It’s quite amazing how different early c64 games and music were from the end of its lifespan.
From scramble to armalyte, and simple Xmas music to fully filtered / arps / sample playback.
I used Koala Paint with a Koala Pade. It didn’t have music/sound. That’s interesting!
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Here’s a more primitive track. It has stuck with me since I first heard it in that 80s. Just has a really nice dark mood to it.
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Yeah I think due to its long popularity a lot of tricks were discovered way beyond what was originally thought possible, from the sid digi exploits to the graphical hacks, quite amazing really that those limitations fostered a lot of ingenuity, and squeezing out as much as possible.
Nowadays I don’t think it generally happens so much as people just buy a more powerful machine or upgrade, a shame really. Still, it is nice to see even today some people are still making software, demos and hardware for the good old C64.
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ive seen some very impressive full colour bitmap scrolling demos … they were starting to appear when i was doing c64 stuff but hardware incompatibility was an issue…(this is 91 ish).
and the fact that everyone was dumping their machine for amigas.
genuinely surprised people are still finding tricks and releasing games on it… though i suspect it just pays a little beer money (though that may be more than spotify pays for 10000’s of streams).
still some very nice visuals coming out too (that very particular c64 palette is very unique).
some nice colour demos out on spectrum too (using colour splits to add more to each 8x8 chr block)… and i was amazed zx81 hirez demos were done years ago too.
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Given the fact, that the ZX81 has no graphic or sound chip at all…
Some great pure c64 tunes :
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Nice Drax tunes in this one:
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Edit:
REALLY IMPRESSIVE!!!
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That 808 track is amazing
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Just stumbled on that one yesterday. It’s really pretty crazy!
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Samples i bet…that Lead is also fantastic. I love C64 Leads…no other synths can do those squelchy ones…
Ugh…that bass… 
My C64 back in the time had a broken SID, therefore i am really enjoying now to hear all this SID music on YT again…without nasty artefacts…LOL
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Well apparently Not according to his website. But to be honest I don’t know enough about how it all works to comment, I just like what i hear. He’s releasing tracks as c64 cartridges as well as in vinyl etc but he may be digitising (sample based) tracks in some way (what it sounds like)
It’s a great track though, his later (more recent) stuff is more “typical” and I can take it or leave it but that track straddles the line between chip music and electro in av way I love. Shame it’s only an mp3
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Absolutely not samples. Pretty insanely synthesized though. I haven’t really heard that done before (at least to this degree) It looks like the kick is done with a filtered triangle. Maybe a small slide for pitch “envelope”. The snare looks like a triangle + noise. I think the cowbell is done with sawtooth or saw combined. (looks like anyway) Kind of interesting that this hasn’t been done more actually. 
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