Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
SNK vs CAPCOM Stronger Edition for C64 looks incredible and demonstrates what could have been possible 30+ years ago.
The Commodore 64 is not well-known for its range of fighting games. Aside from International Karate+ (in the US, Chop N’ Drop) and The Last Ninja, it’s a genre that didn’t do well. Certainly, conversions of popular arcade titles like Street Fighter turned out to be pretty tawdry affairs. I was a fan of Way of the Exploding Fist and probably spent way too long on the arcade conversion of Kung-Fu Master, but these aside, the C64 didn’t handle the more popular beat ’em ups that came later.
All of which brings me neatly to SNK vs CAPCOM Stronger Edition.
SNK vs CAPCOM on the Commodore 64?!
Designed to run on a cartridge, this SNK vs CAPCOM game for the C64 has a total of 32 fighters, and while the trailer is impressive, the game is not yet complete.
As the trailer states, the game — in development since 2022 — is made with developer RetroGL’s RetroFighter Engine. This has already proved itself with the Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition Demo, which was the best Street Fighter adaptation for C64 by some distance until the Street Fighter 2 Turbo trailer appeared a few days ago.
My own development of 8-bit games was limited to Shoot-em-up Construction Kit on the C64, so I am totally in awe of anyone who creates an engine from scratch!
How can you play this game?
The developer has underlined that SNK vs CAPCOM Stronger Edition is still in alpha, but of most interest, I think, is the format. While the previously showcased SNK vs CAPCOM adaptation is planned for a standard download, the Stronger Edition is a bit different, and requires a modded VICE emulator.
The game is designed for cartridge, so will probably be available in a digital CRT format as well as physical. Some notes have been provided on this, specifically that a new type of cartridge, Magic Desk 2 (MD2) has been created by a developer called CrystalCT. It’s capable of storing up to 2MB of data for running the game, far above what any C64 could do in real life.
Downloads for the game are provided in the video link. Note that C64 and C128 downloads are separate.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
