Islands

Welcome to Islands, a medieval fantasy roguelike for Game Boy, Commodore 64 and VIC-20. A small island. A surprisingly deep adventure.

You begin at your hut on a lively island. It's a bright day! Seek equipment in the shops and be nice to the wildlife. Visit Lady Lara, the noble ruler of the queendom, and perhaps play a game of Three Dice at the inn. Then find the dungeon entrance to begin your actual quest.

Many dungeon levels lie ahead—or rather, below. Recover the Ankh and bring it back to Lady Lara—alive. There is a twist.

Fight, trade, fish, forage and discover the shuffled identities of mysterious magical items. Your abilities grow through your actions. Rest at an inn to preserve your progress through a mysterious dream. Dream codes are interchangeable between platforms.

Islands began as a Game Boy project in 2022. When it was abandoned, it already had generators for dungeons and indoor locations, along with all the tile graphics. Modern programming techniques rescued the project in 2026, turning that unfinished foundation into a complete adventure across three classic machines. The sound effects for all three platforms were crafted by old, trembling hands. To complete the experience, a seasoned, partly deaf human composer created a six-minute, two-channel soundtrack for the Commodore 64 version.

The entire game and its seemingly infinite universe—procedurally generated anew for every adventure—fit on an unbanked 32 KB Game Boy cartridge, with single-load versions for the C64 and VIC-20.

On the Commodore 64 Ultimate, Turbo Boost automatically kicks in during island, dungeon and indoor location generation. To use this feature, select C64U Turbo Registers in the Ultimate settings or apply the included configuration file. A stock Commodore 64 takes about 10–15 seconds to generate a level map.

Islands was released at Zoo Party 2026, with the Commodore 64 version entered in the Game Dev competition. Created by Aleksi Eeben in 2022-2026. Some rights reserved.

Downloads

Islands - C64 Version

Islands - VIC-20 Version

Islands - Game Boy Version

Islands Gameplay Manual - C64 and VIC-20

Islands Gameplay Manual - Game Boy

Dropbox (All Files)