and related development materials before the stories around these games’ creation are lost forever.
“For a video game historian, an archaeological dig through source material is the next best thing to time travel,” said Frank Cifaldi, founder and co-director of the VGHF. “Unfortunately for us, most of that material — especially from our earliest days — has been lost forever. The Video Game Source Project will help us surface more of this material and normalize its use as an educational tool.”
To jump-start this initiative, the VGHF is putting out a call to developers, publishers, and anyone else in possession of source code, documentation, concept art, demo builds, or other materials that can help tell a game’s origin story. Donated materials will be maintained in the VGHF’s Northern California archives and made available to video game historians.
The first games to benefit from the Video Game Source Project will be Lucasfilm Games’ legendary point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island, which celebrates its 30 year anniversary this month, and its sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.
The VGHF’s staff and volunteers have spent the past several months studying the Monkey Island games’ source code, uncovering unshipped secrets, and even reconstructing cut rooms and cinematics. Much of this content will be shown for the first time on October 30 when Ron Gilbert, the creator of Monkey Island and of the SCUMM game engine, joins Cifaldi for a livestreamed “fireside chat” and Q&A. Tickets for “The Secrets of Monkey Island” are available for $10 with sales benefitting the VGHF.
“Monkey Island is a special game to me and the creation of the SCUMM system is a large part of that. Looking at the source always jogs my memory and now gives me a chance to answer questions people didn’t even know to ask,” says Ron Gilbert. “As a developer, I see real value in preserving and learning from the work that we never imagined people in the future would care about. I’m glad the Video Game History Foundation is making this a priority while there’s still time to salvage history that’s becoming scarcer by the day.”
Beyond Monkey Island, members of the VGHF are currently studying source material from a beloved 16-bit RPG, abandoned Sega hardware from the 1990s, and a never-before-seen follow-up to a legendary arcade game. Historical analysis and content related to these games and others will be unveiled in the coming months. The VGHF has also established an advisory committee of developers, publishers, academics, and historians to tackle the problems related to source conservation and to encourage industry participation.
To learn more about the Video Game Source Project and sign up to receive email updates, visit the Video Game History Foundation website.
image source: VGHF
Straight from the planet Funkotron comes the funkiest, custom SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive game ever to hit your CRT TV! Complete with light-up LEDs, moving arrow, and sound effects, this brass elevator replica will amaze your friends on the included display stand or played in a real SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive!
You now have the chance to grab this one of a kind creation via the current charity auction on eBay. This charity auction will see 100% of the sale proceeds going to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. So not only could you win this super funky cartridge, but you can also help a great charity!
Happy bidding!
source: MID49
We must say, the AtGames Legends Arcade Family suite of products have piqued our interest due to their versatility and now, the collaboration with TAITO Corporation, an arcade manufacturing powerhouse, bringing us some awesome classic arcade titles!
Current owners of the Legends Arcade Family products as well as those who have an interest (like us!) in classic arcade games are in luck! To compliment the AtGames’ already large selection of built-in video games, gamers can now add another 47 classic TAITO arcade games via a simple firmware update. This is the first time so many Taito arcade games have appeared at the same time on a single product! Check out the full list of games below which we guarantee will whet your nostalgic appetite!
The 47 TAITO arcade games are:
These 47 TAITO arcade games are part of the growing number of built-in, licensed games on the Legends Arcade Family products like the Legends Ultimate and Legends Gamer series. Other current and future Legends Arcade Family products feature a similarly impressive mix of licensed arcade and console titles. We love the flexibility of adding games (legitimately!) to a home arcade system.
image source: AtGames Legends Family Arcade
We love finding obscure mini documentaries from the early 80s, just like this What’s Up America! mini documentary, titled Video Warriors, which provides an insight on the state of the arcade video games industry circa 1980.
This documentary features a fresh-faced Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Lyle Rains (Atari VP of Engineering, Coin-Operated Games Division), and Roger Hector (Atari Manager of Advanced Products) to name a few. The focus is primarily on Atari Coin-Ops games, but arcade games from other manufacturers are also shown. We really love the part where Roget Hector discusses his co-creation, Atari’s (unreleased) Cosmos holographic handheld games system!
For those of you outside of North America, the What’s Up America! TV series ran on the Showtime channel from 1979-1981. Now go and enjoy this hit of nostalgia!
source: Scottith Games
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
Well, well, well, wonders never cease to amaze us! If you are yearning for your stuff to look more like they did in the mid 80s, then this Commodore 64C beige spray paint is for you!
The clever peeps at Retrohax are behind this nostalgia inducing spray paint, so if you want to get all artistic and go nuts on painting stuff all beige, then hit their store (~the spray paint is approx. AU$36.25).
Oh yeah, with this ongoing COVID-19 situation, spray paints are flight restricted items so they won’t get past the origin border, so unless you are situated in Poland, you may have to wait a bit to get some.
Just in case the C64C beige paint isn’t your thing, Retrohax also has Amiga 500 Beige and Atari XE/ST Grey spray paints to ensure you get creative! Now, if only they had a C64 breadbin brown spray paint 😉
image source: Retrohax
Earlier in August of this year, there were reports of a Sonic statue in the middle of the Japanese countryside that had been restored to its former glory, but no one knew who restored it and how the heck the statue of Sonic surfing got there in the first place!
According to this Polygon article, the mysterious case had been somewhat solved, with this TheGamingBeaver video stating that they had found a report from a Japanese TV station that was just as curious about the statue’s origins as we all were. It was stated that the statue originated at SegaWorld, and was then sold at auction after it was remodelled. The buyer, Mr. Kadeo, happened to live up a dirt road behind the statue, and the report says that he placed it there as a signpost to direct guests to his place of residence.
The mystery still continues, as there has been no confirmation that Mr. Kadeo was behind the restoration. If he wasn’t, then we wonder if a larger entity (surely not SEGA?!) had played a role in restoring their mascot!
Restored to his former glory!
Story source: Polygon / Image source: Twitter
**** GIVEAWAY ****** GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED! **
Whoa, our friends at Magnetism Creations have given us some of their awesome video games and pinball related magnets to giveaway to our readers! Yep, this is a giveaway!
So what do you have to do to be in the running for 1 of the 3 mystery magnet packs? Relax, you don’t have to do anything stressful like run a marathon under 2 hours – all you have to do is ensure you like Magnetism Creations and Ausretrogamer on Facebook (and don’t forget to like and share the post for more chances!). For an extra chance to win, make sure you follow us in Twitter! See, that wasn’t too painful now, was it?!
The giveaway will finish at 6:00pm on Friday September 18, 2020! Winners will be notified by us shortly after the conclusion of the giveaway, so stay tuned and good luck!
PS: To get you motivated for this easy giveaway, check out a few of Magnetism Creations’ awesome magnets below…
