Tulip Computers, which bought the rights to the Commodore name in 1997, is “taking over” the main C64 web portal and will be making a vast library of old programs and games available, legally, for download.There are still a lot of C64 enthusiasts out there, some using old hardware, but probably many more using emulators to relive their youth. The downside: Tulip is planning on defending its trademarks, which may mean that fan sites might be getting harrassed. More at PC World.
“Wasteland”
“Maniac Mansion”
“Impossible Mission”
“Loadrunner”
…and many others once again…
I need to dig out my old C64, I should still have all those old Discs laying about too… Those were the days…
– Choplifter
– ski64
– ghostbusters
– shamus
– burning rubber
YES!
– “Destroy him my robot”, or was that impossible mission?
– lpc (little computer people)
Generally, returning to some of the old games from my youth, turned out as big disappointments. Some times I can’t believe that I actually played those dull, ugly games with annoying, repetetive gameplay and game music.
It’s the same feeling when I watch the old Godzilla movies. When I was 11, I thought they were great and beautiful pieces of film art. The effects were stunning and the men in green monster suits were very convincing.
The same goes for old apps. A year ago I installed UAE (Amiga emulator) on my Linux box just because I remembered drawing graphics in Deluxe Paint as a lot of fun. In 2002 it was no fun anymore. I went back to VMWare, XP and Photoshop after 10 minutes.
Nostalgia is for the notsalgic I guess…
/regards
-PiCz-
Maniac Mansion is still a great game, but you can get the PC version (along with the sequel) for like $5 in bargain bins.
-Hugh
“Even if the Commodore 64 hardware is obsolete, enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PCs, Apple Macintoshes, and now PocketPC-based PDAs to enable original Commodore games to run on those systems.”
I hate these companies. Now that there’s money to be made rereleasing old favorites for pda’s and multimedia phones they come in and make a quick buck and in the process screw over the community that kept it alive all these years. Well I guess maybe it will be different this time. Here’s hoping.
One of my favorite games on the C-64 was Imperium Galactum. It’s sort of a vague ancestor to “Masters Of Orion”. It was crushingly disappointing when I fired it up again.
Without high hopes I then went to my “Pirates!” disk. It was all I remembered, and more! I spent many, many hours playing it last year, until my poor floppy finally gave up the ghost.
I think the major difference was that Imperium Galactum’s interface is pretty clunky when compared with the original Masters of Orion. If I’d never played the better game in the genre, then I might still have thought Imperium Galactum was great.
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
PS Anyone selling their copy of Pirates!? :0)
There were PC and Mac versions, I wonder how they compare?
the sinclair spectrum 48K was miles better!!! ;P
Check out this site ( http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1359 ) for a remake of the original for pc. The original can be found on “abondonware sites” STFW , but this one is legal. I still have an original for my amiga, but i’m not parting with it
Mr. Tyr writes:
I hate these companies. Now that there’s money to be made rereleasing old favorites for pda’s and multimedia phones they come in and make a quick buck and in the process screw over the community that kept it alive all these years.
You do realize that the people making the quick buck are the people who *own the rights* to those old favorites? As a matter of fact, it’s not a quick buck, but a very slow one. :0)
Anyway, Chris of c64audio posted the note below on comp.sys.cbm (check out groups.google.com for the Usenet-deprived). It suggests that Ironstone wants to ‘treat the community right’.
As long as they don’t go after Jeri and her amazing C-1 — http://c64upgra.de/c-one/ , I’ll be happy.
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
———-
Hi all,
I just spoke to Darren Melbourne from Ironstone Partners,
and I’m now completely happy that they respect the C64 community
and are willing to embrace it rather than close it down. Darren
himself is a huge C64 fan (he even knows the significance of
Martin Galway’s SID chip).
Ironstone should release their own press release soon which
should clarify matters, but the only people who should worry
about getting sued are the people releasing unauthorised Commodore
products in the retail chain. That press release had large parts (including
the numbers) that were unauthorised by them. Yes, the numbers were fiction.
There should also be a positive development on the C-One very soon,
too.
*phew*
Chris
Mr. Tyr writes:
Check out this site ( http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1359 ) for a remake of the original for pc.
Wow, awesome! I’ll download and give it a try this evening. Thanks for the link!
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
Thanks OSAlert for occationally giving the classics a nod. The poularity of these machines certainly has dropped, and nearly died, since the introduction PCs. But the strong sales on eBay indicate a strong interest has returned, perhaps due to eBay itself. These systems were not all alike; they each had their own operating system, their own software titles, and their own ideas of what a “futuristic” machine should look like.
My high school Computer Programming used Commodore 64 (they had just replaced the Vic-20s at the school, even though the 128 was available by that time). And I just bought a Commodore 128D, my first personal Commodore. That thing is built like a tank; runs in C128, C64, or CPM mode; and still works like new after all this time.
Can someone recommend a good Commodore emulator? In particular, something with a GUI capable of utilizing Commodore downloads. Some of the various emulators I have tried are complicated, trying to completely copy every function of the original. Something like MAME32 for Commodore would be great.
Thanks,
Bob
“the sinclair spectrum 48K was miles better!!! ;P”
How about the Aquarius? That was a real piece of art (I mean crap).
Pirates!
The Last Ninja + Last Ninja 2 (never played the rest)
Turrican II
Mr. Thearch wrote:
Can someone recommend a good Commodore emulator? In particular, something with a GUI capable of utilizing Commodore downloads. Some of the various emulators I have tried are complicated, trying to completely copy every function of the original. Something like MAME32 for Commodore would be great.
Not precisely sure what you mean by the above — I don’t know MAME32. I’ve been playing around with VICE lately http://viceteam.bei.t-online.de/ . It does C64, 128, VIC-20 and a few of the stranger CBM models. I’ve had some inconsistancies with one of the menu sets on MacOS X, but otherwise it’s done a good job. I used it on a windows box a few versions back and it played almost everything I tried.
I just need to find out what emulators support which USB joysticks so I can get the full experience!
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
… I liked the C64 Aliens game. I recall liking the music a lot. Never could find it for emulation though…
I just read that Sid Meier is working on a new Pirates! game!
http://www.firaxis.com/company_showrelease.cfm?releasenum=42
I haven’t played games in a good 3 or 4 years, but this will be one that I get for sure!
Does this mean that emulators such as VICE will now be illegal? I’ve had alot invested in VICE and other commodore emulators to be snatched away like this. I had an old commodore 128 but it burned out long ago.
I swear by the CCS64 emulator from http://www.computerbrains.com. It runs anything and everything. I have tried several others, but this one (in my opinion) owns all other C64 emulators
Emulators may have to remove C64 Kernal ROM from distributions, and users would have to dump ROM-image out of their real C64. Just like all UAE users are currently doing.
Can Tulip really start harassing games-sites for distributing games made for C64, or only for distributing games that are actually copyrighted by Commodore (and I don’t think many games are)?
AFAIK, CommodoreOne is renamed to C-One. No Commodore brand name violated.
But, what if Tulip would start supporting Jeri’s C-One effort, and get some new and exciting stuff for that that machine. That would be interesting!
“Ah! Another visitor…Stay awhile….stay FOREVER!”
(Mission Impossible)
Man the C64 is what I grew up on. It’s what got me into computers and why I have chosen computers as my profession. I remember writing little BASIC programs on it when i was 6 years old. Too bad we sold it about 10 years ago. Oh well…I still have the emulator.
Games I liked:
Space Taxi
Pole Position
Moon Patrol
Solo Flight
Skyfox
Ace of Aces
Test Drive
Many others…
’nuff said
Well spoken.
The SID chip is one of the reasons I love this machine so much and makes it stand out compared to other machines of that time and even later, because it’s very simple and incredibly powerful at the same time.
The High Voltage SID collection has given me hours and hours (and even more hours!) of entertainment and demonstrates what the SID chip from 1982 can do to impress me in 2003. Especially newer tunes from 1995 and up do some serious tricks with sound effects which basically is only shaping waveforms and filtering.
They are still making a lot of new tunes! It’s very different from the average modern techno tunes, with alot more melody and inventiveness. Well… it has to do with taste of course, but I love it.
Most of the old composers are there. Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Jeroen Tel and many others, but also newer composers such as DRAX and Mitch&Dane.
They produce some of the most impressive tunes I’ve ever heard on that little chip. (My personal favourite is DRAX’s neurosis.sid
The tunes:
http://www.hvsc.c64.org/
The player for Windows:
http://www.d.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/spw/
If you’re using other platforms, make sure you use a player that utilizes the sidplay2 library, not ReSID or any other player.
Enjoy!
Have you done any Sega Genesis emulation?
There is a version of the Pirates game called
Pirates’ Gold for the Sega Genesis and honestly
speaking its probably the only game I emulate
on Sega these days.
I’d give you a link but I’m afraid I’d get in
trouble for passing along ‘warez’ roms..just do
a search for it and nab one of the excelent emus
out there. I recall seeing a release of the game
with some cleaning up of the graphics about two
years back for the PC under their own imprint, but
it sold out quickly and when I had the cash to buy it it was gone.
Anyone remember the Commodore Colt ? I remember going to the computer store and seeing Commodore’s attempt and an x86 computer.
I kinda remeber thinking back then that Commodore was losing its focus. Amiga was a way better computer.
Come on Jeri! I want to play with one!
Hope to see ya at AmiWest.
Thanks for the emulator suggestions. Some of the names sounded familiar, so I may have tried those at some point. One or two were new to me so I’ll be sure to give them a try.
For those unfamiliar with MAME32, here’s why it’s appealing. There’s a simple interface that automatically detects and displays all of the available ROMs. You click on the name of a program, and BAM, it’s running.
Thanks again, and best wishes,
Bob
An eternal masterpiece.