Steel Ranger 2 is an ambitious new action adventure with over 800 screens to explore, a 45-minute soundtrack and almost everything made by one remarkably dedicated developer.

I’ve been reading through Finnish developer Lasse Öörni’s development notes for Steel Ranger 2, his enormous new Commodore 64 action adventure. Which is pretty damn niche, since who runs a C64 these days (I know I don’t, but I find it all interesting regardless!)

He’s spent over four years making it, handling almost everything himself, from the programming and graphics to the music. The finished game has over 800 screens to explore and a 45-minute soundtrack, all running on hardware from 1982.

I put together a super little article about the game, the technical challenges Lasse encountered along the way, and how wonderful it is that people are still making games of this scale for the C64 in 2026. This isn’t on my usual site, just my curiosity with NeoCities which I’ve been enjoying the last couple weeks or so.

I guess this article is for just a handful of folk, but no better space than retro gaming to share it!

  • hanrahan@piefed.socialEnglish
    6·
    5 days ago

    man, i used to program games in Assembler back in 1983 when i owned a C64, so this brings back some memories. I have no idea why you’d bother though I appreciate the work.

    The Amiga (I had a A1000 and then an A1200) was such a giant leap forward I’m not sure why he didn’t work with that ?

    • DarthBueller@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      It’s because the C64 is having a Renaissance moment. The Rebirth of Commodore as a company that is finally doing something worthwhile with the Brand Name, C64 Ultimate, retro nostalgic YouTubers doing C64 repairs, etc.

      I probably first started playing the C64 a year or two ago. I now own two and getting the ultimate

    • AnotherWastedHuman@retrolemmy.comEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      The challenge of accomplishing something so complicated on hardware so limited - overcoming the limitations is its own payoff. Sure, he could have done it much more quickly and easily on significantly more powerful hardware, but that wouldn’t have been as engrossing, nor nearly as satisfying to complete.