Tag - magazine

Commodore 64

Arriving much earlier in the week than is the norm, Freeze 64 Issue 33 glided onto my doormat today. This is the first issue of 2020 and I hope that there’s many more to come.

Freeze 64 Issue 33 comes with a ‘Mikie’ cheat card (no. 28) .

Issue #33’s featured game and interview is Head Over Heels and its coder, Colin Porch. There’s also a bumper crop of cheats and pokes for Frostbyte, Dragonspire, Freeze64 and Crazy Blaster. Meanwhile, creeping out of the Mouldy Cupboard this time around is the shameful ~~Night Rider~~ Niterider from 1984.

Freeze 64 in its native habitat…

In another interesting interview, Chris Stanley delves into the making of his recently released ‘Mancave’ game. Of course all the regular sections like Zzapback!, Secret Squirrel and My C64 Heaven make a return too. We also have the 2019 Freeze 64 Game of the Year awards to enjoy.

Quick peek at the contents of this issue.

If you fancy your own copy then head over to the Freeze64 website and show your support by purchasing this issue.

I need your clothes, your boots… and your copy of Freeze 64! (Sorry couldn’t resist – my T800 model has finally reached a point where it’s starting to look like a Terminator and I wanted to show it off!)

Here’s a link to my previews of several earlier editions of Freeze64 if you’d like to check out what you’ve been missing!

Amiga Future #142 – January/February edition out now.

17th January 2020

The latest issue of Amiga Future (Amiga Future #142) arrived through the post a couple of days ago. Another great issue crammed with interesting Amiga stuff from cover to cover.

Amiga Future #142 Front Cover

What’s in this issue?

If you’ve ever considered getting a modern ‘clone’ Amiga then you’re in luck. In this issue there’s a particularly useful 5-page article looking into the various FPGA Amiga clones on the market.

There’s plenty of reviews to read through too. Games such as Insanity Fight, Blastaway and Goldrush plus programs including IBrowse 2.5, DiskPrint and AddressMaster are all covered. There’s plenty of news, letters and interviews too. There’s also a healthy showing of adverts which is certainly encouraging with regards to reflecting the current state of the Amiga scene.

If you pay attention a new game for the Commodore VIC20 even gets a small write-up and a screenshot too!

Index of what’s in Issue #142

I’m happy to report a return to form for the Cover CD this time around. There’s full versions of both AddressMaster and DiskPrint on the CD, both of which used to be sold commercially for €10+ each. These packages are reviewed in the magazine as well.

Below is a little peek at some of the stuff inside Amiga Future #142. If you’d like to purchase a copy then do please take a look here and support what is now the last remaining commercially printed Amiga magazine!

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Never come across Amiga Future magazine before? Perhaps you’d care to take a look at some of my other Amiga Future magazine previews here.

A look at K&A Plus #14 Magazine

28th December 2019

Amiga, Commodore 64

Received my copy of K&A Plus #14 today. As is normal with these things I was pretty excited to see what articles it contained. My excitement level was further increased because this issue came with a cover mounted floppy disk. The disk was an optional extra €5 but I felt it was well worth it.

K&A Plus #14 Front Cover

Here’s a look at the magazine cover and that snazzy cover disk in more detail.

K&A Plus #14

The Cover Disk

The last issue (#13) had a cover mounted CD containing Amiga goodies. This time around there’s a 5.25″ floppy disk packed with programs for the good old Commodore 64.

It comes housed in a regular paper sleeve with a nice colour label emblazoned with ‘Good Old 8-Bit Games #1’. This suggests it may be the first of a series of disks… I certainly hope so! The disk is double sided and features 12 games spread across those two sides.

K&A Plus #14 Floppy Disk

There’s plenty to read through in this issue but here’s a few of my highlights. First off there was an interesting article looking at Desert Strike, one of my favourite Amiga games, and just how much it may have been based on real events. I also really enjoyed the article looking at Iron Lord, a mighty fine looking adventure game which released on both the C64 and Amiga.

A BASIC program listing… in 2019!

Possibly the most memorable section though was the ‘BASIC 10 Liner Contest’. This was a competition held to find out who could write the best game using just 10 lines of BASIC code. The standout part of this article was the inclusion of some of the programs as ‘listings’ that you can type in! Now that really takes me back to the 80’s when I would spend hours typing in programs from Your Computer magazine, Commodore Horizons and several others. Good times indeed.

Magazine Preview

Here’s a quick look at the contents page of the magazine.

K&A Plus #14 Contents

And here’s a little preview of some of the stuff in this issue:

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If you’ve never come across this magazine before you might want to take a look at some of my previews of previous issues here.

If you want to find out more about K&A Plus #14 or order yourself a copy, head on over to the Komoda & Amiga Plus website. The magazine is produced in Poland but they produce an English language version too. Shipping to the UK only takes a few days.

Fusion 2020 Annual Review

23rd November 2019

Gaming, Retro, Reviews

I’ve been buying Fusion magazine since its inception over a year ago. It’s a great little magazine that covers everything from retro gaming and culture to modern day classics. A couple of months ago they launched a ‘Fusion 2020 Annual’ Kickstarter campaign which I backed without hesitation. The annual arrived fresh off the printing press a couple of days ago so here’s a quick look at what’s inside.

Fusion 2020 Annual Back Cover

The Extras

The first thing you will notice is that the annual is A5 in size rather than the more common A4 format. This is in keeping with the magazine itself which is published in this format. There were a whole bunch of stretch goals added towards the end of the campaign which means that it came packaged with a host extra goodies.

Fusion 2020 Annual & Extras

Included is an A5 calendar that unfolds to A4 and features some fantastic artwork from the magazine. There’s also a special ZX Spectrum themed edition of Fusion magazine that runs to 50 pages covering everything ‘speccy’. Finally there’s a couple of collectable art cards and two badges featuring artwork from previous magazine covers.

The Fusion 2020 Calendar featuring some fantastic artwork

Below is a little peek at the contents pages so you can get an idea of exactly what you will find inside the annual. As you can see there’s a broad range of topics and time periods covered.

Fusion 2020 Annual Contents Pages

Taking a peek inside

As a huge Amiga fan I thought this interview with RJ Mical was especially interesting to read.

An interview with RJ Mical who was part of the team that created the Amiga 1000

There’s plenty of nostalgic trips down memory lane to be found in the annual. Here’s one that struck a chord with me, I’ve still got this up in the attic somewhere!

Frustration!

Another nostalgia hit, this time looking back at a particularly memorable Zzap!64 magazine cover.

Zzap!64 Feature

There’s also a feature I found particularly interesting as a retro game collector – ‘Cheaper in Japan’. This looks into sourcing games from the far east and demonstrates how much cheaper they can be than their western counterparts. Sadly this won’t help with the escalating prices of Commodore gear but something to bear in mind for Sega, Nintendo and PlayStation classics.

Buying retro games cheaper from Japan

There’s some great modern day features too such as this look at the fantastic Logitech G920 wheel and pedal set. (I’m a big racing simulation fan when I’m not playing retro games and this is the wheel I use).

Logitech G920 Wheel review

Verdict

All in all this is a cracking addition to anyone’s book collection and I have no qualms about recommending it to people who are passionate about gaming. There’s literally something for everyone in here, especially if they’re interested in older games and systems.

If you’d like to get hold of your own copy you can buy the annual directly from the Fusion Retro Books website for the bargain price of £9.99. Please bear in mind that you won’t get all the extras described above as these were only for those who backed the Kickstarter campaign.

Freeze 64 Issue 32 Fanzine is out now

22nd November 2019

Commodore 64

With the uncanny knack of being able to arrive in time for the weekend, Freeze 64 Issue 32 has materialised on my doormat. Sadly this is the last mag we’ll get in 2019 so we won’t get to see a special Christmas themed issue this year. Of course it will be returning in the new year though.

In the meantime subscribers have been told we can expect a special mini Christmas issue via email with some sort of surprise contained within it! Can’t wait 🙂

Freeze 64 Issue 32 comes with a neat ‘Nodes of Yesod’ cheat card (no. 27) and a gift subscription order form.

Issue #32’s featured game and interview is CJ’s Elephant Antics and its’ developers Ashley Hogg and Jonathan Temples. There’s also some great cheats and pokes for Keystone Kapers. Crawling out of the Mouldy Cupboard in this issue is Ratsplat which dates back to 1985. Regular sections Zzapback!, Secret Squirrel and My C64 Heaven are all present and correct and this this time around there’s even a hardware review of the Tapuino Reloaded!

Quick peek at the contents of this issue.

If you fancy your own copy then head over to the Freeze64 website and show your support by purchasing this issue.

Here’s a link to my previews of several earlier editions of Freeze64 if you’d like to check out what you’ve been missing!

Amiga Future #141 – November/December edition out now.

11th November 2019

The latest issue of Amiga Future (Amiga Future #141) arrived through the post a couple of days ago. It’s another great issue packed with interesting Amiga related content, especially the in depth look at the new Vampire 4 ‘standalone’ hardware that’s featured on the cover.

Amiga Future #141 Front Cover

Inside Amiga Future #141 there’s several game reviews but it’s the software and hardware reviews that are the stand-out content for me this time around. In addition to the Vampire V4 hardware there’s also a look at the TerribleFire 328 and 330. Software wise there’s Amiga Forever 8 and now that’s it’s finally here, IBrowse 2.5!

Remember AmigaAMP? If you were an Amiga user in the 90’s then you should do. For me it represented my first foray into the world of MP3’s. Anyway this stalwart of Amiga software has just seen an update to v3.25 and is reviewed inside the magazine.

Amiga Future #141 Index

I have to be honest and report that I’m disappointed by the cover CD on this occasion. The featured software is basically a Backgammon game along with some card games and a few utilities. Not a big fan of either games so this definitely didn’t float my boat. Hopefully the disc will be better in the next issue… it’s an extra €2.90 per issue and sometimes I do feel it’s not worth it.

Below is a little peak at some of the stuff inside Amiga Future #141. If you’d like to purchase a copy then do please take a look here and support what is now the last remaining commercially printed Amiga magazine!

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Never come across Amiga Future magazine before? Perhaps you’d care to take a look at some of my other Amiga Future magazine previews here.

A look at the new Zzap! 64 2020 Annual

2nd November 2019

Commodore 64, Gaming, Retro

13 Comments

Who’d have thought back in the 80’s that in the far off future of 2020 we’d be getting a new Zzap! 64 annual for Christmas? But that’s exactly what’s happening here as I’ve just received my brand new Zzap 64 2020 Annual through the post following another successful Kickstarter campaign.

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This time around (they released a Zzap! 64 annual last year too) there were plenty of stretch goals that has resulted in a lot of extra goodies to enjoy besides just the annual.

Zzap 64 2020 Annual Goodies

Along with the Annual, for £22 I also received an A3 Tir Na Nog map/poster, an A5 50 page Fusion 64 magazine & collectors card, a Zzap! 64 keyring plus a Zzap! 64 2020 calendar. Didn’t he do well as Bruce Forsyth would have said.

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Below is a little peek at the contents page so you can get an idea of exactly what’s inside the annual this year.

Zzap! 64 2020 Annual Contents Page

As you can see it covers a broad range of C64 topics from past to present including Perifractics ‘Brixty-Four’ off his youtube channel and none other than Vinny Mainolfi creator of the extremely awesome Freeze 64 magazine.

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If you’d like to get hold of your own copy (and if you like the C64 then you really should) you can buy the annual directly from the Fusion Retro Books website for £15. Please bear in mind that you won’t get all the extras described above as these were only for those who backed the Kickstarter campaign.

Retro Gamer Magazine #200 with Turrican CD!

27th October 2019

Amiga, Commodore 64, Gaming

1 Comment

Another absolutely brilliant couple of freebies with this months Retro Gamer magazine. First off there’s the A2 colour poster which contains the full image used on the front cover of this special 200th issue of the magazine. It’s like ‘Where’s Wally?’ only for retro geeks! I challenge you to find the C64 and Amiga 500 hidden in the poster!

Retro Gamer Issue 200 Cover

Secondly there’s an amazing Turrican soundtrack CD included, featuring 14 music tracks from the game.

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But these aren’t straight rips from the game, oh no. The first 8 tracks have been performed by a full orchestra and sound phenomenal. The final 6 tracks are remixed studio versions of the game tracks which sound terrific too. I’ve listened to this CD twice already now it’s that good. In fact I’d say the CD is worth the price of the magazine alone!

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There’s loads of great content in this months issue but I especially enjoyed the trip through the decades of gaming starting in the 70’s passing through the 80’s and ending in the 90’s. Plenty of coverage of both 8 and 16-bit Commodore machines too. I’d say this months edition is definitely worth a buy, even if it’s just for that epic poster and the Turrican CD!

More Commodore Magazines (on DVD in PDF format)

26th October 2019

Amiga, Commodore 64

24 Comments

I posted about these magazine ‘compilations’ a while ago when I bought this bunch of Amiga ones off eBay. Well I was browsing again a few days ago and noticed the seller is selling some different Commodore magazines now so I bought a bunch more. Here they are:

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Here’s a look at the very first edition cover for each of the 5 magazines.

First Edition Covers!

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As with the last batch I bought, the presentation of these discs is first rate with nicely designed colour prints on the front of each DVD.

Unfortunately I discovered a few problems with two of the collections this time around. The first and least problematic was the source quality of the magazines used for the Zzap!64 collection. The pages were grubby and full of creases as you can clearly see in the Zzap! cover shown above. It’s a shame they weren’t able to procure better condition magazines for scanning. However the pages were still readable and given how old the source material is I can overlook some ropey quality issues here and there.

However with the Amiga Power collection there was a much bigger and unforgivable issue. Basically the magazine pages have been scanned at far too low a resolution. In some cases an entire magazine has been crammed into a 2mb PDF! This has rendered text unreadable on many of the pages as you can see with the excerpt of a Rainbow Islands review below.

Lousy scan quality – review text is unreadable!

As you can see the quality is simply unacceptable. Give the seller his due, he refunded me within minutes of contacting him about the issue and pledged to look into the problem and try to locate some better scans.

I’d definitely avoid the Amiga Power collection then but the rest are all recommended if you want to add these classic magazines to your collection.

The seller’s name is ‘another-world-games‘ if you fancy having a look at what they offer for yourself.

Amiga User 8 – Special Edition

23rd October 2019

This delivery of Amiga User 8 came as a welcome surprise, especially considering that I only received issue 7 a couple of weeks ago! This is actually a special edition issue of the magazine created specifically for the recent Amiga34 party which took place in Neuss, Germany.

Amiga User 8 Cover

Because the magazine was intended to be sold at the event in Germany it is presented in dual languages. The first half of the magazine is in English and the latter half in German. It’s also not as thick as regular issues, weighing in at 40 pages so in reality there’s only 25% of the usual amount of content. However it makes up for this by the addition of several other goodies bundled with it.

Amiga User 8 Bundle

Amiga User 8 Goodies

Extras included with this issue:

Amiga User lanyard
Amiga User bookmark
Cover CD in professionally produced DVD case
Ten very cool looking professionally printed multi-colour Amiga disk labels
A 3.5″ Rescue floppy disk for booting your Amiga in the event of HD trouble.

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So what’s actually in Amiga User 8 then? Well it’s clear that this issue was designed as a ‘taster’ to introduce new readers or lapsed Amiga users to the fold. Consequently the content matter reflects this. There are articles looking at the alternatives to using physical floppy disks, including a great guide to installing and configuring WHDLoad for new users. There is also a comprehensive guide on how to setup a Hard Drive and install workbench on it. The guide continues with tips for formatting floppies to transfer files from a PC and also for updating key parts of the OS like the Installer. Finally there is a guide for creating your own workbench icons.

Cover CD

The cover CD itself contains dozens if not hundreds of utilities and applications that you can install on your Amiga. Programs such as Directory Opus, MUI and CyberView. Of course most of these are readily available to download off Aminet or around the web but it’s still convenient to have them collected together.

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All of the applications and resources referred to in the magazine are included on the CD too which I find very useful. Besides the practicalities, there’s also the fun of rummaging around the disc to see what’s on there. Maybe uncovering a few surprises or jogging a few memories along the way. It all adds to the nostalgia which is a big part of what the retro scene is all about.

Cover CD Contents

If you fancy getting hold of your own copy take a look at the Bitronic.pl website. Amiga User is produced in Poland but the English is excellent. I don’t speak much German so I can’t comment on the quality of that aspect. Delivery to the UK only takes a week or so. If you’d rather get a digital version they offer that option too.

If you’d like to take a look at some of my previous previews of the magazine then please click here.

Amiga User 7

11th October 2019