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September 18, 2006 9:10 AM Subscribe
Holy Cow! The disk-based magazine LoadStar is still being published! If you haven't heard of this venerable magazine before, you'll know its platform -- the Commodore 64. The magazine publishes monthly software collections and still delivers via disk though now also delivers via email and makes several nods to the fact that y'all might not actually own the hardware any longer. Loadstar is also notable for it's early promotion of Quantum Link, the predecessor to a service you might be somewhat familiar with.
I had totally forgotten about them, cool post. Are there that many C64 enthusiasts left though? I hung on to mine until about six years ago when I couldn't think of a good reason to move it to my new house.
posted by octothorpe at 9:51 AM on September 18, 2006
posted by octothorpe at 9:51 AM on September 18, 2006
Anyone remember punching in the machine code for games at the back of Ahoy! ?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:55 AM on September 18, 2006
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:55 AM on September 18, 2006
Wow, that is some delightfully Web 0.2 rendering... I miss mid-90's web design.
Also, though it's a bit before my time, that mouse looks suspiciously like a predecessor to Squeak. Am I completely off base?
posted by Mayor West at 9:56 AM on September 18, 2006
Also, though it's a bit before my time, that mouse looks suspiciously like a predecessor to Squeak. Am I completely off base?
posted by Mayor West at 9:56 AM on September 18, 2006
Anyone remember punching in the machine code for games at the back of Ahoy! ?
Yes, I do. That was some of my first programming experience.. copying basic code out of magazines and seeing how it actually created a game. The 'good old days' had a better system (IMO) of self-taught computer usage.
posted by triolus at 11:14 AM on September 18, 2006
Yes, I do. That was some of my first programming experience.. copying basic code out of magazines and seeing how it actually created a game. The 'good old days' had a better system (IMO) of self-taught computer usage.
posted by triolus at 11:14 AM on September 18, 2006
I, for one, really appreciate the use of the word "y'all" in this post.
Well played, Ogre.
posted by tadellin at 11:22 AM on September 18, 2006
Well played, Ogre.
posted by tadellin at 11:22 AM on September 18, 2006
Dammit. Wish I had read the title of this post before I made that joke.
posted by hifiparasol at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2006
posted by hifiparasol at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2006
I was a 'COMPUTE!' subscriber. Hated punching in the machine code, but then they finally released the BASIC app that would do checksum validation on it line-by-line.
This post is six thousand kinds of awesome.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:12 PM on September 18, 2006
This post is six thousand kinds of awesome.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:12 PM on September 18, 2006
I've got the urge to break out my 6502 Assembler manual and the C64 memory map and do some game or demo coding. Now I just need a C64, mine was reduced to a puddle when my folks house had a fire.
posted by substrate at 12:37 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by substrate at 12:37 PM on September 18, 2006
I went up the loft to get the Commodore 64; it's covered in bird shit. Boo.
posted by bonaldi at 1:12 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by bonaldi at 1:12 PM on September 18, 2006
524288K RAM SYSTEM 314572800 BASIC BYTES FREE
I grew up on the C64; in fact, it taught me English and analytical thinking at a very young age. Thank you for this brilliant post.
Anyone else riffed on their parents and print the result as the "house newspaper" using Print Shop and a matrix printer? (Ours was an Epson FX80 I believe.) Not to mention Bard's Tale, of course, or Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Bubble Bobble, Dan Dare.... ahh.
Am I forgetting any?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:20 PM on September 18, 2006
Loderunner, Choplifter, Infiltrator, Impossible Mission, Paradroid, oh God.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:25 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:25 PM on September 18, 2006
Okay, this got me thinking: does anyone remember this C64 game? It was a quest-style graphic adventure, but with surreal elements. The map consisted solely (I think) of a suburban neighbourhood, or a row of houses, in which you had to collect objects to solve problems, yadda yadda. One of the rooms was a laundry room, in which you had to jump on the washer to collect something from a high shelf. The laundry room was weird because there were all sorts of stuff floating around in the air.
And another: also with houses and objects, but I believe this game was top-view or birds' eye view. One of the objects was a red herring, which didn't seem to be of any use in the game, and I didn't get the pun then.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but it just popped into my head. If nobody knows off the top of their head, I'll take it to the green.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:31 PM on September 18, 2006
And another: also with houses and objects, but I believe this game was top-view or birds' eye view. One of the objects was a red herring, which didn't seem to be of any use in the game, and I didn't get the pun then.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but it just popped into my head. If nobody knows off the top of their head, I'll take it to the green.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:31 PM on September 18, 2006
Anyone know where to get a good C64 emulator for Mac?
posted by hifiparasol at 2:13 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by hifiparasol at 2:13 PM on September 18, 2006
I'm a Softdisk man myself. Sub Stalker rules!
Commodor 64's are for nerds.
posted by designbot at 2:27 PM on September 18, 2006
Commodor 64's are for nerds.
posted by designbot at 2:27 PM on September 18, 2006
Oh, did I spell "Commodore" wrong? Did I, nerds?
posted by designbot at 2:29 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by designbot at 2:29 PM on September 18, 2006
I used to write games on a freelance basis, several of them in fact plus a handful of utilities and other articles, for these people back when the managing editor was Fender Tucker. (Of the games I'm still oddly proud -- they were all one-man efforts.) I also maintained their website some years back -- it's completely different now though. I've been thinking for a long while about making a post about them, but I was unsure if it violated the self-promotion rule, so I held back. So far, Loadstar remains the only time anyone's ever actually paid me for mucking about with computer games.
Indeed, it is a special flavor of awesome. What started out as mostly just a type-in computer software magazine minus the type-in part eventually evolved in a wonderfully iconoclastic, almost underground publication. I first found out about both Zippy the Pinhead (that issue had a Bill Griffith illustration of Zippy as the cover image) and the Church of the Subgenius through Fender's editorial missives The programs included were all over the map: one issue might have a fast-action arcade game, a card game, a collection of SID-based music, and a collection of programming tips. The next it'd be completely difficult with a cryptic crossword, graphics by frequent contributor Walt Harned, a small machine language library and a puzzle game.
I don't know if it's still like that. I think it's Dave Moorman who runs it now, who's pretty cool. I remember he wrote a Railroad Tycoon-like game for Loadstar back in the day that I got addicted to for a while. Some time back he was talking about making a compilation of all my games as a special product, but I think it fell through.
From what I remember, Fender's subscriber base in the later days consisted mostly of elderly people who stubbornly stuck with their C64s while the rest of the world moved on to expensive PCs. I remember a number of letters one retired man, Clifford Clingenpeel, wrote me about some of my games, asking for tips and expressing general appreciation. I wrote back every time, but felt bad because they always seemed like they were a bit too hard from him. I still have one of his letters around somewhere, but I try not to think about him too much these days.
Anyway, while we're on the subject... you might be interested in Loadstar Compleat, a CD Fender sells with every issue on it from 1-199 plus lots of extras, including my games, but I don't get any money out of it so I figure it should be okay to mention it here. These days, Fender is still keeping busy publishing Harry Stephen Keeler novels.
By the way, the id Software guys used to work for Softdisk (who published Loadstar). Wolfenstein 3D was developed on their off time while employed there.
posted by JHarris at 3:55 PM on September 18, 2006 [3 favorites]
Indeed, it is a special flavor of awesome. What started out as mostly just a type-in computer software magazine minus the type-in part eventually evolved in a wonderfully iconoclastic, almost underground publication. I first found out about both Zippy the Pinhead (that issue had a Bill Griffith illustration of Zippy as the cover image) and the Church of the Subgenius through Fender's editorial missives The programs included were all over the map: one issue might have a fast-action arcade game, a card game, a collection of SID-based music, and a collection of programming tips. The next it'd be completely difficult with a cryptic crossword, graphics by frequent contributor Walt Harned, a small machine language library and a puzzle game.
I don't know if it's still like that. I think it's Dave Moorman who runs it now, who's pretty cool. I remember he wrote a Railroad Tycoon-like game for Loadstar back in the day that I got addicted to for a while. Some time back he was talking about making a compilation of all my games as a special product, but I think it fell through.
From what I remember, Fender's subscriber base in the later days consisted mostly of elderly people who stubbornly stuck with their C64s while the rest of the world moved on to expensive PCs. I remember a number of letters one retired man, Clifford Clingenpeel, wrote me about some of my games, asking for tips and expressing general appreciation. I wrote back every time, but felt bad because they always seemed like they were a bit too hard from him. I still have one of his letters around somewhere, but I try not to think about him too much these days.
Anyway, while we're on the subject... you might be interested in Loadstar Compleat, a CD Fender sells with every issue on it from 1-199 plus lots of extras, including my games, but I don't get any money out of it so I figure it should be okay to mention it here. These days, Fender is still keeping busy publishing Harry Stephen Keeler novels.
By the way, the id Software guys used to work for Softdisk (who published Loadstar). Wolfenstein 3D was developed on their off time while employed there.
posted by JHarris at 3:55 PM on September 18, 2006 [3 favorites]
Gah, please pardon all the typos in the prior comment. Difficult to concentrate right now....
posted by JHarris at 3:58 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by JHarris at 3:58 PM on September 18, 2006
funny how I booted up my commode-door over the weekend for a brisk bout of Test Drive: The Duel, complete w/ scenery disk 1 and the Muscle Car disk....ahhhh, the days of Jr. High and rampant software-swapping between friends...lol.
posted by rhythim at 4:15 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by rhythim at 4:15 PM on September 18, 2006
goodnewsfortheinsane et al: Apparently Impossible Mission, California Games, Last Ninja, and maybe other Epyx are coming back for the Wii.
posted by ontic at 5:32 PM on September 18, 2006
posted by ontic at 5:32 PM on September 18, 2006
Actually, there are lots of new c64 stuff still getting published - our disk magazine (Game Over(view)) reviewed 54 brand new c64 games since the start of this year alone - as an aside, one more than the total number of new c64 games we reviewed in 2005 (53). We're also trying to push this number even higher with our contest (The Game Over(view) Freestyle Game Jam).
There are a few of us crazy people out there - we're getting aorund 1000 odd downloads of our mag a month, which isn't much by internet standards - but considering that it needs to run on a c64 or emulator, I think that's not so bad.
posted by jaymzjulian at 6:50 PM on September 18, 2006
There are a few of us crazy people out there - we're getting aorund 1000 odd downloads of our mag a month, which isn't much by internet standards - but considering that it needs to run on a c64 or emulator, I think that's not so bad.
posted by jaymzjulian at 6:50 PM on September 18, 2006
goodnewsfortheinsane: that game'd be frankie goes to hollywood
posted by hayeled at 6:58 PM on September 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by hayeled at 6:58 PM on September 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
I have a colleague who has installed ao an internet browser on his C64. The amount of memory is so tiny that when you scroll the page the page has to be requested again to render the next amount of bytes.
Weirdo's.
posted by jouke at 8:41 PM on September 18, 2006
Weirdo's.
posted by jouke at 8:41 PM on September 18, 2006
w00t! Thanks, hayeled!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:02 AM on September 19, 2006
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:02 AM on September 19, 2006
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Now I have to see if I still have all my C64 cables. I have the unit & my good ol' 1541 in the basement... This is awesome. Maybe I should subscribe.
posted by GuyZero at 9:14 AM on September 18, 2006