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Commodore_Free_Issue_27_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64
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kickstart 16
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2023-02-26
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Kickstart C16 &
Invasive Action Cartridges [C64]
http://www.cosine.org.uk/
Reviewed By J. Monkman
http://www.rgcd.co.uk
http://www.rgcd.co.uk/shop/reviews/
kikstart-invasive-cart-project/
Sometime back in the end of 2007 I
emailed T.M.R about the possibility
of creating 8KB cartridge versions of
some of the smaller games in his
highly acclaimed C64 back-catalogue.
Naively, I was under the impression
that it would be a simple job of
saving each game executable with a
special header, then burning the
resulting files onto EPROM chips,
fiddling about a bit with PCB kits &
cartridge cases & presto! A new
C64 cartridge release would be born.
In hindsight, how wrong I was...
Initially poo-pooing the idea, T.M.R
explained that it would be a little
more complicated than I'd optimist-
ically hoped & essentially involve
revisiting a lot of old code & re-
learning how cartridge loading works.
However,I continued to express
interest in the concept & persist-
ently pestered him on & off for a
month or so until one happy day, I
opened my email inbox to find two
emulator-friendly cartridge images
waiting for me. This is where the fun
really began.
The next step was to find someone to
help manufacture the carts, a process
that T.M.R still believed would be too
expensive to make the project viable
even on a cost-price basis. After a
lot of fruitless searching (& money
wasted on foolishly trying to assemble
carts myself)I eventually stumbled
upon C64 enthusiast Tim Harris via his
eBay Commodore Store; finally it
looked as though the project would
yield results.
The first game we collectively worked
on was Kikstart C16, which itself was
a source of many confused emails due
to the fact that Kikstart C16 is a C64
port of the C16 version of Kikstart,
& "not" a C16 cartridge.
Using a standard black cartridge case
& box artwork designed by T.M.R &
me, early prototypes were sold via a
forum post at www.retrogamer.net &
proved to be surprisingly popular -
even with RGCD's own SirClive, who
immediately voiced his regret at
giving the game a 'so-so' review score
back in RGCD #03 & gushingly praised
T.M.R for his superb work.
At this point, we began work on
Invasive Action, a quirky little
arcade shoot-em-up developed by T.M.R
under his Backward Engineering
moniker & based on 'Ivasive Action'
a game featured on the infamous
Cassette 50 C64 compilation back in
1984. Now, before you write this one
off ("Cassette 50? WTF! ROFL!", etc.)
it has to be said that T.M.R's unoff-
icial sequel is a pretty good laugh.
It received a warm writeup in the now
sadly-defunct C64 discmag Game Over
(View) & is certainly a more than
worthy addition to your C64
collection. In fact - & the same
applies for both IA & Kikstart -
considering the 8KB limitation, both
releases compare more than favourably
against the official C= library of 8KB
cartridges released back in the
format's popular years.
However, to make things a little more
interesting (and indeed saleable) Tim
Harris suggested using transparent
cases with the addition of an inter-
nally mounted blue LED - & if you look
at the photos you'll see that the
result is pretty eye-catching when the
cart is plugged in!
Hype aside, I suppose that the real
question is "are they actually worth
buying"? The items are available
priced at a very reasonable 13 each,
exclusively from the RGCD shop. So in
my opinion I would have to say "yes"
but then I'm biased because this was
my project to start with! However; it
should be noted that both games are
readily available for free in their
original format (and are included with
RGCD #05), meaning that buyers are not
really getting any exclusive content,
but the fact that these are strictly
limited, real hardware releases mean
that they'll appeal to most C64 hard
ware enthusiasts & collectors. Both
Kikstart C16 & Invasive Action come
presented in stylish hand-made card-
board boxes with either printed or
in-game instructions, & the latter
game's luminous attributes make it
something quite special.
In conclusion; the really exciting
news (for me at least) is that there
are likely to be more RGCD C64
cartridge releases to come in the near
future - I've already opened discus-
sions with several interested dev-
elopers & there's even the poss-
ibility of a C64 16KB cartridge dev-
elopment competition financed by RGCD
in 2009,which (if it goes ahead) will
hopefully result in a slew of releases
& breathe new life into the much
underrated C= cartridge format.
(Please note that both Kikstart C16 &
Invasive Action are PAL/NTSC
compatible & work on the C128 as well
as the C64. If you are a developer
interested in working with RGCD to
have your own game published in
cartridge form then please feel free
to drop us a line via our contact
page).
http://www.rgcd.co.uk/contact/
..end..