Commodore 64 – Page 7 – Something Odd!

Batman Forever

Batman Forever is an amazing looking Amstrad CPC demo made last year and won first place in the CPC Demo compo at Forever 2011.

Stunning artwork, great effects but perhaps a little bit of the old school yard “my computer is better than your one” in there too. Not too fond of the Commodore 64 are they? 😉

Also check out pushnpop.net, an Amstrad demoscene website! It even has an article on cross-platform development using Linux and Vim!

Thanks Keith for leaving a comment in my last post about this demo. Well worth watching!

In related news, the 1541-II I ordered last week arrived this morning. I’m waiting on the zoomfloppy USB interface to connect it to my laptop now. Fingers crossed it’ll work and it’s not too late for my 20 year old Commodore 64 5 1/4 discs. I tend to agree that if it wasn’t for piracy ancient games would be lost to history now ..

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?

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.

Reverse Engineering the MOS 6502

This is the first part of a great presentation given by Michael Steil at 27C3 last year. The 6502 was the CPU used on many 8 bit computers of the eighties like the Commodore 64, Apple I and II and NES.

It’s an hour long presentation split into 6 parts, I’ve only watched the part above but it brings me back 20 years when I used to code in assembler using an Action Replay cartridge on my C64.

Check out this post for the rest of the presentation. I’ll be watching them later tonight.

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.

Last Ninja Main Theme on Classical Guitar

mymorningjackets did an absolutely amazing job arranging the theme tune from C64 classic game The Last Ninja. Wonderful stuff.

I would love an MP3 version of this.

Microprose Soccer, World Cup 2010 Edition

Wow, I’m impressed. AEG Soft have modified the original C64 version of Microprose Soccer and updated it. It now has the teams that will appear in this year’s World Cup in South Africa!

My brothers loved this game back in the day, and I played it a small bit too. If I was a football fan I’d probably boot up Vice to play it too. Anyone going to try it?

Retro Gamer has a big feature on the Gho…

Retro Gamer has a big feature on the Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins series of games. The C64 version of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins was the first game I tried hacking into with my Action Replay to see how it worked. I think I only threw out the notes I made from that time a few weeks ago.

Ah nostalgia.