[album] Relix (1996-2013) by 505

Howdy folx, had a good weekend I hope? Let me bring your attention to the new release by YM2149 master 505. Relix is one huge bag of unreleased material spanning a period of over 15 years. Enjoy!



A direct download is available through Enough Records.
An extended version in executable format can be found here (released back in the day at SillyVenture 2k13).

[demo] Incubus et Succubus (1985)

Is it an early H'n'T demo? A digital drug trip? A faulty character ROM?
No, it's an animation for the Commodore, made in 1985 by Francesco Fanelli and Nando Santagata. Enjoy (and thanks Goto80 for the find).

[game] Castlevania: Spectral Interlude for ZX Spectrum Released

One of the most eagerly anticipated games in the Sinclair universe has finally been released. Castlevania: Spectral Interlude is the combined effort of some of the biggest names in the Spectrum scene: graphics by diver4d, music by darkman007, and code by SaNchez.

Downloads of the game, video footage, the soundtrack, and more can be found at the game's beautifully designed website at
spectralinterlude.com.

[demo] Are We Dead Yet? by Dekadence

The time has come again again... what time, you ask? Well, the time to break my usual rule of not posting Amiga AGA stuff (don't get me wrong, I like all Amigas, I just consider AGA somewhat out of scope for this blog).

So, without further ado, here's the well-deserved winner of the Amiga compo at this years' Payback party, 'Are We Dead Yet?' by Dekadence, for the unexpanded Amiga 1200.

Download and discuss

[demo] Breathing Tree by Harekiet

Sorry for the silence folks... I'm not dead, just haven't stumbled across anything that really motivated me to post lately. Well, more than happy to break radio silence to tell you about this beautifully designed, fractal-ish 256 byte MS-DOS sizetro by Harekiet.

Download, sources, and discussion can be found here, as usual.

[soft] Stuart's TI-99/4A Browser

Yes, that's right: The TI-99/4A now has it's own web browser. Stuart Conner is teaching ancient 16-bitter a few new tricks. Only a limited set of HTML tags is supported, but still... holy cow! An RS-232 extension (e.g. nanoPEB) as well as an RS-232 to RJ-45 converter (e.g. lantronix UDS-10) is required to make use of the browser.

Download and info

[demo] To The Future by Nyyrikki

A demo for the ultra-rare MSX turboR. Not much to see in terms of design (and probably slightly underwhelming in terms of effects), but considering the obscurity of the platform I just had to post it. Third place in the oldskool compo at Payback 2015 btw.

download and discuss

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

[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.

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.