C64 Weekly Roundup - Ultimate-64, 4KB Crappy Games, IK Ultimate and more!


Hello and welcome to what I hope I can make a regular fixture here at Indie Retro News. As new C64 games, scene releases, hardware, competitions and general C64 news become more and more frequent, it's becoming harder to cover everything which goes on in individual postings. So I'm going to try and wrap up everything in one weekly post, so it should be easier to stay on top of the latest goings on. Of course if anything major comes in, we'll still feature breaking news stories separately.

The Future of C64



First up the future of C64 got a shade brighter today, as official production started on Gideon's long awaited Ultimate 64 boards. The photos look awesome and you can see more of them now in the 1541 Ultimate Facebook Group. The latest news is that some 500+ boards should be produced between now and the end of April, and the website will open up pre-orders periodically during this period. More boards should be created to fill remaining demand afterwards. These boards are not for sale as of yet, as further testing takes place to help ensure the FPGA based modern 64 motherboards are as solid as possible before release. You can find out more on the official Ultimate 64 website.


International Karate Ultimate Competition Edition



This week saw the release of IK Ultimate Competition Edition (CSDB 17th Feb). This is Excess's second instalment of International Karate Ultimate which was our Scene release of the year in our end of year round-up 2017. This release features the winning backgrounds of Excess's International Karate Graphics Competition as well as the following changes from the November release:
  • Improved 2 player mode. Requested & tested by Firecracker
  • Dual SID mode requested & tested by Slajerek
  • New documents written by Bordeaux
  • New music (use 6581 SID) by nm156
  • Save highscores when 'reset highscore' selected instead of waiting for new highscore. Requested by pcollins. (THE pcollins? - ED)
  • Removed 'Way Of The Exploding Fist' original backgrounds to save space (to keep on one disk side)
  • Removed suit colour selection as a trainer item. Now a general preference.
The reworking of Archer McLean's classic International Karate has proved hugely popular, and this version has already received more than half the number of downloads of first Ultimate edition released in November.


Tetris MP V1.2


Next up is Tetris MP V1.2 released on 20th Feb. Tetris MP is another remake, released in January by MP Software, who also made last years really cool Beholder 2. Some features missing from v1 and 1.1 releases which were requested include being able to get control of falling Tetriminos (is that what they're called?) by pressing up after pressing down to speed up falling. I struggled with this remake, as player input during the animation between squares appears to be blocked, leading to sluggish controls in a game where you absolutely cannot work with sluggish controls. Otherwise, the graphics are bright and colourful, there's a marvellous Hokuto Force intro and cool title music, so worth checking out anyway... fingers crossed for a V1.3!


More Crappy Games are coming...


Also this week, RESET magazine's 4KB 'Craptastic' Games Competition has officially started. The last compo in 2016 saw some cracking entries, such as Bonkey Kong, Lumberjack, the winner: Goblin by Pond Software, and Dog where you must shit the lawn without getting caught... so can't wait to see what gets produced this year... The deadline is 23:59 GMT on the 30th June, 2018. Keep up the crappy work!


Until Next week...

That's all for now! Keep an eye out on my Twitch channel and Twitter, as I take on some of the most devious levels known to man LIVE. Currently playing Hunters Moon, Creatures, P0 Snake and more: Hit Subscribe!

Posted by @Hayes_maker


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