MixSID Dual SID Board

While me and couple of hundred other SID fanatics are waiting for the SIDFX units to arrive, a new advanced dual SID board design appeared out of the blue; MixSID by Henning Bekel.

The arrival of MixSID is quite interesting, as feature-wise MixSID appears to be on-par with the SIDFX. Want to install any two SID models to any C64 model? Be able to switch between the installed SIDs on the fly? Choose between mono, dual-mono or true stereo operating modes? Have flexible selection for the second SID address space? Adjustable digi-boost for 8580? Volume level balancing for the installed chips? Reduced noise?

Check.

Both SIDFX and MixSID are capable with the above, and more. Of course SIDFX has even more some interesting features, including software configuration for the settings, and automatic configuration (voltage, filters) for the installed chips etc.

Comparing the two is not exactly the point of this article, but I can’t help myself doing that spec-wise, as both are advanced dual SID boards, with many similar features, and appearing around the same time.

The biggest difference between the two is actually the approach and design philosophy; SIDFX states being a plug and play, solder free solution that automatically detects the installed SID chips and configures itself accordingly. MixSID, in turn, is manually configured, comprehensively documented, open source, and DIY-friendly.

In fact, you can only have MixSID by building one yourself. You can go ahead and order or make your own pcbs, but Henning also sells the MixSID boards as kits, and I was sure to get myself one.

How my pixels got into ROM

This time I’m writing about a C64 game and how I got involved with it, rewinding to early 2015.

For my part things got in motion when my Out Run Memories picture got some positive attention at the time of its release. Thanks to that I got in contact with Antonio Savona, who kindly asked me if I could make a loading picture for his game P0 Snake. Antonio had already created the game for the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition 2014, and the game ended up winning the competition by a fair margin!

And it’s no surprise. It’s a clever snake game with a twist, with varied levels and gameplay, and an ingenious one-button game mechanics! On top of the solid game design there are some surprising features for a 16k game like a password system and digitized speech samples! I mean, the game fits into 16 kilobytes. And when that game greets you with a speech sample saying “Welcome to P zero Snake” and introduces more samples during the gameplay, it does raise an eyebrow! There’s an interesting article at the game’s development blog about the challenges with the audio and how it was pulled off.

Just take a look. Note the clever references to various classic games:

Thanks to the 16k game’s success and popularity, it was going to have an extended RGCD C64 cartridge release. And for this extended version I got to make the intro screen!

How about newly produced C64s?

Long time no posting. Once again there’s some interesting things going on in the C64 community. Especially one of the on-going funding campaigns I would like to bring to your attention.

First a quick recap.

C64 Reloaded. Image (c) Individual Computers

Already last year on April Fool’s Day Individual Computers announced the C64 Reloaded. Being no joke, it’s a newly produced C64 motherboard using the original chipset to celebrate C64’s 32th anniversary. After some changes in pricing and availability schedule, these new motherboards should be available on Individual Computers’ web shop shortly.

New C64 C cases. Render (c) Thomas Koch

More recently, on March 2015 an interesting Kickstarter project surfaced. It was for newly produced C64 C casings using the original molds. The project has an interesting back story, and the project funding goal of $ 10,000 was met in no less than a day! Eventually, the Kicstarter for the new colored and transparent C64 cases was so popular, that the initial funding goal was filled almost ten-fold. The cases are in production at the moment, and backers should receive their rewards sometime soon.

As to complete the lineup, there is now another crowd funding project going on for new C64 key caps in various colors. The funding goal is quite high, € 25,000. This is no wonder, as this time also the molds for the casting process has to be made. At the time of writing, roughly 60 % of the funding has been met, and the funding period will last for one and half weeks still, ending somewhere around 28th May 2015.

The C64 Reloaded and new C64 casings already came true. I’m hoping that also this third re-manufacturing project becomes reality. Not only hoping, I’m of course backing also on this effort, and I would like to encourage you to do so too!

Soulless

Not too long ago, the C64 community saw a release of a new game, Soulless. New games for the C64 gets released every once in a while, but what made Soulless stand out from the usual new C64 game releases was the passion put into it’s proper commercial release. I was impressed enough to order myself two copies of it!

Release

The game was released under Psytronik Software label and is being sold by two UK based retro game stores; Binary Zone Interactive and RGCD. The game was released simultaneously in all imaginable C64 formats: Cartridge, floppy disk and tape, plus digital downloads to complete the lineup. RGCD distributes the top of the line cartridge version and Binary Zone sells the floppy and tape versions of the game, and the digital downloads. I ordered the cartridge version from RGCD and the premium disk version from Binary Zone. As a nice touch the fellows from both stores sent the game as digital download by email after confirmed order.

The game is identical between all the versions, one can just choose the option that fits one’s retro tripping the best! Cartridge, floppy and tape versions are only for a real C64 of course, but the digital downloads can be used with emulators and devices like Chameleon, 1541 Ultimate, sd2iec drives and so on.

Both stores additionally offers a choice between a budget and a premium version – the game can be bought as a cartridge/disk/tape only or with extras. I’d recommend getting the game with all the extras, as all that stuff makes it feel a genuine old school game!

And besides – just look at all this stuff! This is the cartridge version from RGCD: