DubCRT has arrived!

Today I want to cover the rather excellent DubCRT cartridge released recently in it's second batch for the Commodore 64.

It is available for purchase via Shareware Plus Facebook page for GBP65 plus shipping.

So what is DubCRT? Well, it is a very interesting concept. Goto80 produced an album of music using the SID chip on the C64, and decided with Datadoor and others to create a interactive C64 cartridge, which includes all the songs plus adjustable and configurable visuals that respond to the music being played!

You can also play around with the visuals in real time as the music is playing to alter the effects. You can also play a game on one of the tracks to collect $ to unlock further features of the cartridge, including remixes!

Mine arrived this week from the UK, and came very nicely packaged:

Inside the box is the DubCRT cartridge in a clear perspex casing with reset button on the back, and some instructions on how to get started with the DubCRT:

Here are some close up photos I took of the DubCRT cartridge - looks great:

Case looks sturdy and well put together - here you can see the reset button, which lights up red:

Here is the dubCRT installed in my C64, ready to go:

On power on, the cartridge lights up:

Soon after we get the title screen:

This is the main track selection screen, which changes also as you collect $ from the game included in the cartridge (Track 8) - Press keys 1 to 8 to select the tracks to get started, and press space to return to this menu:

The Visuals are very interesting indeed - here are some examples from various tracks:

The visuals use Petscii art, which looks fantastic:

Here is the game (Track 8) - this is randomised maps each time, and collecting the $ is surprisingly difficult (and sometimes impossible) on the generated maps - but keep trying!

This really is a very interesting concept, and one I hope we can see more of in the future!

Of course for a music related cartridge and visuals, you really need to see it in action. So, I captured two short videos to YouTube of what you can expect from the dubCRT playing through some of the tracks on my C64:

At the Adelaide Retro Computing group event last week dubCRT was shown running on my C64 and also a Commodore SX64 via Ray Manta, who helped with the design and concept for it, and had a dubCRT to show it off at the event:

Here it is running on my C64 at the Adelaide Retro Computing Group meeting last week:

Needless to say this is a must for anyone interested in SID Music! Production of the dubCRT is limited (the first batch sold out almost immediately), so if you want one in this second batch I suggest jumping on it quickly.

Commodore 64 is just so cool in 2017! So many interesting new developments!