Supremacy 30th Anniversary Edition - A 30 year anniversary special is coming to a C64 near you (Indie Retro News Exclusive)

We've featured a lot of specials on Indie Retro News, but this latest news update for the C64 is sure to excite many as we struggle through 2021. As we've recently been informed via Facebook as a heads up tag by Hayesmaker64, that the 1990's hit classic of 'Supremacy' by Probe Software and published via Virgin Mastertronic with stunning music by Jeroen Tel/David Whittaker(ST). Will once again be coming to the C64 but this time as a 30th Anniversary Edition thanks to the hard work of Excess.

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From what we've been told, the excess team behind international karate's ultimate, lemmings and speedball ultimate, with code by Knight Rider, graphics by Domingo(Almighty God), Zsolt(zscs), Ste'86 and idea and direction from Alex(der Retroluzzer). Supremacy Enhanced will not only feature 7 handy trainers, but this version of the game will feature mouse support, an animated pixelated intro from the Amiga version, pixelated armor from the training screen thanks to the coding of Domingo, pixelated Starbase animation and space ships from the shop screen, as well as the weapons from the training screen thanks to Zsolt, improvements to the battle screen such as new digital samples for pause, message, attack etc, and much much more.

Alex was also happy to give us a better insight of the development for Supremacy 30th Anniversary Edition, so here's a detailed commentary directly from Alex himself!

"Hello, 

My name is Alex. In Germany, I am also known as the world-famous"Retroluzzer“. 😉 Today I would like to introduce you to a project that I invest a lot of time in at the moment, that I have my heart set on and that now has become much bigger than I imagined it could be when I had the idea.

The game „Supremacy“ was released in the summer of 1991 for the C64. It is a rather complex real-time strategy game in space, where you have the task to bring a galaxy of either 8, 16 or 32 planets under your control and to drive an aggressive opponent out of the system.

"Supremacy" was a very high class commercial production for the C64, but due to its late release date it never got the attention it deserved. Let’s be honest: you know the epic music by Jeroen Tel, but you don’t know the game, right? But I can tell you: you’re really missing out on a very cool game! The game was originally released for 16-bit computers such as the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, and it is truly amazing how the programmers managed to squeeze the whole actual game into the Amiga's little brother.

All gameplay features are present. What had to be saved on were graphics and sound effects. As the game was also to be marketed for the important UK market, it had to be designed to be tape-friendly, so multiload was a no-go. „Supremacy" is a great game on the Amiga and one of my all-time favourite games on the Commodore 64. But I always secretly dreamt that the game could be a bit better on the C64. This is where the group Excess, which I recently joined, comes into play. After Excess had already released massively improved versions of classics like Turbo Out Run or Speedball 2, I proposed Supremacy as such a project.

Initially, I had only suggested a few small improvements. For example, some small graphics for soldiers' weaponry were missing, and I wondered if the intro of the Amiga version could be brought to life on the C64 in some way. From then on, the project picked up speed very quickly. The team around the game has grown very big in the meantime. Mike aka Knight Rider takes over the programming and implementation of new features.

zscs (Zsolt) pixelated many detailed animations, Almighty God (Domingo) reworked all the screens of the game and actually brought the Amiga intro to the C64, giving the little sequence not only the special C64 but also his very own touch. I myself extracted graphics and sounds from the Amiga version as source material for the others to work with.

STE’86 gave us a fantastic new title screen inspired by the Amiga title and the games’ packaging. And who knows... maybe even the end sequences get some cool treatment! Supremacy is a point-and-click game. Playing this with a Joystick can be a pain, so full mouse support is now included and it plays absolutely comfortable, the keyboard is only needed when you want to name a ship or planet.

A lot has already been done, but the to-do list is not quite finished yet. Everyone involved is having great fun with this project and is highly motivated to bring Supremacy on the Commodore 64 as close as possible to its 16-bit counterpart, for example with digitised voice output. Antonio Savona is going to help us on this.  Toggle from Padua is recreating the in game jingles of the Amiga version for us.

And of course we are adding some helpful trainers that will come handy if you want to learn the game mechanics the fast way.  Supremacy will come as an EasyFlash release and will make extensive use of its advantages, instant loading, lots of memory and saving game states directly to the cartridge. But of course the game will also be playable from the known extra  hardware like the 1541 Ultimate, Kung Fu Flash or the Ultimate 64.

With this game we would like to celebrate two anniversaries at once: Excess celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021, and Supremacy was also released for the C64 30 years ago in the summer of 1991.  Let’s celebrate together! Coming soon to a C64 near you "

So if you loved the game either on the Amiga as I did or in the case of this article the C64, make sure to keep an eye out for the Supremacy 30th Anniversary Edition , as it's sure to be one hell of a C64 special!

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