Sid Chip Club Available on Cartridge! (Commodore 64)

RGCD are proud to present a Commodore 64 cartridge version of LMan's new album, SID Chip Club. Fresh from his successful Kickstarter, this new 8-track, hardware 'LP' of dope, club-orientated techno and house music is now finally available for those of you who may have missed the fund raising campaign in 2019.

With LMan on the keys combined with some nifty programming by code wizard THCM, the limitations of the Commodore 64 and its legendary SID chip have been twisted into a truly unique sound, bringing the dark and sweaty vibes of the underground club into your lounge/office/studio.

LMan started making electronic music in 1990 on a C64, later on Amiga and then PC DAWs. He co-founded and has run remix64.com since 2001 (a web community about remixing music from C64 and Amiga games). Between 2012 and 2015, he made a name for himself in the international coloured pencil artist community, holding exhibitions and being published in various art journals. In 2015, LMan returned to the SID chip and actively entered the demoscene, where he has released several acclaimed C64 tunes, gaining attention with elaborate and out-of-the-box sound design and sample usage. Markus is a member of distinguished scene groups like MultiStyle Labs, Maniacs of Noise, Censor Design, Performers and TRSi.

Sid Chip Club is presented in a pocket-sized, glossy 420gsm cardboard carton, with cover design and illustration by Markus Klein. The GMOD2 PCB is housed in RGCD branded black cartridge shell, with a 3D domed label. The cartridge also comes with a free instant download (MP3, FLAC and D64 music disk).

We only have 28 cartridges left from the initial run, so grab your copy from our online store today! Please note that Sid Chip Club is also available to buy direct from LMan here as a vinyl record or as a digital download.

Kickstarter: SID Chip Club: Vinyl album & C64 Cartridge

Those of you who are into modern SID music (and Commodore 64 cartridges) should check out this Kickstarter project by Markus 'LMan' Klein. LMan has been blowing the scene away with his unique club style SID tracks over the past few years, and with this project he not only proposes putting together a six-track vinyl album, but also making it available on cartridge so you can play the tracks on a real Commodore 64! Alternatively, for those of you who prefer records, "SID Chip Club" will be released on a high quality, 160g yellow vinyl record with a special black splatter effect. The pressing will be performed carbon neutrally by an experienced manufacturer.

I've been a fan of LMan's work for quite a while - after all, music productions by people like him, Jason Page and Linus are the reason why I have a C64 set up and plugged into a sound system on my everyday work desk. So it should come as no real surprise that RGCD have offered to help him with the cartridge side of things. You can rest assured that the final result will be a quality physical release that will have you dancing around your C64, lights off and volume up to the max, jacking like its 1988...

The Kickstarter is currently sitting at about 2/3 of the way to it's much-needed target, so if this is something that remotely interests you, please consider giving it your support by clicking here. Records are available for £22-24, and the cartridge is only £30!

RGCD: From Mags to Riches – The Evolution of a Software Publisher

[This article was originally written by J. Monkman for issue #64 of the world-famous Commodore 64 disk magazine Vandalism News, and has been reposted here with permission from the editor. If you wish to read it in its original form, download Vandalism News from CSDB].

One of the things I have discovered over the past few months is that it is really hard to write about something you're both really passionate about and directly responsible for without sounding like a complete asshole. The chances are that I've probably failed here, so you'll just have to take my word that I'm actually an 'OK' guy, and not an egotistical, deluded idiot who believes he has single-handedly saved the C64 gaming scene by selling cartridges and running a game development competition. The part I play in all of this, although significant, is actually pretty small. To give a terrible analogy, much like a frontman of a typical rock band, without the rest of the musicians I'd be nothing - just a guy strutting about and shouting on a stage. So, the main kudos of course goes out to the large and ever-growing family of sceners I've collaborated and worked with since starting out on the C64, and regardless of how many interviews or presentations I'm asked to give about RGCD, this is a fact that I will never forget.

It's probably worth mentioning that I actually wrote the bulk of this article back in 2012 for a papermag version of Propaganda that sadly never materialised. Because of this there's a big chunk of the RGCD story missing that has been covered elsewhere in other interviews and blog write-ups (the release of Super Bread Box at GameCity 2013 in particular). Instead, I've decided to focus on the previously undocumented origins of RGCD, as well as briefly covering our present day activities and the future.

Dynablaster Revenge (PC/Linux)

[This review was originally written by J. Monkman for indiegames.com, and has been reposted here with the editor's permission].

When it comes to party games, few can top Dynablaster (or Bomberman, depending where in the world you are) - so it's no surprise that Titan and Haujobb took first place in the game development compo at the Revision demoparty with Dynablaster Revenge. What is surprising however, is that hardly anyone outside the scene has yet taken notice of this fantastic tribute to Hudsonsoft's incendiary magnum opus. When I tested the game on Titan's server earlier this evening there were no other players other than myself and a few friends I'd hooked up with, but hopefully that's an issue we can resolve following this write up.

Psyboarfunk / The Game Is Apaw! Poster Set Available!

The first of a planned series of posters from a variety of C64 artists, RGCD present two stunning limited edition A2 prints of Ilija "iLKke" Melentijević's recent artwork; Psyboarfunk and The Game Is Apaw!

Originally released in an unfinished state at the Syntax 2013 demoparty in Melborne (where it achieved 2nd place in the Mixed Graphics compo), Psyboarfunk is a C64 multicolour rework of an old four-colour piece by Ilija. The final version used here was completed a week after the party.

The Game Is Apaw! was Ilija's entry in the 2013 Plain PETSCII Graphics Competition held over at CSDB, where it achieved 5th place out of over 100 submissions. The Game Is Apaw! was composed entirely using the standard CBM ASCII character set, and is based on an 8-colour cat avatar he pixelled back in 2011.

This set includes both A2 posters (420mm x 594mm in size), created from screen captures then optimised and converted into CMYK format by Steve Day. The posters are numbered individually on the reverse side and are sent rolled together in a reinforced poster tube. Only 100 sets will ever be available for sale.

The Psyboarfunk and The Game Is Apaw! set is available now from our online store, priced at £15. Shipping is £5 for UK (because of the crazy parcel-size rules), £4 to mainland Europe and £5 for the rest of the world.

Sn4ke / Grazer (PC)

Games that use procedural generation, either random or from a seed value, have always fascinated me. Ever since first playing Elite as a child and wondering how on earth a eight galaxies could fit on a single disk, the concept of a game world or design structure unfolding itself from an algorithm into memory seems like the ultimate solution to the limitations imposed by the time consuming, manually-crafted alternative. By using procedural generation, games can be huge (even endless) yet developed and delivered by small teams with minimal assets. The lack of bulky level data means that huge games can also be tiny.

Now, before you get excited about the prospect of n.h.k.'s Sn4ke and Grazer featuring gigantic, expansive worlds, let me set the record straight. They are not huge at all. In fact, they are incredibly simplistic, so much so that if judged on the playing experience alone it could be argued that they don't really deserve feature space at RGCD at all. Yet, nonetheless they are special little games, with 'little' being the key word here; combined, Grazer and Sn4ke take up less than 8KB of disk space.

Retro News Update

Wow. The retro and indie gaming scenes have exploded over the past fortnight, with a ton of releases more than worthy of your attention yet sadly not enough hours in the day for us at RGCD to cover them all in detail. So starting with the modern indie scene, here's what we've been playing for the past few days.

Nitronic Rush (PC)

Mmmmmm, this looks just a bit like Tron, doesn't it?

Despite the 'classic' film and remake/sequel/whatever both being complete pants in regard to actual story quality and science, no one can argue the fact that Tron looks bloody gorgeous. And as you can see, the same applies to Nitronic Rush - an AAA quality Tron-meets-Wipeout futuristic stunt racer developed by a group of students at the DigiPen Institute of Technology.

When I first saw a video of Nitronic Rush in action I initially dismissed the game as being yet another title that wouldn't run on my aged desktop, but surprisingly it runs at full speed with all the settings maxed out, so don't pay too much attention to those recommended system specs. The game itself is without a doubt the best indie racer I've played for years, and I actually feel guilty playing it for free. If it had multiplayer support (or at least other AI controlled cars to race against other than 'ghosts') then it would be perfect, but as it stands it's still a contender for freeware game of the year. Avoiding giant neon buzzsaws in a flying car has never been so much fun.

Picnic Mayhem (PC/iOS/Android)

Well, I was waiting for it to happen, and it finally did - PC demo gods Farbrausch finally got their own games division, called Gamebrausch. I had some conversations on IRC with one of their members (gizmo) a year ago and he seemed eager to do this, so I'm glad he finally got it started.

C64 News Update

There's been a few noteworthy developments on the C64 front lately, and as I'm a bit short of time today to give proper in-depth reviews, I thought I'd just wrap the whole lot up in one quick-fix post rather than let it slip any further.  So, here we go (in no particular order whatsoever).
  

Vandalism News #56 (Onslaught/Wraith Designs)

  

  
Issue 56 of the hugely popular C64 scene diskmag was released at the Flashback 2011 demo party in Australia last week, featuring (amongst many other high quality articles) a positive mention of our cartridge development competition.  If you're into the C64 and have yet to pick up a copy of VN, then I strongly recommend you do so - it's the one-stop shop for all your scene news, neatly wrapped up in a superb joystick driven user interface.
  

Sheepoid Released (Richard Bayliss/Psytronik)

  

  

I previewed this recently and am happy to say that the game-breaking bottom-right corner bug has now been addressed by Richard.  Sheepoid could still do with a two player mode, but it's a corker of a game and more than worthy of the budget price tag.  If I was rewriting the review, this final release would definitely jump to 4/5.  Pick up your copy today from our friends over at Psytronik (£3.99 cassette, £4.99/£9.99 disk version - all including free postage).
  

Frantic Freddy (Spectravideo Port) Released

  

  

Ported and ever-so-slightly updated from a game on the super-rare Spectravideo home computer, Frantic Freddy is a shamelessly old-school single-screen platformer with the titular Freddy rescuing distressed cats and extinguishing rampaging fires in a huge apartment block.  The game is perhaps a little too old school for my taste, with slow-paced gameplay, blip-blop music and very basic in-game graphics (although the title screen by Joe from Crest is fantastic), but even so I have to admit that I love the concept and the attention of detail gone into this conversion.  It's a real 'retro remake' ;)
  

C64 Cartridge Development Competition Update

  

  

New entrants are still signing up for our game development competition, with a total of eight people/groups in the running so far and one game already submitted for testing.  Also, Psytronik have kindly volunteered to sponsor with a prize package, and the cartridge port expanders and easy flash carts are sat here waiting to be given out (each with a copy of Onslaught's excellent Zak McKracken/Maniac Mansion ROM image burnt and ready to play!)
  

Not Even Human / Edge Grinder

  

  

Sales of NEH have been slow but steady, but we've almost sold out of the 20 originally made - there's only three packages left to mail out.  Thanks to everyone who shared the promo video link and blogged it, your help has been massively appreciated!  As soon as more orders come in I'll get another batch made, so don't worry about missing out on this one just yet ;)
  
Work on Edge Grinder continues, with TMR recently dropping me a line to say that 2/3 of the enemies are now in place.  Here's hoping for a summer release!  More news to follow soon.

The Sounds of Tomchi

Whilst chatting with Tomchi briefly this evening, he was telling me about a new chiptune he has started for the r0x zer0 menu screen and I thought that it would be nice to show him a bit of support by showcasing a few of his recent tracks in this blog.

As an introduction, Tomchi (aka Nicolas Flandin) is one of the new school of Atari ST tracker musicians, still dedicated to the machine years after it's commercial demise and relentlessly striving to create fresh new sounds on the very limited YM2149 chip.  We met whilst working together on our r0x game project, and (despite his previous activity in the scene) it was here that I was first introduced to his music.  Since then, I've been hooked.