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[Region-FreeWii]

Hehe, as long as this thread remains sticky, it will read: Sticky LOAD. Hehe he, ehrm, *cough* okay.

On a related note I remember as a child in kindergarten we had an old beat up C64 at the back of your classroom and if you were good you got a chance to play it. The only game they had and that I remember playing was an edu game called "Odell Lake" where you played a fish swimming down a river and you encountered other fish, otters, plankton, chars etc. and you had to decide what to do, i.e. swim higher, lower, escape, ignore, eat it etc. Your goal was to basically survive until you made it to end of the river and to the lake..... I'm sure if played it now, I wouldn't have any fun, but I had a blast playing it a a little child. Anywho, that's really the only memory I have playing the C64.

 

[Enk]

You sir/mam are a god/goddess! I used to play this a lot when I was young too but had forgotten what it was called. Now that I know I must track it down and relive this memory. Now if someone could just find out what the name of that ball and paintcan game was...

 

[Enk]

This reminded me to look up another game that I had but hasn't been mentioned yet, Wizard of ID's Wiztype. It was a typing teaching game based on everyone's favorite wizard from the land of milk and honey.

A lot of kids gave up on the first screen due to a lack of keyboard knowledge they haven't acquired from the game yet. Those poor, stupid kids will never know of the adventure to come.

See here's your hands if you were a glamour rockstar in 8bit form.

Now you begin the tale as the hopping, happy wizard. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"... See how powerful the writing was in games back in the 80's!

After a long day of hopping, the happy wizard goes to his chamber to chill with his hookah. But wait! What is this strange green creature?!? And why in the bloomin hell are there words floating in the air?

Uh oh! Mr. Greenthing has mutated into a monstrous dragon with the sole purpose of making the wizard ill with his lightning flame!

"I'm totally gonna to smoke your green ass" yelled the sick wizard. ZAP!!! POOF!!! "Hail to the wiz baby"!



And there you have it. The amazing tale of how your mom was born.

 

[n-off]

btw, C64 games now available on Wii's virtual console

 

[neopokekun]

Got some more remix cd's, Syntax Era (C64 remixes), Immortal 3 (Amiga remixes) and Revival ST (Atari ST remixes).

The Syntax Era cd is C64 remixes recreated in the style of various 80s tunes.
For example the C64 tunes from Dominator in the style of The Shamen - Move Any Mountain becomes Dominator Pro>genocide Mix (sample track)
or the C64 tune from Flight Path 737 in the style of Art Of Noise - Moments In Love becomes Moments In a Flight Path (sample track)
or Ace II in the style of Depeche Mode's Strange Love = StrangeAce (sample track)
or Aspar Grand Prix in the style of Kajagoogoo's To Shy = Aspar Gp Master (sample track)

 

[reakt]

I have some fond memories of my c64. It was actually my second computer, after the Vic20. Here's a photo of me, taken about 23 years ago, showing off my latest high score on my beloved c64.

As you can see I was the cool kid on the block (yes, even from that young age) as I had the floppy disk drive for it. I can't remember what game I was playing at the time. I do remember that my favourite game on the c64 ever was The Last Ninja 2 but this would come much later.

 

[Gazunta]

Am I a sad case for spending the last fifteen minutes looking at that photo trying to figure out what was that game?

The pattern on the left should be a tip-off but I got nothing. What year would that have been taken?

 

[Enk]

Finally updated the second post bringing the links up to date. Also I meant to post this a while back but for those that haven't seen it here's the new Commodore:

Apparently these ranged from $3,500 to $5,000, a far cry from the friendly pricepoints that the brand was once know for.

Am I a sad case for spending the last fifteen minutes looking at that photo trying to figure out what was that game?

The pattern on the left should be a tip-off but I got nothing. What year would that have been taken?

Looks like a colorful Space Invaders clone but the pattern on the left of the screen kinda looks like a color reversed reflection of the lovely wallpaper behind the screen.

 

[Schrade]

Looks like a colorful Space Invaders clone but the pattern on the left of the screen kinda looks like a color reversed reflection of the lovely wallpaper behind the screen.

That looks more like a helix.

 

[reakt]

Am I a sad case for spending the last fifteen minutes looking at that photo trying to figure out what was that game?

The pattern on the left should be a tip-off but I got nothing. What year would that have been taken?

Guys, thanks for trying to figure out which game it was!
I think the photo was taken in 1984 or 1985. I have rescanned it and can show you the part showing just the game in a little more detail...

Not sure if it's much better though sorry.
One of the games I've just remembered that I used to play at the time the picture was taken was a Lode Runner clone called Frantic Freddie - see here for details:
http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/reviews/view.php%3Fid%3D53

I remember that game because is had music from Beethoven's fifth in it!
Anyway, the photo definitely doesn't show that game as I've just watched a video on YouTube showing gameplay from Frantic Freddie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oDpuxJ_fT8

So goodness knows what game is shown in the photo! As someone else said, it does look like a space invaders clone.

 

[neopokekun]

Some more current C64 devlopment diaries.

SEUCK Sideways
The original Soot Em Up Construction Kit had vertical scrolling, now it's horizontal.

The Wild Bunch
A C64 conversion of an early Firebird budget game that was released for the Spectrum and Amstrad. Will also have a limited edition with authentic packaging.

 

[haowan]

For the update today I will do another game focus but with an extra (and rather cool) bonus. In another thread someone was raving about how Exile stomps the ever living hell out of Metroid in terms of an atmospheric openworld in an 8bit, sci-fi setting. So I looked it up and tried it out.

Originally it was a game made for the BBC Micro but then retooled and ported over to the C64 (and thus revamped again for the Amiga). While it seems like a pretty good game, whether it’s a superior game to Metroid is highly debatable. I still recommend you read the instructions and try out the game for yourself.

Also in my digging I came across the fan sequel, The Nameless, which seems pretty solid. It has a bit of that Hurrican-esc polish that elevates it above such remakes like Paradroid (though I recommend using JoytoKey for the controller users out there). Click the title screen to get the game.

Exile is pretty much my favourite game ever. I only got to play the C64 version recently, after we found a .TAP version that didn't have its copy protection compromised. The 64 version runs REALLY slowly. The best version for performance is the Amiga version, and this one also has the most immersive and forgiving game design. I still haven't completed any version of Exile, and I received the original BBC version on its release for Christmas in 1988, when I was just 10 years old. The main problem with the Amiga version is that the tunnels are less uniform, so getting around is much more of a pain than in the BBC or 64 versions, which have very straight tunnels.

IMO it's not really worth comparing it to Metroid. While there are similarities, they're pretty much limited to "when you get a new item, try using it in all the places where you can't progress yet".

Exile's puzzles make heavy use of the game's physics engine, and the interaction between various game elements. This, at least, Ovine's fan-sequel gets pretty much right. Otherwise, I really didn't think their interpretation of Exile did the original justice in any of the ways in which the original was great.

These days, I think Exile might be a bit of a tall order for people to seriously play and enjoy. It might be worth finding some kind of getting started guide, or even a walk-through, before trying to play the game. I started and nearly finished a walkthrough of the Amiga version over here, and there's an excellent illustrated BBC/Electron walkthrough here. EDIT C64 SOLUTION HERE.

Here's my tribute thread on Eurogamer.
Here's the definitive goggle-bypassing BBC version tribute page.
Here's Arne's excellent Exile concept art page.

 

[MeowthMan]

Jon Wells is doing SEUCK Sideways - he was the master of SEUCK trickery back in the day!

 

[Spectral Glider]

Finally updated the second post bringing the links up to date. Also I meant to post this a while back but for those that haven't seen it here's the new Commodore:

Apparently these ranged from $3,500 to $5,000, a far cry from the friendly pricepoints that the brand was once know for.

Had no idea about that, interesting. Don't know if I'm crazy about the skins though. Think I would rather a case with a nice big Commodore symbol and not much else.

 

[BSS]

So someone said to me yesterday while discussing something mostly unrelated, "foot on space bar", and I instantly knew he was talking about C64 games.

I never did this, but now that I think about it, it's so obvious. I don't know why this never occurred to me in my youth. So many games would just use the space bar as a second button or whatever, but morons like me had to take a hand off the joystick.

Is anyone else guilty of this?

 

[reakt]

So someone said to me yesterday while discussing something mostly unrelated, "foot on space bar", and I instantly knew he was talking about C64 games.

I never did this, but now that I think about it, it's so obvious. I don't know why this never occurred to me in my youth. So many games would just use the space bar as a second button or whatever, but morons like me had to take a hand off the joystick.

Is anyone else guilty of this?

Yes, I can remember doing this. I actually had my C64 set up on the floor at one time, just in front of the chair - ideal position for the "foot on space bar" trick.

 

[Gazunta]

You could have just plugged a second controller into Port One and hit that with your foot, too.

Kids these days don't know how good they have it, etc.

 

[DCharlie]

what the hell happened to the Paradroid remake from Jester ?

Anyways.

Recently i've been on a Sentinel kick - such a great game for it's time.

TWO ZZap!64 Gold Medals and NO SCORE? :bowdown.

 

[nofi]

Some more current C64 devlopment diaries.

SEUCK Sideways
The original Soot Em Up Construction Kit had vertical scrolling, now it's horizontal.

The Wild Bunch
A C64 conversion of an early Firebird budget game that was released for the Spectrum and Amstrad. Will also have a limited edition with authentic packaging.

I loved The Wild Bunch!

That's all. Sorry.

 

[Acosta]

what the hell happened to the Paradroid remake from Jester ?

Anyways.

Recently i've been on a Sentinel kick - such a great game for it's time.

TWO ZZap!64 Gold Medals and NO SCORE? :bowdown.

HE'S BACK!

Really glad to have you again in the madhouse DCharlie

 

[Enk]

Some more current C64 devlopment diaries.

SEUCK Sideways
The original Soot Em Up Construction Kit had vertical scrolling, now it's horizontal.

I remember reading about this a while back. I hope it eventualy gets released as I would love to make a sise scrolling SHMUP. Speaking of which, due the amazing wonders of PSP custom firmware and the perfection that is PSPVICE, I'm think I might start on my SEUCK project again. It will be alot easier to work on in little spurts when i'm bored at work.

You could have just plugged a second controller into Port One and hit that with your foot, too.

Kids these days don't know how good they have it, etc.

This reminded me of something I did when I was young. Like many other kids, when I finally got my hand in the NES Power Glove I was so dissappointed with it that i demanded it to be banished from the game room. So one day I get this wacky idea and decided to take apart this C64 joystick (I had several so I wasn't worried about breaking it):

I then took out the wiring and wove it through a wool glove. Each finger was given a function:

index- joystick left
middle- joystick right
ring- joystick down
pinky- joystick up
thunb- fire

(for lefties switch the first two fingers)

I then hooked it up to my Genesis and played Sonic. Suprisingly it worked out quite well. I don't remember what I did with it afterwards. Probably got bored with it and put the joystick back together again.

 

[nasagoal]

thanks al lot... this thread is unbelievable and brings back great memories of my childhood... just a moment, gotta wipe the tears out of my eyes

 

[bjork]

You could have just plugged a second controller into Port One and hit that with your foot, too.

Kids these days don't know how good they have it, etc.

That's what I always did for my secondary weapons on Spy Hunter.

 

[Enk]

It's been 364 (?) days since the last post. Here is a list of what's new involving the C64, its games, and music. I'm sure there is some stuff missed so fill in the gaps if you like. I'll be updating again soonish with some of the newer C64 remakes that have been coming out.


Play up to 500 C64 games online

Thanks to c64s.com you can now play a good handful of C64 games from your browser.

Link HERE



C64 Virtual Console releases

As of last year C64 games have been releasing on the Wii's VC. I've only played The Last Ninja but the emulation is pretty good and free of the softness that plagues TG16 games. Also all the games come with a C64 keyboard screen to play around with. Here's a listing of what's available:

Europe

Winter Games
Last Ninja 1,2,3
Impossible Mission 1,2
Mayhem in Monsterland
Boulder Dash
Jumpman
Pitstop2
International Karate 1 and +
Summer Games 2
Cybernoid
Nebulus
Paradroid
World Games
California Games
Uridium

America

Last Ninja
Pitstop 2
International Karate
Summer Games 2




Great Giana Sisters Remake

In a shocking surprise, the Great Giana Sisters gets a heart filled remake for the DS. Only released in Euroland at the moment, but the ESRB has recently given it a rating so it may come stateside. Also surprisingly, the game looks and sounds really good.

Trailer HERE
Website HERE




Chris Huelsbeck: Symphonic Shades

Wonderful recreations of classic C64 and Amiga themes!

The Great Giana Sisters
Turrican 2
Turrican 3
R-Type
Apidya
Jim Power

Back in Time 2008

More classic themes done live:

Mutants (performed by Fred Gray)
The Last Ninja 2
Aztec Challenge



VICE 2.1 released

Infamous C64 emulator got a recent update. List of changes can be found HERE.

Emulator download HERE



C64 Chiptunes: SID Player for iPhone

I don't have an iPhone but this app strikes my interest. You can find out more information on it HERE.

 

[Mar]

My favourite GAF thread is alive. ALIVE!

Something else that might be of interest to C64 enthusiasts. EDGE recently released 200 covers for its 200th issue. A number of those were of C64 games.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/edge-200-full-cover-gallery

 

[neopokekun]

As of last year C64 games have been releasing on the Wii's VC. I've only played The Last Ninja but the emulation is pretty good and free of the softness that plagues TG16 games. Also all the games come with a C64 keyboard screen to play around with.

The VC emulator can't handle Mayhem in Monsterland to well.

Mayhem also had a 15th anniversary release from Psytronik (it's ntsc fixed to).

Some of the Psytronik releases I've got recently:

 

[Enk]

How the heck did I miss Mayhem in Monsterland the first time around? That game looks really good for C64. Almost has a Kirby like look to it. For old times' sake I'll do a profile on it.

-Console style speeds were made possible due to developers taking advantage of a bug in the graphics chip
-Received a controversial perfect score in Commodore Format magazine
-Scored a %97 in Zzap! 64
-PSP port can be found HERE
-Video of game HERE
-More information on game HERE

 

[neopokekun]

Here is a really good 64 minutes long video about the C64, well worth checking out if you like the C64 or are interested in 8 bit games and hardware in general, how they are made and examples of the tricks used:

The Ultimate Commodore 64 Talk

"Everything about the C64 in 64 Minutes Retrocomputing is cool as never before. People play C64 games in emulators and listen to SID music, but few people know much about the C64 architecture. This talk attempts to communicate 'everything about the C64' to the listener, including its internals and quirks, as well as the tricks that have been used in the demoscene, trying to revive the spirit of times when programmers counted clock cycles and hardware limitations were seen as a challenge."

 

[Enk]

REMAKES

Fun filled tributes, imaginative reimagings, or rapings of nostalgia, C64 remakes can be either hit or shit. It seems like C64 has a constant flood of remakes coming out at a steady rate. Here are some of those that have been released recently, including one of my favorite C64 games, Cauldron. Good or bad, you be the judge. Also be sure to check out this amazing thread that contains a lot more suggestions.



Cavelon
LINK

Fireant
LINK

Zynapse
LINK

The Trapdoor
LINK

Cybernoid 3
LINK

Hunchback
LINK

Cauldron
LINK

 

[Spectral Glider]

REMAKES

Thanks for the link. Downloaded that Marble Madness remake, it's pretty cool, never knew it existed.

 

[Sintoid]

My all-time favorite C64 game is a strategy game called The Sentinel (which, for whatever reason, was called The Sentry when I bought it in the US). I've played it on and off for about twenty years (via emulator) and I still haven't beaten it. (Mostly because it has 10,000 stages.)

Laugh at those graphics if you want, but it's the only game I know of on the C64 that was in full 3D. A perfect example of how to let your low polygon count dictate your art style, instead of trying to push more polygons than the machine can deliver.

Describing the gameplay would take more time than I have right now: best to read the Wikipedia entry. Amazing that a person working alone (Geoff Crammond) could make such a quirky and yet commercially viable game in those days.

Brofist with you man cause you understand my nickname

 

[Hyrule Warrior]

Brofist with you man cause you understand my nickname

Wow...did you just forget to hit the Submit Reply button for the past 6+ years or something?

Not gonna complain too much, the thread title made me feel all warm and fuzzy from the memories.

 

[E-phonk]

Not gonna complain too much, the thread title made me feel all warm and fuzzy from the memories.

Same here, first thing I thought when I saw that title: "A recent C64 thread with lots of replies that I haven't seen that - that's impossible".
Seems I was right.

 

[KojiKnight]

Brofist with you man cause you understand my nickname

Whatyearisthis.gif

 

[goonergaz]

I remember asking for a spectrum because I thought the C64 was too much, I remember Christmas day, my parents would play games with us and hold back the big 'surprises' until the end. Problem was as most the other presents were games it didn't work out too well!

Initially I opened a C64 game and was like 'mum and dad screwed up and bought the wrong format' but as the C64 games started piling up I began to believe! First game I booted up was Ghostbusters - man that speach was so real at the time, pressing the space bar at the right time with the boucing ball lol

 

[Spectral Glider]

Woah, like the C64 itself, it's a blast from the past!

 

[Cornbread78]

Whadafuq? 2008? Necroist of necrobumps confirmed..

 

[mclem]

I thought it was just someone inspired to respond after that "8-bit computers were rubbish" thread.

 

[Ketch]

Damn, I just browsed this whole thread without realizing it was started like 7 years ago.

I don't think there's anything wrong with bringing it back to life though. The C64 was fucking awesome. Can we still have this thread?

My grandma had a C64 at her house, and everytime I would go over there to be babysat she'd get it set up for me. Pretty sure I was typing LOAD"*",8,1 before I started kindergarten, which means I've been playing games since before I could read.

She had a lot of games. The ones I remember the most are Ghostbusters, Batman, HERO, Arkanoid, Impossible mission, Rags to Riches, and the OS level paint program. Lots of really great memories.... and now I miss my grandma. =(

 

[KTallguy]

I loved my c64, although I was a bit to young to be truly conscious of what I was doing on it.

I remember Impossible Mission, Arkenoid, and a few others. I remember the loading took forever. I remember starting the loading on a game, going to eat dinner as fast as I could, and then running back to the computer. What a childhood.

 

[sploatee]

Hurray for this thread!

 

[Mengy]

She had a lot of games. The ones I remember the most are Ghostbusters, Batman, HERO, Arkanoid, Impossible mission, Rags to Riches, and the OS level paint program. Lots of really great memories.... and now I miss my grandma. =(

Ah man, Ghostbusters on the C64 was an incredible game! My entire neighborhood used to take turns playing the hell out of that on my C64.

 

[Lalalandia]

This may be one of the best necro-bumps ever, damn how I was jealous of the cool kids with their C64s. Ireland was a good bit less prosperous than our neighbours the UK in the 80s and early 90s so these were less common here than there. How I lusted after those amazing graphics and how I envied the easy to ... 'back up'... tapes even if the loads were miserable. I remember playing the C64 port of Street Fighter 2 once and the two separate loads for a minute and a half of gameplay were just tortuos.

 

[Flappy]

"Rise from your grave!"

 

[Enk]

Oh hi old thread! Fancy seeing you back.

I was just thinking the other day how I had an itch to play Mail Order Monsters again. Guess it's time to make a sandwich, brew some tea, clean my room, feed the cat, and run some errands while the Electronic Arts' screen loads. Such a weird RPG, top down action, competitive fighter hybrid that game was.

Oh man that title screen music just gives me the fuzzy feels and gets me all pumped up for monster mashing action!

Mail Order Monsters

Speaking of monster mashing, The Movie Monster Game! Now there was another fun little concept for the time. An isometric city destroying game starring Godzilla! The were multiple single player mode options from city destroying to a one on one versus mode, and the movie theater presentation where it showed "trailers" for upcoming Epyx games before the main game began was very cute.

And again, that title screen music fuzzy feels!

The Movie Monster Game

 

[Enk]

Since this thread was a gathering of everything C64 related, including recent news, llama and camel aficionado, and former C64 alum, Jeff Minter, has jumped into Virtual Reality! He is currently porting his excellent Tempest 2000 successor, TxK, to the Oculus Rift! I managed to play some of the demo he recently released and it works quite well. Give it a chance if you have the hardware. If not, it's still worth checking out on the Vita.

TxK VR Demo
TxK VR GAF Thread
TxK VR Video

Ooh! I've been getting nostalgic about this old girl recently.

I'm guessing it's that time of the decade again.

 

[MicroByter]

Wow, blew the dust off of this thread!

I cannot believe all the memories that flooded back after seeing Load "*",8,1.
I miss those days.
I miss Stunt Car Racer.

I'm going to find and dig up and Amiga thread now.

 

[Enk]

Wow, blew the dust off of this thread!

I cannot believe all the memories that flooded back after seeing Load "*",8,1.
I miss those days.
I miss Stunt Car Racer.

I'm going to find and dig up and Amiga thread now.

Here you go:

The Official AMIGA "Rosetinted" Thread

Sadly I missed the Amiga boat due to me living in the US. I only got pieces of it by owning a Genesis. I did jump onto the bandwagon years back due to this thread and fell in love with the Turrican ports. Those were some fantastic, criminally under talked about games. Also finally playing the correct version of Shadow of the Beast was parallax scrolling bliss!

 

[Spectral Glider]

I want a copy of this:

http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-c64-book

 

[Lorcain]

I just listened to The Last Ninja soundtrack again. It's insane how good it is...by today's standards.

I also used to sit and just listen to the menu music for Rambo. So good. Someone mentioned earlier in this thread (posted in 2008) the drop ship music in Aliens. That was awesome too. The C64 could crank out good music.