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"Seeing" retrogames through their sounds
Everyone tells me that I always try to "see" the beauty of things
and I turn the difficulties I encounter into my strengths.
And now I'm here, 40 years old, playing, having become blind,
with my head full of 8-bit memories. For once, a strength of mine
that doesn't come out of a difficulty but out of a lot of good
memories.
I have always been tied to the sounds of those times, those
sounds that today are the only thing that reminds me the
emotions of my teenage years, when the only thought was to
come home from school to sit down in front of my MSX and later
my Amiga 500 Plus and try out new games and software.
How nice to remember the sound of the MSX cassette recorder
or Amiga's floppy drive head.
And what about this pandemic period, the first months of forced
lockdown, when I discovered this great magazine? With it I was
able to turn my passion for the world of retro-computing back
on!
So I asked myself: where did I put this great passion of mine for
more than 20 years? When did I forget about it? Perhaps, as it
happened to many of us, I did leave it in my basement/attic or I
had lost it in one of the many moves.
What I miss the most now is the images coming out of the
cathode tube screens, all those knotted cables, the yellow color
of Amiga's case, the black joysticks with the red buttons and the
small sprites of Sensible Soccer players. But thanks to
RetroMagazine World, the many evocative videos on YouTube
and the many Facebook pages dedicated to this magical world, I
too can relive those fairy moments and see again those colourful
screenshots in the form of sounds.
So I started exploring other worlds, reading, documenting
myself. I have discovered so much in such a little time, but much
more I have to discover, learn, read and listen to.
How many machines I didn't know about, how many games and
software, but even more, how many fans!
May this wonderful world of retrocomputing and retrogaming
never end and continue to cheer us up, give us so many
emotions, with an eye (or an ear) always looking forward to the
future.
Alessandro Albano
CONTENTS
◊
The I.C.L. One-Per-Desk computer
◊
Evercade - Blaze Entertainment
◊
PC Engine - The small giant from the
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Pag. 54
Land of Rising Sun
◊
The MOS 6502 CPU
◊
Structuring old BASIC dialects with For-
Next loops
◊
BASIC in a nutshell: waves on LM80C
and MSX-1
◊
Grapheur 1.0 - Doing graphs with the
Amstrad CPC
◊
SpeedCalc 2019 - Like having Excel on a
C64? Well, almost...
◊
Simulating PLOT X,Y in C64 bitmap
mode
◊
May the FORTH be with us - part 3
◊
Basic 10-Liner Contest 2021
◊
Introduction to Hollywood - part 4
◊ Emulators: DOSBox ver. 0.74-3
◊ Kick Off 2, when the football is the
protagonist
◊ The Last Ninja: legends never die
◊ Paprium (MD)
◊ Runn 'n' Gunn (C64)
◊ Wonder Boy in Monster Land (MD)
◊ Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons (Amiga)
◊ Chrono Trigger (SNES)
◊ Metamorphosis (ZX Spectrum)
◊ Gravibots (MegaDrive)
◊ Monstro Giganto (C64)
◊ Neptune Lander Elite (C64)
◊ Inviyya (Amiga)
◊ Xain'd Sleena (Arcade)
◊ Pub Trivia Simulator (C64)
People involved in the preparation of this issue
of RetroMagazine World
(in no particular order):
• Alberto Apostolo
• Gianluca Girelli
• Antonino Porcino
• Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
• Daniele Brahimi
• Mic the Biker Novarina
• Francesco Fiorentini
• Takahiro Yoshioka
• Attilio Capuozzo
• Francesco Bizzini
• Leonardo Miliani
• Querino Ialongo
• Roberto Del Mar Pirazzini
• Cover & graphics by
Flavio Soldani
• Revisioning &
proofreading by DLM
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RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 2 - ISSUE 7
HARDWARE
A bit of rarity
(rummaging here and there)
The I.C.L. One-Per-Desk computer
by Alberto Apostolo
When it appeared on the market in
1984, the One Per Desk computer
(Fig.1) represented an innovative
hybrid
between
a
Personal
Computer
and
a
tele-
communications terminal.
Built by International Computer
Limited, it was based on Sinclair QL
hardware and was the result of a
collaboration
between
Sinclair
Research and British Telecom that
began in 1983.
The same model was known as Merlin
M1800 Tonto (The Outstanding New
Telecoms Opportunity) and also as
Computerphone (at Telecom Australia
and New Zealand Post Office).
Like the Sinclair QL, it used a Motorola
68008 CPU, ZX8301/ZX8302 ULA
chip, 128KB RAM.
Unlike Sinclair QL, an Intel 8051, two
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone
Network) lines, a V.21/V.23 modem,
Fig. 1 [MC85].
a TI TMS5220 speech synthesizer
(used for answering machines as in The Basic Functional Software (BFS) ARCHIVE and EASEL programs that
answering machines) were mounted operating system had no similarities ran on the Sinclair QL.
on the O.P.D. computer.
to the QDos despite a subset of the
SuperBASIC Sinclair being provided. Initial orders amounted to £4.5 million
The available I/O drives were a 9 inch
(1500 copies) from British Telecom
monochrome monitor (hereinafter a XChange was a suite available for and £8 million from Telecom Australia.
color monitor) and two 3.5 inch disk O.P.D., wired in ROM and for sale for
drives.
£130. Made by Psion, it was similar
to the suite of QUILL, ABACUS,
Bibliography
[Wi21] retrieved in 2021/03/29 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk
[MC85] MC Microcomputer n.42 Jun 1985, pag.16, https://issuu.com/adpware/docs/mc042
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 2 - ISSUE 7
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HARDWARE
EVERCADE - Blaze Entertainment
by Carlo Nithaiah Del Mar Pirazzini
The new portable consoles that wink at retrogaming. This
is the “new trend” that is changing the general picture
of emulation... And beyond.
Today we present Evercade of Blaze Entertainment.
This cute portable console wants to be a new interpretation
of the "walking” and old-school game.
A new way to reinterpret the game or something that
should stay on store shelves?
games in 4:3 ratios may seem odd; but Atari Lynx games
require 16:9 for example and black sidebars for other
systems are tolerated.
I would have preferred a better quality video, but overall
it's fine.
The big D-pad works fine, while the buttons and triggers
on the backs are really nice but I found them “fingertip
slaughter.”
In fact, L’Evercade as a whole “feels good” in his hand.
Released at the end of 2020, Evercade jumps head-on It's heavy enough to look SUBSTANTIAL, but comfortable
abnormally despite other well-known retrogaming devices. for long sessions.
It does it in the most classic way possible... the cartridges!
Gentlemen, the classic system of good times!!!
But how does playback work? With emulation logically.
A selection of games chosen instead of billions of Roms The console has not magically managed to hide the tide
on an SD card. It avoids paralysis of choice and I have to of platforms inside it and so it turns directly to emulators.
admit that the producers have done things correctly, with
a license for each game (Everything is Super Regular).
Let's take a closer look.
THE STRUCTURE
Evercade does not allow space for further storage on board.
Games arrive on real cartridges that fit on the console.
An anomaly in a world of streaming, downloading and
other devilishness.
Each cartridge comes with a color instruction manual
that outlines the history and rules for each game. Nice!!!
Really nice!
A widescreen display on a handheld that mainly plays
Fortunately, the emulation is good. No perceptible delay,
the framerate is solid and everything turns more than well.
You can also use the save state for progress in many games.
GAMES
Different cartridges are available and you are well over
100 games.
The complete selection can be viewed on the console
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RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 2 - ISSUE 7
HARDWARE
website. Among the collections I cite some.
There are both classic and new title collections. Very positive.
Mega Cat Studios Collection 1:
The strongest selection
- is this set of modern titles for vintage systems. Each
stock is sold for a small fortune in its original form, so ten
of them for 17 euros is a real bargain. Tanzer, Old Towers
and Super Painter are amazing.
better decisions about game formats. In some cases I
would have preferred to see porting directly from Arcade
than conversions from NES.
Atari Lynx Collection 2:
Both Lynx collections are quality,
but this second set looks good with After Burner's aspiring
Blue Lightning, the crucial and cruel Chips Challenge
puzzle and California Games multi-challenge sports
simulator (which Atari Lynx version is a bomb).
Namco Collection 1:
I would have been happier with
arcade ports, but the NES versions of Pac-Man, Dig Dug
and Xevious work pretty well here. In addition, there are
eight other titles, including Battle Cars SNES racing.
Piko Interactive Collection 1:
There are 20 new / old
titles in this Piko set, collecting the incomplete game
pieces and finishing them. Highlights include the Switchblade
action platform and the fast Top Racer.
Atari Collection 1:
You would expect Atari VCS (Adventure)
successes, but it also includes fantastic Atari 7800
curiosities like Food Fight and extravagant sports/ Karateka
mash-up Ninja Golf. I particularly love the 7800 and I
really liked this as a set.
VERDICT
It is true that Evercade has irregular edges. The screen
is simply OK but nothing more and you could have made
But there is no denying that this is an idea made by people
who really care about the history of games. In addition,
Evercade has not stopped with its first ten cartridges: for
example, some very special ones have emerged: that of
Codemasters (including Sensible Soccer), a collection of
Worms and the 14 Indian games. According to reports,
the original arcades will also be arriving soon.
Given the affordable price, “old-school" feel and sense
of concentration, this strange laptop is an investment
worth making.
You can find all the information for the console at:
https://www.evercade.co.uk/
In Italy instead you can take a look at Coinup Italia (which
I thank for the test)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Screen: 4.3 inches 480 x 272
Processor: 1.2 GHz Quad-core
RAM: 256 MB
Connectivity: MiniHDMI output (720p)
Battery life: Up to 5 hours
Size: 182x85x23mm, 216g
FINAL SCORE
PROs
Collectible Cartridges
Reactive controls
Good selection of games
Save state for each title
Affordable price and many possibilities to customize your
Bundle
CONs
Display not really top of the range.
RETROMAGAZINE WORLD-ENGLISH YEAR 2 - ISSUE 7
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