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In 2019 Grid Pix was the first game I coded for the #C64 in the modern era. It led to some amazing physical versions and a glowing review in Retro Gamer. No wonder I got back into coding for the old machine. I've released eight games since then and worked on plenty of abandoned projects.

I reckon 2026 is the year I complete the #ZXSpectrumNext #ZXNext port of my #C64 game Runn 'n' Gunn. I made some rapid progress early in 2025 but didn't have see great change later in the year. This is known to programmers as the 90/90 rule: w.wiki/A6MJ

I received an @evercade.co.uk for Xmas. I fancy picking up one of the Indie packs as my first cart. I can't decide which is the best. I see there's a #C64 cart, wouldn't have minded getting some of my games on there. Perhaps if the do another I can pitch ;)

Vinny was a real help during the development of RnG. He gave a load of helpful feedback on Beta versions. There was only one difficulty level, now classed as hard mode, before I sent it to him. Developers get good at their own games and can lose sight of the challenge.

The quality of modern #C64 games is sky high and I never come out on top in these lists. So it's nice to be number one (and seven!) in this one. 2025 is a stretch though, M&M and RnG are from around 2020. Almost retro-retro. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQm1...

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was such a good game I’ve bought this without knowing much about it. £11 and change feels a real bargain.

I went for an interview as a #C64 dev at Ocean after I left Walking Circles. I don't think I even heard back from them and ended up getting a job at Tiertex. This photo reminds me of how young nearly everybody working in computer games was in the 80s.

It's that time of year. Get you thinking Santa hats on an try to solve the 24 Christmas Picross puzzles in my free #C64 game Grid Pix Advent. thalamusdigital.itch.io/grid-pix-adv...

Back in the day I bought so many issues of the Official PlayStation Magazine just to try out the demos. It’s even easier to try stuff before you buy these days. Obviously I’d recommend Millie & Molly but there’s lots of good stuff here.

This Spitting Image news is from Dec '86, when I was still a schoolboy. It took them a long time to find a publisher because I started coding the #C64 game in the second half of '88. I think the only reason Domark ended up with the licence was over the controversy of Split Personalities.

What a thoroughly lovely thing to do. It looks in pretty good nick in the later video as well, better than mine was in the 80s. I had some Kit-Kat foil as a fuse for a start. #C64

What an amazing job Chun and his wife did to make M&M the game it is. I don't think either of use thought it would lead to having this kind of swag. A signed copy of the #C64 disk version as well, rare. 😜

I was reading an interview I did for @retrogamermag.bsky.social back in 2015. @merman1974.bsky.social asked this question. Obviously I changed my mind from the answer given. I think I’ve written 8 #C64 games since then.

I was given this poster along with other goodies at my YTS job interview with what became of Design Design. Quite exciting for a 16yo with no idea of what to do with himself having left school. The picture is of Ellesmere Port and was hastily taken by one of team from a nearby bridge.

My first job was at what was formerly Design Design. We worked on another game which was submitted to the Crash competition Kat Trap won. It was called Sewer but was never completed. We also had loads of the other entries in a big folder which were fun to read through. I'd love to see those again.

Bonfire Night was my favourite night of the year as a child. Fireworks, treacle, parkin, flapjack, black peas (Google it) and a big random fire topped with a guy dressed better than me. Halloween has rather usurped it now though. Probably for the best considering the dangerous stuff we got up to.

Nice to make into onto this list with my best received #C64 game of that era. And my only Zzap Sizzler back then. It was also a Oli Frey front cover. There are things I'd change now but it's a good effort.

Very nice. Don’t have one myself yet, I was hoping the postie might drop off a free one!

I think I missed that the C64 Mini Black Edition has been released. Some amazing modern #C64 games on there. Proud to have four of mine on it, in quite exalted company. retrogames.biz/products/the...

I don't know who drew the covers for my #c64 games. I have a special fondness for the APB one though, it's nice and colourful.

This article mentions Graham's washing machine. He gave me that when ours broke down. Years later we passed it on to somebody else. It must have been 30 years old before it gave up the ghost.

"Don't Look Back" challenge. If this is not being able to use rewind it's going to be tough!

Design Design here, predicting the current AI fixation in this article from 40 years ago. The game they're talking about is 2112AD, I should perhaps give it another look. "And so the country is taken over by a collection of jumped up pocket calculators."

I was pretty pleased with my Craptastic 2024 4kb #C64 game. A lot of the other entries were also excellent. I’ve no idea what happened with the results though @ausretrogamer.bsky.social carletonhandley.itch.io/drone-zone

These kids will go far! #C64 @chunwah.bsky.social

My first job was at Walking Circles, the dev studio which came out of the remains of Design Design. This reads like a fever dream but from the stories I was told I think it's all mainly true. It was much more your standard 9-5 office by the time I joined in 1987.

I think APB is my only #C64 game which appeared on a compilation. I was never informed of this stuff happening. And I certainly never got a free copy of this compilation.

This 720kb disk is my original backup of all the code and graphics for my first four #C64 games, plus the unreleased game Behemoth. The code includes self written tools like map editors. I think the icon on my last iOS game was larger than 720k on its own. My handwriting is as bad 35 years later.

I think Rugby TWC is the worst thing I coded for the #C64 back then. It was really rushed to coincide with the world cup itself. This wasn't an official licence although some people thought it was. I tried making a rugby equivalent of Kick Off 2 with absolutely no success. The frontend was OK.

The C64 Mini Black Edition has been announced. All four of my bigger games are on it (not my 4k competition ones). It's an honour to be included alongside some of the very best modern #C64 games out there. Sam's Journey and A Pig's Quest to name just two. retrogames.biz/products/the...

I was only talking about Peter last week. He worked at Creations before my time so I never worked with him. And Denarius may not be the most well known #C64 game but the title tune was always a favourite. RIP. youtu.be/2KbNeUUx4TE?...

I'd kind of forgotten I coded a mobile phone game based on the 2007 Fantastic Four film. I really enjoyed making stuff like this. The small teams and simple gameplay loops were reminiscent of developing in the 8bit era. This one had six minigames, most were fun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eD0...

When I worked at Tiertex one of our testers appeared on UK gameshow You Bet! identifying videogames from their soundtrack alone. The clip is now on YouTube and I realise it's 33 years ago. The video also features @jazrignall.bsky.social sporting his legendary haircut. youtu.be/jVGVbk4sqT0

I was at Walking Circles when Graham developed this. None of us were fans of the game being converted and I see Graham doesn't sugar coat that in this interview. He'd be sent for media training now. "The PC version was incredibly badly written". Oof.

We put all the levels from the arcade version into my #C64 conversion of Skull & Crossbones. Ostensibly a pirate game there was also a ninja level and an Argonauts themed level. In the end it was all about the treasure. I think this final level looks quite nice but don't expect many players saw it.

When we converted APB to the #C64 we implemented the full map from the arcade version. It's massive, the equivalent of over 1000 screens when laid out. The map itself is made up of 4x8 character tiles. Even then the map data is 32k. Vertical strips are decompressed in real time to fit it all in.

Nintendo Switch Spotlight: Set across 100 challenging levels, Millie and Molly is a pitch-perfect retro-inspired puzzler with a relaxed and casual vibe. thalamus.link/milliemolly-us thalamus.link/milliemolly-uk thalamus.link/milliemolly-jp #MillieAndMolly #BelowTheTower

I had reason to revisit my most overlooked modern #C64 game recently. Spinning Image is a puzzle game based on obscure Japanese #GBA puzzle game Guru Logi Champ. I had fun replaying it. FREE to download here: carletonhandley.itch.io/spinning-image

Somehow I was asked to be on this. I sound super northern and it’s just before lockdown in the UK but I enjoyed doing the interview. Z-list is probably my natural home. theretrohour.com/commodore-64...

This is the first time I’ve met Chun in person since we worked on this. Bittersweet as he looks the same age as when we were at Creations but I’m very proud of the game we made together. #C64

Spelling Bee editors are clearly not fans of Jeff Minter’s early #C64 work.

My first job was at Walking Circles, a dev studio formed when Design Design ended. My boss converted On The Run along with two of his other games to the Amstrad PCW 8512. We sold them via mail order. Most Friday afternoons were spent making discs, adding stickers and folding inlays to send out.

Well the good news is my game Millie & Molly works on the #Switch2. I expect a massive uplift in sales with people hoping to push their new hardware to the limits ;) And it’s on sale for less than £2 from the shop courtesy of @thalamusdigital.bsky.social

I turn 54 on Saturday. Coincidentally the issue number of my only #Zzap64 Sizzler and Oliver Frey cover. I was 17 then, time flies. #C64

Wanderer was the first game I worked on professionally. I say professionally, the C64 version I did was too slow to be any fun. I was 16 at the time so it was mostly converting the Z80 code to 6502. Looks like the Spectrum version faired better review wise. My version scored 16% in Zzap64.

My team #BuryFC can become champions today. We’re in tier 9 of the English football league after being kicked out of league one. There are over 8000 fans here. Madness.

This is timely, Saul Cross has just sent me most of the sprites for the Spectrum Next version. I've had a small break from the development due to holidays etc. but should get some time over the Easter weekend to work on it.

I really want to play this, it looks right up my street. Sadly it’s not available on any devices I own.

This was the only time in my early career my name got printed in a video game magazine, as part of the S&K preview. It was genuinely exciting to me. They still misspelled it as Carlton though.