Step3: C64 – CPC – Intros
Commodore 64
The first computer I had home was a Commodore 64. A friend of mine had one and I wanted also the same. In France, the C64 was not very popular (the Amstrad CPC was), so we had hard time to find one shop that was selling it. My uncle Ezio bought it for me.
Commodore released the VIC20 in 1981 and the Commodore 64 in 1982. More infos HERE. The C64 has a resolution of 320×200 pixels, 16 colors, 8 hardware sprites, hardware scrolling. It also has a wonderful sound chip: the SID. In Europe his main competitor was the Zx Spectrum (and in France, the Amstrad CPC).
On the bad side, te C64 have a poor basic and a slow floppy disk drive (1541).
The C64 was (is) a wonderful machine. I had lot of pleasure playing it for games. I also tried a bit making music and programming in basic. I did not have books so learning was hard. I tried to buy a book for learning assembly but I did not have any assembly tool. So I did not succeed in coding on ASM on C64. That was a huge frustration. (I coded a small intro in 2003. See link at end).
I could write a full blog on the C64 as it is a so cool machine. The demo scene is also very strong on that machine. The intro of crackers were looking fabulous to me. Colors, bars, scrolling, texts. That was definitively things I wanted to do.
csdb is a great place to get some demoscene release.
Here are some parts my C64 collection:
http://www.dk-games.com/CK/Collection/C64.php
I had some arcade game on my C64. I loved arcade games and one day I knew I would be programming some
The first compilation my mother bought me
The tape contained geat ports of arcade games like Up an Down and Spy Hunter.
Writing an intro for the C64
Here is my page talking about C64
http://perso.numericable.fr/~ckckck/C64.html
You can find there all things I’ve done on C64. For example adding a «color enhancer» filter on winvice, transfering disks or writing an intro.
Here is a screenshot of the intro I wrote
Here is the source code http://perso.numericable.fr/~ckckck/C64/Intro1Source.zip
And the disk image to run it http://perso.numericable.fr/~ckckck/C64/Intro1Disk.zip
Writing a game for the C64 & the Amstrad CPC
In 2021 I wrote a game for the Amstrad CPC (for a contest) and ported it to the C64. Clive Townsend ported it to ZX Spectrum (and I'm currently porting it to Amiga).
The game is named Ninja Carnage. You can find more info about it in article 97.
.The game can be found HERE
.
Demos and Intro
The demo scene was very active at that time, but I was not very involved. I only had tapes or floppies with games. No one proposed me demos.
A nice site to see demos: http://csdb.dk/
I still look at C64 today. Some are really impressive. C64 is a small computer but have so many nice things in it. The processor for doing scrolling and the audio SID for example.
This one from 2016
The sound on C64 is really exceptionnal.
I like to listen to SID modules.
Here is a typical C64 tune. I recorded it from tape original (so loooooong to load, but that give time to listen to music 🙂).
I also like remakes. A good site is: http://remix.kwed.org/
Amstrad CPC
All my friends had an AMSTRAD CPC. The color are nice and the basic is excellent (basic on C64 is not very well done).
Some games I remember:
Saboteur
Was a ZX Spectrum game but ported to Amstrad CPC. I discovered it on that machine. In 2020 I had the chance to work with Clive Townsend, the author of the Saboteur serie. He is s avery nice guy.
Sorcery
Passagers du temps
Adventure game with lot of humor. A cat act like an assistant and can give you hints.
CPC Demos
I do not know much of the CPC demo scene, but there are some very nice demos.
2018 – phX by Condense (Amstrad CPC 6128)
Isometrikum Vanity – 4K Intro
CRTC³ – Amstrad 6128+ cartridge demo – Ranked 1st at Alchimie 2017
Here is a super tutorial about coding on CPC (in french) for the above demo CRTC³
Some Arcade Games
Space Harrier (1985)
Great game with depth sensation from Sega and Yu Suzuki (Out Run, Virtua Racing, Shenmue …)
Out Run (1986) Sega
I remember that the C64 game was delivered with an audio tape. That tape contains all the musics of the arcade game. I was playing it on tape player while playing! Arcade at home!!
Links
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