Tag - Cartridge

Andy’s Utility Cart Review

8th November 2023

In this post I’ll be taking a look at ‘Andy’s Utility Cart’, a collection of 12 utilities (and one music demo) from SharewarePlus, all combined onto a single C64 cartridge..

The Cartridge and Instruction Manual

The cartridge comes packaged in an attractive cardboard box along with an ‘instruction’ booklet. However this is just a small folded sheet containing a list of what programs are on the cart. No instructions for any of the included programs are actually provided.

Inside the Cartridge

Removing the solitary Philips screw and opening the cartridge shell reveals a smart looking white circuit board hosting a 1Mb Atmel AT27C010-70PU EPROM along with a couple of ancillary chips. The Atmel chip is a ‘one time programmable’ affair that contains all the C64 programs.

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What’s on the Cartridge?

So now that we’ve seen the hardware inside the shell it’s time to see what programs are on it. See below for a full list of what’s included.

64 DOCTOR
64 TESTER
FAST LOADER
TURBO NIB COPY
DISK TOOL b.S
CASS.AZIMUTH
HEAD ALIGN
1541 ALIGNMENT
15 SEC FORMAT
THRUST CONCERT
1541 ALPS CHECK
TURBO 250 [Bonus Program]
DIAGNOSTIC [Bonus Program]

All of the utilities on the cart are selectable from a handy menu screen as can be seen in the photo below. There’s no way to exit most of the programs or get back to this menu screen so you will need to power cycle your C64 to achieve this.

Andy’s Utility Cart Menu Screen

Strangely for a compilation that is described as ‘twelve utilities for the Commodore 64’ there’s actually 13 in total. Not sure why there’s a discrepancy. Maybe they considered 13 to be unlucky? Perhaps it’s because one of the programs, Thrust Concert, isn’t actually a utility at all but more of a scene demo? Alternatively it’s conceivable that they felt some of the programs were a bit samey? Who knows… but I’m certainly not going to complain about having an extra program included!

Back of the box (and a list of what’s on the cart)

Here’s quick look at each of the 12 13 Utilities

64 DOCTOR (Diagnostic sequence by Computer Software Associates)

This is a comprehensive diagnostic program that can help with troubleshooting issues with your C64. It can test the keyboard, video, audio, joysticks, disk drive, datasette, RAM and even an attached printer. You are able to launch a complete systematic scan or you can select a specific test and just run that.

Menu Screen for 64 Doctor

In the photo below I ran the keyboard test which marks each character on the screen as you press the corresponding physical key on the keyboard. Great for seeing at a glance which keys might be faulty on an old keyboard.

Running through the keyboard test

64 TESTER (Comprehensive screen, keyboard & joystick port tester by Tim Cannell)

This is another diagnostic program that focuses on testing the screen, keyboard and joystick ports. The tests are displayed on-screen immediately on launch and includes character maps, colour palette (including overscan borders), along with sprites, and the current status of both joystick port axes.

C64 Tester Screen

Additionally a counter ticks upwards at the bottom, presumably so you know the program is still running/not crashed and a rather annoying ‘Close Encounters’ style 5 note beep jingle is stuck on repeat too which had me reaching for the volume knob after about 30 seconds!

FAST LOADER (Commodore 64 fast disk loader with shortcuts by MR. BYTE)

This one is a floppy disk fast loader utility, presumably similar to Epyx Fastload and the like. Unfortunately in my testing I didn’t have much luck with it and nothing would load with it enabled. At first I had both my 1541 drives on and I was getting an error in German saying ‘Bitte nur floppy anschalten’ which translated to ‘floppy only please’. Not very helpful but I took it to mean ‘one floppy drive only’. Thinking it didn’t like having both drives on I turned one off and tried again. This time I didn’t get that error but instead the screen would just go blank when attempting to load stuff, unsuccessfully. I tried a variety of disks and programs but nothing made any difference. Some instructions for this one might have been helpful – maybe I was missing a vital step. I also made sure my JiffyDOS ROM was disabled, but that too made no difference. Maybe it just doesn’t like my C64? The brief description did mention ‘with shortcuts’ but I have no idea what they are and whether they were optional or a necessity to get it working. In the end I had to throw in the towel and admit defeat with this one.

I may never know how speedy Mr Bytes fastloader is…

TURBO NIB COPY – (Copy Q turbo nibbler disk copier with error scanner by Cracker & CSS)

This is a very handy and easy to use ‘nibbler’ disk copy utility that can copy the contents of one disk to another using either one or two 1541 drives.

Turbo NIB Copy Initial Screen

An option screen allows you to select drive unit numbers for both the source and destination drives letting you configure disk to disk copies if you have more than one drive.

Options Menu

Obviously copying disks is quicker and more convenient using two 1541 drives but it’s still perfectly possible if you only have a single drive at your disposal.

Reading phase

In the case of single drive copying, disks are copied in sections with you swapping the source and destination disks in and out of the drive. It takes four passes (8 disk insertions in total) to completely copy a single disk although the fourth and final pass is much faster than the previous three.

Writing phase

A visual representation of the tracks and sectors being copied is displayed on screen in real-time providing reassurance that progress is being made.

DISK TOOL b.S (Disk Tool V6.5 with comprehensive floppy & disk monitors by Klaus Raczel)

This program includes a whole raft of disk related tools ranging from the mundane like formatting and verifying to advanced sector editing.

Disk Tool Title Screen

Unfortunately the menu’s are all in German which I cannot understand (it’s been nearly 40 years since I studied it at school and I was never particularly good at it anyway). Some of the German words were close enough to their English counterparts that I could understand them, but others, not so much.

Some of the German is easy to understand… some is not

Basically I struggled to use this utility. I did try the translation feature of my iPhone which did a pretty good job of translating the photos I took of the menus to be fair but it made using what is already quite a complex program a chore. One rainy day maybe I’ll go through all the menus and translate them into English…

CASS.AZIMUTH (Cassette Azimuth for aligning & adjusting your datasette by H Diebek)

This is a really useful tool when you are having issues loading software off tapes from your datasette unit. Apart from having a dirty read/write head, azimuth (head alignment) is probably the main reason for having games and programs fail to load. On Commodore’s datasette units you can adjust azimuth using a small Philips screwdriver but you need real-time feedback to let you know whether your are making things better or worse. This program provides that feedback.

Menu/Instruction Screen

I do already have software to do this that I purchased back in the 80’s from Interceptor Micro’s. It came with a little Philips screwdriver and a pointer to attach to it so you could see how much you had rotated it. However it’s one glaring flaw was that the software came on cassette. Not ideal if your read/write head is totally out of whack!

Alignment screen – clearly my drive needs some adjustment…

The program displays the data being read off a C64 tape in real time as little black dots falling down the screen. This allows you to fine-tune the azimuth on the fly by adjusting the screw until the dots appear as orderly and distinct thin vertical lines (rather than be splattered across the screen). In the photo above there is certainly room for improvement on my deck.

However it’s important to remember that azimuth can vary on a tape by tape basis as much depends on the azimuth of the machine that recorded the program onto the tape in the first place!

HEAD ALIGN (Minimal head alignment v1.1 for your datasette by Enthusi)

This is basically another Datasette azimuth alignment program only this time a more streamlined, bare bones version that doesn’t require you to press any keys to start the process. It also didn’t like having my JiffyDOS ROM enabled and refused to supply power to my cassette port until I disabled it. Not a big deal, just something to be aware of.

Head alignment screen

1541 ALIGNMENT (Commodore 1541 disk drive track & sector alignment by Antiram)

This is a comprehensive track/sector alignment tool for tuning 1541 drives. Happily my drives are in perfect shape so I didn’t mess around with this program at all but it’s a very useful tool to have in ones toolbox for when the need arises for sure!

1541 Alignment Menu Screen

15 SEC FORMAT (Fast 15 second formatter by Mike J. Henry & Alf Maier)

This literally does what it says on the tin – load it and it prompts you for a disk name and ID number. Enter these and press RETURN and away it goes!

The name’s Bond…

In fact calling it ’15 Sec Format’ actually does it an injustice as I found it was consistently formatting disks in 12 seconds. Using JiffyDOS made no difference to the speed in this case. The program ends once the format is complete but you can simply RUN it again to format another. If you have a whole bunch of disks to format then this would be a great solution.

THRUST CONCERT (Music concert featuring Rob Hubbard & Jeremy Smith by Stoat & Tim)

This isn’t a utility but still a welcome addition to the cart. I suppose it could be considered a ‘sound test’ but that’s a bit of a stretch.

Stoat and Tim Present…

This is basically a music demo and I do actually remember listening to this quite a lot back in the day. The demo features the music Rob Hubbard created for the budget Firebird game callerd ‘Thrust’ and is ‘played’ by a band of animated computer characters.

Rob Hubbard on keyboard (bottom right)

If, like me, you love Rob Hubbard’s music then this demo is an essential listen.

1541 ALPS CHECK (Alps 1541 drive alignment with LED & stepper motor tests by Commodore)

This is another terrific 1541 diagnosing program that allows you to test/adjust everything including the LED’s, head alignment, stepper motor speed and even the write protect tab. A very useful program to have, especially on cartridge in case your drive is in no state to load up your utility floppy.

1541 ALPS Check Menu

Bonus Programs

F1. TURBO 250 (Turbo cassette load & save by Mr Z)

This is a pretty simple but effective program that allows you to save (and then subsequently load) programs onto cassette tape in turbo format. It cannot load non-turbo programs from cassette at faster speeds as the speed itself isn’t altered. What this program actually does is increase the density of data saved onto a tape. With more tightly packed data, any given length of tape will contain a larger section of the saved program and thus when read at the same speed, loads more of that program into your C64’s RAM. Ultimately the result is that the program loads in a fraction of the time.

Turbo 250 Menu Screen

Of course densely packed data is more susceptible to read errors but with this cart you have the tools required to sort that problem out too!

F3. DIAGNOSTICS (Diagnostic Program 324528, by Commodore)

This is another C64 diagnostic program that tests things like RAM, Timers, Memory and Colour output.

Diagnostics Test

It runs all the tests automatically on launch and loops through them continually. A counter is updated at the end of each test cycle allowing you to keep track of how many times it has run, useful for bench testing a machine after a repair for example.

Colour Test

Final Thoughts

Andy’s Utility Cart is a really useful collection of utilities to have in your arsenal. Sure, there are a few duplicated programs but this allows you to pick the one that suits your needs best.

It’s a shame I couldn’t get the Fast Loader to work and that the Disk Tool utility is presented in German but there are loads of other programs available so it’s far from a dealbreaker. There are no instructions provided (nor links to online documentation) so you either need to know what you are doing or be prepared to do a bit of research and hunt around online for information in order to get the most out of some of the packages.

Priced at just £18 it’s easy to forgive these minor shortcomings anyway. I certainly had a lot of fun playing around with all the programs on the cart and have no doubt I will be using several of the utilities to maintain my disk drives and datasette.

The cart is available from Tim Harris over at Shareware Plus priced at £18 at time of posting.

The Valley – C64 Cartridge Review

1st April 2020

Steven

Commodore 64, Reviews

6 Comments

Recently Tim Harris was kind enough to lend me a new cartridge based game called ‘The Valley’ for the Commodore 64 to try out. The cartridge arrived housed inside a sleek oversized cassette case complete with a very attractive inlay card.

The Valley Game Case.

The rear inlay depicts the April 1982 cover of the British ‘Computing Today’ magazine (costing just 70p!) which is where ‘The Valley’ game actually originates from.

Back of case.

Upon opening the case it becomes immediately apparent that these are no ordinary cartridges. They are little electronic works of art.

Cartridge Design 1

Cartridge Design 2

As you can see from the above two photos there are actually two completely different cartridges. However the difference is purely cosmetic as they both run the same game.

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Rather than have a traditional plastic case these cartridges have been constructed in such a way that lets your see their inner workings. One consists of a PCB sandwiched between two purple perspex layers whilst the other is a triple decker PCB stack.

A Closer Look at the Two Cartridges

The black one… this is constructed from 3 PCB’s bolted together and is my personal favourite.

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The purple one… this is made from a single PCB sandwiched between two sections of purple perspex.

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Plugging the Carts In

Here’s what they look like plugged in…

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So why exactly have the cartridges been created like this? Well part of the reason for this strange construction becomes obvious when you first plug the cartridges in and switch on the power. They light up like Christmas trees, the reason for which I will reveal shortly.

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The Game

This game actually has quite some history to it and it all relates to that Computing Today magazine featured on the inlay card.

Back in the early 1980’s the magazine published The Valley in the form of a listing for the 32K Commodore PET. The listing was hundreds of lines long so it was broken down into more manageable chunks for budding adventurers to type in (and then spend hours on end bug checking).

Title Screen.

This also made it relatively straightforward to convert the game to run on other machines as each chunk of code was accompanied by comprehensive documentation that described exactly how everything worked. A nice bonus of typing in games like this was having the option of tweaking the game to your liking. Nasty Troll kicking your arse? Just nerf it’s physical damage stats in the code!

The games backstory.

The object of the game is to find the Amulet of Alarian from one of the temples and also locate the 6 gem stones that slot into it. You must also reach the rank of ‘Demon Killer’ so that you can find the Helm of Evanna and return it to the castle. Only by doing this will you save The Valley from the darkness that has engulfed it. To achieve all this, you, the hero, must travel across the valley battling many monsters and raiding temples to find treasures and stones for the amulet.

In this original form the game lacked a proper ending and ‘suffered from very poor gameplay’ according to Dungeon Dwellers Inc (DDI), the makers of this new incarnation of ‘The Valley’. DDI have taken the original game and enhanced it to make it more fun to play. The enhancements don’t just concern the coding of the game either… but link directly into the design of the cartridges.

A thing of beauty!

The cartridges feature graphics for both the Helm of Evanna and the Amulet of Alarian etched onto the PCB. The really cool thing though is that within the graphics are a series of LED’s which depict the presence of each item within your actual in-game inventory.

There are 8 LED’s to represent the helm, amulet and each of the 6 mystic stones. When you find one of these items in the game the corresponding LED will light up! If you are lucky enough to find all the items there are LED’s on the back of the cart that will start to pulse signifying that you a nearing the games end.

A handy little extra feature is the addition of a reset button at the back of the cartridge which is itself illuminated by a red LED.

The Game

DDI have added a very atmospheric title screen complete with music to the start of the game that really sets the mood. However this is the only sound that you will hear from the game (unless you manage to beat it) as the game is played in complete silence. There is supposed to be an animated ending complete with sound but I’ve not come anywhere close to seeing that yet.

You control the game using the numeric keys. Very strange layout at first but you get do get used to it. Shame there appears to be no joystick support though…

You begin the game by naming your character and choosing your class. The 5 options available are; Wizard, Ranger, Barbarian, Warrior and Cleric. The choice you make affects the in-game stats of your character, namely your Combat Strength, PSI (magic) Power and Stamina. If you ignore the choices on offer and select a different number then you are randomly assigned a class from one of 7 alternatives including: Villager, Thief, Bandit, Archer, Druid, Knight and Warlock.

The main game screen.

The main game screen then appears and the map of the kingdom is drawn up. The map and everything within it is generated randomly each time you start the game so no two play-throughs will ever be the same.

You will start in south west corner of the map on the safe path. So long as you stay on this path you will never be attacked. However once you stray off it it’s game on. Away from the safety of the path you can be attacked even if you are standing still so don’t wander off for a cuppa or you will likely find your hero dead when you return!

Combat

The Valley is a proper old school RPG that requires a healthy dose of imagination to be properly enjoyed. Other than the visual representation of where you are (Valley, Forest, Swamp, Tower etc.) there are no graphics to depict enemies or battles. All encounters are text based and the battles performed by rolls of the dice. When you encounter a foe you will be informed of their presence via text and a (semi) turn-based battle will commence. Whatever moves they make and the damage they do will be displayed on screen.

I previously described the combat as ‘semi turn-based’ and that’s because it uses a mixture of turn-based moves and real-time inputs from you during battles. When it is your turn to move a ‘Strike Quickly’ message will flash up on the screen and you literally have about half a second to press a key and select your attack. If you are too slow you miss your chance to retaliate and the monster gets another swipe at you. This is especially frustrating when you have to cast spells as you have to press ‘S’ to signify that you want to cast a spell and then press ‘1’, ‘2’ or ‘3’ to select which one. All of these key presses are subject to the same strict time restraints which can lead to frustration when you get flummoxed mid-battle.

Exploring a forest in The Valley.

As I said combat is all a roll of the dice so both you and the enemy can and will miss and attacks will do a random amount of damage, sometimes none at all. Consequently you need to be prepared for anything. Occasionally you will surprise an enemy and get a chance at striking first or evading them – but only if you spot the opening message and press the correct key in time to take advantage of the situation.

I must admit I would have preferred a true turn based approach where you can take time to select your move and play at a relaxed pace. However this does make battles more tense, albeit at the expense of risking cramp in your hands from hovering over the keyboard like a praying mantis all the time!

Speaking of moves you have 6 at your disposal, 3 physical attacks and 3 magic. Physical attacks consist of Head, Body or Leg strikes with head strikes being less likely to succeed but rewarding success with more damage, whilst leg strikes are most likely to hit home but do the least amount of damage. The magic spells you can cast are Sleep, PSI Lance and Lightning however the latter two can only be cast once you reach level 8 and 16 respectively.

Damage reduces your stamina and combat strength and if either of these falls to zero your hero dies. To recover from damage you just need to move around. After every turn your stats slowly increase so it pays to keep moving although you can’t move far before you encounter another enemy to fight.

Inside a lair… each of those asterisks could potentially, if you are really lucky, be the amulet…

Occasionally you will encounter some treasure or a ‘place of ancient power’ rather than enemies with the latter granting welcome stat bonuses to aid you in your adventure.

When you venture into a swamp, forest or the Tower the upper half of the screen changes to show the map for that area. Forests have temples to explore whilst the swamps have lairs, each comprising of a single floor. The Tower is split into many floors and is the only place you are able to find the 6 stones, but only once you have located the Amulet of Alarian. If you try to enter the tower before you have located this your entry will be barred.

Exploring a swamp in The Valley

Progress can be saved by making your way to one of the two castles that are found at either end of the road – assuming you manage to get there in one piece! Additionally if you manage to place all six gem stones in the amulet it will grant you the power of resurrection… but only once. If you are slain and resurrected the stones disappear and you will need to find another set in the tower again!

Verdict

The Valley is a pretty unforgiving and difficult game I have to admit and I’m not very good at it. I was constantly either too slow pressing the keys or pressing the wrong ones in the heat of battle. Consequently I wasn’t able to get very far during the time I had the game for. However the allure of lighting up those LED’s on the cartridge was very strong indeed and it definitely had that ‘one more go’ quality about it. It’s not cheap but it’s definitely something I’d consider to be a collectors item and something I would treasure for years to come.

At the time of writing The Valley cartridges are only available from DDI. You can find their website here: sys64738. I believe the game will cost $80 plus postage to your location.

If you would like to try the game first to see if you like it before parting with a not insignificant amount of money it is also available to download from CSDB.

Xeno Crisis Review

16th November 2019

Steven

Sega Megadrive

21 Comments

Xeno Crisis, a brand new Sega Mega Drive game – on a cart no less – is finally here! It’s been almost exactly two years since I originally backed it and a year beyond it’s originally projected completion time. In fact this had long been the second oldest unfulfilled pledge on my Kickstarter account. (The oldest being Xydonia which I backed way back in 2016, now two years behind schedule). But now it’s here in the flesh all that waiting has finally paid off.

Just like with Tanglewood, the moment I saw the Xeno Crisis project on Kickstarter I backed it instantly. I have a huge soft spot for the Mega Drive even if it was a direct competitor to the Amiga.

The game arrived yesterday in a pretty nondescript cardboard box. As soon as I saw the name ‘Bitmap Bureau’ on the address label I was pretty sure what would be inside and I was not disappointed.

Physical Presentation

Just like Tanglewood, Bitmap Bureau has taken the safe option of not slapping a Sega Mega Drive logo on the cover. However what they have done instead is create an almost identical logo with their own name in it. Basically the box looks exactly how you would expect any self respecting 90’s Mega Drive game to appear, even down to the retail hanger on the top.

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Opening the case up reveals the cartridge in all its glory along with a beautifully made full colour instruction manual.

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Instruction Manual

The 20 page booklet starts out by setting the scene and then shows the two control schemes on offer for 3 and 6-button controllers. It then goes on to portray some of the enemies you will encounter along with weapons, equipment and pick-ups you will come across. Finally it describes the different areas you will explore, the hostages you need to set free and some advanced playing tips. Pretty essential reading really and it’s packed with colourful in-game images that makes it a pleasure to read. If only all games still came with manuals like this!

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Compatibility

Although I own an original Sega Mega Drive and Mega Drive II console, the console I actually use most of the time is an AtGames Flashback HD. I know these AtGames clones get a lot of stick online but personally I think it’s a great piece of kit for the money, especially for a casual owner like myself. It has super crisp HDMI out, wireless pads, a proper cartridge slot and it also allows game save states which are a godsend these days. I do occasionally experience the odd minor sound glitch or stutter in some games but never anything that spoils my enjoyment.

Xeno Crisis installed on my AT Games Mega Drive Clone (sorry about the reflections)

I remember reading a blog post about how they extensively tested Xeno Crisis on this system and many other clones. I’m happy to report that it has performed flawlessly so far. I’m actually thinking about buying an Analogue Mega Sg in the not too distant future so it’s good to know the game has been tested on a wide variety of both old and new hardware.

Getting Started

On first starting the game you’re presented with a cool little intro that features a number of static images with some text that rolls in along the bottom helping to set the scene. The story, in a nutshell, is that you’ve received a distress call from a research facility on Io after an alien attack. It’s your job to rescue survivors and deal with the alien threat.

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After the intro you reach the title screen from where you can select a 1 or 2 player game, access the options and select your character. The game defaults to ‘Hard’ difficulty but I found this to be too punishing and quickly swallowed my pride and stuck it on ‘Easy’. You can easily tell what difficulty is selected as the entire title screen changes colour. Red for Hard and Green for Easy – a nice touch.

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Once you’ve made your selections it’s on to the game proper. It starts very dramatically with your dropship briefly touching down in front of the airlock before leaving you all alone to carry out your mission. This is all slickly animated in a style that you only get on a 16-bit machine. It’s very well done and really gets you pumped for the mission ahead.

The Dropship landing on Io

This game is basically a proper old-school arena shoot em up. Each room or arena is randomly selected so each play through will be slightly different. Once you enter the first room there will be a number of enemies to despatch before an exit will appear and you can move onto the next. Occasionally more than one exit will appear giving you a choice of where to go.

The Controls

The controls do take a little bit of getting used to. It’s what we would now call a ‘twin stick shooter’ with one stick controlling movement and another controlling the direction in which you shoot. However the Sega controllers only have one D-pad so a compromise has to be made. Basically the D-pad moves your character around while the ABXY buttons control your 8-way firing direction. Additionally you can also use C to do an evasive roll and Z to chuck a grenade. Finally you can use the mode button to discard your current weapon pick-up in case it’s not suited for the job in hand. This returns you to your default assault rifle.

I found the 8-way firing using the ABXY buttons took a lot of getting used to. This lead to a lot of unnecessary deaths whilst I was fumbling to press the correct directional button. You can play the game on a 3 button controller too but I don’t own one so have been unable to test how it plays with this type of pad.

Gameplay

There’s a wide variety of enemies to tackle with some shuffling around slowly while others home in on your position. Some remain stationary and will either act as a gun turret or explode if you get too close. Others will just burst through the floor unexpectedly and try to shoot you. You simply can’t afford to stay still at all and need to constantly be on the lookout for new enemies appearing from all sides of the screen.

Your standard assault rifle has a very limited ammo supply so if you constantly spray bullets everywhere you will quickly run out. You also have a very limited supply of grenades that you can use to get out of a tight spot. Thankfully ammo crates appear at random locations on the screen and you need to ensure you get to them as soon as possible. Occasionally a new weapon will appear and if you manage to pick it up it will give you increased fire-power and unlimited ammo for around 20 seconds. There are 10 different weapons in the game including lasers, shotguns, flame-throwers and even a BFG.

Sometimes you will encounter a room with hostages in – you free them by walking up to them and bag yourself a bonus for doing so. There are also a variety of pick-ups that can improve your chances of survival. These range from things like med-kits and ammo to security cards to open doors and dog-tags. Dog-tags are a form of currency which you can spend at the end of each stage to upgrade your gear. Upgrades include health boosts, weapon power-up’s, increased ammo capacity, speed-ups (to run faster and roll further), a gas mask and finally an Elixir which is basically an extra ‘continue’.

The first boss fight

There are 7 different areas in the game including ‘The Perimeter’ where you start plus a forest and lab area and several more. Each area has a distinct graphical style and enemy type so it’s always exciting to see what the next area has in store for you.

An area consists of several interconnecting rooms. Once you’ve cleared enough rooms you will face a boss fight. These are suitability epic battles with impressive full-screen animated monsters that need blasting to smithereens. There will usually be waves of additional smaller enemies to deal with as well so expect to die frequently until you’ve worked out the best strategy to deal with them.

Continues use up your Elixir’s

When you die you get the option to continue from where you left off by using one of the 3 elixirs you started out with. You can buy additional elixirs after clearing a stage by spending dog-tags though they are quite pricey. Alternatively you can spend the tags on better weapons and more health making death less likely in the first place. Decisions, decisions.

Sooner or later you’ll end up on this “Game Over” screen

Verdict

I’ve not had the game long enough to finish it yet but everything I’ve witnessed so far during my play-throughs has been terrific. The graphics are superb and easily rank amongst the best I’ve seen on the Mega Drive. The main character is very detailed and has plenty of animations bringing them to life. Likewise there is a diverse range of enemy types and they are all superbly realised in-game. The variety of guns is equally impressive and they have suitably meaty sound effects to accompany them.

The thumping soundtrack is also exceptionally good and again is amongst the best on the system and suits the game perfectly. I received the digital soundtrack with the game and it’s well worth a play, especially if you like Chip/Synthwave music.

It’s not an easy game, even when played in ‘easy’ mode, there’s so much going on and so many buttons to use that it can often feel a little overwhelming at first. However once you’ve put some time in you can feel yourself improving and you get a little further on each play through. Basically you need to ‘git gud’ as they say these days.

The overall presentation in general is of an extremely high quality indeed and it’s abundantly clear that this has been a labour of love from start to finish. Xeno Crisis is a superb game and I have no hesitation in recommending this to any retro gaming enthusiast and I would consider this an essential purchase if you’re a Mega Drive fan.

Hopefully the success of both Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood will be enough to spur other developers on to create more new physical cartridge releases for the Mega Drive. I certainly hope so anyway and look forward to what the future may bring.

A look back at Pinball Spectacular and Raid on Fort Knox for the VIC20

14th June 2019

Steven

Reviews, VIC 20

4 Comments

Picked up another duo of classic VIC20 game cartridges off eBay to add to my collection this week. Pinball Spectacular and Raid on Fort Knox, both of which are in pretty good condition complete with their original boxes and instruction sheets.

As usual I spent some time scanning the boxes in and adding them to my ‘3D VIC20 Game Museum‘. It’s so much easier to do this as and when I get new games. If I leave it too long they pile up and I develop a kind of mental block that prevents me doing them!

I’ve never seen or played either of these two before so had no idea what to expect from either of them beforehand. Thought I would share my thoughts on each title in the form of some mini reviews…

Pinball Spectacular

I’d never even seen Pinball Spectacular for the VIC20 before so this was a particularly interesting purchase for me. The game requires the use of paddles which was another reason I was keen to pick it up. There weren’t many paddle games made for the VIC so I grab any I can find!

Once I loaded this up I quickly realised that this is not a pinball game at all. It might take a few cues from it but this is basically a version of breakout.

Pinball Spectacular Title/Player select screen

You control two horizontal bats that you can move left and right with the paddle. Once you launch the pinball with the fire button you need to keep batting it back up the screen to destroy the coloured blocks. This can quickly get tricky as the ball ricochets, often at high speed, at all sorts of angles due to the design of the ‘table’. The goal here is to clear all the blocks and release an alien which you then destroy by hitting it with the pinball.

So far, this has far more in common with breakout than anything else. Here’s where the the pinball elements come in to play. You can hit the ghost at the top of the screen for extra points. Likewise if you can direct the ball to hit all the little faces (turning the frowns into smiles) you can gain another bonus. Light up the letters E X T R A and unsurprisingly you earn an extra ball.

Pinball Spectacular

It’s a very simple game but it’s presented attractively with a great use of colour and some decent sound effects. Best of all it’s actually really good fun to play, helped in no small part by the use of paddles to control the bats. I can see myself coming back to play this often, trying to rack up higher and higher scores.

Raid on Fort Knox

This game has a lot in common with other games such as Pacman or Radar Rat race. The aim of the game is to steal gold bars from the vaults in Fort Knox and escape back to your hideout with them. Fort Knox is represented as a maze of corridors and for some reason there are black panthers patrolling that you must avoid. Not sure why there’s panthers around instead of guards but no matter. If one touches you, you lose one of your three lives, lose all three and it’s game over.

Raid on Fort Knox Title Screen

Whilst you are navigating through the corridors to retrieve the gold, one bar at a time, there’s no time limit. However as soon as you grab a gold bar a countdown timer bar appears at the bottom of the screen. You must get back to your hideout, whilst avoiding the panthers, before the time limit runs out. The faster you get back to your hideout, the bigger the payout. If time runs out you get nothing for your troubles. If you steal all the bars you move on to a bonus vault before moving up to the next level.

First level of Raid on Fort Knox – on the left are the gold bars. You’re the little blue guy top right.

The graphics can best be described as rudimentary, as are the sound effects. If it was a budget game on cassette I’d forgive these shortcomings but for a cartridge game it’s disappointing. I reckon it was probably written in BASIC. I’m glad I was able to add it to my collection but in all honesty it’s not a title I see myself coming back to in the future.

Raid on Fort Knox Bonus Level – avoid those black panthers.

Trilogic 64 Doctor Diagnostic Cartridge Review

10th June 2019

Steven

Commodore 64

11 Comments

I picked ‘Trilogic 64 Doctor’ up a little while ago as I thought it might come in handy one day. As it had been sat around on a shelf for some time I decided it was time to have a play around with it. You would be forgiven for thinking that this was new old stock given that Trilogic (as we know it) ceased to be a long time ago*. However this is actually a factory fresh product, made under licence by the prolific Tim Harris of SharewarePlus.

Here’s the contents of the box. From left to right. User port dongle, test cartridge and serial port dongle.

Inside the box you get an instruction booklet, some flyers for other Trilogic products, the Trilogic 64 Doctor diagnostic cart itself, a user port dongle and also a serial port dongle.

Here’s the instruction booklet along with some very retro looking flyers for other Trilogic stuff.

What does it do?

So what does the Trilogic 64 Doctor actually do? Well there is a little clue in the ‘doctor’ part of the name itself. Basically you plug it in and it will then perform a barrage of tests on your Commodore 64, from RAM chips to joystick ports.

Here’s a list of the tests it can perform:

Keyboard
Serial Port
Cartridge Port
Kernal ROM
Video Chip & Video Banks
NVI & IRQ Interrupts
Cassette Data
Joystick Port
User Port
BASIC ROM
CIA Chips
Sound Chip
Cassette Key Press
Joystick(s)

Rear of the Commodore 64 with cartridge and both dongles inserted.

Keyboard Test

When you first turn your C64 on with the cartridge inserted you are presented with an on-screen keyboard. This is the keyboard test and allows you to quickly determine whether any of your keys are misbehaving. As you press each key in turn, their on-screen counterparts light up in yellow. If any don’t light up then you know there’s a problem. The restore key isn’t included in the test per se, but given it is needed to progress to the next test it will be obvious if it’s faulty!

The Keyboard test screen

Successfully passing the keyboard test

Joystick and Joystick Port Test

The next test is for the two joystick ports and of course whatever joystick you happen to have plugged in. Simply press up, down, left, right and fire with a joystick attached (in turn) to both ports. Like with the keyboard test, an on-screen visualisation of the presses should appear if all is working correctly.

The joystick test screen

Successfully passing the joystick test

Chip and Ports test

The final and probably most important test is that of the various chips and ports of the Commodore 64. This test includes both the User Port and Serial port so long as you have plugged in the supplied dongles. Video, SID, Kernel, CIA and several other chips are also tested too. If you need to test the cassette port then you must connect a datasette to it, after making sure you unplug the serial port dongle first.

Successful chip tests

Successful cassette deck/port test. Notice how the serial port lists a fault – this is because the serial port dongle has to be unplugged for this part of the test.

After the tests…

Once the tests have completed you will either be presented with a clean bill of health or a fault to fix. The included manual provides a wealth of useful information not just about faults but also how to fix them. It goes into great detail about common reasons for each fault, how to troubleshoot them and ultimately what you can do to fix them. It even goes as far as recommending other useful tools that you may need to diagnose faults or perform repairs.

Conclusion

With the inclusion of the two dongles this offers a very comprehensive phalanx of tests for your Commodore 64. Combined with the informative manual, whether you need to troubleshoot a faulty C64 or just want to have it ‘in reserve’ in your retro toolkit this is a recommended purchase.

If you fancy getting hold of one yourself, head on over to SharewarePlus – it’s £25 at the time of writing.

*Curiosity got the better of me so I did some googling. Although Trilogic Computers does still exist, it is now a PC repair business. It’s still in Bradford only located at a different address. A look through the records at Companies House indicate that they changed from their old address to their current one back in 1997. Maybe one day when I’m in the area I’ll pop in with my old Expert cart and ask them to fix it!

2 New VIC20 Game Cartridges

23rd March 2019

Steven

VIC 20

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Picked up a couple of terrific classic VIC20 game cartridges off eBay to add to my collection this week. Pirate Cove and Star Battle, both of which are in fantastic condition. I’ve also spent some time scanning the boxes in and have added them to my ‘3D VIC20 Game Museum‘ too!

Pirate Cove is another excellent Scott Adams text adventure and along with ‘The Count‘, ‘Voodoo Castle‘, ‘Adventureland‘ and ‘Mission Impossible‘ completes my collection of his games on the VIC20.

VIC20 Pirate Cove

Star Battle is a rather good Galaxians clone for the VIC20. I never had this as a child so really pleased to be able to add it to my collection now.

VIC20 Space Battle

Tanglewood: A New Sega Mega Drive Release

18th March 2019

Steven

Sega Megadrive

5 Comments

In addition to my affection for Commodore’s range of computers I also have quite a soft spot for the Sega Mega Drive. I was really excited when I discovered that ‘Big Evil Corp‘ had developed a brand new game called Tanglewood and were planning to do a proper physical release. I pre-ordered it on the spot. That was 8 months ago now though so I’d almost forgotten all about it. Almost.

On Saturday morning I received a sturdy looking cardboard box in the post with the ‘Big Evil Corp’ logo on it. I instantly knew what it was and my excitement level peaked again as I hastily ripped the packaging open to reveal the contents inside. I was not disappointed!

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Although I backed Xeno Crisis on Kickstarter over a year ago, that has still not materialised so this is the first brand new Mega Drive game I’ve clapped eyes on in well over 20 years. Although lacking the Sega Mega Drive logo on the cover (for legal reasons) they have otherwise captured the essence of what a Mega Drive game box should look like perfectly. Opening the case up reveals a beautifully made full colour instruction booklet (remember them?) and the cartridge in all its glory. The box even has that annoying retail hanger on the top for the ultimate in authenticity!

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Although I own an original Sega Mega Drive and Mega Drive II console, the console I actually use 99% of the time is an AtGames Flashback HD. I know these AtGames clones get a lot of stick online but personally I think it’s a great piece of kit for the money, especially for a casual owner like myself. It has super crisp HDMI out, wireless pads, a proper cartridge slot and it also allows game save states which are a godsend these days. I do occasionally experience the odd minor sound glitch or stutter in some games but never anything that spoils my enjoyment.

Tanglewood Cartridge loaded on AtGames Flashback Console

Why am I mentioning this? Well I must admit I was a little nervous when I inserted the cart and switched my console on. With it being a brand new cart I was worried they might have done things a little differently causing the game to ‘break’ on my console. Would they even know about the Flashback HD and would they have tested their game with such a clone?

Happily all my concerns were completely unfounded and the cart was recognised straight away. I sank a good few hours into the game and experienced no issues with it what-so-ever. I’m enjoying the game immensely too, it looks beautiful, has some great sound effects and music and the main character is endearing and beautifully animated. It’s just an all round charming and fun game to play. I’m sure it would have featured high in the charts had it been released during the Mega Drive’s heyday.

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Mono Review

20th February 2019

Steven

Commodore 64, Reviews

15 Comments

Mono is a brand new PAL game for the Commodore 64 created by a couple of guys in Switzerland, Clay Spoerri and Raphael Graf. It’s only available in cartridge format and costs €35 plus postage from their website. I bought this pretty much blind a few months ago as there was little information about it online. Sadly my first copy was faulty so had to be replaced (thanks Raphael) but the new one works perfectly so I thought I’d write a little review in case anyone else is interested in the game.

For your money you get a nicely designed plastic case with a cool manga inspired front cover featuring the pilot of your ship with some game screenshots and ship artwork on the back.

Mono Back Cover

Inside the case you will find a sleek black cartridge with the title of the game etched onto it. The cartridge fits into the C64’s expansion port easily, unlike some other recent cartridges that required shoehorning in! You also get an instruction sheet, mono pin badge, a sticker, postcard and a beer mat/coaster. It should be noted that the latter three items all relate to other games, only the pin badge relates to mono. It’s only a minor complaint but I would have loved to see a sticker in the box of the girl or your ship instead. Also the cartridge is loose inside the case – a foam insert would have stopped it sliding around inside.

Mono Game Contents

Gameplay

Mono is a vertically scrolling shoot ’em up that features a couple of fairly unique and pretty important gameplay elements that set it apart from similar games. Firstly your ship wraps around the edges of the screen. Move off the left side of the screen and you’ll reappear over on the right. Move off the top or bottom of the screen and you’ll reappear at the opposite end. Once you get used to this it’s actually a great gameplay enhancement and one that becomes essential with some of the bosses you’ll encounter later in the game. However it does take a few minutes to get used to and led to me dying on my first play-though. I kept accidentally moving off the bottom of the screen straight into the aliens spawning at the top!

The second unique feature is that your score and your ships life are one and the same. As you play you’ll notice a series of positive and negative numbers scrolling down the side of the screen. Kill an alien and a positive number will appear. Take a hit and a negative will appear instead. So long as you do more killing than getting hit you’ll be fine. However take too many hits and your score dwindles to zero leading to a ‘game over’.

Like many shoot ’em ups there are weapon power-ups to be had, but again these are linked to your score. Score well and power-ups will appear on screen for you to collect. However take some hits and you will lose your last power-up until you are back down to your standard issue guns. As soon as you start building that score back up the power-ups will start flowing again.

Title Screen

Level Design

There are six levels in the game, each one themed differently with it’s own colour scheme, music, background, enemies and boss. The backdrops scroll down the screen smoothly but are pretty simply affairs, based around various shapes or patterns – bubbles, lines, pyramids, blocks and even a circuit board (populated by 6510 chips!).

The alien designs are also pretty simple but they’re nice and clear and each feature unique move and firing patterns. Some of the bullets fired home in on your position too which makes for some tricky situations if you don’t take the enemies out quickly enough. There is some overlap of enemy use from one level to the next but the game adds new enemies to each new level to mix things up.

Every level culminates in a boss fight where a group of bullet sponge enemies appear for you to take down before you can progress onto the next level. I found it was during these segments of the game that the screen wrapping feature came into its own, allowing you to stay literally one step ahead of the enemy, out of their line of fire, whilst chipping away at their health.

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Game Length and Difficulty

You can play Mono using either the keyboard or a standard joystick which is the option I chose to go with. My thumb also appreciated the fact that your ship auto-fires. No need get cramp stabbing away at that fire button like a madman!

One thing that I have to mention here relates to the game difficulty and length. Those 6 levels are quite short, taking maybe 2-3 minutes to complete each. They’re also pretty easy to get through too as the score-life mechanic is very forgiving. To put this into perspective I was able to beat the game on my second play-though in around 15 minutes and that includes brief interludes where I was taking photos for this review!

I’m guessing that is a feature rather than an issue though. For me it seems the game is built around replaying it and trying to improve on that high score as you learn the move sets of the enemies and best ways to take them out without getting hit.

Sound

Mono has some great music playing throughout the game and it changes slightly for each new level. There are no sound effects at all in the game because all the SID’s voices are being utilised to produce the soundtrack. However this is no bad thing, at least to my ears as I really enjoyed the music.

My High Score: 181

Verdict

I realise that for some, €35 for a game that can be bested in 15 minutes may not be perceived as value for money. If so you’ll need to way up the pros and cons I’ve mentioned already in order to decide if this game is for you. Sadly there is no digital purchase available so it’s the Cartridge version or nothing I’m afraid.

Speaking for myself I’ve really enjoyed my time playing Mono, although the graphics are a little simplistic the gameplay is tight and rewarding and the music is terrific. The physical packaging is fantastic and looks great on my shelf. I’ll definitely be replaying it often to improve my score and it’s the perfect game to play if you’re limited on time… you know from the outset that a game will never last more than 15 minutes!

I think the price is quite fair too and on a par with the majority of other cartridge releases so all things considered it gets a recommended from me. 🙂

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

3rd December 2018

Steven

Commodore 64, Gaming

7 Comments

So here’s my look at Farming Simulator C64 Edition and the various options available if you want to get hold of a copy. Apparently this started life as an April fools joke but took on a life of its’ own as one of the programmers had friends active in the C64 scene.

Title Screen (on a 1084S monitor)

Digital Version

At the moment there are only two ways to get hold of the game in the here and now. The cheapest and by far the quickest is to head on over to the Farming Simulator website and pick up a digital copy of the game for €4.99. Although it states ‘PC Version’ you will actually get C64 software cartridge/disk images that you can run on the included emulator, C64 Mini or on a real C64 via an SD2IEC type device.

Gameplay screen (1084S monitor)

Collector’s Edition

The next method, which will bag you a physical copy of the game, is to purchase the physical ‘Collector’s Edition’ (available now) which includes the C64 Edition on a CD, housed in a 5.25″ Floppy Disk ‘look-alike’ wallet. You can pick this up from [amazon_textlink asin=’B07FV14S8V’ text=’Amazon’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’lyonsden-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’96d22f2c-f719-11e8-9bcc-13e16fc3c1ac’] for £39.99.

Inside you will find the C64 version of the game as shown below

The 5.25″ Floppy Styled Cardboard CD Wallet

At first glance it appears to be a 5.25″ Floppy Disk, but in reality it’s actually a carefully designed cardboard CD wallet. Inside you will get a nicely designed ‘C64 Edition’ CD with a digital version of the game on it along with the necessary emulators to run it on a PC should you wish to do so. There is also a copy of the manual in PDF format, presented in multiple languages.

Rear of the CD wallet

The CD sliding out of the “Floppy Disc” wallet

Now this might seem like an expensive way to get hold of ‘Farming Simulator C64 Edition’ but you do get a really nice big collectors edition box, 10 stickers, a beanie hat, a DVD containing a ton of tutorial videos, 5 concept art cards, exclusive DLC content, a miniature John Deere tractor, 2 A2 posters and of course the full PC game on DVD for the PC.

Farming Simulator 19 Collectors Edition Box

Contents of the Farming Simulator 19 Collectors Edition (Official Image)

If you are only interested in the C64 version this might not be the choice for you. However if you’ve got even a passing interest in playing the PC version then this option begins to make a lot of sense.

Here’s the control setup for the C64 version of the game

The C64 Cartridge Version

Finally, if you want Farming Simulator C64 Edition in a physical C64 themed box complete with the game on a proper C64 Cartridge then you can place a pre-order for the game from Protovision. This will also ship with an instruction book and the aforementioned CD version of the game for use with emulators or the C64 Mini. The cost for this version is €50 plus postage. Granted it’s a lot more and you don’t get the PC version but for collectors this will be a tempting choice. At the time of writing this post they currently have no stock available.

*UPDATE 1 – 9th December – As of this morning they have 12 copies of the game left in stock!

*UPDATE 2 – 18th December – After snagging one of those 12 copies it has now arrived safely so here’s a few pictures of what you get inside. Unlike the PC Collectors Edition this one has been made especially for the C64 and in very limited quantities it would seem!

Inside the box is the same copy of the game on CD as found in the PC collectors edition. There is also a nice little instruction booklet and of course the main event… a proper physical cartridge containing the Farming Simulator C64 Edition game itself. Needless to say I’m really happy I managed to get my hands on a copy of this!

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*UPDATE 3 – 21st December – Looks like the cartridge version is no longer available to purchase. The listing for it on Protovision’s website has vanished. Not sure exactly when it disappeared.

Happy farming, whichever version you go for!

Hunter’s Moon Remastered

28th August 2018

Steven

Commodore 64, Gaming

26 Comments

Nearly a year after backing it, Hunter’s Moon Remastered finally arrived through my letterbox today! This is not a game review, just a quick look at the physical game and what is included.

Hunter’s Moon Remastered – Sleeve Front

The game comes on a brilliant white cartridge housed in a clamshell case. The cover features gorgeous artwork by Oliver Frey (the guy that used to do the covers for Zzap!64). There is also a high quality cardboard slipcase for it featuring the same artwork but set against an alternative black background.

Hunter’s Moon Remastered Sleeve Back

Packaged with the game are the following extras:

A very high quality instruction booklet
Snazzy Thalamus bookmark
Postcard featuring that Oliver Frey artwork again
2 Thalamus stickers.

The full Hunter’s Moon Remastered package

Sadly my C64 is off limits at the moment whilst I redecorate the study so I can’t even load it up and have a go! Needless to say, once my 64 is back in action this will be one of the first things I get stuck into!

Close-up of the Hunter’s Moon Remastered cartridge

I believe Protovision will be stocking the cartridge version of the game at some point in the future, whilst a digital version is available now from itch.io.