The game's programmer Rasmus Wernersson, has supplied us with the original English and German versions of the game, as well as the sources, all of which are now available for download in our Forever Lost? section.

We'd like to express our gratitude to Rasmus, who besides his extremely loaded schedule managed to uncover and transfer the disks to D64 format for the benefit of the whole C64 community.

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Continuing with our pre-Zzap! cool games feature, twelve new games with their descriptions from the first Zzap!64 Top64 were added to the Top64 article, which is available from within our Game of the Week section.

An unprotected copy of Hagar the Horrible's English version is under the spotlight, and rightly so!

Entries in database: 13100 (+143)
Unchecked: ZERO! (-114)
Missing: 28 (+2)
Not 100% working: 81 (+5)

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Continuing with our pre-Zzap! cool games feature, twelve more games with their descriptions from the first Zzap!64 Top64 were added to the Top64 article, which is available from within our Game of the Week section.

And the winner is... the US Version of Mindscape's Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom!

Neil English has released a new version of his ZX Spectrum version of Gamebase64, "GamebaseZX"! This version has been rewritten from scratch and is now slicker and faster than v0.1 and has more features. There is now full screenshot support, a utility to import the data from SGD's database, and a utility to update your current database from v0.1 to v0.2. For more information and downloads visit Neil's web site at www.gamebasezx.com.

Last week, the mighty Borg (that's Michael for the uninitiated :) ripped Fun School II from a tap version provided by Warren Pilkington (thanks for sending), and we added it to our Rare Games Corner. With the help of Fun School II we also identified two subgames of Fun School I called "Teddy Count" & "Teddy Bear Picnic". Can someone help us out with the other 6 (?) missing parts? Any infos about the other subgames or the copyrights for both games are welcome! Latest information reveals that there were actually at least 3 packages for every Fun School game series, targeted to different age-groups and starring different cuddly characters:

FS4 under 5's (Teddy)
FS4 5 to 7's (Frog)
FS4 over 7's (Spy) - The one we have.

FS3 Under 5's had a Teddy (we think...)
FS3 5 - 7's ??? don't know...
FS3 over 7's had a Robot. - The one we have.

FS1 and 2 had different age-group versions, but not a character associated with each one.

Any help in uncovering any of the above will be greatly appreciated!

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An other unknown "magic" mystery in our collection is this game. It seems that it was released by a company (or cracking group) called "The Professional Touch". On our disk it was listed under the name "Magic" which is the password for starting it. Anybody knows the name of this fun program which teaches you some magic tricks?

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Isn't that something? :)

Well, htmlizing Zzap!64 reviews one at a time is like slowly writting the history of the C64 gameware. But Zzap! first issue came out in May 1985. What about the games that were published before? The answer is in the very same issue: The Zzap!64 Top64, which contains the best games of the pre-Zzap! era. They will be added, a dozen at a time, to the new 'Top64' article available from within our Game of the Week section.

Unfortunately, only a few lines of text accompanied each game, but I'm looking for an individual possessing all issues of Personal Computer Games, the mag that, although multi-format, contained more C64 game reviews for 1984 than any other. Also all C64 reviews from pre-1985 C&VG would do fine... If you have them and are willing to make photocopies for me in order to htmlize them (all costs covered), pls contact me!

With Attack of the Atlanteans - newly acquired from an auction by Matt Larsen, who was forced to pay an enormous price for it (he could have bought a cup of coffee with the money instead :)

Interestingly, MayhemUK sneered at the opportunity to bid for this rare classic gem (yeah, right), but then again, Mayhem is well known for his good taste! :)

Entries in database: 12957 (+157)
Unchecked: 114 (-185)
Missing: 26 (-)
Not 100% working: 76 (+1)

Yes, a truly majestic RPG, perhaps the greatest ever to grace the 64 has at last been released to the unsuspecting public. What can we say for this mega-effort, spanning 14 40-track disk sides? It took 8 years to be completed, boasts 33 wallsets, over 55 areas to explore, 80 big pictures, 170 NPCs to interact with, and a whole lot more. I dare say, if Zzap!64 awarded Ultima VI 98% back in 1991, the same rating and a Gold Medal should certainly be awarded to this one today. In my humble opinion, the first game after Mayhem in Monsterland and Lemmings back in 1993 to be worthy of such an award!

Go here to grab your copy for free, and if you appreciate the work these guys put into it, drop them the small appreciation fee they request to prove that gratitude is not a vanished virtue among C64 users!

The complete ZZAP!64 issue 1 reviews (39 in all) have now been htmlized and are available from our GOTW section. The number of htmlized reviews is already more than all past htmlization attempts by various sites put together -- and just look how much attention to detail we have exercised in each and every one of them! :)

TONY CROWTHER
64 graphics king
Obviously it's a good machine, but I don't think it's as good as the Atari -- I could never understand why the Atari died, it's the weirdest thing. I'll be looking at the new Atari when it comes out.
The 64 is still not being stretched to its full -- no one's approached its full capacity, me included. I've never been close yet. It's like the Spectrum -- everyone says: you'll never beat this game, it's the best game ever. But next week you get one that's even better, that's rattled it even more. You can't really get to the end of a machine.
I don't know that the 64's memory imposes too much of a limit. My games use up all the memory available -- they're about 54K long. But there again, that's because I use up any remaining space with extra routines. Like on Gryphon the test card routine at the start uses up 10K -- I only put it in because the memory space was there.
The software has a long way to go. In a year's time there will be stuff that's far better than the software around today.

ONE Off, ZZAP!64, May 1985

Warren Pilkington of High Voltage SID Collection fame sent us his copy of Fun School 2 -- so now we only have to find Fun School 1 to complete the lot! We've upload it next to the others...