Hi,

i've uploaded some Synthy-64 programs at c64.ch.
https://c64.ch/sceners/2442/Roy_C_Wainwright

If you know more music composed in synthy-64 gimme a sign,

Quote:A paper released during the SIGBOVIK 2024 conference details an attempt to simulate the IBM ‘quantum utility’ experiment on a Commodore 64. The idea might seem preposterous - pitting a 40-year-old home computer against a device powered by 127-Qubit ‘Eagle’ quantum processing unit (QPU). However, the anonymous researcher(s) conclude that the ‘Qommodore 64’ performed faster, and more efficiently, than IBM’s pride-and-joy, while being “decently accurate on this problem.”
...
In conclusion, the researcher(s) asserts that the ‘Qommodore 64’ is “faster than the quantum device datapoint-for-datapoint… it is much more energy efficient… and it is decently accurate on this problem.” On the topic of how applicable this research is to other quantum problems, it is snarkily suggested that “it probably won’t work on almost any other problem (but then again, neither do quantum computers right now).” Overall, it is difficult to know whether the results are entirely genuine, though a lot of detail is provided and the linked research references in the paper seem genuine.

One of my favorite games for the Mattel Intellivision is Tron Deadly Discs.  Boy oh boy, did spend a lot of hours playing that game, back in the day.  I still enjoy it and find it to be quit a challenge.

My question is, how difficult do you think it would be to make a version of this game for the C64?  I guess the biggest challenge would be devising some innovative control mechanism, as the Intellivision version made use of both the controller's 16 direction control disc and all nine input buttons for throwing your disc and blocking.

Anyone up for the challenge?  

TPUG (Toronto PET Users Group) is pleased to reconnect you with one of the most intriguing entrepreneurs of the mid-1980’s home computing era.  Brian Dougherty was the founder of Berkeley Softworks, the company that developed GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System) for the Commodore 64, C128, Plus/4, and the Apple II series of computers.

In addition to GEOS, the company also released complementary software and hardware such as geoPublish and geoRAM.  GEOS and its ecosystem of products granted 8-bit computers the type of functionality previously only seen on more powerful computers, an ambitious feat that continues to be admired by retrocomputing fans worldwide.


Brian Dougherty will be interviewed by Toronto-based UI Designer Lucas Gramajo.


Mark your calendars!  As usual, you can also watch the event later - just subscribe to TPUG's YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@TorontoPETUsersGroup

Date:  Thursday, April 18, 2024.

Time:  7:30PM ET.  (Toronto, Canada).

Zoom details:  https://www.tpug.ca


Thanks for attending !

If you're interested in entering the realm of text adventure games, or new to the genre, this game is a great one to get your "feet wet".  Castle Quest, by Ricky Derocher, is a short and simple text adventure game, perfect for the beginner.  The commands used by the text parser are uncomplicated and puzzles are relatively straight-forward.

Link to the itch.io page: https://rickyderocher.itch.io/castle-quest-commodore-64

Here's an interesting new puzzle game, by Carleton Handley, "Spinning Image".  It's free for downloading or you can pay your own price.

You spin the game board around in order to place blocks in the right place/order to create the picture on the right.  Overall I like it, but the moving background is a little straining on my eyes.

Link to itch.io page:  https://carletonhandley.itch.io/spinning-image

When I first saw Binary Battle, another "out of the box" thinking sort of game from Haplo, I wasn't sure that it would be something I would enjoy.  I'm glad I tried it out, as I think it's a pretty cleaver spin on the dungeon crawler stye of game.

Rather than traversing dark, dank dungeons, you're traveling between folders on your floppy disk, using an interface that looks a lot like GEOS.  Wha?  You use a mouse pointer to click on folders, to attack and wipe out the virus files attempting to corrupt the data stored on your floppy disk.  That's a pretty inventive idea for a dungeon crawling game.

It's another example of how an entertaining game doesn't have to be complicated.

You can download it for free and, if you like it, pay what you think the game is worth.

https://h4plo.itch.io/binary-battle

       

If you like this style of Rogue-like dungeon crawler game, you may also want to check out a few others that have come out over the last couple of years, which I also particularly enjoyed:

Trogue64 and Rogue64.  I like Trogue64 slightly better, just because of the spin on the game-play (you have to flood a mine full of baddies without drowning yourself).  I also did a brief write up on it, here: https://www.my64.in.nf/doku.php?id=blog:2019-11-10

I played Hunchback quite often. I loved the intro tune and the game was easy to pick up and play. Not easy to finish mind. I don't think I ever did.

Good Kniight is more than a nod to Hunchback. It basically IS Hunchback but with new challenges. I love how the little knight is animated. He's basically an armoured ball which is especially clear when he grabs a rope to hang on to. This game is well made, it seems fair and challenging. The two biggest issues I have are probably relatively easy to fix too:

I miss the iconing "have you been down to the woods today" intro tune
I really don't understand why the knight cannot end a screen by simply walking into the bell post at the end. This was definitely a mechanic in Hunchback (I checked). The fact that I HAVE to jump to end the screen, even if I am touching the bell post is a bit silly. I might still die from an arrow or a fireball coming in from the right. 


Still with all the additions and stuff I prefer good kniight over Hunchback.

Well the time has come my buddies that I reverse engineer master system and look at c64...Hang on

I was just wondering why some movie and T.V. show franchises that (I think) would have made excellent games on the C64 never made an appearance.  Today, there are several developers remaking old C64 games (Terrestrial, Rocky & Co., Good Night, etc) but I'd much rather see something new to choose from.

A couple of franchises instantly come to my mind.  First, is Battlestar Galactica. Intellivision did release a game that was intended to be based on Battlestar Galactia, but they couldn't get the licensing rights.  So, it was released as "Space Battle".  It's not one of the more popular games for the system, but I liked it and played it a lot.  As far as I know, there hasn't been a port of this game to the C64, so taking Space Battle and giving it a C64 facelift would be cool to see.  It would even be nice to see it as a Battlestar Galactica game, with the appropriate graphics and soundtrack.  I've imagined how the battle sequences could be improved upon, over the original on the Intellivision, but the idea of a strategy space shooter was out of the ordinary for the time and it would still be a nice change from the stand by space shooters we commonly see today.

One movie franchise I always thought would make an interesting game on the C64 was Tremors.  Talk about some interesting characters and monsters you could have fun with from those films!  I always pictured it as a sort of overhead 2.5D shooter or maybe like Gauntlet III sort of deal.  You could play as Val or Burt (from the movie) and pick up different weapons as you progress, like in the game Predator.  You could carry two at the most, switching between them at will.  And talk about interesting and (what could be) comical monsters to fight; graboids, shreikers and ass-blasters. Oh my!    Why no one has ever done a Tremors themed game is beyond me.

More recently, we were re-watching a T.V. show from my very early childhood, "U.F.O." and I thought this series had great creative fodder for a game on the C64; not to mention a hip and groovy theme tune (actually I think it's the best theme music for any T.V. show produced).  It could be an excellent multi-stage space / 3D shooter.  You could do a horizontal shooter for the moon base defense segment of the game and then a 2.5D "into the screen" vertical shooter for the Sky Diver segment.  As a third segment, I imagined a ground defense scenario in which you control a SHADO assault tank, targeting UFO ground troops like in the Raid Over Moscow bazooka segment.  You have a limited amount of shells and the UFO ground troops move towards you in waves and the strategy is to target them in such a way that as one troop explodes (say that they're carrying bombs to destroy your base) he will take out any troops immediately around him.  So the idea is to get them as many as you can in a cascading explosion effect.  Just something different, you know?

The T.V. show Emergency also has all sorts of potential there for some excellent games.

Anyway, probably all sounds silly, but I was just thinking there were some real missed opportunities with game franchises based on some pretty entertaining movies and TV shows.