For those who missed it: 8bit-Slicks is an online car racing game in development by 8bit-Dude with RR-Net support – the network interface distributed by Protovision. You want to experience online racing with your C64 equipped with RR-Net? Then you will be pleased to know that a shareware version with 10 maps is available while the full version (digital/physical) can be pre-ordered from 8bit-slicks.com.
Don’t have an RR-Net yet? Our Online Shop currently has limited stock of RR-Net MK3 awaiting your order.

Tags: Hardware, RR-Net, Scene

Our friends from C64 Club Berlin recently hosted their BCC Party #16, once more as an online event. Not only has nomiStake/Delysid aka Simon/Protovision joined the organisation team this year. Some sceners who are also Protovision members presented their compo entries as well.

– DJ Gruby: The Funeral by Dream (Demo/Trackmo)
– nomiStake and Jammer: Spritemo by Delysid (Demo/Only Sprites Compo 2022)
– Lobo: Blitz Feline (Graphics) and Street Sports Skeletons (PETSCII graphics)

Enjoy these entries, along with all the others: BCC Party #16 at CSDb.

Tags: Scene

Have you yet tried Puzzle Bobble, the fan made port of the Neo Geo title from the 90s? In Europe and North America the original game is better known as Bust-a-Move. The recently released C64 version shines out with excellent presentation and high playability. It can be played alone or with a friend simultaneously, features Paddles support and comes with a high score saver.
Make sure you get Version 1.1!

– Free download of V1.1 at CSDb
– Video footage on RGN’s C64 Round Up February 2022
– Article at C64 Wiki

Tags: Scene

Retro Gamer Nations latest C64 Round Up is out. As usual, it covers a lot of game news, recent and upcoming releases as well as pixel art from the scene. In this episode, BastichB 64K joined to co-review You Have to Win the Game.
Pieces II Level Design Compo is part of the news (direct link).

Tags: Pieces II, Press, Scene

Pieces is a puzzle game that was coded back in the mid 90s. Unfortunately, it never received an official commercial release due to the fading C64 market. A "crack" of Pieces has existed for a while, but this version did not fix a bug from the original that prevented one of its levels from being solvable.

Thanks to the attention received as a result of our Pieces II Level Design Compo, the scene group Excess has just produced a version that fixes this bug and a few others. Download it here: Pieces +3FP – enjoy! It is easy to pick up, but hard to pick down.

Back to Pieces II: The deadline of our Level Design Compo is 2022/02/28 – just one month away! So, fire up our level editor (Java based; Windows executable), get those grey cells going and become a part of the game with your own created levels. There are some great vouchers to be won which can be used for any item in our store.
Have fun, and good luck!

Tags: Games, Pieces II, Scene

Christmas season is coming in! Maybe that’s the right time to play a round of Snow Wars? Play it for free or name your price over at Monte Boyd’s itch.io page!

Tags: Games, Scene

In issue 46, RETURN reports on Protovision for the third time in a row, this time covering the two collaborative releases with Psytronik:
Cosmos Designs‘ long-lost run ’n‘ gun Outrage was examined in detail. Staff concludes: "A tough challenge that’s still fun to play today, despite its 30-year-old design." Coder Bernd Buchegger was on hand to answer questions about the game’s unusual genesis.
The underrated MW Ultra was also reviewed. The article praises among other things the attention to detail as well as the depth of the game and appreciates MW Ultra as one of the best action adventures for the Commodore 64.
Our graphic artist Lobo not only created the print artwork for Outrage and MW Ultra, he is also very active as a pixel artist. In the "Pixel Art" section of this issue, you can admire some of his works.

Tags: MW Ultra, Outrage, Press, Scene

The Blast Annual 2020 is a multi-format gaming publication that celebrates all aspects of the retro community across two huge volumes – featuring lots of game and hardware reviews, along with plenty of special feature articles.

The Blast Annual Volume 2 is spanning over 200 pages and presented as a very high quality hard back cover book. This is available to pre-order at blastannual.com now. Order your copy fast, you won’t be disappointed.

Tags: Scene

The eagerly anticipated release of Monstro Giganto is available for pre-order from our friends at RGCD. This fun arcade style beat 'em up features large well animated PETSCII graphics by Lobo/Protovision. The game package is beautifully presented with eye-popping cover art and manual illustrations – also from Lobo.

Pre-order cartridge from RGCD Shop!
Digital Download will be available soon at itch.io.

Tags: Games, Scene

Carleton Handley has recently teamed up with Saul Cross to produce Runn ’n‘ Gunn – an awesome run’n’gun style of game that features tight controls, high quality level graphics and a fantastic music track.
Carleton is looking to expand the game with additional levels and features if there is sufficient interest in Runn ’n‘ Gunn. You can support Carleton with his efforts to keep the C64 alive with great new games by purchasing the download of his latest game from here.

Tags: Scene

S.P.R.E.R.O. – a H.E.R.O. inspired game created entirely in sprites – has been updated to V1.2.
Oziphantom of Protovision improved performance and included a couple of bug fixes. For details and free download, check CSDb: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=199309.

Tags: Scene

S.P.R.E.R.O. – ein von H.E.R.O. inspiriertes Spiel, das komplett in Sprites erstellt wurde – wurde auf V1.2 aktualisiert.
Oziphantom von Protovision hat die Performance verbessert und ein paar Bugs gefixt. Details und den kostenlosen Download findest du in der CSDb: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=199309.

Tags: Scene

The German disk magazine Digital Talk has been taken over by Thunder.Bird with Issue #109 now released.

This new issues features a detailed review of our Shoot ‘em up Zeta Wing in its Game’s Corner section.

Download: CSDb

Tags: Press, Scene, Zeta Wing, ZetaWing

Das Diskettenmagazin Digital Talk wurde von Thunder.Bird übernommen, Ausgabe #109 ist nun erschienen.
In der Games-Corner der neuen Ausgabe findet sich ein ausführlicher Testbericht zu unserem Shoot ‘em up Zeta Wing.

Download: CSDb

Tags: Presse, Scene, Zeta Wing, ZetaWing

Indie Retro News announced their upcoming C64 Game Awards 2020. We are happy to see that three of our five 2020 game releases have been nominated!

Nominees for C64 Game of The Year include:
– Outrage by Cosmos Designs
– MW Ultra by Covert BitOps
Both titles were released by Protovision in cooperation with Psytronik.

Nominee for C64 Budget Game of the Year, among others:
– Zeta Wing by Protovision
This great shoot ‘em up is planned to be released as boxed edition on cartridge in 2021.

Announcement of the winners will happen on New Years Eve via the Twitch Channel of hayesmaker64. We can expect an article on Indie Retro News early in the new year as well. We are hopeful that MW Ultra will win the race.
So if you don’t own this GOTY Nominee yet: Purchase of the cartridge is starting from only 45 Euros (instead of 50) – so better get yours now!

Tags: Games, MWULTRA, Outrage, Press, Scene, Zeta Wing, ZetaWing

For Outrage, programmer Bernd Buchegger has now personally created a dedicated website, with an exciting timeline and a lot of background information on the story behind its creation!

Download Vandalism News #71 from the CSDb!

Now it won’t be long before you too can defend yourself against the alien invasion!

Tags: Games, Outrage, Scene

Vandalism News is a C64 disk magazine by Onslaught and Offence. Issue 71 was recently released! Find the latest news, reports and background about different aspects of the C64 scene. All is presented in an advanced outfit, for you to enjoy on your C64.

As usual, a chapter called “The Market” gives developers the opportunity to tell what is new about their projects.

Protovision wise you can find the following here:

• An overview about recent titles such as MW Ultra (co-op with Psytronik) and Planet X2.1
• News about upcoming games like Soul Force, Outrage and latest hardware
• Insights to Briley Witch Chronicles and Wild Wood by their creators

Download Vandalism News #71 from CSDb!

Getting started…
After the intro and an opening image, chose your article in the menu. This is more detailed now and spread over 5 screens. To navigate to “The Market”, switch to page 3 (cursor right), select respective chapter (Cursor down and Return), insert requested diskside (5), and there you go!

Happy reading!

Tags: Briley Witch Chronicles, MWULTRA, Outrage, PlanetX2.1, Press, Scene, Soul Force, Wild Wood, WildWood