henke on 15/2/2014 at 16:33
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Gamebag.jpgFeeling super nostalgic right now. Sure wish I could play these games again! One of these days I will forgive my mother for throwing away my C64, but not today. Not today. :nono:
Anyway, lets take a stroll down memory lane! :D
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Gamecollection.jpgA lot of cool stuff here, and alright, a lot of crap as well.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Bundled.jpgDragon Ninja,
Real Ghostbusters,
Operation Wolf, and
Barbarian II.
These were the games that came bundled with the C64, and they were the only games I played for a good while until the hardware store in my town started selling C64 tapes. OpWolf wasn't much fun, and Barbarian II was really hard, tho it did have some sweet decapitation animations. Dragon Ninja was tons of fun though, and Real Ghostbusters was the only Ghostbusters game that was actually
good.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Hawkeye.jpgHawkeyeI probably only bought this one because of the cover. Look at that. AWESOME! The game itself was hard as hell, and I never made it past the first few screens. The soundtrack was (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=plGgOyDZ9bw#t=293) amazing though.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Vendetta.jpgVendettaThis one was way ahead of it's time. It started off as an isometric brawling/shooting game, then at the end of the stage you jumped in a Ferrari and it turned into a Outrun-esque racing game with branching crossroads and cops that could pull you over. At one point there was a bomb on a plane that you had to defuse by cutting the red wire, and there were adventure puzzles, and A NARRATIVE, and an INTRO CUTSCENE, RECHARGING HEALTH and EVERYTHING. This was complex stuff. Truly mindblowing at the time.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Batty.jpgBatty,
GryZor, and
Subway Vigilante (aka rip-offs of
Arcanoid,
Contra, and
Double Dragon)
But wait, you say, how could Contra possibly work on a one button joystick? Well let me tell you how it worked: it didn't! The shooting button was on the joystick, but can you guess where the jump button was? ON THE KEYBOARD! Having to use both the joystick and the keyboard at the same time was unheard off at the time and I sure couldn't wrap my little brain around how it was supposed to be done. I experimented with pressing the key with my foot, and with ducttaping the key down so I was constantly jumping, but nothing worked. Damn game! Batty was good tho.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/GreatEscape.jpgThe Great EscapeOne of the first games I bought with my own money, and a huge disappointment. It was an isometric game where you walk around a prison yard, and sometimes a blaring horrible alarm would go off. Oh, and there was a tunnel out in the yard that you could crawl into a little bit, but there was nothing in there. In retrospect I think there actually was a lot more to this game, but at a time when the most complex videogame concept I could fathom was shooting at guys to proceed, and I barely understood english, this was just too much for me.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Toobin-NW.jpgToobin' and
Ninja WarriorsMediocre C64 adaptations of popular arcade games. Ninja Warriors had this cool intro where a voice actually said "NINJA WARRIORS" when the game started, and it came with a cool poster, so there's that at least.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/Mysterytape.jpgMYSTERY TAPE!
No idea what's on this. Despite how easy it was, me and my C64-owning friends didn't really pirate any games of eachother back then. Not sure why.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90297811/C64-Games/SF2-GA.jpgStreet Fighter 2 and
Golden AxeClassics! You've all played these so I probably don't need to say much about them. They worked well and looked surprisingly good on the C64. Good memories.
CONCLUSION: WHAT A LOAD OF CRAPListen people, I didn't know what to buy back then. I usually just bought whatever looked best on the rack at the local hardware store once I'd saved up 4 weeks worth of allowances. So yeah, after the nostalgia has dissipated, the prevailing feeling I'm left with is that I sure had low standards back then. Still, there are enough nuggets of gold here that I don't have to feel like my childhood was a complete waste. The aforementioned Golden Axe, Vendetta, Dragon Ninja, et all. And also things like Persian Gulf Inferno, and Puzznic, and Batman, and The Way Of The Tiger. Good games all of them. I'd post a smiley emoticon here, but I've reached the max limit for images in a post, so just imagine one ok? I'M OUT!
Renzatic on 15/2/2014 at 17:24
Even though I was officially around during those days, it blows my mind that games and programs used to come on a cassette.
I guess I was pretty privileged growing up, cuz I went straight from cartridges to disks, then back to cartridges again, avoiding tapes altogether. Also, my uncle was a dirty filthy pirate, and he used to bring me disks filled with these huge lists of games he'd download off BBSes every time he'd come by. I think I only had 5 or 6 actual store bought games for my old Atari 800.
icemann on 15/2/2014 at 17:51
I was also around during those days, yet I never got the chance to see a tape game in action. Games had awesome covers back then. Shame most covers suck nowadays.
For me it was 5 inch disks -> 3.5 disks -> CDs -> DVDs and so on.
All the Commodore 64 games I played were on the 5 inch ones. The Last Ninja was my favorite of the bunch. Not so much the sequel. Begged my parents for a C64, and my parents in their "wisdom" got me a Commodore VIC 20 with no games instead. However it did give me my first experience with programming thanks to the booklet that came with it. Good old basic. Shame there was errors in the code however. Discovered that after an hour of typing it all out. Been a coder ever since.
Thirith on 15/2/2014 at 17:56
Of course you're evil, horrible and stupid for implying that Ghostbusters wasn't a good game, but it's always nice to take a walk down Memory Lane. Looks like you had way more originals than I ever did, though. I also played from modules and tapes first - most of the games I did buy came from this UK company called Interceptor Micros that did a mix of knockoff versions of arcade games and some pretty weird, creative stuff of the Jeff Minter kind.
Was Vendetta by the Last Ninja devs? I seem to remember a game of that name that had a similar look, though I never played it.
henke on 15/2/2014 at 18:06
Man, I did not like Ghostbusters at all, nor did anyone I knew. I could never figoure out how to beat it or what to do at the end when the key was moving around the map and the marshmallow man was stomping on buildings. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd even seen the movie at that point so the whole thing made no sense at all to me.
And yeah, I didn't put it together until you mentioned it, but Vendetta was made by the same team who made Last Ninja, System 3! :D
I remember borrowing Last Ninja Remix from a friend and playing it on the C64. There was a part where you're supposed to jump on the backs of turtles across a pond that I never could get past.
demagogue on 16/2/2014 at 02:52
I recognize some of those. Great Escape was one of my favorites, but definitely complicated... I remember you had to find the guard uniform behind the canteen (sneaking back there & hope you didn't get caught), then you could walk around pretty freely (but the top brass could still recognize you, and you still had to show up for roll calls) and you'd find supplies depending on how you wanted to get out, shovel & flashlight if you take the tunnel, wirecutters if you want to go out the fence, and you needed the radio once you were out or you'd be caught again.
I liked that it was a methodical kind of puzzle game; you go day by day and learn a little more each day, which was my kind of speed but there aren't many games like this, then or since. And the part about sneaking into places you're not supposed to be with wandering guards & time pressure I liked, same with Thief.
I'm not sure where my C64 games are today; in storage somewhere at my parents place. But I still play a few chestnuts on an emulator, these days on my phone on the train. The two that are still very playable (for me) are Shogun and Rags to Riches, & maybe Paradroid.
PigLick on 16/2/2014 at 03:06
My friends had C64s but I was stuck with an Amstrad cpc.:( I blame all my subsequent mental issues on that.
Phatose on 16/2/2014 at 08:07
Eh, the problem with Ghostbusters wasn't the Marshmellow man stomping buildings. Just had to buy the ghost bait and drop it somewhere to distract him.
The problem was getting past him into the building at the very end. You had like 1 pixel of clearance. Never once managed it.
henke on 16/2/2014 at 08:48
Quote Posted by demagogue
I recognize some of those.
Great Escape was one of my favorites, but definitely complicated... I remember you had to find the guard uniform behind the canteen (sneaking back there & hope you didn't get caught), then you could walk around pretty freely (but the top brass could still recognize you, and you still had to show up for roll calls) and you'd find supplies depending on how you wanted to get out, shovel & flashlight if you take the tunnel, wirecutters if you want to go out the fence, and you needed the radio once you were out or you'd be caught again.
I liked that it was a methodical kind of puzzle game; you go day by day and learn a little more each day, which was my kind of speed but there aren't many games like this, then or since. And the part about sneaking into places you're not supposed to be with wandering guards & time pressure I liked, same with Thief.
This sounds great actually. Kinda makes me wanna track down an emulator and give it another go. :)
june gloom on 16/2/2014 at 08:53
lol Toobin'. I had that piece of shit for the NES. It was terrible.
