R8ro! (R-Eight-tro)
Eight new mini games for the Commodore 64.



The story of these Games

An annual MiniGameCompetition on the internet is held in the three categories of 1, 2 and 4 kilobytes. While getting to know the C64 better again (after years of coding for the Atari VCS and about seven years since my last C64 program) I had some ideas for possible games in the lower size categories. I thought that multiplayer games, scrolling multicolor landscapes, hectic puzzle games, showing sprites in the borders and other things would be possible in even the lowest amount of kilobytes. To have a goal to strive for, I decided to compile eight different mini games to a complete disk and cartridge called "R8ro!" which gives the owner a variety of different game concepts to choose from.

Elimin8! (Eliminate)

This is a game for one player. Nine cities around a radioactive plant have been polluted. The popluation was evacuated and the useless and dangerous buildings have to be exterminated now. You fly over the scrolling skylines and drop laser shots to neutralize columns of buildings. You can only move left and right while the gravity pulls you towards the buildings. You get more points if you manage to hit buildings without missing (combo scoring).


Winner of the "Gold Joystick"
at the 1K MiniGameCompetition 2008.

www.minigamecomp.org.uk

Calcul8! (Calculate)

This game for two players shows a playfield of 8 by 8 numbers. Both player alternating choose a field and try to get the highest points from the and leave less points for the opponent. Player 1 can only move his cursor horizontally while player 2 is only able to move vertically. So choose your fields wisely and take a look which fields your opponent may take afterwards.


Extric8! (Extricate)

This game for one, two or three players generates scrolling random tunnels which the players have to pass with their submarines. Two players control their sub with a joystick while the third player uses the keys F1 and F7. The distance is counted for every player - so who is going to survive the longest distance?


Affili8! (Affiliate)

This game for one player offers a playfield of 6x6 squares where you have to place randomly generated tiles. After a few seconds a marble starts rolling and it will follow the trail of your placed tiles. The marble removes passed tiles from the field and there are also bombs to remove misplaced tiles from the screen. The game is over if the marble crashes or if you didn't manage to place some tiles within the given countdown time. Try to prepare alternative routes as you never know which tile may appear next...


Winner of the "Gold Joystick"
at the 2K MiniGameCompetition 2008.

www.minigamecomp.org.uk

Pir8! (Pirate)

Man, what a night! You hardly remember anything and try to find your way out of the dark dungeons of what you believe is the cellar of the bar where you spent the last evening. Jump and run along different paths and avoid the dead ends, falling too deep or falling into the pits...
This 2kb game for one player offers horizontal scrolling in both directions with multicolored graphics. The level design is about 30 screens wide.


Winner of the "Silver Joystick"
at the 2K MiniGameCompetition 2008.

www.minigamecomp.org.uk

Loc8or (Locator)

One or two player have to search for a small pattern of 6x6 squares in a randomized playfield. Finding a pattern increases your score and adds 10 seconds to the countdown timer. Try to find as many pattern as possible - and more than your opponent of course...


Sk8! (Skate)

Obstacles appear in your way and you have to jump to avoid them. This game for one player is only controlled by the fire button of your joystick. Holding fire raises the jump bar and releasing fire makes the player jump as high as the bar was raised before.


Elev8! (Elevate)

You control a marble and have to drop from platform to platform. Avoid falling out at bottom of screen and don't let the platforms take you out at the top. Catch as many points as possible and beware of the shrinking platforms.



Technical Information

All games are written for a PAL Commodore 64. The total size of Elimin8!, Caclcul8!, Extric8! and Loc8or is 1 kilobyte (1024 bytes) each - containing all code, graphics and sounds. All code, graphics and sounds of Affili8! and Pir8! fit into 2 kilobytes (2048 bytes) each. All code, graphics and sounds of Sk8! and Elev8! fit into 0.5 kilobytes (512 bytes) each.

Production of the Limited Edition Cartridges

The games are released as a limited edition of 30 cartridges. The limited edition contains these items: blue cartridge, plastic box with color cover, instruction manual, postcards, serialnumber and signature.

The cartridge starts with an introduction logo and after about five seconds you are presented a menu which contains a great exclusive music by Thomas E. Petersen (aka Laxity/Vibrants). The menu is joystick controlled, so you can also run this cartridge on a C64GS (Game System). All the games along with menu and music got packed together and fit onto an 8 kb cartridge.


A complete copy of the limited edition.


All 30 boxes of the limited edition.

Owners of the Limited Edition

# Name Country
01 Simon Quernhorst Germany
02 Robert Hirschfeld Germany
03 Falk Heinzelmann Germany
04 James Monkman England
05 Michael Weiß Germany
06 Mat Allen England
07 Richard Lecce USA
08 Syd Bolton Canada
09 Oliver Ziegler Germany
10 Christoph Niewöhner Germany
11 Walter Lauer Germany
12 Mika Myllyvaara Finland
13 Fabian Grossekemper Switzerland
14 Hartmut Pachl Germany
15 Karl-Johan Nilsson Sweden
16 Chuck Bremer USA
17 René Meyer Germany
18 Chris Austin USA
19 Bernd Thomas Germany
20 Ian Baranofsky USA
21 Zeldin Germany
22 Bruce Philip USA
23 Andrew Fisher England
24 Jörg Raddatz Germany
25 Computerspielemuseum Berlin Germany
26 Christian Schlosser Germany
27 Oliver Hermanni Germany
28 Cyril Denis France
29 Yannis Pachnis England
30 Kai Darius Kohl USA





These games for the Commodore 64 were written in 2008 and are (C) by Simon Quernhorst.
The URL www.quernhorst.de is owned by my brother, who is not to be connected
with the development of these C64 games, so don't bother him with mails.
Commodore, Commodore 64, Atari and VCS are acknowledged trademarks of their individual owners.


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