People involved in the preparation of this issue of RetroMagazine World (in no particular order):
- Alberto Apostolo
- Giorgio Balestrieri
- Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
- Daniele Brahimi
- Mic the Biker Novarina
- Francesco Fiorentini
- Gianluca Girelli
- Giampaolo Moraschi
- Epsilon
- Takahiro Yoshioka
- Christian Miglio
- Cover & full-page image: Giuseppe Mangini
- Cover layout: Carlo N. Del Mar Pirazzini
Editorial by Francesco Fiorentini – Life begins again at 40!
The other night I had a dream. I was in my bedroom and I was loading a game from the Hit Parade newsstand compilation, when, all of a sudden, I felt a presence next to me. There and then I didn’t pay much attention to it, the raster bars continued to change color abruptly and the desire to see the game had the upper hand over me. The game finally loads up, I stop the recorder, annotate the number of laps to quickly load the game next time and finally I notice this presence. It’s a middle-aged gentleman, with a thin beard, partly white, and hair tousled with gel. A good half of it white, too.
Strangely, I don’t sense any fear. The expression on his face is relaxed, he even seems satisfied that the game is running. I try to speak, but I find that no sound comes out of my mouth. I want to ask him who he is, but I can’t get a word in edgewise. But something happens in that moment, in my mind echoes the answer to my question. As if the stranger had read my thoughts and communicated telepathically with me.
He says his name is Francesco, like me, and like me he is a computer enthusiast. He loves to play with the Commodore 64 and, like me, he loves to write more and more complex programs. He says he is 40 years older than me and every minute that passes, he seems more and more familiar to me. One thing strikes me about his thinking, he tells me to always follow my passions, to care not about the judgement of others. Do what you like, don’t stop being curious and you’ll always be fine. Then the dream stops and I go back to sleep, in a deep sleep devoid of any other dream activity.
The parallelism between the teenager and the adult is so obvious that it raises the question: how is it that even though so much time has passed we still feel the same emotions?
We will try to answer this question later. In the meantime we want to ask you another one: how many of you would have ever bet that, after forty years from their birth, we would still be talking about 8-bit machines, not as vintage objects, but as a movement in complete activity with a lot of software houses ready to develop, advertise and sell games of fine workmanship? Who would have ever thought that in front of such incredibly powerful machines, these oldies could still be so alive, churning out new games every month. Yet that’s what’s been happening for the past few months.
This special issue is our way to wish Happy Birthday to the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum…
It really is true that life begins again at 40!
Before closing I want to say that yes, we also know about many other home computers, and they’re all equally interesting, and they have reached or will reach soon this goal. Our choice fell on the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum because in Italy and in Europe they represented the most important dualism and we thought it was nice to dedicate them a special issue.
Probably more will follow if you help us out!
Summary:
- Commodore 64, 40 years and counting…
- Zx Spectrum, a fantastic 40-year-old
- The modern heirs: MEGA 65
- The modern heirs: ZX SPECTRUM NEXT
- The ZX Spectrum+ 128K
- Oldies but goodies: books for the C64
- C64 Emulator, a surprising emulator…
- TASWORD – Word Processing for C64 and ZX Spectrum
- Interview with Leonard Tramiel
- Interview with Gregory Nacu, C64 OS author
- My own story
- Modern-day C64 & ZX Spectrum
- Tiny Dungeon (ZX Spectrum 128)
- Gold Quest 6 – Extended Edition (C64)
- Rubinho Cucaracha (ZX Spectrum)
- Lykia – The Lost Island (C64)
- Manic Miner
- Interview with Emanuele Gaglini, creator of “Siculitan Miner”
