Thursday, January 29, 2015

UK1541 - New Floppy Emulator for Commodore Computers


A new floppy drive emulator for C64/C128 and possibly other C= machines has appeared recently. Named UK1541 aka Ultimate Killer, it aims to challenge the market dominance of the powerful, but high-priced 1541Ultimate II. The device is being developed by well-known hardware maker Krzysztof Switajski. While the final price hasn't been decided yet, the current estimate is 55 EUR.

According to an in-depth review on Indie Retro News the product is still lacking in a few areas, but seems nevertheless very promising. I'll be keeping an eye on it for sure.

Project website

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

[demo] Prods from GCWDDI

Finally the video captures from the Global Convention of Worldwide Demo Developers, Inc. have started to roll in. Well, actually they appeared a few days ago already, but I failed to notice since I gave up checking daily a while ago. Aaaanyway... here we go. Might as well post them all, except "Part Deux" by Evolution, which has still not been capped (if it actually isn't vaporware altogether).

There was only one compo at this ominous Atari party, with some pretty restrictive rules. Prods had to be coded within 48 hours iirc, and could use only one bitplane.


1st place: Baby, instant soup doesn't really grab me by KÜA and Reservoir Gods, for Atari STe


Download and discuss


Tied for 2nd: Remote Entry #2 by Spice Boys, for Atari ST


Download and discuss


Tied for 2nd:  Who Made You Judge Judy And Executioner? by Excellence in Art, for Atari STe


My favourite prod from the compo.
Download and discuss


4th place: A few dots by SPKR, for Atari ST


Download and discuss

The captures were provided by STEve, who recently set up a neat Atari themed blog at ataricrypt.blogspot.co.uk.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

A Retrospective on the Stories and Aesthetics of 8bit Music

A new write-up about what could broadly be described as the "narrative of 8bit music" has appeared on Chipflip. I'm usually not too fond of abstract writings on artistic matters, but this is well worth the read in my opinion. Quote:
Defining our music movement as “8-­bit music” was a simplified way of explaining what we did. It was a way of thinking about medium and technology intrinsic to some modern discourses on art. Like, anything you do with a camera is photography. Simple, but slightly … pointless?
Read the full article here.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Ambient SID Competition - Stream Recording

How could I have missed the Ambient SID Competition? Well, the least I can do to promote this awesome compo now is to link you to the stream recording of all the entries. Have a nice trip through the universe!


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

[game] Commodore Clicker



"Render the screen of a Commodore 64 pixel by pixel, and unleash the graphical prowess of the greatest computer of the 80s!"

No, it isn't a completely pointless timewaster. It's called Idle Gaming, dude!

Play Commodore Clicker here.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

[demo] Near by Agenda



A very stylish Atari XL/XE demo from Sillyventure 2k14, which only recently found its way into the online world. Took 2nd place at SV's Atari 8bit demo compo.

Download and discuss here.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

[soft] Gradual Decline - Gameboy Glitch ROM by nitro2k01


A new glitch toy for the Nintendo Gameboy has appeared, courtesy of nitro2k01. Okok, it came out in December already, but still... it's pretty neat. What it does is basically randomizing VRAM and IO register states to produce a random audiovisual assault of sorts.

Read more details and grab a download here.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

[game] Dangerous Rick for Lviv PK-01


A game for the mysterious Russian home/educational computer Lviv PK-01? You don't see that every day! Dangerous Rick is basically a clone of Rick Dangerous 2, albeit with new level design. Pretty neat!

Download here (includes emulator) and don't forget to leave praise on pouet ;)

Friday, January 9, 2015

[album] Battle Trax Vol. 1 by Stagediver and CCDM

Fresh Amiga gabba/hardcore, yay! Battle Trax Vol. 1 is a live recording of Stagediver vs. CCDM in Chicago in November last year. Amigaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!



30 Years Atari ST and NES

So right now all the tech sites and nerd blogs are drooling zombi-like over the current CES' massive output of soon-to-be-outdated hipster gadgets. But can you remember a time when CES was actually cool? A time when companies presented new technology there that even 30 years later would in some respects still be unrivalled by anything that came afterwards?


January 1985 must have been such a time. At that year Atari, under the recently assumed leadership of Jack Tramiel, presented it's first 16-bit computer, the ST (actually a 16/32-bit hybrid, hence the name Sixteen Thirty-two). Thanks to Tramiel's less-than-favourable reputation, and with Atari being close to bancrupcy at the time, reactions were sceptical at first. But consumers knew there were in for the real deal (except those who for some reason bought that other machine starting with A... you know which one I'm talking about, right? Yes, the Acorn Archimedes of course xD). In less than a year, the ST turned around the company's fate.

Fast forward 30 years. The ST userbase is still a significant force to be reckoned with, and a solid amount of new music, gfx, and demo productions are released every year. And to this day, the Atari ST remains the only computer that has 100% accurate MIDI timing. So, here's to another 30 years!

On a side note, Nintendo was also at CES that year. There was little reason to suspect that the unassuming lead gray contraption they were presenting was already a huge success in Japan and would eventually become one of the worlds best-selling home consoles of all time...

NES prototype, photo by gingerbeardman

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

[game] $2000-$3fff &D by Genesis Project


$2000-$3fff &D is a brilliant experimental glitchy Commodore 64 game. The goal is to, uh, defend the game's code, which is also the screen data.

The game ran at the Ludum Dare 31 compo, where it took 4th place in the "innovation" category, and ended up 70th overall (out of 2600+ submissions).

Download the game here.

The source code is available here.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

[album] Abinox III by lpower

Hiya folks, happy new year to you all! Ancient Wonderworld is back with some exiting news that have piled up over the last few weeks.

First and foremost: check out this awesome new VGM/chip-prog release from Pterodactyl Squad! This last installment of lpower's Abinox trilogy is one epic ride through time and space. Released in late December, is easily ranks as one of the best releases of 2014 in my opinion.