Retro computing
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Welcome to Floppy Ferrari Friday! In this week's episode we look at two classic video game experiences that allow you to drive a Ferrari. The first is one I've been meaning to play for some time and mentioned back in Floppy Friday #6: the classic 1985 arcade game Out Run. It was fun to play the Commodore 64 version – and on a classic "breadbin" C64, no less – but I will say I found the conversion to be a little lacklustre. I certainly enjoyed the arcade version more. The second is a much more "serious" experience, which is Ferrari…
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Over the weeks since AU, I've been heads-down with writing a chapter for a book that's due to be published in this summer. The book is about innovation in the construction industry, and my chapter will talk about opportunities related to digital twins and generative design. Which means I haven't had much time to write "serious" posts for this blog, of late. I did want to put pen to paper in this new year about the sheer joy I've been getting from recording Floppy Fridays, though. It's clear there's been a strong "retro" trend in recent years. I'd probably argue…
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In this week's episode of Floppy Friday we take a look at two games that came on a Game On floppy from April 1991: Turrican II and Pure Seed. I realised afterwards that Turrican II was made available as a demo version on the floppy – and that I'd loaded the "main" program rather than the demo loader, which explained the lack of loading screen, etc. I used a Commodore 1311 joystick – known as the worst joystick ever created, and apparently a poor copy of the classic Atari CX40 – to play the games, and liked it a lot.…
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In this week's Floppy Friday we take a look at three more games on the Commodore 64: Rick Dangerous 2, North Sea Inferno and Black Panther. I actually recorded this one before the holiday break (which I'm still enjoying with my family up in the mountains), but I have to admit I'm looking forward to being able to record more episodes over the coming weeks. I've been researching what I need to do to fix my "breadbin" C64, and I'm cautiously optimistic I'll be able to coax it back to life. I also have a C128 to pick…
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Happy New Year!!! I'm sure everyone's thankful that 2020 is behind us (what a year that was). Let's all hope 2021 is going to be at least somewhat better. At the time I recorded this Floppy Friday, I hadn't connected the dots on the date (i.e. that Friday was due to fall on New Year's Day). So please do forgive it not being mentioned. What I do mention is Batman from 1986 and 1989 – at the suggestion of Francesco Cappilli – as well as Arkanoid and Spacefighter. Enjoy!
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It's Christmas Day and another Floppy Friday! Today's episode looks at two quite similar horizontally scrolling shooters, R-Type and Katakis/Denaris. There's a brief mention of Arkanoid, at the end, but that's really something we'll see another day.
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It's the last day of school! Well, of work. My kids still have school until Wednesday, but Autodesk has very generously insisted that its employees take an extended break over the holidays starting this evening. I'm planning to make the most of these two weeks – such as is possible with the pandemic-related restrictions – so I do hope to be able to queue up a couple more Floppy Fridays for the holidays, all being well. In today's episode we look at two games – 1942 and Back to the Future – and mention a 3rd (Slap Fight, in the…
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This week's Floppy Friday is slightly shorter and probably no sweeter, showcasing two fun Commodore 64 games that came in as viewer requests. Stefano Metrangolo asked that I try to find International Soccer (which also goes by the names of International Football or Cup Final, in some places) and Clint Brown requested TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or in this case Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles). As you'll see in the video, to load the game I needed a "mission code" sheet, that luckily still exists online. I hope you enjoy the nostalgia hit, Stefano and Clint! Please do…
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In this week's episode we take a look at Missile Command and Impossible Mission, and also talk about Out Run – another of my arcade faves from back in the day. A shout-out to both Matt Armitage and Marco Fiocco, who were the inspiration for the games played. I'm very happy with how my system is shaping up: as mentioned in the video I now have a few hundred more floppies, some new old joysticks and a fixed video cable. For next week's episode – depending on when the replacement chips arrive and whether they actually help – I may…
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During the last few days I went through and found a couple more floppies for this week's Floppy Friday. The first contained Rastan, a game where you're a barbarian warrior off on some kind of adventure. The second contained a game called Druid (although the loader referred to it as "Druids", for some reason), which was heavily inspired by one of my arcade favourites, Gauntlet. Anyway, here's today's episode. Enjoy! I mentioned a couple of things in this episode: this week I managed to find a new joystick (in fact three of them!) which should arrive shortly. I…