Introducing Slixed: An online drawing program which allows you to create Commodore 64-esque pictures with the C64's glorious 16 color palette. You can choose to create a new drawing from scratch, or load an image (in JPEG, GIF or PNG formats) which can then be edited in either hires or multi-color modes. Once you have an image worthy of hanging in the Louvre, you can save it off in PNG format for posterity or for later editing.

The program is currently in alpha, but it's certainly quite usable. One can only imagine what great features may be coming down the pike: Saving and loading in native C64 formats.. editing the various interlaced (high color) formats.. exporting images to assembly includes (for coders).. the skies the limit.

Just one more great cross platform tool to help modern C64 developers create new games, demos and art.

Check it out here.

Here's an interesting item that was just posted on the Commodore Server user blogs.. a member named Rik Magers recently picked up one of Jim Brain's uIEC flash drives for the Commodore 64. He took things a step farther when he noticed that the alarm box for his door actually resembled a miniature CBM 1541 disk drive.

So whats a geek to do? Well, sacrifice the poor defenseless alarm sensor in order to bring back some long lost computing memories, of course! Nostalgia is a powerful motivator. The recent passing of such luminaries as Steve Jobs perhaps makes us cling to the these early memories of computing nirvana even more tightly than we normally do.

Early this year my C64 was dead and I was sent a replacement motherboard by UKRetrogams that I decided to put in it. Tried transplanting the motherboard but in the end had to get help from Mark aka UKRetrogames
http://www.youtube.com/UKRetrogames as I somehow managed to destroy it in the process :P

The C64 Guts and Glory: the inside of the repaired C64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dt17ZNC0XI

The Guts and Glory Aftermath: The C64 working
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRWNzwK4x8c

[ MAR . 27 . 2011 ]
 

Greetings folks! Welcome to the March 27th, 2011 edition of Three for the Road.

This week we take a look at a retro style platform game where you try to save the dinosaurs from extinction.. a shoot'em up where music plays an integral role in the gameplay.. and a recent scene re-release for the venerable Commodore 64.

[ FEB . 20 . 2011 ]
 
Greetings folks! Welcome to the February 20th, 2011 edition of Three for the Road. This week I take a look at a couple of new releases for the Commodore 64, with a remake of a fantastic Pac-Man clone.. as well as a brand new action / platformer, set aboard various star ships in the depths of space. Wooo! We also take a look at a unique arena / tube shooter which has been taken off active sale and is now being given away for free.

[ JAN . 12 . 2011 ]
 
I remember back in 1976 when my father came home with Atari Pong... We hooked it up straight away on the TV set in the kitchen and just played the hell out of it. Only being five, I didn't quite get the hours in on it that my older siblings did, but I still logged quite a few.

Who would have thought that something so damned simple could hold your attention for so long? Simply put, it was a new technology that really foreshadowed the possibility of what was about to come. And it didn't take long.. Atari 2600, Fairchild Channel F, Bally Astrocade, Intellivision, Odyssey 2... all of these systems owe their existence, at least in part, to the financial success of Atari Pong... and conceptually to the Magnavox Odyssey by Ralph H. Baer and, of course, Willy Higinbotham for his oscilloscope rendition of Tennis for Two.

I've been checking out a ton of Commodore 64 related sites recently and came across this little gem: C64 Pixels. The website is archiving and cataloging all of the C64 artwork it can get a hold of, and it looks fairly well organized. All of the artwork is broken down by year, format and artist.

If you're a fan of C64 pixel art and don't want the hassle of firing up an emulator or viewing these on actual hardware, then this site is a dead simple alternative to getting your pixel art fix.

-Chip

[ JAN . 04 . 2011 ]
 
It's just amazing that we can still be reviewing new Commodore 64 releases in this day and age.. and there's nothing wrong with that. You guys know that I always like to give these games a shout-out because they are getting fewer and far between. They also tend to get buried under the mass of new titles for current systems. Also, who wouldn't want some new games to play on this nearly thirty year old beast. :-)

So, today we were contacted by Shoot'em-Up Construction Kit (S.E.U.C.K) king extraordinaire, Alf Yngve, about his latest S.E.U.C.K. game release over at Psytronik Software.

In episode 5 of the Armchair Arcade Radio podcast, Chip Hageman pointed out a great piece of software called 'Armalyte'. I ordered a copy and decided to check it out and capture it on video. Check it all out below.