Gianluca "RetroGL" Alberico and Jon Eggleton's unofficial fan port of SNK vs. Capcom for the C64 / C128 is about to get a new "Stronger Edition" update, and a demo is already available for players download and try out for themselves (thanks C64Universe!).
If you cast your mind back a few years ago, you may remember us talking about the unofficial release inspired by the Neo Geo title SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium.
Far from being a straightforward conversion, this impressive homebrew ended up becoming more of an update of SNK's handheld fighter, introducing new characters, moves, and arenas to the classic game.
After years of work, the developers released a "final" version of this port for Commodore machines back in October 2023, but it appears they never stopped improving and refining it behind the scenes. Now they're back, with a new "stronger edition", (which is currently in alpha), which intends to expand the game even further, introducing an additional 16 characters to the game's roster (for a total of 32 fighters).
These new characters include:
- EVIL RYU
- VIOLENT KEN
- DAN
- KYO
- HAOHMARU
- YASHIRO
- B. B. HOOD
- CAMMY
- LUCIA
- MORRIGAN
- SAKURA
- YURI SAKAZAKI
- RUGAL
- NAKORURU
- AKARI
- ATHENA
The following, meanwhile, will be making their return from the original version of the port:
- Ryu
- Ken
- Chun-Li
- Guile
- Felicia
- Zangief
- Vega
- Gouki
- Ryo Sakazaki
- Terry Bogard
- Mai Shiranui
- Andy Bogart
- Leona Heidern
- Wolfgang Krauser
- Orochi Iori
- Geese Howard
According to Alberico, besides Eggleton and himself, the team working on the project also Aldo Chiummo, who is involved in creating the music, and Danilo Serrago, Vincenzo Morana and Salvo Cristaldi who have been responsible for putting Stronger Edition through its paces as testers.
Interestingly, it seems to be targeting modded hardware and emulators. It is currently being built for a new type of cartridge called Magic Desk 2 (MD2), which is being created and maintained by CrystalCT, and right now, the demo only works on a modded version of the VICE emulator, which is linked in the description to the video above.