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[Enk]

Flying high with the navy?

The secrets of joysticks revealed?!?! :lol

Ms. Pac-Man has got some rump on her. No wonder Pac-Man has such a big grin.

Looking at all these ads make me wish I still had all my old computer game magazines. One ad that somehow scarred itself into my subconscious was for this game.

Never owned it, always wanted to. If you can find the ad I would love to see it.

 

[vdo]

I am sooooo glad you made this thread (as it caused me to find the demo I had been looking for - mentioned at the end of my post).

It's weird because last week I was thinking back about the C64 and how it would be cool to have a thread with a blinking cursor under a READY.

Then I glance up at the stickies and see the thread title and go "Wait - is that what I think it is?!"

Oh man, I remember this joystick!

My Commodore journey started with the purchase of a used C-64 in 7th grade. It came with the audio tape drive and the cartridge-based Choplifter, which I played the holy hell out of. I used to buy "Compute" magazines and type in hundreds of lines of code in the back of the magazine in order to get simple games up and running, which of course lead to my career today (not in games, but in programming).

I was introduced to it in 7th grade also. A teacher at our school said he would teach computers for whoever could convince their parents to buy C64s. So I went home and started working on convincing my dad to get one and am so glad I did, because that got me into programming also.

I got so used to being able to just instantly turn on a computer and start programming that when people showed me IBM compatible PCs, I thought they had taken a step backwards :lol. All I could do at the DOS prompt was list out directories, change directories and run programs. It was foreign to me that I could not program right at the prompt you booted to. I really believe that if I had started with a PC (back then or even what they are today), I would not have gotten into programming so early (I like to think I would have eventually) since there is nothing that just put programming right in your face the way the C64 did.

It's interesting as well, that Commodore marketed it in that way - I mean when you look at the commercials listed in the OP, their Family Pack had an included "Introduction to BASIC" program:

It was cool they were targeting all members of a family with that, something you really don't see now.

God, I programmed so much on it. One time I made a monster truck drawing out of hundreds of line and circle commands. I just kept adjusting the coordinates for each line until they came out and went on to the next line. Then I'd run the program and it would draw it out.

I also made a text based game called Calories in where you had a set amount of calories that if you used up you would starve - you had to balance going to work, going to the store to get food and eating it and doing other activities and finish the objective of the game (can't remember what it was - maybe living out so many days, I don't know) without losing all your calories. The thing is I made it display the text in windows that would nest and display over each other - so, hey, I was doing windows before MS, lol.

Oh and I also spent hours on the Mail Order Monster's game in the OP. There was just something about that game :

Unfortunately my 1541 kept getting worse and worse at breaking down until after a while when it came back from the shop it would be so intermittent at reading disks that finally we just stopped attempts at getting it repaired. ; ;


****************************************************

OK, enough of my personal nostalgia. I am going to contribute to the thread a demo that I didn't see yet. I actually thought I wouldn't see this again and then when I saw all the demos listed in the OP, I thought I'd search YouTube and see if I could find it and so thanks to this thread giving me the idea to do that, I did find it.

It is advertising a COMPUTE! book and it shows off SID music and sprites and stuff. I used to watch and listen to it over and over because I was just amazed at what it made my C64 do during the demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjGDMFG1BZk

The first song is AWESOME and so check it out at least for that.

I should have gotten that book back then as reading the features now it looks pretty cool.

After the first song, there is a bunch of drawing and area fill demos, but then at around the 5 minute mark it shows a SID player that is part of the engine that is in the book.

Then at the 7:50 mark, it shows everything put together to Bach's Invention 13 (this is where I was first introduced to that song and also one of the things that made me like to play the demo over and over at the time):

 

[Totalriot]

So now we're at BASIC programming already? Fine, although not really gaming related, no C64 nostalgia thread would be complete without someting like this:

It's a tool to calculate your football (soccer) bets :lol

 

[Enk]

Thanks vdo for the demo video! I’ll add it to the front page. And thanks Totalriot for causing my brain to bleed in the late hours. I wished I got into the programming side of C64 but I guess I was just too young and had too many games to care. Probably the closest thing I got to BASIC was when I tried to make an Evil Dead RPG back in '98 for the BASIC built Hamster Republic RPG editor (aka-OHRrpgCE).

As for front page updates I've been going through several C64 games, trying to find the ones worth posting. But since it’s well beyond my dirt nappy time I’ll just post Zzap!64’s review for Myth.

Zzap!64's Myth review

Here are some snippets:

 

[SpoonyBard]

Action Replay Mk VI:
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=056&page=041&magazine=zzap

I used to have one of those. It was easy to get infinite lives in almost every game. And also you could save the game state with games that didn't have game saves. And even if they did it was quicker to save with the AR

 

[Gazunta]

Fun "This entire industry would be nothing without the C64" fact: The graphics for Myth were by Bob Stevenson (He also did the title screen for The Sentinel, and all the graphics for IO, both referenced already in this thread). He's the main artist and co-founder of Planet Moon Studios, the team behind Giants: Citizen Kabuto. He also was behind the visuals of MDK.

Bob Stevenson rocks the fucking house.

 

[Dimmuxx]

Thanks for this awesome thread!

 

[Project Midway]

In Italian it was "SOLE NERO", that means BLACK SUN.

In English version the code for nukes is "Midnight Sun".

 

[eso76]

I’ll just post Zzap!64’s review for Myth.

great game, i was sooo disappointed when i found out the guy from the future wearing a baseball jacket (or whatever that is) had been replaced with a manly barbarian for the amiga version.

 

[womp]

This is the greatest thread I've ever seen on this forum, even it's title is sheer brilliance. I'm still shocked to see it quite frankly.

The Commodore 64 is still my favorite system of all time. I remember when the NES came out I scoffed it off as a downgrade after the almighty C64, (Which it was, but Zelda won me over) especially in light of the amazing SID the NES couldn't compete. To this day nothing will ever erase the joy and utter fun times I had with this incredible system.

Nothing.

Thanks for creating this thread and representing an amazing era in gaming. I'd give my left nut to go back to these times and days. Oh to be 14 again and have all that spare time to devote to such classics as Ultima IV, Legacy of the Ancients, Questron II and Bard's Tale II.

I'm getting sad.

1541 was the shit.

 

[Squeak]

Habitat and QuantumLnk

I know I mentioned this before briefly, but I think it deserves more attention.
Demo reel of QuantumLink with some brief footage of Habitat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgH27p-FAM

QuantumLink really was for all intents and purposes a tiny proprietary internet ten years before the "real" internet came to public attention.

Habitat was Lucasfilm Games foray into online worlds. It was kind of like an online Maniac Mansion with Animal Crossing like elements and MMORPG elements (like weekly tasks and adventures).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)
Remember all the links at the bottom of the article.

When people think Lucasfilm Games (before Arts), they for some reason only think Maniac Mansion or Zak Mckracken. But those were just two of the many very high quality titles they released during the eighties.

There were the fractal 3d games, that combined state of the art 3d fractal graphics with great arcade gameplay:

The Eidolon (my personal favourite)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9cTvuwYi3w

Rescue on Fractalus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbZ-chrOgGg&feature=related

Ballblazer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qri5xavBdh4

The Labyrinth:
http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=1472

Koronis Rift
http://atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=2836

Articles and interviews:
http://www.langston.com/LFGames/
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap10/lucas_part1.html
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap11/lucas_part2.html

 

[ckohler]

And no one ever seems to remember this game:

Cliff Hanger is probably one of my all time favorite games.

I DO! I DO! Cliff Hanger was awesome. It was like playing a Roadrunner cartoon.

Now, here's something I bet most all of you had that wasn't a game:

Fast Hack'em

The indispensable copy utility. This is were 90% of all Commodore 64/128 gamers got their games. Not from stores, but from their friends using this utility. Anyway, back to games. Here's one that I spent weeks with. It was basically a 'build your own role playing game' system.

Adventure Construction Set

 

[Prospero]

Holy crap, I got the online version of The Sentinel to work!!

Controls are as follows (from the Wikipedia page, which also has some of the game rules):

* Look around by moving the pointer on the screen (press S=Left, D=Right, L=Up, <=Down)
* Toggle cursor on|off. You turn faster with it off (press SPACE)
* Absorb an object to gain its energy (point a square where an object is present and press A)
* Create trees in empty squares (point the desired square and press T)
* Create one or more boulders in empty squares (point the desired square and press B)
* Absorb one or more boulders (point the boulder on the bottom of the stack and press A)
* Create a new Synthoid shell in an empty square or on a boulder (point the desired place and press R)
* Transfer consciousness to another Synthoid (point the Synthoid and press Q)

* Hyperspace to a random part of the level at the expense of 3 units of energy (press H) (note that the player may not hyperspace to a higher square; only one of equal or lower height). Also used to hyperspace to the next level when the player has reached the Sentinel's platform.
* Rotate 180 degrees (press U)

On the title screen when you're asked for the landscape number, just press Enter, and it'll take you to the first landscape in the game (#0000). When you beat a landscape you'll be given a password to a new one--the number of energy units you have left is equivalent to the number of stages you're allowed to skip. (So if you finish landscape #0001, and you have ten energy units left, you'll be given the password to #0011.)

The upper left hand corner tells how many energy units you have left--a tree represents 1, a rock (which looks like an upside-down U) is 2; a robot is 3; and there's some other larger unit that represents 10 or 15, but I forget what it is. The upper right hand corner tells you if you're being scanned by a Sentinel, which will leach away your energy and turn it into the trees that dot the landscape. Sound will give you a lot of info as well--whether you're being scanned; when the Sentinel and his assistants are turning; etc.

Basically, what you want to do is this (for the earliest levels):

--place the cursor over a square you can see
--make a boulder
--place the cursor over the top face of that boulder
--make a robot
--transfer consciousness to the new robot.

Then you'll be at a higher position on the landscape, where you'll be able to see new features, etc. If you see any trees, absorb those by placing the cursor over the square they're on. Also, don't forget to absorb the energy of the robot whose body you just vacated.

Eventually, you'll be able to see the platform that the Sentinel is standing on--absorb it, create a new robot on that platform, transfer to it, and hyperspace out, and you've won the stage.

As I said earlier in the thread, this is my all-time favorite C64 game. I hope I have all my old passwords written down somewhere.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Fast Hack'em. I forgot about that.

 

[Spectral Glider]

Anybody else have a 1571 drive? I did. Got it for Christmas of 85. Was much quieter than the 41, and 100 times more durable.

 

[Squeak]

Anybody else have a 1571 drive? I did. Got it for Christmas of 85. Was much quieter than the 41, and 100 times more durable.

But not quite compatible.

 

[Spectral Glider]

But not quite compatible.

100% percent compatible, was the only drive I used.

 

[richman555]

Not to sound off topic, I thought I had read somewhere that the Wii virtual console will include some C64 or Epyx titles.

I absolutely loved Summer Games, and that you would name your player, assign his/her country, and if you won the gold, they would play your anthem. It was a great multiplayer game.


The diving events where great!

 

[Danj]

So is this thread exclusively C64-only, or is there a place for Amstrad CPC or BBC Micro owners?

 

[straydog1980]

is it bad that the first time I see this thread upon opening GAF, the only thing I see is "sticky LOAD" ?????

 

[Jasoco]

In 4th grade our class had an old Radio Shack computer with a cassette tape reader attached to it. I remember how much shit we had to type just to get it to load Frogger. :lol

 

[Diablohead]

So did the c64 get dizzy games? first time I played the games was the early pc versions that must have been in dos or something and I loved them, but never realised they were once on the c64.

 

[Enk]

So is this thread exclusively C64-only, or is there a place for Amstrad CPC or BBC Micro owners?

I personally don't mind talking about the Amiga, Amstrad or Spectrum now that most of the big C64 games have been talked about, but that also depends on how other people in this thread feel about it. Also I'm keeping the updates to the first page solely for C64 purposes due to limited the space.




So to everyone still reading this thread: Yeah or Nay in allowing talk on other old computer systems or just keep it C64?

Habitat and QuantumLnk

I know I mentioned this before briefly, but I think it deserves more attention.
Demo reel of QuantumLink with some brief footage of Habitat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjgH27p-FAM

QuantumLink really was for all intents and purposes a tiny proprietary internet ten years before the "real" internet came to public attention.

Habitat was Lucasfilm Games foray into online worlds. It was kind of like an online Maniac Mansion with Animal Crossing like elements and MMORPG elements (like weekly tasks and adventures).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)
Remember all the links at the bottom of the article.

When people think Lucasfilm Games (before Arts), they for some reason only think Maniac Mansion or Zak Mckracken. But those were just two of the many very high quality titles they released during the eighties.

There were the fractal 3d games, that combined state of the art 3d fractal graphics with great arcade gameplay:

It's sad to see such a big pioneer in gaming being reduced to making generic Star Wars games. Also the video for Eidolon was impressive. Even more so considering all the little animations the enemies have. I'll add this to the list.

Here the next group of suggestions to try out:



-From System 3, the developers of The Last Ninja
-Was remade into Conan for the NES
-Action/adventure with breathtaking graphics and animation!
-Zzap!64 review HERE



-One on one fighting! Like Street Fighter but without the sparkle!
-More information HERE


-One of the early, preLucasArts' games
-Took advantage of fractal technology which leads to some impressive 3d effects
-Check out the video HERE
-More information HERE



-From the creators of Star Control
-Like chess but with dragons, goblins, shapeshifters and unicorns!
-Cast spells like shifting time and summoning elements
-Lots of information HERE
-Information on the game's mechanics HERE



The Last Ninja 3
-The final (?) chapter in the epic Last Ninja triology
-Look HERE for a ton of info on The Last Nnja series

 

[maxmars]

Adventure Construction Set.. Oh man I played that sooo much! As a game (dungeon crawler), it wasn't actually very good, but as a game editor it was excellent. It could even fill in what you didn't, "inventing" names for characters, objects, locations.. did anybody else play that?

 

[Amon37]

Fast Hack'em, Damn I remember that now.

I vote keeping it C64/128 related. Otherwise the thread is going to go crazy. with 10 different topics going on at once.

 

[Chemo]

is it bad that the first time I see this thread upon opening GAF, the only thing I see is "sticky LOAD" ?????

Every time I see it, for a split second I think I'm in OT and it's a porno thread.

 

[Dimmuxx]

Detective was one of my favorite games for the c64. Too bad I never finished it because I always got shot at one point in the game.

 

[Squeak]

So to everyone still reading this thread: Yeah or Nay in allowing talk on other old computer systems or just keep it C64?

Yeah! But let's keep it to 8bit and 68000 equipped (the 68000 is 32 bit with a 16 bit bus) homecomputers.


Attention all Developers reading this thread!

http://www.langston.com/LFGames/TenTips.html
This is advice from the ancient wise at the top of mount Ludis Delectatio. More pertinent than ever.

 

[Victrix]

#9 should be burned onto the hands of any programmer who touches game code

Maybe I'm just getting crotchety, but my tolerance for shitty ui design and crap controls is at an all time low, I've quit a lot of decent games because the polish just wasn't there.

 

[Enk]

Yeah! But let's keep it to 8bit and 68000 equipped (the 68000 is 32 bit with a 16 bit bus) homecomputers.


Attention all Developers reading this thread!

http://www.langston.com/LFGames/TenTips.html
This is advice from the ancient wise at the top of mount Ludis Delectatio. More pertinent than ever.

So 1 Yay and 1 Nay. I agree if we were to move this discussion in that direction we should keep it limited to only old homecomputers (like Amiga and Spectrum) but let's hold off and see what other people think.

Also that article gives a pretty good perspective on the old ways of thought. Two of the rules stood out to me as a lot of developers today don't practice these as much:

 

[Gazunta]

So to everyone still reading this thread: Yeah or Nay in allowing talk on other old computer systems or just keep it C64?

I say keep this to C64 - and let's start lots of other threads to let each machine have their own moment in the sun

Would love to see a similar thread devoted to the Amiga.

 

[Gazunta]

Attention all Developers reading this thread!

http://www.langston.com/LFGames/TenTips.html
This is advice from the ancient wise at the top of mount Ludis Delectatio. More pertinent than ever.

Oh, awesome find. *Saves to network drive for everyone at work to see*

 

[Gazunta]

So did the c64 get dizzy games? first time I played the games was the early pc versions that must have been in dos or something and I loved them, but never realised they were once on the c64.

Yep, we got them all. Great series! Dizzy really started on the Spectrum, though.

 

[Squeak]

I say keep this to C64 - and let's start lots of other threads to let each machine have their own moment in the sun

Would love to see a similar thread devoted to the Amiga.

Trouble is that other platforms due to their relatively small installed base and more limited software library has less meat on them for reminiscence and discussion (perhaps with the exception of Amiga and Apple II).

I fear such threads would be very short lived and miss a lot of great things by dying too soon.

For example the old monochrome bitmapped 68000 Macs had few games, but a lot of them
were excellent and classics by any measure.

 

[Spectral Glider]

I say keep this to C64 - and let's start lots of other threads to let each machine have their own moment in the sun

Would love to see a similar thread devoted to the Amiga.

I agree, C-64 only for this one.

 

[Diablohead]

Yep, we got them all. Great series! Dizzy really started on the Spectrum, though.

Ah the Spectrum, i've played dizzy on them also (friends owned one each)... damn classic gaming memories

There is an Amiga thread somewhere also.

 

[Mar]

Keep this thread C64. I enjoy people talking about the other systems but this thread should remain 'officially' C64 only. As in, the OP and main updates are C64 games.

 

[Gen X]

So to everyone still reading this thread: Yeah or Nay in allowing talk on other old computer systems or just keep it C64?

Im going to say nay. Not to be a party pooper, but also because I would enjopy reading about the SPeccy and BBC days in seperate threads rather than filtering through posts and decyphering quotes.

I have fond memories from thos experiences also.

 

[Enk]

I say keep this to C64 - and let's start lots of other threads to let each machine have their own moment in the sun

Would love to see a similar thread devoted to the Amiga.

Well there already was an Amiga thread that was made last year. Not quite as elaborate as this one but filled with lots of goodness.
The Official AMIGA "Rosetinted" Thread

Lots of good looking Psygnosis games on that system.

There was also a Spectrum thread but it was very short lived.
The Official ZX Spectrum "Rosetinted" Thread

Since the responses are mostly NAY what I could do is link those threads to the front page if anyone wants to continue on with what those started. Here let's just keep it within the Commodore realm but open enough to discuss what the other home computers were offering at the time. Like for example look at the how Myth changed from Spetrum to C64 to Amiga to NES:

Spectrum

Commodore 64

Amiga

NES (aka-Conan)

 

[Spectral Glider]

NES (aka-Conan)

Speaking of one time C-64 games to NES conversions....there was rarely an NES version of a former C-64 game that I liked as much as the C-64 counterpart. The only one that I can think of that I kind of enjoyed was Kings of the Beach...but even then, I played the C-64 version much more.

 

[bjork]

You know, I'm gonna go on record as saying this is my favorite thread. :thumbs up:

 

[Mar]

Speaking of one time C-64 games to NES conversions....there was rarely an NES version of a former C-64 game that I liked as much as the C-64 counterpart.

No kidding. You seen the differences in the C64 Last Ninja 2 and the NES? My god, it's fucking hilarious. First time I seen the NES version I couldn't stop laughing. They even added a kooky sound track that destroys any atmosphere they created with the original game.

Watch a minute or so of the C64 one first:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNMcUzQ3Ws

Now the NES version:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6fLxjLVw4ts

Thank me for the laughs later.

 

[bishoptl]

I say keep this to C64 - and let's start lots of other threads to let each machine have their own moment in the sun

Would love to see a similar thread devoted to the Amiga.

Agreed and agreed.

 

[Gazunta]

No kidding. You seen the differences in the C64 Last Ninja 2 and the NES? My god, it's fucking hilarious. First time I seen the NES version I couldn't stop laughing. They even added a kooky sound track that destroys any atmosphere they created with the original game.

Thanks for the videos. In a "it's a small world" note, the NES version was programmed by Gary Liddon, who started off at Zzap! 64 and is now Jeff Minter's business manager (?!).

And the NES game was made by Beam Software, who are now Kromelbourne

 

[Mar]

Thanks for the videos. In a "it's a small world" note, the NES version was programmed by Gary Liddon, who started off at Zzap! 64 and is now Jeff Minter's business manager (?!).

And the NES game was made by Beam Software, who are now Kromelbourne

Oh wow I didn't even notice it was by Beam. They were incredible back in the 16bit days and did some of the best conversions around. What the hell happened to LN2 then?

As a side note, a good friend of mine almost got a job with Krome but ended up choosing Pandemic instead.

 

[Enk]

No kidding. You seen the differences in the C64 Last Ninja 2 and the NES? My god, it's fucking hilarious. First time I seen the NES version I couldn't stop laughing. They even added a kooky sound track that destroys any atmosphere they created with the original game.

Watch a minute or so of the C64 one first:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNMcUzQ3Ws

Now the NES version:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6fLxjLVw4ts

Thank me for the laughs later.

Wow I knew the NES version wasn't a clean port but I never realized it was that bad. The music for the NES is practically laughable and I never noticed how empty the world looked. I wonder what the hell happened there.

As I was scanning through some of the Zzap! 64 magazines and decided to collect a bunch of the ads. Here's some of them:

 

[Project Midway]

Maria Whittaker....mmmm..... *drools*

 

[The_Dude]

Another vote for keeping this a C64-only thread.

When I was about 8, I went into a local computer shop to ask if they had this and was told in no uncertain terms that they didn't deal in the occult!

Again, when I was about 8, I opened up my new issue of C+VG infront of my mum to find this cover in the form of a massive poster. Needless to say, my mum wasn't pleased!

 

[bjork]

Is the girl in the Barbarian ad the same lady who was November 1984 Playmate of the Month? those boobs look familiar

 

[The_Dude]

Just looked on Wikipedia, apparently her first appearance was in 1985 (in a UK newspaper), so that sounds like a no.