The Commodore 64 is 30 years old this year. To mark this special occasion and the imminent release of V2 of the book A Commodore 64 Walkabout, I recorded a podcast. Yes, it's plenty of me rambling on about Commodore stuff along with some music - as usual!

Click to download and listen: C64 Walkabout Podcast - Anniversary Edition

Music included (remakes of my own making, and background original SIDs ): Realm of Impossibility, Mail Order Monsters, Telengard, Way of the Exploding Fist, Necromancer, Last Ninja III, Soulless, Ultima IV, Adventure Construction Set, Temple of Apshai (ambient).

It's been just over a year since I published A Commodore 64 Walkabout, and the response I've seen from the community since has been amazing. Thank you if you were one of those who bought it.

Because so much can happen in the C64 scene in only a year, not to mention the valuable feedback from readers I've received, I've started work on a revised edition of the book. I don't intend to require anyone to purchase the book a second time in e-book format since it should be an easy matter to upload the new version on both Smashwords and at Amazon's site.

However, due to popular demand I will make color and black and white versions available in print format. Currently the book is on sale in a value-priced black and white edition at Blurb.com, but I was never completely happy with how the horizontal screen shots were forced into pages of their own and will work in new photos and images to adjust to the format. A color edition would be significantly more expensive than the current B&W edition from Blurb's print-on-demand service, but I hope it will not be unreasonable when I price it out.

Among the new additions in content will be a chapter on programming and creating on the C64 and VIC-20. New bits will be added to nearly every chapter as well, increasing the book in length. If you have any suggestions for additions to the book, let me know and I'll consider adding them!

While on the topic of books, if you like my writing, why not check out my Sci-Fi series set on the world of Hadanum? You can start with the full-length novel Globe-Hurler, or jump right in to the episodic Hadanum #1. Each book and episode has C64-related Easter eggs inside (Globe-Hurler has a few obvious ones), so have fun finding them!

I finally tried my hand at remaking some C64 tunes. Why?

Well, I waited a long time for for the community at Remix.Kwed.Org, Remix64, and other sites to remake/remix songs that have been stuck in my head after all these years. These included Realm of Impossibility, Mail Order Monsters, Ultima 3, Spelunker, Necromancer, Adventure Construction Set, Jumpman, Karateka, and others. While it did happen for some tunes like Law of the West , other songs continued to evade the remix treatment.

Some possible reasons why:

1. The tunes so ingrained in my head from playing those titles back in the day were not made by "respected" SID musicians. They were relatively simple tunes that did not make full use of the capabilities of the SID chip, so whatever followings they might have are limited to the gaming side of the C64 community, and not so much with music or SID enthusiasts.

2. The games were not popular or were not released widely in Europe where most of the C64 remixing seems to happen. Electronic Arts titles that I remember so well, for example, were mostly sold on floppy disk in big flat LP-style cases, while the most popular games with the most memorable SIDs in Europe were sold on small bargain cassette tapes.

3. The songs most popular in the C64 remixing community benefit from a sort of a self-perpetuating phenomenon that can be separate and distinct from C64 gaming. Some songs have been remixed so often that, for instance, if you listen to SlayRadio long enough you will become familiar with tunes to games (and just SIDs unrelated to games) you've never played. New remixes may very well be spawned not by a familiarity with the old games, but simply from hearing the remixes already out there. My guess is that there are more than a couple of C64 remixers who just like the music of the remix community, and who never actually played a C64 title on the real hardware - perhaps not even in emulation!

4. The songs I liked were more suited for "remakes" rather than remixes because they were not particularly upbeat or jazzy tunes.

5. The songs were better heard as a whole or a "medley" since there was not enough material in a single track to go by.

So ... I thought, why wait longer? I could have asked someone to remix some tunes for me, but I have a background in music (albeit a very dusty one). I went and got myself a copy of a music editing program and started on my own remakes.

Here they are! My very early, first-try, work-in-progress "remixes" (and I use that term loosely). BEWARE - I plan to inflict many more on you in the future ...

Mail Order Monsters (Electronic Arts) original SID by Tommy V. Dunbar:

Realm of Impossibility (Electronic Arts) original SID by Dave Warhol:

Additionally - I found a few more remakes out there: 

The Power-Ups did a nice live version of Mail Order Monsters (video) HERE.

A very nice ten minute long remix/remake of songs from Ultima III (C64 songs with some NES thrown in) can be found HERE.

And to prove you can find anything on the Interwebs these days, here is a good version of Spelunker - a nice remake true to the original title theme: