Commodore Format Archive

When Australian Commodore Format fan Daniel read our Christmas piece by Andy Roberts on the making of CF27, he just had to get in touch. That issue – and the featured game, Creatures 2 -holds special memories for him. You won’t believe what he did to be able to play the game… as told to ANDY ROBERTS. 

One time over at my cousin’s house, I was given a magazine that one of his friends had given him. It was Commodore Format. As neither his friend nor him had a c64, it was no use to them. I did have one. The magazine was amazing, but search and search as I did, I could not find it anywhere in my local towns…

Late December ’92 we were in Sydney at a fancy touristy place – think like the Trocodero in London – and there I found the mythical tome, there was Commodore Format – issue 27. TWO cover tapes! And then CREATURES 2 – there was a squeal… and there it was in full colour AND AND AND making of a game – Mayhem! The Apex boys were making a THIRD GAME!

It really was Christmas. Problem was, the mag was $13~14. Stupidly expensive! I begged and begged and begged and begged and begged and begged… finally I got it. I would not find my next Commodore Format until issue 34, which appeared at my local newsagent.

Of all my CF mags it is the tattiest. Ripped pages. It’s lost the cover. The others are in good nick. But I poured over and over those pages. I would search every game store I knew for Creatures 2 – never found it. So I would stare at your photos of the game, Andy, and work out the pixels drawing them into a paint program at first and looking at them on the screen. Once I learnt how to make charsets I ported to chars (drawing on grid paper and working out the data values) and made some BASIC programs to move the sprites along the lines that you had conveniently drawn, so then I could get a sense of what the game looked like when it moved! It was almost like having it…

Eight or so years later I finally found a copy of Creatures 2. It was a cracked version and I paid a whole $1 for it in some market in a strange town in the middle of nowhere. I know now that Thalamus was in trouble at that point and that is why neither Creatures 2 nor Winter Camp ever made it to us here in Aus. The game presented little challenge to me as I knew how to do each screen off by heart, where all the bonus rooms were and how the enemies on the scuba levels moved by heart from reading you guide again and again and again.. I loved it anyway! But my memory tells me that one of the enemies on the first scuba was missing some arrows 😉

I hope you had a great Christmas Andy, as that year you gave me a
fantastic one! CF

• As told to Commodore Format’s Andy Roberts. Read Andy’s original piece which inspired this response here. 
• More reader stories here