C64-ENGINE V1.2.6
Make real Commodore 64 games. No code needed.
C64 Engine is a game studio for the Commodore 64 that runs on your PC. Paint your sprites and tiles, draw your levels, write your rules in plain English, and press Play. Out comes a real C64 program: a .prg you can run in an emulator, put on a disk, or play on a real C64 or a C64 Ultimate.
No BASIC. No assembler. No setup. Everything the engine builds is fast, hand-tuned 6502 machine code, and it fits in the C64's 64K.
Start from a game that already works
Nine complete games come in the box. Open one, change it, play it:
- Gem Hunter: collect the gems, avoid the ghosts
- Side Blaster: a side-scrolling space shooter
- Sky Strike: a vertical shoot 'em up
- Jump Quest: a platformer with coins, pits and enemies
- Castle Rooms: flip-screen room-to-room adventure
- Dynamite Mine: dig, blast and collect in a scrolling mine
- Maze Raider: a scrolling maze crawl
- Gem Hills: hills, gems and a title screen
- Locked Vault: find the halves, make the key, open the vault
Everything in one place
- Sprite editor: hi-res and multicolour sprites, with animation
- Tile editor and screen painter: build your look from C64 characters
- Level and scrolling map editors: single screens, flip-screen rooms or big scrolling maps
- Rules in plain English: "When the player touches a gem, add 10 to the score". No code to type.
- Enemies and actors: pick a behaviour, set the speed, drop them in
- Items and recipes: keys, pickups, and things that combine into other things
- SID music and sound effects: compose tunes and make effects for the real SID chip; import .mod files
- Custom HUD: score, lives, gems and your own counters
- Bitmap title screens: a full picture before the game starts
- Cycle budget: see how much of the C64's time each frame uses, so your game never slows down
- Step-by-step tutorials that walk you through making your first game
Play it anywhere a C64 runs
- Press Play to build and run your game in the VICE emulator straight away
- Save a .prg or .d64 disk to share
- C64 Ultimate: send your game straight to a C64 Ultimate or Ultimate 64 on your network and play it on real hardware (Pro)
- Export your music as a .SID file (Pro)
Light and Pro
C64 Engine Light (free)
- Gem Hunter and Jump Quest templates
- 12 sprites, 25 rules, 2 levels (or 1 map level), 24 tiles, 4 enemy types
- 8 sound effects and 1 song
- 2 items
- A bitmap title screen
- Games start with a short "Made with C64 Engine Light" screen
C64 Engine Pro: $7.50 or more (suggested $12.50)
- All nine templates
- 32 sprites, 100 rules, 8 levels and 8 map levels, 64 tiles, 16 enemy types
- 32 sound effects and 4 songs
- 8 items and 8 recipes
- 8 bitmaps, plus loading, game over and "you win" screens
- Your own HUD, .mod import and .SID export
- Build and run on the C64 Ultimate
- No credit screen: your game, your name
- Free updates for 1.x
Everything you make with either edition is yours to share or sell.
Requirements
- Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
- The free VICE emulator to play your games on the PC
- Optional: a C64 Ultimate or Ultimate 64 on your network, or any real C64 with an SD2IEC or disk drive
Getting started
- Unzip the download anywhere and run C64Engine.exe
- Pick a template on the Home page, or follow a tutorial
- Change something, then press Play
GETTING_STARTED.md in the download has the full guide. The studio checks for new versions when it starts and shows an Update button when one is out; your projects and settings carry over.
Purchase
In order to download this tool you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5.62 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- C64 Engine 1.2.6: sprite colours that match your game6 minutes ago
- C64 Engine 1.2.5: lifts, ladders and a few fixes4 hours ago
- C64 Engine 1.2.4: Make Pong!10 hours ago
- C64 Engine 1.2.2 is out1 day ago
- C64 Engine 1.2.1: fits every screen2 days ago
- HotFixes for V1.2 - Screen elements and other fixes2 days ago
- New in 1.23 days ago
- MacOS version now finds VICE 3.94 days ago
Comments
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Hi,support sprite overlays for better sprites?Thanks
Yes this is in place and will be more apparent as the tool grows.
Hi,
OK, I’ve just realised that in ‘single screen mode (actors + rules)’, the 'Screen Editor' only uses the original C64 ROM character set; it cannot be modified, so this isn’t a bug (it’s stated in the help message that appears when you click the ‘Import Charpad’ button).
My question is: What’s the point of ‘single screen mode (actors + rules)’, as the character set is quite limited in the ‘Screen Editor’ menu? Can any improvements be made?
One positive point is that you can code using the ‘Logic’ menu...
Thank you for your understanding
Not ALL features are in place just yet, but its good you bring it up. We will bring this feature forwards. Thanks for your feedback and understanding.
Any idea why my sprite shows different colors in the game? All colors are set in the editor, but the .prg thats built initiates the game with different colors. - And btw, doesn´t look like the newest version is available for windows?
Ah wait, just saw the sprite is white... that's a default colour and I need to check why that happens. - EDIT - made a fix, let me know if it does what you expect now. And 1.2.5 is up. Thanks for the report!
Okay, taking a deeper look.
Okay, the change never got pushed in a timely fashion, but I believe that is done now. Please download 1.2.6, thank you.
Is it possible to change the collision boundary boxes for enemies? In this scenario, a red enemy dot moves but collides with a solid background tile or player when there is a few or more pixels apart.
Can the font colour for score, lives and level (round) be changed? Even if it's the first of the 7 colours. Like yellow for score and then white for all the numbers 0-9.
Can a rule apply to a special tile to push the player upward, like gravity with a specific momentum? You move onto it and up you go! ⬆️😊This could help to move the player up to another platform or collect balloons etc.
Thanks for all the updates and fixes. We all appreciate your time and effort! 👍
Will look into adding these features. Thx
Hi Polytricity, Thanks for the last version (c64eng v1.2.4) and issues fixed.
There is another bug that needs fixing: In the 'Screen' menu, importing a 'charpad' (charset) does not seem to work for 'single screen' mode (actors + rules); it keeps defaulting to the same charset. Could you please check this?
Also, one small detail to address: When the player is climbing a ladder, gravity should be disabled as long as they remain in contact with it. It makes no sense for the player to fall off the ladder due to gravity simply because the joystick is no longer being touched.
Some other suggestions for potential new features to add to c64engine:
-Moving platforms (horizontal/vertical/diagonal movement) — perhaps using sprites or blocks (charset)?
-Loading assets (BMPs, maps, charsets, etc.) packaged into a 'DATA.PRG' archive from a floppy disk (D64/D81), similar to the 'LoadOrg' function in C64DevMachine. This would help overcome the memory limitations of c64engine (while loading assets from a disk takes longer, it would allow for games with more levels to explore). For example: add an option in the 'HOME' menu to store assets in a PRG archive (DATA.PRG) and load the required assets from that file on the disk. Need to investigate whether this is feasible.
In any case, thank you for adding the features I previously requested!
All good feedback and ideas. I welcome them, and yes the gravity on the ladder I overlooked that, will fix that first and implement the disk loading features with an art and music demo test. Next update next week.
How about an enemy movement path that moves left to right (loop), right to left (loop) and up and down (loop). When the enemy hits the right or left side of the play area, it reverses its direction and also moves up and down, hitting the HUD and then the bottom of the screen.
Yep, was meaning to add that, will do ti for the next update. Thanks for these suggestions.
An other issue to fix :
It is impossible for the player to climb the ladder. Occasionally, the monster moves upward if the player jumps in front of the ladder (see screenshot).
Ok, yes, saw that one too. Will sort it along for the next update.
Hi, Polytricity,
I tested the game 'Jump Quest' again on C64Engine 1.2.2. The player gets stuck at the top of the screen and becomes invisible.
Also, I haven't seen the Copy/Cut/Paste functionality added to the Map Editor in this new version. Will it be in the next version?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Hi coderzxy54,
I will work on these in a hot-fix, usually the updates for new tools are very frequent as I don't want multiple people being affected by these bugs, so expect an update in the next few hours while I address these issues. Great feedback.
I am having lots of fun with this! 😊Perhaps the exit tile could be invisible until all the objects are collected? Otherwise, the player might dash to the exit and find it's not active to complete the level.
Right, yep, makes sense I guess. Will refine it.
thanks!
Is there a way to change a sprite's collision mask, e.g., the Player sprite? It tends to stop just at the point of a solid tile and won't move beneath it.
The player’s collision box is about 17 pixels tall, so it needs a gap of two tiles to walk under a platform. A one-tile gap (16 px) is just too low. If you raise that platform by one tile, the player will walk under it fine. A setting to adjust the player’s hitbox is a good idea and I’ll look at adding it.
Great stuff! I am loving what the C64 engine has to offer. Will there be an option for a high-score table, like the top 3 or 5 scores? That's memory permitting, I guess? Also, how about a timer option to complete a level, e.g. within 90 seconds?
Both good ideas! I will add them i, thanks for the great suggestions.!
Some really beginner level game templates that should be available are Pong and Arkanoid. Would be great if you could make the logic behind those games available (also in ADAM) 😊
Good shout. Can add those in as tutorial based ones perhaps, since they are fairly moderate.
Nice idea for a games creator. I haven't tried it out properly though. If games are made from this tool, will the games need to be classed as AI assisted or no AI used? This is just incase I get time to make something using this tool and upload it sometime in the future?
Anything made in this is no different form say a game made in S.E.U.C.K or Unreal Engine, Unity Etc. It's simply a tool. You have full control and direction of what you create here, even if you plan to make something commercially, obviously don't try to ship the games as they stand in the editor itself, I made them a bit rough on purpose graphically, it's your job to make them awesome, I will play my part by improving C64 Engines features within reason.
Can I ask where the Logic tab has gone on some of the templates, I can't see the tab for it?
Literally just replied to your question... Still in the process of consolidating the logic for those. Next update will have them. thanks.
Awesome work you're doing.
Hi Polytricity,
You’re always doing great work!
A few suggestions for C64Engine:
Issue to fix -> When playing Jump Quest, the player disappears off the top of the screen, could you look into this?
Would it be possible to add the following features :
- Copy/paste a selected area within the map editor.
- Import a map (CharPad, *.BIN, *.CTM) along with its tileset, color map, and charset.
- Import sprites (SpritePad, *.BIN, *.SPD).
Thanks for your help!
Will do, will likely get to this next week.
I bought C64 Engine Pro and mine looks like the image below. Where is the template button? Why does mine look so different from yours? Am I missing something simple? Thanks.
Looking into it now...
Pressing CTRL+0 will make the scaling auto, you should see everything then. Fixing now to make that the default.
Thanks for the report, hopefully that sorts it.
This is to do with screen scaling, fixing it now but for now try pressing CTRL+0 (zero)
Redownload for some extra fixes to the games. I still have more to fix with them but a forgivable little glitches for now.
I re-downloaded the newest version just now and installed it. I also changed from Auto to 100% and still no template option between home and screen on the top menu and no pictures in the How it works tabs. I'm on Windows 10, my resolution is 1920 x 1080. I never tried your free version, I just went straight to the paid version, but don't see why it would look and not have the same screen layout as yours.
Will make a better fix today.
Okay, spent some more time on it this morning, was late last night when I attempted to fix it, sorry about that.. 1.2.1 has the proper fix in place, now its 2 header tabs you click to expand.
I tested on my little mac book and older 1080p laptop and looks correct now.
Thanks again for the testing and reporting. Please keep them coming, I have not had enough time to properly test everything and will make everything perfect in each new update.
I already fixed some issues with the games but found some more, so expect another update on this next week.
Thanks so much!
Thanks, much better. Just wanted to know if "Templates" should be there between Home and Screen on the top menu bar, since it doesn't appear in mine?
It was there at one point and I removed it since it was in Home Screen but I will re-add it.
Thanks.
Please note to macOS users, I am updating VICE, so you don't have to locate your own version (3.9 is the preferred one). I am trying to integrate it now, like I did with C64 Dev Machine. Fix will be in the next hour or 2.
Hi there. Apologies if these were already addressed, but is it possible to make an all character-set based game, and also, are 2-player games possible?
Hi, it's not been asked yet, the tool is undergoing improvements to the current features, once done I will get to this, adding to the list. Thanks
Only 2-player taking turns to begin with, simultaneous 2-player will need a bit more thought at my end.
Any plan for a native Linux version?
I don't have a Linux machine to build on or do debugging etc, sorry however crossover and wine should work.
Is it possible to make 16x32 player sprites?
C64 sprites are 24 x 21 pixels Multi colour or Hi-res, Multicolour uses 2 pixels wide but supports 3 colours, Hi-Res is just one colour.
I could support 2x1 or 1x2 sprites for horizontal and vertical and make a kind of template that makes use of these later.
Purchased both C64Engine Pro and C64 Dev Machine PRO, basically just wanted the C64Engine Pro but after playing around with the program for a while and being highly impressed with the application, I thought it would be a great idea to also support the C64 Dev Machine development. C64Engine Pro requests would be isometric game environments and racing (chase HQ/outrun) style racers. Keep up the great work thank you.
Thank you so much for the support. I am making very significant improvements to C64 Engine today and will have a nice update soon. Racing car template will be something I can add in the coming weeks.! Thanks for these ideas and suggestions.
Awesome! I look forward to the updates and future developments.
Do you plan to make a Mac OS X version ?
Will sort that this week, today if possible.
Yes please! MacOS Version would be intstant buy 😎
Awesome, I'll be buying this too. As with ADAM I'd love to see support for creating isometric games with runtime depth sorting so that characters can move in front of or behind objects, support for different elevations, isometric collision detection and an isometric tile editor.
Multi layered tile maps with support for animated tiles would also be great.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how this and your other tools develop over time.
Yes, isometric has already started in the background, should be complete by next month all going well, for all both ADAM and C64Engine.
Thanks.
Awesome, great to hear. Many thanks!
Can you explain the difference between C64 Dev Machine and this please?
C64 Engine is limited for complete beginners who want to avoid coding very much at all, it does have a logic system that will give you a decent about of coding control and there will be more built-in tutorials added around that for the next update so you feel like you are coding without the complexities of having to learn machine code.
C64 Dev machine is a full hard-core dev-suite that covers a very wide spectrum and far more flexible and can make byte and cycle-exact games just like other Commodore 64 Development tools. It supports text based coding via Code-Blocks which are editable in the pro version.
Both have FREE lite versions and bespoke tours/how to use tutorials so you can give them a go and see for yourself what one you prefer.
Thanks
Thank you for the prompt reply, it is good info that I either missed or isn't so clear on the project pages.
I'm thinking of making a C64 game next as my current project is finally getting close after only 3 years and two engine changes LOL I think C64 Dev Machine fits my needs better as I will be able to get going faster and fill in my missing knowledge along the way so I am certainly going to try Lite at some point to evaluate it.
I can't use the C64 Dev Machine, is it possible to make the font ui size bigger? 4pt. is just to eye straining for these old eyes
You know you can zoom in with mouse-wheel or page up, for the Nodes at least.
Also you commented about C64 Dev Machine under C64 Engine.
If you are talking about C64 Engine, there is a display percentage setter button under game settings.
ahh, the engine, thank you!!