Back in the mid to late nineties, I was part of a PD group known as Waking Dreams Software. While there were a few members, perhaps as many as ten depending on what was being done and when, at the core there were two - myself, going under the names of The Bripster and (later) Flame, and the real coder at the heart of it all, who went under the names of The Master and (later) Maverick.

Maverick learned to program assembly on the C64 at a young age, which was I'd imagine pretty rare at that stage in the C64's life. He was self-taught, having only the C64 Programmer's Reference Guide to guide him. We were both in the first year of secondary school, where we met in about 1991. We both had an enthusiasm for the C64, fuelled by Zzap! 64 and then Commodore Force. Maverick's early efforts included Gunz, a vertically-scrolling SEUCK shmup that only masochists would enjoy, and Blurg!, a tape-based magazine. At that early stage, most of our friends were still using their C64's, and nobody had disk drives. The recession had hit 80's Ireland hard, so by the time the mid-90's came around and young kids like us got into the scene, Commodore was on the brink of death and there were few to no people selling second-hand, and the only people selling new 1541's were those who had stock left - and they were still expensive even then, I remember. This explains why Blurg! was a tape magazine.

I don't remember working on Blurg! at any point, but I do remember Maverick telling me that he had used one or two articles that I'd written in the last issue. As we got access to the Macintosh computers and printers at school, we decided we would turn Blurg! into a paper magazine, which we did. Eventually called Commodore Player, it was a heavily Zzap!/Force influenced little piece, which had about thirty pages or so in the first issue. It had budget and full price reviews, Maverick had a section on coding if I remember correctly, and each issue was to have it's own feature. These features started with interviews - the interview in the first issue was with the manager of a local electronics store, which sold and serviced Commodore hardware, and still sold budget tape games. The second issue, which was never completed, had another interview, this time with the games reviewer from the local Cork paper, the Evening Echo. I can't remember much of these interviews, though I do remember Maverick arguing a lot with the store manager about differences in the profit margins of C64 games compared to SNES and Mega Drive games... fun times...

Not particularly big names, eh? Well, the second issue never came out. I know that half the issue had been written, the reviews, editorial and coding sections at least. The first issue had sold so badly (we didn't charge much - I can't remember what it was, something like £1.50 probably, but we only charged to cover the printing costs), and that likely had something to do with the reason behind issue 2's cancellation. But it's a shame, because plans for issue 3 were well on the way, including yet another interview as the feature. But the big thing about this interview was that it was going to be with Jeff Minter! We'd somehow tracked him down - he was living in America at the time, and I remember talking to him about it. He seemed happy enough to do the interview, but unfortunately I was an idiot teenager and had forgotten to take into account the time difference, and I'd interrupted his sleep! We never did the interview as the second issue failed to materialize, but that's my claim to fame right there, waking poor Jeff Minter up!

Commodore Player was printed in black and white, though I remember the master copy of the editorial page on the second issue had a small splash of colour. It was produced using the Mac's in the computer room, on MacPaint 1.3 I think. We had no other software to go on, in fact we barely knew what desktop publishing was! Like Zzap!, Player had little illustrations of ourselves at the end of every review, and had silly little adventures in the margins. I remember something about my caricature being afraid of sharks in the margins of one budget review... or something. Zzap! and later Commodore Force was our bible, and Player reflected this. The reason it did so badly was that most of the friends who had C64's had actually worked on the first issue at some point, so they weren't looking for a copy. I remember us going into classrooms at the primary school in the next building to see if anyone wanted one, but nobody did. I think we somehow sold a few of them, but I have no memory of who to. Neither of us have any copies left - I had one for years but it got lost somehow, and Maverick had lost his even earlier. I remember either issue 2 or 3 were going to have a competition, sponsored by the store manager we'd interviewed earlier. The prize was going to be a walkman, of around £30 worth, with second and third prizes a bunch of budget tape games. I also remember that we were going to distribute Gunz on a covertape as a trial. We were really trying! But we had no real audience, no way of really distributing Commodore Player. And so, it died an early death.

As time went by, we managed to buy some secondhand disk drives, and Maverick's coding skills got stronger. He got really good at ripping SID tracks and bits of graphics from games and demos. As we became aware of the PD groups such as Megatronix, EBES and Binary Zone, more material became available to us. I remember the demo Intrigue by Taboo, with that beautiful music from Shogoon, that I'd bought from Megatronix. He managed to rip the music from that, and I still have it saved on one of my disks somewhere. Another piece I specifically remember is the main theme from the game Myth. All this ripping of music from games and demos culminated in the only software that remains of those days - the Waking Dreams Music Mix Volume 1. More on that later. It's a testament to Maverick's talent that he was able to do all this ripping without any hardware to assist him - neither of us had an Action Replay. I remember getting my hands on the Final Cartridge III at some point, but it wasn't much help to Maverick as he was getting on fine without it. One thing we did do in lieu of an Action Replay was to connect pins on the User Port to reset the machine (pins 1 and 3, wasn't it?) - often derided as dangerous, but it never damaged our machines. Wouldn't try it nowadays, though...

While Maverick was coding and ripping everything he could get his hands on, what was I doing? Well, I couldn't code. I remember Maverick sitting me down once to teach me, but it didn't stick. I'm afraid that I was more in the category of "enthusiastic but useless". I wrote a lot on Commodore Player, and later on became something of a contact for the PD groups in the UK. I remember conversations with whoever ran Megatronix, Jon Wells, Russ Michaels of EBES and others. After Commodore Player was cancelled, we got in contact with Karen Levell and Rebecca Flack (not sure if that name is right) who were running Commodore Format at the time about doing freelance work. I doubt any of these people remember us - we were just a bunch of kids with a lot of enthusiasm. I also remember talking to Dave Golder - likely well before Karen Levell's time. I managed to get us some extra hardware to work with - extra C64's, two C128's, extra disk drives and assorted hardware. At one point I got a modem and was connecting to the Megatronix BBS, Midnight Express, and to EBES' BBS also. A couple of others that I can't remember. It meant access to a lot of new software for us. I remember trading insults with Amiga and "IBM" owners on Midnight Express once...

I'm trying really hard to remember what software we worked on, and coming up mostly blank. Maverick coded a really capable typing tutor that absolutely nobody saw. I remember wanting to promote that, but Maverick wasn't interested for some reason. I recently found references on a disk to something called "Mental Asylum". A very dim light went on in my head when I came across that name - my brain is associating it with a demo that we possibly worked on. The reference was in a noter on a disk that Maverick had handed to me in school, which we did a lot of, and in it he said he had completed the rasters for "Mental Asylum". Maverick and I are still good friends, and I recently asked him if the name rang any bells. Here's what he had to say:

"As for Mental Asylum - I can't remember. Was it our attempt at a loader, another demo, or were we going to put a game together. We must have done some work for me to be setting up raster interrupts as they required timing and were typically used to split the screen or keep music playing in sync... I have a sneaking suspicion it may have been a game, but for the life of me can't remember. That was the better part of 2 decades ago right?"

So, no clue what "Mental Asylum" was, demo, game or something else, but obviously some work had been done on it. In his spare time, or when he got tired of coding, Maverick kept improving Gunz, though he never really changed the difficulty level as I remember. Son of a bitch, that was a hard game! It was a tank-based shmup, and you had to fight other tanks and possibly aircraft. A good few people around our town played Gunz, but I doubt anyone remembers it. As it was due to be released on a covertape with Commodore Player, and as Maverick kept working on it, it did I suppose fall under the Waking Dreams label. The typing tutor program also, I guess, but for some reason Maverick didn't want that one distributed. The only other software that I remember is the only bit of software we have left - the Music Mix.

As I said, Maverick had become adept at ripping tracks from games and demos, and this culminated in the "Waking Dreams Music Mix Volume One". Taking up a single side of a disc, the Music Mix featured eight tracks, all likely ripped from games or demos. The first track played as soon as the program loaded, with each track taking up 17 blocks on the disk. When the program loads you are presented with a starfield featuring parallax scrolling, with what looks like three different levels. At the bottom of the screen is a scrolly, where Maverick takes the time to greet whoever was on his list to greet. I'm in there as Flame, and so is Sadist, another erstwhile Waking Dreams member. Another person listed in the greets is Kenz of Binary Zone, who we were in talks with once about releasing some of our software. I doubt he remembers us either, but I do recall the two of us speaking to him over the phone at one point in a memorable conversation where we asked him if he'd received the software that we never sent. Ah, kids. Here is what Maverick had to say about the Music Mix -

"I designed the font on that and did the code that pulled the parallax scroller and music together on that one. We got the music from a ton of places I think. Fairly sure we ripped most of it from demos and possibly a game or two."

Maverick's a little embarrassed by it as it is nothing compared to what was being done on the scene back in those days, but hell, we were just kids. And it's a little sad that this is all we have left over from our time in Waking Dreams, but I guess we should be lucky that we have anything at all. All through the years I'd kept my disks safe in their box, and sadly most of them are deteriorating fast. So there's likely more Waking Dreams programs locked away on those disks, but we're never going to be able to get them. I didn't have a copy of the typing tutor, so that is long lost, but I did have a copy of Gunz and whatever work I was doing on Mental Asylum. I don't think I had any copies of Blurg!, so they've also been lost for quite a while now.

I honestly can't remember anything else that we might have worked on. Maverick talks about Mental Asylum as possibly being "another demo", so maybe we did another demo or two. I know he was working on a loader, probably the one used in the Music Mix. All that I remember is Blurg!, Commodore Player, Gunz, the typing tutor, the Music Mix and vague references to Mental Asylum, and I've covered them all here as best I can. Waking Dreams Software died sometime in 1999 - it was in that year that we both switched from Commodore to the pc (actually, I'd switched to the pc back in 1997 then went running back to the Commodore after having a bad experience with an AST!). There wasn't a lot done for a few years as Maverick had buggered off to join the Air Corps., and I couldn't code anything to save my life. I'm not sure what was produced in the few remaining years after he'd returned - the Music Mix, certainly, and likely whatever Mental Asylum was - but it wasn't much.

It's been fun reaching into the nether regions of my grey matter trying to remember all that we did. I do intend on releasing the Music Mix here on Lemon, but we're going to have to wait a little while I either grab an old pc to use my XM1541 cable with, or I get the 1541 Ultimate cartridge. Whenever I do manage to get the software across to a .d64, I will upload it here in this thread.

Hopefully you who are still reading this rather long post has had some enjoyment learning something about our little corner of C64 history!

Edit -

I've finally managed to upload the music mix, and you can find it here -

Waking Dreams Music Mix Volume One
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Awesome and detailed look back at your days of trying to save the C64 commercially! Thanks for sharing!

I also bought a modem from EBES and connected to the likes of Megatronix BBS and their BBS too. It was dark days sadly when everything commercially was coming to an end.

It would be good to see all of the software preserved, so good luck with this. The disks will probably work fine - though may just need a cotton bud and some head cleaning fluid to clean the disk layer before reading (which i'm currently doing now to back some old disks up).
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Megatronix was awesome. The chap who ran it sent me tapes with demos guaranteed to piss off my Atari ST owning friend - and they worked

Thanks for your nice comment, Frank! Unfortunately I don't think it is possible to recover some of the disks currently in my collection - there are bits of what look like dirt on some of them, so that the drive can no longer read them. I am constantly cleaning the drive head as a result of trying to read these old disks, but not having any success. Even some of those that look clean just won't work.

Maverick's disk collection and all his Commodore hardware is long gone, unfortunately. So there's no chance of recovering any copies of Blurg!, the typing tutor, Gunz or anything else.

I'm trying to find a way to upload the music mix to a .d64, but there are no pc's left in the apartment that have both a parallel port and are using a 32-bit OS. I might take an old hard drive, disconnect the drives in use in the one pc that does have a parallel port, install XP and copy the disk that way, but that's going to take time. For now, the best I can do is to upload a video of my C64 running the music mix... which is what I did. Apologies beforehand for the lack of clarity - as I explain on the video's page, I have no video recording equipment and had to rely on a digital camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h97-i3XofSk

thecellartroll - Megatronix was indeed awesome! I think I frequented Midnight Express more than any other BBS of the time. I wonder if the guy who ran it is still running his Commodore stuff, and if he has the BBS software on a disk somewhere? I'd love just a glimpse of it again.
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That's exactly the same problem I have with these disks i'm converting at the moment .... Basically all i'm doing is using some head cleaning fluid (used for a tape drive), applying to a cotton bud and then cleaning the disk layer by spinning it round manually with my hand and cleaning both sides.

Works a treat so far. Another way is to constantly clean the drive head until it reads again, but the above is much quicker.

I think Dean (can't remember second name) went onto PC projects around 2000 from what I recall after Megatronix. Haven't heard from him since ... Russ Michaels is still around and doing web related work.
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That's an excellent idea, thanks Frank! Will see what I can pick up in town tomorrow. I'll report back if I find any more Waking Dreams stuff.

I know Russ Michaels is around here on Lemon under the name Ironfist, but I wonder if the guy who ran Megatronix - Dean - is still at the old address? Does he still have that massive PD catalogue? Hm.
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Well, I've had a go at cleaning some of the disks, and some of them are now working. I found a noter though, explaining that I'd been talking to Ironfist on Midnight Express where he was a co-Sysop. Apparently, he was working on a Windows-like environment for the C64, had developed some piece of hardware that allowed up to 1MB of samples to be played, and had approached CMD with the idea of coding Doom for the SuperCPU, or at least a Doom-like game.

Interesting! Apparently, CMD were not very receptive to anything he was saying, so that's why nothing came of that. He was a little puzzled as to why CMD was seemingly not interested in helping people to produce SuperCPU software. Wonder what happened to the Windows-alike project he was working on...

Unfortunately, I've found nothing related to Waking Dreams, bar a passing reference to what games were going to be featured in the classic reviews section of Commodore Player (I'd forgotten all about that, incidentally). Several disks look perfectly clean but the drive absolutely refuses to load them. I tried cleaning one, but no luck. Ah, well.
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Glad to hear the disk trick works!

Nah, I don't think Dean had much of a real affection for the C64, and was one of those people who just jumped from platform to platform as time moved on. I think Richard Bowen from Commodore Scene had his PD library from what I recall.

Actually, I have a recollection that EBES absorbed all of the Megatronix library, then Richard Bowen acquired it when EBES was no more. Richard Bowen left the scene around 1999 and possibly passed on the collection to Allan Bairstow - but i'm not sure.
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I still have some Megatronix PD disks, but they were mostly utils and games.
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Makes sense if Russ was helping to run the BBS. And yeah, Megatronix was definitely shifting away from the C64 at that point.
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If you want to rip the disks to your PC without getting a printer port, ZoomFloppy is useful.

http://store.go4retro.com/zoomfloppy/

Will definitely have a look at that, cheers!
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Just a small addition, to let you know that the first post has been edited with the link for the music mix.
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Hi Rohan, thanks for sharing your story and music disk, very intriguing and excellent to hear both

Thanks man
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I'd like to thank the kindly person (a Lemoner, I'm sure) who commented on the YouTube video above, for having added us to CSDb! You can find the group and some of the members here. I'm currently talking to Maverick to see if he remembers the handles of everyone who was in the group, or at least worked on the magazine, and if he remembers exactly what The Sadist actually did, because I couldn't remember that to save my life!

Again, thank you anonymous person! Maverick was tickled pink when I told him!
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I know it's a lot to ask but could anyone with a copy of "Commodore Player" scan and upload?

I'm sure a whole lot of us would be really interested to read it.

Sadly, there's nothing of Commodore Player left. Maverick's copy was lost years ago, and some time ago some of my stuff was cleared out, and my copy went with it. What I had left was a prototype colour editorial page for the second issue (which was the first page - the magazine had no cover), the interview for the second issue, notes on some of the reviews, and that's it.

Sorry! To describe it, it was made up in MacPaint 1.3 in the computer lab at school and printed in black and white, two columns of text per page. Maverick did some very cool little illustrations of us that would have adventures all around the margins - wonder where we got that idea from? The first issue was about twenty or so pages, maybe less. I can't remember what held it together. We had mostly retro reviews, maybe a review of a then new game, but I can't remember.

That's really all I remember of it.
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If anyone is interested, I've been poking around on my disks again and have gleaned some more information. What I have found is very little, only mentions of whatever we were working on, but who knows? There may be something more substantial down the line. But one mystery that's been put to rest is that I've found out what Mental Asylum was!

The following was found on a noter written in January 1995, written by Maverick and handed to me in school -

I'm still working on "Gunz" so all's quiet on that front. I've been tottering around with the editor for "MENTAL ASYLUM" but haven't got much coding completed...

Interesting, another mention of Mental Asylum! Nothing useful of course, and I didn't expect to find anything else, but I did, another small reference in a noter later on in the same year -

About that disk magazine "MENTAL ASYLUM"... I've started writing out the format editor that it will use so I should have it ready within two weeks. Then we can start work.

Aha! A disk magazine! I have absolutely no memory of working on a disk magazine, but I guess it made sense for us to do that back then. The timing is a little odd as Commodore Player was worked on in 1992/1993, so it seems like we were really disappointed that nobody was working on it or something because there's a gap in between Player and these mentions of Mental Asylum. It does match up with what was going on in our lives, though - 1995 wasn't a big exam year for me and Maverick had come back after spending a year in the Irish Army Air Corps.

I really can't remember anything of Mental Asylum. Shame. Maverick mentioned to me in the first post that Mental Asylum may have been "another demo", and it seems we may indeed have put together a demo or two, because I found this -

I've got the rasters for some of the demo complete!

What demo? I'm buggered if I know. Unfortunately that's all he wrote of it, because his next line was -

I've got a terrible itch and I can't figure out where I got it?!

Vintage Maverick! Something else I found on the disk, Maverick talking to me in a noter again -

I've finished writing Gunz. I've added another level and used up all allotted enemy attack wave memory

I guess Gunz was finished in early '95, then. I found another mention in another noter but it was just one from me to Maverick accusing him of being a masochist for designing such a difficult game. Gripping stuff, I know. Other small bits and pieces included a mention of Maverick doing extractions on audio tunes, likely for the Music Mix that came out a year later in '96, and something from me about how I was putting all this music to good use. What use? No idea!

When I get the new desk in here I will have finally set the C64 up properly and I will go through every disk, and clean every disk if needs be, to see what I can find. You never know, I may find my complete copy of Gunz... that'd be fantastic. Best not get my hopes up, though, if the best I've found so far is mentions of work in noters.

Still... will let you guys know either way.
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Hi Rohan, thanks for the updates!

I really hope you continue to find more of the WDS work in time. It's great to get these things preserved.

Just for info - i've created a very quick entry on GTW64 for Gunz to document the game. It might be a little rough round the edges, but hopefully it will be tweaked over time and eventually even a download added if you have any joy. Any fixes you feel are required (dates, credits etc), let me know.

http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/gunz/

Good luck with the search!...
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I don't know how I missed your post Frank, but wow! Thanks muchly for that! Very cool to have an entry on GTW! The good news is that I've now got everything set up as needed to be able to check my disk collection, go through every disk and see if something can be found. You never know, Gunz might be in there! I definitely had my own copy, so here's hoping.

I've just done a test with the original Music Mix disk and, using my 1541 drive hooked up to the 1541 Ultimate II, was able to correctly copy the disk in it's entirety onto a blank .d64. So, I can at long last say, here is the original version of the program! For whatever reason it wouldn't copy properly before using two 1541-II's, over an X1541 cable and even over ZoomFloppy, so I had to substitute the first two tracks on the disk with random tracks from my music disk.

But finally, the original copy of the program, with the correct tracks, which sound better to my ears. I'm going to be busy next week so I won't be dipping into my disks right away, but I will get to them when I can.

Waking Dreams Music Mix Volume One
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