Resurgence C64 – 10 Games Of The Year: 2019

While others may wonder if they need another Madden-game or if the latest Call Of Duty is any good, you can be sure that the C64 never fails to bring variation to your video game sphere… So get ready…!

1. L’Abbaye Des Morts

Double Sided Games

Well, if something ever should be considered heresy, it would have to be to either miss or ignore a game like this…

L’Abbaye Des Morts (French for: “The Abbey Of The Dead”.) is originally a ZX Spectrum-style P.C.-game developed in 2010 by Locomalito (Maldita Castilla, Super Hydorah, etc.), to which Gryzor87 composed the soundtrack. It was subsequently released for multiple platforms, and in 2019, it was enhanced for the C64. (And not just a little bit either…!)

The Cathars were these 13th century clerics that for various reasons were looked upon as heretics by the Catholic Church. Eventually, they were banished from Languedoc in Southern France. L’Abbaye Des Morts is based on these true events and begins when this one monk called Jean Raymond manages to escape and barricade himself in an old church… (This is depicted in the first scene of the game.) You play as Jean, and first, you have to run away from six crusaders who chase you to the aforementioned abbey. The front gate slams shut behind you, so there is nothing better to do than to start exploring the monastery’s flip-screen interiors. Meanwhile, your pursuers try to break down the door and kill you. (They won’t succeed, but you can’t get out the same way you came in either.)

The first screens are easy enough to get past, but soon enough, there is at least one challenge around every corner and step. These include the usual more or less tricky platform jumps and different environmental puzzles. Since Jean can’t defend himself, he has to run or sneak around all kinds of enemies and devilry. (This also means that the Fire-button is used for jumping.) Spread out all over the map are twelve Cathar crosses that you have to find. Hearts provide much needed extra lives. And scrolls give you hints and parts of the back story, e.g., “Twelve brothers hid and died here.” The only other objects that can be manipulated in the surroundings are the levers that activate mechanisms, like trap doors and such.

The game controls perfectly. There is no other way to describe it. It plays just like it’s supposed to. There is no supernatural inertia between the ground and Jean either. Running, crouching, and jumping is just pixel-exact. L’Abbaye Des Morts has “optimal speed running game” written all over it by default. And sure, the game’s twenty-three screens can be completed in minutes if you manage to master it. But until that moment, there is plenty of time to get both addicted, frustrated, and excited. The in-game Bestiary includes 19 different enemies – Everything from fire and rats to spiders, Death, and Satan himself.

L’Abbaye Des Morts is simply another re-definition of an Old School platform game that assures that the sub-genre as such never even came close to fading away from the video game sphere. Thanks to the coding skills of Antonio Savona, we got this gem on the finest 8-bit computer in history. (Right?) Saul Cross did an absolute top job with the graphics (Adorable sprite-work and atmospheric backgrounds.), music, and the sound effects. (Equally adorable, like that chime of the bell on one of the early screens.) That title screen is also perfect. A piece of art. (Just like the rest of the game.) — 1 Player · Joystick · Disk (Physical + Download)

Now that you want to grab the game, at least digitally, you should go to: https://doublesidedgames.com/free-games-for-long-days-of-confinement. (Due to “difficult times for many of us” who are “forced to stay home”, the download is free.)

2. The Age Of Heroes

Psytronik Software

A hero or heroine returns in the totally right age to banish evil from the lands where probably Rastan once roamed.

An evil from the dark lands is rising again and nobody is going to have any of that. Dhokr is the Great Grandson of Vaolbrid, who is just as great in other ways – He’s a hero that will defend everybody and everything “until he breaths his last breath”. He’s a master swordsman as well as knowledgeable in the mysteries of light. His companion Anneika is the daughter of master Vas. Vas is a monk of the light and the keeper of no other talisman but the Golden one. Anneika is the protector of the weak and the people’s heroine. She’s also a feared warrior…

Does it all sound familiar when you select your character and enter the right-to-left push scrolling realms? Of course it does. You have played Barbarian II – The Dungeon Of Drax and Rastan, but you have probably “never” played a mix between those two games that’s a fine as this – With some additional stuff added. Or how does fragments of RPG mechanics and non-linear gameplay sound? And for good measure: Grinding for those who wants to do some leveling up…! You enter the first stage and start leaping over holes and moving poles while hacking and slashing your way past Reptoid monsters and all kinds of ugly bastards. (You also get to climb and jump on ropes – Just like Rastan taught us.) And just like in a game like Rastan, you can’t walk back, i.e., scroll the level in the opposite direction, once you have picked a level.

After completing a section, you can freely select the next stage as long as it’s connected to the one that you just completed. This means that you can go through the same levels as many times as you want and increase your score. (The enemies appear at random to make the process slightly more enjoyable.) At 1.000 points, you level up and get more health and power. (The leveling-system is logarithmic like in most RPGs, so Level 3 is at 3.000 points, Level 4 is at 6.000, etc.) There are fifteen stages in The Age Of Heroes. To get access to some parts, you need to forever-borrow a crystal from a chest at the end of specific levels. This crystal has to be placed on a pedestal, which then unlocks the gate. Beating a Boss gets you a nice little weapon upgrade. And you can scrape together a light blast that kills everything on screen by collecting five orbs of light. (These are hidden in stone tablets throughout the levels.) Complete the game, and you unlock the “Hero Challenge Mode”.

The Age Of Heroes is yet another enjoyable and exciting action adventure that reminds us of better times… (For C64-games, that is.) And it’s genuinely well crafted… But, then again, this is overstating the facts since this game’s standards are simply what we can expect from Achim Volkers, Trevor Storey, and Saul Cross – The genius team behind Argus (2017), Organism (2018), and several other contemporary classics. Can we hope for something equally good in the following years? — 1 Player · Joystick · Disk / Cassette (Physical + Download)

The Age Of Heroes Music Demo is a separate program that comes with the game. It shows a monster running endlessly in a lovely parallax-scrolling landscape while Saul Cross’ excellent, Fantasy-themed OST plays. (There are around nine tunes and two jingles.) The musics are selected by pushing the Joystick up or down.

Digital version for sale, $4.99 only, at https://psytronik.itch.io/ageofheroes.

3. Berks Four

Digital Monastery

One more addictive shooter comes our way, via the hands of a legend – To keep up the illusion.

And the illusion would be the existence in an alternate universe where the 8-bits never went away and always prevailed… But in this case, we’re in luck again. Because Digital Monastery has released Jon Williams’ Berks Four in the so called real world. And it’s also Williams’ return to the world of the C64 after a long time. If Williams’ name rings a bell, you have probably played First Samurai or Shadow Dancer and marveled over how someone squeezed those games into a C64. Or you might have have played something properly mid-80s classic like Knight Games or The Legend Of The Knucker-Hole. (What about Jet-Boot Jack? Sure, but the C64-version was made by Mark Taylor.) Mr. Williams a.k.a. Nojeee has made games on other platforms as well, and he is a long-time member of the legendary Hokuto Force. (Being a frequent C64 user / video game player and not knowing about H.F. would be like not knowing the capital city of the country you’re living in.)

Berks Four was originally released on the Atari XL/XE and is an Old School shooter set in a flip-screen maze-like world inhabited by hostile Berks and Drones. Your objective is simply to explore the mazes, locate a number of keys that unlock a crystal chamber, and shoot like an absolute madman in eight directions – Preferably at the same time if that was even possible… The Berks are eliminated with one shot while the Drones only can be paralyzed momentarily. Direct contact with any of them equals instant death. The keys are found behind destructible walls. You have to shoot holes through these walls to be able to get the keys. Doing this while keeping the Berks and Drones away soon becomes a sweaty exercise. You are equipped with a multi-directional Auto-Fire, but you can’t move while shooting. (And that’s a big part of the challenge.) To find the keys and the shortest routes to them, you have a map that’s accessed at any time by pressing the Space-bar. (The keys are marked as blinking dots on the map screen.)

Berks Four has 26 different mazes of different sizes spread out over seven worlds. On the title screen, you can enter a password for an unlocked world, or read the instructions. (Which fit on one screen and a couple of lines of text. Simplicity is king once more.) You can also choose if you want to move slowly or fast by pressing the F1-key. Balls to the wall, and start blasting. The game becomes addictive as quickly as harder drugs (Probably.) if your thirst for classic video games is severe enough. It doesn’t “help” that the aesthetics are so early to mid 80s that you could swear that brand new C64s are sold in several stores downtown… It’s still amazing how well this formula works (And how well this particular version runs.), and it can’t be the nostalgia only talking since people today play “uncomplicated” games on their phones and such… But a game like this should be played on a genuine 8-bit platform, right?! The Sprites. The colors. The sound effects. And that simple music. This is exactly the kind of game you would buy on cassette around Christmas in 1984, play until your Fire-button thumb got blisters, and then remember it forever… You would also be restless as hell while the blisters healed… — 1 Player · Joystick · Disk / Cassette (Download)

Trivia: The “Four” in the title actually indicates that this is the fourth “Berks”-game. The previous games Baby Berks, Berks, and Berks III (Plus Major Blink.) are all C16 / Plus/4 games. Baby Berks and Major Blink can be played on the Atari XL/XE as well. (They were converted by Jon Williams himself.)

Download v1.1 of Berks Four, for free, from https://csdb.dk – It fixes some issues with the password system.

Additional note: Speaking of Major Blink – It was ported to the C64 in 2020. By Digital Monastery, of course.

4. Bruce Lee – Return Of Fury

Megastyle

8-bit Bruce Lee doesn’t need to fight back from the grave as he lives on, but what’s a solid sequel without one phenomenal original…?

But wasn’t this game an “honorable mention” in the Games Of The Year: 2015 article, already…? No… This would be the actual sequel to Ron J. Fortier’s answer to “Enter The Dragon”. And it’s not just a cheap homebrew of the absolute classic with re-designed levels and re-arranged graphics including palette swaps, but a brand new production with new, optimized code and an entirely new map. (With around 20 screens.) And at the same time, it’s a game that maintains the proper art-style while playing exactly like the original. Fans of Fortier’s game should love Return Of Fury from the first moment. It’s like that sequel for the cult-flick über alles that all the die-hard fans patiently or indirectly have been waiting for… Yeah… So 35 years later, Megastyle did what had to be done.

Bruce Lee is back, and so is the evil Emperor who has both re-built his domain and is up to no good once again. Enter Bruce, who has fight Yamo and Ninja again on his way to the final battle with the Emperor. After a bloody cool intro screen (Featuring Lee.) and some excellent loading music (It has a very strong 80s C64 Martial Arts-game vibe… Perfect…!) by Anders “Rage” Rodahl, the title screen pops up with John A. Fitzpatrick’s familiar Bruce Lee-theme. This is where you choose the number of players. (Bruce is always player-controlled, but Yamo and Ninja can also be controlled by two other humans. There are no keyboard controls, so on real hardware, you need Protovision’s 4-player adapter to play three players.) You can also select between “Normal” and “Hard” game mode. The Normal mode gives you a couple of extra lives when you have died, and in the Hard mode, both Yamo and the Ninja are faster plus you get exactly zero second chances after your five “falls” are used. You can furthermore choose if Bruce fights in his iconic yellow jumpsuit or with a bare chest and black pants.

Press the Fire-button and Bruce approaches the Forbidden World – Ready to kick ass and to jump and climb around more hazardous environments while collecting lamps that open concealed exits. And each screen has some particularly nasty surprises… To understand what was so special about the original, one logically has to compare it to other games that were The Shit in 1984. Bruce Lee did so many cool things out of the box before “others” did it – The most notable one being the fact that the game combined popular and thoroughly tested platform themes with actual fighting. (And not just in one specific location.) Vidar Bang did an amazing job with this continuation since it plays like like no time had passed in this world. Bruce Lee: Return Of Fury is simply another genuine Bruce Lee-game featuring Kelly Day’s utterly charming graphics. And it’s another chance to get addicted, and sometimes annoyed as hell, again. And who knows – Maybe 8-bit Lee will return once more for a grand finale like in all good trilogies… Just… Don’t keep us waiting until 2054 in that case, all right? — 1 – 2 Players (Simultaneously) / 3 Players (Simultaneously with Joystick adapter) · Joystick · Disk / Cassette (Download)

Free download from: https://csdb.dk.

Additional note: The game does glitch out once in a blue moon. (A particularly nasty bug maims the Sprites and forces you to reset the computer as you can’t control the game at that point.)

5. Chopper Command / Frostbite / Keystone Kapers

Antonio Savona / STE’86 / Saul Cross / Snabel

Prepare for a one-two-three punch of glorious, early 80s Atari 2600-ports…!

Shit, man… I have barely seen a 2600 for real, and even I get nostalgic over this triplet of 100% Fun…! Just thinking about the fact that this era in video game ended while other “trends” just refuse to die always twists that rusty dagger in the heart… But there is just something special about seeing that old C64 Activision-rainbow title screen that conjures a default-nostalgic feeling. Activision themselves have zero and less than nothing do with these new 2600-ports as they are unofficial, but they conjure another almost equally special feeling – That some things were merely a bad dream and that Activision is back on the horse again, doing what they did best before some of these “trends”… (Okay, so they did publish Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice without fucking up… That’s quite extraordinary.)

Instead, it’s Antonio Savona (code), Steven Day (graphics), and Saul Cross (sound and music) who are behind these three meticulously recreated, enhanced, and extremely playable versions of Bob Whitehead’s 1982 Shmup Chopper Command, Steve Cartwright’s 1983 ice platformer Frostbite, and Garry Kitchen’s 1983 cop ‘n robber chase Keystone Kapers. Some genuine celebrities behind the originals, in other words – Bob Whitehead was one of the co-founders of both Activision and Accolade, Steve Cartwright created the Hacker-games, and many C64-users have played around with Garry Kitchen’s Gamemaker.

But is there anything more pure than an Atari game distilled through the C64? (Okay, that was a Fanboy-comment.)

In Chopper Command, you fly a chopper on a two-way horizontally scrolling desert level and shoot planes and other choppers before they wipe out the convoy on the ground. The more that remains of the convoy after you have blasted the last enemy to pixels, the more points you get. Both the enemies and the convoy can be seen on an on-screen radar… What a gloriously uncomplicated and classic arcade-style Shoot ‘Em-Up…

In Frostbite, you build an igloo by jumping from horizontally moving ice floes to ice floes. With the Fire-button, you can change the direction of the set of ice floes that you’re standing on, but beware of the other beings and don’t fall into the freezing water. The igloo is automatically constructed on screen as you jump between the floes, and once the igloo is ready, you run to it and exit through the entrance – Before that thermometer reaches 0º and you die of hypothermia. Frostbite has 16 levels, any of which can be selected on the title screen.

And in Keystone Kapers, you chase a robber across flip-screens depicting the interior of a multi-storey house. You and the robber are marked on the on screen radar, and you have to run across the floors, jump over obstacles, ride escalators and elevators while trying to catch the crook. Money bags and other items award points. And you have to seize the robber before time runs out. 16 levels of this. It’s as classic as it gets.

The long-term goal is of course to rope the present generations into getting addicted to 8-bit games as well. Except there are no bad intentions behind this. It’d merely be a break from the distractions of everything else out there that’s way more unhealthy than innocent video games. And it’s easier to get hooked by a game like Frostbite than Elite or Morpheus. So Morpheus can wait until the player is in the zone. But I digress. — 1 Player · Joystick · Binary Executable (Download)

All three games are in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from https://csdb.dk – Do it.

Additional note: Chopper Command was actually ported back in the 80s already by Donnie Russell, who later created a preview version of Lemmings for the C64.

6. Doc Cosmos – The Saga Begins

Simon Jameson

Time travel back to 1982 and then back to the 80s video game future – Again and again and again…

The 2019 edition of the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Compo had one thing in common with the competition that took place the previous year – A fat bunch of great, original, and games that are fun for real were among the entries. One of these games is Simon “Shallan” Jameson’s Doc Cosmos – The Saga Begins. (Hints of a second game / sequel?) And it has a couple of heart-warming and funny twists. Doc Cosmos lands on an alien planet to find a gadget that makes time traveling possible. After he lands his rocket, he enters the first cave and there it is… He picks it up, and… Mission accomplished…!

Or it would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that the cave floor collapses underneath Doc Cosmos and he falls down into the game’s forty-seven flip-screens big map. But suddenly, the game doesn’t look like the C64-game it looked like moments ago – Instead it looks like it was done in 1982 and not one month later…! You know the deal – PETSCII-graphics all over the place, single-colored sprites, and crude animations with a handful of frames. (The kind of animations that everybody with some knowledge about Sprites programmed back in the days.) Doc Cosmos then locates a terminal that is used to power up the time traveling gadget. It has three slots for the power, and every time you press the Fire-button, the game switches between the 1982 version and the newer one. (Even the music is affected.)

However, this isn’t just a visual gimmick. The screens have a series of environmental puzzles that are based on the two different modes. For example, a screen where there is a watery grave in the past, there is a bridge in the “future”. Doc Cosmos also controls a bit differently in the two different time periods – The 1982 Doc can jump in long arcs, but can’t be controlled mid-air. The future Doc is a better high jumper plus you can control the direction of his wide-pixelled lard ass during a jump. This creates a whole series of challenges throughout the Saga, some of which are devilish. (It is even fully possible to “flip” time in the middle of a jump.)

Another thing is those locked doors in three different colors, for which the right keys have to be used in order to unlock them. (Logical.) Doc can carry one green, one blue, and one red key at the same time. But not, e.g., three green ones. (The keys also disappear when they are used.) And… Every moving thing on screen (Plus water!) happens to kill Doc. Lives, Keys, and Power is displayed at the bottom of the screen. On the title screen, you can choose if you want “static music”, “active music”, or no music. (With sound effects.) The active music option switches between a very simple one-channel melody and a three-channel SID-tune every time you time travel. The track is a slower, non-dramatic piece that does the job and increases the mood of the game. You have probably heard better in-game music, but the transitional effect is utterly heart-warming. (It kind of reminds of the game-style switch in Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams.) And finally: Don’t expect the game to be too long either. A skilled player can run through it in about fifteen minutes. Or so “they” say. — 1 Player · Joystick · Cartridge / Disk (Download)

v1.1 can be downloaded for free from either https://csdb.dk or https://shallan64.itch.io/doc-cosmos.

Additional note: The game was Freeze 64 magazine’s Game Of The Year 2019.

7. Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Rikib80

“…From so simple [Hey!] a computer, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful video games have been, and are being, evolved.”

I think, or hope, that that was an actual quote… Anyway. Have you ever seen slightly similar games before? It could almost be mistaken for an Old School platformer from the Golden Age of Coin-Ops… Well, the game in question, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, is a 2012 ZX Spectrum original from Dave Hughes at Stonechat Productions. Locomalito (Now of L’Abbaye Des Morts fame in a more C64-related context.) remade the game for Windows, and now, Rikib80 (Code and graphics.), nm156 (Music.), and Hend (Title- and attract screen.) brings it to our home field…

Any screenshot from the game in action would depict eight vertical platforms, some monsters, and the main character. (Or characters in the two-player mode.) Someone who has seen every single-screen arcade-style game since the early 80s would probably wonder what’s so special about this one? As always, the looks are more deceiving (in a good way) than any neat title screen and intro tune. You play Endless Forms Most Beautiful as either Moebius or Pucky. And it can be played in either versus- or co-op mode.

The game is about picking up / rescuing imps that are lined up on the multiple platforms. The platforms have dozens of teleportation pads that transport you, in a straight line, to the floor above or below you. This means that the teleports only work one way since you can’t move in the opposite direction through the platform. The thing about each level is that it actually is one very long stretch of floor – When you, e.g., exit on the right side on the third platform, you appear on the fourth one on the left side. (And vice versa.) Likewise, when you exit the screen in the lower right corner of the screen, you appear in the top left corner.

This creates a series of very interesting situations as you have to avoid enemies, get away from bombs before they explode, and at the same time collect all imps. (The imps featured are always presented before each level with their Names, Habitats, Tempers, what they eat, and Status randomized. A charming feature.) Bombs are planted at random the moment you pick up an imp, and after a couple of seconds, it explodes Bomberman-style. (The horizontal blast temporarily kills any enemies on that section of the level.) Fourteen levels (Plus a Boss battle against the Imp Guardian.) may not sound like much, but then you probably can’t guess how crazy the game gets about a third through – The levels turn more maze-like, enemies start shooting at you, some even chase you around the floors, and then, there is the worm that travels around the level… And that’s right – Every pixel-contact with an enemy is lethal. Eventually, you need fast reflexes and the ability to keep several eyes on different parts of the screen.

Endless Forms Most Beautiful looks very arcade-classic in every single way. It could almost be an old Namco game. The visual appearance of each level is randomized as well. (The enemies are the same every game.) And the soundtrack is simply fantastic. There are covers of tunes by Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and other hard-rocking SID-tracks. A Bonus-timer at the top of the screen counts down towards zero, and you’ll get a better score if you clear a level fast enough. — 1 – 2 Players (Simultaneously) · Joystick · Disk (Download)

The game is completely free at: https://rikib80.itch.io/efmb64.

8. Mancave / Docster’s Digger

Psytronik Software / Megastyle

There is this at least five seconds old saying: “If you look for adult magazines as a teenager, you’ll be hiding magazines from teenagers as an adult.”

Richard Morningwood is in enormous trouble. His kids Brad and Kyle have found his stash of vintage porn mags from Richard’s teenage days. Not only that, they have spread them all over the house after they looted Richard’s man cave. If Richard’s wife Betty finds the mags, the deep shame will definitely kill him – If the heart failure caused by extreme stress doesn’t get him first…!

The game’s loading screen paraphrases the movie poster to The Ten Commandments (I think?), which is accompanied by a SID-version of Bonnie Tyler’s 1984 hit Holding Out For A Hero… Perfect… And when you get to the title screen, it plays the theme from T.V.-series Men Behaving Badly. The game then starts, following a funny cut-scene addressing the severity of the situation.

The single-screen levels of Mancave have five floors each with Richard’s “Wife Free Zone” in the basement. Richard has just discovered that his mags are gone. Now, he has to run around the house, retrieve them, and return them to the garbage can in the basement. The magazines appear on screen one at a time, and Richard also has to avoid (colliding with) his kids. He can hide behind big plants and such, but his worst problem is the constantly rocketing stress level that eventually gives him a heart attack. (Watch that gauge on screen.) Finding a magazine reduces some of the stress (While finding one mag out of fourteen isn’t much of a consolation.), just like when he manages to bin a mag.

Richard can carry a bunch of them at the same time, but this makes it harder to move due to a very persistent inertia. (The title screen has the option to adjust or turn off the inertia.) When you have stashed all the magazines, you hit the next level after another funny cut-scene. And level two is when Betty comes home… Can the peace in the household ever be restored? There are further complications on the following levels, and, of course, a Boss, the mother in-law, called Fannie. Richard’s jump-move is for leaping over gaps in the floors when the house gets infested with woodworm. (And a guy looking very much like a certain plumber comes around to take a look.)

Mancave has an absolute ton of references, both in the small details but especially in Roy Widding’s tremendous soundtrack. There is everything from Queen (Breakthru and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.) and Van Halen (Dreams.) to T.V. series Married With Children, Monty Python, and some bad / hilarious jokes. (Imagine that this depends on what you find humorous.) When you have unlocked Mancave’s four levels (and Boss level), any of them can be selected for playing. There is an additional Bonus-level with an obligatory nod to a certain bar in the movie Police Academy. The game includes sixteen trophies, which can be viewed via the title screen. The game was developed by Megastyle, who gave us Exploding Fish in 2018. Mancave was coded by Chris Stanley with graphics by Widding, David Eriksson, and Rune Spaans. And speaking of games developed by Megastyle…

… This cult-classic comes with a Bonus-game called Docster’s Digger. Docster, who looks a suspiciously lot like Richard Morningwood (Except he is Norwegian.), has to fill holes in the churchyard ground with soil. Why? Because an evil bastard called Khezam flies around on a flying carpet and gradually turns the yard into craters by bombing it. Khezam’s idea is to build an army of the dead by unleashing the evil Viking spirit roaming restlessly back and forth underground. As long as Docster manages to fill up the holes and isn’t hit by a bomb, everything is stressful but okay. The most surprising part of Docster’s Digger is how such a “small” game has such a wonderful soundtrack. (By Anders Rodahl and Roy Johan Widding.) — 1 Player · Joystick · Disk / Cassette / Executable Binary (Physical + Download)

Two games, one simple and one very entertaining, with awesome music – $3.99 at https://megastyle.itch.io/mancave.

9. Neutron

Protovision PD

A year without a top of the line Shoot ‘Em-Up just isn’t a top year…

Lucky us that this vertically scrolling one was released, then…! Neutron was developed by Sarah Jane Avory, and the game competed in the 2019 RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition. But Neutron has its roots in the 80s when it was designed and created. (So it’s already a Classic.) It was supposed to be published by Orpheus (Who were behind all-time greats like Elidon, The First Starfighter, The Young Ones, etc.), but the company went out of business some time around / after 1986. (?)

The Neutron 2019 A.D. is a “re-born version”, and all you have to do before diving in, is warming up that Fire-button thumb…! (Although the updated / latest version of Neutron has a very, very welcome Auto-Fire option.) And there’s a classic, clean title screen… With something that is just as essential in a C64-Shmup set in space as the SID-grooves themselves! – A scrolling star-field in the background. And the option to play with either the Joystick or the keyboard. That’s all you need in this case.

Press Fire, and you’re flying over the first of nine levels set to a thumping, great tune. You instinctively know what to do – Blast the many waves of enemies, get the Bonus-points, and catch the pods that upgrade your weapons. There are eighteen different types of enemies plus both mid-level bosses and end-of-level ones. Neutron controls like a particularly fine-tuned game, and the collision detection between the bullets and enemies is just phenomenal. Perfect, even. If you have ever dreamed about playing a game at the arcades where everything just feels good, Neutron is the IRL representation of that game in this day and age. (And who the hell would play a Shmup on the phone when you have so many options to play them on the C64?!)

And once you start shooting, it’s pretty damn hard to stop. Every loss of your precious upgraded weapons (and lives), and every Game Over brings exactly no peace for the mind and the soul. You “only” lose one upgrade every time you die. (So if you have collected three before dying, you have two left.) The graphics bring back so many memories from the One Golden Era. Neutron does everything the way it’s supposed to be done if you want to have a good shooting time. The graphics look like they are from that 8-bit dream, and the groovy music fills its function. (Different tunes for the stages, bosses, etc.) The soundtrack is combined with the always important sound effects without distortion or irritation.

Neutron won the RGN Gamers’ Choice award. Because it’s one damn fine Shmup that you can add to your list of must-plays. I can’t imagine how it’s even possible to get sick of this genre, and for those who share that exact sentiment, there are no reasons to overlook Neutron. — 1 Player · Joystick / Keyboard · Disk / Cartridge (Download)

Trivia: Ms. Avory released a special Christmas version of the game in late 2019. It’s called Santron and replaces quite a few cold metal items with red decorated ones. And of course there’s snow in space and not just stars. The story has changed a bit to suit the seasonal mood, but the main features of Santron appear to be same as in Neutron.

Available at: https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/neutron.

10. Super Goatron

The Future Was 8 Bit

The title screen says it best: “Bullet mayhem from the past”…

Mika “Misfit” Keränen’s highly addictive (Yes, imagine that.) and in parts equally frustrating and self-confidence disintegrating Shoot ‘Em-Up doesn’t keep the pulse down – That’s for sure… Questions that might pop up are: “Am I good enough for this genre?” and the more classic: “Why the hell can’t I play this either?” (The latter is of course a personal introspection.) But first of all, you might wonder where the “regular” Goatron is, and… It doesn’t exist. At least not in the public domain. It’s just that the word “Super” automatically makes a game better and faster (And sometimes harder!) – Existent or non-existent.

And Super Goatron is a pretty bilateral experience – Like most high quality Shmups that you just can’t turn your back on after a bunch of Game Overs. (Yeah. We constantly come back to that notion.) If you don’t get faster and better as the levels progress, you will die… Or it’s like that amazingly encouraging early “Game Over”-screen states: “Susta mitään tuu”. (Which means something like: “You won’t become anything.” Anything, as in: “worthwhile” or “useful”.)

The game mixes a bit of different classics into a very pleasing combo. The single-screen levels are framed by walls (The long- and short sides.) that your vessel moves along. On the lower long-side, left and right on the Joystick moves the vessel left and right respectively. On the top long-side side, the vessel moves left on screen when you push the Joystick right and vice versa. When moving, you constantly have to picture the movement from the vessel’s point of view. Your ship also has a thrust that is used to move towards the middle of the screen. However, the thrust is only momentary as the gravitational forces of the walls quickly pulls you back again. It’s therefore primarily used to get over obstacles in the shape of other barriers, extra walls, and other stuff. The thrust is activated by pushing the Joystick up. Pushing it down teleports the vessel to the opposite side of the screen.

To complete a level, you have to kill a number of aliens. Your bullets gradually destroy the barriers so that you can hit enemies through the holes. (This applies to the enemies as well.) To get better fire-power, you shoot the pods that appear on several levels. After the Tutorial Zone and a couple of easy…ier… screens, you get to a Boss, followed by a Bonus Zone, before moving on to harder and harder “sweat zones”… The graphics and visuals are more than good enough. The game has a very nice Old School art-style that somehow reminds of many masterpieces. And the sound effects are wonderfully early 80s arcadey with a really good, thumping in-game tune accompanying you as you zap, speed around, blast, teleport, and shoot. Zero problems with the program’s performance either. A game like Super Goatron feels promising for the future of good Shooters on our beloved gaming platform. Misfit’s C64 career started relatively “late” (2018) with WTF (A platformer published by Reset Magazine.) and Rodmän. (A Pac-Man clone.)

Super Goatron was one of the twenty games that competed in the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition, and we can merely hope that the publisher’s name is self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that the future in fact was 8-bit. — 1 Player · Joystick · Cartridge / Binary Executable (Download)

v1.0 can be downloaded, for free, from: https://misfit.itch.io/super-goatron.

Time flies extra fast, and we have reached the honorable mentions…

Alien 8 (Rod & Emu Productions / Ultimate Play The Game) – It’s a tradition at this point. Another Ultimate Play The Game classic. And what you need to know about this port (Make sure you get v1.20.) is found in the game’s official description. Things like that this is a complete conversion from the original Spectrum Z80 source code – With all the features included. And the even more pleasing: “Nothing is missing.” You actually get three versions in the same release: 1) The full Game including the front end. 2) Game only, i.e., without the front end. (With the original settings only.) 3) Game only, minus the front end but it “loads any saved settings”… Plus there is optional in-game music by Saul Cross… Good stuff, of course. And tons more. This was simultaneously the last Filmation game to get converted for the C64, so it’s rather fitting that it’s also the best and optimized version of the game. (Except when you take the nostalgia factor into account. The original is always the original.) And it belongs in one quintessential series of ZX Spectrum games. It’s hard to find five games that identify the platform better. But I can’t help wondering if there are any die-hard Speccy-heads from back in the days who load up this exact version (From 2019 and onwards, obviously.) and get all misty eyed…? And with this game, this is the closest that we’ll probably get (So far.) to have the “Ultimate Play The Game: The Collected Works” on the C64. (This compilation was released in 1988 and included “11 of the greatest masterpieces ever produced for the Spectrum”.)

Total Refill (Psytronik Software) – A “Pump ‘n Run” game where you are hired as bartender by Hugh Knocker at Knocker’s. As Chris, you run back and forth across the sideways scrolling bar, fill your pitcher from the beer taps, fill up the extremely thirsty patrons’ glasses, and replace the barrel next to the counter when it’s alarmingly empty. And when the patrons aren’t drinking, it means that their glasses are empty. These have to be refilled before they lose their equally and extremely limited patience. (The gauges above their heads show the level of beer in their glasses and their patience-meter.) Plus Knocker’s also have to make money. This means that you can’t give the impression that the beer is free by almost filling up a glass every time it’s near empty. A glass must be full… Luckily, Total Refill isn’t a Joystick-waggler or else it would’ve felt like actual work. Total Refill was sold with another Stephan Katteneder game called Coffee Break Shootout!, and… It’s a cross-hair Shoot’ Em-Up… And what can one say? It’s just funnier to shoot people in video games than birds… (The music for both games was done by Saul Cross.)

Super Mario Bros 64 (Zeropaige) – That’s right. Now it exists. And we’re not talking about anything related to the Nintendo 64, but the 1985 NES original that everybody and their dust mites know about. Just imagine how unthinkable this would have been, say back in 1987 when the atmosphere soured between Nintendo and Rainbow Arts due to a certain game… Well, the atmosphere soured once again in 2019 as Nintendo didn’t think that Zeropaige’s efforts were cute at all. (Not even the fact that this port was developed during a seven year period softened their hearts…!) So Nintendo did what usually works: They tried to delete the game from the Internet… Yeah… It’s too bad. Super Mario Bros 64 is such a genuinely good and precise conversion – Especially if you can get it to work with a two-button controller. (The default Joystick controls with directional jumps just don’t feel right. And at the same time, it’s the only viable solution since you need the Fire-button for the projectiles.) Nothing was left in a “good enough” state here. Even the SID-chip does a pretty damn close imitation of the NES APU…! But one tiny issue remains: If you want to play the game, you have to… Well, Google. I’m absolutely sure that the game is archived somewhere…

…

And just like that, five years have passed… Still, the renaissance obviously lives on… Next week, on July 6th, we take a look at some good stuff that 2020 has brought so far…! (It simply couldn’t wait in these times.)