I've been working on a game for the last few months and have produced a demo level for the Freeze64 fanzine. The demo was emailed to Freeze64 subscribers on Christmas Eve, so I guess it's fine to post this here now, doubly so since it has appeared in 'cracked' form on CSDb!
The game is called 'Chiller 2' and is an unofficial sequel to the Mastertronic original by David and Richard Darling.
The demo was produced especially for Freeze64 for Christmas, thus it features some vaguely Xmas music and snow and holly on the title and game screens. So as to not give too much of the game away, the demo features only the ghost enemy following simple horizontal paths and various other features of the full game disabled!
To find out more about this game-in-progress and more of it's features, you can visit my Chiller 2 development blog here...
In the meantime, if you would like to play the demo, you can download it here...
If you want to play a 'cracked' version by TRIAD, with some built-in cheats, you can grab that from CSDb here...
I've spent the last three days coding, pixelling and composing a little C64 Christmas demo that was today released by Arkanix Labs. It's cunningly called 'Arkrismas 2019'.
It's quite simple in nature with the main screen display being a PETSCII (albeit with a modified charset for the lettering). However, there are some 'twinkles' with two chars being modified on the fly and snow sprites floating down the screen into the bottom border.
Pressing 'f' on the keyboard will switch screens to a 'roaring' fireplace, achieved simply be modifying the colour RAM. I cannot tell a lie: the fireplace screen is Arkanix Labs having a direct dig at Stirring Dragon Games who have released their own Christmas demo with fireplace for the princely sum of $24.99! The Arkanix Labs demo/fireplace is free! We don't charge no $$$$$$$$! ;)
This simple Christmas demo can be downloaded from CSDb here. You can also download it from this blog here, complete with all the data files and ACME source code!
If you fancy warming yourself using a PETSCII fire, Moloch has created an animated gif of the roaring fire! See below and click to enlarge!
The 'Intro Creation
Competition' over at CSDb is now in full swing and hot on the heels of my last entry, 'Funky Stars', comes another 16k entry from me that I've rather unimaginatively titled 'ICC Anon' which is designed with old 'Compunet' demos in mind.
This intro is thus called because of the simple PETSCII rendition of the 'Guy Fawkes' mask as used by the 'hactivist' group Anonymous. The PETSCII was pixelled about 6 months ago when testing my screen editor 'ChillED' and ended up being repurposed for this intro.
The music is called 'tiny BONER' because it is a reworked and slightly remixed excerpt of a larger mod called 'Boner' composed by Marx Marvelous/TPPI. This SID is 'rare' in that is was composed with a 6581 in mind, rather than my usual 8580 choice, but should sound fine on either chip.
This intro includes my first use of sprites in the top/bottom borders and while there is absolutely nothing amazing going on code wise, it was an interesting exercise in finding out about the limitations of border use.
If you would like to see the intro in action on an emulator or real
hardware, it can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here. The download also contains the ACME source code and all work files, including the SID tune in it's Goattracker .sng format.
T.M.R has also written short pieces on his own blog here and on the main C64CD blog here, as well as recording a video of the intro in action. The video should appear below, but if not can be found on YouTube here.
Cosine has released "Eagles Dare" which features a new SID tune by me! T.M.R coded this intro as an entry for the 'Intro Creation Competition' over at CSDb.
According to T.M.R on the Cosine website:
"The eagle picture was found on the internet in 2018 when the idea of
creating a cover of the Eagle Soft intro was first being considered, but
the final modifications to add a floppy disk were added when some
already existing scrolling message code was merged into the project... the scrolling message uses Extended Background Colour
Mode which is usually limited to the first 64 characters of a font, but
in this particular case the text writer can select any character from
the 512 available in the C64's character ROM."
T.M.R also has a personal blog entry sharing further thoughts about the intro. Read that here.
The title of the music is 'Smaciwch fy Ffolennau' which I'll leave you to go and Google translate from Welsh into your chosen language... :D
And now the downloads: grab the intro from CSDb here or from the Cosine website here. If you fancy grabbing the intro as well as the music in SID format, along with the original Goattracker music work file for you to poke and prod, download from this blog here.
T.M.R has recorded a video of the intro in action. It should appear below, but if not can be viewed on YouTube here.
There is an event on CSDb that has become almost annual now called the 'Intro Creation Competition'. In this compo, entries must be created that could be an intro to something (such as a game crack) and must conform to a certain set of rules which I won't explain here, but if you're interested can be read here.
This competition is one of T.M.R's favourites and, since I've taken to coding on the C64 this past year, he suggested I take part. I agreed but, not wanting to blacken the Cosine or Arkanix Labs names (C64 groups I'm a member of) in case I came last, I requested that it be released using T.M.R's other 'label', Commodore Crap Debunk (C64CD); as a result, T.M.R has now made me a C64CD member!
Thus, after a few weeks of coding, pixelling and composing (yes, I did the lot!), C64CD has today released 'Funky Stars'.
This intro is so called because the music within it is a SID cover of an Impulse Tracker tune called 'Funky Stars' (but also know as 'Hybrid Song') by Quazar of Sanxion.
This little project has been quite interesting in the fact that one of the compo rules says that the intro must be 16K or under in the same block of memory. This is not something I'm used to, so was an interesting challenge, particularly since my Goattracker SID ended up being over 3.5K in size. Whoops! To squeeze everything in to the same block, I ended up doing little tricks such as assembling the screen data straight to $0400, amongst other things. Thanks to T.M.R for his guidance on this!
There was also some new learning here for me. I've always been fascinated by the use of 'raster bars' on the C64 and although I knew it was something to do with writing colours values to each scanline, I've never previously attempted it until now!
Anyway, enough of the waffle! If you would like to see the intro in action on an emulator or real hardware, it can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here. The download also contains the ACME source code and all work files, including the SID tune in it's Goattracker .sng format.
T.M.R has also written short pieces on his own blog here and on the main C64CD blog here, as well as recording a video of the intro in action. The video should appear below, but if not can be found on YouTube here.
A few days ago,Cosine
released 'Gamerz Xtreme Intro 2', a C64 intro featuring music by me. Information about the intro can
be found here...
I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID music from the intro has been recorded using a 8580
SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.
I've
uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account. Listen to the
music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud
page here...
Cosine has released "Gamerz Xtreme Intro 2" which features a new SID tune by me! T.M.R coded this intro after a request by Psycho Stick and will be used on the "Gamerz Xtreme" streaming channel, which I believe is moving from Twitch over to Mixer.
According to T.M.R on the Cosine website:
"..the final version of this [intro] was delivered in source code form with a
configuration file and build script so, along with being able to add
new text for the scrolling message, Psycho Stick could also tweak
various visual elements including the raster effects. As the scrolling
message notes, it's like an intro maker but without a user friendly
interface... This intro would be valid as an Intro Creation
Competition (ICC) entry since it only occupies the first 16K of RAM, but it's
possible for the scrolling message to extend outside those boundaries if
the need should arise."
T.M.R also has a personal blog entry sharing further thoughts about the intro. Read that here.
As for the music, I was asked by T.M.R a few months back to compose an original tune and was given "S-Express" by C64 legend Jeroen Tel as a reference. From this tune I surmised that a late 1980's sound was required, thus the "Gamerz Xtreme Theme" (as it became known to me) features quite simple sounding instruments with no filter use or effects. As was customary in the late 80's, the bass line and drums share a channel, while arpeggios chirp away on their own channel and a simple synth lead claims the third channel. Hopefully I achieved the "sound" I was aiming for!
As mentioned above, T.M.R seemed insistent that the final intro build fit the requirements of an ICC entry, so while composing it occurred to me to set a similar challenge for myself. There is a compo on CSDb called the "Crack Intro Music Competition" which, like the ICC compo, has a set of "rules" for music. I followed these rules so in the end the music in this valid ICC entry is also valid for entry in the stand alone music compo!
And now the downloads; multiple sources as usual! Grab the intro from CSDb here or from the Cosine website here. If you fancy grabbing the intro as well as the music in SID format, along with the original Goattracker music work file for you to poke and prod, download from this blog here.
T.M.R has recorded a video of the intro in action. It should appear below, but if not can be viewed on YouTube here.
Yesterday,Cosine
released 'Unused Shmup Tunes', a C64 one file demo music selector featuring
code, graphics and music by me. Information about the collection can
be found here...
I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID music from the demo has been recorded using a 8580
SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.
I've
uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account. Listen to the
music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud
page here...
Inspired by the music selectors that used to appear on C64 magazine
cover tapes back in the day and because I had some unused tunes taking
up space on my hard drive, I've (funnily enough) coded up a music selector, released today by Cosine! It's rather awkwardly called 'The Unused Shmup Tune Selector' or 'Unused Shmup Tunes' for short.
The Cosine PETSCII logo was pixelled with and data exported from 'ChillED', a soon to be released C64 cross-dev screen editor. Although I handled all the code, I must confess I was helped over the code finish line by T.M.R with regards that damned MSB thing.
These tunes, as usual, were composed in Goattracker and were originally planned for use in a shoot 'em up game that T.M.R was "planning" as part of a re-write to his existing assembly language tutorials... but, as is often the case with T.M.R,
those tutorials ended up being pushed onto the back burner buy other
projects and are currently being rather euphemistically referred to as a
"work in progress". Those are T.M.R's words from the Cosine website, not mine! :D
There's nothing amazing going on here code-wise, but as a relative newcomer to 6502, I'm pleasantly surprised how easy it is to recycle sprites, with up to 24
sprites being displayed on occasion in the logo 'pulse' and star field.
The music selector can be download from this blog here. The download contains the .prg file to run on a C64 or emulator as well as the ACME formatted source and all binaries and work files, including the music files in their original Goattracker .sng format.
It can also be downloaded from the Cosine website here or from the CSDb here. If you are so inclined, all the files are also available from GitHub here.
T.M.R has written a short piece about the release on his blog here and recorded a video of the music selector in action and uploaded it to YouTube. The video should appear below, but if not can be viewed here.
A few days ago,Arkanix Labs
released 'PETSCII Doctors, a new C64 PETSCII graphic collection featuring
code and music by me. Information about the collection can
be found here...
I wrote the rendition of the Doctor Who theme music using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID music from the graphic collection has been recorded using a 8580
SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.
I've
uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account. Listen to the
music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud
page here...
Arkanix Labs has just released a little graphics collection called 'PETSCII Doctors', which features (funnily enough) PETSCII versions of all, at time of writing, 13 Doctors from the BBC television program 'Doctor Who', as well as a PETSCII time vortex effect complete with TARDIS accompanied with a SID rendition of the famous theme tune.
On this occasion, I've handled the code and music, while helping my Grandson, w0rm, learn the ways of C64 by producing PETSCII block renderings of the Doctors in my soon to be released C64 cross-dev screen editor 'ChillED'. Thanks go to Moloch for continued advice and suggestions.
The whole bundle has been dedicated to T.M.R as a thanks for all his patience while I continue to grapple with 6502 coding.
The graphics collection can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here. Both download locations supply a .zip file containing the collection itself to run on a real C64 or emulator, as well as the 6502 source, binaries and work files. It is also available on GitHub here.
EDIT: 100bit^NiS has added PETSCII Doctors to Pouët. Find it here...
EDIT
2: It seems someone has taken the time to make a video of this little PETSCII graphics collection and put it up on YouTube. The video should appear below
but if not, it's on the page here...
I've been coding a cross-dev C64 screen editor called 'ChillED', mainly for producing levels for a little C64 game I'm working on. While coding and testing the editor, I posted a few of the example screens I pixelled on my Twitter page and ended up being contacted by pcollins of the group Excess asking for some PETSCII logos for the RapidFire BBS, which he is sysop of.
The list I was given included logos for various pages such as 'Disk Mag', 'Best of...' and 'Request' as well as some logos for group pages. Here is what I came up with, which hopefully should be included on the BBS soon...
Although the PETSCII's were pixelled in my own 'work in progress' editor, they were needed in a format called 'SEQ', a sequence of screen characters. Unfortunately, my editor cannot export this format yet, so they were imported into the excellent online screen editor, 'PETSCII Editor' and then saved off as SEQ's ready for the BBS.
The PETSCII's can be downloaded and viewed on a D64 image here, that also contains a viewer that runs on both a real C64 and in WinVICE.
If you have CGTerm installed on your computer or can access BBS's using your real C64, the images should hopefully be on the RapidFire BBS soon, which can be accessed by following:
A few days ago, C64CD
released 'Super Galax-I-Birds', a new C64 gallery blaster featuring code, graphics and music by yours truly! Information about the game can be found here...
I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID music from the game has been recorded using a 8580
SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.
I've uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account which includes the title track, a 'get ready' style hit, the in-game tune and another short 'game over' style blast. Listen to the music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...
In an attempt to further my knowledge and understanding of 6502, I've reworked and added new code to T.M.R's C64 gallery blaster 'Super Hyperzap' and have managed to produced something kind of playable in 'Super Galax-I-Birds', released today by C64 Crap Debunk.
On this occasion, as well as producing the graphics and music, I've taken T.M.R's original 'Super Hyperzap' code and added additional features such as a 'busier' title screen in the style of the early '80's space invader style games, 'get ready' type messages for each player, a 2 player option selectable on the title screen, highest score of the day for each player and a status bar that changes it's information depending on whether the title or game screen is being displayed.
In addition, T.M.R's original 'Super Hyperzap' game used 2 sprites for the player ship with only 6 sprites then available for the 3 types of enemy. This has been recoded in 'Super Galax-I-Birds' so that the player ship is only 1 sprite, freeing an extra sprite for the now 4 types of enemy. This has had the effect of making 'Super Galax-I-Birds' slightly more hectic than the game on which it was based.
If the game title sounds familiar, this game is indeed an unofficial sequel of sorts to the (in)famous Sensible Software game 'Galaxibirds', released by Firebird in the mid 1980's.
Again, thanks must go to T.M.R and Moloch for their ongoing help and support during my 6502 journey.
There are a few features that didn't make it in, mainly because this game went about as far as I wanted to take it; towards the end, there was no real learning going on, just 'tinkering' and/or adding things for the sake of adding things. Better handling of waves, with perhaps only 1 type of Galax-i-bird per wave, a high-score table and more types of bird may appear in a 'deluxe' version in the future!
The game can be downloaded from the CSDb here or direct from this blog here. Both downloads contain the game itself, along with the source code and all binaries and work files for both the graphics and music. The game is also on GitHub here.
Prior to release, the completed game was supplied to Moloch to be passed on to Triad for 'cracking'. Their crack release can be downloaded here.
EDIT: A YouTuber called 'NiftyRetroGamer' has done a recording of 'Super Galax-I-Birds' using both emulation and real hardware, while reviewing the game (quite favourably!). The video should appear below, but if not it can be viewed here...
Yesterday, Arkanix Labs
released 'Stardust Music', my new C64 8580 SID music collection. Information about the collection can be found here...
I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID's have been recorded using a 8580
SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.
I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account; listen to the tune's below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...
Arkanix Labs has released my small collection of C64 8580 SID tunes called 'Stardust Music' which are
covers of music from the Amiga game 'Stardust'. The original Amiga tunes were written by Risto Vuori. The
SID's have been released within a little music selector featuring a C64
version of the Stardust logo, that I pixelled years ago, and a new
charset font in the scroller.
The C64 code to display this was originally provided by T.M.R and was used for some earlier, simple releases. On this occasion however, I've actually pulled my finger out, learned some 6502 assembler and added code to detect machine type the music is running on (PAL/NTSC/Drean), key detection to be able to select the tunes and sprite display to show various pieces of information.
The machine detection alters the display and the music played, since PAL and NTSC machines run at slightly different speeds. It was a nice coding challenge.
Special thanks must go to T.M.R and Moloch for their ongoing 6502 coding mentoring, help and support!
The music collection can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here.
Both downloads offer a .d64 disk image for C64, both PAL and NTSC SID 8580 files and the music in it's original SNG Goattracker
format. The download from this blog also contains the graphic files in their original formats.
EDIT: Rudi has added an entry for Stardust Music on Pouët here...
EDIT 2: It seems someone has taken the time to make a video of this little music selector and put it up on YouTube. The video should appear below but if not, it's on the page here...
Yesterday, Cosine
released 'Level One', an entry into the 'Crack Intro Creation
Competition 2018' on CSDb. The intro features a new C64 8580 SID tune
called 'Y Sgrechian o Jarre' which I wrote a couple of years ago. Information about the C64
intro and compo can be found here...
I wrote the music for the intro using a PC based tool called Goattracker. The SID has been recorded using a 8580
SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.
I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud
account; listen to the SID tune below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...
Cosine has released 'Level One' today featuring a small SID that I wrote a couple of years ago. 'Level One' is an entry into the CSDb 'Intro Creation Competition 2018' organised by Didi.
From the Cosine website:
"T.M.R's final entry into the 2018 Intro Creation Competition is Level One,
a game-flavoured release with full screen scrolling and twenty six
characters of text in the two black bands above and below it. The
graphics in the centre of the screen were drawn to use Extended
Background Colour Mode which reduces the font to 64 characters but gives
four possible background colours for each character; this means there's
five colours in play but the code doesn't have to scroll the colour
RAM."
"Despite being the last ICC 2018 entry produced by T.M.R this was
actually the first one started a few days after the competition was
announced. The intro was built around prototype versions of the border
area code."
As with the music for 'Oldest Style', the
music was originally written for the CSDb 'Crack Intro Music Competition 2017', but ended up
not being used because it was too long and didn't work well on a 6581
SID; it was written with 8580 in mind. It has been finished and used
here instead
The name of the music is 'Y Sgrechian o Jarre', which is Welsh
for 'The Scream of Jarre'. Named because of the BBC style radiophonic type 'scream' at the start and as I
was writing it, some sounds/patterns in it reminded me of Jarre's
'Calypso 1' from 'Waiting for Cousteau'.
The intro can be downloaded from the Cosine website here or it's compo entry page on CSDb here...
You
can also download the intro direct from this blog, with the .zip file
including not only the demo on a .d64 image, but the music as a .sid
file to run through SIDPlay or similar and the music in .sng format
which can be loaded into Goattracker, the utility in which it was composed. Just click here...
T.M.R
has also recorded a video of the intro in action and uploaded it to
YouTube. The player should appear below, but if not watch it here...
"