Interview with Commodore Gaming

[SKTTR]

Snippets from an Interview I had with Commodore Gaming just a few minutes ago.


Hello

Hello, how can i help you today?

Hi. I wanna thankyou for bringing C64 games to the Wii's VC.

your welcome

I started gaming on the C64 as a little kid and I played many great games on that machine. I downloaded Paradroid on Wii and it's still a wonderful exciting game.

specially when you are running out of time to control a higher level bot...
or go to fast and press on the wrong line..

yeah, back in '85 i didn't know what to do, but i loved the style and always thought it was very interesting. Now I know how the game works and I try to beat the first spaceship. Great game!
I have a few questions, because I love the C64 and there are some things I'd like to know. First of all, who is responsible for making the old C64 classics runable on the Wii?

We are together with a independent developer who does the porting

How is it working with copyrights? I mean, there are LOTS of great games for the C64, but only a few of the old developers supporting it (Hewson, Epyx, First Star Software, System 3, Apex)... Who is in charge of those?

with some existing companies we still have the rights, or bartered for them, some are just lost even for us, some also still have rights but dont want to release them
overall the discussion of abandonware made it more vague than it is, usually rights are trackable to companies or who bought them over

yeah i've seen some companies like Ironstone Partners (?) owning Epyx now or something...

yes

May I ask which companies we can expect for supporting Commodore Gaming on the Wii? Are there any others than the ones mentioned above?

at the moment i cannot disclose any current upcoming titles for the Wii, mainly due to Nintendo' nda's but there will be some upcoming stuff very soon

Great news. I know Nintendo don't want to give out info on their upcoming titles. I just like to know, are there other companies than (Epyx, Hewson etc.) who have games in their pipeline?

im sure there are, i just cant say which what and when

ok. : ) another question. Many gamers have trouble with Last Ninja 3 (Level 2 won't start) and Mayhem in Monsterland (glitchy emulation). When will they be updated?

i know there were some issues with last ninja 3 they are working on, im not sure on the status of mayhem in monsterland atm. ill ask. which means ill have to check up on them by mail not rightaway

that would be great!
can you tell me what are the most popular C64 games on the virtual console? I see Winter Games is in the Top 20 of the Wii Shop Channel. And Boulder Dash was in the top spots the last few months until it dropped. But what about Paradroid. No love for that gem?

ooh those are nintendo figures, if you get them i would love to get them aswell : )

What?? You are Commodore Gaming! And you don't know how many or which games you sell?! ; )

but yeah wintergames and boulder were a lot more popular than paradroid

Yes, Paradroid is a niche title... It's deep and involving. Boulder and Winter are nice quick fun titles. But please don't stop bringing such niche titles!

heh, what i mean is that its split over multiple zones (US now also has the c64 channel with less titles)
and whilst i do make sure we get them all listed on the site im quite low on the loop for figures

Now with supporting C64 in NA, do you plan to bring all EU games to them?

that depends on Nintendo US. different approval system again

aha.. i see... anyway.. what about royalties? For example. Andrew Braybrook from Uridium and Paradroid. does he stil gets royalties for his games? i mean, 500 wii points, that's €5... and that's shared by a couple of different companies, isn't it? so are the makers of those games still get a penny?

We will not disclose the business model to private people. One thing we can say is that if the original programmers do own any rights if for the code or music then they receive royalties for that.

sorry for that question.

not a problem : )

i thought it was a odd choice to release Pitstop II and Summer Games II before their prequels. of course they are better than the first games in that series... but wouldn't you have made more money when you released the first ones before?

well per approval ,rights and available code and working code is also a factor. also popularity does help. well some games really are harder to port aswell

i know what you mean. lucky customers then.
So, one last thing. One of my favourite games as a kid on the C64 was Gribbly's Day Out, by Andrew Braybrook, Hewson/Graftgold. And since there are already 2 games from that company, I hope this game is coming at some point in the future : D

ill pass it on : )

And well, it's great to have a company around to bring the classics back to a hopefully wide audience. You should be honored for that. It's a shame so many good ol' games can't be played.

yes there are plently left to do : )

aah. I forgot. Is there any chance of Amiga emulation in the future? Is your company still involved with Amiga?

well not in the hardware side. just stay tuned tho : P

so... that's all. sadly the most exciting questions i have, you wouldn't give an answer, so if we talk more, i'd just get on your nerves. : D

no worries, feel free to check later, you never know if i get more info

sure. I'll do that. give my regards to all C64 staff.

ill be sure to pass it on

And try to get Electronic Arts, Lucas Arts, Rainbow Arts and Activision onboard You know they made some really outstanding titles for the C64. have a nice day, and keep on the great work!

you too have a nice day : )

thankyou. see you.

[Betagam7]

Time for another interview.

There's a bad smell coming from under the door at Commodore gaming and a mountain of spoiling milk bottles piled up outside.

Wizball has become the C64's Beetle Adventure Racing!

[sponge]

nice interview! and i know im a year late. im sayng it anyway. so there.

[Rhymetyme91]

I got excited and thought this was a brand new interview when I read it. The part about C64 working hard on a fix to The Last Ninja 3 puts an especially bitter taste in my mouth. Does it really take 9+ months to develop a fix?

[sponge]

thats the first ive seen it acknowledged actually.

[Betagam7]

Originally Posted by sponge

thats the first ive seen it acknowledged actually.

According to Nintendo there is no problem and if there was it would have been fixed.

As SKTTR now has the game perhaps he can report on its status.

[sponge]

ah, thats what i was thinking of!

[kawaiipikachu]

You could haved asked why no Commodore 64 for Australia .

[MasterGH]

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

You could haved asked why no Commodore 64 for Australia .

The answer to that question is pretty obvious, though. We have quite an expensive classification fee, coupled with a small market, so most C64 games would struggle to actually make money for publishers here. It's the same deal for the WiiWare games that miss our country.

[Betagam7]

Originally Posted by MasterGH

The answer to that question is pretty obvious, though. We have quite an expensive classification fee, coupled with a small market, so most C64 games would struggle to actually make money for publishers here. It's the same deal for the WiiWare games that miss our country.

and there's a very easy workaround called swapping your region...

(Insert Kawaii telling me he doesn't have a credit card and me explaining again that you can buy wii points with a Visa debit card and pointing him in the direction of an Aussie bank that does them....again).

Looks like Nintendo are keeping shtum about future C64 releases as they've yet to reply to my Wizball query despite previously replying almost instantaneously to my queries about Last Ninja 3. Still it could mean I'll get a sensible email this time instead of Sammy Serviceman.

Maybe we should all start emailing them asking them the same thing.

[kawaiipikachu]

Originally Posted by MasterGH

The answer to that question is pretty obvious, though. We have quite an expensive classification fee, coupled with a small market, so most C64 games would struggle to actually make money for publishers here. It's the same deal for the WiiWare games that miss our country.

Well then each & every Virtual Console game should be the same hit & miss as with the WiiWare .

@Betagam .
Theres sevral issues first is in combatbility with the Nintendo Points cards plus i don't know what will happen to my Australian account .
Like wether it disapear or not .
Plus theres the pay & play issue like example wether a game purchased on an Australian account will accept DLC from an European account .

Also if something happens to my Wii including to the point where the Nintendo Technicians unable to transfer files over which means i only the Australian shop channel account can be transfered .

[Betagam7]

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

Theres sevral issues first is in combatbility with the Nintendo Points cards

What have Nintendo points cards got to do with buying points online with a debit card?

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

plus i don't know what will happen to my Australian account .
Like wether it disapear or not .

Considering this has never happened to anybody who region swaps it seems unlikely that you will be the sole one affected. If you're talking about what will happen to leftover points then that's been explained multiple times. use them up before you do the swap.

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

Plus theres the pay & play issue like example wether a game purchased on an Australian account will accept DLC from an European account .

What has this got to do with anything, we're talking about C64 games. What Pay and Play? What DLC?
Also you arn't creating seperate accounts when you swap regions, you're just swapping the region of the single account you can assign to the Wii. Something that is perfectly legal. Example, I have my Wii setup as a UK region but as I've moved to Sweden then I'm perfectly entitled to switch it to Swedish or indeed any other country that's legaly allowed on a PAL console. Nintendo has no way of knowing where and when in the PAL region I might choose to take my Wii and this is why it ALLOWS people to swap region providing the region is not outside the territory of the console.

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

Also if something happens to my Wii including to the point where the Nintendo Technicians unable to transfer files over which means i only the Australian shop channel account can be transfered .

Havn't you always previously argued that such a "bricking" only happens once in a blue moon if ever?

The games you have downloaded are tied to your account, not your Wii. If your Wii broke and your account was moved for you to a different Wii you'd just have to region swap back to UK again and the system would remember the games you bought. Same as if I switch back to Australia my Wii still recognises that i'm allowed to redownload Axelay. I could delete Axelay tomorrow, region swap to AUS and redownload it at no cost. I bought the licence. I own the licence and Nintendo recognises this.

You'd have bought the games LEGALLY, using a process that Nintendo ALLOWS. Just because they don't advertise it doesn't mean that it isn't TOTALLY LEGAL and in no way prohibited under Nintendo's rules.

[MasterGH]

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

Well then each & every Virtual Console game should be the same hit & miss as with the WiiWare .

Betagamhas answered all your other points nicely, but I'll take this one.

Remember, high sales come from a lot of things, but nostalgia and recognising a similar brand/franchise play very big parts. The thing with WiiWare is that many of the games are original. If you care to look at the games that didn't make it here, you'll notice that there is only remake, Contra Rebirth. It has a rating now, though, so I'm sure we'll see it eventually.

[Betagam7]

Originally Posted by MasterGH

Betagamhas answered all your other points nicely, but I'll take this one.

Remember, high sales come from a lot of things, but nostalgia and recognising a similar brand/franchise play very big parts. The thing with WiiWare is that many of the games are original. If you care to look at the games that didn't make it here, you'll notice that there is only remake, Contra Rebirth. It has a rating now, though, so I'm sure we'll see it eventually.

How big was the C64 in Australia, out of interest. I know it was massive in europe but as far as I'm aware not quite as popular in NA (although it does get namechecked in an episode of Friends!). That might explain why Europe so far has the most releases.

Sadly I'm pretty sure sales for the VC C64 titles have been weak everywhere and this is what's led to the drying up of releases.

[slangman]

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

@Betagam .
Theres sevral issues first is in combatbility with the Nintendo Points cards plus i don't know what will happen to my Australian account .
Like wether it disapear or not .
Plus theres the pay & play issue like example wether a game purchased on an Australian account will accept DLC from an European account .

DLC from Europe should work fine. I tried this with Mega Man 9 long ago, except I bought DLC from Australia, even though I bought Man Man 9 from the UK shop channel.

If you don't have a debit card, you could always buy a UK Wii points card somewere online for the UK Wii shop channel. Again I did the oppisite when I bought Axelay, and I had no problems.

[SKTTR]

Originally Posted by kawaiipikachu

Well then each & every Virtual Console game should be the same hit & miss as with the WiiWare .

@Betagam .
Theres sevral issues first is in combatbility with the Nintendo Points cards plus i don't know what will happen to my Australian account .
Like wether it disapear or not .
Plus theres the pay & play issue like example wether a game purchased on an Australian account will accept DLC from an European account .

Also if something happens to my Wii including to the point where the Nintendo Technicians unable to transfer files over which means i only the Australian shop channel account can be transfered .

In every C64 game I downloaded you can find on page 1 of the virtual booklet:

"This game is licensed in EU states, Swiss, Australia and New Zealand".

So even if it's not officially out in the AUS/NZ Wii Shop you are allowed to download it from an EU Wii Shop and it will be treated like any of your other games.

You know, I downloaded the BBC iPlayer, but it's not out in the German Wii Shop, so I had to change settings to UK, the only country where this has been released.

I always wanted to change to the AUS/NZ Shop to have a look at Axelay.

[Betagam7]

Originally Posted by SKTTR

You know, I downloaded the BBC iPlayer, but it's not out in the German Wii Shop, so I had to change settings to UK, the only country where this has been released.

Pity that like me you won't be able to use it as it'll detect your not in the UK from your ISP settings and clock your non-license paying person

Unless you know some clever way of getting around that, in which case I'm all ears!

[MasterGH]

Originally Posted by Betagam7

How big was the C64 in Australia, out of interest. I know it was massive in europe but as far as I'm aware not quite as popular in NA (although it does get namechecked in an episode of Friends!). That might explain why Europe so far has the most releases.

Sadly I'm pretty sure sales for the VC C64 titles have been weak everywhere and this is what's led to the drying up of releases.

Sorry for the late reply. I think on a relative scale, it was 'bigger' here than in the US, but considering our 20-21 million people that isn't saying much.

[kawaiipikachu]

Originally Posted by MasterGH

Sorry for the late reply. I think on a relative scale, it was 'bigger' here than in the US, but considering our 20-21 million people that isn't saying much.

I didn't think it was that big but still there were Commodore 64 owners including my father here in Australia .