Game Covers - Action Biker (Commodore 64)

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Our handwritten guide, written way back in the 80s! (Part 1)

Our handwritten guide, written way back in the 80s! (Part 2)

3D View (hold and move to rotate) New Tab (Full Screen)

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 31 : Total Eclipse (Commodore 64)

As most regular visitors to my blog knows, I have a massive soft spot for the Freescape 'solid 3D' adventure games from Incentive Software.  Released for most 8-bit (and some 16-bit) computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. the series of games included Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse and Castle Master (as well as Total Eclipse II Sphinx Jinx and Castle Master II The Crypt available through the Home Computer Club), not to mention the many Freescape games people made with the awesome 3D Construction Kit, including myself!

Total Eclipse got a massive 94% in Zzap 64 magazine exactly 30 years ago this month, and it's still a great game to play today, providing you don't mind the slow screen redraw.  Moving away from the sci-fi setting of both Driller and Dark Side, Total Eclipse is set on the 26th October 1930, and you must (well, according to the game instructions) reach and destroy the shrine of the Sun God Re at the very top of the Pyramid (should that be Ra?) within 2 hours before the moon eclipses the sun, showering the Earth with massive meteorites and bringing an apocalyptic end to civilisation as we know it.

Virtual Reality - The nearest to actually being there.  It's probably the closest I'll ever come to visiting Egypt!

Inside the pyramid.  Watch out for traps!

Now, for anyone feeling a little pedantic, I've done a little bit of research, and it appears Egypt had no solar eclipse on that date.  There was a solar eclipse on October 21st 1930, but totality was only visible in Niuafo'ou, Chile, and a small part of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. 

ANYWAY, I digress.  Total Eclipse was/is a classic game and a fantastic example of early virtual reality at its finest.

Front Box Art

 

Back Box Art. 

 

Instructions.  I wonder who won the competition to see the eclipse in Hawaii back in July 1991

 

The other side of the instructions.

 

The Commodore 64 cassette.  Total Eclipse was on side 1

 

Side 2 of the cassette featured Total Eclipse II The Sphinx Jinx

 

Zzap 64 review from 30 years ago!  Issue 46 February 1989

 

Gaming Memories - "Last Ninja 2" for the Commodore 64

Boy, I hated this game when I first got it.  I read loads of great reviews about the game, saw the graphics in Commodore User, but when I played it and couldn't figure out how to cross the river to reach the end of level one, I put the game away in frustration, not to play it again until a few years later when I finally figured how to beat it! 

 

Since then, it has easily become one of my favourite Commodore 64 games of all time.

 

Anyway, whilst rummaging through some old Commodore magazines from 30 years ago, I found this from August 1988 and issue 59 of Commodore User.  This was my first glimpse of Last Ninja 2.

 

 

 

 

Gaming Memories - "Dark Side" for the Commodore 64

I've been having a look through a 30 year old Zzap 64 magazine from August 1988 and saw this review for the fantastic Dark Side on the Commodore 64. 

 

This game was my first introduction to the amazing Freescape 3D system by Incentive Software, and along with Mercenary by Novagen, was probably what got me so interested in modern day 3D/VR FPS games and defined what I would play some 10 years later. 

 

Of course Dark Side was a sequel to Driller, and preceded Total Eclipse, Total Eclipse II Sphinx Jinx, Castle Master, Castle Master II The Crypt and the amazing 3D Construction Kit - all of which I spent many hours of my childhood and young adult years playing.

 

 

 

 

Retro Game Boys - Episode 15 - Last Ninja 2 (Commodore 64)

Sorry for the delay, but we're back with another episode.

Get your nunchucks and shuriken stars at the ready.  Stuart introduces Kieran to Last Ninja 2 on the Commodore 64.
 

Happy New Year, and we hope you have a wonderful 2017

Retro Game Boys - Episode 14 - Kikstart 2 (Commodore 64)

Part 2 of our Christmas/New Year special double whammy. We look at the Kikstart games on the Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 64. For this episode, Stuart introduces Kieran to Kikstart 2.



 

Retro Game Boys Episode 8 - Streetbeat (Commodore 64)

Stuart introduces Kieran to one of his favourite childhood computer games on the Commodore 64.  A little known game called Streetbeat (which itself is a re-release of a game called Ghettoblaster). 

 

May the funk be with you!

Retro Game Boys Episode 7 - Trashman (Commodore 64)

Are you getting tired of flight, train, lorry, farming, and goat simulators?  How about a Rubbish Man Simulator?  Stuart and Kieran play "Trashman" on the Commodore 64 and try hard not to burst out in to song and sing "My old man's a dustman"...

Enjoy :D

Alive and Kick'Starting'

Kickstarter is addictive....  There I said it.

Last year, I backed my first Kickstarter...  a book called "Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium", by Sam Dyer, and published by Bitmap Books.  It surpassed all expectations and became quite a hit with fans of the Commodore 64 (including me).

So, when I heard that Sam was producing a follow up book entitled "Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium", I just had to back it immediately.

The book had a target goal of £25,000 so I think it came as a bit of a surprise to most when the total amount pledged to the project came in at just short of £130,000.  Wow.  It just goes to show how much love there is for the old Commodore computers.

Anyway, after several months of waiting, the book finally arrived through the letterbox today, and WOW.

The book is fantastic, and considerably larger than the Commodore 64 one.  The graphics on each page depicting various well known games are truly remarkable, with a small piece of text from well known people from the Amiga days (game/demo programmers, designers, graphic artists and fans)

AND due to the massive success of the project, backers also get loads of cool extras with the book as standard.

• Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright (CoLD SToRAGE)
• I Love Commodore Amiga Sticker
• Metal Amiga engraved bookmark
• Amiga pen
• Amiga Ball Pin
• 6x Demoscene postcards (one signed by the author of the book)
• Another World poster
• Ask Me About Loom badge (from The Secret of Monkey Island) Limited to first 100 Backers

I highly recommend this book (and the Commodore 64 one) to any person who has an interest in old computer games - even if you never had a Commodore computer.  I cant wait for Sam's next book which I hear may be about the Spectrum.

Amiga Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-amiga-a-visual-commpendium-book
C64 Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-c64-book

Now, I've just got to wait for the other Kickstarter projects I've backed to arrive, including Matt Gray's "Reformation" C64 music project, From Bedrooms to Billions : The Amiga Years, Marcel Donne's "Project Sidologie" CD Box set, and Uncle Art's Elite 2 (Frontier) Orchestral and Retrogaming Music Remakes.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

 

Remember this from The Secret of Monkey Island?

Demoscene Postcards

A3 Poster from the cover of Another World

Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright

Sticker!

The full booty!

Oh yeah, I got my name in the book as an official backer!

Please wait... Loading.

One of the great things about loading old cassette games on the Commodore 64 were the fantastic loading pictures that would often appear (usually accompanied with some equally fantastic music).  It usually made the wait for the game to load much more tolerable

I thought I would share with you some of my favourites.  Not bad considering the graphical limitations of the Commodore 64.  Remember, the C64 had a palette of only 16 colours!

After Burner

Arkanoid

Back To The Future Part II

Batman The Caped Crusader

Buggy Boy

Cobra

Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future

Dark Side

Dominator

Driller

Druid 2

Druid

Fairlight

Head Over Heels

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Robocop

Short Circuit

The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars

The Sentinel

The Untouchables

Total Recall