Eye of the Beholder C64/128 - Eagerly awaited Dungeon Crawler from the Amiga/DOS arrives on the C64/128!

For many years now, ever since it was first announced, we've been keeping you up to date in regards to Andreas Larsson‎ and team's work in progress Eye of the Beholder port that was coming to the C64/C128, which looks as if it was released all those years ago along side the Amiga or PC. Well we've got some incredible news for you all today, as if you've been waiting to play this port on your C64 or C128, then as of today now's your chance....Eye of the Beholder has finally been released! To coincide with this news, you can view some in game footage from Saberman, or download the game below.

Eye of the Beholder C64/128 - Could this be the next best thing for the C64/128? Here's our EXCLUSIVE Review with NEW gameplay footage!

Evil has plagued Waterdeep for some time and the city’s Lords suspect it must be coming from down under. No, not Australia... attacks on the city seem to originate from the city’s sprawling underground multi-tiered network of long forgotten sewers, tunnels and dungeons. Four mercenaries are commissioned to investigate the complex, and to find and destroy the threat. In return they’re given full rite of passage beneath the city, a licence to exterminate anything that might interfere with their investigation, and of course all the loot they find along the way. As the adventurers enter through the only known entrance, they hear the creaking of the heavy metal grill gate, and turn around to see it slamming shut behind them, and suddenly a huge explosion causes the collapse of the entire tunnel they just entered. Their fate is sealed… or is it?

Monstro Giganto - Hayesmaker64 gives this latest PETSCII C64 brawler a Full Review!

Monstro Giganto (C64)

Out Now

Publisher: RGCD

Cart: £35.00 (RGCD)

Digital: $7.99 (itch.io)

Monstro Giganto is the second game (following “Boxy Moxy”) developed by “The Pirates of Zanzibar”, A C64 dev team power house comprising Antonio Savona (P0 Snake, Planet Golf, L’abbaye Des Morts, Fix it Felix Jr.), Lobo (graphics) and Aldo Chiummo (music). It’s fairly unique because the graphics are drawn entirely from the PETSCII (8 bit Commodore’s equivalent of ASCII) character set and features great colour, music and of course, being an Antonio Savona game tons of awesome sampled speech - which was provided by a professional voice actor.

An Indie Retro News special event! - C64 Game Awards 2020

There are so many C64 games released each year that we’ve decided to create awards and categories - Think the OSCARS for C64!  So as well as C64 Game of the Year, we will also be giving awards for C64 Genius of the Year for the most inspired idea that led to an amazing C64 game. As well as C64 Budget Game of the Year: which must cost £3.99 or less.  This year the nominations have been picked by Indie Retro News' Neil Green and Andrew "hayesmaker64" Hayes.

Oyup! A Good Puyo Puyo clone released today for the C64

Oyup! Is a falling blocks puzzle game designed for 1 or 2 players, and is a clone of the hugely successful Japanese SEGA arcade game Puyo Puyo, which was released in the west as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine in 1993 for Megadrive, Master System and in 1994 on the Game Gear.  Developer Nick Sherman will release the game on his “Arlasoft” itch.io page today - and will probably be available to download as you read this.  He has also entered the game into Winter Games Development Competition 2020 - A game compo hosted by  Retro Games LTD for C64 and VIC20.

Mario's Cement Factory C64 port coming soon - My first assembly game

As the C64 was my first computer you would think it was the system which first introduced me to the magic of play at home video gaming. But actually it wasn't, because before my family brought home the bread bin that day, I’d been playing some of the Nintendo Game & Watch handheld games. Including my favourite: Mario’s Cement Factory. For almost as long as I can remember I’ve been wanting to make a game for the C64 - But apart from some BASIC text adventures and messing around in SEUCK, I never quite managed it until now.

Fix It Felix Jr. for the C64 is out now!

Now for the news we've been waiting for! Wreck It Ralph tie in game: The C64 version of Fix It Felix Jr. has been released today, you can download the game right now Itch.io for free or name your own price, with all the money raised going to Unicef. Fix It Felix Jr. is a single screen platformer, where you must help the residents of Niceland Appartment which is being wrecked by Wreck It Ralph, who is on the rampage after being moved to the dump to make way for a new block of flats.

We’ve played Fix It Felix Jr. for the C64 and it’s Smashing!

Anotonio Savona announced today that he is putting the finishing touches to the brand new C64 version of "Fix It Felix Jr". This is a 4th unofficial port of the arcade game which was inspired by the 2012 Disney motion picture: Wreck-it-Ralph. Other ports have been made for the SEGA Megadrive, Flash, and the Atari 2600.

2019 C64 Yearly Roundup and GOTY Nominees

Hello everyone and welcome to my 2019 C64 roundup. We’ll take a look at some of my highlights for the year, some of Neil’s picks of the year and announce the Indie Retro News GOTY nominees.

2018 was an incredible year for C64, and 2019 did not disappoint either. In fact we covered more C64 game releases this year in Indie Retro News, than any year since I joined in 2015… and we probably saw more releases this year than any year since the C64’s commercial hay day. We’d also be treated this year to the return of the RGCD 16KB Cartridge game development competition. The competition in the past has been responsible for bringing us tons of amazing games, many of which would get professional produced physical editions. Including some legendary C64 releases like Tiger Claw, Power Glove, Platman Worlds, C64anabalt, Super Bread Box, Micro Hexagon and P0 Snake.

Eye of the Beholder 64 Preview - We find out what this upcoming C64 Dungeon Crawler port is really like!

For the last few days we've had a very early working version of Andreas Larsson and team's C64 port of Eye of the Beholder.  With 100% of the game's levels completed, the game only has some bug fixing and a few remaining features to complete.

We've covered the game's development numerous times over the last few years - including a look at an engine prototype from Andreas's first attempt at porting the game to the C128 in 2006.   This was scrapped due to storage requirements for the game but modern C64 cartridge formats and some pestering from friends convinced Andreas to return to it for the C64.  You can find out more about the game's background from Andreas and the team in our exclusive interview and readers Q&A from last year.

Bubble Bobble (C64) - Essential "continue play fix" released

One of the most played games of all time. Bubble Bobble has infuriated and thrilled us in equal measure on the C64 since its release around this time of the year 1987. Its appeal captures all age groups, and the fun is doubled with a brother, sister or friend to play in two player mode.  And today you lucky C64 gamers have a new reason to play this awesome port of the classic Taito arcade game.

Chopper Command (C64) - Final version will be released tonight [ RELEASED DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE ]

Indie Retro News have been given the heads up that Chopper Command is currently in the process of being released, and will be available to download this evening.  Final bug testing was completed this week after we helped Beta test the game live on Twitch.  It was streamed on my twitch channel at hayesmaker64 and together with eagle eyed viewers we spotted a number of small descrepencies between the Atari 2600 original and the C64.

Watch Chopper Command (C64) Gameplay First - Live!

I'm Really pleased to announce that we've been given access to play test the BETA version of the brand new C64 Chopper Command port from Antonio Savona and Steven Day.  Antonio reported yesterday that the game was feature complete, with just SFX and difficulty fine tuning left to do.

Chopper Command (C64) - Exclusive WIP screenshots from Antonio Savona

Chopper Command is an Atari 2600 exclusive title published by Activision and released in June 1982, programmed by Bob Whitehead. C64 fans can look forward to their own port currently being developed by Antonio Savona (P0 Snake, Planet Golf, L'abbaye des Morts) and graphics by Steven Day, who did loading screens for past classics like Green Beret, Ballblazer and Highlander as well as more modern releases like Ghosts N Goblins Arcade and Prince of Persia.

Minit is coming to C64 - That Awesome Thalamus reveal in full.

We’ve had some pretty cool announcements for the C64 in recent years.. But Thalamus’ reveal last week that Devolver Digital’s “Minit” is being ported to the humble 8 bit machine as well as the soon to be released Spectrum Next could well be the most exciting news since the end of the C64 era in the early 1990s. The news has been spreading not only in the usual retro news circles such as Commodore Format who revealed the news in an exclusive last week, but also AAA gaming news websites.

RGCD officially killing it with 4 new C64 cartridges announced!

Not happy with continually supporting the Commodore 64 game dev scene with the phenomenal 16KB Cart compo -James Monkman of RGCD announced 4 brand new cartridges.  Following 2 official announcements for Retaliate DX and Grid Pix on the RGCD blog page, I spoke to James, who confirmed that the next C64 cart release will be Kobo64 - an interesting 16KB multiscrolling shoot em up in the vein of Hunters Moon and Survivor.  Followed by Retaliate and Grid Pix as well as a new version of Psytronik's Argus - finally getting a cart release featuring on cart saving.

Parasol Stars C64 is in development and it looks fantastic!

One of C64s most heart breaking stories - a fully completed and faithful Commodore 64 port of Parasol stars was lost forever when the developer - Colin Porch's wife destroyed all his disks in an argument.  The story was the subject of an infamous cover up, reported by Ocean and Zzap magazine as a burglery, but has recently been covered in great detail by Games that Weren't and Commodore Format which I recommend you read more about if you haven't already.

Could the story have a final twist in the tale? As yesterday Doc Cosmos developer Simon Jameson has revealed he has been working on his own port of Parasol Stars, and has even shown off some early demo footage for us all.  

Cosmic Force - Successfully funded C64 Kickstarter has 3 days left!

A brand new C64 game will be produced by Steven Fletcher and Wavem Studios. After their incredible journey talking to devs, engineers and artists from Commodore's history in the immensely enjoyable documentary: The Commodore Story (2017), Steven has created another successful Kickstarter campaign for Cosmic Force. A brand new C64 shootemup inspired by Galaxian, Defender and Star Wars. The game's stages will be split into 3 distinct game types - each borrowing the key game mechanics from these classic arcade shootemups.

The Age of Heroes - A full C64 review by Hayesmaker of Psystronik's latest release!

An evil wraith has appeared and is sending its legion of the damned across the frozen wastes, mountains and sacred temples, and only you can stop them.  As descendants of the warriors of light, you must travel to the East and end the wraith and his legions for good.  The Age of Heroes is the latest C64 release from Psystronik, developed by Achim Volkers with graphics and sound from Saul Cross and Trevor Storey.

Cracktro Tuesday #1 - Exploring the very latest releases from the C64 Scene

Welcome to a new series of articles where I pluck a selection of C64 programs from Commodore Scene Database (CSDB), play them live on my Twitch stream on real C64 hardware, and write up the highlights here on Indie Retro News. Whether it's artwork, demos, music, classic games revisited in the form of trained cracks or the very latest games - we've got it covered!