Carleton Handley

I occasionally code modern games for the Commodore 64 #C64. You can get some of my games for free on my itch.io page, there are puzzlers, racing and platformers on there: carletonhandley.itch.io

Off into Manchester today for drinks with former Software Creations colleagues. Between us were we responsible for two cancelled duffers. WaterWorld and Blade & Barrel (AKA Ultra Combat). Unbelievably WaterWorld was 32 years ago. I still wouldn’t have finished it now had it not been binned off.

Going to visit Arcade Club in Bury tonight. It's an amazing place that I haven't visited in a while. Looking forward to seeing what's new. However, I'll probably end up playing Wonder Boy again.

In 2002/3, while at Zed Two, I coded two complete Pocket PC games that were never released. One of these was and official conversion of Tetris. Here's @stepickford.bsky.social's hand-drawn design for the layout and how it looked in the game.

The desk Richard is looking at in the second picture was mine, you can see the back of my 1541 disk drive. The other guy in the pics is David Fish, Walking Circles’ excellent artist. Adrian Page’s back is shown, he tended to do the gfx for my #C64 games. The whole office was really a storage unit.

Very sad to hear of the passing of my friend @bone6502.bsky.social. He was in QA when I first met him at Creations, and by the time we were at Zed Two, he was one of the finest coders I'd worked with. I know we're all getting older, but we're losing too many of the old UK games crowd far too soon.

Moby Games has a few errors and omissions in my profile, so I'm claiming it. To do so, I have to post the following message here. I'm claiming my @mobygames.com profile: www.mobygames.com/person/11734...

What a wonderful video. I did a tiny bit of #C64 demo coding back in the 80s but preferred to make games. Mainly because it's easier than some of the trickery described here!

Today I learnt that my #C64 game APB appeared on not one, but two compilations in the 90s. I was aware of the TNT bundle, but there was also something named Winning Team. I don't have either in my personal collection, so I may try to pick them up someday. www.bigboxcollection.com/WinningTeam....

This is such a great site. Not sure physical is the answer in the digital age but it definitely was when I was growing up in the 80s. Sitting on the bus home reading the manual to a game I’d spent weeks saving up was a great time.

Wasn’t expecting to get a burn off @retrogamermag.bsky.social on my Sunday morning read! 😉 I thought our home conversions of a mediocre arcade game were OK.

At the #britfest in Altrincham. Came mainly for Sleeper who didn’t disappoint. May as well continue drinking in the sun and watch the Happy Mondays later.

I had plenty of games cancelled during development. It was even worse when something was complete and still didn’t get published. Chun’s memories here are all too familiar.

Incredible. Sarah is so talented.

I've been revisiting the #C64 source code for Millie & Molly for reasons. In there I found some old prototype screens from when I was using Rainbow Island sprites and Rick Dangerous backgrounds. And the even older 8x8 char version with my very own programmer art.

Monte’s stuff just gets better and better. This looks like a belter.

There was a surfeit of brilliant #C64 conversions around this time, before arcade machines got more powerful. Mr Do, Up ‘n’ Down, Spy Hunter and this all jump to mind.

I’ve been reading @jazrignall.bsky.social’s excellent book Games of a Lifetime. The early chapters are evocative of the OG arcade years. I’m now in Aberystwyth where most of Julian’s memories are from. I’m hoping some kind of portal to the past opens so I can see Asteroids arrive for the first time.

Crystal Computing became Design Design became Walking Circles. The latter was my first job. We had boxes of these games in the back room. Wish I’d kept some. Along with a rather splendid T-shirt. Not that it’d fit me now.

At the Manchester Palace for Karate Kid. They’ve just cancelled it in a pretty perfunctory way. Lots of upset families. Pathetic.

I recorded the Retro Titans podcast recently. I've not listened back myself yet but hopefully I don't go off topic too much. This one's a bit different in that it focuses more on modern retro. And I'm sure when I do these things they add a northern accent filter. retrotitans.libsyn.com

Pleased to say Millie & Molly is built into this, looks like a fun bit of kit. Nice mix of new and old #C64 games on there.

Mike's conversion of my Unity version of M&M looks to be coming along very nicely.

Battling being old to stay up for the Artemis II #splashdown. Even though I’m 54 these events are few and far between. I flash back to my 80’s Space Shuttle bedroom wallpaper, and the Voyager II project we did in primary school. This stuff shows the best of humanity in a time of some of our worst.

I worked on both Skull and Crossbones and Spitting Image, albeit the #C64 versions. The former was an Atari arcade game which I don't think even had a UK release. It did OK though as mags liked the pirate theme so it got a few front covers. The game is bang average on all formats, including arcade.

Think I’ve finished the extra levels and features for my #SpectrumNext conversion of my #C64 game Runn ‘n’ Gunn. The game is 80% bigger and there are a couple of surprises. Need to do the boring tidying now.

Who doesn’t love the glamour of a late 80s UK game dev studio? Google can keep their town halls and break out areas. Here’s Walking Circles at a similar time.

Wanderer on the #C64 was my first ever professional product. Coded when I was 16yo I basically converted the Speccy code and mostly didn’t know what I was doing. It scored 16% in Zzap and was described as a ‘vector graphics turkey’.

I recorded a Podcast with @retrotitans.com last night. As always good fun to ramble on about games development. Phil noticed I still play video games, something rarer than you’d think in the industry. I tend to agree, I’ve worked with loads of game devs who don’t actually play games. Wonder why.

Completed the excellent Öoo earlier. I wish I had the kind of mind that can come up with these kinds of concepts. Have to say you could probably make an excellent version of this for the #C64. youtu.be/tSJyHEjyGuA?...

Went to a retro gaming market in Bolton today. Crazy busy and I didn’t manage to fill any gaps in games I’ve written but don’t own. Picked up @merman1974.bsky.social ‘s book (signed!) and @jazrignall.bsky.social ‘s book though. Plenty of of reading there.

I don’t normally do politics on here but my word this man says everything I wish I had the nerve to. Let’s all be kinder to each other.

Looking forward to this, some of my favourite gaming memories are playing against my friends on two player #C64 games. Rocketball, Kikstart, Hypaball and probably my favourite Pitstop II. I have no interest in online gaming and I miss playing games together like we did back then. I’m old.

Looks like the #C64 Black Mini Edition is 20% off on Amazon at the minute. Four of my best games are on there along with 21 other amazing modern 8bit games. I'm still playing through - and being amazed by - Sam's Journey.

How has somebody who worked on one of my favourite ever games (Lemmings) ended up converting a random homebrew I wrote for the #C64 in 2020? Amazing.

Don’t tell me I don’t know how to treat my wife on Valentine’s Night. We’re in the Pixel Bar in Manchester. To be fair it was her idea. Some pro-gamers are on the TV earning more money than any developer I’ve ever worked with.

I had two Game Gear games published. One was the original FIFA game. The other was the official Winter Olympics game of 1994. Sadly we didn’t do Curling which is a fave of us Brits as we’re good at it. Otherwise I think it’s a pretty solid effort.

I never knew Skull and Crossbones was included on a compilation. One more on the list of physical releases of my #C64 games I don't own.

From when part of creating a game was also making your own bespoke utilities. I coded at least five map editors and a couple of sprite tools BITD. Degas Elite (ST) and DPaint 2 (PC) changed some of that but even in my Zed Two days (early 2000s) I wrote a map editor for a PS1 game I was developing.

I’ve set up the #C64 Mini Black and I’m suitably impressed. Always wanted to play Sam’s Journey but never got around to it. I’m stuck on the second screen!

I’ve eventually got hold of a #C64 Mini Black Edition. It includes 25 modern C64 games, four of which I coded. @stepickford.bsky.social‘s version of Millie & Molly also adorn the box. Looking forward to trying out some of the other games on there. Quite a few look amazing.

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In 2019 Grid Pix was the first game I coded for the #C64 in the modern era. It led to some amazing physical versions and a glowing review in Retro Gamer. No wonder I got back into coding for the old machine. I've released eight games since then and worked on plenty of abandoned projects.

I reckon 2026 is the year I complete the #ZXSpectrumNext #ZXNext port of my #C64 game Runn 'n' Gunn. I made some rapid progress early in 2025 but didn't have see great change later in the year. This is known to programmers as the 90/90 rule: w.wiki/A6MJ

I received an @evercade.co.uk for Xmas. I fancy picking up one of the Indie packs as my first cart. I can't decide which is the best. I see there's a #C64 cart, wouldn't have minded getting some of my games on there. Perhaps if the do another I can pitch ;)

Vinny was a real help during the development of RnG. He gave a load of helpful feedback on Beta versions. There was only one difficulty level, now classed as hard mode, before I sent it to him. Developers get good at their own games and can lose sight of the challenge.

The quality of modern #C64 games is sky high and I never come out on top in these lists. So it's nice to be number one (and seven!) in this one. 2025 is a stretch though, M&M and RnG are from around 2020. Almost retro-retro. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQm1...

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was such a good game I’ve bought this without knowing much about it. £11 and change feels a real bargain.