Latest news and posts

Cataball – An early Wonderboy?

Last updated: by fgasking

Chatting with team member Gary Spence the other day, Gary wondered if he had perhaps an over-active imagination when looking at Elite’s Cataball game one evening. A game that was released on one of their Hit-Paks, but then spruced up a year later with different levels and released at full price as Hoppin’ Mad.

cata1

Gary highlighted that Cataball seemed to have graphics very similar to Wonderboy in places – especially on the very first level with the forest, and with the rock formation at the bottom of the game. Could Cataball really have started out as a Wonderboy conversion for Elite? Continue reading →

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GTW64 June 2023 updates

Last updated: by fgasking

Another month gone already, and now as we enter into Summer, here is another GTW64 update with 7 new entries into the archive, including a title which oddly doesn’t seem to have had a UK release by Ocean and another which is based on a popular UK soap.

7 new entries added

A Fi$tful of Buck$, EastEnders, Picnic Paranoia, Power Prick, Return of the Things, Taxar, Turbo Towers

11 updates added

Babies of the Dirt, Chess, Denny’s Quest 2, Escape from London, Fire & Forget, Ninja Grannies, Putty, Rockus, Show Crazy, Total Recall V1, Wreckers

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Breakdown – lost loading screen

Last updated: by fgasking

If you haven’t played Breakdown before, then you should check it out. It’s a fun and simple shooter/platformer/puzzler mix, which was generously given away on Zzap!64 issue 90’s covermount.

When flicking through the magazine the other day, I realized that the magazine shows a screenshot of a loading screen that I can’t recall seeing in the game at all:

breakdown 640

Sure enough, checking the original tape image – there is no loader screen, but just a Novaload screen. I suspect that this was supplied as a separate thing to load in, but because it was on tape – it was just jettisoned. The screen seems to have been done by Jonas Holmsten (listed as “Jon”).

A shame really, and hopefully it can be dug out sometime to put alongside the game as intended. If you happen to have a copy with the loading screen, please do get in touch!

Posted in Commodore 64, GTW64 news, Unused materials | Tagged | 1 Comment

Target Renegade C64 early version

Last updated: by fgasking

Not a massively early version as such, but contributor Bruce Coates has highlighted that the Commodore User review of Target Renegade seems to have the baseball bat as a weapon in the other levels in the game.

TShot1

In the version released, it seems that you can only pick up a baseball bat on the first level – and such pick ups don’t exist from that point on. In the CU review, there is even suggestion of being able to pick up a stick as a dropped weapon. Continue reading →

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GTW64 May 2023 updates

Last updated: by fgasking

OK, so not as big an update as last month, but still a sizable one none-the-less, and with two very important additions. A total of 14 completely new entries too to further increase the size of the C64 archive, along with 11 updates overall and two very special findings! Many of the new entries are for titles which may well be out there, just not yet preserved. Can you help us find them?

Total Recall V1 and Wreckers recovered!

recall large

The big news of the month was the recovery of both the long lost first version of Total Recall from Active Minds (missing for 33 years), and a surprise start of a conversion of Wreckers by Denton Designs. Download both for yourself!

Total Recall V1 and Wreckers

This is then accompanied by the following updates on the site:

14 new entries added

Blood Bath at Orc’s Drift, Intellectual Software titles, Island Software titles, JMH Software titles, Micro-Ed, Inc titles, Micrograms, Inc titles, Microphys Programs Inc titles, Moses Engineering titles, Quality Input, Inc titles, Resource Software International titles, Right on Programs titles, Teacher’s Pet Software titles, The Enemy Within, The War of the Worlds

11 updates added

Arsenal FC, Battlecars, Boston Educational Computing, Inc titles, Cyberdyne Warrior Intro, Judge Death, Krell Software, Pharaoh’s Pyramid, R.I.S.K! V1, Rastan V1, Runestone, The War of the Worlds

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