RESET

Reset64 Magazine 2017 Commodore 64 Game of the Year Award

January 8, 2018 By ausretrogamer

It really seems that each subsequent year for modern C64 game development improves on the previous, and 2017 has been no different! On behalf of the staff at Reset Magazine, I would like to congratulate all of you who have been involved in C64 gamedev in 2017, whether as an individual or as part of a team. 2017 has been nothing short of stunning, beginning with The Bear Essentials (released digitally in 2016, but physical version with a 2017 © stamp released later), and finishing in style with the long awaited Sam’s Journey on Christmas Eve (with a few releases making it out before the new year, too). In between, well, we were spoilt for choice.

The physical releases from the likes of Protovision, RGCD, Psytronik and Poly.Play also impressed, with each distributor/publisher raising the bar for the presentation of their physical releases – perfectly complimenting the outstanding quality of the games themselves. So much thought went into the packaging, artwork, labels, instruction booklets etc. to keep us collectors more than happy!

We will look at 2017 as an amazing year for Commodore 64 games of a quality that could arguably challenge many of the years during the computer’s heyday. It was great to see so many of the contemporary developers remaining so active, old timers returning as well as a host of first time coders, artists and musicians joining in all the fun. Make no mistake, gamedev on the C64 is a challenging and time consuming task, and we are truly appreciative of the efforts and hours that everyone involved has put in.

So to sum it all up, although there can only be one game awarded GOTY, we truly believe that you all deserve to be congratulated (whether or not your game or crew is mentioned within this article), and we take our hats off to everyone involved in the 2017 C64 games development scene.

Kevin (Unkle K) Tilley, Reset64 Editor.

Kevin Tilley (Editor’s Pick)

#1 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
Sam’s Journey is a truly astonishing C64 platformer that, amazingly, lives up to all of its hype! Breathtaking presentation, colourful and fast graphics; Sam’s plays like a high-end Amiga platformer with mechanics and design sensibilities not seen in a C64 game before. Beautiful to look at and fun to play, it’s my GOTY and a truly amazing game from Knights of Bytes. Nailed the physics too, KoB 😉

#2 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
Jason Aldred came from nowhere to deliver this superb Galaga/Gaplus inspired shooter. Incredibly polished, with wonderful presentation, graphics (the animations are superb) and a suitably stunning soundtrack from Pulse Bot. It’s one of those games that you can come back to again and again and it is incredibly addictive. The physical release from Protovision is stunning, and that box-art by Lobo!! An amazing effort from Team Galencia!

#3 – The Bear Essentials (Graham Axten/Pond Software):
Graham Axten produced a game that tugged right at my nostalgic heartstrings with The Bear Essentials. Bear could easily have been a full price release from Thalamus and contains more than one nod to the games from that legendary Commodore 64 games publisher from back in the day. It’s one of the most charming games I’ve seen on the C64, and the final level blew me away. I’m tearing up right now thinking about it!

Honourable Mentions:
There have been so many other games I would have loved to have voted for. Rescuing Orc is another favourite – it is such a beautifully designed and playable game. I also loved LuftrauserZ, Platman Worlds and John Darnell’s charming Sleepwalker amongst many others. Oh, and then there’s Frogs, which is another absolutely charming multiplayer game from Dr. Wuro Industries. Any of these games could have featured in my top 3, they’re all so good!

image source: Jason Aldred & Protovision

Cameron Davis

#1 – The Bear Essentials (Graham Axten/Pond Software):
I’m thrilled that games like this exist on our beloved micro – it’s just so charming! With plenty of secrets to discover, a wild array of cute (but deadly) creatures to avoid and great platforming action, The Bear Essentials has provided me with more joy than any other recent C64 release I can think of. A world without this Essential game is something I couldn’t Bear to think about. (You’re fired – Ed)

#2 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
Planet Golf is the demanding but beautiful girlfriend of Commodore 64 games. You’ll be driven mad with its fiendish level layouts and excruciatingly annoying traps, but when you do everything right it’s the best feeling in the world. I love this game even though it feels like an unhealthy relationship at times!

#3 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
This modern spin on the Galaga formula is not just a technical marvel – it’s by far the best shmup to hit the C64 in years! The movement of all the ships (oh, so many ships) feels nice and fluid, the blasting action satisfyingly explosion-filled, and there’s a real sense of accomplishment to survive the first few levels! We really are lucky to have games of this calibre grace our system.

Rob Caporetto

#1 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
Arcade-esque games are totally a ‘been there, seen that’ proposition on the C64 in the homebrew age, where many try to rekindle the feel, but most I’ve felt have always missed that something. Galencia, on the other hand? Nails it. From its old school difficulty curve, its high level of polish, and the overall polish of the package, it’s a labour of love which totally, totally manages to feel fresh, and challenging for 2017!

#2 – LuftrauserZ (Paul Koller/Stein Pedersen/RGCD):
I’m a sucker for games involving air-combat, and working around gravity, both of which are core to this C64 adaptation of the indie hit. What blows my mind away the most though? The fact that the original game has been squeezed over into a C64 cartridge. In full. The pace is even more frantic, the controls flow excellently, and the challenge on offer is intense – for anyone after a fresh twist on arcade action, LuftrauserZ is easily one of the best picks you can go for!

#3 – Rescuing Orc (Juan J. Martinez/Vanja Utne/Poly.Play):
One of the great things with the homebrew community is in seeing less visited genres make an appearance on our favourite micro. Rescuing Orc brings over the tradition of the exploratory platformer, with an old-school difficulty to match. The challenge of course being to locate your friend said Orc, whilst exploring the world, and dispatching the devious hordes who stand in your way. Compared to some of the other releases in 2017, that level of challenge may be a turn off, but despite some misgivings, it’s a throwback release, which is well worth checking out!

Honourable Mentions:
Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
The Knights of Bytes crew have been working on this one for a long time, and it truly, truly shows on so many levels. Compared to many other platformers on the C64, it’s expansive, packed to the brim with levels, and power ups and features. If I’d been able to spent more time with it before submitting this GOTY, I expect it would have made the top 3. But considering I’ve not put anywhere near enough time in, an honourable mention will have to do…

Petunia Pickle’s Pumpkin Preview (Anthony Stiller/Vanja Utne/Pond Software):
Seeing new faces start off with amazing releases is something I always find mighty positive. It might sound a little too biased here, but I had a lot of fun with this little preview, and it being by a good friend is just the icing on the cake.

image source: Knights Of Bytes & Protovision

Paul Morrison

#1 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
I’ve been playing arcade shmups like Galaxian since the 1970s. I love them, so it always rankled with me that the Commodore 64 didn’t really have any that could truly stand among them. Consider me rankled no more. Galencia is an incredible clone of Galaga which has kept me playing since its release date. I’ve played it more than most of the PC and PS4 games I’ve bought this year, and I’m going to keep playing it. It may have been 35 years in coming, but it’s the best game of its type on the C64, and it’s my Game of the Year.

#2 – LuftrauserZ (Paul Koller/Stein Pedersen/RGCD):
The original PC game was a simplistic but fast-paced shoot ’em up which featured an absolute mountain of extra weaponry to experiment with. That Paul Koller has replicated the game so accurately on the 64 is nothing short of miraculous. I’ve got a pretty sweet crate right now, but I’m looking forward to unlocking more and seeing just how destructive I can become.

#3 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
I played Desert Golfing and Stick Golf on my phone for far too long, becoming totally addicted to seeing how far I could progress or if I could whittle down my best scores. Planet Golf captures the feeling of those games emphatically, whilst adding a flavour that could only have come from our beloved C64. It’s hair-tearingly frustrating at times, but that one-more-go factor is in full effect.

Anthony Stiller

#1 – LuftrauserZ (Paul Koller/Stein Pedersen/RGCD):
Paul Koller’s demake of Vlambeer’s aerobatic blaster is a miracle. Somehow Paul has captured the frenetic feel of the original and crammed in almost all of the features. Fast, furious and more fun than a barrel full of barrel rolls. Buy this game immediately.

#2 – The Bear Essentials (Graham Axten/Pond Software):
Graham Axten of Pond Software brought so much joy to my C64 when he released The Bear Essentials. A delightful, highly playable platformer, polished like a shiny red apple, Bear is what C64 gaming is all about. Check out Graham’s dev diary, too, if you get a chance.

#3 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
Jason Aldred turns run-of-the-mill Galaga up to 11 with the exhilarating Galencia. With superb design, crisp graphics, and faultless gameplay, Galencia is a marvel to behold and has been a firm favourite in the RESET offices. A stellar release!

Honourable Mention:
Rescuing Orc
Juan J. Martinez’s wonderfully named game, Rescuing Orc, is everything I love. An adventurous romp with sword in hand, perilous leaps, varied enemies, deep caverns, and bats! Bats are great and so is Rescuing Orc.

Merman

#1 – Argus (Trevor Storey/Achim Volkers/Saul Cross/Psytronik):
From the moment I saw the preview video on YouTube, I knew this was going to be special. The first-person view of the action is superb, there is a huge and involved quest to complete and Psytronik pulled out all the stops with the amazing Ultimate Edition (cramming loads of extras into the box, including the poster with the all-important map of the land of Argus). A landmark RPG for the C64 and my game of the year.

#2 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
Antonio Savona strikes again with a beautifully crafted game. The physics of the golf ball – and the fast-forward option – work really well, but it is the superb presentation that stays with me. The clear sampled speech and the amazing introduction sequence (with digitised graphics) set a high bar for others to reach.

#3 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
A very polished shoot ’em up, particularly the mutating aliens. It really captures the Galaga style and brings it up to date with great graphics and sound. So glad it was finished.

Honourable Mention:
Just sneaking into 2017 was the digital release of SAM’S JOURNEY. I have only had time to play it briefly but it looks amazing – it could already be my game of the year for 2018!

Richard Bayliss

#1 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
I purchased a digital download of Sam’s Journey on Boxing Day 2017. The game has very stunning presentation. The game is really colourful, but when it comes to playing it, I was almost late for work, due to its pure addictiveness. The game has a fun story line, and each world is well crafted. The ideas put into this game really pushed the Commodore 64 to its limits. There are some very colourful maps, cute enemies, which Sam can jump on (or avoid). The power ups are truly amazing. This game gets my vote to be the best ever game of 2017.

#2 – Slipstream (Bauknecht/Psytronik)
I always wondered what the Commodore 64 could spin out for the C64 gaming world. We have seen many C64 demos, and demo coders of big groups today continue to show off their talent. Now what if you had this idea to produce a game, which uses some of the demo effects, such as realtime, vector animation? Bauknecht has proven this by developing something spectacular. The game has stunning presentation, along with some very amazing animated effects. The concept was quite original. You take control of two different modules through a simulation. This game reminds me a little of Domark’s Star Wars. Slipstream has very slick presentation, thumping soundtracks, and is also addictive to play. I love this game for the originality and addictive game play. It is very difficult to master at first, but you’ll get used to this game after a few attempts. Slipstream is a stunner.

#3 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
I always loved a good and decent shoot ’em up. Looking at this game. It takes me back in time and reminds me a lot of Galaxians, Galaga, Gaplus blended in together. This game is well designed, has some good bonus rewards for the play. Some alien attack patterns can end up as a little surprise. The Galencia like to transform into different types aliens. There are plenty of in game options, to enhance game play even more. You can even select competition mode, which is a real challenge. This is a really good retro-standard shoot ’em up. Nicely animated sprites, graphics, loading picture, music, etc. I enjoyed this game a lot, due to the quality arcade standard, presentation and excellent music. Some funny boss fights in between. Nice loading and intro graphics. Great series of options.

image source: Psytronik

Damian Caynes

#1 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
Antonio Savona’s Planet Golf was not only a very playable game, but had superb production qualities and awesome digital sound. The intros were brilliant, and the game itself was difficult and addictive.

#2 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
One of my favourite arcade games as a kid was Galaga, and Jason Aldred’s Galencia hits all the buttons. It has bright, colourful graphics and excellent fx, as well as masterful attack waves and bosses. Well worth the asking price, and I can’t wait to get it on cartridge.

#3 – The Bear Essentials (Graham Axten/Pond Software):
I really hate to give this game one point, but there have been so many great games in 2017. Graham Axten’s Bear Essentials has a lot of similarities with the style of Creatures 2, but is an awesome game in its own right. Pond must be very proud of this release

Roy Fielding

#1 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
From the moment I first heard of this game, I knew it was one for me. Antonio certainly delivered with a splendid and very professional game. The physical release is sublime with great original artwork by none other than Oliver Frey. Top notch game with oodles of replayability. This game will remain one of my faves, alongside the likes of the Leaderboard range.

#2 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
A very close second is Galencia. This game came out of nowhere for me and really grabbed my attention immediately. I am a big fan of early arcade shooters like Galaxian/Galaga so this game really ticked my box on that score. The game looks and plays wonderfully and will certainly be a game to return to time and time again. Very high production value and again, we have a super physical release, with lovely original box art by Fleming DuPont. A wonderful game just slightly pipped (for me) by Planet Golf.

#3 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
This was a very close call between this and Paul Koller’s excellent Luftrausers demake. I went with Sam’s Journey as it is an original title and has one of the most beautiful scrolling engines I’ve seen on the C64, with such vibrant use of colours. A very playable game, albeit probably not one I’d return to as much as #1 and #2. It’s still super impressive and delivers on the early promises and smashes away the doubts people had that it was not for real. I cannot comment on the physical release as it wasn’t available at time of writing.

Simon Quernhorst

#1 – Rescuing Orc (Juan J. Martinez/Vanja Utne/Poly.Play):
A very nice and atmospheric game, which I really liked playing through the end!

#2 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
A perfect arcade game with fun graphics and always good for a round now and then.

#3 – Frogs (Dr. Wuro Industries):
What a fun game when playing with four players… always great to push ’em into the water.

Roy Widding

#1 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
I decided to give my top 3 points to Antonio and his addictive and funny golf game! Nice graphics, nice music and addictive. Very addictive!

#2 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
I struggled a bit to play the digital version on my real hardware, but except for that, the game is amazing. A brilliant story, a nice plattform adventure, and it is not too hard, so I have kept my interest for this, and I think I still will have that interest when I receive the physical cartridge. (2 points to Chester)

#3 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
The game is so well made/polished/full of details that you can’t leave it out of a top 3. Even if I’m not such a huge shooter fan, I have played this game several times, and it is not one of the games you try and forget… (1 point to Jason)

Honourable Mentions:
I have bought all commercial releases this year, and kept my eye on all free games too. I might have missed some, but I have placed my votes on the ones I kept coming back too and enjoyed playing. There were some games like Bear, Orc, LuftrauserZ and some other Psytronik titles that I liked too, but I had to leave some out of the top 3 so it ended with these.

image source: Usebox.Net & Poly.Play

Jari Karjalainen

#1 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
It definitely came close for not happening in time, but my vote for GOTY goes to Sam’s Journey, without a shred of doubt. It’s not only a logical continuation of new hardware exploitation from Prince of Persia made for EasyFlash, but also yet another thus far missing link between the old C64 games and 16-bit games from all platforms – impressive in every expectable manner, and definitely lives up to its hype.

#2 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
If Sam’s Journey hadn’t made it this year, its place would have been taken by Planet Golf, which will now take the #2 spot. I thought the preview already was fantastic, and the full version is definitely one of the most intriguing, impressive and unique C64 golf games of all time. Definitely worth having in anyone’s collection.

#3 – Planet X2 (The 8-Bit Guy):
My vote for #3 was much more difficult to choose, since there were so many fantastic games put out this year – the Bear Essentials, Galencia, LuftrauserZ, Slipstream and Argus to name but a few, each very impressive in their own ways. In the end, I settled for Planet X2, because it represents a genre that hadn’t been explored on the C64 before, and rather well at that, too.

Frank Gasking

#1 – Sam’s Journey (Knights of Bytes/Protovision):
When playing Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive or Mayhem on the C64 that I remember the goosebumps first I had, experiencing something unlike i’d ever seen before. Although a predictable number 1 from me, Sam’s Journey this Christmas has given me just those feelings. Combining some of the best features from various 16-bit platformers, the game is a sight to behold, and it lives up to all the hype it has deservidely had.

#2 – Galencia (Jason Aldred/Team Galencia/Protovision):
I’m a big fan of single screen shooters like Galaga and Gyruss, so Galencia was a very welcome release to see this year. There are some wonderful touches throughout the game and little sub sections which make this one of the best games of its genre on the C64. It’s been great to see yet another ex-C64 developer come back to the platform too.

#3 – Planet Golf (Antonio Savona/Aldo Chiummo/Gaetano Chiummo/Ilkka Sjöstedt/Massimilano ‘WiZkiD’ De Ruvo/Psytronik/RGCD):
An extremely frustrating, but fun game, where any errors are your own fault and not the game. Deviously designed courses with some great gravitational effects on later planets make for a game that will keep you playing for a long time. The added polish of the crisp graphics/smooth animation and speech effects round off a great release.

….AND THE WINNER IS!

It is with great pleasure that we announce Galencia, by Jason Aldred and Team Galencia as the 2017 Commodore 64 Game of the Year, as voted by the Reset Magazine staff & contributors. A worthy winner, Galencia oozes quality from a coding perspective, as well as featuring the highest quality aesthetics and super addictive gameplay. It’s the perfect all rounder. The physical edition from Protovision was stunning and extremely high quality, everything from the beautiful art, labels, feelies, posters and that lovely green cartridge! Galencia also achieved the highest number of individual votes in this count and was a hot topic of discussion on social media and retro gaming forums for much of 2017.

Congratulations to Jason, the rest of Team Galencia and Protovision on your achievement!

image source: Jason Aldred & Protovision

Final Standings:
#1 – Galencia (Protovision)
#2 – Planet Golf (Psytronik/RGCD)
#3 – Sam’s Journey (Protovision)
#4 – LuftrauserZ (RGCD), The Bear Essentials (Pond Software)
#5 – Rescuing Orc (Poly.Play)
#6 – Argus (Psytronik)
#7 – Slipstream (Psytronik)
#8 – Frogs (Dr. Wuro Industries), Planet X2 (The 8-Bit Guy)

Honourable Mentions:
Platman Worlds (Psytronik), Sleepwalker (Psytronik), Petunia Pickle’s Pumpkin Preview (Pond Software).

Making Of Reset C64 Intro

August 20, 2017 By ausretrogamer

By Andrew Burch

While immersed in Syntax 2015 and beginning work on an intro for Hokuto Force (which went on to be released as “Technic” shortly after), I was approached by a familiar face. Unkle K sat down and we had a great chat about family, the C64, my intros and naturally, the Reset magazine. During the chat, he asked if I was interested in doing an intro for Reset64. Given Reset is an Australian magazine and I loved the work they put into it, how could I refuse? Time passes too quickly these days and it would be another 9 months before I’d start to form the basis of the intro. But once started, it came together quickly over the following weeks and I was pleased to be involved in the Reset #10 release with an intro and this write up to accompany it.

Rather than just put a bunch of things on screen, I like to focus on the design of my intros so the effects fit with the music and there is a smooth flow to the experience. Because I have so few SID contacts to help with the music, I begin most of my intros using sidplay2 and HVSC (High Voltage SID Collection) to look for existing tracks which I think I could design an intro around. Often I have an idea of how much memory I want to allocate to music, so this means I can focus on SID files of a certain size. I have a simple script that digs through the HVSC folders looking for SID files under (or between) a certain size and then copying them to a separate folder. I then create a play list from that folder in sidplay2 and explore for suitable tracks. This allows me to create a short list of music, which I will then listen to on repeat as I begin designing the flow of the intro. For this intro, I ended up settling on a track from ECO (Raik Picheta), which I had been wanting to create an intro around for quite a while. I’ve used a few of Raik’s tracks now and love what he creates.

My goal was to create the biggest (and hopefully best) Reset intro to date. I wanted the intro to be more than just a simple greets list, scroller and logo. This meant it had to have multiple parts instead of a single screen. The chosen music track suited a multi-part intro, so I was keen to flesh out something larger than the normal intro that accompanies each issue of Reset. Because this is a milestone release, the intro should celebrate the previous releases in some form and also acknowledge the Reset64 staff. A nice transition of some kind from the start screen to the intro is always a must for me and something I would incorporate into the intro. When designing the flow of the intro, I don’t necessarily know exactly how each part will appear on screen. Mainly, I focus on what each part will represent and build on that. With these few things in mind, and the music track selected, I came up with the flow to use:

Transition from BASIC to intro
Introduce Reset intro
Reset team credits
Show logo
Intro credits
Final part (continuous play)

With some design down for the intro, I now got cracking on writing the code. With every intro I’ve done, I always have multiple parts under development at the same time. I find it a good way to avoid getting stuck on a certain bit for too long and it also helps give an early idea on how well the implementation matches what I envisioned. Each part is developed within its own assembly file, which helps avoid working in large files. For some of the larger parts, I will even split them into smaller assembly files and code each sub effect first before bringing them together. For example, the final part which has a logo swing, cycling text, scroller and border sprites started life as four separate “effects” which were eventually brought together with their own transitions into a single assembly file, which then got merged into the final release file. I’ve found this method allows me to tweak and tune parts and their transitions easily before considering them complete and ready to move into the intro. It also makes it easier to sort out bugs before intro parts are merged together. An added bonus to this is it means I can quickly test each piece in both PAL and NTSC modes too. The final intro file will contain a small section at start up that detects NTSC mode (by peeking at the value in $02A6) and adjusts some variables & instructions to improve stability under that mode.

The assembly files won’t run themselves though and need to be compiled. My choice in compiler is win2c64 which was written by Aart Bik. There are more flexible cross assemblers around, but I found Aart’s to be very easy to use and haven’t had a reason to switch. For code writing I use Sublime Text 2 and a custom syntax colouring scheme I wrote (which I could not live without!). I make use of several common C64 cross development tools like Timanthes, CharPad, SpritePad, Sidplay2 and of course VICE.

Another tool I make use of is Beyond Compare 4, which is great not only for comparing source code changes, but also comparing images. I used this in the Reset intro where I had run the logo data through some conversion routines and wanted to make sure that the before and after output was the same. So before and after screen shots were taken from VICE and fed into Beyond Compare, which can then highlight pixels (bottom panel) where my conversion had faults.

A final piece of software I make frequent use of is Fraps. This tool allows me to capture the intro running in VICE to a video file for playback. This is extremely handy when graphical glitches occur on screen and you can then go back and watch them frame by frame to help diagnose the cause. This was used a few times on the Reset 10 intro where the transition code between parts had some conflict, which resulted in brief graphical glitch flashes and some cases where rasters were flickering. I often find the cause is usually raster interrupts fighting or a timing issue.

Along with the software mentioned, I also have a library of Lua scripts I have developed over the course of my C64 projects which are used to export and transform data into a state ready to be used in one of my assembly files. This includes things like data exporters for sprites, fonts, music, logos and scroller message formatting. There are some days where I spend more time tweaking and improving my tools than I do coding intro parts, simply because of the benefit they offer to the current and future projects. My choice in Lua is simply because, at the time I got back into C64 coding, I was working in the games industry on PS3 & X360 games and used Lua daily. So I found it quick and easy to get my early script library together. I’ve not yet had a reason to switch to something stronger.

I always like to see a transition in an intro from the start screen as I think it’s a nice presentation touch and starts the intro off nicely. For this intro I settled on fading each line of the screen to black (in a pattern), while leaving a nice bright RESET tag in the lower right corner. I use a colour table to ensure that the fade to black looks reasonable no matter what the colour ram, background and border colours are at the time the intro is run. It does however make an assumption the colour RAM is consistent across the screen. You’ll note that the border colour for each 8 pixel high character line also fades out with it, which requires raster interrupts all the way down the screen. It’s actually the same interrupt repeating all the way down, with each row containing its own indexes into the colour table. It’s a simple transition, but gets the intro off to a nice start and something I felt lacking in previous Reset intros.

With the transition done and the intro now starting, I wanted to include something that acted as an “intro to the release”. Reaching issue 10 is a nice milestone for Reset and something for Unkle K and the team to be proud of. I thought it might be good to look back at the previous releases, to see the important dates in their journey so far and then acknowledge their latest release date as part of that. There’s nothing too tricky in terms of code in this part, although originally the dates were not animated using the hardware scroll register. I added the animation to give the screen a little more life as each date fades in and out.

I wanted to dedicate a part of the intro to the team behind Reset who put it together for us to enjoy. It can be thought of as a shout out to the guys who “power” Reset64. This part went through a few design changes before the final was settled on. Originally it started a lot darker, with the scrolling text lit up using white and greys. The colour cycling was also intended to be more of a light source, circling around the text. The names were always going to glow in colour and it was hoped the darker background would put strong emphasis on the name. But the lack of colour felt dull and the “lighting” effect not as good as I imagined it would be. The light source was changed to cycling the colour RAM and brighter colours added. The scrolling “RESET64” text is achieved by rolling character data left and right, which is more efficient than using the hardware scroll and actually scrolling 12 lines of screen data. It leaves plenty of cycles free to scroll the colour ram instead. The top and bottom borders are also open, with sprites waving within. This is actually a really easy trick to perform, and requires you to switch the screen mode to 24 row mode just before the bottom border begins to render. This tricks the VIC into thinking the border is already being rendered, so it doesn’t bother starting it at raster line 250. You simply need to restore it to 25 rows somewhere in the next screen update (I usually do this as part of the frame set up in the top border).

The intro was really starting to come along at this point and I was in need of a logo. Unkle K put me in contact with Shine. This was excellent as I had been looking forward to working with him for a while. Because I wanted to swing the logo (along with bouncing it with Flexible Line Distance), I was keen for a 3 colour logo that could be converted to a character set. Keeping it at 3 colours means the colour RAM does not to be updated during the swing effect. This allows me to spend time doing other things on screen. However, this then places an annoying limit on any artist, but Shine did well to put together a logo (40×8 characters).

The logo arrived in the form of a bitmap, which I then wrote a conversion script for that converted it into unique character data and also a display matrix that could be used to render the characters to screen. This resulted in a set of 194 unique characters for the logo. Part of the conversion process was to also standardise the use of the character colour and the two multi colours. Because the logo started as a bitmap, the multi colours and character colours were not uniform across the logo. An inspection (and adjustment) of the bits for each character byte was done as part of the conversion to ensure the colours were standardised. Beyond Compare was very useful here to verify the output against the original and would highlight where bits had not been converted properly.

Although the logo would be bouncing and swinging across the screen, it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to give the logo a little more life and decided to add some animation to it. Getting another colour on the logo might be good too, so I added sprites that flash across the letters and Shines tag. I also decided to animate the stars that appear in the top left and right of the logo.

Next I thought about how I could introduce the logo onto the screen. When it appears in the final part of the intro, the logo will swing across onto screen – so that one is easy. But I want to introduce the logo earlier, right after the Reset team credits have been shown. There is a perfect part of the music where this can happen and from the first time I heard the track, I had a mental picture of a logo vertically scrolling up. I settled on using a small “trick” of the VIC hardware, which stops rendering colour and simply renders black if you have both multi-colour and extended colour modes enabled at the same time. Putting this together with a Flexible Line Distance effect, I could make the logo begin to appear from half way down the screen. This was then finished off by rendering a line which the logo could appear from, bounce on and then disappear behind again. You’ll notice in the final intro that the word “MAGAZINE” appears in the bottom half of the screen in a wave pattern. These are sprites and are not affected by the multi-colour + extended colour “trick”.

This trick was used again for the intro credits part, but this time it also hides sprites by having their colour set to black. This way the role and credit can appear from the line in different directions. One is hidden by multi-colour + extended colour being enabled and the other is simply sprite colour changing at a certain raster line. To make the sprites appear, their y position is simply updated. The text appears by again using FLD (Flexible Line Distance) to push the character data down.

With all these parts getting to their completed state, I was able to begin creating the “final” assembly file. This is where all the parts get merged together for the final release of the intro, which means I now need to think seriously about memory layout. For this sort of intro, memory size isn’t an issue – I’m not going to run out. But I’m forever conscious about what memory I’m using and where it makes sense to compress or optimise things. The code will start at $0810 and I’ll have exomizer prefix it with an auto run block on the final build. I’ll be using memory around $0b00 to $0fff for sprite data and some table data. Music will live at $1000 and the logo character set at $2800. The main 1×1 font will live at $3000 and is made up of 64 characters. The larger 1×2 font will live at $3200, followed by animated characters used in various parts. I know I’ll need to allocate a little more space for sprites based on my estimates, so will set aside some memory here for those too. I want all graphics data sitting before $4000 so I don’t have to think about bank swapping. I built in some buffers to each of the key areas to allow for change right up to the last minute. In the end those buffers will either compress right down using Exomizer, or I’ll juggle some data tables around to fill them. The rest is free for code and data tables. With that decided I create a new assembly file with the above memory mapped out, ready to start merging parts together.

Merging everything and their transitions together can be tedious work. It can also be rewarding as you see the intro finally coming together in its final form, but it can be slow going as you realise the transitions you’ve created don’t gel well with the previous part, which then requires some juggling. Or new bugs get introduced, which can be “fun” to hunt down. I’m also more mindful at this stage of memory alignment with certain code blocks and where some bits best fit together. As I bring each piece together I test both PAL and NTSC modes. This way I can see early on where there is flicker (usually in NTSC mode) and do my best to get both running well so by the time the intro is completely together there are minimal changes required to have it run under either mode.

At this stage the intro was really flying along, but I still need to code up the final part. The final part will remain on the screen until the system is rebooted. This screen will contain a few different effects, all happening at once. It’s probably one of the trickiest parts to get complete as you not only need to get each effect running, but they have to run side by side with everything else going on screen and everything needs to transition in smoothly. I manage this with some raster interrupt juggling as each effect transitions on screen until finally it just loops forever.

When designing this part, I knew it had to have the logo and it would swing and bounce (using FLD and the hardware scroll register). This would take up the first 10 rows of screen display. When using FLD to bounce the top section of the screen, you need a second FLD effect further down to balance it out. As the top FLD increases in height, the lower FLD decreases. That way the lower section of the screen remains stable all through the bounce.

In the bottom section of the screen I wanted to put the scroller and settled on a 4×4 scroller. Instead of taking up more memory with a new 4×4 font, I wanted to dynamically create a 4×4 version of the 1×1 font already in use. Creating a scroller like this isn’t too difficult (I’ve created a tutorial on my site www.0xc64.com for those that are interested). It requires 16 characters, which make up every combination of 2×2 pixel data. Then using a bit mask and some shifting as each 2×2 bit block is processed, the scroller code creates an index into those characters to build the required 4×4 version.

That left the middle of the screen empty to do something with. I thought it might be nice to show off what features would be appearing in the release. Originally this was just a blue background with colour cycling over the text. It felt too dull and as always I wanted to put more on screen. I ended up with a parallax starfield, which was split in the middle of the screen. This had stars rolling left on one side and right on the other, keeping the flow of the colour cycling on the text. Because the new issue would contain many features, I rotate through new features every so often. With the old feature being hidden with blue colour. The update code detects this and then begins to render the next feature while the colour ram and background colours match. This way the next feature smoothly transitions on to screen.

As a final touch for this part, I opened the top and bottom borders again and added some sprites with a subtle wave to give them some life. Once all the pieces of the final part were brought together (with their transitions), it was added to the final release file.

Quite often as parts evolve, I have to juggle where updates and transitions occur, as adding more things to the screen takes up more raster time. I use a simple method of changing the border colour using an inc and dec on $d020 to see roughly how many scan lines certain update / render routines are taking up. In the screen shot below for example, the final part has several interrupts performing update and rendering for various things going on in the frame. The big gap at the top is reserved for the music, frame prep and top border sprite set up. As you see down the screen, the border changes colours at certain spots, showing the rough start and end raster lines for different routines. Often these will increase and decrease depending on what code is executed in the update. Where I have routines that execute on alternating frames, I can combine these into 1 block to try and get more effects into each screen.

At this point, the intro was ready. The scroller text and feature text are placed right at the end of the intro, which makes them easy to update. I always put these sorts of things at the end since they are variable in length and I don’t want to have to shuffle code or data around if their length exceeds what I had allowed for.

Working on the intro for Reset #10 was a great experience. It came out better than I had planned and certainly hope everyone can enjoy it. Congratulations to Reset for reaching 10 releases and let’s hope there are many more to come.
One part that you’ll never see in the intro is this one. Originally it was going to form the basis of the final continuous play part of the intro. A parallax star field, with a huge vertical logo on the right. It was intended the logo be made of multi-colour sprites, which could be moved around separate to the starfield. Text would be displayed on the right, acting as the scroller. It was ditched as I wanted to do far more on the screen and felt limited by the design. The white lines at the bottom is the raster time the star field animation is taking up.

Pre-order the latest issue of RESET C64 right now from Binary Zone!

2016 Reset C64 ‘Craptastic’ 4KB Game Competition Results

December 25, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Whoa, the Reset C64 ‘Craptastic’ 4KB game coding competition was a great success and we would like to thank all of the competitors for their participation and hard work. Also a big thank-you to the judges and competition sponsors, Retro Computer Scene, Bitmap Books and Protovision.

The competition was extremely close and tough to judge, but every single entry brought a smile to our faces. Like any cmpetition, there could only be one winner, and this time it was Vanja Utne of Pond/Privy Software with her game, Goblin – an amazing achievement for a 4KB game!

The winner: Goblin by Vanja Utne

You can play the games on the official compilation disk (available here) which was coded and compiled by Richard Bayliss (thanks Richard!). Judges’ comments and more details will be published in the Reset Christmas mini-issue, which will be out soon! Until then, enjoy the games and on behalf of the Reset team, we wish you all a Merry Christmas!

PLACINGS

Goblin by Vanja Utne (30)
Dog by Vanja Utne (29.86)
Lumberjack by MajikeyriC (28)
Bonkey Kong by Graham Axten (27.57)
Super Ski by Andreas Gustafsso (27.29)
Rise and Shine Professor Miggles by Paulko64 (26.57)
Attack of the Mutant Cabbages by Anthony Stiller (26.4)
Winky Blinky by Roy Fielding (25.29)
Granny’s Teeth by Richard Bayliss (23.67)
Zombie Massacre by Wanax (23.57)
Antarctica by Antarctica (23.29)
Picross by Oziphantom (22.86)
I am the Flashing C64 Cursor by Craig Derbyshire (22.29)
Firefighter Jenny by OziphantoM (21.14)
Watschinator by Georg RottensteineR (20.29)
Valentine Day Shopping Simulator by Karmic (18.57)
Princess Saver 2000 by Freakin Frankie (11)
:10 by COUT (10.43)
I Ate the Purple Berries by COUT (9.71)
$#!7 by COUT (8.14)
MASTERBAGELS by COUT (7.14)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset… C64 magazine.

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2016 Reset C64 4KB Game Coding Comp Preview

September 26, 2016 By ausretrogamer

With the closing date getting ever so near for the 2016 Reset C64 4KB Game Coding Competition, we thought we’d take a look at the entries so far. From what we’ve seen, these CRAPTASTIC games are looking, um, pretty darn good for crappy games squeezed into 4 Kilobytes!

If you haven’t started on your CRAPTASTIC game, then you still have a few days to enter this awesome comp. So get cracking (or coding)!

Entry #1: M4573RB4G3L5
Developer: Cout Games
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “The coding is handcrafted from the best 12-year old script kiddies that are known to exist and spelling of equal value if you look at the listing.”
A number guessing game, in which the C64 will get revenge if you don’t play it properly!

Entry #2: Colon 10
Developer: Cout Games
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “Hope this game is much more friendly than M4573RB4G3L5!”
Stop the C64 timer exactly for 10 seconds without going over. If you are over, even by a fraction, you lose.

Entry #3: Dog
Developer: Vanje Utne (Privy Software)
Status: Submitted
Run around in Shouty Human’s garden and poo as much as possible without getting caught. A very ‘craptastic’ entry from Vanja!

Entry #4: Granny’s Teeth
Developer: Richard Bayliss (TND)
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “After seeing loads of terrible games, created with Creations / Mastertronic’s / Mirrorsoft’s Games Creator, I thought it would be pretty funny if I actually created something that sort of simulated it, and squeeze it into 4K.”

Entry #5: Goblin
Developer: Vanja Utne (Pond Software)
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “It’s another game! Code/graphics/music by me. 4096 bytes of platforming action!”
The Goblin Town potato cellars have been invaded by giant potato bugs! It’s up to you to salvage as many potatoes as possible.

Entry #6: Valentine’s Day Shopping Simulator
Developer: Karmic
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “Only 2.13kb packed :)”
It’s Valentine’s Day, and time is running out to buy your girlfriend a gift. But will she like it?

Entry #7: Watschinator
Developer: Endurion
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “Have fun!”
Hit your opponent three times before he manages to do so to you. Classic fighter action gameplay!

Entry #8: Antarctica
Developer: Antarctica
Status: Submitted
Guide an Antarctic scientists on his damaged snowspeeder to collect the supplies!

Entry #9: Picross 4k
Developer: Oziphantom
Status: Submitted
The quirky Japanese puzzle game now on your 64. Work through the matrix and find the hidden image.

Entry #10: Zombie Massacre
Developer: Wanax
Status: Submitted
It’s a zombie apocalypse, and now they have weapons! Graphics and sound by Saul Cross.

Entry #11: Lumberjack
Developer: Majikeyric (Megastyle/Protovision)
Status: Submitted
Author Quote: “Rip off your grey and boring suit and reveal the red flannel shirt you are hiding under you clothes. Let your beard grow and equip yourself with a big axe and enter the woods. Just admit it, You’ve always wanted to be a LUMBERJACK!”
Enter the forest and start chopping wood, but beware of the branches! Graphics by Rotteroy and all sound by Drumtex.

Entry #12: Bonkey Kong
Developer: Graham Axten (Privy Software)
Status: Submitted
Graham’s take of the original Donkey Kong, with a twist!

Entry #13: Super Ski
Developer: Andreas Gustafsson (Privy Software)
Status: Submitted
Slalom Skiing down four treacherous slopes! Graphics and sound by Vanja Utne.

Entry 14: ? (Unknown at this stage)
Developer: Paul Koller
Status: Pending
Author Quote: “The following words are included in my c64 4KB game, in no particular order: work, nipples, died… :)”
Paul hasn’t disclosed much about his game, except for this small teaser screenshot and cryptically teasing that the theme of the game should be easily recognisable!

We know that there are more registered (and unregistered) entries that are still pending that aren’t included in this update, with developers working very hard to get their games ready on time.

We wish all of the entrants the best of luck and a big congratulations to those who have managed to get their games submitted!

Thanks again to the following sponsors for supporting this wonderful competition: Retro Computer Scene, Bitmap Books and Protovision. This is all for fun, but it’s nice to have prizes for the winners!

Reset Podcast Episode 01: The Hewson Episode

September 16, 2016 By ausretrogamer

If you have ever wondered what shenanigans go on behind the scenes in creating a retro computing magazine, then you are in luck! For those of you in the know, the Reset magazine crew got together for the inaugural podcast of the same name to chat about the making of Reset issue #9 (it was the Hewson Consultants theme issue).

If you weren’t in the know, now you know! Listen in and make sure you grab the issue for free over here!

source: Reset on Soundcloud

Blast From The Past: Hewson Consultants

July 1, 2016 By ausretrogamer

There were a number of big name publishers back in the day that had multiple chart toppers with an equal share of stinkers on the Commodore 64. The exception to this rule was Hewson Consultants (or simply Hewson as we affectionately called them). With absolute classics like Uridium, Paradroid, Ranarama, Cybernoid (this list could get quite exhaustive, such was their pedigree), Hewson was always going to leave a delectable and an ever lasting legacy on the C64. Their games had an undeniable quality to them which is probably why they are still spoken of so fondly even to this day, which is testament to the top notch software they pumped out for the 8-bit Commodore behemoth.

With a ton of games to choose from, our favourite Hewson title was the 1987 hit, Nebulus! We were suckers for brain teasing platform games, and Nebulus provided a mind bending experience in spades. The central character, Pogo was so damn cute and yet so very deadly – once we took control of him, we were addicted. Moving Pogo and jumping over obstacles to try and get to the top of each tower felt as natural as breathing. We remember the first time we saw the tower spin as Pogo walked left and then right, we were all wide-eyed with mouth open as if we were swallowing flies! This innovation was refreshing and executed inch perfect, which only Hewson could pull off.

To read the rest of this story, grab Reset #9 now and turn to page 28! Oh yeh, Reset is totally free!

For the latest on Hewson Consultants projects, check out their Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight now!

2016 Reset C64 4KB Game Coding Competition

May 4, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Dust off the C64 and grab that ideas pad where you scribbled down your game design all those years ago, as you now have the opportunity to enter the 2016 Reset C64 4KB game coding competition, AKA: the Reset Crap Game Compo!

This is going to be one mega CRAPTASTIC comp! Say what? Crap game comp? What gives? My game will be awesome! Relax, don’t get precious about it, the theme of the comp is craptastic, so the crappier the game, the better chance you have at being crowned the winner.

For those of you that want the lowdown on how to enter, just be aware that your game must not be greater than 4 kilobytes in size. Oh yeah, your game can (and should) be ludicrous, awful, bonkers and downright outrageous. The main aim is to have fun. So once you have your crap game done, make sure you email it to the Reset editor by no later than October 1 2016! So go on, get cracking, ahem, we mean coding!

For a complete list of the rules and regulations, go here. This Reset competition is proudly sponsored by:

There will be awesome prizes, including Reset physical issues for the top three winning entrants!

Reset C64 Magazine Issue 8: It’s Adventure Time!

February 7, 2016 By ausretrogamer

Ready, (Re)Set, Go! Rejoice C64 fans as issue 8 of the world’s most awesome free C64 magazine, Reset, is out now! Grab yours right now and go on a great adventure down memory lane.

In this issue, the Reset team take a look at Heroes & Cowards (Protovision), as well as Caren and the Tangled Tentacles (PriorArt) and Knight ‘N’ Grail (Psytronik). Ant Stiller delves deep into the murky depths of the D42 Adventure System and Ray Carlsen returns to tell us all about his replacement PLA chip. Martin Grundy makes his Reset debut, taking us back 30 years to January 1986 in his Reset Reloaded column. All your regular columns, news and reviews are still in there for this issue, so don’t miss out!

Reset C64 Magazine Issue 7 Out Now!

July 27, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Get your Reset issue 7 now, it is totally free! Extra! Extra!

Just when you thought that the free C64-centric magazine couldn’t get any better. Pow! Right in the kisser! Issue 7 of Reset celebrates the 30^th anniversary of Zzap!64 with an awesome front cover by Ant Stiller channeling Oli Frey, and contributions from former Zzap!64 writers and editors, you will not be disappointed. All your regular columns, news and reviews are still in there for this issue, so don’t miss out, go and download the mag now!

image source: Reset

Blast From The Past: Oo’er, Magazines

April 14, 2015 By ausretrogamer

Video gaming magazines may have become a thing of the past, but in the 80s and 90s there were thriving publications, full of information for gamers hungry for news, interviews, reviews & previews. The words contained within these magazines were the lifeblood for readers wanting to be connected and up to date on the goings on in the industry and their particular system(s) of choice.

The magazines were household titles and the British seemed to have had a monopoly on churning out quality publications – from their mesmerising covers to their ribald humour, there were many ingredients that endeared us to their magazines. I vividly recall rushing to the newsagent every month to grab the latest Zzap!64 (or simply just, Zzap!), Your Commodore, Your 64, Commodore Format and C&VG (Computer and Video Games). The cover price wasn’t cheap and they were three months old by the time they reached our shores, but goddamn they were worth every cent (and the wait)! Who could forget Yob ripping into the punters that dared to send in mail – absolutely priceless! I tried reading a few US based magazines, with the exception of RUN, I found the rest to be too serious, too dry and devoid of humour and fun, so the British magazines reigned supreme in this part of the world in the 80s and early 90s.

I knew it was going to be interesting when I posed the question of “what was your favourite Commodore 64 related magazine” to the Reset team. Once the dust settled and the passionate discussions quietened down, this is what each of them had to say about their favourite old school magazines:

Rob Caporetto: As a kid, I missed out on the golden age of C64 magazines (considering, I’m only a few years older than Zzap!, that shouldn’t be a surprise), so coming into things later on did make for a unique perspective on things.

I started out by borrowing a fair few issues of RUN from my local library. With its angle being less games, and more general Commodore usage, it was great to see a wider angle of the landscape (including more exotic peripherals), as well as learn some programming bits and pieces.

Games-wise, the first mag I really got into was Zzap! – even though it was way after its heyday (and in fact, probably at its lowest point, though it recovered a bit before changing into Commodore Force). It was solid enough, and whilst there were features I liked more than others (mainly the roundups covering genres or highlights in the C64’s history), it was solid enough reading each month.

I got into Commodore Format a bit later (mainly as it was trickier to find for a while) and overall, I think it was the better read at that point. Having regular columns devoted to programming tricks was great when starting to try and get a grip on C64 programming, along with Gamebusters (hey, I appreciated having cheat listings for the cover tape games for a change). Though, I do remember seeing the start of its descent as the C64 market died off – and of course was shocked to see how long it eventually survived for!

Kevin Tilley: I was a bit late to the party for the UK gaming magazines. By the time I discovered Zzap! and Commodore Format, they were already in decline and their best years were well behind them. But before that, my father used to religiously buy Compute’s Gazette! – which is the magazine I remember most fondly. Originating from the US, I grew up with this magazine, its type-ins and cover disks (which I could also use with my VIC20!). I spent countless hours typing in many programs in BASIC and machine code via Automatic Proofreader and MLX respectively, with my father. Not just games, but other programs such as Speedscript, which I went on to use for many years to publish school projects. The articles were informative and challenging.

Compute’s Gazette was a wealth of useful information, not just a collection of cheap gags, innuendo and mediocre game reviews which plagued the later era of UK gaming magazines. It had depth and substance, and will always be my favourite of the many different C64 publications I purchased over the years.

Merman: The first C64 magazine I saw was Zzap! issue 18, with the gory Beyond The Forbidden Forest cover. 25 years later I got to interview the artist Oli Frey and publisher Roger Kean at the Replay retro event, talking about the history of their magazines.

After buying a few issues of Your Commodore (which swallowed up Your 64), we subscribed to Zzap! from issue 31, getting a free Quickshot Joyball with the subscription. Zzap! became our guide to buying good games and it rarely steered us wrong. What made it special was the way there was more than one opinion on a game.

My first brush with publications came through Commodore Disk User. Starting out bi-monthly, this publication came with a disk full of programs (to save you typing them in) then became monthly and asked for reader submissions. I sent several programs, got signed contracts for publication – and then suffered the heartache of seeing the company fail.

Then in 1993, after a brief gap when Newsfield became Europress Impact, two things happened – I wrote to Zzap! suggesting a technical column, after their reader survey had asked if people would be interested. My letter went to Phil King, but it was Steve Shields who wrote back telling me about the other big news – Zzap! was rebranding itself as Commodore Force, and my technical column would feature from the first issue.

I wrote for all 16 issues of Commodore Force incorporating Zzap! as Professor Brian Strain (the Mighty Brian, so-called because of Commodore Format’s Mighty Brain). In fact, I wrote an extra 3 pages for issue 17 at 48 hours notice – but with deadlines close, that text became part of issue 16. I was a freelancer, writing my text using a C64 word processor (Word Writer v5) and printing it out to send in. The magazine closed, I wrote for several issues of Commodore Format before it closed and years later I became a regular on Retro Gamer. It was Retro Gamer that gave me the chance to be a Zzap! reviewer, appearing in the incredible DEF Tribute to Zzap! supplement.

I will always remember Zzap! for giving me the chance to be a professional writer, even if it can be a precarious profession at times.

Frank Gasking: In a typical UK answer, my favourite two magazines were both Commodore Format and Zzap! (later Commodore Force). I had previously read Lets Compute! and Your Commodore, which were shockingly bad at the time, but the main pull for Your Commodore was the free tape on the front.

Commodore Format caught my eye due to its brightly coloured red and white banner head. I spotted it in my local newsagent when I had popped down to get some sweets. I ended up buying issue 11 (with the Terminator 2 cover) due to it not only having a fantastic tape with two full games and two demos, but also a map of Fantasy World Dizzy, which was one of my favourite games at the time. It was aimed at a sort of teenage market, so the magazine was up my street. I loved it due to the regular excellent tapes, which were great for someone with not a huge amount of money to even get budget games. The tips section was fantastic, and reading about new games was a great thing. It sadly declined in my opinion after the redesign (and certainly when it shrank down in page size), but I have many fond memories of getting up at 7am to get it at the paper shop and dreaming what was on the tape!

Then comes Zzap!/Commodore Force – ironically, I first got the magazine with its Terminator 2 issue (78) – which was almost its last when Newsfield went under. The tape pulled me in, but it wasn’t as great as the Commodore Format tape. At the time, I didn’t feel the magazine was as good as Commodore Format, but it was different enough to be enjoyable. Once Mrs. Whiplash was rid of, the magazine actually got better and more so when they put two tapes on the cover each month, which was just amazing. I actually liked the transition to Commodore Force at the time (the quality of games were unbelievable as the market died – like Blues Brothers on one issue only a year after it first came out). Looking back, I would have preferred to have started with Zzap! in its heyday – but I was far too young!

Cameron Davis (Gazunta): Now I know it sounds a bit hyperbolic to say that my life would be not the same without Zzap! – it’s the magazine that inspired me to get into the games industry, and through it I made lifelong friends and a great career – but today i want to shine the spotlight on a truly under-appreciated Commodore mag: the one and only Commodore Computing International (CCI).

CCI looked different from the likes of Zzap!, Commodore User or C&VG. It was hard bound, for one thing, and considerably more drab looking than its competition. If there were any artistically-inclined people on the magazine layout team, I would be surprised. Every cover looked like it was laid out by a high school art student with scissors and glue, made from whatever promotional pamphlets were laying about the office at the time.

Inside, full colour screenshots were rare, and in fact the majority of each issue was spent on full-page text pieces sometimes paired with blurry, monochrome images taking up minuscule space in the corner. It wasn’t uncommon to see 10 pages of BASIC listings just…sitting there, waiting to be laboriously typed in. The news section had page after page of stories about new printers, mice, modems and dodgy light pens that cost a fortune but never worked right. It was not a visually enticing publication by any stretch of the imagination.

But there was…something that lured you in. Scribbles of the magazine’s mascot, Felix, adorned the pages with little sarcastic quips about the editors. He was not as funny as Rockford and Thingy, but he had more character, helped by the fact he had his own column in the magazine where he talked about the latest happenings in the software industry. All the writers were largely anonymous, and they were clearly just writing about what interested them, rather than what was considered ‘hot’ at the time. This ended up making the magazine feel really enthusiastic even if a lot of it went over my head.

One of the things that appealed to me about it is that it was obvious the magazine was aimed for (and made by) people much older than the Zzap! / CU crowd, who were not really the typical gaming demographic. I’d hazard a guess that many of them were just interested in the serious side of computers and just put games stuff in there as an afterthought, but their heart wasn’t really into such frivolous activities. With the exception of their keen interest in the latest role playing games (their monthly column devoted to exploring every inch of The Bard’s Tale was a must-read), even the best action or arcade games were afforded passing reviews, in a “I guess this is OK if you’re into this sort of thing, have fun with it” kind of way. You know, the way you might talk to your kids after they pressure you into playing the latest Pokémon game with them or whatever.

But that was kind of the appeal, at least for me: If Zzap! was the cool older brother who you idolised, then CCI was the slightly weird uncle who never moved out of his parent’s place and everything he said was a bit out of your comprehension but he was awesome anyway.

And speaking of weird but cool uncles, the jewel in CCI’s crown for me was the monthly column by Jeff Minter. While Zzap! pioneered the ‘diary of a game’ feature with his, CCI just gave Jeff a page (often more) to just let loose on any subject that took his fancy. His development antics (by this point he had well and truly moved on to the Amiga and Atari ST, and was heavily into the evolution of Colourspace) were often mentioned briefly if at all, and columns would instead be focused on the latest Pink Floyd gig, or the hot new exotic imports like Super Mario Brothers or the fabled PC Engine. Reading these really opened my eyes to a world beyond my own. There was one article in particular where he wrote about the future of computers, and predicted Google Earth and monitors with retina displays – it was pretty mind blowing stuff!

While CCI never got the fan following that the usual suspects enjoyed, I urge you to seek out a couple of issues and see a different side of the world from that era. You might just get a taste for it.

Roberto Dillon: In Italy we actually had a rather lively scene regarding C64 magazines back in the day. Needless to say, the Italian edition of Zzap!64, simply named “Zzap!“, was the favourite of many. Published from May 1986, it was a high quality localisation that left all the great content of the original British magazine intact and also added a few original articles, making the likes of JR (Jaz Rignall) and GP (Gary Penn) well known to a new crowd of fans.

But Zzap! wasn’t the first, and those like me who were also keen to tinker and mess around with their C64, had other resources as well: Commodore Computer Club for example, was a very good magazine, officially endorsed by the Italian branch of Commodore, that started publication as early as 1982. Besides game reviews, it featured technical articles including a few type-in listings. The latter also had magazines entirely dedicated to them, like the “Paper Soft” weekly series started in June 1984. Only listings there, nothing more, nothing less, for those who really wanted to spend the whole weekend at home by typing new games and programs that never worked at first but could provide a true cathartic experience when the last bug and typo were finally fixed!

It is saddening to see magazines going out of print or confining themselves to an online presence. Going to the newsagent isn’t what it used to be – nothing can replace flicking through magazines and having dog-ears on pages for future reference. For those that had foresight and kept their old magazines, I commend you – please ensure they never end up in landfill! For those of us that threw them out and are now wanting to rebuild their magazine library, I salute you! Nostalgia is a powerful force – it is great to see that our loyalty for certain publications was, and still is, as fierce as our loyalty for our chosen system(s). Let the schoolyard argument of which magazine is best, begin!

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Images source: various – supplied on request

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