Tag Archives: C64

Amazing C64 and Speccy Pixel Art

Computers have always been home to amazing artwork. The C64 has so many graphics modes that artists were spoiled for choice near the end of the machine’s life. Luckily, artists are still working on the machine and releasing stuff even now!



You can find some amazing Commodore 64 artwork on c64pixels.com and it’s even sorted by graphics format like hires, FLI and others.

There’s also a comprehensive and detailed collection at CSDB of course but it does have a gallery. You’ll have to click through to each image to view it.





Here’s a wonderful ZX Spectrum gallery. The Speccy was known for attribute clash but despite this you can create really amazing work if you know what you’re doing. Check out this Binary Zone tribute to Speccy artist David Thorpe. You will recognise the loading screens!

Mastering Machine Code on your Commodore 64

Before the internet became popular and the web was still in diapers I had a Commodore 64 at home. “Mastering Machine Code on your Commodore 64” by Mark Greenshields was the first programming book I owned that wasn’t full of BASIC listings and opened my eyes to the wonders of low level assembly development. It was a daunting task learning machine code on my own but I devoured the book and learned so much by looking at the code in demos and games of the time.

The book was originally published in 1984, and I discovered it in a small bookshop next to Paul Street Shopping Centre in Cork sometime in 1990 or 1991. I still remember the excitement I felt at finding any book on the subject. The city library had books on computers, even one or two on building robots and things you could connect to a computer but nothing that explored the C64 in depth.

Based on what I learned in that book and from hacking demos with the aid of an Action Replay I was able to do quite a bit. Nothing amazing but I’m proud of what I did along with others in my demo group way back 20 years ago. I was 16 at the time. I wonder what I’d be hacking on now if I was that age?

You can find a zip file with all our demos in this post. Commodore 64 emulator required!

While flicking through the book I stumbled upon a favourite section, the one on interrupts which I’ve scanned and posted the first two pages of in this post. Here’s another doc on this subject, with the same example code flashing the border 60 times a second. Happy memories.

What was your first programming book?

Ghosts ‘n Goblins is much easier..

Games are a hell of a lot easier when they’re trained! Ghosts ‘n Goblins was one of the first games I dived into to see how it worked back in the day. Earlier I played a remix of it’s soundtrack and fired up the game afterwards. I remembered it was hard but compared to games today it’s a demon!

Luckily it was trained and my son and I had an enjoyable half hour shooting the baddies and jumping from platform to platform. I wish the compatible joysticks from back then had more than one button, left/right and up to diagonal jump is a PITA!

In case you’re wondering, a trained game is where the game has been hacked and various cheats added. Usually a fancy intro with swirling graphics and music is added at the start and the group that has hacked the game give you the option of adding infinite lives, time, invulnerability or whatever suits the games. Practically every C64 game you’ll find online has these features now. 🙂

Prince of Persia for the C64

Prince of Persia, an amazing game released in 1989 on the Apple II and ported to most platforms of the day but not the Commodore 64 for some reason.

In 2 days time the game is due to be released on the C64 in EasyFlash format, a cartridge format for the C64 but luckily Vice also supports it so I’ll be able to play it under emulation. Looks great doesn’t it?

Edit: Announcement post and download page for C64 Prince of Persia!

I was a big fan of Stunt Car Racer on th…

I was a big fan of Stunt Car Racer on the C64, and later played it on the Amiga too but I never knew about Stunt Car Racer TNT.

TNT is an extra tracks mod of the Amiga version released a few years ago by AmiGer. Here’s his announcement post:

Stunt Car Racer TNT (The New Tracks) will be released around christmas.

Modifications

Eight new tracks:
DIZZY DESCENT, WITTY WAY, CRAZY CAPER, AMAZING ADEPT, JERKILY JUMP, EVILLY EPISODE, TEASING TEMPER and RAT RACE

Track parameters changed:
start positions, start height, damage sensitivity, boost count

AI speed adjusted/changed for all tracks

Some visual adjustments
e.g. race colours, track names gfx dropped, title screen modified etc.

AGA fixed

Cracked 🙂

Long time readers will know my dislike for Blur and I’ve hardly played NFS Hot Pursuit since I got it last month but Stunt Car Racer gripped me like no other racer since. It required perfectly timed boosts, cornering and was literally a rollercoaster of a ride.

Rocky Memphis and The Temple of Ophuxoff

If you’re an older gamer who loved the classic gameplay of Rick Dangerous and other platformers you’ll love Rocky Memphis and The Temple of Ophuxoff, a freeware game made by Trevor (Smilia) Storey and Stuart Collier.

It’s a huge 600 screen platformer to explore so this won’t be finished quickly. It’s “casual gamer” friendly too as there are infinite lives and you can save the game at any time, and you can upload your top scores to the game website. It’s also available for Windows and Mac OS X so you (probably) don’t have any excuse for not trying it!

Here’s an interview with the authors including titbits about their Last Ninja remake, and news of their Myth remake too. They also shed some light on sales of the commercial Armalyte remake. If I had a PC I’d buy that in an instant!

VVVVVV Preview

I have a new favourite game and it’s VVVVVV. I’d never heard of this game until this post brought it to my attention.

Apparently it’s an indie hit on modern platforms, but here it is for the venerable C64! Having played it I’m tempted to buy the modern original game and I’m looking forward to seeing the final C64 version!

So, go grab a C64 emulator like Vice or any of the other ones out there and give it a whirl. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about check out the faq on c64.com.

Great game.

I’m starting to get into the Campaign i…

I’m starting to get into the Campaign in Halo Reach now. I have to admit that after the space battle I was sort of disappointed there was no Elite style docking sequence and classical music to accompany me in…


(From the BBC version, which didn’t have the excellent music of the C64 version)

Oh, I played Halo Reach multiplayer last night and had my ass whooped again. I did get one lucky break. I had my sights on one guy and another stepped in front of him and I got a double kill! Wooh!
After that trouncing I booted up the PS3 and hopped into Onslaught where I had some great games, beating my best scores on Isla and Valparaiso!

What’s Double Dragon?

It was with amazement I read that question on the hupit forum a while back.

What? You’ve never heard of Double Dragon? Arcade beat ’em up from the late 80’s?

Double Dragon was only one of the most anticipated arcade conversions of 1989. A two player beat ’em up, heroes (Billy and Jimmy Lee) fighting against hoards of baddies to rescue Billy’s girlfriend.

Exciting, heady stuff!

Of course, when it finally hit the C64 it was a less than stellar conversion. All the moves were in there but there was this annoying gap in the torso of each character. The programmers even added a note in the game manual about it!

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