Castle Master, An Eternity of Atmospheric Adventure. Amiga

This is one of the most iconic and nostalgically heavy-hitting 8 and 16-bit game covers for me - and games! CASTLE MASTER was published by Domark in 1990, and developed by Teque. There's a fair bit of backstory (written by Mel Croucher) but in summary, it casts you in the role of either a prince or a princess - your choice! And when you make your choice, your sibling is immediately whisked away by a dragon and carried over to the forbidding Castle Eternity. 

Your Quest? Rescue them!

Now, you're hit by one of my favourite things about Castle Master - the title and in-game tuneage by Matt Furniss. On the C64 version, you get a chiptune rendition whereas on Amiga, it's a sampled one. Both are great and so atmospheric. And even though it was the C64 version I first played, it's the Amiga rendition that sticks in my head the most. It's also the version of the game I recommend you play unless you have a LOT of patience.

Super Monza GP 2, Expanded VIC-20 32K

This is a racing game for the 32K expanded Commodore VIC-20. This game expands on the the original game by adding three more circuits (Monaco, Spa and Interlagos). Colliding with cars now results in damage, which can be repaired by entering the pits during the race. More damage equals slower maximum speed. ‘Race against the clock’ mode has been replaced by a ‘Championship’ mode, where you have to complete every race with a podium finish in order to continue. It will run on either a PAL or NTSC system, but it is designed to run on a PAL system. It will run slightly faster on a NTSC system and will play a little harder.

Download: SMGP2.zip

Denise C64/Amiga emulator with PAL shader and runAhead

Whenever I need to play my favourite C64 and Amiga games, using emulation, I have always relied on my three favourite emulators which I’m sure you’re used to, or at least heard of. WinUAE for Amiga, VICE or CCS64 for Commodore 64, and I’ve never really looked for anything else, as these all do the job perfectly. While browsing online looking for more News these last couple of days, I noticed the name Denise kept popping up in my rss feed. One emulator that runs C64 and Amiga, that’s unusual, it’s time to take a look.

I grabbed the denise_win64_v2.1.zip and extracted the contents to my emulators folder, and proceeded to load the emulator up. As I suspected there are a lot of settings to play around with for the Amiga emulation. Nothing new to me here, very much like WinUAE, it was pretty easy to set up and point the emulator to a new kickstart rom. I chose good old Kick 1.3 for my testing.

I must say the emulation for Amiga is very good, every .adf I threw at it, loaded first time, sound was great, everything is smooth, no issues. Setting up the Joystick was a bit of a pain though. I use a wireless Xbox controller on my pc and the emulator wouldn’t play ball with the analogue sticks, so I set the controls up on the d-pad instead and then everything was ok. So overall Amiga emulation was good, except one major issue, the mouse. I spent a good amount of time trying to get this to work with no avail.

In WinUAE it’s very easy, you click the emulator window, WinUAE locks your mouse into the window and you use your mouse within the emulator, F12 or clicking the mouse wheel unlocks it out again. Denise won’t let you do this, in fact it just doesn’t work at all, and I couldn’t find a setting anywhere to change this. A big problem, maybe I have missed something obvious somewhere, I have no idea. Maybe the coders behind Denise could drop a comment below to let us know how to sort this, as some games you just can’t play without a mouse click past the intro.

Moving onto the C64 side of things, I really don’t have much to say about this, everything worked, no real issues, well maybe one, the latency when shooting in some games can be a bit laggy, this could do with a tweak in the future, as some games really need that accuracy and timing, but overall C64 emulation is solid.

I would say this emulator still has a few teething issues, but it’s looking to be a good contender against the older well known emulators. I think in the future, this could be a number one choice. Head over to https://sourceforge.net/projects/deniseemu/ and take a look yourself.

Italodisco vol.1 by Trinity, Amiga Music Disk

Compilation of old Italian scene relics preserved from rotten floppies. Volume 1 of many. NOT inspired by the eponymous catchy tune.

Download: italod1sco.zip
Source: Pouet

Hopman, Commodore 64

Hopman is an Arcade game, which Inufuto coded for a lot of 8-bit computers. This is the Commodore 64 version. You are the white player starting in the bottom left of the first stage and your aim is to reach the exit on the right of each stage. For each flag you'll get 100 points. Walk right to reach the exit. You will also get a time bonus for the remaining past levels time.

Hopman can walk and jump. Sometimes it is useful to take one of the elevators, but be careful, you can fall down there quickly! Think ahead to go quick enough into the exits direction, as time is ticking.

The purple monsters from the game Lift are back too, they still want to catch and kill you. Download the game here: Hopman+4HD[EX].d64
Source: CSDb

Floppy Bird Preview 2

Ok you all know what Flappy Bird is right? If you have never heard of this game, then I assume you live in the Amazon rainforest or something. Floppy bird is like the game Flappy Bird, except you control a floppy disk. Don't ask me, I have no idea, just go along with it ok. In this version you have to avoid skulls and bugs, maybe an upcoming Halloween theme there? If you like this type of game, knock yourself out and download it here: Floppy Bird Preview 2.
Source: CSDb

QIXSCII, Commodore 64

QIXSCII is a PETSCII version of Qix, a 1981 Arcade game by Taito where you have to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield. QIXSCII was made in BASIC V2 code and is available as digital download. Also a Blitz compiled version is available.

Download: QIXSCII.d64
Source: romwer.itch.io/qixscii, cascade64.de

Retro Scape 64 Preview 2, Commodore 64

Retro Scape 64 is a match-3 game that is largely based on the well-known and popular smartphone game HomeScapes. The goal is to complete certain tasks for each level with the specified number of moves.

Download: RetroScape64 Preview 2
Source: CSDb

Magic Math, Commodore 64

Magic Math is a small mathematical skill game, which is also suitable for two players. In this game you control a small rectangle with which you have to catch passing numbers. These are added to or subtracted from the value in your rectangle, and you have to make sure that this value never goes below 0 or above 9. The levels get faster and faster, so be careful.

Download: Magic Math.d64
Source: cascade64.de

The Holy Cube, Commodore 64

One button action puzzler. Coded in kickassembler in the c64 game engine cry64engine.
Try to catch all pixel stars, circles. Try not to lose too many lives and you might finish the game! Tested on the usual emulators and an original Commodore 64.

Download: The_Holy_Cube_+3D_LAXITY.d64
Source: lemon64

Megastyles Empire Strikes Back Plus/4 Port Teased by Sasvári Tamás

Yep you heard right, Sasvári Tamás teased a recent video showing Megastyles hit Empire Strikes Back ported to the Plus/4! This is simply amazing, considering the graphics and sound limitations of this humble computer. We’ll let you know more as soon as there’s a release date.

Watch Video: Facebook
Megastyle Website

TED Vibes 2 by Exceed & Offence

The TED Vibes musicdisk got a sequel.

For TED Vibes 2, 15 musicians from 9 countries joined to create music for the TED chip. Some of them are veteran musicians from the SID and AY scene. The result was an exciting and stylistically very diverse collection of music. Brilliant graphics by Pal/Offence, a well-known pixel artist from C64 and Amiga scene.
Download: ted_vibes_2.zip
Source: plus4world.powweb.com
Pouet: TED Vibes 2