Sporting Chance Recording

Here is a recording of my Atari 8bit POKEY cover of "Sporting Chance" by Odie/Cosine, the music which has been used for all of the C64 versions of the puzzle game 'Blok Copy' apart from the PETSCII version.

The Atari 8bit version of 'Blok Copy' was released by Cosine in 2018 as a contribution to the 'New Years Disk' collection arranged on the AtariAge forum.  Information about and a download for the game and music can be found here.  The music was written in RASTER Music Tracker.

If the player doesn't appear below, hear the music on my SoundCloud page here...

Mutations Recording

Back in 2014, I remixed/covered one of my favourite C64 tunes Mutants by Fred Gray, which was then released by Arkanix Labs in a C64 demo called 'Mutations'.

This 'from scratch' remix featured a complete rearrangement of the whole tune, addition of drums and the use of heavily filtered bass, in an attempt to produce a more 'chilled' and mellow version of the original tune.

Also on the demo disk was a note file that featured my cover of the music from the SEGA arcade game 'Space Harrier'.  The 1980's C64 conversion of the arcade featured a great version of the arcade tune by Mark Cooksey, using his 'trademark' sounds. However, it didn't sound very authentic to the original and varied slightly in arrangement. My version attempted to sound closer to the arcade tune in sound and arrangement.

Fast forward 4 years and having recently hooked up my 8580 SID equipped C64c to my Dolby amp, I've recorded the SID tunes and uploaded them to SoundCloud.  Listen to them below.

If the players don't appear below, hear the music on my SoundCloud page.  The Mutations track is here and the Space Harrier cover is here.

 

Uridium 2 Music Covers (SID vs. POKEY)

Here are my C64 SID and Atari 8bit POKEY covers of Jason Page's loading music from the amazing Amiga game 'Uridium 2' by Andrew Braybrook.

The SID version was written and released in 2015 as part of a C64 music collection called 'SID Doing Paula', a collection of Amiga mod covers written in Goattracker.  It was a 'hidden' bonus tune. The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.  Information about the original C64 collection is here...

The POKEY triple speed cover was released in 2018 as part of the 'New Years Disk' collection arranged on the AtariAge forum.  It was written in RASTER Music Tracker so I could get my head around the POKEY chip. The original Atari 8bit demo in which the tune is featured is here...

The original Amiga version can be found on SoundCloud and YouTube.

If the players don't appear below, hear the music on my SoundCloud page. The SID page is here and the POKEY page is here.

Matkamies Recording

Back at the beginning of 2015, Arkanix Labs released a music collection called 'Sid Doing Paula', that contained my covers of some of my favourite Amiga modules.

Part of that collection was a SID called Matkamies by Heatbeat/Carillon and having recently hooked up my 8580 SID equipped C64c to my Dolby amp, I've recorded the SID tune and uploaded it to my SoundCloud account.

As a bonus, I've also uploaded an Atari 8bit POKEY version of the same tune.  At time of writing, it has not yet been used in any productions.  It was written at the back end of 2017 after T.M.R requested some POKEY music for an Atari 8bit Cosine game, namely 'Blok Copy'.  I had to learn a new application for writing for POKEY, as well as the nuances of the chip itself and out of that learning came the requested music, as well as this 'conversion' of my original Matkamies SID.

The SID version was written in Goattracker and the POKEY written in RASTER Music Tracker.  The original Amiga version can be found on YouTube - just search for 'Amiga Matkamies'.

If the players don't appear below, hear the music on my SoundCloud page.  The C64 8580 SID track is here and the Atari POKEY cover is here.

Beast Tribute Music

A few months ago, Cosine released my Psygnosis tribute demo called Beast Tribute - 'Old School Demo 2'.  You can download the demo here...

I composed the music for the demo.  It's an original 4 channel mod using samples I ripped from the original music in the Amiga game 'Shadow of the Beast', so credit for the samples should go to David Whittaker.  I attempted to make my track sound like it could have been in the original game.

I've finally gotten round to uploading the music to my SoundCloud account, although if you want to hear it in a music tracker you can follow the link to the demo above and in the .zip file you'll find the 'mod' in ProTracker format.

If the player doesn't appear below, you can hear the music on my SoundCloud page here...

Blok Copy in Progress

Blok Copy PC Title Screen

Announcing my first PC based game!

Continuing my PureBasic adventures and as a challenge to myself, I'm converting a Cosine game called 'Blok Copy', previously released on the C64, C64DTV, Atari 8bit and Commodore PET, to Windows PC.

Blok Copy PC Game Screen

The title screen is all working including the obligatory credits and scrolling message, along with options for sound settings, game modes and some instructions.  This is all accompanied by Odie's  full blown, all singing-and-dancing version of 'Sporting Chance', the music which has featured in the majority of Blok Copy versions across different formats.

The main game engine is functioning.  All the controls are in, along with the scoring, timer and level counter.  Even the pause mode works.

I'm currently working out the best way to animate the number tiles during the main game, which involves building sprites on the fly and then moving them on screen.

To be honest, this has been a stumbling block.  I've already coded one animation system that worked fine on my own system and on Moloch's laptop.  However, for some reason, it crawls on TMR's system.  I could just say, "tough!", but I want to find the issue and make sure it will work on a range of systems.

Bloody computers.