David Kudrev
(Edited by Jen Shadski)
If there’s one way to separate which generation a gamer was brought up in, ask what their favourite ’64’ game is. The most likely answer will be a Nintendo 64 game or Commodore 64 game title, or “Nintendo or Commodore?” It appears, however, that a particular crowdfunding campaign is set to playfully confuse a particular generation of gamers with the naming convention but – more importantly – revive one of the most commercially successful computers of all time.
This campaign has commenced with the title ‘THE 64’ for both the computer and the handheld console, and is intended to revive the passion for Commodore 64 gaming either at home or on the go. The plan is for production to commence with a handheld Commodore 64 as well as a re-release of the original Commodore 64 with both options containing ARM Cortex SoC processors. Both devices will also include pre-loaded original as well as homebrew games with the capability to install more at the discretion of the user.
Of course ‘THE 64’ computer will include a cartridge slot for original carts as well as an SD card slot for downloaded ones. The handheld console will include two micro USB ports, with one for data transfer. The campaign has around a month to go and – should it succeed – we will see these rolling out from December of this year.
Head over to the Indiegogo page for more information on ‘THE 64’ system as well as pictures of the concept designs of the handheld, or visit the official page at www.the64.computer.
On the subject of notable crowdfunding campaigns as of late, here is one for a documentary on box art; funnily enough called ‘Box Art – A Gaming Documentary’. The documentary focuses on exactly how box art in games had to sell games before the Internet was a common phenomenon. The campaign is asking for US $30,000 with rewards from US $13, where you can get a digital copy of the film, and going up to higher reward tiers which includes the physical medium of the doco.
The campaigners are planning also to release two versions of the film, one of which includes the original 90 minute feature, and the other including a special expanded edition which will include significantly more content. The campaign page includes a list of artists and industry well-knowns of who are going to be in the doco, such as 3DO/EA Founder Trip Hawkins, David Perry (Shiny Entertainment) and Tom duBois (box art for Turtles in Time, Contra III, Castlevania: Bloodlines).
If the campaign is successful, it should be available from December 2018. Visit the Kickstarter page for more information, rewards and other artists who will be contributing to this film.
Thanks for the link Marcus!
Pang fans can finally rejoice – Pang Adventures has been made available this week. Pang: Magical Michael was the last game to come out in 2010 on the Nintendo DS. Since then there have been numerous clones on mobile devices, but these didn’t follow too well from the original games that were released from the late 80s onwards.
While Pang Adventures is a brand new game, it has promised to stay true to the original concept of the games while also including plenty of modern features – including local/online co-op, three game modes, over 100 levels, new weapons, balls and for the first time in a Pang game: Boss fights.
Pang Adventures is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, iOS and Android.
Wrapping up this week’s Retrospektive is with an astounding feat that many still thrive to keep beating. YouTuber Darbian has recently beaten the world record of beating Super Mario Bros. with 4:57.260 played on a real NES.
This is truly an amazing feat, considering that the last world record (according to speedrun.com) was 4:57.693. This new record beats that by a couple of hundred milliseconds; however the previous world record holder did use an emulator – whether that makes any difference or not.
Well done Darbian!