English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Engli sh issue 2 www.scacom.de.vu March 2008

Interview with Christophe Ko hhhlerlerler

Background picture

Baracudas Story

Commodore Award

C64 Color Enhancer

Best real C64 Games List

DiskDisk----CoverCover for 5,25“ Disks

wa

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 1 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Prologue .

The first issue of English SCACOM had Imprint over 300 downloads. You can read feed- The SCACOM-Aktuell is a free back in this issue. Thanks to all people downloadable PDF magazine. that downloaded the first issue and all that gave feedback on it! The English issues are scheduled every 2 months.

The second issue is full of special stuff like the You can publish the magazine on interview with nori, the maker of the new your homepage only if there are no game “Super Pumkin Bros.”. changes and there is a link to www.scacom.de.vu . English.SCACOM issues are scheduled every 2 months. The next one will be released in The author of each article has March 2008! Copyright to their text published in the magazine. Don’t use without asking the author! I hope you like the magazine and you’ll give feedback. Write an E-mail to The best way to help would be if [email protected]. you write something about Com- modore.

Please send suggestions, correc-

tions or complaints via E-mail. Thanks to…

Christophe Kohler Editoral staff in this issue: Baracuda Stefan Egger Nigel Parker Christophe Kohler Michael Kronsteiner Baracuda

Contact:

[email protected]

www.scacom.de.vu

Who can help? Content

Everybody! Please send your text to me with News………………………………………….3 your computer story or pictures! Who started this magazine?...... 4 Interview with Christophe Kohler……….5 What articles are in the SCACOM- Background picture………………………..7 magazine? Baracudas Story……………………………8 There are Tutorials for beginner’s right Commodore Award………………………...9 through to advanced users, experiences with C64 Color Enhancer………..……………..10 Commodore computer, Interviews, Back- Best real C64 Games List…..…………....11 ground pictures and other interesting stuff in Did you know………………………………16 it. Disk-Cover for 5,25“ Disks………………17 10 reasons………………………………….18 I hope you like my Homepage and the ma- Some final pictures..…………………...…18 gazine! Have fun!

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 2 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

News

Commodore Meeting This years meeting in Vienna will take place on Sunday, April 20, 4:00 pm - open end. Like every year it takes place in the "Wiener Freiheit". You can find it in Schönbrunner

Straße 25 in 1050 Wien. There is no attendance fee requested. Jack, his Frau and Bil Herd http://members.chello.at/wien er.freiheit/c=meeting.htm Classic Computing 2008 The next Classic Computing PSP-UAE 0.70 in Germny will take place on 27th and 28th September in The Amiga Emualtor for PSP http://jledger.proboards19.co will get an Update soon. It will Eurotec-Center in Moers. m/index.cgi?action=display&b improve the Sound and the oard=general&thread=120021 Speed. http://www.classic- 5361&page=1 compu-

www.pspuae.com/ ting.de/CC2008/index.html C= Show in Holland The pictures of our February Best of Amiga Classix New C64 game C= Show in Holland (Maars- The new C64 game „Hyper There is a sen) are online now. A lot of new Amiga- Duel“ is available: developer of new Hardware- http://www.redesign.sk/tnd64/ emulation- projects (1541-IDE, 1541-III, CD available. games/Hyper_Duel.zip 1541-Ultimate, DC2N) were It conteina there. 200 Amiga MMC Replay Next show is on April 19tth. The „MMC Replay“ is an en- Games and a easy-to-use haced Modul and contains a http://commodore- MMC64 und a Retro Replay. menu for gg.hobby.nl/ Game-selection. Jack Tramiel Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart More pitures and Videos of Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicar- Jack Tramiel are here: tridge is now available. It con- tins 127 VC20 games. They www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53- 31867.html can be startet thru an menu. All games are NTCS com- www.commodore.ca/gallery/vi patibel but you can run most deo/video.htm There is a new Filebrowser and you can mount D64 im- of them on PAL machines www.dickestel.com/comm25a ages now: too. A special PAL version will nn.htm be available soon. It cosls 30 Canadian dollars http://cbm.videocam.net.au/n and will ship from canada. ews.php?sid=705

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 3 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

bugs and no virtual keyboard. It costs 150€. It can be downloaded here: http://ttyman.free.fr

C64TPC – C64 to PC It is a hardware/software combination to connect your

Native C128 Software is su- PC (GNU/, MacOS and ported too! Windows) with your C64. Than you can use PC’s stor- age divices (HDD, CD/DVD, flash medias, etc.) on your C64.

www.saymantek.com/c64tpc_ en.html

www.ami.ga Apydia – neuer Level In the in-built sound test Update for MMC Replay menu from Apydia you can Here is the first Bios update access the tune "Speed Of for the MMC Replay. It’s now Light" but it was not used in the version 0.54. This update the game! In Level 4 there is fixes some serious bugs with an Bonuslevel but because of the first revision (v0.52). an mistake in the code the player couldn’t access it. Remember to make a recov- ery disk before flashing the A WHDLoad-Patch is now BIOS! available.

PSPvice Updates A new version of PSPvice is out now. New in version 1.2:

- Support huge ZIP archives. - Support GameBase64 for- mat (V05). - Tool for recompressing Ga- meBase and save lot of me- mory of PSP stick. - Speed up zip parsing. http://www.girv.net/blog/ http://perso.numericable.fr/~c Minimig available kckck/C64_PSPVice.html Minimig is a little board with an FGPA and an real 68000 PSP UAE4ALL CPU. It’s an eimplantation of A new Amiga Emulator for an OCS-Amiga.. PSP (1.50 or Custom Firm- You can add Joysticks, Ami- ware) is available. It’s the first ga- und PS/2-Mices as well version and there are a lot of as an keyboard. You can connect it to an VGA monitor.

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 4 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Interview with Nori Khiat Nori Khiat

Hi! Tell me and the readers What is your favourite What is it about? What is about you. computer? the story for the game/what Hello my name’s Nori KHIAT I ! Why ? Well should the player do? live in France. I work in a If you ask me I would answer As far as I know the game pizza restaurant :) you what Montaigne has an- was heavily inspired by an swered about his friendship arcade game (Snow Bros). As For what systems have you between him and La Boetie. Ralph was (and still is) very developed? busy (game dev., stop mo- Basically none. I am not a What was your first Com- tions films for french singers professional programer. I just puter? video clips) I was alone to try to learn how to use old Old Apple Mac. It’s still usable carry on the game dev. I had commodore machine to ex- at my parents house. to learn 680xx ML but it was tract artistic small projects. fast and easy as I already The concept could lead to What computers followed knew basic Boole logic alge- implement a non formal idea to your first? bra and algorithms learned on of the fact that the technical When I moved from my par- C64. The idea behind the knowledge is the slave of the ents home I bough a PC but game is that you are 2 mexi- art purpose and not the oppo- never really used it outside cans characters who work in site. basic use : Word Excel, Pho- a theater. The daughter of the toshop etc... director was kidnapped in this What programs/games have theater and you must rescue you developed? Tell me about your project her. Beware dont let the Amiga 1200 : A game : “Su- Super Pumpkin Bros! hearts touch the ground ! ;) per Pumpkin Bros” (still in It’s started when a friend of progress) mine who is teacher in a Art How long have you worked School in France (“Les Arts on it? Commodore 64 : Few graphi- Deco” in Strasbourg) saw my Dont know exactly. I try to cal demos for the demo group Commodore 64, he told me organize myself to free few CRYPT. Game : “Galago” that he knew friends in the time for coding but it’s not as (still in progress). Game : “Le same art school than him who easy at it seems. But still, my Fantome Vert” (will be re- likes old computers (they ac- friends in CRYPT have al- leased at a demo party in tually work in a german game ready noticed that I am February). dev. Compagny). I fastly met slow...hehe, right but I’m not them, they used to make always in front of my com- We want to talk about the demos and cracks for amiga puter. I just know I started to Commodore Computers! group (Ackerlight etc...) and code Super Pumpkin right What classic computers do one of them Ralph Le Gall after I bought my Amiga. So you own today? showed me old graphics calculate by yourself :) * Amiga 1200 + 2 Mb Fast samples of an old plateformer Ram, old PAL color TV, ex- ‘Super Pumpkin Bros’. You are working in the ternal DF1 bought in 2007. group called CRYPT. Tell * Commodore 64 (old brown my about the group, the one), Datasette, 1541 (old members and other pro- brown one), old commodore jects! colour monitor (old brown Actually I don’t know them all one) bought in 2004. as I am not involved in the

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 5 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

scene. Moreover I’m not a What have you done and Background scener, it’s an abstract con- what have other people cept I must admit. The mem- done? pictures bers of CRYPT are all ger- Ralph Le Gall has found the Stefan Egger mans except I and a swedish main idea concept (Snow friend TWR. The engine of Bros). He did all the sprites the group is Christian, he is animations, the title graphics. I’ve created some special the one who insufflates moti- I did all the code, the back- background pictures with a vation and organisation. The gournds graphics and others program called “MicroStation” use of a demo ? No use at all. minors things. from Bentley. It’s software for Pure underground art, nothing rendering and often used by more, nothing less. What is your favorite architects. I learned to use Amiga-game? this program in school. Why can you make games Ishar series. for Amiga? Where do you There are two Background have learned to develop a What will come in future? picture included with this game? A game on Commodore 64. magazine. The first picture Nowhere I just googled for It’s a pacman called “Le shows a 1541-II diskdrive and technical docs and also help fantome vert” (“Green Phan- the second picture shows a of an old bookstore, the boss tom”). Commodore Logo. They have of this store is a strange guy, Galago on Commodore 64 (a a resolution of 1280x960 pix- but he always manage to find space shooter) els in PNG format. books that I ask him. I like to Super Pumpkin Bros on work alone, even if I’m aware Amiga. of being a slow brain ;) Demos for CRYPT. As I said before, the technical feat does not interest me. If a Do you have a homepage in game or a demo manage to internet? What the address bring me somewhere else and content? when watching it, the author Not yet. I sometimes I help has succed in creating a good friends to chose de- entertainment also if he man- sign/colours for their blog/site. ages to give a well justified No big deal. explanation he made a per- fect piece of art. What you will say to the readers? Are there problems in In the movie from Stanley Game-designing and mak- Kubrick : 2001 Space Odys- ing? sey the super computer HAL Floppies R/W errors (Super became crazy and tried to Pumpkin Bros was de- eliminate all the crew. I’m still velopped on a real A1200). wondering why and what My amiga mouse is a little bit have said or made the crew Please don’t remove the rough to use. to push HAL to act like that. Copyright in the right bottom The lacks of memory; 2 Mb of the picture. Fast Ram is tight. Thanks for Talking to us. But Asmone is a very good No problem! There will be further back- surprise. Even the C64 cross ground pictures in the next dev. tools on PC are not so issue for sure! well designed.

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 6 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Feedback on issue 1

Commie-Kid Tomz So the first sensation is "He Great stuff! Your first issue was a good wrote that magazine for him, Excellent job on the back- read, I especially liked the so no interest to read it, he ground, BTW. It looks very fact that you included Amiga did not write it for us". Try nice, I love it! Of course, I ha- news with the C64 stuff, as something simpler like "C64 ve too much crap on my many C64 owners also own magazine". desktop to see it, but oh well. the bigger Commodore ma- The only english-related prob- chine 2.) lems I saw were minor gram- Second point is the format. matical and spelling errors. Joining forces with Commo- Your magazine is a "PDF file dore Free will only increae the inside a ZIP file that need to But sure, I will help with that: overall popularity, and it cant be downloaded from an inter- I'm an excellent proofreader. hurt to increase the C64 con- net site where you need to tent. Good luck with future click on stuffs". Today the Comment: issues good magazines are simple Thank you! You’ll receive a web page that you can read mail with the next issue. So Comment: with one click. So many peo- you can proofread it! Thanks for feedback! ple are lazy and will not open I worked on an partnership your magazine. Iain wih Commodore Free but he I just downloaded it and read seems to have no interest in Anyway the magazine is nice. it there. Quite interesting, I that. Here are my advices to im- especially liked the news sec- prove it. tion! Christophe Kohler I finally found time to read Comment: Wonder-Boy your magazine two times. The It’s a strange name but there 200 Downloads for your first layout is nice and the content is a story behind it. I made the English issue must be pretty is interesting. There are many first SCACOM magazine in good compared to 500 for the things to read, so I skipped German with content of my German version which you some articles. homepage have been doing for a longer www.scacom.de.vu . So I time. I read it and I also found My feedback: named it “SCACOM-Aktuell”. the news section the most 1.) interesting. I would like to see This is a nice magazine but My Website SCACOM uses more original content. the name is strange. I do not totally free services. So I have know what is "SCACOM" (I no own webspyce and I have Comment: know it is you internet site to upload it on other Web- We are working on more in- name) but this means nothing sites. Also I cannot change all teresting stuff. But we need for a magazine. So Seeing things. But we want a own more people to translate it… "English.Scacom", it is not website for SCACOM to make very sexy name. Moreover on our service better! Apache2k first page, you write that S of Nice work, thanks, ill check it. SCACOM means "Stefans". This is quite narcissic.

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 7 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

C64 Color Enhancer for emulators Christophe Kohler

The goal is to create a filter that enhances C64 games colors using the patterns in the picture. The C64 has 16 colors available. So graphics often used patterns to create intermediate colors.

The filter detects patterns for each color and associates a blending coefficient to the pixel for that color. Colors are then mixed. That gives a high number of possible colors. On examples I've noticed that the number of colors can be up to 900 (instead of 16).

Download Download filter (in Win- Vice1.16): http://perso.numericable.fr/~c kckck/C64/filter/WinVice116_ FeatColorEnhancer.zip

The "Color Enhancer" filter replaces the "Scalex2" filter. So to use the filter, select "Double size" and "Scalex2".

It is fast, on nearly all games, emulator runs at 100% speed Look at the examples:

C64 Original

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 8 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Best Real C64 Game List - Part 1 Christophe Kohler

Some time ago, I was thinking about what the C64 has brought in VideoGame History. There are lot of great games on C64, but which have been created specifically for the C64?

After some research (and help from the guys of lemon64, thanks), here is ...... THE BEST REAL C64 GAMES LIST. This is the first part of it. In the next English.SCACOM issue there will be the first part of the best C64 Games that were ported from other Systems!

Maniac Mansion (1987 for C64, Apple II and PC. 1988 for Amiga and Atari ST. NES in 1990)

Mayhem in Monsterland (C64 EXCLUSIVE 1993)

Microprose soccer ( 1988 Microprose. Ported on Spectrum, Amiga ,DOS in 1989)

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 9 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Nebulus (1987 for C64 and Zx Spectrum, later for Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari 7800/ST, Game Boy and NES)

Paradroid (C64 EXCLUSIVE 1985 Hewson/GraftGold)

Pirates (Microprose. C64 and Apple II same year 1987)

PitStop II (Epyx, 1984)

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 10 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Raid over Moscow (Access Software 1984 on C64. 1985 on Spectrum)

Sanxion (1986. Remixed on Spectrum in 1989)

Space Taxi (1984 on C64. CPC in 1987)

Summer Games (1984 C64, PC, Amiga, Apple II. 1989 for Atari ST, Zx Spectrum)

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 11 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Turrican (1990 for C64, Atari ST, Amiga and ZX Spectrum. Others in 1991)

Ultima IV (1985 for C64 and Apple II, later for Atari 800 and ST, Amiga, PC, NES and Sega Master System)

Uridium (1986 on C64 (Hewson/GraftGold) and Zx Spectrum. Bad Atari ST port later)

Way Of The Exploding Fist (1985 for C64 and Zx Spectrum)

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 12 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Winter Games (1985 C64 and Apple II)

Wizball (1987 for all platforms)

Zak McKracken (1988 for Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, C64, DOS)

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 13 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Did you know... Stefan Egger …that Dale Luck got mar- ried with Rosemarie

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 14 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

Disk-cover for 5.25“ Disks

Logos and brands are properties of their individual owners

aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 15 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa English.SCACOM issue 2 (March 2008 )

10 reasons…

… einen Amiga besitzen sollte: … einen C64 besitzen sollte: 1.) Workbench ist besser als Windows: Leicht er- 1.) GEOS weiterbar, Leistungsfähig und trotzdem werden 2.) Viel Software verfügbar wenig Ressourcen verbraucht! 3.) Auch nach 20 Jahren noch neue Soft- 2.) Fast unendlich viel Software und Spiele verfüg- und Hardware bar! 4.) BASIC leicht für Anfänger zu verste- 3.) Auch nach 20 Jahren noch neue, interessante hen und sofort losprogrammierbar Soft- und Hardware zu kaufen. 5.) Cool zum erweitern und basteln 4.) Gut zum erweitern und basteln 6.) Man muss den Rechner nicht runter- 5.) Keine Lüfter und cooles Design fahren, sondern kann ihn gleich aus- 6.) universell einsetzbar (von Unterhaltung über schalten Videonachbearbeitung bis hin zum Bürocomputer 7.) Sogar nach 20 Jahren laufen die (sogar bei der NASA!). Spiele noch ohne teure Zusatzhardware 7.) CDTV = Multimedia schon 1991! 8.) Man kann auch ohne Netz- 8.) Immer der Zeit vorraus! werk/Internet mit mehreren zusammen- 9.) CD32 = Qirrlig bunter Echtzeit-Spielspass in spielen schneller 32Bit-Vollendung (Werbespruch) - und 9.) Der Computer fährt schnell hoch das schon 1993 (einschalten und loslegen) 10.) Super Foren und User davon! Tolle Communi- 10.) Der C64 ist bei weitem stabiler als ty! moderne PCs: den PC möchte man schon öfters gerne aus dem Fenster werfen!

So me final pictures

No other computer in past, present or near The wonderful Chips of the Amiga future has done it, is doing it or is likely to do 1000. These three Chips can produce it. No wonder, the Amiga 1000 is using the 4096 colorsn, Sound in Stereo, 3D chips pictured to the right Animation and because of them the Amiga 1000 is the first Computer that Source (both pictures): can speak any text! www.commodorebillboard.de aaa aaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Page - 16 –aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaa aaa