As you should know from the last newsletter, we are working very diligently behind the scenes and try new ways in order to make a better and more modern Protovision – you are allowed to continue to be excited about what we will do in the future on projects. Fortunately, in the mean time we have found new dedicated, but also freelance Members who support us and have assumed their new duties already. Trixter will do the News processing and dissemination, and takes worry about Facebook (among other tasks, but these are probably the most evident) and nyquist will care about Twitter. There are also other new assistants being considered.  As soon as their tasks are taken, we will report soon in more detail about them …

In the light of the new restructuring in Protovision we have decided to be active on the most pertinent social network services to spread our news even faster and to offer a new form of contact and information sharing. Currently these services are indeed already set up and accessible, but still under construction – much content is at the moment in german language only – but we are working on the translation. Feel free to subscribe and maybe click on the “Like” Button – and don´t forget to visit it from time to time.

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/protovision64

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/protovision64

In the current issue of the german Diskmag Digital Talk you will find another review of Jim Slim. The disk image is available as a free download, but you can also view the Test directly at the Nemesiz v3 Blog – here, of course, extended by a few screenshots. Please note that this test is only available in German language.  

Download the disk image of Digital Talk #94 here:
http://board.nemesiz.tk/index.php?page=DownloadDBData&dataID=342

Or view it online at Nemesiz:
http://portal.nemesiz.com/?p=2752

In a seven-minute´s segment of the German local TV programme center.tv to the Commodore 64, the editor of the German retro magazine RETURN Frank 
Erstling talks about old times, the magazine, but also new Stuff. Between some C64 Hard- and Software you will find our newest Game Jim Slim as decoration.

Those who missed the show can see it now on YouTube – unfortunately the quality of the clip is not the best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jxHSO6VjU

The Commodore 64 Revival Band – PRESS PLAY ON TAPE – publishes  a new album called “Home Computer” on 12 May 2012. On the double album are about 25 songs with a total running time of 2 hours. It will be available as a “real” ablum and as digital download – the price is unfortunately still unknown at the moment. For more information, visit
http://www.pressplayontape.com/

When we were building up Protovision, none of us sensed how long this journey would take us. We were all young, mostly without a family and had, if at all, a reasonably stressful job in our “normal” lives next to our hobby project Protovision. Who would have thought that we would still produce new developments for the C64 15 years later and that we would have a guest appearance at the Simpsons even?

However, all of this is far from being easy. If only we could focus on Protovision alone! But our “real” lives currently bestow all kinds of hardship on us – some of our most important members have to worry about not losing their jobs and their financial basis. They are currently working tremendous overtime hours (also on weekends) so that there is simply much to few time left for sleep or Protovision.

We’d like to apologize for all who had to or are still waiting for their orders to be processed. We do our best to complete our tasks on them as soon as we can. But we are not content with the level of service we are currently able to provide. This is one of the reasons why we have decided to close down the shop for a while.

It is not the only reason, though, there are things to come!

You thought you’d get rid of us soon, did you? Far from it. We are working on a new concept for our shop and C64-Productions in general. There will be even more Infos and more flexible order options. More will be disclosed at a later stage. We’re all tensed and excited about the future. Of course we’ll let you know via our newsletter when we will open the doors again and what we’ll have in store for you.

At the BCC Party #6 in Berlin, Tim Jakob “JTR” Chen-Voos scored second place in the mixed compo with the demo “The True Story of Batman / Protovision & DMAgic“. The demo is a hommage to Milo “MacGyver” Mundt, who was a driving force behind Protovision for many years. His planning skills and sociableness made him “Mr Protovision” for many of you. Milo stepped back in Protovision to focus on his education & worklife now, but will remain part of the C64 scene.

Download the demo from the CSDb: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=105907 or watch it on youtube:

The Hungarian group Singular has released a new version of FunkPaint. The tool offered a large number of functionalities in the past already, including support for three mouse buttons. Good news for all owners of Micromys and a three-button mouse. But the tool also supports the Amiga mouse, e.g. plugged into the 4 player interface at port three. It uses all the RAM extensions you could think of (REU, RR-RAM, Superram, GeoRam, IDE64/swap files).

New stuff for owners of the 4 player interface: Evil Joe entered his party game Icon Run into the mixed compo at BCC #6 (and won #5). As his prize, he picked a 4 Player Games Compilation sponsored by Protovision.