Nixy and the Seeds of Doom captivates as a modern Commodore 64 platformer that honors retro roots while pushing the hardware’s limits.
Developed by Haplo with graphics by Andy Johns (Vee) and audio by Kamil Wolnikowski (Jammer), this sequel to the ZX Spectrum original delivers Nixy’s quest through corrupted glades, castle ruins, and caverns, collecting seeds amid ghouls, knights, and traps.
Forty detailed, animated screens showcase high-res charset graphics with vibrant colors and smooth sprite animations, far surpassing the Spectrum version. The in-game map via SPACE bar aids navigation across flip-screen levels, unlocking gates and hidden fruits without frustration. Dynamic UI hints and screen shake (toggled by Q) enhance immersion on PAL or NTSC machines.
The SID-based sound system shines with six tunes, three ambience tracks, and proximity-triggered effects, cycled via CBM key across music-only, partial SFX, or full ambient modes. This creates atmospheric depth in a monophonic setup, evoking classic C64 fantasy vibes. Runtime patching ensures crisp output, playable on VICE, C64 Mini, or online emulators.
Precise jumping avoids enemies and hazards like disappearing platforms, with adjustable difficulty keeping it accessible yet challenging—ideal for short sessions or longplays. Recent patches fixed boss seed display bugs, and physical releases (disk, tape, cart) via K&A Plus add nostalgic flair, though digital is emulator-friendly. Community praise highlights its charm, playability, and value at name-your-price.
Deadhead reads like a fascinating “lost” slice of late–era C64 history, and your summary already nails its context and mood. Here is a polished review-style text you can use or adapt.
Deadhead is one of those bittersweet discoveries that perfectly captures the twilight years of the Commodore 64. Conceived as a small side project by Wayne and Anthony while they were occupied with another game, it lay dormant for decades on a stack of old disks before finally resurfacing as a near-complete but unreleased Defender-style shooter. What emerges from this recovery is not a revolutionary title, but a technically sharp and atmospheric reminder of how much care still went into C64 games even as the market was fading away.
At its core, Deadhead is a classic horizontally scrolling blaster in the Defender tradition, but with a few ambitious twists. The main loop is a fast, smooth side-scrolling shoot ’em up featuring crisp scrolling, responsive controls and a dense field of enemies that keep the player constantly on edge. On top of that, the game introduces an asteroid belt sub-level and an end-of-level guardian, both of which add structure and escalation beyond the usual endless-wave formula. Perhaps the most intriguing design idea is the planned Paradroid-style section that was meant to be integrated into the experience, hinting at a hybrid of arcade action and subsystem-style gameplay. Sadly, only an early scrolling test and some block graphics survive from this lost level, leaving just enough evidence to make its absence feel tantalizing.
The recovered C64 build plays for quite some time and feels more “late beta” than rough prototype. There is a clear sense of progression and polish in the core mechanics, suggesting the game was close to being ready to show to publishers, even if some planned features never materialized. Visually, Deadhead demonstrates good technical execution: smooth multi-directional scrolling, clean sprite handling and some neat effects that show off the coders’ mastery of the hardware. It may not push the C64 into uncharted territory, but it stands comfortably alongside many commercial releases from the early ’90s in terms of presentation and feel.
One notable absence is music. The game is completely silent, which strongly suggests that audio work never truly began. In an era when C64 soundtracks were often a game’s calling card, this silence makes Deadhead feel more like a work-in-progress tool build than a finished commercial product. Yet the quiet also lends the recovered version a strange, archival quality, as if you are playing a fossilized snapshot of development history rather than a polished retail title.
The story of how Deadhead resurfaced adds a layer of poignancy. Wayne had sent over all his old disks, and among them sat this forgotten project. On the Amiga side, an additional version—ported with the help of Adrian from aGTW—was uncovered, raising further questions about why, if two platforms were being targeted, neither version ever saw release. The likely answer is brutally simple: by the time Deadhead was nearing completion, the C64 was no longer economically viable, and the team had moved on with their lives. Wayne relocated to Manchester, the coder went to university in Swansea, and without a publisher or strong commercial incentive, the project quietly died.
Viewed today, Deadhead is not a “lost classic” in the sense of being an undiscovered masterpiece, but it is a valuable and engaging find. It showcases solid techniques, thoughtful design ideas, and a genuine attempt to evolve the Defender template at a time when the market had largely stopped paying attention to the C64. Playing or watching it now is less about chasing the next big game and more about appreciating the craft, ambition, and circumstances that shaped so many late–8-bit projects. In that sense, Deadhead succeeds: it may not have changed history, but it enriches it.
Undead stands as a gripping testament to unfinished C64 ambition, blending beat-’em-up brutality with horror flair in a project that refused to stay buried.
Originally crafted around 1990-1991 by artist Miha Rinne and coder Pekka Kleimola, this preview fuses Splatterhouse gore, Narc-style action, and Final Fight brawling into a single, scrolling level playable today via Games That Weren’t.
Joystick in port 2 drives Jon Plissken-like heroics: fire cycles through punches, gunshots, item use, and zombie grabs for clubbing foes; down triggers crouch-kicks; space toggles weapons. Multi-hit combos, object pickups, and a three-bite health limit demand precise timing amid lumbering undead, with glitches like missing leftward frames adding raw prototype charm. Streaming 16-color bitmaps load dynamically, though they devolve into garble post-level— a clever hack pushing 1541 limits.
Rubicon-esque graphics boast over 200 animation frames, detailed backgrounds, and energy-heart meters, evoking Escape from New York grit with worm rooms and exploding-skull bosses in design notes. Anvil and AMJ tunes elevate the mood, though the demo prioritizes effects over full soundtrack. Recent Necromancer tool demos showcase revived polish for cartridge release.
Abandoned as too vast for tape-era C64, the 2010 GTW rescue included tidied code, slideshows, and disks; 2021 updates confirmed Rinne and Kleimola’s return with Unreal prototypes, Zooparty 2024 demos, and 2025 vertical slices.
This “zombie” project—complete with lost Paradroid nods and feature-creep regrets—hints at a gory masterpiece had publishers bitten. Play the preview on VICE for a taste of what might rise fully soon.
Golf Dash Extended reimagines golf as a frantic, momentum-driven dash on the Commodore 64, expanding a 4K Craptastic original into a polished 2025 release by Megastyle. Players nudge a ball via joystick in port 2, letting physics carry it toward holes across 30 obstacle-packed levels, with passwords enabling skips at time penalties.
New hurdles, refined graphics, and Jack the Judge’s snarky feedback add personality beyond the core loop. Three SID tunes by Magnar plus Rotteroy’s SFX create a punchy soundtrack, while R resets stuck shots and Q quits levels.
Innovative controls demand angled nudges over power swings, blending precision with chaos on NTSC/PAL hardware or emulators like VICE. Community praises its innovation and audio, making short sessions addictive despite the ape’s cheeky jabs.
