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level106.bsky.social

@level106.bsky.social
79 followers 56 following 770 posts

Full on retro gamer, nostalgia seeker, and dad joker.

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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Interesting quirk with Deluxe Pac-Man: With a regular joystick or joypad, where odd movement combo's aren't possible, you're fine. But if you play it in an emulator with keyboard controls for the joystick, the game gets confused by any simultaneous up+down or left+right movements. Stuck in walls: 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Deluxe Pac-Man AGA (Amiga) There may be a huge plethora of Pac-Man clones out there. But every once in a while, something like Deluxe Pac-Man appears, and everything's alright. 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I just had to.. 😊
Michelle of the Resistance
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I know it's not a great adventure game. But I kinda enjoyed seeing what I could randomly puzzle through. 😋
Gremlins: The Adventure, for the C64.  The loading screen. Gremlins: The Adventure, for the C64.  Outside the cinema.Gremlins: The Adventure, for the C64.  Inside the garage. Gremlins: The Adventure, for the C64.  Beside the snow plough.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Galaga! (arcade) Whoever thought of that capture-the-ship mechanic is a genius. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hehe. I'm not sure how many different tape versions there were. I assumed there would be only one. I had it on cassette, and it had the guy with purple cap and I think the red dog 🐶, so I assumed that's what all tape people had. Then I tried .TAP's years later in emulation and found other LCP's. 😲
Little Computer People.  The blonde guy with glasses.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The disk version would randomise the person on first load and write their stats to disk. I believe there were different batches of the tape version with different LCP's coded to them. Do you know if your tape versions are different people? Or are they twinsies? 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I would've liked a little more to do in the driving sequences. Those felt a little bland. 🤔 But, as movie licenses go, it was a lot better than other games the C64 got. I did enjoy it. I spent ages on that title screen, pressing the space bar at the right times in the music. "Ghostbusters!" 👻 😄
The title screen of the C64 Ghostbusters game, with iconic "no ghosts" company logo.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Commodore also made the 8502 CPU for the C128 Computer. Basically a 6510 that can see more RAM, and use an MMU for some bank-switching options. By default it only has an extra 64K of RAM, to give it 128K overall. But the MMU is capable of addressing up to 1024K, with some hardware modification. 😮
The Commodore C128 Computer.
(Which has a 6502 variant, the 8510, and also a Z80 CPU.. 😮 It has two brains!) 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yeah. They must have all been asleep that day.. I was sure someone was going to point out that the CPU is a 6510, not a 6502. Though the assembly one would be contemplating would be 6502. (I'm trying to be inclusive.) 😋
A MOS 6510 CPU, as one would find in a C64 computer. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just spending some time out in the garden. Contemplating the meaning of 6502. 🤓 (Waiting for the internet to point out to me things they think I don't know, in 3.. 2.. 1..) 😉
A Windows laptop, out on the garden table, emulating a C64, with it's beastie 6510 CPU — essentially a 6502 with some bank-switching. 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Monkey Island 1 (FM Towns) I know there is much to be done to become a pirate.. I just keep revisiting it from time to time to give the old man a fright, sneak into the kitchen, and talk to the dog. 😄
The Secret of Monkey Island — FM Towns version.  
The title / intro-credits screen. The Secret of Monkey Island — FM Towns version.  
It's a good start to the day if you can give the old man a fright. 😊The Secret of Monkey Island — FM Towns version.  
Once you've heard all there is to be said about "grog".. what's in that kitchen? 🤔The Secret of Monkey Island — FM Towns version.  
Unquestionably, my favourite part of the game is talking to the dog. 🐶
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I was reminded how much I like Android II — both the Speccy and C64 version. I found out the hard way that the Amstrad centipedes take three shots, not two. 😐 I was also reminded how much I like, but I'm not very good at, Archon. 😎
Android II on an Amstrad CPC emulator, being played on the GP2x handheld.  A fun 2.5D shooter where you hurry through a maze to destroy several snake-like "millitoids", while dodging or shooting other droids, and avoiding the occasional mine. Archon on an Amstrad CPC emulator, being played on the GP2x handheld.  A modern twist on a chess-style battle, where you have to fight each piece one-on-one before taking the square.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I'm out travelling for a couple of days. Left the house quick, and I didn't get the GP2x handheld ready to take with me. 😐 Last time I decided to focus on the Amstrad emulator, which I'd hardly touched before. Y'know, it was really fun to try new versions of old games I knew. 😎
Playing Sorcery on the Amstrad emulator on the CP2x handheld. 
(I"m so good at it, I don't even need to press the buttons.) 😋I would play a bit of Elite, but I think it requires more keypresses than I can properly do on the old GP2x.  The intro looks refreshingly not-flickery though. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I haven't posted much Amiga content of late, partly because the machine can do so many screen modes that it can be hard to capture a video where the view doesn't jump about between the title/loading/game sections. 😐 Paradroid 90 was nicely consistent here. Runs well in a 60Hz NTSC mode too. 👍
Paradroid 90 for the Amiga.  
The title screen. Paradroid 90 for the Amiga.  
Loading the maps for the first dreadnaught.  
I like how they're sticking with the C64 narrative that the robot is in there, in the thick of it.  But you're merely remote-controlling it, seeing its sensor-data overlaid on the ship blueprints from your home computer. Paradroid 90 for the Amiga.  
Loading the maps for the first dreadnaught.  
Your "Influence Device" dodges the fire from both a maintenance and sentinel droid as it tries to circle round for a transfer. Paradroid 90 for the Amiga.  
Loading the maps for the first dreadnaught.  
The transfer sub-game.  Very well thought out this one, as you and the other droid fight for control of its circuits.  "Your brain or mine?" 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Been there.. 😐
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The analogue movement on the stick is still quite good. The top button's a bit twitchy, but the base ones are good. And there's even a switch and handy adapter to use it on PC. I'm reminded how bad the old Apple 16-pin DIP joystick plug is. So darned fragile. The pins always get bent. 😐
An old-school Apple II compatible joystick.  
Top view.  An old-school Apple II compatible joystick.  
Bottom view, with all its little switches to toggle auto-centering at the top and bottom of each axis.An old-school Apple II compatible joystick.  
Side view.  An old-school Apple II compatible joystick.  
Those darned fragile DIP plug pins.  Always bent.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
{plays dramatic 2001 music} {Dave Bowman voice} 👨 "Something has arrived.." 👩‍🦰 "What? What has arrived?" 👨 "Something wonderful!"
The box around the box that contains the Apple II joystick. 😄The box that contains the Apple II joystick. 😎The stick, in the box, that came in the other box. 😋This is it.  The Apple II joystick.  
Top button is a bit twitchy, but other than that it's in good nick. 👍
(Oh, and a handy PC Gameport adapter too!  How convenient!) 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I went a fair way through the ZX Spectrum version one time, with an infinite lives cheat. 🤔 I think it took me somewhere between 20 to 40 lives to get through the Skylab Landing Bay level. 😮 😄
Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum 
The title screenManic Miner on the ZX Spectrum 
The first level: Central CavernManic Miner on the ZX Spectrum 
The seventh level: The VatManic Miner on the ZX Spectrum 
This is where it gets really tricky: Skylab Landing Bay
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
They played particularly well on my old breadbin C64 — it had a nice strong filter. 😎
The old breadbin C64. 
Not mine, unfortunately. 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Yeah. I’ve still got a few Amiga games on the HDD that, even WHDLoad-patched, do some things too fast on a fast CPU: Leaderboard, Shufflepuck Cafe, Nebulus, The Sentinel, Zany Golf, etc. ..Some are still quite playable ‘too fast’, but timing that swing? I’m too old for faster split-second timing. 😝
Lethal Weapon movie. 
“I’m too old for this s--t” meme.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The Amiga version of Leaderboard was quite cool. The speed of the swing was CPU-timed though, so it became quite hard if you had a CPU faster than 7MHz. 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Just to show how much more successful, more long-tailed the C64's games were, here are the two data-sets combined. Here I opted to track the C64 for a few more years. It goes to show how many people are still coding for the C64 just for fun. Great stuff. 😎 Not sure the cause of that 2000 blip.. 🤔
C64 and Amiga game releases each year, as tracked by the Lemon64 and LemonAmiga sites.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The C64 was certainly more successful than the Amiga. Unfortunately this data is just game releases overall, rather than commercial releases. So the C64 trails off, but it never really finishes, so I opted to end in at 1999, before we suddenly got a new surge in 2000. But yes, a good guess. 😎
C64 game releases, as tracked by Lemon 64. 
(Which doesn't claim to track *all* releases, 
but good enough for my purposes here.) 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
But yeah, I would've stuck with that A1200 forever if it hadn't died. Such a good machine. 😎 I could put it in a shoulder-bag with power supply, disk-wallet, joystick, and long triple-RCA cable (for composite and audio) and rock on up to a friends place and have some excellent gaming on their TV. 🕹️
The shoulder-bag that the A1200 was taken places in. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Actually, that got me looking at LemonAmiga dot com to see how many games were released in '94/95 .. then I wondered how quickly it dropped off .. then wondered what the peak was. 😄 Yeah, that was about the end-times for commercial games. Everyone was getting out. Enjoy the graph! 😊
Lemon Amiga, game releases by year.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Yeah, probably only a year or two of good commercial games. I was always too impatient with Frontier.. Ending up smashed into planets because I wouldn't turn down the time acceleration in time. 😊 It was great for benchmarking the speed of the CPU whenever a new accelerator card was installed. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Fortunately all my .tap image-files I throw at VICE and C64emu are somehow magically 'aligned' now. 🤣 Datasettes and Disk Drives getting themselves out of alignment is not an aspect of the old days I miss. 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Heartland is one I discovered when I was first getting into Speccy emulation, and didn't know where to get ROMs, so was just trying anything I could get hold of. 😊 I realised it must have had DNA in common with Nodes of Yesod coz, I mean look at that main-character animation! Gorgeous. 👍
The ZX Spectrum game Heartland
The loading screen.The ZX Spectrum game Heartland
The title screenThe ZX Spectrum game Heartland
Just started — bed still in viewThe ZX Spectrum game Heartland
Leaping around, not knowing what to do. :)
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Time for the alignment tape! 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
..and what levels of accuracy you've set for that particular game ..and if you're using a dynamic recompiler for the CPU — does AmiBerry have that? (I dunno, I'm a WinUAE guy.) 😊 So maybe they're not making any claims to avoid anyone litigating and claiming.. false claims? 😄 Just what I'm guessing.
The A1200.  The next new 'Amiga' to come out.  Yay! :)
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Also, I've been really digging into the new (it's had it for two years or so?) joystick button remapping of the VICE emulator. Thanks to that I can play Airborne Ranger and Elite almost entirely on a 12-button joystick. 😎 So I had to map all the keys of Tau Ceti to the joystick buttons too. Nice.
Playing Airborne Ranger with all the controls mapped to the joystick. 😎Joystick mapping file for the VICE C64 Emulator. 
The last 16 lines set the key-mapping for Airborne Ranger. 
The lines above that are all reference for any key-mappings you might want to set for any other game that needed keyboard controls as well as the joystick.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
The first game was quick.. my first jump was to the capital city before I was ready. But, armed with good map that showed the defence-strength of each city, and rough locations of substation and supply depots, I took a cautious path, marked places I'd searched, and retreated if I ran into trouble. 😊
Map of the C64 game Tau Ceti, from the C64 Wiki website. 
Nice logical layout, with indications of building locations and defence strength of each city.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I think Bandana City, the 'test game' on the other side of the Azimuth alignment kit for the C64 Datasette, was one of the worst things I ever played. It might not be *the* worst, but it was pretty close. 😊
C64 game Bandana City
The title screenC64 game Bandana City
Level 1
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Ah, Anirog Kong. I remember its mediocrity well. 😊
Anirog "Kong", for the C64. 
The start screen.Anirog "Kong", for the C64. 
The first level.Anirog "Kong", for the C64. 
The second level.Anirog "Kong", for the C64. 
The third level.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
X-Tree on DOS, DiskMaster on Amiga.. Those were the days. *sigh* 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I love the ending of that movie. I wasn't expecting it to finish with such a flash and a bang .. and sausage. 😉
Cover photo for Fight Club
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Harvested bunny-rabbit souls? Cool! I believe those were popular in the CD-ROM era. 🐰 I'm glad to see them making a comeback. 😄
And early CD-ROM, powered by bunny-rabbit souls. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
She was pretty whiny too.. if I were the kid, I’d stay with the dude who knows how to rock the 80s hair. 😎
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
You know, there's a part of me that wants to be annoyed at this. But the most I can muster is a slightly disappointed "meh!" 😊 I mean, I'm just gonna buy GTA6 on Steam when it eventually appears on there anyway. A download is a lot easier than installing it from, what, four or five discs? 😮
Grand Theft Auto 6 poster
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Also, it must be said how cool all the booklet artwork looks on big booklet that came with the vinyl double-LP. Such a great time to be into music. 😎
Artwork that was in the booklet that came with "The War of the Worlds" musical album.  The Cylinder at Horsell Common.Artwork that was in the booklet that came with "The War of the Worlds" musical album.  The Martian’s machines, capturing humans.Artwork that was in the booklet that came with "The War of the Worlds" musical album.  The red weed. Artwork that was in the booklet that came with "The War of the Worlds" musical album.  The tripods attack.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I first heard it on vinyl, which my brother bought and I listened to when I was far too young. 😊 Eventually I got it on CD. Had no idea there was a new remix of the first song at the end, after the epilogue. Was such an awesome surprise to hear that come through at an appropriately loud volume. 😄
The War of the Worlds musical soundtrack CD.
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
👍
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
These fancy soccer games with all the resources to even have a referee on the field. 👴 In my day we didn't have spare sprites for a ref! 😋 {International Soccer C64}
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
As good as Wolfenstein? 😉
The loading screen for one of ID Software's early 3D FPS shooters, Wolfenstein 3D
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Ah, when games first came to CD.. That's when that FMV-machine of a game called "Mega Race" came out. (Which had a level of ridiculousness that I really enjoyed.) 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Of course, it could never quite match the beauty of the arcade game — a really good looking title, and a solid game, with a story-line that could only come out of Japan. But the C64 conversion saved me from spending a ton of credits down at the corner shops. 😄
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
And, if you look at all the various hacks/cracks on the C64 Scene Database site, there's one (by JPH in 1984) where someone thought "A four-colour screen is a bit boring. Let's try to jazz it up a bit!" Which I kinda like. 😊
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level106.bsky.social @level106.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The blue background, though true to the arcade, is unusual for the C64, where authors tended towards the safe choice of a black background. (Often the only way to make it high-contrast for the fuzzy TV's of the day.) There are a few hacked versions of the game that tweaked this:
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