C64 Roundup Weekly - Another exceptional week for C64 news! [Breaking news update]


This week has been another exceptional week for C64 news. We've seen a world's first C64 programming feat from Antonio Savona, a new Itch.io release, news of some great looking new games, and Commodore Format's world exclusive reveal: the return of a C64 legend. This has to be my last weekly roundup for a couple of weeks while I take a holiday. So enjoy the latest, and I'll be back early April.

Update: Breaking News



The Zzap Anual 2019 Kickstarter launch date has just been announced. Zzap!64 is making a one off annual for end of 2018 and you will not want to miss out on those amazing perks including Trevor Storey's excellent looking new game "Sizzler". Put 27th April 2018 in your calendars as that's when the Kickstarter campaign kicks off. Here's a link to Chris Wilkin's announcement on the Facebook group:
Better than CD sampling C64 Digital HIFI

Antonio Savona (P0 Snake, Planet Golf) has produced some pretty incredible audio compression wizadry. A better sample rate (48Khz) than CD (44Khz) for digital music running on stock C64 hardware. Everyone can now enjoy full audio of tracks of roughly 1m 20s or less on their C64s.

 "...this demo implements a digi player for compressed music at a higher-than-CD sample rate of 48Khz....
To the best of my knowledge, the highest sample rate achieved on the Commodore 64 was 44.1Khz for uncompressed samples, therefore this demo should set a world's first..."

 Full source, CSDB and youtube in the Links section below.

New Itch.io release out now - Joe Gunn from Psytronik


Joe Gunn, first published by Psytronik in 2007 and RetroGamer Sizzler has just been released as a digital download at Itch.io. Those who don't know itch yet, it is the place to buy all kinds of indie games, new and retro. And it's quickly becoming the number 1 place to find the more recent Commodore 64 game releases. Tons of RGCD, Psytronik and other publishers have pages there.

If you're not aware of Joe Gunn, it's a puzzle, platform explorer and it's your mission to discover the secrets of the Tomb of the "Crocodile King". The graphics are crisp and cute, and the tomb is full of enemies, traps and puzzles. You'll get lost, stuck and infuriated, but ultimately rewarded as you make your way through the ancient pyramid.

Joe Gunn Gold Edition is out now and free at Itch.io.

Yoomp!64, an "impossible" new release from RGCD Out Soon!

Yoomp is an Atari XE/XL game from 2007, and also a reinterpretation of Atari 8bit game "Jump" by D. Johannsen. RGCD were really impressed with the Yoomp, in their 2007 review, and discussions around porting the game to C64 popped up on IRC, forums and developer hangouts. But it was generally considered technically impossible to convert the game.

However in 2016 Zbigniew 'Zbych' Ross and MCH decided to take on the task, the game is all but finished and RGCD will be releasing it as another fantastic new C64 Cart release.

Full article and youtube gameplay in the links below.

Martin Walker returns to C64


Commodore Format finally dropped the bomb on Thursday - Announcing that Hunter's Moon developer and C64 musician Martin Walker is returning to active duty. This is fantastic news, and a full interview is available over at Commodore Format (Link below). He's also working on the Hunter's Moon remaster, and kickstarter backers including myself are designing levels using Andy Robert's awesome Level editor tool; also available with the Hunters Moon Remastered.

 ðŸ’¥ WORLD EXCLUSIVE! 💥 MARTIN WALKER RETURNS TO THE C64! THE STORY AND FIRST MAJOR INTERVIEW IN 30 YEARS IS NOW HERE FOR ALL. The highs, the lows, his influences and the incredible story of his return to the Commodore: https://t.co/nHSOkEA3LT pic.twitter.com/0Plo2AHjcl


Hermetic gets the Hokuto Force treatment:

Hokuto Force specialise in fixing and archiving the forgotten history of C64. They NTSC fix, fix bugs, add trainers onto many old forgotten games. While other crack groups fall over themselves to put their cracktros onto the latest releases or new versions of classic c64 games. At Hokuto Force you'll find the good the bad and the ugly. Which is why we try to report on as many of their releases as possible. And this week they have re-released "Hermetic":

"Space shooting time! Today we bring you: HERMETIC +5DT 101%. All work by Wolf, who decided to join officially the Monastery of Hokuto. Thx also to Thunderblade/Bliss to let us using his translation and documents (originally in german) and Brataccas for his help. This version can disable the original fastloader for all the SD2IEC fanatics. Enjoy!" - Hokuto Force (Facebook)
Honourable Mentions:

 Sarah Jane Avory - Author and C64 developer working on an excellent looking RPG based around her long running series of books: "The Briley Witch Chronicles" has teased more screenshots on Twitter. I've been following the updates religiously as she has really gone into a lot of detail with her update tweets. And the game looks frankly incredible. It's also a hugely underappreciated genre on C64 as most RPGs looked frankly terrible compared to the more arcady Nintendo and Japanese RPGs around at the time. Simply follow on Twitter to get the most in depth and up to date gamedev log on the internet right now.


MsMadLemon has posted a 2nd part to her series exploring more of the deeper features of the excellent Ultimate 2+ cartridge. You can check out parts one and two now on youtube: https://youtu.be/TzUKtwCSzQc. Be sure to subscribe for more fantastic C64, Amiga and music content.



That's all from me, see you in a few weeks, oh and if you like our news and want to see more weekly updates, support us through our Patreon campaign (Link)

Posted by @hayes_maker


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