Hello, and welcome back to another episode.
So, as you know, once or twice a year I like to do a review of brand new games designed
for retro systems.
And, in this particular episode, I’ve got 4 new games I want to show you and all of
these were designed in the last few months, or at least released within the last few months.
So, granted, 3 of these games are for the good ole’ Commodore 64, but the first one
I want to show you is actually for the Atari 7800.
A while back I did a modification to my Atari 7800 to give it composite video output.
However, since then I have primarily used it just to play 2600 games since it is backwards
compatible with those.
In fact, I don’t even own a 7800 controller since I’ve typically been playing 2600 games,
so I just use a regular 1 button controller.
The sad reason for this is that this is all of the 7800 games I currently own and most
of these are still sealed in original shrink-wrap so I’ve been hesitant to open them.
However, now I have this new game, Rikky and Vikky.
This game was just released this month and dang.. the box looks exactly like standard
7800 software of the era.
I mean, other than the Atari logo, it is spot on accurate.
So, let’s see what we get inside.
OK, here’s the cartridge.
I like the translucent case.
There is also a little sticker of one of the characters.
And two complementary tickets to misery land.
You even get a warranty card, with a serial number and packing date.
The manual is a fold-out manual so you’ll need some space to open it all the way up.
But it is nicely made.
In order to play this, I’m also going to need this.
It’s a NES controller adapter that uses a little micro controller to interpret the
signals from the NES controller into something the Atari knows how to use.
I need this since I don’t have a proper 7800 controller, which has two buttons.
One problem is the control ports are angled somewhat down, so this means the console would
be putting a lot of force on this adapter, so to remedy that, I’ll use the nostalgia
nerd’s book here to prop up the console.
And, I thought I’d just go ahead and test the controller on a game I already know how
to play.
And, it does work.
OK, let’s insert the Rikky and Vikky cartridge and see if it works.
OK, that’s a promising sign.
OK, everything seems okay, but there is one problem, the music volume is too low, especially
compared to the sound effects.
And I’m going to show you how to fix that.
This isn’t exactly the fault of the game.
You see, I modded my Atari 7800 for composite video and that meant making some mods to the
sound too.
You see, some 7800 cartridges had their own sound chip, and that sound is mixed with the
internal sound of the 7800.
Rikky and Vikky does the same thing.
So, now that I’ve got the board out, let me show you what everything does on here.
This first chip is a 512K flash chip, this contains the actual game code, graphics, and
all that.
This next chip is a 32K SRAM, which is used for temporary storage during gameplay.
This chip here is a CPLD, or complex programmable logic device, which is used to help map the
memory around.
You might compare it to a PLA chip in a C64.
This chip here is an Arm based micro controller, which is actually what generates the music.
The irony is this chip is probably more powerful than the whole game console.
And then this is the thing we need, it’s a volume control for the sound chip.
You’ll see it shows loud on this side, so I’m going to rotate it that direction some.
The manual also says you can move the left difficulty switch here to adjust the volume
of the sound effects.
OK, let’s try the game now.
Much better, I can hear the music now.
And believe me, this music is much more pleasant than anything the 7800 could possibly do with
its internal sound chip.
This is a neat intro, and it’s actually worth paying attention to because this little
square box they are throwing around is a key element to the game.
And it shows all the ways you can use it.
Next you get this menu and you can play two player, or just play one of the characters
separately.
Since I don’t have anyone with me at the moment, I’ll just play Rikky.
Then you get this series of intro graphics.
Long story short, the misery dragon wants to take you to a place called misery land.
OK, so here we are.
The idea is to collect all the keys.
But doing so will require some thought.
One thing that isn’t immediately obvious is that falling through that hole won’t
actually kill you.
It’s a really unusual style in that regard, as you’ll just fall through to the top.
So, in many cases you’ll have to do this on purpose.
You can press down with the button to fall through ledges.
And there we go, first level completed.
Trust me, it does get harder.
OK, so here’s where these little boxes come into play.
So, you can pick these up with the B button.
So, think Super Mario Brothers 2 here.
You can put them down or actually throw them at walls where they will stick.
And then you can jump on them to reach higher ground.
Eventually, you’ll get to some levels with misery land workers walking around.
You’ll need to avoid them such as jumping over them, and in many cases kill them.
The way you do that is by throwing one of those magical boxes at them.
And levels continue to have more critters and interesting puzzles to solve.
I love how you can fall into an infinite loop.
I feel like this game is sort of like a cross between sokoban and super Mario 2.
There are hundreds of levels to play and some of them are very challenging.
Of course, the game is equally fun with two players, if not perhaps even more fun.
Overall, I’m really impressed with this game and it’s about time a new game came
out for the 7800.
It’s a console that certainly deserves some more new games.
The next game I want to show you is for the Commodore 64.
It’s called Digiloi, by Dr. Terrorz.
At least, I think that’s how you pronounce it.
This game has a very unique look to it.
And I want you to see if you can spot what it is.
So, in case you haven’t figured it out, this game doesn’t use any graphics modes
or sprites.
Commodore systems have little character graphics, which are printed on the keys, and this dates
all the way back to the PET.
In fact, the PET had no graphics modes at all, so this was the only way you could create
graphics on those systems.
Well, the C64 has the same character set, but also has 16 colors to go along with it.
And with this, it’s possible to create some really interesting looking graphics.
I’ve always had a fondness for artwork designed entirely in PETSCII graphics as it takes a
very special talent to be able to do this.
And so, this game was designed to operate entirely with this sort of graphics.
As a result, the various characters are rather large, this allows for them to have a bit
more detail.
The animation is great, as is the music.
I would imagine a lot of people would be asking, why would you do such a thing?
Well, there isn’t any really good reason other than just to prove that you can, and
that you can make a fun game with it.
And Dr.Terrorz did an excellent job here.
So, yeah.. that’s Digiloi.
And, I believe this game is free as I was able to download it straight from CSDB.
Next up, I want to show you a game called Farming Simulator, C64 edition.
The box design is similar to the one I used for Planet X2 and X3.
The manual is extremely minimalistic.
You can literally read the whole thing in like a minute or two.
Which, I guess, means there is no excuse not to read it.
Then you get what appears to be a floppy disk.
But it isn’t.
Actually, it’s a cleverly disguised CD sleeve.
The CD contains a disk image of the C64 game, among other things.
And here is the actual game, which comes on a cartridge.
OK, so let’s plug in the cartridge to my good ole C64 and see what happens.
OK, neat intro.
And it comes up with this screen showing both keyboard and joystick controls, which is cool.
No need for a joystick if you don’t want to use one.
Alright, the game menu is very nice, love the music.
It’s got me excited to try this.
OK, let’s start the game.
And that folks, is all it does for me.
I tried a dozen times on several different computers.
So I think my cartridge is defective.
Alright, so I copied the disk image that they provided on the CD over to an SD card.
And the idea is, I’m going to stick this in my SD to IEC and now we’ll find out if
that works.
And loading from the SD card pretty much gives me, this.
Again, no luck.
I suspect it uses some sort of fast load routines that require a real 1541 disk drive.
OK, so one more thing to try.
I have a PAL version of the C64 that somebody donated to me.
Since this game was designed in the UK, maybe they didn’t check that it runs on NTSC machines.
Now, unfortunately my TV won’t display PAL properly, but I should at least be able to
tell if the game works.
As I suspected, my TV is out of sync and there’s no color, but it is just good enough I can
tell if the game runs.
So let me stick the cartridge in there.
OK, so far so good.
Next screen.
OK, and let’s start the game.
OK, it’s not locking up.
I can actually move the stuff around.
OK, so it looks like I’ll be using the emulator to show you the rest of the game.
OK, so you can drive your tractors around, and you can use the 4 function keys on the
side of the C64 to change between a red tractor with a plow, a green tractor with a seeder,
a blue tractor with a trailer, and a green harvester.
However, apparently only two tractors will ever appear on screen at any given time.
I suspect this is due to sprite limitations as they appear to be using multiple sprites
for each tractor.
So, the first thing you need to do is use your red tractor to plow the land.
This takes quite some time, so I’ll skip ahead for you.
Once you’ve plowed some land, then you’ll use the green tractor and seed the land.
This also takes some time.
So, again, skipping ahead a bit, you’ll see some vegetation growing.
I’m not sure what sort of crops these are and I don’t think the manual even says what
it is.
Anyway, eventually, you’ll move to your harvester and collect whatever it is you’ve
managed to grow.
So, let’s be honest here.
This game doesn’t have a lot of action.
And it doesn’t build to any sort of big climax either.
This is sort of the kind of game that appeals to people who just like to make themselves
busy doing something.
There are many hobbies like that, such as cross-stitching, or knitting, or putting puzzles
together, or even real-life gardening I suppose.
And there’s nothing really wrong with that.
For example, I’m a fan of the game SimCity which essentially plays on that same principle.
But for some reason, Farming Simulator just doesn’t give me enough variety to really
enjoy it.
With SimCity, I could experiment with all sorts of ways to build a city and see the
outcome.
This, on the other hand just feels like work to me.
Anyway, once you have your harvester filled up, you can drive your trailer over to the
harvester and watch the little percent number at the bottom until it fills up.
Then you have to drive the tractor over to the grain silo and sell what you have harvested.
The little tractor is actually more difficult to steer than you’d think.
And that little trailer is always getting jackknifed when trying to backup.
But eventually, I did make it over to the silo and drive up on the little pad there,
which is where you sell.
At some point or another, by the way, you’ll have to take all of your tractors over to
that same area to refuel.
And you accomplish that the same way by driving onto the pad in front of the gas pumps.Anyway,
so that’s about it for farming simulator.
OK, so here’s one more little treat for you.
This is Portal for the c64.
Yes, this actually exists and it just came out.
As you can see this appears to be a fan production, and not an official game from Valve.
It can be mouse controlled or joystick controlled for the portal gun, but the keyboard controls
your character by using A and D for left and right, W jumps, and E is used to interact
with things.
And much like the standard version, you have Glados there to taunt you, but occasionally
give you hints.
And here we are.
The levels start off kind of simple, and there’s a puzzle to solve with each one.
This one is pretty easy, you just jump over the water.
Now, whenever you see one of these contraptions, if you walk up to it and press E, it will
drop one of those little boxes.
And you can pick it up, and use it for example to set on top of this switch to hold the door
open for you.
So, I haven’t even had to use the portal gun yet.
This will be the first time.
So by moving the joystick, you can see the little circle move around on the screen.
So I can position it on anything that is light gray colored to open a portal.
And there we go.
Notice the player is always facing wherever the portal gun is aiming.
Anyway, the SID music is amazing on this game.
And despite the character being really small, the animation on it is great.
This is really an amazing piece of work, and another C64 game that would have probably
been a giant hit had it existed back int he 80s.
So, I highly recommend you download this, especially since it is free!
Alright, and that about wraps it up for this episode.
So, I definitely have nothing but praise for Rikki and Vikki.
And I really thought Digiloi was cool, and Portal was absolutely awesome.
Farming Simulator, you know, I’m sure there’s some people out there that would like this.
Personally, I just didn’t.
But, I wanted to show it anyway.
And I want to thank them for sending me a review copy.
And that about wraps it up.
So, see you next time.