With all the fuss and palaver going on around the hype for Sonic the Hedgehog‘s newest adventure, Sonic Frontiers, it’s easy to forget that not everybody will necessarily be able to play it. What about the poor fans left behind, technologically speaking? PS5s and Nintendo Switches are expensive things, don’tcha know. Spare a thought for the SEGA devotees who haven’t been able to update their hardware of late – or any time in the last few decades, for that matter. What of the gamers who are still stuck with, say, the Commodore 64? I’m sure they must exist, somewhere. How are they to continue following the franchise they love so dearly?
How did it happen?
Thankfully, as TechRadar reports, a solution has emerged to fill that particular niche. Yes, bizarre as it sounds, there’s a new Sonic game on the block – made especially for the Commodore 64. Only difference being, this doesn’t come courtesy of SEGA themselves: “the speedy hedgehog is making his (unofficial) debut on the 8-bit console, first released in 1982, thanks to the intrepid work of a team of coders.” 1982, 2021… not really worlds apart after all. Give or take half a century, they’re practically similar.
An enigmatic developer known only as Mr. Sid (I knew you were up to something these days in your 90s, Poitier) and their team have “taken the Game Gear / Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog and have it running, from start to finish, on the aged Commodore 64 hardware.” Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of retro systems will appreciate what a feat this is, as Sid and co. have effectively crowbarred the famously blast-processing-heavy title onto creaky chips n’ boards it was never meant for.
How does the Commodore 64 port play?
Check it out in motion below:
The report runs down the specs that are making this magic happen. “The Commodore 64 makes use of a MOS 6510 CPU, which has little in common with the SEGA consoles’ Zilog Z80 CPUs. But the end result is excellent, especially the music which really has an all new charm when processed through the Commodore 64’s arcane sound chip.”
For those who still have a Commodore 64 laying about – and quite likely caked with dust – it’s entirely possible to play this port on it, if you’re prepared to deal with some busywork. You’ll have to have the RAM Expansion Unit for the system, which bolsters its pitiful 64KB standard to a workable level, and even after that, the game will need popping onto a cassette the computer can actually read.
Sounds like a lot of faff when a halfway-decent C64 emulator will fit the bill just fine. Pick your poison, SEGA nerds.
Will you be giving this port a go? Do you have any fond memories of the Commodore 64? Let us know!
Via, TechRadar.
