Necessity is the Mother of invention TABLE OF CONTENT

RetroMagazine World, with ◊ GameBoy & GB Color - the (un)protections Pag. 3

every issue in two versions,
◊ ZX99 and other unofficial add-ons... Pag. 8
Italian and English, registers
an ever-growing number of ◊ Analogue Pocket... Pag. 10
readers and arouses ◊ Fairchild Channel F Pag. 12
constant interest in the
topics we cover. Our choice ◊ FOCAL language on PDP-8 - part 1 Pag. 18
to avoid the distribution of ◊ 8-Bit fractals in BASIC sauce - part 3 Pag. 22
printed copies, in addition to
◊ C128 in 80 column mode - part 2 Pag. 26
keeping us away from a number of problems arising from the
management of subscriptions and shippings, brings some advantages, ◊ How to create a BASIC game for C64 - p1 Pag. 28
not least of which is that we can continue to guarantee the complete ◊ Musica Maestro SID! Pag. 32
gratuity of the magazine, and allows us to reach anywhere in the world
with a simple URL. The number of downloads of the new issues as well ◊ Interview with Bas Scheijde... Pag. 35
as of the previous ones testifies the goodness of this decision. ◊ Interview with Alessandro Rogati... Pag. 38
Moreover, the Common Creative license used to release the magazine
◊ Remembering Jerry Lawson... Pag. 42
does not prohibit printing hard copies and, in fact, we are aware of the
many retrocomputing groups that produce bound copies of issues and ◊ Warren Davis and the invention of Q*bert Pag. 44
make them available to all members of their clubs.
◊ Sometimes they come back... Pag. 45
Another difference of RMW from the "classic" magazines of the
fantastic 80's and 90's is the lack of a permanent column hosting ◊ R-TYPE - Shoot'em up year zero Pag. 46
Readers' Mail. One of the most important reasons why RMW keeps ◊ The Age of Heroes (C64) Pag. 50
being released is the preservation of the knowledge and memory of all
◊ The Shadows of Sergoth (Amiga) Pag. 52
the home computing systems in history, so we give a lot of importance
to feedback and interaction with all the old and new retrocomputing ◊ Puzzle Bobble (C64) Pag. 54
enthusiasts. But the scenario (if compared to the early years of 8/16
◊ Wizard ofethe Board (N64) Pag. 56
bit machines diffusion) has totally changed. In the past, newsstand
magazines were basically the only dynamic medium for computer ◊ Silver Valley (SMS) Pag. 58
news. The editorial offices were by necessity the point of reference for ◊ Knightmare (Amiga) Pag. 60
all those approaching the world of computers and game consoles for
the first time. Often the mail columns were targeted by questions of all ◊ Retaliate C.E. (C64) Pag. 62
kinds and in some cases, rather than serving as a centre of generic ◊ Mega Turrican Director's Cut (MegaDrive) Pag. 64
information, became a battleground between "fans" of different
◊ Eyra, the Crow Maiden (MegaDrive) Pag. 66
platforms.
Nowadays, we have dozens of possible tools for interaction available ◊ Knight Guy in Low Res World (Atari 7800) Pag. 68
(from simple e-mail to the most advanced instant messaging tools) but ◊ Robot in Action (C64) Pag. 69
the feedback we receive from readers regarding discussions and
◊ Shonen Jump's One Piece (GameBoy) Pag. 70
insights generated by our articles and reviews is quite small. We at
RMW run a Facebook page, an updated website, a Twitter account, ◊ Gremlins 2 the New Batch (GameBoy) Pag. 71
Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, etc., and we feel it is our duty to open ◊ Crisis Force (NES) Pag. 72
and manage the flow of information using all these channels for
anyone to interact with us, but, apart from a few isolated cases, reader ◊ Classic Kong (SNES) Pag. 74
comments are often concentrated around a few posts published on the ◊ Prohibition (C64) Pag. 75
FB page. Too little, especially if we think that retrocomputing in the ◊ Retro Multiplayer
last 4-5 years has “infected”, please forgive the use of this term, Pag. 76
hundreds of thousands of fans, even those belonging to younger
generations. People involved in the preparation of this issue
So what has changed for readers when they browse a magazine like of RetroMagazine World (in no particular order):
RMW, albeit it is only digitally published? Have we impoverished
ourselves in our ability to interact? Have we become lazier and more
• Alberto Apostolo • Ingrid Poggiali
inclined to “get lost” in the vast amount of information that the Net • Dr. Andrea Q. • Gianluca Girelli
continually provides us, although in the form of pills? Do we prefer a • Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini • Giampaolo Moraschi
less structured and rigorous kind of information today, based more on • Daniele Brahimi • Querino Ialongo
word of mouth and the experience of individuals on social media and • Mic the Biker Novarina • Giorgio Balestrieri
digital forums? Could it be that 40 years ago, the lack of tools and
• Francesco Fiorentini • Felice Nardella
documentation increased our desire for documentation and
communicative exchange with many interlocutors? Could it be that
• David La Monaca • Franco Bressan
only "hunger" drives inventiveness and aids creativity and discussion? • Leonardo Miliani • Cover Image:
Giuseppe Mangini
• Barbara “Morgana” Murgida
David La Monaca • Cover layout:
• Takahiro Yoshioka Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
• Roberto Del Mar Pirazzini

Page 2 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 HARDWARE

GameBoy and GameBoy Color - the (un)protections

by Dr. Andrea Q. - www.retrofixer.it
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEw0CQ8LKyA9jVvWXkEwp4Q

You who don't know what a Game Boy is, raise your hand! and shows them on the screen by scrolling the well-known
Anyone? Well, I was sure of it! Just as I'm sure that the Nintendo logo from top to bottom:
Game Boy Color is in everyone's memory.

However, not everyone knows that its code name was

DMG-01 (1989-1990), whilst that of the Game Boy Color After that it compares them with the ones stored in the
(1998) was CGB-01. BootROM and if they are different the console hangs.
The first "small" and portable Nintendo devices are
certainly among the most famous gems ever released in
the world of consoles. And they are even not less than
their "big sisters" when it comes to the protection systems.

The Game Boy is in fact equipped with a BootROM that

we also find in the Game Boy Color (GBC) and Super Game
Boy (which is a cartridge-adapter to play GB games on
Super Nintendo).

Reading the logo directly from the cartridge explains why,

if you turn on a Game Boy without inserting any game,
this black rectangle appears (the bytes of the logo are
THE PROTECTION OF THE FIRST NINTENDO LAPTOPS all at FF):
The BootROM with which the GB, GBC and SGB hardware
is equipped is 256 bytes in size and has 3 special "protective"
features:

1 - The BootROM itself is excluded from reading with the

last instruction of its code: this "lock out" was perhaps
not intended, but was probably necessary for reasons
related to (low) system resources. The BootROM is mapped
in memory between offset 0x0000 and offset 0x00FF
(256 bytes). The last 2 bytes represent an instruction
that writes to a special register blocking that memory
address from being read, so that all subsequent instructions
(which are, starting from offset 0x0100, those contained
in the cartridge) cannot read it;

2 - inside it contains code that reads the 48 bytes of the For a full description of how logo bytes work I refer you
NINTENDO logo present in the cartridge (offsets ranging to this wonderful article:
from 0x104 to 0x133 of each cartridge): https://catskull.net/gameboy-boot-screen-logo.html

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 3 of 78

 HARDWARE

3 - a second check after the logo check is to sum the

values from offset 0x0134 to 0x014C and then add the
value present in 0x014D: if the sum is zero the program
continues otherwise the console hangs.

Here is a screenshot of a random GB ROM where you can

check the offsets mentioned:

Here is an example of how electrical charges are manually

read:

Really amazing!

Once converted to bytes and then to ASM, the (commented)

This protection was necessary to prevent other developers
code of the BootROM appears to be as follows:
from producing software not licensed by Nintendo. As a
side note it must be said that SEGA later tried the same
LD SP,$fffe ; $0000 Setup Stack
approach with the Genesis, but its lawsuit against Accolade
did not go as planned:
XOR  A  ;  $0003  Zero  the  memory  from  $8000­
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade.
$9FFF (VRAM)
LD HL,$9fff ; $0004
HOW TO BYPASS THE PROTECTION
Addr_0007:
The content of this mini-operating system remained a
LD (HL­),A ; $0007
mystery until 2003 when the coder Neviksti: http://dot-
BIT 7,H ; $0008
matrix-game.blogspot.se/2014/01/boot-roms.html
JR NZ, Addr_0007 ; $000a
performed his own decapping (i.e. a physical "uncovering"
of the chip) and read "with the naked eye" its contents,
LD HL,$ff26 ; $000c Setup Audio
bit by bit (256x8 = 2048 total bits), after photographing
LD C,$11 ; $000f
them through a microscope; here they are below in all
LD A,$80 ; $0011
their micro-splendor:
LD (HL­),A ; $0013
LD ($FF00+C),A ; $0014
INC C ; $0015
LD A,$f3 ; $0016
LD ($FF00+C),A ; $0018
Each "dot" represents a 1-bit, the absence of a dot
LD (HL­),A ; $0019
represents a 0-bit. The dots are nothing more than the
LD A,$77 ; $001a
electrical charges stored in the memory cells.
LD (HL),A ; $001c

Here is an even more zoomed-in example obtained from

LD A,$fc ; $001d Setup BG palette
the decap of another chip seen under an electron microscope
LD ($FF00+$47),A ; $001f
(nothing to do with consoles):
Page 4 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 HARDWARE

LD  DE,$0104  ;  $0021  Convert  and  load  logo  Background

data from cart into Video RAM INC B ; $005f Set B=1
LD HL,$8010 ; $0024 Addr_0060:
Addr_0027: LD E,$02 ; $0060
LD A,(DE) ; $0027 Addr_0062:
CALL $0095 ; $0028 LD C,$0c ; $0062
CALL $0096 ; $002b Addr_0064:
INC DE ; $002e LD A,($FF00+$44) ; $0064 wait for screen frame
LD A,E ; $002f CP $90 ; $0066
CP $34 ; $0030 JR NZ, Addr_0064 ; $0068
JR NZ, Addr_0027 ; $0032 DEC C ; $006a
JR NZ, Addr_0064 ; $006b
LD DE,$00d8 ; $0034 Load 8 additional bytes  DEC E ; $006d
into Video RAM JR NZ, Addr_0062 ; $006e
LD B,$08 ; $0037
Addr_0039: LD C,$13 ; $0070
LD A,(DE) ; $0039 INC H ; $0072 increment scroll count
INC DE ; $003a LD A,H ; $0073
LD (HL+),A ; $003b LD E,$83 ; $0074
INC HL ; $003c CP $62 ; $0076 $62 counts in, play sound #1
DEC B ; $003d JR Z, Addr_0080 ; $0078
JR NZ, Addr_0039 ; $003e LD E,$c1 ; $007a
CP $64 ; $007c
LD A,$19 ; $0040 Setup background tilemap JR NZ, Addr_0086 ; $007e $64 counts in, play 
LD ($9910),A ; $0042 sound #2
LD HL,$992f ; $0045 Addr_0080:
Addr_0048: LD A,E ; $0080 play sound
LD C,$0c ; $0048 LD ($FF00+C),A ; $0081
Addr_004A: INC C ; $0082
DEC A ; $004a LD A,$87 ; $0083
JR Z, Addr_0055 ; $004b LD ($FF00+C),A ; $0085
LD (HL­),A ; $004d Addr_0086:
DEC C ; $004e LD A,($FF00+$42) ; $0086
JR NZ, Addr_004A ; $004f SUB B ; $0088
LD L,$0f ; $0051 LD ($FF00+$42),A ; $0089 scroll logo up if B=1
JR Addr_0048 ; $0053 DEC D ; $008b
JR NZ, Addr_0060 ; $008c
; === Scroll logo on screen, and play logo 
sound=== DEC B ; $008e set B=0 first time
JR  NZ,  Addr_00E0  ;  $008f  ...  next  time, 
Addr_0055: cause jump to "Nintendo Logo check"
LD H,A ; $0055 Initialize scroll count, H=0
LD A,$64 ; $0056 LD D,$20 ; $0091 use scrolling loop to pause
LD D,A ; $0058 set loop count, D=$64 JR Addr_0060 ; $0093
LD ($FF00+$42),A ; $0059 Set vertical scroll 
register ; ==== Graphic routine ====
LD A,$91 ; $005b
LD ($FF00+$40),A ; $005d Turn on LCD, showing  LD C,A ; $0095 "Double up" all the bits of 
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 5 of 78
 HARDWARE

the graphics data
LD B,$04 ; $0096 and store in Video RAM LD B,$19 ; $00f1
Addr_0098: LD A,B ; $00f3
PUSH BC ; $0098 Addr_00F4:
RL C ; $0099 ADD (HL) ; $00f4
RLA ; $009b INC HL ; $00f5
POP BC ; $009c DEC B ; $00f6
RL C ; $009d JR NZ, Addr_00F4 ; $00f7
RLA ; $009f ADD (HL) ; $00f9
DEC B ; $00a0 JR  NZ,$fe  ;  $00fa  ;  if  $19  +  bytes  from 
JR NZ, Addr_0098 ; $00a1 $0134­$014D don't add to $00
LD (HL+),A ; $00a3 ; ... lock up
INC HL ; $00a4
LD (HL+),A ; $00a5 LD A,$01 ; $00fc
INC HL ; $00a6 LD ($FF00+$50),A ; $00fe ;turn off DMG rom
RET ; $00a7

In 2009 another reverser, Costis Sideris: https://

Addr_00A8: www.its.caltech.edu/~costis/sgb_hack/, managed to
;Nintendo Logo dump the Super Game Boy BootROM using, through an
.DB  $CE,$ED,$66,$66,$CC,$0D,$00,$0B, FPGA, a hardware glitch that disabled the last lock out
$03,$73,$00,$83,$00,$0C,$00,$0D instruction of the memory where the copy of the BootROM
.DB $00,$08,$11,$1F,$88,$89,$00,$0E,$DC,$CC, was saved, thanks to the sending of overclocked pulses,
$6E,$E6,$DD,$DD,$D9,$99 thus managing to dump the code from offset 0x0000 to
.DB $BB,$BB,$67,$63,$6E,$0E,$EC,$CC,$DD,$DC, offset 0x00FF with specific code inserted from offset
$99,$9F,$BB,$B9,$33,$3E 0x0100 onwards. Here is a picture of the "simple" system
used:
Addr_00D8: By examining the code of this BootROM it was discovered
;More video data that if the second checksum of the summation that must
.DB $3C,$42,$B9,$A5,$B9,$A5,$42,$3C equal 0 is different from 0, the adapter-cartridge does

; ===== Nintendo logo comparison routine =====

Addr_00E0:
LD HL,$0104 ; $00e0 ; point HL to Nintendo 
logo in cart
LD DE,$00a8 ; $00e3 ; point DE to Nintendo 
logo in DMG rom

Addr_00E6:
LD A,(DE) ; $00e6
INC DE ; $00e7
CP (HL) ; $00e8 ;compare logo data in cart  not disable the game cartridge, but the Super Nintendo does.
to DMG rom
JR NZ,$fe ; $00e9 ;if not a match, lock up here Always Costis Sideris and always in 2009 managed to
INC HL ; $00eb dump also the BootROM of the Game Boy Color, using a
LD A,L ; $00ec combination of glitches this time both clock and power
CP $34 ; $00ed ;do this for $30 bytes supply, through an FPGA. In this dump he realized that
JR NZ, Addr_00E6 ; $00ef
Page 6 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 HARDWARE

the check of the logo occurred only for the first half of
Useful links
the bytes and not all 48. Together with it he managed to
dump the content of a second ROM of 1792 bytes present Custom logos
At this address you can find a nice description of
in this console.
the various types of custom logos produced by
some of the developers:
Dr. Decapitator (aka Christopher Tarnovsky: https:// http://fuji.drillspirits.net/?post=87
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Tarnovsky) tried a
BootROM
partial decapping, identifying even 3 ROMs (256, 1792 More information about BootROMs, including one
and 512 bytes) but of the 512 bytes ROM it was not found in a prototype cartridge of Pokemon Stadium
for Nintendo 64, missing in the official release of
possible to obtain any dump (it is possible that it contains
the same:
the CPU microcode or code related to the LCD). http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/articles/
Gameboy_Bootstrap_ROM
These are therefore secrets violated after more than a
GBC BootROM
decade. Moreover, in 2012 the patent (https:// More information about GBC's BootROM can be
www.google.com/patents/US5134391) that describes found at:
https://tcrf.net/Game_Boy_Color_Bootstrap_ROM
the functions of the BootROM expired, confirming what
was previously discovered by the reverse engineers.

Once they discovered how the BootROM works, some ATTENTION: LIABILITY DISCLAIMER
developers were ingenious to make the Game Boy read
a custom logo from the cartridge at the usual offset (the The information contained in this article is for
informational purposes only. This documentation is
first stage that allows the display of the logo), but then
not guaranteed to be error-free. If this information
check a second logo (the official one), stored at another
is used to modify your hardware, it is your
offset of the cartridge.
responsibility to take all necessary emergency,
backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure
The results are similar to the following:
safe use. RetroMagazine World assumes no
The next article will take us to discover the GameBoy responsibility for any damage caused by the use of
Advance protections! the information in this article.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 7 of 78

 HARDWARE

ZX99 and other unofficial add-ons for Sinclair ZX81

by Alberto Apostolo
In the 1980s, several British
companies offered expansion
boards to increase the versatility of
the ZX81.
Most boards either augmented the
RAM or were additional circuits for
sound effects or joystick interfaces
[SU83].
Others allowed you to connect
professional printers, save data and Fig.2 ("ZX Computings" Oct-Nov.
1982, p.2, www.yumpu.com).
programs on floppy disks. Fig.1
Only a fraction of all the equipment
Directions to download the manual
sold at the time is described in the
are in [DA99].
article.

Finally, Data-Assette proposed other

ZX99
devices [DA98]:
ZX99 (Fig.1) was the name of a control
1) ZX21 Metered Loading Interface
system produced in 1982 by Data-
at 19.95 to measure signal quality, Fig.3
Assette of London and sold for £62.90
2) ZX22 Jigsaw Tape Load Intreface
(including VAT) and then for £49.95 1982 by Macronics (Solihull, West
for £39.95 (with program loading
(Fig.2). Midlands) provided in the same unit
indicator LED),
The system could connect up to four a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive, the
3) ZX98 Parallel and serial interface
tape recorders, plus it had an RS232 management software in 2K ROM
at 99.95 GBP to transform the ZX81
interface to connect a printer [Ada82]. [FIZ21][FIZ82].
into a video-terminal and take
The routines to manage the recorders Each disk had 43K of space with a
advantage of telematic services.
were stored in a special ROM allocated loading speed of 8K in 22 seconds
in the 8K and 16K section because and was divided into 34 tracks of 1280
Memopak
the ZX99 system considered the bytes (34 x 1280 = 43520).
It was card containing a memory
recorders as INPUT units or OUTPUT The management routines contained
expansion manufactured by Memotech
units (two recorders were the minimum in the 2K ROM could be called from
of Oxford (Fig. 4).
allowed). Two other cables connected BASIC programs.
A kind of manual (with demonstration
the card to the EAR and MIC outputs The unit also provided power for the
BASIC programs) can be found in
of the Sinclair ZX81 (Fig.3). entire system (including the Sinclair
[MEM93].
I/O operations required machine ZX81). There were also plans to sell
language routines to be run through other interfaces (including one to
Forth for ZX81
the Sinclair BASIC USR command. create a local area network) and a
David Husband's Skywave
The result of such operations was printer.
(Bournemouth) produced a RAM
obtained with the command LET L = F.I.Z. was sold for 303.03 GBP (VAT
expansion and ROM containing the
USR 1234 (L = zero indicated that all included). The motherboard alone
FORTH language in 1983 (Fig.5). The
had gone well). By using BASIC cost £79.95 (plus £1.50 for shipping)
reference to download the manual
commands and l.m. routines, byte and was compatible with the Memopak
can be found in [FORTH20].
sequences could also be saved. The 64 expansion [DA98] but there is no
Floppydisc Interface for ZX81 confirmation that it actually worked
RS232 interface could operate between
The F.I.Z. (Floppydisc Interface for
110 and 9600 Baud (Baud = bits per with that expansion.
the ZX81, Fig.6,7,8) manufactured in
second).

Page 8 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 HARDWARE

Fig.4 ("ZX Computings" Oct-Nov.1982, Fig.5 [SP84]

p.11, www.yumpu.com).

Fig.6 Fig.7 Fig.8

Bibliography
[Ada82] S.Adams, "Control system boosts power", Sinclair User n.5, Aug. 1982,
https://www.sinclairuser.com/005/zx99.htm
[DA98] Data-assette (comm.adv.), Sync n.3, May-Jun 1983, pag.116, https://archive.org/details/syncmagazine-v3_n3
[DA99] Data-assette, "ZX99 User Manual 2K Rom", Interact Software Limited, 1982,
https://archive.org/details/zx99-user-manual
[FIZ21] FIZ , retrieved (2021/08/14) from https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1000151/Hardware/FIZ
[FIZ82] Sinclair User n.2, May 1982, (2020/08/19) retrieved from https://www.sinclairuser.com/002/hardwre.htm
[FOR20] Skywave Software, "Sinclair ZX81-FORTH Rom with Multi-Tasking" (2010/08/19) retrieved from
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/dominique/download/zx81-forth-h4th.pdf
[MEM93] Fanzine ZXirQLiveAlive n.4, 1993, pagg.7-8, https://archive.org/details/ZXirQLiveAlive_Issue_0304/mode/2up
[SP84] Sinclair Programs n.18, Apr 1984,
https://datassette.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/revistas/sinclairprograms18-apr84.pdf
[SU83] Sinclair User n.12, Mar 1983,
http://www.retro8bitcomputers.co.uk/Content/downloads/magazines/sinclairuser/SinclairUser_012_Mar_1983.pdf

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 9 of 78

 HARDWARE

Analogue Pocket
the revolutionary multi-videogame handheld!
by Franco Bressan
Analogue is a company that has made a name within the in a high quality backlit screen. Other comforts that the
retro community not only for the high price of its devices Pocket introduces is the ability to put the game on standby
but also for the perfect reproduction of the games through and resume directly from where we stopped, in future
FPGAs trying to reproduce the original consoles without updates will also be included the ability to create save
using emulators. states, to recreate the characteristics of the display of
the original hardware and for those who dabble in the
The Analogue Pocket maintains this concept, working development of Game Boy games, Analogue allows you
exactly as the Nintendo's portable consoles and, through to develop new titles with GB Studio that has added the
separately sold modules, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Pocket among the compatible devices. It also has an
Atari Lynx and TurboGrafx-16 without ever emulating integrated DAW for the production of soundtracks.
anything.
The pocket also works with cartridge adapters from other
But if you want to play GameBoy Color/Advance games, systems such as Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx
why would I choose the Analogue pocket over the Nintendo and many others. A project that does not emulate but is
handheld? in FPGA.
For the main element of the Pocket: the screen.
It mounts a 3 ½ inch LCD screen at a resolution of Among the features the one that amazes the most is the
1600x1440, exactly 10 times the resolution of the original ability to make music. The pocket has a digital audio
8-bit by Nintendo. workstation called Nanoloop. It's a synthesizer and
This allows you to perfectly scale our favorite titles in sequencer designed for music creation and live
high resolution, with faithful color reproduction and all performances. A joy for chiptune lovers.

Page 10 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 HARDWARE

You can also connect it to your PC, Mac or other through Dock
the Midi cables that you will find for sale separately. - 1080p HDMI output
- Bluetooth and 2.4g support for wireless controller
To finish, you can connect the console to your television - 2 USB inputs for wired controllers
with an HDMI adapter. You can connect 8BitDo Bluetooth - Support up to 4 players (4p Bluetooth, 2p 2.4g, 2p USB
controls wirelessly or controlled via wired USB. wired)
- DAC compatible
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: - Power Dock turned on by controller
Console
- Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game
Boy Advance game cartridges
- 3.5" LCD. 1600×1440 resolution. 615ppi.
- 360° display rotation (tate mode)
- Rechargeable 4300 mAh lithium-ion battery
- 6-10 hours of play and over 10 hours of sleep 9
- All buttons mappable
- Stereo speakers
- micro SD card slot
- USB-C Charging
- Original style connecting door For more information and orders please visit the official
- 3.5mm headphone output website: https://www.analogue.co/pocket

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 11 of 78

 HARDWARE

Fairchild Channel F
di Leonardo Miliani
In the last article we examined the genesis of home gaming with other former AMF employees, founded Alpex Computer.
devices going to cover all the secrets of what is absolutely Initially the company was dedicated to the production of
the first home console put on the market, the Odyssey of electronic cash registers but business slowly took a turn
Magnavox. Following that thread, in this article we're for the worse and Alpex Computer, in the early '70s, found
going to get to know a little star, in her own way. The itself in full crisis. Another ex-employee of AMF, Wallace
protagonist of our story boasts several records: it is Kirschner, comes up with the idea that a possible way to
reputed to be the first console of the second generation, avoid bankruptcy is to enter the emerging market of
it is the first console to use a microprocessor, and it is electronic video games. This idea comes to fruition when
the first cartridge-based console with interchangeable he sees how the first home video game console, the
ROM memories to load games. We are talking about the Magnavox Odyssey, is enjoying good success, and how
Fairchild Channel F (fig. 1). Atari's Pong arcade is literally blowing up in bars and pubs.

RAVEN However, these games have a defect: they cannot be

To fully understand the origins of the Channel F, we need changed. Pong, and the arcades that follow it, have a
to start with the context in which the idea that led to its motherboard composed of dozens of logic circuits that
creation was born, and to do this we need to go back create the video game on the screen and manage the
several decades, we need to go back to the USA in the interaction with the player, but if the manufacturer wants
1960s. At this time in Stamford, Connecticut, there is the to change the game, he is forced to redesign the board
research and development department of AMF (American from scratch. Even the Odyssey, although "programmable"
Machine & Foundry), a multi-faceted company that through external boards, is actually a console with passive
manufactures everything from garden furniture to nuclear components and the game boards work like switches and
reactors (!), and here scoreboards for bowling alleys are switches to change some electrical lines and so vary the
produced. At some point the employees working there logic of operation of the console, proposing variants of
get the news that the facility is moving to North Carolina. the only game scheme integrated in it. But things are
Not everyone is excited about moving 500 miles to another about to change, because in those years Intel presented
state and some decide to leave the company. Among them in 1971 the 4004, the first monolithic microprocessor in
was an engineer named Norman Alpert who, together history, followed the following year by the 8008. This is
a small revolution because finally you can concentrate a
lot of transistors in a single small container creating a
component that can load and execute instructions read
from an external memory whose content can be modified
to change the program executed. Kirschner understands
that this is the right way and proposes his idea to Alpert
who immediately endorses the project of a video game
but also understands that it is a race against other
competitors who are throwing themselves into that field
Fig. 1: Fairchild Video Entertainment System, after and that this race can not win with the few employees of
named Channel F (picture di Evan Amos - source:
Wikimedia Commons) his company. So he decides to hire Lawrence Haskel, an
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 HARDWARE

program the "Tic-Tac-Toe", the "Shooting Gallery" (where

the player must rotate a "gun" and shoot at a moving
target) and "Doodle", a primitive art program where the
player must draw or erase lines on the screen. To allow
all the movements of the elements of his games, Kirschner
made two gamepads with numerous buttons, each of
which corresponds to a command such as go up, down,
rotate, shoot, etc..

Fig. 2 - The motherboard of the Channel F System II.

Note the few integrated circuits present (photo: To solve the issue of interchangeable games, a very simple
Incog88 - source: Wikimedia Commons)
solution is adopted. They buy from RadioShack some
engineer he has worked with before in his days at AMF.
rectangular plastic containers with dimensions very similar
Haskel also has an advantage, he's a video game enthusiast
to those of the common cassette tapes of the time, and
himself so it's a dream come true for him to be able to
they put inside them a small card with an EPROM mounted
work on such a project. So, at the beginning of 1974,
on it: each cartridge contains a different one, for each of
Kirschner and Haskel started working on a project they
the games made, and it is inserted in a connector of the
called "Remote Access Video Entertainment", or RAVEN:
motherboard of the console. The choice of EPROMs comes
the first one worked on the hardware part while the second
to them from the development board that Intel distributes
one programmed the games. As the "electronic brain"
for the 8080, a board containing precisely this type of
they chose the 8008, the first 8-bit processor ever
memory that can be deleted and reprogrammed to correct
produced, to which they added a circuit capable of
program errors or to load new versions of the same.
generating an image of 128x64 pixels on a common TV
screen. Such a low resolution is dictated by the fact that
From RAVEN to Fairchild Video Entertainment System
at the time memories are really expensive and to manage
The prototype is presented to Alpert, who finds it very
an image of 8,192 total pixels (128x64=8192) you need
interesting, but also realizes that his small company would
8 kilobits of memory (8,192 bits = 1 Kbyte) where each
never be able to find the resources to market it on its
bit represents a pixel (on or off) on the screen. During
own. He therefore decided to find a commercial partner,
development, Kirschner adopted the more powerful 8080
and some TV manufacturers were the first to be contacted,
processor as soon as it was released by Intel.
thinking that a product of this kind to be sold in combination
with their TV sets could arouse their interest. But things
Haskel, for his part, creates the first game inspired by
don't go as hoped because, despite several demonstrations,
Atari's Pong but making it richer and more similar to field
no one wants to invest in it. Alpert decided to contact
hockey, a sport that was very popular in the cold winters
Fairchild Semiconductor, a large integrated circuit
of northeastern America. He realises a field of play by
outlining it with borders and area lines, he adds rackets
that not only can be moved vertically but also horizontally,
thus being able to be moved throughout the playing area.
It also adds the ability to rotate them so that the ball
bounce varies depending on the position of the racket.
It also adds "hockey goalie leg pads" (if you have ever
seen a field hockey game, you have those pads tied to
the goalkeepers legs in mind), barriers that can only be Fig. 3 - The Fairchild F8 CPU (photo: Konstantin
Lanzet - source: Wikimedia Commons)
moved vertically to defend your goal. After the "Hockey"
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 13 of 78
 HARDWARE

memory system for a National Semiconductor calculator,

even though it had been cancelled by the company before
coming to market. The cartridges are designed to be
shock-resistant and with a flap covering the comb with
the connection pins that opens automatically once inserted
into the appropriate slot in the console: once in their
place, a locking mechanism keeps them anchored to
prevent them from being inadvertently pulled out. To
make them familiar to the console's purchasers, they are
made to be about the size of the Stereo8 cassettes then
Fig. 4 - The inside of a Videocart and the contact in use for music, and made in a flashy yellow colour so
protection flap (photo: Schnurrikowski- source:
that they are easily identifiable (fig. 4). The console case
Wikimedia Commons)
is made of wood and dark plexiglass with buttons for
manufacturer from whom he regularly purchased
power, reset and selection of integrated games as well
components for his products. An engineer is sent to look
as the various modes on the front panel. Particularly
at the RAVEN, which is considered interesting: the report
noteworthy is the presence of a pause button to temporarily
also intrigues the vice-president of the consumer
stop the running game. On the back of the top side there
department, who in turn talks to the CEO Wilf Corrigan
are 2 slots to store the joysticks when not in use: these
of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, the parent company.
are not separable from the console but permanently fixed
Corrigan sends Gene Landrum and Jerry Lawson to Alpex
with non-unpluggable cables.
Computer to thoroughly evaluate the prototype, which
is evaluated as commercially interesting. Fairchild
The console in its final form made its first official debut
collaborates with Alpert to finalise the console and
at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago
transform the RAVEN into a real videogames console,
in June 1976 as the Video Entertainment System, or VES.
supporting Kirschner and Haskel with Lawson. First of all
During the event, however, it does not attract the attention
the F8 CPU from Fairchild was adopted (fig. 3), essential
of press and visitors because what Fairchild shows is a
requirement to establish the collaboration (on the other
simple empty shell, with no functioning electronics. After
hand, a manufacturer of microprocessors would never
that first appearance it makes a more dignified appearance
put on the market a product based on a CPU of a direct
in a Businessweek article of July 6, 1976 entitled "The
competitor ...), and then Lawson works to simplify the
Smart Machine Revolution" where the futuristic and
control system based on the keyboard used on the RAVEN,
countless applications of the emerging microprocessors
entrusting the project to Nicholas Talesfore, who made
are shown, appearing alongside other electronic devices.
the iconic vertical joystick with movable head. Meanwhile
The real commercial debut occurs towards the end of the
the project is renamed "STRATOS".
year: the console is advertised in print and television and
put on sale at a price of $169.95. Sales initially go well
After these changes, STRATOS is approved for marketing
because the technical leap from the previous Odyssey is
and we start to design the final version that must be
remarkable, and the possibility of having new games in
smaller than the RAVEN, such as to allow it to be placed
addition to those that can be found preinstalled attracts
on top of a common TV. Another point to be fixed are the
buyers.
cartridges. Putting aside the patched case used by
Kirschner and Haskel, Talesfore entrusts the task to Ron
Technical Analysis
Smith, a mechanical engineer with whom he has worked
The console is built around the Fairchild F8 microprocessor.
in the past and who has already made an interchangeable
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 HARDWARE

provided with their own internal Program Counter that

they manage themselves. The PSU therefore sends
"commands" to retrieve data from the ROM and the ROMs
retrieve the required data, depending on the command
received and the value of their Program Counter. The first
game cartridges are equipped with 2 chips of these special
ROMs of 1 KB each, connected to the console through a
22 pin connector where the lines necessary for data
exchange pass. The frequency of the CPU is 1.79 MHz,
obtained by halving the clock of the video signal generator
of colour (colour burst), of 3.58 MHz.
Fig. 5 - The Desert Fox game (source:
voxodyssey.com)
Compared to RAVEN, the video buffer is increased to 2
Developed in 1971, it is actually a "chipset", that is a set
KB, thanks to which the console can generate a video
of integrated chips that go side by side to form the
image with a maximum resolution of 128x64 pixels and
processor itself. The configuration used in the first version
2 colour bits for each pixel (4 colours from a palette of
of the console sees the use of Fairchild 3850 and Fairchild
8): going too high with the resolution would have meant
3851 (fig. 2). The first integrated is the CPU itself, containing
having to use more memory with a considerable increase
the ALU (the logical arithmetic unit), 2 input/output ports
in production cost. The VRAM (video RAM) is composed
and 64 bytes of RAM available in the form of internal
of 4 DRAM 4096 chips each offering 4 Kbit capacity, for
registers: in addition to these bytes the CPU has no other
a total of 16 Kbit bits, or 2 Kbytes (128x64 = 8,192 pixels
dedicated RAM, so the games themselves provide extra
= 8,192x2 bits = 16,384 bits = 2,048 bytes). Not all pixels
memory when needed, such as "Maze" and "Chess". The
are usable or viewable, however. In fact, cells 125 and
integrated 3851 is instead called PSU, for "Program
126 control the palette in use on the corresponding row
Storage Unit", and contains 1 KB of ROM, other 2 input/
of the screen while the actual image starts from row 4
output ports, a control bus, the management of an
and column 4 and extends 102 pixels horizontally and
interrupt, the stack register, the Program Counter that
58 pixels vertically: these are therefore the actual dimensions
points in memory the next instruction to execute. In the
of the image on the screen. Add to this the fact that not
ROM are stored not only the BIOS to manage the console
all televisions of the time could adjust the width of the
at power-on and start the games on the cartridge but
image to display the image, so often the outermost portions
also the integrated games. Since the philosophy that had
horizontally were lost, further reducing the screen size
led to the realisation of the F8 was to reduce the
characteristics of each chip to the bare minimum, the
minimum configuration used was precisely that proposed
on the console, consisting of CPU 3850 and PSU 3851.
In these 2 chips there is everything you need to make a
microcomputer: CPU, ALU, RAM, ROM and Program Counter.
It is the PSU that retrieves from its internal ROM the
instruction to execute and passes it to the CPU via a
dedicated bus: for this reason neither the 3850 nor the
3851 have an external address bus. However, the PSU
has a 5 lines "command bus" specifically designed to
Fig. 6 - Alien Invasion, an obvious Space Invaders
manage particular ROMs designed to work with F8 and clone (source: voxodyssey.com)

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 15 of 78

 HARDWARE

the console remained in production, other titles published

exclusively by Fairchild first and then by Zircon, which
will take over the rights on the console, for a total of 27
cartridges (some with more than one game). Initially,
each cartridge is offered for sale at a price of $ 19.95
each, a not insignificant price if you relate to the initial
cost of the console.

Channel F and derivatives

The release of the VES pushed several manufacturers to
accelerate the development of their systems to avoid
Fig. 7 - "You lose turkey!" accumulating excessive delay against the console of
(source FastCompany.com)
Fairchild. Among the competitors was the Atari Video
to 95x58 pixels. The image displays white pixels if you Computer System (later became 2600) whose release
set the background to black, or green, red, and blue pixels pushed Fairchild to change the name of its system to
if you choose a colored background. avoid confusion among buyers, becoming "Channel F",
where the "F" was an abbreviation of "Fun". The release
The joysticks are a true electromechanical marvel. The of the Atari VCS also marked the beginning of the decline
triangular head not only reads the 8 classic horizontal of Channel F, outclassed by its rival in terms of sales.
directions but can also be rotated clockwise or Atari's VCS was sailing along at an unimaginable pace:
counterclockwise, as in Pong-style paddles, and can also it had already sold 500,000 units in its first year of release,
be pulled up and pressed down, thus offering a whole and in 1979 alone it sold one million units. On the other
range of commands never offered by any other game hand, until 1979 Channel F had sold a total of 350,000
controller until then seen on the market. The audio is units... Fairchild slowly lost interest in the video game
limited to 3 tones with 3 fixed frequencies at 120 Hz, 500 market and in 1979 sold the rights to the console to a
Hz and 1 KHz, reproduced by an internal speaker. company called Zircon International. The fight with the
VCS was unequal. To make the console more attractive
The games available initially are five, namely those initially and try to make up for some of the gap, Zircon revamped
developed by Haskel: 2 are contained in the ROM of the the Channel F's exterior with a more compact and modern
console itself, "Tennis" and "Hockey", and 3 are published design and equipped the console with controllers that
on a cartridge called "Videocart-1": "Tic-Tac-Toe", could be separated from the body. Audio was improved
"Shooting Gallery" and "Doodle". During the conversion
of the code from assembly 8080 to F8 Lawrence inserted
in "Tic-Tac-Toe" what is considered to be the first joke
contained within a video game. At that time, as mentioned,
Lawson was leading the RAVEN to STRATOS conversion
project, and one of his favourite epithets to call people is
"turkey". Lawrence decides to take that epithet and insert
it in the game so that it will appear on the screen in case
the player loses the game (fig. 7). Curiously enough,
Lawson did not realise this immediately, but much later:
Fig. 8 - The Luxor Video Entertainment Computer,
however, it seems that he took it well, so the joke worked! version for the Swedish market (photo: liftarn -
To these games follow, in the course of the years in which source: Wikimedia Commons)

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 HARDWARE

by eliminating the internal speaker and mixing it with the a microprocessor on board allowed the console to be
RF signal to play through the TV. The new unit was called "programmed", i.e., to execute even complex programs:
the Channel F System II. It was also licensed to several the Odyssey moves the rackets on the screen simply by
manufacturers to expand penetration into other markets, following the player's commands, but here there is an
especially Europe (Fig. 8). However, this was not enough "electronic brain" that allows to perform calculations
to recover market share and the console was permanently independently and give the console a primitive form of
removed from the market in 1983, when its games were artificial intelligence sufficient to offer, for the first time,
judged as "antiquated" and the graphics and sound the possibility to play "against the computer" and no
"primitive". longer only against another human player. "Tic-Tac-Toe",
"Baseball" and "Checkers" are examples where the
Commercial failure opponent to beat is moved by the CPU.
The basic problem with Channel F was that it was made In truth, interchangeable cartridges were not a novelty
by a company whose primary goal was not to make games. because before that time they had already been used to
Channel F was developed by Fairchild Camera and allow changing the software of some calculators made
Instrument, a multinational company that went all over by various manufacturers, including National Semiconductor,
the place with several subsidiary companies: the Texas Instruments, HP and others, but it was the first
management of the console was entrusted to Exetron, time that such a system was adopted for an accessory
the division responsible for consumer products, which that would be manipulated by thousands, tens of thousands
bought the F8 CPUs from Fairchild Semiconductor, the of people without special care and for who knows how
division dedicated to the production of electronic many times a day. The cartridges were a real unknown,
components and integrated circuits. In fact, the parent a gamble for the designers: no one had data about how
company saw the console as primarily a vehicle to sell long they would "survive" in the hands of children, there
chips to Fairchild Semiconductor. Atari, however, was were no statistics on which to base predictions. For this
born as a company devoted exclusively to the production reason they were studied and designed to be as robust
of video games, and every effort was devoted to the as possible, and equipped with every device to reduce
realisation of the best possible game. And in fact the titles possible damage such as the locking system when inserted
produced for the 2600, despite the hardware limitations or the door to protect the comb of contacts that opened
of the machine, outclassed by several orders of magnitude automatically when they were inserted. But from that
those of the competition, including Channel F: the 2600 idea cartridges have spread so much to be for more than
offered dynamic, adrenaline-filled titles, full of colours two decades the exclusive distribution system for games
and sound effects as well as action-packed, while Channel of all consoles that came after the Channel F, dictating
F offered "classic" games, slow, monotonous, too "calm" law until the mid-90s when CDs and DVDs began to replace
for the hungry gamers of the time who were beginning them as a cheaper and more spacious media. And they
to explore a newly discovered world. The 2600's game never completely disappeared because portable consoles
library grew monthly, while Channel F's was producing a continue to use them to this day.
few dozen titles in 7 years of life: there could be no
comparison. And there wasn't. In short, today Channel F is an ageing lady who nevertheless
turned a lot of heads in her youth.
Legacy
As mentioned in the beginning, the Channel F boasts
several records, including being the first console based
on a microprocessor, specifically the Fairchild F8. Having

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 17 of 78

 SOFTWARE

FOCAL language on PDP-8 - part 1

by Francesco Fiorentini

In the last issue, I’ve shown you how to reproduce the was because, at a time when computers were huge,
game Planet Raith in GEOS with BeckerBASIC and I told expensive, and required highly specialized personnel,
you the story of its ancestor, King of Sumeria, a game they did not yet believe in this business. For the same
written in 1968 on PDP-8 using the FOCAL language. reason, when the first models of the PDP-1 series were
Unfortunately in that article I was not able to deepen the produced and put on sale, at a price of just over $100,000
topic, so I would like to remedy this with these pages. while computers at the time still cost millions of dollars,
they avoided using the word computer.
The PDP-8
The PDP-8 is a minicomputer with 12-bit architecture The PDP series obtained excellent results and the PDP-
produced by DEC, Digital Equipment Corporation in the 8 had a great sales success, it was in fact purchased by
sixties and, as its name suggests, the eighth project in schools, universities and research centers, especially in
the series DEC PDP, Programmed Data Processor. the United States, recording almost 300,000 units sold.
Thanks to this result the PDP-8 has been compared to
The PDP series owes its name to a curious marketing the Ford T, being the first computer to be mass produced
decision, closely related to the company name. Ken Olson at a cost accessible to (almost) everyone.
and Harlan Anderson founded DEC in 1957 and initially
wanted to call it DCC, Digital Computer Corporation, due Technically, the PDP-8 uses a 12-bit memory address
the intention of building computers. However, the other space, so the basic configuration has a main memory of
shareholders insisted on removing the word computer 4,096 twelve-bit words. Instructions have a 3-bit opcode,
from the company's name and waiting to build them. This so there are only eight instructions.

There are only three registers visible to the programmer:

a 12-bit accumulator (AC), a program counter (PC) and
a carryover flag called a link register (L).

Early versions of the PDP-8 did not have an operating

system and programs were entered directly into binary
machine code using switches on the front panel.

Over the years, operating systems such as OS/8 and COS-

310 were developed with an online editor, which allowed
the development of command-line compilers for languages
such as PAL-III assembly, FORTRAN, BASIC, DIBOL
(Digital's Business Oriented Language) and FOCAL.

The FOCAL language

FOCAL, an acronym for FORmula CALculator, is an
interpreted programming language developed by DEC
for its PDP series of machines. The language made its
Fig. 1 - Model DEC PDP-8 minicomputer, picture from first appearance in 1968 on the PDP-8 minicomputers
Science Museum Group Collection
Page 18 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 SOFTWARE

A little practice...
After having introduced you to the PDP-8 and the FOCAL
language, I want to show you how to practically put your
hands on it and write some simple programs, as if we
were in the late sixties, well before most of the machines
we usually write about were built.

Thanks to emulators nowadays we can virtually get our

hands on almost any man-made computer and, of course,
the PDP-8 is no exception.

Among the many emulators present, I have chosen this

one realized in python for a couple of reasons. First of all
it seems to work well and secondly the source is open,
which would eventually allow developers to put their
hands on it to produce a fork or to make small changes
as I did. Personally I found the image of the front panel
too bulky, so I decided to halve the size, modifying the
emulator code to handle the new setting (if someone is
Fig. 2 - FOCAL-8 Programming Manual interested in this change, please write to me).

and took the name FOCAL-8. A year later an updated Equipment and instructions
version of the interpreter was released and called FOCAL- Python:
69. This is the version we will use in our tutorial later on. - https://www.python.org/downloads/

The FOCAL language was evidently influenced by another Pygame library:

language, JOSS, acronym of JOHNNIAC Open Shop System - https://www.pygame.org/news
that had been successfully implemented on the PDP-6
series machines. Like JOSS and later BASIC, of which PDP-8 emulator and programs:
FOCAL is one of the ancestors, FOCAL on the PDP-8 is a - https://github.com/mdoege/PDP-8/
complete programming environment, including editor,
interpreter and I/O routines. Once you have downloaded and installed python, run this
command from the command line to automatically install
The language is composed of imperative commands and the pygame library without having to download it previously:
mathematical expressions generally in standard notation, python3 -m pip install -U pygame --user
making it very easy to learn and handle. As in BASIC, it
is also possible to use some commands in immediate Download the PDP-8 emulator written in python by mdoege
mode, without specifying the line number and receiving from his github repository: https://github.com/mdoege/
the result immediately after pressing enter. PDP-8/

A peculiarity of the FOCAL language, or at least of FOCAL- Place yourself inside the folder where you saved the files
8 in its original configuration, is that it does not handle downloaded from github and, to launch the PDP-8 emulator,
strings and accepts alphanumeric values as input, for run the following command:
example to assign values to variables, only to transform python pdp8.py
them into numbers. We will see some examples of this
behavior later. At this point to load the FOCAL interpreter, use the following

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 19 of 78

 SOFTWARE

commands: b. 3217 -> end of text buffer

PC 0000 AC 0000 L 0 SW 0000 IE 0 c. 3217 -> end of variable list
> load focal  to load the FOCAL module d. 5377 -> limit of available memory
PC 0200 AC 0000 L 0 SW 0000 IE 0
> r to execute the FOCAL module To calculate the space available to the user for his programs
we need to subtract c from d.
If everything is configured correctly you should see So d-c -> 5377 - 3217 = 2160.
something similar to Fig. 3.
Be careful though, 2160 is a number in base 8, which
The PDP-8 informs you that the FOCAL 1969 interpreter translated into base 10 is equal to 1136. So we have
has been successfully launched on your PDP-8 emulator: about 1100 characters available for our program.
CONGRATULATIONS!!! This is because we have chosen to eliminate the mathematical
YOU  HAVE  SUCCESSFULLY  LOADED  'FOCAL,1969'  functions, otherwise our space would have been much
ON A PDP­8 COMPUTER. smaller, see the following table:

And ask you 2 questions:

SHALL I RETAIN LOG, EXP, ATN ?:NO
SHALL I RETAIN SINE, COSINE ?:NO
PROCEED.
* 
Keeping all mathematical functions the space at our
The interpreter shows you the options available to the disposal would be reduced to about 700 characters, about
user for maintaining mathematical functions. If these 900 in the case of maintaining the functions LOG, EXP,
functions will not be needed for the program you intend ATN and about 1100 in the case of no mathematical
to implement, you can disable them by answering NO and function maintained, as we saw previously.
FOCAL will delete these functions from the core; this will
free up space for user programs. The FOCAL-8 controls
The list of basic commands available to the FOCAL
Today this choice makes us smile, but on a PDP-8, where programmer is very limited, nothing like the hundreds of
space was definitely a problem, it was a necessary option. commands available in modern languages and far from
But exactly how much space do we gain by removing even those of the poorest BASIC (see BASIC V2 of
these functions from memory? We can ascertain this by Commodore 64).
using the LOCATIONS command:
*LOCATIONS Here is the list of commands: TYPE, ASK, WRITE, SET,
3206 ERASE, GO, GOTO, DO, IF, RETURN, QUIT, COMMENT,
3217 FOR, MODIFY.
3217
5377 The TYPE command
Type is one of the most used commands in FOCAL. It
Hhmmm, okay, now we probably know even less than allows you to calculate and print on the screen the result
before.... What do these numbers mean? of an operation or of a variable and also works as an
immediate command. Let's try to make an example:
Fortunately, the FOCAL-8 PROGRAMMING MANUAL FOR *TYPE 23/17
PDP-8/1 comes to our aid. Running the LOCATIONS = 1.3530*
command causes FOCAL to print four octal numbers (the
PDP-8's core memory runs on base-8 numbers) that In this case we have asked to divide 23 by 17 and the
represent the following locations within the core: result shown is 1.3530. By default, in fact, the FOCAL
a. 3206 -> start of text buffer interpreter is programmed to print on the screen a
Page 20 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
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Fig. 3 - The PDP-8 emulator in action with the panel in the foreground

numerical value consisting of 4 integers and 4 decimals Obviously, priority is always given to significant numbers.
(unnecessary zeros are suppressed in favor of a space). *TYPE %9.06,1234+9999
= 11233.0000*
Now try typing the following instruction:
*TYPE 23/17, 34+59 Well, for the moment I stop here, I think I have already
= 1.3530= 93.0000* proposed several interesting ideas to begin to explore
this language on your own, of course if you want.
As you can see, we can compute several expressions in
one line by separating them with a comma. Another thing If, on the other hand, you are curious but don't have time
you have probably already noticed is that the TYPE or desire to study it on your own, see you in the next issue
command does not force a carriage return after printing to continue our adventure with the FOCAL language and
the result. To insert a carriage return after each expression to write a first working program.
and at the end of our calculation, we can use the !
(exclamation mark).
*TYPE 23/17,!,34+59,!
= 1.3530
= 93.0000
*

The TYPE command also allows us to specify the format Useful links
in which to display the result. If we want to increase the
Here two links to as many FOCAL manuals.
number of decimals we can use the following notation:
TYPE %x.yz FOCAL-8 PROGRAMMING MANUAL FOR PDP-8/1,
PDP-S/l, PDP-B/S, PDP-8, LINC- 8, PDP-12, PDP-5:
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/dec/
Where x is the number of total characters in output and
pdp8/focal/DEC-08-AJAB-
yz is the number of decimals D_FOCAL_Programming_Manual_Jan70.pdf
*TYPE %9.06.23/17,!,34+59,!
FOCAL Programming Manual for PDP-S PDP-SIS
= 1.352940
PDP-S/I LAB-S LINC-S:
= 93.000000 http://www.bitsavers.org/
*TYPE %10.05.23/17,! www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/pdf/DEC-08-
AJAB-D%20PDP-8-
= 1.35294
I%20FOCAL%20Programming%20Manual.pdf

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 21 of 78

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8-Bit fractals in BASIC sauce - part 3

by David La Monaca
We have reached the third appointment of this column numbers is actually greater on certain diagonals. From
and the amazement in front of what our little 8-bit home a visual and aesthetic point of view, which is what interests
computers are able to create with their BASIC languages us most in this column, the algorithm that generates the
and some well-designed algorithms remains unchanged. spiral of Ulam produces a nice graphic effect if you color
Clearly the Achilles heel of our fun is the slow processing the prime numbers and leave "turned off" the non-primes.
of computing points and lines to be drawn in high resolution.You can admire the effect in the Plus/4 and 128 versions,
and the BASIC listing published is executable on both 8-
Many of the programs we have published so far are not bit Commodore machines without changes. For the sake
optimized for maximum speed and efficiency, especially of completeness and to honor his work, we say at once
since the objective of our little trip is to have fun seeing that Giuseppe has sent us the listing that you see in these
how these machines are able to generate the classic pages, but also a version that overcomes, in the manner
fractals and other 2D or 3D geometric figures of general of practical programmers of the past, the problem of the
interest. slowness of 8-bit computers in computing the N useful
primes. The listing presented here actually calculates the
For those who do not own the original machines and use prime numbers needed for coloring, while the other version
emulators or FPGA systems, sometimes a "Warp Mode" includes a preloaded list of prime numbers up to 32159
function is available, which is very useful to speed up the using DATA lines. Obviously the second listing, which we
execution time of our listings. do not publish because of its relative length, draws the
spiral and completes it in the high resolution screen of
We would like to thank all the passionate readers of RMW the Plus/4 and C128 in a much shorter time. The program
that sent us the results of their works. In this issue we is available to readers on request.
welcome other classic algorithms provided by Armando
Pavese for C64 and Vic-20 (obviously "doped" with And now, buck up and let's get our hands on our keyboards!
Simons' Basic and SuperExpander VIC-1211M expansions) Here's another selection of fractals and geometric figures
and a particular solution for Commodore Plus/4 and 128 for your and our beloved 8-bits!
to draw the Ulam Spiral, based on the arrangement of
prime numbers, that has been proposed by Giuseppe
Mignogna.

It is worth spending a few words about this particular

algorithm and the way it was implemented by Giuseppe.
The Ulam spiral is a diagram consisting of the sequence
of positive integers arranged in a precise order, that is in
a spiral. In this particular scheme, the position of the
prime numbers reveals a very interesting graphical pattern
that is still being studied today. The idea came from the
Polish mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, who scribbled the
integer numbers in a spiral (see fig. A) and realized that
the prime numbers tended to be arranged along some 12. DRAGON 32 - Lorenz attractor (XY plane)
diagonals of the diagram. The fact that the prime numbers 10 PMODE 4,1:SCREEN 1,1
are arranged along the diagonals is not in itself a particular 20 COLOR 0,1:PCLS
fact because obviously all prime numbers except 2 are 30 R=10:S=28:B=8/3:D=.002
odd numbers. What was of interest to Ulam and to a long 40 X=.1:Y=0:Z=0
series of mathematicians who over time approached the 50 FOR I=1 TO 16000
problem is that prime numbers tend to arrange themselves 60 PSET(127+5.7*X,95­3*Y)
along certain diagonals and not others. Some rigorous 70 XX=X+D*R*(Y­X)
studies have established that the concentration of prime 80 YY=Y+D*(X*(S­Z)­Y)
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90 Z=Z+D*(X*Y­B*Z) 30 PLOT 127,87
100 X=XX:Y=YY 40 FOR i=8 TO 32 STEP 4
110 NEXT 50 FOR j=1 TO 4*i
120 GO TO 120 60 LET x=127+INT (2*i*RND) ­i
70 LET y=87+INT (2*i*RND) ­i
80 IF POINT (x,y) THEN GO TO 60
90 PLOT x,y
100 LET n=0
110 FOR a=x­1 TO x+1
120 FOR b=y­1 TO y+1
130 LET n=n+POINT (a,b)
140 NEXT b
150 NEXT a
160 IF n>1 THEN GO TO 250
170 PLOT INVERSE 1;x,y
13. ORIC-1 - Hilbert curve 180 LET x=x+INT (3*RND)­1
10 HIRES:PAPER 1 190 LET y=y+INT (3*RND)­1
20 DIM S(50) 200 IF x>=127+i THEN LET x=127­i+1: GO TO 220
30 CURSET 57,165,1 210 IF x<=127­i THEN LET x=127+i­1
40 S(0)=5:S(1)=1:SP=2:H=4:V=0 220 IF y>=87+i THEN LET y=87­i+1: GO TO 90
50 GOSUB 70 230 IF y<=87­1 THEN LET y=87+i­1
60 END 240 GO TO 90
70 SP=SP­2:N=S(SP)­1:A=S(SP+1) 250 NEXT j
80 IF N=­1 THEN RETURN 260 NEXT i
90 S(SP)=A:S(SP+1)=N:S(SP+2)=­A
100 S(SP+3)=­A:S(SP+4)=N:S(SP+5)=A
110 S(SP+6)=N:S(SP+7)=A
120 S(SP+8)=­A:S(SP+9)=N:S(SP+10)=­A
130 S(SP+11)=A:SP=SP+12
140 GOSUB 170:GOSUB 70:DRAW H,V,1
145 GOSUB 170:GOSUB 70:DRAW H,V,1
150 GOSUB 70:GOSUB 170:DRAW H,V,1
155 GOSUB 70:GOSUB 170
160 RETURN
170 SP=SP­1:A=S(SP):T=­A*H:H=A*V:V=T
180 RETURN

15. IBM PC 8088 BASIC, 1981 - Mandelbrot set

(The listing can also be compacted into a single line!)
10 key off:screen 1
20 for i=­160 to 160
30 for j=­96 to 96
40 x=i/76:y=j/76
50 a=0:b=0:k=0
60 while a*a+b*b<4 and k<200
70 c=a*a­b*b+x:b=2*a*b+y:a=c:k=k+1
80 wend
14. ZX Spectrum Basic - Brownian tree 90 pset(185+i,100+j),0­(k=200)­(k>=10)­(k>=4)
10 INK 4: PAPER 0: BORDER 0: BRIGHT 1: CLS 100 next
20 RANDOMIZE 110 next

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120 while ­1:wend 50 gosub200
55 color1,8,l:l=l+1:ifl=8thenl=0
60 ifr=1thendraw1,x,y
70 ifd=1thenx=x+p
80 ifd=2theny=y­p
90 ifd=3thenx=x­p
100 ifd=4theny=y+p
120 np=np+1
130 next
140 d=d+1:ifd=5thend=1
150 next
160 c=c+1
170 goto30
16. VIC-20 + SUPER EXPANDER JP VIC-1211M (6502, 180 rem sub verifica se np = nro primo
1981) - Barnsley fern 190 rem risultato in r (0=false,1=true)
(arranged by Armando Pavese) 200 ifnp=1thenr=1:goto300
10 hires0:setc6,1,7 210 r=0:dv=3
20 x=0:y=0 220 ifnp/dv=int(np/dv)thenr=0:goto300
30 fori=­3500to3500 230 dv=dv+2
40 r=rnd(1)
50 ifr<.01thenx=0:y=.16*y:goto90
60 ifr<.86thent=.85*x+.04*y:y=­.04*x+.
85*y+1.6:x=t:goto90
70 ifr<.93thent=.2*x­.26*y:y=.23*x+.
22*y+1.6:x=t:goto90
80 t=­.15*x+.28*y:y=.26*x+.24*y+.44:x=t
90 plot(25*y)/1.45,90­25*x
100 nexti
110 wait198,1
120 text:end

17. C16-Plus/4 (first image) & C128 (second image) -

Ulam spiral
(by Giuseppe Mignogna - basic version)
10 color0,1:color4,1:graphic1,1 Fig. 1 - The Ulam spiral, was discovered by Polish
20 x=160:y=100:c=0:d=1:p=5:np=1 mathematician Stanislaw Ulam in 1963, who noticed
30 fori=1to2 that prime numbers tended to align along the
40 forj=0toc diagonals of the spiral.

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240 ifdv<=sqr(np)then220 10 hires1:setc1,2,6
250 r=1 20 dims(20)
300 return 30 a=0:d=./3:x=48:y=148
40 fori=1to3
50 a=a+2*d
60 s(0)=140:sp=1
70 gosub100
80 next
85 wait198,1:text
90 end
100 sp=sp­1:l=s(sp)
110 plotx,y
120 ifl<=5thenh=l*sin(a):v=l*cos(a): 
x=x+h:y=y+v:plottox,y:return
130 l=l/3
140 forp=sptosp+3:s(p)=l:next
18. C64 + Simons' BASIC - Il fiocco di neve di Koch 150 sp=sp+4:gosub100
(con il contributo di Armando Pavese) 155 a=a­d:gosub100
10 hires0,1 160 a=a+2*d:gosub100
20 dims(20) 165 a=a­d:gosub100
30 a=0:d=π/3:x=128:y=168 170 return
40 fori=1to3
50 a=a+2*d The third part of this column stops here, but the success
60 s(0)=140:sp=1 that we have found so far lets us hope that we will have
70 gosub100 other interesting listings to offer you in the future, in order
80 next to bring you back to BASIC programming and to your
85 wait198,1:nrm beloved 8-bit microcomputers.
90 end
100 sp=sp­1:l=s(sp) So, if you have any interesting ideas or hints for the
110 plotx,y,1 column, please send them along with a few lines of
120 ifl<=5thenh=l*sin(a):v=l*cos(a):  information and/or instructions to our official email box:
linex,y,x+h,y+v,1:x=x+h:y=y+v:return [email protected].
130 l=l/3
140 forp=sptosp+3:s(p)=l:next All submissions will be viewed and given due consideration
150 sp=sp+4:gosub100:a=a­d:gosub100 and, as always, the best and most intriguing will get the
160 a=a+2*d:gosub100:a=a­d:gosub100 honour of publication in future issues of the magazine.
170 return

19. VIC-20 + SUPER EXPANDER JP VIC-1211M (6502,

1981) - The Koch snowflake
(with the contribution of Armando Pavese)
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 25 of 78
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C128 in 80 column mode - part 2

by Gianluca Girelli

In the previous article, published on RMW #34-IT (RMW#12- (high byte) [Note: on C64 the locations have decimal
EN), we introduced the 8563 chip (also called VDC) that address 785 and 786;]
is that part of the system dedicated to the management - once the LM routine has been executed, it places the
of the screen in 80-column mode. result in FAC1 before returning to the calling program;
- the calling program places the result in the variable
We learned that, unlike the VIC (chip 8564) used for the "W" (in the case of the example) or prints it directly on
standard 40-column mode, it is not possible to access the screen if an instruction of the type "PRINT USR(K)"
the VDC directly with the PEEK and POKE commands of is used.
BASIC but it is necessary to use machine language and
refer to two specific memory locations: 54874 (address Let's start by reporting the complete code of the machine
register, $D600) and 54875 (data register, $D601). language routine, the first part of which (about writing
registers) was commented on issue 34:
Through them, in fact, we will have access to the 37
registers of the chip and their manipulation will allow us F0B00 LDY  #$00
to act on its 16KB RAM, independent of the system RAM. F0B02 STY  $FF00
We have also seen how to write data to memory through F0B05 STA  $D600
these registers: you have to enter in 54874 the number F0B08 BIT  $D600
of the register you want to interact with, and when bits F0B0B BPL  $0B08
6 and 7 will take the value "1" (managed by the system), F0B0D STX  $D601
you can store a value in 54875. This will force that value F0B10 RTS
to be passed into the register pointed to by 54874. This F0B11 LDA  #$00
mechanism was useful for reprogramming the basic C128 F0B13 STA  $FF00
character font and obtaining a "Japanese-like" one. The F0B16 JSR  $AF0C
associated code has been commented on in the above F0B19 LDA  $16
F0B1B STA  $D600
mentioned issue 34, to which we refer for further information.
F0B1E BIT  $D600
Functioning of the I/O locations is the same also in the F0B21 BPL  $0B1E
case of the 8563 register read operation: simply, when F0B23 LDY  $D601
bits 6 and 7 go to "1", just read the contents of 54875 F0B26 LDA  #$00
which will contain the desired register value and "pointed" F0B28 JMP  $AF03
from location 54874.
Let's see how. As reported in the previous paper, we chose to store the
routine in the cassette buffer, which starts at location
The following code, taken from the book "Commodore 2816, (hexadecimal 0B00). For those unfamiliar with
128 Oltre il Manuale", makes use of the BASIC "USR" C128, we report the procedure for inserting programs
function. into memory using the machine language "monitor":
- type the BASIC command "MONITOR";
This command, used to implement a user-defined function - insert the first line by typing "A F0B00LDY #$00",
by expanding the set of routines of the C128, when called followed by "RETURN". The editor will translate the code
with a syntax such as "W=USR(K)" behaves as follows: directly into machine language by calculating the memory
- places the value of "K" in floating point accumulator occupancy in bytes and entering the correct next line number.
number 1 (named "FAC1");
- transfers the control to a machine language routine Note that the address "F0B00" indicates that we are
written by the user and stored from the address defined writing to memory in "bank 15", "F" in hexadecimal (see
by the (decimal) locations 4633 (low byte) and 4634 the bibliography for more information);
Page 26 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
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- Once all the code has been entered, press "RETURN" to 15 print "registers content 8563":print
exit the editing mode, save the program with the command 17 for k=0 to 36
S "RR8563" 8 F0B00 F0B2B then exit the monitor by 19 : print "register",k,usr(k)
pressing "X" (RETURN). Note that the last byte of the 21 next k:print
code is inserted in the location F0B2A, but to store it in 25 print "you want to write in the registers"
a binary file you must increase this address by 1 byte. 27 input "of chip 8563? (s/n)";r$
29 if r$="n" then stop
Omitting what happens in the program between locations 31 input "write in register (0/36) ";n
F0B00 and F0B10, already examined above, let's try to 33 input "the data: ";d
understand how the reading process works assuming we 37 sys 2816,n,d 
want to read the contents of register number 3 of 8563: 39 goto 25  
- we take the start address of the read subroutine (0B11,
the bank number is not important in this case) and separate The program takes care of loading into memory the
it into its components "0B" (decimal 11) and "11" (decimal previous LM routine typed and saved through the machine
17). These values, in the form low byte and high byte, language "MONITOR" (line 7). Then, after setting the
should be set with POKE 4633.17 and POKE 4634.11 to pointers to the routine (line 13), the contents of all registers
tell the "USR" routine where to jump; of the 80-column chip are printed to the screen. Finally,
the code allows us, if we want, to write some values in a
- we call the routine with the command "USR(3)". The register of our choice and check what happens.
value "3" (this is the register we want to read from) will
be inserted into the FAC1 accumulator; Now that we have learned how to read and write to the
chip's memory, we have a whole new set of possibilities
- at this point the LM program invokes the system routine in front of us, including fast memory block transfers or
"GETADR" (JSR $AF0C), which converts the value of FAC1 doing (monochrome) 80-column graphics. As you probably
into a two-byte integer. The low byte is stored in decimal already know, the BASIC graphics primitives of the C128
location 22 ($16), the high byte in the next decimal location. only work in 40-column mode, but now that we've figured
We are only interested in the first one because it represents out how to access the VDC screen we can write our own
the register number with which we are interacting, so the routines to have fun with.
instruction "LDA $16" takes the register number (3) and
puts it in the I/O location $D600; So see you in the next issue of RMW to explore new
opportunities!
- once bits 6 and 7 of $D600 go to 1, we can automatically
read the contents of register "3" by taking it from the
next location. This value will be loaded into the register
of chip 6502 named "Y";

- after loading the accumulator with the value "0" (LDA

#$00) to reconstruct a two-byte address, we invoke the
system routine "GIVAYF" (JMP $AF03). The GIVAYF routine
Bibliography:
transforms the number of two bytes found in "A" and
"Y" ("A" contains the high byte and "Y" the low byte) into
"Commodore 128 Oltre il Manuale", Rita Bonelli,
a value to be re-entered in FAC1, from which it is extracted
Gruppo Editoriale Jackson Giugno 1986
by assigning it to a variable (for example with the pre-
"C128 Programmer's reference guide", Commodore
mentioned syntax such as "W=USR(3)") or by printing it
Business Machines, Inc., Bantam Book February
on the screen, as we can see in the following BASIC code.
1986
"Mapping the Commodore 128", Ottis R. Cowper,
1 rem reg8563
COMPUTE! Publications,Inc 1986
3  rem  writing  into  the  chip  registers  80 
"Commodore 128 - Manuale di Sistema",
columns
Commodore Italiana S.p.A., 1985
7 bload"rr8563",d0,u8,b15,p2816
13 poke 4633.17:poke 4634.11
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 27 of 78
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How to create a BASIC game for

Commodore 64 - part 1

by Felice Nardella (aka Kimono)

This tutorial is intended for those who, like me, since I instead, with the advancing of years and technology, when
was a child, has always dreamed of creating a videogame we want to write programs of a certain length, the choice
for the legendary Commodore 64, but has never been is almost forced to use modern IDEs, such as the famous
able to realize it for lack of sufficient knowledge of BASIC CBM prg Studio, that you can download from this link:
and especially notions, at least basic, on the programming https://www.ajordison.co.uk/download.html and that
of graphics and sounds of the C64 itself, which I will deal will facilitate our work in game programming.
more in this Tutorial.

The BASIC v2 language, notoriously integrated into the

machine, is in fact quite difficult, especially when you
want to program with sprites and/or sound effects, given
the total lack of specific commands, compared to other
more advanced versions of Basic.

The total lack of these commands makes it necessary to

use the memory locations directly by means of the POKE
instruction, entering the appropriate value in the various Alternatively, you can use others, such as C64 Studio:
registers, which must be known in a more or less thorough https://www.georgrottensteiner.de/en/index.html
way, to be able to program a game that is at least decent. although in this Tutorial I will only deal with the first one
Another big handicap of Basic is its known slowness in (CBM prg Studio).
comparison with the Assembly language (ASM); slowness
mainly due to the fact that the various Basic instructions CREATE A NEW BASIC PROJECT ON CBM PRG STUDIO
and commands must be first translated by the so-called After downloading the IDE "CBM prg Studio" and installing
Basic Interpreter, in machine language, language that is, and starting it for the first time, we need to set some
in fact, the only one directly understandable by the machine. important options, including the default directory where
we save our new projects.
Nevertheless, the slowness of Basic, in cases where it is
needed, can be remedied in two ways: Also it is possible to connect our C64 emulator to the
1) Try to optimize the Basic code as much as possible, IDE, by going to TOOLS -> Options... -> Emulator Control
following some rules of thumb that I will describe in the
course of this Tutorial, in order to make its execution faster.
2) To compile the Basic code by means of compilers, that
are programs that try to translate all the Basic code,
directly in machine code.

In this Tutorial we will deal with all the main arguments

to be able to create a game in Basic v2 for C64 and finally
we will create one, ex novo, as an example.

What you need to start In the 80's we used to use the

C64 directly to write programs and games, nowadays

Page 28 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 SOFTWARE

on the Web.
and entering the full path, where the executable (exe)
file of the emulator is located, in the "Emulator and path" CHAPTER 1:
field. SCREEN MEMORY
The C64 screen is essentially a rectangle consisting of
The emulator I normally use is VICE; if you don't have it, 25 rows (0 to 24) and 40 columns (0 to 39). It is possible
you can download it from here:
https://viceemu.sourceforge.io/index.html#download

Fig. 1
to divide this rectangle into 1000 (25 x 40) boxes (see
Fig. 1) in each of which you can place any Petscii character,
be it a letter, a number, or a graphic symbol. Each box
corresponds to a memory address according to the scheme
shown in Fig. 2 (next page).

Then go to FILE -> New BASIC Project and a window like The numbering begins with the square in the upper left
this will open: corner (1024) and ends with the square in the lower right
corner (2023). Note that the boxes belonging to the same
In the field "Exe Name" we will have to insert the name column differ from each other by 40 units. All the characters
of our project for ex. "Project1"; in the field below we will on the keyboard correspond to a number between 0 and
have to insert the name of the file in Basic that then, once 127. If you add 128 to the
finished, will be compiled, creating in this way the .prg above numbers, you have
file that will be possible to execute directly on the emulator. the same characters, but
The two check-boxes below we can leave: the first one is in reverse.
for adding the possibility to insert one or more Sprites, To be able to see all the
the other one is for modifying the C64 characters. characters and codes
Then we press OK: in this way we have created a new (Screen Code)
Basic Project and we have personalized it with a new name corresponding to them,
of the project and of the file that will contain our program you can use CBM prg
in Basic. Studio, by clicking on the
TOOLS -> SCREEN EDITOR
menu, a screen similar to the Fig. 3
WHAT IS AND WHAT ISN'T THERE
In this Tutorial, as it is specified in the title, I will deal one in figure 3 will open.
essentially with the programming of graphics and sounds
with Basic v2, in order to write a complete game. If now, for example, we want to make any of the Petscii
characters appear on the screen, we can use the instruction:
I won't deal with the basics of the programming in Basic POKE A, B 
v2, for which you refer to the various manuals in circulation Where A indicates the address corresponding to the box
in the rectangle and B represents the code of the
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 SOFTWARE

Fig. 2
corresponding character. store the color with which the character should be displayed
If for example we write: POKE 2023,0 in each box on the screen.
a @ (character corresponding to 0) would appear in the These addresses go from 55296 to 56295; so if for example
lower right corner (Fig. 4); while if we write: POKE 1024,128 we wanted to color the snail in the lower right corner in
a reverse @ (0+128) would appear in the upper left corner black we would have to write: POKE 56295,0
(Fig. 5). Where the 0 represents the black color code.

All the color codes can be obtained from the various

manuals, or even directly from CBM prg Studio by clicking
on the TOOLS -> SCREEN EDITOR menu and then clicking
2 times on one of the 4 colors in Fig. 3; a small window
like the one shown in Fig. 6 will appear.

Fig. 4

Fig. 6
Fig. 5 Through a simple formula, we will be able to place any
In another region of RAM, there are other addresses that character anywhere on the screen, knowing only the row

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and column. 50  ca=32:  rem  stores  the  code  of  the  car. 
The instruction with the general formula is as follows: space used to delete the ball 
POKE 1024+ROW*40+COLUMN,CHARACTER 60  co=1:ri=1:  rem  initializes  the  initial 
position of the ball 
While to color it we should use this other formula: 70 dx=1:dy=1: rem initializes the horizontal 
POKE 55296+RIGA*40+COLUMN,COLOUR  and vertical increment 
80  pp=ri*40+co:  rem  calculates  the  initial 
For example, if we wanted a little red heart to appear on position of the ball 
line 13 and column 0 (remember that column 0 is the 90 co=co+dx:ri=ri+dy:np=ri*40+co: rem updates 
first column on the left) we would have to write a little the position of the ball 
program of only 2 lines and give RUN: 100 if ri>23 then dy=­1: rem check that the 
10 POKE 1024+13*40+0.83 ball does not go beyond the line 24 
20 POKE 55296+13*40+0.2 110  if  ri<1  then  dy=1:  rem  check  that  the 
ball does not go beyond line 0 
120 if co>38 then dx=­1: rem check that the 
ball does not go beyond column 40 
130 if co<1 then dx=1: rem checks that the 
ball does not go beyond column 0 
140 poke sm+np,p: poke cm+np,ko: rem prints 
the ball and colors it on the screen 
150  poke  sm+pp,ca:  pp=np:  rem  delete  ball 
and update initial position 
160  goto  90:  rem  restarts  the  cycle  from 
line 90
Trick: to write "on the fly" a small program like the one
just seen, but also larger, without going through the IDE, As you can see, each line has been duly commented
it is usually not convenient to write it directly on the (comments can also be omitted when copying the code,
emulator. It is better, instead, to write it (all in lowercase) just read them and understand what the program does,
in a text file (txt) and then do the copy/paste on the emulator. line by line). Then press the PRG button at the top. If no
mistakes were made, you should find your PRG file ready
A FIRST EXAMPLE: A BOUNCING BALL to run inside the folder you have chosen as default for
Now that we have figured out how to display the characters projects. If you have already connected VICE to the IDE
on the screen, let's try to beat on CBM prg Studio a little via the settings, just press the button immediately to the
program that displays a bouncing ball on the screen. Let's right (->) to run it directly on VICE.
create on CBM prg Studio a new Basic Project and let's
call it "Example1". Then rename the file "Main.bas" to
"Ball.bas". In this case we can remove the two check
marks below, because in this first example we will have
neither the need to use sprites, nor the need to change
the standard C64 characters. Now we type the following
program:
10 print"{clear}": rem clears the screen 
20 sm=1024:cm=55296: rem initialize variables 
screen memory and color memory 
30  p=81:  rem  stores  the  code  of  the  ball 
character 
40  ko=7:  rem  memorizes  the  color  code  of 
the ball (yellow) 
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 SOFTWARE

Musica Maestro SID!

by Felice Nardella (aka Kimono)

We all know that a SID file cannot be played on a real C64 csdb.dk/release/?id=109000).
or an emulator... But if you want to listen to it, how would Specifically, here I tried to run the SID file of the famous
you do it? game OUTRUN, which you can find here: https://csdb.dk/
Well, there are several ways to do this: a rather simple sid/?id=4154.
one is to directly transform the SID into an executable
PRG file, via the PSID64 tool: Executing such a file, through the Sidplayfp tool (https://
http://psid64.sourceforge.net/. csdb.dk/release/?id=210057), it is necessary to look
among the properties of the file (through the menu FILE
But we're used to getting our hands dirty with code, so -> PROPERTIES) and especially focusing on the following
I'll present here a short program, which will serve our values:
purpose. - Init address: $B219
- Play address: $B069
It's good to specify that it's not possible to do this from - Number of songs: 2
Basic, but you must use Assembly; in this case I used
Basic only to load the ASM code (and the SID) in memory You can see that this SID has an Init address different
and execute it. This method will work with almost all SID from $1000 and that it has 2 tracks.
files (they can be downloaded, for example, from https:// Then we must try to relocate it as close as possible to the
hvsc.c64.org/), but not with all of them. address $1000, using the aforementioned SIDRELOC, by
typing from the command line:
sidreloc ­p 10 out_run.sid

In this case, "Bad pitches" errors can be safely ignored.

Looking now among the properties of the new obtained
file (outrun.sid).
We will have the following parameters:

In particular, SIDs that have an INIT ADDRESS at location

$1000 (4096 dec) will work. If the SID has a different
address, this method will not work, but all is not lost!
There is a tool called SIDRELOC, downloadable from a
very good site, where you can get various useful information
about SIDs (http://www.linusakesson.net/software/
sidreloc/index.php), which is able to relocate the SID in
the desired memory area (a version of SIDRELOC compiled
for Windows can be downloaded from CSDB: https://

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 SOFTWARE

- Init address: $1219 100 date 120: rem six

- Play address: $1069 110 data 169.0: rem lda #0
These two values will need to be included in our code. 120 data 32,25,18: rem jsr $1219 ­ init addr
130 data 32,105,16: rem jsr $1069 ­ play addr
Before executing the Sid, however, it is necessary to 140 data 173,18,208: rem lda $d012
transform it in a .DAT file, always through the tool Sidplayfp, 150 data 201,250: rem cmp #250
going on FILE -> CONVERSION, selecting on "Save Type" 160 data 208,249: rem bne l140
the option "C64 Data (.dat)" and then clicking on CONVERT. 170 data 173,1,220: rem lda $dc01
We will get the file "outrun.dat" that we will use later. This 180 data 201,255: rem cmp #$ff
transformation is necessary because SID files have an 190 data 240,239: rem beq l130
initial header of $7c (124 dec) bytes that, in this case, 200 data 169.0: rem lda #0
must be removed before they can be placed in the C64 210 data 141,24,212: rem sta $d418
memory. You can also manually delete this part using a 220 data 88: rem cli
good hex editor, such as WINHEX (http://www.winhex.com/ 230 data 96: rem rts
winhex/), see fig. 1. 240 date ­1

In the meantime, let's remember the name of the DAT file

we have just obtained to be written in line 90 (as indicated
in the listing).
In the DATA of the lines 120 and 130 we will have to insert,
respectively, the values of Init Address and Play Address.
For those who have difficulty in performing this step, I
will briefly explain how to proceed:
- the value $1219 (in hexadecimal) is expressed in binary
like this:
0001 0010 0001 1001
This is a 16-bit value, which you need to decompose into
two 8-bit values.
- The first value to be entered is the low byte (right) which,
This the code I used: transformed into a decimal is:
10 poke53280,0:poke53281,0:me=49152 0001 1001 = 25
20 readop:ifop<0then90 - The second is given by the high byte (left):
30 pokeme,op:me=me+1 0001 0010 = 18
40 goto20 - These values should be entered in the DATA of line 120,
90 ifa=0thena=1:load "outrun.dat",8,1 after the value 32 (representing the JSR OpCode in decimal).
95 poke53280,15:sys49152 - The same operation should be done for the Play Address
values.

Fig. 1 - WINHEX Hex Editor

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 33 of 78
 SOFTWARE

To change the track, in case there are more than one (in
our case we have 2), just go to change the value in line
110 after the digit 169 (OpCode LDA in decimal), in this
case from 0 to 1, or you can also directly change the value
of the location 49153 through a POKE:
POKE 49153.1
and re-run the code with RUN.

The location $DC01 (56321 dec) indicated in line 170,

is the one that contains the state of the joystick in port
1, but also of some keys of the keyboard (in particular
SPACE, CTRL, 1, 2, ARROW). If one of these keys is pressed
during execution, or if the joystick in port 1 is moved, the
program exits. You could have entered another location
to control, such as the joystick in port 2 ($DC00); in that
case the keys to press to exit the program would be SPACE Useful Links
+ F1/F2, SPACE + Z, SPACE + B, SPACE + C, SPACE + M,
We report again the links presented in the article,
or the movement of the joystick in port 2. The value in
for your convenience.
line 180 (control) should have changed from 255 to 127
($7F). PSID64:
- http://psid64.sourceforge.net/

Lines 200 and 210 before exiting, reset the volume of the HVSC - High Voltage SID Collection:
SID, acting on Register $D418 of the audio chip, while - https://hvsc.c64.org/
the last DATA of line 240 (-1) is simply a control byte for
SIDRELOC:
exiting the loading of the Assembly routine into memory, - http://www.linusakesson.net/software/sidreloc/
starting at location 49152 ($C000). index.php

SIDRELOC for Windows:

The resulting PRG file must be enclosed in a D64 file - https://csdb.dk/release/?id=109000
together with the DAT file, using the very useful DIRMASTER
Sidplayfp:
tool (https://style64.org/dirmaster). The PRG file, inside
-https://csdb.dk/release/?id=210057
the D64, must necessarily precede the DAT file, if you
want it to be started automatically by the emulator. DIRMASTER:
- https://style64.org/dirmaster

The resulting D64 file can then be easily run on the SID of the game OUTRUN:
emulator or copied to floppy (or other media) to be started - https://csdb.dk/sid/?id=4154
from the real C64.
The entire editorial staff of RetroMagazine World
Enjoy listening! thanks and appreciates the work of the Facebook
group "RetroProgramming Italia - RP Italia" - A
division of "RetroCampus" Associazione Culturale
and thanks them for their kind contributions.

We believe that, like other similar groups, they are

doing a great job to make known the Italian
retrocoding scene in the world.

We invite our readers to collaborate with them in

case they have material to share with all the fans of
retrocomputing and retrocoding.

Page 34 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 RETROINTERVIEW

Interview with Bas Scheijde, the father of Puzzle

Bobble on Commodore 64
by Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini
Puzzle Bobble in C64 version is a gem! The review speaks
for itself and we want to specify that to make a software
of this level you need knowledge, knowledge and ...
knowledge.
We had a chat with Bas Scheijde, developer and creative
mind behind the game.

Nith: Hi Bas, Thanks for your time. Tell us a little bit about
yourself. When did your work as a retro-developer start?

I am a self educated software developer, My coding skills

are mainly 6502 assembly, basic, VB.net and some small
knowledge of javascript, C# and C++
My first programming started at age 9 with a commodore
PET in basic, but soon we had a c64 at home.
Fig. 1 - Bas in the kitchen after cooking....
At some point I got hooked up into assembly, but besides ...the cake doesn't stand a chance
some trainer poke findings and a handful of demo's that
Another concept that can be made from the current project
never really got published. Or better said the group I was
is the snes 100 level version. The game is almost the
part of, never published anything significant.
same in regards to the game physics, just more levels
After the c64 came the Amiga, but I never programmed
and some "special" balls that have specific features when hit.
on it, this one was purely for gaming and making music.
But that's for later...
But I always kept my c64 in the closet for later. That later
In the meantime I also wondered if it would be possible
came 5 years ago. I dusted off my c64, but found that all
to create a real pseudo 3D racer for the c64 with an
disks were gone, c64 gave a black screen and the drive
acceptable framerate, using different techniques.
didn't have a power supply anymore.
I am a big fan of lotus esprit turbo challange on the amiga
So I went on 2nd hand market site and bought myself a
and thought that such engine could be possible for the c64.
nice new in the box old breadbin for very cheap, along
So one year of development of puzzle bobble was halted
with an sd2iec device and got myself up and running again.
to work the idea into a proof of concept, that result can
At this point I was also starting to make some little
be found on my youtube channel.
programs to try and see if touch devices (tablets phones)
I hope to continue soon on the racer project as it seems
could be hooked up to the light pen input and maybe
to be quite good in regards to decent framerate/full
setup something like a nice gui.
flexible pseudo 3D road building.
Since there are already some nice projects working on
But its still a loooong way from a game concept.
this, I decided to check what games would still be interesting
to port.
N: Now tell us about Puzzle Bobble and how you started
This is how I ended up with puzzle bobble. There wasn't
its development.
a port made yet and from what I could find, like monster
buster, it was nice, but no real port of the original.
Puzzle bobble was created by taito in the early 90's and
So, here was my project, creating a puzzle bobble port.
is one of the most popular puzzling games made.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 35 of 78

 RETROINTERVIEW

Fig. 2 - The development workstation of Puzzle Bobble by Bas

And when I started the project I also thought it would be On the music and sfx, I worked hard together with NM156
fun to create a MAME like port, using the same keys and to make the most out of it. So I hacked into the goattracker
keep the coin in also in the game. player and directly fire up patterns in a free voice while
Obviously this lead to... also porting the intro. Initially a the music plays on the other 2 voices. In case music is
pretty heavy extra task, but also fun to do. off, the sfx are divided over all 3 voices, for getting even
The whole game including the intro is bitmap based, no more back from the sfx's. In 2 player, we had to settle
charsets are used, only bitmap plotting and sprites. To with 1 voice for music and each player a dedicated voice.
make the animations manageable, I coded an sequencer, NM156 (frantic freddy 2) did a great job, creating a whole
which can run through functions in batch order with given span of patterns for a lot of different balls amount popping
parameters. or falling as well as recreating all music tunes from scratch.
Initially this was made to setup the level backgrounds, Hend (wild woods) helped me out a great deal with mocking
but this was later also very useful for creating the intro up the graphics, added a lot of great stuff, and kept a few
animations. of my original design also in.
Since there are so many animations happening on screen Some nice features we added with help of Hend was
I also decided to use a sprite overlay on the playfield, in creating level dedicated press for each 3 levels and
which some animations take place like the falling bastards fantastic drawing on the end screen pic.
that pop out of the ballons and the floating points. these
animations are also platted into this overlay. In 1 player, All with all, it was a long time developing, but I am glad
2 overlays on top of each other, in 2 player, each player it all worked out in the end.
has its own overlay, giving a slight color clash between
points and falling bastards, but I found this acceptable. Tips from me for anybody who wants to do similar projects.
In order to manage all animations, I use a 4 page animation - make a playable proof of concept, that doesnt need to
array with 255 slots, keeping track and performing all be good looking, but must work properly for the better
animations outside the IRQ, while the gameplay itself part of it. You can always find music or graphics artist
stays inside the IRQ, letting the gameplay being unaffected that help out, but too many projects end up on the "we
if a lot of animations happen at the same time. will finish this one day" when the point of complexity gets

Page 36 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13

 RETROINTERVIEW

too big. N: Thank you for all the responses and your valuable time.
- don't hesitate to do big modification ones you notice Before you say goodbye, tell us about your future plans.
you took a wrong path in coding, better to change course
in time then do it at the end. Since I only am familiar with the c64/6510 as retro
- make little side projects to test out stuff and get to know machine, I will not develop anything for other platforms.
scripts you use from others. In my case I spent a lot of
time diving into digi/sample playing, using Lasse's Bitops Next project will be a racer but this is very early in
Fastloader and hacking into the Lasse's goattracker development.
routine to control play speed and play on the fly patterns
while the music is playing.
- reiterate your code frequently to optimize in speed or
size. Most of the time, the proof of concept is great, but
looking back at some code a year later, changing your
perspective, might bring you onto ideas to improve old
code immensely.

There is another side note I would like to make. I would

never have started this project if it wasn't for CBM prg
Fig. 3 - The game Racer, currently in development
Studio (Arthur Jordison).
Without such an IDE, I probably would have not be able We will probably also release the 100 level snes version
to make this without it. of puzzle bobble at some point this year. (challenge: maybe
somebody hacks the game and does it sooner ?)
All tools that were used:
CBM prg studio N: Thank you for the interview and see you next time.
Goattraker2
Covert bitops fastloader
Multipaint
Spritepad
Exomizer
Dirmaster

Sites used for info:

Codebase64.org (lots of info and several scripts for direct
use)
6502.org (the source for getting details of 6502 assembly)

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 RETROINTERVIEW

Interview with Alessandro Rogati, creator of Salagiochi 1980

by Giorgio Balestrieri and Mic the Biker
Many readers (at least the Italian ones), we are sure, are My gaming 'career' is very varied and in some ways
very familiar with Salagiochi 1980, the Facebook page troubled (especially for my parents who had to hunt for
dedicated to video games from the early days until the the money to buy the various machines). It started in the
period '80-'90, starting from the arcades up to include early '80s with a Philips multi-game that contained Pong,
those for consoles and microcomputers of the time. This Soccer, Tennis, Squash, skeet shooting and others, with
project, started by the will of the creator to share his an optical gun that worked a bit 'hiccup 'let's say. Then
passion for video game entertainment, has collected an came the legendary VIC-20, followed closely by my
extraordinary success and today the page is flanked by legendary MSX PHILIPS VG8020. After crying and
Twitch and Youtube channels that together count tens of unspeakable scenes at home, my parents decided to buy
thousands of members. Here we propose an interview me the king of home computers (obviously for the time):
with Alessandro Rogati, the mind behind the page, who the great COMMODORE 64. In the midst of this tangle of
will tell us how it all happened. wires and tapes, an NES also arrived, with many great
games and just as many expletives. At the end of the 90s,
GB: A few words to get to know "the man in the arcade": ladies and gentlemen, he arrived, or rather she, the AMIGA
who is Alexander in non-virtual life? 500 and after a year also the expansion that brought it
to the stratospheric threshold of 1 mega. For a few months
I'm Alessandro, Alex to my friends, from Marche (Italy) I also enjoyed a SUPER NINTENDO, lent to me by a dear
born in '73, passionate about video games since a lifetime friend who no longer used it, but which, unfortunately, I
practically. I'm a simple employee in a large men's and then had to return, otherwise my parents would have
women's clothing company and father of a fantastic 22 killed me. The first 'machine' purchased with the sweat
years old girl. of my brow was the unforgettable PLAYSTATION 1,
immediately modified to take advantage of the 'thousands
GB: What was your first contact with a video game? How of thousands' CDs that were sold at the time for a small
old were you, where did the encounter happen, and amount of money. From then on (almost) only and
what game was it? exclusively PC, although I also bought the PS2, but I have
never deepened more than that.
The first devastating impact with video games occurred
(I think) in the arcade of my small town in the hills between GB: Favorite genre and game?
Ancona and Macerata, Filottrano, about 10,000 souls, in
the early 80s. The old arcade (I say old because later a I love arcade games, especially platformers, jump and
second one opened and we called it 'the new arcade') shoot and similar ones, but I played a lot of everything
was next to one of the two cinemas of the village, and on the market offered at the time. As arcade titles I can
Sundays coming out of the screenings we were literally mention Wonder Boy, Rainbow Islands, Black Tiger, Psychic
enchanted by the sounds and colors that came from that 5 and many, many more. If we talk about 8, 16, 32 bit or
dark and smelly room. The first game I saw was SPRINT higher, the pages of this magazine would not be enough
by Kee Games, practically the ancestor of Atari, a game to list them all.
of cars in black and white made only with large pixels,
but on its cabinet towered an irresistible steering wheel, GB: In addition to video games, have you tried your hand
gears (I think) and the accelerator pedal. I'll let you at programming? What languages have you tried your
imagine the rest... hand at?

GB: What consoles and/or microcomputers have you I'm a serial 'copier' of the first hour, when you typed the
had and which ones would you have liked to have? endless lists from PaperSoft to be clear, but I've always
Page 38 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 RETROINTERVIEW

Fig. 1 - Header of the facebook page of salagiochi1980

been a curious person, and for this reason I learned basic abandonware and gaming in general, I thought I would
stealing here and there, following the Jackson courses share this great passion of mine with the rest of the world.
and reading the manuals of the various machines. Only On February 14, 2014, I created the page and wrote the
many years later, after a long break, I approached html first post, the rest is history. The page had an incredible
and php and started making sites for friends and others. boom (in 2014 we were still counting on the fingers of
Some time later I also did a Flash Mx course for the same one hand pages and Facebook groups dedicated to
reason, which I then used to 'program' small flash games. retrogaming), in a short time I found myself with 1,000
members, then 5,000 and after two years we were already
GB: Do you have your own collection of consoles and at 45,000. A success that literally left me speechless.
microcomputers?
GB: Was it born as a group or did you create it from the
Over the years it is hard to carry around all your belongings beginning as a thematic page?
especially if, like me, you have gone through several
removals, divorces, cohabitations and so on, but something SalaGiochi1980 started directly as a page, at the time
I managed to keep. I have a C64, which unfortunately (we're talking 2014) it seemed like the best choice.
since a couple of months has started to act up and does
not turn on anymore, my legendary MSX Philips VG8020, GB: To date SalaGiochi1980 has almost 90,000 "likes",
two AMIGA 500, one working and the other with a broken how long did it take to reach this result?
drive, two NES with several cartridges in tow, PS1 with a
myriad of CDs, PS2 and other material. Slowly I'm trying SalaGiochi1980, as I said above, has been online (on FB)
to buy back what I would like to keep in my collection, since February 14, 2014, so that's 8 years, 8 years of
like the Vic 20, GameBoy, Master System and more. hard work, passion, joys, sorrows and you name it.

GB: Let's talk about SalaGiochi1980: how did the idea GB: When did you realize the game was starting to get
come about? serious?
My approach to life has always been 'semi-serious', and
After a lifetime spent on video games, including also even in this adventure I did not want to change form.
managing several sites and forums dedicated to Things that are too serious eventually tire those who do

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 RETROINTERVIEW

Fig. 2 - Alex during one of his live on Twitch

them, but also those who watch, see, listen... I would not and many others that I can not mention not to risk filling
like it to become a job, but always and only as a fun way an entire A4 sheet. THANKS GUYS, from the deep of the
to spend my free time. I have a job that pays my dues heart. To all of you!
already and keeps me out of the house for 8/9 hours a day.
GB: Let's talk about costs and revenues (if you'd like
GB: How many games did you talk about on the page? and if there are any). How much does it cost to run a
project like yours? Are there any forms of revenue?
So many. I've lost count for quite some time now, but I
keep my own archive to repost from time to time, since As above, a passion has no price, there are people who
not everyone can read the many posts we make every day. spend $100,000 on a used Michael Jackson sock!!!
Revenues? Good question. From FB and INSTA absolutely
GB: Besides Facebook, you're also on Twitch and Youtube: nothing. With YT and TWITCH you pay your fiber bills and
how do you manage to find the time to do everything a few accessories (cam, mic, pad...) per year. If people
and run the family? Do you have people helping you or think they're going to make money by streaming retrogaming,
do you manage everything by yourself? they'd better look elsewhere. And it's definitely not my
main purpose anyway.
You can find the time for your passions, often stealing it
from your affections and your little spare time. The first GB: What do you appreciate in the "old" games that you
period of SalaGiochi1980 I was alone, but then I had at notice missing in the modern ones, let's say from 2010
my side several friends who helped me to manage to today?
everything, and I will never stop to thank them (see Tiz,
Lighting, Meo...). At the moment a dear friend of mine, The games of yesteryear have heart, imagination, fantasy,
MRAndread, helps me in the daily publication on FB, and straight to the point, but above all fun, an element that
joins me in conducting several columns that we do live titles from millions of dollars, with a script worthy of
on Twitch. During the theme nights many other friends Hollywood, will never be able to recreate.
are always ready on Discord or on cam to give a valuable GB: How do you choose the games you talk about? Do
hand including the legendary Duncone from Malta, Andrea you favor one feature in particular or do you assign equal
Pipo, EnriMassa, Marco Turrican, Simobol, MarcoVana treatment to all of them?

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 40 of 78

 RETROINTERVIEW

I don't have absolute preferences, although I have my evolution, to keep up with the times.
favorites ahahahahah. Let's say that I like to range a bit
between all machines and genres without distinction, MtB: Tell us about the wonderful initiative of the video
from the Stone Age to the PS2 (just to give me a limit), greeting for the first year of SalaGiochi1980.
but sometimes I also crossed the line.
Ahahahahahah, I had completely dismissed that. And in
GB: The reborn development of games on old-timey fact I don't remember much, but it's also been 7 years.
systems: what do you think about it and who is your I’m getting old, give it to me :-).
favorite programmer, if any.
MtB: The first year was a whirlwind of names that, thanks
It's great to see how rich and lively the undergrowth of to SalaGiochi1980, made friends and created
indie developers is. It's something that makes our beloved collaborations. Tiz, Clax, myself, Edi, Padova and the
machines even more valuable, and allows us to exploit legendary Lightning DJ. How do you remember that period?
them much better than thirty years ago. I always try the
new titles for all the machines, it's something I really love, It was a great time, we were really a team and many good
especially when there are remakes of great classics that friendships were born that continue to this day. We used
can be compared with the versions developed at the time to wait until the evening when we came home to chat with
(read GnG and Commando of Nostalgia for Commodore each other to exchange opinions, tips and anything else.
64… and many others). A developer? Do not make me And we didn't only talk about retrogaming! The absolute
name names... Well, let me just say one because I love state of grace for SalaGiochi1980.
his work and I also interviewed him on Twitch: Antonio
Savona. MtB: Last question: tell us about the legendary weekly
leaderboards and the fantastic chaos they could create.
GB: If you could create a video game, what would you
like it to be like? The famous Top Fans that was published every Saturday
afternoon at 4 p.m. It was a real struggle to get the top
In a word: F U N N Y! spot because the app rewarded the people who interacted
the most with the page, comments, likes, shares and
GB: Plans for the future: where will SalaGiochi1980 go? more. I remember the challenges between us to the last
comment in order to climb up the rankings and see our
Good question, but unfortunately I don't have a crystal name at least in the top ten. Such good times! Thanks for
ball. What I can say is that, within my possibilities, I will reminding me of them! Hi Mic, always on top (fans)
try to carry on with the same passion, perseverance and ahahahahah!
fun as now.
With the memory of the Top Fans ranking, our interview
Hi Alex, this is Mic the Biker or as someone called me ends. We thank Alex for allowing us to peek behind the
"Haggar". I remember perfectly the birth of SalaGiochi1980, scenes of Salagiochi1980 and we express our appreciation
practically I started to publish my passion online just for his efforts in keeping alive the passion for retro
because of you. I wanted to ask you a few questions. informatics that unites us, and we wish him ever greater
and more important successes. For those who want to
MtB: How has SalaGiochi1980 changed over the years? know more, in the box dedicated to the links we publish
the addresses of the Facebook page, Twitch and Youtube.
Hi Michele, it's always a pleasure to chat with you. Overtime
SalaGiochi1980 has undergone many changes, but the Useful Links:
leitmotif has always remained the same: the first place
is the passion for this fantastic world, everything else is - https://www.facebook.com/salagiochi1980/
- https://www.twitch.tv/salagiochi1980
in the background. Now we give much more space to live
- https://www.youtube.com/user/salagiochi1980
on Twitch and videos on the tube, but it is a natural
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 41 of 78
 RETROHISTORY

Remembering Jerry Lawson

One of the great founding fathers of modern video games
by Takahiro Yoshioka and Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini
Gerald Anderson Jerry Lawson was an American engineer
known for his remarkable work in designing the Fairchild
Channel F, a console developed in 1976 that was a
revolution at the time.

He is also considered the inventor of game cartridges

Fig. 2 - The Fairchild console
and one of the founders of modern video games.
console, as well as the first console to use a microprocessor,
In 1972, shortly after the release of the legendary Pong, for which Jerry Lawson also designed the prototype joystick.
Jerry Lawson produced and developed one of the first
arcade games, Demolition Derby. This skill eventually It's pretty clear today that the original idea for the video
earned him a promotion within Fairchild Semiconductor game cartridge came from two men, Wallace Kirschner
(a division of Fairchild Camera and Instruments) in the and Lawrence Haskel, who worked for Alpex Computer
video game arm of the company that, thanks to him, would Corporation under license from Fairchild. It was then that
become one of the first console manufacturers. a team consisting of Ron Smith, Nick Talesfore and Jerry
Lawson perfected the technology and turned it into a
Jerry Lawson went on to serve as chief hardware engineer, commercial homebrew product. Therefore, credit for the
director of engineering and marketing for the video game first round must be technically shared among these five
division, he who, as a teenage self-taught ham radio men, not just Lawson.
operator, earned money repairing his neighbors' televisions.

At a time when home consoles couldn't hold more games

than the built in ones (the Magnavox Odyssey had
cartridges, but they didn't contain memory units), Fairchild
envisioned interchangeable game cartridges that could
be loaded into the machines without damaging them.

From this idea will be born in November 1976 the Fairchild

Channel F, simply the first programmable ROM cartridge

Fig. 1 - The joystick Fig. 3 - The cover of Color Bar Generator

by Video Soft
Page 42 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 RETROHISTORY

Fig. 4 - Jerry Lawson in a recent picture

Although this system never enjoyed the heights of popularity He also founded and ran VideoSoft, a video game

like Atari, Nintendo, or Sega, it was a pivotal step in an development company for the Atari 2600 in the early

entire industry because it offered for the first time cartridge 1980s, when the console became the market leader.

circuits strong enough to withstand physical shocks and Unfortunately, the company only released one, a technical

thousands of insertions without damage. The main fear tool called the Color Bar Generator.

was that electrostatic discharges could easily fry a

semiconductor chip. Honored as an "industry pioneer" by the International
Game Developers Association in March 2011, Jerry Lawson

Very quickly, Jerry Lawson became a member of the died a month later in Santa Clara, California, at the age of 70.

Homebrew Computer Club, a sort of innovators' lobby

and amateur club from which would later emerge the His brilliant career as an innovator positions him as a

computer industry's greatest legends, including Apple symbol for all African Americans and as one of the modern

founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. For the record, fathers of the video game.
Jerry, who was visibly unimpressed with Wozniak, turned
him down for a job at Fairchild...

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 43 of 78

 RETROHISTORY

A bit of rarity
(rummoging here and there)

Warren Davis and the invention of Q*bert

by Alberto Apostolo

Many video gamers love to know

the authors and the backstories
related to the creation of their
favorite titles.
A few weeks ago, the American
publishing house Santa Monica Press
LLC published "Creating Q*bert and
Other Classic Video Arcade" written
by Warren Davis (figs.1 and 2).
For the very few who don't know,
Warren Davis is a game-designer and
programmer, developer of the game
"Q*bert" (fig.3).
Appeared in 1982, "Q*bert" became
one of the most famous arcade games
of all time, entering rightfully into
popular culture with gadgets of all Fig.1 - Book's cover
kinds.
place in contact with the most talented
Warren Davis also developed "Us Vs.
professionals in the history of video
Them" (a Laserdisc game) and broke
games: Eugene Jarvis, Tim Skelly, Ed
new ground in game design by
Boon, Jeff Lee, Dave Thiel, John Fig.2 - Warren Davis
developing the digitization technology
Newcomer, George Petro, Jack Haegar,
that was used in "Mortal Kombat",
Dennis Nordman and many others.
"Terminator 2 the Arcade Game",
I think I've said enough, and I don't
"Revolution X", "NBA Jam", "Joust 2",
want to take away from the pleasure
and "Narc". In particular, for Revolution
of discovery by flipping through the
X, he designed a kind of pseudo-3D
pages of the book.
environment on a hardware-2D.
At the moment only the English edition
With a brilliant and friendly style,
is on sale. It is not sure if it will also
Warren Davis tells us his story full of
be printed in an Italian edition.
interesting anecdotes. It begins with
his school days and how he learned
Francesco Fiorentini: I had promised
to program on the Monrobot XI, a Fig.3 - Q*bert, the game
Alberto to add my comment to what
strange computer produced by Monroe
he has already written about this written and the reading flows smoothly,
Business Machines.
publication. Alberto, as usual, in a few so, despite the fact that it is only in
In 1981 he was hired at Gottlieb (where
lines has brilliantly described the book English, I would recommend it to
he developed "Q*bert") and a few
and its contents. There is not so much everyone, since the book does not
years later he worked at Williams.
more to add. However, I would like to make use of complex periods and
His professional career has taken
confirm that the book is very well vocabulary.
Page 44 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13
 GAME TESTING

Sometimes they come back...

by Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini

Title: Mortal Kombat Arcade Edition

Developer: Master Linkuei
Platform: Sega Megadrive
Website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/
1TiBqHKlw0a3cl3f5Al4umqNxPpq7E-4_/view?usp=sharing

Mortal Kombat was a revolution! It overwhelmed us gamers

with a barrage of graphics never seen before (except for
Pit Fighter), simple gameplay and... a lot of ultraviolence
and gore.
Needless to say, the rush to arcade conversions was What has been added? We have a better graphical cleanup
devastating. Every system of the time had a more or less and re-editing of the coloring, the animations are smoother
decent conversion of this Midway's game. thanks to a code that takes better advantage of the game
The versions that stood out the most at the time were machine. The sound effects of the arcade version have
those for the Amiga, for MS DOS and those for 16-bit been totally added and all the tips and secret modes not
consoles. present in the original version for Sega Megadrive have
While the Super Nintendo version was heavily censored been enabled.
by Nintendo itself (solvable with a trick), the Megadrive
version, although technically inferior, was a great game. Needless to say, the game still remains incredible to play
After a long time the developer Master Linkuei, famous even after all this time.
for his way of "fixing" the console arcade versions of many This hack rom is freely downloadable, works great in
titles, has decided to release this hack that puts in order emulation and on real hardware.
the game bringing it to arcade perfect, or almost. Highly recommended.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 45 of 78

 GAME TESTING

R-TYPE - Shoot'em up year zero

by Mic the Biker Novarina

Do you see it parked there? Right next to it. The opponents or control and attack in front of or behind
legendary DeLorean from Back to the Future is ready the R-9, so you can fire in both directions! What's
to take us to the end of the Eighties, precisely in more, the Force Device absorbs the less powerful
1987. In that year, R-Type arcade machine arrived shots of the opponents, becoming a real shield. A
and the horizontal scrolling shooter will not be never
brilliant idea, united with a dynamic that allows it to
the same. A real revolution in the history of shoot
be exploited in an intelligent way, reducing that
em ups. In fact, this monster game follows an infallible
spasmodic need to shoot faster and faster. Thanks
market rule: it succeeds once in a lifetime. Let's start
to this mix, the fun is elevated: R-Type is incredibly
with our travel friends, with our coin in our pocket.
fun! Unlike its predecessors, it is not enough to
Entering the arcade room and seeing the cabinet,
memorize the enemies’ paths: here you have to use
the genius of H. R. Giger, aka the creator of Alien and
the disposable resources in an appropriate way to
the greatest exponent of organic biomech style,
the level in which we are or looking to the series of
cannot fail to come to mind. However, what the hell
enemies coming. If the game had already stopped
is this game? Mysterious object branded Iren, it has
here it would have been enough to annihilate his
managed to arrive with its charm intact to the present
competitors but…
day, as well as its immortal R-9 battleship that made
school in the genre’s design. A strictly horizontal
Beam is coming!
shoot em up with an arsenal that can be upgraded
As if that were not enough, R-Type also adds another
with four different types of weapons, out-of-scale
element: the Beam! Hold down the fire button and
graphics in the true sense of the word and fantastic you will see an energy bar charge up. Once at
sound. Until that day, nothing had gone that far: maximum, the R-9 will release a devastating beam
there was a row behind the cabin even with no one capable of resolving situations at the edge of the
to play with it! However, apart from the unseen human. Think about how revolutionary was: you had
graphics and the mad sound, was there really anything to think in a matter of seconds the real benefit due
else? Absolutely yes. It was since the dawn of the to the time lost to load the weapon and the real
first shooters that no major novelties were introduced. damage caused to the incredible enemies. Here, I
First of all we have the Force Device, the famous wanted to stop right here. Never before enemies
sphere that doubles the firepower, that become a seems escaped from a nightmare: the first huge
must from that day and. We can throw it against monster, the biomechanical heart as big as the whole
screen, is like a nightmare we dreamed. For the first
time the enemies, the monsters, are a backbone of
a game, fundamental for the genre evolution. Malignant
biomechanical creations, chilling, ancestral, original
and very, very large. Terrifyingly big. The final
guardians show off mercilessly annihilating full screen
dimensions! The R-9, which until a few moments
before seemed immense, becomes in no time a grain
of sand in front of the majesty of the xenomorphs,
just to pay another tribute to Giger.

Bosses have a weakness

Giants with feet of clay, because here too the dynamics
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 GAME TESTING

are different: they go down with a few shots, but the genre. R-Type extinguished the old concept of
must be fired at a tiny weak point. A contest of nerves, shoot'em up, changed it, made it evolve and made
because the giants in question shoot. How furious it better. I still remember the frenzy of playing it, of
we have been, how many tokens we have thrown rotating with friends to pass the levels. In addition,
into this hallucinating coin op, if only to see what I remember how anxiously we were waiting for news
the graphics were like later on! about possible conversions for our home computers
Of course, like all shooters, it's not a perfect game, or consoles.
the genre itself can't be. However, the shoot em up
is the essence of arcade rooms! The difficulty of the And arrived Katakis
game is well calibrated. We assume that, when you Every Zzap! issue was probed line by line in search
become skilled, you can finish it after a few games of confirmations which, given the galactic success
without ever dying. Problems arise when you are of the game, were not long in coming. News of a
killed and have to restart from a previous point too conversion for the Commodore 64, my home computer
far and, above all, without armament! In this condition, at the time, began to leak. Activision announced the
it is impossible to win. But we didn't give up: another making of the game with great emphasis. However,
coin, we have to pass that damned level. We have while we were waiting, on Zzap! Number appears a
all played this game at least once; we have all review of a Rainbow Arts game called Katakis.
participated in our own way to make it an immortal
masterpiece and a crossroad for the genre. Nothing Thunder and lightning, this is R-Type with a different
was the same after him. In 1987 its impact was like name! A legal dispute arose and the title was withdrawn
the monolith of “2001 a space odyssey”: it elevated from the market. In the meantime, we had all some

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 47 of 78

 GAME TESTING

Rtype on ZX Spectrum
Rtype on Commodore 64
the programmers managed to make the graphics
pirated copies of it, and it was a great game. Activision sector splendid. The good processor speed allowed
saw the prowess of Factor 5 team, which developed for smooth and precise gameplay. The final rendering
the game, and hired them for the 1989 Amiga was indeed very colorful, with limited block effect
conversion. Therefore, shortly after, Rainbow Arts and gorgeous detail. A dear friend of mine had the
was able to release Katakis , changing its name in Spectrum and, although we used to stick between
Denaris. Soap operas were in vogue at the time, even c64 and spectrum users, this time I made a standing
in our industry! ovation.

Home conversions Staying on the home computer, let's move on to the

Let's talk about the best home conversions of R- Amiga version, the 16-bit machine from Commodore.
type. For the good C64 the conversion, considering As mentioned before, the conversion dates back to
the machine limitations, was satisfactory but perhaps, 1989 thanks to Factor 5. These Teutonic programmers
considering the title scope, a little overestimated. did a good job that brought them to light, even if the
Let's start with the porting, leaving out the graphics: conversion has major gaps. R-Type for Amiga is not
some enemies do not perfectly follow the attack a flawless product: the fidelity of the conversion is
trajectories that were present in the coin-op. In my lost even having an excellent programming job. The
opinion, this aspect definitely cuts the conversion, big flaws here are the oversights compared to the
because much of the gameplay is based on the types original, and it may happens, but also if compared
of attacks brought by the enemies. Removing this to other transpositions for less performing systems:
factor reduces everything to a trivial shooter. The this cannot be forgiven. Graphic deficiencies that
controls lack the second button present on the will leave a bitter taste, considering Amiga
arcade, and having to press the space bar to use the characteristics: we could have an almost perfect
Force Device is not the best. The same, when detached
from R-9 ship, make useless trajectories.
Once the defects are over, let's go to see the merits.
The graphics are generally of good quality and are
very similar to the original version, including a basic
parallax for the background. The sound is stratospheric:
the good SID is a guarantee and it brings out a
perfect soundtrack. The conversion maintain that
biomech atmosphere that made the original famous.

The conversion that struck me most was the one for

the glorious Zx Spectrum. Despite having its known
hardware limitations compared to its competitors, Rtype on Amiga
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 GAME TESTING

Rtype on Master System

Rtype on PC Engine
way around. Unfortunately, very few machines with
conversion. The Amiga version of R-Type lacks any the name Turbografx arrived in Europe, and it remained
type of parallax present in the original version. An a dream for almost everyone. A dream come true
incredible lack since Amiga was able to handle only in our days with the release of the Pc Engine
parallax like few others, just see Shadow of the Beast. Mini version, in my opinion the only old console
The graphic effect of beam loading has disappeared. replica that really makes sense.
Many backgrounds were removed, for example in
the third level the ones that surrounds the enemy Finally, let's take a look at what Sega realized for its
spaceship. This has fewer parts to destroy, it has 8-bit console. For Master System this transposition
been made too easy. All game play was simplified, is incredible: even if the sprites present on the screen
too much to be honest. As written at the beginning, are slightly fewer in number, all the scenarios are
the coin op is certainly not impossible, but it requires very close to the original version! The graphics are
good experience and meticulous mastery with so sharp and colorful that looking at the game it
controls. The Amiga version, also compared to the seems to be one of the first Mega Drive games. The
16-bit competitor Atari ST (of which you can find a duty to pay for a similar graphics is some flickering
detailed review in the Italian Retromagazine number and slowdowns. The sound is even more impressive
5), it drastically halves its content. I will give another than the graphics, for its similarity to the coin op,
example: the second level biomech worm is shorter remembering that the Sega eight bit was not
even than the Atari ST version. Perhaps I think it particularly equipped with dedicated chips. Concerning
was inexperience of the programming team and a the playability, we are perfect and implements it with
relative youth of the machine: anyone can notice the such professionalism that we do not regret the
differences from the original. original bar. As we have seen before, the flow of
enemies was one of the strong points of the coin op
I left for last the two best R-Type conversions, because and here they are practically the same, both for the
they are truly amazing. The first is the one for PC attack patterns than their position on the screen.
Engine. This was a historical combo, a certainly Do we want to find it a bug? The game rhythm is
casual combination: thanks to this conversion, the slightly slower than the original one. However, Sega
PC Engine was known throughout the world. The guys wanted to do more: they added an entire level
console was very popular in Japan but it was almost with its secret boss! Can I tell you how to access?
a mysterious object in the rest of the world. Here we No come on, it’s better you will play the game, you
have only the first four levels of the coin op, but the won't regret it.
care and fidelity to the original were absolute. It was
a winning bet: one of the most popular arcades of C’mon, it’s time to be children again. Blast off and
the period converted on domestic equipment with strike the evil Bydo Empire!
almost no graphic or sound loss. There was a time
when you said R-type you think PC Engine and other

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 GAME TESTING

The Age of Heroes

Mic the Biker Novarina

We don’t need the DeLorean today, because we are you can emulate them almost anywhere. And the
going to know a new one for our beloved Commodore same goes for the remaining old glories of the past.
64. It is now well established that the retrogaming In contrast to this, I find it stressful to manage next
world is no longer just a dusty room for old nostalgics. gen consoles, from Play 4 and Xbox one onwards.
What was initially viewed with sympathy as a movement You turn them on and there is already an update of
of elders who evoked old glories, today has exploded a few giga waiting for you. Ok, but what is there to
into something new. A wave with the strength of a update continuously? After that, I inserted the game
Tsunami made up of new and fantastic games, which disk, because I got the physical edition in store,
is ridden by the mighty old 8 and 16 bit platforms, which cost me less than the digital one. Magically,
now in better shape than ever. Here, The Age of not even the time to see an image and on the screen
Heroes is part of this new videogame stream. appears that warns of a 30 giga update to start the
game. What did they put on the disk then? And it is
continuous, between DLC, other updates, upgrades.
Then the game after a week broke me and I threw it
in a corner.

Maybe I understand...
I begin to understand the situation! If I have half an
hour and I want to relax for a moment, retrogaming
exactly does what it was created for more than 40
years ago: have fun! Everyone noticed that, and the
development of new games is now no longer a rare
While the new consoles limp, thanks to a not so bright fact but a solid reality. Today we see games for our
historical period and an electronic components crisis old electronic gadgets that if they had come out in
never seen before, the old gen gets new and shows their day would have given us a lot of fun, and in
a great physique. The new entertainment systems some cases, we would have screamed at a miracle.
are almost at a standstill, while the old glories gain Therefore, here we are to see this funny Hack n Slash
more and more space in the hearts of fans, even that takes RASTAN as inspiration. Psytronik is a
under 40. Of course, I'm a fan, I grew up with these guarantee: it has always accustomed us to good
systems and I love them but objectively they have games with great dynamics. The Age of Heroes is
several advantages. Taking the good Commodore no exception: it was released a couple of years ago
64 for example: never received a system update in but, being part of this "back to the future", perhaps
40 years. His games? Pick them up, load them up not many will know. The team that took care of the
and play. You can do it on the original machines of game is a top one: programmed by Achim Volkers,
the 80s, on the reissues in a mini or maxi format or graphics by Trevor 'Smila' Storey, while the sound

Page 50 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD­ENGLISH YEAR 3 ­ ISSUE 
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 GAME TESTING

is a guarantee thanks to Saul Cross. The story tells level up. Like any good self-respecting RPG, killing
us that an evil specter is sending his legion of the enemies accumulate points, which will make us
damned across the frozen wastes, mountains and advance and become stronger. The visual effect that
sacred temples. It will be us, fearless protagonists accompanies this increase is great, and is perhaps
with a Joystick in hand, who will have to remedy this the best thing about this aspect of the game. When
mess, traveling and fighting to eliminate the ghost you level up, we recover all the energy, and also will
and the bad legions. After all, we are the descendants add a little more. I was disappointed with the way
of the warriors of light: can we refrain from fighting? points are stacked to advance: only melee kills against
enemies give points. If we use magic, nothing happens,
much less killing a boss. There are some bugs in the
game, or at least I thought they were. It happens
that I land slightly too high to hit enemies, I couldn't
hit them even getting down. Sometimes the bad guys
walked through me without hurting me, which isn’t
so bad for me! Nothing so serious as to affect the
playability, after all, even a sacred monster like
Rastan for C64 had some problems. The game is
available in different formats: they range from the
standard cassette, to a special edition on clamshell
The game tape (limited to 50 copies and I think already finished).
After a great loading screen, and a selection between We then have two versions on disc, one inexpensive
a male or female warrior, we begin our journey. Here and one premium. The top remains the Collector’s
we are, struggling with a side scrolling arcade, armed Edition box set with the disc game, soundtrack CD,
only with a sword and a spell. As in the best tradition poster, keychain, badge and stickers! I'll post the
of the genre, enemies will attack in waves from both link for details on how to order physical versions as
sides, trying to make life difficult for us. The graphics well as download from csdb.
are very good: they use the black color very well to https://psytronik.bigcartel.com/product/the-age-
create high contrasts and satisfying backdrops. The of-heroes-c64
sprites are well animated and the sound is great. https://csdb.dk/release/?id=176388
The feeling is nice: it’s practically like going back in
time. Obviously, the game’s dynamic is that, it cannot FINAL JUDGEMENT
be otherwise. I appreciate the willingness to insert GAMEPLAY: 90% You can't think about Rastan while
some variations, such as in the second level: here playing it, but luckily the game is not limited to that.
we will find a boss to eliminate. Very nice, both for The action is not lacking and it is well calibrated:
the atmosphere and to give more depth to the game, slashing is always a great pleasure.
the idea of the paper map that shows us the levels LONGEVITY: 75% Like most of this genre of games,
that are blocked or not. once finished it will rarely be reloaded. Too bad,
My joy is always at the top when I face these old since only by finishing it, the difficulty initially
school gems. What surprised me positively is the conceived by the programmers is activated, a real
initial difficulty, quite easy: you get to the first boss challenge to try again!
without great problems. Of course, the dynamics are
always the same: you go on, you jump, you use the
ropes to go up and down and you hit enemies with
your sword. If you are thinking “Like in Rastan!”, you
are right. I believe that the developers took the
famous arcade as an example to follow, making the
initial approach easier. This is due to some feedback
from players in beta testing. Therefore, the development
team decided to unlock the hardest level only after
completing the game.
One aspect that I liked is that in the game you can
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 51 of 78
 GAME TESTING

Year: 2020

THE SHADOWS
Publisher: Double Sided Games
Genre: RPG
Platform: Amiga

OF SERGOTH
Website: https://
doublesidedgames.com/shop/
commodore/commodore-amiga/
the-shadows-of-sergoth/

A good old-fashioned dungeon crawler

on the Amiga? How wonderful! I loved
the Eye of The Beholder series and
this The Shadow of Sergoth is an heir
to it.

The game takes place in the medieval

fantasy world of Chrisandia, on the
Marak Peninsula.
A not very populous area where the
population makes a living from trade
and fishing.
Its current king, Orlof VI the Valiant,
is a member of a long dynasty of
enlightened rulers. During the wars
against the evil emperor Sul Rakin,
King Orlof showed great valor and improve the fluidity of action.
the kingdom gained a victory over
evil but many losses. The game however runs on any
graphics chipset (OCS, ECS or AGA)
The events in the game take place and also runs configured in WinUAE
five years after the fall of Sul Rakin, emulation and on PiMIGA.
in the year 351 of the Crystal Age. The character, as in the most classic
It is a classic underground exploration
role-playing game reminiscent of the
aforementioned Eye of the Beholder
or Dungeon Master. It is based on
Microlite20, a simplification of the
Advanced Dungeon & Dragons rules,
and it is born based on the version of
the game for Amstrad CPC6128 that
came out in 2018.

The game requires an Amiga with at

least 2 Mega Ram chip even if I
personally recommend a faster Amiga
(Amiga 1200 or accelerated) to
activate the 3D movement effects and

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 80%
Classic but fun game system.
It's a dungeon crawler and
going after monsters is fun.
Nice spells present.

» Longevity 75%
The game is nice to be played
but the dungeons are not
challenging, you risk ending
the adventure too soon. Funny
RPG, can increase experience and then The adventure is playable and linear the creation of the party.

level up to the twentieth. Obviously it and has a good degree of challenge

will be possible to configure your but the dungeons are "simple".
character in the most classic way and Graphically it's a gem and I must admit
level up just like in AD&D. that they put a lot of effort into making
There are 5 very special races, in addition it look good.
to humans, dwarves and elves we can
also play the half-orc and lizardman. The same goes for the sound,
This allows a party very varied and atmospheric and functional.
particular (the lizardman is wonderful). But.... But it lacks that extra something
to make it an incredible game and an
The mapping system is fortunately absolute gem.
automatic and this thing will really
come in handy compared to mapping It's a good game that deserves a
like in the old days. respectable grade, but on the step the
There are 20 very large dungeons to EOB saga remains stable.
explore and there is a good save system.
It is also possible to install the game by Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
on a hard disk (recommended).
The box contains three 3"1/2 diskettes,
the English manual, a real compass
that you can use in dungeons (crazy
but true, ndN), a collectible D20, several
stickers and the link to the ADF
download.

Having described everything to you,

let's move on to the evaluation.
Is it a worthy heir to the SSI or Dungeon
Master series? Not entirely, or at least
it's a beautiful game, but it doesn't
quite reach the perfection of the
storytelling of the aforementioned
games.

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Year: 2022

PUZZLE BOBBLE
Developer: Bas Scheijde (aka
Acied)
Genre: Puzzle Game
(COMMODORE 64) Platform: Commodore 64
Website: https://csdb.dk/
release/?id=213965

I'm in exile because of COVID at uncle

Nithaiah’s home. He is very excited
these days! Puzzle Bobble for
Commodore 64 came out and he's
really excited about it.
He hands me the Commodore 64,
tells me how to make it work and says
"Ingrid, I have to write a few lines
about this title, you have been a player
since you were as big as a dragon...
tell me what you think?".
I couldn't refuse...and I was right!!!

Puzzle Bobble is an arcade puzzle

game made by TAITO in 1994 and
then converted for some consoles
where the cannon, Bub and Bob are
later. The game brings back to
located, the game is over.
commercial success the two cute little
dragons of the video game Bubble
Speed and accuracy. Essential to pass
Bobble, also by Taito.
the level.
No official commercial version was
The player must use a cannon to shoot
released for the Commodore 64. In
causal colored balls (bubbles) into a
series of colored balls scattered around
the game screen. These fired balls
stick to the ones present, and if you
manage to form a group of three or
more equally colored elements, they
dissolve. You have about 5 seconds
for each throw. If this does not happen,
the ball will be fired automatically.
The goal is obviously to eliminate all
the colored balls in the level within a
certain time limit and continue. From
time to time the playing field shrinks
in the lowest direction (the ceiling
lowers). If one of the balls in the field
reaches the lower part, i.e. the area

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 99%
Simple, balanced and fun in all
its game options.

» Longevity 95%
32 levels in single is a nice
challenge... but in double and
with the different game
options it becomes eternal.

1994 Commodore's 8-bit machine was 4. Infinite levels (levels in order but
already on its way to sunset. infinite).

The project was long and ambitious. The two-player version gives this title
Bringing back to an 8-bit machine the eternity!
look of the game as faithfully as possible The author in the initial loading has
seemed impossible and instead. included a trainer that allows you to
skip some levels.
It's all beautiful and has everything us
Puzzle Bobble fanatics are looking for! What more can you say? It's Puzzle
Everything works great. I loved the Bobble, one of the most playable titles
graphics, colorful and animated really ever made. Fun in single player, never
great. There's even a home screen with predictable difficulty level and practically
Neo Geo written on it. eternal.
Download it and support the new
Graphically a jewel indeed. Unthinkable developer scene.
for such an "old and limited" machine.
Even the sound seemed appropriate Fun fact. This version uses some loading
and pleasant, perhaps slightly screens where the future projects of
underwhelming compared to the this incredible development team are
graphics, but perfect in context. presented.
I almost forgot… Don't miss the
The game supports both joystick, pad interview with Bas Scheijde in this same
and paddle. There is a fun two-player issue.
tournament mode that is done with the I'm going back to the game.
corresponding number key:
1. Random (random levels) by Ingrid Poggiali
2. Random Endless (infinite random
levels)
3. Levels (levels in order of play)

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2021

WIZARD
Developer Daniel Savage
Genre: RPG/Puzzle/Action
Platform: Nintendo 64

OF THE BOARD
Website: https://mega.nz/file/
h35G0A5b#zOA2MQtH_BwOaU
_btPDiceXnudm60APAqvvJMKC
SYfA

Wizard of the Board is a Nintendo 64 training.

homebrew game made by Daniel The demonic enemies that inhabit
Savage and his team and released on the tower are talkative and
December 7, 2021 for the 64bre Game communicate to our poor protagonist
Jam, a competition of Nintendo 64 the terrible tortures they will do to him.
developers and fans. The gameplay of Wizard of the Board
In the game we will play a young is not simple at first glance, but it
warrior named Zeff who is forced to makes sense and becomes addicting
face demons, monsters and wizards once you get the hang of it. Our hero's
inside a tower and will do so with the powers move giant chess pieces along
use of a... Chess! a chessboard (the floor) according
The game won the Game Jam for to the same movement patterns they
originality, graphic appearance and would in a normal board chess game.
innovative gameplay. The goal is to place all the pieces on
This is one of the few homebrew games the target spaces and, in later stages,
with an accompanying story, and that defeat the enemies on the screen as
surprises us. Often in competitions well.
everything is done as straightforward We are able to do this by selecting a
as possible without spending time to piece, looking at it and pressing the
create the "background" of the title. pad's A button, then selecting a target
The story is explained through several destination with the C buttons or a
introductory screens and, as we said, nearby space with the Z button. This
tells us about the exploits of young can seem very confusing because of
Zeff who is doing everything to become the first-person perspective, but with
a valiant warrior. a little practice the game becomes
The last step in his training is to delve fun and addictive.
into the Tower and take part in There are five types of demons that
numerous tests before facing the we'll have to fight against. Froggers,
Council Wizard. large frogs that jump from left to right
The game is made up of all kinds of and vice versa. Annoying but
encounters, just think that the first predictable.
character we'll meet in the tower is Blade Traps that move in a straight
a mouse looking for cheese, quite line until they reach an obstacle, after
friendly. which they change direction. They
Often during the game we have follow a fixed path until we place our
flashbacks of the protagonist and his piece, at which point they change

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 80%
A mix of fps, puzzle, chess and
action game. Well structured
levels.
gear. Hostile. with the demons will only come towards Challenging control system at
The Smiley Spitters, strange yellow the middle of our journey, after we first.
monsters that shoot projectiles, and already understood what to do. A plus
so we will be forced to move fast to point. It's rare to find homebrews that » Longevity 90%
avoid them. The bullets are slow but guide you perfectly through the Decidedly well-balanced
difficulty of the game and its
definitely lethal. mechanics.
duration.
The Blue Demons, huge demons that A N64 controller is recommended if
will chase you relentlessly if you enter you play in emulation to have the correct
their field of vision. You have to hide key mapping available. The game has
and plan. They must be knocked out been released in PAL and NTSC versions
with three shots. and works perfectly on real hardware
Demon Queen floats on the board via Everdrive.
staying away from the player but The puzzles are not complicated to
shooting projectiles. Hostile. finish but offer a balanced difficulty
The control system seems shaky at and, once completed, a nice feeling of
first, but once you understand the victory.
controls everything becomes a blast. Conclusion.
The character moves with the D-pad Wizard of the Board is a great gaming
or with the joystick lever while with the sensation. It feels like we're back in
C pad we move the cursor. Frenetic in the golden age of N64 titles especially
case of enemy assault, but fun. with the design style. I liked the
Despite being a completely different progression of the levels with the short
genre, Wizard of the Board reminds us interlude movies (which according to
of another Daniel Savage game from the creator are inspired by Puyo Puyo),
2020, Lunar Assault 64 (a nice shooter they help make the game more than
title). It has distinct levels and just a series of levels.
intermediate dialogues that explain It has a decent length for a homebrew
the story, the setting is reminiscent of game and definitely looks more complex
the lunar world already seen in the than some recent or past N64 titles.
shooter and even the enemies resemble The only down note is on the audio
space monsters. Who knows maybe compartment; it is not exactly the best
the creator of the game will make a one… but it’s a small note.
related saga. We'll see. Overall a very good game that can be
Combining chess, puzzle games and completed in about 1 hour of play.
FPS is ambitious but definitely unique. Well-deserved win at the 64BREW Game
Elaborate and complex to get familiar Jam 2021 competition.
with the game mechanics, but fun.
It is not punitive. The confrontations by Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2017 digitale - 2022

edizione fisica

SILVER VALLEY
Developer: Enriquez Ruiz
Genre: Action/Metroidvania
Platform: Sega Master System
Website: https://
www.smspower.org/Homebrew/
SilverValley-SMS

The homebrew scene of the Sega There are a couple of minor issues
Master System, the Sega 8-bit console, from a design standpoint, though.
is very alive and active and over the Enemies, for starters, almost all seem
years has given us some very unique to be "damage sponges" aka leathery
and captivating titles. and require several hits to kill. This
happens right away from the first
One of them is Silver Valley, an action game world and, in some cases, can
that we will define in a modern be daunting and hostile.
Metroidvania key.
It's easy to die or get hit repeatedly
Actually, the title presents a variety without killing the monster in front
of different elements that don't of us. Sure, infinite continues are
categorize it in a specific genre, but present but it gets frustrating. I would
for convenience and especially for have preferred to see a different
vision it recalls classics such as system of increasing the power of
Castelvania or Metroid. weapons and less possibility to
continue. It would have given me the
The story is very classic. Freeing our appearance of a more "complete"
protagonist's world from evil. End. game.
But I don't want to be hard on Silver
The development style of the game Valley, because it's obviously a project
is a combination of the Konami and born out of passion by its creator and
Capcom classics of the time and some it's also an admirable effort.
typically British titles that we often
saw on the Amiga world.

Responsive controls that, with two

keys, allow us to jump, attack
opponents, cling to various objects,
crawl and so on.

Technically and visually it is perhaps

one of the most beautiful and varied
titles for the 8-bit console, at least of
the new era of homebrew.

Some levels are colorful, such as the

shoot em up style one, others are rich
in animations. The effort of the
developers was huge to make
everything run very well.

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 90%
The control system is complete
and allows us to do whatever
we want. Excellent
characterization of some levels
and the variety of the game.

» Longevity 70%
It could have been done better
in terms of difficulty and
definitely lacks a more solid
"structure" for weapons and
damages to inflict on enemies.

If you want, the free version is available

to be downloaded from the site that I
linked at the top of the description of
the game, but since a few days ago,
there is available the physical version
on cartridge that has a very well done
artwork and a great multilingual manual.
If you have the physical console the
purchase of this version is worth it.

In conclusion Silver Valley is an

impressive technical product on the
small 8-bit console with some design
issues and an unbalanced difficulty.

by Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2022
Editor/Developer: Konami MSX

KNIGHTMARE
e HOFFMAN AMIGA
Genre: Shoot em up
Platform: Amiga
Website: https://
hoffman.home.blog/

Konami is known for producing great

quality games. There is no doubt
about that. Most of us long-time
gamers have played the titles of this
great company with great enjoyment.
Gradius, TwinBee, Silent Hill, Metal
Gear Solid and Castelvania are some
titles that need no introduction.

The Japanese company has been

around for a long time in the industry.
They already got a name in the early
80s with titles like Frogger or Scramble
in the arcade sector.

In 1986 they released a title called

Knightmare for the MSX platform. A
platform much loved by Konami and
The poor goddess is held prisoner by
supported with hundreds of fun titles.
the wicked Hudnos, evil prince of
When it came out it was an advanced
darkness.
game for its time. It was a great
success, so much so that the
Knightmare is an upward scrolling
development house went ahead with
shooter. As in other titles of the genre
a second title and a third.
we'll have to survive the continuous
assault of dangerous enemies. They
Today, thanks to Hoffman (who has
come in all possible forms: bats,
recently converted the first Metal
skeletons, black slimes, orcs, dragons.
Gear for Amiga that we reviewed in
To confront them we'll have at our
RMW issue 31 ITA and 09 ENG) we
disposal an arsenal of respectable
find ourselves in front of the Amiga
weapons that we'll be able to find
version.
throughout the game. Each weapon
has pros and cons, so it is necessary
The background of the game is quite
to have the right weapon at the right
simple. We will control a knight named
time. There are also power-ups that
Popolon who is on a mission to save
we can collect during our adventure.
the Goddess of Love and Beauty,
Protective shields, invincibility potions,
Aphrodite.
timer locks and much more.

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 90%
Fun and well structured. A must
on MSX. A must on Amiga.

» Longevity 90%
It's difficult but it keeps you
glued to the joystick like few
others.

At the end of the level, an evil end-of- It is in ADF version so it is playable on

level boss will show up and it can be emulator, gotek and you can also load
defeated only by finding the right it on floppy disk and play it on real
"system". hardware.
Knightmare is a difficult game even in
this incarnation on Amiga, as it was on It works on all Amigas with 512kb of
MSX. It requires practice and patience Ram + another 512kb. On A500 it works
and a good memory. like a charm.
How is this Amiga version different from
the MSX version? An installable version is also planned
for the coming months.
The graphics have been remastered Inside the zipper file you can also find
and made more modern and enjoyable the artwork that the author has made.
by Toni Galvez. Carefully animated and
very varied. In conclusion, it is a very playable game
There are new loading screens, you even in this "modern" version. It was
can play the game at 50hz or 60hz and on MSX and the gameplay and fun
some goodies have been added, like a remains solid even on Amiga.
new secret bonus.
I was very impressed with the audio As I said it's difficult, but enjoyable and
department. The music and sound lets you play it over and over again
effects are really beautiful. A masterful before finishing it.
job. Download it and support the author,
he is making great products.
The game can be freely downloaded
from the site that I put in description. by Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini

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Year: 2021
Developer: lvcabral

RETALIATE C.E. Music: Richard

Editor: lvcabral
Genre: Shoot'em up
Platform: Commodore 64

It is now well known that the video

game scene for the eight bits (and
even the sixteen ones) has returned
to shine as in the past. New games,
conversions and improved reissues
of old masterpieces are coming out
at increasingly shorter intervals. In
this one I find myself playing and
reviewing RETALIATE C.E., a game
originally released for the Roku
The joystick was well connected,
platform, a streaming box/TV OS.
everything moved but there were no
bullets on the screen. I was dying in
There were already versions for
repetition, until the moment when
Commodore 64 of this shoot 'em up
the experience of videogamer led me
outside the lines: the first versions
first to press various keys on the
are dated 2018. In 2019 saw the light
Commodore 64 and, later, to try to
the DX version, of which we will find
hold down the fire button, almost
a link to purchase in this C.E.
looking for a weapon like the beam
(Community Edition). Originally
released on December 30, 2021, it is
reported that the following day the
legendary guys from Army of Darkness
released the cracked version, where
we will find the ability to make infinite
energy, missiles, and phasers.

So what does this excellent video

game consist of? We have in our hands
a shoot’em up of an excellent level
and above all unique in its genre.
Unlike the classic stereotypes of this
genre, in Retaliate you start the game
without bullets.

I will not deny my surprise, having

never played the previous releases,
in pressing the fire button and seeing
nothing come out of the ship.

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of R-Type, but nothing. With amazement the ability to change, in the main menu,
and wonder I saw that the ship, when the color of the shield and the shape OUR FINAL SCORE
I held the joystick in the back position, of our ship, with profiles that are
came wrapped in a shield that protected unlocked upon reaching certain scores. » Gameplay 85%
me from bumps and enemy gunfire. Initially you have to get familiar
with the game mechanics
The music in the game has a techno
completely reversed than usual.
At the same time a line of energy placed edge and is addictive, while the sound
under the screen went down and there FX fits well with it, never giving the idea » Longevity 95%
I understood the absolute stroke of of taking away a voice. Ultimately a Once you understand the game
genius, which is that to get ahead in game outside the logic of the genre mechanics, it's almost
impossible to disengage from it.
this game you have to study more the that will appeal, for this very reason,
defensive phase than the offensive one. even to those who do not particularly
In fact the only way to survive is to use like to shoot everything that moves on
the shield not only as a defense, but the screen.
also to collect enemy bullets, to be
used later against them. In a few minutes by Michele Novarina
the game takes over, you can't tear
yourself away from it!

We have only one paltry life at our

disposal but it's amazing how, by
planning the use of the shield with the
positioning of the ship, we can proceed
even when the game becomes fast. You
tend to forget that we have a few shots
to shoot, but when you remember it is
because the situation has become really
tough. Graphically the game is very
well done, with a parallax of stars that
flow below us, while the enemy ships
have definitely taken as an example
those of Galaxian and Galaga. Nice is

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 1994-2021

MEGA TURRICAN
Editor: Data East/Strictly Limited
Genre: Platform
Platform: Sega Megadrive

DIRECTOR’S CUT
Website: https://
store.strictlylimitedgames.com/
products/mega-turrican-
collection-mega-drive-preorder

Very recently has been released the

Director's Cut version of this classic
on Sega Megadrive.
What does it contain? The original
version of the game, the score Attack
version (where you have to fight with
time and make the best possible score)
and the Director's Cut version that
implements some graphic
improvements. All this for 50 euros,
a penny more... a penny less.
When I was a kid I loved anything
Turrican branded, I would spend hours
in front of the Amiga, lost in its levels
and colorful graphics. The C64 version
was pretty spectacular too.
Unlike today's games where what you The game is basically a fairly linear
see is what you get, back in the day, run & gun, but there was something
whether it was 8-bit or 16-bit, you about the Turrican franchise that
needed to open up your imagination captured my imagination to the point
and being part of the wonderful where I found myself crafting some
universe on which the hero's exploits stories for a modern role-playing
of Turrican unfolded was incredible. game series (GURPS, who knows?).
I was really immersing myself there. Mega Turrican came at a time when

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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 80%
It works well until you jump. In
some places it will make you
lose temper.
» Longevità 70%
Several very large areas to
explore with three levels of
difficulty, but there are ultra
easy situations and situations
where the difficulty ramps up
exaggeratedly. There is no real
balanced curve.

the Amiga was losing ground and the Amiga or C64.

Megadrive was in the difficult moment Sure there are a lot of upgrades,
between the 32X failure and the launch weapons and many levels but the action
of the Saturn, but as soon as it arrived remains repetitive and the game never
I got it. Damn! Turrican and the Sega seems to take off.
Megadrive, who knows what comes out!!! Forget Chris Huelsbeck's music, here
It's hard to put into words my first there's a soundtrack that you're unlikely
impression. I was not satisfied at all. to remember.
The magic was gone. The old power- Too bad really. It could have been a
ups and fancy game layouts were still new masterpiece. It is a good platformer
there, the graphics were colorful even but for me it is not Turrican.
if repetitive, but something was This new edition adds two new game
missing.... The magic of previous games systems.
on other platforms was missing. Now The Director's Cut version adds
I would call it differently and I would something, but very little.
say that there was a lack of acceptable It lacked commitment...
gameplay. It was made the minimal
effort to catch the fans of the series, by Giampaolo Moraschi
but without adding that extra touch to
make it a masterpiece worthy of its
name. It was terrifying the difficulty of
jumping on some platforms; whoever
programmed Mega Turrican has
deliberately decided to make it extremely
difficult. On many occasions you have
to calculate each millimeter, pixel by
pixel... otherwise you are dead!
This is not unfamiliar to platformers,
but in this version of the game it is
unbalanced and contrasts with the
perfect gameplay of the chapters on

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2022
Editor: Second Dimension

EYRA, THE CROW Genre: Platform

Platform: Sega Megadrive, Nes e

MAIDEN
Super Nintendo
Test on: Sega Megadrive
Website: https://second-
dimension.com/store/eyra-the-
crow-maiden-sega

Eyra is a young priestess of a barbarian

tribe. Her friends and family have
been kidnapped by the Infernal
Marauder, an evil warrior sorcerer
from a distant land. The young Amazon
will set out to find the survivors against
terrible hordes in the company of her
sword and her brave trained raven.

It is a classic platform game where

you have to jump, avoid traps and
eliminate monsters, plus we have the
task of freeing the prisoners in the
levels and collecting some objects
(represented by crows) that will
enhance our main weapon, donate
However, there is a problem...
treasures or restore our health.

It's a very flat game. Kill monsters,

Second Dimension is working really
jump over obstacles, retrieve prisoners.
well in recent times. Not simple
homebrews with no rhyme or reason,
Not that it's a bad thing, but in the
but games with a good storyline and
a great technical aspect. Often
accompanied by well-made packaging
and made with care manuals.

Eyra is also part of this type of product.

It's graphically pleasant and well

made, it reminds me a lot the European
Sega Megadrive productions and I'm
sure that such a product would run
worthily on Amiga too.

The soundtrack is repetitive but not

annoying.

Page 66 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD­ENGLISH YEAR 3 ­ ISSUE 
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OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 70%
The classic platformer. One key
jumps, one key hits, one key
throws the crow. Nothing
more.ù.

» Longevity 70%
It may seem repetitive in the
long run.

long run it gets repetitive and can even Available as a digital download and
be boring. soon in a physical version..

I recommend you to test the demo

present in the site that I put in the
details. If you like it you can decide to
buy the digital download (as I did) or
push yourself to pre-order the physical
version that seems really well made.

Either way, it's a more than adequate

product.

by Roberto Del Mar Pirazzini

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 67 of 78

 GAME TESTING

Year: 2021

KNIGHT GUY IN LOW RES

Developer: Vladimir Zuniga
Genere: Platform
Platform: Atari 7800

WORLD - CASTLE DAYS Website: https://

vhzcgames.com/
knightguycd7800.php

Story: linear, an evil dragon has but neat game, sound made only of
kidnapped our pet. effects and a robust playability.
Gameplay: classic and fun with 100
levels to tackle full of traps and Recommended for lovers of the
enemies. platformer/puzzle genre. It may not
be a milestone but it brings a lot of fun.
A beautiful adventure for Atari's 8-
bit console. A console that often went
unnoticed but that found itself fighting
the battle with two giants of its era,
the NES and Master System.

As we said, the goal of the game is

simple. Our knight must overcome
100 levels by avoiding all the dangers
present, recovering weapons and
healing potions and facing the end-
of-level bosses present.
You can buy the physical version from:
It was recently released also the https://atariage.com/store/index.php?
physical version on cartridge, but if l=product_detail&p=1262
you want on the AtariAge site you can
download the rom. by Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini

Personal opinion. Graphically simple

OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 80%
Simple and very eye-catching
in level design.

» Longevity 80%
It's not easy and, in some
places it's really maddening,
but you'll find yourself
replaying it over and over
again.

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2022

ROBOT JET
Developer: Tomasz Mielnik e
Kamil Wolnikoswski
Genre: Platform

ACTION
Platform: Commodore 64
Website: https://
carrion64.itch.io/robot-jet-
action

Robot Jet Action is a classic fixed- and a really well-made soundtrack.

screen platform game for our beloved There are 35 levels, all of them really
Commodore 64/128. challenging. Not only we have to avoid
It was made by two Polish super our enemies but also all the obstacles
enthusiasts who run the C64Portal.pl in the level and we have to do it as
portal (which I recommend you to fast as possible.
visit). These types of titles stimulate me
In their new title the player will control tremendously and lead me, even after
a small robot with the joystick. By dying over and over again, to replay
clicking on the fire button it will be the title.
able to activate the jetpack that will A nice mix between BombJack and
be used to reach all the objects to be Manic Miner that is really worth playing.
collected on the screen. It's free!!!
Our little robot is the keeper of the Support developers for our retro
trophies collected by millions of systems.
retrogamers in the world of past video
games, but evil aliens/robots/villains by Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini
are taking them away.
The game features beautiful HI RES OUR FINAL SCORE
graphics in ECM mode, nice animations

» Gameplay 85%
Immediate and without too
much to think on how to move.
The robot moves smoothly.

» Longevity 85%
As many as 35 levels and a
good dose of difficulty that will
keep you glued to the joystick.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 69 of 78

 GAME TESTING

Year: 2004

SHONEN JUMP’S Editor: Bandai/Dimps

Corporation

ONE PIECE Genre: Platform/Beat em up

Platform: Game Boy Advance

Finally mine! The platformer with at the top.

fighting elements that I most wanted
on Game Boy Advance. It is a very simple and pleasant game
to play which offers a medium-level
challenge.

It will keep you busy for a long time.

I've always loved One Piece and Eiichiro
Oda's drawings! And this anime, even Don't lose sight of it and try it out; in
if it’s really long, never gets boring. real hardware or emulation.

How many afternoons spent coming by Barbara “Morgana” Murgida

home from school to watch the episode
on local TV. Always a unique thrill.

Moving on to the game, here we will

guide Monkey D. Luffy (in Italy: Rubber)
grappling with 12 bosses to face
through 12 levels full of enemies and
various dangers.

Colorful and well animated graphics.

The sound is good too. It accompanies
the adventure without ever bothering.
The Audio and Visual Department is OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 80%
It's a pleasure to play with.

» Longevity 80%
Not too complicated nor too
simple. A good compromise.

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 GAME TESTING

GREMLINS 2 Year: 1991

Editor: Sunsoft

THE NEW BATCH

Genre: Platform
Platform: Game Boy

In 1984 the first Gremlins, a cult film

produced by Steven Spielberg and
directed by Joe Dante, was released
in America.

A masterpiece of the genre.

Two years later, the sequel came out.
A resounding flop.

As a fan of 80s/90s movies, since I

was a young girl of 16, this Game Boy
title could not be missed from my By the way did you guys like the
collection. movies?

by Barbara “Morgana” Murgida

That said, it is a platformer graphically

well cared where the little mogwai Other versions
will have to make its way through the There are several licensed versions
levels of the building where he’s of the game for numerous platforms.
trapped; to do so he’s equipped with The versions for Amiga, Atari St, C64,
weapons, more or less wacky, as a MSX, Amstrad and ZX spectrum are OUR FINAL SCORE
super tomato or a bow shoots flames. basically side-scrolling platformers,
not all of them very successful, with
The goal is to get to the Gremlin the main character Billy looking for » Gameplay 80%
control center and wipe out all the Gizmo, while the Sunsoft version made A fun and easy to play game.
evil half-brothers inside. for Nintendo NES is an action game
with a top-down view, graphically nice » Longevity 80%
I liked the game and I found a very and playable. Sometimes it's difficult but not
cute Gizmo. It reminds me a lot of the frustrating. A nice walkthrough
title on the Game Boy.
"Furby" , those funny stuffed toys by Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
that were sold in Italy in the 90s.

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 1991

CRISIS FORCE
Editor: Konami
Genre: Shoot'em up
Platform: Famicom/Nintendo
NES

By 1991 it was clear that the days of to the form with a cannon on the tail
Nintendo's glorious 8 Bit platform part. Pressing the A key again will
were numbered. transform it into a ship with four
combat turrets on the sides.
Despite the quality of the games of
the rival Pc Engine and Megadrive The graphics in this game are
and the arrival of the new Super PHENOMENAL! Crisis Force was often
Nintendo, some developers did not called "the AXELAY of FAMICOM" by
seem so convinced to surrender to the magazines of the time, and rightly
the age of the small console. so I might add.

Konami, Capcom and Enix were still Konami achieved a level of detail and
making great titles for the Nes. technique worthy of 16-bit, in terms
of multiple scrolling backgrounds and
Crisis Force is an example of them. large sprites. Custom chips inside the
One of the greatest vertical scrolling cartridge made this feat possible. The
shoot em ups ever released on this first time I saw the game in action I
console. was shocked. I had never seen anything
like it on the NES/Famicom. The same
The story is typical: 199X, Tokyo goes for the audio department that,
invaded by a robotic alien force. A
boy and his girlfriend take off in their
Falcon fighter planes to stop the threat.

The game has classic power-ups, two

types of laser beam power-ups and
a blue icon that, when collected in
quantity, makes the ship invincible
for a short period.

If you are playing doubles, by taking

this blue icon you can combine with
your playing partners and make the
pair invincible.

Our ship can also be transformed

during the game. Pressing the A key
will change it from the standard version

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 GAME TESTING

OUR FINAL SCORE

» Gameplay 95%
It is a Konami title. Simple in
gameplay but fun. The ability
to transform ships during the
game makes it appealing.

» Longevity 90%
Seven levels are a nice
challenge. The difficulty level is
high but enjoyable.

in perfect Konami style, is impeccable Crisis Force is an exceptional shooter,

and engaging. ranked among the best NES games of
the genre. It went unnoticed on the
It's a long game with a well-balanced European market but had an incredible
difficulty curve. It's certain that you success in Japan. Curiously, it never
have to try hard to advance through reached American soil.
the levels with the right power-ups, Try it out!
but it's not a titanic feat.
by Roberto Del Mar Pirazzini

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 2012

CLASSIC KONG Developer: Bubble zap

Genre: Platform
Platform: Super Nintendo

It's a rainy Friday night and I'm out of the 90s, the golden age of the
obsessively playing Classic Kong that 16-bit machine.
Nith handed me to test out.
The tagline "How high can you go?"
I don't know the golden era of these we find between levels hints at how
games (I'm very young), but thanks mesmerizing and playable this title
to the passion of my father and the is. We always want to get to see more
friendship of "uncle" Nith, I got lost and tackle the same levels with the
in them. Literally in love. difficulty rate increasing at a dizzying
pace.
I was saying I'm obsessively playing
this Bubble Zap game for the Super I was glued to it for hours and I must
Nintendo because I'm stubborn and have cursed all the languages I know
I love this title. every time poor Mario got killed. But
I'm still here.
A quality game, it doesn't look like a
last generation homebrew but a title
to put in the showcase with the other
gems for this console.

I have tried the Rom on my Super

Nintendo Mini, but Nith tells me that
it runs without problems also on
It's been a long time since I've taken Everdrive and that on the web you
over the little Italian-American can also find flash cartridges with
plumber, and this is the first time I've packaging and game manual.
put my hand on its most ancestral Happy research.
incarnation.
by Ingrid Poggiali
An ugly dirty ape who steals girls and
takes them to the highest part of the
level. Poor Mario! He's always been
unlucky in love.

The game system is the one you all OUR FINAL SCORE
know (I actually just recently, but I've
been reading up on it) and it's brilliant, » Gamepley 90%
simple and punishing if you're not You have to be precise in
careful. jumping, hitting and getting the
timing right... but the controls
are perfect!
This Super Nintendo version is really
enjoyable. Bright and nice graphics. » Longevity 95%
That uses very well the colors of the The grade I gave speaks for
console and seems to come straight itself.

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 GAME TESTING

Year: 1987

PROHIBITION Developer: Infogrames

Genre: Shooter
Platform: Commodore 64

This game brought back some vague And what about the gameplay? Moving
memories of a particular first-person the crosshairs of a gun is not optimal
shooter with crosshairs, underrated with a joystick or buttons, although
and never converted for any home the satisfaction of having taken out
machine: I'm talking about Empyre the enemy one second before time
City or more commonly Street Fight expires is really enjoyable.
(not to be confused with the legendary As I said, the game is a scrolling one
fighting game), set in the America of and you have to search the entire
the gangsters of the 20's. But neighborhood for even more protected
something, the Commodore 64 has enemies: from the most unthinkable
brought home, although not at the shelters to hostages! As in Empire
levels of the latter, that is its clone, City, there's a bandit who shields
named Prohibition and signed by himself with a beautiful woman; this
Infogrames. is surely the scene that impressed
As the name implies, the setting is me the most in the original coin op.
among the infamous American It's one of those games that, even
neighborhoods and precisely during once you get to the end, you are
the years of Prohibition. The objective tempted to play every now and then
of the game is to kill every gangster as a panacea especially after a stressful
that crosses our path, or rather, look, day at work to let off steam. While I
since we'll use the crosshairs of a was trying it, I was afraid it might be
gun. At regular intervals one of the a little bit repetitive but it’s not, there
gangsters will appear at the corners, are small changes in enemies and
at windows, on roofs and even in a environments going forward.
manhole! All we have to do is shoot Loading from a cassette is not even
him. Up to here it might seem like a long, just enough time for a coffee or
child's play (in every sense)! tea or maybe a nice drink even though
it would not be very suitable given
The screen is not fixed as in the old the title.
arcade booths with infrared guns, but
scrolling, and the direction to take is Last but not least: Infogrames is a
dictated by the arrows that appear brand that has always produced good
at the bottom of the screen. We will titles, even if not many have had the
have only five seconds to find the spotlight and, like any game that has
enemy and fill him with lead. received little attention, Prohibition
Fortunately, the five seconds can be deserves a second chance.
renewed by pressing the spacebar,
which will make us jump to the ground We always look for the bright side, OUR FINAL SCORE
to avoid the first enemy shot, but this because even in the thickest darkness
will cost us energy, represented by there is a glimmer of light! After almost
some bullets. two years of pandemic and a significant » Gameplay 70%
slowness in recoveries, I wish those Killing gangsters with one
The sound of the game is very in quarantine a good recovery and a second to go is satisfying!
reminiscent of that of the gangster return to normal life.
movies of the 20s, with music that » Longevity 60%
was probably very popular at the by Daniele Brahimi Not long, but you'll play it game
time… Like nowadays summer hits. every now and then.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 75 of 78

 GAME TESTING

Year: 2018
Platform: Discord
Link server: https://discord.io/
retro_multiplayer
Link Social: https://linktr.ee/
retromultiplayer

The spread of social networks has to play together the retrogames,

undoubtedly rekindled many since 2020 have begun to organize
passions of our childhood and themed events broadcasted
among them there is also the one regularly on various social
for retro-games. channels.
In fact, the web is full of pages, Among these evenings there are
groups and forums dedicated to tournaments, parties, music
the masterpieces of the arcades quizzes, retro interviews to the
and the various home consoles. most popular Italian
retrocomputing and retrogaming
But while most of these realities realities and of course cooperative
are limited to resurface memories games.
and anecdotes of these gems of
the past or at most explain how to In addition, a few days ago the
replay them in single player, slowly Retro Multiplayer team has
made its way Retro Multiplayer. A released a free console with the
community that aims to replay various emulators set in every
those titles in versus or detail, so as to make the
cooperative mode, just like when experience of online multiplayer
we went to the arcades or at the extremely user friendly.
home of our friends.
You'll be able to play titles ranging
Retro Multiplayer was born about from classic arcade and 16-bit
four years ago, when a small group consoles to the Nintendo 64, PSP,
of video game enthusiasts created Playstation, Dreamcast and
a discord server and began with Gamecube, as well as several PC
tenacity to experiment how to milestones.
replay arcade titles in multiplayer
online. If you want to breathe again the
Test after test, success after atmosphere of arcade rooms and
success, that small group began to afternoons at friends' houses, you
expand, finding many other users just need to enter the discord
who were fascinated and involved server by following the links found
in the project. on this page.

Today the discord server has more You will meet a community of
than five hundred members and enthusiasts that has practically
has been joined by a Facebook become a family that meets on a
group and page, an Instagram and daily basis to share and relive
Twitter profile and a Youtube and together the endless passion for
Twitch channel on which have been the magical world of retrogaming.
uploaded more than one hundred
videos including tutorials and
by Querino Ialongo
event nights. Some posters of events
organized by the community
In fact, Retro Multiplayer users, in
addition to meeting in the evening

Page 76 of 78 RETROMAGAZINE WORLD­ENGLISH YEAR 3 ­ ISSUE 
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 GAME TESTING

Before the closure of the issue, Giuseppe sent us another beautiful image, and it would be a
crime not to share it with you. Artwork by Giuseppe Mangini inspired by the game Knightmare.

RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 3 - ISSUE 13 Page 77 of 78

Taking a walk after lunch...
There was a time when I could never get enough information about computers,
a time when I would have paid far more than I actually did buying magazines at Disclaimer
the newsstand, manuals and guides at the bookstore, etc. All just to have the
RetroMagazine World as an aperiodic
chance to look over the horizon and understand what it was hiding. I used to live magazine entirely ad-free is a non-profit
in a small town near Verona, which is now a hub of many activities but, back then, project and falls off any commercial circuit.
too small to reunite a "critical mass": among all my friends there was not one All the published material is produced by
the respective authors and published thanks
who had the same computer as me. I had a C128, a friend had a Spectrum, another to their authorization.
one had gone from VIC-20 to a PC based on an IBM 8088 processor, another was
RetroMagazine World is licensed under
about to get his hands on an Amiga 500. All very nice but, in fact, our systems the terms of: Attribution-
were not related to each other. As a result, despite all our attempts, no common NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
project has ever blossomed. Unfortunately, despite what Thomas Merton said, International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/
each of us was, in fact, an island. 4.0/

This is a human-readable summary of

For years, in modern times, I have tried to go back to recover the "lost" opportunities, (and not a substitute for) the license. You
also thanks to the newfound love of many fans for retro-computing and the huge are free to:
availability of material that then, as mentioned, was almost impossible to find,
Share — copy and redistribute the
especially in Italian. Someone said that, if he would have had a computer, Einstein material in any medium or format
would perhaps have built a time machine; in my small way, if I had a couple more
Adapt — remix, transform, and build
books, certainly I would not have built such a gimmick, but probably a videogame upon the material
inspired by it. The "hunger" for knowledge was so strong that in recent times,
before actually going back to programming on 8-bit computers, I had a series of The licensor cannot revoke these
freedoms as long as you follow the
recurring dreams that I later documented on the blog I collaborate with. Today license terms. Under the following terms:
those dreams are no more there, because in my reality RetroMagazine World
Attribution — You must give appropriate
exists as a wonderful place where I can experiment a thousand things, not only credit, provide a link to the license, and
with my old (and still working) Commodore C128, but also with any 8 and/or 16- indicate if changes were made. You may
bit system I feel like working with. Software preservation, hardware info dissemination, do so in any reasonable manner, but not
in any way that suggests the licensor
creation of a structured and shared knowledge, stimulation of curiosity, integration, endorses you or your use.
cooperation and much more..., this is what RetroMagazine World brings.
NonCommercial — You may not use the
material for commercial purposes.
However, it is not the only possible world. Dozens of other equally stimulating
hobbies knock on my door every day: from model making to language study, from ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or
build upon the material, you must
comics (of all kinds) to Japanese animation. And so, even for me, things occasionally distribute your contributions under the
go out of focus. A few days ago, for example, I found myself asking a question to same license as the original.
my colleagues in the editorial staff and I got the following answer: "Look, we No additional restrictions — You may
talked about it in the magazine not long ago!". And so, like the sick people in not apply legal terms or technological
"Johnny Mnemonic", am I too subject to information overload and their consumption measures that legally restrict others from
doing anything the license permits.
only in pills? Could it be that the "hunger" I had has been satisfied to the point
of making me lazy? We used to be hungrier in our past and that sharpened our
wits. Now I better go out for a walk, even as a metaphor only. After regaining
focus, I'm sure, the "hunger" will return as well.

Gianluca Girelli

RetroMagazine World-Eng
Year 3 - ISSUE 13 - FEBRUARY 2022

Chief Editor
Francesco Fiorentini
Managing Editor
David La Monaca
Editing Manager
Marco Pistorio
Web Management
Giorgio Balestrieri