Space Taxi - An Iconic Commodore 64 game on the Atari XL/XE with a BIG update!

Here we are with another interesting story that's just been sent to us by Saberman, and it's the latest 2.5 release of the iconic C64 game 'Space Taxi' for the Atari XL/XE. As in the words of the email we were sent back in May for the older version " Many years ago we talked about a game release, I don't remember which one ah ah. An Italian friend of mine, Andrea Cucchetto, former A8 and Atari ST coder, worked for years on an A8 conversion of the iconic 1985 C64 game Space Taxi by John Kutcher (I helped a bit in testing and gave some advices). I am glad to inform Indie Retro News that a public version of the game has been released, together with interesting documentation, in the Italian language website dedicated to Atari 8 bit computers"

This is what the website says about the game (Again from the previous release). "In 2013 he started programming Atari 8-bit computers again and released the disk version of White Circus, a nice game inspired by Winter Games, which was not very successful in 1987 as it was only released on tape ( which was penalizing being multi load ). Soon after, with little hope of succeeding, he decided to try to convert Space Taxi, John Kutcher's 1984 game for Commodore 64, which was very popular because of digitized voices. But he succeeded, using multiple techniques to overcome the more limited sprites and a large but hard-to-manage palette".

24/08/2023 - BETA 2.5  - FINAL RELEASE - 130K disk version

** This should be the final version before possible cartridge version **
** It contains several bug corrections, changes and new features and  **
** the whole program fits in a standard DD 130k Floppy disk :)     **

• - Most of the files have been compressed with a simple, custom routine that fits perfectly into the program
• - The boot program has been modified adding an unpack routine stored in the low memory
• - Optimized font handling in level 25 by limiting characters copying to the first $400 bytes
• - New voices! Resampled all phrases using a TTS engine to get a better quality and splitting words to save space
• - Classic voices saved... I prepared an identical copy, but using the original samples. It could be a perfect 'Side B' ;) 
• - Improved gate passing handling in level 20 - Fast Break (better Taxi speed control)
• - Added "Hey" phrase when the taxi hits the customer
• - Added phrase "Hey Taxi" when the taxi lands on a Pad other than the one where the customer is
• - Added new "Game Over" phrase at the end of the game
• - Added phrase "Pad + n°" when the taxi take the customer on the wrong Pad. In this case the ride bonus is also reset
• - Added level name to menu in cheat mode for easier choice
• - Added music for high score writing screen (using RMT) when the player gains more than 50$
• - Added music for hi-score table (using RMT)
• - Modified text for number of players on the menu screen
• - Changed the ending text on the level 25 - Mystery screen (clearer tip for cheat mode)
• - Fixed flickering in rainbow bar colors in Level 20 - Fast Break during jingles
• - Fixed flickering rainbow bar colors in Level 20 - Fast Break during speech synthesis
• - Fixed problems reading the "Fire" button on the title and menu screens
• - Decreased occasional flickering issues with DLI in all levels during speech synthesis
• - Decreased screen flickering during level changes
• - Fixed starting title animation so it doesn't lag after game over in some level
• - Fixed brown side lines erasing during Taxi drop in Level 25 - Mystery
• - Fixed missing bonus handling if taxi bounces while landing... before, it was granted anyway :/
• - Fixed a serious bug that assigned a non-existent destination Pad... it occurred when at the beginning of a level, Taxi died before delivering to Pad 1 a passenger picked up on a higher Pad of a previous level with more Pads existing than the new one
• - Fixed downward "bounce" bug when up acceleration was maxed out in level 11 - Magnets

Links :1) Source