Celebrating the first anniversary, Vinny Mainolfi, is about to publish which will be Nr. 13 of Freeze 64, a magazine with a clear subject, always about software and which promises many numbers and will help us to maintain this nostalgic and missed habbit to read our magazine about C64 on paper . Its author shows his “specialities” and everything which he always had kept close to C64 and presence of software in a special way.
In the beginning of tlhe 90s, when many of us had “parked” our 64, he was still always giving free reins to his interests and today is a respected personality in the world of our beloved computer. Vinny is above all a lover of C64 and we are able to talk to him and to get to know him a little better.
- Name: Vincenzo Mainolfi
- Country: U.K.
- First Computer: Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80
- Main projects: Hackersoft, C64endings & Freeze64
–Tell us a little about your history with the C64?
–I first purchased a Commodore 64 back in 1984 after selling my Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 and adding a bit of birthday money. My first C64 didn't come with any loading device, and so I spent the first few months just learning to use it and program in BASIC. I got a datasette a few months later and started to build my vast tape collection. I didn't move on to a disk drive until around 1990. I've had a C64 ever since, and still own and use one that I purchased in 1991.
I started hacking C64 games around 1987 when I got my first Action Replay Cartridge. I really didn't have a clue what I was doing - some say I still don't! I also started up my hacking group Hackersoft, which consisted of me and my neighbour, who also owned a C64. He didn't stay for long and I continued the group right up to today. I can just about managed to hack a C64 game and add a few cheats and features, which you can find on Hackersoft.co.uk There's also a few other bits I've created over the years.
During the nineties I was deputy editor, writer and contributor of Commodore Scene magazine. I also helped with a few other fanzines that were around at that time, and also made an appearance in Commodore Zone fanzine.
My love for Commodore 64 game endings started back when I first played games on my breadbin. I was always curious as to what could be waiting at the end of a game, and so I set about trying to complete as many games as I could. I started to make floppy disks of game ending, which I shared with my friends and contacts around the globe. My passion for game endings still continues today and I still share them now and again on C64endings.co.uk
I also assist C64 coders with game testing, and recently spent a few weeks playing all the way through and making suggestions for The Bear Essentials (POND SOFTWARE) by Graham Axten, and also Sleep Walker (PSYTRONIK SOFTWARE) by John Darrnell.
–What's your history with the C64?
–I first purchased a Commodore 64 back in 1984 after selling my Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 and adding a bit of birthday money. My first C64 didn't come with any loading device, and so I spent the first few months just learning to use it and program in BASIC. I got a datasette a few months later and started to build my vast tape collection. I didn't move on to a disk drive until around 1990. I've had a C64 ever since, and still own and use one that I purchased in 1991.
I started hacking C64 games around 1987 when I got my first Action Replay Cartridge. I really didn't have a clue what I was doing - some say I still don't! I also started up my hacking group Hackersoft, which consisted of me and my neighbour, who also owned a C64. He didn't stay for long and I continued the group right up to today. I can just about managed to hack a C64 game and add a few cheats and features, which you can find on Hackersoft.co.uk There's also a few other bits I've created over the years.
During the nineties I was deputy editor, writer and contributor of Commodore Scene magazine. I also helped with a few other fanzines that were around at that time, and also made an appearance in Commodore Zone fanzine.
My love for Commodore 64 game endings started back when I first played games on my breadbin. I was always curious as to what could be waiting at the end of a game, and so I set about trying to complete as many games as I could. I started to make floppy disks of game ending, which I shared with my friends and contacts around the globe. My passion for game endings still continues today and I still share them now and again on C64endings.co.uk
I also assist C64 coders with game testing, and recently spent a few weeks playing all the way through and making suggestions for The Bear Essentials (POND SOFTWARE) by Graham Axten, and also Sleep Walker (PSYTRONIK SOFTWARE) by John Darrnell.
–Explain to us a little about Freeze64 and where the idea came from.
–I've always wanted to have my own fanzine, and last August I started FREEZE64. I wanted to share my passion for the Commodore 64, gaming, and also cheats, and so I chose to create my very own fanzine. I researched the market; I created the brand; and I did a few tests until I was happy that I had a good enough fanzine that I could sell. The ethos was always to sell a physical fanzine, and it will ALWAYS be physical. I want people to be able to hold the fanzine in their hands, take it wherever they want, and also have something to collect - just like the days of ZZAP!64. Little did I know that FREEZE64 would be such a success, and I'm spending all of my spare time working on new issues, packing current and back issues, and doing A LOT of administration work. I really enjoy it, and I'm pleased that there are a lot of Commodore 64 owners out there who enjoy reading it.
–Future projects?
–As you already know, FREEZE64 is now being professionally printed, and so all our subscribers (113 of them to date) will automatically receive a quality printed copy each time. The first issue I had professionally printed was No.11 and it has been VERY successful, and so I will continue to have each issue printed in the same way. I'm really pleased with the way the new printed version makes FREEZE64 feel like a 'real' fanzine/magazine.
I may add a few more pages in the future, but this won't happen just yet as it means that the weight of the postage will go up, and this will double the postage price. Not something I'm too pleased with. I'll work something out.
I do have future projects lined up. One of them is to produce a special issue of FREEZE64 for someone who is doing a Kickstarter campaign. I'll also be creating a few special bumper issues - or maybe an annual. It's early days yet as it's only been going for a year. There's still so much to write about and share, and there's only me doing it and so some of these extra projects will take a while to surface.
I'm currently working on issues 12 and 13. Number 12 is almost complete, and 13 is slowly taking shape. I am currently planned up to issue 19, but it won't stop there as I have so much content to share.
The magazine , which one can ONLY read on paper, has a similar plan on each number and is always full of updated and interesting subjets. Its name origins from an anglosaxon expression which was used when freezing a game, FREEZE, and one of the principal aspects of it is to offer you a list of pokes, mostly from modern games, tricks and maps to get over improving those titles. The most interesting is that Vinny explains the “why” of each of them and the action which is modified in the programm. More over many times often this poke comes with the line of the monitor used into the ACTION REPLAY which has to be modified to get the same effect.
Each front page advertises the maingame which will be analized, with dates, curiosities, maps and tricks to rig the old fashioned games, loading the original game on tape or disk.
Another permanent section are the INTERVIEWS always with a mostly “in” personality, but also from the old school and where they reveal us more than one curiosity. Did you know that Chiller was made with Games Creator and later modified, like nowadays Richard Bayliss with his SEUCK games?
Another permanent section is Game Endings, inherited from his project 64endings and where the screens show final screens and the difficulty, always accompanied by pokes D. The section Secret Squirrel Reveals All is prying in the code of various games, They show us the texts which their authors hid in them and the messages they were hiding. Others, not always permanent ones, are the guide of HACKERSOFT which explains us how to use tools like Action Replay and all its possibilities to modify the code and to understand what we are doing. Unreleased Cheats, Games in the Making and the commentaries of the editor complete a magazine of about 35 pages, which since nr. 11 is printed professionally and takes us to the times when the maximum meant having a floppy disk drive and an Action Replay (and a contact person who spread games :D.
Also each number comes with advertising flyers and, since number 4, with minicards of the games that had been the leading ones in the magazines. Essential for the users of 64 and different from other fanzines we can read today. It is completely advisable to read them and go back to the past from all points of view.
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