During the 80s and 90s, when the MS DOS operating system dominated the market, there was a huge computer piracy, with the exchange and sale of Floppy Disks, CD-ROMs and later DVD-ROMs containing games and programs. This practice was outright illegal but contributed to the spread of many titles. Initially floppy disks were mainly used, later joined, around 1994 with the spread of CD-ROM drives, by CDs with collections designed to be however also poured onto floppies for sale. The contents of the CDs were typically made accessible thanks to a special menu (working in the MS-DOS environment) that allows one to easily access to a large number...

The history of the video games, in particular the rise of home consoles after the infamous collapse of the industry in the early 80s, is rich in unique events, innovative ideas and, in particular, talented and motivated individuals who made their way through the thorns of this unknown and little-studied digital-world. Coming up with more and more unusual and ingenious discoveries and ideas, some of these "pioneers" were able to completely turn over the idea of "video game" as we know it today. The most successful and high-profile achievements have already been forever strengthened in the annals of history, as well as in the memory of most...

Armati was a company that in the 80s published pirate video games in all of Italy, passing them off as originals, simply by changing their name, credits and the packaging. It was possible at that time to do so as there was no law against piracy, and it was therefore possible to market other people's video games simply by making small changes. It was practically industrial piracy that made the game arrive in many shops throughout the national territory and that was sold in the sunlight as an original video game even if it was not. Mario Arioti was the owner of Armati, one of the largest Italian pirate cassette duplication company in It...

If you think that the video games of the past weren't extremely difficult, it is simply because you have forgotten. If you think games like Dark Souls are difficult, it's because you don't know the history of video games. Video games were once not for everyone, but only for those who had the ability to play them, which today is very simple, but which at the time was not. The passage of time is making us forget what for many years was a problem of no small importance for the gamer, that is, the fact that the video games of the past had such a high difficulty as to require great efforts to continue and are sometimes almost impo...

In the 1980s, computers were popular that loaded games and programs mainly via regular audio cassettes on which the data was recorded, which meant extremely slow loading times and cumbersome data handling, because they could only be read sequentially going forward. Cassettes have been the most famous and widespread medium ever for computers such as the Commodore 64, although there were also other ways to load games and programs on these systems, using cartridges and floppy disks, which however had an extremely limited diffusion for three reasons: cartridges were very expensive compared to cassettes and only a few games and programs were p...

In the era before the internet, video games sometimes copy their music from famous songs. It was a fairly common practice, listing all the cases would produce an endless list, but here are some of the more interesting ones. The original arcade version of Rainbow Islands featured the remix of the song "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. This music was included in the Japanese versions of the game's Mega Drive, PC Engine, and Famicom, as well as Ocean Software's conversions for home computers (Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST). However, in later console versions of the game (Master System, NES, Saturn...

This document was byte by byte converted from Vitality #2 (English diskmagazin by Albion). Article written by Ramos/Samar and Glover/Samar . +60K EXPANSION for "COMMODORE POWER" Few months ago my group, Samar started to upgrade our beloved c64 machine. You will ask "WHy?!" There are many reasons,i will point out just these most important ones. Firstly In Poland but also in other countries, there aren't many people that could use some additional c64 hardware like Turbo cards Reu expansions ect. Secondly many people just cant afford such an upgrades. So we decided to start to upgrade our computers by ourselves, like the people f...

Before wanting to buy old computers, consoles, video games or magazines connected to them, it is necessary to know any negative aspects that can be encountered, in order to be prepared, and on occasion avoid or accept them without being disappointed. Obviously, the following does not want to discourage the collection of retrogame material, but it is evident too often you buy badly because you do not realize what you are buying, the dangers to which you are encountering and the real value of the object. The rarity and value of retrogame material Computers and consoles of the past have often been produced in millions of copies, just as indi...

In the 80s and 90s the main concern of those who used pirated computer software was being able to find a virus inside it that could damage the machine and infect other software in their possession. It was unlike to find a virus in the original software, as it was obviously virus free, or at least in theory. It is known that an original Commodore Amiga video game was mistakenly put on sale with a dangerous virus inside. The video game is Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, published by Palace Software for various computers since 1988, including the Commodore Amiga. It is the sequel to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and has as its protagoni...

There are two versions of the famous fighting game Street Fighter for Commodore 64, one European PAL and the other North American NTSC, which however differ from each other, even if both can run on the same C64 PAL. The US NTSC version of the Commodore 64 conversion was better done than the European PAL version. Unlike the European PAL version, the American NTSC version was playable, with sprites and backdrops done well. Also, the US version had the special moves that were missing in the European one. The US version was not perfect, there was no scrolling and there was no Sagat character, the music was not good and the special moves were ...

Space Harrier is an arcade video game that is part of the scrolling shooter genre and was released by SEGA in 1985. The game was converted to various gaming platforms of the time, including the Commodore 64. But the version marketed in Europe was incomplete because the programmer didn't have enough time to complete it and Elite demanded the game to be released by Christmas. The European version of Space Harrier for the Commodore 64 differed greatly from the US version, in that it lacked the characteristic 3D terrain effect. The US version, released a few months after the European version, was optimized thanks to the greater time avail...

There are two versions of the famous racing game Out Run for Commodore 64 , one European (PAL) and the other North American (NTSC), which however differ from each other, even if both can run on the same Commodore 64 PAL. This case is really interesting because it looks like the US version is the original version with improvements. The programmers of the European version are credited along with two additional members who have done the "upgrade" for the US version. The US version has, unlike the European version, a second title screen (which tells you to turn the disc) and a track selection screen instead of a menu. The car's graphics ...

Rastan Saga (also known simply as Rastan in the United States and Europe) is an arcade video game developed and published in 1987 by Taito. The game was highly appreciated for the graphic quality and the not too frenetic playability, as well as for the fantasy atmosphere and the protagonist inspired by Conan the barbarian. It was converted for Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, Game Gear, Sega Master System, TRS-80 Color Computer and ZX Spectrum. The Commodore 64 version of the game was released on the market with a bug that made it impossible to finish, as in level 4 one of the deadly holes between the platforms was too ...

RoboCop is an arcade video game inspired by the RoboCop movie, developed and published in 1988 by Data East. Later, Ocean Software, which had already acquired the movie's license and had granted it to Data East, released conversions for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Game Boy, MSX and ZX Spectrum. Data East instead published conversions for Apple II, NES, TRS-80 CoCo and MS-DOS; in fact there are two distinct and independent versions of the game for MS-DOS. The Commodore 64 version of RoboCop differs from the other releases because it was released on the market despite being aware of the fact that it was a defecti...

Golden Axe is a very popular video game produced by SEGA in 1989 for the arcade market, which was very successful. The game was converted for more than 15 different platforms between consoles and home computers, with SEGA selling the rights to various third party companies for the realisation of the various versions. The version for the SEGA Mega Drive is considered among the best not only because of the superior graphic, but also because it has more levels than the arcade version, which includes only five levels. The Commodore 64 version, developed in 1990 by Probe Software and distributed by Virgin Games, was highly waited due to the po...

Among other Sicilian pirate compilations (Trinacria compilations), we remember the series The Best Software, sold for 10,000 lira, which presented the black and white cover printed with a common printer and a little printed manual. The used cassette was a common music cassette.

In the 80s and early 90s, sicialian pirate cassette collections spread in some parts of Italy which consisted of a compilation of games for the Commodore 64 which featured the original title names of the games, in contrast to the standard pirate trend which consisted of bypass the italian law of that time by publishing the games by changing the title name and without paying for the copyrights. After the so-called Neapolitan pirate cassettes, the most popular ones were the Sicilian cassettes, produced in Palermo and Catania and diffused in Sicily but sporadically sold also in other regions. However, unlike the Neapolitans, the Sicilians ar...

A characteristic of loading on the Commodore 64 was the presence of horizontal bars on the screen (loading bars), which were inserted specifically by the programmers to give information on the loading progress of the games. For example, no bars meant that the software was still looking for data, while the presence of bars indicated the data was successfully loaded into memory. The shape or color of the bars gave useful information, for example if the multicolored bars were not uniform meant that the datatape head had to be aligned, or in the case of monochrome or edge bars on the monochrome screen, these changed color depending on the dat...

The WINNER GAMES was a serie of compilations of Neapolitan origin sold on newsstands on cassette, which offered games for Commodore 64 in the original language, often with built-in cheats.

Alga Soft was a well known and very active selling and distribution group located in Naples, in the south of Italy. The group was active in the days of commodore tapes, and didn't evolve into the disks era. Algasoft dissolved about in 1994, when a major police crackdown put a temporary stop to a noticeable slice of the italian scene.