Contents

- Title Page

- Editorial

- Commodore Free E-Cover Tape #5

- Readers Comments

- NEWS

- Book - Commodore: The Amiga Years - To Be Released

- Gangnam_64-Style

- Lotek64 Issue 44 Released

- Video of the Commodore Gaming Party 2007 CBM

- SEUCK 2013 Competition Entries

- Tetwels Released For The VIC 20

- Ladybug Released For The PET

- CommVEx 2012 Videos Being Posted

- Setup your own sprite in C64 BASIC YouTube Video

- New V.A.M.P. 0.94 available

- Happy Easter

- Club Info 129 Released

- Asteroids +4 Emulator

- [Commodore] SX-64 Commercial (Amateur)...Update

- More CommVEx 2012 Videos

- JPEG2000 Plugin Released

- Amiga 1200 Badges

- Review: Stair Runner for the PET — From Revival Studios

- Interview with Jeremy Smith — RetroFit Project

- Review: Ladybug for the PET

Editor

Nigel Parker

Spell Checking

Peter Badrick

TXT, HTML & eBooks

Paul Davis

D64 Disk Image

Al Jackson

PDF Design

Nigel Parker

Website

www.commodorefree.com

Email Address

commodorefree@commodorefree.com

Submissions

Articles are always wanted for the magazine. Contact us for details. We can’t pay you for your efforts but you are safe in the knowledge that you have passed on details that will interest other Commodore enthusiasts.

Notices

All materials in this magazine are the property of Commodore Free unless otherwise stated. All copyrights, trademarks, trade names, internet domain names or other similar rights are acknowledged. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission.

The appearance of an advert in the magazine does not necessarily mean that the goods/services advertised are associated with or endorsed by Commodore Free Magazine.

Copyright

Copyright © 2013 Commodore Free Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

Issue 70

http://www.commodorefree.com/
Free to download magazine dedicated to Commodore computers

Available as PDF, ePUB, MOBI, HTML,
TXT, SEQ and D64 disk image

Editorial

I received a number of comments about the magazine a few are listed in this issue under the rather less than surprising title of Readers comments! Read them through and then help me decide what you think of the comments (bit cryptic but you will understand after reading the comments)

The news section has a brief look at some of the more recent SEUCK entries and if you feel compelled to look for more information you can find some here http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/Seuck_Compo_2013.html thanks to Richard Bayliss for hosting the competition and keeping the interest in SEUCK going, although I know many will moan and complain about SEUCK, but in the right hands you can create something playable, it's an art form, thats for sure working within the limitations of the system and the constraints of the hardware, not easy but it does make anyone able to create a program, even if the quality is questionable!

Hurray the cover tapes are back!

Yes this issue has some more files in Tap format to download, including one of the SEUCK competition games, I have received a few emails from people asking why this feature was removed, well it hasn’t been it's just all down to people’s time.

Interviewed

We have an interesting interview with Jeremy Smith who does what he calls Retro fit games, This is an interesting project, taking old games and making them work under emulation on new hardware BUT. He actually dissembles the game and makes the games graphics better fit larger screens. So why not jut expand the screen to fill the device! Well you need to read the interview don’t you.

Reviewed

A few games have been reviewed and that’s about your lot for this issue, of course with the usual sprinkle of news, bad spelling and appalling grammar but you expect this so why change what you're used to.

Regards

Nigel, Editor

www.commodorefree.com

Commodore Free E-Cover Tape #5

By Richard Bayliss

While you were still enjoying E-Cover tape #4. Yet another great cover tape is in store for you this issue. And it gets even better. We hardly have proper exclusive material, this issue, but there are some good programs for you to enjoy. Once again, we dedicate this issue of Commodore Free to games from the past and present. So what is in store for you this issue then? We have a driving SEUCK game, a space blaster, a cute platform game and a game inspired by Gremlin's “Bounder”. Press SHIFT+RUN/STOP and let those loading stripes commence.

SPY Rider

by Alf Yngve, Music by Richard Bayliss

This is a SEUCK game, which originally got submitted to the SEUCK Competition 2013. It features a brand new tune, and has been improved by Alf slightly. In this game, you play a spy who has managed to get an assassin locked up in a prison back in Sweden. Unfortunately, just as you get back to England, you didn't realise that the assassin had various spies – out to mow you down.

This game requires two joysticks. Joystick port 2 will control the main player's car, and joystick port 1 will control the cross hair. The cross hair's purpose is to shoot spy helicopters on sight. During the journey across the busy junctions, and roads, you will have to shoot the bad guys who want to stop you from reaching your HQ. Can you blaze your way through the highway and reach freedom, or will the assassin win this time?

Additional info: As indicated on the loader scroll text. This game is planned to be improved and released as a bonus title for a future commercial Alf Yngve SEUCK games compilation, “SEUDS #3”, which plans to have additional enhancements and power ups, to enhance game play more.

Warspite

By Phil!88/Fusion

This is a cool space shoot 'em up which was originally written for the commercial market, but sadly it never got released. No market was interested. So it become a Public Domain game.

Mission briefing:

An intergalactic war between man and aliens have commenced. Earth discovered that an invasion is imminent, so we have sent a fleet of our own space hyper crafts into the enemy base, inside Starship Xenone. As soon as you approached the enemy base, war breaks loose. The alien empire are ready for you to do battle against them, before you can destroy their base.

Guide your ship carefully through each level, blasting away at the aliens. If you miss any aliens, you will not be able to pick up any bonus power ups. Otherwise take what is available to you, for future waves. Yes, that's right. It is a big battle. Can you break through all of the alien waves and destroy their base, or will Earth be their new home and man kind be blazed out?

James Fly

by Samar

Back in 2005/2006 I was given kind permission to release this game on to the last cover disk “Issue 53 to be precise” of Commodore Scene. Although I did compile the cover disk for issue 53, along with some great programs. This sadly never happened.

The good news is that now, today you are able to enjoy this excellent fast paced platform game, with really nice graphics and good game play.

You are James Fly. Trapped in a crazy world full of assorted monsters. He makes his escape. You are able to pick up items strewn around the huge platform maze for extra points. Out to stop you are some monsters. You can simply trample on them to let them go, but getting everything from the platform maze is a real challenge. Luckily the map on screen is out there to help you – if you know what I mean). Can you complete this huge maze, without losing all of your energy. Or will you be trapped in there forever?

Trac Troopa

by XraYZ Software, Music by Richard Bayliss

This is a game inspired by the classic game, Bounder. As far as I know. This game never found a commercial release but back in 2004, we were contributed this game for the TND web site. I added the music, and here it is on this issue's cover tape.

You are a cyborg trooper, who has to travel across a track from area 0 to area 9. The trouble is that crossing the track is pretty challenging. There are assorted aliens, in which need to be shot down to make the track easier. But first, you will need fire power.

This is where the pads on the floor will help. The blue rocket objects represent the lasers, the purple high objects represent the walls (avoid smashing into those), the green circles will make you jump. Cyan is Ice (Slippy). Yellow is replenishment for your shield. While you are playing the game, you will discover what each object on the platform does to take effect. Are you willing and able enough to reach from the very first zone to the very last, or will you fail?

Next issue:

We have a very BIG surprise in store for you next issue. All I can say is that we'll keep it quiet. You will have to wait and see what happens. Enjoy this issue's cover tape.

Readers Comments

COMMODORE FREE: I have re-worded some of these comments and also removed “swear words” but the essence of the text is as they were sent in, also some of the emails were very long winded and so had to be truncated down.

From: Danny
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Magazine

Dear Commodore Free

I have been reading the magazine for some time; but have a comment to make; I think you have far too many adverts in, because of this it pains me to read through them all; and if this continues then I will have to revaluate if i read you magazine or not also please do not list my email

COMMODORE FREE: Ok point taken but...............

From: motley 273
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Commodore Free Magazine

Commodore Free

I enjoy reading the magazine and I must thank you for the adverts that have guided me to items I would have missed had I not seen them in the magazine; like the commodore Amiga emulator by Cloanto I had not seen this before reading your magazine and ordered a copy

COMMODORE FREE: Ok so it’s more and less of the same then, I guess it’s impossible to cater for all users, maybe the adverts should all be at the back of the magazine? But would someone miss them then? The other problem is although the magazine is free web-hosting isn’t, and so the adverts help pay for this although it's minimal as I only charge £1 per page per month; but every little helps.

From: Dave Tomlinson
To: Commodore Free
Subject: C=Free

I like the way you have a good mix of items covering all commodore hardware, I enjoy reading about all systems

COMMODORE FREE: Then I received this email

From: StanleyD232111
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Mixed up mag

COMMODORE FREE producers

A frustrating thing about the magazine is the way you constantly mix up news and reviews instead of having sections for vic, pet, c64 etc. I only read the c64 sections and do not look at the other sections as I have no interest in them

COMMODORE FREE: Hi thanks for the comments; well the magazine as it says caters for all machines, I think the majority of readers are interested in all aspects of commodore hardware and software, I know I like reading about anything Commodore relate, unless it’s that group of singers, I am sorry I draw the line there.

NEWS

Book - Commodore: The Amiga Years - To Be Released

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bernardo
Sent: 14 April 2013 01:31
To: COMMODORE FREE
Subject: Book - Commodore: the Amiga Years - to be released

It's been a long time in coming, and there was publishing delay after delay, but now Brian Bagnall's new book, "Commodore: the Amiga Years", is set to be released on July 1. This is confirmed by Brian's website at

http://variantpress.com/books/commodore-the-amiga-years/

and by the latest e-mail from amazon.com which I received a few days ago and which had this link -

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0973864990/ref=pe_259560_29109160_pd_re_dt_lm6

The book not only tells about the Commodore Amiga but also the Commodore 8-bit computers which CBM built after 1984, the year at which Brian's previous book, "Commodore: a Company on the Edge", had stopped in the history of the company. Commodore: a Company on the Edge is still available, for example at

http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/dp/0973864966/

I've pre-ordered my copy of Commodore: the Amiga Years!

A fine book to show at CommVEx 2013,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Gangnam_64-Style

This is a mini demo

Contains scrolling text and a static image but the gangnam style music in SID format!

Actually sounds better than you think

And While the demo may not have the fancy animated Dancing style of Psy it does have 3 people posing in one of his signature dance moves

Credits :

Code

Richard of Blazon, People Of Liberty, Psytronik Software, Scene World Magazine, The New Dimension

Music

Richard of Blazon, People Of Liberty, Psytronik Software, Scene World Magazine, The New Dimension

Graphics

JSL of Creators, Raiders of the Lost Empire, Scene World Magazine, Software of Sweden, Tropyx

Text

Richard of Blazon, People Of Liberty, Psytronik Software, Scene World Magazine, The New Dimension

Charset

Richard of Blazon, People Of Liberty, Psytronik Software, Scene World Magazine, The New Dimension

Download :

http://csdb.dk/getinternalfile.php/115233/Gangnam_64-Style.d64

Lotek64 Issue 44 Released

Credits :

Design

Lord Lotek of Lotek64 Magazine Staff

Idea

Lord Lotek of Lotek64 Magazine Staff

Text

Lord Lotek of Lotek64 Magazine Staff Martinland of Lotek64 Magazine Staff

Concept

Lord Lotek of Lotek64 Magazine Staff

Paper Art

Martinland of Lotek64 Magazine Staff

A new edition of the German commodore pdf magazine Lotek64 is now available to download

The articles in this edition include:

Lo*bert, Editorial, News, Zockotron 4, Commodore Hardware Retrocomputing, Street Fighter X Mega Man, Noctropolis, Breakoutparadies C64, Retrowelle – YouTube (2), Retro Treasures: Computer TitleBout (C64), The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, Captain Crunch, Home Computing extrem, SuperMarioScapes, Forgotten Worlds, Chipmusik, SIDologie and Videogame Heroes #10: Guybrush Threepwood.

http://www.lotek64.com/hp/fileretriever.php?extended=0&issue=44
http://www.lotek64.com

Video of the Commodore Gaming Party 2007 CBM

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bernardo
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Video of the Commodore Gaming Party 2007

Back on July 12, 2007, after the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Commodore Gaming had a party to celebrate their Commodore Gaming PCs that had just come out. Not only did they show off their gaming PCs, but they also exhibited a C64 and PET which the partygoers could use.

For the party, they invited several C= luminaries -- Seth "Naughtyboy" Sternberger of 8 Bit Weapon performed his music, and CBM engineer Bil Herd and engineer Jeri Ellsworth spoke. "Commodore Gaming Party 2007" can be found at

http://blip.tv/episode/6567339

The party room at the Santa Monica restaurant was very dark, and so, the video is very grainy.

My original report can be found at

http://www.commodore.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1139

and photos of the party can be found at

http://www.dickestel.com/gamingparty07.htm

Those were the days,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

SEUCK 2013 Competition Entries

Not an exclusive list you need to look at the homepage for more information,

Competition Homepage

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/Seuck_Compo_2013.html

Some of these entries have made their way into the news today and in past issues of Commodore Free but I did receive an email asking for more information; so I have reprinted again in this news round up!

So then:

Some of the more recent entries are looked at here, albeit briefly!

Just a quick heads up about SEUCK and a small history lesson, picked from the competitions web site

SEUCK History Lesson

In 1987, Sensible Software produced a utility called The Shoot Em Up Construction Kit. This program allowed people to write their own games without the aid of any programming knowledge. All you were able to do with SEUCK was draw your own players, enemies, create your own background and of course transform it all into a standalone game. SEUCK has been the main culprit for so many shoot 'em up games on the Commodore 64. If you take a look at Gamebase 64, and search "Created with SEUCK", you will get hundreds and hundreds of SEUCK games. Some good and quite a lot of terrible ones as well. SEUCK could only create vertical scrolling shoot 'em up games, but people even had original ideas for SEUCK games, which were made possible. In 2008, the Sideways Scrolling SEUCK was born. Here are some examples of standard SEUCK and Sideways SEUCK creations.

You may also like to look at this website

http://www.seuckvault.co.uk/

The website has more information about how to use the system; and downloads to the files needed to run the software on your C64 along with some tutorials.

Sheer Earth Attack

SEUCK Version

Sideways SEUCK

Game by

Gaetano Chiummo

Music: by

Gaetano Chiummo

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

It is the year 2261. According to the prophecy, the Earth is going to be destroyed! The prophet didn't give many details, except that the menace will arrive from the sky. The scientists are gazing at the stars, but the army has got its eyes on a civilised alien race, which has started studying a new source of energy. They never threatened the Earth, nor any other civilised planet around, but what if this new energy has got the power to rule the universe? So, the army's sending a space ship (along with a rotating combat module) out to space, to seek and destroy this mysterious weapon. And, guess what!, the pilot is YOU! ( Full instructions are in the production itself and.txt document) :)

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Sheer_Earth_Attack.zip

COMMODORE FREE: This is a nice sideways scrolling shoot em up complete with power ups and end of level mother ship, unfortunately with SEUCK the more things on screen the slower the game goes, but it's only really noticeable when you are at the level end, things get a bit slow and jerky, the graphics look good and the game plays really well. The title screen music is funky although it doesn’t really fit in with the game it's a decent tune, mind you crazy comments music was way out there in the match made in heaven stakes, this tune does remind me of the crazy comments tune, the in game sounds are functional

Spy Rider SEUCK competition

SEUCK Version

Standard SEUCK

Game by

Alf Yngve

Music: by

Richard Bayliss

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

It is a tough job being a spy. You successfully captured an assassin from the Swiss Connection and now he's banged up in a high security prison. Your mission was successful. You get back on to the plane from Switzerland, to North England and start driving back to your underground top secret HQ. Unfortunately you're not alone as the assassin, who you got banged up wants his revenge. He has sent out some of his best hench people to try and stop you getting home. By road and also airborne as well. Your mission is to survive through the whole journey and shoot down the enemy vehicles. While player 2 has to shoot the incoming airborne helicopters, who are out to gun the spy vehicle down. You got yourself into a big mess, now get yourself out of it if you can.

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Spy_Rider.zip

COMMODORE FREE: Well the music does have a spy type of vide especially with the filter effects, pushing on to the game another tune that still fits the spy theme in an odd sort of way, It's got helicopters, boats and very narrow roads, another enjoyable game. The car moves around really well and the game is varied enough to keep you guessing

Zombie Brain Eaters

SEUCK Version

Sideways SEUCK

Game by

Andy Vaisey

Playtested by

Andrew Fisher / SEUCK Vault

Music: by

Richard Bayliss

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

After a horrific experimental vaccination had gone wrong. The citizens who had the vaccination have been transformed into un-dead dangerous zombies. Thankfully you didn't take the drug. You have been assigned by the police to save the city from a huge infestation of Zombies. Armed with a gun you have to destroy each one as quick as possible, before they bite you back. Once all your energy is drained - you will become a zombie yourself and game over. So don't just stand there - let's go and frag zombie ass. :)

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Zombie_Brain_Eaters.zip

COMMODORE FREE: Wow now this is pushing the box out, Great spooky title music, that drifts in and out it's a scrolling sideways game with zombies appearing in front of you and walking along the roads, some odd things happen like your gun target disappears behind bins and to shoot the popup zombies you have to shoot their arms then torso then hands then head! Heck that’s a lot of shooting, congratulations on the format though really off the wall idea with SEUCK, I also love the trance techno music with the Documentation check out the tap file and the graphics file as well, pity they couldn’t all be combined into one file or menu system!

Synergy SUECK c64

SEUCK Version

Standard vertical scrolling SEUCK

Game by

Alan Simek

Music: by

Drax (Intro music), Wacek/Arise (Title music), Fanta (In game music)

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

You were exploring the Space Station, "Synergy" until you were held captive by the alien forces. Luckily you managed to break free from the laser powered cell, and found yourself a space craft to escape. Unfortunately the space station consists of deadly cargo. Being transported by the transporters. You find you have a mission, in which is to destroy the cargo carriers and fire those rockets at the aliens. Is there a way to escape from this hostile space station? Good luck pilot

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Synergy.zip

COMMODORE FREE: Nice spacey music on the title screen, pressing on ohhhh nice title screen and graphics, in game music is just superb very spacey almost to much space, the graphics look amazing on the backgrounds not so much the ships though, really nice use of colour and depth the static picture doesn’t do this any justice at all, it does suffer from some graphical glitches and slow down but this is more the SEUCK engine than anything else, it's a top down scroller I kept going back to this mainly for the graphics and music more than the game still it's a very commendable effort

Amazon Gold SEUCK C64

SEUCK Version

Sideway SEUCK

Game by

IndyJR/FanCA

Music: by

Shade/Flash Inc (Intro), Scortia/Bonzai (Title music)

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

It is the year 1933. You are Greg Troublynsky. An intrepid explorer who is having trouble. Trouble with money in fact. Until one day his old uncle sadly passed away, and left in his possession, a map. A map to the secret temple of gold. Your quest is to trek through the amazon to the temple in search for the missing gold. There are 3 levels in which you enter, but beware. Traps have been set, and also the bomber planes are out to stop you as well.

Treasure map.

After you crashed your plane in jungle you must find lost pyramid full of gold and take this treasure to home.

Controls:

Joystick in port2

- up: jump/climb

- down: crouch

- left: move left

- down: move down

- fire: shot

Game Download

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Amazon_Gold.zip

The game downloads as a ZIP file with both the D64 and the Tape image included and of course the instructions TCT file

COMMODORE FREE

Interesting piece of music on the Instruction page, quite sombre, nice tune but pressing on....Back arrow to decrunch

Oh very interesting music on the title page, lovely base but it's not a techno trance tune, quite experimental even oriental in parts.

The games main problem is that the main character seem to blend into the background and personally I found it hard to see him, the in game sounds, some are ok some don’t really fit the game, it's definitely a SUECK game albeit a sideways scrolling one. If you are a SEUCK fan then it's worth a look other wise.....

Aufwaerts SEUCK c64

Name

Aufwaerts (Going Upwards)

SEUCK Version

Vertical SEUCK

Game by

Sonny Top (Bamse)

Music: by

Richard Bayliss

Tape loader

Martin Piper + Richard Bayliss

Instructions:

You are a soap bubble, moving its way upwards toward heaven. The trouble is that you have a long distance to travel to get up there. Guide your bubble safely through the course, avoiding contact with enemies or the sides. Beware, because if you lose a bubble you might appear off course. Memorise the map at the beginning of each level carefully before making your journey across the course. Player 1 controls a large bubble, which cannot shoot. Player 2 controls a small bubble which can shoot.

http://www.tnd64.unikat.sk/seuck/SeuckCompo2013/Aufwaerts.zip

COMMODORE FREE: It's an interesting game as far a SEUCK can go, you are controlling a bubble! Now it's not everyday you play a game as a bubble, collecting various things along the way, however some of the routes lead to dead ends where you POP and die, then you could be randomly re emerged out of the course and die almost instantly. The key is learning the track and layout (as with all SEUCK games) the title music is jolly and foot tapping and the in game sounds are good.

Tetwels Released For The VIC 20

Name

Tetwels

Author

Pallas (OPByte)

Released

March 9, 2013

Requirements

Unexpanded VIC-20

Description: As you would have already guessed, it's a mix of Tetris and Jewels (or Columns or whatever). In this game you should pile 3 blocks of the same color. You can rotate the falling bar and drop it in order to speed up. Try to keep the board clean so it doesn't fill up to the top, or the game will be over.

Download: http://www.opbyte.it/vic20/tetwels.prg

COMMODORE FREE: A very enjoyable game for the unexpanded Vic on the menu it gives 2 options for the game level easy or hard then; you basically have to keys to use one rotates or moves the colours along a bar the next key is to drop the shape quicker, looks a bit basic graphically but the game is smooth and easy to play, I spent ages trying to beat my high score. Sounds isn’t much just a few white noise pops, decent game and another variation on the theme

Ladybug Released For The PET

From: Mike Johnson
To: "commodorefree@commodorefree.com
Sent: Thursday, 4 April 2013, 7:05
Subject: New Commodore PET game

Hi there,

You may want to add the news regarding the Commodore PET. I just released a game called Ladybug for the PET. It would be nice to advertise it. Free download

http://sdrv.ms/ZAWsjE

COMMODORE FREE: Mike yes thanks it’s a nice game, see later in this issue for a full review

CommVEx 2012 Videos Being Posted

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bernardo
To: commodore free
Subject: CommVEx 2012 videos being posted

On Thu, March 28, 2013 12:36 am, I wrote:

Veteran programmer/developer Jim Drew speaks at length about his involvement with Commodores and Amigas in the 1980's and 1990's, including his work with the companies, Utilities Unlimited and Megasoft. To see the video, "Jim Drew at CommVEx v8 2012", go to

http://blip.tv/episode/6559889

Another video is on-line! It is "Mike Hill and PETpix and PETdisk for the Commodore PET". In this CommVEx episode, Mike Hill demonstrates his hardware and software for the Commodore PET computer. You can find this at

http://blip.tv/episode/6563728

More videos to come,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Setup your own sprite in C64 BASIC YouTube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSwf8wGOSr4

Published on 10 Mar 2013

This video will teach you how to setup your own sprite in Commodore 64 Basic. I created this since I noticed a lot of people are trying to do this first in assembly language (which is the hard way). However Commodore Basic can be just as powerful since you can mix both Basic and Assembly language.

The video demonstrates a sprite being animated with a joystick. There are displays to show what the registers are doing to make it easier to follow.

Please provide me feedback on this video. I can provide more Basic examples if you need them. I'm thinking about next explaining more in detail how to create your own multicolour sprites.

Much later I will finally put together a video to show you how to create your own redefined characters in Basic. I know I have put this off, but mainly because I don't have a good multicolour character editor and may have to create one.

Download the Sprite Basic program here (d64 file - created with VICE C64 emulator

http://www.programmermind.com/c64/C64Tutorial1.html

On my Commodore 64 web page look for the link that says Download Commodore 64 Basic Sprite Animation. Please let me know if you have difficulty downloading it. I am here to help as much as I can. Don't be afraid to ask me questions if this is your first time learning Basic programming as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSwf8wGOSr4

New V.A.M.P. 0.94 available

Available to download the new version of V.A.M.P. 0.94 the Virtual Amiga Multimedia Player programmed with Hollywood, this new version has big improvements, as bugs correction and to choose you languages among available: Spanish, English, Italian, French and Suomi, and the use the new Hollywood plugin to see jpeg2000 files with this Multiplayer for MorphOS, AmigaOS4, AmigaOS3.5-3.9 and Windows.

Download here from the new official site:

www.vamp.pm also www.vamp.es

Commodore Free: Nope sorry this isn’t a picture of my good self; to be honest I have no idea who it is!

Happy Easter

Hans-Jörg Frieden

Easter seems like an appropriate time to provide a short update on the development status of a few key components of the upcoming AmigaOS 4.2.

Exec SG : kernel development has been forked off into an experimental and stable branch, to facilitate field testing of potentially drastically new features such as the scheduler, separate address spaces, 64 bit address space awareness etc.

The task scheduler was completely rewritten in C and now implements the long planned “pluggable” scheduler functionality : the scheduling algorithm can be changed on the fly, during runtime depending on factors like task’s preference and CPU load, different CPU cores using different scheduling algorithms. The re-write of the scheduler also allows for load balancing which is required for proper multicore support.

Work is in progress on yet another Power ISA implementation.

Gallium : bumped to Mesa 9.1, i.e. OpenGL 3.1. Software renderer already implemented, work on hardware accelerated drivers within the framework of Gallium will benefit substantially by the experience gained developing Warp3D drivers for the AMD Radeon Evergreen range (Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx).

Please note that whilst work on AmigaOS 4.2 is in progress, work on other components is also ongoing and will be made available via AmiUpdate to registered users of AmigaOS 4.1.

Hyperion Entertainment’s management and the AmigaOS 4.x development team wish to thank all of you who have provided much needed support of our efforts by buying AmigaOS 4.1 (either as a standalone copy or together with suitable Power(PC) based hardware available from our hardware partners A-EON Technology and A-Cube Systems.

We greatly appreciate your support and wish you a Happy Easter!

Club Info 129 Released

This is a German magazine for the Commodore C116, C16 and the Plus/4 downloaded as a D64it contains the following articles:

Forum, For sale, Events, Scene Focus, Tips and Tricks, SVS Calc 2.0, SVS-Pong, Gun Fun / Pot Shot, Double Link, Computer fun, Hardware: Plus/4 (9), Scapeghost, Games Creator, Other systems, Stinkys First, HNY2013 and Wall 4.

http://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Club_Info_129

Asteroids +4 Emulator

After the very cleaver release for the c64 and then a release for the c64 with super CPU Norbert Kehrer. Has release the asteroid emulator for the Commodore plus 4 again like the pure commodore 64 version it's a little slow running the emulator but not enough to spoil your enjoyment of the game, it just makes the game play a little judder rather than smooth, but heck it's a Commodore Plus/4 emulating another machine! You would expect some slowdown.

http://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Asteroids

Title

Asteroids +4

Category

Game/Shoot'em up

Release Date

2013-03-16

Language

English/German/French/Spanish

Size

64K

Machine

PAL & NTSC

Code Type

Machine code

Distribution

Freeware

GameEndingType

No end (highscore)

Notes

Aka Plus/4 Asteroids Emulator. Created by Norbert Kehrer.

http://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Asteroids

[Commodore] SX-64 Commercial (Amateur)...Update

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bernardo
Sent: 27 March 2013 23:37
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Re: [Commodore] SX-64 commercial (amateur)...

On Wed, February 20, 2013 10:44 pm, I wrote:

> To see our [version 1] commercial, go to
> http://blip.tv/file/6515543
> or
> http://youtu.be/44QiqtxvDy8

Later I wrote:

>...I've tweaked the commercial to v2. You can see it at
> http://blip.tv/file/6519725
> or
> http://youtu.be/NZ4C71W2A30

Like George Lucas who continually fiddles with his Star Wars movies, :) I've re-edited our SX-64 commercial to version 3. Now some young FCUG members are included. To see the "SX-64 commercial v3 (amateur)", go to

http://blip.tv/dashboard/episode/6559074

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZIbNcDxeCE

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

More CommVEx 2012 Videos

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Bernardo
Sent: 27 March 2013 23:37
To: Commodore Free
Subject: Re: [Commodore] SX-64 commercial (amateur)...

On Sat, August 18, 2012 2:09 pm, I wrote:

> The first is "RJ Mical greets those at CommVEx 2012". You can find it
> at
> http://blip.tv/file/6294581
> and at http://youtu.be/uJocssCeK0g
> The second is "Printing with Commodore 64 and a HP Deskjet", and it is
> at http://blip.tv/file/6294614

On Tue, August 21, 2012 10:18 am, I wrote:

> Tim Montee has posted a video slideshow of Lenard Roach's long, 20+
> hour trip from Kansas City to Las Vegas and back. Go to
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0kFM9quqtU&feature=youtu.be

Just when everybody thought there were no more CommVEx 2012 videos, I've pulled another one out of my hat! :) Veteran programmer/developer Jim Drew speaks at length about his involvement with Commodores and Amigas in the 1980's and 1990's, including his work with the companies, Utilities Unlimited and Megasoft. To see the video, "Jim Drew at CommVEx v8 2012", go to

http://blip.tv/episode/6559889

More videos to come,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

JPEG2000 Plugin Released

Airsoft Software has just released a new plugin for Hollywood 5 - Infinity. This plugin enables all Hollywood scripts to load and save images in the JPEG2000 format. JPEG2000 is the successor to the popular JPEG format and offers multiple advantages over its predecessor including lossless compression and the possibility to store images with alpha channels. Additionally, when a JPEG2000 plugin is available and you compile executables for Mac OS X, Hollywood will be able to create Mac OS X icons in the resolutions 256x256 and 512x512 as well because these images are encoded using JPEG2000 bitstreams.

You can download the plugin from the official Hollywood portal. Thanks to Hollywood 5's cross-platform plugin system versions for AmigaOS3 (Classic), AmigaOS3 (FPU), AmigaOS4, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS (Intel), Linux (PowerPC), Linux (Intel), Mac OS (PowerPC), Mac OS (Intel), Windows and Google's Android platform are provided.

AROS Vision 1.5.9. with full CD-Support and Mplayer

25 March 2013, 12:30:41 | OlafS3

I have just uploaded AROS Vision 1.5.9. One of the main topics is full CD-Support including auto-mounting of CDs, playing Music-CDs (MUI CD Player), Video can be played with ffplay or mplayer (the only missing thing is CD32 emulation). Further additions are FAT95, TwinVNC, Mr. Beanbag, a couple of music player and backup-tools. Amistart-menus are extended.

the download-link:

http://www.natami-news.de/html/distr..._download.html

the manual:

http://www.natami-news.de/html/user_manual.html

Amiga 1200 Badges

Sick and tired of your Amiga's dowdy old badge? Did it fall off in your recent retrobrite adventure and you need a replacement? This badge is specially crafted to meet the dimensions of your A1200 case. Order in a plastic material and paint, or for a touch of real class try it in stunning Sterling Silver

http://www.shapeways.com/model/989196/a1200-case-badge.html?li=shortUrl

Review: Stair Runner for the PET

From Revival Studios

Ok you can bet there are no complicated controls here to remember just 2 keys O to move left and P to move right. With that embedded into memory we start the game.

And Starting the game; we find is all a little underwhelming; with just an animated logo then the main title screen says

STAIR

-RUNNER-

START GAME

But don’t stop reading ; because like all these games it does get better....

I am still hoping for some sort of menu system to be implemented, who knows maybe Retro Revival can manage to cram one into some unused Pet memory space somewhere, I know memory it tight and the game is designed to work on as many PETS as is possible without expansion units, and so memory had to be preserved to get the game to fit BUT..

anyway moving on..

So you control a “guy” who has to climb stairs and move across corridors; you can only move left and right but you can move back if needed to dodge the elevators that constantly move up and down. What sort of Hell hole is this place!

You need some skill and patience to watch the Movements of the elevators, but you start to see a pattern of how they are moving; and on the earlier levels at least; you can quickly run over the screen and then up the stairs to the next level; then slowly moving to the goal that is the door to the next level at the top right of the screen!

It's very entertaining and the fact it runs on the pet makes this even more amazing, the releases keep coming but the quality doesn’t let up, it’s a great game to show off with friends who can obtain the most points, however as usual a high score would help the game and a menu/instruction screen

Scores

Graphics

7/10

Sound

7/10
it's a pet what did you expect cd stereo sound

Gameplay

7/10

Overall

7/10

Teasing game play, cool graphics and easy control system makes this another quality release from Retro revival studios

Interview with Jeremy Smith

RetroFit Project

Please introduce yourself to our readers

I'm Jeremy Smith. I'm 35 and I live in the UK. I have a degree in software development with a minor of AI.

Can you give a little history into why you like retro machines, and maybe what other projects you have worked on

I've been programming since 1987 (starting in BASIC), and my first computer was a Sharp MZ-700, which didn't have a bitmap screen! I used to poke the games on the MZ-700 at random.

I moved onto the C64 when my aunt gave me her old one in 1989.

I got an Action Replay 6 and a disk drive soon after (1990?) and got in touch with a guy who told me how to make pokes for games.

I got an Amiga in about 1996, and my first Windows 95 PC in 1998. That PC was shared with a friend!

Since then I've written a variety of PC software, such as a soft synth, OCR software, decompiler stuff, and email and newsgroup search engines.

Can you explain the theory behind RETRO FIT, what it is and how it works

It is a combination of technologies:

- An advanced debugger (SAM in Frodo) with features like 'Show me all functions called 3 times since last entering the debugger'.

- A decompiler (written myself, and generalised to work with any CPU other than 6502).

- A game decompiled, and then patched to work with a bigger screen area

- An emulator patched for a bigger screen area (Frodo in this case, but any emulator would work)

The intent is to make games graphics scale up to a bigger (or different) display than the C64's.

So you have to manually decompile each program and work out the screen memory locations then recompile the whole thing for larger screens

Yes, you find out which memory the video is from, and which code draws to it.

As for recompiling: The decompiler does not generate compliable code, only readable code. You can see how it works and modify the assembly code by hand, but you cannot recompile into a new game.

So you just are patching the game and not re-compiling it.

Can you explain the decompile process, what tools you use; and how a typical game would be decompiled and turned into a RETROFIT version

The decompiler is very advanced. It basically emulates a CPU and so at any address, you know the value of any register or stack value.

Oh, and what's interesting is it can output a file with a list of memory addresses and the decompiled code that they correspond to.

Then, in Frodo SAM, you load in the file, and can disassemble code, which shows the decompiled equivalent alongside the ASM code.

Why cant our user just enlarge the screen most emulators allow you to double or stretch the screen even run the game full screen whats wrong with doing this?

As I've explained on the Retrofit webpage, it is the playing area that is increased. EG, you don't multiply the tile size by 2 and have the same number of tiles. No, you have more tiles in a bigger screen than possible on a real C64.

Eg, instead of 7x7, 19x8.

So you have to download and install and EXE file for every title? or will you just issue the files so the users can save them in the emulators directory, and what platforms currently are supported i.e Windows Linux etc

is it basically any machine with a Frodo emulator, It's the emulator, modified with the larger screen code, and a snapshot file with the patched game.

Can I ask Why use Frodo as the emulator behind this; is there a technical reason or is it just your favoured emulator,

Well, the SAM disassembler is very important, as I could extend it. I don't know much about WinVice.

How long does it take for a tile to be decompiled and recompiled or retro fitted

About 2 weeks of maybe 3 hours a day work.

The process for Lords of Chaos was this:

- Replace maximum window X/Y of 7x7 to 19x8

- Replace constant which checks for wraparound (36 - N) with a higher one (? - N) as above 8 rows

- Create bigger Y table (e.g, address table which has memory address of start of each tile row)

- Code in VIC chip emulation to treat the video memory as bigger

- Disable code so it doesn't draw to C64 RAM, but draws into the bigger video memory. Sadly, if 30% CPU is used to draw these tiles, then 2x as many tiles is 60% CPU, hence the slowdown.

Once the game has been RETROFIT, are there any problems with things like games speed, so for example does the game now run slower due to the extra amount of graphical detail on screen

Yes, with a playing area times by 2, and heavy CPU to draw the screen, the game can slow down the emulator by a factor of 2.

Do you see any concerns over copyright on any of the games especially if you are going to sell the retro fit versions

My plan is to find the original copyright holder and get permission, explaining that this process does not impede their vision.

I think as you explain it the main benefits of using a retro fit game rather than some sort of rework are; You keep any secret rooms that a rework may miss; (depending on how well the programmer knows the game) and if the coder has found them or any, also bugs or what i like to call features of the original are carried over, some would say it's these that can actually make the game, I know I have played "fixed Commodore 64 versions" and they dont give the same feel as the original

Yup!

You can retro fit any game, these again would run under emulation do you have any idea of the systems that could be retro fitted

Well, if you can get around the slowdown from having to draw more, you could retrofit:

- C64

- Spectrum

- Amiga

- PC (using DOSBox)

- Apple

- MAME

Interesting is getting GEM on the C64 (or Atari ST) into a bigger screen.

First, though, you need to ensure the screen can be expanded.

As a rule, if the game has vertical AND horizontal scrolling and tiles, it can be Retrofitted. EG, Boulderdash, Ultima 6, Lords of Chaos, Parallax (the shoot-em-up), and other games.

A GUI can be retrofitted, too. And a word processor and text game (like QUILLed or PAWed adventure games).

What games are available for our users to try that have been retro fitted

Just Lords of Chaos.

I'm working on Boulderdash IV now...

With emulators like MAME could arcade games be retro fit to play on smart phones, tablets etc

Yup, smaller screens, bigger screens, or different aspect ratios!

You plan to charge for these RETROFIT games what do you think the charge would be to the end user and how will the games be delivered across the various platforms?

No more than say 50 cents per title.

It would be distributed as a patched emulator, and a patched emulator snapshot.

Do you think the process could be improved further or is this as far as you are going to take the process, I was thinking here about adding features like 2 player links and stereo music playback for Commodore 64 games, maybe even enhanced colour pallets

That would be possible, yes! Again, less work to decompile and debug and patch, than rewrite for more colourful graphics.

Have you had much feedback about the Retrofit demo you released

Nope.

Finally do you have any comments you would like to add

There's an easter egg: If you play the Lords of Chaos retrofit, 'End Turn' and when the computer takes it's turn, you can see all its monsters (and the wizard) move around the map. Normally the screen is blanked out for the computer's turn. This is a hack I wrote when I was 16.

But I'd like people to email me with ideas and comments. Feedback is very important for this kind of project.

Cheers,

Jeremy.

Decompiler Technologies
http://decompiler.org/

Decompiler Technologies - RetroFit Project
http://www.sanfransys.com/retrofit/

Original

Retrofit version

Review: Ladybug for the PET

Mr. NOP from (NOP Software) has released a game for the PET called LadyBug

The game is Free to download and available from here

http://sdrv.ms/ZAWsjE

The idea for the game is that you must Navigate your ladybug throughout the maze whilst collecting food. You can Swing the doors to block the predators from reaching you. Some of the levels have faster enemy speeds, and level 4 has an invisible maze!

The default keys are 2,4,6,8 on the numeric keypad. You may need to redefine them to work on the 2001/30xx PETs. Some PETs use location 151 to read the keyboard, the 2001 uses location 515.

Different version of the game for models of the PET are included with the download as well as a brief note about the game as a txt file

You have a

- 30xx.d64

- 40xx.d64

- 2001.d64

Unfortunately just before I tried to test the game my PET seemed to become quite ill displaying some signs of not actually working at all, so I have to revert to reviewing the game under WINVICE not something I like to do as I prefer seeing the game on the original hardware, yes I do play on emulators to capture the screen shots. Anyway this caused me some problems because the game kept loading in 80 column mode, I haven’t used or had this problem so a brief note to the author was need for help and this is what I found out (should you wish to try the game under emulation)

Start the emulator and then click SETTINGS from the menu then click PET SETTINGS

Then click INPUT OUTPUT and select 40 columns

Now when I have played games for snapshots or screen capture before on the PET I never had to change anything, anyway..................

I selected a PET3008 and used the 30XX.D64

The other thing to note is that the first file on the disk is a file called Source Code.prg and of course will not start the game; so load “*”,8,1 isnt going to work here, I just edited the D64 to remove the first file to make things easy to load; but a load “$”,8 will show the directory then you can of course load the file by its name, the second file in the list of course!

Anyway with that out the way the game should start

Quite a nice menu; and you get some instructions and of course can redefine the keys, If you do after you have selected your last key you need to press SPACE to get back to the menu it's not immediately obvious!

Pressing SPACE starts the game

It looks quite nice using the pets inbuilt ASCII to created the screen characters it works well and is clearly laid out you are the O character

And start bottom middle of the screen!

You move around eating the dots and can trap or divert the monsters by moving the gate to block their path –o- denotes a movable game move to it and it will change directions from horizontal to vertical, sound is what you would expect for the PET, it wasn’t known for its musical abilities

Scores

Graphics

7/10

Sound

7/10

Playability

7/10

Overall

7/10

Very nice pet game, it's a really old school vibe but very well implemented.