There's a group called Nostalgia on the C64 who love to make games 101%, ie they fix bugs, add features, update the graphics and music etc. The work they do is amazing.. Here's a link to the Ghost and Goblins and Commando cart (also has Bruce Lee II but it's just a bug fix version) Both of the Arcade Special editions are superb, I loved Ghost and Goblins back in the day, owned it from day one with the legend Chris Butler doing a sterling job on the conversion and Mark Cooksey doing the wonderful music. Chris Butler was the go to guy for arcade coversions, he did Outrun, Commando, Space Harrier and Thunderblade amongst others, getting great reviews. Cooksey was another legend, so many game scores.. Well, Nostalgia actually updated their work and added more arcade accurate features, some are subtle but many just stand out... https://csdb.dk/release/?id=148379 This is an Easyflash release, so a cart, a Kung Fu cart or similar should work on real hardware while Vice or Hoxs64 will more than do as emulators. Have fun..
Thanks for the link Paul. Since getting TheC64 again I'm rapidly becoming a bit of a fan of the C64. Some of the homebrew stuff is really good. It's amazing to see all the new releases. And now you can also go into WH Smith and pick up Crash And Zzap annuals again. Wonder if they'll start selling games on cassette again next...
There truly is some real nice stuff on the 64, I often visit Csdb for new games and demo's (no pirate content) or go here https://www.nightfallcrew.com/05/02/2022/c64-big-game-pack-sonic-the-hedgehog-pieces-3fp-scramble/ Where they do game packs of new stuff, again no brand-new games in them, but there's an unsaid rule that you can post paid game's over a year old with most vendors agreeing with this. And have been following the new Zzap (via pdf) so get my fix of C64 and Amiga (not really a speccy person) Ha ha, tapes, WH Smith learnt their lesson once before Shame, it would be a fun thing to have cover disks / tapes again but, they had their day. Have fun Al, keep digging through the C64 pile, there are some gems in there, lots of old tosh as well but hey, 99% of it is truly free..
Thanks for the nightfall link Paul There are so many releases for the our old machines now, I doubt I'll ever buy a new game again! Even if it was just the A8 I'd never get through all the releases, but then when you add in the C64, Amiga, Amstrad, Speccy, ST..... I did start by subscribing to the Zzap and Crash PDF's, but then when the Amstrad, Fusion and Amiga magazines came out it was cheaper to subscribe to Readly instead. Also, you get Retro Gamer, PC Pro, car and cycling magazines on it as well. Good value for £7.99 a month with the only downside being I don't actually get to have PDF versions of the individual magazines
If you need PDF's of retro gamer, some Fusion, the Zzaps etc then let me know.. I simply can't afford to buy all the mags I like, so have to await the pdf's being released and pick them up when they are. Not a problem if you want them..
Thanks Paul, much appreciated. I'm okay with Readly at the moment though. You have made me think that I might need to start reading all my back issues of Retro Gamer. I'm a paper subscriber and have so many issues to catch up on!
You do indeed Matt, people call it the Commode etc etc but it's a lovely machine that hosts a great load of gems, many only on it. They still go for reasonable prices, grab one while it's like that and have a wonderful bash. Every time I read about someone who has not had a 64 and then gets one later on, they almost all say "wow, I didn't know I'd like it so much" or similar. Me and Richie would never lead you down a bad path, we love all our machines including the old 64.
The new C64 homebrew titles are really impressing me. I've had genuine commodore 64's but never really warmed to them that much. This time seems different though. I still wouldn't get an original again but TheC64 scratches the itch and is pretty much plug and play without adding any SD devices or expansion units. Go for it Matt!
Yes, there's been some stunning releases in the last few years, Sam's Journey is just splendid, a platformers dream. It was excellent to see the PC game Limbo ported to the C64, PC to C64, who would have thought it. And the really nice thing is that the tiles are cheap or free, I've brought more C64 stuff in the last 10 years than I ever did when I was in the scene. I was so used to getting stuff for free, be it pirate stuff, review stuff or simply unwanted shop stock, while it was nice there's a feeling of pride to know you paid for the game, makes you want to play it a lot more.. And for the people like Matt who likes his real releases, there's plenty of real carts and Disks to pick up at good prices on the old 64. Me, I stick to digital stuff, no space and I know the two C64's I have will eventually give up the ghost (gulp).
Actually, I had a C64 for about a year with a 1541 and while I didn't see most of it's unique titles or just titles that never made it to the Atari 8-bit, I did a lot of comparing of Atari vs. C64 with titles common among them. What I found was that most of the titles looked slightly better on the C64 due only to more colors on on-screen, which also were later titles that were done on the C64 first, then quickly ported to the Atari not using any of it's own unique features and you end up with games that play great, most of the time, not always, but were only 4 color graphics. But I also found out that I preferred playing the Atari versions, most of them had better control, or at least I was used to the controls of the Atari version and therefore preferred it. That's why I ended up selling the C64, because it didn't "wow:" me over what I had in the Atari, and at the time I needed money so of course the C64 would go before my Atari. But I've wanted to get another for a while for it's exclusives and the new home-brews of the last couple decades. But all my old favorites from the Atari I'll still play on the Atari, especially these days with the hacked versions from TIX and others that now look as good or better than C64 counterparts but with the control I prefer. (yes, the same is true over in C64 land as shown above). I know there are plenty of really cool C64 exclusives I want to enjoy too. And just like the TRS-80 Coco 2, I can make room for them to be next to my Atari's and all equals with special talents that live in perfect harmony, ebony and ivory, blah, blah, blah... My 'XL Command Center' was built to fit 3 8/16-bit micros, and with the 800CX moved out to it's own spot in my "Atarilab" trailer I have the Coco 2 where the 800 used to reside and currently the Bally Arcade I've been restoring is on the other side of my 1200XL. But the Bally will undoubtedly end up as a display unit due to it's small and ancient library. Once I do get a C64 to take it's place. In the meantime I'm tinkering with the Bally machine as it's upgradable to 32K computer status and can have custom keyboard attached and has BASIC and Assembly language carts and cassette to save. But it won't be a long term usage machine. I'll get bored with it since nothing new is really coming to it, unlike the C64, Atari and Coco 2. But I've always known, even back in the day when I was an Atari and Sega fanboy and anything Nintendo or C64 I didn't touch with a ten-foot pole, I still knew they were capable machines like the Atari and Sega machines.
Regarding titles on Atari and C64, I'd always choose the Atari version, the swiftly made ports took no advantage of the C64's multicolour sprites etc, basically they were hollow shells of the Atari version. There's deffo been a lot of really good titles come out for both machines over the last 20 years, stuff that stands head and shoulder above most of the old stuff, with a few exceptions of course. To be fair there's still a lot of old crud put out but not in the quantity it used to flow. Thankfully, the lower end stuff is free 99.99% of the time. Oddly, the colour palette is one thing I don't like about the C64, it's too pastel shade for me, it lacks vibrant colours like on the Atari, but the trade-off is that there are more colour on screen in most stuff. I'm a huge fan of both machines, I think the only other 8 bit machine I'd have would be a NES. I think there's enough new stuff on the C64 to keep you happy, just make sure you get a fast loader cart if you go for a disk drive again, a lot of the games have their own fastloader routines but not all, my fave cart is the Retro Replay, it's loader is as fast as I've seen from a cart and it's an action replay as well, there's an EU and US version.
Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I intend to have a real floppy drive and cassette recorder for both the C64 and my Coco 2, but aside from the standard tape recorder I already have for my Coco 2, the drives will come after some type of SD card loader solution. I'm waiting to hear from the guy selling the MOOH! which is a device for both the Dragon and Coco, with SD card loader and 512K extended memory and a couple other features I forget offhand, I know it works as a drive emulation device for more than just the SD card, I think I can connect a real TRS-80 DD directly to it without the need for the big cartridge brain board sticking out the side for disk drives (what is normally built into Atari and Commodore serial smart drives). I also already have the graphic upgrade board for it similar to the Atari's VBXE, using last generation MSX graphic and sound chips, superior to the first Amiga and ST systems even. It has Scart RGB out on it as well as an interface for Atari/C64 digital controllers and the sound chips are the same types like Yamaha they are adding into Pokeymax chips or 7800 Dragonfly carts. I'll be doing the same with the C64 as far as external storage, though I don't know if it has any graphic boards for it I might want to install. I'm sure they probably have some sort of dual-SID stereo board or better by now too, maybe with some other sound chips included or emulated...
Yeah there's loads of SID chip replacements (needed as SIDS are RARE and expensive now) and as you say, DUAL SID boards etc, I think there's an FM Synthesis cart out there (well Commodore made the Sound Expander cart BITD which I brought, sure there's a newer one out there..) For this sort of stuff look here.. https://www.nightfallcrew.com/
Here's another brand new release, Tutankham, a port of the 80's Konami arcade game.. And very nice it is too.. C64. Have fun..
