Using a modern VGA-compatible TFT monitor on your Commodore 128 (and C64) is now a possibility, thanks to Kevin Krausnick. He has successfully modified existing hardware to accept the RGBi output from the back of the C128, which outputs a crisp and clear 80-column text mode. The Luma/Chroma and Composite video signal for the 40 columns screen is fairly easy to convert, but the stumbling block has always been the 80 column output.

This is very exciting news indeed, especially as the colours seem authentic and picture quality crystal clear, and for those who are interested, it'll mean that your existing visual display unit can be replaced with a space-saving and stylish flat-screen monitor. Nice.

Also coming soon for Commodore fans is the big final issue of Commodore Scene. This publication was once the fanzine for C64 and 128 users everywhere, but a general decline in interest and people using the real hardware led to the whole project being dropped. However, Allan still has so-many well-written features that remain unused, and it seems a shame to put them to waste. Expect more news very soon over at www.commodorescene.org.uk. In the meantime, Commodore Scene’s successor, edited by Nigel Parker, is available as a free PDF from www.commodorefree.com.

Announced over at the Lemon64 forums (www.lemon64.com/forum) is a new game demo for the C64. It's a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up by Anthony Wilder with graphics by Wayne Billingham, being an all-out blaster called Zrenite, which sees you controlling a space trooper with the sole task of destroying all of the malevolent alien and mechanical foe he comes into contact with.

The game can be played by plodding along left or right, or by utilising the jet pack to destroy the sky-bound enemies. It's a rather sedate affair at times, with the usual power-ups to boost your arsenal to help you along, though new guns and such like are not implemented in this demo just yet. To download your copy, you can get all of the information and zip file from https://csdb.dk/release/?id=50331

Those brilliant people at the fan-based publication ZX-Shed, which is for fans of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, are starting to re-work the current batch of issues so that a printed version can be purchased. The debut issue is already available at www.lulu.com/content/870407, and I've had word that the others will be available soon - with the way the weather has been recently, at least in my locale, it should brighten up a rainy day.

Further information can also be found at ZX-Shed Online (www.zxshed.co.uk) and the World of Spectrum forums (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums) if you want to pop across for five minutes.

If you're hungry to fill your free hours of more retro reading, and you have interests outside Sir Clive's wonder machines, The Retro Gaming CD (RGCD) is well worth a look in. It's a CD-ROM-based interactive magazine focusing on news and reviews on many 8-bit and 16-bit machines, as well as some other computers and consoles that sit under the 'retro' banner. The current issue includes 27 reviews and over 170MB of data for you to look through. To download the current issue (which also comes in a 'lite' form), head over to www.rgcd.co.uk.