There is no way I would have thought way back in 1987 when I first designed and manufactured cartridge boards for the Commodore 64 that 30 years later the very last revision three 8K boards would be sold.

It’s hard to imagine that there is still such great interest in a 35-year-old computer and that people in 2017 would be making games and putting them cartridge format, but they still are.

While the cartridge board and design changed a little over time, the latest revision three board designed in 2003 was by far the most popular.

While revision three boards are still readily available through various distributors in the UK, USA, and Australia, Alphaworks will no longer be making them.

So congratulations Max B. on being the proud owner of the very last genuine Alphaworks c64 cartridge board.

Alphaworks 8K cartridge board for the Commodore 64. 30 years of production.

I had an hour free the other day so decided to create a simple Task List application for Windows which I could leave open all the time (small in size) and that would allow me to add tasks, show that they were completed and remove them it required.

If I get an hour free I’ll add the ability to email the list or print it out.

Version 1.0 is now available for free and can be downloaded here.

Sky Invaders has made it’s way to yet another platform, this time its been release for the Macintosh and is freely available via the link at the bottom of this post.

While I’ve been busy for a few weeks now converting Sky Invaders for the iOS making it 64bit compliant in readiness for the upcoming iOS11 release in September I took the opportunity to move the code over to the Mac and release Alphaworks first Mac game.

I’ve submitted it for release via the Mac App Store but while I wait for the approvals to happen you can Download here

My oldest mobile app Sky Invaders turns five in October (having first being released for the iPhone on the 12th October 2012) and since that time I’ve been able to release the Sky Invaders on Android and Windows Phone (yes, Windows Phone).

In the past five years Sky Invaders has been downloaded approximately 40,000 times from game players in 192 countries which is simply mind-blowing to me. Now the iOS version really hasn’t been touched since October 2012, the same code has been in place and working well since the very beginning but it our time for change or as Apple puts “your 32 bit app will no longer work once iOS 11 is release later this year”.

over the past few weeks I’ve been getting familiar with the original source code again, and while I made comments in the code and it was easy to see what each function and procedure does I was amazed just how much I’ve changed in the way I now code (much cleaner than five years ago).

So I now have a choice to make while taking Sky Invaders 32 bit and making it 64 bit for iOS 11. Should I keep the code the same or should I make some changes,improve areas of the code and tidy up?

Part of me wants to just re-compile and move on but another part wants to re-write. What I’ll do I’m not sure but I’ve got a couple of weeks to decide so we’ll have to wait and see.

For all who have noticed the coming now message on our Mac page for the past few years but never any signs of development or progress, we’ve got some good news.

Work has started on converting Planetoids to run on the Mac and making it available from the Mac App Store. The game is 95% complete and we’ve been testing and fine tuning controls for a few months now and can hardly wait to get it out the door.

Coming in 2017 for the Mac!

I was delighted to see that Alphaworks was mentioned in a great new book on the world’s best-selling home computer, the Commodore 64. In a section detailing cartridges and the different eras, Alphaworks received a good mention for bringing the cartridge format back to life in the early 2000’s.

Anyone interested in the C64 should do themselves a favor and grab a copy of the book.

Sky Invaders 4th anniversary

It’s hard to believe that my first mobile game was released four years ago this week. What simply started out as a short term goal to learn to code and release a game for my iPhone certainly didn’t stop there.

In the past four years over 30,000 people have downloaded, played and hopefully enjoyed Sky Invaders which is now available for Android and Windows Phone as well as the iPad and iPhone.

Now while this week marks the 4th anniversary of Sky Invaders it also marks the release of my 5th mobile game called Batty TAP which I hope will also be enjoyed by many.

So a big thank you for all who downloaded, played and given feedback.