C64 30 Year Anniversary

Mr E

God I'm old.....

I got one at Christmas 1983 maybe? May have been my first post-Santa present.

I got Caverns of Khafka, Kokotoni Wilf and Purple Turtles (all dreadful games, with KW being the least dreadful) but I loved them. I've played a bit of C64 on emulators over the years, but its just not the same at all, is it?

Built up a pretty huge collection up to 1992 I'd say.... all were boxed into the attic around then and dumped a few years later in an attic clearout (which I found out about too late). Shame the C64 never really kicked off properly on the Wii Virtual Console - probably the closest I've felt to playing the real thing again.

I was a big Thalamus fan (Creatures 1&2, Summer/Winter Camp, Delta, Armalyte, Quedex, Hunters Moon, etc.). Loved most of their games, apart from maybe Heatseeker.

Anyone want to share their C64 nostalgia?

A key part of the computer industry marked its anniversary this week as the Commodore 64 turned 30 years old. The hardware was unveiled at CES in early January 1982 and became one of the longest-lasting computers of its era, with variants in use until the company shuttered in April 1994. The keyboard-sized PC, which shipped in August that year for $595, ran at just 1MHz and with its namesake 64KB of total memory.

The system is widely credited with helping to popularize PCs. Where most systems at the time were sold either in electronics shops or in dedicated computer stores, the C64 was sold at general retailers, exposing many to PCs for the first time.

Equally important were the relatively powerful VIC graphics chip and MOS Tech audio. Although it could only render a 160x200 picture with bitmaps and three-channel sound, these were still much more than alternatives like the Apple II+ or original IBM PC and led to the C64 being a gaming PC for many.

Commodore would ultimately end up shipping as many as 17 million C64s over the system's lifetime, but it was also considered the peak of the company's line. Attempted variants like the office-oriented Plus 4, the SX64 portable, or the Commodore 128 never sold in great numbers. The company officially dropped the regular C64 in 1989, but there were variants up until the company's end five years later, when the Amiga had long since taken over as its main platform.

The brand eventually revived in 2004 through the Dutch company Tulip, which started with the C64DTV retro system directly based on the original. It later shifted the name towards regular computers, most notably gaming PCs. The C64 name survives now with the retro-designed, Intel-based C64x, which can run an emulator of the original Commodore platform as well as behave like a regular Linux or Windows PC.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/01/02/commodore.64.marks.anniversary/

Myrddin

I got the Night Moves pack in the late 80's. It was a massive step up from the Atari 2600, & to see stuff like Last Ninja, Midnight Resistance, & Ourtun running on my tv...it was like :eek::cool::eek:

I also wrote my first computer virus on it:

10 GOTO 20
20 GOTO 10



Edit - I still have it all fully boxed & working packed away, with the original receipt! Santa gave receipts back then.

CiDeRmAn

I was a Spectrum child, 11 years old in '83!

We viewed C64 owners as spoilt, richie rich kids who wouldn't know a good game if it ran up and slapped them in the face.

We have been forced, with time, to revise this position.

We now view C64 owners as spoilt, smug, richie rich kids who wouln't know a good game if it ran up and slapped them in the face!

CiDeRmAn

Actually, I had some smug mates who had a C64 and very nice it was too.
Uridium was always a favourite, I preferred Quazatron on the Speccy to Paradroid however.
I also likes IK+.
It was kinda pathetic to see reviewers gush over the Speccy version of Uridium, a bit like the Golf ad where they're talking about the car being almost a Golf...
Wizball was spectacular and another favourite of mine was the version of Rainbow Islands.
Creatures was good alright, and Elite was nicely done.

Dr Bob

I'd an Atari 800xl , but when I couldnt get games for it , sold it and bought a C64(the old bullnose brown one) from a dodgy geezer *who ran a computer games trading day in the Ormonde Hotel every month.
I ended up with a huge library of c90's filled with games, and I spent hours on stuff like Last Ninja II , Myth, Rick Dangerous and the like.(homing taping is killing gaming!)
I sold it on when I got a meg in about 91 ,
I've since gotten one for the gaming collection (I've 2 actually ..a boxed c64c and an orginal 64)
Best setup now is a c64 and an ultimate 1541 (basically a yoke for storing hundreds/thousands of disk images which you can load to the 64 instantly)

























(he may not have been dodgy but I remember he had a mobile back when they were unheard of, would have been 88 I think..oh and the joystick was broken when I got it!)

o1s1n

One thing which always pissed me off about playing these computer/gaming hybrid machines was everyone always seemed to have **** joystick controllers.

We'd be playing Barbarian on the speccy with a flight stick type joystick. Imagine doing that nowadays with a sidewinder and SF IV

kellso81

EnterNow wrote: »

I got the Night Moves pack in the late 80's. It was a massive step up from the Atari 2600, & to see stuff like Last Ninja, Midnight Resistance, & Ourtun running on my tv...it was like :eek::cool::eek:

Got a system 3 pack like that in virgin megastore when on holiday in Dublin, had vendetta in it and I lent to a mate when i got home while I played some of the other games and he bloody lost it before I even played it. As you can tell by me writing this on a message board 20 odd yrs later I'm still bitter!

Andrew76

luas_dublin wrote: »

... *who ran a computer games trading day in the Ormonde Hotel every month...

That was down the quays wasn't it? Remember myself and the brother playing in a Sensi Soccer tournament in there once, would've been during the Amiga days so later on in the C64 life cycle.

o1s1n wrote: »

One thing which always pissed me off about playing these computer/gaming hybrid machines was everyone always seemed to have **** joystick controllers.

We'd be playing Barbarian on the speccy with a flight stick type joystick. Imagine doing that nowadays with a sidewinder and SF IV

We had Quickshot joysticks with our C64, think that's what they were called. Two types, a bog standard one which felt like waggling a lump of wood (...) and a newer micro-switch version. Those click click noises were cool. But once we got hold of some Zipsticks (worked on C64 and Amiga iirc) then there was no looking back, brilliant joystick they were.

I have a lot of love for the C64, other than all the more famous and brilliant games mentioned above, I remember Track & Field for brilliant 2 player games - so so competitive trying to beat yer brother's world records etc, or Winter Sports. They were in some sports pack, always remember that as Daley Thompson's Decathlon never loaded. Remember some others like Eagles Nest (top down Gauntlet style game?) and Hawkeye (side scrolling platform/shooting type), Target Renegade, Platoon and so on. Actually there was a sh1t hard horizontal shooter I played alot but can't remember the name, must go find it.

Some of the music during the loading screens were cool too. Such a great machine. That flash cart Waveform linked recently is very tempting.

Dr Bob

yup that was the one
Ah spectrum owners , the colourblind gamers of the eighties!
Hope you enjoyed those weird pastel colours/seethrough sprites cider!;)

Well at least you had joystick ports that were compatible with everything so you didnt need weird interfaces or expensive sticks..oh hang on...;)
I'm sure all that playing with keys was a valuable life lesson eh?

Optimus Prime

I got one for my commuinion i think!

It was i think "light fantastic" pack or something? with Ganster, Rambo\platoon, combat school etc all the light gun games. Also had Batman the caped crusader with it. great game. Think i sold it eventually in the buy and sell to get a NES. played it death when i was younger, me and my brother. Used to rent out and buy the games from a place up in the bowling alley in palmerstown, cant remember the name of the shop now. had thousands of games in it at the time.

Now I have a boxed C64 with a load of games (Thanks Luas!)
also have a boxed Amiga1200 too.

bobbytables

keithgeo wrote: »

It was i think "light fantastic" pack or something? with Ganster, Rambo\platoon, combat school etc all the light gun games.

I had that one also. It was fantastic. I stayed up day & night after I got it.

My favourite games on the 64 were: Dragon Slayer, OutRun, SpyHunter, ChaseHQ, Way of the Exploding Fist, IK+, Last Ninja series (I remember my jaw dropping during the intro for the 3rd one), Outlaw, Dizzy, etc

Upgraded to an Amiga 600 after that, Xmas '92. Lemmings pack, but also picked up Street Fighter 2 from Software Terminal upstairs in the Eyre Square centre in Galway.

CiDeRmAn

I want a C64, old style, and a flash cart.
None of this nostalgia for the load times I'll bet!

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Used to rent out and buy the games from a place up in the bowling alley in palmerstown, cant remember the name of the shop now. had thousands of games in it at the time.

I think it was Computer City? That's where Santa made my one.

Optimus Prime

EnterNow wrote: »

I think it was Computer City? That's where Santa made my one.

yep thats it computer city, haha.. loved that place when i was younger.

DinoRex

Yikes. 30 years old... I feel a bit conned that I got a Vic-20 thirty years ago now.

But when I finally got a C64 it was the Light Fantastic pack:



There's a hat on the box and everything!

It was a great pack. Huge amount of stuff in there... although the light gun was a bit naff (looked cool though)

Sparkyd2002

Got mine for xmas 84. Came with 3 cartridges, International Football (The square ball!),Tooth Invaders and Jupiter lander. Also got Raid over Moscow, Ghostbusters and revenge of the mutant camels. Fondest memories of those games. Also special mention to Football Manager - 20 minutes to load and then only loaded 50% of the time! Rambo, Bounty Bob, Hero, Outrun,Uridium,Leaderboard - oh all the great games. Remember using the poke commands to change the screen colours,How cool was that? lol. I remember going through a few joysticks and more than a powerpack or 2.Man they overheated!

Andrew76

keithgeo wrote: »

yep thats it computer city, haha.. loved that place when i was younger.

Did they have a shop on or near the corner of Capel St too? At the Liffey end. I remember a shop there that had a downstairs section with tons of games, think you could rent from there also. QTH in Dun Laoghaire was our local for new C64 games, hmm that was on a corner too.

DinoRex

Andrew76 wrote: »

Did they have a shop on or near the corner of Capel St too? At the Liffey end. I remember a shop there that had a downstairs section with tons of games, think you could rent from there also. QTH in Dun Laoghaire was our local for new C64 games, hmm that was on a corner too.

That was a different crowd on Capel Street... Think they were called Capital or Central or something.

Computer City was amazing though. So many found memories of excitingly picking up games from there.

Dr Bob

bobbytables wrote: »

keithgeo wrote: »

It was i think "light fantastic" pack or something? with Ganster, Rambo\platoon, combat school etc all the light gun games.

I had that one also. It was fantastic. I stayed up day & night after I got it.

My favourite games on the 64 were: Dragon Slayer, OutRun, SpyHunter, ChaseHQ, Way of the Exploding Fist, IK+, Last Ninja series (I remember my jaw dropping during the intro for the 3rd one), Outlaw, Dizzy, etc

Upgraded to an Amiga 600 after that, Xmas '92. Lemmings pack, but also picked up Street Fighter 2 from Software Terminal upstairs in the Eyre Square centre in Galway.

But but but!! Chasehq was AWFUL! (and worse still the speccy version is great!)
I picked up a copy for a quid last year.
Heres me playing it ..(and crying ...as its that terribad)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SmmovJ87k

Optimus Prime

Buggy Boy was the best car game on it!

Andrew76

keithgeo wrote: »

Buggy Boy was the best car game on it!

Just about to say the exact same thing! Loved that game.

Retr0gamer

Got my C64 at christmas 1991 I think. Had good times with the machine but was so jealous of all my friends that had Megadrives, SNES's and Amigas. I got it a bit too late to appreciate it fully but did enjoy a lot of games on it, at the end of it's lifecycle when my parents finally caved in and got me a computer there were a lot of very impressive games coming out on the platform. The Rowland brothers when gods to me.

Also Chase HQ was **** but Turbo Charge made up for it.

Pyongyang

I got the Night Moves pack for Christmas and Birthday many years ago from an old chain store called Tandy.

My fondest memory of the C64 (and I was a Rowlands fan too by the way) was the infinite lives cheat for Creatures 2. None of my mates at school believed me until I had to actually show them how it worked.

Retr0gamer

Pyongyang wrote: »

I got the Night Moves pack for Christmas and Birthday many years ago from an old chain store called Tandy.

My fondest memory of the C64 (and I was a Rowlands fan too by the way) was the infinite lives cheat for Creatures 2. None of my mates at school believed me until I had to actually show them how it worked.

What was it again? I remember the creatures 1 one was to lick your finger and run it across the joystick port at the high score screen.

Pyongyang

Retr0gamer wrote: »

What was it again? I remember the creatures 1 one was to lick your finger and run it across the joystick port at the high score screen.

That's the one.

I thought that was for Creatures 2 though?

Malice

I was probably a bit of a late starter as I didn't get my C-64 until Christmas 1987. I loved the C-64 and I still occasionally break out an emulator for a bash at the likes of Sanxion, Creatures, Paradroid, Retrograde and of course Turrican I and II. My father still like to tell the story about how the two of us were playing Ghosts N' Goblins. There we were, happily slaughtering zombies on the first screen before one of us accidentally jumped up and over a gravestone and we realised that there was a whole game waiting for us .

I definitely don't miss the loading times. Sitting there for ten minutes or more watching the flashing colours and hoping the process didn't fail for some unknown reason? No thanks!

Anyone interested in C-64 music would do well to check out The High Voltage SID Collection.

Retr0gamer

Actually you're right. I'm confused it was a long time ago

Malice

Pyongyang wrote: »

That's the one.

I thought that was for Creatures 2 though?

That's what I remember too but I could be wrong. As I recall Creatures 1 had a cheat where you had to wait until the title screen music stopped and then waggle the joystick back and forth until the little mice turned grey.

Edit: It seems I was nearly right (see here) .

Pyongyang

Malice wrote: »

That's what I remember too but I could be wrong. As I recall Creatures 1 had a cheat where you had to wait until the title screen music stopped and then waggle the joystick back and forth until the little mice turned grey.

Yup, that's what I thought too was the Creatures 1 cheat.

CathalDublin

Buggy boy was good but my favourite car game was
POWERDRIFT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLdRK8pTnCg

Mr E

Yeah I remember that powerdrift got harder the longer you played by making the handling on the car worse.

Concerned2

God it seems like a lifetime ago I played some of the games mentioned in the previous posts. Some other good ones that come to mind were Bubble Bubble , Impossible Mission , starequake , Lords of Midnight, Stunt car racer & Green Beret. It used to be so frustrating trying to load some of the bloody games for it , I had to place the cassette player on top of the tv to get certain games to load , on the floor for others & had to hold the cassette for others to load !

Optimus Prime

I had ghostbusters on the C64 and when it was loading you got to play space invaders while you waited!

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

I had ghostbusters on the C64 and when it was loading you got to play space invaders while you waited!

I remember that, best part of the game really as Ghostbusters sucked:eek:

Andrew76

The joys/perils of C-64 tape loading, sometimes it felt totally random whether a game would load first time or not. Bruce Lee was another cool game iirc.

Optimus Prime

Andrew76 wrote: »

Bruce Lee was another cool game iirc.

Bruce Lee was a brilliant game. collecting the white things, i think that was probably one of the first games i finished along with Batman the caped crusader.

CathalDublin

I must have owned every game ever released for the C64 and 99% of them originals I must add.
Stupid me remembers selling the whole lot for £120 to my uncles mate and laughing thinking I was ripping him off:eek:
The boot of the car was full and I think some of the stuff even had to go on the back seat.
I think I spent the money on the release day of the SNES iirc

Myrddin

Don't forget IK & IK+ :cool:

Speaking of Road Blasters recently, it wasn't too bad of a home port for the time

Retr0gamer

Bubble Bobble was my favourite arcade port on the system.

sham69

Fantastic machine in its day ( I still play the games daily)

The SID chip was stunning also in its day.

Fav games: Last Ninja 1+2, Bruce Lee, Delta , Sanxion or anything by Thalamus.
Anything that had Rob Hubbard music on it.
Ik+, Bankok Knights, I could go on for days.
Definitely my favourite machine for gaming ever...
Hard to think it was 30 years ago..

DinoRex

CathalDublin wrote: »

I remember that, best part of the game really as Ghostbusters sucked:eek:

There was a Real Ghostbusters game based on the cartoon series which wasn't too bad. Played a bit like Mercs.

Retr0gamer

Speaking of Mercs, the absolute worse game I bought on the C64 was Mercs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyqr-bpqvc

CiDeRmAn

I remember the early ones,
Raid over Moscow,
Beach Head,
Mercenary

eddhorse

Wow thirty years !!

What makes me laugh is the advertisements at the time...
















And just said id throw this in :

ebbsy

Played Impossible Mission until the power pack glowed red hot, one load, every game different, a game that was so far ahead of its time. The sequel was a bit of a let down, but maybe the original was too good ? Im amazed nobody has had a crack at it on the newer consoles though.

Other games that I played the s**t out of -

Pastfinder
Bubble Bobble
Powerdrift
Winter Games
Ikari Warriors
Last Ninja

A great little machine.

ebbsy

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Speaking of Mercs, the absolute worse game I bought on the C64 was Mercs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyqr-bpqvc

And to that list you can add :

Street Fighter 2
Final Fight
Enduro Racer
Chase HQ
Wec Le Mans

pdbhp

Wow 30 years old thats crazy makes me feel old, cidey must feel ancient then:pac:

Got mine (can't remember year) it was the one with Flimbo's Quest cart and my friend got the shoot em up construction kit version.

Absolutly fantastic machine, programming the bloody thing all day long just to get my name flashing on the screen once, blink and you'll miss it which happened to me more than on more than one occasion.

Great selection of games aswell.
Double Dragon 2, California Games, Power Drift, OutRun, Off Road Racer and the awesome cart that came with it with Flimbo's Quest which is a bloody excellent platformer.

I remember using a black & white tv when I first got it, didn't think it strange at the time but jaysus a black & white tv for christs sake.
I was upgreded to a full 64 colour tv about a year later and it blew my socks off.

I still have the console but the tape deck in knackered might break it out someday and try mend her to have a bash.

pdbhp

ebbsy wrote: »

Played Impossible Mission until the power pack glowed red hot, one load, every game different, a game that was so far ahead of its time. The sequel was a bit of a let down, but maybe the original was too good ? Im amazed nobody has had a crack at it on the newer consoles though.

Other games that I played the s**t out of -

Pastfinder
Bubble Bobble
Powerdrift
Winter Games
Ikari Warriors
Last Ninja

A great little machine.

Impossible Mission got a rerelease on DS a couple of years ago can still be found in the odd shop for around €10 it even has the original game on it.

eddhorse

I originally got the Night Moves pack and the Mindbenders Pack with my Commodore .



First game i played on Xmas morning was Night Breed, weirdest game ever !I broke so many Cheetah Annihilator Joysticks, they were always making crunching sounds.



I then got one with yellow buttons, was hardy as hell !



Anyone know the name of them ones?

ebbsy

eddhorse wrote: »

I originally got the Night Moves pack and the Mindbenders Pack with my Commodore .



First game i played on Xmas morning was Night Breed, weirdest game ever !I broke so many Cheetah Annihilator Joysticks, they were always making crunching sounds.



I then got one with yellow buttons, was hardy as hell !



Anyone know the name of them ones?

Competition Pro maybe ?????

DinoRex

Night Breed looked great. But I don't think there's a person alive who knew what the hell they were supposed to be doing in that game.

The interactive movie version of Night Breed on the Amiga is an absolute oddity though.

Oh and I had the yellow zipstick out and plugged in the the CD32 on friday night at the beers.