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Merry Christmas 2017

from K&A plus editorial crew!

I
like to visualize the final triumph of Commodore Business Machines. I like to
imagine that a significant part of our contemporary computer hardware has
the blue-red C-shaped logo, that the net worth of CBM Corporation exceeds
a trillion dollars, and Photoshop, Counter Strike, and AutoCAD work quickly on
64-bit operational systems of AmigaOS family. I like to wonder if CBM could gain
Intro: Rescue that never came

the market position of Apple Inc. nowadays. And I think that indeed there was
a chance for such scenario, but was wasted due to lack of a good leader. Since
CBM went bankrupt, the poor management has often been mentioned as the
main reason of failure, but I think the real problem was the lack of a single, pas-
sionate person, who would strongly and against all the odds stuck to the strict
rules and values. A kind of Steve Jobs, who had a vision and felt responsible for its
appliance.

Could our today’s guest, David Pleasance, a long-term CBM worker, be such
person? Maybe, as strong will and self-esteem has emanated from him nowa-
days, although David was not a founder of CBM, and his role was quite different.
He was responsible for selling, not for the vision. Nonetheless, the division he was
in charge of gained success, so it’s logical to wonder if he could not have suc-
ceeded in a larger scale. Only in recent years did David start talking about his
work at CBM. He started appearing in meetings, talking to fans, and decided to
write a book. Now, he also appears in K&A plus and I think that all passionate
fans of Commodore will find something interesting in his interview.

The interview joins the present, past, and future times. In October of this year, 40
years had passed since the PET computer first appeared on the market, which
was the main reason for David Pleasance joining the CBM. For the company, it
was a huge leap from the path of calculators towards the real computers and
a significant moment defining what was supposed to happen in the next dec-
ade. Personal Electronic Transistors delivered many solutions to VIC20 and C64
computers, so its anniversary should not be forgotten. Moreover, this is not a usual
anniversary, since forty is an important moment in every man’s life. So we decid-
ed to give more room to the PET than usual. Enjoy the read!

Tomxx and the team

The cover of this issue is made by Paulina – an extremely talented artist who agreed to
draw a retro-swapper girl for us. Her technique consists of hand-drawing contour using ink, then scanning
and coloring it on the computer. The final effect exceeded our expectations!
Komoda & Amiga plus #9 3

CONTENTS autumn/winter 2017

COMMODORE

Plus/4 ■VIC20

SPIS TREŚCI
C16 ■C64 ■C128
Rescuing Orc 14 Bertie the Ball 34
Turrican USA Version (NTSC) 16 Best picture quality from C64 44
Galencia 18 Sid Adventures: Gaetano Chiummo 46
C=Rex Offline & Dark Lode Runner 52
Destroyer 2117 19 Genius 53
Who dares wins I and II 20 H.P. Lovecraft in Text Mode 54
Space Chase 22 Power Sisters 58
Legend of the Last Catacombs 23 RPG Quest – Minimae 64
Reviews of the SIBUGA games 24 SID hero 65
Roman Werner – interview 26 C64 Power Game Mod Compo 2 72

AMIGA
There was once a swapper... 10

M68k ■AOS 4.x ■Aros ■MOS
Arctic Moves 51
Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio 36 The last memories of LucasArts 59
Gobliiins 42 Folio 67
Lumberjack 50 Space Hulk 70

VARIA

news ■editorials ■reports

interviews ■emulation ■drawings
Intro 2 Godzilla and friends 55
Fresh News 4 Aye aye Shoonay. Bye bye Shoonay 61
Gallery: Re-Imagined 10th Muse and 4th generation 62
loading screens 8 On another subject: Castlevania 68
Gallery: Magical memories 9 Hi, I'm Edd! 74
David Pleasance – interview 28 Atom Ant & Steel Eagle 76
Theatre Europe 32 Talking Heads: not just games 78
Resurrection: Sid Meier's Pirates! 42 Johnny presents: Tytus 2017 82

COVERDISK
The accompanying archive file K&A_plus_09_cover_disk contains a large dose of
entertainment: there are three games you can read about in the Sibuga article:
Fire to Jump, Flappy Bird and the premiere edition of FireFighter64 Enhanced with
several unpublished improvements. The archive file also includes the source code
of the latter game.

Komoda & Amiga plus WWW: http://ka-plus.pl E-mail: team@ka-plus.pl


Commodore computers’ user’s magazine Facebook: KomodaAmigaPlus Twitter: @KAplusmagazine

Editor-in-chief: Tomasz ’Tomxx’ Ankudowicz Design and DTP: Tomxx, MrMat


Cover design: Paulina, Ruben Messeguer
Managing editor: Sebastian ’Minimoog’ Baranowski Polish linguistic proofreading: Minimoog, Tomxx, MrMat, Hery, Natalia Płatosz
Translations: Ari, Mateusz Skotarski, Michał Sroka, Mariusz Aniszewski, Grze-
Social media editor: Arkadiusz ’Komek’ Kosiarski gorz Sojka, Tomxx, MrMat, Tomasz Kubisztal, Michał ’Slayerpl’ Rzepka,
Grzegorz ’Thorwyn’ Borowski
Editors: Łukasz ’Bob8bit’ Bobrecki, Grzegorz ’MrMat’, Rafał ’Don Rafito’ Editing and rewrite of English version: Phil Reichert, Darwin Meredith
Pączko, Piotr ’c00k’ Machnowski, George ’GeoAnas’ Anastasiadis, Dominik Contributors: uka, Jan ’Johnny’ Lorek, Leopold Tupalski, Łukasz ’Hery’
’Petrichor’ Warkiewicz, Ariel ’Ari’ Zimny, Marcin ’phowiec’ Królikowski, Herman, Tomasz Kubisztal, Łukasz Jeglorz, Radosław Idol, Marek 'Marx' Hać,
Krzysztof 'Xysiek' Parzych, Mariusz ’Ramos’ Rozwadowski Krzysztof Odachowski, Marcin 'Sagrael' Sykutera, Ziemax
4 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Jonathan was born and raised in Bletchley, UK; but for the last 23 years he lived in Manchester working for various games com-
panies around the North West of England. He currently works on 3D modelling and texturing for VR platforms. He’s always been
a Commodore fan, starting with the VIC-20 in the early 80s, through the C64 and ending up on the Amiga in the 90s. He started
designing in pixels as soon as he got the VIC, and was offered art jobs at Ocean and Rare whilst still at school – but decided to
study Graphic Design at college instead. This is what he says about his pixelling passion on C64:
“There’s something I enjoy about the strict limitations of the palette and attributes. Shuffling the pixels around is almost like solving
a puzzle. When you produce something good, it feels like a real achievement! Recently I had the urge to get back into pixel art
again, and whilst browsing the Lemon64 archives, I found loads of games which I felt were almost great but needed a facelift in
the graphics department. As I’m not a coder – so there would be zero chance of seeing my new graphics in-game – I thought
Title Screens would be a logical thing to attempt. Many of the old Title Screens were either terrible, or non-existent, or the games
were very unique and deserved something more. And so the series of ‘Re-Imagined loading screens’ was created...”
Featured artist: Jonathan Eggelton. “Re-Imagined loading screens”

▼River
▼ Raid ▲Fist
▲ II: The Legend Continues ▼Decathlon
▼ ▲Yie
▲ Ar Kung-Fu

▼Transformers
▼ ▲Phantom
▲ of the Asteroids ▼Sabre
▼ Wulf ▲Red
▲ Heat
GALLERY

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 5

Magical memories –
retro equipment and K&A plus editors
Ah, this time – running at an inexorable pace! Do you remember this wild ecsta-
sy when you first found yourself surrounded by 8- or 16-bit computers, first PCs or
arcade machines? Oh, sure yes! Such wonderful moments just cannot be forgot-
ten. That's why we have prepared for you a special gallery of old photographs,
thanks to which you will be able to move to those years.

Our editors have searched private albums for their retro-looking photography.
Some of them have managed to find single pearls from many years ago. We are
glad that we can share this blissful nostalgia with you.

PS: Maybe you would like to see your photo with your beloved Amiga, Commo-
dore or other retro computer in the next issue...?

▲Komek
▲ with C64, 1996

▲Neurocide
▲ with dad and brother, 1992

▲Bob8bit
▲ – joystick breaker, 1988
▲Ari
▲ – German computer store with fancy laptops, 1995

▼Leon
▼ with Amiga 600, 1997

▲Petrichor
▲ swapping Amiga
floppies, 1994

▲Don
▲ Rafito with Amiga 1200, 2004
GALLERY

autumn / winter 2017


6 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

multiplayer games? Dr. Wuro,

Fresh
a 4-player game cartridge is your
answer! Recently it has been pos-
sible to sign up for the Shotgun
and Frogs cartridge waiting list,
where you can play up to four
players. Importantly, the cartridge
has a built-in expansion for two

News
additional joysticks. The idea pre-
viously developed by Protovision
has come to an interesting adap-
tation. Cartridge is not cheap (35
euro plus shipping cost). There are
two games and two additional
ports. There is also a place for
a few collectibles gadgets in the
box. You can download games
for free from drwuro.com. Shot-
gun has already been tested and
C64 I confirm that it is suitable for the
Fist party. Frogs are waiting for their
Mayday!, 2017 There are cool games and simple turn, hopefully soon!
games, sometimes they are both, ■ Bob8bit
cool and simple. Beholder is one
of them, arcade labyrinth in which C64
we have to walk brave Sir Percy Vortex Crystals 2017 –
from top to bottom, collecting Final Edition
all the visible gold on the screen The New Dimension, 2017
and avoiding the beholder's eye.
Wrong step – we die. The game is
Released at the Bunker Party 2017 presented in character mode, de-
Funky International Singalong Tour- fined for the specific needs of the
nament is a karaoke collection game. What's so special about
consisting of 17 songs. There will this one? Gameplay. Besides that
be hits like A-ha, Depeche Mode, we also hear a great soundtrack
Ozone, Toto, Iron Maiden and in a castle-medieval style. There
many more. The well-arranged SIDs is also a version called Beholder
of different authors gives us not II, but the only difference is prob-
only the possibility of vocal per- ably the level editor. This version Hey, mister editor, are you crazy
formances at the party with bud- has a slight flaw in playing music, or something, after all this game
dies, but also constitutes a good but still plays great. was already reviewed! Yes, hon-
collection to listen. The graphical ■ Minimoog orable reader, I described it in
representation of the program uses our magazine. But the produc-
the default C64 characters. Positive C64 tion of Richard Bayliss, as an-
impressions. I felt a little like I was 4-player games collection nounced, has been expanded.
dealing with a good 80's stage (Shotgun, Frogs) When the competition for mem-
production. Dr. Wuro Industries, 2017 ory restrictions was removed, the
■ Minimoog Vortex Crystals added a new
startup screen, new melodies,
C64 and the biggest attraction in my
Beholder opinion – the animated ending.
MP Software, 2017 All levels remain unchanged, but
the extended finale of the game
is worth the re-run through the
government complex controlled
by strangers.
■ Bob8bit
You want your Commodore to
be in the spotlight at the party,
but are hard to find attractive
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 7

Amiga m68k C64 of Cheese & Onion on VIC-20.


A Change in the Weather – Players do not have access to
GrafX2 2.5WIP Release 6 demos yet, but this link should
Artur "arczi” Jarosik, 2017 Andrew Plotkin, 2017 sharpen appetites: https://youtu.
be/gEzOomjmzU4. It's going to be
a very good game. The graphics
are exquisite and easy to read.
I really like the concept of rooms
– the game is not played on one
screen, only in small "rooms", and
there are tunnels between them.
The film shows that there are three
Thanks to Arczi, GrafX2 graphic ed- levels of difficulty or modes of
itor, based on the principle of ac- play available. I like the rich and
tion of Deluxe Paint, in addition to A Change in the Weather is an in- interesting soundtrack. As soon as
NG Amiga systems has joined the teractive fiction genre created in the game comes out, I'll definitely
classic Amiga. In spite of its classic 1995 by Andrew Plotkin, an Ameri- play it – a few times!
character, the program requires can writer and programmer – a well ■ Minimoog
a more powerful and advanced known personality in this genre. This
system (graphics card). Soon we game was written using the games C128
will look at this program not only in creation system called Inform and it Empire 128 – Enhanced
the m68k version. was revised for the sixth time. That's C. Blakemore / R. Derocher, 2017
■ Don Rafito a good reason to look at it. The
game is only available in English, but
Plus/4 at the first glance you can recog-
Soccer Boss Plus/4 V1.2 nize the very good author's pen.
Harry Whitehouse / Róbert K., 2017 The purpose of the game is quite
unusual: not to let the storm destroy
the bridge, which we have crossed
at the very beginning of the plot.
Actually, we can finish the game
after one of the first commands, This is a refreshing version of
deciding not to cross the bridge at Cleveland's Blakemore game,
all and return to partying friends. which was featured in the Ameri-
Crossing the bridge is the beginning can magazine "Ahoy" in October
of an adventure in which each, 1987. After 30 years, Richard J.
Soccer Boss Plus/4 V1.2 is a revised even the smallest decision, will have Derocher decided to improve this
version of the 1990 title with the an impact on the future of the story. commercial adventure written
same title, which comes straight But we will only know about her in- specifically for C128 and he add-
from The Boss, a football manager fluence after some time. The game ed 80 columns support, nicer font
released on C64 by Peaksoft in is quite difficult, but its completion and new graphics. The game itself
1984. Players will appreciate that gives a lot of satisfaction. is quite elaborate and playable:
the game does not freeze and the ■ tomxx we play as a wandering trader
game can be tracked from the whose goal is to buy the land
playing field. It is a simple text game VIC-20 belonging to eight neighboring
written in BASIC intended only for Cheese & Onion kingdoms. We have a year, and
connoisseurs of the genre. The most Misfit, 2017 seasons are our allies, which dif-
important description of it is already ferentiate the need for particular
at the very beginning: "Settle back goods, our flair and the ability to
and make yourself uncomfortable". negotiate prices. Despite the sim-
Nothing more nothing less. You can ple graphics and lack of extensive
also play it online: http://plus4world. sound effects the game makes
powweb.com/play/soccer_boss_ a nice impression. It is interesting
plus4_v1_2. to note that if somebody would
■ tomxx like to play in 40-column mode,
Never regret the space and the refreshed version also includes
time for a good platformer! The the original program.
Future Was 8-bit and Tynemouth ■ tomxx
Software made it possible to pre-
order a 32KB cartridge version
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


8 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

C64 fields, you must reach the goal of Charlie, the chef, and try, as
Kobo64 the game before your opponent I can, that the right ingredients go
Singular, 2017 does. Addictive fun, because who into the big bowl. I have to be on
does not like to win? Graphics make my guard, because I don’t want
a good impression – it is economi- to put some screws, empty cans
cal, so it looks aesthetically pleasing. and other garbage at any price.
However, it wipes the game's liquid- With such additives, the cake will
ity. If the game had sound effects get stuck in our throat. The origi-
that were at least modest, the nal version of this fun arcade was
gameplay might be better. Never- created on the ZX Spectrum in
theless, I encourage you to play. 1983. Currently, C64 owners can
Kobo64 is a simple C64 conversion ■ Minimoog play it, all thanks to the new con-
game in which we fly in space, version created by Andy Noble.
destroying enemy installations. It's not an easy game, but it does
We have the freedom to choose C64 guarantee fun. Okay, I'm going
the direction in which we want to Squid Jump (Preview) back to mixing the ingredients for
move. Installations do not want to Oziphantom, 2017 the cake!
be destroyed and try to defend ■ Komek
themselves. They are sending tons
of bullets in our direction. These
points are at the same time weak C64
points of the bases – to destroy Lunar Lander
a segment of them, we have to Defiance Studios, 2017
hit them. Fortunately, our ship is
equipped with shields, thanks to
which we can take a few hits, but
even the cover can not withstand I am looking forward to the full
the impact of the station. As for release of this game since 2015.
space, there are many things that In the meantime, we received an
we also have to watch out for. It update, but when it was written,
is not easy. it's still just a preview. If you like to See how life is full of surprises.
■ c00k jump on the Heavenbound style I just baked a cake, and now I'm
platforms, I would recommend that sitting in the lander and I'm try-
you take a look at this playable ing to land in a properly marked
VIC-20 preview. The biggest impression place on the moon. I suddenly
Flip Flop 4 for me was the animation of the came to a conclusion that this
Vicist, 2017 hero, a sympathetic creature in task was only for brave and self
the shape of an arrow. In addition, discipline individuals. The gravita-
smooth scrolling makes this game tional force and the fast-burning
even more attractive. Watch out fuel are not helping. I like the
for the full version. "Defender" style of graphics. The
■ Komek gameplay is good enough that
you will definitely spend some
time in front of the monitor.
Amiga 68k ■ Komek
You do not like shooters and action Cookie
games, but you do not want to give Ultimate Play the Game, 2017
up playing the two? Flip Flop 4 is for Amiga
you! Vicist has offered us a VIC-20 Reshoot R
with 8KB extension, a two-player Richard Lowenstein, 2017
logic-strategy game, whose basic
concept can be found in circles
and crosses. Moving on 5x5 board,
you have to stack 5 of your pawns
in one line – vertically, horizontally
or diagonally. The task is not as easy All right, I confess without a beat-
as it seems. The board is dotted with ing: ever since I was alive, I did
invisible fields that change the color not bake a single cake. Maybe
of the pawn to the opposite. By this is my last chance. So let’s get It’s a successor was reviewed in
properly avoiding and using these to work. I take on the role of K&A plus #6 Reshoot. A typical
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 9

SHMUP – you fly to the right and fending off enemy knights. What's leave no illusions about what the
destroy everything. Nothing fancy, so special about this? Well, to fire Wild West really looked like. As
even on the Amiga. AGA chip is an arrow, it must first be loaded a result, we get this game. Quiet
required, but a regular A1200 will (fire button) and then fired (joy- entrance: We stand against a simi-
be enough to play it. This makes stick down). Too often avoiding lar cowboy and we must first fire in
the game look harsher than its enemies ends in death. The panel his direction. Simple? It would be if
predecessor, but it does not tend with the point meter on the right a custom shot did not answer every
to release frames. Maybe the final side of the screen looks nice. The other keyboard button. In time, we
version will be prettier. If you are sound is a bit stiff, and you need need to push the keys faster and
a fan of such games – play, if not to get used to the controls. The faster. The game can get boring,
– this game will not be for you. Fallen is an interesting alternative but for me – perfect for a party, be-
■ phowiec to the usual SEUCK shoot-ups, but cause it has a scoring system and
it does not entertain for long. the gameplay is fast. A huge plus
■ Minimoog for the animations and music of the
AOS 4.x, MOS, Aros last part of the dollar trilogy.
Hermes ■ c00k
Frank Wille, Retroguru, 2017
C64
Planet Golf CD32
Psytronik, 2017 Moonstone for CD32
Carl Therrien, Erik Hogan, 2017

Third place in GameDev Compo


during Revision 2017 – this is the
position taken by the platformer
from Frank Wille and the Retrogu- Golf simulator from Psytron-
ru group. The retro-styled title tells, ik – such a combination must
with a certain amount of black go. Five planets on which holes
humor, about the adventures of are arranged, sampled sounds,
a French amateur cook, who has graphic tastes and humor. And all Great Amiga hit have ben ported
an appetite for grilled chicken because of the fact that in 1969 to CD32! It's still the same won-
meat. Instead of going to the Americans landed on the moon. derful Moonstone (interview with
market, our hero decided on an In the intervals between "one gi- the author of the game was in-
ecological solution: he decided ant leap for mankind" they played cluded in K&A plus #6), but it was
to chase after the chicken ... on golf. 36940 years later, space trips adapted to boot from CD32 using
the farm. on golf courses have become as CD32Load, which runs WHDLoad
■ Don Rafito commonplace as jumps in hyper- images on that system. Changes
space. Stewardesses in tweed suits compared to the standard version
C64 send balls into the holes. Shall we mainly consist in adding controller
The Fallen play with them? support. For this purpose, a spe-
The A Team, 2017 ■ phowiec cial menu has been prepared in
which we can map appropriate
C64 keyboard shortcuts and joystick
Tombstones support. Author also added quite
Megastyle, Reset Magazine Staff, 2017 fancy cover art.
■ tomxx

SEUCK is never enough! The


A Team, which is nobody else
except for Errazking with a little
help from Richard Bayliss, released
the game, which is a very unusual Admittedly, western fashion has
shoot'em up. You play the role of passed away, and new productions
an archer and defend the castle, from this genre (e.g. Brimstone)
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


10 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

There was once a swapper...


AMIGA

REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Editorial: Marcin Sykutera aka Sagrael; Translation: Mateusz Skotarski

Swapper – what, or rather who is it? To answer this question, we'll have to return to the vi-
brant computer scene at the turn of 80s and 90s.

L
et's begin by defining what music albums), slide-shows (art job involved preparing the
the Scene actually is. Simply collections) or 'zines (digital freshest stuff, writing the letter,
speaking, the (demo)scene magazines). preparing postage and send-
is an informal group of active ing it on. It might seem simple
computer users, whose primary Members of the scene formed enough, but there were few
interest is creating demos. In groups, where each individual issues, one of which involved
that context, a demo is simply member had their specialty: the letter.
a piece of software meant to coding, drawing (later 3D),
demonstrate artistic or coding music making or writing arti- LETTER
capabilities and achievements cles for zines. In addition, some
of a group, but unlike games, chose the path of ASCII-mak- Now when I say letter, I really
they’re generally not interac- ers, sysops (BBS administrators), mean the real old-school mail
tive. Demos are merely one of modem traders and swappers. kind of letter; not merely few
many productions to come out words in an email. To be fair, it
of the demo-scene – albeit the Getting to the point then, what didn't even have to be writ-
most eye catching, for sure. did the swappers do? Putting it ten on paper to begin with; at
Overall the scene produced simply, they swapped stuff. times, newspaper, chocolate
games, mods (audio tracks wrappings or... tobacco packs
and themes), graphics (back STUFF were used. Naturally, one
in those days they were limited could write digitally, using one
to hand-drawn art), tools and As I've mentioned before, of the available editors and
utilities, intros, music-discs (i.e. scene groups used to (and save the message on the disk
still do) produce all kinds of itself. There used to be terms
▼Floppies,
▼ that travelled through multiple hands... computer goodness. This was for so called friendly swapping
commonly referred to and fast swapping, at least on
as "stuff” and included the Amiga scene. They're pret-
all kinds of scene work ty self-explanatory, but here it
(demos, intros, music, is: friendly swappers would put
graphics, etc.). It was more effort into the quality of
customary to trade this their messages, usually writing
work between groups longer correspondence, facil-
and that's what Swap- itating relationships as much
pers were in charge as information exchange. Fast
of. They would gather swappers on the other hand
stuff, not just their own, usually wrote simple and brief
and share it with other letters (with few exceptions),
groups, ensuring the favoring faster reply times
free flow of information. and dedicating more time to
This was done through finding the newest and best
snail-mail – after all, the stuff. To this day I still remember
Internet was still a novelty how, during a copy-party Gel-
in those days. loween in 1994 a man called
Norbi/TRSI, known already to
be a great swapper, present-
SNAIL
ed stuff on the big screen that
Snail mail is of course the was released only a few days
old-school, physical, post- earlier at a different copy-party
al service. The swapper's in western Europe. In the era of
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 11

snail mail and lack of internet ten international ones. Indeed, This was obviously risky; al-
access, such speed was un- swappers weren't limited to though the layer of glue was

AMIGA
heard of. Needless to say, Norbi one region and many oper- extremely thin, the shine was
was a fast swapper. ated worldwide, although west- clearly noticeable, especial-
ern Europe hosted the majority ly under the light. This meant
SENDS of swapper traffic. Due to these some swappers were caught –
costs, and the fact that most one had to pay a fine, another
Also known as parcels. I've swappers weren't the wealthi- had his sends confiscated, but
mostly dealt with the Amiga est of people, a phenomenon generally people ignored these
scene, where swapping was known as stamp faking was fringe cases and stamp faking
done on 3.5” DD disks, holding born. didn't slow down.
a whopping 880 KB. Of course,
some sends involved more than STAMP FAKING To be fair, some people over-
one or two disks, sometimes did it. I've heard of a case,
having more than five. These This curious practice didn't where a swapper cut out
was always the risk of physical involve actual stamp forgery. a stamp printout from a mag-
damage, so swappers would Instead it meant re-using the azine, adorned it with charac-
improvise various methods of stamps for multiple sends. teristic stamp ridges and used
protection, such as cardboard, Before posting, the stamp was that on his sends. I wish I knew
creating a rigid damage-resist- covered with a thin layer of how he ended up...
ant package. Other materials glue, or another easily remov-
such as paper chains, were able remedy. This made ink
signed and passed on by con- from postage stamps easy to
secutive swappers. The reflect- wash off, through the careful
ed the vibe of the scene. application of soapy water,
followed by a period of drying
"But how were files larger than and voila! The stamps were
880 KB shared” you might ask... ready as new. Each stamp had
well, in early 90s larger files a potential lifetime of a few
mostly didn't exist, while many sends and saved some pre-
files were written raw without cious cash.
being compatible with any
known file system architecture. As a side note, the most com-
Later on, hard drives became mon glue used for this process
more popular and larger pro- was paper glue branded... "pa-
ductions became more com- per glue” (yup), as it was easy
mon, no longer fitting on the to remove and successfully
Amiga floppy disks. Swappers blocked the ink from reaching
found ways to deal with the the stamp.
problem, by utilizing backup
software such as Quarterback After all this, an immortal call
Tools or Diavolo, or by using ad- would be uttered by the swap-
vanced file systems such as pfs pers... Stamps back!
which enabled more efficient
storage and thus, more data A query at the end of the letter
could be saved on the 880 KB would prompt the receiver to
disks. cut the stamps out and return
them to the sender, along with
Sends were a costly endeavor; the next package, and vice
after all, postage was never versa. Such was the gentle-
cheap, especially if one had to man's agreement. ▲Paper
▲ sheet filled out with swappers' nicknames.
send several parcels a day, of-
▼Immortal
▼ "Stamps Back".
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


12 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

CONTACTS Of course, some swappers were was placed in dedicated spots


known to combine high reach
AMIGA

within disk magazines and most


A key asset for each swapper! and fidelity. One such swapper commonly utilized by the most
Theoretically the more contacts known on the Amiga scene renowned swappers, or by
one has, the better. Quantity di- as Dave, who kept in touch those just starting their activity.
rectly translated into the speed with hundreds of contacts, yet Adverts were usually self-made
at which the scene spread the always found time to prepare or prepared by an ASCII-maker,
materials. On the other hand, it long mails, which automatically ranging from simple to elabo-
was clear that some swappers classified him as a friendly swap- rate works of ASCII art.
preferred high quality contacts, per. This approach did take its
rather than quantity, which was toll however, as it caused signifi- Some swappers, mostly those
especially true for friend swap- cant delays in swapping. with access to printers (which
ping. were almost never home-
DELAYS owned), would create printed
adverts. These were rarely so-
Probably the most commonly phisticated and were made to
used term in the swapper’s primarily spread the nickname,
vocabulary. Every swapper group name and contact info,
was known to mutter it. It was sometimes specifying “fast
said that those who com- answers” or "answer for all” and
plained about delays the most were added into the send or
belonged to the most elite glued onto the disks.
swappers out there! That’s hard
to confirm, but it’s a fact that As a sort of impromptu advert,
staying in contact with lots of swappers were known to sign
contacts was hard work. The the disks with their nicknames,
aforementioned sends could using colored pens or markers,
easily reaching double digits continuously increasing the
a day for extended periods number of disks with their nick-
of time. The deadlines were name on them.
demanding: writing letters,
packing envelopes, recording VOTES
stuff... imagine, if you will, pre-
▲Example
▲ of an advert from Bigoz diskmag paring disks for 10 sends. Let's Short for vote sheets. Scene
say it takes 5 disks per send, members are a competitive
▼Example
▼ of a voting sheet
which totals up to about 50, bunch and as such, some
but Amigas had only one disk were known to be better than
drives and even the best swap- others. Ranks were established,
pers who used two drives still nicknamed "charts” and scene
struggled to do everything on members were actively being
time, despite the speed offered encouraged to participate
by X-Copy. in voting for the best coders,
graphic designers, sound de-
Of course, it was customary signers... and of course swap-
to write at least few words, pers!
whether on paper or on one of
the disks, which then had to be I'd like to touch upon the
secured and were sometimes charts and related nuances in
accompanied by addition- a separate dedicated article,
al materials. Some swappers so I'll only briefly describe how
experienced extreme delays they worked. Voting would
– shout-out to Qba/Nah-Kolor be done via paper or digital
and his half year long droughts. vote-sheets, spread around by
;) the swappers themselves. One
of the zines active at the time
ADVERTS decided to enrich their content
with charts; design was done
Advert was a term permanently by an ASCII-maker, while swap-
associated with swapping. It pers had to share it with as
was simply an ad, usually digi- many of their contacts, asking
tal, as presented in the picture; them to cast their votes and re-
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 13

turn it back to the sender. The


votes would then be counted

AMIGA
and released. How accurate
and believable were they? It’s
hard to tell.

PACKS

Somewhat different from zines


and charts, but directly related
to swappers. Packs, or rather
mag-packs, were a simpler
version of disk magazines.
Depending on a pack, it could
contain a few articles, lots of
adverts, messages (from and
to swappers), news about
various scene related events
-especially group roster chang-
es- and, curiously, a set of intros
playable directly from the pack
itself. Packs were published
almost exclusively by the best
swappers and were not par-
ticularly popular, as they were times long gone. Ultimately,
mostly relevant to other swap- it's justified – they simply aren't
pers. That aside, some of these needed anymore, regardless of Ultimately, nobody reached
packs looked better than full the platform. a conclusion to those debates.
disk zines. In my opinion it was obvious
I remember the Amiga demo that swappers were not only
That's all I can tell you about scene and I remember swap- needed, but absolutely essen-
swappers. They became pers. Funnily enough, even back tial; they were responsible for
obsolete when the Internet then the swapper’s usefulness the logistics and communica-
went mainstream. Although was questioned and many an tions of every active scene,
the scene, be it Amiga, C64 or argument was thrown around not only for Amiga – but that is
even PC is still active, swap- both by skeptics of swapping, a topic for another story.
pers are a forgotten relic of and swappers themselves :)

▼Swapper
▼ chart listed in the 42nd issue of Eurochart ▼An
▼ article in Polish magazine Excess dedicated to the
diskmag from February 2001 role of Amiga swappers in demoscene

EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


14 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

Review: c00k; Translation: Ari

Most people associate orcs with devil servants, mainly because of Tolkien's work.
Those with experience in RPG games associate orcs with difficult opponents. Ne-
VIEW REVIEW ither of these associations are what you might describe as positive. Our orc may
TUTORIAL
be called green-skin, or maybe just plain Marian? We’ll never know. But what we
know is that Rescuing Orcs shows us that orcs and goblins, while fundamentally of
the same ilk, bare much hatred for each other.

I
t all begins when an orc was sup- missing friend. This intro is brief and ing boards do not just move from
posed to visit his buddy for a mud typical of C64 games. As usual, it left to right but in all directions. Left,
coffee, a piece of liver cake isn’t good enough to search the Right, Up and Down. Many paths
and some idle chit-chat but never ends of the world for your friend, require returning to previously visit-
arrives. Your friendly orc quickly be- everyone takes it upon themselves ed locations to unlock new keys.
comes suspicious. Picking up your to try and stop you. Ultimately, you
trusty sword you go in search of the reach your final opponent, the boss There is a sign of time here – Aes-
battle, where thetics. The colors are brighter
the devel- and the contrast is better than
opers reveal classic games. This game looks like
a surprise. Only a Nintendo production. Unusually,
now do we find we have numerous lives and the
out what really gameplay isn’t that difficult, so the
happened to game meets modern standards.
the orc. Opponents, like the levels, are
quite diverse. Some opponents fly,
The gameplay others walk or crawl. Some live, oth-
is a bit more ers do not. Some bite, others touch
challenging (weaker or harder), and others
than other shoot. Our hero has merely a sword
classic platform at his disposal which, relative to
games. First of the variety of enemies, puts you
all – Dimen- in a challenging position. Hitting
sions. The join- opponents with your sword can get
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 15

COMMODORE
interesting as they go red and get about this production and some
hyperactive in response. Your orc modest introduction to the story.
does not even carry a shield! The title screen on the previous
page is made by well known on
The game is not too long but it is C64 scene Vanja Utne.
enough. I've always said that the
worst element of a bad game
RESCUING ORC
is boredom. Even though this is
a platformer, the levels provide the Publisher: Juan J.
right level of variety. The only thing Martinez
that irritated me, just a little, was Release year: 2017
jumping – we often don’t know if Platform: C64

7 6 8
there is a ledge beyond the abyss.
Overall, this game is genuinely fun
to play.

Rescuing Orc has been designed


and created (programming,
graphics and sounds) by Juan J.
Martínez, who is known as a game
creator on both retro (ZX Spectrum,
Amstrad CPC) and modern plat-
forms. It is his debut on C64, and
the game has been released on
the website (https: //www.usebox.
net/jjm/rescuing-orc) from which
you can download this game for
free. On the above page there are
some basic informations included

Collector's Edition

Rescuing Orc is also available as a Collec-


tor's Edition in two versions: floppy or casset-
te version for €20 or cartridge version for
€33. The purchase of these boxed editions
supports game's developer, but also gives
us some really cool goodies, that on top of
the game itself include:

- MicroSD card including disk image for


C64/PC/Mac, MP3 soundtrack and more
- Cardboard box with slipcase
- 8-page DIN A5 manual (English)
- Stickers
- Poster
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


16 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

USA Version (NTSC)


Review: Komek; Translation: Ari

What brought great pride to the Commodore 64 owners in the second half of the
80s and 90s? Hmm... definitely games. Is there any other 8-bit platform that can
RVIEW REVIEW boast such marvelous scrolling shooters, fast platformers and interesting puzzles?
TUTORIAL
Even my friend Michał, who was the owner of the Atari 65XE back in the days, of-
ten visited me because of the unique atmosphere of the C64 productions. I could
say that Atari owners envy us.

C
ommodore 64's good programs on this platform, made Turrican is a mutated, unconquer-
reputation is probably the C64 most likely to be seen by able warrior, armed with a new
associated with all mass users as a gaming console. Many generation of weapons. It was
production software. And rightly titles could have a huge impact designed to eliminate the abso-
so. Companies such as US Gold, on this. Let me narrow the topic lute monster – Morgula, which
Codemasters, Ocean, Thalamus, to one of them. Turrican – every is a serious threat to humanity.
and Rainbow Arts, all offering retrogamer knows this title well. Commodore and Amiga users
Not surprisingly, know our intrepid hero from the
it's just the ef- following parts of the game: Tur-
fect of Manfred rican, Turrican II: The Final Fight,
Trenz's collabo- and Turrican 3. However, not
ration with Chris everyone knows that a different
Hülsbek. Oh yes! version of this program has been
These gentlemen released, known as Turrican USA
know how to ex- +3D (NTSC), published on csdb.
tract the beauty dk in August 2015 via the Un-
of audiovisual derground Domain Inc. group.
landscapes. But In principle, the word "group" is
the version of only in the name, because there
the game that is one cracker Alwyz, who is very
I will present well known on the C64 scene.
soon can be a bit Generally, the whole trick is that
surprising, so... the existing program has been
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 17

COMMODORE
In conclusion, I would like to
assure you that, despite worse
graphics, nothing is preventing
you from launching a mutat-
ed robot and splashing into an
extraordinary futuristic world. In
general, this is a rather interesting
modification, which can be treat-
ed as a variation of the original
game.

If you are interested in the game,


you can find it here: http://csdb.
dk/release/?id=140234.

modified to fit into NTSC hard- the original. But when we look at TURRICAN
ware with a trainer and some it from a different perspective, Original version
instructions text file added in. we imagine that this is the only Publisher: Rainbow Arts
version of Turrican games, and Release year: 1990
In principle, the design of the then the graphics are more pos- Platform: C64
game remained the same: scen- itive. Why? Because we do not
ery, sprites, bosses, bonuses etc. have a comparison to what was
So where is the difference? First previously a sensational. No wor- TURRICAN
of all the graphics, which may ries, the playability did not suffer NTSC version
surprise you. The modified ver- in this particular way. Believe me Publisher: Underground
sion of NTSC has been simplified that for any shooter devotee this
Domain Inc.
and the tastes are not so good. will not matter much, especially Release year: 2015
At some point the background since the spirit of the original is Platform: C64
coloring is modest and rough. very noticeable here.
Anyway, everything is explained
by the following
comments that
can be found on
the web: "OMG
what a color pal-
ette mess!!!", "This
version looks worse
than the real one,
some of the paral-
lax is missing also",
"Ughh... why did
they do it?! There
was no need to
make changes for
an NTSC version.“
Such reactions are
completely natural
when we get
a product that has
worse quality than
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


18 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

Review: Minimoog; Translation: Ari

Earth, 2017. We didn't listen to the warnings. We decided to ignore the decline of our bee
population and now their guardians have arrived. You must pilot the 1981 Galencia Fight-
ERVIEW REVIEW er and restore order, before its too late!
TUTORIAL

G
alencia was released in smooth scrolling, and an interesting us with separate music for menus,
2017 on the C64 by Pro- selection of opponents give this cutscenes, gameplay, challenge
tovision. Yes, you are right game a very strong visual appeal. levels, and subscriptions to the
– this production is a remake of I like this element although some scoreboard. Sound is definitely
the classic shoot'em up, Galaga. screen assets, such as the game Galencia’s strength!
The rules of the game are identical logo, could be more interesting.
and the visuals are reminiscent of The graphic settings can be varied This game has everything that
the original, released 36 years ago. to suit your tastes, for example, defines a good shoot'em up. The
the brightness of background smoothness and sound optimi-
stars and the color palette of the zation is impressive. It is satisfying
time and points. The fluid motion to eliminate wave after wave of
of on-screen objects is impressive. enemies in clouds of explosions.
I feel that enhancing the remaining The developers have also added
static elements would improve the new “tournament” mode where
overall visual appeal. we face down the enemy with only
a single life. Because shoot'em
To keep the graphics smooth, ups will always be shoot’em ups,
you may expect the sound to be there's nothing to the gameplay in
restricted to special effects, such Galencia, just point and shoot. The
as enemy explosions. However, developers have added a back-
the developers have really done story, complete with a pet dog,
an amazing job by adding music to add interest to the game. I can
to accompany the gameplay. The happily report that it is a good
coding optimization is exemplary. game, verging on greatness.
However, the developers have The six new songs are of the highest
added a sense of freshness to the production quality and bring out If your idea of enjoyment is to
familiar Galaga family. How did best of that “SID sound” we all love. furiously pound the fire button
they do it? The sound effects are precisely and would like to play a modern
mixed with music. The diversity of interpretation of the original game
The graphics are up to date and the soundtrack is also worth men- then give Galencia a go. Game is
full of life. Dynamic explosions, tioning – the authors have provided available for purchase at itch.io.

GALENCIA
Publisher: Protovision
Release year: 2017
Platform: C64

6 9 9
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 19

C=Rex Offline &


Dark Destroyer 2117

COMMODORE
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Komek, Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga

D N
amn! No internet again? That’s too much! o time to rest. We’re going forward, because
I guess, I’ll have to change the provider. there is another game to talk about which also
Well, only this pixel dinosaur, the T-Rex has needs some coverage.
remained. As usual, it tries to entertain me while I’m
waiting for the connection. Dark Destroyer 2117 is a standard SEUCK shooter.
The main task of the player is protecting Earth from
Certainly, the majority of Chrome browser users had an incoming planetoid called Dark Destroyer. Two
an opportunity to jump over big, thorny cactuses armored space shooters were sent to carry out the
and birds flying low, to release the stress from a lack mission. Their goal is to destroy the enemy and plant
of an internet connection. Exactly! Weird times have a powerful bomb in the weakest point of the hostile
come, and when we see a ‘No Internet connection’ planet.
message, we feel like our hands have been cut off.
Anyway, the Genesis Project group released the C64 The game consists of four levels, where we’re facing
version of this well-known game, titled C=Rex Offline. a huge army of armored space ships, robots, and ma-
Also, here the friendly dinosaur rushes forward jump- chines. Moreover, on the end of each level a big boss
ing over obstacles to gain as many points as possible. needs to be defeated. Luckily, its attacks are quite
That’s the whole idea. predictable. Collecting diamonds during the game
allows you
The important element of the C64 version is the to gain more
soundtrack. It doesn’t occur in the original version. points.
The tune, composed by Swedish musician and coder
nicknamed LTF sounds great. Beside that fact, it’s still What distin-
the same, super simple, addictive game. guishes Dark
Destroyer
Thank you, Genesis Project! 2117 among
other SEUCK
C=REX OFFLINE products is
Publisher: Genesis Project playability,
Release year: 2017 and certainly
Platform: C64 also a simple,
clear graphics
2 8 5 and a good
soundtrack
composed by
Richard Bay-
liss. The game
is similar to
the great hit
Xenon. It’s time to finish this short description. I need
to rescue our planet.

PS. Before starting the game it is possible to select


between a standard or enhanced version with
soundtrack.

DARK DESTROYER 2117


Publisher: The New
Dimension
Release year: 2017
Platform: C64

5 7 6
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


20 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Who dares wins I and II


COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review and Translation: Ari

When about 25 years ago this game was loading from the cassette into my Commo-
dore’s memory, I completely did not know what the title meant. Today, a quarter of
a century later I now know, that this is the famous motto of the British Special Forces "Who
dares wins"..

I
t was a strange coincidence so much, he gave an order to and demanding. First of all we
when some time ago I decided shoot all the captured members have a perfectly balanced level
to return to this great shooter, immediately. This theme, perhaps of difficulty here. It's hard, but with
and a week later I brought a John by accident and perhaps con- the right focus and a little bit of
Laffin’s book "Behind enemy lines" sciously, the author placed in the good reflexes you can easily go
from the library (I recommend it). second part of the game. During through all (8 levels) with three
the subsequent stages we rescue lives, which can be increased by
our comrades several times from gaining points. And it should be
being executed. noted that the author, perhaps
deliberately, used the word "men"
There is another interesting story not "lives" as usually in games. This
about this game described here is typical for a small group of sol-
(specifically the first part). It’s crea- diers in this game and when one
tor was an avid fan of the famous of them goes down, another one
Commando that was published continues the fight from the place
earlier the same year. And thanks of death of his predecessor.
to that, when we launch Who
dares wins, we will see very similar Never mind. This knowledge is
opponents, locations (including not necessary to play the game,
background, bunkers, bridges, unless you’re such a game freak
trees, etc.), shooting method, the like me. What do we need to
way the grenades are thrown (fire know? We are moving our soldier
button must be held longer) as up the screen. On the way we
It tells about the actions of British well as the motive at the end of fight with enemy soldiers who hide
commandos during World War II, each stage, which consists of firing in bunkers, trenches or rush straight
and these were characterized by at the soldiers running out of the at us. All of them try to kill us and
their courage. Because they dared gate. Commando publishers prob- shoot hundreds of bullets in our di-
to do something almost impossible ably came to a similar conclusion, rection. The action is very fast and
for other formations. For exam- because when the game ap- it consists of skillful maneuvering
ple, they were able to blow up peared on the store shelves, after between their missiles. From time
a dozen of enemy planes at the a few days its sales were stopped to time we will encounter a fast–
airport, destroy ammunition and and a lot of effort was spent on paced motorcycle or enemy jeep.
fuel supplies, kill dozens of enemy the so-called, second revision. The easiest way to get rid of them
soldiers and disappear without loss Steve Evans – the author, did not is by using grenades. These can be
under cover of the night. make the same mistake and the found scattered here and there on
second part was no longer so the battlefield in boxes. It is worth
And all this was done with only blatantly similar to the Elite’s pro- collecting them because they
four or five people. To do so, it was duction.
necessary to show some clever-
ness, determination and above Okay, now that the
all courage. And it is important historical and pub-
to mention that they were well lishing backgrounds
aware of the fact that in the case are over, let's get
of failure they would not be sent to the bottom, that
to the POW camp, but would be is, the gameplay.
executed immediately. Because And this one is really
Hitler hated this British formation gorgeous, addictive
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 21

COMMODORE
are also a good solution for larger games when I was still a little boy, and hit opponents fall with raised
groups of enemies or those who their completion gave me great hands. Remember that both parts
are behind the fortifications. satisfaction. That's because they of the game were created only by
were difficult, but I was able to one person who dealt with code,
We won’t encounter any bosses or finish them without any cheats or graphics and sound. In those days,
something like them in this game. pokes. When I played it now, after it was nothing unusual, but to do it
All the soldiers, including us, die many years, I also felt a sense of all yourself and to put some really
from one shot. Each stage ends satisfaction and, more importantly, good playability to it, well, it was
in the same way, when we reach if I still do not have enough of the a much more difficult task and
the enemy base/station, we must game then I will be happy to sit only few have succeeded.
shoot a dozens of enemy soldiers and play again. Especially, once
running out of the open gates you have completed these 8 levels I hope this review will lead you to
because these are the last enemy and you are done, you will find play these two games. If you al-
forces, and there is always an out that: "You have captured the ready know them, you can always
officer between them and we will enemy base, unfortunately your return to them. If you have not
know him because his uniform will support group has not been able played it yet, try it. Remember –
have a different color. Killing him to maintain your previous locations Who dares wins!
is rewarded with more points. You and you must go back to stage # 1
can clearly see that the author to replay it." So the fun starts from WHO DARES WINS I I II
tried to diversify the game and the beginning. Publisher: Steve Evans/Alli-
when he was creating a sequel he gata Software
added a few innovations. In the Finally, it is worth mentioning in Release year: 1985
second part we have to watch out a few words about what we see Platform: C64
for German tanks, bombers cross- and hear during the fight. There
ing the battlefield and for high– is some pretty bad music in the 5 7 5
speed fighters flying and shooting menu. Thank goodness we won’t
at everyone and everything. All hear it during the game. The
of this makes it necessary to be sounds of gunshots and explosions
as focused as possible. This way and of the encountered vehicles
of building the levels also requires are made correctly and there is
that the player must remember nothing really to write about it
a certain level very well to avoid here. The graphics are not using
unnecessary death. While the the maximum of the C64 abili-
enemies are moving randomly, ties, but it is made in great detail
heavy equipment always appears and is definitely the asset of this

P.S. You can also find Who dares


wins 3 somewhere on the internet.
in the same place and tries to kill production. Soldiers, vehicles and This is not the next part, but just
us in the same way. The game is buildings were designed legibly a mod that replaces the original
fair to the player, if you fall down; and very accurate. The animation sprites to those from the Comman-
it is never a "computer cheat" of our hero as well as his oppo- do game.
but a moment of your inatten- nents is also a big plus. Everyone
tion or lack of reflex. I remember moves smoothly and it looks very
that when I was playing these nice when our commando runs,
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


22 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Minimoog; Translation: Ari

In our magazine we rarely see productions written on CBM II – it is related to the


fact that few people create something new on this niche platform. However, on
the occasion of the 40th birthday of his older and very similar brother, Commo-
dore PET, I decided to look for something. And I found it. I invite you to read this
review of the Space Chase game. The author calls it a version that is 35 years late.

C
osmos is a very inspiring gressive rivals and it is difficult to Okay, I complain a little but now
space for game devel- locate your ship among them. Do it’s time for the positives. Given
opers. You can count not forget that Space Chase is the limitations of the equipment,
the productions that take place a monochrome game. This does the performance and the fluidity
in cosmic space in hundreds, if not justify the fact that it is not are impressive. Composed exclu-
not thousands. From the title of easy to detect what is happening sively of PETSCII characters, the
the game, it is easy to guess that on the screen. I must also criticize graphics are ingeniously designed,
the level of and although they cannot match
the difficul- the multicolored C64 graphics and
ty. The ship bitmaps – they look very good.
often does Yes, that’s how PETSCII should be
something used. The second thing is sound
completely effects. The main menu is accom-
different panied by a cool musical theme
than ex- composed by Max Hall, sounding
pected and a bit like the old, decent C64
this makes it game (the CBM II also has a SID).
more difficult The effects in the gameplay are
than we simple, but nice. By combining
this also applies to space. Space would have liked. At the begin- both elements – graphics and
Chase is not a simple game but it ning levels enemies, in my opinion, music – with fluency of action, the
is really interesting. The player con- creators of the game
trols the ship and tries to destroy should be praised. They
the enemy ships. It is not easy, are masters of Assembler!
because weightlessness makes it
difficult to control the vehicle, the Space Chase is a good
enemy has armor (thankfully we game for playing with
have it too), and the aiming and a friend while drinking
shooting is also not so easy. You some beer. Unfortunate-
can play against the computer or are too difficult to defeat which ly, it does not play so well when
against another person, which is causes us to keep on dying and you are playing alone. Mastering
definitely more exciting. having to restart the level. Rules the game comes with difficulty,
and controls are easy to master, but if anyone has perseverance
Immediately, I have to make but by putting a beginner player in playing the game, he may be-
a criticism that the game field is in so much conflict makes it diffi- come a space shooter after all.
hard to analyze. It is very easy cult for him to enjoy the game.
to get lost in the swarm of ag-

SPACE CHASE
Publisher: Christian
Krenner
Release year: 2016
Platform: CBM II

? 6 3
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 23

COMMODORE
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Minimoog; Translation: Ari

The harmony of the six kingdoms was disturbed; the evil demon took advantage
of it and claiming to be a sorcerer, took away stones that held the energy of
the world. By doing this he enslaved all the people. But brave Victor went on the
road and after a long fight he defeated the demon, and he scattered the stones
over the catacombs. And now our task is to find them.

R
'zo has given us a good caught up in the world of dark
adventure game this catacombs. I realized that com-
summer. The character of pleting the game is not a task for
his game can be classified as fifteen minutes or even half an
a Rouge like game, based on hour - it's a great adventure for
the text interface and we are at least a couple hours. I must
going through the chambers also confess that Legend of the
seen from above, and all obsta- Lost Catacombs provoked me to
cles are represented by PETSCII do something I usually don’t do;
characters. We go to the cat- drawing maps on paper. A single
acombs in search of six stones, sheet of paper and a pencil
but this is a difficult task in many were my salvation. I did not
ways. First of all, our field of vi- have to wander aimlessly around
sion is very limited, because can because this dark world lit up
we only look in one direction, with every succeeding scratch
the one in which we are turned. on the map. Now that’s what
Secondly, there are many obsta- I call retro.
cles waiting for us, like the nasty
rats or many traps in the ground. Legend of the Lost Catacombs
And even walking into the wall is is really great. This is not an ex-
dangerous for our health, so you citing shoot’em up or a platform
have to watch out for it! If you game with beautiful graphics
make a mistake while estimating and the music is simply unbear-
the number of steps (the number able, but we got a full-fledged
of which is given in advance) RPG that has great playability.
you can lose your life easily. It’s gameplay is original and
differs from other productions
The author has served us a num- and it is very difficult to rate this
ber of typical RPG features; game in our editorial formula,
fighting against opponents, var- but Legend of the Lost Cata-
ious hero statistics, a variety of combs is really not something
items to collect and use, witch- that you can pass up and all you
craft and weapons. There is also need to play it is a VIC-20 with
an introduction to the game. 24k ram expansion.
You can find it in the very exten-
sive instructions for the game.
What more could you want? LEGEND OF THE LOST
Legend of the Lost Catacombs CATACOMBS
will truly satisfy every fan of the Publisher: R’zo
classic adventure games. (Ryan Liston)
Release year: 2017
The nature of the game has Platform: VIC-20
forced me to play slower than
I usually do and helped me to 2 1 4
truly enter the game. I really got
REVIEW

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24 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW
Reviews of the SiBUGA games
TUTORIAL

Review: Bob8bit; Translation: Ari

The term SiBUGA may sound like something high-tech but it's just an abbreviation.
The three words that make up the acronym are "Single Button Games". The first
time I came across this kind of game was on an app created using Flash. To win,
you need to click, click and click again to get the best score. In recent years,
many more of these productions have appeared on mobile devices where joy-
sticks have been replaced by furious screen tapping.

T
he concept remains the original in both the flight phys- jumping across scattered build-
same; The better you can ics and game graphics. ings on a "smaller" platform
tap at the right moment, does not seem like a difficult
the higher your score will be. C64anabalt, C64, 2011, challenge. However, it is the
Our favorite platform, the C64, Paul Koller continuous and intense de-
keeps up with this trend. I will struction of your surroundings
discuss some of the more re- that creates the game’s frantic
leases here. atmosphere. Shaking buildings,
rockets flying around in the
background, shattered glass
Flappy Bird, C64, 2014, from broken windows – all these
Sos Sosowski effects have been transferred
to Commodore, so the mood of
the impending disaster is exact-
ly as in the original release of
The world is ending, buildings Canabalt.
are collapsing, you must run,
quick! I’ll describe C64anabalt Spaceman Splorf: Planet of
in just a few words. This game Doom, C64, 2016,
is played with one button, but Pond Software
this variation has a slight twist.
Our hero runs ahead at full
speed, and the player needs to
Flappy Bird is probably the make sure he jumps at the right
most famous representative of time, avoiding obstacles or the
the flying genre. A few years gap between the roofs of build-
ago every smartphone owner ings. This continuous movement
had a derivation of this game. concept is commonly known as
Each tap on the screen helps the "Endless Runner".
the bird to rise. Leaving the fin-
gers off the screen lets the bird, The developer, Paul Koller,
in accordance with the laws of specializes in porting PC Indie It’s time to return to the “bird”
gravity, fall. The C64 has a few games to the Commodore genre. In this game, only the
interpretations of this concept, 64. He has already produced rise and fall mechanics have
and I, not only because of re- several successful productions, been faithfully ported. All other
gional patriotism, find the most including Micro Hexagon, Super aspects have been vastly
entertaining version developed Bread Box, and Luftrauserz. In improved. It turns out that
by a creator under the pseudo- all cases, the production pro- even a simple production can
nym "Sos". Mikolaj Kamiński is an cess is described by Paul along be enriched by an interest-
interesting character who reg- with the original creators. You ing storyline. Our hero, during
ularly appears on Game Jams might say that they are unoffi- a routine repair mission near
to create games for various cial-official conversions. the Planet of Doom, encounters
platforms. His Flappy Bird game minor technical problems. Your
faithfully reproduces the mobile As for the visuals, I can say that job is to carry Splorf through
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 25

the dangers that surround him Unfortunately the gameplay do not need to use anything

COMMODORE
into space. does not live up to its good other than a single button to
looks. The pace of play is a lit- play, someone finally came up
Spacemen Splorf is, in my tle slow and after several plays with the idea to get rid of the
opinion, one of the nicest it can feel a little tedious. excess gear, such as a joystick
games on the C64. Vanja Utne, shaft, to create a controller
the graphic artist, once again that simply has a single button.
shows her exceptional artis-
Fire to Jump, C64, 2016, This person is Roman Werner,
tic skills. It is the details that
Software of Sweden who should be well known to
appear on screen as you drift all Amiga users. This type of
through space that gives this equipment was often used in
game its appealing charac- TV game shows, where the first
ter. Importantly, it is easy to person to press the button gets
differentiate obstacles from to answer the quiz question. Of
the background scene. I have course, this is not a TV studio
sometimes experienced diffi- device, but hardware designed
culties with other space games strictly for the C64 or Atari
in picking out laser fire from platforms.
bright stars. If you don’t know
where to start your adventure When I found out that a con-
with SiBUGA, then try Space- As the title suggests, players troller had been developed
man Splorf: Planet of Doom. press “fire” to jump a square specifically for single button
through obstacles. This sounds games, all I could do is shake
FireFighter64, C64, 2016, kind of easy, right? I can say, my head in disbelief. Surely …
Roman Werner through bitter experience, it's just one button! Every joy-
that the developers deserve stick has at least one button.
a special place in
hell for some of the
ludicrously difficult
levels. Keep one
eye on the clock as
a time limit adds to
the pressure.

This last production


on our list does
Is it possible to create a good not aim to impress
game with only 10 lines for with its visuals. The
the entire code? It turns out graphics are what
that it is. In the BASIC Tenliners could best be de-
2016 competition, FireFighter64 scribed as “simple”,
came second. This is a fully although minimalist
functional game despite the might sound more
strict competition rules. A brave appealing. Inter-
firefighter extinguishes a fire in estingly, this is the
various windows, and the task only game here
of his assistant, the player, is to that has an end-
open the water tap at the right ing. The number and layout of Also, you need a directional
time. Too many mistakes leads the boards are determined in controller to navigate the
to the end of the fun. advance and overcoming the game’s menu options. I thought
last obstacle means returning that this toy could only appeal
A new map of the buildings is to the beginning. There are no to diehards of the genre. I be-
randomly generated at the start randomly generated items that came intrigued and decided to
of each game. Visible buildings will allow for endless gameplay. talk with its creator. In our brief
are drawn with colored PETSCII conversation, I realized that the
characters. The graphics look design was appealing because
great and light shading adds to
SiBUGA controller of its simplicity. I invite you to
the depth of field, demonstrating read the transcript and make
how a talented programmer can The "Single Button" concept ap- sure you look out for Roman’s
extract the most from a small plies not only to games but also opinion on remakes for mobile
amount of code. to equipment as well. Since you platforms.
REVIEW

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26 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Roman Werner
COMMODORE

EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Interview: Bob8bit

ROMAN WERNER – enthusiast of computers of all kinds. A pro-


grammer and musician, known primarily as the author of
Traps'n'Treasures. Ever since he began to use Commodore VIC-
20, he knew that creating new digital worlds was what he wan-
ted to do in life. For more information, please visit:
http://kingroman.com.

Hello Mr. Roman, could you tell that spirit and tried out some new ics is involved then you hit a storm
us a little about your Single Button game ideas for this kind of fun of laws and regulations. I learned
Game Controller? and gameplay. Two or multi-play- that it is possible to sell electronics
er games would also be sweet. as a kit but as soon as you sell
This controller is dedicated to an assembled product, the fun
playing single button games and What inspired you to create part stops. My problem is that the
is a nice way to try out new game a game controller? This is hard- target group of this controller are
concepts that only require one ware. I thought you are a game people who do not necessarily
button as input control. The motto developer? know how to solder. This is one
should be "simple to learn – hard reason why the SiBUGA shop is
to master". I believe that a dedi- The idea for this controller original- currently closed until I have found
cated button controller improves ly started with the BASIC Tenliners a better way to distribute this
the immersion and completes competition 2016 (an event that product legally. If anyone has the
the feel for such games and actually brought me back into answer, please let me know.
motivates the just-one-more-time the retro scene), where you have
attraction, especially at retro to create a BASIC game in only I've read on the internet that your
events where other players will try ten lines of code. My contribution SiBUGA can be used not only as
FireFighter64 was a single button a controller for these one-button-
game and I wondered what a dif- games, but also as a replacement
ference it would make if there for space bar in some games,
was a little custom-made firehose where this biggest keyboard but-
controller for it. Would people ton serves as a special action. Did
play or even buy it for just that you plan this or is it just a feature
reason? So I searched Internet discovered by users?
and found Jens Schönfeld’s useful
overview of the DB9 Joystick Well, this is kind of a special use
port (http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ for the SiBUGA controller that was
DB9-Joystick). With only humble only pointed out later by a user.
knowledge in electronics I did It's a known fact that on a C64
some more research and read a Joystick in port 1 also causes
some books so that I knew what (usually unwanted) keyboard
I was doing. I started experiment- actions when the joystick is
ing with various parts and ended moved or a button is pressed.
up with this single button game You can check that when you
to beat your hi-score. The look of controller design. The SiBUGA con- start up in Basic mode and move
the button *IS* the instruction: No troller was born. At the same time, the Joystick around or press the
learning required, just give it a try. I wanted to gain some experience button when in port 1. You will see
Find out yourself. I'm currently running my own online store and some garbage key input appear
working on games that make use to find out what it takes to sell my on screen. The reason is that
of this controller and it would be own branded product with all the port 1 uses the same interface
wonderful if other retro game de- bells and whistles. Long story short: channels as the keyboard matrix
velopers out there also picked up It’s not easy. As soon as electron- and therefore also triggers some
INTERVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 27

COMMODORE
a C64 game. I like that. Also test-
ing is easier on the C64 compared
to the many setup variations an
Amiga computer can consist of
(Chip/Fast RAM/AGA, etc).

Remakes and HD editions are


popular right now. Maybe
Traps’n’Treasures deserves a little
makeup and a re-release?

I was approached some time ago


by a Traps’n’Treasures fan and
he offered to help me with the
programming of TnT for the mobile
platform, but in the end I felt,
without precise input controls,
platformers are just not much
fun on mobile devices. On the
other hand, I am not 100% sure
keyboard input by mistake. It If you had more time, would you what would happen if I used the
happens that the joystick button like to return to the Amiga scene original title Traps’n’Treasures and
triggers the space bar. So yes, the with a new game? someone would claim the rights
SiBUGA Controller can be used of it. If you have read my story
for just that, to trigger the space Good question. Actually, I am on kingroman.com you probably
bar. But you can also use any not so sure that I would. At least understand that I had enough
other joystick in port 1 to try this not at this moment. I think I would of fighting legal actions. But
out yourself. For example, with the rather invest my time in making I have planned to bring Jeremy
game 1941, where the space bar a real game for the C64, to be Flynn back to the C64. Kind of
causes the plane to make a roll. honest. As much as I love my A500 a Traps’n’Treasures re-make, if you
The SiBUGA controller just has this (I still have my original one where want. Something small to lure and
cool form factor that makes it feel TnT was developed on) and test the lawyers out there. Haha.
designed for just this purpose. :) remember its heydays well, the
C64 fanbase is significantly larger Thank you. I hope that any prob-
You mentioned in the Lemon64 than the Amiga scene. And from lems with Laws'n'Lawyers will not
forum, that you are working on a technical point of view I feel come again and your next project
some games for this controller. the C64 to be more challenging will be as lucky as that dice roll at
Could you share some info about and therefore more fun to explore the end of 1990.
it? and to experiment. At the time
the Amiga was revolutionary by
I have been working on some de- providing digitized sound and
sign concepts but there’s nothing thousands of colours but if I made
to show so far. I would like to try a game on the Amiga today it
something similar to Fire to Jump would probably not be immedi-
but, as simple as the game looks, ately recognized as an Amiga
it is difficult to develop a product game. But a C64 game has that
of such high quality and playabil- typical multi-colour look based on
ity. And I don't want to fall below those characteristic 16 colours.
that standard. Just by looking at it you see it’s

FireFighter Enchanced

As part of our cooperation with Roman, we would like to present to you


the Firefighter64 Enhanced game created especially for our magazine
and for your pleasure. Compared to the original, there were many impro-
vements such as the ability to save game status, improved ending or table
of the best results. Certainly the most interesting addition is the full source
code. Roman made sure to comment on everything that happens in the
program so that you can not only see what the engine looks like under the
hood, but also understand how it works.
INTERVIEW

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28 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

EDITORIAL INTERVIEW David Pleasance


REVIEW TUTORIAL

Interview: Marek “MarX” Hać; Editing: Tomxx

We catch up with David Pleasance, an icon of Commodore International and


former Managing Director of Commodore UK, at AmiParty 2017 in Chelm, Poland.
David opens up about life inside Commodore during the glory days and exposes
what really went down at the New York auction where all of CBM’s intellectual
property and future technology was deftly scooped up by Escom. The past and
the future are revealed in our tell-all interview.

First of all I would like to thank you Systems division to sell PET comput- On the other hand, what used to
for accepting our interview request! ers into the retail market, because piss you off at CBM at that time?
For 12 years you worked as Sales & that was mostly my background.
Managing Director at the Commo- I was only doing that for just over Most other things… In my humble
dore UK. What was the best thing of two months when the demand for opinion CBM as a company never
being part of Commodore at that the Commodore VIC-20 and the ever established a business plan
time? Commodore 64 got so big, that and worked to it. New people were
they needed somebody to look af- regularly coming in with new and
Okay, just a minor clarification, ter their major stores. So they asked different ideas and so you'd get
I wasn't at Commodore UK, I was me to take that role on. halfway through a project and
with Commodore International for suddenly abandon that activity to
12 years, but I moved around with What would you call your biggest bring in another plan, just because
different jobs. My first 4 or 5 years achievement at Commodore? somebody else had an idea they
was with Commodore UK – I ac- thought might work better. In fact,
tually joined them in the Business Well, there's actually a few but CBM never planned anything
I think the biggest achievement is ahead and so we stumbled from
that I managed to pull together dif- one bad decision to the next. There
ferent packs of our computer prod- were lots of instances of that, but
ucts, gave them themes and sold in general they never planned and
those packs in retail stores, from the they never worked out a business
big major retailers down to the in- plan. I was missing the standard
dependent stores. Our idea was to answers on every new product
attract an audience of people who release; how do we release it, who
wanted to buy computers for the do we sell it to, how do we market
first time and give them something and advertise it? Things were never
very attractive for immediately use, planned out and instead they
this included lots of different C64 just suddenly said: “Here's a new
packs. We always stayed current product, go and sell it!”. They never
with the latest trend in software, asked the question if anyone really
so that the our product was al- wanted it and that was my main
ways attractive to the consumer. disappointment with Commodore.
Probably the most successful thing
we achieved was with the In one of your previous interviews
Amiga 500, because I pulled you admitted that you miss Com-
together a package that we modore immensely. What do you
originally committed to 10,000 miss the most?
pieces of software, but it was
so successful, we ended up The whole thing to be honest with
selling 186,000 packs in the 3 you! Even though Commodore as
months up to Christmas! It was an international company made
a massive seller and that put many irrational decisions, products
the Amiga on the map in the that we were developing were
UK. Big time! still selling in huge numbers. We
changed personal computing
INTERVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 29

history and being part of that was needed a total of 50 mln USD and one of our independent dealers,
incredible. So eventually when additional 15-16 mln USD to buy buy this case, get a new PCB and
Commodore went bankrupt, all the assets from the liquidator. the dealer would give you a trade-
there was a massive hole left and The rest of the money was to keep in on your A500. This was going to
nobody has followed up with that. us going as a company until we be called Commodore Amiga Infin-
This is something I truly miss, being became profitable. ity. We would give longevity to the
involved in directing an everyday Amiga range, so that the dealers
business and making the best of it. It was a very comprehensive plan could keep selling and upgrading
My lesson in life has always been that included all sorts of things, e.g. it. We were obviously going to de-
that it has to be win, win, win – licensing the Commodore brand velop newer technology, that our
coming up with a good proposition name rights. CBM – Commodore engineers were working on back
to the consumer, selling a great Business Machines – was at one then. The chipset was called “Hom-
product and Commodore manu- time was as powerful as IBM! We bre”, it included a 3D rendering
facturing, so that everybody wins. did not want to sell PCs, but we engine with integrated 5.1 surround
If you could keep doing that, you’ll wanted to license the CBM name sound stereo and was staggering!
always be successful. to other companies, e.g. the Far
East, so that they could produce We knew that we’re going to
I believe that every job in life can a range of products with CBM concentrate on the Amiga range
teach us something. So what did logo on them. We would provide and that we needed to borrow
Commodore teach you personally? them with the technical support money. We had about five differ-
and quality control to make sure ent relatively small investors and
It told me more about the things that what they were producing managed to raise 25 mln USD.
not to do, than the things to do. ;) was good for our name. The idea We also had a Chinese group of
They had so many changes at the was that we would get a revenue salesmen who were going to invest
top, so many people coming into stream of maybe 2% of turnover 25 mln USD, so altogether we had
senior positions with different ideas as a royalty fee and maybe, on 50 mln USD, which we knew we
about doing things, and they never top of that, we offered them to needed for the next 6-7 months.
discussed it as a group, as a single sell CBM-branded PCs using our Unfortunately, our Chinese partners
management team. I don't even sales force and take an additional were approached by ESCOM and
think they ever met to discuss how commission. told them not to bid with us. They
we market and what should we do. pulled out 48 hours before bidding.
And that was what was lacking, Separately from business products, This prevented us from bidding, as
so they would have success in one the brand “Commodore” could even if we could have won, we
region because of a single lucky have been sold and utilized for wouldn't have enough money to
decision, and the rest of the world anything with a plug on it – we had run the business and we'd go bust.
would do everything wrong. a distribution channel in every retail The bottom line is that we watched
store in Europe and some in Amer- ESCOM bid for it and end up buy-
Yourself and Colin Proudfoot, one of ica. For example, a manufacturer ing the business, even though we
the Managing Directors of Commo- who produces hair dryers or shav- knew that they had no idea what
dore UK, came up with a complete ers, or even toasters, could license they were going to do with that
business plan for acquiring the the Commodore brand and it was amazing technology! They had no
Commodore International and the same deal of 2% as Commo- intention to keep the Amiga going
rescue the Amiga. Could you tell us dore was the name worth having. and they were completely con-
what happened leading up to the We would never hold inventory to fused about what they were doing.
auction in New York? avoid all those risks and that’s just It was a tough call for us not to bid,
good business sense. Let’s take but we had no choice, because
Yes, we developed a very very other examples – what I wanted to we were not going to invest 25
comprehensive business plan. One do with the CD32 was to make it million USD only to lose it in 2 or 3
of the things that we understood available to every single manufac- months.
was absolutely fundamental – none turer of hi-fi products. We wanted
of the component parts suppliers to do clothing with Amiga brand What did you feel at this moment?
for Commodore products would on it, e.g. jumpers and t-shirts.
give us any credit, as they had Well I was incredibly distrought…
just lost a lot of money. They were The most important concept of our Simply because I knew that ESCOM
all going to demand that we put business plan was to develop the had no real plan, they did not have
money upfront and we estimated Amiga product range and forget any idea about the new technolo-
it would take seven months for us about 8-bit technology. We had gy that was being developed. They
to buy enough product for them a tower case designed in Germany simply told our Amiga developers
to proove that we were honest that could have been used with to pack up and go! All they really
and that we would pay their bills. what Amiga machine you owned. wanted was the CBM brand, that's
As a result, we estimated that we You could take your machine into what they only cared about!
INTERVIEW

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30 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

We wanted to pay them just for with us. At that time lots of software It was very sad. I remember,
the Amiga rights but they were not development companies, including we sold everything that was in
interested. So we offered them to Psygnosis, were already creating our office: tables, desks, chairs,
get involved with Commodore UK software for our Amiga CD32, but everything. Sad times. Before that
because we were still trading and it was still secret and concealed we tried to get ESCOM to buy
were profitable. We wanted them by non-disclosure agreements. Ian Commodore UK, but they would
to buy us and then trade with us asked me one day to bring over only do that if Colin and myself
in the UK because we still had six Mehdi Ali and during that meet- stayed in the company and
million pounds worth of credits that ing he said that he could give us worked under their regime. And we
they could have used. We talked, a better technology! Unfortunately, didn't like their regime, we were
but we didn’t like the way they Mehdi Ali was too ignorant and dis- not trying to sell ourselves but our
worked, we didn’t like them at all! missed this proposition! At the end business, we thought they were
of the meeting I just apologized to illogical, irrational and, in our opin-
So after all these years do you Ian and was personally very sorry ion, not very honest.
regret the decision not to bid for that it hadn’t worked out. And
Commodore? then, after some time Hetherington And what happened with all the in-
sold Psygnosis to Sony and it was his tellectual property, technology and
We knew we could do it, but with- design that they used for the Play- patents owned by Commodore UK
out the Chinese investors’ money Station! We were offered that, right after it declared the bankruptcy?
we knew it wouldn’t last and at the beginning, but Mehdi didn’t
thererfore we would fail. So there's understand any part of the business A lot of it is now held by Mike
no point in spending 25 million of at all. I did warn Irving Gould, who Battilana from Cloanto. He's very
somebody else's money when you was the main shareholder, that this open verbally about trying to retain
know it’s going to fail, so no, I don’t is all going wrong, but he wouldn’t the history of Commodore, so he
regret it. It’s a shame but I don’t listen to me. has bought lots of the patents and
regret it, because we were never CBM’s rights. Not all of them, as
going to deliberately lose our What can you say about Irving they are a bit dispersed, but still
investor’s money. Gould? How was he as a person? a lot.

Now, what if you had these 50 Irving was a self-made wealthy Some time ago you launched
million dollars and won the auction man who ended up taking on Jack a project on Kickstarter called “The
in New York. The new Amiga would Tramiel, which made Jack leave Commodore inside story”. Why did
have to compete with 3D games the company. Irving was quite you decide to write a book?
released on PlayStation and with a smart man and he made an aw-
Microsoft’s Windows 95 release. Do ful lot of money on previous invest- The reason I decided to write it is
you really believe that Amiga could ments before Commodore, but at because there was a lot of con-
survive such strong competition? the end of the day, in my opinion jecture and a lot of people making
Irving Gould was 90% responsible up stories about the Commodore
First of all, let me tell you that the for Commodore’s downfall (with history. Other people talked about
guy that mainly designed the Play- 10% coming from Mehdi Ali). it as well and in my opinion they
Station was a person named Ian didn't tell the story very well, mainly
Hetherington from Psygnosis – the Do you remember your last day at because most of the books and
company that closely cooperated Commodore UK? movies were based around the US
division, which in fact was a very
▼David
▼ and Tomxx with #6 of K&A plus magazine. Athlone, Ireland, 2017.
poor performer. While analyzing
financial reports, we realized
that the UK branch was the only
continuously profitable subsidiary!
So I wanted the truth to come out –
there are so many things, so many
stories that probably on their own
are not very significant, but collec-
tively they tell a whole story about
what happened. And I'm one of
the longest-serving people there
and I can tell it like it was, I have
nothing to gain by telling lies.
I want the truth to come out, that
is was Commodore International
making terrible mistakes.
INTERVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 31

Your book will also include memo- hardware, because it's all carried Thank you very much for the great
ries of Dave Hayne and RJ Mical – in the cloud. It’s called soft merging interview! :)
important figures in Amiga world… and it’s the first open source virtual
cloud computer available for It’s my pleasure, really! ;) You know,
They both said they wanted to, as everyone. I have it all deep in my heart, my
I’m giving them the opportunity memory is good, so for me it's
to tell the truth from their point of Would you like to tell something to like falling off a log – it’s so easy
view, because they know I don't our Amiga community? to speak up about the history of
tell lies. If it's bad news – tell us it's Commodore, bacause I mean
bad news and that is what will get What I’d like to say is that I’m per- every word of it and I'm thrilled to
printed. sonally astounded and very great- bits. I mean, I was gutted after we
ful that we have a loyal community lost the opportunity to bid, I went
How have you progressed? of Amiga fans and followers! I don’t into hiding for two years, I didn't do
think that Commodore deserves it, anything really. A then I was lucky
I’m probably close to 50% finished, bacuse we did not treat our users – I went fishing in the Dominican
maybe a little bit more. I've been respectfully. Today we have this Republic where I met my second
very busy with Friends Software, nucleus of fans that have been wife. Together we went to Australia
and my heart is very much in mak- incredibly loyal and I absolutely where we bought a restaurant,
ing sure that I can bring as much appreciate their support. It has I got Australian citizenship and
as I can to the company I work for. nothing to do with Commodore, everything changed. And then this
I said in the Kickstarter’s page for but I want to thank you all from the complete fluke to go to the Amiga
my book that I want to release it by bottom of my heart! I invested over 30th anniversary event in Amster-
November this year, which is when 12 years at CBM and beside some dam where I was asked to be
we've got the next Amiga event in mistakes I made, I wouldn’t really a guest speaker. I met there some
Germany. And I hope I might make change anything, because it was old friends and the rest is a history…
that possible but I'm unsure if I can. an incredible time. I would never So it's kind of what goes around
The Kickstarter campaign is closed, have imagined, that after 30 years, comes around, right? I have been
but I've got a website where the community reamins so loyal always loyal and I feel it’s kind of
people can order prints. Once and passionate and I love them to justified, if you know what I mean…
the book is finished we will decide bits! ;)
whether we print 1500 or 2000, or
3000 copies. The amount of interest
is still very vast. ▼David
▼ Pleasance and Chris Evans presenting Amiga CD32 back in 1993.

Let’s talk about Friends Software


Corporation, your product seems to
be a very innovative approach to
cloud computing… What exactly is
FriendOS?

We believe that the world is mov-


ing away from sitting on their own
devices. Devices are becoming
more and more sophisticated and
cloud computing is growing mas-
sively. We've looked at the number
of systems currently in use and lots
of them are quite old, eg. COBOL
or Linux, that can be either thrown
away or completely rewritten,
which costs money. What Friends
Software Corporation can offer is
to keep your old systems alive and
add on our product on a com-
pletely invisible layer. It allows you
to run Windows or Mac OS soft-
ware, or allow all apps on different
systems to talk to each other in the
cloud. It works remotely all over
the world and so you are less and
less dependent on your piece of
INTERVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


32 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Memories of the Geezer Gamer


COMMODORE

REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL Theatre Europe


Editorial: Beamhit; Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga
This edition of Memories of the Geezer Gamer returns to the eighties in the dying
days of the Cold War. The constant threat of a nuclear winter cast a dark shad-
ow across the continent, threatening to annihilate 200,000 years of humanity in
a matter of minutes. Thankfully, relations between the USSR and the West started
warming around 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev became the Secretary General of
the Communist Party.

T
he possibility that Earth could NATO (supported by France which by a little’. The game has three
be destroyed remained a very wasn’t a NATO member in 1985) difficulty levels. The higher the
real concern. In 1983, the and the Warsaw Pact. As the title level, the more important it is not
high-tech Soviet Early Warning suggests, all of Europe was the to gain too much advantage over
System reported that the West had theatre of war. Players can choose the enemy. One small miss step
launched multiple incoming inter- to play either side of the battle- and BOOOOOM! The Earth is gone.
continental ballistic missiles. It is an field. It’s a good guess to say that This game shouts a clear anti-war
open secret that Lieutenant Colo- I always chose the Warsaw Pact, message and it’s no surprise to find
nel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov as my moral compass wouldn’t out the main theme is a remake of
single-handedly saved the world allow me drop atomic bombs on Lennon’s and McCartney’s song
from this Armageddon. Petrov had Warsaw. I was always eager to Give Peace a Chance.
correctly recognized these reports carry the Virtual Red Revolution to
to be false and were later found the Virtual Rotten Capitalist West. The basic mode of the game
to be caused by a computer error. Nothing could stop me! involves moving various battalions
We can thank Petrov for the days across Europe, ordering attacks,
we enjoy today. Nothing but an Atomic Holocaust. and replenishing lost units. In
addition to the two sides of the
The gloomy story of impending Here we come to what really conflict there are also neutral units.
nuclear doom was also a recurring makes this game so special. Most Neutral units protect the borders of
theme in movies and TV shows. war-strategy games at that time their countries and will only attack
The movie War Games released in promoted a full-frontal attack on those who trespass their land. Sea
1983 best captured the spirit of the the enemy, crushing, razing, and and ocean battles are not cov-
day. The movie wasn’t really about rolling over your digital opponent ered in the game. For players who
nuclear war but about the moral like an angry bulldozer on a relent- like more arcade-style gaming,
threat posed by computers making less path of destruction. In Theatre a mini-game is playable. During
decisions without human oversight. Europe, an all-in attack pressures a skirmish between two battalions
Computer games also covered your opponent to respond by a player can take control of their
the topic of nuclear conflict and launching their nuclear arsenal. gun sight and fire on hostile units.
in 1985, the strategy game Theatre On many occasions I managed to Originally, I found that turning this
Europe was released. break through the enemy line only mode off brought me more military
to destroy too many hostile units or success. The reason for this was
Alan Steel was responsible for de- to gain too much control over the revealed to me several years later,
veloping Theatre Europe. It’s point- skies. The result? Instead of achiev- when I learnt, much to my embar-
less to look for information about ing the glorious victory I had hoped rassment, that the vehicles moving
him in Wikipedia as he passed for, I would watch helplessly as on the bottom road were my own
away in 1996 before the Internet a swarm of atomic missiles blan- units, and destroying them was
hit mainstream. As a designer he ket the world. Moreover, the Main a tragic mistake.
participated in games such as Computer, right before it turned
Bismarck, The Battle for Midway, off, kindly confirmed that the world The second game mode involves
Falklands ‘82 and Pegasus Bridge. was destroyed in that very mo- assigning various tasks to your air
As a programmer he created High ment, and a suicide pill was in the forces. Many actions are allowed
Frontier and of course, Theatre indicated stash. As young people such as fighting for air superiority,
Europe. say nowadays – So Much Win! bombing hostile airports, and at-
tacking railways or ground forces.
The game places you center stage To be successful in this game you The number of options available
in a fictitious conflict between must obviously win, but ‘only win depends on the game difficulty.
EDITORIAL

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 33

The third mode involves managing the British Ministry of Defense and

COMMODORE
your chemical and atomic arsenal. the Soviet Embassy in London to
At this point it’s worth mentioning obtain the most useful information,
the unique gimmick in this game. even though, as they mentioned
To get permission to use your in the instructions, both sides often
atomic weapons, the ‘MIDNIGHT provided fake data. Alan was also
SUN’ password was required. This terrified with the results of their first
password was not provided in the simulations as he found NATO usu-
instruction manual. In the West, ally either surrendered or launched
when a player tried to take control their atomic arsenal. In general, all
of the atomic arsenal, a phone the available information indicated
number appeared, and the player that in a conventional war, NATO
physically called the hotline to get forces stood no chance in stop-
authorization. At the other end of ping the Soviets. In the commercial
the line, an answering machine release of the game, the power of
played war sounds, siren wailing the Warsaw Union was decreased
and screams, and then issued the to keep the gameplay balanced.
authorization code. In Poland it
was possible to find the code in Finally, I’d like to mention a series of
‘Tips and Tricks’ columns or in hand- books titled, ‘Descriptions of C-64
books but it lacked the theatrics of Games’ and published by PALMA-
the official version. press. If you remember, in a recent
K&A plus issue, I wrote about the
Many options become available to ‘Laser Squad’ game, the rules of
you once you receive the launch which I had to understand on my
codes. For example, an insane own, and use the trial-and-error
person could launch an immediate method to learn how to play. Luck-
and massive nuke attack. Obvi- ily, in the case of Theatre Europe it
ously, the enemy doesn’t sit idle was much easier, thanks to this se-
and the world can be destroyed ries of books (I guess around eleven
in the first minutes of play. Also, it’s of them were published). I’d also
possible to engage an Automatic like to remind you that at that time,
Reply System, so that when the the only games available were pi-
enemy launches a nuclear tipped rate copies and they usually didn’t
warhead, the computer responds include the instructions. Fortunately,
in kind. computer magazines and books
filled this gap.
Finally, it’s possible to launch a sin-
gle tactical rocket at your enemy.
Surely a lone rocket couldn’t inflict
doom onto humanity, or could it? It RPG Player’s Point of View
is possible to ensure Moscow, Paris,
or Warsaw, shares the same fate In the eighties, amongst the many
as Hiroshima. More sensibly you Role Playing Games there was an
RPG about the conflict between
may choose to attack a specific
NATO and the Warsaw Pact, or
location where a particularly strong rather what was left after World
hostile battalion is placed. Obvious- War III. In ‘Twighlight 2000’, players
ly, the enemy will respond in kind, are NATO soldiers left behind in
but sometimes sacrificing a city to Poland looking to survive. Do you
shoot everything that moves, or
eliminate a strong unit is temping.
do you cooperate with poten-
Victory? Maybe, but not of the tially hostile citizens? What about
moral kind. And it’s important to re- resources, the wounded, or even
member that every missile your fire morality? The gaming system
may provoke the enemy to launch had many add-ons and adven-
tures with quite intriguing names:
everything he has.
‘Free City of Cracow’, ‘Pirates of
Vistula’, ‘Ruins of Warsaw’, ‘Black
Alan Steel and his assistants were Madonna’, ‘Return to Warsaw’,
well prepared to create this game ‘White Eagle’. The computer ver-
and reproduce the conflict. Not sion of the game was released in
1991 pits your skills up against the
only did they research military liter-
forces of the Black Baron.
ature, but they also approached
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


34 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Bertie The Ball


COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Minimoog

Jumping, bouncing, flexibility, revolutions – this is the shortest way to describe Ber-
tie the Ball game by Misfit from 2014 for the VIC-20. It is a platform game which
keeps the traditional framework of the genre but also includes some innovation
– the main character, that a player controls, is not a walking man, but a ball with
some elements of a human head.

A
ctually, ‘controlling’ is not Contrary to many platform
the best term. The point games, Bertie the Ball doesn’t
is our Berite bounces and include a large network of
jumps all the time, so we don’t rooms. Please compare the
manipulate the character totally. map from further pages of our
To reach the desired location, the magazine with map from Pha-
jump needs to be precisely execu- raoh game (K&A plus #7, pages
ted. Unfortunately, this does cost 12-13). However, does a lot of
a lot of hit points, patience and work need to be powerful to
nerves. deliver a strong message? No!
REVIEW

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 35

COMMODORE
Especially if walking from one room replace the music later are all right,
to another is not very easy. this psychedelic, looped track gets
me in a weird mood. In my opinion,
The graphics are transparent, and it doesn’t match the jumpy Bertie.
that is really nice. Colorful hi-res
works well and gives the game The marks I gave may be a bit re-
some ZX-Spectrum-like climate. This pulsive. Anyway I think worth to get
lets quite detailed objects to be interested with the game, because
created for which multicolor would it’s well refined. Both gamers who
not apply. In general, I evaluate like manual-logic games and those
the graphics, which are done very who don’t give up easily should like
well, but cannot forget about the it. Do you want to jump with Bertie
flaws in displaying blue objects. If on corridors full of adventures and
anything is blue, then everything enemies? Play Bertie the Ball but
located below also becomes blue. don’t forget about the 16k memory
This could be done on purpose, but expansion!
I’m afraid it’s just a side effect that
was too difficult to eliminate. BERTIE THE BALL
Publisher: Misfit
The music, however, cannot be Release year: 2014
evaluated so positively. The intro Platform: VIC-20
screen theme has the only track.
It’s terrifying and I don’t like it. Even
though the sound effects that
4 2 3

REVIEW

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36 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

INTERVIEW REVIEW
Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio
TUTORIAL

Review: Don Rafito; Translation: Ari

Late 70s. A new machine appears on the home computer market, the Com-
modore PET – our 40 year old birthday celebrity. The programs and games that
were frequently ported from existing platforms will soon appear on this comput-
er. Among them, we find Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio, a game that combines
diplomacy and economics. The 80s is a true technological race: new chips, new
performance and capabilities. Commodore releases the Amiga. Three years after
this event, Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio also appears in a well-crafted version
for the Amiga.

A
t the beginning of the you must manage the annual This game is a classic of the strat-
game, we nominate the grain harvest, land development, egy genre. There is no place for
number of players to par- soldiers, slaves and taxes. You beautiful landscapes and smooth
ticipate (up to six people, each will want to entice citizens to live animation (although, as I men-
player controls their own coun- and work for your territory. Over tioned in the introduction, the
try-city), enter the name, sex and time, different social classes will Amiga version has decent graph-
degree of difficulty (from baron to emerge. Soldiers, slaves, crafts- ics, even the PC version is not that
king). men, peasants, clerics, and others good). All game interactions are
will all join in. Each of these groups through the keyboard.
You start in the year 1400 and play contribute to the development of
the ruler of a tiny Italian city-state. the city and must be skillfully man- As for the soundtrack, the game
With ambition, your city-state will aged to ensure their success and is rather bare. You are greeted by
develop into a powerful kingdom. increase tax revenues. Food is not a classic music module on the title
Be sure to build the kingdom everything. Sometimes wars need page, and thereon only the clicks
quickly before your serfs starve to be fought with your neighbors, for your choices. There is nothing
and your kingdom is invaded either because of invasion or your of sonic interest to write about. In
by your neighbors. As the ruler, desire to acquire new territory. this type of gameplay, sounds will
Your war- only be a distraction.
mongering
will not be I do not dare to judge a game
without con- that is older than me (the Amiga
sequence port appeared when I was only
however. a few years old). This game was
People will a revelation for fans of the genre
suffer from who’d sit for hours in front of the
hunger, monitor, making critical decisions
diseases, and by entering data and tracking the
pests deci- statistics. As a curiosity you can
mating your find web-front ends of the PC and
stocks. Every Apple II ports of the game on the
game year Internet Archive. At least you can
gives a new see how the Amiga overpowered
allocation of her "blue friend".
resources and
food, and SANTA PARAVIA
it is a fresh AND FIUMACCIO
chance to Publisher: Keypunch, Star-
regain lost
Soft, TDC
territory
Release year: 1978-1988
and human Platform: PET, C64/128,
resources or m68k OCS
acquire new
ones.
REVIEW

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38 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

PORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Editorial: Tomxx; Translation: Mateusz Skotarski

When I arrived in St. Martin in 1660, Sir Francis Drake's ghost still lingered over the
Caribbean Isles. While English ports sang songs in his honor, Spanish called him
a criminal and a ruffian. His kinds were outlaws, buccaneers, adventurers... in other
word, pirates. Many of us, young and bold Europeans arriving in the New World mid-
17th century, wanted to be like them, to become legends, live a fast and dangerous
life to its fullest. At the time I didn't think that I, too, would become one of them...

I
became a captain by... accident: a mutiny rises We're gaining fame... and infamy. Governor
on a Dutch ship, sailing from Amsterdam, and it himself grants me an official captain rank and 250
is me – trained in fencing since young age – who acres of land, extending an invitation to a ball-
single-handedly slays the previous captain. I took room dance with his daughter. Alas, dancing isn't
over the weathered sloop and together with forty my strength and no further romance develops, but
others we reported to St. Martin, the capital of it's not a big deal, as we quickly find a merchant
The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. who buys our loot, financing new bronze cannons
Although the governor informs me we're at for the ship.
a war with Spain, the city is full of life, sugar and
the spice trade is blooming and the inns are full Over the next few weeks we head towards French
of people and gossip alike. I hire a crew of 26, Montserrat, where Spanish navy galleon “La
obtain a scrap of a treasure map from a mys- Gariota” was last seen. On our way, passing by
terious stranger pointing me towards the loot of a settlement bathed in Caribbean sun, Felicidad
pirate Jean Lafitte, and learn about the beauty of Nuevo, we take over a French brigantine carrying
governor's daughter from a bar-hand, while the grain and an English merchantman full of spic-
barmaid tells me the whereabouts of a talented es, heading towards St. Kitts. Our adventures are
carpenter, currently boarding ”Fortune” sailing to followed by a brief respite at a Jesuit settlement
San Juan. Santa Isadora, where local abbot claims that a pi-
rate known as l'Olonnais knows the whereabouts
We set sail and encounter our first prey – Span-
ish coastal barque “Barcelona”, too slow to be
a threat to us. Its crew surrenders without a fight,
while we loot the gold, rations, spices and a whole
37 tones of sugar. We fight our first major battle
against a 10-cannon trade galleon ”Nuestra Se-
nora de Cabo”, sailing to Santo Domingo. Despite
losing dozen-odd crew members, we board and
take it over along with the booty. We spend the
next few days preparing an ambush on a royal
sloop “Fortune”, sailing under British flag, around
Lesser Antilles. Unfortunately for them, we succeed
and quickly take it over.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 39

of my sister I lost a decade ago! Luckily he and


I cross paths two weeks later near Martinique and,
having sunk his ship and taken him captive, the
pirate tells us our sister is safe and remains some-
where around Trinidad.

We stop at Curacao, where we equip our arse-


nal with chain shots, used to turn sails into rags. It
is in February 1621 that we reach our next pirate
milestone: first we reach the area west of Margari-
ta Island, near an active geyser and an old Aztec
temple, where we find the hidden booty of Jean
Lafitte, and soon after we engage in naval battle
against ”La Gariota” and its frigate escort, “Conde
de Regla”. I have to admit, battling against two
Spanish navy ships is no small challenge, but by
the combined might of our upgraded sloop and
battle-hardened crew we are victorious once
again. As the sun sets, ”Conde de Regla” sinks
and now numerous crews of 86 pirates boards “La
Gariota”, taking over the gold originally meant
to pay Spanish soldiers. I slay the Spanish captain
and soon four thousand gold pieces are in my
possession.

The adventure ends where it began. Governor of


St. Martin reassures me my service in the name of
Dutch republic was noticed by the crown and I'm
being promoted to the rank of Major. We share
the loot among the crew, while I keep a majority
and the undefeated ship itself. I retire, spending
months of my life in leisure and wealth... but such
life is not for me. I still feel young, healthy and full
of energy. Soon, I gather my faithful crew and we
set sail once again, in search of lost relatives, for-
gotten cities, fortune, love and fame of the most
feared pirates of the Caribbean!

EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


40 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

30 YEARS OF THE SERIES limits and studios were free to experience at the time quite
explore their ambitions. After unique, where the world felt
Such is the life of a pirate, full all, one cannot simulate the life fresh and open for exploration.
of adventures, economy and of a pirate without including It was the first game that didn't
military escapades we've had such aspects as discovering let me sleep at night. I would
pleasure to enjoy for the past new lands, duels, economic, wake up early in the morning
30 years. Sid Meier's series military and political decisions only to fire up Commodore and
made its mark on pop culture and so on. All of these aspects continue my adventures. In the
and each of its faces: Pirates! had to be contained in a neat times when most player char-
(1987), Pirates! Gold (1993) and package of a single game and acters had little to no identity, it
Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life contributed to an ambitious was no small feat.
(2004) all earned itself a loyal undertaking.
fandom, active to this day. GAME FEATURES
The game takes place in a his-
The original was a break- torical setting, not too far off First two releases don't differ
through, in few ways. First of all, the reality: each of the six start- much in terms of story line
it was Sid Meier's debut take ing “ages” attempts a realistic or game play. Pirates! Gold
on the strategy games, grant- take on political situation in the released 6 years after its pre-
ing him experience to follow region, differing greatly in terms decessor has better graphics
up with games such as Tycoon of nations' influences, types and UI, but ultimately it's the
and Civilization, games com- of ships we encounter, cities same game. Both versions were
bining certain elements, includ- forming etc. For example, the equally captivating, thanks to
ing but not limited to strategy, towns “appear” on the map their historical accuracy and
simulation, economy and mili- at the times they were actually ambiance, which contributed
tary. Before Pirates! Sid focused constructed in. This means that greatly to the immersion in the
mostly on military simulators (F- different playthroughs offer dif- fantasy of becoming an au-
15 Strike Eagle, Gunship, Silent ferent maps and world, which thentic pirate. It's worth to note
Service and other), but due to encouraged the studio to that the versions released for
hardware limitations of those provide players with a physical 8- and 16-bit consoles differed
days they weren't as successful map, marked with the locations between one another. An
as our ambitious author would and founding dates of individu- example would be the scrolling
have liked. al settlements. mechanic: 8-bit version had
the screen centered on the
In addition, the 1987 release Indeed, the expectations wer- ship, moving along with it, while
was as close to an open world en't great at the time, when Amiga screens loaded and
as we could get: events were a low resolution 2D screen was changed upon reaching the
procedural generated, while enough to satisfy players. How- edge of observable sea. None-
the narrative developed ac- ever, the game certainly pulled theless, it is the Amiga version,
cording to player's actions and a lot of them in, offering them with brand new graphics and
choices. It was this fresh take tracks, was widely considered
on freedom, ability to choose as the better release. In 1993
the direction of the game that Amiga CD32 also received its
made the game stand out adaptation (along with Sega
among others of its time. Genesis, as it ran the same ver-
sion); this release was smooth
On top of that, as Sid himself and pretty, cut scenes were
said in one of his numerous animated and UI felt akin to
interviews, Pirates! was inspired that of a TV recording (mouse
by the flow of a movie narra- control was not supported). On
tive, which implied the com- the other hand, Gold edition
plexity of the game from the was bug-ridden, so majority
very start. Mid eighties, most of fans remained loyal to the
games presented simplistic and original release.
linear take on narrative and
player actions, while ambitious Third release on the other
game designers had no tem- hand... well, we had to wait
plate or example to follow. This eleven years for that one, but
proved to be a liberating trait – it was worth it. In 2004 studio
lack of any sort of mainstream Firaxis (direct descendants of
meant that no one knew their MicroProse), under the watch-
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 41

ful eye of Sid Meier himself, be applied, both to our char-


created Pirates! this time acter, ship and crew. Treasure
with the use of a 3D engine. seeking requires smart navigat- ▼▼The game manual added to the box
Compared to its precursors, it ing around the map, towns can of Pirates! was a true work of art! It
offers some new solutions and be fired upon, or “infiltrated” if perfectly introduced the player to the
game, was packed with historical
improvements, but before I get need be... The game plays ob-
nuances and beautifully handcrafted
to details I'd like to point out jectively smoother and didn't images...
its greatest strength: it's still the lose any of its original charm
same good old pirate life we all through various enhancements
came to love! Despite all the and to top it all off we're treat-
revolutionary breakthroughs ed with a Pirate-o-pedia within
on gaming scene, all the new the game, offering unique
technologies and practices, insight into the pirate life!
the atmosphere of the originals
was not lost with time. I guess The game does have some
I could compare it to Blizzard flaws, however: the new art
releasing Starcraft 2 and doing style isn't to my liking. Previous
their best to maintain the game releases were as realistic as
play and feeling of the original they could be, limited mostly
game first, while introducing by hardware capabilities; the
new aspects to the game as latest one however feels some-
a secondary priority. what like visiting Disneyland
– it's cartoonish and whimsy,
Although there are quite a few almost as if it was made for
additions in the 2004 release, children. It's subjective, but I do
I think they're mostly positive: feel like it takes away from the
first of all, contact with other realism and immersion, similar
ships is no longer entirely ran- to what I felt when I moved
dom, as the game informs us from Civ 5 to Civ 6. Various
of all units we encounter; land mini-games were introduced as
based town combat was im- well, annoying at times and not
proved from strategic point of contributing to the narrative
view, having been bolstered by at all, such as the dance with
turn based approach, terrain governor's daughter, making us
importance in unit behavior follow the steps she teaches us.
and morale mechanics narra-
tive was expanded to include Alas, those are merely details,
motif of revenge, in form of what's important is that Sid
rescuing various family mem- Meier's Pirates! Live the Life
bers from other pirates; fencing is a good and solid game,
duels were re-imagined com- already considered a worthy
pletely, now relying on players' descendant of the originals by
dexterity and quick choices the community. I strongly rec-
when controlling his character; ommend getting the game on
many new improvements can Steam, during one of its sales!

▼▼Graphics comparison of original Pirates! (1987) on various systems (source: http://frgcb.blogspot.ie). Top row, left to right:
Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Apple //GS, Atari ST. Bottom row, left to right: DOS, Apple ][, NES, Commodore Amiga, Macintosh.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


42 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
AMIGA

Review: Bob8bit; Translation: Michał Sroka (sroka.me)

Everything has its beginning and in 1991 Coktel Vision developed the game Gobliiins.
At the time, no one suspected that the franchise would spawn three sequels during its
ERVIEW REVIEW 20 years on the market. It’s time to take a look at the game that started it all.
TUTORIAL

O
ne day, during an ordi- group.
nary dinner, King Angou- Oups is
lafre began to act the only
strangely. His screams, moans one with
and twitching motions frightened the ability
others present at the chambers. to use
It was suspected that the myste- items,
rious illness could be remedied and the
only by a special potion. A quest remaining
to find the necessary ingredi- two can
ents was given to three brave help the
goblins, the protagonists of the player
game. by using
magic or
Since Gobliiins is a puzzle-ad- physical
venture game, there force
are numerous respec-
puzzles for the tively. worth it to get into trouble just
player to solve. to see the animations drawn
To do that, The three goblins smile very often by Pierre Gilhodes, the game’s
the player can and so should the player. Most illustrator. Each failure, though,
control three gob- mistakes made by the player takes a little bit from the team’s
lins: Oups – the smart results with animations depicting health bar. When it reaches
one, Ignatius – the wizard, and not only failure and suffering, but zero it is game over. It’s worth to
Asgard – the strong one. Most also joy on the faces of the pro- note that it’s easy to lose health
puzzles require the player to tagonists. Nothing puts a smile points, but places to replen-
combine the strengths on a face than seeing the sight ish them are extremely hard
of each member of the of a suffering friend! It’s usually throughout the campaign. Of
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 43

▼The
▼ cover of the original Gobliiins on Amiga.
Gobliiins doesn’t allow the play-
er to save the game. Instead, it

AMIGA
Intro
uses a password system requir-
The 2.5-minute intro is a big hit introducing us
ing the player to write it down to the game, and the level of presented ab-
after every completed screen. surdity pierces the stone ceiling of the castle
Because of this we can say that in which its action takes place. In any case,
the computer indeed saves our we have a large dose of black humor, but
progress, but in an analogue also the secret associated with the voodoo
form as a text written in our doll, by which someone perverts the king in
notebook. To access every level a perfidious way. Our three friendly goblins
we’ll have to have enough set out with the mission of solving the mystery,
and to us, watching this intro after years,it is an
space for 21 unique passwords
opportunity to reminisce about what good
(the first level doesn’t require
intros were once made in the past.
one).

The graphics in the game are


nice and colorful. Interestingly,
the developers didn’t regard
the mouse as a necessary de-
course it’s possible to successful- vice of the computer. Instead,
ly finish the game without losing the game can be completed
a point from the bar. entirely by using the keyboard.
We can assume that the reason
Humors aside, the main focus lies in the fact that the game
of the game are the puzzles. was also released on PC, Atari ST
Unfortunately, they don’t come and Macintosh.
without some problems. The first
one is the lack of any kind of hint To sum up: despite its high
to tell the player what they are difficulty, Gobliiins can be fun.
supposed to do in each of the If that’s a problem for you, you
screens. On top of that, Gobliiins can always finish the game
were developed in an era when laughing at the funny protago-
the developers were happily put- nists and reading a solution to
ting completely illogical puzzles the game.
in their games. These issues force
the player to mundanely try
every possible combination of GOBLIIINS
items and actions just to figure
Publisher: Coktel Vision,
out the solution. This can prove
Sierra On-Line
frustrating, especially consider- Release year: 1992
ing the depleting health bar and Platform: Amiga i inne
the fact that interactive spots
on the screen are in no way
highlighted.
8 6 7
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


44 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

How to get the best picture quality from the C64


COMMODORE

RECENZJA TUTORIAL and why S-Video gives the best picture over other connections
Tutorial: Krzysztof Odachowski; Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga

Probably most of you wondered sometimes how to get the best possible quality of pic-
ture from your Commodore 64. There are several ways to make a connection. Obvious-
ly, everything depends on what kind of sockets your TV or monitor has on it.

O
bviously, connecting our lovely C64 to Obviously, it’s also possible to apply a whole sort
a TV socket with an ordinary RF cable and of different converters available on the market.
modulator provides the worst quality. The They can be used to connect our C64 to anything
point is, however, not to get the worst, but the we want, but in this short article I’d like to focus on
best picture, so I’ll skip this method. one of the best available solutions, the S-Video.

The next option is to use the monitor output in C64 S-Video (separated video) is a standard based on
to connect composite signal to a monitor. This separation of luminance and chrominance signals,
signal is fed to pin 4 in VIDEO output and contains which allows getting much better picture quality
joined color and brightness signals generated by compared to composite signal. Voice signal is
Commodore. The quality is far better from the transmitted in a separate cable.
standard RF connection; however it’s not what
users like the most. S-Video can be connected to TV or monitor in
two ways. The first one is to use a SCART Plug, also
Layout of signals pins in VIDEO socket of our com- called the euro-connector (in this case also audio
puter is shown below. It’s worth to mention that signal from our computer can be connected to
first models of C64 had the VIDEO socket in DIN-5 the SCART Plug). The second method is to use
standard (without a chrominance signal pin), and a typical S-Video (mini DIN-4) plug, which besides
later in DIN-8 – DIN-8. luminance and chrominance signals also has two
additional pins for GND, so audio signal cannot be
Image. 1. Comparison of two sockets: 5-pin (on connected to any of them and requires a sepa-
left) and 8-pin (on right): rate connection.

To prepare a SCART cable, a six cord shielded


cable is needed, an optional switch (if we want to
change between S-Video and composite signals),
a 330 Ohm resistor, and DIN-8 and SCART plugs.

SCART can transmit several different video signals,


but composite and S-Video occupy pin 20. This
makes the switch redundant. If the cable we work
on is supposed to have only S-Video, both switch
and connection to pin 4 in C64 video socket are
not needed. In a case when our cable is intend-
Table. 1. Signals transmitted on various pins: ed to transmit only a composite signal, connec-
tions from pins 1 and 6 on video connector and
PIN Signal a switch are unnecessary.
1 Luma (brightness)

2 GND
Obviously, signals from our C64 are not perfect.
Resistor for chroma signal is needed to improve
3 Audio Out
the quality of picture for modern TV sets. For some
4 Video Out (composite)
types of TV, after connecting S-Video a check-
5 Audio In
erboard pattern effect appears and very bright
6 Chroma (color)
colors can be noticed. Probably, this is caused by
7 –
a very strong chroma signal. Unfortunately, the
8 +5VDC or –
resistor trick doesn’t work on every TV. It is best to
experiment with the resistor value and see if it can
TUTORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 45

give the best effect. Another way is to use LumaFix At the end, a couple screenshots to compare the

COMMODORE
chip, but that’s a topic for a separate article. quality:

The second, quite important problem is significantly 1. COMPOSITE


a lot of noise from the audio signal. It can be solved
by connecting pin 5 of the video socket (audio in)
to pin 2 (GND). However, don’t expect a miracle –
you’ll hear the noise anyway, as it’s generated by
the VIC chip and video circuits.

Image 2. Schematics of S-Video/composite ->


SCART cable (with switch):

2. S-VIDEO

Image 3. S-Video -> mini DIN-4 cable connections:

3. S-VIDEO + REZYSTOR

Image 4. This is my C64 with S-Video socket placed


outside of the case:

This article was created with help of the ilesj.word-


press.com website. The screenshots used were
originally presented at: www.bigmech.com.
TUTORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


46 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

SID Adventures:
COMMODORE

EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW


Gaetano Chiummo
TUTORIAL

Interview: GeoAnas; Editing: Tomxx; Translation: Ari


I still remember how I spontaneous reacted when I first experi-
enced the jaw dropping "New Horizons", the very first 3XSID music
collection released by Samar Productions back on 2014. I was
well aware of 2XSID hence I equal had three of my commies
modded with such a marvelous enhancers, but 3XSID? What kind
of magic was this? Time has come. Please allow me to introduce
you Gaetano Chiummo the man who pushed the X SID bounda-
ries beyond stereophony, the one who's being responsible for this eargasm alchemy.

Hello Gaetano! Welcome to K&A+! music which was made with Goat- called “The Challenge”, a sort of
First of all, allow me to say that it’s Tracker maybe, if it weren’t for that hymn which was so ambitious that it
an honor to have you here! Let’s game, I would never have started almost ended up in the last place!
start with all the usual stuff… Name, composing for the Commodore 64! In 2016, I composed “Starting Over”
country of origin, age, studies, for the “Non Standard Time Signa-
present status, all these tiny bits and My second SID tune was the “SEA ture Compo” (ranked 6th over 20),
pieces you’d like to share with us… Soft Loader”, which should have and made a new 3SID collection
been the loading music for my (containing the already mentioned
Hello, I’m Gaetano Chiummo, next (SEUCK) games. In fact, I was “Happy New Wave”, the new
I’m 40 and I live in Trani (Italy). I’m already designing a game, “Il composition “Ramos 2016”, and
a business consultant, I’m married Mago”, which I later submitted to “Hope”, a remake of an unreleased
and I’ve got one daughter. the Standard SEUCK Compo 2010. tune that I composed for a project
The game won first prize and this that has never seen the light), in
Do you have any academic back- gave me the chance to compose memory of Ramos. This year I’ve
ground as a composer? a proper soundtrack for the game worked (together with my brother,
(and to draw a loading picture as who did the most of the work) on
No, I do not, I’m a self-taught com- well! It was my first one ever!). the soundtrack of “Planet Golf”,
poser, and I’m still learning! I only a wonderful game by Antonio
studied music at the intermediate In 2012, I started making another Savona, composing three songs
school (from age 11 to 13), where game, called “Sheer Earth Attack”, and I also composed the music for
I learned to play the recorder. At another compo winner, for which “Beholder”, the first release of the
that time, my parents gave me and I made a complete soundtrack newborn “MP Productions”.
my brother a music keyboard on and a loading screen. Then, on the
which we composed some very CSDb forum, I noticed a request for Would you please name your
simple songs and later on when we SID musicians willing to take part in favorite musicians from the past and
were 17, we bought a guitar. From the 20th birthday of Samar Pro- the present and / or your favorite
then on, I composed my songs on ductions (2013) and I felt ready to demo groups?
the guitar mainly. compose something different from
my usual game tunes, so I made From the “past”, my favorite SID
Although new to the C64 scene, “Acoustic Freedom” and sent it musicians are Martin Galway,
you certainly managed to put your to Ramos. He liked the tune, and Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Mark
mark on with numerous fine releas- asked me if I could make another Cooksey, Fred Gray, Wally Beben,
es. Starting from zero, could you one so I accepted the challenge the Follin brothers, Neil Baldwin, Neil
present us the timeline of your C64 and made “Filtered Feelings”. At Brennan, Chris Huelsbeck, Jonathan
gaming / music experience? the end of 2013, Ramos asked me if Dunn, Matthew Cannon, Maniacs
I wanted to join Samar Productions. of Noise and Vibrants (especially
Apart from some never-released He already had the ambitious Drax, JCH and Laxity).  As for the
adventure games written together project of a 3SID collection in mind present, I really like Lft, Jammer,
with my brother in BASIC and some and asked me if I could compose Lman, and Aldo Chiummo.
early SEUCK games, which were some 3SID tunes. It took almost
recently recovered and put online three months, and the first 3SID col- What "triggered" you to join the C64
by the SEUCK vault, I would say lection (containing “A Walk in the scene?
that my very first release in the C64 Countryside”, “New Adventure”,
scene was a SEUCK game called “SID Power Ballad”, “Waterfall” and Well, I almost didn’t know anything
“The Rocket Man”. It was made for “Arcade Memories”) was released. about the scene until Ramos asked
the “Sideways SEUCK Compo” held me to join Samar Productions at the
in 2010 by The New Dimension. That In February 2014, I took part in the end of 2013 so I’m not very active,
game also featured my first ever SID Forever party compo with a tune but I really like being part of the
INTERVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 47

group! To be honest, I got in touch Kichote) would make a player and song is the solo which plays in the

COMMODORE
with some “sceners” in 1999, when join the two files. The problem was second verse.
I was looking for some C64 games that the 2SID version of GoatTracker
and music online and I found the didn’t feature a specific filters/vol- For the fourth piece, I ran out of
High Voltage SID Collection and ume setting for each of the two SIDs ideas, so I asked Ramos so he told
subscribed to the mailing list. I sub- so that’s why I decided to compose me that I should do something in
mitted some STIL comments, bug each of the SIDs individually. One the style of Cyborg Jeff and he sent
reports, missing information and so of the pieces of the collection, me some music and I tried to com-
on, and I got in touch with extraor- “Waterfall”, also featured a double pose something similar. The tune
dinary people such as Jan Harries, speed track. was developed on Psycle, and the
still active in the “scene” and still melodic part was very complex, as
a good friend of mine. “New Horizons” (2014) followed there was a weird counter melody
by “Enchanted Forest” and “Edelin playing! Ramos also asked me if
‘Hokuto Force’ and ‘Samar Pro- Tales Theme” (2015)… What an ear- I could use some double speed
ductions’ are both two of the finest gasm! What gave you the inspira- instruments, which I never did! I had
groups around. They certainly tion for these masterpieces? to do many experiments before
appreciated your talent and eager- obtaining the right sounds…
ness for perfection. When and how Enchanted Forest and Edelin Tales
did this happen? Theme were composed by Joa- Is it really necessary to put some
chim Wijnhoven, for a PC game standards of how a specific stereo
About Samar Productions, Ramos called “Edelin Tales” and he asked SID should be played back?
simply liked my music and asked me if I could produce a 3SID version
me to join! I think it was a gamble of his music which I did! The tunes I would have preferred to have all
for him, as I only released a couple are very similar to the original music the three SIDs of my first collection
of tunes until then and that’s why that I had to convert (as he gave play “mono”, as it was very difficult
I’m so thankful to Ramos. He gave me the original Renoise files), so the to decide which part should have
me one of the biggest chances tunes are 85% Joachim’s work. been played on the left channel,
that I’ve ever had in life, he be- which one on the right channel and
lieved in my talent and gave me About “New Horizons”, the first which one on the front channel.
the responsibility to work on such piece I composed was “New Ad- This is due to the way they were
ambitious projects as the first 3SID ventures which I composed for the designed so one SID contained the
collection. main harmony on guitar, and then chords, another one the drums,
finished the tune and arranged it another one the lead and the
Hokuto Force came a bit later on Psycle, trying to figure out how bass. On the other hand, in one
which is an Italian group, so it was I could use the three SIDs at their of the tunes in the second collec-
natural for them to ask me to join! best. The most obvious thing to do tion (“hope”) I tried to simulate
Enrico Sturaro, in particular, liked my was to dedicate one SID to the a “stereo” effect at the beginning,
melodies very much and thought chords, another SID to the lead in- as the 3SID version of SIDWizard
the group needed some Italian strument and the bass, and another has already got a “standard” in
melodic flavor. one to the drums. the 3SIDs playback. So, I think this
should be the actual “standard” for
You were seriously involved in com- I wanted to try different genres, so the future, though some tunes will
posing some marvelous 3SID col- I decided that the second compo- always sound better in “mono”…
lections. You are the first musician sition (“A Walk in the Countryside”)
to release a 3SID music collection, should be an “acoustic” piece. Are you planning to release more of
aren’t you? I took the guitar and eventually those excellent X-SID tunes? What
found the arpeggio you can hear in are your future plans?
Yes, I am! When Ramos asked me the tune. Here I had some trou-
to compose the music for the first ble with the filters and if I played I’m still working on the Edelin Tales
ever 3SID collection I felt honored the tune on the GoatTracker they soundtrack with Joachim Wijnhoven
but also a bit scared! It was a chal- sounded ok, but when I listened to and we already did the most part
lenge, and I also felt the pressure the music in WinVice, they sounded of the soundtrack. At the moment,
of being the new member of one completely different! I spent a lot I’m involved in the production of
of the best scene groups. Anyway of time adjusting the filter and the two games, but I can’t say more
Ramos was a great leader, he knew volume settings for each track to about them because the devel-
what he wanted from people and obtain the best result. opment has just started! One of
he was able to get the best from them, “Star Pilgrim”, is really going
them, so he put me at ease with his “SID Power Ballad” was another to be a big game and you can
great hints and suggestions. It was piece based upon a guitar riff and follow the progress on the official
difficult at the beginning, because another arpeggio this time, for Facebook page of the project
there wasn’t any tool for produc- a ballad, which seems to come https://www.facebook.com/starpil-
ing 3SID music so the idea was to from the ’80s! Actually, the inspi- grimc64. It’s being coded by a real
compose the first two SIDs with ration came from those emotional Italian “Dream Team” (the project
GoatTracker’s 2SID versions and the ballads by Roxette, Scorpions, and leader is Ivan Venturi, who made
other one with the standard Goat- Bon Jovi. I tried to recreate that games such as F1 Manager in the
Tracker and then the coder (Don feeling! My favorite part of this late eighties, and recently wrote
INTERVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


48 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

a book about the Italian videog- to “multiplex” too much, and leave SID music, so I’m really fond of it. In
COMMODORE

ames production during the 8 and each note play without being particular, I like its filters handling,
16 bit era), and will involve some of stopped abruptly by the next one. which is very different from SID
the most talented Italian artists and There’s also an “echo” effect on Wizard’s.
musicians. the lead instrument, which gives
more depth to the sound. I understand that your every day
Among all your fine collections and “work horse” is one mighty PC, isn’t
tunes, which ones are your favorites Which were your most profound, it? Could you describe a typical
and why? personal milestones? day in your studio?

“Sea Soft Loader” is one of my most Actually there are two “milestones” Yes, I make SID music with my
favorites among my early tunes. It that I’m very proud of and the first PC. As I don’t have much spare
could have had better instruments, one is the 3SID collection. I felt hon- time, I usually start by picking the
but I was still learning. It’s “old ored to be in charge of it, and I’m guitar and try to get a good chord
school” music, with a happy riff, very pleased with the final result in progression, then I write it down on
a lot of ring modulation and some term of votes, downloads and You- a sketchbook and I try to com-
nice melodies. Tube visualizations. Of course, with- pose a nice melody. Most of the
out the hard work of Isildur (for the time, I write the chords and notes
“Filtered Feelings” was my second great graphics), Don Kichote (for in Psycle, as it helps me listen to
contribution to the “20 years of the code) and Ramos (who had them being played together. The
Samar” tribute and it’s quite short, the idea of releasing the collection next step consists in arranging the
and it also took a very short time and put a lot of effort in it to make music, sometimes I do it on Psycle
to be written, but I didn’t want it sure it would be a masterpiece!) and then convert the whole work
to be boring or repetitive. I worked this would have never happened… on the SID Wizard and other times
a lot on the arrangement (but the The second one is the Planet Golf I arrange the music directly on the
instruments could be a lot better, Soundtrack CD: the game contains SID Wizard.
especially the snare drums!) and on a lot of music, and Antonio thought
the melodies, while the riff came it was so good that it should be re- You may probably know that I fan-
out very easily (I just played it on leased on a CD and shipped along cy looking at studio photos! Would
the guitar and transcribed it on my with the game! It was a huge sur- you share some nice and crisp pic-
sketchbook!). prise for me and my brother (who tures from your creation room and/
recorded all the tracks from his own or your equipment with us?
All the tunes from “New Horizons” Commodore 64!) and it’s actually
are my favorites and they came our first official album. :) I hope you’re not disappointed
out quite easily, especially because by finding out that my “studio”
of Ramos’ great advices and feed- If you feel like deeply experiment- consists of a guitar, a sketchbook
back. ing in making new sounds, which and a desktop PC. That’s all I need
path would you choose in order to to make music, though I would like
“Summer Breeze” is also one of best express yourself? to have a good synthesizer to play
my best. I composed it on Psycle, with and a powerful amplification
and the arrangement was quite Yes, I like to experiment with sounds, system.
complex. This time I tried to work though I’m mainly focusing on the
a lot on the instruments, and used harmony. I don’t like using “pre- Have you setup any blog/web or
many embellishments in the melody sets”, so when I make a new tune Facebook personal page where
(especially in the main riff and in I create the sounds from scratch. someone can either reach you or
the solo). The melody took a lot of It’s very difficult to imitate real in- download your tunes?
work, because I wanted it to be struments with SID, so I usually try to
almost perfect. combine two tracks (especially for I’ve got a YouTube channel named
drums) and use filters. “rainstorm1977”, where you can
“History of Headaches” is another also find some of my music and
piece I like very much. This tune Which are your favorite music tool / I’ve created a playlist where I put
was composed for a Tape Loader your preferable trackers? my own songs. There’s also https://
Compo, and I wanted it to sound soundcloud.com/rainstorm1977,
like Galway’s Ocean Loaders In general, my favorite tracker for a page which contains more or less
tunes, without using any drums and PC is Psycle, which also allows use the same things.
trying to have the bass playing the of external VST instruments. When
rhythmical part. I also didn’t want it comes to composing for the Last but not least, there’s, https://
SID, my first choice is SID Wizard. www.reverbnation.com/mongra,
It’s designed to run on a real C64 a ReverbNation page about my
(though I use it under emulation), band “Mongra”
and has got a lot of interesting
features which make it very flexible. I believe that Gaetano Chiummo
My second choice is GoatTracker is here to stay and to amaze! Am
for Windows because it’s a bit more I wrong?
difficult than SID Wizard, but it’s the
first tracker I used to compose my I’ll try my best!
INTERVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 49

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE


50 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Lumberjack
AMIGA

L INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Don Rafito; Translation: Ari

It is said that nothing ever happens twice in our life. The history of mankind has
shown many times that this saying is a mere dream. This can be also applied to
games and not only to those on C64 and Classical Amiga. Besides, there were
many titles that appeared, sometimes almost simultaneously, on both platforms.
And that’s how it was in the case of the Lumberjack game. The C64 version saw
the light of day in 2016, and a year later its Amiga release appeared.

M
alicious people may say; jumping once to the left and once Average graphics, poor sound,
How do I mix two different to the right. The key thing in all the only thing that is strong in
games in one review? But this confusion is that the tree are this title is playability. And that’s
they are not two different games. indefinitely tall and the lumberjack the way it was supposed to be.
Same idea, same storyline, same must cut as many slices from the Simple, uncomplicated, focusing
rules and almost same title. There tree in the shortest time possible. only on a quick click "left-right",
are some differences only in per- And the more pieces you cut, the allowing for a moment of uncom-
formance, which depend on the more time you will gain. And that’s plicated relaxation.
hardware capabilities. Ordinarily, how it goes. The Amiga version, as
the team of developers creating I mentioned above, has been ex- It is hard to judge this average
an Amiga version, decided to panded with a set of bonuses that title, which has appeared as
slightly differentiate the title, which are placed on a tree, approach- a freeware on one platform, and
resulted in the fact that it became ing a woodcutter with a shortened as a commercial release on the
a commercial release available stump. Their character may sug- other. I understand that we need
on AMIGA.net.pl. gest that if our hero succeeds in to support our native programmers
cutting off this bush, there in particular, but there were better
is a good party waiting titles for which you did not have to
for him... but I will not give pay any money that were for the
away the spoiler. Amiga. The only plus is that Lum-
berjack Reloaded is available not
The graphics are simple, only in the form of a digital disk
legible and a bit monot- image (ADF), but also as a boxed
onous. There is not much CD version. The game can also be
going on the screen, but purchased on Amiga CDTV and
on the other hand, what CD32. If only the content was a bit
more is there to expect better...
for a game like this. Forest
background, trees with LUMBERJACK
fallen branches and
Publisher: Megastyle, Proto-
a man with his ax. I men-
vision
tioned the background
Release year: 2016
Simplicity itself. Yes, that’s how it first. I understand the ideology of Platform: C64
should be described if the review the title, but the forest view could
would conclude in only one sen- have been a bit better. I did not 5 3 9
tence. know what to expect, but for both
the C64 and Amiga, I have seen
But let’s get to the point. The play- many similar games but they were LUMBERJACK RELOADED
er takes on the role of a lumber- more graphically varied.
Publisher: Cobe, Lem-
jack who stands eye to eye with
ming880
a huge tree and throughout the The soundtrack is short and
Release year: 2017
game, chopping it off with his ax, looped background music with Platform: m68k, OCS/ECS
cutting slices of the tree from the a sound of an ax. I was hoping for
bottom. During the tree cutting, a little more, at least in the Amiga 5 3 9
huge branches come down and version. This is a shame.
our smart guy must avoid them,
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 51

Arctic Moves

AMIGA
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Don Rafito; Translation: Ari

The process of moving, or if you prefer, porting titles from modern hardware to
retro-platforms is not a new phenomenon. This sort of thing has been happening
for at least the last two decades. Although not the first, many people consider
the port of Doom to the Amiga as the dawn of this phenomena. Could Amiga
had survived if Doom was originally released on the Amiga rather than on those
beige box PCs with their quirky IRQ jumper settings? Once the floodgates opened
however, programmers have taken up the challenge of porting modern games
to classic hardware ever since.

W
hen it comes to the action as henchmen are
title, I am reminded of hot on your trail. Along
the frozen landscapes the way you will find var-
from horror movies such as the ious weapons upgrades,
Alien vs. Predator, set in the grenades, gadgets,
Antarctic but just as frozen as health points and shields
Arctic Movies that takes place to help you achieve
at the North Pole. In either each level.
case, there is a lot of snow,
a lot of baddies and lots and The graphics are good
lots of shooting. Watch out be- and the visual action is
hind you, enemy wearing heli- just right, although the
copter backpacks approach- levels do not squeeze
ing, fire fire fire … boom. the most out of Amiga's
graphics capabilities.
The game opens with a subma- There is a lot of scen-
rine breaking through the ice ery and lots of special
cap in the Arctic Circle. A map effects but by modern the original game rather than
standards the the Amiga specific port.
animation could
be smoother. Arctic Moves is a classic
This could be science-fiction shooter with
because the elements of a platform game.
Amiga release Time spent on this game will
was ported over not be lost, especially in the
from the Atari ST. long winter evenings. There
is also a trainer version that
The sound is available for the beginner,
effects from or shall we say, less ambitious
explosions, player. So shoot the aliens and
weapons fire, keep moving forward!
dying moans,
various operat- ARCTIC MOVES
is shows you the optimal path ing devices, terminals, eleva-
Publisher: Dinamic,
to the North Pole, and orders tors and automatic doors are
to conduct Operation Polar well made and suit the action. Meynaf (Amiga port)
Release year: 1991, 2017
Bear. Armed with only a 9mm The game does miss a decent
Platform: Amiga m68k,
Parabellum pistol, you must soundtrack to play in the back-
OCS/ECS
make your way through various ground, which would fuel the
missions and defeat the ene-
my. You are thrown into the
climate of this dynamic game.
This is more of a comment on
7 6 7
REVIEW

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52 Komoda & Amiga plus #9
COMMODORE

L INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Komek; Translation: Ari

Ow snap! 28 years I have been waiting for a moment when the blood from Brø-
derbund will flow in my TED’s veins. I was already losing hope, I was losing my
senses until one day...

L
ong or short, it’s not impor- I recall that Lode Runner is an direction. The most important
tant. Most importantly, that arcade game that was released element here is the great play-
big hit from the first half of by Brøderbund Software in 1983, ability, which was totally amaz-
the 80s. – Lode Runner finally on many systems including Com- ing, resulting in a wide range of
appeared on the Plus/4. What modore 64. The player's job is to admirers of this title.
a great feeling! It's like asking recover the stolen gold that was
In 2011, the Hungarian group
– Assassins created a very
similar Lode Runner conversion
to Commodore Plus / 4. Why
"similar"? First of all, it's about
graphics, all its elements look
like they are from the good old
times. Of course this is not the
end, because sound effects are
almost identical and they sound
just like in the C64 version. The
levels have also been created
with care in reproducing the
original and we have all 150 of
them here.

I do not need to encourage you


to play this successful conver-
sion, which will probably be
a great delight for every retro
gamer. Bring your friends and
Mom now to bake a delicious placed in crates in a huge lab- remember the old times, and tell
plum cake that she used to yrinth patrolled by the guards. the younger generation how it
make when we were little kids. Players most likely associate this used to be in the world of com-
game puter games.
with the
LODE RUNNER
way in
which Publisher: Brøderbund
the pro- Software, Assassins
tagonist Release year: 1983. 2011
defends Platform: C64, Plus/4
himself,
he is 5 4 8
digging
holes PS. Finally, it is worth mentioning
in the the very interesting conversion of
ground Lode Runner called Acid Runner,
to stop published by the Polish company
the LK Avalon in 1993. The game has
guards a different, but similar graphics,
running cool music and it will also give
in his you a lot of fun.
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 53

COMMODORE
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Komek; Translation: Ari

Not so long ago, 2016 in fact, an interesting arcade game called GENIUS –
Into the Toy Warehouses was released, and Apple II users happily gorged on
this new 80s style production. It didn’t take long for the Commodore 64 con-
version of this cool game to get released. And if Commodore 64, why not the
Plus/4?

I
n January 2017, www. forget to
plus4world.com announced mention that
that Genius is now available the factory is
to Plus/4 users. This is the conver- filled with mo-
sion I’ll be discussing. But before bile bombs;
I go into detail, I’ll introduce the I don’t have
game’s author, Italian musician, to describe
guitar virtuoso and keyboardist what hap-
– Daniele Liverani. Daniele is the pens when
creator of "Genius Rock Opera", we touch one
which is most likely the inspiration of them. No
for this game. It’s so rare to find worries! From
such a great musician having time to time
fun writing software for the retro a detonator,
computing community. which neutral-
izes all bombs
GENIUS – Into the Toy Warehous- in sight, ap-
es doesn’t have an intricate sto- pears on the
ryline. Story telling is not the point screen. You'll
to this fast-paced action game. also come
The player's challenge is to re- across men-
lease toys that are rudely locked acing sharks,
inside the factory. To do this, a locomotive, a bizarre circle, Broadly speaking, I have nothing
you must collect all the availa- and other objects you’ll want to but praise for the author, espe-
ble keys for the given stage. At avoid. The first play of the game cially with regards to the honest
first, only one key is needed to is a bit daunting until you get playability of the game. This
unlock the desired door. As the familiar with the game dynamics. game captures that 80s graphics
game progresses, levels become The longer you play, the sooner and musical atmosphere that
more challenging as you’ll need you realize that every challenge defines the retro-gaming experi-
to discover more keys. Let’s not is achievable. ence. Daniele Liverani has done
a great job and, although he is
no virtuoso in making games, he
captures the excitement of the
genre. I invite all players to the
toy factory. I had a lot of fun and
hopefully you will too.

GENIUS – INTO THE TOY WA-


REHOUSES
Publisher: Daniele Liverani
Release year: 2016/ 2017
Platform: C64, Plus/4

5 5 7
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


54 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

H.P. Lovecraft in Text Mode


COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Bob8bit; Translation: Ari

Darkness surrounds the area. Evil lurks in it. There is no escape. Soul condemned
to suffering. The choice has already been made. There is no retreat. The eternal
terror is waking up. Cultists celebrate the forgotten ritual. There is no hope. No
one is safe. Cthulhu fhtagn.

I
'm not going to compete here Nyarlaphotep. These are not the there could
with Howard Phillips Lovecraft, most popular Lovecraft's texts, so be more text
which was a master of thrilling the artist could freely interpret the and PETSCII
stories, but I hope, that the above source material without fear of graphics pen-
introduction planted some seed colliding with any imagery previ- etrating each
ously created by mass culture. other. The
hand grabs
The first association I had when the words,
browsing the digital version of the the eyes
album was a silent cinema. Each look from the
side of the text is stylishly framed, paragraphs and the pyramid ris-
and the swirls around the content es above the desert of the text.
are similar to what you could see I think that something between
on the big screen at a time when the classic written word and the
those stories were created by eight-bit demo could create more
Howard Philips Lovecraft. Next to passion. There is a special atmos-
each page there is an illustration phere, but I think it could be even
built exclusively from the charac- more special.
ters that can be entered from the
of anxiety into you. The stories of C64 keypad. Unfortunately, some
this dark writer from the beginning of the graphics, due to the tech-
of the last century are primarily nique chosen, are in my opinion
about what is unreadable and incomprehensi-
unknown. Mys- ble. Without getting to know the
terious beings of content, only on the basis of the
other times and image, I regularly had a problem
distant dimensions with recognizing what was actual-
appear in forgot- ly being shown there.
ten places where
Hastur says good- By combining blurred graphics
night. Incredible and mysterious stories with each
events for ordi- other, I discover a certain bond
nary people and between them. Both imprecise im- I like both Commodore and
supernatural, cos- ages and untrue text leave some Lovecraft, and I could not go
mic powers are room for imagination. Imagination indifferently to the combination
just a fragment of is the place where the most terri- of these areas. Despite my minor
what those hor- ble things can happen. What we complaining, I think the book is at-
rible tales of the do not know can be what we fear tractive. I only regret that I found
early years of the the most. This is what I call con- the project long after its Kickstart-
century were like. vincing, although I would develop er action ended. Fortunately, we
a connection somewhat. can download a digital version
Raquel Meyers free of charge from author’s web-
has taken up the challenge of It is a pity that we ran out of extra site and let in a little madness into
combining short stories with Cthul- dose of fantasy in this fun style. If our daily routine. So, catch this
hu mythology with PETSCII graph- it was up to me, I would reduce link, my brave researchers: http://
ics. In Questron's book, there the amount of graphics. Instead of raquelmeyers.com/lovecraftintext-
are two short stories: Dagon and a picture on almost every page, mode/pdf.html.
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 55

Godzilla and friends


Editorial: Radek Idol; Translation: Grzegorz Sojka
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW

On the 7th of August 2017 an actor and stuntman Haruo Nakajima died. He
played mostly in secondary roles in samurai films (e.g. Siedmiu Samuraji), horror
movies and war dramas. In 1954 he played one of the most iconic roles of mod-
ern pop culture – Godzilla. One could say Nakajima was a "born beast", he took
on Godzilla 12 times and it wasn't the only gigantic monster in his collection. On
the film set he also became, inter alia: King Kong, Baragon, and Rodan. To
celebrate the memory of a man who became the first Godzilla I encourage you
to get to know the games about big monsters for C64.

K
aiju is the Japanese word So as to avoid licensing prob- already mentioned another title, it
meaning "a strange beast". lems people had to recourse by is worth to explain Crush, Crumble
It has become a custom to switching the letters in the name. and Chomp in details.
call the films about great monsters
destroying cities or fighting against
each other this word. Though usu-
ally they connect these two activ-
ities and even if one of them is the
protector of the mankind it doesn’t
interrupt him to sweep away a few
high-rise blocks from the surface of
the planet with his tail. The date of
1954 is considered the beginning
of this film genre in Japan when
the Godzilla was created (the
western cinematography already
had some of its representatives:
King Kong from 1933 or The Beast
of 20,000 Fathoms from 1953). The
film became a blockbuster and
the love for big monster, spread
around the entire world. There is no For example, in Crush, Crumble Crush, Crumble and Chomp is
surprise that Kaiju invaded com- and Chomp! we destroyed the city a game released by Epyx in 1981.
puters. as the Goshilla although everyone It was inspired by a board game
knew who it was about. As I have The Creature that ate Sheboygan
In 1983, the first Godzilla game
was created... Godzilla (what
a surprising title) was a strategic
game. Our task was to stop the
title monster from destroying Tokyo.
The main screen of the game has
a map of Japan and surrounding
seas, where the gameplay takes
place. It is divided into 25 are-
as where Godzilla unstoppably
marched towards the one with the
capital in it. With land forces, ma-
rines, airborne, rockets and even
an atomic bomb we had to kill the
beast to minimize the loss in civilian
population. The game however
wasn't a licensed product.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


56 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

(look at the frame). We took on wasn't enough the game had the rampage in 6 different cities which
one of the big monsters in the option to create custom monsters. (taken the performance of that
game. The range was wide, ulti- This plus 5 scenarios and 4 different hardware) were pretty different,
mately we had the equivalent of cities (including Tokyo, obviously) for example, in New York City
Godzilla (the mentioned Goshilla), to be destroyed, it gave the game the Statue of Liberty was there to
the marine Cracken, a flying Man- content and replay value. It's one be destroyed. There were also 6
tra, jellyfish Glob, spider Arachnis of the pearls of the old times. scenarios to pick from: escaping
and a robot Mechismo. And if that the city, to rescuing the offspring.
Epyx came The game was displayed in a very
back to the cinematic way we chose the hero,
big mon- scenario and city on a board simi-
sters theme lar to the cinema entrance. Before
in 1986, with the game starts we watch the
a license for screening room with the screen,
Godzilla this people sitting, and advertise-
time. The ments (with Epyx's other games
Movie Mon- playing the main role). All of this
ster Game with nice graphics. However to
referred to fulfill your task for each mission the
its prede- title lacked the gameplay of the
cessor but former version.
put more
emphasis Let's head back to 1985 when
on agility. Electronic Arts released the Mail
Again there Order Monsters. In this game,
were six called the precursor of Pokémon
monsters by a few people, the concept was
to choose completely changed. This time
from we were given an opportunity
(without to create a beast to fight other
the ability monsters. For the battles that were
to custom- won we earned money with which
ize); most we could improve the deed of
of them our life. The monster could look
concur with like a T-Rex, giant flying wasp,
the ones big tree, large bug and so on. It
from Crush, could be equipped with huge
Crum- jaws, poisoned spike tail, gigantic
ble and machine gun or electric maces.
Chomp! The possibilities of creative mon-
The Crack- sters were various. And how did
en was the battle look like? Very similar to
the only famous Archon which shouldn't
one that surprise us because the co-author
was gone of both games was Paul Reiche III
and it was (and there again as an RPG player
replaced I have to mention that this man
by Mr. also had his toes dipped in many
Meringue, RPG products, and he gave the
who is the D&D the Thri-kreen race above
equivalent all).
of Marsh-
mallow Man The next game was released by
from Ghost- Gremlin studio is The Mucher also
busters. known also as The Muncher Eats
Chewits. Originally, the game was
The game about an overgrown tyrannosaurus
looks rex, which destroys the city and
beautiful. fights other giant monsters titled
We could T-wrecks. Oddly enough the devel-
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 57

oper got along with the Chewits


producer whose mascot was the
Muncher, a Godzilla-like creature
which in the advertisement would
destroy the city as long as some-
one didn't give him the sweets of
the mentioned brand. And so was
the next game that was created
which also served as an ad for the
"eatable" product (Chewits were
added to the box). Did it mean
that the game was disappointing?
Not at all, one may remember
games like "Zool" (Chupa Chups
commercial), "Pushover" (Quaver
crisps ad) or "Superfrog" (advertise-
ment of Lukozade drink). Another
playable product came into exist-
ence at this time. Our Muncher (he
could also climb some high-rise ly debut on the screen. The main George, and a werewolf, Ralph
blocks), destroyed some buildings role will be played by Dwayne (whose name and moves served
(he could also climb some high- Johnson. Unfortunately, he won't as a foundation of creating main
rise blocks), along the way with be one of the big monsters. hero of the film Wreck-it Ralph).
tanks, choppers, attacking him, Our task (as it's easy to guess)
ate soldiers and was to destroy the cities,
civilians (also eat people, and fight off
The Creature That Ate Sheboygan
frightened moth- the military. The game
ers with children had a specific humour,
in carriages). At The Creature that Ate Sheboygan is a board game from for example, our monster
the end he had 1979 that won the prize of Charles S. Roberts (now the could be electrocuted
to fight another prize of Origins) in the category The Best Fiction or Science by a toaster and blinded
Kaiju. The Munch- – Fiction Game. One of the players becomes a monster by the paparazzi. On the
er himself is one destroying a city; the other coordinates the evacuation screen there were 3 mon-
of the largest, (he and forces aiming to stop the opponent. In 1982, the sters running along. If we
was created with company Encore released the Polish version of the game had chosen single player
a few sprites) he- "Ratuj Swoje Miasto!" [Save Your City!] (it is possible to then the computer would
roes in the history find it sometimes on Allegro or board game bazaars). As have controlled the other
of the C64. an RPG player I have to mention the author of the game creatures.
Greg Costikyan also known as Designer-X, who was the
I am getting near creator or co-creator of many popular RPGs like Star Wars, The game had two con-
the end and Paranoia, Toon or Violence. versions on the C64. Un-
I want to men- fortunately, they weren't
tion a game that that good. The European
turned into a bigger franchise: In Rampage we could take on one version was closer to the original
Rampage – a game known from of the three beasts which used yet the American version had
several platforms, awaited a few to be humans. So there is a giant better graphics and gameplay but
sequels and in 2018 it will most like- lizard Lizzie, an overgrown gorilla, only one monster and not three
monsters destroying the city.

It may be that there are more


Godzilla-type monster games for
our Commodore. I only mentioned
the ones that I know. If there is an-
other title in this field I would gladly
like to know about it.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


58 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Power Sisters
COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL the Extension of the Party


Review: Komek; Translation: Ari

I promised myself that I would never again write anything about The Great Giana
Sisters. Once again I did not keep my word!

O
ne afternoon, while The game offers 33 different dragon and get a huge dia-
traveling by train, one levels, the same as the original mond or maybe something com-
of the neurons sitting in version. However, some of them pletely different? Check it out!
my brain asked, "Hey! Do you were designed a little chaotical-
remember this hacked version of ly and certain sections require In conclusion, I would like to
Great Giana Sisters called Power attention and patience. I will not finally answer the question as to
Sisters? It was on that tape you write here about metamorphosis whether the Power Sisters have
borrowed from your buddy in in Punk Girl or catching light- succeeded in making the event
1994. Maybe you would write ning, strawberries, etc., because more attractive since 1987.
something about it?" we all know it. I am glad that I think so, but let’s not forget
about other versions
created in Giana
Try another clone of the game, The Great
Sisters Construction
Giana Sisters, it’s called Super Marioah-
Kit: Gitty's Dreams
ner Sisters, released in February this year
I and II, Frankie's
by Atwoods Studios. The game offers
Horror Trip I and II and
well designed levels and some new spri-
more. I believe that
tes. Download file from http://csdb.dk.
building additional
versions with the editor
is a great idea for fun
and extending the life
of the original. Let's
not forget the second,
important official ver-
sion of Giana Sisters,
Hmm... Sure, why not! 1989: Hard'n'Heavy
(Giana Sisters 2: Arthur
Power Sisters is a little known, and Martha in Future-
unofficial version of The Great world), which surprised
Giana Sisters on C64, which was there are the "secret passages" players with new graphics and
created by the German coder that move us to the next stag- soundtrack.
Posocopi Waldkirch using the es. I won’t tell you where they
special editor - Giana Sisters are but try to find them on your
Construction Kit. It is charac- own. How does the game end? Original version: The Great Giana
terized by the same, unique Do you have to kill a dangerous Sisters, Rainbow Arts, 1987
graphics. Of course, all levels
are constructed quite different-
ly than in the original version.
Another interesting element is an
additional pink elephant that is
getting in your way from time to
time. Oh, such a nice touch and
what about the soundtrack? The
same, but with a little exception
that one song was added with
the combination of the rest of
the songs, creates an interesting
composition.
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 59

The funeral banquet

AMIGA
The last honors and memories of LucasArt REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW

Editorial:
Editorial: Petrichor;
Petrichor Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga

And so it happened. The power of a mean Mickey Mouse reached the game
market. Many of you know that in 2013 Disney took over LucasFilms and all their
projects, including the Star Wars series. For some this was a great shock and the
end of an era. For others, mostly the fans of the Star Wars saga, a nightmare be-
gan when Disney announced the universe of Star Wars was about to return. Luck-
ily, the fear of watching Hanna Montana holding a blaster was groundless, as
Episode VII and Rogue One turn out to be great movies, and the episode coming
later this year also seems to be very good.

I
n all of this turmoil connected technical aspects, a plain simple
with the movie industry, hardly interface allowed a player to se-
anyone noticed that after the lect a few activities that the main
takeover, Disney closed a fantas- character could perform (like ‘Pick
tic game studio LucasArts (a divi- Up’, ‘Speak’, or ‘Use’). It also pre-
sion of LucasFilms). sented a list of carried items that
could be combined with those ac-
When the doors of the studio tions. The main advantage of the
closed, for many players an im- system was that it simplified the
portant chapter in the history of interface, which required typing
computer games closed also. commands in adventure games
from other producers (like Sierra). player controls a distracted jour-
Undoubtedly, this would be terri- SCUMM started the Golden Age of nalist, and has to save the world
ble information for the employees adventure games. from the Martian invasion. A year
that were let go, as well as for later LucasArts decided to use the
the fans of adventure games and The very beginning of all of this, proven idea and allowed players
games from the Star Wars uni- and the new definition of adven- to grab a whip and put on a hat.
verse. However, the last honors is ture games was undoubtedly Ma- The release of Indiana Jones and
to remember the dead in a pleas- niac Mansion. For the purpose of the Last Crusade: The Graphic Ad-
ant way. So, today we will start this game the mentioned SCUMM venture referred to the movie with
a journey back in time to remem- language was created. The game the same title. Players needed to
ber the crucial works of LucasArts was filled with ridiculous humor wait till 1992 for brand new adven-
studio, mostly those from the and brilliant ideas, like the possibil- tures of Dr. Jones, when Indiana
nineties, that gave us so much fun. ity to play with three characters. Jones and Fate of Atlantis was
This allowed the game to set up released. The title won the hearts
Let’s start with some history. It all a new standard for adventure of all adventure games fans most-
began in the beginning of eight- games. Maniac Mansion initiat- ly with an incredible plot and also
ies. In 1982, George Lucas decid- ed a flood of adventure games with three non-linear play modes.
ed to provide entertainment to from LucasArts. In 1993 a sequel Around this time several games
people not only watching the big Maniac Mansion: Day of
screen, but also with interactive the Tentacle was released.
games. That’s how LucasArts was Thanks to the crazy, twisted
founded, in the beginning known plot and three interesting
as LucasArts Games. The studio characters, the game be-
released games, sometimes good, came a legendary title.
sometimes bad, but mostly they
were good. Mastering their craft, The advantages of SCUMM
a new programming language allowed LucasArts to work
was created together with a very at full speed. In 1988 the
intuitive User Interface, known as great Zak McKracken and
SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for the Alien Mindbenders was
Maniac Mansion). Not focusing on released. In the game the
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


60 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

with Indiana appeared, but none games was never the same. The The history of adventure games
AMIGA

was better than the great Fate of blonde-hair crock-pirate Guybrush released by LucasArts finishes with
Atlantis. Threepwood became a compan- Grim Fandango, released in 1998.
ion for adventure game players In this title LucasArts successfully
The early nineties was paradise for for many years, appearing in an introduces 3D graphics. Grim Fan-
adventure games. In 1990 a mystic even better sequel Monkey Island dango is another example how
Loom was released, with a myste- 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, released in Lucas defined new standards in
rious Druid as a main character. It 1992. Similar to Maniac Mansion, gaming and how brave solutions
was a very innovative game with Monkey Island 2 became a leg- in control systems were imple-
end, and so did The Curse of Mon- mented.
key Island, released in 1997. The
series had been developed for The game plot referred to Mexi-
another several years, which also can post-mortem beliefs, which
included the introduction of 3D means a lot of skeletons, piñatas
play mode. The latest Guybrush’s and spicy salsa. Grim Fandango
adventures were released in told a story of Manego Calavera
cooperation with Telltale as small trying to solve an underworld plot
episodes. Also, the remastered that he was involved in.
version of the game was released,
which we wrote about in issue #6, Grim Fandango is an important
in column Resurrection. title. In some sense it closed
an interesting main character. The the history of adventure games
‘sad’ story connected with Loom In 1993, the adventure game created by LucasArts. It was the
is that many players couldn’t finish that fans could enjoy was Sam last project created by Tim Shafer,
the game because of sound rid- and Max: Hit The Road, anoth- who had worked in LucasArts
dles that required a sound card to er hit from Lucas, with two dizzy for over a decade, and who is
detectives as main characters. responsible for the greatest hits of
The series, based on a comic this studio.
story with the same title, was also
remastered years later, thanks to LucasArts defined the adventure
cooperation with Telltale Games. games genre and even though for
many players it was connected
In 1995, after a short break in only to this type of entertainment,
releasing adventure games, we have to remember to give
LucasArts returned back with thanks to this company so we
vengeance and released Full could be not only be a passive
Throttle, the game created by the observer of adventures of Star
author of Monkey Island series. It Wars characters, but finally take
told a story of a rocker-motorcy- an active part in adventures from
be solved. At that time in Poland, cle driver, framed in a murder. In the movie or take part in brand
not everyone had such a card the game, the player controlled new experiences, becoming eg.
in his/her personal PC, especially a member of a motorcycle gang. a Stormtrooper or a Jedi knight.
the office PCs. Fortunately, Amiga That type of character was sel- But that’s quite a different story
users didn’t have that problem. dom used in video games. Fans than what took place in era of PC
of the game can also enjoy the games.
remastered version which will be
released this year. And so the last honors comes to
an end. The fact that studio was
In 1995, the studio released closed was significantly painful
a game called The Dig, a serious for me. In my younger days, I was
title, with cooperation from fascinated with the Amiga, and
Steven Spielberg. The main spent time mostly with adventure
game characters are a group of games. The ones, I liked the most
Astronauts transferred to an alien were those released by LucasArts.
planet, while they were perform- And even if I’m not the greatest
ing a mission of saving Mother fan of all those remastered ver-
The same year as Loom, LucasArts Earth from an asteroid, rushing to sions, I’m happy that some titles
released The Secret of Monkey it (They want to destroy it in the were published in HD. It’s always
Island. After the premiere of the same way as in the movie Arma- a pleasure to return to them and
game the world of adventure geddon.) enjoy their new graphics.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 61

1024 bytes:

COMMODORE
Aye aye Shoonay
Bye bye Shoonay
Editorial: Neurocide; Translation: Mateusz Skotarski
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERV

I
f someone asked us, back in '93, “Want to go for We knew what was about to happen. A sad tone was
a swim?”, it would take no longer than few minutes to about to play over the flag of United States of America,
see the loading screen of Ocean Ranger and nothing while Shoonay would receive a postmortem medal and
had higher priority... maybe with the exception of Saturday distinction, accompanied with a "Killed in Action” note.
airing of Wonder Years. He was shouting commands: I broke the rules. I quickly turned off the disk drive. I saved
“An airplane! A ship!” while I was screaming “Aye aye Shoonay, so we wouldn't have to say ”Bye bye Shoonay”.
Shoonay!” I and my dad had a soft spot for simulators We breathed the sigh of relief and took a week break,
– Tomahawk was first, but we quickly expanded our to cool down a bit. Soon after, “Aye aye Shoonay!”
available repertoire of sims when we got our hands on sounded in my room again. Truly, it was the best time of our
a disk drive. We liked it, but weren't too good at it... so relationship.
we've directed our efforts at machines unable to reach
anywhere near the speed of sound and so, Gunship, Steel Summer of that current year my phone rang at night.
Thunder and Ocean Ranger became permanent residents Before long I realized what I'm about to hear; I knew
within our collection. I can't press reset this time. I knew that the small, fragile
disk that is life cannot be saved. After eight years of
Our missions to the Bering Sea, Persian Gulf and other fighting, many missions and three remissions later, Shoonay
hot-spots were no laughing matter. We took great care sailed off for good and we would never again fight side by
and pride in completing them, as each was marked with side. The sad tone played, in the end. All I could say was
ribbons and medals to distinguish our heroism. Dad's ”Bye bye, Shoonay”.
collection was full of them; Captain Shoonay kept going
up in ranks. Goodbye dad.

My dad needed me – I took the role of a navigator,


engineer, boatswain and quartermaster, having personally
discovered the methods by which to navigate and control
the ships during my solo playthroughs. I was responsible for
observing the radars, HUD control and coffee brewing; he
was content with commandeering and taking care of the
guns.

Dad would shout out: Mines! I was switching to the gun


view. He'd shout: u-boat...! While I was already loading
the depth charges. Airplane! Surface-to-air missile. Ship!
Ground-to-ground missiles. I'd switch the view from port
to starboard, from stern to bow, while Shoonay was
ceaselessly bathing the enemies in iron. He'd shout
a command, I'd respond – aye aye Shoonay!

We went at stronger enemies, challenged greater threats,


razing any target that dared to show itself on the radar.
Anything we could see was sunk, even if we've already
completed the mission. One day, we overdid it. We got
ourselves into a never ending battle; running out of fuel and
ammunition, the enemies kept coming until we could no
longer fight. We lost. Time stopped, silence fell upon the room. ▲Neurocide
▲ with brother and father – 1992
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


62 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW


The Tenth
REVIEW
Muse
and the fourth generation
TUTORIAL

Editorial: c00k; Translation: Grzegorz Sojka

Since the cinema has been invented, its significance, it has been very popular.
Pictures, especially the ones accompanied by sound, are far better than what
you have in front of you – text. But it can't be any kind of pictures, however. Do
you know the saying: anyone speaks wisely speaks in accordance to our point of
view. In terms of films it's the same.

T
he most popular films are the One of the most known films is most enjoyable way of using the
ones who secretly bring an War Games. Cold war, the fear computers- games. A year before
illusion of world to our minds of nuclear catastrophe and War Games was created the well-
and a feeling of the realization of a thoughtless computer in charge known TRON had been directed
dreams. We are given some sort of everything taking care of the where the player was transferred
of narcotics which is supposed to security of an entire state. Suddenly into a virtual world and became
dull us, but as usual with narcotics, young Matthew Broderick pops up the hero of the game he had
there is a cool down effect, which and with a small computer and created. This one also got a sequel
▼Frame
▼ from the movie Hide and Seek in his own room circuit-washes which was much more successful.
the first one which leads almost The theme was used many times,
to a disaster. The title even has its for example in Dungeon Master.
sequel set up in present where the A film that was poorly recognized
computer was meant to hunt down in foreign countries famous in this
terrorists, but this picture was not part of the world (Poland) was Mr.
done very well that it’s not worth Blob in the Universe. An interesting
mentioning. In terms of a curiosity, thing about the movie is that, it is
however, I may add an example of the only episode of the series not
a Canadian film with a similar plot based on Jan Brzechwa's book.
Hide and Seek where a teenager The heroes there are thrown into
breaks into a Commodore 64 coor- the inside of the game. New times
dinating the whole nuclear power required new amusement.
plant, which also could lead to
a catastrophe but on a local scale. Speaking about Polish cinema the
idea of penetration between the
comes quickly after a clash with But these are not only the fears. real and virtual world was inter-
reality. In spite of the fact that most As a matter of fact those films are estingly used in The Hunter. Final
of the drug addicts are aware of meant to cover mostly the pleasant Scuffle. The main character does
what comes next their desire still themes they focused also on the not transfer into the world of the
gains popularity. Even the films
▼Frame
▼ from the movie The Hunter. Final Scuffle
that depict our fears are common
because they exactly depict OUR
fears. And still most of them have
a happy ending.

It's 70s. The era of personal com-


puters has just begun. On one
hand, fascination with its possibil-
ities, on the other anxiety of the
range of changes in our lives, they
may initiate. Especially because
mankind has seen a masterpiece
2001 – A Space Odyssey. Alongside
with such far – prognostic clas-
sic films like The Terminator there
started to appear ones about the
dangers of modern times.
EDITORIAL

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 63

game literally but it doesn't disturb ▼Frame


▼ from the movie Tron
him being the protagonist for the
world of the game that transfers
into the real one.

As for the fact that we are an in-


ternational magazine, I will skip the
less known achievements of Polish
cinema.

The potential of games had been


noticed. In terms of the 80s it was
probably too soon to create films
based on games for the tendency
was rather the opposite. People
started to realize that gaming itself
could be an interesting theme and
worth mentioning the film Holly-
wood Zap! has shown, could be thets, a "retro" one this time, with cinematography so I encourage
a lucrative hobby. a curious attitude towards the con- you to look for and wish you all
tact with other cultures though. good luck!!
It took us 10 years to see film based ▼Frame
▼ from the movie Wargames
on games. Unfortunately, most of
them are complete crap, especial-
ly the ones directed by a man who
finds this kind of inspiration very
attractive - Uwe Boll.

So 20 years had passed for the nos-


talgic trend of retro to come, which
is supposedly the effect of people
like us having a middle age crisis.
Whatever the reasons may be, the
group of people who look back at
their old computers with passion
are pretty large but mainly – what
really matters in this world – makes
up a big purchasing power. Making
use of the fact there has recently
appeared a film based on games, Let me end, for I am limited by the
at which creators didn't even space and I could write forever.
want to look at during the time of There are many films and series in
its release, of a very... original title the web where games brought
– Pixels. Just a silly comedy which a lot of inspiration for the creators.
marketing was founded on epi- It is a very stimulating part of the
▼Frame
▼ from the movie Pixels
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


64 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

RPG Quest – Minimae


COMMODORE

INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Minimoog; Translation: Ari

Adventure games are the type of games that have their representatives in each
of the three most important forms of play – text based games and two- and
three-dimensional graphic games. While the first form is the best choice for book
lovers who are generally endowed with a great imagination, players spending
their free time on 3D games and generally play in the most visually imaginative
productions. On the border of these two, stands the above-mentioned two-di-
mensional games which although can use different mechanisms – in one of its
many versions assume both moving around the visually presented world and typ-
ing commands. RPG Quest – Minimae is one of these kinds of games.

Y
ou can find these game versions come from a single the horizon just when I needed it.
under two names: RPG source, so two names may be This allowed me to enjoy play-
Quest – Minimae or Petima. helpful in distinguishing them. ing longer, instead of constantly
Why so? The version of PET 4032 is Petima only applies to PET 4032. dying which helps for not being
not the first – it is a game con- able to save the game.
As I wrote above – RPG
Quest – Minimae is Petima, as a typical PET game, is
a text-graphic RPG. The in text mode. In spite of this, the
player's role is to play creator has so skillfully crafted
the brave, English knight the game that it is smooth and
of King Duncan and easy to read. This is what I love
find the very important about text games and being in
rings. There are eight overwhelming PETSCII is great!
rings and the surround- Obviously the conversion is so
ing woods are swarm- different from the original that
ing with wild creatures I think it's a really cool retro-cli-
that are just waiting to mate. It leaves an open door
attack the lone dare- to our imagination, which are
devil. The gracious king closed in case of standard
appointed us a difficult graphic games.
task...
version from the same title on the The game is very intuitive. The
iOS and this in turn is a conver- But whoever dares must face ob- combination of graphical inter-
sion of the Minima Reloaded stacles. Fighting against enemies face and text is not something
game on the C64, which is a re- or escaping from them, gaining strange to modern players, so
vised Minima game. Uh... enough gold and searching for chests there is no problem with the
of this babbling. In general, all that contain those rings, are very sense of archaic gameplay.
exhausting but it makes
a lot of fun. The task RPG Quest – Minimae has a fairly
would be impossible typical story and does not bring
if the castles were not innovations in gameplay. I liked
standing here. They it – maybe because we like the
provide shelter at night most what we know the best. You
– for a little fee you can should play this game, look for
sleep and thus regener- boxes with rings and celebrate
ate lost health – or the the 40th birthday of our PET.
opportunity to purchase
more effective weap- RPG Quest – Minimae
ons. When I wandered
Publisher: P1XL Games
through the thick and Release year: 2013
full of wolves forests, Platform: PET 4032
the castle appeared on
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 65

COMMODORE
what a funny production... REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: phowiec; Translation: Ari

It's well known that girls are attracted to guitarists. If I had a guitar, I would play.
Fans, autographs, recorded songs... And from all this I became a computer sci-
entist. I can play three notes on the guitar so far, and I don’t think I can learn any
more. For this reason, I admired the "Guitar Hero" series. I have been fascinated
with these productions for a long time, but it was only recently when I purchased
my console and guitar that I have been able to give concerts in front of the TV
in the comfort of my own home. And I wondered – since even the NES console
had its "Guitar Hero" (under the name of D-Pad Hero), why can’t C64 owners play
something similar?

I
t turns out that if there is some- The game greets the player with this song. To my surprise, I found
thing impossible to do, then a pseudo 3D title caption, a list my leg gleefully bouncing under
give it to Poles and they’ll surely of songs with corresponding top the table to the beat of the mu-
succeed. And sure enough, SID scores and instructions on how sic, and in my head I heard the
Hero is the Polish response to mu- to play. Once again, it turns out words "I love her, she dances for
sic games from larger consoles. that the SID chip is unmatched me...". Normally this would be the
The project was originally titled in generating great music. The end of my world!
SID Surf, referring to another musi- programmers and musicians
cal game, Audiosurf. Briefly, Au- have done an amazing job here. Gameplay is an important, but
diosurf has players moving down There are 30 songs in the selec- sometimes neglected, element in
a three track highway collecting tion list, but one really caught computer games. There isn’t very
various colored blocks. Points are my eye, namely, "She's dancing much to say here. The only thing
given when jumping over the in- for me" (Polish song "Ona tańczy we must do is select the song we
dividual lanes and side-stepping dla mnie"). As a true Pole, I do want to play and nothing else.
the gray blocks at the same time. not listen to this type of music, Players don’t have to take part
Okay, but what does this have to but I decided to try my luck with in the actual game as the game
do with music games,
you'll probably ask?
Well, the track is based
on the song chosen
by the player and the
blocks appear to the
beat of the music.

As soon as I saw SID


Hero, two huge guitars
playing the best metal
riffs materialized in my
head! The first guitar
was a thought – "I have
to play this as soon as
possible". The second
guitar, with the sound
drilling into the brain,
reminded me that "Au-
diosurf" has long been
on my pile of shame...
However, I played SID
Hero and found it to be
an interesting experi-
ence.
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


66 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

does not punish players for poor musical skills. Of the music being played. It's hard to plan a strategy
COMMODORE

course, this leads to a score of zero but you can turn for playing a song when you press the keys without
on the track and just listen. a logical pattern.

If we want to get more involved, we use the Q, W, Why is this a funny production, as the title of this
E keys to catch the falling crystals. Each keys cor- article suggests? I just can’t work out who this game
responds to one of the three tracks that our targets is designed for. I did get a few moments of fun and
move on. Hit the correct key when the target reach- a smile but I was expecting something else. I want-
es the bottom and your points increase and fills ed a music game, but I got a SID player instead.
the tank, located under each track (I do not know I find that this game is more like an old program for
why but I associate it with a hamburger). When the listening to mp3s, like Winamp. I used to like adding
hamburger ... eee ... the tank is full, we get a bonus extras like graphical effects to Winamp. And I smile
point, and then we’ll need to refill the tank once at these memories and later on to the game itself.
again. Simple, isn’t it? Well, it isn’t. When, in the al- Winamp on 8 bits? Why not?
ready mentioned Guitar Hero or Audiosurf, chords
or blocks are forming to the music, in SID Hero crys- This game's rating is very subjective as it really
tals appear randomly, having nothing to do with strummed my nostalgia chord on many levels and
reminded my how enjoyable SID music
is. Therefore, I propose a solution – mu-
sic 10, graphics 5, the pleasure of play-
ing 8. And let "She dances for me..." :).

SID HERO
Publisher: Zbych
Release year: 2017
Platform: C64

5 10 8

Memory of the past: Noctropolis with Ramos (2013)

— Okay, so we will be joining both editorial crews.


— Is the name "K&A plus" really good?
— Yes! It is the best combination of two titles:

K – for "Komoda" and A – for "Commodore & Amiga


Fan".

— Alright, you are right.


— Unfortunately, we have to go now, because it will take
me a long time to get home.
— Yeah, it is quite late.
— Hey, guys! Take the remaining beers.
— No, put them in the fridge!
— Come on, Take it! I bought them for you.
— Alright, thanks.
— And where is my hat?
— Check pockets of your jacket…

◄ The time Ramos, Komek and Slayer met at Noctropolis' place.


GALLERY
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 67

Folio

AMIGA
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Don Rafito; Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga

I’ll keep on saying this until I’m blue in the face, but until a decent office produc-
tivity suite is developed, the post-Amiga environment will always be considered
a tinkerer’s folly. On the other hand, it’s a good sign that there are a lot of pro-
grammers working hard to bridge this gap and every new release is better than
the last.

T
he current collection of text Originally, the program was distrib-
editors includes Wordsworth, uted on web sites dedicated for
Final Writer, Amiga Writer, MorphOS users, but since OWB is
Cinnamon Writer, and Final Writer available also for Aros and Amiga-
Aros Demo amongst others, but OS4.x, Folio can also be used on
we’re all waiting for a port of Libre those platforms as well.
Office. Meanwhile, Folio is a new
and unique take on text process- Let’s look at the functionality. Par-
ing, developed using JavaScript, agraphs can be left, right, justified
and runs in the OWB browser. As and bulleted. Text fonts can be
a result, Folio works on all post-Ami- manipulated using italic, bold and
ga systems. underlined. Foreground and back-
ground colors can be changed.
Everything is clear and simple to
use. I have experienced some
minor problems using tables, par-
ticularly with scaling and borders,
but table sizes automatically adjust
to the content by default. A simple
tool to divide cells is also available.
Inserting images works perfectly
and can be freely justified, and
adjacent text wraps around the
image. Now a comment about to give this software the highest
sharing the clipboard. The program marks possible but it is just a text
works in a browser, so copying text processor and it doesn’t have all
and sharing the clipboard con- the advanced features expected
tents with other programs and web of modern word processors. This
pages is seamless. Folio saves the software does what it does well,
file in a script using an OWB fetch however, we are still waiting for
requester. Later the file can be a full functionality office produc-
easily opened and edited. tivity suite. Developers, please get
Folio looks and feels like many to work! We already have Folio,
modern cloud-based word pro- Once the document is ready, it now it’s time for other elements of
cessors such as the Dropbox text can be published to PDF for later Office.
editor and Microsoft Word Online. viewing onscreen or printing to
However, Folio doesn’t require any hardcopy. I kept the most impor- FOLIO
logins or accounts. You don’t even tant feature for last; Folio supports
need to be online to use it. A single Polish fonts.
Publisher: Andre Siegel
download of a script along with (folio@morphos-user.com)
some supporting files is all that’s Folio is the best text processor I’ve
Year of release: 2017
Platform: Aros, MOS,
required, and it can be immediate- used so far. It’s fair to say that
AmigaOS4.x
ly launched on your local machine. several articles for K&A plus were
Score: 9
Is it really this easy? Yes, it is! written using this editor. I’d like
REVIEW

autumn / winter 2017


68 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

s u b j e c t
a n o the r
On
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW Castlevania Anime
REVIEW TUTORIAL

Editorial: Łukasz Jeglorz; Translation: Krzysztof Drzazga

Recently, movie versions of popular games have become trendy. In the mid-nine-
ties the first sneak peeks of film versions of Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, or Street
Fighter were well accepted, despite their silly and corny storylines. After all, what
really mattered was to go to a movie theater for a film version of a favorite game
with money from their parents. Uwe Boll, the master of shoddiness, who could
even spoil the closing credits, participated in strengthening the stereotype that
a game based movie would be watched and understood only by game fans
and that it was impossible to write a good scenario, and even more difficult to
shoot a good movie for the masses.

C
onsecutive parts of the world popular Netflix service, the series and a common epi-
Resident Evil, Doom, or which decided to grant the fans sode with our favorite machines,
even quite good Silent with a series based on the once the Amiga and C64. Everything
Hill confirmed this theory and the popular game series Castlevania. started in 1986 in Japan, when
most of it got lost in box offices. These productions had already Konami released a platform game
Somehow game based animated been released to a server, also in for popular Nintendo Famicom
films were created on a side track. the Polish language version. console, a.k.a. NES in the USA or
Their purpose was to enlarge the Pegasus in Poland. The success of
whole universe, like in series Halo, At the occasion of writing this the game was amazing all over
Dead Space or Final Fantasy. This short review, it’s impossible not to the world and initiated a series
particular way was chosen by mention about the beginning of developed in several other titles
for all available platforms. In 1990
Konami released Commodore 64
and Amiga versions of the game.
C64 version wasn’t very different
from the original, while the Amiga
version was redesigned for 16 bits
and the resolution of 320x200 in
32 colors. In comparison to NES
it looked much prettier, but the
control was terrible and made the
game less attractive.

The history of the film version


started in 2005, when information
about plans to shoot a game–
based movie appeared. Movie
script was supposed to be written
by Paul W. S. Anderson, know from
Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, and
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 69

Aliens vs. Predator. His hated by ordinary


efforts were put on citizens. However, the
hold, but in 2009 James events occurring around
Wan (known from Saw, him cause his internal
Insidious, and The Con- change. Alucard, the
juring) offered to create favorite character of
a movie. However, the game players also ap-
production was put on pears.
hold again. And when
fans had already for- The series is watched in
gotten about the movie one breath. It’s bloody,
a long time ago, Netflix dynamic, and brutal. The
unexpectedly informed main dish is blood and
that, after all, Castleva- violence, with addition
nia would be released of Anti-Christian sym-
this year, what shocked bolic, which is a very
all the interested guys. brave move made by
The production was re- the producer. Castle-
leased as four 25-minute vania is definitely for
episodes, and kept the adults. Drawings, even
convention of Anime. though prepared by an
It could be considered American studio, are
a kind of pilot used by inspired with Japanese
the Netflix team for mar- Anime and such movies
ket research and when like Vampire Hunter and
they found out that the Van Helsing. The visual
animation received side is well composed
good reviews and had with great ambient
a large publicity, they background music,
decided to shoot the A tragic character is presented, which complements
second season. It was possible, whose motivation can be under- the climate. The main negative
because the scenario was written stood, and the fate is determined is the shortness of the series – less
in the way that even though it by people and their deeds. The than hundred minutes. This causes
was based on the third part of the main character of the series is Tre- characters not to have a chance
series, it was fully autonomous with vor Belmont, the last living member for good self-development; how-
well-defined characters. of the family, whose occupation ever Netflix fixed that by quickly
for ages has been killing vam- producing the second season.
The story begins with tragic events pires and other sorts of monsters. Castlevania is a great example of
in the land of Wallachia, presently Trevor is a typical outsider, drunk writing a great game-based story,
Romania, which push the black all the time, indifferent to human which not only complements the
character to a bloody settlement. fate, cursed by the Church, and game, but also improves it.
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


70 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Space Hulk
AMIGA

L INTERVIEW REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Ziemax; Translation: Mateusz Skotarski

To some, an unknown title, to others - a cult one. This game, made in the span
of two years by Electronic Arts and based on a board game with the same title,
is hard to classify as any genre; it is a unique hybrid of FPP and a tactical-logic
game.

T
he game lets us take role claws. We must face them pause the game for a short
of the commander of a ter- in over 50 missions presented period of time; time available
minator squad, a space using various graphical themes. for pause shrinks as we abuse
marine squad equipped with Missions themselves are varied the button and grows when we
powerful exoskeleton armor. and involve eliminating genest- avoid this function – overall it's
Theirs is the job to dispose of ealers, burning their hives, sav- certainly a welcome addition,
wrecks, drifting across space ing other marines or collecting complementing the game's
and threatening nearby plan- artifacts, among others. fast paced gameplay!
ets, by boarding them and
cleansing them off of aliens At the core of Space Hulk is The game is quite good from
known as genestealers, armed the campaign, consisting of 21 design perspective, but it could
with four limbs and deadly missions spiced up by a mod- be better: game's engine is
est narrative. Depending on based on OCS/ECS chipset
mission, we will either face (lacks AGA) which results in
the threats alone, as part of lower quality visuals, at least in
a 5-man squad or two squads, terms of colours. Unit's actions
meaning up to 10 chapter are shown as a slideshow
brothers at a time. Gameplay rather than a smooth anima-
is separated into two distinct tion and they tend to repeat
modes – first is the planning often. However, these problems
screen, during which we com-
mand multiple units, and sec- ▼Amiga
▼ game box art
ond – and in my opinion more
fun – mode, the Terminator
View Screen, which lets us take
control of an individual termi-
nator. 10 unique weapons are
available at our disposal, ena-
bling us to effectively engage
the enemies both at range and
in melee thanks to the sepa-
rate load-out options for each
hand. Available equipment
depends on the mission we
face – sometimes it's locked,
other times the game gives
us free hand to pick what we
need. The game takes place in
real time, but a "Freeze" button
is available which lets players
RECENZJA

autumn / winter 2017


aren't very noticeable, thanks this production premiered.
to the game's overall thrilling The atmosphere is unique and
gameplay, while textures are thrilling, even to this day – al-
high quality, as far as 1993 though the game has much to
Amiga games go. Audio on offer, in terms of pace, varie-
the other hand is quite simple, ty of missions, guns or levels,
since many sound effects are ultimately it's the atmosphere
repeatedly recycled and the of a horror that will drag you
music, although present, is not in and hold you in its grip for
used very much during most many hours! I recommend
of the game we won't hear this title to any gamer, be it
much beyond standard battle a self-proclaimed veteran, or
sounds. a complete beginner.

To be fair, all of the above


SPACE HULK
flaws can be forgiven, as
players' attention is instead Publisher: Electronic Arts
quickly directed at the en- Year of release: 1993
gaging and action rich pace Platform: Amiga
Space Hulk is known for. The
audio-visual layer didn't age
well, but needless to say it was
7 5 8
much less of a problem when

We support other retro magazines!


72 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

C64 Power Game Mod Compo 2


COMMODORE

information and competition rules


Editorial: V-12 & Raf; Editing: Minimoog; Translation: Ari

Many of us, spending hours at the C64, mostly spinning the screwdriver in the tape
recorder and breaking the joysticks, dreamed of creating their own part / continu-
ation of their favorite game. Some of them have built-in board editor, allowing for
a moment to feel like a game designer. Unfortunately, creating an executable ver-
sion was not always possible and often required the right amount of programming
knowledge in the machine language. In spite of this, a number of continuations of
user-generated games have emerged to this day, with Boulder Dash leading the
way in the number of released games.

T
o meet all fans of modified games, we would like • Replacing boards in the game is a sufficient criterion
to invite you to participate in the C64 Power Game to consider the game as modified. Changing only
Mod Compo 2 competition, whose rules are as sprites or music is not a sufficient reason to consider
follows: the game as a MOD. The organizers reserve the
right to disqualify a mod if the game is modified to
• Game mods must be submitted by June 1, 2018. a minimum or the change will not affect the game
tangibly.
• For a contest to be resolved, we need at least 5
game mods. • In case of problematic situations in the preparation
of the game, the organizers will offer their help.
• The game can be created in an editor that allows
you to create completed games (such as SEUCK, • The organizers reserve the right to correct the
Creations, Game Maker) in an executable form, but regulations during the competition, but only in very
eventually it will be rated lower. It is also possible to exceptional situations. The experience from the
use editors for existing games (e.g. Boulder Dash, first C64 Power Game Mod Compo shows that this
Kikstart 2, Repton 3, Traz, Mr. Robot, Rad Ramp Rac- action never was necessary.
er and others).
• Games will be presented during the Silesia Party 9.
• The greater the creativity and personal contribution We assume that it is the participants of this event
of a given game, the greater the chance of a high- who will vote for the C64 Power Game Mod Compo
er place in the overall ratings. 2 winners.

• The C64 Power forum is a sub forum for contributors The list of prizes will be updated on a regular basis. We
(to provide / help in game modification). count on support from sponsors!

• The "C64 POWER GAME MOD COMPO” must be


clearly visible in the game, as long as it is possible. Our goal is to encourage readers to creatively create
Otherwise, add a text line during game depacking, continuations of C64 games. Think of it as a great form of
or add a text screen with this information. fun and the opportunity to expand your knowledge and
skills in creating Commodore’s software.
• The game in the executable form should be sent on
media (cassette / floppy disk) or in electronic form
(.prg, .d64, .t64 or .d64 files – it is a preferred option) We encourage you to create modifications of games
to the editor's address: raf@c64power.com. that do not have dedicated editors.

• The game must be accompanied by documentation


that will include the history of the game's modifi-
cations. You can also create a C64 executable file Organizers:
that contains the same information. In the content,
it should be clearly marked with what modifications Raf/Vulture Design, V-12/Tropyx and Komek/K&A plus.
have been made (it does not have to be a technical
description of modifications – just mention them).
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


74 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW


Hi! I’m Edd!
REVIEW TUTORIAL

Review: Komek; Translation: Ari

Hi people, how are you? I have funny hair. I’ve been to a Sex Pistols concert and
enjoyed too many bottles of wine in my time. You’d better stay away from me or
me and my buddies will come for you!

H
ahaha. Edd the Duck? shape of our hero, and delicious The first episode of Edd the
He’s not dangerous. He milkshakes in various flavors. Duck! was released on the usual
wouldn’t even hurt a fly. platforms; Commodore 64, Ami-
The very fact that he has been The cheerful duckling has also ga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and
on TV for such a long time makes proved to be a successful vocal- ZX Spectrum. It’s impossible to
him a wholesome and cheerful ist. The vinyl release, Awesome hide that the inspiration for this
character. All you have to do is Dood!, is a proof of that. There game was probably the massive-
look into his nice little face and were two songs on it, Awesome ly successful Rainbow Islands. But
he’ll make you feel all right. Dood! and The Good, The Bad is the idea of climbing to the top
▼Edd
▼ and Gorden Kaye and The Ugly. There was a music of a tower, collecting stars and
video showing the other face of throwing snowballs at creatures
Edd. enough to entice a potential
player? That’s hard to say. Some
SNOWBALL IN THE HEAD, players were attracted to the
CAKE IN THE FACE hero, others because it was like
Rainbow Islands and still others
As this is mostly a gaming mag- because they read about it in
azine, I'll cut to the chase. Of magazines. This game had its fol-
course, I’m about to reveal that lowers but also had its fair share
that these video games are of detractors. Why may you ask
about a duck. Although there do I belong to the former group?
are only two titles in the series, It’s because the fast paced
released in the first half of the action and colorful graphics
90s by Zeppelin Games, they say make for sharp gameplay that
that "half a loaf is better than has kept me playing for hours on
nothing at all". end.
Who is Edd? He’s a plush duck
(puppet) from the UK. He made
his TV debut in 1988 on the Chil- ▼Edd
▼ and Kylie Minogue
dren's BBC channel as Edd the
Duck and has a considerable
media career to his name. Our
hero can boast of his friendship
with the great popstar – Kylie
Minogue. He has also starred in
films alongside such personalities
as Bill Oddie (writer, actor and
musician) and late Gorden Kaye
(actor well known from “’Allo
‘Allo!” TV series). As if that’s not
enough, Edd was also the official
mascot of the British Olympic
team at the 1992 Barcelona
games. There have also been
commercial tie-ins, including
bath liquids packaged in the
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 75

The second episode and final ▼Edd


▼ as a mascot of British Olympic team for Barcelona
1992. Fot. nickysdream74
adventure with our duck, Edd
the Duck 2: Back with a Quack!
is also a platformer, but con-
structed slightly differently – we
don’t jump up a tower but travel
straight ahead. Unfortunately
the game, only released on the
Amiga, was less popular than its
predecessor. I have come across
many negative reviews for the
game, but frankly I don’t care as
I have my own strong and mostly
positive opinion here. Yes, the
graphics are not the eighth won-
der of the world, but it is joyfully
crafted and without excessive
frills. I especially recommend the
final level set in an abandoned
mine. The dusk really contributes
to the eerie mood of the scene.
Sound effects are realistic and
reflect a given situation. I am
only left to wonder who invented
the hero’s unusual weapon, the

Back with a Quack! Amiga


cake. Edd throws cakes onto
the faces of walking and flying

▼Edd

opponents. I admit to getting
a good laugh from this silliness.

the Duck 2 -
Well, it's been a while, times
have changed and people have
forgotten about TV’s favorite
duckling. I hope this article
arouses a bit of nostalgia. Did
I succeed? That’s not for me
to judge. I just hope that after
reading this you will turn your
The Duck C64

C64 or Amiga on, and guide Edd


to victory.

Oh, and? Quack, quack, quack!.


▼Edd

EDD THE DUCK!


Publisher: Zeppelin Games
Release year: 1990
Platform: C64, Amiga
▼Edd
▼ The Duck! – Awesome Dood!

EDD THE DUCK 2:


BACK WITH A QUACK!
Publisher: Zeppelin Games
Release year: 1992
Platform: Amiga
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


76 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

Atom Ant & Steel Eagle


COMMODORE

Saturday evening
REVIEW
REPORT EDITORIAL INTERVIEW TUTORIALwith a powerful ant and a wounded eagle

Editorial: Komek; Translation: Ari

S
o we have beer and chips and, of course, our star
of the evening – a classic C64 with two joysticks
and lots of great games on various cassettes and
cartridges.
The doorbell rings ...
— O! Hi, Grzegorz.
— Hi dude!
— Come on in. Tomek will be here in an hour.
— Grzegorz makes himself comfortably as usual in his
favorite chair. We talked for half an hour until the phone
rang.
— Hey, Arek!
— Hello, Tomek! What’s up?
— I’m on a bus. I’ll be there soon.
— Ok. We’re waiting for you.
— We enjoy some beer with Grzegorz, chatting away
until Tomek arrives.
— Guys, sorry I’m a little late – I couldn't make it any
earlier.
— That’s all right, no big deal. Sit down and drink some
cold beer.
— Our chit-chat continues and "hop soup" is poured
into our pints. Yet there is a battle waiting – we need
to unleash justice onto a horde of enemies just daring
someone to press the "Run and Return" buttons. There are a lot of enemies, but which ones to choose first?
— Do you like space shooters?
— Sure thing!
— Well, there’s one on this tape.
— Which one is it?
— Steel Eagle – typical Commodore shmuck, you’ll like
it.
— Ok, don’t talk so much and just load the damn
thing.
— Give me a second. I still have to find it on this tape.
Now I just need to check the header. Look it needs to
be corrected.
— The whole operation lasts a little longer than a min-
ute. Finally, "Found: Steel Eagle" appears on the screen,
then the familiar red-black psychedelic strips and the
characteristic sounds of the loading process.
— It’s ready. Let’s play!
— Hey, what now?... There’s something not right!
— OK. Let’s try it one more time.
— I rewound the tape to the start point and repeated
the action. Unfortunately – no change.
— Ha! And it’s all clear. You have the wrong crack.
— Eh, damn it! I wanted to show you this game so
much.
— See? It’s a Disobedient Eagle.
— What? Ha, ha, ha. Eagle, Steel Eagle.
— Let’s play something else.
— What do we have here... O! Maybe Atom Ant?
REPORT

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Komoda & Amiga plus #9 77

— What is it?

COMMODORE
— It’s a good platform game about a fearless ant, known from the Hanna Barberra animated series Atom Ant.
— Let’s give it a try.
— Uff, I was afraid I would get a "Load Error". Fortunately, everything was fine.
— O, wow! Jumping ant in a helmet. But, what is going on here?
— Grzegorz, see those bombs on platforms?
— I see them.
— Take one of them and throw it to the deactiva-
tor at the top of the screen. Keep going until you
collect and detonate all the bombs in the area.
— Yhy... So, my mission is to save the city from
a huge explosion?
— Yeap.
— Uuu, that’s going to be tough. Where did all the
helicopters come from? I can’t make it!
— Come on, ant, jump higher!
— Hey guys! Take a look at those smashing ham-
mers! What a mess!
— Tomek, it’s your turn now? Do you want to play?
— Sure.
— Right, try it! Take this joystick and good luck.
— Ha! It is a little bit easier now, I can see that
each new level has a similar structure. Although it
is nice that every level has a different scene so the
gameplay doesn’t get stale. Great fun.
— Arek, where did you get this game from?
— Well, I got it on this tape. I play it from time to
time. But, don’t forget about me! I want to play it
too.
— Cool, now it’s your turn...
— The party was just getting started. It was cheer-
ful and very loud (so the neighbors claimed). With
lots of games to play and much to talk about, the
night seemed too short. We also had an interesting
adventure at the liquor store but this might not the right place to talk about it, especially since the event was
accompanied by many unkind words and deeds ;).
— I think we finished around three o’clock though I can't remember exactly. But one thing is for sure; there’s
nothing like spending Saturday night with friends and a C64.

REPORT

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78 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

TALKING
HEADS
Not just games, what else did you
do on computers?
MrMat: When I finally got my dream C64, And what were your favorite utilities? What,
my first purchase was a cartridge and besides playing, what you did on your
a game cassette. Then there were a few favorite computers. Maybe, like me, you
more game cassettes and then it got have had fun with graphics, maybe music
boring. Pressing the fire button was monot- or programming, and maybe expanding
onous. I read the computer press of that the possibilities of hardware by playing with
time and I knew well that there were other electronics? Do you use these interests on
programs besides games. Programs that current computers, or are they just memo-
are used to create something on a com- ries from childhood?
puter are called utility programs. And then,
one day I bought a cassette, with a proud- Minimoog: When I was a toddler, I was not
ly-sounding title which was "Utilities". It was interested in computers outside of gaming.
completely different. After a short try and As I was older, I spent less time on virtual
no fun with music programs, I got Art Studio entertainment. Like MrMat, I started to use
at that time. After a brief review of software that would help me real-
the program, clicking on all the ize various non-gaming tasks.
icons and commands (there Because of my age I started
was no instructions for When I was a tod- to use Commodore ma-
pirates :), I already knew dler, I was not interest- chines only when they
that I definitely prefer ed in computers outside were about to sunset
graphics than music. of gaming. As I was older, (which was enough
And so it was. Amica to cause permanent
I spent less time on virtual
Paint and Godot have damage to my brain
entertainment. I started to
been featured on my called "nostalgia"),
compilation with Geos
use software that would my none-gaming
and GeoPaint. After buy-
help me realize various experience is mostly
ing an Amiga I knew that non-gaming tasks. related to PC platforms
I made it up the hill. I knew – Minimoog and I won’t describe it
that neither programming nor here. However, it was and
music would be my main area is mostly music, graphics and
of interest. So, the obvious choice text software.
was DeluxePaint, PersonalPaint, ImageFX, But nostalgia came, and as the blade
Art Department Pro or Photogenics. In ad- cut me in the heart. I found Pegasus
dition, it is impossible to list here all of the (Pegasus is a video game system that
graphics programs that were written on the was sold in Poland, Serbia and Bosnia. It
Amiga. is a hardware clone of the NES), which
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 79

I played a lot in my childhood. Then my first started programming and stopped play-
"tinkering with computers" on PCs began ing or played very rarely. I told myself
when I tried to come back to the environ- that I was the creator and not the player.
ment that was settled in my memory. With Without success, I tried to harness the C64
the growing knowledge in 2013 came the for everyday work. I wanted to make this
time to buy my own C64. I kept collecting computer a percussion machine, but it did
unnecessary computers, accessories, and not meet my requirements. The text editing
anything else that could come in handy. seemed to me not to be very practical,
What am I aiming for? In the course of since I did not even have a commodore
these experiments, the ideal environment compatible
was to refresh the memories and I began printer.
to conclude that, however, this environ- While Com-
ment cannot be just a gaming machine. modore
Do I really need a computer for me to play devices only
and nothing else? The answer was naturally serves me to
negative, so I decided to complete the en- play and cre-
tire station, which I could fill the daily tasks ate games,
that I need from the computer – music, I cannot
graphics, text, web, and entertainment. overlook
I spent many hours searching for drivers a minor
for my graphics card, network cards, and incident, as
integrated sound card for my old PC, ex- I used C64 for doing calculations for col-
panding my knowledge of DOS, computer lege – I wrote a program that enumerated
operation, etc. Many times I reinstalled the the various configurations of points and
system and tested various configurations thus showed what items to choose to get
before I found the optimal solution. And the highest score.
here it is today, apart from the modern Oh, my head is babbling today!
computer, I have a PC with MS-
DOS and Windows 3.11, with Ari: I started like everyone else –
a set of sound and graph- from games. They brought me
ic cards, with Internet My first machine into the world of computers.
access, two floppy was the Pegasus – My first machine was the
disks of different sizes, a device created sole- Pegasus – a device creat-
a CD-ROM drive and ed solely for gaming, but
ly for gaming, but when
lovely wired periph- when I got my dream C64
erals (including a ball
I got my dream C64 a year a year later, I immediate-
mouse), with MS later, I immediately knew ly knew that it would be
Office 4.0 and graph- that it would be used for used for "higher purpos-
ical software. I still "higher purposes". es." It was on the C64 for
have some problems – Ari the first time that I created
with the email client. my first music, I drew my first
I do not usually play on this pictures in a graphics program
computer, but I try to make using a joystick and I copied the
it compatible for everyday use. hundreds of lines of code from the
And as soon as I have all of the software newspaper for a program.
and find solutions to the burning prob- Later, after switching to a PC, the possibil-
lems – I will not need a modern computer ities were even more. First was the Basic,
anymore. I'm going to switch to an old PC; where I wrote a lot of programs and even
hopefully this will happen as soon as possi- created some simple games. I remem-
ble. What did this long speech serve? That ber that we created a program with my
my old computer is not just for playing. buddies, who had mathematical assign-
It revives the renaissance as a true, fully ments and we used it to test whether we
functional personal computer. had done our homework properly. In high
Well, let's get back to Commodore. As school, I changed to Turbo Pascal – it
I wrote above, I have my C64 since 2013. was possible to create miracles here with
I knew a bit about Basic and I quickly Turbo Pascal! To this day, I have a whole
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


80 Komoda & Amiga plus #9

box of floppy disks stuffed in my basement Bob8bit: Ari, my friend, when will your Black
with my "projects". If I had more time and Thorne PL land on our coverdisk? I had
self-discipline maybe I would finish the already taken the joystick out of the closet
game I started writing in VGA mode, with and checked to see if it was working. :) My
256 colors and graphics "borrowed" from use of Commodore was also not restricted
Half-life, hee-hee. It was supposed to be to playing. When I learned that BASIC pro-
a Sci-Fi adventure in the Myst style. Maybe gramming does not require anything more
someday I'll come back to it. than to switch on the computer, I quickly
Then there were all kinds of gamemakers began to rewrite the listings of my work,
like Klik & Play, Games Factory 1 and 2, and over time even managed to create
RPG Maker, etc., in which I tried my best to some simple games. These were really sim-
be a homemade developer. I created one, ple productions, where the whole game-
especially cool game, which my kids play play was usually based on dice rolls or card
to today – Arachnophobia. Little funny guy draws. Everything was drawn in PETSCII, or,
tries to find a way to exit the maze avoid- as my colleague called it, in "zero graph-
ing the great, bloodthirsty spiders. ics". I have plans to become a programmer
I also worked on a level editor for Doom in my adult life, but I have turned to com-
and Duke 3D. It was a fun to make a big, puter networks and I will stay there.
interesting level and then look how
my buddies are trying to finish phowiec: I'm also waiting for
it. I also liked to translate that Black Thorne, I used to
games for my dad and for When I learned play it.
my friends. I managed to that BASIC program- My adventure with using
translate some of them a computer not just for
ming does not require
to Polish. It was still gaming started with
anything more than to switch
in the DOS era when speech synthesis on
on the computer, I quickly
the Polish language the C64. But not with
versions were only
began to rewrite the listings of the cartridge Black Box
a dream. Of course, my work, and over time even 8. I found it on some
they were not RPGs managed to create some unknown and untitled
or adventure games simple games. cassette, it was called
where there is a lot of – Bob8bit S.A.M. (Software Automatic
text, but I do remember that Mouth). I was playing with
everyone in my neighborhood him for some time, trying to
played the "Polish" version of Black force him to speak Polish. I have
Thorne which was done by me. come to the conclusion that since the
The computer was more than just a gaming Commodore is able to speak, what other
machine to me, first of all it was my tool skills are there? And so I went to the afore-
and it always served me to develop pas- mentioned Art Studio. I have never been
sion and interest. a graphic designer, because my skills were
poor, but I spent a lot of time painting
Don Rafito: I often think that I was not born various things. And finally I found an appli-
to be a player, but rather a user. Yes, there cation for my mouse that I had back then.
are game titles on my list that I will remem- Later I tried to do some things in BASIC
ber to this day, but when I discovered language, and I even managed to create
that you could do more than play games some text games.
on the computer, I tried to use different After switching to PC, because I never had
programs and utilities. These were mainly an Amiga, I liked to dig inside the com-
graphic programs. On C64, I remember puter – adding cards, testing, correcting
Koala Painter and Drawing using POKES in drivers, writing my own autoexec files. All of
Basic. On Amiga, it was Deluxe Paint and this made me what I am now, where I am
Personal Paint. And then, after upgrading and what I do.
my Amiga, there were applications such as
ImageFX or Art Studio. I never considered Tomxx: I personally discovered a passion
myself a professional in this subject, but for software development very early in
I always liked to create something. my computer science adventure. Com-
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


Komoda & Amiga plus #9 81

modore's ROM-resident BASIC interpreter I hope to release my own game for C64
allowed me to build and enjoy my very first any time soon. More about it in the next
algorithms, loops and conditional state- issue of our magazine...
ments. Back then I used to design and
write some simple programs and I most of GeoAnas: Demo Scene: These are the two
all enjoyed playing around with the ran- matching words that can perfectly de-
dom number generation function, which scribe my relationship with my C64 today.
I used a little in various score simulations of But prior to this, let's go back to the past,
the Polish football league. to point zero. During school years, my C64
exerted a magical attraction on me. Rea-
I started to deal with coding a little bit son was very obvious. Put the blame on all
more seriously on Amiga. Although I nev- these video games that spilled their frantic
er made it to 68k assembly, my programs action and sizzling graphics on the screen
written in AMOS (which in fact was a BASIC and the great music that accompanied
dialect on Amiga) looked quite good for most of them. However, temptation wasn’t
their time and my age. I dealt with various the urge because I was already familiar
graphical effects generation, implement- with games. Together with my small gang
ed Deluxe Paint animations and designed of pals, we used to haunt arcade rooms
some minimalistic intros. At that time I was back in the day; my computer gave me
already a member of some Amiga dem- another great opportunity and this was
oscene groups and created a data base to deal with beautiful text presentations
application that was intended to group through Brøderbund’s The Print Shop to
all of the Polish swappers, so that anyone create some simple but elegant graphics
could use it instead of sending out their through OCP’s Art Studio.
adverts on paper or floppies. For my own
needs, I created an educational program Years flew away and those moments have
teaching English grammar, but the most being moved to the back of my head.
visible progress occurred once I presented Moved but not vanished. By the time
AMOS Professional to Maciek, my neigh- I download my first emulator, I think it was
borhood friend. He was a bit more creative C64S; all these nice memories came back
than I was and with his input and support to me. I immediately started looking for
we started to work on real games for some new excitement that I richly found on
Amiga. As it usually happens, most of our the demo scene. My C64 has, once again,
projects were never released, but one of earned its rightful and permanent place
my games titled “The son of a broker” was on my desk. Demo wizards are constantly
actually completed – it was a text strategy showing me new paths of what VIC can
game equipped with some graphics and achieve and most talented SID composers
great music composed by another friend of are making fresh tunes that when listening
mine. This product was my very own port of I can’t believe to my ears of what SID is still
a Polish C64 game titled Życie Maklera (The capable of.
life of a broker) and I was hell proud of
making it public, especially that it officially Games? Yes, of course but not that much...
was my first ever released game! Unfortu- Demos and music? Take me higher! Thank
nately, I no longer have any copy of this you guys, much obliged! ;-)
little game, and I would do a lot to once
again get hold of it. Perhaps anyone from
our readers still owns one of the 50 copies
that I released out there in 1995…
The world has moved on since then, but
coding is still present in my life. Being deep-
ly involved in the retro scene nowadays,
I’m very happy, that of all of the modern
languages that I daily use (Python, C#,
PHP) I have gotten back to C64 program-
ming and I’m actively working on my 6510
assembly knowledge and 20 years after
EDITORIAL

autumn / winter 2017


JOHNNY PRESENTS

Tytus 2017 Drawing commemorates 60th anniversary of the comic-book


It's been 60 years since readers have had a chance to meet Tytus, Romek and
A'Tomek for the first time. It is the longest-published and one of the most popular Pol-
ish comic book series and I personally consider these characters as a foundation of the
Polish comic-book history. The idea of commemorating this story has arisen after having
a quick chat with my friend, Przemek Mazur, who’s associated with the Paradox portal.
On my way back from the Festival of Old Computers and Games in Krakow, I was try-
ing to come up with the topic of my next drawing and it was Przemek who suggested
bringing up Tytus to our readers. I had a lot of fun drawing this image and I hope it will
also remind you of some of the finest adventures of these characters.

Today’s image is obviously dedicated to the creator of Tytus – Henryk Jerzy


Chmielewski, aka Papcio Chmiel. Jan Lorek

The drawing is only a fan work, an appreciation and salute to the creator
of the original series with Tytus. Please visit bookstores and acquire comics if
you are interested in more details.

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