Commodore News

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Here you will find all the latest Commodore news - mostly related to C64 - Amiga - C128 - Plus/4 - VIC-20 - PET. This ticker contains news about new game and hardware releases, latest video and podcast uploads, trivia and product information. All freshly fished from the web. RSS feed available!

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24.08.2020 - 3D Printed Amiga Goodies - 10MARC Episode 76 - new video from '10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast (MARC)'
This week on 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast we will be taking a look at some cool 3D printed goodies for your Amiga.

24.08.2020 - Amiga game 'Tiny Bobble' final version ready for download
'Tiny Bobble' is a complete new Bubble Bobble arcade port for Amiga 500 (PAL) + 512 Kb. It has nothing to do with the original Amiga version. A first beta version can now be downloaded. The game is fully playable and feature complete, and final version is just out now.

23.08.2020 - Amiga game creator 'Redpill' V0.8.0 released
Redpill, the Amiga game creator, is a tool to empower people to create many games for Amiga without programming knowledge. It allows people to create 2D games with the true Amiga feeling. Supports both ECS and AGA Amigas, it is free and it is still in development. List of changes in 0.8.0: - Added action trigger Net Connect to connect to a remote machine and have a multiplayer network game. - Added contition trigger On Net Connection to detect when a connection has been established or if it is disconnected. - Added condition trigger Is Net Remote to check if one player is remote or local. -Pong project has been updated to support two player network game - Added action trigger Set Map Cols to activate/deactivate Object collisions. - Added action trigger Norm Spd45 to adapt speed x and y when object is moving... and much more... in diagonal direction.

22.08.2020 - Hyperkin Trooper Joystick Review | Retron 77 | Atari 2600 | C64 - video by 'GRay Defender'
This is a quick review of the Hyperkin Trooper joystick. It will compare it against the Cirka A77 and the Retro-Link Ennex joysticks. Which one is the top dog?

21.08.2020 - Making a C64/C65 compatible computer - OpenROMs Update
Feral Child has been working through the European summer heat on the OpenROMs (our free and open-source C64/C65 ROM project), and has the following update for our reading and viewing pleasure: "Hi there! It's been a while since the previous Open ROMs update, time for a new one! I'll start from not-so-good news - I'm running out of ROM space. On the stock C64 the Kernal + BASIC has to fit within 16 KB total; with the original C64 ROM set there are very few bytes left, and the code is already space-optimized most of the time..." Read on...

20.08.2020 - Scene World Podcast Episode #93 - Revisiting NeoHabitat with Randy Farmer
Habitat, and its final version Club Caribe, was one of the world's first MMORPGs: an immersive, graphical, virtual world populated by C64 users in real time through the Quantumlink Network. Randy Farmer is one of the original architects of that world, and he remains involved in maintaining the project to this day. He joins AJ and Joerg to talk about the challenges behind creating the original Habitat, as well as resurrecting it, and the unique ways in which it has influenced culture, law, and modern MMORPGs.

18.08.2020 - Making a C64/C65 compatible computer - Debugging IEC port on MEGA65 R2/R3 boards
So we are almost finished testing the MEGA65 R3 board, but have hit a funny problem, that is now also showing up on my R2 board: The IEC port is not working reliably. The symptom is that the CLK and DATA lines don't go to 0V when they are pulled low by the MEGA65, but stay at around 2V -- but only when a drive is connected. The only "drive" I have here in the desert with me is a Pi1541, so that will have to do. Fortunately it has nice test points...

18.08.2020 - Random Commodore Plus/4 hax - new article on retrohax.net
As 'Drygol' from retrohax.net states, this post should've been written a long time ago but he has simply lost pic¦ This is the reason why he has called it 'Random Commodore plus/4 hax'. Long story short, he had purchased eight broken Commodore Plus/4 machines. As usual, all machines had to be fixed, cleaned and retr0brighted. In this post he'l describe some of the fixes that I've applied.

18.08.2020 - Video shows 'Grannys Teeth 2020' Preview for C64
This is a video preview of an upcoming C64 game, which is still currently under development, but it is shaping out quite nicely. The game is based on the 2016 Craptastic 4K game, but features 8 new rooms, and 32 levels. This video shows only 3 levels. Since more work is being made: Code: Richard/TND, Graphics: SaulC, Music: Richard/TND. After the game has finished, it will be released at richard-tnd.itch.io for free download

18.08.2020 - Currently In Development: 'The Wild Wood' - new game for C64
'The Wild Wood' is about to become one of the most beautiful games to ever grace the Commodore 64. It is a story based platform game with multidirectional scrolling and adventure elements. Help a young hare navigate through moonlit fields, ancient ruins, cavernous warrens and creepy graveyards on your way into the wild wood. Explore magnificent cathedrals and venture deep into the ominous wild woods themselves! Features: - Graphic heavy with extremely beautiful pixelwork - Varying gameplay with level specific features - Huge multi-directional platform levels - Fast paced horizontally scrolling sections - (Presumably) 15 levels plus big boss encounters - Game progress saved on cartridge

18.08.2020 - KOBO64 comes to the Protovision Shop
Kobo64 is one of the most stunning shoot-em-up games produced for the Commodore 64 and we are pleased to announce that the cartridge edition of the game is now available to order from the Protovision Shop. Kobo64 does not only feature 50 levels of highly varied and entertaining blasting action but it is also PAL and NTSC compatible.

18.08.2020 - C64 Video Game Scoring Tutorial - video by 'GRay Defender'
In this video 'GRay Defender' dives into coding video game scoring for the Commodore 64. He will demonstrate two approaches to solving the same problem. This is his first tutorial utilizing the Kick Assembler tool.

16.08.2020 - Making a C64/C65 compatible computer - MEGA65 R3 PCB Testing
Content: "This week we have been testing all the changes made on the R3 PCB. The pain has been that we have a very tight time-frame for this, and I don't have one of the new R3 PCBs here with me. In short, we have to tell Trenz in the next day or so, whether there are any known problems with the board, so that they can order the bare PCBs in time for the DevKits to go out later in the year. But COVID19 and logistics have thrown a spanner in the works, because I am here in the Australian Outback -- some 17,000km from the test boards in Germany -- and international freight is, shall we say, a little problematic at the moment." Read on...

16.08.2020 - How Many Commodore 1581 Disk Drives? The German Tank Problem - new Video from '8-Bit Show And Tell'
Perifractic asks how many 1581 disk drives were sold, and Facebook group members of "Commodore 64/128" answer with photos of their disk drive serial numbers.

16.08.2020 - Can we get THEC64 1541 Mini working via Windows? + Fun and Fixes - new video from 'Retro Recipes'
THEC64 1541 Mini floppy drive tips & tricks incl. a solution for using it via Windows!