September 18, 2013 | In: Games by Stamba

Commocore? Polish(ed) games!

commocore-classic

Commocore, a small studio from Poland, is developing games for Commodore 64.

USSR-League
USSR League

Poland is still an active fighter when it comes about c64 stuff! As you can read it on their website:

Commocore is a software house for new Commodore 64 games. For now we are in cartridge development stage and we’re working on few game titles. Also this webpage design is only for a while. We’re working on two arcade games: Steel Duck and USSR League. There’s more, a top secret game called Cryme. Arcade games is not enough, so for everybody who is looking for cRPG genre, we’re creating a world of Meonlawel. Stay tuned.

Steel-Duck-very-early-stage
Steel Duck

Steel-Duck-final-duckSteel Duck (sprite edition)

These games are still works in progress but they look promising!

 

But… who is behind Commocore ?

Let’s discover a passionate human being in love with ASM and Commodore 64!

Bartek

Can you tell us a little more about you ? Where are you from ?

Hi. My name is Bartosz Zolynski, but I’m better known as Bago Zonde. I was born and have been living to this day in Poland, the country where Commodore 64 became very popular only in the early 90s.

 

What is your relation to c64?

I’ve had a Commodore 64 since 1994, before that I had an Atari 2600 clone with “250 built-in games”. At first, for about a year, I was using my Commodore 64 only for playing games. I remember the day I first saw Contra on my friends’ Pegasus game console (another NES clone). I wanted to write a game like that! So I got into BASIC right away. Unfortunately, the spell was soon broken and my dreams of creating fabulous games did not come true. My friend showed me an assembler monitor once, but we didn’t know a thing, so we could only experiment. There was no Internet back then! True Middle Ages!
I only managed to write a couple of simple games, including Minesweeper using recurrence (which was, however, only limited to memory), or an FPS pseudo-3D game which was a bit too slow. Maybe I’ll publish them someday as funny trivia extras.

StoneAgeBago, playing with pre-commodorian era pad!

What were your favorite games back in the days ?

In the early 90s, you couldn’t get original games in Poland. There also wasn’t any law regulating illegal copying! So you could go into a shop and legally buy pirate copies of game sets (usually of 30-40 games) on cassettes. Some of those set series were very professionally made: a nice cover with a poster of one of the games (usually for Amiga) printed on thick paper. I would go to the shop, look through the catalogue containing the covers of the games and short descriptions, and most of the time buy adventure games. I often got games divided into parts (each level was a separate programme) with trainers, that’s why I completed Turrican in less that an hour :].

Meonlawel-title-screenMeonlawel (main title)

My favourite game from the past is definitely Archon, my ideal! Of course, I played Giana Sisters (which I knew as Mario Bros) many times. And Slaine – the controls discourage people from playing it, but I still like this game very much. Maybe the atmosphere created by David Whittaker, the composer of Slaine game soundtrack, increased my patience. I’m fascinated by both the game and the comic book. Unfortunately, there’s a bug in the C64 version of the game, so most probably you can’t complete this version of it!

I also played H-at Trick, Boulder Dash, Raid on Bungeling Bay and Force Seven a lot. I like the crazy Hard Work and Mouse Trap, too. Bionic Commando, Trolls and Tribulations, Midnight Resistance, Storm Warrior, Stormlord, Satan, Motos, Paperboy, Supremacy, Stuntman Seymour, R-Type, Krakout Professional, Test Drive. Of course, there are many more.

I still love all those games, and lately I fell for Trolls. Now, I’m planning to explore cRPG games for C64.

5d5-1-dawnMeonlawel (ingame)

Why did you decide to make new games for c64 ?

I simply love this computer! I learned pixel graphics and game mechanics while creating games for Amiga, but I always wanted to write a game for C64. In 2007, while writing a C64 game Meonlawel in BASIC, I decided that I wanted to have music in it. When I managed to add a music player written in assembler, its speed intrigued me. Once I saw how fast it was possible to print 1000 characters on screen using assembly code, there was no turning back – I decided to learn assembler 6502 in order to write the whole game in it and that’s how it began! The better I knew the limitations of the machine, the more I wanted to go beyond them. Instead of thinking: it’s a limitation, I started to see it as a feature! It’s an exciting experience and I wouldn’t change it for writing PC games. I like challenges, but I don’t think I would go as far as trying to write something for Atari 2600. It’s enough that I’ve seen David Crane talking about writing Pitfall :]. I think that would be too much for me. You can rock a little bit with C64, you know ;].

Do you plan to sell the cartridges ?

It has always been my dream to publish a game commercially, so yes, there will be a C64 game, and I hope that I will be able to publish it on cartridge under Commocore label. And I certainly hope you’ll enjoy it!

sprite-viewMeonlawel (sprite edition)

Would you like to send a message to the world ?

I would like Commodore 64 to experience a renaissance! Even now, there are many great games and demos being published. The scene is still alive and well. Also, new, interesting hardware solutions have been coming up. Guys, I really think you should try assembler, it’s a great adventure! Write even more programmes, more amazing music, create more graphics! Thanks to all that are active and support this community, including you, David!
Thanks!

Regards!
Bago

Well, thank you Bago for such a nice interview for mycommodore64.com! 😉

For more information, please hit http://www.commocore.com !

2 Responses to Commocore? Polish(ed) games!

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ferd

November 30th, 2013 at 3:05 am

good luck – keep up the good work.

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Bago

March 7th, 2020 at 4:11 pm

Hi! It’s Bago from the future :).

It’s so great to read this interview again, thanks <3

While working on Meonlawel, almost one year ago, I finally released the RTS game "Swarm 16k".

https://commocore.itch.io/swarm-16k

Check it out and tell me what you think!

Peace!
Bartosz Zolynski aka Bago Zonde

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David BAGEL

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