The highly misunderstood games of the VIC 20

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:45 am

Thanks Folko for this one, I really appreciate your reviews - they make me see the games in a different prespective. KA's manual is a little jewel; I'd printed it in all its colors if only the resolution was a little higher.

Note that the joystick pictured in the manual is the Atari model

.

About VICE emulation: try PAL emulation as TBCVIC suggested, and adjust aspect ratio using the latest version. Simple games should look more VICish

.

Keep writing!

folkoh · Post by **folkoh** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:05 am

You've tried the pal-emulation option in VICE? Makes it a little more "real" even in NTSC

Yep. But to me, that's not a solution (which I am not looking for since I have a real VIC

)... If you watch games on a Commodore Monitor the colors look bright, flashy and a little bit blurred on the edges of the objects - the PAL Emulation just blurs the whole picture. MY VIC would not produce such a bad picture - and I live in "PAL"-land!

folkoh · Post by **folkoh** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:08 am

orion70 wrote:Thanks Folko for this one, I really appreciate your reviews - they make me see the games in a different prespective. KA's manual is a little jewel; I'd printed it in all its colors if only the resolution was a little higher.

Note that the joystick pictured in the manual is the Atari model .

About VICE emulation: try PAL emulation as TBCVIC suggested, and adjust aspect ratio using the latest version. Simple games should look more VICish .

Keep writing!

Thank you! I can provide a high resoultion scan of the manual someday. It will take a little time to optimize it a bit with Photoshop in order to remove some of the dirt from the past 26 yrs...

I use the latest VICE version and played around with aspect ratio, which helps indeed to make it more "VICish" but not on the color issue.

The first equipment for my VC 20 in 1982 was an Atari Joystick, btw. Everybody around me regarded the Commodore sticks as "uncool" in that time

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:34 am

folkoh wrote:I use the latest VICE version and played around with aspect ratio, which helps indeed to make it more "VICish" but not on the color issue.

Try with THIS vpl palette, it should be better.
Save it in your PC, then

Settings -> Video Settings -> VIC Palette -> External Palette -> Browse..

I know, I know, it's not the same feeling - like pretending to be 12 when you're almost 40 (my case

)

folkoh · Post by **folkoh** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:56 am

orion70 wrote:
folkoh wrote:I use the latest VICE version and played around with aspect ratio, which helps indeed to make it more "VICish" but not on the color issue.
Try with THIS vpl palette, it should be better.
Save it in your PC, then

Settings -> Video Settings -> VIC Palette -> External Palette -> Browse..

I know, I know, it's not the same feeling - like pretending to be 12 when you're almost 40 (my case )

Not bad! The best result I've seen in VICE! But still... anyway: mille grazie!

Empa Kendo · Post by **Empa Kendo** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:00 pm

This is a cool thread. I enjoyed your review and immediately gave Garden Wars a test drive on the MegaCart. Indeed: without your review I would not have given the game more than two or three tries - now I like it "a fair bit".. not fully hooked, but intrigued.

I share your thoughts - some games may be impressive technically and still play rather poorly. Other, somewhat simpler rendered games may have an addictively vexing twist to them.

Keep up digging out the gems of 8bit gameplay!

InfernalKeith · Post by **InfernalKeith** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:52 am

I want to add another voice of thanks for the great reviews, and the enthusiasm for the old classic games. I'm doing some similar review writing for the TI 99/4A right now, and would like to write up some Vic 20 reviews at some point, but I may not have to bother!

Your review made me go get my cartridge of K-Razy Antics out of the "not working carts" box, and clean the contacts. Sure enough, it DOES work, and I have the manual too!

I haven't had a lot of time to play it yet, but I'm going to spend a lot of time with it this weekend. I don't have Garden Wars, but I will be looking for it soon. (I agree with you as well, playing on the real equipment is always better)

Count me as another fan of your reviews! I can't wait to read more. You should write about some cassette games, too, if you get the chance.

folkoh · Post by **folkoh** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:11 am

@ last 2 posts: Thank you very much! Good to hear all that. I will continue with another review soon. For now, I am focussing cart games but I have thought about one or two tape games as well. We'll see.

Tony Mokonen · Post by **Tony Mokonen** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 2:50 am

Garden Wars was one of my favorite games as a kid, back when I had my VIC-20 (stupidly, I got rid of it and all my books and games in the early '90s). One neat trick was to hit the Run-Stop/Restore key when playing the game. Sometimes by doing that, you could turn your character into this unkillable red blob, and let it sit there as the screen filled up with spiders. If you let it sit long enough, eventually the screen would be so full of spiders that the eggs would stop hatching. Instead, the eggs would turn black, and become an impassible barrier.

Also, using Run-Stop/Restore, I was able to break out of the game back into BASIC mode, then set the colors with POKE 36878 and POKE 36879 commands, then SYS 40960 to get back into the game, to give the game a bizarre psychedelic color scheme.

Good times.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:06 pm

of course, now we are all going to try that. i actually love breaking programs. GLITCH!

Spectrum · Post by **Spectrum** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:50 am

Folkoh, I really appreciated your review of Garden Wars!
It was the first game I got with my Vic20. It was Christmas, 1984, I think.
I got a Vic20, a joystick named "Boss" ( http://www.atariguide.com/10/1003.php ) and a cartridge. Garden Wars.
I loved that game and still love it. It's a perfect, crazy, maze game of that time.
A friend of mine (he owned a C64), was totally in love with Garden Wars. We challenged each other to achieve some records. I never went beyond level 6 or 7, I think. I am not sure. I clearly remember that level 2 and 3 were though...

At that time I couldn't read any english, and I didn't read the istructions. So I had no idea about what to do in that chaotic game.
I remember that, by pure chance, my cousin reached level 2 for the first time. We all (my parents and relatives as well) were around the TV, wondering how he did it.
"It is because he gained 1000 points!" someone said
"No, it is because he survived more than some minutes without to lose any live..."
...and so on.
After that, I played Garden Wars again and again, and I finally discovered its secret.

GARDEN WARS SECRET IS :
To pass through the level and to reach next stage it's necessary to kill the vermins who spreads the spider's eggs all around.
And the vermins are: a frog (green) a snail (cyan) a snake (black) and a worm (red) ... (or at least this is how I imagined them seeing the Vic graphic rendition...)

At first stage there is one of each vermin kings (a frog, a snail, a snake and a worm).
At second stage there are two of each, at the third one three of each and so on.
The game is a real mess when you reach the 4th or 5th stage!

Great review, really. You brought me back to my youthness. Now I have to give K-razy Antiks a try!

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:06 am

I just realized I have the instructions for Garden Wars here (and the cart) and never scanned them for posting on Zimmers.

Guess I'll have to do that.

Spectrum · Post by **Spectrum** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:45 am

eslapion wrote:I just realized I have the instructions for Garden Wars here (and the cart) and never scanned them for posting on Zimmers.

Guess I'll have to do that.

You definitely should. It would be such a jump back in the past...