Erich/ULTD has just released the issue 102 of Club-Info disk magazine, raising significantly the overall quantity of releases in 2007. Once again: news, contacts, humor, demos, utilities and games in one big two sided pack.
At last, a new line of picture collection disks: Hires Color 1, first release of a new branch of hires graphic two sided releases.
Minus4 V2.6 and SNasm V1.7 released!
Posted by Luca on 2007-11-28
Minus4 reveals the pulsating heart of C16/Plus4 software! Mike has updated Minus4 and included some advanced development features. A much improved debugger with better disassembly viewing (complete with symbols) and breakpoint control. Along with this is a new sophisticated realtime profiler which allows you to get detailed read/write/execute information all in realtime.
Along with this is a new version of the SNasm assembler, which will output the needed symbol information for the new Minus4 debugger, along with that is some new support for a few of the better undocumented opcodes.
New Covers and Program Files!
Posted by Ulysses777 on 2007-11-25
A long time coming, but finally some new stuff has arrived.
Hurry up everyone and head on over to the official Minigame 2007 homepage. As a pleasant surprise, we have an unexpected plus/4 entry, so this is actually one another good reason to check out the contenders and vote.
The plus/4 entry is a machine code game with PETSCII graphics, made by Reinhard Kratzberg from Germany and is called Star Cruiser. The original announcement was made on his weblog here and the game itself is submitted in the 4kb category. Although it's been available for a while now, you can still check it out if you want and show your support for our platform by voting on this game!
PRG launcher released
Posted by Gaia on 2007-10-24
Our own ern0 has released an emulator tool that allows one to use several Commodore machine emulators at the same time. You can associate this tool with the PRG extension and by clicking on a PRG file it will load, the start address gets autodetected and the control of the program is passed to the appropriate emulator (so for example C64 emulator for the $0801 address and $1001 for the plus/4). Now I just wonder what to do with the VIC-20 programs :-)
At last, we split the Demos Top List. As requested by several people, we've preferred to have different charts by specific memory categories. Top List page shows now a couple of brand new columns: Top 50 16K Demos and Top 50 1K Demos.
"Top 50 16K Demos" will support our specific demo type which has born in the inner core of the Plus/4 scene, up to receive the Pouët's probate. We all know, 264 series machines mostly existed in 16K and 64K version, hence a 16K demo intends to show to the audience all the power of a C16/C116 monster. After the release of classy specimens like 8SoB, Ikaruga, TED Storm, we need a dedicated list, in order to endorse the newborn 16K genre.
"Top 50 1K Demos" list considers all the pieces of minimalist art, from 64 to 1024 bytes large. Astounding stuff like Roeddelroemp, 6fx, Your daily 128 byte intro and Digi 64 are included. At the moment, it includes 64/128/1024 bytes stuff, new subcategories can be quickly added if needed.
Both lists are brand new, and it would be a great effort of collective involvement if you all will spend very few minutes in order to enjoy these little great demos again, then put down some votes and allow the needing ones to enter the main charts.
Club-Info 101 is out!
Posted by Luca on 2007-10-11
And now, get ready toward a new goal! And we have to consider this issue 101 as the very first step.
Club-Info is now the one-and-only 3-digit magazine in the Plus/4 scene, and its editor Erich looks like unstoppable: even in this issue, you'll open the box to find out news, hints, solutions, demos, utilities and games. On the side B, you can find various stuff and little hidden gems like Reverse 2007, or Cross.
Plus/4 YouTube Video Coverage HQ
Posted by Luca on 2007-10-06
"Ooooww I love vintage computers, and I really would be pleasured by watching all the cool demos coded on your beloved pruss..plaess...how did you call it? Ah yes, Plus/4, you said Plus/4... Yeah but where I can download the stuff? Oh what's this weird .D64 file format? Hey why does the emulator stop to load? Ouch can't listen to the music? Oh no, what's the problem now with t.."
Pissed of your lazy spoiled pampered double click addicted pseudo-nerd mate? Set him free from a good 89% big slice of his own brain, and tell him: "Simply press play, ok? Easy enough to ya?". Yes, we've found a convenient place for the Commodore Plus/4 YouTube Video Coverage Playlist.
You can contribute too, with your Plus/4 videos, subscribing the Plus/4 Group at YouTube's. A special greeting goes to IstvanV, who sent in the longest demos.
The Big Wave
Posted by Luca on 2007-10-05
It had been a very hard work, but the uploading phase is finished, finally!
DGS offered his large archive of Plus/4 stuff, full of Hungarian releases, lost gems and educational programs. The bunch was extremely fat, over 300 titles! That's why we're still working around them: we need to import several others of the whole wave, enter data and pictures for all the entries, searching for clones and existent entries. So keep your eyes on the New Stuff during these days, you'll discover more about your beloved blackbox!
Exploring around the shores of Chris'big homepage, I spotted out some hidden gems, which have been easily included in the Wave: a Jim Butterfield version of the old classic Colossal Cave, Adventure Plus4; three little but extremely rare games published by Astralog, called Astrapede, Atom Man and Jetpack Jack; Conqueror, a converted lil'Risiko game. But the real jewel in the whole collection is the disk containing both Pattern Designer and Pot Designer. With the latter, you can draw your pot's profile, and draw several 3D views for it, including a primitive shadowed rendering. You can also literally paste all around your vase your pattern wallpaper built with the former editor.
"In Memoriam" of the whole past...
Posted by Luca on 2007-09-18
...to point toward a bright new future in the scene!
Skoro/ASN wants to celebrate 2007, releasing a onefile demo which ultimately improves and consolidates all his recent productions'effects, like setting a milestone in the ground where to start again for a new era of the Plus/4 demoscene. Some great graphic elements drawn by Kichy and some 8 years old logos by Luca make frame for this new great coding effort from the Assassins'leader.
It's time to change in order to keep it unchanged!
New release of 'Forever?' emulator
Posted by SVS on 2007-09-02
During summer holiday Litwr has released another updating of his famous solid emulator totally coded in machine language. With this version, 'Forever?' is able: - to access any type of file from D64 images, including the REL files too. - to be invoked with advanced command line parameters.
And the time has come: 100 issues of Club Info. I would mean: the very first 100 issues ;)
Erich/Unlimited has taken the most lasting disk magazine beyond the two digits limit, and he decided to celebrate this memorable goal doubling the offer: longer text and 2 disks full of the usual choice of fresh stuff around the scene. A great intro coded by Csabo/LOD remarks the milestone, with a fantastic TED tune playing while running.
Happy 100 issues anniversary Club Info! Next goal ahead!
New Game Released!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-08-18
Skoro/Assassins is back once again with a new action game, simply titled: Get It. Your task is the usual: guide your character through 50 levels, avoiding all the baddies. You receive level-codes after successfully completing every fifth level. These will allow you to start the game from the given level once you restart. The author also added a built-in trainer mode for those who find it too hard. So what are you waiting for, get it now (pun intended).
IstvanV released the latest version of his Emulator a couple of days ago. As he stated in the forum already "this release mainly focuses on improving the TED emulation". Additionally, it includes a few minor bug fixes. But even if "there is not much visible difference" you should give it a try.
You can find packages for 32 bit Windows, 32 and 64 bit Linux and the source code here
Don't forget to visit the forum (no registration required) and participate in the discussion about plus4emu. Feedback is always welcome and IstvanV would be happy to hear about your suggestions for features and improvements.
News From West!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-08-11
Guys From West are back... sorta :-) Regular readers of the forums may remember that there was some talk around getting our hands on an archived copy of the famed Prince of Persia game. The legendary DOS game running on the Plus/4? Could it be true? Apparently it is! The guys found the latest development copy of the game and decided to release it to the public. It's definitely worth checking out! Too bad it never got completed. We also have a new group photo of GFW. Thanks for this stuff to Tesh and Tmfs!
New Hungarian Covers!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-08-07
DGS sent us two rare Hungarian covers for our collection. The first one is Parketta, a newly added logical game. The second is for Platina, an action+puzzle game that deserves your attention if you haven't played with it yet. Big thanks for these, enjoy!
Eagle by Jedi!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-08-06
2007 continues to be a very exciting year for our scene. Today we have another fresh release for you: Eagle/Jedi! His second publicly released graphics, it's also an MCFLI picture. (To the best of our knowledge, this is also only the second hand pixelled picture using this video mode.) It was submitted to Assembly 2007 Summer Oldskool Graphics Competition, where it (once again!) took a respectable 4th place. Big congratulations and thanks to Jedi for representing our scene with another fine release!
Absence And Wilds Join Forces!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-08-01
It's very rare for a new group to pop up on our scene, but today that's the case. The remaining members of Absence and Wilds have joined forces, and are proud to announce their new group: ACW. The merger makes sense, since the 5 guys have been already collaborating on various projects in the past two years. We're anxious to see the first production to be released under the new group - could it be the upcoming game, Bomberman +4?
There's a new adventure game available from Chris Snowden called Church Of Death! The stories takes you to - guess! - the Church Of Death, which has been taken over by evil vampires. So grab your backpack and get ready for a real adventure! Besides being able to download it, you can also purchase the game for the mere sum of £1.99 from Cronosoft. It will be a nice part of anyone's collection of cassettes :-) Check it out and enjoy!
Savage Island Covers!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-07-18
Savage Island Part One and Part Two is a two-part adventure from the Scott Adams adventure series. Sidius took the time to scan the full size covers which has now been added to our database. Savage Island +4 was also released today. Big thanks to Sidius for the scans, enjoy!
Musketeer!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-07-17
Hot on the trails of Shade, we have the second new production uploaded from Arok #9. This is a debut release is from a "new guy": say hello to Jedi. Musketeer is an MCFLI picture that was submitted to the graphics compo and reached a respectable 4th place out of 9 entries. It warrants a new category, which will hopefully grow in the future. Enjoy!
Shade Demo!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-07-15
The moment you've been waiting for has arrived: the much anticipated and amazing Shade demo, winner of Arok 9 is here! It's nothing like you've ever seen, so download and watch it now. Congratulations to the authors for representing the Plus/4 with such a quality production!
Rare Unreleased Game Found!
Posted by Luca on 2007-07-13
Wondering in my bathtub while having a relaxing bath, I remembered an old issue of Zzap! Italia, around year 1987, in which a letter had been published about a C16 game project. This is page 12 taken from Zzap! Italia magazine issue 11, published in April 1987. They received a letter (that one in the bottom right corner) and a tape from two young C16 fanatics. Briefly, Marco Ricci and Carlo Alberto Bentivoglio (graphician and coder, respectively) sent'em a copy of a finished C16 game, called Nike Hawk. That was the one and only hint about it: no news from any of the most known C16 dedicated software houses.
Leaving the bathtub, I had few neat sentences in my mind: 20 years passed; Internet's great, we've so many search engines around. Why not give it a try? I tried and I succeeded, finding Carlo Alberto Bentivoglio! He preserved his work, and has been so kind and polite to send the original master tape of Nike Hawk in a couple of days only!
So, here's the hidden gem, released after 21 years, run to get Nike Hawk back to work! Soon, an interview and more about it, on Lone News!
By the same author, as found on the game's master tape too, a weird bonus item. It's a picture drawing tool written in BASIC with several features, named CABpaint 4. Enjoy!
Tron Lamer Team. alive and kickin' + a little surprise
Posted by Luca on 2007-07-03
2007 is now very close to a definitive consecration as golden year for the Plus/4 scene! Here's the Hifi turn now, with a freshen storm of a new digi demo, plus six more, never released before.
The Gyöngyös Plus/4 central HQ is still at work, as you can see!
Hey, what's this!? I was just typing these news, and I saw that Ulrich Hecht, the misterious guy who entered silently the scene with AMC and Centripod conversions, has just converted another game.
I uploaded my set of SceneCon 2007 photos for your enjoyment to the Features section. Two new utilities have been added to the Tools section that some may hopefully find useful: CSW Viewer and Csabo's TAP Cleaner. Finally, an interesting tidbit: Mac came forward and claimed authorship over an old joke demo called Spermetro. Who knows, perhaps some day we will find out the real identity of Korak :-)
C16doc.de updated
Posted by Gaia on 2007-06-29
Almost as a follow-up response to the sad news of the removal of the C16.de forums, and after a long hiatus Mr. Museum has updated the official Club-Info website. The site has been given all the missing Club-Info releases and also several hundred (!) other mags. Check it out if you speak German or plan to learn it, there can't be any better motivation.
One of the first german internet pages, which dealt exclusively with the C16/+4, was finally taken from the net on 2007-06-21: The Forum of www.c16.de !
Tranlated quotation: "For want of words we have also stop the forum now. There are still enough other forums with Commodore-material, where you can make a find absolutely.....etc."
Of course this is a great pity ones, but in the end the forum was not very well visited...but the main side C16.de is still active !
Plus/4 blitzkrieg at SceneCON party!
Posted by Luca on 2007-06-18
We turned the 8bit demo competition at SceneCON 2007 party into a Plus/4 power show! Absence, TEK and FIRE demos have been the compo entries, three pieces of true art, hard coding and polished design. Read the final ranking on Pouët! Luca performed his best code ever, moving masked softsprites here and there and around ichthyic themed graphic art in his own onefiler called Thalassa. Csio and Chronos played hard with vidcordered stuff in their Adventures in Mono, filling up the screen with full motion effects. Unfortunately at the moment, the demo runs on YAPE only and can't be spreaded yet, as a virtually working one, in order to prevent misunderstanding and lack of consistency. Don't worry, the working version will see the light in few days, and first choice sceners like Crown, Pigmy and Gaia are just helping our dynamic duo to achieve that! And the winner is: Degauss! Yes, Ingo won again, and he really deserves it! Notizen aus der Provinz shocked the audience, showing high-pro effects which can be exclusively performed on our beloved Plus/4 only: a new revolutionary graphics format, a stunning floormapper, giant lightsourced vectorcubes, a very smooth fence effect, a colorful double tunnel. Plus/4 at its best!
Do you wanna see some famous faces at the party? Chronos, as official scene's photographer, takes to you a bunch of funny pictures of the long night in Budapest, here!
Update: the party version of Adventures in Mono is now here to be downloaded, watched, enjoyed! Update: more photos here, here and here. Update: the final version of Adventures in Mono has been released some dozens hours after the party! Delete the party version, now you have the real one and only, with a bonus picture!
99 Releases of Club Info on the Wall...
Posted by Csabo on 2007-06-06
99 releases of Club Info... Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of Club Info on the wall!
OK, enough with the singing already, even though the occasion of a new software release on our beloved platform certainly deserves it. Erich/Unlimited brings you issue 99 of Club Info. The two disks sides are packed with German language articles and other goodies as usual. The exclusive new releases included are: Multiple Regression + from Werner Bertholdt, Determinator from Ludwig Weinzierl, Joystick Tester, Clouds by Peter Bergen, plus 1520 plotter programs, A Match and Raptor which are Erich's conversions. Check 'em out! The countdown has begun for the 100th release...
Cuthbert Enters The Tombs Of Doom In Full Glory!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-06-02
Regular visitors have no doubt read this forum thread regarding the additional game materials for the old Microdeal Commodore 16 game from the Cuthbert series. You can now view this release in it's fully glory: we have the full size cover scans, a lot of additional game materials (postcard, club card, "key"), and the 16 page instructional booklet. This latter one really does a good job of "selling" the game. Check it out, it's retrogaming goodness! Big thanks to Sidius for sending this in!
Various Additions
Posted by Csabo on 2007-05-15
Just a few additions to the database today: we've added photo's of Tremby to our faces of the scene gallery (he's number 115). It appears that our humble webpage was featured in a magazine in Holland: Commodore Club December 2006 issue. Big thanks to Patrick for the scan! Last but not least Lacus received and scanned the 26 page manual for Botticelli! It's in Hungarian, but very nice nevertheless. Thanks guys!
Two New Cover Scans
Posted by Csabo on 2007-05-09
Rüdiger recently got his hands on a rare release: it's Savage Island Part One, the Adventure International (U.K.) release. It features different artwork than the Tynesoft release. Despite what the cover says, it not only contains the C16 text only version, but also the Plus/4 version of the game as well. The second cover we added today came from C16 Chris, it knocks one more off of our wanted list: it's the disk cover of Jet Set Willy. What's unique to this one is that the disk contains a second game (Rig Attack), which can be seen on the disk label, but it's not mentioned on the cover itself. Thanks for the scans guys!
Yape 0.74 is released
Posted by Gaia on 2007-05-08
Yape has received another update, a couple of folks will probably be happy with the reconfigurable joystick control keys, while others may get their kicks by the possibility to add breakpoints on startup. For the full story, hit the homepage below.
After twelve years of absence from the world of disk mags, Absence revitalized Paprita. The magazine for scene subculture is back with its fourth issue. Check out Paprita 4!
New Cover Scans
Posted by Csabo on 2007-04-30
Rüdiger sent in new covers: the cassette release of BASIC-Kurs, and an alternative scan for Mercenary Kompendium-Ausgabe. Lacus - our frequent supplier of Hungarian stuff - sent in a few program files (see New Uploads for the list). He also got his hands on a true treasure: feast your eyes on the cover artwork of Botticelli! The back cover has some nice info: the list of authors (György Szöllösi may be a familiar name), and it also displays the official description of the program - some might say it's a little boastful perhaps, others might think it's well deserved. Thanks for these guys!
[limiTED] Voting Phase Begins!
Posted by Luca on 2007-04-22
Jeez guys, you all made my day: 26 entries overall! 26 little gems, born from the flames of your passion, and the knowledge of your beloved blackbox! Here at Plus/4Word we're so proud because of your quick feedback, we liked every single production, every effort has been fully appreciated. Hey but... Oh my, this is a competition after all, and a competition needs a winner; and a winner needs a ranking; and a ranking needs votes. Ah, votes, at last!
Give 10 to your favourites! Bury the worst ones with 1! Be ruthless but fair! Try to win in the Guess Who's inoculated competition, performing your most terrible spectacles. Write your personal comments for any entry, glorify the best, insult those which you dislike! You can vote until Saturday 28 April 2007 23:59. I'm just waiting for votesheets, come on!
New adventure game released!
Posted by Gaia on 2007-04-13
Chris, the founder of commodore16.com has just finished his first game for the Plus/4. It's a trial & error text adventure called Dark Mansion. The goal is to break into the mansion, steal the treasure and escape with your life. The game is programmed using the Adventure Building System by Rachy, which is very flexible adventure programming language. The source code would also be released soonish. Find out more about the proggie on the website of Chris.
I have just noticed that Csabo's excellent Plus4IDE has received an update, so if you're into cross-platform development (which you should), head on over to the dedicated page and download it immediately. I have no idea yet what's been updated but we can nag him on the forum for that.
Finally some updates to the SCN News saga: we worked out the problem with issue 4 (see forum thread) and Moldi found SCN News 17. Only one is missing, the hunt is on! Thanks for all you guys for helping our archive grow.
YAPE 0.73 Released!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-04-10
Members of our little community will probably be happy to know that this month brings another update to the popular Commodore Plus/4 emulator: YAPE. Gaia has been busy fixing it up so that the few remaining problematic programs are emulated better than ever. To find out what's new in this mostly bugfix release and for the download, hit the YAPE homepage. Cheers to Gaia for his continued development!
Moldi dug up a whole bunch of missing magazines for us. We now have the complete set for Infó (7 issues added), Lamer News (2 issues added) and Scanners (8 issues added). We also received several missing SCN News issues, leaving only 17 and 26 missing. Issue 4 was sent in by several scene members, but it's the same file we already had on rulez.org, which is unfortunately broken. Perhaps a working version of this issue never existed?
Info perhaps deserves a special mention: this mag was relatively unknown in the scene, and it's not the usual scene format, but true to its title it does have lots of useful and interesting information. Should provide a good read to anyone wanting to reminisce about old times. It's in Hungarian though.
Big thanks for Moldi and Chronos, who also sent in some of these mags at the same time.
Terror News: Series Complete!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-04-06
TPSH and Moldi both sent us the last missing issue of Terror News: Terror News 17! Fire it up if you're so inclined (and speak Hungarian) to read some old news. Big thanks to both guys, a remember to check your disks for more missing programs. (Most notable in the mags category are SCN News, Scanners and Infó.)
Happy Easter...tro!
Posted by Luca on 2007-04-05
Happy Easter to all of us!
Aaaawww, don't bother! I know it's too soon to say that. But there's a good occasion to bringing forward our wishes. CSIO (code) and Chronos (gfx) of Absence come back to give us a present: Surpriseastro!
The little sweet bunny wishes a fantastic Easter for all of us, signed Absence. Download it and vote for that cute jumpe-y pet!
Club Info 98 and Other Mags
Posted by Csabo on 2007-04-03
Erich/Ultd just sent us the new issue of Club Info: Club Info 98 is here! Check it out for 2 disk sides packed full of German articles, plus recent and new releases. Our frequent calls for missing software also got answered. It's a coincidence, but we also received a few more programs, all of them happen to be mags. Ati got us a good, working copy of Lunacy 6, and Unreal found two more missing issues of Terror News: 10 and 18. (This almost completes the series: now only 17 is missing.) Thanks for the stuff guys, enjoy!
[limiTED] Online Demo Compo Starts Now!
Posted by Luca on 2007-03-29
It takes off, and now you have no excuses left! Yes, this is the right time, and the right place too: show to all of us who really "is right in the tight"!
[limiTED] compo is the very first Commodore Plus/4 online demo challenge ever, featuring three differently memory sized battlefields: 64 bytes, 128 bytes and 1024 bytes demo categories. This is the kind of gauntlet that hardcore coders can't refuse to raise up. We don't care if you're a beast of Plus/4 mythology, a bold newcomer from other scenes or a tiny BASIC addicted: read the rules, code at your best, upload here your precious little gem, vote, eventually win. In a word: have fun!
Lone News 19
Posted by Luca on 2007-03-24
Ok, I know, I know that: I'm late! I'm terribly late, to be precise I'm out of three months since I announced Lone News 19. But you see, now it's out! And it contains a cool interview with TBH (aka nukem!), a party report from "Arok 8", and (to call back your forgiveness to me) a fresh party report from "15 Years Oxyron Party", written by the democompo winner Degauss/TEK. Hey you! Discover your new +4 passion and begin to code again, we'd just begun to dominate the 8bit scene, you see! And how we did it? Read Lone News 19 right now and you'll know all! Service alert: the 2nd magazine's tune is dedicated to Crown.
Forever Update
Posted by Csabo on 2007-03-22
Litwr sent us word that he updated his Forever Plus/4 Emulator. We missed an official announcement for the previous update, so here's what's (relatively new) in the latest version:
improved datasette emulation, added direct TAP format support
fixed some disk drive and IEC emulation errors (thanks to SVS of Fire)
command line parameter support, e.g. autoload PRG files (requested by Ninja / The Dreams)
provided proper emulation of the bit 1 of the TED $1e register, and other minor bugfixes.
The author also mentioned that while Forever is only second to YAPE in terms of TED accuracy emulation, it has the best debugger. Thanks for Litwr for his continued work on this cool emulator!
Risen From The Wwwoblivion
Posted by Luca on 2007-03-17
The story so far. Some days ago, Luca/FIRE had found two hidden gems in a blog maintained by a german guy: a simple shmup and a Minter's milestone, both converted on Plus/4 from the original C64 source code. Few features should be fixed yet, hence he retouched the Hecht's conversions, fixed them, coded a nice intro, finally released. The whole bunches of source codes, original conversions and fixed ones, are now available here and here.
Gaia spotted another unreleased Plus/4 converted game: De Luxe Caves. It's a (badly made) porting of Boulderdash with edited levels by Marek Roth (a well known Boulderdash addicted since years), opening with a cool intro, and featuring SIDcard support.
Somewhere, the sands of Internet hide under precious items right now...
Exacting Demo Found!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-03-16
After battling with GUI4CBM4WIN and cables, TPSH managed to copy his megademo called: Exacting Demo. The odd title was chosen for a very reason: this demo is the follow up to Unassuming Demo, whose title is transliterated from "Igénytelen Demo" (roughly meaning "Demo of low quality"). So the Hungarian title is the opposite: "Igényes Demo" (roughly meaning "Demo of high quality"). It's a nice production featuring several pieces of digitalized punk music. The demo is one of the rare ones that occupy two full disk sides - full meaning 40 tracks in this case, versus the normal 35 tracks used on 5 1/4 disks. We're very happy to have this long-lost demo in our archives at last. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it. And remember to search your old disks, and keep looking for hidden treasures like these!
Changes since the last alpha snapshot include the addition of 1541 emulation, a Windows installer, even more accurate TED emulation, and the keyboard layout has been made more consistent with other emulators. The code is available under the GPL license, which means that anyone can use any part of it, but only as long as the project is also open source and has a GPL license and the copyright notices are preserved. If anyone is interested, they can join the development or subscribe to the new mailing lists at http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=128766.
New Member Photos
Posted by Csabo on 2007-03-14
Just a quick note to let you guys know that we recently added a few more photos of the following scene members: CSM, Jakec, Niks, Ratt, The Elder and TPSH. Check out the Faces of the Scene page, which now has a 113 photos!
YAPE 0.72 out!
Posted by Ulysses777 on 2007-03-13
Barely a month after the last release, Gaia'sYAPE emulator has been updated again. Changes this time:
another new emulation level (VHA, very high accuracy)
started implementing exact video shift register emulation in VHA mode
We close this month with another set of newly added cover scans. Haegar sent us the disk cover for Mercenary Kompendium-Ausgabe, which is the German release of the two Mercenary games bundled together. The manual is also included (it's in German, obviously). Plus we have two more scans from Rüdiger: Sun Star apparently has a German cover as well. He also managed to get his hands on a rare copy of Superbase +4, and sent us the missing box back cover. And that's pretty much it for February 2007. Thanks for the scans, guys!
A genuine Commodore tape recovered!
Posted by Gaia on 2007-02-25
We have just added a real curio to our vast collection. It is a genuine Commodore release from 1984, albeit not of the much better known UK or US divisions but that of Commodore Nederland, the Dutch daughter company of Commodore. It's a whole tape with 7 BASIC programs accompanied by cover scans.
Most C16 and Plus/4 machines came prepackaged with those well-known 'Introduction to BASIC' tapes and this very tape accompanied the (very few) C16's sold across The Netherlands. It is however not a translation of the UK or the US version, but a genuine program developed by Softworld BV, a Dutch company and it will teach you BASIC in - well, Dutch - layman's terms.
While probably not many of you do speak Dutch, it is still interesting to get hold of a genuine Commodore product after so many years. Fun thing is that even the Dutch spelling has changed since then so instead of "introduktie" one should write "introductie" nowadays. Anyway, it is amazing that we are still able to recover such gems.
Veni Vidi Vici! "Veni" here at Flensburg to attend to the 15 Years Oxyron Party. "Vidi" my wonderful Zenith Of Puberty onefiler demo running on the big screen. "Vici" against all the other prods running the demo compo! Since tonight, there are several new items in the Ingo's loft: a "Freax" art album, a Competition Pro joystick and a Catweasel MKIV. And watch the result: he deserves all those prices and more!
After Arok, another C64 party has been forced to appreciate a great Plus/4 production. Which will be the next one to fall under the power of the Blackbox?
Cover Scans From Crown
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-21
Crown submitted another batch for our cover collection. We now have full size scans for two space-themed Commodore 16 games from Atlantis Software Ltd: Myriad and Space Escort. Bongo received some attention lately (have you heard the music from the alternative version yet?), and here comes some more: check out the full size scans for the Anco release. Crown also submitted the missing back cover scans for the other releases - and there's a few: the Anco release from the UK, the original Kingsoft cassette release, the "Bongo Construction Set" release and the disk cover. This game definitely deserves a lot of attention, it's a true masterpiece from Udo Gertz. He squeezed nice graphics with large characters, fast-paced but most importantly fun game play into the 16K. Oh yeah, and a complete editor too. Anyone able to put out a game of this quality should be proud. Thanks to Crown for these scans!
Disk Cover and Tynesoft Promo
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-20
We've recently added the original disk image for the Kingsoft compilation Plus-Paket II. This reminded Haegar that he had a disk version laying around somewhere... So he dug it up, scanned it, and now it's forever part of our cover collection. Another very interesting item that showed up in our mailbox is from Sidius. It's a rare two page poster from Tynesoft Computer Software. Check it out, the ad listings are a delight, and there are a few curiosities, for example, have you heard of "Commonwealth Games"? Read through to find out more. Thanks for these scans guys!
More Covers and Solutions!
Posted by Ulysses777 on 2007-02-19
Today we have a new batch of stuff, courtesy of EinPlus4User. Fisrt up is a solution for the German version of Ghost Town. Not just any solution though, but in fact the original Kingsoft solution, which was supplied on request by Kingsoft. There are a few oddities with this solution: the game is named 'The Lost Town' and some of the room diagrams are somewhat inaccurate, nevertheless this is a welcome addition to the site.
In addition, we some German language material for the Mercenary series. First is Mercenary - Flucht aus Targ, which now has the long-awaited cassette cover and instructions. And last is Mercenary Kompendium-Ausgabe, which now has the (very wide) instruction card included with the cassette package. Thanks again to EinPlus4User for these scans!
Soft, Playsoft and Number Builder
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-15
Gaze upon these fresh cover scans that have just been added to our magnificent collection! Sidius sent us two rare Italian ones: the first one is Raffles. Besides the original Tynesoft release and the Soft re-release, this game was apparently also re-released by Playsoft. (The artwork is curious, it doesn't seem to have much to do with the actual game.) The other one is Zodiac, a re-release of Zodiac. For those who don't remember, this one is a typical maze game, with a huge play area to explore (creating maps, anyone?).
Last but not least we have nice full size cover scans of Number Builder - the single release, courtesy of Crown. Number Builder is an nicely done education math game. It's one of the few official releases that actually require 64K, so it won't run on a base Commodore 16. This completes the series for the 10 tapes that were distributed with the Commodore Plus/4 Plus Pack: see all the thumbnails here. Big thanks for these scans!
3 Italian Cover Scans!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-14
Crown keeps us busy with another supply of cover scans of Italian Commodore 16 games. We have two more from Visiogame. Rambo (or Rambo16 on the title screen) is another original game from them, written by Paolo Aimetti. (We already know this game as Vietnam). Olimpya is a hack of Daley Thompson's. Unfortunately Crown's copy of this tape was such bad quality that he hasn't been able to make TAP images for it. The same thing is the case for our last cover scan: Stop Mat / Golf Mania, a compilation tape from Mantra. The second game is a hack of Crazy Golf, the first one we do not know at this point (could not be loaded). If anyone has these, and can make TAP images for them, please send them in. In the meantime enjoy the new cover artworks!
Maps and TAPs!
Posted by Ulysses777 on 2007-02-12
Quite a lot of new stuff today, starting with a new map, this time for Megabolts! We also finally have the back cover scan for this game with the instructions on it. Next up is a bunch of TAP files, courtesy of Rüdiger. First up is an alternative TAP file for Bongo, with a Kingsoft loading screen. Next is a TAP for Kingsoft Sport Show. There are also TAP files for several previously missing utilities from Robtek, namely King Size Daten Bank, King Size Turbo Calc and King Size Turbo Text! And if all that wasn't enough, we also have two new Kingsoft G64 disk images, again from Rüdiger. These are for Emerald Mine and the compilation Plus-Paket II. Enjoy!
YAPE 0.71 is Out!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-10
YAPE, the popular Commodore Plus/4 emulator just got its first update of the year. Here's the list of changes:
Advanced settings dialog window
Forced UpdateOverlay call introduced in 0.70 is now optional
Optionally allow only one instance of the emulator to run
Two older tweaks (load vector patch and 1541 loader hack) are incorporated
At long last: command line options
'/DISK#:image' for attaching an image to drive {8,9,10,11} at startup
'/TAPE:image' for attaching a TAP/WAV image on startup
'/TYPE:text' for typing 'text' on startup
'/NOSTART' will suppress autostart
And a couple of TED bug fixes.
Grab if from the usual place. Cheers to Gaia for his continued work!
Well, it wouldn't have been very honest to title this news item "New games!", even though that's an eye catching title. We do have some new games though, sort of. Crown sent us today's update, which consists of three Visiogame cover scans and TAP + program files. At the mention of this company most scene members would immediately think "unauthorized re-releases". Sure enough, they did put out a lot of commercial games under change titles, but it looks like they did in face release some original Commodore 16 games as well. First up is Mr Big, which happens to be a re-release of Tutti Frutti (to make things worse, they messed up the well known catchy game tune). Puppy's and Small Jones on the other hand appear to be originals, programmed by one Paolo Aimetti. Puppy's may look familiar: this has actually been ripped off by another Italian software house, Edizioni Fermont, and released on Go Games 15 under the name Britt. Oh the irony! :-) Big thanks to Crown for these rare scans and quality TAP images.
New Cover Scans - Hungarian Releases
Posted by Csabo on 2007-02-06
We have some new cover scans for you courtesy of Bear(tm) (who sent us such rare ones in the past as Időlabirintus, etc). Let's run down the list: Betűrömi is a game, Gépi Kód Oktató is an assembly language tutor, and finally Ez a Plus/4 is a compilation package. We're still on the lookout for the TAP images for these, and we're hoping to get more info on the compilation (as far as contents). Meanwhile collectors can be happy for the new scans. Big thanks for these, enjoy!
New Exomizer beta is out!
Posted by Gaia on 2007-02-03
We are a tad (TED? :-) ) bit late with this but Magnus Lind has recently released a new version of Exomizer. Exomizer is an excellent cross cruncher that targets 6502 based 8-bit computers, in particular the 8-bit home computers from Commodore including the 264 family of course, otherwise we wouldn't post this piece of news, would we? Changes since the 2.0 beta 5 release:
* Bugfix: sfx -t 128 placed decrunch table at $0334, not at $0b00 where it is supposed to be. * Bugfix: sfx -t 128 was unable to bank RAM/ROM properly. * Bugfix: Now works when compiled in a setting where unspecified char types are unsigned. * Added experimental Oric 1 target to the sfx command. (not properly tested, comments are welcome)
We start off this month with a brand new release from Erich/Unlimited: the fresh new issue of the German diskmag Club Info is here. Let's see what goodness was squeezed into the 664*2 blocks: Side A is full of articles, including several adventure game solutions. Side B contains games, utilities and demos, some older and some new releases. These include Car Duel (a small game), Kalender (a collection of date utilities) and Sudoku V2, which is the updated version of the previously released Sudoku program. It guarantees to solve all valid Sudokus!
Find Another Way Again is the big surprise: it's a brand new maze/platformer game by Data-Land/Unlimited. Your task is to guide Hirnbert, the hero from the top entrance to the bottom exit through walls and ladders. Of course, there are enemy guards (last name Iller, first initial K) abound. The game description promises that the baddies are controlled by an AI, e.g. they only follow you as long as you are in plain sight, making it possible to seek cover and hide.
Check out all this new stuff! Cheers to the developers for writing these programs and to Erich for Club Info itself!
8 Shades Of Black Cover Artwork!
Posted by Csabo on 2007-01-30
Our collection of cover scans usually contains covers for commercial works. However, we have a few "home-made" disk covers as well, as these were (are?) an important part of scene-life. On that note, check out the scan Chronos has just sent in for 8 Shades Of Black. It features his artwork (see Manga Wall in the demo), and autographs of all Plus/4 scener attendees at the party. Thanks for this scan!
Year 2007 begins for Tron Lamer Team
Posted by Luca on 2007-01-29
No 2007 without brand new TLT stuff! Hifi really knows the genre of new year's greetings I like, something that can run on a Plus/4, of course. So, here come 4 new digis, celebrating the 70's rock band T-rex: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Oh, and what do you think about a big bouncing scrolltext with greetings to all the sceners? Bue'K 2007!
Four Italian Cover Scans
Posted by Csabo on 2007-01-25
More scans are coming your way: all of them are for Commodore 16 games that were re-released with different cover artwork in Italy. First up is Airwolf (Playsoft release) and Olympiad (Soft release), courtesy of SVS. (No, really? Yes, really!) C16 Chris sent in the other two: Byte Games 27, which is a compilation tape with 7 C16 games on the B side, and Super Burger, another hack of Pizza Pete. Check 'em out and enjoy!
More Cover Scans
Posted by Ulysses777 on 2007-01-24
Today brings some more new cover scans and downloads. First we have the Italian compilations Byte Games 10 and Go Games 21, both of which contain a number of 'altered' commercial games. Both compilations and their individual games are up for download now. Other new uploads today include an alternative box scan for the recently added The Action Pack. This box is named 'C-Strike Pack', yet has the same games, same product code and barcode number. Next up is Indoor Sports, which now has a TAP file up for download. Finally, there's some new material for Superfile 16. Firstly, there's a new cover scan, with the name 'Superfile 16 Plus4', plus a new TAP file of the tape in this package, and scans of the accompanying instruction leaflet. Enjoy!
New Cover Scans
Posted by Csabo on 2007-01-23
We uploaded a some new cover scans for your viewing pleasure! One of the greatest flight simulators on our machine, ACE +4, now has a full size front cover scan, thanks to Ein_Plus4_User. He also sent us the scans for the instruction leaflet that comes with BASIC-Kurs, the tape that came bundled with the German Plus/4's. The third new addition today is Junior Maths Part 2 - it's a rare one from Tynesoft Computer Software. The cover scan is courtesy of C16 Chris - all we need now is the program files for this release. Enjoy!
The Action Pack
Posted by Csabo on 2007-01-21
Check out this newly added commercial release, called The Action Pack. It's a special gift pack from Paxman Promotions, containing 6 Commodore 16 games on one tape. The cover scan is courtesy of Rüdiger. Also keep an eye on a lot of new cover scans from Luca's collection, appearing in the NewStuff section. Enjoy!
Plus4 Ultimate-Map updated
Posted by SVS on 2007-01-17
Plus/4 utility guru SVS is proud to announce the release of the Ultimate Plus4 Map V1.4. Main news of this release: * Added info from Jim's zero-page list; * Completed adding of MikeD's ROM list; * New folder with a multi-function table (ASCII / PETASCII / ScreenCodes / PrinterCodes / Dec-Hex converts) * All new addresses of V364 speech memory /routines. * Many other improvements and fixes.
Paint System V1.2 and 200 Publications
Posted by Csabo on 2007-01-16
With the recent addition of the German magazine issue Commodore Welt 3/88 (Commodore World), we have reached 200 publications in our database. This issue contains the listing of Tcm+4's Paint System V1.2 - and we have the 7 scanned pages! The author, who is our newest member, just sent us a bug-fixed version of this drawing utility, so be sure to download the latest one from our servers.
This issue is only the first one but hopefully not the last. A quick search reveals that we already list many type-in programs from this magazine, we're just waiting for a kind soul who has actual information on in to come and share it with the rest of the Plus/4 World. Enjoy!
Just a few additions to the database today: we've added photo's of 
![[limiTED] demo compo](/feat/limiTED/images/limited_title_thumb.gif "[limiTED] demo compo")
This release also fixed some minor TED graphics bugs.
