SillyPack 2k19 released at Sillyventure 2020+1 Summer Edition

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Published: Saturday, 21 August 2021 00:00

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This pack contains a disk image in MyDos format with all Atari 8-bit releases of SillyVenture 2k19. It contains a proper results viewer which also acts as a menu from where you can directly start all releases and read the readmes. The menu remains memory resident, so you don't have to load it again every time. This makes watching the graphics entries and listening to the music entries much more fun, esp. on the real machine. These are the controls for the menu:

• Pressing any key during loading the menu takes you to the DOS shell.
• Pressing RESET in the menu performs a cold start.
• Pressing RESET in while a release is running returns to the menu, if possible.
• Further controls are displayed in the menu itself.

The download comes with a preconfigured Altirra which you can run with the required settings by simply clicking the "SillyPack2k19.bat" file.

A day at the lake...

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Published: Sunday, 15 August 2021 00:00

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My summer vacation has begun and finally, I find some time to relax at the lake reading the past issues of the A.B.B.U.C. magazine.

The www.abbuc.de website is also finally back online with the new design. The forums are also almost ready and should be online in a few days.

Goodbye Jason Kelk / T.M.R. of Cosine

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Published: Friday, 18 June 2021 00:00

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Words cannot express the sadness I feel since I've read the incredible news. I was really hoping so hard, Jason could return back home for some time at least. After all his braveness and hard fighting against this horrible disease, he was the one who had deserved that. 

As a tribute, I have created a mini-mirror of his "formatwar.net" website which he ran between 2009 and 2017. The last snapshot available on the Wayback machine is from July 2019 and I've used it to create a live mirror of the three main pages and the Edge Grinder project, which was my first touchpoint with Jason. I really loved the idea of having a dedicated site for coders where they and discuss hardware platforms and coding on a friendly and at the same time competitive level. He brought people from all platforms together and instead of starting flame wars they all discussed and learned from each other. And Jason was always there in the middle as a calm and mindful moderator. Unfortunately, the content of the forum itself was lost in a disc crash in 2017. Back then, I didn't think Edge Grinder was possible of the Atari 8-bit and Jason proved me wrong when he released Callisto in 2012. It is not actually Edge Grinder, but it is built on the same foundation and concept and I consider it one of the technically best shot'em ups for the Atari 8-bit. Again, he approached things from different angles than Atari coders normally do and the result is just outstanding.

Many people are paying tribute to Jason in their personal way out on the internet now. Here's a collection of related links, if you want to know more about Jason, his work, and his contributions to the retro scene and demo scene. 

• Interview by Homebrew Heroes (2018)
• Obituary at Legends of the Commodore 64
• Scener Profile on CSDB with all his C64 releases
• Fandal's Site with all his Atari 8-bit releases
• Cosine releases on Pouet.net
• His long fight against Covid-19

Goodbye Alphons Klüpfel

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Published: Thursday, 03 June 2021 00:00

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Our longtime 2nd chairman Alfons Klüpfel left this planet on 2021-06-03 and went on his way to other dimensions. We don't know if he will travel first to Terry Pratchett's Discworld, or to the planet IRATA, but he will be missed. As a haven of tranquility, an open ear and advisor at our meetings, as an initiator and drive of projects, and a tireless translator and author for the ABBUC magazine. We will not forget Alfons, his work is visible in all areas of ABBUC and will remain so. Here is his advice for us:

"When you think of me, don't be sad. Rather tell about me and dare to laugh. Leave me a place between you, as I had it in life."