Developer Technician Ted has released The Birds & The Bees, a name-your-own-price Commodore 64 remake of the 1983 ZX Spectrum action game of the same name. The expanded version spans twelve levels across four seasons, following Boris the Bee as he goes about his busy work. The original Spectrum game was developed by Adrian Sherwin with graphics by Matthew Smith. The remake was made with AI-assisted code and graphics. via itch.io
Developer xMartV has released The Island Bridge, a free turn-based strategy game for the Commodore 64. Written in 6502 assembler using C64 Dev Machine, the game has players guide three explorers along a path of island tiles toward the mainland while playing against the computer. Cards are used to move figures forward to matching tiles, with players collecting tiles left behind and paying to cross stretches of the sinking path. via itch.io
Developer dzille has released Hatris for the Commodore 64, a free native port of the falling-block puzzle game originally known on the Game Boy. Players stack and nest falling hats and sell them off to clear the board. The release includes SID chiptune music and was made with AI-assisted code, graphics, sounds and text. via itch.io
Developer 8bitSquad has released Escape from London, a name-your-own-price text adventure for the Commodore 64 and Plus/4. The game originally appeared on the C64 in 2013 but was shelved, and has now been rebuilt more than a decade later using Daz's ALF adventure engine. It casts players in a chaotic London where the trains have stopped and the Army has taken over the Tube, tasking them with finding their wife and catching the last evacuation train. The project uses AI-assisted code, graphics, sound and text. via itch.io
A developer working on C64 RE Tools, an open-source toolkit for reverse-engineering Commodore 64 software with AI coding agents and the VICE emulator, used it to reconstruct Datasoft's 1984 game Bruce Lee. The rebuild was pieced together from three surviving cracked releases, matching the original game bytes and verifying the result in emulation. During the process, around 6 KB of unused memory was found to contain fragments of the game's original assembler source, including symbol tables with animation names, earlier versions of routines and graphics, music-editor data, and parts of a graphics utility used in development. via reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro
German computer and games magazine ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) is marking its 40th anniversary with a special annual issue. First published in March 1986, ASM became one of the leading German-language multi-format magazines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, covering the C64, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum and other systems. It was discontinued in 1995 but has been revived since 2023 by a team of retro enthusiasts with involvement from former editors. The new anniversary issue includes reviews of current retro software along with a feature looking back on the magazine's 40-year history. via amiga-news.de
Commodore has started shipping the 64C Ultimate following its earlier pre-order campaigns, and the unit is now available to purchase on the company's website. The device recreates the original 1986 Commodore 64C at half its original size. It is offered in a colorful finish, following the design of the classic machine. The Commodore 64C was a redesigned, cost-reduced version of the original C64 released in the mid-1980s. via oldschoolgamermagazine.com
A new project called TRX64 has appeared offering alternative firmware for the Ultimate 64 Elite II and C64 Ultimate. The work is still in its early stages, but demonstrates the hardware's capability to run systems beyond the Commodore 64 it was designed for, since the Ultimate 64 is built around an FPGA. The Ultimate 64 is a modern FPGA-based recreation of the C64 developed to run original hardware and software at full speed without emulation. via reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro
A new name-your-own-price first-person shooter, Juno Kade: Ares Station, has been released for the Commodore 64. Set aboard an orbital defence platform above Mars, players take the role of operative Juno Kade and must neutralise a rogue artificial intelligence across eight decks using six weapons. The game features an animated status portrait that reacts to the action and supports both PAL and NTSC systems at matching speed. It runs on a standard 64KB C64 with no extra RAM or accelerator needed, distributed as a D64 disk image. via itch.io
Developer rickyderocher has released an enhanced version of the Commodore 64 educational classic Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? The update restores an animation during the game's intro that was missing from the original release. The free title is tagged as an 8-bit geography edutainment game and was made with AI-assisted code. Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? was part of a long-running educational game series that combined geography lessons with detective-style gameplay. via itch.io
Developer ready64 has released Pole-Vaulting World Championships, a free sports simulation game for the Commodore 64. It is a singleplayer title focused on the pole vault event, listed under the sports and simulation genres and tagged for Commodore 64 and retro play. The release follows ready64's earlier World Championships 100-Meter Sprint game for the same platform. via itch.io
A solo developer has spent four years creating Steel Ranger 2, an ambitious action adventure for the Commodore 64. The game features more than 800 screens to explore and a 45-minute soundtrack, with almost all of the work, including code, art and music, done by one person. The Commodore 64 remains a popular platform for homebrew developers decades after its original release, with new full-scale games still being produced for it. via reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro
