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2005 - The Year In Review
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-31
3... 2... 1... And that was 2005, previously known as the future. The occasion of another whole year passing is significant enough for us to pause a little, and think about what kind of year it has been.

Emulation is a very important aspect of the current Plus/4 life. On Windows platform, YAPE is the de-facto standard. Cheers to Gaia for his continued work on this free emulator, which is now up to version 0.64. Minus4j and Forever Plus/4 Emulator also got updated. VICE is still being worked on, but there's very little Plus/4 specific improvements.

There were no significant changes in terms of websites, the current "players" are still there and continue to evolve. (Although some were forced to changed address.) On our end we've officially opened the Plus/4 Encyclopedia, an effort to gather all Plus/4 specific knowledge to a free, open and accessible place. It's difficult to rate it either as a success or a failure, let's just say it's still there and has potential to become something great.

Our collection is still growing, we've passed 5250 pieces of software. We're thankful for everyone who sends us covers and TAP images, but C16 Chris deserves a special thanks. He basically flooded us with so much content, that processing and uploading everything will take well into the new year.

There's still new software being released. Chaos was this year's Questionmark (down to the fact that they both have ambiguous names), a breakthrough trackmo taking the top spot on the Top List. There's one effect in particular that's worth mentioning, a long-time dream of coders everywhere: displaying graphic on (or "removing") the side border. The scene also produced Crackers Demo 4, the participation and the quality are something to be proud of. Cheers to Luca for his great effort to bring CD4 together. Skoro deserves special kudos for being one of the most prolific coders this year. Lone News and Club Info were the two diskmags still being produced. Finally the recent release of Storm +4 V1.1 marks the only significant game release this year, and the return of Kichy. Last minute update: T.M.R has just released two new games! Check out Lunar Blitz and Reaxion!

We wish everyone a happy, successful, productive new year! Keep the Plus/4 alive!


Storm +4!
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-25
Open up one more box this morning. We have an unexpected but most welcome gift from Kichy/Asn: a brand new game release called Storm +4. Yes, it's the Storm game, but it uses all capabilities of the Plussy. Kichy writes: "[...] Around '90 I used to love playing this game on the C64. However, I only had money to purchase a +4, so I bought one, and I couldn't even get the C16 version. So at the beginning of this December I thought we really should have a full value game with large map and nicer colors. [...]" What an excellent though! What's even better is that he made his thought a reality, and the end result is a downloadable game for you. Respects to Kichy!


New Domain for the C16 German Homepage!
Posted by MIK on 2005-12-22
As you can guess from the above news header the Domain of Germany's C16 Homepage has now been updated just in time for xmas! The name of this great site is still named C16.de and will continue to go by this name for the foreseeable future, its just an address change.

The new address is now http://c16.c64games.de. The webmaster Thorsten said "unfortuneatly the C16 Domain was closed by the DENIC because my internet-provider made a very big mistake so I can not get the c16.de domain back. I have configured a subdomain on my c64games site.....".

Anyways, its great to see you guys back in business and many thanks for the news Thorsten.



Zortek and the Microchips
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-20
More than a year after adding this title to the database, we're finally getting our hand on it. Thanks to Chris from www.commodore16.com, we have the D64 image and the cover scans for Zortek and the Microchips. There's also a photo of the badge that came with this educational/game package. Check it out and enjoy!


Starburst!
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-10
Thanks to C16 Chris, we have full cover scans for Tony Takoushi game Starburst. No stars bursting, just some ball bouncing here. Well, we're talking 1986 after all. This game definitely ranks high on the weird-o-meter. However, with the help of the full instructions, those who wish to complete the game are now better armed. Whether it's actually possible to complete the game (or it just loops) still remains to be seen. Thanks to C16 Chris once again, enjoy!


More Classic Covers
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-10
C16 Chris sent us full-size cover scans for a few more games. Tutti Frutti and Storm are both classic releases from Mastertronic for the Commodore 16. The quality and playability of these games is quite good, and now we have the cover art to match it. We also have one more small addition: an alternative back cover for Street Olympics. This one has the instructions written on it in 4 more languages. Thanks for these!


More Firebird International Instructions!
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-04
C16 Chris sent us two more sets of cover scans. Shark Attack (or just Shark) and the wonderful Thrust are both Firebird releases. We now have the full size cover scans for both (for Shark it's actually an alternative one), plus the 4 sided international instructions (covering 6 languages) as well. Enjoy!


Club Info 90 is here!
Posted by Csabo on 2005-12-03
The German disk-mag Club-Info continues with issue 90. As usual, the two sides are filled with articles (in german), some recently released demos, and a few new Unlimited releases. Check it out if you're interested. Respects to Erich for keeping it going!


MicroCompiler converted to English
Posted by SVS on 2005-12-01
SVS promptly converted this piece of software to English. You can download it from the cbm264 site (kindly hosted by JamesC).
By the way a brief (but clear) manual was created, from a collaboration between SVS and C16 Chris, it is available here.

Everyone should try out the Micro-Basic-Compiler, it seems to be a great SW for our machine. Its ability to generate pure M.L. code is a feature that's better than the good AustroSpeed (which produces executable P-code programs). Its commands may seem too few, but really they should not be considered commands, but rather macros of a clever assembler.

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