|  | What could be better than turning the events of 2020 into cold, hard data? Hmm, probably a lot of things... Anyway, here we are: 2020 By The Numbers. | [ comments ] |
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|  Merry Christmas 2020 From Absence And Legion Of Doom! | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-12-24 |
Absence and Legion Of Doom also brought to you a Christmas present in a filedemo form, enjoy it!
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| | Merry Xmas From Bauknecht! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-12-23 |
 In spite of any pandemic, against any malaise that wants to sadden us, and in the memory of those who are no longer with us, it is Christmas also for this 2020! And Santa crosses the sky once again!
Bauknecht is happy to wish you a Merry Christmas and a New Year full of hope! In just a couple of days, here is a colorful, noisy parade of Santas waving for you for a fatty total of 278 fullscreen frames, frantically moved by a pure TEDsound version of the most classic of the season's music, brought to you on Plus/4 by the grandiose 5tarbuck!
The trackmo is out both on C64 and Plus/4, to maximize the wishes' audience, both run even on PAL and NTSC machines, with the C64 one playing a SID tune composed by Scarzix. Could the audience be bigger than this? Yes, it could be...so, no hardware barriers at all: Santa 2020 is also available as .D81 (to be SD2IEC compliant), and as .crt for all the users of SideKick/NeoRAM out there! Mad/BKN, coder in chair of this demo, just thought of us all!
Merry Xmas to all the mates orbiting around Plus/4 World! Stay with your beloved ones, stay safe, stay... Santa 2020! |
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| | The popular cross-platform cruncher Exomizer has been updated to version 3.1.0. Be sure to download the latest! | [ comment ] |
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| | Adventure DIY With Ozmoo Online! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-12-19 |
 The rules about adventure games' porting are now changed forever!
Johan Berntsson and Fredrik Ramsberg have just freed in the wild Ozmoo Online, a page to build Z-code text adventures for use on C64, C128 and Plus/4, based on the Ozmoo interpreter. The online version itself includes a dozen of famous Infocom's classics as Z-code, which weren't previously ported on Plus/4, to be converted literally in few seconds! You can also change some parameters about text and colors, you can add a bitmap picture before loading the main code, and choose the final medium format (.prg/single or multi .D64/.D81). This would mean that anybody not only can pack up his own jewel version of the same adventure, but – I repeat: literally in few seconds! – one can pick up his Z-code adventure from hundreds of them stored in the Z-code archives (e.g.: if-archive, just to say the largely known around), and easily pack up his version, perfectly working, to be run on his C64, C128 or Plus/4!
Just to have an idea, Luca has packed up a porting of the Infocom's most famous Plundered Hearts, in a very little time. In-cre-di-ble! |
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| | Within one day, Jorge "Pastbytes" Castillo has first converted (V1.0) then improved (V1.1) his Spanish voice synthesizer TAV16, which works even on a C16. | [ comments ] |
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| | Solitaire 16 | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-12-14 |
 The incredible amount of activity on Plus/4 World continues with another new game release: Solitaire 16. It was developed by Jimmi Johansen, it's a simple but competent implementation of Klondike (which is a solitaire card game, famously appearing in Windows). It's written in machine code, works on both PAL & NTSC and fits into 16K. If you want to play cards for a while, look no further :-) |
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| | Danger! "Cross Snake" Gonna Bite Your Joystick! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-12-13 |
 Fabrizio Caruso continues his exploration down below, into the realm of multi-platform game's coding, demostrating to all the inner power of the Cross-Lib, the author's retro-hardware abstraction layer for coding universal 8-bit games, with another "Cross" game.
The fourth in a row of the Cross Games series is a nibbler-type one, with apples to pick up, bonus and points to collect, moving mines to avoid, walls suddenly placing and vanishing, secrets to unveil and many many more. 32 levels of snakey fun to beat, for a hi-paced game of which you must learn to hold the reins.
Play Cross Snake to achieve your highest score, and to solve goals and sub-goals. Do it on any Commodore 264 machine, C16 included. |
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| | Double-Double | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-12-12 |
  Today we have two new converted adventures for you: Escape And Evasion and Dracula II. Each of these were released as two separate program files on C64. KiCHY's conversions have been merged into a single games, and best of all, you get a brand-new illustration for them as the title screen!
In Escape And Evasion you're trying to make it out of a prison camp alive, and in Dracula II... Well, the title should be a clear giveaway as to what the game is about.
Enjoy! |
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| | Javier Gonzalez developed the Chrome dinosaur running game for the C16 (Oflain16), check it out! | [ comments ] |
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| | Cyberpunk 2077 | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-12-10 |
 It's finally December 10th, and you what that means: after numerous delays and roughly 8 yearshours of development, Cyberpunk 2077 is here! Features breathtaking graphic (there's only one so it's singular), selectable lifepath (only "demowatcher" is available), and 2 hoursminutes of music!
Drop everything, fire up that PS4Plus/4 and check it out! |
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| | Fantasy * 7 | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-12-02 |
 Our crunchy, fresh KiCHY adventure pack contains 7 fantasy-themed adventures this time, specifically: Castle of the Skull Lord (Samurai, 1984), Crystal Frog (Kerian UK, 1984), Desert of Destiny, Faerie, Secrets of the Pyramid of Light, Terror Temple and The Halls Of The Dwarven Kings.
The one worth highlighting might be Desert of Destiny. Written by Stephan de la Motte in 1988; if that name rings a bell then kudos to you, he also wrote Mediterranean Mission. Since neither of these are very-well known adventures, there are currently no solutions for them anywhere on the net, so solving them might be a fun challenge for adventure fans.
Enjoy! |
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| | Raster Madness! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-11-29 |
 Since last year's release of Adventure Park, our scene hasn't heard anything from prolific coder Skoro. Well, now everyone can see what he's been cooking as Skoro is back with a brand new demo called Raster Madness! This nearly 8 minute production is sure to set some kind of record as to the number of rasterlines displayed in a single demo. A visual feast for the eyes, colorful raster tricks upon raster tricks with an all TED soundtrack. Be sure to check it out! |
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| | There's no V2 without V3: consistent with his nickname, Shine shines again on the PETSCII side of a 121 colors'palette, releasing Plus4World V3. | [ comment ] |
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| | Stack 123! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-11-20 |
 Stack 123, a new number-puzzle game has just been released. If you liked 2048 and 1010!, you'll surely enjoy this one as well. There is a built-in tutorial that explains the rules, or you can watch a demo game to see how it's done. As you create blocks with larger numbers, it's easy to get stuck. Creating an "11" block or higher is a nice achievement!
All you need to play is a couple of minutes. Check it out and enjoy! |
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| | Get 5 Take 2: Dizzy V - Spellbound Dizzy! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-11-17 |
 The last few years of the 264 scene have consecrated the art of converting games from other systems as a real asset of the user community. Among all the fantastic coders who have contributed to giving new life to this distinguishing practice, Ulysses777 can undoubtedly be crowned as the King of Dizzy games, continuing the path already traced years ago by TGMS.
There is no One without Two, and there is no Two without ... Five! So, here we come with the first autumn colds, Dizzy V - Spellbound Dizzy, perhaps the most divisive episode of the Dizzy series - for some too long, for others a great challenge - but definitely another gem that completes the whole precious set! Ulysses777 takes to you this classic arcade-adventure/platform game, with a fantastic TEDsound rewriting playing along the game... but it turns out to be two games in one! Alongside the Normal version, there is also the Lite version: originally released on C64 in a later collection, the Lite version features a smaller game map, but malicious rumors speak of bad bugs throughout the game ... it will be true?.
In the same days in which the Oliver Twins show the world the screenshots of the new incoming "Wonderful Dizzy", Ulysses777 allows us to recover the previous chapters of the saga at the speed of light, on the system we like best. Thanks, buddy! Let's explore this new Dizzy V - Spellbound Dizzy! |
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| | Molecule Man +4! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-11-06 |
 Molecule Man is a 1986 isometric maze game from Mastertronic. The classic C16 version we know (released a year later) did away with masking, but gained some (slightly clashing) colors compared to the original. If you ever wanted to see how that game would have looked like... Thanks to KiCHY now you can!
Molecule Man +4 is a conversion of the C64 game. Your task is to collect 16 circuits to escape the maze. Pick up coins along the way, which you can use at vending machines to buy bombs and rad pills.
Check it out! |
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| | Litwr released FBI+4, a utility which speeds us BASIC program execution by 5-35% at the cost of some RAM. | [ comments ] |
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| | Paratroopers Fall Again! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-10-30 |
 Paratroopers Fall Again! If that title rings a bell, that's no wonder - this game has been converted twice before. This time however, it's done right :-) Instead of listing what's wrong with the older conversions, here's a list of what you'll get in this version: correct controls, proper colors, decent sound, a nice intro - and of course fast-paced shooting action! The game has several options to choose from to keep the gameplay varied and interesting. Check it out and enjoy! |
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| | Endless Summer In ECM Mode | | Posted by Luca on 2020-10-29 |
 Cold comes with Father Winter, but you're wishing the summer never ends? The Extended Color Mode (ECM) of your prefer 264 machine it's coming to save you today.
Tropical ECMotion is little more than a single, very simple, effect, created by Luca/FIRE in order to test his personal ECM editor. The opportunity to participate in the CSDb's ECM Mode Demoeffect Competition prompted him to convert it to C64, hence now we have a twin release C64/C16 (the demo fits under 16kB), playing a new dedicated SID tune – wow, after just 14 years since the last one Luca did! – waiting for the forthcoming new batch of SIDcards. Of course, TLC's MConv V1.6 is here, providing TEDsound playback too, but his best contribution to this production it is undoubtedly the feature of the SIDwinder V01.23 packer that allows you to change the register base of the SID of your music.
Summer is far to come, but we, professional vacationers of idleness on the bECMh, are already getting ready. |
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| | FCK 2020! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-10-28 |
 Do you like banging beats?
Are you a fan of Plus/4 Demos?
Have you had enough of this year?
If so, we have the perfect thing for you! |
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| | New Game: Squirm 16 | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-10-23 |
 Tony Kelly wrote several C16 classics, such as Big Mac, Video Meanies and Squirm. The one - perhaps not too well known - fact that connects these is that their C64 counterparts are very different games! Instead of mere ports, each one is a similar but unique game of their own right.
Today, thanks to Gaia you can try out the C64 version of Squirm called Squirm 16! It's a cute action game, coded one year earlier than the one we already know. It's the type of game that doesn't have - or need - a complicated backstory: collect the eggs, avoid the bad guys, pick up the bonuses!
This weekend, you're officially invited: Let's Play Squirm 16! |
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| | The Hungarian transcription and English translation of Checkpoint 6x16 (which contains a lengthy interview with TCFS) is now available in the Features section. | [ comments ] |
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| | Domino Deluxe! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-10-09 |
 If you ever feel like playing Domino for a while, we hope you will give Domino Deluxe a chance. It's the deluxe version of the same game that was already released by TGMS and EVS. With the included NTSC fix, the game will work on all 264 machines!
("All 264 machines? What about the Commodore 16?" you may ask... Well, it works on that too! "Oh, so since it's 16K, we're missing out on 64K machines?" Nope! "How can that be?" Well, if you're indeed asking this question, read the author's comments to find out.)
Enjoy! |
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| | New Working Controls For Castle Master | | Posted by Luca on 2020-09-24 |
![Castle Master +3DF! [PAL/NTSC]](/dl/screenshots/c/castle_master_+3df!_pal_ntsc_title.gif "Castle Master +3DF! [PAL/NTSC]") Castle Master has been converted on Plus/4 by TGMS in late 1992, and it has promptly indicated as another new big homebrew conversion from him, in the days when he was the man on fire. Unfortunately, both keyboard and joystick commands suffer due several bugs when trying to move in the game's 3D space or trying to point the sight cross , in the end lowering the overall experience.
After "only" 27 years, it's been Luca/FIRE who undertook the task to fix the controls of a fantastioc game which truly deserves to be played in full comfort: Castle Master +3DF! [PAL/NTSC] is a +3 trained version expressely released to definitely fix the controls, repair the original intro bitmap and add one more of it, making it 100% NTSC compatible too. As a touching feature, the included docs have some fresh words from the Plus/4 author himself.
This release is dedicated to Jason Kelk aka TMR, our hearts fly to him, out thoughts won't leave him alone. Forza, bud! |
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| | Revenge Of The GTWs: Lemmings! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-09-23 |
 It looks like we are entering a new era of Plus/4 gaming archeology, since Frank Gasking published his gigantic work "The Games That Weren't" for Bitmap Books.
Although no TED production was considered for final publication due to space constraints, Frank retrieved his articles about GTWs for Plus/4 on his related blog, giving us precious recapitulations enriched whenever possible by interviews with the authors themselves, in a very complete form of the final information.
The first to be analyzed was 1942, and the article is the best summary of everything that his coder, Richard Ikin, has told us in recent years.
The second game under the microscope is the much desired Lemmings, the unfinished work of TCFS and Unreal. In particular, the Maestro has expressly granted Frank the right to freely release all the material related to the game, which has been preserved throughout these years. Thanks to this, Plus/4 World is now able to present to you - and if you wish to play online - the best of the known Lemmings's available previews. Plus, there's a zipped pack with all the known workstages of both graphics and programming.
We have so many GTWs waiting for answers to the burning questions that surround them, so let's expect new fantastic articles written by Frank Gasking, and new surprises released thanks to them. |
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| | Space Adventures! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-09-19 |
 Escape the mundane by playing these four space and sci-fi themed adventures, converted by KiCHY!
The flagship game is Adventure In Time And Space (Dorothy Millard, 1989). A sprawling two-part adventure that takes you to many locations, including a deserted space station, visiting cave men, medieval England, into the Alps, a far off planet and the London suburbs.
In Moon Stroll, you're... strolling on the moon (who would have thought?). Things aren't that simple though, you must find your way back to your spaceship and travel back to planet earth.
Fans of Doctor Who must try The Key To Time, where you step into the shoes of the Doctor himself.
Finally, in Quann Tulla the player wakes up from hibernation on the titular spaceship. You must survive and save the Federation in this high-tech space adventure full of databanks and teleportation.
Enjoy! |
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| | Marco Spedaletti never misses an online competition! Here are two entries from him, Air Attack! for the "RetroProgramming Italia Air Attack Challenge" and Totto! for the "Retro Programmers Inside Flappy Bird Challenge". | [ comment ] |
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| | There's No Dizzy Without Dizzy II | | Posted by Luca on 2020-09-12 |
 Ulysses777 has taken a long run and doesn't intend to stop now!
After the first chapter of the series, released in June as a meteorite suddenly hitting the scene, is now time for the second adventure of Dizzy: Dizzy II - Treasure Island Dizzy comes in one single .prg file, with docs, trainer, intro pic, digi speech, two different endings and all the great challenge of a classic platform adventure.
Release after release, is he going to fulfill all the missing chapters in the famous egg's series? Of course nobody knows... meanwhile we have a new Dizzy experience to bite, one which can't be missed for sure. Thank you again, Ulysses777! |
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| | HVTC Update Aug 2020 | | Posted by Luca on 2020-08-19 |
Hot pandemic summer? Ok, time to refresh High Voltage TED Collection, also known as HVTC, and take it beyond new boundaries: 724 single files overall!
This is a very balanced release, as we have added a little bit of everything from the three main channels that we usually draw on: proven TED samples, amazing new arrivals, and obscure or forgotten software over time. All this for a total of 28 new entries, with Battle of the Bits which brings us even more fresh composers who dare first steps on the chip.
Don't forget to completely delete the whole previous collection (that's the way to do at any new update!), then download/unzip the new one!
This is the straight link to the ZIP file. |
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| | Labyrinth 2020 BC | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-08-08 |
 A new game was just released: Labyrinth 2020 BC by raze. In the game, you control Tony Arizona, an intrepid adventurer who likes to risk his life exploring ancient tombs. Guide him through 6 levels to escape the pyramid, using bombs to blow up walls and be sure to avoid the tomb guardian. Check it out! |
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| | The Pit! | | Posted by Doug on 2020-08-08 |
 After 30 plus years, here's my next release for the Plus4! I wanted to revisit the game format from Icicle Works, and correct some of the mistakes I made. Most notably the lack of a smooth scrolling window. I also wanted to bring Prospector Pete along for the ride too, and so The Pit was born. It has taken me a long time to make this release, owing to a distinct lack of spare time and external 'real life' factors. I am truly grateful to everyone who has helped me on the way - MIK for some great tunes, Luca for his tunes, brilliant sound effects, testing and suggestions for improvements. I'm also deeply indebted to Degauss for his amazing music player, my work colleague Michele for his great level designs, Infin for his creative input early on, and MikeDX & Mad for their encouragement. And of course all Plus4 World patrons - this is for you.
Cheers,
Doug |
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| | First Release From aNdy:"Robocop PETSCII Plus/4" | | Posted by Luca on 2020-07-29 |
 In the end, it's here, just as promised: the very first Plus/4 release from aNdy/Cosine is finally here, and reports the sign of Arkanix Labs".
Robocop PETSCII Plus/4 is a PETSCII based filedemo ported on every 32K PAL/NTSC machine of the 264 series, from the original C64 one released few days before it. The main theme apparently is the famous cybernetic cop from the 19887 classic movie by Paul Verhoeven, now in pure PETSCII fashion. Given that the main push to release it is clearly the exploration of the 264 system, aNdy didn't just convert the original sound, but he rewrote the same songs used in the C64 version, composing them from scratch using Knaecketraecker.
It's a pretty juicy beginning for the Plus/4 side of Arkanix Labs (and, as an echo, for the Cosine crew too, a well known one along our latitudes), and we ask for more and more since now. But now, enjoy Robocop PETSCII Plus/4. |
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| | Down The River! | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-07-23 |
 Is today a wonderful rainy day for you? If so, spend your time descending down the river in this month's KiCHY adventure pack! Among other things, we can pass the time with River Software's adventure games, but once we're done with all three (Lifeboat, The Miser, Mutant) we can crash into a fresh crisp 1985 Firebird game, The Helm, and then and we can have fun with two games published by the CRL Group, namely Pilgrim and Wolfman. If even this couldn't satisfy our hunger for adventuring, check out: Billy Barker Investigates, Ice Station Zero, Joe Dick Private Investigator Case #1, Jolly Jack's Run Ashore, Kreen II, The Black Jewel, The Flight of the Unicorn and The Staff of Power. Have fun! |
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| | Ultimate Map V2.1 | | Posted by Luca on 2020-07-22 |
 The Bible has been updated! Ultimate Map pops out, again signed by SVS/FIRE, adding more stuff and fixing where needed.
The list of news about V2.1 release is a long one as expected, and can be roughly summarized as follows:
- More detailed info on Basic commands: FOR...NEXT, USR(), LOAD, DLOAD, CLR, SYS, GET, RESTORE;
- Explained schematic of datablocks for GOSUB, FOR, DO inside the Basic buffer;
- Drive 1581: more info about internal commands (and fixed a mistake on $A6 command code);
- New table of RGB codes on Color table;
- Deep info on CAN'T CONTINUE message and managing;
- Basic command INPUT detailed O.S. info (and a new trick);
- Fix bit#3 mistake in TEXT MULTICOLOR scheme;
- New Expansion Port schematic;
- Drives: added new schemes about Surface Map and MasterTrack Map:
- CONT command used inside a program :-)
...and many others. The complete list is as usual in the Credits page.
Ultimate Map now offers full support of the pre-existent Screen Codes Calculator (Graphic Modes sheet, row 75): by this tool you can calculate the values for a memory cell, in order to set (or read) the colors / luminances / background in either Text, Hires or Multicolor screen.
Update the essential TED's compendium right now, downloading it from here. |
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| | The Librarian | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-07-07 |
 Explanation? None. Author? RoePipi. Awesome PETSCII, colorful graphics, unique gameplay? Check, check and check. |
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| | Major Blink Deluxe | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-07-05 |
 We had a lot of adventure games released in the past months. Recently, the action games are striking back, after Alien8 and the new Dizzy game, LOD joins the ranks of cracker groups, hoping to shine some light on an old classic:
Legion Of Doom just released Major Blink Deluxe! Grass created a beautiful rendition of the original cover art for a recent C=64 port of the game, and he also did a more colorful, Plus/4 specific version. A fresh new main menu and cheats menu with 12 options (including some anti-cheats) waits for you in this release.
Nojeee, the father of Berks did an awesome job with this old-school shooter, and we hope the Deluxe version manages to pay its respects. Check it out and enjoy! |
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| | Dizzy +2 | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-07-02 |
 One of the two active cracker crews has stepped up and brought you Dizzy +2. We make it easier for you, less loading time, and those with less gamer abilities (including me, Chronos) are able to play this extremely enjoyable game to completion. What else can I say? Enjoy the stuff, it deserves it! |
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| | Dizzy - The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-06-30 |
 Ulysses777 is back after an 11 year hiatus. He returns unexpectedly but triumphantly with a fresh conversion of a Dizzy game: Dizzy - The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure!
This game was the first in the Dizzy series. The titular character must defeat Zaks, the evil wizard. To do this, he must collect several items and deposit them in a cauldron to create a magic potion. Since only one item can be carried at a time, this is not a trivial task.
The conversion itself is from the Spectrum version. Fans of this series (and everyone else!) is encouraged to give it a try. Be sure to comment in the forum. Enjoy! |
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| | Alien 8 | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-06-11 |
 You won't believe it, but Alien 8 has arrived on our beloved little machine! In this game, you control a robot whose job is to protect the cryogenically preserved passengers of the spaceship until they reach their destination. Originally developed in 1985 for ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC, it features the "Filmation" engine, which produced groundbreaking isometric graphics for its time.
The conversion is thanks to Rod & Emu, the guys responsible for other similar games like Gunfright, Knight Lore, and Pentagram. As extra bonus, Saul Cross wrote new music for and STE’86 created a brand new title screen for the game. We also get all this in the Plus/4 version! Definitely worth a try! |
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| | GridIron 1.2 Released! .TAP only - For full retro lovely-ness. New loading screen, updated title page music, converted to Joystick port 1. | [ comments ] |
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| | Club Info 158 is here! Remember, you can read it in English (via Google Translate). Side B has some rare BASIC stuff that have just been added to the database. | [ comment ] |
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| | The Gilsoft Legacy | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-05-20 |
 In our latest KiCHY Quill pack, we take a look at the work of Gilsoft, founded by Tim Gilberts, one of the most renowned English developers. Why is Gilsoft important/interesting? Mostly because they developed the adventure game editor called "The Quill" and "DAAD"! The system was ported to quite a few home computers after its release in 1983, exploding the text adventure game market. More than 450(!) games were released with this engine! But let's also look at the specific games we're presenting to you today. These are mostly games made and/or released by Gilsoft, namely: Africa Gardens, where in an abandoned hotel we have to figure out where the guests have gone; In Barsak the Dwarf we search for treasures lost with Barsak; In Devil's Island, we must escape from a prison island; We need to find a stolen diamond in the Diamond Trail; in the Mindbender a human brain gets under the control of a hypnotizing machine; in Sorcerer we have to recover the stolen scroll and orbs, in Spy-Plane you must you survive and complete a mission high in the sky over enemy territory; and in The Curse we have to break an Egyptian curse.
Have fun!
There's a lengthy article about Tim on Stefan Vogt's site, if you're even a little bit curious about this topic, it may be worth reading. |
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| | Bucket Wars Released! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-05-18 |
 Bucket Wars is a classic turn-based strategy game in which the enemy kidnaps your beloved bucket and you have to get it back at all costs. To achieve victory, use your units wisely, as each one has a different strength: archers, armors, fighters and lords. Control with a joystick plugged into port two. The game actively uses short and long fire button presses! Have fun! |
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| | It's offical: Árok Party 2020 is canceled! :( | | Posted by siz on 2020-05-03 |
It's a sad Sunday morning: the organizers of Árok Party announced that the COVID-19 restrictions of organizing public events in Hungary prevent them to hold the party this year. :(
They hope that the pandemic will cease soon and they can start organizing next years' party. They signed off their post with this message:
"Keep the 8bit spirit and prepare to respawn ;) Cargo & poison" |
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| | Atic Atac Released! | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-04-19 |
 Atic Atac is an arcade adventure game originally released in 1983 for ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. The player's job is to find the "ACG Gold Key" in a castle. To do this, you must open doors and dodge enemies. The original game required 48 kilobytes on the ZX, and Stinaris has now made the Commodore C16 version, which requires only 16 kilobytes!
(And be sure to check out Atic Atac+!) |
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| | David R. Moffatt Adventures! | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-04-09 |
 There hasn't been enough adventure game on Plus/4 lately, so we're opening up Kichy’s treasure chest, this time for Easter. In this pack you will find the adventure games of David R. Moffatt, such as Death Valley in which we have to get out of the legendary Death Valley alive, Temporal in which we have to fight our own brains, The Citadel of Yah-Mon in which we have to get Yah-Mon's treasure, The Lighthouse in which we have to get into the seemingly deserted but dangerous and secret lighthouse on Rock Island in the role of Secret Agent Dirk McBlane, The Shifting Sands in which we suddenly find ourselves in a mystical sand desert, West in which we fly back to the 1800s and have to build a career in the Wild West, and finally in the Yukon (to honor Csabo) we have to stay alive in the Canadian primeval wild.
We hope you aren't sick of this yet, everyone have fun, Happy Adventuring! |
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| | Szellemváros Anyone? Ah, "Ghost Town Plus"! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-04-02 |
 If it's a cult classic, it will come back again and again! And the classic of the C16 classics Ghost Town is now on charge for a new comeback, in a new shape, with brand new features!
After few brief but sweet appearances in the Plus/4 scene, it's time for awsm to boldly pass the gate of a full release. We all just know him for the fantastic Ghost Town JS, the version of the Udo Gertz's classic you can freely play online, and from a homepage with the sweetest URL ever, Kingsoft.de! :D Today, awsm doesn't miss the opportunity to return on his beloved C16 adventure, to finally reveal the one and only Commodore 64 conversion of Ghost Town! Hence, do you see any better chance to improve the original game and add some juicy features into it?
Well, he said yes, and Ghost Town Plus popped out from his assemblers! Ghost Town Plus runs on any 264 machine with 32K as minimum, and finally it features Hungarian text, as sign of respect for the Magyar tradition about the Plus/4 scene! There's a solid retouch of the ingame graphics, some serious bugfixes, an evocative PETSCII intro with language selection menu, and a wonderful intro picture!
In sad times with real ghost towns all over the world, it's really time to replay the one and only as Ghost Town Plus, to stay at home while walking in a Ghost Town! |
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| | 21 From Charlemagne! | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-03-23 |
 A while back we reported about the BASIC 10 Liners 2020 Contest, which has just ended. Out of the 31 entries on our platform, a solid 21 belongs to Charlemagne. He's released his creations today; 19 of them are games. What dedication!
Here's the full list of programs: Big Boom (8L), Car Racer (4L), Dripstones (10L), Find A Pair (10L), Flip Ball (10L), Hanoi (Towers) (10L), Jumpman (10L), Key War (10L), Little Picasso (8L), Lost City (10L), Mastermind (Charlemagne) (10L), Mine Field (10L), Move Bot (10L), Please Wait (1L), Short-term Memory (9L), The Square Of X (8L), Trouble In Space (10L), Turtle (Graphics) (10L), Two Gorillas (10L), Vipera (Charlemagne) (10L), Words (10L). |
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| | Won't Escape From "The Curse of Rabenstein"! | | Posted by Luca on 2020-03-18 |
 "We should try to find a place to stay for the night. The horses need a rest." Those were the coachman's last words before he disappeared without a trace. Lost deep in the Black Forest, you soon find out that some things should remain buried forever.
The Curse of Rabenstein is the new graphic-/textadventure from Stefan Vogt, the author of the acclaimed Hibernated interactive fiction series, which includes past Plus/4 releases like Hibernated 1 and Eight Feet Under. It is the first release from Puddle Software, a collective formed by members of Pond and with the mission of creating new games for the classic 8-bit and 16-bit home computers of the 80s. The Curse of Rabenstein is following the paths of the legendary adventures from Level 9, but it tries to meet modern gaming expectations, so that the most sophisticated genre back from the day transforms into a contemporary homage.
 This game represents the goal desired since the first release of the DAAD engine for Commodore Plus/4: a completely new adventure game, which unlike the C64 version, the closest technically, uses hires graphics instead of multicolor to better describe its locations. The story flows quite in a linear way to be enjoyed by adventurers of any skill, and uses a friendly parser overall. You can buy the physical release at Puddle's headquarters, or you can download the .d64 of the game for this and several other formats (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum +3, Spectrum Next, Spectrum ESXDOS, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, PC) and pay for it with the "name your own price" formula, starting to free download.
This production clearly exudes love for the 264 series machines from all pores, and Stefan Vogt & C. had the ability to bring a high-ranking production back to the Plus/4, something that fans really deserved! |
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| | A Mermaid Among PETSCII Waves | | Posted by Luca on 2020-03-10 |
 Occasionally, old friends come back to visit us to surprise us with completely unexpected delicious gems. Mermaid is one of those friends, and her art always leaves us speechless.
This time's present is a super cute celebration of a classic C64 crack intro, revisited to work in pure PETSCII, playing a SID tune or, if no SIDcard is detected, playing a dedicated TED tune. All this fancy mechanism stays under the 4K category, and comes under the noble signature of Genesis Project. It has been released in the same D64 images, together with its C64 counterpart.
Joyful surprise, Mermaid, hope to see more and more releases from you around here. |
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| | Thanks to Iwan, we now have all issues of Bulletin (a Dutch C16/Plus4 magazine) available on the site. Check it out! | [ comments ] |
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| | The Queen's Footsteps: Davide Bucci's Sophomore | | Posted by Luca on 2020-02-17 |
 Exactly after one year, the 15th of February, here comes the Davide Bucci's sophomore, the follow up of the adventures involving the Italian belle époque's heroine Emilia Vittorini, this time acting as an ancient times' Lara Croft among some riddles into egyptology!
The Queen's Footsteps has been developed with Adventure Writing System (AWS) coded by Aristide Torrelli by Davide Bucci, and this process line allowed the author to let it run the game on many other machines, some classic ones, some quite exotic: have a look in the official page, and you'll find the same story running on VIC20, C64, C128 and ZX Spectrum, but here come weird ones like Olivetti M20, MacIntosh 68K, Commander X16, CP/M and so on...
This time, Emilia Vittorini has reached Genoa in order to follow the transfer of the grave goods of Queen Nefertari coming from the archaeological work camp in Egypt, towards the Egyptian Museum of Turin. The date at which the game starts is August 27, 1904. Everything around make you think it won't be an easy task at all, for some reasons, and the steam era setting induces a halo of mystery about the story.
 The Queen's Footsteps contains a number of references to some historical figures and to some specific places of Turin and Genoa. The author has included them in the hope to add a certain depth to the game, but some deeper particulars may remain un-noticed by a non-Italian (or even non-Piedmontese) player, nonetheless he also took some licences from historical facts, just because they would fit the story and the game. Hence, Davide set a specific page on his site, in order to read about those notes while the story flows, to be loaded by inserting the same specific game password mainly used to load the current part of the game and avoid to redo all the past path.
The train is close to leave the station, and you're still in the hotel: it's time to move on it like a real action lady, Emilia... |
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| | 10th Anniversary of BASIC 10 Liner Contest | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-02-13 |
There is a competition running at https://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/2020! (On the page please scroll down for English.) As you can judge by the title, the goal is to create a program in 10 BASIC lines. It can be a game, a tool, or an application.
Deadline for submissions: Saturday, March 21, 2020, 6 p.m. CET |
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| | Happy Samurais With Weird Tigers | | Posted by Luca on 2020-02-05 |
 Sometimes, the oddity makes you enter the story from an unexpected backdoor. This was the case with Compopic, a C64 bitmap picture released by Parrot of Therapy to join the graphic competition at the Contest 1999 party held in Budapest. If something in the world exists, to merge up both C64 and memes, that would be for sure this picture! Between 2019 and 2020, someone thought that the time to glorify this epic release was ripe, so the Compopic Competition has been launched, returning unexpected pieces of art from the most varied styles.
Frenzy-Pic-Kurosawa is the entry drawn by Carrion for that compo, then, as usual, he wanted to reiterate once again his love for the 264 series, modifying it to optimize it in the limits and in the palette of the MFLI format for Plus/4, and the stunning result is Frenzy-Pic-Kurosawa+4, another unbeatable one from the Polish genius!
This time, all the work around this graphic gem in the crown, has been extensively described in the article that the author himself has published thru the brand new Polish C64 portal C64Portal.pl, enjoy the reading! |
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| | Simon Avery Adventures! | | Posted by Chronos on 2020-01-31 |
 Kichy is back with to close January on Plus/4 World with a new pack of adventures. We have no less than 11(!) new games converted from C64 - all by Simon Avery. This prolific author released all his games to the public domain in 2004, you can visit his site here. (He sometimes used the pseudonym Michael Hunt for specific types of games.)
- In A Magician's Apprentice, you play an apprentice whose great magician disappeared, and you must find and rescue him.
- In Jason Of The Argonauts, you play the of the Argonauts on a quest to find the fabled golden fleece, so that you can reclaim your rightful throne.
- In Merlin (a two-part adventure), you must save the Queen, King Arthur's wife.
- Pre-History takes you way back into the past, you must find your family.
- Prison Blues lets you play a criminal, who is trying to break out of prison.
- In The Gerbil Riot Of '67, you must escape from an asylum!
- The House Out Of Town puts you into the role of a solicitor, looking for the last will and testament of a client.
- In Total Reality Delusion you're transported to an abnormal plane of existence, and you must find your way back to reality.
- And finally, Danger! Adventurer At Work! one and two are funny meta-games, in which you must find a quiet room to play adventures in.
Enjoy! |
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| | Impossible Mission * 3 | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-01-15 |
First off, don't get excited - we don't really have Impossible Mission for Plus/4. Now, with that out of the way, what we do have are some genuine Plus/4 oddities, three of them in fact. Read on, if you're interested.
Let's start with the first one: Impossible Mission. I wouldn't want to use the word "garbage" to describe a piece of software, but in this case it might be appropriate. Here we have a short BASIC program, 17 lines, which prints some text, inputs a string, and resets. So what gives? Back in the day (pre 90's), there was no internet, all we had were envelopes mailed to each other with cassettes and lists. Some enterprising (or mischievous) soul must have created this, and it started spreading. Who wouldn't want Impossible Mission? It probably works, you just need the code!... Well, we now know better.
Round two: Impossible Mission (Mr. Soft), this being the reason for this little editorial. It's a new cover and TAP file we got from Lacus. It's yet another Italian hack, we have our fair share of them. Imagine buying this at the store (or at the newsstand?), taking it home, loading it up on your computer, only for it to turn out to be... Raffles. Ugh, what a letdown. It's nice to have this in our database though (thanks, Lacus!)
And finally: Impossible Mission. This appears to have been the real deal, key phrase being "have been". It was a game written by a young Hungarian developer, taking 2nd place in a competition, but unfortunately this game is lost. Click the link for more info.
There we have it; garbage, hack, lost. If you really want to play, better load up A-07 or perhaps Rózsaszín Párduc - or pick a different platformer. |
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| | New Covers from Lacus | | Posted by Csabo on 2020-01-14 |
    Lacus sent us a pack of covers, cassette photos and TAP files, if you are interested in collection, read on! Each of these forced us to clean up the database a little bit: Telex 2000 Szó Magyarul was listed as two separate games, but apparently it's one release. Szövegszerkesztő is a competent word processor for C16. The well-known version of this utility is the 64K version however, and as of yet we don't have a commercial release of this. (The Hungarian language reviews of the 16K version do mention that the 64K version was sold as well.) Finally there's 4 "Orosz" (Russian) programs. These will need to be organized better; but the creators did not make this easy: they use different titles virtually everywhere (on the cover, on the cassette, for the program name when loading and on the game screen).
Big thanks to Lacus for these, enjoy! |
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| | Nick Sherman is back on the murder's place, it's now Caveman's turn to become a Plus/4 game from the Game & Watch world. | [ comments ] |
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| | DAAD R5 is out! | | Posted by siz on 2020-01-06 |
DAAD R5 is finally out with official Plus/4 support.
Earlier (unofficial) versions used C64 memory layout, therefore C64 DAAD adventures could be used by simply changing the interpreter engine. In order to use Plus/4 resources better, this release contains a new interpreter with native Plus/4 memory map. This allows 25 rows of text, but breaks compatibility with C64 game data; therefore you have to target the Plus/4 directly if you want your adventure to run on the 264 series (64K only).
You can download DAAD from it's GitHub page. |
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