Friday fun: Games I'm playing in Jan 2021

I’m blown away by some modern games still being developed for the Commodore line of computers.

Both games I’m playing in January are sold by Protovision, who has probably the best vintage company name on the market right now.

Soul Force is an excellent take on a side-scrolling space shooter (maybe the cool kids abbreviate these SSSS?). It seems both familiar and unique, which is hard to do in a space based shooter like this.

Outrage is a Contra-style shooter that I’ve not been able to put down. It’s very difficult and like Contra, I’m wondering if there’s an Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right… kinda lives easter egg to be found so one person (with a job) could actually finish it.

I really prefer games that have a sense of progress in them, and to remember that as I work on my own games for the 64.

I’m playing both on my PAL C64C, so they MIGHT be running a little slower, and have not tried them on an NTSC machine. They are both listed as PAL and NTSC compatible, so maybe it doesn’t matter? The two standards cause a Commodore to run at different speeds, so I’m guessing it matters.

Both load well from both my EasyFlash and Kung Fu Flash from TFW8B.com.

My joystick is a Hyperkin Trooper, and I actually prefer it to the very clicky one that game with “The 64” despite my penchant for clicky keyboards. Maybe it’s because, with a silent joystick, I may or may not play games during my online meetings during the day.

Overall I’m happy with the picture on my 64C, although it’s actually more muddy than my Breadbin 64, which is several years older. Some work can be done on the picture. The video capture setup is working almost too well because it’s doing an excellent job of highlighting the less than perfect video output ;-) The lines are muddy and for some colors the bleed is pretty bad. Adrian has a very easy hack for my 250407 Breadbin C64 that really improved the picture on it. I wonder if there’s something to be done for a PAL 64C.

Happy Friday!

• C64
• Commodore
• Retro