PETSCII Side-Scrolling Platformer

The Commodore PET now has a multi-level side-scrolling platformer. Inspired by other side-scrolling platform games like Mario and Sonic. Run, jump, collect coins, crush henchmen, battle the bosses, rescue friends.

Download: pssp.prg
Source: jimbo.itch.io

Midnight Crimes, VIC-20

It is 1933 and prohibition is about to end. Organized crime syndicates are flooding the black market with their product and it is making them exorbitant profits one last time. At the very same moment Eliot Ness and his Untouchables find themselves in a battle of survival in the city. You are one of these untouchables and you have to get to the criminals before they get to you. So strap on both your holsters because you’re shooting it out every night.

Download: MidnightCrimes-vic20-24k.zip
Source: huffelduff.itch.io

2005 C64 Basic Games Compilation

A collection of 28 games ported from various BASIC dialects to the Commodore 64 in 2005.

1. Acey Ducey Card Game
2. A*Mazing
3. Awari
4. Ballistics
5. Batnum
6. Bowl
7. Bug
8. Simulation of Darts
9. Dicegame
10. Drag Strip

SNK vs CAPCOM for the Commodore 64/128 Released!

Jon Eggelton and Gianluca Alberico have finally released SNK vs CAPCOM for the C64/128, and for free! There have been many fighting games released for the Commodore 64, International Karate+ being the main go-to fighter. Now there is a new kid on the block! SNK vs CAPCOM looks absolutely stunning with it’s cartoony graphics and flowing gameplay. All this is possible using the excellent fighting engine known as Retro Fighter, which has been in development now for almost a year.

New features have been implemented and corrections have been made to many aspects of the gameplay. Flying parries, new/modified special and super moves, special and super combo chaining, special pre-fight animations and secret ending in hard difficulty level.
Download: svc.crt
Download: SNK vs CAPCOM manual.pdf
Lemon64: SNK vs CAPCOM

Empire Strikes Back Plus/4 Port by Sasvári Tamás Released!

Sasvári Tamás and team released the Empire Strikes back Plus/4 port today. Here’s a few words from the Plus/4 World Facebook group.

Undergoing graphic compromises, managing software sprites, reducing the color clash at its minimum, fighting against wicked bugs, in the very end Sasvári Tamás, our monumental TCFS Maestro, has ported Megastyle’s The Empire Strikes Back on Plus/4!

After a long run from far, by converting the old classic games, he has reached the contemporary game scene, converting a game released one year ago, and closing his circle of successes! And not to mention the fantastic contribution from Csabo of Legion Of Doom, spending here all his great skills into what we can easily define his own masterpiece!

Download the game here: the_empire_strikes_back.prg

Lancess Priya, Commodore Plus/4

Lancess Priya is a first person space shoot’em up, inspired by the Atari’s “Star Wars” coin-op (1983). Planet Eartha is under attack from the evil lord Luken Faija and his fleet of Battlestars. Lancess Priya is the only hope. Proceed through Space Battle, Battlestar Surface, and Battlestar Trench scenes, avoid enemy fire or deflect them by shooting, earn wave bonuses by destroying the required number of targets, such as enemy ships, tower tops and bunkers, destroy the Battlestar you need to hit the reactor core(s) at the end of the trench.

Lancess Priya, originally a Commodore 64 game, which was winner of the WiLD Demo Competition at Vammala Party 2023.

Download: lancess_priya.prg
Source: plus4world.powweb.com

Kung Fu Flash v1.48 Firmware released

Kung Fu Flash is a cartridge for the Commodore 64 by Kim Jorgensen. It can emulate different cartridge types, load PRG files and use D64 disk images. Just place your desired CRT, PRG or D64 files on a FAT formatted microSD card and use the built-in launcher to execute them. New in Update 1.48: Improve disk emulation to support saving high scores in Lode Runner.

Download: v1.48
More Info: Kung Fu Flash
Source: https://www.cascade64.de

Castle Master, An Eternity of Atmospheric Adventure. Amiga

This is one of the most iconic and nostalgically heavy-hitting 8 and 16-bit game covers for me - and games! CASTLE MASTER was published by Domark in 1990, and developed by Teque. There's a fair bit of backstory (written by Mel Croucher) but in summary, it casts you in the role of either a prince or a princess - your choice! And when you make your choice, your sibling is immediately whisked away by a dragon and carried over to the forbidding Castle Eternity. 

Your Quest? Rescue them!

Now, you're hit by one of my favourite things about Castle Master - the title and in-game tuneage by Matt Furniss. On the C64 version, you get a chiptune rendition whereas on Amiga, it's a sampled one. Both are great and so atmospheric. And even though it was the C64 version I first played, it's the Amiga rendition that sticks in my head the most. It's also the version of the game I recommend you play unless you have a LOT of patience.

Super Monza GP 2, Expanded VIC-20 32K

This is a racing game for the 32K expanded Commodore VIC-20. This game expands on the the original game by adding three more circuits (Monaco, Spa and Interlagos). Colliding with cars now results in damage, which can be repaired by entering the pits during the race. More damage equals slower maximum speed. ‘Race against the clock’ mode has been replaced by a ‘Championship’ mode, where you have to complete every race with a podium finish in order to continue. It will run on either a PAL or NTSC system, but it is designed to run on a PAL system. It will run slightly faster on a NTSC system and will play a little harder.

Download: SMGP2.zip

Denise C64/Amiga emulator with PAL shader and runAhead

Whenever I need to play my favourite C64 and Amiga games, using emulation, I have always relied on my three favourite emulators which I’m sure you’re used to, or at least heard of. WinUAE for Amiga, VICE or CCS64 for Commodore 64, and I’ve never really looked for anything else, as these all do the job perfectly. While browsing online looking for more News these last couple of days, I noticed the name Denise kept popping up in my rss feed. One emulator that runs C64 and Amiga, that’s unusual, it’s time to take a look.

I grabbed the denise_win64_v2.1.zip and extracted the contents to my emulators folder, and proceeded to load the emulator up. As I suspected there are a lot of settings to play around with for the Amiga emulation. Nothing new to me here, very much like WinUAE, it was pretty easy to set up and point the emulator to a new kickstart rom. I chose good old Kick 1.3 for my testing.

I must say the emulation for Amiga is very good, every .adf I threw at it, loaded first time, sound was great, everything is smooth, no issues. Setting up the Joystick was a bit of a pain though. I use a wireless Xbox controller on my pc and the emulator wouldn’t play ball with the analogue sticks, so I set the controls up on the d-pad instead and then everything was ok. So overall Amiga emulation was good, except one major issue, the mouse. I spent a good amount of time trying to get this to work with no avail.

In WinUAE it’s very easy, you click the emulator window, WinUAE locks your mouse into the window and you use your mouse within the emulator, F12 or clicking the mouse wheel unlocks it out again. Denise won’t let you do this, in fact it just doesn’t work at all, and I couldn’t find a setting anywhere to change this. A big problem, maybe I have missed something obvious somewhere, I have no idea. Maybe the coders behind Denise could drop a comment below to let us know how to sort this, as some games you just can’t play without a mouse click past the intro.

Moving onto the C64 side of things, I really don’t have much to say about this, everything worked, no real issues, well maybe one, the latency when shooting in some games can be a bit laggy, this could do with a tweak in the future, as some games really need that accuracy and timing, but overall C64 emulation is solid.

I would say this emulator still has a few teething issues, but it’s looking to be a good contender against the older well known emulators. I think in the future, this could be a number one choice. Head over to https://sourceforge.net/projects/deniseemu/ and take a look yourself.

Italodisco vol.1 by Trinity, Amiga Music Disk

Compilation of old Italian scene relics preserved from rotten floppies. Volume 1 of many. NOT inspired by the eponymous catchy tune.

Download: italod1sco.zip
Source: Pouet

Hopman, Commodore 64

Hopman is an Arcade game, which Inufuto coded for a lot of 8-bit computers. This is the Commodore 64 version. You are the white player starting in the bottom left of the first stage and your aim is to reach the exit on the right of each stage. For each flag you'll get 100 points. Walk right to reach the exit. You will also get a time bonus for the remaining past levels time.

Hopman can walk and jump. Sometimes it is useful to take one of the elevators, but be careful, you can fall down there quickly! Think ahead to go quick enough into the exits direction, as time is ticking.

The purple monsters from the game Lift are back too, they still want to catch and kill you. Download the game here: Hopman+4HD[EX].d64
Source: CSDb

Floppy Bird Preview 2

Ok you all know what Flappy Bird is right? If you have never heard of this game, then I assume you live in the Amazon rainforest or something. Floppy bird is like the game Flappy Bird, except you control a floppy disk. Don't ask me, I have no idea, just go along with it ok. In this version you have to avoid skulls and bugs, maybe an upcoming Halloween theme there? If you like this type of game, knock yourself out and download it here: Floppy Bird Preview 2.
Source: CSDb

QIXSCII, Commodore 64

QIXSCII is a PETSCII version of Qix, a 1981 Arcade game by Taito where you have to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield. QIXSCII was made in BASIC V2 code and is available as digital download. Also a Blitz compiled version is available.

Download: QIXSCII.d64
Source: romwer.itch.io/qixscii, cascade64.de

Retro Scape 64 Preview 2, Commodore 64

Retro Scape 64 is a match-3 game that is largely based on the well-known and popular smartphone game HomeScapes. The goal is to complete certain tasks for each level with the specified number of moves.

Download: RetroScape64 Preview 2
Source: CSDb

Magic Math, Commodore 64

Magic Math is a small mathematical skill game, which is also suitable for two players. In this game you control a small rectangle with which you have to catch passing numbers. These are added to or subtracted from the value in your rectangle, and you have to make sure that this value never goes below 0 or above 9. The levels get faster and faster, so be careful.

Download: Magic Math.d64
Source: cascade64.de

The Holy Cube, Commodore 64

One button action puzzler. Coded in kickassembler in the c64 game engine cry64engine.
Try to catch all pixel stars, circles. Try not to lose too many lives and you might finish the game! Tested on the usual emulators and an original Commodore 64.

Download: The_Holy_Cube_+3D_LAXITY.d64
Source: lemon64

Megastyles Empire Strikes Back Plus/4 Port Teased by Sasvári Tamás

Yep you heard right, Sasvári Tamás teased a recent video showing Megastyles hit Empire Strikes Back ported to the Plus/4! This is simply amazing, considering the graphics and sound limitations of this humble computer. We’ll let you know more as soon as there’s a release date.

Watch Video: Facebook
Megastyle Website

TED Vibes 2 by Exceed & Offence

The TED Vibes musicdisk got a sequel.

For TED Vibes 2, 15 musicians from 9 countries joined to create music for the TED chip. Some of them are veteran musicians from the SID and AY scene. The result was an exciting and stylistically very diverse collection of music. Brilliant graphics by Pal/Offence, a well-known pixel artist from C64 and Amiga scene.
Download: ted_vibes_2.zip
Source: plus4world.powweb.com
Pouet: TED Vibes 2

Rogue Declan Zero, Amiga

A challenging, procedurally generated, roguelite twin-stick shooter for the Classic Amiga platform!

The wizards have been at it again, and this time they’ve accidentally opened Hell Portals under the castle! Now it’s up to you, brave, brave Sir Declan, to delve into each procedurally generated castle dungeon and find enough magical shards to access and close its portal.

Features

• 50fps 2D hell-blasting action
• Forty billion procedurally generated dungeons
• Multiple control schemes, including the amazing new Abstraction Games twin-stick controller
• Many enemies to defeat and traps to avoid
• Upgrades to unlock as you progress
• Legendary magical artifacts to recover
• Hapless villagers to save
• Online high score table for the Roguest Declans
• WINNER of the AmiGameJam 2022

Minimum System Requirements
Classic Amiga OCS, Kickstart 1.3+, 512Kb Chip RAM, 512Kb Other RAM

Download: Rogue Declan Zero 1.01

Giana Power Edition 2023

Giana Sisters with 16 New Levels, and loads of trainers. Have fun!

Released by: Who Cares
Release Date: 15 September 2023
Download: wc-gianapowered!.d64
Source: CSDb

Ooze: The Escape, Amiga Version Updated.

In this first patch of the game, the difficulty has been tweaked on some of the harder areas of the map. There is also a couple of minor tile changes.

Download: Ooze-amiga.zip
Source: bubblesoftgames.com

Doomed PETSCII Pacman, Commodore 64

Who said that life is fair? You will be chased by 6 ghosts very quickly. You’ve got six lives and three mines, but I’m sure it won’t be enough.. Eating power pellets can have terrible effects, but is needed to level up. Have you got what it takes to be a champion? Download Doomed PETSCII Pacman now!

Download: Doomed PETSCII Pacman
Source: CSDb

Colodrio, A New Plus/4 Game released at Function 2023

Colodrio is a new Plus/4 puzzle game where you sort tiles by colours and brightness. It was recently released at Function 2023, a game development competition. More details here: plus4world.powweb.com

Download: Colodrio

Super 8 Football for the Commodore 64 Released!

Super 8 Football is an American football game using real NFL teams and players. There are 8 playoff teams from last season made up of 16 players with 8 on both offense and defense. The game requires two players. Download and more info here: interlacedgames.itch.io

RetroGamerNation C64 Round Up: September 2023. Latest News, Gfx and Games!

RetroGamerNation recently dropped their latest C64 round up video for September. There are some fantastic games reviewed in this video including Paw Noir, Lancess Priya, Bill & Ted, Psst and Fizz, as well as many more! Click play and enjoy.

YouTube: RetroGamerNation
Source: RetroGamerNation

All Aboard! The Last Train to Tranz-Central, ZX Spectrum

Who doesn't love a free game? A free game with TRAINS in SPACE? (Cue Tim Curry SPAAAAACE). The game I will gush about today is an excellent freebie from Quantum Sheep, a talented coder of what I always like to call 'New Retro'. 

I enjoy waxing nostalgic about the classics (and not so classics!) of yesteryear, but it's always important to remember that there's a flourishing scene of new games for old machines and consoles. There are heaps of new games to try before reaching for Jet Set Willy or Skool Daze for the umpteenth time.

Read more »

Pastfinder, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Back in time, my friends, to 1984, or should we say 8878? No - I was right the first time: 1984. A plucky chap, way back when created a game on one of the Atari 8-Bit computers called Explorer. Activision got hold of it and said - no chance - we're calling it PASTFINDER. Also, get someone to port it to the C64 – because we’re selling shed loads of them. And lo - they did.

David Lubar’s “Pastfinder” is an absolute gem of a game. Reviewed in the very first edition of Zzap64 it scored some 86% (it was reviewed many years later when released on Mastertronic’s MAD budget label and clocked up a whopping 93% - which is much more fitting!) earning itself a Sizzler to boot. It’s bloody brilliant. Bloody difficult. Bloody bonkers. But bloody brilliant.

A key contributing factor to this is simply the gameplay – it is so, so, so simple. Though, the background and actual thread of what you have to do always felt way more complicated in the 80s – I’m still not quite sure now. But the way your Pastfinder craft moves, with its vaguely arachnid-esque leg movements and stunning spinning horizontal movement - delightful; the frankly very basic, but excellently-designed planet surfaces and colour combos are interesting and some are dynamic: with moving parts causing terrain obstacles and forcing erratic avoidances; the limited SFX and repetitive noises – all add up to a cracking computer game steeped in that heavy metal / radiation / future gone tits up vibe. It is delicious.

Outrun on the Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Nothing makes this man go moist as much as hearing some decent retro-gaming music played out of a tri-channelled sound chip called SID. Wotcha!

"Splash Wave" and "Magical Sound Shower" are arguably (is anything not "arguably" nowadays?) two of the most well-known video game slices of aural delight out there and indeed, so is "Passing Breeze" which was scurrilously omitted from the C64 conversion. Sam is forever aggrieved.

We all likely recall seeing for the first time that huge arcade cabinet grounded on the barking mad arcade carpet and thinking - they've got an actual Ferrari in here!?!?!? I also remember never playing it, because it was 50p a go and not 10p a go (like Roadblasters or Bubble Bobble was), but I sure spent a good few minutes stood there standing, watching some other kid failing miserably at this glorious-looking SEGA racer.

Isometric Adventures in Sherwood - The Adventures of Robin Hood, Commodore Amiga

You may have seen the name in big lists of Amiga games. The Adventures of Robin Hood. It'll be some sort of Codemasters-alike platformer, you might think to yourself as you pass on by, thinking back to the likes of Super Robin Hood or Leander. But no, this is absolutely not a game in the classic Amiga library that you should be passing up on - and it's surprisingly revolutionary. 

Not strictly an Amiga game, The Adventures of Robin Hood was published by Millennium in 1991. It casts you as the eponymous heroic outlaw of legend, who has been kicked out of his castle by the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham and begins his new adventures having a bit of a mope by the castle walls. 

One thing you might have noticed about the Robin on the cover is that he seems to be a slightly odd fusion of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood in appearance and posed like Kevin Costner in the then-recently released Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie. 

Alan Rickman was so good in that, wasn't he?

Backup of Vitno Game Reviews Begins

So, as promised, the backup of written reviews from Vintage is the New Old has begun. This is something that will take quite some time. Some reviews are old and have dead links, broken video etc, which I will edit and update before they get the ok to be shared again on CommodoreBlog.

Currently we have two new (old) reviews by Alec, Pets Rescue for the C16/Plus/4 and also Nixy The Glade Sprite which is a ZX Spectrum game. Why are we sharing ZX Spectrum stuff on CommodoreBlog, I hear you scream! Well these reviews are just too good to lose and although CommodoreBlog is technically a Commodore website, just like the Twitter account, we occasionally like to share News and such about various other platforms. I am particularly fond of ZX Spectrum, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amstrad and MSX, so don't be too surprised to see these formats pop up now and then here. It's my blog, there are no rules! I have also added a few Amiga and Speccy reviews by yours truly. You can find them over on the Reviews page.

Retro Rewind: Alpharay, an impressive shooter for the Commodore Plus/4

Developed by the team that brought us Pets Rescue for the Plus 4, Alpharay is a visually impressive horizontal scrolling shoot ’em up that sees you power-up your Alpharay fighter with the objective to destroy the enemy robot fleet that is invading your home system. The game features six graphically gorgeous levels to battle through, a power-up weapon system and a great soundtrack driving the action gameplay all along the way. 

Download: alpharay.zip
Source: plus4world.powweb.com

High Voltage TED Collection, Listen to 908 Commodore Plus/4 Favourites!

High Voltage TED Collection (HVTC) is an attempt to create a pure TED collection. (Music for the Commodore C16, 116 and the Plus/4.) Created from the cleanest code that generates the music and archives it in a structured format. Currently there are 908 tunes available in the database.

Download: hvtc_20200819.zip
Website: plus4world.powweb.com

Scorpius, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Now – just hold on a minute, alright? Some of you that read this are going to fling your arms up into the air and start huffing and puffing about horizontally-scrolling shooters and R-Type and Katakis and Armalyte and all the rest of it. Some of you, will be sagely nodding your head, thinking back to the Entropic Days of Elysium whence you and a friend spent many a moment, both ports plugged with joy, bobbing along blasting enemies in subaquatic glee. A few might be trying to remember the power-ups; select chunks of humanity will have a repetitive, though not un-kind SID in their head, timed to the back and forth bob of their craft. Do you remember the days, my friends? When computer games cost us £1.99?

For me, Scorpius was a Saturday Pocket Money Punt – I had enough for one game, as was often the case and devouring the rack of budget titles that I didn’t yet have, something grabbed me about Scorpius. Now, this was way before I realised the pedigree associated with the game and it wasn’t until much, much later, by happenstance, that I made the connection between Scorpius and The Rowland Brothers (now, what else did they do..?) – when you look, the links are so, so obvious now.

FIZZ, A New Platform Puzzler Released for the Commodore 64!

Dive into a world of mind-bending challenges with Fizz, the innovative platform puzzle game for the Commodore 64. Test your wits and coordination as you explore 40 captivating single-player levels and 30 cooperative multiplayer puzzles.

Download: FIZZ-V1.0.0.zip

LED Storm, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Dateline 1989: LED Storm, ladies and gentlemen is an absolute banging C64 game and arcade conversion from those plucky people at Software Creations. Now, I'll be honest, unlike other arcade conversions, I am pretty certain I never actually played (potentially even saw) LED Storm in the local arcade "Dusters" back in Plymouth as I was growing up in 1988. However, I absolutely, and with great fondness, recall getting a copy of and playing for some hours at a time the C64 version.

Who cares about the premise? Not I, m'lud, I hear you cry and I tend to agree and frankly, the 'story' behind LED Storm is immediately forgettable. Something, I am sure, about a "Red car and a Blue car had a race... But all Red wanted to do was stuff his face...", oh and the ability to transform your vehicle from a cool, squat fat-looking (hyper) sports car into some sort of motorised cycle. And "L.E.D."..? Laser Enhanced Destruction Storm - of course!

Deadhead Preview, Commodore 64

A new finding for GTW, and a neat looking preview of a sooped up Defender style game. I had a quick blast, it's great fun! Grab the download and read more about it on GTW64.

Download: Preview_Deadhead.zip
Source: GTW

Tales of Gorluth III Dungeon of Reminiscence. Now available to download on itch.io for your Amiga!

Tales of Gorluth III, Dungeon of Reminiscence. A Linear Action Adventure for the Commodore Amiga. A very emotional and thrilling story about YOU and your way back to yourself! The final chapter of the award-winning franchise.

Source: amiworx.itch.io

Bill & Ted's Excellent Game Boy Adventure V1.2 +6D

Released by: Laxity
Release Date: 2 September 2023
Download: CSDb
Source: romwer.itch.io

To Boldly Go - Star Trek: The Rebel Universe, Commodore 64

Space... The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Singleton. Its mission... To explore new frontiers in space adventure immersion... to seek out new bytes... etc.

Star Trek: The Rebel Universe set forth on a voyage to Atari ST space in 1987, followed by excursions to the Commodore 64 and DOS PCs the following year. No Amiga version, sadly! And it's the Commodore 64 port that I'm going to wax lyrical about today as it was the version I first played in 1989 and have the most fondness for - and my first ever Star Trek game.

Published by Simon & Schuster in North America and by Firebird in Europe, The Rebel Universe has you taking on the roles of Captain Kirk and the rest of the command crew and tasks you with a deadly mission: You have five years to uncover the cause of a spreading wave of mutinous behaviour that is causing Federation captains to go rogue - Klingon scheming is suspected! An entire sector of space has been quarantined and the sector's isolation will become permanent unless you complete the mission - trapping the Enterprise inside forever!

A C128D Comes Home - June from Nybbles and Bytes with Bil Herd

New video from Bil Herd. "June from Nybbles and Bytes joins me as I unbox the C128D given to me by Commodore that has been out in the wild for 40 years. Thanks to Santo who found and sent my old C128D back to me and young Joshua who kept it safe all these years."

YouTube: Bil Herd

Amigos: Everything Amiga, Tiny Troops!

A new episode of a new episode of Amigos: Everything Amiga is now available. Topics covered in this episode: StarCraft on Amiga? Tiny Troops, Atomix is a Nuclear Dud, Driller - Freescape 3D Open World in 1988 and Gauntlet II on the Amiga.

Source: Amigos: Everything Amiga

Zapped to the Past Episode 119 March 1989

A new episode of Zapped to the Past Podcast is now available. Games covered in this episode: Rocket Ranger, Spaceball, Soldier of Light, Super Stunt Man, Star Ray, Super Sports, Menace, Operation Hormuz, Wec Le Mans, R-Type and Robocop.

Listen: Episode 119
Source: zappedtothepast.com