Release Date: 2 September 2023
Download: CSDb
Source: romwer.itch.io
To Boldly Go - Star Trek: The Rebel Universe, Commodore 64
Star Trek: The Rebel Universe set forth on a voyage to Atari ST space in 1987, followed by excursions to the Commodore 64 and DOS PCs the following year. No Amiga version, sadly! And it's the Commodore 64 port that I'm going to wax lyrical about today as it was the version I first played in 1989 and have the most fondness for - and my first ever Star Trek game.
Published by Simon & Schuster in North America and by Firebird in Europe, The Rebel Universe has you taking on the roles of Captain Kirk and the rest of the command crew and tasks you with a deadly mission: You have five years to uncover the cause of a spreading wave of mutinous behaviour that is causing Federation captains to go rogue - Klingon scheming is suspected! An entire sector of space has been quarantined and the sector's isolation will become permanent unless you complete the mission - trapping the Enterprise inside forever!
A C128D Comes Home - June from Nybbles and Bytes with Bil Herd
YouTube: Bil Herd
Amigos: Everything Amiga, Tiny Troops!
Source: Amigos: Everything Amiga
Zapped to the Past Episode 119 March 1989
Listen: Episode 119
Source: zappedtothepast.com
A Pioneering Survival Horror Game in 8 Bits — Project Firestart, Commodore 64
Published by Electronic Arts and developed by Dynamix (who you may know from their Sierra-published flight sims), Project Firestart made its home on disk-only Commodore 64s in North America in 1989. No loading tunes here, I'm afraid! But what you are treated to instead is a stunning and atmosphere-building cinematic intro that knocked my socks right off the first time I saw it early in 2022. It feels way ahead of its time and even manages to pull off an FMV sequence feel with the use of a digitized pixel head.
Once you're through the intro and its creepy tuneage, the premise is clear: You're taking on the role of Jon Hawking, a seasoned agent working for the United System States. A research vessel orbiting Saturn has suddenly gone radio silent and it's up to you to board the ship, find out what has happened, and recover valuable research data. All within a time limit before the powers-that-be trigger the vessel's self-destruct mechanism. Not super original stuff, but it gets the job done.
The Master of Magic, Commodore 64
Well. Come. Back.
The Master of Magic was the first RPG I ever played on the C64 and
whilst it isn’t as hardcore an example of the genre such as titles like
Wizard’s Crown, The Bard’s Tale and Abandoned Places, it is certainly rock hard
and it contains all of the elements and traits of the usual dungeon delve.
From one of the Darling Brothers: Richard, the man that brought us BMX
Simulator, comes an extremely rich text and graphical adventure that is as
challenging as it is engrossing. One of it’s crowning glories is its unique and
innovative interface. The screen is split into four main sections: an overhead moveable
playing map with ‘fog of war’; a localised graphical depiction in glorious
pixel art detail of interactibles you can currently see; a horizontal “choices”
bar; and the standard dialogue box and GUI. Every action you want to carry out
within the game is available via a “pause” menu with a click of the joystick
button.
POKEing Around In Commodore BASIC - Ep 01 The Missing LOCATE/PLOT Statement
VIC Light Cycles by Fuzzybad
At title screen, press the controls left/right to choose single-player or two-player mode. Press 1, 2, or 3 to set single-player difficulty level.
Player 1 controls: Joystick or keys WASD + Space
Player 2 controls: keys IJKL + Right Shift.
Completing Bubble Bobble, Commodore 64
Well. Come. Back.
You know the tune, it dings and blings around in the back of your head as you vainly search for the yellow sweetie, narrowly missing the flung rolling pin of doom. Bubble Bobble on the C64 was fantastic, but not, as I had once believed, as good as I thought it was.
It’s a great conversion – no doubt there - and the C64 really does well with regard to collisions, colours, sprites and speed and there are even the hidden extras in there, but, well… Myself and a friend, fuelled with beer one evening set out, with our limited credits, to fully complete Bub and Bob’s quest. We loved the game, he didn’t mind playing blue and I PON’d for green. We had all night, no distractions, we were fed and watered and I should point out, around 24 years old and the game was nearly 15 years old (if not more) itself – and we’d never, ever done it, so, we shucked off another can and launched our crusade.
I unequivocally adore this game – the arcade, of course, is nigh sheer perfection (depending upon which difficulty level the board is set on…) and at still only 10p per credit, well, you’re mad for not hitting the arcade under the Palace Pier, Brighton every weekend back in the day; or Dusters in Plymouth way back in the 'olden days, but, with my beloved C64 conversion – I found faults…
Well: fault, really.
You see, we played that fateful night, taking turns to leap levels utilising the EXTEND function, umbrellas and more, we failed a few times around the 70s, sometimes earlier with our limited credits (one credit each – no rebuys), but we continued into the morning hours, relentlessly slogging back through the early levels, relentlessly playing Bubble Bobble on my C64, sitting, cross-legged on my old bedroom floor. Adults.
And..: we did it – we survived the hideous space invaders and the ridiculously evil later level design and we found ourselves facing a bloody super-huge rolling pin-thrower on LVL 100. Having never reached this point, it took a few moments to work out what to do and we struggled and muddled our way through the boss pattern until finally – he just disappeared!
We’d done it – we’d got to the top of Bubble Bobble! For the first time in our lives. Ever.
However, this was a short-lived elation, as even though we knew we had really completed the game, we also knew that we now had to fight our way back down the tower, as in the arcade, to get ourselves and our prizes back home again. We glanced sidelong at our lives/credits tally. Not too good.
Thing is, with the C64, that was that – Game Over.
Michael Finnegan.
Simultaneously one of the greatest achievements and absolute disappointments of my entire life. Second only to realising that they aren’t rolling pins – they are whisky bottles.
Download: Bubble Bobble
Youtube: LogrusUK
Youtube: LogrusUK
Pleiades 3D, A New Game for the Commodore Amiga 1200 by MikketX
Download: mikketx.itch.io
Three New Writers Join CommodoreBlog Website!
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