2 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

#4 just arrived!
O
h dear! As our friend Ramos used to say, time flies so fast...

Not that long ago we celebrated releasing first issue of K&A plus and we’re
already at issue 4. You may have noticed from our cover art that the main
feature this issue is going to be the medieval game Slavia 2. Game’s author, and
editorial pal Minimoog, put a lot of effort into the second release of this game and
I’m happy to announce that we’ve included C64 image of Slavia 2 on our coverd-
isk. The initial version of Slavia was previously included on a coverdisk attached to
the 9th issue of our discontinued magazine Komoda.
Editorial

Interesting fact about the cover art. Our friend Jan Lorek retrieved the sketch of
Mieszko I of Poland – a historical ruler of the Polans. We were looking for some his-
torical artwork to highlight the medieval character of Slavia 2 and found it perfectly
matched our needs for this issue of KA plus!

More content worth checking out is an interview with the Project R3D team: Paweł
Nowak (Juen) and Krzysztof Matys (Koyot 1222), who developed and published
Tanks Furry. A fresh, cool Amiga tank-themed game. We delve into how the group
formed, what inspires them, and what the future holds. This interesting interview was
prepared by Tomxx.

We’d also love your opinion on a new column that would be heavily dependent
on our readers. We’re looking at reviving the TOP games section, which could be
separated into various platform categories, This would include lists for the Amiga,
C64, C16/116/Plus 4 and VIC-20. To make it happen we’d obviously need your
votes. Let us know if you’d be willing to participate, as in order for this to make sense
we’d need to receive a large amount of votes for each issue of the magazine. Let
us know on our e-mail address: [email protected] or through the K&A Plus Facebook
page.

Finally, we’re very happy seeing a growing group of readers. We’re getting more
and more e-mails, which only proves that the fun we get from creating the maga-
zine is matched by your enthusiasm.

A bevvy of cool retro content awaits – happy reading!

Komek & Editorial crew

If you have strong English language skills or are a native English speaker,
we’d like to invite you to cooperate with our magazine. We’re looking for
people who can help us write and translate the articles into the English
version of K&A plus. Let us know if you’re interested via [email protected] or
through our K&A plus Facebook page. It’d be cool to get more retro-mani-
acs into the team!
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 3

CONTENTS winter/spring 2016

COMMODORE
SPIS
■
Plus/4 VIC20 ■C16 ■C64 ■C128
TREŚCI ■

Columns 19 Slavia once again 38

Demons of Dex Eino’s Quest 24 My XU1541 adventure 39
Jump Ninja 25 Aviator 41
Serpent Caves 27 SID Adventures: Jammer 52
Dork Dave and the Dirty Trick 28 Kung-Fu Maniacs Trilogy 56
Ransack 30

AMIGA
■
M68k ■AOS 4.x ■Aros ■MOS
Legion 20 Motörhead, tribute or face slap for
Tanks Furry 42 Lemmie Kilmister? 48
GameDev Story: Tanks Furry Lemmings 50
Koyot1222 & Juen 44

VARIA
Intro 2 Construction Kit? 32
Fresh News 4 Resurrection: Syndicate 36
Retro Gaming Nostalgia 8 Johnny presents 58
A Confession 14
Rules of Demoscene 16
Talking Heads: Shoot’Em-Up

  COVERDISK

Komoda & Amiga plus Design and DTP: Tomxx, MrMat

Commodore computers’user’s magazine Drawings: Johnny
Cover design and concept art: Ruben Messeguer
Editor-in-chief: Komek Proofreading: Komek, Minimoog, noctropolis, Tomxx, MrMat
Editors: Ramos, noctropolis, Bobikowoz, Tomxx, Minimoog, MrMat, Translations: Slayerpl, Bobikowoz, Tomxx, Karo, Petrichor, Michał Sroka,
Don Rafito, c00k, JargoV, GeoAnas, Neurocide, Atreus, Petrichor, Uka Tomasz Kubisztal, MA, Arteus, GeoAnas
Cooperation: Paweł Król, Agat, Michał Sroka, Górka, Hery, Jacoz
WWW: http://ka-plus.pl E-Mail: [email protected]
4 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Fresh
News
C64 C64 C64

JANI JANI 2 PETACO’5

Oliver Orosz, 2016 Oliver Orosz, 2016 Errazking, 2016

The New Year starts with Well, well! We have not even I admit that I am not a particu-
a SEUCK game created by had the time to publish the lar pinball fan, but from time
Olivier Orosz, a Hungarian fourth issue of "K&A plus" and to time I also enjoy playing this
graphician. My first thoughts Oliver has already released the kind of games. "Petaco’5" is
after rushing to load and run second part of the game "JANI". a C64 pinball that offers quite
"JANI" brought back memories Great graphics and game play, wide level of fun. This is a game
from the NES version of the as good as in the first part. This that suits all kind of players and
game "The Legend of Zelda". game can really compete on is not just for the – hardcore –
Very good graphics, pretty equal terms with other com- bouncing "ball" fans. Graphical-
good playability and a mod- mercial games from the same ly speaking don’t expect any
erate level of difficulty make gender. This product clearly major fireworks, but it is still ok.
the JANI an interesting title to proofs that SEUCK games can Its score music is – in one word –
play. In my opinion, it is one indeed be really interesting and magnificent! Seven great songs
among all the top SEUCK pro- attractive. You will find more of Richard Bayliss are included
ductions that have recently info about this game later in this there. This game is certainly
arisen. issue. worth your attention.
■ Komek ■ Komek ■ Komek
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 5

stick in port A or keyboard

C64 C64
(left-right) you have just to
pick the lighter color. Action is
LITTLE KNIGHT ARTHUR THE CATACOMBS OF
PasiHytönen, 1986 being repeated over and over CHERUBIM
again. This should be done Laxity, 2015
as fast as possible, because
it has a huge impact on the
number of points and the
status acquirable when the
game is over. Sounds too easy
but it isn’t at all! And please
remember: beware of dark
shades! ■ Komek
The date of the year men- When I first spot the screenshot
tioned above is perfectly cor- of this game I realized I have
C64
rect – the game Little Knight to find out how it works. Be-
Arthur was written 30 years ROCK MAZE: RESET EDITION cause of the tiny player char-
ago, but its author decided Reset Magazine Staff, 2016 acter sprite, I assumed that the
to release it to the wider au- maze will be huge and time
dience only this year. As for its consuming for sightseeing and
age, the game would be pret- treasure hunt. Unfortunately,
ty good if not a bit too high the game controls dampened
and steep level of difficulty. my enthusiasm for exploration
Graphical layer is simple, read- of the catacombs. The little fig-
able and very cheerful, so that ure jumps only when you move
despite the continuous defeats to the side, and every major
player has an irresistible de- I know that "Boulder Dash" is fall means death. It might
sire to make another attempt an undisputed hit of the 80’s. make sense to give the game
to cope with all difficulties in There are also some people a second chance because of
each level. Another clever who still play it today with the attractive graphic design,
trap or some annoying oppo- great pleasure and enthusi- but my enjoyment was nega-
nents are trying to discourage asm. It didn’t personally hook tively affected by the unusual
you, but you’re not about to me up that much though. controls.
easily give up, aren’t you? "Rock Maze" is a "Boulder ■ bobikowoz
■ bobikowoz Dash" variant, which was
created some time ago. This C16, C116, Plus/4, C64
VIC20 particular version was creat-
ed for "Reset" magazine and HUGOHUNT
ColorRun RETRO Angelsoft, 2016
released as "Rock Maze: Reset
tokra, 2016
Edition". It features quite nice
graphics, simple sound effects
and plenty of diamonds to
collect. Pure nostalgia dated
back to ‘80s.
■ Komek
This is a VIC20 version of the
browser/mobile game of the
same title. Rules are very Warning! We have some good
simple: the screen is divided news for all fans of maze
into two parts and each one games: a new release for all
has a different shade of color four Commodore platforms
(light or dark). Using your joy- (C16, 116, Plus / 4, 64). It is
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

6 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

a port of the original program sion yet, because the game is one will find something appro-
called "Hugojagd XE" which still lacking AI, some manage- priate. Another alternative is
was created in 1985 by Ste- ment options, soundtrack, etc. the option to enable SFX. It’s
fan Dorndorf for Atari XE and However, we will keep an eye even supporting stereo SIDs.
XL. Now, thanks to Angelsoft, on the development of this The player’s control is ade-
Commodore users can play project, as the finalized prod- quately responsive. The game
it as well. You control a smi- uct certainly has a chance to is really great and I definitely
ley face and the game looks be a major hit! recommend it.
similarly to a Pac Man idea. ■ Tomxx ■ noctropolis
You are moving in a maze
and your goal is to eat small C64 C64
circles and collect all items in
the correct order to get to the SPACEMAN SPLORF: PLANET HESSIAN
OF DOOM CovertBitops, 2016
exit. Generally fun to play.
Pond/SDW Developments, 2016
■ Komek

C64

CIVILIZATIONS
Fabian Hertel, w produkcji

Hessian, Ladies and Gentle-

Having enough of “Flappy men, is going to be a real
Bird" clones or not, please do hit! It’s an arcade-adventure
proceed to the rest of this game developed by Lasse-
JIf you think you have experi- review. Why? This is about an Oorni’ego (Cadaver) who has
enced everything that could extremely successful clone for previously completed all four
have been possibly created C64 computers. This time the games of "Metal Warrior" se-
on the C64, "Civilizations" action takes place in space ries. "Hessian" also derives from
can prove you were wrong! where we take on working the rest of the series. You’re
DrKhumalo presented a clip for an Astro-Engineering Kim – a member of the securi-
of his upcoming game to the corporation. An interesting ty staff in a scientific research
Lemon64 forums audience: it fact is the quite extensive complex – who witnessed
is an isometric strategy game accompanying game story. something really surprising and
that resembles the series of The game starts with a really terrible. Action includes both
Civilization games commer- cool, pictorial intro, which is shooting (with more powerful
cially released for more pow- definitely worth watching. It weapons progressively dis-
erful computers. This 20-minute is a very large and impressive covered on your way) and
footage demonstrates the game with a wise mixture of browsing various rooms and
gameplay, which includes the audiovisual characteristics. places. You have to acquire
map itself, the units’ move- Backgrounds are drawn from items that you will need to
ment and their interaction. All a palette of nice colors, well gain access to new, initially
main "Civilizations" features bonded together with a great inaccessible areas. You can
are present here: urban eco- contrast. There is also a depth talk to people and use the
nomics, technology develop- illusion on moving at different computers. Graphics are nice
ment, resource management speeds. Before you start play- and crisp with a smooth ani-
and production. The whole ing, you can also select one mation of the main character.
game looks amazing, al- of eight tunes, and each of Music is atmospheric and
though the author points out them is composed at a high bonds nicely with the game.
that this is not a preview ver- quality level. Although they Are they really any disadvan-
differ in style and mood every- tages? In fact, there is only
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 7

one: a bit too complicated The last months of 2015 fancy here. Unfortunately, it
control system. In any case, brought us a very interesting lacks sound and music, and
I feel that this is really smash- platformer game, called “Ze- graphics are so oldschoolish,
ing and elaborate production, rosphere", which has already same as the one you recall
one of the best of all time for made a loud entry at the from the 8-bit versions. The
C64. It is certainly a rightful beginning of this year. It is creator of this port does not
candidate for the game of obvious that the authors were have much experience in such
the year award. Is there any inspired by such big hits as cases, but he plans to further
other title nearly as good as in "Super Frog", "The Great Giana develop this project and work
this category? Sisters" and so on... The game on updates. One of his priorities
■ noctropolis character is a yellow, round is to improve the graphics. He
creature called "Squinty". It also made the source code
C64 was drawn by the evil Odak available to the public. Port is
to a Dimensional Transformer, available for download at the
STACK (MY BITCH) UP
Delysid, 2016
which meant that the world following link: http://retroports.
seen by "Squinty" sometimes blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.
becomes distorted. Help out html.
our hero to collect all the di- ■ Petrichor
amonds that are in the area
C64
and defeat the evil Odak.
■ Komek KILL THE BIT
Amiga OS3.1 Slavia, 2016

KNIGHT LORE
There are a lot of arcade
Ultimate Play the Game, 1984/2016
games recently created for
C64. Some are superiors to the
others. Recently, at German
BCC Party #10 hosted at the
end of January 2016, a new
very cool arcade game has
been released: it’s called If you count all the years passed
"Stack (My Bitch) up". You by starting from Tennis for two
Probably most of you recall the
have to arrange incoming till now, video games as an en-
game called "Knight Lore" pub-
boxes and place them on tertainment have been started
lished in 1984 by “Ultimate Play
top of each other. They must 64 years ago (pretty nice num-
the Game". This developer was
be placed down carefully, ber, isn’t it?). Whoever reached
quite strong on Spectrum and
although tiny irregularities are deeper in gaming history than
Amstrad 8-bit home computers
also accepted. Overall, it has the VIC-20, shouldn’t feel sur-
and afterwards successfully
a strong fun factor, combined prised by the name of Altair
transitioned into modern dev
with an energetic music. 8800. Yes, even then, in the 70s,
company. In KL You take the
■ Komek there were games out there
role of a knight who has been
and an example is a simple
Amiga bitten by a wolf. Your task is to
applet "The Kill Bit" programmed
find a cure for the curse and
ZEROSPHERE for Altair system. "Slavia" decid-
you have just 40 days to com-
Code Red, 2015 ed to port this title to the C64
plete the task. Game’s graph-
and its simplicity allowed us to
ics and action are drawn in
complete this work in only a few
isometric view. During the day,
hours. This simple and, for some
you are wandering around the
people, even boring game is
rooms as a man who turns into
available for download at the
a werewolf at nights. This one
following link: http://csdb.dk/
is a very simple port. Nothing
release/?id=146382
■ Minimoog
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 8 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Is Retro Gaming Nostalgia Just a Longing

for the Times of Youth?
Editorial: noctropolis; Translated by Tomxx/Petrichor

Lots of discussions on various topics lead to the general conclusion that “things
back then were better". Such statements can, in fact, relate to practically every-
thing - serious sociopolitical topics, aspects of the daily life, its quality and com-
fort, even trivial, but still relevant attributes of culture, like music, film, press and
finally video games. On the other hand, you can almost always expect to hear
a counterargument indicating that it’s just our own reminiscence for the times of
youth. And since youth usually brings up positive memories about our carefree
and joyful times, all the discussed points and issues are often associated with
deep and very positive impressions.

an answer to this intriguing a huge football fanatic that

DOES IT ALSO APPLY TO
question: is my retro gaming can memorize all teams’
VIDEO GAMING?
nostalgia just a longing for names and facts, but I still
the days of my childhood? watch this sport regularly.

O
bviously, this me-
Does thinking of old good The first FIFA World Cup (by
chanism is also
games, recalling their plots far the most important event
reflected in the
and still greatly enjoying in the world of football)
discussions related to the
playing them comes down I watched and went crazy
broadly defined topics of
to pure and basic senti- about, was played in USA in
electronic entertainment.
ment? Is my conviction abo- 1994. I still recall those play-
Retro gamers tend to frequ-
ut some old titles – and I re- ers, games, scores or even
ently criticize modern pro-
ally think some of them were just single tackles, like it all
ducts for their secondary
brilliant, timeless and extre- happened yesterday. I also
character, repetitiveness
mely playable – only trigge- recall France 1998, although
and general lack of flavor.
red by those positive feelin- these memories aren’t that
Similarly, younger player
gs from my early days? In deep. However, all football
base often accuse retro
other words, is the previously events that followed in 2002,
titles to be one great audio-
mentioned mechanism of 2006, 2010 or even two years
visual prehistory. And once
associating our childhood ago weren’t particularly me-
the older games’ supporter
with positively recalled morable and had no impact
argues they are better, more
experience identical in com- on my future life. Sure, they
valuable and memorable,
puter games industry? Or is were exciting, but the recol-
the younger gamer re-
it just a sorrow for something lections disappeared shortly
sponds back with the final
that has gone away fore- after, making room to all
assault, that all these feelin-
ver? sort of current events. Where
gs are due to the relation-
am I going with it? I want to
ship with former’s childhood WHAT DO CANARINHOS
emphasize that I still recall
emotions. And what’s the HAVE TO DO WITH IT?
the event that took place
truth? It’s a difficult question
20 years ago better than
to answer, without further I’d like to bring up a compa- the ones watched recently.
reflection of this topic. rison to football, as it’s one These five goals scored by
of my interests inherited from Oleg Salenko in a single
So I thought I’ll give myself
early days. I wouldn’t say I’m
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 9

match, colorful and crazy aspects of life can be easily ability to control a character
Mexican goalkeeper Jorge multiplied, so let me stop at on the screen was some-
Campos, deadly Brazilian this point. thing intriguing; today it’s
duo strikers Romario-Bebe- just another ordinary thing
to or missed penalty in the SO, THE YOUTH REALLY that became a norm across
final by Roberto Baggio MATTERS HERE... the years. Once, many of
– all these memories were the beloved games turned
permanently engraved in into unusual "gateways" to
Let’s be honest – analogy to
the head of an 11-year-old a particular contemporary
video games is clear. We all
kid who was enchanted by interest, became specific
used to celebrate the mo-
Brazilian national team’s ma- links connecting us with
ments of sitting in front of our
gic and absorbed football given topic. For example,
home computer in attempts
events like a sponge. Does as a child I was fascinated
to load our favorite title. This
this mean that back then with motorcycles and have
process became a real ritu-
football stars were stronger, been endlessly playing En-
al! Prior to that, even a visit
goals more beautiful, ac- duro Racer without a hint of
to the computer store was
companying events more discouragement after mul-
a ritual, where we used to
spectacular and games in- tiple repetitions of the same
browse catalogs of, what we
comparably more exciting? route (I was very bad and
called, "mixes" - sets of diffe-
Frankly, I don’t think so. It’s getting to the second track
rent games stored on a tape
rather due to the fact that was quite a challenge, but
- just to select the most inte-
I was incomparably more the ability to control the mo-
resting one. Everything was
excited, I was analyzing all torcycle and pleasure I got
associated with primitively
the games while sitting in overwrote everything else).
genuine childish fascination
front of the TV, taking no- Watching few karate movies
to this highly mysterious and
tes, colorful drawings and and listening to my brother’s
fantastic world displayed
writing down statistics. I even stories of Bruce Lee directed
on TV screen by little beige
tried to replay these great me towards martial arts and
C64 box. Back then the pure
football actions together
with some of my other
passionate friends. Today,
I quickly forget about the
games I just watched and
instantly move on to other
tasks and responsibilities.

Although I referred to
football in my opening
comparison, this situation
can be applied to just
about anything. This is
similar with music – al-
though I remain largely
faithful to one specific
genre I get back to my
“old" albums much more
often than I look for new
releases, which I find
uninteresting and secon-
dary. Such examples ori-
ginating from all various
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

10 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

let me play International Ka- the fact, that there we so into the games, what you
rate and Thai Boxing. I recall many little games included need to do in them, what’s
being very impressed with in this particular title. The- the game mechanic and so
every possible way of hitting re are obviously more and on - as you may know back
the opponent – the diversi- more examples, as each in time it wasn’t so obvious;
ty of blows in IK was really single game turned out to playing together or against
impressive. Thai Boxing, on be some kind of a symbol each other, or in the co-op,
the other hand, featured of my memories, childhood or just in the hot-seat – all
injured face covered with dreams and my own visions depending on the nature
more and more blood once of life. of the game. One of the
the fight progressed – it isn’t most favorite activities of
the most appropriate way It is worth mentioning, that mine was, as we called "to
of educating young kid, but when we were young the describe compact casset-
it was surely an interesting whole gaming experience tes" (we had a whole box
experience nonetheless. was more like a family thing. of MCs recorded by some-
The other day I watched lots I, for example, was often one else, and on these so
of movies featuring tough playing games with my ol- called "compilations" we
American heroes and this der brother (and also with were discovering new ga-
brought me to Commando my cousin, from whom I bo- mes, or unknown titles just
and Fernandez Must Die, ught the computer later). to write them down, along
where I also jumped on an The age difference created with the units from the tape
all-terrain vehicle. Once or some sort of authority be- counter – believe me it was
twice I found myself in the tween us, but at the same super exciting) . Interestingly,
video game arcade and en- time, guys also treated me even if sometimes I went into
ded up playing Lazy Jones with very warm and caring a little fight with my brother
afterwards at home. Now approach like older siblings (as happens with all siblin-
I know its plot takes place in would do, which for me was gs), a subsequent proposal
a hotel, but back then I was obviously very important of playing together on the
pretty sure it’s just another and I am very fond of these computer was often the
arcade saloon. Till now I re- memories, not only because nature of "reach out to the
member my fascination with of the video games. To- agreement" and to dischar-
gether we’ve been digging
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 11

ge negative emotions. This, chair. And although I have Nolan Bushnell (game desi-
combined with all the good played bit of Amiga games gner and founder of Atari)
memories and family positi- (I loved Mortal Kombat I / once said that a perfect
ve family atmosphere makes II, Franko and Litil Divil), ulti- game is one that is both
it worth combing back to mately instead of Amiga, easy to learn and hard to
with a lot of nostalgia. I ended up with the PC. master. That was a case in
I know, I will have a beef the past, because today’s
For the above-described ty- with many of you, but for games often start with "hard
pical "family" memories the- me these early PCs also had to learn", with the second
re is also a general feeling a soul (by early, I mean even part to be questioned. The
of a carefree childhood and my first 486DX2-66 CPU PC). problem is that it is not easy
a sense of the life safety Everyone is of course enti- just to start them. For exam-
of those young years (with tled to their own opinion on ple, it is virtually impossible
comparison to nowadays this subject, but that’s how to launch a game now and
tough times). Back then, for I see it myself (I was 12 back simply just return into it and
most of us these were worry then and I was never into play it without any problems.
free time and the largest these wars between fans You may not remember
children’s problems were of different platforms). I am what exactly you need to
matters totally trivial, from just adding this to make it do, or where you ended up
today’s point of view. Most clear that sometimes I like last time, or what are the
often, after turning off our to launch DOS-Box and play key/pad bindings. For me,
computers we ran to do so- these good old PC games this is kind of a side effect of
mething equally exciting. To- ( Fifa International Soccer), the current gaming mecha-
day, the video games play and I still have warm feelings nics’ progressive complexity.
the role of a springboard towards this platform. This has its advantages, be-
and even escape mecha- cause thanks to the com-
nism (at least for me) from plexity, the game is multidi-
the much more difficult reali- BUT IS THAT ALL IT IS...?
mensional and deep, but at
ty, and almost immediately the same time it disqualifies
after the computer or game the title as a type of game
These memories suggest,
console is being turned off, that you want to play from
that this whole nostalgia for
we are drag down by the time to time. Old games
the old games is just a pure
"demons of adulthood" into are like time machines: you
desire to return to the good
the harsh day-to-day life. It’s launch it and you know eve-
childhood memories. That
clear that this entire "safety rything straight away – like
there is only one simple me-
shell", accompanied with in Matrix. The simplicity of
chanism here - I used to play
youngsters adventures and a design is a solid reason
video games and it was
struggles we had with a joy- to believe that old games
fun, today I want the same,
sticks in our hand, is strongly were created to deliver
just to feel young again. But
connected and associated quick entertainment – all
saying that the old games
with today’s fondness for the based on the principle: you
do not hold any particular
past. just sit down and play the
advantages is very much
unfair. To say that all these game. This allowed (and still
At the end of this journey
old, timeless gems are not allows) too go through few
into careless past, let me
worth much is just a slap into dozens of games during one
take a note that goes bey-
history of gaming. The truth long gaming session. And
ond the world of 8/16 bit.
is that they are worth a lot, today? Today, I play a lot on
When, after years of using
but not only as a part of the the gaming consoles (PS3)
C64, for a first time I expe-
history, as they hold enormo- - and because of the huge
rienced Amiga computer
us sentimental value. differences in the mecha-
can do I almost fell off my
EDITORIAL

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12 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

nics and the keys-binding: We have to remember that absurd. Today, the only real
(or rather pad-binding) of back in the days, the key place for innovation is Indie
each game, I hardly jump element for a good game games. By the way, these
between them anymore, just was the concept and the games are creating an inte-
to keep the habit and try idea. The programmer (usu- resting bridge to cover the
not to mix the controls too ally a hobbyist) first wonde- gap between retro and mo-
much. And I see it as a pro- red what he or she would dernity, but that’s a topic for
blem, because even if the like to play and then he or a different article. Today’s
game is really good, after she created the game into games (mostly from the
few hours of playing it cau- this vision. Thanks to this, AAA segment ) mainly focus
ses a certain "fatigue". Now, the games created in the on storytelling, making this
a typical modern game is past are so unconventional, a key element of the game -
like a good movie, the story original and unique. Today, to the extend where player,
is deep and the storytelling we are living in commerce even though he wants to
is super engaging. It feels times, and the true art has go deeper into the story, is
great when you watch it been replaced by craf- bored by repetitive game
for the first time, but it has tsmanship. And when on mechanics. On the flip side,
zero replayability value, some occasions something good old game, sometimes
I rarely want to return and super original is being re- without a story was focusing
play once finished game leased (check e.g Goat or purely on the gameplay, fo-
again. I’d rather just watch Slice of Bread Simulators) cusing on mastering this ele-
the game walk-through on – it being perceived more ment. In todays games, you
YouTube instead of going of a “joke", designed to just play to finish the story,
into the game and through meet marketing needs and just to get to the end, or into
the whole re-learning pro- to induce a shock effect next stage, where we play
cess all over. caused by the element of retro games for pure fun, just
EDITORIAL

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 13

to play it. They bring you en- cord live music, back in the this is also the case here.
dless entertainment where old days the only tool that We could obviously praise
you enjoy every second of was available was humble, the character of retro ga-
the game and even though but still gorgeous, SID (you ming, commend on their
you replay same level over guys remember the whole explorative solutions, true
and over again it still gives audio in Castle Of Terror? beauty of pixel artworks,
you a lot of fun. Thank you SID for all the shi- the unity of playability and
vers we got). Not sure abo- simplicity, and nobody co-
The graphics in the old ga- ut you, but I have noticed uld effectively disagree.
mes, seen by some mockers a very interesting trend whe- I personally believe though
as unworthy of any atten- re, so many games from the that all these feelings won’t
tion, should still be treated aforementioned segment of be worth that much without
as a piece of art. Although "indie games" intentionally the entire aspect of childho-
the video games today uses pixels and stylize their od memories. Without this
require much more atten- products to resemble good combination of our own
tion in this matter, I also feel old 8-bit hits – partially, this sentiment bundled together
that this work is more about might be driven by the need with hobbies, adventures,
simple craftsmanship, and to attract those who may passions and hours-long ses-
less about the actual art feel nostalgic with this type sions spent in front of out TVs
and skills itself (don’t get me of graphics, but also be- together with friends and
wrong, you still have to be cause indie games creators family.
an artist to craft it). Nowa- most likely see it as a part
days, it is more about poly- of a computer graphic art. In fact I’m very curious abo-
gons and textures, where And maybe it is not accura- ut one thing. Would the kids
back in time the only thing te comparison, but it is like of today’s generation, who
that mattered, was a size using charcoal technique, mainly discover the digi-
and amount of pixel used to whilst having a box full of tal entertainment through
create a character in-game. colour paints right next to photorealistic and deeply
It was necessary to distribute you. Additionally, we have role-playing titles, be as sen-
the resources better (becau- to remember about the fact timental about their childho-
se no one would doubt, that than the life span of new od’s games as we are after
the character from let’s say, video games is way shorter years? Or perhaps will they
"Commando" was less brave than the old games, the just move on and compre-
and efficient than main hero reason behind it is that the hend their old games as
from, for example, “Call Of graphics in the new produc- junk and nothing more than
Duty") to get the best possi- tions age way faster, and that? In the future someone
ble effect. The background these new games usually may write similar piece of
elements in many video ga- start to look “bad" after year editorial to recall memories
mes should be also treated or two. The truth is, as in through their own gaming
as a piece of art. It is ama- many earlier examples – tho- experience and bring up
zing how efficient the devs se new titles usually make feelings associated with
were back in the day, when a good impression, just to be that. Only then we might
they were able to create quickly forgotten. be able to learn whether
amazing and breathtaking old games “only" reflect our
settings with just few tools in past or there is something
AND THE CONCLUSION IS
their hands. Same story goes much deeper beyond.
ALWAYS THE SAME...
with a whole sound design:
today, to create a good
atmosphere in a random We often tend to say that
horror game, developers use the truth lies somewhere in
real orchestra and they re- the middle and I believe
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

14 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

A Confession
Editorial: Hery; Translated by Slayerpl

— I lost hope, my father. I reject- father — I whispered ashamed. priest sighed.

ed 8bit computers…… I felt a blush on my cheeks. — All the evil began at the mo-
— Not only you, my son. Not - Don’t be too harsh on yourself. ment of building of the modular
only you. A youthful fascination with the computer . It took their soul. It
— A long time ago I was mis- anatomy of a woman’s body is made them hybrids with many
guided by PC fad. beyond the good and the evil. faces. One name, a lot of op-
— You were young. How could You cannot ignore the beauty tions and operational systems.
you know….. in the purest form. Besides that, A complicatedness with entan-
— They crept into our thoughts. it was like an education for fam- glement. How to do things with
They promised better things, an ily life in the future. You need one computer, if after a short
easier life. They promised more to have moderation. It is dan- period of time it becomes a rel-
time for us. They set our world gerous to spend a lot of time ict? We are superficial when we
going. They were supposed to admiring the wonders of nature. come into contact with com-
connect us and they divided You need to meet people. puter. We don’t try to under-
us even more. They promised - Back then it was easier…I of- stand its’ secrets, because we
more friends and love. Instead ten met my friends for a party, don’t have time for it, because
of friends, they gave us social I exchanged with them the soft- it is too much for us, because
networks and hundreds of Inter- ware, I shared my experience. after two, three years we buy
net acquaintances, instead of And now…. new hardware.
love — porn websites. — And we have, unfortunately, — Earlier the world was easier,
- You are right, my son. Internet. more understandable, more
There were programs years ago — The Internet killed the inti- human. Now they made a lot
which had lead us to the evil macy of the contact between of electronic rubbish, they cre-
side…. a human and a comput- ated a lot of programming lan-
— Samantha Fox Strip Poker, er — I continued dejected. guages, some javas, javascripts,
Girls They Want to Have Fun… Everything became open, easily visualbasics, pythons…. Phooey!
I wanted to mention more, but and quickly available. Sinners! They make up a lot of
I bit my tongue. Forgive me, - We live in such times — the devil dialects! Have they for-
gotten about the Babel Tower?
"Tempora, mores!" The time of
apocalypse is near.
— My father, and the computer
graphics? What did the con-
temporary graphics cards? Be-
cause of them the pixel lost its’
material meaning, it became
unnoticeably small, it evaporat-
ed, it moved into non-existence.
Now it is a notion without mean-
ing, an abstract thing. And the
world in 160 x 200 dimension is
more beautiful….And the hor-
rible color extravagance. Who
needs 32bit colour palette?
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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 15

finish “Montezuma’s Revenge"

— The voice of the priest was
powerful and harsh.
— Father, but I…
— I know, what they say, my
son. But you have to believe!
Believe! Because the hidden
chambers open before these
that believe.
— Yes, father — I responded
remorseful. I had a strong will of
penance in me.
— And I will you also do this
atonement: you will load with-
How can you multiply the exist- I came across, and how many out turbo a couple of games,
ences without a need? great memories are connected you will stop and notice the val-
Exactly! A long time ago a syn- with my inseparable companion ue of time because everyone
od convened by Pius VI ac- from the childhood. can rush headlong and few
cepted a dogma that a human — Forgive me my sins, because can wait for the end.
eye can accurately differenti- I sinned — I asked through my The priest said an absolving sen-
ate between merely 16 colours. tightened throat. tence and ended it with words:
To hear the whispers of the devil — Don’t lose hope. Be faithful — I absolve your sins. Go and
and think up new colours — hu- to the 8bit faith and you will be sin no more. Let the love of ret-
man vanity has no boundaries. awarded. Two numbers: 8 and rocomputers lead you and the
— I lost hope, my father, be- 16 create an everlasting har- spirit of the past watch you.
cause I forgot how much joy mony of the world. Woe betides — Amen..
dealing with my 8bit computer somebody that in blindness wor-
gave to me. It was like play- ships 32 and 64 computers. The
ing with the LEGO set where time of debauchery has come!
I could use my every idea and The assembler and BASIC will
from which I could build infinite come back in glory! In place
number of worlds. I felt an of a not moving indicator our
enormous joy of creating, I was eyes will be delighted as earlier
the maker. I did not need an by the flicking indicator. The
extremely fast CPU or a great novelties will fade as quickly, as
graphics card. When I typed in the fad showed up, and in the
a machine code, when I spoke end nothing will survive from the
to my computer with the lan- glitter of this world.
guage of numbers, the only one So the only thing that we need
he understood, I felt a close to care about, is the memory of
bond with him. The computer early youth with its’ greatest joy-
was an organic extension of the first computer.
my thoughts and my imagina- The priest’s words filled me with
tion. When I was closer to it, the emotion and faith. I have
I reached for the eternal truths, hidden my sentiment to old
I discovered the great mystery computers for many years, my
of existence. When I use the true love. Now, when I could
PC, I’m only an artisan, a pas- confess it openly, I felt a relief,
sive imitator. — I stopped. I no- if I was relieved from a huge
ticed clearer than earlier how burden. A peace was back in
indifferent, emotionless relation my heart.
I have towards PC’s, which — As an atonement you will
EDITORIAL

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16 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Rules of Demoscene
Editorial: Ramos; Translated by Tomasz Kubisztal

Can an informal, non-organized community have rules and a law of its own? An-
swer seems simple and obvious. Every, even officially unrecognized society or
even subculture have its own rules – and Demoscene is no different. These rules
are regarded and used accordingly for its activity. It seems natural that when
something is being created, shaped and adapted to new conditions it’s difficult to
create complex system of rules at once. However, it’s completely different situation
when given subculture has been existing for years and have already worked out
specific rules.

R
ules of the scene can has our actions judged accord- and surname, but with time
be compared to code ingly – whether we like it or not. custom of signing with one’s
of good behavior, savoir On Demoscene we won’t be nickname was adapted from
vivre. In this case many rules given a ticket or put to jail. An- Crack scene. Such custom was
pertain to person’s behavior yway, it’s up to us whether we used for easier recognition of
otherwise not regulated by le- identify ourselves with people given creator and to hide one’s
gal or moral rules. All these rules creating given subculture. If so – official personal data. Creators
were created by people who we should follow it’s established of demoscene felt like artists of
were active throughout dem- rules. However, how should we sorts and considered their work
oscene and who have taken follow any rules if they’re not as art, anyway, so like true art-
their first steps in that area. recorded in any way or even ists signed their work with their
not known to us to begin with? nicknames. It can be easily ob-
The way of behaving in the
Every one of us has some sort of served on the example of visual
scenic community is being eval-
morality: a collection of norms art creators, who usually left
uated only by other members of
specifying what is right and their visible signature in the up-
such group. It can be said that
what is wrong. We live our lives per right corner of given work.
there are penalties of some sort
according to these rules. In the The custom was adapted from
for not following the given rules.
80’s, when scene was being painting artists, who marked
While breaking legal rules is fol-
formed nobody gave much their work in such way.
lowed by punishment, breaking
thought about any rules or reg-
moral rules is followed by criti- Creation of new community
ulations. New subculture was
cism and condemnation, and in was treated like fun by all con-
being created and with time,
case of social rules – it’s being cerned. Personal computers
by itself, it started enforcing spe-
ridiculed. The society we live in were then regarded as toys:
cific customs. However nobody
destined for fun, like more ad-
acted blindly, since everyone
vanced home consoles. All cre-
could differ what seems right or
ators using them were supposed
wrong. Thanks to this direction
to have a good time and act
first rules of Demoscene were
fairly toward other members of
being formed.
Demoscene concerning given
One of the first rules of Dem- computer system. However,
oscene was leaving one’s sig- it wasn’t always all fun, since
nature only in programs created there were always those, who
by given person. In the begin- wanted to make harm to oth-
ning it was customary to sign ers or prove that they deserve
one’s program by given name praise and recognition. Such
EDITORIAL

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 17

people were labeled as lamers. under scanned graphic. Such had no chance against those
On computer scene it is regard- activity was especially intensive who used Amiga and more
ed an insult, however maybe during 90’s, when technology advanced graphic software.
not as severe as it used to be. developed further and allowed It seems obvious that on more
Until the mid-90’s all people not converting and downloading advanced hardware programs
concerned with Demoscene or graphics from more advanced had better capabilities and
interested only in gaming were computer systems, like Amiga offered easier work, leading to
still considered lamers. Also, or PC, to Commodore 64. For new graphical effects.
members of the scene breaking example, in 1993, year after
Current development and new
the established rules were labe- publishing graphic collection
conditions (meaning, scene
led in such way. Such label had "Portfolio" by group Triad so
being adapted on emulators
to be “deserved" by particularly called "Scandale Dane" took
on PC computers) changed
shameful deeds. This leads us to place. Graphic artist of the
perception of creating graphic
first and major rule of the scene: group – Dane (currently working
art on C-64. Close to nobody
signing someone else’s work for Booze Design) – ripped scan
minds creating art by PC soft-
with own name. When scene from old work "Playboy-Show
ware, which is later transferred
was still developing and more 3" developed by group The Su-
and modified on C-64 comput-
and more people were joining it personics and after modifying
er or emulator. Nobody minds
– it also concerned people who added his signature. He even
canning graphics. There are
didn’t act in a fair way, wrongly presented one of the graph-
many reasons for such attitude.
assigning authorship to works ics from the collection during
Above all: it’s creating graph-
they didn’t create. In most cas- a party. More details about the
ics in faster and more suitable
es it regarded visual works, how- case are available in the scene
way. But the major reason for
ever there were also instances magazine Vandalism News 17
this is lack of past competition
regarding music or “stealing" and Relax November Issue.
in the form of charts published
somebody’s code from demos.
There was also quite a lot of in scene magazines. For those
The easiest breach was signing
software dedicated for modify- less informed: charts used to
one’s signature as author of
ing graphics taken from more be some sort of toplist of the
somebody else’s graphic, since
advanced computers. Graphic best creators and works on the
programs developed especially
artists started using them in scene (i.e. demos, collections,
for this purpose (rippers) were
their work. It led to huge disa- graphic and musical artists, pro-
available. It was enough to
greement and never-ending grammers other scene profes-
"rip" given graphic, load it using
discussions in the magazines. sions), published in the past by
the editing software, modify it
German graphic artist Rayden, disc magazines or chartsmags,
in chosen way and add one’s
who started creating his works particularly popular for Amiga.
signature. For instance, polish
on Amiga computer tend to The times have changed, and
magazine C&A from time to
transfer files to Commodore 64 so did expectations of artists
time published graphics ripped
to correct them slightly later on. themselves.
from western demos signed by
Such actions were immediately
lamers, who wanted to win run- Another interesting case was
condemned. It was stated that
ning graphic-of-the-month con- allowing transferring graphic
artists creating their works on
test. Other type of unfair behav- works by professional, known
Commodore 64 computers only
ior was leaving one’s signature artists or interesting graphic arts
EDITORIAL

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18 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

(i.e. books or science fiction

art) to the form of computer
graphic. Particularly popular in
this aspect were works by Boris
Vallejo.

Surprisingly, such works even

happened to win on graphic
contests during parties. For
some reason nobody minded
such modifications, since scan-
ners back in the day were still
imperfect. Pixeling (technique
of creating graphic by putting
down pixels single-handedly,
one by one) manually by the and made available on the activity was widely criticized
artists, without using any spe- scene was product on pub- and fought with by members of
cialized (apart from basic) func- lic domain basis. All products Demoscene.
tions of graphic software was published on the scene used
It can be said that far too often
more efficient than scanning. It to follow such rule. Public do-
somebody’s work (i.e. music or
was similar for music – on music main is a free license making
graphic art) was being used
contests covers of known songs a program commonly owned,
in another production with-
often won over original com- meaning that it’s author or au-
out original author’s consent.
positions. Also mixes of known thors have gave up their right
Back in the day, it used to be
tracks gathered a lot of interest. for gratification for its usage.
customary thing to rip music or
By now it has changed – cur- Thanks to this all works could be
graphic art from a video game
rently, it is required that only freely copied and further redis-
and put it into one’s own work.
original work can enter graphic tributed without worries. Authors
Nobody minded that, despite
or musical contest. However, of programs on the scene al-
that from legal and moral point
even to this day it happens that ways stress that their work is not
of view that was unfair. Both
somebody manages to "smug- made in order to earn money
video game music and graphic
gle" redrawn graphic or musical and in no way do they gain
art had their copyright, so they
cover as a contest entry. any profit from it. Therefore, in
were not supposed to be trans-
old, polish productions before
Second important rule was the ferred from original work and
running them there used to be
fact that everything published used further in other produc-
visible disclaimer in the lines of
tions. But back then, when there
"This is Pub-
were few people on the scene
lic Domain
able to make quality music,
production.
they use to just use composi-
Selling pro-
tions by professional musicians
hibited". Un-
developing works for video
fortunately,
games, for instance Rob Hub-
in Poland
bard’s. However, established
during pe-
rule was to at least include infor-
riod of de-
mation about original author of
velopment
used graphic art or music in the
of comput-
credits (list of people who de-
er markets
veloped given work). Thanks to
there were
this rule also work by given artist
also people
gained popularity, thus contrib-
who sold
uting to his recognition.
such pro-
grams. Such
EDITORIAL

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 19

COMMODORE
Review: Komek; Translated by Slayerpl

Sometimes it happens that something insignificant can leave a mark on one of the
thousands pages of a history book and stay in our and next generation’s memory.
Sometimes you do not need a lot for this to happen….. If I asked randomly selected
persons….hmmm, for instance about Rubik’s cube, I’m sure that I would get some an-
swers, because who does not know what is Rubik’s cube? Alright, and if the question
was about Tetris? I think that there would be people, who have no clue, but definitely
a number of them would be small.

I
f we talk about Tetris we in some of the versions. It is the speed of a falling down
should mention that this a more standard approach in column increases. And when
popular logical game was this situation because we deal we exceed 100 points, the
created by a Russian program- with the falling down vertically game becomes faster. If you
mer named Aleksiej Pazytnow columns which are made up have more than 5000 points,
in 1984 using you receive
a computer Ele- the title of the
Tetris genre
ktronika 60. This "Master of the
game had so game". This is exactly the
many versions Tetris genre. Lots of
The summary of various products
for different
in many different
platforms that the game is as
shapes and colors.
we would not follows: colorful Something is falling
graphics, neat down here, and
be able count
there something
them now. One and in a good
else already lies on
of this prover- style. The mu- the floor. One has
sic is a little bit to operate quickly,
bial “thousand"
but some of us still
versions of Tetris monotonous,
spent too many
is a game titled but lively and hours in front of the
Columns, with cheerful. Playa- moving blocks. Dry
and red eyes hurt,
which I will deal bility on a nice
but the game play
in the next part level. Even if is always super
of my text. you are not enjoyable!
a fan of Tetris,
A lot of time I promise you
passed since 1984. In 2006 of three colorful squares with will spend at least half an hour
Tetris was once again remade the same color. The objective playing it.
and this is how Columns for of this game is arranging the
Commodore Plus/4 was cre- columns in such a way to link
ated. I think that it is a nice the three squares of the same COLUMNS
game for the fans of this sort color. We have three possibil- Publisher: Electronic Kni-
of games which shouldn’t be ities to link the squares: verti- ghts (TEK)
omitted. Year of publication: 2006
cal, horizontal and diagonal. Platform: Plus/4
You can change colors using
Even though the Tetris games
were and are usually the
the "fire" button and when we
  8 6 7
direct the joystick downwards
same, innovations appear
REVIEW

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20 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Legion
AMIGA

Review: Ramos; Translated: Atreus/Tomxx

RPG turn-based games first started to show up in the middle of 90’s. This article de-
scribes the first Polish release of that kind and takes an opportunity to present the
history of that game. I also want to deny some myths and facts about this product.

L
egion is a game which cupy smaller space on floppy quite high score in graphics,
combines role-playing, disks. Everybody knows that music and creativity which
trading and adventure. Its more floppy disks means high- gave the title a total of 80
extensive construction com- er price. Reducing a program points. I personally think this was
bines multiple threads that are that was initially written for a small exaggeration. Similarly,
further described in this article. expanded Amiga 1200 wasn’t the game received positive cri-
an easy task though. Author tique from European markets,
The concept of this game was had to cut down everything although the title still had bugs
probably born in a spring of he could find in order to short- in its code and the graphics
1995. Marcin Puchta came up en down the main program. was of very average quality.
with an idea for such game He did succeed, main goal So, where did this enthusiasm
and started the coding. Un- was achieved and the game come from? Possibly because
fortunately, he didn’t know was ready to be released on this game was developed by
the assembly language and two floppy disks. This was the a Polish team and has ensured
so he decided to fully write it important and crucial call for relatively complex entertain-
in AMOS. At the early stage the publisher, as at that time ment. Various Amiga-scene
the game was created on most of players still owned the members announced: "This
expanded Amiga 1200, which Amiga 500 sets. And obviously production is a pioneer of Pol-
was intended to be the main A500 was a cheaper hardware ish RPG games". Originally the
configuration for the release. and this directly affected the game was secured. It relied on
Unfortunately, main publisher demand for such game. In writing down some letters from
– Mirage Media – requested June 1996 this title was added the manual when the security
source code reduction in the to Mirage software catalogue check pops in. For example, in
way that it would use less mem- and the price was set for 40 the middle of a fight the game
ory, run on Amiga 500 and oc- PLN (roughly $10). Few months might have suddenly asked:
later, in September 1996, "Give me the first letter of third
the game was com- word from fifth row on page
pleted for A1200 and it four". Pages were numbered at
was added to the same the bottom, but the rest had to
catalogue for identical be manually checked by play-
price. Strangely enough, er himself and it usually took
this game was selling a while! Today we can easily
very well as for the Polish download the manual from the
standards of mid ‚90s. internet or run cracked version
In August 1996, Polish of this game. And there is also
magazine Secret Ser- a version suitable for hard drive
vice published a review installation.
featuring this game and
presented Legion in Ok, we’re done with the first
superlatives. It received part of this article. Now it’s time
to move on and describe the
REVIEW

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 21

game itself. We launch the ensured a fairly solid protection a good idea to surround them

AMIGA
game from the hard drive, be- and additionally, in regards with a protection wall, but in
cause running Legion from flop- to boots, we can move much this case you can’t forget to
pies might be annoying. After faster. Keep in mind though put up some archers for proper
a short time we see main menu that armor is not everything defense. The point is to wipe
and 3 options to choose from: you will need on your jour- out enemies by ranged archers
start, load or quit game. In our ney – your troops must also be once they are busy destroying
case we’ll choose the starting armed. The choice of weapons our walls.
option. First off, we’ll need to is wide and you can choose
choose a name for our warrior between bows, swords, spears, During the fight itself, the loca-
and then specify names of our axes, hammers, clubs or even tion of our warriors is extremely
enemies. After that we’ll be catapults. Bear in mind that important. The first wave should
taken to the main map view. the effectiveness of weapons consist of heavily armored
The game allows us to play in depends on warrior’s race. units and only on their sides
2 different modes, so we have We should also ensure that we should place humans,
a choice in what way we want someone on our legion can paladins, elves and amazons.
to see an action. First, there is use magic effectively (mages, Mages should be obviously
a very approximate view fea- elves or paladins). Spells have placed at the back row of our
turing small, symbolic elements. the power to suppress oppo- army. Things looks different
If you prefer to see more details nents, healing
you have to zoom in, which our warriors,
is the second mode. At this but are de-
stage we also have access to sirable also
the heroes from our legion. The due to their
game allows us to form multiple destruction
teams, which can all consist power, so
of warriors, archers, amazons, let’s remem-
paladins, elves, mages and ber about
kobolds. At the very begin- the impact of
ning our enemies have more magic during
strength and 3 legions. We start your game.
the game with a single legion In order to
that includes couple of warriors be able to
and small amount of money cast a spell
that is only good enough for we will need
some basic equipment. We a magic scroll
don’t have any other choice and proper
than collecting some more amount of
funds. We can achieve that by magic points.
tax exaction from inhabitants
of cities we currently own. We Cities that
can also plunder the valuable were briefly
loot left over by the enemies mentioned
we annihilated. Another option before should
is obviously trading. be expanded
and upgrad-
Usually a good idea is to ob- ed, but only
tain solid equipment for our once we
troops. And by that I mean have enough
acquiring good armor, magic resources
helmet and sturdy boots. With (money and
such equipment on we have troops). It’s
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

22 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

when we’re conquering the information that could be uti- top or side view. Moving units
AMIGA

fortress – it’s important to place lized later. around is achieved by placing

our mages and archers in front an order. At the beginning of
of the troops, because their The introduction to the game a game we only have one
weapons have a great range isn’t breathtaking. It starts with Legion, so care is strongly ad-
of fire and they can easily kill simple "Long time ago... There vised in our decisions. Legions
our enemies on ramparts. was a land... Its inhabitants live usually consist of 4 or 5 troops
mainly from cultivation, hunt- and the same rule applies to
Another important component ing and trade. They would live our enemies. The beginning of
of the game is the conversation peacefully if they wouldn’t be the game is very difficult and
with people we come across. attacked by Chaos Legions". you need to spend a lot of time
Effective communication will Here is where our mission starts to master each aspect of the
help us gathering important and the goal is to defeat the gameplay and simple strategy
Legions of might not be enough to grand
Chaos. From victory. Chaos Legions will
the tech- attack everything and every-
nical point where in 120 days. This is the
of view, it’s time we have to create our "Su-
a good habit per Legion" consisting of elite
to often save warriors that can effectively
the progress face them.
as the game
can crash Let me add something about
and exit to the final part of the game
AmigaDOS. where we fight Lord of Cha-
Storing your os and his soldiers. Winning is
progress on awarded with an image (IMHO
a floppy of average quality) and victo-
will require rious sentence: "Here’s the one
a blank disk. who destroyed all life. Now he’s
The problem lying at his own feet". In my
obviously opinion this is quite strange and
doesn’t exist improperly written ending state-
in the Hard ment. After some long time of
Disk version. waiting we can see another
Combat smaller picture followed by the
system starts sentence: "... Your adventure
with our is finished" and after that we
team being see a picture with a skull and
teleported a "Game Over" logo.
to the bat-
tle area. Unfortunately, Legion has got
The control couple of issues that negatively
is ensured affected the gameplay. The
through the most irritating component is the
mouse, so copy protection mechanism.
joystick ma- Program just too often asks us
niacs will be to confirm content originality,
disappoint- so we have to play with the
ed. We see manual in our hands. Units’
our heroes movement system is also legit-
from the imately terrible! I think the rea-
son behind it might be related
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 23

to the necessary reduction of tiful box cover artwork, but games of that type. Our Legion

AMIGA
game’s source code. Our he- nothing beside it. Unfortunately, only sometimes was mentioned
roes just can’t avoid obstacles even the fighting system looks at the end of someone’s TOP
on their way. Sometimes we weak. In my opinion the game list. Nevertheless, one thing
need to spend too much time was tested in a very chaotic they’ve said was that this is still
just to be able to move our way and this might be the rea- the best Polish RPG title for Ami-
troops through some narrow son on why there are so many ga. Perhaps this game has still
section of the map. Also, our mistakes on top with the terrible many fans across Polish players,
troops very often fall into holes, copy protection part. I’ve pre- but I definitely didn’t feel it this
traps etc, which also negatively viously heard some rumors that way.
impact their
movement.
Another
issue is that
the pro-
gram kicks
out to Ami-
gaDOS far
too often,
so the best
solution is
to save the
game pro-
gress very
often.

Okay, let’s
summarize:
sound is
pretty av-
erage and
I’ve heard
better tunes
in other
productions
that were
similarly
made "in
home studi-
os". We can hear that the sam- the quality of Legion was equal There is also an English version
ples aren’t of the best quality. to foreign releases. After check- of Legion on Amiga, as well as
The person responsible for au- ing this statement with other a PC version ported by Marek
dio was Marcin Puchta. There Amiga gamers across Western Lech, who completely moved
is a piece of good music, but it Europe I revealed that they ha- this game from Amos language
only plays at the beginning of ven’t even heard of this Polish into C++.
game. The game also disap- production or in best case, they
pointed me in regards to the didn’t take this game into con- Legion
graphics created by Andrzej sideration when creating their Publisher: Mirage
Puchta, main programmer’s TOP lists of RPG titles. They’ve Media
brother, as everything we see listed other games with Eye of Year of publication: 1996
on screen is very dull and aver- Platform: Amiga
the Beholder, Ambermoon, Am-
age. Legion only has a beau-
7 5 8
berstar, Alien Fires and many of
  
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

24 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Demons of Dex -
Eino’s Quest
COMMODORE

Review: Bobikowoz; Translated by Bobikowoz

The arch druid has become old and it is time for somebody to replace him.
According to tradition his position shall be passed to a man brave enough to
defeat three Demon Lords from the Dex dungeon. You are Eino. It is time to set
foot on a road to enlightenment and glory related to arch druid position.

D
emons of Dex - Eino’s ter if he dies, you have to start hearts, two dead demons on
Quest is a rougelike over. your list, but a fight with a com-
game. If you haven’t mon orc can with some bad
heard this term before, basical- According to the tradition luck can take it all away. Be-
ly it is a quite random game, of the genre graphic design fore you hit him for the first time
where you need to descend in this game is symbolic. You you get three clean strikes and
deeper into some dungeon need to use our imagination suddenly you notice a group of
and level up your character. to make a bat from B or to undead coming your way. Do
Graphics in this type of pro- change letter Z into undead. I have to add that in this situ-
duction usually consists only ation you just run out of
of acsii characters. Another Trivia healing potions?
important rule is permanent
death. No matter how well you The game has been created by Petri Häk- Apart from generic
kinen, co-creator of Legend of Grimrock drawback, there is
have developed your charac-
series and a co-founder of Almost Human
nothing bad I can say
studio. If you would like to play the game
without VIC-2 emulator, the game is avail- about this game. As far
able on-line at this link: as I know author put
http://tinyurl.com/DemonsOfDex into the code literally
Code of the game is publicly available on
GitHub:
everything he could.
https://github.com/petrihakkinen/demons VIC-20 is an aging ma-
chine with only 3583
bytes of memory, but
Subsequent levels brings new each byte is being used while
letters... excuse me, new mon- playing “Eino’s Quest". There
sters, as well as new color are a dozen of different dun-
schemes of the surroundings. geons, special effects during
Emerald caves, abandoned demon encounters, nice “fog
muddy mines, ice caverns - of war" effect and some music.
with a free mind you can expe- All of that is fit inside a code
rience rather interesting adven- not much larger than this text..
ture! If you do not trust me, try
to play after a few beers ;)
Demons of Dex - Eino’s Quest
Demons of Dex is not a difficult Publisher: Petri Häkkinen
game, but the death lurks at Year of publication: 2015
Platform: VIC20
Eino from every single corner.
The most dangerous enemy is
not any of the monsters, but 3 5 8
the randomness of the game-
play. You can have five healthy
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 25

COMMODORE
Review: noctropolis; Translated by MA

Do you feel like jumping in this, at the first glance, in this undemanding but en-
gaging new production? So take you joysticks and let’s play! You will play as an
unusual ninja warrior, the one that in contrast to popular image is not slim and
sporty but rather is an owner of a big belly. Having such a belly may make us sur-
prised that this character can jump as high as he can, but it’s obvious that the re-
alism of the movement isn’t important here. It is the humour that counts here. ;-).

I
t is worth to mention our character. You have a progress bar. A good
the fact that, as we to do it quite skilfully as idea is also to include
can read in a short info the stage is in constant a system of check points
before the main screen, movement. (seen as a vertical lines
Jump Ninja was created on the progress bar)
by Wanax (with the help What is more interesting which enables us, in
of saulc12) especially and surprising (for such case of unfortunate
for his son Francesco. productions) the game landing, to continue
He did it to make his son is not an endless one. At the game from a cer-
fall in love with C64. By the bottom of the screen tain point and not the
the way it is a great gift we can see not only the beginning. Additional
and surely it will be re- score and the number element, in later stages,
membered by the son of the lives left but there are enemies and various
in the years to follow as are also the number obstacles.
it didn’t require a lot of of a current level and
money. On the contrary,
it was self-made using
a lot of passion and
heart.

But let’s talk about the

game. Although at first
it’s style bears resem-
blance to a very popu-
lar "one-button" games
such as Flappy Bird or
Canabalt, it is just half
the truth as difficulty
here is higher as you not
only hit the fire button
but you also have to
use directions to steer
REVIEW

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26 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Although in games as friendly and if I could and after some time

COMMODORE

this the most important wish for something more spent with it you can get
aspect is its playability, it would be the greater quite skilful with it. Al-
what is worth noticing variety of backgrounds though I’m generally not
is its beautiful and col- in the different stages good at playing arcade
ourful hi-res graphics. of the game. The game games, here I had no
It can be described as has a nice music which problems with playing it,
a simple one but at the resembles that of orient which in the end result-
same time it is really origin and it can be de- ed in having a lot of fun
"clean" and friendly. We scribed as neither great with it. I definitely rec-
have a really smooth nor bed. ommend it.
movement of a stage, JUMP NINJA
water and the bottom of The Jump Ninja game is Publisher: Wanax
Year of publication: 2016
the stage moves slower definitely worth playing,
Platform: C64
than the rest of what even though you can’t
you can see and the sun play with your own son
and clouds remain mo- yet. The game is not as   8 7 9
tionless. The atmosphere difficult and hard as it
of the game is quite seems at the beginning
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 27

Serpent Caves

COMMODORE
Review: Komek; Translated by Komek

Have you ever dreamed that you are in a cave full of poisonous snakes? Or
you may have seen a movie in which hissing reptiles lie and wait for a victim?
Maybe you had the opportunity to be in this place, but I don’t think so. Any-
way, fortunately I did not, yuck!!!

A
ll right, and what if the take all the diamonds from the
serpents and caves cave. Serpent Caves’ graphic
would be only the is just the character set PETSCII
part of the video game? Sure, from the Commodore PET. Per-
I would agree to take part in sonally I like this style. This pic-
this adventure. Without fear ture shows what the function
and pain, without emergency the character has and how to
medical service and antivenin, use the keys to move around
but only emotions and will to the cave.
survive.
At the beginning of the game
Serpent Cave video game is it’s quite easy, but that’s okay,
just an encounter with poison- because there is time to get
ous snakes in the dark cave. adjusted. You’re wrong if you
Besides, title of the game think that level of difficulty will
explains a lot, but what is the always be similar, because the
goal? Nobody in their right final levels are a great chal-
mind would want to be in lenge.
such a place! Here is a de-
coy, I mean the precious di- The quality of graphic and
amonds!!! I’m sure that you’ll sound is not important here.
want take as much of them The most important thing in
as possible. Well, that’s it. You this case is playabality which
have to go through nine caves. is good. Exactly! Such a little
It probably isn’t everything, game made with characters
because I found some infor- and it’s got the power! Playing
mation that this project is in Serpent Caves will make you
progress. When you start the want more and more dia-
level on the screen only some monds and tremble with fear of
little points can be seen around poisonous snakes.
the full circle (full circle is you).
With further moves the com-
puter draws next elements of
SERPENT CAVES
a game. When the screen dis-
Publisher: Ravenxau
plays an empty circle you must
Year of publication: 2015
know that it’s an underpass to Platform: VIC20
the next cave, sometimes it
shows up after the beginning
of the level. Of course, you can   2 0 7
go right now, but is better if you
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Dork Dave and
28 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

the Dirty Trick

COMMODORE

Review: Komek; Translated by Slayerpl

When something torments you and the HUD shows zero,
Remove bad thoughts out of your head, otherwise you won’t feel like a hero.
There are, fortunately, many ways to relieve you from your stress.
Discover yourself how the time goes in this colourful, childish place.
Odd creatures here and there, the bizarre plants,
They fill your eyes, let the game commence!

E
xactly!!! Platform adven- ing ur journey things like:
ture games are, in my diamonds, stars, hearts,
Grown-ups enjoy platform games.
opinion, one of the best coins, fruits etc. All those Why? Because they know, that these
antidepressants. They have surroundings create un- kind of games aren't violent, so they
usually colourful scenery, forgettable and positive can easily let their kids playing them.
Additionally, sometimes they also like
straight from a fairy tale, the mood and provide us
to detach from the world's problems
protagonists are odd or funny with an energy boost. and dive into the colorful and carto-
creatures, and we gather dur- on universes...
The
game Generally, my impression is that
with a bizarre the game looks NES – like.
title Dork Dave
and the Dirty Immediately after launching
Trick is a typical the game I felt that I am miss-
platform game, ing something. I’m thinking
which was cre- about some funny, colourful
ated by Mika picture or a nice intro because
Keranen, Finn- the game is so good that it
ish coder who could be made more awe-
has created some by adding this type of
another great elements.
C64 release (Mr
Angry Dude). Generally, I didn’t notice

Even though a concrete objective in the

you won’t find game. I know only that its’

in it odd crea- main protagonist, titular Dave,

tures, coins or is an idiot, dork....and he has

stars etc. , the to save a stupid princess, but is

way in which it it true? Unfortunately, I cannot

was created, write more about this topic,

speaks for itself. because I was defeated in

There are a lot the next part of the game and

of borrowings I don’t know what is the end-

from Super ing. The plot of the game is at

Mario Bros one time in the court, then in

but I think it the castle, just like in Mario.

is a huge ad-
Unfortunaly Dave is defense-
vantage which
less, but he is a really agile
increases its’
fellow. He performs well when
playability.
REVIEW

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 29

COMMODORE
he jumps over the edges of the
chasm or when he jumps up to
the upper platforms. The obsta-
cles that I encountered during
the game are: moving blocks,
flying bullets, flickering rays of
lasers and the aforementioned
chasm. It is great that there is
no fixed time to finish a given
level, so you can play without
hurrying. As far as gathering
points is concerned, you can
get them, for example, by
gathering white, moving dots
or crushing blocks with your
head.

I have to warn you about one

thing! When you begin the
game, do not push fire in any
circumstaces, but allow the
gameto move you to the right,
otherwise you will lose one life.
Generally, it doesn’t matter,
whether you will encounter
your obstacle in the middle of
the level or its’ end, because,
either way, you will be tele-
ported to the beginning of the pressive, but it is also not medi-
level. ▲Screen
▲ comes from: http://www.plus4world.com/
ocre. An enormous playability
is one of the most important
Before I finish the review of DORK DAVE AND THE DIRTY
features of the games. Do you
the game, I have to praise TRICK
notice it? Only positive impres-
its’ graphics. Perfectly chosen Publisher: Misfit
sions. Soooo....Should we play it
colours and thorough design Year of publication: 2015
together? Platform: C16
cause that the graphics is
clear, and what is more im-

9 4 8
portant, Parallax scrolling was
used. The sound is not so im-   
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

30 Komoda & Amiga plus #4
COMMODORE

Review: Komek; Translated by Michał Sroka

I’ve promised myself that if I ever was to review a game from the 80s, I would pick
a good, but lesser known title. Does it make any sense to read for a thousand time
about The Great Giana Sisters, International Karate or Test Drive? Everyone knows
everything there is to know about these games, while there are lots of other games
that you have never heard of.

I
’ve stumbled upon Ran- I quickly got to like the pro- guy got eaten! That was
sack by accident while tagonist, a jumping robot enough! As a result, the
checking a compilation that shoots hordes of ene- Council sent their fleet to
my friend Wojtek gave me. mies. I’ve later found out deal with inhabitants of the
As a Shoot’Em Up enthusiast that his stabilizing systems Ryvian system. However, in
had been order to cut the costs, they
dam- agreed on sending only one
aged. So slightly malfunctioning, but
why was brave robot, which you are
he sent going to take control of!
on a mis-
sion? It all The first planet od the Ryvi-
started an system is Eelleet, which
with eight in followed by: Gountlet,
planets of Urydyum, Riptoff, Santion,
the Ryvi- Frust, Boldash, Dealta.
an system Gameplay-wise they are
that were all the same: your goal is to
evading destroy all ships and ma-
paying chines controlled by the
required inhabitants of Ryvian. The
tribute to sheer number of enemies
the Dem- and the pace of gameplay
ocratic make Ransack difficult.
Planetary You have four lives, each
Coun- containing fifteen hit points,
cil. The so it’s not all bad. Being
Council a good shooter, Ransack
decided presents the player with
to send a few bonuses that make
their leg- the game a little easier:
ate to new weapons, bombs and
negotiate power ups-surprises. They
with their are presented as squares
debtors, with symbols describing
but the what’s inside. You can use
REVIEW

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 31

planet, there is an incredi-

COMMODORE
bly difficult bonus level for
you to score some addition-
al points. Each planet has
a timer set to 99 at the be-
ginning of the stage, which
is shown on the left side of
the screen. When it reaches
zero you don’t lose a life,
but instead you are forced
to finish the fight on your
current planet.

What more can I add?

The game has pretty good

bombs and surprises when- I stumbled

ever you desire by pressing upon some-
simultaneously joy up and thing neat
fire. At the bottom of the in the “?"
screen there a wide icon box – a little
with two small windows robot that
at the middle. Right one began to
shows your current bomb or shoot at the
surprise, while the left one incoming en-
depicts the weapon you emies. Also,
currently wield. It’s worth be mindful
noting that bombs are very of what you
useful, as they can get you pick up, as
out of dire situations by de- it is possible
stroying everything on the to replace
screen. During the game more pow-

graphics, which is make

even better by the use of
parallax scrolling. Sound ef-
fects are pretty decent and
suit the action quite well.
The overall gameplay is
pretty good, but the difficul-
ty level can spoil the fun.

RANSACK
Publisher: Audiogenic
Software Ltd.
Year of publication: 1987
erful weapons with
▲▲ Version on Atari XL/XE: Platform: C64
weaker ones. Upon
The year 2014 brough us an Atari port of Ransack. It
wascreatedfortheAtariBitByterUserClub(ABBUC)
completing each
  7 5 6
and retains the atmosphere of the original...
REVIEW

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32 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

TALKING
HEADS
Shoot’Em-Up Construction Kit

T
here are persons who claim that
it is a primitive instrument to cre- noctropolis: I have a very good opin-
ate kitsch, and everything that ion about SEUCK and I have to defend
is created with it lacks a character. it. The main advantage of this problem
There are other people who say that it

is a simple and quick meth- is considerable lack of

od for a good game and The difficulty in creating
you need only to focus to games with it, which
main advan-
make it attractive. The translates into the vast
tage of this problem
opinions on the topic amount of releases
is considerable lack of
of games which are created with it, and
created in SEUCK are
difficulty in the not decreasing
divided. We will men- creating games with popularity of the pro-
tion the topic of C64 it, which translates into gram. There are also
and Amiga games the vast amount of authors, for which the
made in this pro- releases created with possibilities offered
gram in this episode of it. by the program are
Talking Heads. What do - noctropolis sufficient and they still
the editors of “K&A plus" use it, but there are
have to say about it? also those for which
Check it out! this program is the
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 33

prelude to the more serious creations read last “K&A plus", they know it.
(and those for which the program is We made two simple games: Shamai
the springboard to something bigger - the return of myths and The Ocean
from time to time). I will not agree that Ninja. The word “simple" is very signifi-
it is an instrument to create kitsch. Of cant for SEUCK. Of course, everything
course, a lot of typical and boring depends on the approach to creat-
shooters were created with the help of
SEUCK, but there are some exception-
al releases. In addition, these releases
are not only shooters, as suggested
by SEUCK acronym (however there
are a lot of good shooters) but there is
an important fact that some creators
omit ( or we can say that they mask)
the limitations of the program and
they create with its’ help a variety of
games, for instance, platform, race or
adventure – like, or some other being
a combination of the genres.

Komek: The truth is that a lot of games,

which were created with use of this
program… they caused that I spent
a lot of time by the screen of the com- ing games, because you can make
puter. I can easily mention a lot this SEUCK production perfect or
of SEUCK productions who completely make it wrong.
have nice graphics and I would deny the definition
You do not
high playability, but of writing games with
I will limit myself to
need to use of this program.
the most important have any skills or know You do not need to
ones. For example, anything about computers have any skills or know
for C64: Laserhawk, – the program anything about com-
Verde, Forgotten does everything for puters – the program
Forest, Evil Wizard 2, us which in standard does everything for
Dodo’s Deep Doo- circumstances. us which in standard
Doo, 1000 Kung Fu circumstances (assem-
Maniacs, V.I.O.S. and - Minimoog bler or even BASIC) can
for Amiga: Intense – take a lot more time and
Sector One Reborn, Raid
(I, II, III, IV), Sky Flyer, Serene
Trilogy. Unfortunately, SEUCK has
limited abilities which cause that they
can create only an imitation of certain
genres of games. However, this pro-
gram is really good and can be used
to create typical shooters.

Minimoog: I worked with SEUCK for

a couple of years and I had an
opportunity to work in it - with my
group – Slavia, almost a year ago,
for SEUCK Compo 2015. Those who
EDITORIAL

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34 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

bring a worse result. In the main culprit are the games

games created by way of If the that I played. Usually, you
SEUCK the nicest thing is
game is good,
can clearly see wheth-
then, regardless of
the fact that you can er a given game was
the fact with
easily recognize them. created in this editor.
which editor the game
The typical sound was created, it will be It is the biggest dis-
effects, scrolling or good. If the author can advantage when,
the counter of points hide the imperfections once again, we play
on the bottom of the of SEUCK, then in my the same scenario
screen reveal every- opinion, we are dealing and the only differ-
thing! with another category of ence is the graphics.
games. And what about the
Bobikowoz: As a player - Bobikowoz mentioned by my pre-
I have mixed feelings in decessors the exceptional
relation with the games cre- games? If the game is good,
ated with SEUCK. I suspect that the then, regardless of the fact with
which editor the game
was created, it will be
good. If the author can
hide the imperfections
of SEUCK, then in my
opinion, we are dealing
with another category of
games.

noctropolis: I would like to

mention one interesting
subcategory (if we can
call it this way) of SEUCK
games, the releases with
an additional code. We
can recognize them most
often by the fact that
during the credits of such
game the SEUCK author is
EDITORIAL

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 35

separately mentioned and separately itive about the releases which were

COMMODORE
a person responsible for the so called made in this program. If someone of
SEUCK enhancements, the aforemen- you didn’t have anything to do with
tioned additional codes. Those games SEUCK, it is worth to see what the pro-
very often are created in pairs: the gram is all about because only then
main creator is a person experienced we can have an honest, real opin-
in making games by use of the afore- ion. Maybe you would like to create
mentioned environment ( but not a SEUCK game?
necessarily a programmer), and the
additions, final result is added by the
coder. There can be a problem with
the classification of such creations.
When we look at it from one side, it is
not a pure SEUCK, because to create
something like this, you need to have
concrete programming skills (or try to
find help in this area). From the other
side, the whole nucleus of the game
is still SEUCK and the additions are put
into something that we can call “dé-
cor". Because we can say it frankly:
if the pure SEUCK can create a nice
gameplay, sometimes it lacks some-
thing besides it. Attractive title, some
kind of cut-scenes, music during the
gameplay or an interesting ending. For
instance, often after ending a typical
SEUCK release, I felt unsatisfied be-
cause of its’ typical, “faked" ending or
even lack of it. You reach the end of
a level, the opponents disappear, the
hero stays on the screen with a limited
area of movement and there is some-
where above a written message that
says “the end" or something like this.
You can feel or at least I feel it that
way….that it is artificial ending and
not a real ending (and some of the
games simply repeat, which for me is
an even worse solution). Coders’ ad-
ditions allow to put in this place some
kind of nice, ending picture, or maybe
music, a word about the whole story
with congratulations. The player feels
better and notices that his effort was
appreciated. Yeah, the SEUCK exten-
sions are a really great thing, even
though it is not a pure SEUCK anymore. Translated by Slayerpl

As you can see, the opinions of ed-

itors about SEUCK aren’t that much
different. They are in 90 percent pos-
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

36 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Resurrection: Syndicate
Review: c00k; Translated by Tomxx & Atreus

It’s year 1993. Some month ago Commodore introduces Amiga 1200, which was
admittedly successful, but still influenced company’s business as much as the Mes-
serschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe impacted the German fate during World War II (tho-
ugh perhaps for the sake of Commodore’s founder this isn’t the best comparison).
At around the same time British company called Bullfrog, known from its "God si-
mulator" Populous, introduces the first title from a series called Syndicate. Similarly
to Lucas and their Star Wars, at that point they obviously didn’t think of a series yet.

S
yndicate’s plot in a nutshell provide covering fire, was earlier here! Choosing a region to con-
is as follows: not too distant introduced by Cannon Fodder; quer is a standard choice, but
future, the world is ruled by however Syndicate took it one the amount of taxes imposed on
corporations. We’re managing step further and let the player them and the further manage-
one of them and intend to take equip each agent differently. ment of funds in order to conduct
over the influence zones of other This included the equipment and scientific research is a high add-
companies. In order to achieve implants, which allowed the mod- ed value.
this goal we hire special agents ification of both, physical aspects
All of that made me to say it of-
who are sent on missions in teams of our agents and the intelligence
ficially: Syndicate is my favorite
consisting of four members. required for autonomic function-
computer game of all times. No
ing on the field. Missions do vary
This isn’t perhaps the first tactical other game made me feel so
in many ways: it might be as sim-
game ever released on Amiga, good ;)
ple as killing someone or taking
but surely it’s the first one with
over an item, but sometimes the Unfortunately, this title already
such wide capabilities of a game-
goals are more complicated, like highlights the progress made by
play. The control system of LMB
kidnapping a person by using PC computers in early 90’s. Cou-
– move, RMB – fire, as well as the
special item called Persuadertron. ple of years earlier DOS games
ability to split team members to
looked much worse than their
What else distinguishes this
Amiga counterparts, in this case
game from other titles? Defi-
though it’s much different. The
nitely game’s atmosphere! Mel
most visible difference are visual
Gibson’s fans would pee them-
details, for example of the emer-
selves in happiness! We receive
gency vehicles. Amiga version
a true Cyberpunk genre here,
had one vehicle model with light
and what’s also cool, the afore-
signals on top, while the PC ver-
mentioned vision of the world is
sion featured different designs of
presented with a brilliant quality
police or ambulance cars, which
of graphical design. First of all, it’s
one could obviously steal, simi-
as you can professionally say noir.
larly to the later known games.
As of a definition of Cyberpunk,
The only difference was that one
the world must be dark and grey,
needed to shoot down a driver ;)
sometimes decorated with psy-
chedelic colors reflected by neon The second game of the series –
signs or multimedia billboards. All Syndicate Wars – was released
of that is present in this game and 3 years later. Due to game’s
the mood is similar to the one pre- features, and the fact, that Com-
sented in the song of internet per- modore Business Machine didn’t
former who aspires to be a MMA exist on the market anymore, this
fighter: "It’s not so colorful"… game was not published on Ami-
ga. This is not the reason of not
And that’s not all, as we also
mentioning this game though –
have a deep strategic factor
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 37

the second part was simply poor. an isometric view and it was all full to purchase boxed version. This
It was announced as a great hit of cyberpunk atmosphere. There is only mine subjective thing, as
featuring 3D graphics which at- are corporations ruling the world, some other people just appreci-
tempted to eliminate the biggest objects are controlled by guards, ate the convenience of buying
issue of part one – the impossibility and streets are being patrolled the electronic version.
of moving screen around when by police. Similarly to the original
A huge success of this game was
your troops were behind the release, we also receive lots of
also highlighted by authors’ be-
buildings. Unfortunately it wasn’t various "toys" and cybernetic sup-
havior, as they didn’t even an-
enough. I recall trying hard to ports to play with. The only major
play this game but it didn’t in- difference is related to the team
trigue me at all. The same feelings –we don’t control four agents, but
were shared by all of my friends. only a single one. The other three
have different responsibilities.
Fans had to wait 16 years for an-
The game definitely offers more
other part of the series. Eventually,
ambitious gameplay compared
when the game was released
to other modern productions. It’s
they all noticed that only the
even more ambitious than the
title is the same. This release was
original part :) The emphasis was
placed incredibly far away for
put on cooperation known from
what fans were expecting for so
various Amiga productions, like
many years: we’ve just received
Lost Vikings and Furry of the Furries,
a FPP game. There are corpora-
where we command the team
tions and agents but the atmos-
members equipped with different
phere is so different – everything’s
warfare and can use their hack-
too bright there. Instead of the
ing, medical and assassination
cyborgization we received a chip
abilities. Additionally, we don’t
that provides us with the ability to
have any strategic component of
influence enemies and let us con-
conquering and managing sepa-
necting to electronic devices to
rate parts of the world. The game
pull info on our health stats. Feels
provides smaller world which looks
good but it’s not atmospheric
like a city agglomeration and
enough. The spirit of previous era
we’re moving in it like in the urban
is only visible on bosses, which
sandbox. Money doesn’t come
aren’t popular enough.
from taxes but from hacked ATM
swer my request for a review copy
Sometime later the developers machines, which transfer to our
and some interesting press note.
that have been previously in- own account a small amount
It looks like people responsible for
volved into the first part of the every second. Just try to leave
the marketing part didn’t even
series announced: we’re willing to this game on for the entire night
bother to make it more famous
create The New Syndicate players ;) There is even a plot in back-
and promote their title in a maga-
are waiting for! There was only ground, but for me personally the
zine like ours :) Well, I didn’t count
one problem – they didn’t have biggest asset of this game is the
for the free version of game, but
enough funds. They asked players beautiful graphic design. Darkness
some interesting press note would
to finance the entire project and, rules over this world at all times
be nice – I’m sure they have
as expected, fans responded very here, and the only brightness
something prepared in advance
enthusiastically. It resulted in col- comes from the trashy neon ads,
for the press :)
lecting the entire amount needed which are indeed a very good
for the development of a new piece of artwork. This game’s cy- Let me summarize: this game fully
game, but additionally, devs of- berpunk is exactly as good as the derives from the best movements
fered to place top donors in the one known from cult movies like of the original title, as well as from
virtual world. The main sponsor Blade Runner or Johny Mnemonic. other games featuring sandbox-
has become the main villain in A masterpiece to our eyes! ing, cooperation and cyberpunk
game . classics. It’s going to provide us
There’s only one "but" – the game
with hours of entertainment that
As promised, the new game was isn’t called Syndicate but Sattelite
we can often return to.
exactly what fans were waiting Reign, which is due to the fact
for! We received a highly devel- that EA currently owns the rights
oped tactical game presented in to this series. The second very mi-
nor disadvantage is the inability
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

38 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Slavia once again

COMMODORE

Review: Minimoog; Translated by Karo

Some of you, dear Readers, probably remember that in May 2014 a game called
Slavia saw the light of the day for the first time, when it was put as a cover-disc in
“Komoda" magazine (one of the magazines that fused into K&A later). I consider this
date as the beginning of activity of a group under the same name – Slavia.

A
nd now we come to So, what’s new?
you again, with a game
Slavia 2! The number 2 in As I mentioned before – it’s
the title has many meanings. It’s a game for two players. Slavia
our second text game, for two 2 enables you to play even
players, the second part of Sla- when you are far away from
via that was created two years each other and one thing that
ago! A lot makes it significantly easier it…
of twos, the Internet. The programme
right? uses a special method of
counting and receiving codes ferred to the heroes’ stats. The
Our new – it’s enough to write them to only attack left is to attack until
production each other in any chat and you die or surrender!
also takes your Commies will connect! But
Slavia was an adventure game,
place in beware! You have to be very
Slavia 2 is a strategic one. Gath-
early Medi- precise when you write down
ering a right number of militia,
eval, at the codes – once in, it cannot be
managing the time intended
beginning corrected!
for preparing to battle and skil-
of Piast dy-
In this part of the game moving ful controlling of the troops in
nasty (the
around the world is not as com- a fight, demands wise risk-taking
first histori-
plex as it was before. There is no and creating good strategies.
cal dynasty
map but you can still go to the A battle that seems won, can
of Polish
forest or lake. Those places will yet turn out to be lost!
kings).
You can be very useful as they are the
I know I might seem prejudiced
choose to source of fish, pelts and meat
because I praise my own game
play with that we can sell.
but I really think it’s worth to
one of play Slavia 2. It’s a result of 6
In Slavia 2 the battle is divided
the four, months’ worth of difficult work
into two parts – army battle and
authentic Slavic tribes – Polans, but the outcome is really nice
hand to hand combat. In the
Moravians, Pomeranians and and the game is a good way
first part we need to place our
Drevlans. Each of them has their to, let’s say, spend an enjoyable
militia (warriors, shielders and
own statistics, which can of half an hour with your buddy.
bowmen) skilfully and strategi-
course be upgraded. We have
cally. Their amount influences
a whole day to buy the militia
attack, defence – dealing and
and special items improving
resisting damage. If one army
our stats and to gather and
runs out or its energy drops to
exchange supplies necessary
0 – we enter the second part
to buy them. When the clock
of the fight. First, the remaining
strikes 10 p.m. – the battle starts!
troops and energy are trans-
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 39

My XU1541 adventure

COMMODORE
Review: JargoV; Translated by Atreus & Tomxx

Since Commodore demoscene started showing up on internet almost every user

faces the problem of data transfer between PC and C64. Finally I also started to
get trapped into this inconvenience. With such wide access to games and de-
moscene products we shouldn’t really continue running the apps on the emulator,
right? It’s time to move on with real hardware!

F
irst solution was to Unfortunately, things were go-
build a simple cable ing wrong all the time. Drivers
XE+XM1541. Everything with OpenCBM software pro-
was working like it should, but vided on this website didn’t
cable was designed for using want to operate on 64-bit ver-
vintage parallel port LPT and sion of Windows 7. So I aban-
finding this one on modern doned the entire project and
computers might be a mira- got back to it only some time
cle. My old machine, which later. I’ve decided to describe
was strictly suited for this pro- the way of installing this inter-
cess, slowly finished its life with face under 64-bit Windows 7
multiple OS hang ups, even OS, even though this descrip-
with freshly installed operating tion is provided with drivers.
system... I feel it might be little bit too

I found a solution for this sit-

uation which is a popular
interface XU1541: http://spiro.
trikaliotis.net/xu1541

I’ve looked on PCB of this

project: it’s built on 2 PCB lay-
ers, which might be hard to
build for people who didn’t
do that before. When I was
building this interface I’ve
decided to design simpler
version called Mini XU1541.
Comparing to the original pro-
jects it doesn’t demand deep
technical skills in soldering and
creating a PCB, so it’s a nice
solution for wider audience ;)
I quickly "slimmed" schematic,
designed new PCB, etched
plate and soldered all pieces
together.
TUTORIAL

winter / spring 2016

40 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

complicated and incompre- http://zadig.akeo.ie/ We’re After all these operations are
COMMODORE

hensible for the basic use of following up with installing li- performed we’re able to
XU1541. busb-win32 drivers. smoothly transfer data be-
tween C64 and PC! I don’t
4. Run CMD.EXE as administra-
1. PA primary requirement have to say on how comforta-
tor and go to OpenCBM fold-
are the drivers bundled with ble this solution is right now ;)
er. Run install xu1541.
OpenCBM software, but you
XU1541 in basic setup, without
need to download them in 5. For higher productivity
JiffyDOS isn’t a speed demon,
Alpha/Beta version! we can also install GUI for
but the most important thing is
http://spiro.trikaliotis.net/ OpenCBM. I recommend CB-
it’s working without any prob-
opencbm-alpha MXfer.
lem.
http://www.6502.org/users/
As I write this article the file is
sjgray/software/cbmxfer/cb- Of course I’m adding sche-
described as Beta 0.4.99.98.
mxfer.html matic and PCB for a mini
Download and unpack the
version: https://www.dropbox.
files. Unpack the archive to the
com/sh/72ast2jon2uipej/
appropriate folder within
2. We’re booting up our PC AAAqHnNrJIZ8BXtJxN-Nwl_
OpenCBM hierarchy:
with disabled Driver Signing ga?dl=0
amd64 - for 64-bit OS
check and with connected
i386 - for 32-bit OS Process of writing firmware is
XU1541 interface.
the same like in the original
6. Run CBMXfer.exe and
3. Run Zadig program with version. I’d only slightly modi-
choose X-Cable interface in
administrator rights. fied the hardware.
Settings.
TUTORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 41

Aviator

COMMODORE
Review: Neurocide; Translated by Slayerpl

The box was huge. I was sure that there was something inside it which I could plug
into my C64. I couldn’t stand the pressure, so I started unwrapping the package.
With my claws and teeth I opened the decorative wrapper. Oh yeah! My hunch
was right.

T
here was a writing “Quick-
Shot" on the box which
erased my doubts. I want-
ed more. It was Aviator 1. Huge
game contro ller. Nowadays it is
difficult for me to say whether it
was more of a steering wheel or
the space ship flight control sys-
tem. When you are 12 years old,
it may seem that you received
a best gift ever that you could
imagine for Christmas.

You look at this wonder and you

cannot be wrong. It is a work
of art, an invention of a talent-
ed engineer. You can imagine
yourself flying because of it,
just like the kids from the adver-
tisements. Colorful strips whirl
around you and you fly towards
sky, you shoot at the aliens and
then you transform into F18 and
you bombard Saddam.

And then….you plug it in. The

suction cups barely keep the

surface, when you pull, the
plane goes downwards, when
you push, the nose of the plane
goes upwards. Everything mixed
up. It is good that at least you
can turn. Aviator 1 lands……un-
fortunately on the shelf, where
it is covered by dust. It is good
that the kids forget so quickly.
EDITORIAL

winter / spring 2016

 42 Komoda & Amiga plus #4
AMIGA

Review and Translation: Tomxx

Sometime in early January I accidentally came across a trailer for a new Amiga
game. Its concept together with high quality visuals and catchy music got me
hooked – as a dedicated World of Tanks fan, a new tank-themed game was for
me personally quite a thing! Once the trailer revealed a copy of the Polish Amiga
Magazine dating back to November 1994 I was even more intrigued – shall steel
Polish monsters once again roll across the classic Amiga platform? It previously
happened in 1995 when Mirage released their “Pole Walki" (The Battlefield) game.

T
anks Furry was first pre- protected. In single player than blasting your buddy be-
sented to the audience mode we’re offered 42 levels tween the eyes ;)
during the 2015 Retro- and the battlefield plot takes
komp event, walking away us through desert, forest and TF’s audiovisuals don’t dis-
with a solid second place in urban landscapes. During appoint. With hand-drawn
the retro GameDev category. each mission you fight against graphics, modelled on the
It’s developed by Project R3D enemy forces consisting of GameBoy’s Advance Wars,
– a new group from the Polish armored vehicles, light, heavy it’s pleasant to look at. We’re
Amiga Portal, where the game and super-heavy tanks, up actually dealing with two sub-
was initially discussed on to the ultra-modern "wunder- strate layers, so that vehicles
a dedicated forum thread. tanks". The PvP and Co-Op pass both under and over the
modes for up to 4 players (with elements of the landscape.
TF is a multi-directional shooter two joysticks and keyboard as Combine that with 5-frame
played on a single screen and controllers) are a huge boon animation of the environment
at first glance resembles the to the games longevity. The and it helps to give the effect
classic Battle City from Nam- multiplayer mode has some of a "living" world.
co. The gameplay is fast and serious Bomberman potential
intuitive, with relatively diverse and at some point could be As for the music: the 2 tunes
maps and a primary goal to, picked up as another Amiga are only present in the trailer
what else, destroy all enemies party game. With beer in one and intro (make sure to watch
while keeping your home base hand there is nothing cooler it to solve the “furry"-title mys-
tery) and were both created

▼▼Screenshot from the official trailer of Tanks Furry, source: YouTube.com

by Simone Bernacchia, known
within Amiga scene as JMD.
During the game itself you will
only hear simple sound effects,
pretty much similarly to the
old good Cannon Fodder. Last
thing worth mentioning are
hardware requirements: the
game can be played on any
traditional Amiga with at least
020 CPU and 1MB of RAM.
It’s worth mentioning that the
AGA chipset is not required to
play.
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 43

Another crowd pleaser is the TF is a good yet not perfect will give them a positive kick

AMIGA
way the game is being dis- game. It’s certainly a breath for future projects and that
tributed. The digital version is of fresh air on the Amiga we’re all going to enjoy their
available for free on Aminet market, although personally future products.
servers, but the crew has I’ll be cheering for devs to still
prepared an impressive boxed put a little bit more effort into
version, which is a nice treat game’s design. The AI system TANKS FURRY
for collectors! The main data requires some additional work, Developer: Project R3D
as the enemy vehicles drive Year of publication: 2016
storage used in boxed version
Platform: Amiga 68k
is a CD (it contains, among randomly and as such are not
other files, the adf floppy
image format), although you
of a threat to the human play-
er. AI doesn’t prioritize our HQ
8 3 7
can request a physical floppy in their attacks, which consider
for small additional fee. This a shortcoming. Also, the game
option was introduced sepa- mechanics don’t incorporate
rately, because the creators the terrain aspect into a unit’s
were concerned about the movement stats. Sands, bush-
availability of floppy disks in es or building debris seem to
case large number of orders be perfect for slowing down or
would be placed. The box also even temporary stopping ve-
includes: hicle’s movement and a river
could become passable if only
• A color-printed manual in there were some movable
2 languages environment elements that we
• Poster could use. With such changes
• Fridge magnet the gameplay would definitely
• Stickers, including those for gain some depth. The co-op’s
floppy disks. friendly fire could also use
some revision, as right now
The CD is not bootable on shooting your partner has no
CD32, as using the available effect on the available lives.
applications for creating it
might violate software copy- Despite several shortcomings
right, according to the devel- Tanks Furry is definitely worth
opers. Distribution obviously is your time and the PvP mode
not focused on the financial may become a new hit of
income (the cost of a boxed the Amiga party season! Most
version is less than 10 euro, importantly, however, I feel we
which is significantly less than should send our kudos to the
other currently published retro devs for designing, creating
games). It’s worth noting that and distributing a fully playa-
the availability of a digital ble game for a retro platform.
version was slightly delayed, The team from Project R3D
because of Project R3D’s de- should be proud of them-
sire to honor people that went selves. I hope that the orders,

“
for the box purchase. reception and honest reviews

The multiplayer mode has some

serious Bomberman potential and
at some point could be picked up
as another Amiga party game. With
beer in one hand there is nothing
cooler than blasting your buddy be-
tween the eyes ;)
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

44 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

GameDev Story: Tanks Furry

Koyot1222 & Juen
AMIGA

Interview and Translation by: Tomxx

Krzysiek Matys (Koyot1222, on the left) and Pa-

weł Nowak (Juen, on the right) from Project R3D
speak with us about the concept, inspiration,
working style and the distribution model of their
first very own release for classic Amiga – the
game Tanks Furry.

Tomxx: Project R3D most likely reading and game manual met some time ago.
doesn’t sound familiar to our translations.
readers, please introduce When was the tank-themed
yourself and tell us more about How did you guys meet? arcade game idea originally
your roles in the Tanks Furry born?
project. Koyot1222: For some time
already I wanted to broad- Koyot1222: Few months before
Koyot1222: We’re a group en my artistic skillset. I have the Retrokomp 2015 Game-
formed around our develop- started a forum thread called Dev competition we realized
er, Juen. He has created fast "Pixele/piksele" on PPA.pl, we won’t be able to com-
code responsible for man- which was later used for plete the initial R3D project.
aging all movable and static various graphical concepts Our demos were totally not
objects in game. The entire and ideas. I ultimately aimed of acceptable quality. We
code base was written rela- to deliver a complete set of brainstormed and focused
tively quickly, but it took us game visuals. Juen visited my on finding something simpler,
some time to QA and fix the thread and contacted me yet also attractive. We initial-
issues. I was personally respon- directly about his new game ly thought of something that
sible for the entire graphics concept. This is how our initial would mechanically refer to
layer and can honestly say idea for a new platformer was Bomberman, but eventually
that my work was heavily born, and since then we use decided to go for NES’ Battle
inspired by various titles from the R3D brand. City clone. It wasn’t about an-
Nintendo. It wasn’t easy to Juen: I think we achieved other game port; we intended
follow this guideline, as they a perfectly matched team! to create a brand new game
hire multiple graphic artists per Koyot is similarly enthusiastic based on classic 16-bit stand-
project and their work quality to myself and we managed ards.
is incredibly high. I was able to instantly get down to Juen: Let me only add, that
though to create my own style business. I code for most part we always wanted to make
and I’m very happy with the of my life and I like to do it our own game based on
final results. Doomer deliv- instantly, while Koyot is such Battle City idea. As soon as
ered sound effects and JMD a good graphic designer that we both brainstormed, there
(hooked up after watching it sometimes only takes him an wasn’t anything else we were
our first TF demo) promised to hour to deliver large chunks of willing to go for instead.
compose some music. We’d graphics together with anima-
also like to express our appre- tion layers. It’s an ideal coop- Did you have any previous
ciation to Aszu, who helped eration and I only regret that GameDev experience? How
out in the final development with this broad knowledge we long was the game in devel-
sprint with in-game texts proof- currently possess we haven’t opment? I assume TF wasn’t
INTERVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 45

your main occupation at that I’m a huge fan of Nintendo’s – we have included addition-

AMIGA
time… game graphics. For my TF al 15 maps for Deathmatch,
works I have analyzed Battle which makes a total of 30
Koyot1222: The entire project City and Advance Wars, as random maps in this mode.
took some months to com- well as The Legends of Zelda
plete. We only worked in our series. I aimed to pick up some Can one launch TF on a basic
spare time and so it went details to introduce into my 68k CPU? You earlier men-
slowly but steadily forward. own work. The Nintendo inspi- tioned something about a spe-
I had multiple concepts in my ration is easily noticeable. cial runtime argument...
head and it took me some Juen: We used our own friends
time to finally decide on the for QA and quickly improved Juen: The game requires
ultimate form of visuals. We the game play source code. calculation power delivered
obviously discussed multiple I believe I was the main critic by 020 and it’s in fact the only
ideas, lots of changes were and major supporter of Koy- important requirement. The
introduced on the fly and ot’s works, and he acted in game can indeed be run on
some parts have been perma- the same way to me. This has the 000, but because of really
nently removed from the final allowed us to share instant slow speed (50-60% compared
version. I don’t really have feedback about positive and to 020) we have locked this
much of experience in Game- negative parts of our progress. option up. The parameter
Dev, as I have only worked on was only created for testing
some simple 3D objects in the Are you going to continue purposes (mc68k clones and

“
past. Simultaneously to Tanks working on TF after the game ACA).
Furry I also worked on another is published? Can we still
game – Fruit’Y developed by expect to see some further I’m a huge fan of Nintendo’s
Retroguru group. Juen has improvements and content game graphics. For my TF works
quite extensive demoscene updates? I have analyzed Battle City and
experience which is extremely
Advance Wars, as well as The
powerful knowledge in game Koyot1222: We are currently Legends of Zelda series.
development. waiting for critical response
Juen: I was personally rela- to see whether the release
tively busy at that time and was successful. Initially we Let’s talk about the distribution.
the competition version was thought about several im- When did you first think about
all created within 2 weeks provements in gameplay and boxed version release?
(I worked 1 or 2 hours per perhaps about adding new
day). I then left for holidays content. But we also realized, Koyot1222: We initially only
and didn’t make it on time to that it’d be fun to be able to wanted to complete the
personally visit the competition create a new version of TF digital version of the game.
in Cracow. If I didn’t have this in some time. You know, we On the other hand, Juen works
break I’d probably be enough have removed some ideas with print and production on
motivated to finish the en- from this version and we be- a daily basis, so it was rather
tire game for that event. We lieve it might make a differ- a low hanging fruit for us to
finally had some more time for ence for the sequel. complete.
the development and I’m sure Juen: Certainly we’d work on Juen: I think I was certain that
our current version is much TF if updates are necessary, one of our games must be
better than the competition but we don’t want to only be released as a boxed edition, it
prototype. involved in a single title. We’re was my own desire.
thinking of TF2, but there is Who worked with external ven-
What has inspired you? Did a chance it will be a totally dors and dealt with DTP, print,
you incorporate any player different game than TF. In gadgets production, etc?
feedback? addition to the classic TF there [K] I felt responsible for the
is also a special version com- graphics from start to the end:
Koyot1222: Generally speaking piled for the console IndieGo I prepared a basic layout,
INTERVIEW

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46 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

which was afterwards used for What was the most difficult it was important to keep up to
AMIGA

the box cover, manual and thing to overcome in releasing the original release day.
prints. Juen patiently prepared boxed version?
everything for production. Are you satisfied with the num-
Juen: We partnered up with Koyot1222: We attentively ber of pre-orders? Where do
Amiga.net.pl who became discussed our final layout of they come from?
our official distributor. They the box artwork and carefully
also supported and collected worked on readable manuals, Koyot1222: We expected
orders from both Poland and which wasn’t an easy task. a few dozen of orders and
all other countries worldwide. A few days before the release there were over 200 sub-
I’d like to express my appre- it turned out, that the ware- mitted! We obviously didn’t
ciation for their great work house doesn’t have certain expect such a great response.
and I hope our cooperation amount of "magnetic paper", This is due to people willing
will continue in the future. In which also slowed us down to distribute info about our
contrast, the official publisher a bit. game on the internet and this
of the game is CDLabel, which Juen: I doubt that anyone translates into multiple orders
is the company I manage for ever realized that the magnet from abroad. We hope that
last 6 years. It combines the is slightly smaller than previous- the game will be popular and
profession of information tech- ly announced. We wanted to it will fulfill players’ expecta-
nology (especially software release on time as promised tions. It would be nice to once
development) with printing, to the community, and that’s see a tournament and players
reproduction and now also why we decided to go for that fighting hard for a victory in
publishing :) Working this way small change, even though our very own game.
allowed us to create, release, the supply of magnetic paper Juen: I do not know the exact
publish and distribute a 100% was just about to be delivered. stats, but we know that the
legal new Polish game for We’ve got enough of delays orders were submitted from
Amiga. of recent Amiga products, so all around the world. The
amount of purchases is very
▼English
▼ box artwork of Tanks Furry for Amiga. satisfactory, especially since
it was a preorder. I hope that
the numbers will grow further
once the game is available for
a free download.

Isn’t the price too low though?

Why was it set to that certain
price level?

Koyot1222: It’s hard to meas-

ure such a niche product.
In an era of popular Amiga
"rarities" the price may seem
low. In relation to the new
games the price can also be
considered as high. It’s hard to
average. You know, we don’t
work for any pro game devel-
oper, neither have we pay our
bills out of the profits. We have
allowed ourselves to this kind
of small gift for the players.
Juen: Abroad, this price surely
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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 47

must seem ridiculously low, but such a problem with arcade dreamed about creating at

AMIGA
we live in Poland, so the price game and hence the deci- least a single game for a retro
is somewhat matched to suit sion to completing this project platform. Nowadays, a very
Polish players. If someone is as first. Also, we wanted to positive feedback motivates
willing to help us even more release something quickly and me to continue my work,
we would be happy if one refrain from only talking about especially that I love the retro
also purchased our future pro- it. scene. To the dismay of my
jects. The prices should also be wife, I’m still a big fan of Super
relatively low, so people won’t We noticed another R3D game Nintendo, Gameboy Classic,
be stuck in th dilemma to take that was sneak-peaked on Sega Mega Drive and Nin-
or not to take it :) Amiga forums, which resem- tendo 64. I even managed to
bled classic River Raid. Will it infect my eldest son with the
Is the TF your first ever com- be a separate title or an addi- retro gaming. He mostly likes
pleted game? What are your tion to the TF? to play modern games, but
further plans? playing the game his daddy
Koyot1222: For some time has developed is a bit of dif-

“
Koyot1222: It’s the first one already we planned on mak- ferent story.
completed, but we’re actively ing a cool shooter and finally
working on several other pro- decided to go for River Raid.
Among other systems I con-
jects. We would like to make Similarly to TF and Battle City,
sidered small Atari and C64.
our games fun and enjoyable we wanted it to be our own
Fortunately, I have ultimately
for multiple players at the game that keeps the spirit
decided that Amiga is a part
same time. I still remember of the classics. Obviously we
of my life and I should devote
the Amiga 500 days at my can’t avoid all the similarities;
my time to her.
cousin’s place where we both and from the technical point
“tortured" joysticks in our nev- of view it’s going to use similar
er-ending battles. These are graphical solutions, including Juen: It feels amazing, espe-
nice and vivid memories, but the basic building blocks of cially that this is the Amiga.
unfortunately this was ended 16x16 pixels. But the game’s Even before meeting Koyot
up with the modern technol- mechanics will be completely I was considering various
ogy. different. retro platforms to choose for
Juen: Interestingly, this is not Juen: We all agree that River a new game. Among other
the first game we worked on, Raid, similarly to the Battle systems I considered small
but it turned out to be the first City, is a great game. Old Atari and C64. Fortunately,
one we ever released. This was games are not our only idea I have ultimately decided
mainly due to the fact that inspirations, but creating new that Amiga is a part of my life
the game development could product on River Raid’s funda- and I should devote my time
have been completed in mentals is still very tempting. It to her :) It was nice to come
a simple way, without creating is worth to take on it, especial- back to Assembler 68k after so
any huge plot, hundreds of ly that it’s a hermetic project many years – I always loved to
dialogue lines and changea- that would be fairly easy to code and programming is also
ble world economy system. It complete. my daily work. As of a hobby
is a bit like with the tabletop I’m involved into most retro
games – you can do a super What does it feel like to com- platforms which is reflected in
playable game, but someone mercially release a game on my collection (list available on
will eventually find out that a niche system? Apart of clas- http://szajb.us). We do not ex-
there is a simple way granting sic Amiga are you guys inter- clude the possibility to release
victory each time. Such games ested in other retro platforms? a game to other systems, but
have to be tested, tested and I assume the time will tell...
tested once again, and lots Koyot1222: Personally, it’s
of things have to be adjusted a great and very positive Thanks for your time and good
all over again. We didn’t have adventure. I had previously luck in your future projects!
INTERVIEW

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48 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Motörhead, Tribute or Face

AMIGA

Slap for Lemmie Kilmister?

Review & Translated: Petrichor

The end of 2015 was a pretty sad time for all the meatheads around the world.
On December 28, Lemmy Kilmister, the founder and frontman of the metal band
Motörhead left this cruel world. His personality was so colourful and strong, that in
addition to the appearance on the music scene, he could also be seen on the
screens of our TVs, but also on... our computer screens.

L
et’s take a closer look into It happened because of the mie. He is in a bit of a pickle,
the game in which this char- small development studio Kaitsu apparently just before band’s
ismatic singer is a main hero. Software, they were so small that gig, someone hs kidnapped the
I am sure that majority of fans they actually released only one rest of his band! Lemmie is taking
game in things into his own hands! He
their whole grabs a Jack Daniels’ into one
history hand and a guitar in the other
- Motör- and he rushes to the city to save
head. You his buddies. That’s all when it
may not comes to the story line – yup, it’s
know this pretty simple. Main hero needs
title, as to run through several different
the game levels to get the band back,
went away each level of the game refers to
rather un- the different style of music. We
noticed will be running with the Johny
and the Cash wannabies on the country
text below music level, we will be tripping
will tell you with the LSD pumped guys from
why it hap- Berlin’s Love Parade on Rave
pened this level, we will also beat some
way. crap out of the Karaoke singers
in Little China level. Additionally,
Motörhead we will meet some punks and
is a beat- goths on their respective stages
em’up in the game. Opponents on
type of each stage of the game ap-
game pear in three different variations,
that we and they all will try to cross our
could see plans and to stop us in rescuing
and play our pals. All the enemies we
may remember Lemmie from in the good old arcades. Our will be facing on our adventure
a relatively new game called hero moves into the right all the for some reason stuffed their
Brutal Legend in which he gave time, bumping into more and pockets with a variety of use-
voice and image to one of the more enemies. If you spent hours ful junk. Upon dying they drop
characters, but the truth is that playing Double Dragon, you some items, like cans of beer,
hardly anyone remembers that would feel at home. Of course, whiskey, Motörhead emblems
Lemmie appeared in video player steps into the shoes of and other strange stuff. Thanks
games much earlier - in 1992. the Motörhead frontman – Lem- to them, we can get some extra
REVIEW

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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 49

life points, or charge a special look – which is pretty ok and Unless you want to make a trib-

AMIGA
weapon that wreaks havoc works well with the game; all the ute to Lemmy - then play the
on the screen and annihilates levels are well designed and it is game and listen to The Ace of
all the bad guys. At the end of pretty easy to guess, what mu- Spades. But in all honesty, Lem-
each level there will be one of sic style they represent. But, the mie probably would welcome
the band members waiting for graphic is not enough to make more of the latter.
us. Once we rescue him, we get a good game. Sadly, I have to
on the motorbike and drive into admit that Motörhead is a bad Motörhead
the next level, collecting some game. There is nothing special Publisher: Kaitsu Software
useful items on the way that will in the game that would keep Year of publication: 1992
Platform: Amiga
strengthen us in the next stage. me playing. If you love the band
At the end the trip there is an and if you are mega-fans of
extra step where we take part Motörhead, play it, others can   6 4 2
in some mini-games. They differ skip this title.
on each level, for example: we
may play tapper, where we will
have to grab as many beers as
possible, or we will have to order
taxis for the groupies.

That is the Motörhead in a nut-

shell. Simple and repetitive as
hell! ... each level is the same,
where the only difference you
can see is the background and
enemies appearance. In-game
music as you can imagine is full
of metal sounds and good guitar
riffs. As for the graphics, Motör-
head looks ok, all the characters
are bit out of proportion and
that gives them this caricature

REVIEW

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50 Komoda & Amiga plus #4
AMIGA

Review & Translated: Petrichor

Who would have thought, that it has been 25 years since we met these funny
green-hair creatures on the screens of our Amiga computers.

L
et’s start with the question: various obstacles. The player’s 1999) and published by Psygno-
What the Lemmings about? task is to assign Lemmings one sis in 1991 on Amiga and Atari
The aim of the game is to respective task / skill from the ST computers. The game was
bring to the exit a group of ti- list of available ones for each written by two developers: Da-
tled Lemmings - small creatures level. For example, you can vid Jones and Mike Dailly. Both
dressed up in blue uniforms and tell a Lemming to start digging gents came up with the idea of
wearing green(and bouncy) through the wall, climb, or build the game in August 1989, when
forelocks. Player’s task is to the bridge (you can even sacri- the first of them experimented

“
command these small creatures fice a creature and blow it up in with simple animations in Deluxe
the air). Of course - the further Paint software while working on
In 2004 "Retro Gamer" listed we go into the forest, the harder a game called Walker (awe-
Lemmings on the 21 place it gets, the number of available some game btw). It turned
on their rating of the best skills become limited or par- out that he created a puppet
games of all time. tially disabled, the obstacles animation that could be looped
are more and more difficult, or infinitely - seeing this animation,
and to bring them safely to the player may have less time to one of the DMA Design employ-
exit. Lemmings as you would bring Lemmings into the safety. ees said: "It is a great game ma-
expect from them, do not really As you can see, the principles of terial". Immediately after that,
know what they are doing and the game are quite simple and the guys in the studio came up
where they are going, so when they probably made this series with the game title - Lemmings.
they hit an obstacle, they turn so popular. That’s how the simple idea
on their heel and move into op- led to the birth of Lemmings.
Let’s walk down the memory
One The Lemmings Story an
interesting read about history
of Lemmimgs, one of the devs
said that, working on the game
was super fun and that level
creation was one these things
he remembers very well. As all
levels were created with the
software with the user interface
similar to the one from Deluxe
Paint program, all employees
in the studio could create their
own levels as majority of them
had some working knowledge
of the software. This resulted
posite direction. So our task is to in never-ending competition
lane. The first game in the series
direct them and tell them what between the members of the
Lemmings was created by Scot-
to do. The game is divided into studio to create more and more
land based studio called "DMA
separate levels and on each difficult levels, and to invent
Designs" (yes! The same ones
level the way to the exit is full of newer and more efficient ways
that created the GTA series in
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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 51

to finish each level. That’s the was super pop-

AMIGA
beauty of the game - each lev- ular back in the
el could be finished in several days ( Lemmings
different ways. That’s how the 3D).
long life of the series started. Oh
The truth is that
no! More Lemmings
none of the
From 1991 until 2005 the fran- sequels could
chise grew into 9 different titles. match the pop-
Some less, the other more pop- ularity of the very
ular. first Lemmings
and its direct
Of course, as you can imagine
expansions. This
the very first game became the
refers to the Oh,
most popular of the series. Next
no! More Lem-
Generation magazine rated it
mings and Holi-
as eighth of the best games of
day Lemmings, time they organize some pa-
all time, "Amstrad Action" gave
which, despite the fact that rades and gatherings, during
the game one of the highest
were advertised as expansions which they walk on the streets
ratings in the history of the mag-
for the first game, has been sold disguised as Lemmings. Moreo-
azine. Last but not least, in 2004
as stand alone products. Un- ver, the authorities of the city of
"Retro Gamer" listed Lemmings
fortunately, over the time series Dundee in Scotland, the home
on the 21 place on their rating
began to lose on its popularity, city of the developers, have
of the best games of all time.
and more and more bizarre var- build a monument to honour
The popularity of the game can
iations of the game started to the creators, giving lemmings
also be seen in the fact that it
appear, for example Lemmings the eternal glory. Although I’m
has sold a circulation of 15 mil-
Revolution. In 2005, the beloved sure that fans of the series do
lion copies, that’s the enormous
small greenhaired creatures not need sculptures and statues
amount for a game from the
had one more chance to get to look at those greenhair lads
early 90’s!
resurrected with the reboot of with nostalgia.
The series continued all the prin-
ciples of the very first title in the
sequel called Lemmings 2: The
Tribes, which was quite well re-
ceived, but never gained such
popularity as the first game.
In the year 1994-1995 on the
Amigas with AGA chipsets we
could play All New World of
Lemmings game (in America
the games has been released
under the name The Lemmings
Chronicles), the game held all
the basics of the predecessors,
but it was last in the series that
kept the gameplay unchanged.
After this game, the series be- the series for Sony PSP handheld Lemmings
gan to depart from initial ideas console. Unfortunately, since Publisher: Psygnosis
and mechanics, changing the the well received PSP launch Year of publication: 1991
type of game to more arcade Platform: Amiga
of the game, nothing new was
(as it happened in Lemmings released under the Lemmings
Paintball), or moving into very brand. Luckily, fans never forgot   10 10 10
popular 3D environment that about Lemmings! From time to
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52 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

Jammer
COMMODORE

SID Adventures:
Interview by: GeoAnas; Proofreading: Tomxx

Kamil Wolnikowski – better recognized among C64 demoscen-

ers as Jammer – is a gifted Polish SID musician who also works
with modern platforms producing audio for games, mostly
mobile productions. Jammer started his SID adventure in 1993
but joined the demoscene around 2001 and since then is an
active member of quite a few groups (well known of some
demos released by Samar Productions).

GeoAnas: You’ve been an I don’t regret it at all – I might as you do. I’m also very lucky
active scener for quite a long say I came across scene in the to witness probably the best
time now. What is the Commo- right period (2001/2002), which moment for demoscene when
dore 64’s mystic element that strangely enough coincided quantity evolved into quality
attracted you to start creating with me turning adult, not to - sceners matured, got experi-
and get involved into C64 mention I didn’t have to feel enced, many of them evolved
demo scene? ashamed of my attempts any- into professionals in respective
more (at least not that much). arts and that can be felt in
Jammer: C64 is one of the their scene releases as well.
most important elements of It was initially all about good I know some people miss gold-
my childhood. While other kids old love from the childhood, en 80s, 90s, boring scrolls, ugly
were running around the bush- but has turned into complete- logos and music from Future
es and playing soccer, I was ly different point. My naive Composer but that’s definitely
writing ridiculous BASIC games and unconditional passion not for me. I’m the happiest
and trying to squeeze my first towards the beloved platform guy around getting stuck in
sounds out of Voicetracker 4 changed into some kind of demoscene right here and
(with rather pitiful outcome masochism and pleasure of right now.
that you might witness taking squeezing the most advanced
a plunge into my HVSC oldies content possible out of very Have you got any music
dir). In general, I started my limited hardware. That’s the theory background or you just
lengthy C64 adventure being biggest driving factor nowa- compose by experience?
stubborn and awkward 8yo days, I guess. SID is in fact very
kid, while first SID attempts handy synthesizer that aged Oh, hell no! :D Absolutely no
came out two years later - really well and still can surprise theory, no school. All is self
which is more or less 1993. me and the others as well. taught. I’m still learning things
about composition, arrange-
In the meantime, I was de- The very scene turned out ment and production by
vouring every release of a bunch of cocky yet awe- myself - slowly, at my pace,
Polish “Commodore & Amiga" some, passionate and dedi- but steadily. One thing I regret
magazine and building initial cated guys that I quickly fell a bit is that I haven’t mastered
idea of other C64 geeks and in love with and I have to any live instrument at all. But
demoscene gathered around. say it’s really heartwarming if it was anything, I’d aim for
I realized there are meetings, experience to know that there drums, most probably - tried it
competitions and stuff but are more no-lives out there, twice and it was nice experi-
I had no guts to get any scene sharing your passion (wink, ence. And I’m quite good at
contact at that time. Still, wink) and having as much fun beatbox, well, sort of ;)
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 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 53

Are you active in the scene of a perfect 1:1 SID replacement? mentioned before.

COMMODORE
any other platform?
My experience with SwinSID Could you present us with
I had a brief affair with PC and knowledge about this a picture of your studio or your
demoscene in 2005, being chip is very limited. I was equipment? Show us some
invited by ALLien Senses group listening to it mainly during magic please!
which is nowadays inactive, as some presentation at Silesia
of my knowledge. Apart from Party. With all my respect to Well, current state of my room
that, quite an avid Impulse the author, it sounded really doesn’t allow me to present
Tracker guy in 2001/2002, par- crappy to my taste, unless the any photos - believe me, you’ll
tially connected with another guy wanted to do something be grateful that I’ve spared
love which is Unreal/Unreal alternative to SID, instead you this awful view :D In
Tournament and first Unreal of nailing faithful emulation. general, my studio equipment
Engine from 1998. There’s still Examples from his website serves as SID output as well. As
quite dedicated yet not very weren’t much better. Not I’m helping myself with emu-
numerous scene around those a fan, unfortunately - I’d opt lation, I rely on pc interface
titles and custom maps for for HardSID, if I was to choose which is E-MU 0404 USB - old
them. You can find my old IT from. On the other hand, SID but reliable, together with
modules at http://modules.pl emulation in general became pair of killing KRK VXT8 which
run by AceMan. Some of them really satisfying - those days are far too big for my place.
are really cringe worthy but when Goat Tracker project, Doing SIDs with professional
still a piece of my own history, SidPlay and output from real monitors really pays off and
I guess ;) Besides, I’d gladly try SID were nothing alike are Linus will agree with me about
composing for another chips luckily gone and I usually know that for sure ;)

“
like POKEY or 2600’s TIA in my what to expect when I get
spare time. into the depths of soundchip.
Total 1:1 accuracy is not that
I might say I came
Which is your favorite chip to vital imho - mind that what we
across scene in
work with? 6581 or 8580? hear is also very much related
the right period
to connected output speak-
(2001/2002), which
Definitely 8580 which is more ers, so not everyone recalls
strangely enough
flexible in my opinion, not to C64 sounds alike ;)
coincided with
mention it allows me to use
me turning adult,
far more tricks - all trademark What is your preferable track-
not to mention
sounds from my trickbag are ers? Real hardware, emulator,
I didn’t have to feel
definitely 8580 oriented ;) Of or both?
ashamed of my at-
course I love that dirty and
tempts anymore.
acid quality of 6581 - it’s irre- I’m definitely so called
placeable for some goals and emu-lamer :D My weapon
I know that guys like Soren of choice for SIDs is entirely Can you describe a typical
(former Jeff) can totally rape cross-platform Goat Tracker, day in your studio?
it (and even squeeze a bit of I check the compilation with
bass out of those farts, lol :D). SidPlay 2.6 while my poor old Well, I either work or waste
C64 collects all dust in cup- my time - preferably the latter
Speaking of SID, what can you board but I occasionally have :D I assume you’re not really
say about its emulation? I am luck to hear my outcomes on interested in my regular job so
referring to SwinSID and Swin- real hardware. Oh well, life... question is about SID compos-
SID Nano. Are they going to For regular job I use FL Studio ing. I’m almost entirely about
evolve any further? Have you / Adobe Audition which are improvising what can be
ever used or maybe still use not really trackers. And, be- heard in tunes (unfortunately)
them nowadays? Do you think sides, I used to compose with - one of those guys who hate
one day we will all witness Impulse Tracker which was planning things, setting them
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54 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

up and having no foggiest and Ramos simply found me. treat for our ears! Seems that
COMMODORE

idea what’s going to happen I still miss the guy, he was kind Samar supports multiple SID
tomorrow or in 5 minutes, in- of unique. hardware. Are you an X-SID
cluding my own activities. Usu- format fan? Are you going to
ally it’s about some impulse, Speaking of “Samar Produc- support 2SID or 3SID as well?
surge of idea and I instantly try tions", a great release came
to verbalize it via most ap- to my mind: the terrific “Dream I really love what can be done
propriate medium, including Travel, 100%" demo released with multiple chips and I sup-
SID naturally. I’m really quick back in 2012. Could you port this idea. I totally loved
about ideas, introduce them please tell us two words about Conrad’s effort and what
lightning fast in Goat Tracker, it? How long did it take to he can produce with 2xSID
then I usually lose interest, get completed? config. It’s a pity that he got
tired and abandon majority of tired of scene life; I’d sell my
projects. Still, some of my WIPs Oh man, I don’t remember kidney for his new tracks. I’ve
are lucky enough to be dug how long it took to complete already done couple of 2SIDs
out again and even complet- the whole prod. I know that myself and it was really cool
ed! That would sum it all up. I did whole soundtrack for 90% experience. 3SID is a bit more
version and later got snowed problematic due to the lack
I have been a fan of “Sa- under other assignments so of GT’s native support for that
mar Productions" for a quite I had completely no time for number of chips, however, I’ve
long time. Ramos was more 100%. Randall took care of my already tried to glue compiled
than a friend to me. You are tune and remade it for new stereo and mono SIDs togeth-
a member since 2002. How did timing. I wasn’t quite happy er – it can be done, but not in
you join the group? with the result and harm done a very tasteful manner. There’s
to some moments, but on the Hermit’s SIDWizard around that
Well, no surprise - Ramos other hand totally loved his allows you to jump straight
invited me! I’ve been already new music for the second half away into 3xSID and enjoy all
releasing first tunes under of the demo. Besides, people its glory. I might definitely try it
MultiStyle Labs label and there liked it in general so it’s ab- one day.
was a Polish website gather- solutely cool. About the very
ing C64 users and scene at demo - Skull was really persis- You were the organizer of : “Je
that time, managed by Bzyk/ tent to put long and boring suis #Drax" and “Je suis #Linus
Samar. It was already easier fractal part in the very mid- music compos". How did it all
back then to spot new sceners dle of production which was start?
strongly objected by me and
Isildur. He got bashed for this I love to imitate styles in
Jammer’s top 15 tracks by some sceners so I assume general and it’s a really great
based on CSDB rating lesson was taken :) Nonethe- way to have more insight into
less, prod is really captivating, SID, other guy’s workshop
1. Amen, Bigbeat Brother! (2015) - 9.9
stylish and full of interesting and to show off a bit by the
2. Foregone Destruction (2016) - 9.8
3. Mr Marvellous (2006) - 9.5 ideas - that I might say. Has way (disgusting, I know ;)) At
4. Floatee (2003) - 9.5 anybody told you before I’m certain point I started to think
5. Club Style (2004) - 9.4 a nitpicking motherfucker? :D that maybe more guys love
6. Yet Bigger Beat (2012) - 9.3
7. Hot Mommas (2007) - 9.3
the same and tried with such
8. Teh Disco (2006) - 9.3 “Samar Productions" has also compo as a nice experiment.
9. Linusz Sucks Hard! (2015) - 9.2 released “SID Dualux" and First installment was moderate
10. 5 A Dub (2016) - 9.1
recently “New Horizons" which success and I was motivated
11. Jaxxer (2015) - 9.1
12. Rocco Siffredi Invades 1541-II (2008) - 9.1 are stereo SID and 3SID mu- to do it again. Je suis #Drax
13. Odyssey (2007) - 9.1 sic collections. I personally edition initially foreshadowed
14. Even Uneven (2016) - 9.0 find the idea very innovative disaster but close to the end
15. Drum Fool (2008) - 9.0
and both compilations a real of it many cool entries arrived
pleasure to listen to, a nice and I could sleep well. Third
INTERVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 55

edition is to be announced for erence as a form of joke and are already over 40 or even

COMMODORE
sure but I won’t tell who’s next! it turned out suitable for tense 50, part of them developed
I hope all participants have moments. Final cover of Bach their professional career upon
as much fun with the idea as was strictly Enthusi’s idea - it their scene function - scene
I do. was discussed several times graphicians became success-
but in the end, I stuck to this ful web artists, for example.
“Caren and Tangled Tentacles" and it turned out really cool :) And that professional touch
is a fresh adventure game that I loved this job and, fortunate- has bleeded back into the
reminds the golden days of ly, it’s most probably not yet scene world again - you might
“Lucas Arts" games. You com- over. witness how much design
posed the music theme to this changed thanks to that, how
game, so could you please tell "C64 demo sceners were the timing changed, how much
us two words about its making pioneers who lead the whole graphicians can squeeze out
of? demo scene in general to the of standard modes or how
present existence". Do you much things coders can fit into
Ah, Caren is one of the cool- agree? 50Hz effect. Surely, crossplat-
est if not the coolest C64 form tools really facilitated
project ever I had a chance Well, I’m tad too young the whole process of raising
to be involved in. I was prob- to have better insight and overall build quality. About
ably Veto’s first choice here, constructive opinion on that SID miracles - THCM is for sure
as I’m quite into more elab- matter. I believe Compunet one of the keywords here. For
orate sound design which was kind of flywheel for whole over twenty years, C64 used
was needed for sfx. Audio movement but I cannot tell to be about crappy, noisy and
layer was definitely a bit of anything from my experience. distorted samples - people
a challenge in terms of tech- I was merely shitting my dia- despised sample compos dur-
nical implementation. All pers at that time, sorry :D ing events and nobody really
started with idea of music and wanted it apart from few avid
sfx playing together, where Can you make a prediction sample fans. And suddenly, it
the last channel of tune can about C64 scene’s future? Are changed. Yeah, expect some
be overridden by required new sceners joining the ranks miracles, definitely ;)
sound effect. Unfortunately, of demoscene? Shall we expe-
Goat Tracker turned out not rience more miracles coming Can you give us some heads-
very suitable for this so we’ve out from SID in the near future? up of your future releases?
come to compromise of no
compromises - either we play There are still youngbloods MultiStyle Labs is definitely up
fully blown music track of fully (well, part of them not that to something - I won’t spoil
blown sfx (being technically fresh anymore) appearing it for now. EXclusive ON is
a subtune of Goat Tracker every year and often sur- planning more productions
song) at once. That was the prising with great quality, as well. I’m not that familiar
right decision for sure. Style- so future is not that dim. To with nearest plans for Samar
wise, I’ve started with some- name a few - Stinsen, MCH, releases though. Speaking of
thing very akin to Day Of The Wiklund - you wouldn’t expect my personal projects - I have
Tentacle soundtrack - name it those talented guys 10 years hundreds of WIPs on my drives
Alan Silvestri mixed with goofy ago, would you? Besides, and dropbox - I guess they’re
experiments and happy pizzi- young mainstream acquired awaiting better times as usual.
catos. I liked the outcome but taste for retro and indie form Some of them should definitely
Enthusi was quite moderate and it’s not that long way be finished at some point.
about it and we’ve estab- from there to demoscene.
lished that music is going to As I’ve mentioned earlier, Thanks for your time!
follow 80s theme (as the very demoscene has become
game does). In the process, more “professional" in terms My pleasure, thank you very
I also went for mild ‘Alien’ ref- of quality. Many of sceners much!
INTERVIEW

winter / spring 2016

56 Komoda & Amiga plus #4

KUNG-FU MANIACS
COMMODORE

TRILOGY
Review: Minimoog; Translated by Karo

"King Bruce Lee, the Master of Karate" – this was once sung in a distinguished, low voice
by Piotr Fronczewski, under a pseudonym of “Franek Kimono". Isn’t the topic of karate/nin-
ja/kung-fu/China played out? As it turns out – not at all!

W
aaah! The mean ubiquitous evil. The Master of tacks from everywhere, so slow
boys from Blapsville Awesome, who we imperson- reactions will lead to quick
stole my toy robot! ate, has to confront Chinese demise. Considering the fact
– this sentence motivates our thugs to get back a little boy’s that the game was made in
main character to fight with stolen toy (the boy’s name, by SEUCK, there are times when
the way, sounds not everything works as fast as
quite Polish – we would like it to – therefore
Podznofsky). The these slow reactions can be
fight takes place quite numerable.
in a town dense-
ly populated by The game has really nice
ninja warriors – graphics. Travelling through
Blapsville – and different levels of the city looks
the quest into its very appealing, the sprites are
very core may simple but clear. It’s one of
prove difficult characteristics of Alf Yngve’s
for even the productions – clear simplicity,
Master of Awe- which makes everything look
some. proportionate and solid, noth-
ing is mixed up. It’s a huge plus
Alf Yngve, of this difficult game.
known for his
SEUCK creations, During the game we can hear
creates this par- a very suitable, good music.
ticular story in his It’s a standard thing in Yngve’s
game “Kung-Fu games because he is often
Maniacs". Made assisted – also here – by Rich-
in Sideways ard Bayliss.
SEUCK, it guar-
A considerable innovation dif-
antees some
ferentiating "Kung-Fu Maniacs"
quite difficult
from other SEUCK productions
fun. As it usually
is the variability of weapons.
is with this type
Gathering a certain amount of
of productions,
points gives us the possibility to
it’s easier to
use long-range weapons – an
lose a life here
energy ball for instance (at
than to get it.
least it sort of looks like that).
The Master of
Before that we can only use
Awesome is
kicks and punches and they
exposed to at-
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

 Komoda & Amiga plus #4 57

are both inefficient and quite another addition –“Nervana" that I wrote here is true. So,

COMMODORE
risky. – which unfortunately doesn’t may the Force be with you!
really work well; the computer Ooops… wrong franchise…
The game has a funny end- gets overloaded and as a re-
ing but unfortunately, it can sult we can neither move nor
be seen by the chosen ones. shoot and therefore –
Should I tell you how it looks? we die all the time.
To tell, or not to tell, that is the
question… Alright, I am going Because the game
to tell you! The game ends I am reviewing is

“
with a lofty speech made by called “Kung-Fu Ma-
niacs Trilo-
Travelling through dif- gy", I sup-
ferent levels of the city pose we
looks very appealing, will need
the sprites are simple more than
but clear. It’s one of one part
characteristics of Alf of it… And
Yngve’s productions – the author
clear simplicity, nothing also didn’t
is mixed up. overlook
that mat-
ter – on
the Master of Awesome, who the second disk there
tell us about the necessity is the second part of
of peace-making, avoiding the game. This time
resolving conflicts with force, it’s even more difficult
etc, etc, some political blab- and has a different,
ber, which as usual does not closer camera – the
reflect reality. The listeners sprites are not so small.
know this all because as we The enemies shoot at
get to see, very meaningful us so fiercely and out
"z z z" quickly appears on the punches are so impre-
screen and the orator is then cise, that we end up
smashed by a huge “The End". without any lives much
quicker than in the first
The author predicted that af- part. Nevertheless, the
ter around 5th time we beat very neat and solid
“1.000 Kung-Fu Maniacs", we looks of the game are
might get a bit bored, so on worth a praise.
two disks there is not only the
main game but a few mini I won’t say anything more but
games. We already know one I definitely will encourage you
of them from SEUCK Compo to play “Kung-Fu Maniacs Trilo-
2015 – “Snatch McBlagger", gy" and to check if everything
in which a likable robber with
KUNG-FU MANIACS TRILOGY
a moustache breaks out of
Publisher: Psytronik
prison. Apart from that there
Year of publication: 2015
is a classic, very nicely done Platform: C64
military shoot’em up, called
“Flying Cobra". Made in an
  8 10 5
eastern style theme, there is
REVIEW

winter / spring 2016

JOHNNY PRESENTS
The cover artwork of this issue was already sketched back in 2014. I was involved
into multiple drawings of Polish historical figures: Józef Piłsudski, Witold Pilecki,
Wincenty Witos… I also painted Mieszko I of Poland, historical ruler of the Polans,
but didn’t have any major plans of using it. The problem was, that there were ob-
viously no cameras back then in X century and there aren’t that many paintings
either. The most known portrait is printed on the 10 PLN banknote, but there is
also Jan Matejko’s painting which was used by me as a pattern. I can’t compare
myself to this great artist, but I still hope that my work is decent.

Two years have passed. On Friday evening Komek called me and asked for
another image to be included on the cover page. He also added that this time
we’re looking for a historical figure. I opened up my images folder, found this
portrait and added the corresponding background, as I didn’t want it to just be
pure black and white image. I think it now obtained a patriotic voice! I’m happy
that my work was used in the magazine and it just proofs that historical figures
were always be alive.
Jan Lorek