
*************************************
       Commodore Free Magazine
    http://www.commodorefree.com/
*************************************

         Issue 50, April 2011

      Free to download magazine
  dedicated to Commodore computers
  Available as PDF, HTML, TXT, SEQ,
      D64 disk image and now as
        ePUB and MOBI e-book

   -------------------------------
         Doctor Who actress
    Elisabeth Sladen has died of
       cancer at the age of 63
   -------------------------------

=====================================

*************************************
              CONTENTS
*************************************

* Editorial
* News
  - Viva Amiga
  - Jim Scabery Commodore Dealer
  - ACE 128
  - CardSwipe - Original VIC-20 Game
  - Snapshoter Updated
  - Jose Makes Music with MSSIAH
  - CBM PRG Studio Beta Released
  - DirMaster v2.2/Style
  - CBM-Command V2.0: Updated
  - X1000 Nemo Rev. 2 Motherboard
  - C64 SID 8580 Basic Sample Pack
  - C64 SID Phase Acc And FPGA Tuning
  - Arcade Retro Gaming Newsletter
* Interview With Adrian Simpson
* Commodore Amiga Programming
* Sideways SEUCK Compo Entries 2011
* Sudoku Game Review
* On the Road - SC3 Arcade Party 2011
* Back to the Past - Iss 11, Aug 2007

=====================================

*************************************
              EDITORIAL
*************************************

HI AGAIN

Wow issue 50 half a centaury; that's
quite a good innings from a fanzine.
Maybe I should celebrate somehow,
throw a party ...

Nahhh can't be bothered really;
basically we have to much going on
is this issue to get wound up on
celebrations, heck we wouldn't have
time to read this months issue if we
were celebrating so much.

STYLE

In this issue we have the usual
news, but I must point out the
superb DirMaster v2.2 by Style a
very classy piece of software, and
that reminds me I still need to
donate something to them for this
piece of work...

CBM-COMMAND

This software has also received an
honourable mention; this piece of
work is now really coming together
well. Of course you can read more
about each in the news section of
the magazine

AMIGA

I received an entry for the magazine
from John Fielden about Amiga BASIC
programming, and as I copied and
pasted his name directly into the
text I am guessing I manage to spell
his name correctly this month again
apologies John.

We also have an interview with
Adrian Simpson from GTWa (Games That
Weren't Amiga) and he reminisces
about some of the Amiga games that
nearly made it to the market but
just failed for some reason and were
pulled before distribution. Of
course you need to visit the website
to see all the titles that just
didn't quite make it to the market
place.

READERS COMMENTS

Hmmm it's been pretty quiet; I did
have a few "thanks for the mag and
keep up the work" style emails so I
guess you are still reading. I
haven't checked the website stats
for some time to get a feel of how
many downloads are actually
happening; I think I need to do
this. I did receive an email from a
prominent Commodore user who said it
was a good read although they
wouldn't let me reprint there name
here, and declined an interview. I
guess they are too ashamed of
actually liking the magazine to
read, well they could be shy I
suppose.

FUN N GAMES

I was hoping to do more games
reviews however the person who
contacted me and said he would help
hasn't been in touch so I have
reviewed a couple of Commodore 64
games that appeared recently and
caught my eye. If you feel you can
review games slightly better then my
rather poor efforts feel free to
drop me an email.

EBOOK

I haven't had any feed back on the
eBook, does it work ok for you
(assuming you are reading the
magazine this way) Comments
suggestions and criticisms are
always welcome they can be anonymous
if you prefer to be an unknown, just
let me know in the emails and It
will be just between me and you.

TTFN

Well that's about all for this
editorial TTFN

editor signing out and happy
reading....

Regards
Nigel (pretend Editor)
www.commodorefree.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I am pretty sure that Every
Commodore user is a Doctor who fan
and I for one really enjoyed the
Sarah Jane's adventures; and so on
this assumption it is with sadness
that I read about the following
announcement.

Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen
has died of cancer at the age of 63,
the BBC has confirmed.

=====================================

*************************************
                NEWS
*************************************

*************************************
             VIVA AMIGA
*************************************

IT'S PRE-ORDER TIME!

Hey there, fellow Amigans...

Alright, we're at the pre-order
stage now. We've got enough done on
the film (more interviews shot, DVD
packages determined and graphics
created) to go ahead and offer the
film for pre-order.

FIRST, A LITTLE NEWS...

RJ Mical, legendary video game
industry pioneer, Workbench
designer, and part of the original
Amiga design team, has just signed
on to be interviewed.

Eric Schwartz, well-known Amiga
animator, will appear in the film as
well. He has also offered to do some
special graphics for the film.

My long-time friend and expert
animator Maksim Bondarev has also
just signed on with the film! He'll
be creating 3-D models of all the
major Amiga models that will be used
for animated sequences in the
film.....

I want to thank you SO much for your
support so far. This project is
moving along great now. But we need
your help. You may place a pre-order
for one of our cool packages or
simply donate. We've set a goal of
$25,000 for pre-orders/donations,
but honestly that is the bare
minimum we need to pull this off.
I'd love to see it soar much higher.
The more donations and/or pre-orders
we receive, the better the film will
be. You have no idea of the costs we
will encounter - travel fees,
lab/post-production costs, legal
fees... it goes on and on. Please
help!

So please head on over to our
kickstarter.com page and place your
pre-order now!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/v
ivaamiga/viva-amiga-the-documentary-f
ilm

The Amiga will never die!

Zach Weddington
Producer, Viva Amiga

HELPFUL FILM LINKS

www.amigafilm.com
http://vivaamiga.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i
d=100001352670401&v=info

This project will only be funded if
at least $25,000 is pledged by
Wednesday Jul 20, 8:22pm EDT.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Hello everyone!

If you're reading this, you've
probably been to www.amigafilm.com
and have seen the trailer, and are
likely an Amiga user or general fan.
But if that's not the case, here's
the general pitch:

In 1985, a powerful new kind of
computer was born. It was 10 years
ahead of its time, and ready to take
on Microsoft, IBM and Apple for
control of the PC market. The Amiga
computer revolutionized video,
multimedia and digital art, with
Andy Warhol being a big advocate. It
was also known for being a fantastic
video games machine. Despite the
computer's manufacturer going
bankrupt in early 1990's, the Amiga
has a huge cult following worldwide
to this day. This film documents the
rise and fall of the Amiga in the
marketplace, and gives an inside
look at the passionate and eccentric
community that surrounds it. We've
got in-depth interviews with the
Amiga's designers, engineers and
advocates, and we'll be shooting
even more. This is a compelling and
unique documentary, rich with
animation and a distinctive style.
Viva Amiga is also being written and
directed by an Amiga user - me, Zach
Weddington! Without the Amiga, I
seriously doubt my career in film
and animation would be where it is
today.

Rather than just ask for donations,
we've decided to give everyone some
cool stuff in return, so take a look
at the great rewards we're offering
at the various donation levels.
These packages we're offering now at
these prices will only be available
to Kickstarter donators, so don't
miss the chance to get this stuff
and help fund the film. All
donations for packages include
shipping!

Your donations will enable us to
complete the film. Here are some big
names that we've already filmed so
far:

Jeff Porter - Former Commodore
Engineer - in charge of hardware
development. He gave us the 500.

Dave Haynie - Former Commodore
Engineer - best known for the Amiga
3000. He shot the infamous "Deathbed
Vigil" video.

Bil Herd - Former Commodore
Engineer, Principal Engineer on the
Commodore 128 and others...

Andy Finkel - Former Commodore
Engineer - software

Jason Scott - Computer Historian,
Writer (www.textfiles.com), and
Filmmaker (BBS - The Documentary,
Get Lamp)

...and several other important Amiga
journalists, scenesters and
engineers too.

Oh yeah, let's not forget about the
kick-ass soundtrack being composed
by Amiga mod scene musician Zo
Blade!

http://zoeblade.bandcamp.com/

SO NOW...

RJ Mical, legendary video game
industry pioneer, Workbench
designer, and part of the original
Amiga design team, has just signed
on to be interviewed. We need some
cash to get to Silicon Valley to
shoot his segment.

Eric Schwartz, well-known Amiga
animator, will appear in the film as
well. He has also offered to do some
special graphics for the film. You
can help me pay to fly him out to
our studio! You know, this guy...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mg6wrYCT9Q

We've got some shoots planned in
Northern Germany and London right
now, and we will use the money to
get there. We feel that it is
essential for Europe to be
well-represented in the film, as
Europeans embraced the Amiga so
heavily. We could also use some
camera gear of our own - all gear
has been loaned to us thus far. Your
money will go towards that as well.

Also, everyone is working on this
film for free so far. No one expects
to be paid, really, but I know for a
fact that you get what you pay for.
I'd like to be able to pay my
talented composers, designers,
animators and fact checkers for
their excellent work.

There's already a lot of interest in
this film. We've got 400 people
signed up to pre-order it, and
hundreds of fans on Facebook. We
just need a little help with
funding, and now you can pre-order
the film to help make it happen.

Take a look at the packages we're
offering. They correspond to the
donation levels on the right...

$20 LEVEL

You'll be listed as a patron and
benefactor on amigafilm.com, to show
everyone that you've helped make
this project a reality.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaamig
a/5654764481/in/photostream/lightbox/

$35 LEVEL

A copy of Viva Amiga on DVD, DVD
Extras Disc, and Viva Amiga button,
plus benefactor listing on
amigafilm.com.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaamig
a/5654764841/in/photostream/lightbox/

$65 LEVEL

DVD, Movie Soundtrack, Extras Disc,
Limited Edition Signed "Pre-Order"
Poster, Viva Amiga Button, plus
benefactor listing on amigafilm.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaamig
a/5654765389/in/photostream/lightbox/

$100 LEVEL

DVD, Movie Soundtrack, Extras Disc,
Limited Edition Signed "Pre-Order"
Poster, Viva Amiga Button, a "Thank
You" message in the credits, plus
benefactor listing on amigafilm.com.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaamig
a/5655338364/in/photostream/lightbox/

$150 LEVEL

DVD, Movie Soundtrack, Extras Disc,
Limited Edition Signed "Pre-Order"
Poster, Viva Amiga Button, a "Thank
You" message in the credits. Plus a
second copy of both DVD and
soundtrack to give as a gift. Plus
benefactor listing on amigafilm.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaamig
a/5654766519/in/photostream/lightbox/

There's also a couple higher levels.

Please note we're still working on
the designs to make them even more
fun. They may change slightly.

We've set a goal of $25,000 for
pre-orders/donations, but honestly
that is the bare minimum we need to
pull this off. I'd love to see it
soar much, much higher. The more
donations and/or pre-orders we
receive, the better the film will
be. You have no idea of the costs we
will encounter - travel fees,
lab/post-production costs, legal
fees... it goes on and on. Please
help!

Let's make Amiga dreams come true
together! I want to make this film
as awesome as it can possibly
be...we owe it to the Amiga!

Viva Amiga!

-------------------------------------

*************************************
    JIM SCABERY COMMODORE DEALER
*************************************

Jim Scabery, Portland, Oregon's last
Commodore dealer, wishes to
apologize for his not fulfilling
orders in a timely manner since
December. Due to serious health
issues that he and his wife are
having, Commodore and Amiga does not
take precedence. This situation will
not change in the future.

And Further due to serious health
issues, Jim Scabery, Portland,
Oregon's last Commodore/Amiga
dealer, is looking for a buyer to
purchase the hardware and software
sides of his business.

Contact Jim at
Comm-Jim(at)comcast.net

If you wish to contact him by phone,
send me a message.

Sincerely,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On April 3, 2010, I wrote:

[He] is having a close-out on
Commodore chips and fuses. To see
the complete list,  prices, and
contact information, go to

http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=413.msg1825#msg1825

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On April 21, 2010 6:02 pm, I wrote:

[He] is having a close-out on
Commodore/Amiga books and VIC-20
software. To see the
Commodore/Amiga book list, prices,
and contact information, go to

http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=424.msg1852#msg1852

To see the VIC-20 software list,
prices, and contact information, go
to

http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=425.msg1853#msg1853

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Sept. 24, 2010, I wrote:

[He] is having a close-out on
Commodore and Amiga software. To see
the listing of Commodore software,
go to

http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=512.0 (titles A to C)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=513.0 (titles D to G)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=514.0 (titles H to L)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=515.0 (titles M to P)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=516.0 (titles Q to S)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=517.0 (titles T to Z)

To see the listing of Amiga
software, go to

http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=509.0 (titles A to F)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=510.0 (titles G to P)
http://retro-link.com/smf/index.php?t
opic=511.0 (titles Q to Z)

-------------------------------------

*************************************
 ADVANCED COMMODORE ENVIRONMENT 128
*************************************

A demo of ACE128 has been uploaded
to YouTube ACE128 is (Advanced
Commodore Environment 128). The team
working on ACE128 has the following
members: Miroslav Karku, Josef
Proke, Dirk Vroomen, Patrick Hammes
and Jason Lapp. At the moment the
team is searching for someone to
check the English spelling and a
musician for making system sounds.
They YouTube demo shows the
Operating system booting up and
opening a notepad document with some
text in.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0e9uGR0-Xg

-------------------------------------

*************************************
    CARDSWIPE - AN ORIGINAL GAME
           FOR THE VIC-20
*************************************

* Requires 32K VIC-20

CardSwipe is a game of skill where
you must collect one of each card
(Ace, King, Queen, and Jack). The
first person to collect all four
cards wins. 4 people can play at
once. The winner's score is
displayed at the end. The scores are
calculated based on the colour of
the cards in your tray. Black is
worth more than Red, which is worth
more than Green, which is worth more
than Blue.

* There is no AI in this initial
version.

http://www.paytonbyrd.com/wiki/GetFil
e.aspx?File=CardSwipe-1.0.d64.zip

-------------------------------------

*************************************
         SNAPSHOTER UPDATED
*************************************

Snapshoter for AmigaOS 3/4, MorphOS,
AROS, and Windows is updated to
version 1.3.5

A lot of bugs fixed, and new
features added, improved speed in
the clipboard bar, removed some
nasty bugs, added support for square
brackets (text), added support for
copy image directly from web
browser, improved multi drag n drop
function, print screen directly
stores in the clipboard bar, key
printscr autostore the desktop in
the clipboard, now is not needed
call it snapshoter.exe....

FEATURES

* Store up to 100 clipboards.

* Add watermarks to your pictures.

* Post-it function.

* Compatible with DropBox.

* Auto store text in clipboard.

* Capture pictures, or full desktop.

* Capture images with timer.

* Image compose mode.

* Scale, rotate, put border, change
  contrast, add transparency, use
  text or arrows in the collage mode.

* 10 layers to play with your images
  in real time.

* Save the collage as JPG image.

* Languages English, Catal, spanish
  and French.

* Drag n drop picture files to the
  clipboard bar.

* And a lot more...

Download here:
http://www.xabierpayet.com/

-------------------------------------

*************************************
    JOSE MAKES MUSIC WITH MSSIAH
*************************************

Here is the YouTube note

This is what happens when Jose plugs
the C64 into the socket and starts
to make sounds with MSSIAH midi
cartridge. (for those going to use
the same cartridge, Never plug it or
disconnect with the power On!!) This
is a Commodore 64 ALDI limited
version. Sold for German market with
internal 8580 SID chip.

If anyone's wondering where I am
from (due to my accent) I am Spanish.

Mono synthesizer demonstration.
Playing DM "Shake the Disease"
excerpt (hard to do with a
monophonic synth if you want to play
with two hands). Also "Popcorn".

Greetings to Vince Clarke at the
video's end. :-)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ0VnUfZBE0

www.vinceclarkemusic.com/video

EDITOR: See someone else likes Vince
Clarke, I did see a recent Q n A
session with Vince where he does
state he never owned a Commodore 64;
so I guess that closes that book
then.

-------------------------------------

*************************************
         CBM PRG STUDIO BETA
       VERSION 0.3.0 RELEASED
*************************************

http://www.ajordison.co.uk/

17th March 2011 - CBM prg Studio
Beta Version 0.3.0 released. If
you've come looking for C64PrgGen or
VIC20PrgGen they are still available.

Note: C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen are
no longer being developed, but they
will be supported for the time being.

WHAT IS IT?

CBM prg Studio allows you to type a
BASIC or machine code program in
using a nice Windows environment and
convert it to a '.prg' file which
you can run on an emulator, or even
a real C64 or VIC20 if you're
feeling brave and have the right kit.

CBM prg Studio is the result of
merging C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen.
Adding new features and fixing bugs
in two apps which were 95% similar
was a bit of a nightmare so merging
them made sense. It was also a good
opportunity for a face lift and to
add some new features, such as:

* Programs are project based,
  meaning all related source files,
  sprite files etc. are kept in one
  place and multiple source files
  can be linked more easily.

* Tabbed MDI.

* Syntax highlighting.

What CBM prg Studio isn't is a
front-end for tok64, cbmcnvrt,
bastext or any other
tokeniser/detokeniser/assembler.
It's all been written completely
from scratch.

Follow the download link for more
details.

www.ajordison.co.uk/download.html

FEATURES:

* Can target C64 and VIC 20, with
  other machines coming soon(ish),

* Multiple source files can be build
  to one destination,

* Function Library Support,

* .d64 Creation Tool,

* BASIC Constants,

* Tabbed MDI interface,

* Memory Viewer,

* 6502/6510 Assembler/disassembler,

* Automatic assembly code formatting,

* Program import (.prg, .T64 or
  .D64),

* Program export (.prg, .p00),

* Sprite editor,

* Character editor,

* Binary file import/export,

* A Screen Code Builder, for using
  those pesky print control
  characters,

* Code formatting and renumbering,

* Comprehensive help, including
  tutorials,

* Plus many others.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Processor

Computer with a Pentium III-class
processor, 600 MHz, Recommended: 1
gigahertz (GHz)

RAM

192 MB, 256 Recommended

Operating System

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, or Windows Vista,
Windows 7, .NET 2.0 and Service Pack
1

Video

800 x 600, 256 colours.

Recommended: 1024 x 768, High Colour
16-bit

-------------------------------------

*************************************
        DIRMASTER V2.2/STYLE
*************************************

http://style64.org/release/dirmaster-
v2.2-style

DirMaster is a Windows-based GUI
tool useful for the management of
common (and uncommon) emulator
formats (such as .d64, .d81, .t64,
etc) as well as native archival
formats (such as .arc, .sda, .lnx,
etc).

NEW IN THIS VERSION:

New Features

* New "Print Sleeve" function under
  the Disk menu. Use this to print a
  disk sleeve with up to the first
  80 filenames  on the currently
  active disk image.

* Installs and uses "C64 Elite Mono"
  which is a pixel perfect TrueType
  glyph set, correcting a couple
  minor issues in the previously
  used font.

* .lbr unpack support.

* More fault tolerant "Run In"
  feature uses "?" in place of some
  characters that are problematic
  when passed to external emulators.

* Added a convert to upper/lower
  function to switch all of the
  chars in a file name to a certain
  case

Change

* Opening a compressed image (zip,
  lha, etc) or a .g64 will no longer
  mark the resulting disk image as
  dirty

Bugs

Several bugs reported by users were
fixed in this version.

Very cool piece of software this,
very professional in look and
function

-------------------------------------

*************************************
      CBM-COMMAND V2.0: UPDATED
*************************************

CBM-Command is a disk manager for
the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 /
Commodore VIC20 and Commodore C16
computers.

The software has been written like
Norton Commander or Midnight
Commander, but is much simpler due
to the target platforms.

Both the C128/C64/VIC20/C16 have
their own native version of the
application.

CHANGES ARE:

* (C64) added double-buffering when
  displaying the directory in a
  panel, this eliminates the
  flickering that users were
  experiencing when scrolling
  through long directories.

* (All Machines) changed the
  algorithm for displaying the
  directory in a panel, this greatly
  speeds up the scrolling of long
  directories, especially on the
  C128.

http://cbmcommand.codeplex.com/releas
es/view/62749#DownloadId=218329

-------------------------------------

*************************************
    X1000 NEMO REV. 2 MOTHERBOARD
            IN PRODUCTION
*************************************

With the production of AmigaOne
X1000 Beta test boards in progress,
A-EON technology is pleased to
release schematics of the final
revision 2 Nemo motherboard layout.
In true "Amiga tradition" the lead
designers have added their
signatures to the Nemo motherboard.
We are also pleased to reveal
details of the upgraded XENA
subsystem featuring a 500MHz,
dual-core XS1-L2 XMOS chip. Please
check out the latest images of the
revision 2 Nemo and XENA schematics
in the Media gallery on the A-EON
Technology website.

http://www.a-eon.com/index.html

-------------------------------------

*************************************
        COMMODORE 64 SID 8580
          BASIC SAMPLE PACK
*************************************

littlescale has a collection of
samples at pitches from c2 to g6
from the Commodore 64 main waveforms
the samples were recorded using
custom hardware

Download the uncompressed sample
pack here (WAV / 44.1 KHz / mono)

http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downlo
ads/sample_sets/Commodore%2064%20SID%
208580%20Basic%20Sample%20Pack%20%28w
av%29.zip

Download the compressed sample pack
here (MP3 / 192 Kbps / mono)

http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downlo
ads/sample_sets/Commodore%2064%20SID%
208580%20Basic%20Sample%20Pack%20%28m
p3%29.zip

If you like this sample pack, you
might also be interested in some of
the following sample packs (all
recorded from hardware using custom
designed interfaces):

* Sega Master System YM2413 Preset
  Instruments

* Sega Master System YM2413 Drums

* Sega Master System SN76489

* Sega Mega Drive YM2612

* SPo256-AL2 Speech Chip Allophones

* Atari POKEY Noise

* Atari 2600 TIA

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2009
/10/commodore-64-sid-8580-basic-sampl
e-pack.html

-------------------------------------

*************************************
      C64 SID PHASE ACCUMULATOR
           AND FPGA TUNING
*************************************

Jeri Ellsworth explains the phase
accumulators in the c64 SID sound
chip in this video. This technique
was used in many early synthesizers
and sound chips. Jeri Ellsworth is
best known for the creation of the
C64 DTV, the all in one Commodore 64
joystick emulator she created in
2004. She is also responsible for
designing the FPGA chip of the C-One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIo93A
E8Fsw&feature=player_embedded

AND ALSO

She Use an FPGA chip to tune a
secondary SID chip giving the
Commodore 64 a pseudo stereo effect.
The demo shows ordinary chip tunes
played as if they were stereo.

-------------------------------------

*************************************
   ARCADE RETRO GAMING NEWSLETTER
*************************************

Hi guys,

The 2011 Midwest Gaming Classic was
quite the event! While not all the
numbers are in yet, we're certain
that we had the best turnout that
we've ever had! We'd like to thank
you all for making it such a great
success!

WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH?

1. New ATARI 2600 Joystick for the
Multiple Classic Computer

We just added the classic ATARI 2600
Joystick to our product portfolio.

The perfect accessory to enjoy the
ATARI 2600 on the Multiple Classic
Computer.

Get back to the 70s and plug the
Multiple Classic Computer in your TV.

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2. MCC-216 PONG Limited Edition with
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NEW product in our Online Store with
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3. AMIGA presented at the Midwest
Gaming Classic

We proudly presented our AMIGA 500
implementation at the Midwest Gaming
Classic show last weekend and
generated a big hype.

The AMIGA 500 implementation comes
with a game menu, demo menu and a
user menu similar to our C64 core.
Each menu supports up to 10000
entries. With the user menu you are
able to mount up to 4 virtual disks
into the emulated DF0-DF3 drives.

The system ships with 85 A500 games
and 28 A500 demos.

Our bundle includes the AMIGA
Forever CD for your PC which allows
you to add additional content to
your Multiple Classic Computer.

ZZZZZ HAPPY RETRO GAMING ZZZZZ

4. BLOG for the Multiple Classic
Computer, Retro Gamer and Arcade Fan

Arcade Retro Gaming is proud to
present you your own forum. If you
are a Retro Gamer, Arcade Fan or
Multiple Classic Computer user -
you'll enjoy it.

Now you can add your own feature
whish list for the AMIGA
implementation.

Don't miss out to sign up and start
blogging.

At www.Blog.ArcadeRetroGaming.com
you can chat with friends, post your
fun experience with the MCC and
classic games, ask technical
questions, join the growing
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schedule for retro gaming events,
post your own setup and your classic
computer selection, talk about retro
games and development,
sell/buy/trade and much, much more.

Don't miss out on this and SIGN UP
today on our BLOG home page.

www.Blog.ArcadeRetroGaming.com

=====================================

*************************************
    INTERVIEW WITH ADRIAN SIMPSON
    Webmaster of Amiga Games That
           Weren't (aGTW).
*************************************

http://agtw.abime.net/

Q. Please introduce yourself to our
readers

My name is Adrian Simpson and I'm
the webmaster of Amiga Games That
Weren't (aGTW). I'm also involved in
some other Amiga projects, including
the Hall of Light Amiga database,
the English Amiga Board forum and
Amiga Point of View PDF magazine.

Q. When did you first start your
fascination with Computers and
Commodore

My computer history is a fairly
common progression, starting in the
8-bit era and moving to the Amiga
and then the PC. I actually
graduated to the Amiga a few years
after it was released around the
time of the A500 Screen Gems pack.
This pack brought together some
mediocre games like Days of Thunder,
Back to the Future 2 and Nightbreed:
The Interactive Movie. It did
include Shadow of the Beast 2 which
showcased jaw-dropping graphics and
sound, even if it was lacking in the
gameplay department.

Q. So when you say 8-bit machines;
Did you progress from the C64 to the
Amiga

No, I'm afraid that I had a 48K
Spectrum!

Q. What in your opinion was special
about the Amiga

It was technically before its time,
which helped cement its position for
a number of years until other
computers caught up. It wasn't as
boring as a PC or as restricted as a
console. It was an adaptable
platform. For example, one day you
might be playing a game or playing
music modules and the next day you'd
be 3D modelling or using a paint
package. The Amiga even had speech
synthesis built in. It was an
exciting computer!

Q. Can you explain the concept of
Welcome to Amiga Games That Weren't

aGTW aims to find out more about
Amiga games which were never
released. I try to interview as many
of the people involved as possible
and sometimes this is all that can
be done. For example, nearly
everything relating to the game
Fantastic Island was lost in a hard
disk crash. In this case there isn't
much to uncover.

In other cases, such as Siege On
London or Fatal Noise, there are
incomplete versions of a game that
are enough to get an idea of what
the game was going to be like.

The ultimate aim of the website is
to uncover full games but to avoid
disappointment it's best to aim for
an interview and accept anything
else as a bonus.

Q. when did the site start, why did
it start what was the motivation and
who currently maintains the website

Frank Gasking had created a website
called Games That Weren't which
concerns unreleased Commodore 64
games. An Amiga version had been
discussed on the English Amiga Board
but the project was eventually
abandoned. I hadn't been involved
until this point but I spoke to
Frank Gasking and received his
blessing to create a new website
from scratch.

At the moment I'm running the
website myself but in the past I've
had some assistance in finding
individual games.

Q. How do you find the missing games

There is an initial period of
research to learn about a game.
After this I try to contact the
developers directly to ask them for
more information and to see if
they'd like to participate in an
interview.

Locating the developers is often a
very time consuming and discouraging
task, and sometimes involves some
trial and error when there are
several people with the same name.
Even if I do manage to find the
correct person; I sometimes receive
no reply or an initial response; but
then nothing after that. However, as
can be seen from the website, there
are plenty of kind souls who have
answered my questions.

Old Amiga magazines are a good
source of information since
unreleased games will often have
been previewed if not reviewed.
Occasionally there are demos of
unreleased games on coverdisks.
Sometimes early versions of the
games have been available on the
internet for years.

Q. There must be a top 5 of games
you know where almost finished can
you list them, and maybe the top 5
games you have found

It would have been good to see the
following almost complete games:
Putty Squad, The Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers, Babylonian Twins,
Hardcore and Universal Monsters.

The following full games have all
been featured on the site, although
the first three were not located by
me: Snow Bros, Liquid Kids, No
Buddies Land, Son Shu Shi and
Hostile Breed.

Q. I would like to know the worst
game you have found, or do you feel
it would be better not to say

I had originally considered scoring
each game on the site but I thought
that was unfair to the developers,
considering that many of the games
are in an early stage of development
and not in a state that they would
have wanted them released and rated.

I look at the games in a more
positive light than I might
otherwise have. The site's about the
story behind the development rather
than the quality of the game.

Q. How many games do you find that
are virtually finished; lets say 99%
so apart from some tweaks and
testing they would be ready to go
(as it were)

It's uncommon to locate complete or
almost complete commercial games but
finding these is the holy grail of
the project. When publishers like
Palace went bust they often left a
number of unreleased commercial
games so it is possible to find them.

Q. What is the more usual way you
receive a game, do you get the code
and test data or just the game as it
is warts and all

I'll often receive early executable
engines with missing features as
these will have been produced
throughout the development process.
Magazine demos are a good source of
unreleased games. Sometimes an
artist has sheets of sprites or
tiles because they tend to retain
examples of their work, unless a
hard disk crash obliterates them.

Q. are the games owners open to you
putting up the games for download

Yes, they are usually happy for the
games to go online. The website is
non-commercial and advert-free so
they can see that I'm not
profiteering from their work.

Sometimes there is a reluctance to
even do an interview about
unreleased games. A common reason
for this is that the game's
developer is releasing a new version
on a modern platform and doesn't
want potential buyers to find a
crusty old Amiga game instead of the
new game! Often an unreleased game
can represent a low period in
someone's career, when things didn't
go well, so it's understandable if
they just want to forget it.

Q. Has anyone said "hey we own the
copyright please remove this from
the website"

No, that has never happened. I do
seek permission from the developers
and copyright holders, where
possible. Often the companies no
longer exist, which makes it more
difficult.

Q. What format are the games in when
downloaded from the website and how
can you run them on real hardware

Normally the site uses ADFs (Amiga
Disk Format) which is a standard
implementation of a floppy disk in a
file.

When a disk has a copy protection
mechanism I'll use the IPF
(Interchangeable Preservation
Format) which was created by the
Software Preservation Society (SPS).
Unlike ADFs, IPFs store the deeper
disk protection. Istvan at the SPS
is a disk guru so he's a great
person to turn to for help.

The third common release type is a
WHDLoad install. This is a superb
tool which facilitates the
installation of a game on hard disk,
a feature that was missing in some
Amiga games.

All three types can be run in an
Amiga emulator such as WinUAE. On a
real Amiga ADFs can be transferred
to floppy disk. WHDLoad installs are
made for real Amigas so they can be
easily used on the actual hardware.

Q. I presume some of the games
production was stopped to move to
other platforms, do you think that
some of the almost finished games
could have actually (if finished of)
made the publishers money

Publishers may have made profits but
it would have depended on the game.
There were numerous reasons for a
publisher not releasing a game; the
type of game may not have fitted in
with the gaming market at that time,
the game may not have been good
enough (though that didn't normally
stop publishers!) or licence
negotiations on a ported game may
have fallen through. In some cases
the decision to not release a game
seems unfathomable.

Q. Do you think that the publishers
should have tried the Public domain
route for some of the finished
games, with a cut-down version for
pd with the option to buy an unlock
code for 10 pounds or some other
small amount

I don't think that shareware games
were very lucrative on the Amiga, so
it probably wouldn't have worked
very well. The model wasn't very
efficient and relied on gamers
posting cheques or cash payments,
which probably didn't happen very
often. Today it's much easier to
make payments online or to buy indie
games.

The full version of flight simulator
TFX appeared on a CU Amiga cover CD,
so presumably there was some sort of
deal where Ocean received income for
this previously unreleased game. In
normal cases the game just
disappeared.

Q. Has a publisher asked for money
to release the game to you

No, thankfully not! I mostly deal
with individuals anyway.

Q. Has anyone come to you and asked
you to market a game, if not would
you consider marketing a more
finished game

No, the site's not really suitable
for full-on marketing and the
featured games are usually way past
their sell-by date. However, if a
developer was releasing a new game
based on a old Amiga title or
generally wanted a bit of publicity
through their old games, then
perhaps the site would be one way to
increase awareness. Retrogamers
usually do play modern games too so
there is a small opportunity there.

Q. I know there are numerous reasons
why Games were not finished can you
tell our reader what the number 1
reason is

There are a variety of reasons for a
game's non-publication, including
technical problems and issues within
the development team. If pushed to
suggest one most common reason I'd
probably put the blame on the
publishers but then again the
development side of things might
have caused serious headaches for
the publisher. In the defence of
publishers, it's easy for
programmers to get carried away with
their vision and to overload a game
with so many ideas that it is never
finished.

Q. someone maybe reading this with a
game or part of a game that wasn't
finished what should they do touch
get in touch with you

Just visit the Contact page of the
website
(http://agtw.abime.net/pages/contact
) and send me an email.

Q. How active is the Amiga games
industry, as you know I follow
mainly the 8- bit systems like the
VIC and c64

The Amiga is dead as a commercial
platform although some brave souls
do still release games. Since
Commodore went bust there has been a
complex and tedious power struggle
for what was left of the Amiga
hardware and operating system. The
idea of new "Amigas" being released
doesn't make a lot of sense to me
since they would be simply be PC
clones with the Amiga name stuck on
them. The Amiga was of its time and
that time has passed, so any new
"Amigas" will fail to incorporate
what was great about it in the first
place.

However, the Amiga scene is active
with some interesting projects, like
the Software Preservation Society.
There are still plenty of old games
to discover and not just unreleased
ones. Emulators such as WinUAE and
programs such as WHDLoad remove some
of the limitations of Amiga gaming
and allow us to delve into Amiga
gaming history.

Q. Ok imagine this; You have a team
and can develop any game for the
Amiga, what do you think you would
design, assuming unlimited time and
funding

It would have to be something retro
and suited to the Amiga's strengths.
For example, I wouldn't create a
texture-mapped 3D first-person
shooter but rather a filled 3D
virtual world game like Hunter or a
story-based 3D game like Wings. It
would be interesting to work through
all the different genres and create
the perfect Amiga game for each one.

Q. Finally do you have any other
comments?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity
to talk about Amiga Games That
Weren't and please do get in touch
if you have any information about
unreleased Amiga games or if you'd
like to help.

=====================================

*************************************
        COMMODORE PROGRAMMING
           By John Fielden
*************************************

HU-ARRAY FOR A CHANGE: A BIT ON THE
AMIGA

Commodore free magazine incorporates
all things Commodore. So, in these
programming pages it would I
thought, be nice to see something
else covered other than the c16/+4;
though the beginner could not find a
better place to begin learning
BASIC, or programming for that
matter being complete with its own
built in Assembly language monitor.
And while able to use PEEKs and
POKEs isn't quite so heavily
dependent on them which would put
many a Maths phobe like myself
almost completely off the mere
thought of "prog'ing". So we will
definitely be keeping the c16/+4 as
the main focus for learning and
expanding our programming knowledge.
But it is with expanding those
skills in mind that I wanted to look
-briefly at least- at something more
than the initial way of doing things
and see what experiment and
innovation brought to the table in
later though still early computing
times.

The 3.5 BASIC in The c16/+4's was an
advance on BASIC 2.0 in the c64's.
While the 128's boasted the best
BASIC of all the 8bit computers.
Then of course the new way/s of
doing things started breaking
through with 16 bit developments.
What better place to look then than
at the early Amigas? The start of
the new way of doing things, and
much is relevant to today. Line
numbers are gone, Windows need
creating before anything can be
done, though AmigaBasic provided the
initial one; the programmer could
create more. Speech became possible
adding a whole new dimension to
educational programmes like Learning
Languages.

Having said all this; the package
supplied on the Amiga left the
programmer less memory to play with
than the c64's! Some 25k in all. And
while this could be expanded with a
simple command -provided you had the
room to expand it to- it was still
quite risky in that going beyond
about 60 or 70k meant the machine
was highly susceptible to crashing.
Even the emulator is today!

(nb: Should some things be copied
exactly??).

A point that put me off taking this
up on a regular basis for these
pages. Though the many additions to
the language mean that it is
relatively easy to load programs in.
Why bother? Try the new Microsoft
baby .net; All Commodores BASIC was
written by the same company, and
while lately Microsoft seem to be
veering away from their roots, there
was still much similarity in the
early .nets probably for the sake of
backwards compatibility, and to not
scare the traditional enthusiast off.

SO TO THE PROGRAMMING

For the moment, lets keep on looking
at Nothing! Remember a universal
bind of all computers is they flatly
refuse to continue working if they
come across a division by zero. So
lets look to correct this. Notice
you don't need line numbering on The
Amiga, and explanation are given in
{these brackets, not (these) ones!}
-Don't type the explanations!!!

REM *div by zer0*
  {always give a title}

ON ERROR GOTO err.check
  {like the Trap(x) command in c16/+4
  BASIC. But where x is a number,
  here we have a name of a
  SUB-Program}

PRINT"fourty divided by zero equals";
40/0
c=45/0
PRINT c
  {realising these are error #11 in
  the manual. The computer remembers
  the above command to look in the
  place listed as err.check  for each
  of these statements.}

calc:
  {The alternative to line numbers. A
  list marker is used like thus for
  anything that might need to be
  recalled later. In this case it is
  just an example.}

d=400/c
PRINT d
  {essentially the same thing. But a
  different number to divide zero by
  for the sake of thoroughness in the
  testing.}

END
  {You don't need me to tell you what
  this does by now! The programming
  pages have been around on and off
  since Iss#28}

err.check:
  {as x=calc: always include the
  colon!}

IF ERR =11 THEN PRINT 0
RESUME NEXT
  {once remedy found for
  corresponding error. continue /
  resume at NEXT command / line.}

A cornerstone of good programming
practice is using conditions in the
best, most logical way for the task
at hand. We've looked at the
difference with Error
Trapping/checking and noticed that
IF condition, had it not been a
division by zero at hand the program
would've just resumed at the next
statement. So a full program would
want to stop and list the error
number to make the whole thing
easier to debug. Try adding PRINT
ERR before the resume statement. You
might be surprised at what you find
when you run the program.

The explanation is that while we
haven't always asked to print the
sum, in performing the sum even for
memory tasks the action has result
in the division by zero. So the
program checks the space set aside
for error checking and finds that it
has to print a zero to the screen.
The question remains how would a
programmer ensure in a more complex
calculation where variables are
unknown and the result might be a
division by zero; how to cope?

The answer is another on error
statement stating that 'c' (or
whatever the holding variable may be
named as in the SUB-program) shall
equal 0 on such an occurrence, or
for that matter whatever the
programmer wanted to do on such an
occurrence.

Enough of talking about nothing. We
move on now to condition handling
with user input.

REM *conditions conditions*

PRINT"continue Y/N?"
  {usually these things start with a
  question}

cndn:
  {a reference is necessary in case
  of a pressed key that makes no
  sense to the question at hand/}

a$=inkey$                     
  {do you notice any difference from
  the c16? how do you mean NO!}

REM ***a$=ucase$(a$)
IF a$="y" THEN a
IF a$="n" then b
goto cndn                     
  {it is unwritten but implied that
  a$ or the keypressed was none of
  the above. So this condition covers
  such an event.}

a:
PRINT" You pressed 'y' key"

b:
LIST

In the above program, if you press
'y' your told you did. If you press
'n' your not told anything. In both
cases the program ends by showing
you its listing. If you pressed
anything else the program goes back
to reset the key prompt.

It's worth noting that if you want
to use the "UCASE$" statement; you
must not only take out the REM ***,
but also change 'y' and 'n' in the
IF statements to capital letters, or
nothing will happen.

I spoke briefly on memory. It was
upsetting to find these limitations
and I haven't as yet found anything
clear as to what the safe maximums
are. There is the STACK size to
consider as well as the memory.
Still once you find a safe stack
size, it still isn't recommendable
to go beyond 90k. With the standard
stack, memory.

The command is:

CLEAR , 65536   
  {for 64 k of RAM. The sum is:
  1024*64}

The comma seems mandatory. Adding a
comma after the first number alters
the STACK. Leaving blank keeps the
default.

To know how much memory there is
left at any given time the format
remains

PRINT FRE(x)

Although now there is much more to
know on this. I won't be covering it
here. Consult the manuals! Try,

PRINT FRE(-2)

Though conditions are the
cornerstone of user interaction,
before we get to the user we have to
set up the memory so that there is
enough space to hold what the user
needs to do. And to cover every
possible eventuality takes good
planning. The cornerstone of this is
Arrays. HU-Array for Arrays!

The main books that I sought for
suitable programs are:

* The Amiga Microsoft BASIC
  Programmer's Guide, William B.
  Sanders, 1987, Scott, Foresman and
  co. 0-673-18523-0

* Advanced Amiga BASIC, Tom R.
  Halfhill and Charles Brannon,
  1986, Compute Publications Inc.,
  0-87455-045-9

* A2000 A500 Amiga Basic, English
  version, Commodore, 1985, (assumed
  to be supplied with the early
  Amigas: bought 2nd hand from web)

So far I haven't used anything
specific from the books, though I
did look to see "Why doesn't GETA$,
or GETKEYA$ work?", and to check on
new forms of things like how error
trapping and so on goes on Workbench
version 1.3. The abbreviations for
the books in order are. 1 "wbs..."
followed by page number. "Adv..." as
before and simply "A500 manual.."
etc. Though the actual manual is a
different thing concerned more with
the workbench and DOS. This has not
been referenced.

The following program sets up a
useful Database for a book
collection.

REM *Pg.109 of SWB. Arrays*

Librarian:
INPUT"How many Cases";cases
INPUT"How many Shelves on each case";
      shelves
INPUT"How many Modules per shelf";
      modules
DIM book$(cases,shelves,modules)

  {note: Whole words can be used as
  variables. The two letter limit is
  no longer.}

Place.Books:
FOR c=1 TO cases
FOR s=1 TO shelves
FOR m=1 TO modules

PRINT"What book is in case";c;
PRINT"Shelf";s;
PRINT"module";m
INPUT book$(c,s,m)

NEXT m
NEXT s
NEXT c

find.book:
CLS:               {CLear the Screen}
INPUT"Which book to find";title$

FOR c=1 TO cases
FOR s=1 TO shelves
FOR m=1 TO modules
IF book$(c,s,m)=title$ THEN GOSUB
   found.it :flag=1
NEXT m,s,c
  {as legal as 3 NEXT statements.}
IF flag=0 THEN PRINT" Title not
   found" :GOTO Another
END

found.it:
PRINT title$;" is in case ";c;"
      shelf ";s;
PRINT" Module ";m

Another:
PRINT :PRINT :flag=0
PRINT" Find another book Y/N?"

an$=INPUT$(1)
  {Where "INKEY$" is to "GETA$". This
  is like "GETKEYA$" in that it waits
  for user to respond.}

an$=UCASE$(an$)
IF an$="Y" THEN find.book ELSE END

The above program could be expanded
to load/save and edit the data,
adding/deleting books as required.
Also a list could be drawn of
shelves, cases or even modules. The
program demonstrates that little
seems to have change with Arrays.
And while the same ideas were
employed, a lot has been added:
there are now more variables.
There's another way to use IF/THEN/
ELSE requiring an "END IF" to be
declared, however all this will wait
for another time. In the meantime,
as we've been comparing the new and
the old, I will leave you with The
Key. That is to say using FuNction
Keys as user response in programs.
chr$ finder will help you find their
codes.

REM *chr$ finder -Amiga: wbs266*
key.me:
PRINT" Hit a key ('ESC' to Exit)"
key$=INPUT$(1)
PRINT"The ASCII value of ";key$;
     " is ";ASC(key$)
IF ASC(key$)=27 THEN END: ELSE key.me

I must've been reading code too
long, as that all seems self
explanatory. You will know what it
does/they do when you type in and
run it/them. The last line is saying
"if the user presses escape key then
end, otherwise goto the sub-program
named 'key.me'.

Do you know what? After all that I'm
missing the c16/+4. It's like I'm
not Functioning or something! So
here goes.

Listing of: TheKey.prg

10 REM *FUNCTION KEYS*
20 KEY1,CHR$(133)  :REM *Reset all
   keys to listed code, or they won't
   work*
30 KEY3,CHR$(134)
40 KEY5,CHR$(135)
50 KEY7,CHR$(136)
60 KEY2,CHR$(137)
70 KEY4,CHR$(138)
80 KEY6,CHR$(139)
90 KEY8,CHR$(140)
1000 REM *USE OF FUNCTION KEYS IN A
     PRG*
1040 SCNCLR
1050 PRINT" PRESS A FUNCTION KEY
     (F1 - F8)"
1055 X=X+1
1060 GET A$
1070 IFA$=CHR$(133) THENGOSUB 1160
1080 IFA$=CHR$(134) THENGOSUB 1180
1090 IFA$=CHR$(135) THENGOSUB 1200
1100 IFA$=CHR$(136) THENGOSUB 1220
1110 IFA$=CHR$(137) THENGOSUB 1240
1120 IFA$=CHR$(138) THENGOSUB 1260
1130 IFA$=CHR$(139) THENGOSUB 1280
1140 IFA$=CHR$(140) THENGOSUB 1300
1150 GOTO1060
1160 PRINT" F1"
1170 GOTO1290
1180 PRINT" F3"
1190 GOTO1290
1200 PRINT" F5"
1210 GOTO1290
1220 PRINT" F7"
1230 GOTO1290
1240 PRINT" F2"
1250 GOTO1290
1260 PRINT" F4"
1270 GOTO1290
1280 PRINT" F6"
1290 RETURN
1300 PRINT" F8 / NB: 'HELP' -
     ACCORDING TO THE MIS-PRINT:
     PG.179 OF C16 USER MANUAL."
1310 PRINT"COMPARED TO LAYOUT OF
     C16!!!"
1320 PRINT
1330 PRINT"IT DOESN;T MATTER: 2ND
     RUN SHOWS KEYS CHANGE"
1340 FORJ=1TO8
1350 KEYJ,CHR$(132+J)
1360 NEXTJ
1370 IFX<2THEN1055

"What! This far and no jokes!" I
hear you cry.

...The joke was some-one only saw
fit to allow 25k of RAM for BASIC,
that there was no compiler with the
package and the whole thing was
eventually dropped making
programming a privilege for a lucky
few relatively speaking.

For instance

1. As a child not holding the purse
strings, and with family not
interested or only interested in
games. I would not have discovered
this love. Nor would well meaning
parent/s have known where to look,
assuming they could've been bothered!

2. without access to the net I would
not have had a clue of the modern
goings on with programming. From the
Amiga "C" was an Alien concept, I
didn't have a clue from the odd
magazine snippet that came my way.
As for how to set myself up as a
programmer ..."pff." Forget it! (How
do you mean 'some things don't
change!' ???).

The whole thing was not only
daunting, but like an elite club
that you had to come from an
educated family. And we sit and
wonder why children are growing up
video game zombies! Well, some-ones
brain cell loss is some-one else's
financial gain. I wonder if
Microsoft or any DOS company will
ever set up a BASIC package as
standard with at least one
Introduction book and manual, like
in the days of the c16's. With
reference to how to continue to
build on the hobby for those who
chose to take it up. Even though I
was too young to be taken seriously
by the shop assistant.
Unfortunately, the way things are
the Art is being lost as those who
take it up realise there's money in
it. So it's a business requiring
formal education and the days of
being self taught seem to be
vanishing somewhat. Not least
because everything has been made so
complicated.

So, it's nice to look at the old
days and keep in mind that civilised
era. So with that in mind I dare
still say it.

Happy Prog'ing
From John Fielden

=====================================

*************************************
  SIDEWAYS SEUCK COMPO ENTRIES 2011
*************************************

MISSILE MADNESS [2011]

Credits:
Code: Chris Yates /Jon Wells
Music: Richard of Blazon, Scene
World Magazine, The New Dimension
Graphics: Alf Yngve
Design: Alf Yngve
Idea: Alf Yngve

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/getinterna
lfile.php/96922/SEUCKS_MissileMadness
.zip

Entry #2
Name of game: Missile Madness
Author: Alf Yngve
Musician: Richard Bayliss
No of players: 1 player only

http://tnd64.unikat.sk/Sideways_Seuck
_Compo_2011.html

Instructions:

It's nuclear war.

You are an Air Force captain, in
charge of one of our country's many
missile defence bases.

You must guide the surface-to-air
missiles (SAM) to shoot down
incoming enemy warheads, missiles
and bombers.

Using the joystick or keyboard, you
can aim up, sideways and diagonally.
Do not waste missiles -- aim
carefully.

Every time an enemy warhead strikes
the ground, it will generate lethal
radioactive fallout which may damage
your base.

Each time you take damage, one part
of the city will become defenceless
and take damage as well.

This game has two levels. Pass both
levels and we'll win the war. Good
luck, Captain!

Review

Entered for the Sidways SEUCK (shoot
em up Competition 2011 This Alf
Yngve game emerges. Currently only 1
of 2 games entered for the
completion, the next game is
reviewed after this one

The game titled MISSILE MADNESS
certainly wont excite graphically or
even sonically, the graphics and
sound can be classed in the
functional department, with rings
and explosions for sound and very
minimal graphics, However not all
games need sonically brilliant and
graphically complex eye candy, so
lets see what the game has to offer.

A minimal title screens opens the
game

With a joystick clasped in my greasy
hand; I clicked the button to
continue the game
The screen clears and a message
shows an ALERT status this flashes
and then the game starts

You could class this as a variation
on missile command, you have a
moving base with an arrow over the
top the arrow shows the direction
you will file in

Firing left, up and right.

Yep it works diagonally but you get
the idea here

Various targets fly over head and
you can move the ship left and right
to align yourself in a position to
shoot down the enemy if an enemies
shot hits the ground it generates
lethal radiation that can travel
across the ground and hit your base

The main screen shows scoring and
number of enemies you have hit

There does seem to be some graphical
corruption problems but I presume
this really is more down to the
SUECK engine rather than anything
else, when lots of things are
happening on screen the game does
slow down quite considerably. Also
hitting various enemy craft produces
symbols to appear things like B and
X I presume these are some form of
bonus's but am unsure what they are
supposed to do. The main problem is
the users ship can only move left
and right and not forward and back
in a 3d type environment, this makes
the game to hard in my opinion as
you are unable to move at times
because things are moving along the
ground towards you

The tape version does feature a nice
loading screen

It's a great idea but would be
better implemented as program in its
own right rather than the
limitations of the SEUCK system

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FLAWSHOW

Credits:
Code: Chris Yates / Jon Wells
Music: Richard of Blazon, Scene
World Magazine, The New Dimension
Graphics: Anthony
Design: Anthony

Flawshow

Disclaimer: This game is a pastiche
of the "hentai" game genre (in
particular, of the game "Lady
Killer"), but features no actual
nudity or explicit content.

Story: The near future - One
evening, while cruising the seedier
regions of the World Wide Web, a
lonely programming genius finds that
his hard drive has been invaded by
an swarm of sentient computer
viruses. These mutated malware,
having been created by
cyber-terrorists, are now fleeing
from a counter-attack by NATO's
computer experts, and are looking
for a computer on which to lie low
and devise a devastating comeback.

In order to save the whole IT
infrastructure of the free world
from obliteration, not to mention
his own personal collection of
"gentlemen's literature", the
programmer has engineered two
anti-virus programs to infiltrate
the infected hard drive and wipe out
the viruses while they are still
relatively weak.

Port One controls the Guard, which
has a somewhat slow and cumbersome
avatar, but is equipped with a
powerful long-range attack.

Port Two controls the Reaper, which
has a comparatively weak,
short-range attack, but a faster
avatar.

The longer that your chosen
anti-virus program is active, the
more damage will be inflicted upon
the virtual environments the viruses
have created. The environments take
the form of 8x5 grids of tiles,
which will show increasing signs of
wear and tear (Cracks, crumbling, or
rust patches). When a tile starts to
appear heavily damaged, it is 12
seconds from disintegrating
completely.

However, since the infiltration
programs are specifically engineered
to operate within the domain of the
viruses, they must keep to the
tiles, and avoid hanging around on
heavily damaged tiles (though
sometimes they will have no option).

In an attempt to defend their new
hideout from destruction, the
viruses will try to erase your
avatar(s). They take many forms ...

Enemy Guide:

Creepers: Slow and weak, but beware
of the glitching cursors they fire
(always in the direction they are
facing).

Love Letters: Also slow and weak,
but they have a dangerous
random-firing attack.

Vampires: The only enemy capable of
traversing gaps in the tiles. They
randomly fire cursors, and require
two hits to erase.

Ninjas: They can only attack
short-range, but are dangerous on
account of their speed and their
ability to assume temporary
invisibility (during which, only
their sword-slashes indicate their
position).

Nazis: Similar to the Creepers, but
with a faster attack, a greater
range of movement, and requiring two
hits to erase.

Mail Bombs: When the envelope opens,
explosive shockwaves will blast out
in four directions. Destroy quickly,
or stand well clear ....

Bosses:

Blaster Worm, Trojan Horse, and
Melissa.

Collect software discs for high
bonus points.

Commodore Free Review

Another game for the SEUCK
competition

After a brief loading screen with
the customary Colour roll (although
its green so and yellow maybe that's
Green roll or green roll and cheese
.. oh at this point I am giving up
on the screen description)

We now have 2 options

1 to control the guard with slow
speed and long range and the other
to control the reaper who is fast
and shoots short range

Again the Tape version of the game
has a loading screen and the usual
flashing borders and scrolly messages

Ok with the game loaded lets go with
option 2

The game doesn't have music but does
have sounds made from SEUCK the
usual twangs and squelches; although
to be fair they do match the game
really well,

So you are running around trying to
beat off the computer virus by
firing at the small viri (hopefully
this is plural for virus) as each
wave relentlessly attacks you have
to use all your skill (well move the
joystick around anyway) and destroy
these monsters, as each wave attacks
a small break in the action occurs
then some of the area of the screen
starts to be destroyed, as this
breaks down a small square of a
picture starts to appear these
picture squares prevent your man
from going into that area so as they
grow the places you can move become
less and less

As this level is played the picture
starts to build

Then you have some different aliens
to conquer

As the picture is finalised a symbol
appears with the words GO to advance
to the next stage of the game, you
need to be out of the picture
squares before the picture is
finished otherwise you will die,

Its actually not a bad game,

As you move to the next level you
move off the screen to the left and
the screen scrolls left to right

The second part of the game has
different baddies to kill off one of
which is a knight that fades into
the background, (my personal
favourite) its just another example
of the attention to detail that I
liked so much in this game, and of
course there is another end level
guardian to attack this time a
horse, sadly my skills fell apart
here, the stress and sweat from
playing with my joystick took its
toll, and I don't seem to be able to
progress further.

Not a bad effort (hmm I think I have
said this before) really quite
playable

Just for the record as it were here
I am pretending I am doing well with
the knight (option2) actually I seem
to be worse playing with this
character

well thought out although its
difficult for me to play personally,
But does have a "just one more go"
as with all things SEUCK its about
learning the patterns of the
movements of the aliens, and as I
cant remember them then I fail very
badly, the game again suffers from
some glitches but doesn't seem as
noticeable as some SEUCK games.

=====================================

*************************************
         SUDOKU GAME REVIEW
          By Commodore Free
*************************************

http://falconsoft.czechian.net/

CREDITS :
Code: Hamar of Falcon soft
Design: Hamar of Falcon soft

Downloaded from

http://noname.c64.org/csdb/getinterna
lfile.php/97212/Sudoku.zip

SUDOKU

Sudoku is a Japanese game played on
a board with a 3x3 grids arranged
into sets of 3 some of the grids are
filled with numbers, the idea of the
game is to fill all the grids with
the numbers 1 to 9 so that no number
in the row or Colum is repeated and
only 1 of the number 1 to 9 can be
used in each 3x3 grid in the
adjacent other outer grids, hmmmmm
didn't do to well there did I.

Over time this basic game has
increased in sizes and also the
complexity, for example the
complexity can be increased my
eliminating more and more of the
starting numbers.

Although other Sudoku games have
appeared on the Commodore 64 this
one caught my eye mainly for its
simplicity and minimal layout. And
of course it's easy to use.

STARTING THE GAME

Brings the user to the settings menu
here he can choose from

* Start the game
* Editor
* Help
* Exit

The game is played using the cursor
keys and the Enter key to confirm so
as we are on the Start game we just
need to press Enter to start the
games next menu the level selection
here we can choose from

* Easy
* Medium
* Hard
* Extreme

Choosing easy then the game starts
with a random layout of numbers
already assigned you move around
with the cursor keys and once into a
position you can press a number from
1 to 9 to assign it to the square,
once you are happy that you have all
the numbers correctly assigned

FISHINED

Well it was a battle but I finally
finished and easy one, on completion
the game randomly flashes the tiles
in multicolour's until the enter key
is pressed and then you are as a
player taken back to the main menu.
Of course because I am reviewing I
took longer on completing each game
(smile)

DESIGN

The editor menu allows the user to
design their own layout to play and
shows a blank grid where numbers can
be laid out, surprisingly the editor
also has some logic built in so that
its only possible to actually create
solvable games; checking no lines
contain the same number etc as in
the main game. This is brilliant.

DOWNSIDE

The downsides to the game for me is
you don't seem to be able to save
your Editor or designed games for
later play if you can I couldn't
figure out how. And some way to
extend the grid to a larger size for
even more complex puzzles for
example the time could be moved to
the top and the puzzle could be
extended to the right or even 2
puzzles side by side, of course this
isn't sticking to the true layout of
the game, so maybe this was the
intention from the author.

Other than that a good effort and
really enjoyable, well assuming you
like Sudoku that is, if you don't
then why read the review

=====================================

*************************************
             ON THE ROAD
      The SC3 Arcade Party 2011
         By Robert Bernardo
*************************************

It was just after 8 p.m. Friday
night when I arrived at the Knight's
Inn in Rosemead, California. I was
going to another event, the SC3
Arcade Party to be held the next
day, March 5, in nearby Alhambra. It
had been quite awhile since the last
party, but now the event was going
to be held in a new venue, the
Nucleus Art Gallery on Main Street.
SC3 Arcade Party co-organizer, Geoff
Voight, was expecting me to bring
Commodore and Amiga items for the
attendees to play, and not knowing
the new venue, I brought everything
necessary - a C64, 1541 disk drives,
1701 monitor, Super Snapshot v5
cartridges, game disks, joysticks,
cables and power supplies (bringing
an extra one was only prudent),
Amiga 500, external 1010 disk drive,
Magnavox monitor, mouse, cables and
power supplies.

Everything except game disks for the
Amiga! Oh-oh, I had left the other
boxes of disks at school. I scoured
the inside of the 1988 Mercury
Colony Park station wagon I was
using. I found only one game, "Space
Cutter". I'd have to e-mail my Los
Angeles friends and ask them to
bring their Amiga game disks... that
is, if they were going to attend the
party.

The Knight's Inn was an older motel
and one that had a facade that I had
never seen in other hotels. It
shared its parking lot with the
Denny's Restaurant, and to separate
the two establishments, the inn was
surrounded by a tall iron fence with
only one keycard entrance. It made
me wonder about the surrounding
area, which seemed fine to me except
for the one person who walked into
registration and spoke gibberish to
the night clerk. Somehow, the clerk
understood him and gave some papers
to mollify him.

Nevertheless, I was not put off, and
after check-in, I went to the car
and spent the next hour unloading
the mass of equipment and moving it
to the second-floor room.
Fortunately, the hotel let me use
their luggage cart. The room itself
was fairly large but worn...
wallpaper peeling, ceiling light
unshaded, door lock shaky, and smoke
alarm unplugged. However, the bed
was big and fairly comfortable, and
though the glass patio door was only
single-paned, the noise level from
the freeway a few blocks away was
sufficiently low.

For next few hours, I separated the
hardware into Commodore and Amiga
groups and scrubbed the exterior of
the machines. Mustn't have the party
attendees play on dirty equipment.

Midnight came too soon, and
exhausted from a day at work and the
long drive to Rosemead, I went to
bed.

I awoke at 8 the next morning. I
checked my e-mail; rats, none of my
L.A. contacts said anything about
bringing Amiga game disks to the
party. I shaved, took a shower, and
dressed. Then it was time to repack
the computer items into the station
wagon. The party was to begin at
noon, and I was running late.

I didn't get to Nucleus until after
1 p.m.. Parking was in back of the
building, but it was not nearby
parking; it was far to the back of
the building. I walked around and
found the entrance. I was surprised
that Nucleus was bright and airy
with large glass walls and books and
other doodads for sale in the front
of the establishment. I signed in,
and when I walked to where all the
party activity was happening in
back, I came across Geoff almost
immediately. The back area had been
darkened, and all of the arcade game
machines and home gaming consoles
were already set up. In fact, set-up
had begun on the Thursday before the
party. Geoff pointed the area where
he wanted me to be. He had already
set up a C64, 1702 monitor, 1571
drive, and a couple of boxes filled
with C= game disks. He had also
placed a 1080 monitor for the Amiga
and asked if I had the RGB cable for
it. No problem... it was in my carry
case.

Filmmakers Rory Muir and Jerold
Kress called to me. They had
contacted me beforehand, and they
had just re-entered the venue,
having arrived earlier and then
departing for some refreshments.
They were there to film Commodore
activities, and I went about the
business of prepping all the gear
while trying not to stare into their
videocameras. Even without having to
move a C64, drive, and monitors from
my car to the gaming room, I still
had to move boxes of disks and the
Amiga equipment. Several shuttles
from the car to the room later, I
was perspiring greatly in the warm
day. Rory found some paper towels
for me, and I wiped my brow and neck
and went back to attaching all the
materials.

O.K., Guitar Hero guitar and PSX64
adapter plus power supply connected
to the C64. All Amiga goods in
place, ready to go. Power up...
success! Everything looked as it
should. Now it was time to deal with
the latest Shredz64.D64 file that I
had saved on a SD card. Geoff had
provided a non-Jiffy-DOSsed 1541,
and the others in my car didn't have
JiffyDOS either. I didn't want to
deal with running the Shredz64 .D64
file without JiffyDOS and having to
run other game files, too, without
that enhancement.

I decided to convert the Shredz64
.D64 back into a real disk. It was
saved with a strange,
non-alphabetical character (a
reversed block) in the file name. By
using a SD2IEC, I tried to rename
it. No luck. The Commodore couldn't
rename it (not without a file
manager that could deal with
non-alphabetical characters). Hmm. I
didn't have Payton Byrd's
CBM-Command file manager program
with me, but I did have Errol
Smith's D64it. I tried to convert it
on the SD2IEC. No luck. How about
moving the .D64 to a 1581 disk (I
had brought a 1581 with me), and
from there try to convert it. Nah,
why do that?

As I pondered what to do, it was
already 2:30, and Rory suggested
lunch at a nearby Middle Eastern
restaurant. Thinking that this may
be my only time to get some food in
me during the event, I agreed, and
Rory, Jerold, and I walked a few
blocks down Main Street to the
upscale restaurant which seemed
Egyptian to me. Ah, time to relax
and talk... Jerold about his
upcoming film festival for youth,
and Rory and I about Portland,
Oregon Commodore user groups, the
Commodore Vegas Expo, my family, and
the different car I was using (my
usual Ford Crown Vic was being
smogged). I had the chicken shish
kebab lunch, Jerold had a sandwich,
and Rory had the vegetarian plate.
My opinion of my lunch - tasty with
plenty of seasoned rice but not
enough chicken.

When we started walking back, it was
4 (where had all the time gone?),
and the day had turned refreshingly
cool with flowing breezes. At
Nucleus I went back to the problem
of how to get Shredz64 going. O.K.,
I figured out everything. Geoff's
1571 wouldn't work correctly with
D64it, and I substituted my brown
1541. SD2IEC would be set to drive
9. For D64it to recognize that
troublesome filename, I used a
wildcard ? in place of that reversed
block character. I put a blank disk
into the 1541. Crossing my fingers,
I set D64it in motion. The 1541
dearchiving process started
correctly! Now all I had to do was
to wait until Shredz64 was turned
back into a real disk. Some time
later, the process stopped. I
checked the directory. It all seemed
normal. With some trepidation, I
restarted the C64 and ran Shredz64.
Opening screen... and then main
menu! Yes! Choose a song, watch the
scrolling notes, and play them on
the Guitar Hero guitar. Though my
coordination was bad, the system
worked perfectly. Ah, all was good.
Time - about 6 p.m..

During all this time, I had had
Martin Piper's Berzerk v1.1 going on
the C64 and Space Cutter on the
Amiga. Now the attendees would be
able to play Shredz64 and the Guitar
Hero guitar. In fact, there was one
attendee who had patiently waited
all afternoon just to play Shredz64
on the Commodore. He was one of the
first to use Shredz64, and he
recalled how he played it at the
last SC3 Arcade Party. I informed
him that this was a
freshly-downloaded disk with new
songs. Throughout the night, person
after person came to play Shredz64,
maybe not to the degree that had
been done at the last party because
of where my Commodore/Amiga table
had been placed - against a side
wall and where attendees would have
to cross other chairs and other
attendees to get to it. I stuck by
the table, helping each person with
how to choose songs and how to play
the Guitar Hero guitar. In fact,
when there was no one in line to
play it, I would try the easiest
song on the disk, "Bombo", and I
became better at it (but still not
proficient). When Shredz64 was not
playing, I would load up Berzerk or
other games, like Ghostbusters,
depending on what the attendee(s)
would request.

Speaking of Berzerk, the real,
stand-up arcade Berzerk machine was
across the hall. I had to try it out
and compare it to the Commodore
version. The real one had slower
moving characters on the screen and
one vocalization that the C64
version did not have. "Chicken.
Fight like a robot," it would intone
in its robotic voice. (Later on, I
was told that the C64 version did
have that line, and it was just that
I hadn't crossed that part of the
game where the robots would speak
it.)

There were many other stand-up
machines there. My favorite from the
last SC3 party was not there, but I
did try out Tron in honor of the
newly-released movie, Tron: Legacy.
Ooo, I was poor at knocking out the
tanks in the first level.

A bit after 8 p.m. the concert
portion of the party began. Mr.
Spastic was first up, and his
chiptune music was satisfying but
after awhile, the numbers seemed
repetitious. He even used a
converted brown C64 in which the
guts were removed and MIDI
electronics was placed inside of it.
The second musician was Wizwars, and
I did not prefer his tunes at all,
because I could not pick up any
melody from them. His numbers seemed
to be more noise than music.
Finally, the evening's music wrapped
up with ComputeHer (Michelle
Sternberger) playing a set followed
by her husband, Naughty Boy of 8-Bit
Weapon (Seth Sternberger). I
videotaped their portion, because
they were deep into using a C64 and
C128 to create live music. However,
even after listening to them, I was
fatigued.

Noise fatigue! That was it! The
enclosed space of Nucleus just
reverberated all the sounds, whether
they were the sounds of the arcade
machines, game consoles, and
computers or the classic 80's movies
playing on the wall or the hundreds
of people squeezed into the space. I
couldn't wear my camcorder
headphones for long, because the
sounds would be concentrated and
amplified through them. The
extraneous noise was why the
concerts grew tiresome for me. I
could not enjoy them to the fullest.
Like my friends Rory and Jerold had
discovered earlier, when I stepped
outside for a breath, it would be so
quiet and peaceful in the night air.

Speaking of Rory and Jerold, I
eventually discovered that they had
disappeared. I had thought they were
just outside, relaxing in the night
air. I found out later that they had
to depart during the final concerts
and didn't want to bother me as I
was concentrating on filming.

After the concerts, the crowd
started thinning out. The midnight
closing of the party grew near. I
bought an audio CD of ComputeHer
(having bought 8-Bit Weapon's latest
CD months ago). I also went upstairs
to the buy/trade tables in order to
look for Commodore and/or Amiga
items. Upstairs was where they also
had the raffle for prizes. This year
I found several Colecovisions for
sale plus the usual slew of Atari,
Colecovision, Intellivision, and
other carts. Ah-ha, there among a
pile of joysticks was a little Kraft
joystick - my favorite because it
had 8-way control. The seller wanted
$5 for the used Kraft, and I balked
at that price. However, he said that
he had machined the plastic joystick
handle and had inserted a metal stud
to reinforce it. That handle was the
weak point of the joystick, and with
that metal, it would be perfect. And
so, I bought it.

Not waiting until midnight, the SC3
organizers started disassembling and
turning off machines around 11:30.
As a form of thank you, I tried to
make Geoff a disk copy of Berzerk,
but I ran into problems with
two-drive copying between the 1541
and the 1571. and I failed to make
that copy. Then the electricity was
cut to my systems, and that was my
notice to start taking them apart.

Geoff looked exhausted. I knew that
look, because I had been in that
same condition after putting on the
annual Commodore Vegas Expo. I asked
him if there was going to be another
party in the fall, the party having
been put on twice a year in the
past. He couldn't be positive, but
it looked as if the party was only
going to be held once a year from
now on, due to the amount of work to
set it up in the new venue. He
complained of the tiring workload,
and I answered, "No, you can't burn
out."

Once again I had to make several
trips to my car, arms loaded with
gear; I promised myself the next
time I'd have to bring a cart. In
fact, when I tried to pick up the
last load - my carry case and camera
bag - the doors had been locked by
the owners. Nooo! I just needed to
take out one more load. Geoff and
the others went around to the back
door (which was never open
throughout the entire event),
knocked on it, and got the owners to
let me in.

The last of us dispersed to our
cars, Geoff's truck being near my
station wagon. He peered through the
windows of the station wagon and
laughed. He couldn't believe that it
was nearly stuffed to the car's
ceiling. "What?!" I cried in mock
disbelief to his reaction. "It's a
car filled with Commodore goodness."
He responded, "I thought I had a lot
with four Commodores!" I smiled, and
then we took off, him to his house
and me to my hotel room.

=====================================

*************************************
          BACK TO THE PAST
        Issue 11, August 2007
            By Neil Reive
*************************************

As we continue our 'Back to the
Past' feature, we go back to August
2007 and look at issue eleven of
Commodore Free... And first up was a
review of the first English issue of
Amiga Future
(http://www.amigafuture.de ).
Following the demise of Total Amiga,
it was merged with the German based
magazine, which had been running in
German only for 67 issues. "Issue
number one looks very professionally
with a clean layout and is very well
produced," commented Commodore Free.
"The issue lists some 19 Co-editors
as well as the main editor 3 Text
correction writers and 13
translators. Slightly more than
Commodore free... Unfortunately it
is very obvious when reading the
magazine that the issue was created
in German and then translated into
the English language. The text is
readable, but the Grammar is
sometimes incorrectly... I
understand from various emails and
groups that this issue was rather
rushed, mainly due to the demise of
the English language Total Amiga
magazine. The magazine is still
readable and a superb effort from
the contributors. The magazine cover
and back are in glorious full
colour; but the inside is sadly
monochrome."

The first interview of this issue
was with Jens Schofield founder and
owner of Individual Computers
(http://www.jschoenfeld.com/indexe.ht
m ), who described himself as "the
man behind things like the Graffiti
video card, the Buddha IDE
controller, the Catweasel floppy
controller and multiple other
expansions for the Amiga." One of
the questions Commodore Free asked
Jens was what were his feelings
regarding the (then) current Amiga
situation? "To be honest, I feel
sorry for the Amiga community,"
replied Jens, honestly. "They have
been split into a 'blue and a red
camp', and a lot of energy is wasted
on war between these camps. Many
people have lost the focus, and
there's nobody who is channelling
all the energy that is still there.
Small projects are being started but
never actually finished or even
brought near a state where it could
be called 'a working prototype'."

Next up for the interview treatment
was Glenn Holmer, a Java programmer
from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA).
Known for his Power C Compiler
skills, Glenn's website can be found
at
http://www.lyonlabs.org/commodore/c64
.html . When asked, "what makes
"Power C" an appealing language?"
Glenn said that "there is something
about the syntax of C that is very
seductive: it is compact and
expressive at the same time. And
once you learn it well, you can code
very fast, which makes it appealing
to use on a Commodore. Assembly
language takes too long to code, and
higher-level languages like Pascal
or COBOL take too much memory."

RGCD (www.rgcd.co.uk ), a
downloadable HTML CD-ROM based
gaming magazine, was profiled. The
disc zine contains homebrew and
indie games reviews, features and
interviews. Not only that, but the
disc contains the actual games
featured in the reviews as well. An
interview with James Monkman, RGCD
Disk Magazine Editor, followed
straight after. One question, which
no one seems to agree on: "What in
your mind makes a game retro?" was
asked off James. "Personally,"
replied James, "I would term a
machine as retro when it is no
longer commercially supported - i.e.
you can't buy games for it in the
shops. By my reckoning, the GBA,
Dreamcast, N64 and PS1 are all now
retro platforms. The PC is a little
harder to define, but then I suppose
you would use operating systems
(DOS, Windows 95, etc) as a
benchmark." Spot on in my book.

With the sad news of Commodore
Scene's VGA adaptor halting
development, Commodore Free
published an article from
http://home.comcast.net/~kkrausnick/c
128-vga/c128-vga.html on "Using the
Commodore 128 Computer with a VGA
Monitor". With an "RTV Veg Lite
Composite-to-VGA converter and
Highway CGA (RGBI)-to-VGA
Converter", it is possible to route
the RCA jack on the Composite-to-VGA
converter. "VGA output from the
Composite-to-VGA converter is routed
to the VGA bypass connector on the
RGBI-to-VGA converter. The
RGBI-to-VGA converter connects
directly to the 9-pin D-Sub
connector on the Commodore 128 for
80-column video. The VGA monitor is
connected to the VGA Output
connector on the RGBI-to-VGA
converter There is a bypass switch
on the back of the RGBI-to-VGA
converter that, when used with a
Composite-to-VGA converter, allows
you to toggle between 40-column and
80-column modes. The switch is in an
awkward location, though (in the
back between the power and bypass
cable connectors), so for
convenience I've added a toggle
switch to the front of my project
box." There you go. Simple, huh?

Frank Gasking, founder and admin at
Games That Weren't
(http://www.gtw64.co.uk ), was next
in the CF interview chair. One of
the many questions asked was "what
is your greatest find for Games That
Weren't?" To which Frank replied: "A
tough one really - but it has to be
Solar Jetman - mainly because it was
salvaged from its last remaining
disk copy from a briefcase stuffed
behind a radiator. It worked
perfectly fine, and it was a
fantastic conversion too. That
finding kind of put GTW in the
limelight and has helped since
uncover other titles. Second has to
be a joint fight between Tyger Tyger
and Deadlock (Two other huge titles
which had been missing for over a
decade)."

Rounding off the issue was the
Hexfiles part 6, a programming
tutorial from Jason Kelk
(http://www.oldschool-gaming.com/ ).
This time around, the readers were
taken through a lesson on raster
interrupts. Essentials needed for
this step by step guide were "the
inside of a toilet roll, some sticky
backed plastic and two washing up
liquid bottles" Just a bit of light
humour before the actual programming
began...

=====================================
