Category: Platforms

  • Video for Stu’s “MEGAblaST”

    While not an offical video (apparently) I found it pretty cute and fun. More info on the animator here (in russian).

  • C64.sk’s LAST COMPO

    Every year’s autumn for the last 8 years, super Commodore 64 news portal from Slovakia, C64.sk, runs the SID Compo, C64 scene’s biggest online music competition.

    It has now been announced, the LAST installment of this compo, starting now and ending by end November. Each year the amount and quality of releases has been rising a lot, so I bet this time, being the last one, it will be no exception, with everyone wanting to make the SID Compo leave us with quite a loud bang.

    Get updated about it on the compo page at CSDb, and join if you want to.

    You can also check out the previous installments which are full of delicious tunes (in between brackets, my favs :)) :

    C64.sk SID Compo #1 (#7 and #4)
    C64.sk SID Compo #2 (#5 and #8)
    C64.sk SID Compo #3 (#4, #5 and #13, and I got a tune in #24 :))
    C64.sk SID Compo #4 (#5 and #7)
    C64.sk SID Compo #5 (#1, #3 and #16)
    C64.sk SID Compo #6 (#2 and #7 )
    C64.sk SID Compo #7 (#8 and #4)
    Bonus! C64.sk Covers Compo #1 (#7 and #4)

  • The X’2008 demoparty: All releases online!

    Booze Design raises the bar for tech achievement on a C64 demo.

    So, another X party has finished! This milestone of the C64 scene has delivered some of the best productions of the last years, as always. Let’s have some of the official blurb:

    “13 years of X parties, 10 years at the farm, the 9th X in total and still going strong. Who would’ve thought.

    The biannual c64-only event in rural Netherlands has been one of its kind in 8-bit partyland. Not only do you get brilliant demo/graphics/music competitions, but you also get a nice bed, hot showers, proper food, breakfast and all the beer, soft drinks, tea and coffee you can drink.
    For the competitions and performances you can count on a high quality big screen and audio equipment to keep the cows awake.”

    The stream of releases is BIG, as always the C64 scene proves to be one of the most productive in the demoscene, and the quality bar is usually quite high. This party has seen the release of the tech-groundbreaking demo “Edge of Disgrace” by Booze Design, which has raised the bar for C64 demo tech quality very, very high. I can’t wait for X’2010 when this demo should be surpassed by a new one :)

    Other personal favourites are Pearls for Pigs from Xenon, and My Beauty from Fairlight (featuring music by mr. Goto80)

    On the music side, I can recommend to give a listen to the tunes by Randall and Fanta.

    All the info comes thanks to the Commodore Scene Database!
    Here are the final listings with CSDb rankings and links to vote/comment/download the prods:
    (more…)

  • Atarimatt – “I Was A Teenage Metalhead”

    Atarimatt sends TCTD a cd-r of his new split “I Was A Teenage Metalhead”. Atarimatt, working entirely on two copies of synthcart on the Atari2600 makes probably the best use of the TIA chip outside Slocum’s own Treewave.  The first track on the disc, “Space Squid Shakedown” is its most succesful track,  with slow building tension and adept use of the 2600’s especially limited sonic palette.  Atarimatt does use some mixing and effects, but the use is subtle and does not detract from the song, rather reinforces it.

    After a track from other band, electro Proggers GUL, atarimatt second track “The Electric Monsters”,  is a jaunty well played tune, but perhaps falls victim to the shortcomings of the TIA with its limited pitch range.  Everything about the track is solid, it just did not grab me as strongly as the lead-off track.

    Finally the two artist take turns remixing the rad atarimatt tune, “Commuter”. The source song, on atarimatts myspace” , is itself a beautiful track, and the remixes are different enough to be unique pieces of work.  The disc itself comes packaged with artwork and stickers for the bands and label. At five bucks its a very low risk high reward proposition, and a great showcase of the potential of synthcart at its best.

    You can get it for $5 anywhere in the US at his myspace.

  • A26F 2600 Midi Cart Appeared

    The prolific madman from down under, little-scale has posted his video of his 2600 midi interface.

    He writes:

    I love the sounds of the Atari 2600. I made a MIDI interface that gives you full control over the sound output of an Atari 2600.

    Watch a demo video here.

    I really want to thank Paul Slocum and all of the fantastic work that he has done for the inspiration.

    I have created an announcements group for this project here.