Very old c64 games

r3nu4l

Following on from the best c64 games I was wondering if any of you ever owned any of the older Commodore 64 games.

I only got my C64 in 1986 but the first game I ever bought for it was Choplifter released in 1982. That was a simple but effective and addictive game where the objective was to pick up POWs and escort them back to base. Very repetitive, poor sprites even by C64 standards and overall a poor version of the Choplifter arcade game but despite all, strangely addictive and playable

Soemwhat newer was Booty developed in 1984. This was a standard early platformer with the main character (a pirate) challenged with picking up treasure throughout the ship. Of course, each part of the ship was represented by a static refreshed screen rather than any scrolling. The game was an advance on Choplifter in that the sprite graphics were better, more colour was used and the game had music.

Pitfall II was also released in 1984 (I never got the original pitfall). This game confirms the trend for the day. A jungle explorer, similar to Indiana Jones?) hunts for treasure in another platformer. A similar number of colours used in this as in Booty and a playable enough game with many traps to avoid etc.

So, these were the predecessors to games such as the Last Ninja series, Turrican and Double Dragon. Did anyone else have any really old C64 games that gave you an idea of how much the developers in later days managed to get from the C64 compared with those developers in the early days?

Ph3n0m

Old games

Lets talk Bruce Lee, Colossus Chess, House of Usher, New York City, Raid over Moscow, Summer Games, Super Zaxxon, Ultima III, Wargames

and my oldest one to memory was Snokie

Oh I am getting really nostalgic now

Dr Bob

I originally had an atari 800xl before I had a c64 , and a lot if the older c64 stuff was either developed in parallel or originally debuted on the Atari's
if you're looking for good old stuff:
Boulderdash (was rereleased in about 6 billion formats over the years)
Miner 2049er (great , but brick hard platformer - manic miner was apparantly a rip off of this )
Bruce Lee : excellent platformer had 2 play co -op as well!
Blue Max (sort of vaguely strategic zaxxon clone , set in WW1 , had a rubbish sequel)
Montezuma's revenge: my favourite platformer of all time , still plays well today
Rally speedway: (micro machines ala 1983, came with its own track construction kit too)

Cyrus

remember creatures and the graphics they managed to get out of the c64 then!

Ph3n0m

Cyrus wrote:

remember creatures and the graphics they managed to get out of the c64 then!

that and creatures 2 were the finest that the c64 had to offer

Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime

aka

C.R.E.A.T.U.R.E.S

r3nu4l

luas_dublin wrote:

Blue Max (sort of vaguely strategic zaxxon clone , set in WW1 , had a rubbish sequel)

Wow, I'd forgotten about Blue Max. I loved that game! Released in 1983. That was actually a very well put together game. The bomb drops worked very well

I can't believe I'd forgotten about that game. Probably one of the most addictive games I ever played.

Dr Bob

r3nu4l wrote:

Wow, I'd forgotten about Blue Max. I loved that game! Released in 1983. That was actually a very well put together game. The bomb drops worked very well

I can't believe I'd forgotten about that game. Probably one of the most addictive games I ever played.

i had the Atari cartridge version of it (the Atari 800 I mean , not a VCS cart) and it was excellent , played the c64 version of it a few weeks ago , and that's almost identical and still very playable.

LoGiE

r3nu4l wrote:

Soemwhat newer was Booty developed in 1984. This was a standard early platformer with the main character (a pirate) challenged with picking up treasure throughout the ship. Of course, each part of the ship was represented by a static refreshed screen rather than any scrolling. The game was an advance on Choplifter in that the sprite graphics were better, more colour was used and the game had music.
[

Booty is an absolute classic! It took me a LONG time to finish that one.

TinCool

I used to have a cartridge version of Jupiter Lander on C64. In fact, I think it was the only cartridge game I had for it. Had loads for the old Vic20 back in the day.

hamster

Nice Topic r3nu4l !

Old Games... sigh!

I got my c64 in 1985 - The oldest game I got actually was a year before that - why? - because I got a present of my 1st Fighting Fantasy book - Forest of Doom 1984, Puffin Books. With the book came the tape.
Playing that game now would be laborious but back then, did I play that game - oh did I what! FF tradition was that you had Skill, Stamina and Luck and used dice to determine fights - it lent itself pretty well to the combat screens. The music was actually quite ok.
It was also the first tape I loaded - I still remember that. ie, if you follow the link , you'll see the screenshot of the opening screen of the game with the yellow scrolling text - with music in the background. It was a big upgrade from the vic20. It was also multi-load, that is, I would go into the forest and take about 3-4 directions (N,W or E) then the tape would load another block of the adventure. Probably did it 4 times.
Thanks to that book - I collected over 25 of the books. Still up on the shelf.


With that C64 my folks picked up 3 games at random - Astro Chase. My first SHMUP - look at the link. The 2nd screenshot shows your ship taking off or landing after every 3rd round of successful fighting against aliens while destroying mines headed for Earth. The crowds would get larger and larger each time you made it back. That was a real driver. The game I thought was relatively easy to what was out there. The game hasn't aged that much against it's peers.

Pitstop II
Without a doubt - another early classic. Very playable - I played a lot of this against friends and my brother. To this day. I know the top speed of my car 251 vs 250 for the cpu - you knew you could edge away... playing Pro and going for a full 9 Laps (as opposed to 3 or 6) would be a real test on the joystick! You also had the option of doing all 6 or 7 tracks against the cpu. The only thing that bugged me was that all the other cars you passed were not really in the race - they were fillers and actually were filler material in the final standings with you and cpu/friend. Good game though!

Jumpman
without a doubt was a classic and came out in 1983 - still is good! Try it now!! Get the floppy version - each level has a theme. Collect bombs (brown circles) and avoid the white dot or whatever unique hazard is hosted on a particular level. Gotta love that "Bombs Away" level. I got a hold of this 2 years after 1983 once I got the 1541 disk drive. A friend of my Father knew a guy in Fas who liked these.

The Fabulous Wanda. Also got with Jumpman from the contact in Fás. Back then I assumed you could win this game - but as everyone knows now you can't win - you always lose. One point in the game you win a lot of money (game of 21) and then try to enter a bar to speak to Wanda (who knows the meaning of Life) and you are asked for all your money plus a bit more which you don't have and are dumped in the street - mission failed. Still played a bit and I had forgotten about this for years!