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Max Power

@zeratul2099

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🕹️ Collector of old computers 💾
🔭 Sometimes photographer of stars 🌌

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This has really been a year of ticking boxes for me! ✅

It's rare being in the presence of true greatness. Yesterday I was. And I am stil smiling from ear to ear thinking about meeting one of my personal heroes and one of the founders of modern electronic music: synthesizer virtuoso Jean Michel Jarre. Famous for so many memorable musical compositions!

From being a kid to the present day I have been a huge fan and all through the years I've listened to his music. Lot's of classic games on my Commodore 64 and Amiga featured Jarre music too.

He wrote a book about the history of synthesizer music, a thick and heavy brick of a book full of many beautiful photos and great background stories. He was in Amsterdam for a signing session to support this new book and the lucky 50 who were first to sign up, would meet him. I was quick enough and was one of those lucky ones 😊

I was thinking that I at least wanted to shake one of those famous hands with which he made all his famous music. Me offering my hand made him laugh (as you can see on the photo 😄) and we had a nice but very short little talk. This was a very special moment in my life!! 😊

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It's #AmigaSunday which is hosted by space cadet @garygillgaming and after Apidya this is the second of three great Amiga shooters to be featured in a row on my favourite Amiga music list. On spot 23 firmly sits this amazing Battle Squadron: The Destruction of the Barrax Empire!

Battle Squadron is the sequel to Hybris and a very highly regarded vertical shooter among Amiga fans. And rightly so. The game features some amazing graphics, silky smooth scrolling, 2 player simultaneous fun and yes, an amazing soundtrack! With this post I included in order: the wonderful in-game tune, the amazing highscore music (goosebumps whenever I hear it!) and lastly the energetic title tune.

Off topic, but just look at that AWESOME boxart! It's one of the most beautiful boxes in my collection for sure! 😮👌🏻

Amazing game with amazing music. Period.

Now, what will be the third shooter which sits in 22nd place?!

#RetroBoxArt by @toysgonewild_uk
#AmigaBoxArt by @jimmylovesretro

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It's been a while since I did one of these posts, so today I go ahead with no. 24 on my favourite Amiga music list which is Chris Huelsbeck's Apidya! 🐝

Regarding Chris's music, I'm definitely more a fan of his electronic compositions than his more bombastic orchestra tunes and so to me the title tune of this game isn't as iconic as those of his other soundtracks. However, start up the first level of this amazing shooter and you'll hear mr. Huelsbeck in top form! And that continues through all the other levels with some very catchy compositions!

This game is a piece of art with gorgeous graphics and lovely shoot 'em up gameplay, even though it is pretty hard. It's one of my favourite Amiga shoot'em ups for sure which is pushed to further heights by the excellent music! 🎶👌🏻

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How about I actually post something? It's been a minute... So, how are you all doing?

#commodorememorylane

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"FINISHED" 2026 - No. 12: ZAK MCKRACKEN AND THE ALIEN MINDBENDERS (C64)

The last couple of years I've been playing point & click adventure games originating from my youth and which I've never played before. I've also been playing some newer ones and enjoying these as well, like The Drifter recently. I love the genre, solving puzzles and playing at your own pace. It's very relaxing to me 👌🏻

In my mind, the best of all adventure games ever made is Zak McKracken. Not just as a game but also because of the many strong nostalgic memories attached to it. It's the game that made me enthusiastic about gaming and it always makes me smile from ear to ear whenever I'm thinking back to the time I was playing Zak McKracken with my best friend as a kid 😊

Since it must have been decades since I last played and finished it, I thought the time was right for another go! 💪🏻 I chose my favourite, the original C64 version. I started off, made some rapid progress (I remembered more than I expected beforehand) and then I thought of a Zak McKracken Game Guide which I'd bought a while ago. It's a book made by a fan of the game for other fans and it is released as a non-profit book, so it's very cheap digitally and a bit more expensive in physical form. It's truly a labour of love, containing all the information you'll ever need about the game, including easter eggs and things you might not ever know if you played the game without it.

For instance, the references to Maniac Mansion are very funny and I thought it was brilliant that killing any animal (like your gold fish or the two-headed squirl) will give you bad karma and that can get you in trouble with the guru in Katmandu later on in the game. He won't help you until your bad karma has worn off 😄. My favourite joke is that you can take control of the Yak in Nepal with the blue crystal (fans know what I mean) and that you can then use the single command for chewing. But if you invest the time to do a lot of chewing, you'll eventually get an extra option to use: poop! 😄💩

<CONTINUED IN COMMENTS BELOW!>

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Mail call too! Inspired by my good friend @the_lynx_cader , I've been stocking up on Evercade titles ahead of the Nexus' imminent release. Stand out title so far has been Life on Mars - I may even give it a dedicated post...
#evercade #arcade #retrogaming #retrodesk

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FINISHED 2026 - No. 10 & 11: THE DRIFTER & WHO THE F*CK ATE GRANDMA? (PC)

I've finished two point-and-click adventure games in the past months. They're both very good, so read on if you'd like to know my thoughts on them 🙂

The Drifter is a new, retro-styled point-and-click adventure in which you play as Mick Carter who fled from his life and family out of grief after his son died, but after 5 years returns for the funeral of his mother. When he arrives back he's shot at, witnesses a murder and barely escapes. What ensues is a mystery in which you try to find out who the killer is and why you have strange hallucination about your past.

The Drifter is a point-and-click adventure, but it manages to combine it with a fast-paced and action-filled story, emphasizing on having to find solutions "under pressure" at some points in the game. This makes the story very exciting and it constantly makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The whodunnit-part of the game is very nicely done. It made me suspect the wrong person more than once.

I loved the complex, and strange story with quite an original concept of time-travel integrated into the game mechanics. Top work on that idea! The game is clearly for adults. Although very funny at times, it's scarier and more violent than adventure classics like for instance Monkey Island.

The graphics are astonishingly beautiful. I absolutely love the pixel art and animation. Each screen is like a little piece of art. And the music is amazing too! The synth wave / synthesizer soundtrack adds so much atmosphere! I must also mention the voice-acting which is great as well! The heavy Australian accents and the very graphic descriptions of things you encounter, made me smile during the whole ride.

The puzzles mostly aren't that difficult, but there are a couple of difficult ones, often dealing with having to perform actions in the right sequence. You'll die often, but that's actually part of the game's purpose, making failing actually not that big of an issue.

Amazing story, stunning presentation... great game. I love it!

RATING: 8.5/10

<READ ABOUT THE HILARIOUS "WHO THE F*CK ATE GRANDMA?" IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!>

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I'm halfway through my top 50 favourite Amiga music list and this #AmigaSunday - as ever hosted by The @garygillgaming - I present the awesome soundtrack of one of the best games on the system: It Came From The Desert.

Just like with the music of another Cinemaware classic earlier on this list, Wings, it may not be something you'll listen to outside of the game, but within the game it enhances the experience immensely! Try to pretend playing It Came From The Desert without the music... It will be a totally different and a much, much lesser experience.

The soundtrack oozes B-horror movie vibes and fifties Americana. I've added a couple of short tunes with this reel.

The amazing intro boldly sets the tone and the different in-game tunes make this game genuinely scary, not knowing what dangers you'll encounter when investigating the meteor crash site in and around the desert town. Also, the beautiful little melodies when visiting the fortune teller or Dusty at KBUG radio are very atmospheric and just fit perfectly.

This is an epic game with an amazing soundtrack! 🐜

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Steam OS 👑

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A post by @amiga_dreams and @amigapixel made me aware of the fact that the game Civilization turned 35 years this month 🎉 That certainly calls for a celebration post because it's my favourite game of all time and it's the one I put the most time in over the years. To me, it's very close to gaming perfection. And it's still as much fun to play as when it was released, back in 1991. The proof of that is that I just started a new game last week and I'm enjoying every minute of it, often into the late hours of the day 😊

This is the photo I used when I did a top 50 of my favourite games of all time and put Civilization on the top spot! 🏆

Congratulations to Civilization and its creator Sid Meier! Here's to many more years of Civ fun!! 💪🏻💪🏻

#civilization #sidmeier #amigagames

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It's the last day of #WeekOfC64 by guild master @my.retro.tech.
So, for my last post, I’ve chosen a game that holds a special place in my heart.
It’s The Bard’s Tale,released in 1985, developed by Interplay, and published by Electronic Arts.
As a huge RPG fan and D&D player, I found it absolutely amazing when it first came out.
I’d also like to dedicate this post to #Retroboxart by @toysgonewild_uk because the box art really deserves it.

Bye! ;)

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Day 7 of #WeekOfC64 hosted by @my.retro.tech

It's the last day already of this excellent week of C64 nostalgia and I was planning to make a post on another game, which to my surprise I didn't own as an original, but only as part of a compilation. That didn't do for what I had in mind 😄

So, I had to switch over to another C64 classic and to me this is one on a truly legendary scale on the system. The first Lucasfilm adventure game written and directed by Ron Gilbert and the first using the amazing SCUMM-engine. The engine, aptly called Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, revolutionized the genre and it would be used in many Lucasfilm adventure games following this one.

What can I say what hasn't been said before? Original, funny, memorable, iconic... Simply one of the very best games on the system.

Thanks @my.retro.tech for another great edition of this C64 week. Can't wait till next year!

#maniacmansion #commodore64 #lucasfilm

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