Weekends are a great time to kick back with some gaming, but with the UK weather being so uncharacteristically good right now, it’s a bit of a quadary.
Portable gaming systems that run retro games – like the Nintendo Switch, for example – are great options. Way back in 1990, around this time of year, I bought the C64 copy of Turrican. Combining both of these topics, this weekend’s newsletter features a review of Turrican Flashback on the Nintendo Switch.
We’ve also got a ton of breaking news from QuakeCon concerning a new release of DOOM.
Table of Contents
How to convert Commodore 64 cassettes to TAP files on Linux
Copying Commodore 64 cassettes to my PC pretty much covers what I’ve been doing over the past few months.
A cursory glance at my C64 collection revealed I have a third as many “blank” cassettes – that is, shop-bought cassettes optimized for data – as I have published games on the same medium. These files represent a big chunk of my early computing, and include graphic files, game projects on SEUCK and Graphic Adventure Creator, and type-ins in various stages of completion.
To begin the process of copying the cassettes, I spent some money on a device called the 1530USB. This is an adapter that acts as an interface between the Commodore 1530 C2N Datasette (which typically shipped with a Commodore 64) and my PC’s USB port.
(If you don’t own a C2N, you can use a standard tape player and cable for this.)
The idea then is to record the data in Audacity (a free and open-source audio editor) as it plays through the cable. This can then be converted to TAP format (using additional software), and run in an emulator – VICE is your best bet there.
Linux Format
Now it so happens that I was commissioned by Linux Format magazine to write a guide on this process, so I can’t go into it in too much detail here.
However, I was quite excited to share a photo and several zoomed-in images here to give you an idea of what to expect.
Commodore 1530 C2N Datasette with a cassette loaded
This gallery should be pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll add some context.
In the first image, the Datasette is missing the slot cover; we don’t know were that went. Also, the interior needed a lot of cleaning.
In the second image, there is a short wire attached to the Datasette’s cable. We acquired the device around 1988 after the original (possibly a Maxtor) broke. We don’t know what this wire is for – possible earth, possibly something esle.
In the final image, you can see the screenshot of a game. The BREAK message is accidental – I hit ESC (the equivalent of the C64’s RUN/STOP) when attempting to make a screenshot a few moments before.
The mystery of missing cassettes
Now while I cannot go in-depth with this here, I can tell you that the material that I will be submitting is different to the draft I currently have stored on my computer. Initially, I was basing the article around a game called The Mystery of Silver Mountain, a type-in published by Usbourne that took up a lot of my 8-bit computing life.
However, the cassette I found that was labelled as such was nothing of the sort, which is why I had to switch to the fall-back option of one of my dad’s cassettes. This features type-ins either from a magazine or from one of the computer programming books we owned, but does the job of demonstrating how the whole process works.
I’ll finish with this: I’ve been doing this for a few months now and using Linux (you can do it with a Raspberry Pi too, I understand) is fine. However, there is software called AudioTap that does the WAV to TAP conversion on Windows if you’re thinking of doing this.
Turrican Flashback review
Turrican Flashback bundles four classic 16-bit Turrican versions into one for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
I could literally write all day about Turrican. Discovering its astounding graphics in Zzap!64 back in 1990, I resolved to buy it as soon as possible. It’s hard to underline this 30 plus years later, but the game single-handedly revitalised the C64, with superb graphics, new colour palettes, amazing soundtrack, and perfect arcade playability.
Even with a £1 weekly pocket money rate, it took over two months to save up for. I ended up buying the £7.99 cassette version of the game from WHSmith on a unique trip to my father’s home town. Twelve months later, I was replaying it for the umpteenth time on the Amiga.
You can imagine the literal flashback of playing the new release of Turrican. Bundling the Amiga versions of Turrican and Turrican II, along with console titles Mega Turrican (released on Amiga as Turrican 3) and Super Turrican, Turrican Flashback is out on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with a PSP version expected.
Turrican Isn’t the Same on Emulators
Over the years I’ve tried everything to revisit Turrican on current devices. The C64 Mini, a Raspberry Pi Zero running in the Retroflag GPi Case, Amiga emulators, dodgy Android ports that were quickly removed… None of them matched the majesty of the original games.
Turrican
Basically, the game just isn’t the same on emulators. Even with a keyboard plugged in and controls mapped, there is a missing immediacy. Turrican certainly isn’t alone in not quite feeling right on emulators, but it suffers more than others.
So, what does Turrican Flashback really bring to the table?
Turrican Flashback: Making Retro Gaming Playable
Primarily, these 30 year old games are now as playable as they were on the original systems. I’ve tested the Nintendo Switch version and was, despite my already high expectations, blown away by how playable the original Turrican was. A few hours later I moved onto Turrican II, with the same semblance of nostalgic perfection.
Turrican II
Despite an almost completely different input system (I used a couple of joystick and gamepad types back in the day) I found guiding Turrican through his various challenges as effortless as dragging a Competition Pro shaft into position – and certainly easier than getting the timing right to hit SPACE and for power lines.
My copy missed a printed insert, so I had to work out the new controls through trial and error. Fortunately, this didn’t prove too difficult, thanks mainly to the save states and gameplay rewind feature.
Launching Turrican Flashback drops you into a menu with a choice of the four games. Once the selection is made, the game can be launched, settings tweaked, or a previous save state loaded. Each game has six slots for saving progress, and these can be created at any point of the game.
Controlling Turrican Flashback
Mega Turrican intro screen
With easy jump control, smart switch to gyro mode, power bars within easy reach, and gameplay as smooth as the original, Turrican Flashback really takes the 30 year old quartet of games to a whole new level. I’ve never enjoyed such an intense session with the original two games, not even on the Amiga way back when. Throw in Mega Turrican/Turrican 3 (which I rejected back in the day due to a lack of lightning beam) and Mega Super and you’ve got a collection of games unparalleled in the modern age for their innate old-school playability.
Mega Turrican
Additional settings in the game – such as pixel perfect mode, dynamic wide screen, the ability to choose from several background images – are window dressing. The real success here, as with Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, is translating a barnstorming, memorable retro gaming title into a game that remains as compulsive and addictive as it did.
Turrican Flashback is everything you wanted it to be.
Turrican Flashback rating: 10/10
This collection translates a barnstorming, memorable retro title and bundles it with its various sequels and platform ports, delivering an experience game that remains as compulsive and addictive as it was in the 1990s.
Loads of DOOM news
A number of new DOOM releated releases have landed in the past few days, thanks to QuakeCon, which is taking place this weekend.
First up, DOOM + DOOM 2 is a new collection with enhanced versions of the first two games. They’ve been ported to the KEX Engine (previously done to DOOM 64) and along with upgraded visuals (for 4K) and support for modern controllers, cross-platform death matches are supported. A new level for DOOM 2, Legacy of Rust, is also included. So far, we’re aware of this collection on PC/Steam and Xbox Series X|S.
Incidentally, Kotaku have found that this new collection supports mods on the console version. As DOOM is one of the most modded games ever, that is going to extend the playability considerably.
Finally, there’s a big DOOM Anthology collection that can be preordered on the Bethesda store. This includes DOOM, DOOM II, DOOM 64, DOOM 3, DOOM (2016), and DOOM Eternal Deluxe Edition along with a steel book and a 5-inch replica BFG with LED lights and stand. This collection is for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC/Steam.
Game Over
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Until next time, take it easy…
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