Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-22
07:59:13
 |  Back To The Showbiz!
 The cult management game "Rock Star Ate My Hamster", known at the Plus/4 latitudes as Rockstar Manager comes back to a new life with this +3 crack released by FIRE.
Rock Star Ate My Hamster Millennium is a crack of the same game, but with 50 brand new stars at the pinnacle of their success in the twenty-years period 2000-2020 to play with, and Chris Graham, the original graphician behind the fantastic caricatures which made it famous, takes in 4 of them, in his very distinguishable style. From the super rare version called "Rock Star Goes Bizarre", another roster of 7 has been added too. From now on, it's no longer a matter of Wacky Jacko and Maradonna like we still are in the 80ies, it's time to reunite those two bros in the name of britpop, or put together again those two "Bad Seeds" in a band ;)
The super skilled ZX Spectrum (and lotta more than that!) Aleksandr Trofimchuk, aka Schafft/Brothers/COM, has kindly granted permission to heavily retouch and add one piece of his art, and this honors the overall release.
Luca has released it both on Commodore 64 and Commodore Plus/4 with no commercial intents as a passionate fanwork, consequently to the fact that previous cracks and homebrew conversions have been tolerated to date. As the free distribution of the ZX Spectrum original has been denied, the only data tape to be used with the original game will be released for this specific machine.
And now... "eat dirt Clive!"
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-11-22
14:24:47
 | Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Goes Bizarre Stars,
Furry might be Fergie. As in Sarah Ferguson.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2021-11-22
08:34:15
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Very cool graphics! I love the artist caricatures 
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2021-11-22
09:02:41
 | Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Great update, but I think someone forgot to mention that the Gallaghers from Oasis are brothers.
Will def have Noel Gallagher & Richard Aschroft in my next lineup.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-22
10:09:30
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Thank you mates
MIK: seems you're right indeed! Sarah Ferguson! :o I tried to ask that to Chris Graham but had no answer about, so I tried a launch of dices...
retroscener: oh well, the Gallagher Bros work together showing a link if you pick'em one after the other...by their names 
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2021-11-22
10:57:28
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Luca: It's okay, I'm a little slow today. I just got the reference of their alternate names now. I like it, lol.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-22
11:01:09
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
retroscener: hahaha! 
It's that I've ever been on the Blur side, the most
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Posted By
aNdy/Cosine
on 2021-11-22
14:44:18
 | Re: Back To The Showbiz!
That's just brilliant! Many thanks!
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Posted By
Ati
on 2021-11-22
15:13:30
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Nice work Luca! I like the original spectrum maingfx. And Prodigy rulz.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-22
15:30:41
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Thank you aNdy/Cosine and Ati!
Yes, having Keith Flint in the roster is a honor, having him drawn by Chris Graham is a double honor! May he rest in peace...
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-11-22
21:36:59
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Your have to forgive me Luca. As much as I loved Codemasters work I avoided this game on C64 for a few reasons. It borrowed and was linked to a stupid Sun news paper headline of "Freddie Starr ate my Hamster" and if he did or not I didn't gave a monkeys. And it wasn't an Arcade type game lol.
I'm sure school kids loved the idea of the game but the 19 year old me said no way was I buying that for C64!
So yeah I've never ever played it...
I fully understand the graphical style is very suited to our beloved Ted machines, and the mono pixel art is very cool. Maybe I should take a look after all.
On a side note do we know who nicked named the many faces?
Under the original stars... Sting looks more like Billy Idol with the ear ring and hair, if that's how it is in the original game then fair enough, leave it as is.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-23
03:08:29
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
MIK yeah, I see you've a point here. I included the infamous "The Sun" cover and several other memorabilia in the Rockstar Manager page. I love this game, it's a sort of cult, and this is what I call a metagame, games which are valuable not just "games" but with a semantic meaning beyond being a plain video game.
As the author has pointed out in the article published on Retro gamer 78, this is a sort of non-game (hence, a truly limited and longevity-low game) raised up on rage against the music showbiz which the author himself did try for long time to afford with his band it's more a grotesque critics to that commercial and artistic world, so I'm not surprised you've never find it a palatable choice of play.
The gag names are assigned by the graphician Chris Graham himself, which also named the 4 stars donated to me (thanks!) for this version of the game.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-11-23
16:20:36
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Thanks for the insights Luca, every bit helps get a better overall understanding.
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Posted By
Mad
on 2021-11-24
00:13:24
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Btw.. the 2d monochrome images are work of an pixel art master!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-24
02:29:30
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Mad thank you bud, you always consider my skills higher than they actually are
I aimed to a "real them" style (Amy Whinehouse got three different versions, from why-so-serious to almost-cartoon) before choosing that one, whereas Chris Graham is recognizable by his unmistakable style of an expert caricaturist. I also loved to take in the 7 Goes Bizarre, which would have otherwise been lost forever. The C64/Plus/4/ZX Spectrum files are exactly the same, but different from the Amstrad CPC version (which I didn't released, in facts...), and I could write extensively about file structure and curiosities about it... E.g.: in Rockstar Manager, if you browse the stars till the end, it restart with a press-fire pause, because both the last file and the code itself are uselessly ported from the original Spectrum version, which expected the last star's last byte to be $D5 instead of $55 to be checked as "last character, rewind the tape"...here on disk! ; useless to say, I fixed this flaw too.
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Posted By
zbyti
on 2021-11-26
13:50:12
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Big THX @Luca
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Posted By
Luca
on 2021-11-29
12:26:37
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
OMG, come on, COME ON! Thank you Stuart Campbell for this!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-11-29
23:53:37
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
WOW!!!! Awesome cover!
BTW,
Fun game and better than Football Manager!
The C64 style intro was cool and makes you wonder if Rockstar Games borrowed the idea for GTA Vice City. I think having it look like a C64 worked better, if it was a TED screen people might of been tempted to press Run/Stop. ;)
And the lame practice music was great. :D
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Posted By
Mad
on 2021-11-30
07:51:38
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Wow this cover rocks!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-11-30
12:19:01
| Re: Back To The Showbiz!
Ha! I gave it another vote.
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