Commodore Computer Club – USA

The next PDX Commodore Computer Club meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 1, 2013 from 6:00 pm PST until 12:00 am PST.

Club members, guests, friends and retro enthusiasts from the PDX and surrounding areas typically show up between 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm PST.

Our monthly “first Friday of the month” meetings take place at Pied Piper Pizza located in Vancouver, WA which is approximately 30 minutes from downtown Portland, Oregon:

Pied Piper Pizza – 12300 NE Fourth Plain Rd. – Vancouver, WA 98682 – Get directions

Once inside Pied Piper Pizza, head straight back past the dart boards to the private banquet room #4. Look for Commodore computers. If you can’t find it, ask someone at the counter.

What You Can Expect To See, Hear and Enjoy:

The following hardware and software will be available to enjoy at the March 1, 2013 PDX Commodore Users Group and Computer Club meeting:

• SX-64 Executive Portable Computer
• Multiple Commodore 64 (C64) computers with JiffyDOS
• C64 EasyFlash and EasyFlash 3 video game cartridges
• Commodore VIC-20 computers
• VIC 20 Mega-Cart loaded with 100′s games
• Atari 5200 console with games (we’ll be doing a video mod too)
• Limited Edition Toys R Us Gold Nintendo 64 (N64) with games
• The “Wives Club” (board games, cards, wine, etc.)

Of course there is always more hardware, software and gaming fun brought to the meetings by our members and guests that we don’t have listed, so come and be surprised!

Bring your Family and Friends:

As always it’s perfectly fine to bring your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or kids with you to the upcoming meeting. All are welcome. The more the merrier!

Presentations, Demos, Member Showcase, Etc:

As for presentations, we do plan on having a few PDX Commodore Users Group and Computer Club member presentations which also include showcasing some cool software and hardware.

We always plenty of room, tables and electrical outlets, so if you have anything (game consoles, rare retro items, etc.) to show off or enjoy with other members, please feel free to bring it along.

Retro Gaming And Computer Marketplace – Buy, Sell, Trade or Give it away for free:

For those who frequent the meetings know, there are always good finds to be had at our buy, sell, trade and free tables, so remember to bring any Commodore, other 8-bit computer or gaming console items you want to sell, trade or give away.

Need more information?

To find out more about our meetings, get directions, etc, please check out the Commodore Computer Club meetings page.

We look forward to seeing you at the next Commodore Computer Club and Users Group meeting on Friday March 1, 2013. Come to learn, come to share.

You need to check out this homebrew port of the classic first person shooter game Doom on the Commodore VIC-20 computer. It’s so awesome!

How cool is it that we are still getting Commodore homebrew ports 30+ years later after the release of the VIC-20 computer? It’s super cool, even totally rad!

Below are the highlights with photos from our February 1, 2013 Commodore Computer Club and Users Group meeting:

• Space Taxi game battle and club member competition
• Enjoyed playing video games on Commodore 64 and 64c computers
• PDX Commodore Users Group meeting discussions

Retro computing demos and presentations:

• Hands on with the first 3 Flyer prototype PCB’s
• C64 EasyFlash and EasyFlash 3 video game cartridges

PDX Commodore Computer Club members and guests also enjoyed:

• Show and Tell with club member hardware, software and more
• Tinker Time: Hacking, Coding, Exploring new hardware, Cleaning of equipment
• A lot of buy, sell, trade and free deals took place
• All you can eat Pied Piper Pizza dinner buffet

Please take a moment and check out the photos that were taken during the fun times at our February 1, 2013 Commodore Club meeting:

“Thank you” to everyone from the Pacific Northwest and surrounding area who continue to support and attend our Commodore Computer Club meetings. It’s really appreciated.

Our next scheduled meeting will be Friday March 1, 2013. We hope to see you at the next meeting! Come to learn, come to share.

In doing some research for video games to test on the Commodore Flyer, I came across the below video that features 20 games that defined the Commodore 64 computer:

Here is the list of all 20 games showcased in the video with the year they came out and the company who programmed and/or released them back in the day:

• Lode Runner (1983) – Broderbund
• Boulder Dash (1984) – First Star
• Elite (1985) – Firebird
• Ghost ‘n Goblins (1986) – Capcom/Elite
• Legend of Kage (1986) – Taito
• Paperboy (1986) – Atari/Elite
• International Karate+ a.k.a. IK+ (1987) – System 3 Software
• Pirates! (1987) – MicroProse
• Defender of the Crown (1987) – Mirrorsoft
• Last Ninja (1987) – System 3 Software
• Maniac Mansion (1987) – LucasArts
• Barbarian (1987) – Psygnosis
• California Games (1987) – Epyx
• Bubble Bobble (1987) – Taito/Firebird
• Wasteland (1988) – Interplay
• Last Ninja 2 (1988) – System 3 Software
• Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988) – LucasArts
• Battle Chess (1989) – Interplay
• Turrican (1990) – Rainbow Arts
• Turrican 2: The Final Fight (1991) – Factor 5/Rainbow Arts

There are a lot of great games in the video and some that still need to be tested on the Flyer. If you own a Flyer and have tested any of the above games, let us know in the comments.

The next Commodore Computer Club meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 1, 2013 from 6:00 pm PST until 12:00 am PST.

Club members, guests, friends and retro enthusiasts from the PDX and surrounding areas typically show up between 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm PST.

Our monthly “first Friday of the month” meetings take place at Pied Piper Pizza located in Vancouver, WA which is approximately 30 minutes from downtown Portland, Oregon:

Pied Piper Pizza – 12300 NE Fourth Plain Rd. – Vancouver, WA 98682 – Get directions

Once inside Pied Piper Pizza, head straight back past the dart boards to the private banquet room #4. Look for Commodore computers. If you can’t find it, ask someone at the counter.

What You Can Expect To See, Hear and Enjoy:

The following hardware and software will be available to enjoy at the February 1, 2013 PDX Commodore Users Group and Computer Club meeting:

• Multiple Commodore 64 (C64) computers with JiffyDOS
• C64 EasyFlash and EasyFlash 3 video game cartridges
• SX-64 Executive Portable Computer
• Retroswitch Flyer high speed internet modem
• uIEC/SD by Jim Brain of Retro Innovations
• Commodore VIC-20 computers
• VIC 20 Mega-Cart loaded with 100′s games
• The “Wives Club” (board games, cards, wine, etc.)

Of course there is always more hardware, software and gaming fun brought to the meetings by our members and guests that we don’t have listed, so come and be surprised!

Bring your Family and Friends:

As always it’s perfectly fine to bring your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or kids with you to the upcoming meeting. All are welcome. The more the merrier!

Presentations, Demos, Member Showcase, Etc:

As for presentations, we do plan on having a few PDX Commodore Users Group and Computer Club member presentations which also include showcasing some cool software and hardware.

We always plenty of room, tables and electrical outlets, so if you have anything (game consoles, rare retro items, etc.) to show off or enjoy with other members, please feel free to bring it along.

Retro Gaming And Computer Marketplace – Buy, Sell, Trade or Give it away for free:

For those who frequent the meetings know, there are always good finds to be had at our buy, sell, trade and free tables, so remember to bring any Commodore, other 8-bit computer or gaming console items you want to sell, trade or give away.

Need more information?

To find out more about our meetings, get directions, etc, please check out the Commodore Computer Club meetings page.

We look forward to seeing you at the next Commodore Computer Club and Users Group meeting on Friday February 1, 2013. Come to learn, come to share.

Released today from the Commodore computer homebrew scene comes the Imagic classic game Cosmic Ark for the C64, which is currently in the BETA 1 stage:

Even though this release is still BETA, it’s very playable. It’s so awesome seeing new and/or game remakes for a 30 year old piece of computer hardware!

Here’s a little information from the developer Max Hall from the Commodore 64 Scene Database (CSDB) on the game and controls:

Control your ship using Joystick in Port II, pick up creatures by pressing fire and a beam will appear. Make sure that beam is over creature for a few seconds as you beam them up. When both creatures are picked up you can enter the mothership to go to the Asteroid level. You may run out of time collecting creatures in which case a alarm will sound and you have to get back in mothership as soon as possible. When on Asteroid level just shoot asteroids by using joystick directions, (up, down, left, right) to proceed to next level.

Since this is a BETA release there are still a few little bugs, but Max says any reported bugs will be fixed in a newer version. Pretty cool!

“Cosmic Ark C64 Remake” loads and runs fine using the Commodore Flyer, however there is some flicker on the title screen, but if you press the fire button to start the game, it plays fine without flicker in the actual gameplay.

You can download the D64 or PRG file from the Cosmic Ark C64 page and give it a test.

Below are the highlights with photos from our January 4, 2013 Commodore Computer Club and Users Group meeting:

• Enjoyed playing video games on Commodore 64 and 64c computers
• Space Taxi game battle and club member competition
• Hands on with the Atari 2600 and Pac-Man 4K homebrew game

Retro computing demos and presentations:

• ComputerEyes (Computer Eyes) by Digital Vision demo
• C64 BASIC programming demo by Morgan
• NES PowerPak cartridge and stereo modifications

PDX Commodore Computer Club members and guests also enjoyed:

• Show and Tell with club member hardware, software and more
• Tinker Time: Hacking, Coding, Exploring new hardware, Cleaning of equipment
• A lot of buy, sell, trade and free deals took place
• All you can eat Pied Piper Pizza dinner buffet

Please take a moment and check out the photos that were taken during the fun times at our January 4, 2013 Commodore Club meeting:

Always a good time is what we like to call gametime with Commodore C64 Friends:

We had a Space Taxi game competition. Here we can see Tommy playing and of course he smashed on anyone who challenged him. We need a rematch!

Nintendo Toaster, Atari 2600 and NES Top Loader during game time:

Tommy playing Activision Toy Bizarre and enjoying a glass of Pepsi at Pied Piper Pizza:

Pre-Production Flyer high speed internet modem and disk drive emulator prototype displaying Crazy Comets (did someone say Comet?) game:

Young Commodore Kids playing Frogger and other games:

Long time Commodore Computer Club members Dan, Conrad, Jimmy and Mike checking out prototype PCB’s:

Commodore Friends socializing at the meeting:

Always a favorite game to play at the meetings, Karataka on the C64C:

C64 Friends socializing at the PDX Commodore Computer Club meeting:

This picture looks like Greg is “raising the roof” dancing at the C64 Club meeting:

I don’t always test my code, but when I do, I do it in production:

Loading C64 floppy disks on a Commodore 1571 disk drive:

Check it out, a digitized retro sexy girl. Who doesn’t love girls from the 1980′s?

An original Digital Vision ComputerEyes System Software floppy disk for the Commodore 64:

Sony HandyCam, ComputerEyes hardware and software Commodore 64 style:

Say cheese! Here is Conrad getting digitized at the Commodore Computer Club and Users Group meeting:

The end result: Conrad in his 8-bit digitized screen capture being displayed on a Commodore 1702 monitor:

In this picture we can see a Nintendo NES PowerPak and Top Loader Console:

Morgan doing a little programming in BASIC which was a mini presentation and demo he came up with for the meeting:

We have a successful BASIC program. 2 thumbs up for Commodore Microsoft BASIC demos:

Ryan playing the totally awesome C64 Berzerk homebrew game:

C64 Club Members playing classic video games using Flyer and EasyFlash cartridges:

Ryan showcasing his retro Nintendo Toaster stereo modded gaming console:

Conrad’s Atari 1200XL 1200 XL computer. He loves Atari a lot more then Commodore:

“Thank you” to everyone from the Pacific Northwest and surrounding area who continue to support and attend our Commodore Computer Club meetings. It’s really appreciated.

Our next scheduled meeting will be Friday February 1, 2013. We hope to see you at the next meeting! Come to learn, come to share.

Check out this video showcasing an awesome 2013 demo that was released by 6510.nl for the Commodore SX-64 Party held today around the world:

If you’d like to experience the demo on your own SX-64 or C64 computer, why not download the demo and try it? Download SX64Party demo released by 6510.nl right now and enjoy.

The “SX-64 Party” demo loads and runs great using the Commodore Flyer internet modem and disk drive emulator too!

Happy 30th Birthday Commodore SX-64!