#03 #03 Reset... Final stretch goal reached! Sam Dyer chats about FD 50his RT 60 FDnew 50 RT book 60 FD 50 RTand 60 the FD 50Kickstarter RT 60 FD 50 RT 60 FD 50campaign. RT 60 TO HEXAGO REPEAT 6 [FD 50 RT 60] END A sneak peak at the book! Darkness - Rocket Smash EX - Advanced Space Battle Blow the Cartridge - Double Up - A Hacker’s Life For Me Reset... #03 The magazine for the casual Commodore 64 user. Editorial Unkle K Page 3 Credits Reset Page 3 Sam Dyer Interview (Sam’s The Man) Unkle K Page 4 News Reset Page 8 Games Scene Reset Page 10 Coming Soon! Reset Page 16 Game Review - Darkness Unkle K, Vinny Page 18 Game Review - Rocket Smash EX Unkle K, Vinny Page 21 C64 Endings Vinny Page 24 Deep Thoughts Merman Page 27 Game Review - Advanced Space Battle Ant, POLYGAMe Page 28 Game Review - Powerglove Plume, PaulEMoz Page 32 Double Up! Part 1 Unkle K Page 34 Game Review - Jim Slim Vinny, Ant Page 38 The Mighty Brain reviews Flappy Bird TMB Page 42 Oldie Game Review - Buggy Boy POLYGAMe Page 43 Games That Weren’t Frank Gasking Page 44 The Day The Universe Died Plume Page 48 Format Wars Last Chance Page 50 The Never Say Die Machine Lenard Roach Page 56 The Net Unkle K Page 59 A Hacker’s Life For Me Vinny Page 60 Repair By Remote Control Ray Carlsen Page 68 Reset Magazine Web Directory Reset Page 74 Reset Q&A Reset Page 75 Final Thoughts Reset Page 76 The Forum TMB Page 76 Brendan Brewer Video Game Reviewer Gazunta Page 77 Blow The Cartridge Gazunta Page 77 Issue #03, May 2014 Page 3 S.O.S. - Support Our Scene! Despite the current resurgence of the So, two Reset Rippers for new release games Commodore 64, please remember that we still in one issue (and then there are the need to support all of those groups and Protovision reviews). Either we’re being too companies who have been such an important soft, or the games being released today are part of re-energising our hobby. Don’t take consistently incredible! I’d go for the them for granted! Although it can be argued latter. With no tight deadlines, budgets, that commercially the C64 is well and truly interfering producers and games being finished, and game and hardware developers produced with and for pure love and enjoyment are doing it for the love of their breadbins, rather than financial gain, it really shows it is just as important that they don’t run in the quality. at a financial loss. Obviously, being a Someone on Lemon asked a great question a hobby, C64 development plays second fiddle to while ago - Where do you see the C64 in ten real life obligations such as work and family years time? Well, twenty years ago in 1994 and that is the reality. things were looking pretty bleak. The There is no expectation or pressure to part commercial publishers had all but deserted with your hard earned cash just because, and the C64 and the major British and American there shouldn’t be. These people aren’t magazines had closed down. But here we are, charities. But… if you like a product, or now in 2014, and the C64 scene is strong and have downloaded a newly released game rather development and interest is higher than it dubiously and find yourself enjoying it, give has been for years - in every aspect of the the developers and publishers the gratitude scene. There is no reason why this can’t they deserve by paying for it. Even if you continue well into the future, well beyond just buy the extremely cheap digital 2024, as long as we keep supporting it and downloads. There is no greater pat on the encourage new development! back! It is quite possible, that as well as Long(er) live the C64 and retro computing! being a fantastic high quality product, these new games may in fact themselves become Sincerely, highly collectable in the near future. Unkle K Credits: Reset Magazine Staff: Kevin Tilley (Unkle K) - Editor, Staff Writer, Design Vinny Mainolfi (C64endings.co.uk) - Co-Editor, Staff Writer, Design Nick Dibble (Plume) - Staff Writer Paul Morrison (PaulEMoz) - Staff Writer Shane Wood (Zap) - Webmaster Contributors: Anthony Stiller (Ant) - Writer, Art Ray Carlsen - Writer Merman - Writer Frank Gasking - Writer Karl Burnett (POLYGAMe) - Writer The Mighty Brain (TMB) - Writer Jari Karjalainen (Last Chance) - Writer Lenard Roach - Writer Cameron Davis (Gazunta) - Comics Some screenshots, graphics and clipart © various sources on the internet. If you require an image to be removed please contact [email protected] Visit Reset at http://reset.cbm8bit.com/ Visit the Reset Magazine Staff at the CSDB Follow us on Twitter: @ResetC64 All text remains the © of the author. This is a non-profit, free publication. Produced 2014 © Reset… Please contact us at the above mentioned email address. For best results we print Reset as an A5 booklet with a 170-240GSM glossy cover. This issue is dedicated to Samuel George Tilley, born 7/5/2014. The world’s youngest retrogamer ;-) Reset... Page 4 Sam’s the Man! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably would have noticed a rather well promoted and popular C64/retrogaming related Kickstarter campaign doing the rounds. Commodore 64:A Visual Commpendium is the name of the book, and its creator and the orchestrator of the illustrious Kickstarter campaign is one Sam Dyer, the man of the moment! The book in all its digitally created glory! “What helped me a little more was You have to admit, a coffee Sam received some fantastic table book with full colour support from the C64 elite, that I loved the double page spreads, with names such as Gary Penn, containing screens and maps Andrew Hewson, The Oliver artistic side of from our favourite C64 games Twins, Robin Hogg, Melvut it all, the as well as mini-reviews and Dinc, Dan Phillips and Stephen commentary from some Commodore Thomson (S.I.T) making animation and 64 legends sounds like a good contributions to the book, and idea. Sam Dyer thought so too it doesn’t end there! sound and I and took the initiative to always had a wild realise his dream, and the response has been nothing imagination.” short of amazing! Setting up the Kickstarter with a modest £20,000 target, the end figure far surpassed that at £35,594. That figure means all stretch goals were reached, giving backers a book with an extra 32 pages, a dust cover and a spot of UV varnish to top things off. The extra funding will also mean that the PDF version of the book is now going to be ‘dramatically enhanced’ with gameplay videos The campaign itself contained and music. Sounds good to me! some very special treats for So, what is A Visual C64 fans. Not content with Roger Frames all grown Commpendium anyway? According just producing a fantastic up.. Nah, just kidding to the campaign homepage, it concept for a book, Sam Sam! Truly a nice guy! is “a book that celebrates the arranged some truly beauty of the greatest home astonishing backer rewards. computer ever made’. These included a limited Issue #03, May 2014 Page 5 edition Micro Hexagon cartridge from RGCD, Where did the idea for the book come from? which was produced exclusively for the I have always been a huge fan of pixel art campaign. Some of the other rewards and when at school I used to create my own included signed copies of the book (with sprites on graph paper. This love of pixel Stoo Cambridge of Sensible Software art really inspired me to become a Graphic lending his signature), signed Psytronik Designer so I guess the book fuses goodies, various signed posters, a signed together these two passions. I've always and framed Last Ninja print, signed The wanted to create a book of C64 art and History of Ocean books, Thalamus games and after the success of the Sensi and Ocean even opportunities to contribute to the books I though to myself, ‘I could do book itself. Every one of the reward tiers that!’. offered something special and highly collectable to the C64 faithful. So now that the campaign is finished, the Why should people buy your book, and who hard work has only begun for Sam as he is your target audience? goes ahead full steam with his project. You should buy the book if you are a fan Luckily for us, he had just enough time to of the C64. Each page will be a trip down have a little chat with us first! memory lane and will bring all those nostalgic memories flooding back! I’d say that anyone who came into contact with a C64 back in the day would be target audience. Hi Sam! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself? My name is Sam Dyer. I am a Graphic Designer and HUGE fan of retro gaming. Why Kickstarter and what was the experience like organising the campaign, Tell us a little about how you got into and also during the campaign? the C64 and retrogaming. I needed Kickstarter to fund the book to My Uncle handed down his C64 to me around cover the costs of printing such a book. 1985. It came with an Imagine multi-pack High production comes at a price and I of games that included Frogger, Arcadia, think this high quality production is a BC Bill, Pedro and a few others.