C64 at 30!

[patiirc]

http://blog.retrogamer.net/general/c64-turns-30-today/

 

The Commodore 64 turns 30. Happy Birthday Commodore 64, Happy Birthday.

 

So what was everyone's favourite game/games for the computer? Did you have any good or bad memories playing it?

 

Of course there is also the age old debate Speccy vs Commordore vs Amstrad, which one was better?

[ajmcstyles]

What an amazing machine back in its day.

 

I've been trying to find an old classic which is "stunt bike simulator" For the first level you must hang glide and jump onto your motorcycle, yeehaw kung-fu, Power Drift, Whizball, Kickstart 2, 180, Boulder Dash, Winter Olympics 1988, California Games, Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles (which came with a code booklet the game would ask for a code to be played one of 250 I think you had to have the instruction manual to find that code, shame the game never worked past level 7), Outrun, Spy Vs Spy, Spy Hunter, Toobin, Paperboy, Track and Field, Midnight Resistance, Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja the list goes on and on and on.

 

Only 30 WOW. My first gaming machine was a C64 I was only 3 back in 1988. I have 4 for some reason up in my parents attic just no cable to the TV. As I remember the power box got VERY VERY hot very quickly.

[PowerButchi]

Only dinnermashers had C64s.

 

ZX all the way.

[bAzTNM#1]

I had a C64, but I barely remember what I played with it. It was just there in my room, gathering dust. I had one you could put cartridges into the back of it. I believe it came with a Terminator 2 game.

 

As Handsome Butch says, Speccy all the way.

[windoesnot]

Our 1st home computer was the Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen, the good old days of putting a tape cassette in and waiting 5+ minutes for the thing to load, and thats if it did it 1st time!

 

Games I remember playing on it were the Dizzy games, Way of the Exploding Fist, Ghostbusters, Animal Vegetable Mineral and Sultans Maze.

 

Back in those days you were able to buy the games from newsagents for a few quid each.

 

Next computer we got was an Amiga 500+, good times

[Loki]

There were a couple of games on the C64 that I was really jealous of - Last Ninja 2, Paradroid, and in many respects it was a more complete Personal Computer, having a windows OS:

 

 

But it always felt a bit clunky and blocky for games in comparison to the Spectrum. It was the Ford Escort to the Spectrum's Capri.

[carolann]

We had a c64. My mum would spend hours playing Rock Man and some game where you had to run around a space ship collecting bits to make a shuttle. My dad would spend days huddled over the keyboard typing in code from a book to make new games that we never played. He broke the big aquarium in the living room by throwing the tape player bit after a long typing session and a series of errors. I remember having to rescue fish with my sister by putting them in saucepans.

[Surf Digby]

But it always felt a bit clunky and blocky for games in comparison to the Spectrum. It was the Ford Escort to the Spectrum's Capri.

It was very colourful, so with a bit of work on the backgrounds the games could look pretty incredible for an 8-bit machine (R-Type, for example), but for some reason the sprites were always about a quarter the size compared to other formats.

[Devon Malcolm]

Yep, I bloody loved the C64. Spent all my pocket money on games for about 2 years from The Likely Lads on Stockport Road.

 

Not sure if I had a favourite game but there were a number I played to death. I very rarely finished any games on it as well, the difficulty level always seemed quite high. I almost finished Hawkeye but never quite managed it, the same with the fairly similar Flimbo's Quest. Both great games.

 

I think I probably played Buggy Boy and Chip's Challenge most of all, though, but I'm sure I'll probably think of more. Easily my favourite non-console system.

[patiirc]

The Commodore 64 came quite out of the blue here, we had had a Commodore 16+4 for ages, but one Saturday, that all changed. My Dad had come back from working away, somewhere and dragged us all to the Co-Op which was a department store in the centre of Gloucester. I guess he had just been paid as we got a load of new stuff including some wallpaper and carpets ordered at the same time, but he also got the family a Commodore 64.

 

 

 

The pack came with Rambo II, Top Gun, Miami Vice, Platoon and the Great Escape as well as Trivial Pursuit, Every Second Counts, Bullseye and iirc The Krypton Factor. We then went to Woolworths afterwards and picked up A Beau Jolly 30 games compilation, called Red Hot Hits, which had the likes of FA Cup, Ghostbusters, Brian Jack's Superstar Challenge, Usagi Yojimbo, Zolyx and Park Patrol, as well as getting Robocop to boot. As a kid this was like sweet shop overload, so many games to play.

 

Out of the original games Miami Vice was fun but limited, Rambo II was bastard hard and Top Gun was odd, because if you played against the computer, their planes just span around in circles endlessly which was a bit daft. Trivial Pursuit was superb and still dig it out on emulation from time to time as the little guy who directs the game is quite funny, especially as he is dancing away to tunes.

 

First up we loaded Robocop, and the loading screen at the time was fantastic, looks awful today, but back then it was the dogs bollocks to an impressionable kid, especially with a loading tune to boot

 

 

From then on the C64 was a staple in the house for a good 3 or 4 years, we even joined the Computer Club, and got games like the Best of US Gold, just for joining and that had classics such as Beach Head, Beach Head II, Raid Over Moscow, Leaderboard and World Games (which is awesome) and then games such as Gary Lineker's Superstar ( spent one New Year's Eve, playing winner stays on, which was fun), International 3-D Tennis and so on.

 

It really was great times. I wasn't aware of the rivalry between that and the Speccy (at the time) because we'd only ever had a computer than about 2 people had ever given a toss about, so having something like this which had games that were great colourful and easily available was a marked change from what I had been used to. It wasnt until much much later we got a speccy from the carboot, and had some stimulating stuff like Train Similator , the nigh on impossible Wheelie and proceeded from there

 

Back to the C64, so many highlights there are too many too mention, Eddie Kidd's Jump Challange, Buggy Boy, Live and Let Die, Pro Power Boat Simulator, Air Combat Simulator, Kikstart II and the list goes on and one.

 

Here is a video with around 100 games that may stir some retro memories

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Yep, I got the Hollywood pack, too. Platoon was incredibly hard but I still played it a lot more than the rest of them.