Monday 4 January 2016

Commodore Loving.

On a recent trip home I brought back my first computer.  The champion of the 80s that is the Commodore 64,  it is my original breadbox, chunky fudge model.

The stuff of 80s gamers dreams.


Wholly expecting it to require some maintenance I was seriously chuffed that after not seeing any use in about 22 years (that I can recall) it powered on straight away.  Admittedly I couldn't remember which socket the power adaptor plugged into but, after a quick Google I realised I was being a muppet and it fired straight on.

Fantastic,  now to test out some games.

Thankfully I have them easily accessible in a storage tub in the garage,  so I pulled out a few choice titles.  Given that all bar a few of my C64 games are on cassette tape and suspecting that time would have degraded the media,  I hunted around for some carts.  I know I have a few somewhere namely a couple released with the C64GS  console, sadly I do not have any of the classic carts.  Whilst I was unable to find Robocop 2 or Chase HQ 2  but, I did manage to locate the multicart that was originally supplied with the GS. Amusingly this cart was never tested and purchased on a whim long after I had stopped using old faithful.

Never really going to set the world on fire was it?


Wow, it only worked!

Great stuff had a blast on Flimbo's Quest, which is still an awesome game and one I remember fondly from my tape version back in the day.

OK right now feeling brave.... dare I break out my 3rd part C2N Phonemark cassette deck with the LoadIt style tape adjuster?

Why not, lets give it a whirl.

Whilst hunting in the game box I picked out some choice games in the form of the Thalamus collection (all the first games.... Sanxion, Delta, Quedex, Hunters Moon, Hawkeye and Armaylte) and also my copy of the fantastic Rowland Brothers Thalamus classic Retrograde.

OK fingers crossed.

Wow  the Delta MixiLoad appears, and instantly I am taken back in time.
I was a big fan of Delta back in the day and it still holds up very well but, boy am I crap it it.  Right,  let's change joysticks.  So off to my bookcase which has a display of old joysticks, picked up my first Zipstick....OK now I remember why I purchase the 2nd one (it seems to be lurching to the right constantly).  Zipstick number 2 works like a dream and I soon remember some of my Delta moves.

Right sticking with the Delta theme, lets rock out the sequel Armalyte.  Gosh darn it, it works....well OK only to the point it crashes but, that's OK.



OK lets get a bit braver.  Lets fire up Retrograde.


Oh...oh bugger grrrr the tape is stuck...damn it! and I mean really stuck, wound etight around the tape drive wheel. Crappity crap, minor surgery later and I realised that the tape will have to be cut :(

Alright stuff this.  We need a better solution that using tape based media.

Tune in for part 2.


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