SID Effects - Double C64 Album goes FREE!

The weather is roasting outside so to keep us all chilled while we sit indoors with a fan blasting at the side, we are pleased to announce from the SIDFX (6581 + 8580) of the mighty Chris Whillock, comes this double album of lovingly recorded SID tunes called ' SID EFFECTS '. This now free album packs a mighty punch full of classic tunes from our youth such as Ocean Loader IV, Ghosts 'n Goblins, One Man and his Droid and many many more packed onto two CDS!

DeepSID - Browser SID emulator with thousands of playable tunes!

A short news article for this evening even though it's a damn good one. As we've come across a tweet on Twitter from Jaz Rignall regarding a browser SID emulator that has been developed by Jens-Christian Huus and released freely available on the internet as 'DeepSID'. This rather nice ear blasting extravaganza is easily usable online in your browser and features 1000's of Sid tunes that can be selected and automatically played through Chrome, Firefox or even Internet Explorer.

Giana Sisters DS - Giana Sisters for the Nintendo DS gets the C64 SID treatment

On my C64 at home I have well over a thousand C64 SID tunes, ranging from music used in classic games in the 80's, to homebrews and even tunes used in scene demos. But this evenings release via CSDb is a little bit special. As LMan has made available for the C64 his SID remake of the 2009 Nintendo DS version of Giana Sisters, which was composed and arranged by Fabian del Priore aka Rapture, and is itself a cover of Chris Hülsbeck's original Giana Sisters Title Theme.

CSDb Monthly #2 - High impact C64 SID tunes February 2017

More C64 greatness to be shared, as this month the Youtube channel the Unepic Stoned High SID Collection, had released the second part to their CSDb monthly music uploads which they call 'The CSDb Monthly #2 - February 2017. This latest upload features many of the coolest SID tracks released via CSDb with up to 60 mins of playtime that is sure to be blasted through your home speaker system or original C64 hardware.

The Phoenix Code The Soundtrack - A musical C64 collection from Bonzai

It's a bit of a late hour here at Indie Retro News, but here I am listening to some banging tunes straight out from Bonzai on my C64. This is ' The Phoenix Code The Soundtrack ', a rather recent release that features many of the tunes straight out of the C64 demo 'The Phoenix Code' which came 1st place at X'2016. Contained within the downloaded file is both an animated musical release and also a number of SID files which can be played with a SID Player, 1541 Ultimate or VLC Player.

Madonna Music Collection 2017 - A happy new year C64 musical bonanza

It's now 2017 and as a Happy New Year to you all, here's a brand new write up for 2017, a new C64 release from Delysid and Finnish Gold,  ' Madonna Music Collection 2017 '. In celebration of this new beginning and as a musical treat for C64 users across the globe; a huge list of pop topping tunes from the 1980's and onward's from that famous pop star Madonna. Tracks such as Into the Grove, Material Girl, Masterpiece, Till Death Do Us Part, Live To Tell, Papa Don't Preach, Who's that Girl, La Isla Bonita, Like a Virgin, and my personal favourite Like a Prayer. What a great start so far for 2017, and one of many releases to come of that I'm sure!

New Commodore 64 e-bundle available now, 6 days left

It's not too late to grab a few recent Psytronik and RGCD killer titles for use on emulators or real C64 hardware, or the turbo chameleon. As the first digital only C64 bundle ever has 6 days left on sale. The bundle was put together by German retro magazine RETURN with full support for the developers. 7 games including Power Glove, Jam It, Soulless and a SID soundtrack are available in the bundle.

Pentagram v.1.20 - Knightlore sequel ported to the C64 with a cool update!

In April of this year @hayes_maker did a great write up, mentioning Rod & Emu's C64 port of the ZX Spectrum classic ' Pentagram ', which originally was released by 'Ulimate Play the Game' in 1986.  It was the fourth in the Sabreman series, following on from his adventures in Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Knight Lore and was played in an isometric viewpoint. Well after a number of write ups the game has now received a v1.20 update with improvements such as SID music by Saul Cross!

Ubisoft RPG Classic Iron Lord Gets Patched By T.A.C

Title Screen

You've all played Moonstone right? (who the hell hasn't?). You all know how awesome that game was, well Iron Lord on the C64 by Ubisoft which has recently been patched by TAC to iron out some of the original bugs, is like a mini version of Moonstone, complete with adventure, exploration, fighting, and archery! The archery competition is no doubt the best part of the game, it's slightly repetitive but still lots of fun, it almost reminded me of Hypersports, trying to pick the right timing and angles to hit the board.

20 Years HVSC - 20 year music celebration and 50000 SID tunes!

More C64 greatness to be shared, as today HVSC is celebrating their 20th Anniversary with not just one release but a double whammy of ear blowing SID tunes! They have made available for the C64, ' 20 Years HVSC ' and ' High Voltage SID Collection v65 ' which is packed to the brim full of tunes. Furthermore putting aside the HVSC collection update another bit of fantastic news we have for you, is XeNTaX had announced on the 10th that he has completed the fully automated upload of more than 50,000 Commodore 64 SID tunes to a single YouTube channel!

Sounds of the Amiga 4 - Triad loves the Amiga in this C64 music collection

Throughout the years we have always featured either C64 tunes or Aaron White's C64 conversions on the Amiga. However what we have here is the best of both worlds, as Triad has released the fourth music collection on the C64 called 'Sounds of the Amiga #4 '. In all 8 tracks are available to listen to as SID goodness, such as Microtune 2, Eyewash Josh, Thexder, Introtune, Antipasti40, Chrillroom, Do you wanna? and Endtheme. Each one given that very special C64 treatment from the Amiga and each one comes with its own bit of historic info, which can be found scrolling at the bottom!

Nothing but PETSCII - Gubbdata 2016 Demo Competition Winner Announced

Winner of Gubbdata 2016 Demo competition: "Nothing but PETSCII" was released yesterday. Genesis Project and Triad's Gubbdata 2016 Event was held in Lund, Sweeden 1-3 July. Celebrating a combined 60 years of love for Commodore. The demo only uses the original Commodore 64 font, and no pixel graphics. And you can see it for yourself in the link below. Along with all the other competition entries.

Thy Sword - Retro styled action platformer greenlight success

Great news today from the developers GamePhase, as their retro styled pixelated action platformer 'Thy Sword', is now a Steam Greenlight success! Currently available as a demo, with development for the PC,  Thy Sword draws its inspiration from Norse mythology, with a hint of Conan the Barbarian and other great games such as Golden Axe and Moonstone. It also features, as we said before; single or co-op, player vs player, procedurally generated levels, different environments such as forests and mountains, different weapons, spells and enchantments, Loot, lots of enemies and bosses, steam achievements, and unlockable content, all mashed up in lovely pixel art with chip music using the SID from the C64!

CynthCART 64 v2 - Analogue Digitizer for the C64 gets a review!

It has been some time since we've done a full review of a hardware accessory for such systems like the C64, so here we are with a brand new product directly from Shareware Plus, the 'CynthCART 64'. Now you may remember Shareware Plus's 'uCassette' , which enabled users of the C64 to play tapes via your mobile or audio equipment directly into the C64 as MP3 or Wav files. Or the 1541 Diagnostic Cartridge for disk drive diagnostics, but what we have here is completely different. This is in fact an Analogue Digitizer, designed by Paul Slocum, manufactured by Shareware Plus with special thanks to Siem Appelman, that turns your C64 into a standalone analog synthesizer! Yes you too can make music via your C64, and thanks to this short review (I'm not a music artist) you can see what it's like!

ABBA Gold - The Collection - 15 incredible ABBA tracks for your C64

I was going to be taking a weekend break from writing but once again I've been pulled from my time of relaxation, as we've just learnt of a rather unique release for both the C64 crowd and retro music junkies. This is the ' ABBA Gold - The Collection ' for the C64 by Delysid & Finnish Gold; a rather eye opening musical collection with 15 great tracks from many of ABBA's finest tunes. Tunes such as Money Money Money, The Winner Takes it All, Mamma Mia, SOS, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Take a Chance on Me, Honey Honey, Waterloo, Intermezzo, When I Kissed the Teacher, Head Over Heels, Summer Night City, Lay All Your Love on Me, Ring Ring and One of Us. If you have ever listened to ABBA and have a C64, you'll feel right at home with this release!

A C64 Music Collection - Northern Star by Booze Design

As an end of year gift to you the C64 owner and musical listener, Booze Design has released one of the nicest collection of SIDS we've heard for some time. Composed, coded, and graphics done by Dane, with loader by HCL and Help by ruk; ' Northern Star ' features 12 incredible musical tunes with one such user commenting " Dane, you are one of the best composers ever "!

Zeus C64 Cracktro Marathon - 12 hours of Sid awesomeness!

Something slightly different today and isn't gaming related as such, as ZEUSDAZ - THE UNEMULATED RETRO GAME CHANNEL, has just uploaded possibly the biggest Youtube C64 musical experience we've seen this year. He did promise some time ago he was going to deliver something monstrous, and sure enough here it is, with the big 12 hour 213 track - ' Zeus C64 Cracktro Marathon '. Yes indeed, that's 12 HOURS of music to get you through the day and possibly beyond, could this be bettered? Possibly, but for now, enjoy!

Back in Time Symphonic Collection - C64 Symphonic Box Set Kickstarter success!

After a recent article and a big social share by ourselves, the ' Back in Time Symphonic Collection - C64 Symphonic Box Set ' is now a Kickstarter success with still 35 hours to go! Currently at £32,230 pledged of a £30,000 goal with project lead by C64Audio, they are going to arrange and produce a box set of Symphonic Commodore 64 studio arrangements that sound like properly large, epic )(or bouncy and fun, or eerie and mysterious) film soundtracks with full transcripts for orchestras to play live in concerts, creating a new generation of SID fans with incredible scores for people of all ages. To coincide with this glorious news, C64Audio have released a new update video with a powerful orchestra!

The Epic Commodore C64 SID Collection - 10 hours of amazing tunes!

Good morning everyone, I believe we have found possibly the most amazing retro tune album ever on Youtube, and this one comes in at 10 hours long, ' The Epic Commodore C64 SID Collection '. Every tune has been painstakingly selected and arranged into hour-long sectors, which aims to really bring home the greatness that is the SID. As the creator says, The Epic Commodore C64 SID Collection aims to be a delight for the veteran C64 freak as well as today's millennial who loves chiptunes but has never even seen an 8-bit computer. So press play, turn it up and be in heaven for the next 10+ hours!

Back in Time Symphonic Collection - C64 Symphonic Box Set Kickstarter

When I'm writing articles or going through a lovely bit of atmospheric photography, I have just have to listen to orchestra music. It is not only soothing for the mind, but it just makes you feel all happy inside. So when Seppo gave us the heads up for a ' Back in Time Symphonic Collection - C64 Symphonic Box Set Kickstarter ' I just couldn't hold back my excitement any longer and wrote this article!