members (including myself) sometimes cause delays but that's no biggie, I mean there are no "timely" diskmags anymore, but the latest issue we just released today is hopefully a new step to more steady releases. We have been re-organizing ourselves, so we should be making progress here :)

Q. If our reader wanted to join POL how would they, and what talents are
needed in the group?

Coders and graphicians are people we need more of, so we could release maybe even some demos! We work this way: We arrange what is still needed to release production X and then it's up to everybody's own creativity what the end
result looks like, It might be unique and questionable for some but hey, so
far it worked well and this way we support individual skills and creativity :)

Q. Commodore Free has been criticized for not being "elite" i.e. I try to
cater for all users and all levels have you had similar problems with Scene world?

We had the exact same feedback coming from the PAL scene. While the NTSC scene welcomed us with open arms , the PAL sceners often criticized us for not being "demoescene exclusively". This has changed a lot, probably by people realizing we need to work together more and be one Scene World (heeh). The atmosphere changed a lot to the more positive and people asked us more and more when the next issue will be released :)

Q. Do you feel the Commodore world has an "exclusion zone"?

It might have had in the past, but this zone is getting smaller all the time.

Q. Finally you are trapped on a desert island that has power and a commodore
64 and monitor, tape and disk drive to keep you sane. You have been allowed to take 10 disks with programmes on them (only 1 program per disk though), what programmes are they and can you explain the reasons for taking them with you?

A track copier program, if I want to copy one of the 10 disks to another one, you never know, sometimes desert islands aren't so desert ;) Power Drift, because it's an awesome racer! Scene World #10 - one of the best issues we released so far! Outrun Europa as I think it's the best arcade racing game on the C64!

Q. Do you have any other comments you would like to add?

Concentrate on teamwork, not working against each other! Thanks for your interest in my work on the C64 and its scene!


*******************
EDGE GRINDER
COMMODORE FREE REVIEW
********************

Now available from Retro Gamer CD as a 16k cartridge (although the current batch as of this text was out of stock) more details of the cartridge are available her http://www.rgcd.co.uk/

You can see a demo being played on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtt974Iofk

The game has been coded by Jason T.M.R. Kelk, the graphics and maps are by Trevor Smila storey with music by Sean Odie Connolly

Cosine will not be releasing the .PRG or .D64 version of Edge Grinder officially until STE'86 completes a loading screen - so until then it will remain a cartridge exclusive release. Once released by Cosine the game will be a free download.

Edge Grinder is the first Format War "Collaboration" where programmers on
other 8-bits to consider ways to convert it from the C64 to their platform of choice.

THE STORY
Guide brave test pilot Lim Tandell, flying his prototype spaceship through the artificial Edge World and suddenly finding himself under attack. It becomes Limbo's job to destroy the evil creatures, freeing the world from their tyranny. Along with blowing away enemies and battling through the Edge World itself, Lim Tandell can further boost his score by taking the risk of grinding his ship against the edge of the landscape.

DOWNLOADS
C64 object code (16K zipped - updated 2nd August 2011)
C64 source code (28K zipped - updated 2nd August 2011)
Background and sprite data (44K zipped - 2nd August 2011)
In-game map (89.8K PNG - updated 31 May 2011)

PROGRAMMERS INFORMATION Please note: this is now the final version of the
game, the source code might be a little messy but this is the version of the target being released on cartridge by RGCD. The C64 source if formatted for
the ACME cross assembler, whilst backgrounds and character sets were constructed using CharPad V1.0 and the sprites with SpritePad V1.8, both by SubChrist Software. The C64 music was composed with the Electronic Music
System by Cosine.


Booting up the game (from the format wars website)
We are given the main screen nothing to select so armed with a joystick in
port 2 and a smart "Biggles" style headset and an even stronger cup of
beverage than I normally would have I press the fire button and am launched into the game. As you can guess this is a sideways scrolling shoot-em up, and someone has just pointed out if you learn the patterns you learn the game!

Music is great good beat but not a heavy techno track as you would expect (yep thank goodness for a change), the music plays and loops on the title screen
and through the game with no other sound effects.

The game curve has been handled exceptionally well and you soon get the sweats as you progress further and further, various aliens and attack formations are greeting the more experienced user. With Jason handling the coding you expect
a certain standard as he seems to be something of a perfectionist, and as a meeting with him where he demoed some code, if it didn’t work he would scrap the code or scrap the idea or both.

Thankfully the game works very well, the scrolling is silky smooth and with just the user having to remember to hit FIRE and kill things, move up down and left and right it’s a none taxing brain game. Graphically the game works well,
superbly drawn sprites and landscapes with just minimal stars in the back ground, it’s easy to pick out the aliens and get them to eat some virtual dirt.

Doesn’t seem to be any “pickups” or bonuses to collect, well not from my flying skills anyway however there are some “sticky” items that hang around,
at first I though these were power ups and flew into one, crashing my craft in the process. Incidentally crashing actually works to the players advantage as the ship explodes out some debris that kills everything on screen but keeps moving along, (see the picture) well in reality actually hitting or crashing something alien causes all the aliens to disappear on the screen, giving you some breathing space for the next attack wave


It’s all been done before but excellently executed and packed into 16k,

Graphics 7/10
Music 7/10
Playability 7/10
Overall 7/10

Mindless destruction of helpless brain dead alien craft! YOU KNOW IT!


--- CrashWrite 2.0
* Origin: --:)----- Dragon's Lair BBS -----(:-- (39:901/281)