************************************* Commodore Free Magazine http://www.commodorefree.com/ ************************************* ===================================== Issue 99 Free to download magazine dedicated to Commodore computers Available as PDF, ePUB, MOBI, HTML, TXT, SEQ and D64 disk image ====================================== ***************** EDITORIAL ***************** While I set out with good intentions, I was side tracked by the fact Myself and my son were attending Insomnia gam ing event at the month end, with this in mind I decided that was the deadlin e, and had to focus my efforts on gett ing a review of Insomnia before the hy pe had faded down too much. Also in this issue ****************** NEWS ****************** AMIGA ****************************** Dungeonette The New Adventure ****************************** Adrian Cummings. Creator of original t itles such as Cyberpunks, Tin Toy, Doo dlebug and more. announced a high qua lity game coming to the Amiga AGA/CD32 called 'Dungeonette'. Adrian Cummings "Dungeonette - The Ne w Adventure started it pretty much aft er CyberPunks 2 was released, so it's a slow burner project I guess. I'm abo ut a third of the way through mapping the game, which is pretty big and set in the lands of 'Amigea'". "It will run on stock Amiga AGA and CD 32 with 2Mb ChipRAM and of course Amig a 500 Mini etc. It is a hybrid of many games in reality and has some roots i n Diablo for sure but also many others as a hack & slash dungeon crawler. Ju st for the record... Originally the ba sic game was written for Apple Watch m any years back and then also a version was released for Spectrum Next back i n 2017/18. This version is all new jus t for Amiga however and only resembles those previous titles in name only". https://softwareamusements.com/Mutatio nSoftware/index.html ---------------------------- ********************* Roadshow 1.15 released ********************* delayed by only 18 months), the free R oadshow TCP/IP stack 1.15 update is no w available to all customers. focused on improving installation and maintena nce tasks, as well as making the insta llation documentation more useful and accessible. New commands have been added to automa tically find and install network devic e configuration files and fix errors & defects in the many configuration fil es Roadshow uses. By request, a "compact" Roadshow insta llation disk image (1.76 MByte high-de nsity) is available for the first time , containing a "reduced" version of th e full installation archive. The "comp act" installation is restricted to sof tware built for all Amigas (68000 CPU or better) and omits the large referen ce documentation. https://www.amigashop.org Roadshow ist available in three format s: - As a digital download - On CD-ROM - On USB card (FAT32-formatted medium) http://roadshow.apc-tcp.de https://www.amigashop.org http://www.apc-tcp.de --------------------- ************************ Duke Nukem 3D ************************ Released on Aminet This is an Amiga 68k port of Duke Nuke m 3D based on the old Atari/Amiga port swith some newer features from Chocola te Duke added for extra flavour. Requirements: 1) An AGA Amiga. 2) 68060 processor or better. 3) 32 MB of RAM. 4) AHI installed and configured (see l inks section below). 5) The Duke Nukem 3D data files (must be the full PC Atomic version!). Configuration Options: The 'CloseWB' configuration option can be used to close the Workbench.The 'D isplayModePAL' configuration option ca n be used to set your display mode (PA L or NTSC).When running from the Shell you must specify a stack of at least 300,000.The AHI device used will be th e one setup in your AHI Prefs (unit 0) .You will need to place the PC game da ta files DUKE3D.GRP and DUKE.RTS in the AmiDuke folder.Any errors *shou ld* be written to a file called 'ERROR .TXT' in the game directory. Performance Considerations: 1) If you have a Blizzard you should r eally be using BlizKick, Apollo userss hould be using RemApollo. 2) Fast File System is actually really slow, use PFS3 instead. 3) Use v4.18 of AHI as the later versi ons are too slow on a real Amiga. Limitations: 1) No network or multi-player support. 2) No joystick support. 3) No music support. https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/ AmiDuke_AGA -------------------------------------- ******************* Amiga pi keyboard ********************* THEA500 Mini console is something to w rite home about if you’re an Amiga fan – until you realise you can’t use its keys . In the brand new issue of The MagPi, David Crookes discovers a solut ion. Happy #MagPiMonday! https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/thea5 00-mini-keyboard-magpimonday/ ------------------------------------ COMMODORE 64 NEWS *************************** OneLoad64 Games Collection v5 **************************** OneLoad64 version 5, we are told is th e best Commodore 64 games / roms colle ction With all of the games included c onverted to cartridge format for the f astest loading possible The collection is over 2,000 games, in cluding multiload conversions. So what ever you're using, be it emulators inc luding the MiSTer FPGA, or real hardwa re with the likes of the Ultimate64, E asyFlash, Kung Fu Flash, TeensyROM, SD 2IEC etc, be sure to download this mas sive collection of C64 retro gaming go odness and check it out, it's complete ly free! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ef6J- yyzE14stEaqjK7XlYuutDDBOCyr/view or https://mega.nz/file/WZUV2ApA#JFoFB3vV CcfiKe02TkTqq3JOR2OoWLWBGA2B8m_bxbI watch a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz0CJb kplj0 -------------------------------------- ************************************** ************ Bare Metal Emulation on the Raspberry Pi - Commodore 64 ************************************** ************* Whats faster than something fast, well its something even faster, if you rem ove the os and just run the emulation software wouldent that lead to a more responsive machine, after all the os i s taking up valuable CPU time isn’t it > Well yes and in this youtube tutori al you are given the answeres to the u ltimate Commodore emulation system https://youtu.be/53wHr415LPU?si=QmBuy4 huLVzSoNGv ---------------------------------- ****************** C64 scpu doom ******************* WHAT ! you mean I have waited all thes e years and listened to people telling me its not possible on the C64 even w ith the SCPU, then someone releases a version of Doom for the Commodore 64, ok you need the Super CPU accelerator to run it but DOOM ! Well it is actually running The website says This is a port of DOOM based on the or iginal ID software source code release . This port requires a C64/C128 with a S uperCPU v2 and 16MB RAM. PAL, NTSC (ol d and new) it has only been tested on real PAL hardware. While this DOOM port isn't meant to be taken seriously, it has proven quite useful for testing and improving the M IPS recompiler as DOOM is a rather com plex and large application. https://youtu.be/7ZzivzuDOls?si=N5Yk-C MNF-H0Fl_g https://scpu.amidog.se/doku.php?id=scp u%3Adoom ------------------------------- ************************ GREY FOR THE CBM 64 ************************ Armed with a pistol and chainsaw and f ollowed by some very funky music, anot her doom style cone hits the Commodore 64 Grey is an FPS (first person Sooter) s till in development stages but looking very good so far. There are four leve ls to explore in this current version. As with Doom style games you need to collect a required door key (doors req uiring keys are marked with vertical s tripes placed on neighbouring walls) o r opening push-walls. What's new in version 5: - animated small and medium enemies eq uipped with melee and hitscan attacks respectively - barrels - shotgun and chaingun pickups - player can take damage and die - more game levels Credits: Programming and design by Piotr Kózka. Music, sound effects & textures by Kam il Wolnikowski. Source: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=239169 Youtube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36dzAM gu0i0 ------------------------- ************************************ C64 - Polish Pixels in Video Games – B ook ************************************ Funding needed ! Explore Poland's C64 Game Development: Vivid tales & art in unique gaming hi story book! TLDR This campaign is a deep dive (1980-s u p till today) into the world of Commod ore 64 game development in Poland, spo tlighting legendary game developers an d the vibrant demoscene. The coffee-ta ble style book (already published in P oland, Hardcover, 240+ HQ pages) aims to preserve digital history and celebr ate the community's contributions. Wit h visuals, stories, and insights from insiders, it's more than a book; it's a tribute to the 8-bit era. Support he lps the printing of the English editio n, offering various tiers with unique rewards for backers. Backing this campaign? You're not just grabbing a book. You'r e saving a slice of digital history an d saluting a community that made magic in the 8-bit era! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/c64 -polish-pixels-in-video-games-book#/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTPJG6 IZyCs&t=90s ----------------------- ************************ CORESCAPE CBM 64 *********************** Released for the Commodore 64 and Pric ed at $2 for the download payable via card or paypal or name your price, her e is what the website says about the g ame Battle your way out through eight stag es in a constant race forward – you ha ve not been voted the "Best-looking bl ockade runner of the interior systems" for the last three years to be caught by the authorities. Collect additiona l lives and credits (score) on the way out. https://drmortalwombat.itch.io/coresca pe -------------------------------------- ********************************* TeensyROM NFC Game Loading System on the C64 ********************************* Here is an overview video for the awes ome new NFC Loading System on the Teen syROM using real Commodore 64 hardware . It is inspired by the fantastic TapT o project for MiSTer https://github.com/wizzomafizzo/tapto the project uses NFC cards to get the CBM 64 to load games from SD card devi ce, the NFC cards don’t hold enough da ta for the game but just enough to tel l the teensyrom what game you have put in the reader and then to load that g ame. It’s a nie idea and the gent has printed some nice NFC card games, I su ppose if it was all embedded into the c64 it could potentially be very usefu l Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqgyiQ dGp7o ------------------------ PLUS 4 NEWS ************************** Cbm 264 interview bil herd ************************* Great question and answer session with Bil Herd about how he entered commodo re and hos working relation ships with in commodore The original 264 series o f commodore machines were designed by a team of engineers at Commodore, led by **Bil Herd**¹². He was also the mai n designer of the **TED chip**³, which was an integrated circuit that provid ed video, sound, timers, and keyboard input for the 264 series⁴. The TED chi p was named after **Tramiel, Elliott, and Darrell**, the three people who in itiated the project. https://youtu.be/nyKf0cz0BIs?si=YRQuB0 DhlQSoAvbU ------------------------------ ******************* Gina plus 4 ******************* The Great Giana Sisters is a classic o n C64 although Nintendo though it was so much like Mario they banned the gam e there are numerous cracks of the gam e online and even a PETSCII version, the C64`s soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck is one of the most popular video game soundtracks of all time. Finally! tha nks to TCFS, the game is now available on the plus 4 if you have played mrio you know the score Title: Giana Sisters Category: Game/Platformer Release Date: 2024-03-03 Language: English Size: 64K Device Req.: Disk only (1 side) Machine: PAL & NTSC Code Type: Machine code Distribution: Freeware Code by: TCFS Additional graphics by: Unreal Music by: Csabo Notes: AKA The Great Giana Sisters. A 2D platformer. Guide the Giana Sisters (Giana and Maria) through the levels, collecting diamonds and powerups, avo iding or killing enemies. https://plus4world.powweb.com/software /Giana_Sisters ----------------------------------- PET NEWS ************************************** Doomed "PETSCII" Pacman - CBM PET version ************************************** Looking rather nice if a bit spooky, a petscii version of pacman for the pet range of machines This is the CBM Pet version of my C64 Pacman clone. It needs 32 Kbyte memory , it works on 4032 and 8032 models. More information Published Nov 23, 2023 Status Released Rating Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars Author Ko-Ko https://ko-ko74.itch.io/cbm-pet-pacman -clone -------------------------------------- ************************************** Spyders for Commodore 8032/SuperPET ************************************** Blimey this is another superb effort o n the Pet 8032 / SuperPET version of the mini sp ace invaders game Spyders. I was going to add more aliens to shoot, but I ca n't compare to Jimbo's Space Invaders II. Source code included. Based on Mr. NOP 's original 4032 version. Suggested improvements: sound, keyboar d matrix reading instead of location 1 51. But I know I'll never get to it. https://milasoft64.itch.io/spyders-for -commodore-8032superpet ------------------------------------- *********************** Commodore Pocket PET ************************ Summary (from the website) I recommend printing the main body and the bottom and the volume knob out of beige filament and the side insert be zel and interior parts from black I will upload the stickers in a bit, t hey're on a different computer that is n't at hand atm. the BOM is -1 theC64 mini -1 3.5 inch hdmi lcd -usb c 5v 2a boost converter -pam 8403 with potentiometer -two tac switches with longer buttons -a rii mini wireless keyboard -3.7 v 956090 lipo battery (this is th e big battery) -a love 4 port usb hub (three ports on top one on side) -two small oval tablet speakers -a 3v buck converter -a 2 inch piece of clear filament -3mm led color of your choice -power switch (1x1.5 cm) -4 m2 inserts and bolts to put the cas e together my modeling talents are not perfect by any means so there will be a little h and trimming you will need to do based on my modeling and your printers prin t quality, I printed the stickers on a silvery me tallic printable paper, but you can us e whatever you want, you can find a 3m m hole punch on amazon to punch the LE D hole in the power sticker. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6489 432 ------------------------------- GENERAL NEWS ******************************* The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor ****************************** The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor is an aw ard-winning interactive horror from St efan Vogt, the acclaimed author of Hib ernated and The Curse of Rabenstein. T ake on the role of novelist Thomas Kin g and his wife Cora as they move into a remote Scottish manor house, just da ys before Christmas 1986. Seeking insp iration for his next book, Thomas begi ns to explore the history of Blackwood Manor, only to uncover a dark secret that dates back centuries to the days of the Great Scottish Witch Hunts. The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor is a com plex interactive fiction piece written in Infocom's advanced Z-machine forma t XZIP. The game has three different e ndings, a bad, a neutral and a good en ding, depending on the player's choice s. It is very likely that the player, on a first playthrough, will not reach the good ending, even though it is po ssible. Reaching the bad or neutral en ding first is part of the experience a nd helps the player understanding the true intentions of some of the NPCs an d the impact of decisions made, so the y may be reconsidered. SYSTEMS The game is available for Commodore 64 , Spectrum +3, Spectrum Next, Amstrad CPC and PCW, Commodore Amiga, Atari 8- bit, Apple II, Atari ST, MS-DOS, BBC M icro, Acorn Electron, Commodore 128, M ega65, MSX 1 and MSX 2, Commodore Plus /4, SAM Coupé, TRS-80 Model III, TRS-8 0 Model 4, classic Macintosh and moder n PC. For playing the game on a modern machine, a .z5 file is provided, whic h allows you to run the game in a Z-ma chine interpreter of choice like Frotz , Lectrote or Fizmo. PHYSICAL RELEASE The physical release comes in a box th at resembles the original Infocom pack aging back from the day. You can order it through my publisher PolyPlay. rtr o.de/blackwood https://8bitgames.itch.io/ghosts ------------------------------------- ************************************ Niklaus Wirth, Visionary Software Architect, Dies at 89 ************************************* Pascal, the programming language he cr eated in the early days of personal co mputing, offered a simpler alternative to other languages in use at the time . In 1970, while he was teaching at th e Swiss university ETH Zurich, Dr. Wir th released Pascal. He also built one of the first personal computers and wa s instrumental in helping a Swiss star t-up company (Logitech) commercialize the mouse The Association for Computin g Machinery honored Dr. Wirth in 1984 with the Turing Award. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/tec hnology/niklaus-wirth-dead.html ------------------------------- **************************** COMMODRE FREE REVIEW Corespace CBM 64 **************************** REQUIREMENTS The game has been designed for and tes ted with PAL on various C64 and C64 em ulators (e.g. TheC64) your NTSC mileag e will vary Joystick in port 2 As mentioned in the news section this is a new (ish) release for the Commodo re 64, having paid my $2 asking fee (s uggested price, you can pay more if yo u like and it is nice to support codes on our platform) I downloaded the gam e from a secure site and saved the res ultant PRG on an sd card ready to load into my C64. The game comes with Various cheats alr eady available that can be activated d uring gameplay, but using them will pr event you from getting a high score: T: Trainer mode grants infinite lives. L: Gives you another life. R: Restarts the current level. S: Skips the current level. H: Slows the game to half speed. BOOTS UP Loading is quick and the initial title screen looks really good, so I’m hopi ng for a rely positive experience from this game having only seen the websit e, at this point I haven’t watched any video playthroughs, I originally beca me hooked on this because it looked so much like the uridium style of graphi cs, and that’s where it ends because t his is a shooter plain and simple. The main load screen has credits and a funky sid tune with some scrolling te xt FAST PACE Wow don’t expect an easy game here, yo u need a joystick in port 2 with the u sual left right up down fire. The game is very smooth I didn’t notice any gl itching or pausing in my play test rev iew. The graphics look great, everythi ng is very smooth and the ship has the right amount of inertia so when you p ush left or right it’s a smooth transi tion, the animation adds to this, so it’s not just a jump left or right and music plays through the game seamless ly. The actual core coding is very pro fessional then. If you touch the edges and flying over solid buildings you w ill die, it takes a few seconds then y ou loose a life, you then transported to the same place less one life and ca n continue. obviously hitting an enemy , bullet or flying into solid objects isn’t recommended but you can collect coins for extra lives. The game scrolls up the screen at a co nstant pace and moving your joystick a nd ship up, of course speeds up the sh ip, but the action never ceases it’s a relentless pace. You will have to re ally think fast as some of the area ne eds careful thought, and isn’t at firs t easy to figure out how to get round or though items, some calculations are shooting items to create a path throu gh, other times its just careful flyin g, but as I said it’s a fast game and I seem to have perfected driving into things and dyeing very quickly Summary Fast gameplay and great music and grap hics, make this another great commodor e release, although the graphics are s haded and well-drawn, somehow it seems to lack a 3d depth, it could be becau se the aliens and ship had no ground s hadow, but if this sort of game has yo u excited you certainly won’t be disap pointed. Commodore Free Score 8/10 Video playthough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-uqij gkWco download https://drmortalwombat.itch.io/coresca pe -------------------------------------- **************************** Commodores 264 machine line By Commodore Free **************************** There is a lot of confusion on the 264 range of Commodore machines, commonly known as the TED line, lets quickly l ook at the ending of the product line and jack Tramiel’s ultimate Departure from Commodore then see if I can clear up some confusion or make things wors e: In 1984, after a heated board meeting on January 13, Tramiel made the decisi on to leave Commodore. His resignation was primarily due to disagreements wi th Irving Gould, the chairman of Commo dore, regarding fundamental principles and how to run the company. Some clai m it was also because Tramiel wanted h is sons on the board and they were ref used, but let’s just leave this as “he was upset and left the company he had founded”. A quote from around the tim e states that Tramiel felt that if he couldn’t approach his office with a sm ile and happiness, then ultimately it was time to step down and wiser words have never been spoken, if the job you do doesn’t bring you joy then its tim e to leave or change jobs. The 264 Series and Timing: The 264 series was a line of 8-bit hom e computers that were developed by Com modore and launched At the January 198 4 C.E.S., billed as the machines to fo llow up the Commodore 64. only the C11 6 was released in Europe, though it wa s redesigned as the C16 for American c onsumers. The C264 became known as the Plus/4, while the V364 was never rele ased. The 264 series, was unveiled just days before Tramiel’s departure from commo dore. with only one of these models re aching the market in its original form . Tramiel’s exit occurred shortly afte r this product launch. All three compu ters used the custom TED (Text Editing Device). chip for graphics and sound. The CPU was the 8501 from MOS Technol ogy. The TED chip allowed Tramiel to b undle multiple features into one chip, cutting production costs and lowering the overall price to as little as $50 for the cheapest model. The C116 would be the low end of this spectrum, having about 12K of memory. The C264 and V364 would have built in software, 64k of memory, and the V364 would have speech synthesis built in. Confusion at Commodore following the l oss of founder Jack Tramiel it appered they had no real leader and resulted in a refusal to follow up on this work able marketing plan for the machines l aunches. The Commodore 116 was designed by engi neers at Commodore-US. The Commodore 1 6, was adapted later from 116 designs by engineers at Commodore-Japan. The C 16 was meant to be the replacement for the VIC-20, which had been discontinu ed a few months before. Compared to th e VIC, it is indeed an impressive mach ine. With 16K compared to the the VICs 3.5K, better video graphics, and full compatibility with VIC peripherals. They were designed to be low-cost alte rnatives to the popular Commodore 64, with built-in software and a new video and sound, Jack saw that Sinclair and Amstrad had the lower end of the mark et and wanted to clean up as Commodore had done with the Commodore 64 at the higher end. The 264 line had already started to be developed and in Bil herd (commodore Engineer) words, once the chip (TED) w as designed you were limited on what e lse could be done as you had a fairly strict design outline already in place . Bil Joining Commodore: Bil Herd joined Commodore and initiall y worked on several projects, includin g the Commodore Plus/4, C16/116, C264, and C364 machines (with voice synthes izer for speech output for the first t ime). His role at commodore was that o f principal engineer involved designin g and developing these 8-bit home comp uters. The Commodore 264 series was pa rt of his portfolio. Bil also worked on the Commodore 128, Herd also worked on the initial archit ecture of the Commodore LCD computer, although that product was never releas ed. Post-Commodore Contributions: After leaving Commodore, Bil Herd cont inued to design faster and more powerf ul computers, with a focus on machine vision. As of September 2020, he produ ces videos for Hackaday. In 2021, Herd co-authored a book titled “Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer’s Story o f Commodore Computers in the 1980s,” s haring inside stories about his experi ences designing computers for Commodor e. Bill famously pointed out while playin g a game on the commodore 264 range as he got near the screen sparks came ou t of the joystick, and he was told to “fix it or your fired” My View The 264 series could I feel have been a success but for the marketing depart ment at Commodore, even Bil remembers that marketing wanted to sell the plus 4 for the same price as the Commodore 64, However Jacks original goal was to market the plus 4 for only $79 usd an d Bil says the machines cost only $11 usd to make at that price point the m achines would have been a real success , for people without the purchasing po wer to buy the commodore 64 that was r etailing at $389 the Sinclair spectrum with 16k of ram sold at around $170. The cost cutting was due mainly to com modore owning and manufacturing the MO S technology chips and so weren’t held to ransom on price. The machines stil l stand up today, if you look at some of the plus 4 demos and even reworked games such as we looked at last issue with Commando, they easily would have and do “hold there own” the plus 4 sel ls on ebay for around $150 usd today a nd is definitely a machine you should be involved with. commercial failure Ultimately the 264 line failed for sev eral reasons then. First, the machines were not compatible with the Commodor e 64, which had a large library of sof tware and peripherals. Second, the bui lt-in software was of poor quality and limited functionality, (but that depe nds on who you talk to as I know many owners prise the software) and the mac hines lacked a dedicated sound chip. T hird, the machines were priced too hig h for the budget market, and too low f or the business market. Fourth, the ma chines faced strong competition from o ther 8-bit computers, such as the ZX S pectrum, the Amstrad CPC, and the Atar i 8-bit family. Fifth, the machines we re launched at a time when Commodore w as undergoing internal turmoil and lea dership changes, which affected the ma rketing and distribution of the produc ts The models and prototypes in the 264 s eries were: - The C16: The most basic model, with 16 KB of RAM, a 16-color graphics mode , and a built-in BASIC interpreter. It was intended to replace the VIC-20, b ut it was less powerful and more expen sive than its predecessor. It was main ly sold in Europe, where it had some s uccess in Germany and Italy¹². - The C116: A smaller and cheaper vers ion of the C16, with a membrane keyboa rd, a smaller case, and a different po wer supply. It was only sold in Europe , and it was not very popular¹². - The Plus/4: The flagship model, with 64 KB of RAM, a 121-color graphics mo de, and four built-in software applica tions: a word processor, a spreadsheet , a database, and a graphing program. It was intended to compete with the Ap ple II and the IBM PC, but it lacked t he features and compatibility of those machines. It was mainly sold in the U S, where it flopped¹². - The 364: A prototype model, with 64 KB of RAM, a built-in speech synthesiz er, and a numeric keypad. It was suppo sed to be the top-of-the-line model, w ith advanced features and capabilities , but it was never released to the pub lic. Only a few prototypes were made, and they are very rare and valuable to day¹³. Summing up - The 264 series was a line of low-cos t computers with built-in software and a new chip TED, four models made up the line: the C16, the C116, the Plus/ 4, and the 364 (never released prototy pe). They had different features, pric es, and markets, but none of them were successful mainly due to the high ret ail price. ---------------------------- ****************** SILICA SHOP ***************** Its working like a dream Looking in the local newspaper I saw a n advert for a shop assistant in a sho p within Debenhams Manchester store (a concession) I had been a Silica shop customer for years, and having just re cently purchased an amiga 4000/040 des ktop model I was keen to send off my C urriculum Viti. I like all the other eager workers wer e summoned for an interview at Salford docks Manchester, entering the buildi ng I was given a pencil and a question naire to fill out, the questionnaire w as more like some Human resources pers onality test with hundreds of question s along the lines of “do you keep a di ary”, “do you look at a diary daily” I ’m led to believe some 1000 people att ended this test, then we I think we’re all lead one by one to a lift with th e HR manager and up to another level i nto a suite serving as an interview ro om. I was asked the usual questions, w hy did you apply etc then the HR manag er asked me the question, “tell me all you know about Commodore” for over 1 hour I spouted out about the vic, the commodore 64, the Amiga and the Amiga 4000 /040 and my history of Commodore and the main people who made up the co mpany. The interviewer sat amazed at, one I h ad purchased an amiga 4000 as he said I was one of the first to order the ma chine from his records, and Two at the amount of information coming from thi s young mind. He looked at his watch a nd realised he was now well behind sch edule for his interview list and had t o cut me mid conversation, I think we were scheduled 15 minutes. So after sh aking hands and myself still spurting on about commodore architecture he sai d “great to meet you and I will see yo u on the next interview sessions” he t hen went red and said “oh I shouldn’t have said that”, and as you have guess ed your now onto round 2 which is real ly a formality with Debenhams” A week letter I had a phone call from Sidcup kent and was invited to Round 2 was more as was said an informal chat with Debenhams security just to check I wouldn’t steal more than I would se ll I suppose, after that chat I went h ome and waited, sure enough I received another phone call “congratulations a nd welcome to the team” I was then adv ised I had to travel to Sidcup to rece ive a weeks worth of gruelling trainin g, There we met a the directors and ha d a quick look at how mail ordering wo rks and how the posters are printed fo r the magazines, Silica owned its own photographic studio that could enlarge and print posters of enormous size as well as scan images. We saw a machin e that could copy tapes and inlays in seconds, along with another machine th at copied floppy disks and inlays and sleeves in literally seconds spewing t hem into a hopper at the bottom of the machine. Training went well and the last 3 days we were assigned shops, mine was Tott enham court road TCR the main silica S hop hub, it was an amazing experience, although I knew I had to up my knowle dge of consoles, PC systems and the Am iga, and to some extent the Atari were already under my knowledge belt, havi ng assessed the Atari falcon before my Amiga 4000 due to the then supposed D SP the falcon would have for music. Silica also ran the Amiga helpline, an d in training I managed to sit in on a few sessions with confused customers trying to get printers working or chan ge country settings, some had more gra nd experiences and problems like genlo cking and wanting to know how to setup the NTSC video toaster for a pal broa dcast! We opened shop in Manchester on the th ird floor of Debenhams next to the toy department, Café where I met my soon to be wife of 25 years a café manager, and also nestled next to a discount b ooks and Cd concession. Although pay w as meagre to say the least you had the opportunity via sales to earn commiss ion and items were weighted on a pints system and via the profit they made, so floppy disks were a 9/10 and a prin ter would be about 2 with a pc 1 , the scaled didn’t relate to a percentage just an arbitrary guide to a points sy stem. I remember we would get IBM and Hewlet t Packard telling us if we sell 10 mac hines were entered into a draw to win a holiday, although I said I would rat her sell people what they want and not what profited me the most. This is so mething currys excel in, guiding you t o something you don’t wat to gain comm ission or sell outdated stock. Sales were good, very good) we had som e real characters enter, some miffed a t not being picked for the sales team, but others with genuine interest and excitement about products. Each of the staff had a strength so we had a PC a nd upgrade specialist, a console exper t, a programming guru who knew about a migas an ex magazine writer and myself the Amiga specialist, Oh and a manage r who oversaw us. The manager later le ft after some 250k of stock went missi ng, stolen out the shop and I was then promoted to manager, things went well and Debenhams would come to empty the tills 3 times a day as the cash would n’t fit into them we were taking so mu ch. The death of my dream I got on well with the directors, espe cially well with one who would ply me with inside knowledge and also with th e head programmer who gave me access t o items on my shop computer menu I sho uldn’t have had like the IN/out system where you could see who was in or out at head office, so if a director went in at 6am then clocked out at 6.30 an d it was now 10 you could be pretty su re he was going to spy on a shop! My sources would also called to say “n ext week is a spot inspection” or “You have a director coming to the store w ith family to do a plain clothes walk round” Interestingly when directors ca me they would normally ware the green Silica tshirts and even if they were i n mid conversation, if a customer need ed help they would break off and help the customer! Not something that happe ns in forms today, as they feel they a re above everyone. liquidation On one of my calls I was relayed the sad news “commodore is in liquidation” and I am to visit you tomorrow, the d irector relayed the news almost in tea rs that an era had come and Commodore was in real trouble, there may be a bu yout but it wasn’t certain. I was told that the shops relied on Commodore, s ilica tried to invest heavily in a OEM pc they badged up as Silica pc, and a lthough it gained good reviews, and wa s a great price, the company couldn’t gain supply of the machines in enough quantity, Silica put more money to get the machines, but eventually this wou ld lead to Silica with cash flow probl ems and then close the shops and mail ordering completely, I left about 2 ye ars before they closed the Manchester branch, they had directors missing a m onth’s pay just to keep things going, selling off shop fittings, but it was fairly obvious even from the news abou t Commodore administration they wouldn ’t survive. Shopping history So you read my take, and there are man y other stories like, other mail order companies over took them etc, but it really was the demise of commodore tha t killed Silica. History Silica Shop was a UK-based computer re tailer and distributor who sold Atari, Amiga, Sega, Nintendo and other platf orms in the 1980s and 1990s. It was fo unded by David Martin in 1982, and had its original shop in Sidcup, Kent. It later expanded to have several stores across the UK, including over 19 conc ession stores within Debenhams. Howeve r, it went into administration in 1996 , due to financial difficulties. Silica Shop was popular among Atari fa ns, as it offered a wide range of hard ware, software, and accessories for th e Atari 8-bit and ST computers. It als o published newsletters and catalogues , and ran a membership club for its cu stomers. Some of its former employees went on to work for other computer com panies, such as Escom, Intel, AMD and Microsoft. - David Timothy, the founder and manag ing director -Mason John Woodhams, the secretary of The Silica Shop Ltd - Noel Daniel, a former programmer who worked in the Tottenham Court road br anch: - Silica Shop was originally called Pr odis, which stood for Program Distribu tion Services. The name was changed to Silica Shop in 1984, to reflect the c ompany's focus on silicon-based produc ts. Silica Shop was one of the first retailers to offer a mail-order servic e for computer games and hardware, whi ch allowed customers to order from any where in the country. They also had a loyalty scheme called Silica Points, w hich gave customers discounts and free gifts. Silica Shop was involved in th e development and publishing of some A tari games, such as Sidewinder, Thunde rfox, and Foundations Waste. Some of t heir staff were former or current prog rammers, such as Noel Daniel and Eroll Elliston. I don’t remember this but.. apparently Silica Shop had a mascot called Silic a Sid, a cartoon character who appeare d in their adverts and catalogues. He was a friendly and helpful guide who g ave tips and advice to customers Silic a Shop became one of the largest Atari retailers in Europe. Silica was the Uk importer for Commodo re and would repackage commodore produ cts to better appeal to the uk market, so you may remember the various xmas packaged gift sets with free games and a lovely designed xmas cover of the c ommodore computer, this was Silica who would buy up the rights to the games, reproduce them in house and then re-p ackage them with the machine to public ad though trade channels. The Atari users would be given a shrin k wrapped pack of about 20 games to ge t them started . Within Silica there w ere often competitions to design the b ox contents, layout, picture and pack name. the packs were sent out separate so the shops could repackage them, so an xmas box would be ripped of its ou ter cover and any reference to xmas an d packaged as a summer collection etc a brief history of a forgotten age, I still have my silica greed tshirt and my silica manager ID badge. People now don’t remember this passing phase but just for a brief few years of time Si lica had the world of computer retail at its feet. Can you add to this story, Did you wor k in one of the many Debenhams outlets or directly for Silic itself? Let me know ---------------------------------- *************************** Commodore Free review Gina sisters for the 264 range (+4 CBM 16) **************************** History If you have seen Mario the Nintendo pl umber then you get the basics of this game, a right to left scrolling landsc ape, but you can only move right, you can only go back to the edge of the sc reen, the screen doesn’t scroll left t o right and just stops! You are to col lect items and squish the monsters by landing on them, you can headbutt vari ous items than will give you bonus and energy. Developed by Time Warp Productions, a German video game company, and release d in 1987 on the Commodore 64 “The Gre at Giana Sisters” was designed by Armi n Gessert and features music composed by the legendary Chris Hülsbeck. The g ame was published by Rainbow Arts for the Commodore 64 and was later ported to other platforms such as the Amiga, Atari ST, and Amstrad CPC. Head butting releases and item grate graphical loading screens Released originally on the Commodore 6 4 and then pulled quickly for copyrigh t reasons, “the great gina sisters” st ill remains a classic on the commodore 64 with many sites offering a downloa d to this piece of history, and while we can complain all we like it is a ve ry close copy of mario from Nintendo a l be it with different main character sprites. Amiga version of this classic platform er: the Amiga version was released in 1988 . Retaining the design from the origin al Commodore 64 version.. The scroll s creen melody of The Great Giana Sister s was composed by the talented Chris H uelsbeck and remains iconic in gaming history. Port to Commodore Plus/4: On March 3rd , 2024, a coder named TCFS ported the original game from 1987 to the Commodo re Plus/4 platform Gameplay and Features The Great Giana Sisters C64 is a 2D si de-scrolling platform game where the p layer controls either Giana or her sis ter Maria (supporting alternating two- player mode). Each level contains dream crystals tha t give points when collected, contribu ting to the game’s high score. Power-ups include: Fire Wheel Transfo rms Giana into a punk with the ability to crush rocks by jumping and hitting them from below. Lightning Bolt Award s Giana “dream bubbles,” a single proj ectile shot. Double Lightning: Gives h er the ability to shoot recoiling proj ectiles. Strawberries Grant her homing projectiles. Water Drop A defensive i tem that protects Giana against fire. Enemies include owls, rolling eyeballs , flesh-eating fish, and deadly insect s. Special items affect the entire screen , such as the “clock” (freezes all ene mies) and the “magic bombs” (kill all enemies). Plus 4 version With an excellent conversion of the or iginal music the plus 4 is never going to be a SID chip but does a plausible rendition of the music. The game look s very colourful and for a moment you forget this isn’t the C64 version, its smooth glitch free and with all the g ame play elements remaining intact, ev en to the point of changing direction while jumping gives an other world non gravity floating feeling just right f or the games mechanics, because this h elps when timing jumps. You need to ge t some pixel perfect jumps for this ac tion, but its never frustrating and it ’s a little more forgiving than some g ames of this ilk. The game is both polished and great to play, as you can tell its one of thos e frustrating, one more time games whe re you wanted to leave but are now lat e as your on your 25th one more time p lays The great Gina sisters is a classic ga me for he Commodore range of machines, it’s a shame Nintendo wouldn’t franch ise Mario out to be developed for the Commodore range, Its also great to see this game now available on the plus 4 even if its taken so long to arrive. The Commodore e64 version would receiv e the same score so a very worth 7 isn ’t to feel disappointed about. I think all versions would score the same if I’m pressed into an answer SCORE 7/10 Version comparison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnObTa ZWR6M Plus 4 version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqWt3 Oq0ek ----------------- **************************** The incomplete history of ELITE By Commodore Free **************************** Rose tinted glasses Way back in time, when the bbc micro h ad its own tv service on the BBC and t he years started with 19 (something), a game was released that was so imposs ible to comprehend it became and still is a classic. The game called ELITE w as a space trading game and while on p aper it didn’t sound that ground break ing, it set a standard still used by m any such games today. The idea is you collect items from one planet, then lo ok at the most lucrative planet to tra vel to and sell you items at a vast pr ofit. Crammed into a minuscule amount of code and using wireframe 3d graphic s the player area was immense. Some ve rsions like the Amiga featured filled colour graphics, but that was processo r dependent. If you started trading contraband the n the police you trail you and shoot y ou down, here your best option was to hyperspace and hope to get lucky as yo u never knew where such hyperspace wou ld take you and what the planet would be like, friend foe or worse! Not only was the gameplay unique, but the game featured a radar that could not only show the position of the aliens or oth er space traders, but also the height and how close they were to you. I think because the BBC version was th e first version I saw and the C64 vers ion looked quite glitch in comparison, I still look back on Elite as a BBC g ame, and still think the BBC version w as probably the best, I have included some video of different systems playin g so you can make u your own mind. An Unofficial plus 4 has been created that shows what could have been with s ilky smooth graphics. So plus 4 users can experience the thrill of 1980 they never had. plus 4 (unofficial) https://plus4world.powweb.com/softwar e/Elite_Plus4 https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/0 9/elite-4-flicker-free-classic-as.html Commodore 64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTTpV 5qFrs BBC version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6m4Dw kYgGs&t=165s amiga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsuWgL EQBxM IAN bells (co creator) website http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/ Elite: A Pioneering Odyssey in Space G aming In the early 1980s, when home co mputers were still quite a new fad, a groundbreaking game emerged from the m inds of two British programmers. Elite was the brainchild David Braben and I an Bell. The two quickly wrote the gam e as they were scared Somone else woul d do it before them, and so while they were both studying at the University of Cambridge, they worked together on a game that would revolutionize the ga ming world. Elite was famously described as the g ame that couldn’t t have been written. Players had an Open Universe System, t he ability to Rhome anywhere, Players could explore eight galaxies and over 2,000 planets, drawn in 3D wireframe g raphics and using clever calculations to remove lines that couldn’t be seen by the player, in doing so leaving a c lean and uncluttered experience. There are No High Scores as such, and basic ally as a Players you could choose you r own path, be that of trading goods, hunt bounties, smuggle contraband, or mining asteroids. The original game is said to contain o nly 22 Kilobytes of code memory. Brabe n and Bell how they managed to compres sed the game into such a tiny code spa ce is incredible. Gameplay and Legacy In Elite, players assumed the role of Commander Jameson , a space adventurer with a Cobra Mk I II starting at Lave Station and armed with 100 credits. Players were subject to Combat, Engage in dogfights with p irates, police, or other traders. With the option to Upgrade your ships weap onry and shields to survive these atta cks, and the goal really of the game w as to upgrade your rank to become ELIT E, although you were free to become ju st a space pirate and shoot police, an d as they left the planet to track you down they would destroy you. Most of the ships encountered in the game were named after snakes or reptiles. Sale s The original game Elite sold an estima ted one million units. Of course, Sequ els and Spin-offs wouldn’t be far behi nd to follow on this success: Two popu lar sequels followed: Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters. The n In 2012, Elite Dangerous rebooted th e whole franchise and interest in the game for the 21st century, pulling in a new generation of players. Conclusion and summary Elite defied conventions, transcending its 22-kilobyte origins to become a g ame legend in its own right. Its open- ended gameplay, minimalist graphics, a nd audacious design set a precedent fo r future space sims. Innovations: Wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden-lin e removal: Elite was one of the first home computer games to use this techno logy. The Dark Wheel: A novella by Rob ert Holdstock was included, providing insight into moral and legal codes for players. open-ended gameplay model an d revolutionary graphics led to its wi despread porting across contemporary h ome computer systems. Influence and Legacy: The Elite series is one of the longest-running video g ame franchises, and has served as a mo del for so many other games. originall y published by Acornsoft for the BBC M icro and Acorn Electron computers in S eptember 1984. The game was later port ed to virtually every contemporary hom e computer system, including: Apple II Amstrad CPC Commodore 64 ZX S pectrum MSX Tatung Einstein IBM PC com patible Acorn Archimedes Amiga Atari S T Nintendo Entertainment System (PAL r egions only) Commodore 64 Version: The Commodore 6 4 version of Elite received critical a cclaim. With Zzap!64 awarded it an imp ressive 97%, calling the game a brilli ant game of blasting and trading and o ne of the best games of the year in 19 85. Amiga Version: The Amiga version of Elite, released in 1989, continued the games success, When Zzap!64 awarde d it a high score of 98%. Elite Plus ( known as Elite Plus in the US and EU) was an enhanced version of the origina l Elite for the Amiga. Unofficial C ommodore Plus/4: Elite was indeed conv erted for the Commodore Plus/4, thanks to the efforts of dedicated hackers. These hacker conversions allowed playe rs to experience the space trading and combat simulation on the Plus/4 platf orm. The game retains its core feature s, including wire-frame 3D graphics an d the quest for Elite status. -------------------- ****************************** Commodore Free Insomnia Birmingham NEC review 28 March - 1 April 2024 ********************************* If you thought insomnia was just some sleeping disorder, then your missing o ut on an exciting exhibition of all th ings gaming. History The Insomnia Gaming Festival, originally known as the i-Series, was founded in 1999. It began as a small LAN (Local Area Network) event where g amers could come together, connect the ir own computers, and play games as pa rt of a vibrant community. From these humble beginnings in a small office in Swindon, England, with just a few hun dred attendees, it has now grown signi ficantly over the years. The festival was primarily cantered around LAN gami ng, where participants competed in tou rnaments to win prize money. Evolution and Growth Insomnia slowly e xpanded beyond LAN gaming. It transfor med into a comprehensive gaming extrav aganza that celebrates all aspects of gaming culture, so today, it's not jus t a gaming expo; it's a celebration of all things gaming. Attendees can expl ore brand new game releases, indulge i n cosplay, discover indie games, engag e with gaming content creators, and mo re. However Insomnia isn't only about playing games; it's also a place to me et new people, form communities, and i mmerse oneself in the vibrant gaming s cene. Venue The festival quickly outg rew its initial confines and now takes place at the Birmingham NEC (National Exhibition Centre) in the United King dom. The NEC is the largest exhibition center in the UK, providing ample spa ce for gaming enthusiasts, exhibitors, and stage shows. if you're passionate about esports, LAN parties, stage per formances, and all things gaming, Inso mnia is the place to be! Review Each venue or event is given a number prefixed by an I so this event is (I72 ) and while on the face of things, an 8 bit r even 16 bit gamer may be looki ng else where for fun, Insomnia has so mething to offer every type of gamer, Dressing up or cos play seems to be a big thing at this years event, and whi le I only booked one day, its enough f or a casual gamer. If I was hardcore, I would be taking my own gaming rig, h ooking it up to the lan, booking my te nt into the hall area for a sleep over and be blasting scum until its time t o leave. On entrance it can feel at first overw helming, a large stage area has guest speakers though the day talking about all gaming, games and testing, while o ther central areas are filled with sma ll to large companies selling their wa res, anyone with enough money can sell items at the show, paying a fixed pri ce per meter squared. Prices can be hi gher than normal, costing in the retai ler’s travel expenses but… you can fin d some gems and items being sold off. New releases especially tend to be hea vily promoted and so heavily discounte d at the show. Tucked away to one side is the retro s ection, although it seemed a bigger ar ea than usual, this is were old tv`s a re commissioned back into action and v arious consoles are brought back to li fe. Surprising with all the new glitz happening that gamers are still drawn to the retro games, maybe its nostalgi c, maybe they come to look at how bad games were or just appreciate some of the coding genius that went into beati ng the best out of these systems. I m et a few fellow 8bit gamers and we cha tted, some new about C= Free and some are going to look up the website. This year it was consoles only, saga, xbox, playstation, etc no classic gami ng computers, no msx, no spectrum and no commodore, someone I spoke to said it was because they get stolen. Howeve r it would seem there is little demand for these, the consoles on display we re all locked n boxes and bolted to th e tables, I didn’t delve further for t he review. Other areas have promoters or influenc ers, commonly known as overpaid youtub ers who will chat and sign autographs, having been paid vast sums of money t o attend, last years even was quiet wi th hardly any of these influencers aro und, this year though and after lots o f criticism they are back in force. To be quite honest I didn’t know any of them, but as they are not retro influe ncers that really isn’t surprising. S till, I grabbed a few posters and auto graphs because, well you never know wh e one of these influencers will chair a tv show and be catapulted into fame. To be honest they were all very polit e and none had heard of C= Free, many knew little of commodore, but again wi th their age that’s not so surprising. Conclusion Billed as a Lan party, and that’s stil l seems to be the focus, to play with friends, and fellow game enthusiasts o nline gaming, Insomnia tries to cater for all needs and while the retro sect ion feels like its an after thought th ere were a number of systems recommend ed. As a retro users, you probably wi ll not feel your well catered for but if you’re a more all round gamer then it’s a great event to meet, greet and catch up with the latest gossip, frien ds’ and influencers. The place is huge and although we did meet some influencers I have no clue w ho they were, my son however did seem to know them and they were not adverse to talking about gaming, although non e had heard of commodore or of commodo re free. Homeward bound Coming back via Birmingham motorway yo u realise how bad the state of British roads are, cars swerving dangerously to avoid massive holes in the road, un even surfaces, its impossible not to b and down into some pothole, my car suf fered and reported a catastrophic fail ure. Next day at the garage I was pres ented with a 2k bill for my delves int o potholes, the garage said he had a f ew bad cars from Birmingham, so next y ear, if its running and not on strike ! we will take the train! https://www.insomniagamingfestival.com / you are stamped for re entry on arriva l E.O.F