Most FRUSTRATING game on the C64 and WHY?

hamster · 22-02-2003 10:25pm #1

Ok,

What was (or maybe even now) your most teeth gnashin' most FRUSTRATING game ever on the C64 and WHY?

I nominate Cauldron. Anyone played Cauldron? Who actually completed this game?

Cauldron:

You are a witch collecting ingredients to kill a Fat Daddy Pumpkin to get the Golden Broomstick (god knows why). You fly over a hortizontal scrolling landscape to go over forests, a graveyard, a volcanic island, sea to collect said ingredients. Problem is you must land at these sites. Go into inside to the Cave/Graveyard wherever and avoid monsters.

What so difficult?
* You lose energy by just flying!
* You lose energy by just shooting at the bats whatever.
* You need pixel (ok so they where bigger then) perfect jumps from platform to platform. If not you died. Worst point.
* If you fell any height you died.
* You have 9 lives and you really needed 999 lives to finish it!
* The game lasted an age and you had to start all over again if you bit it... no save. Never mind the power outages. Gah!

Still a very nice game. Cauldron II had you as the baby pumpkin. Except you bounced all over the place. Worse!

Pigman II · 23-02-2003 12:55pm

Without a doubt the game Nonterraqveous gets my vote. I got it as a present from somone the best part of 2 decades ago and I'm STILL occasionally going back to it to try work out what the hell is going on it. Don't get me wrong, it's not a great game, but it's still bugging me like no other c64 game I've ever played.

To explain, about 20 screens into this one there seems to be no way to proceed further and to make things worse there's curious items such as 'swaps' lying around yet seemlingly no way to interact with these items and no explaination anywhere as to what any of it does .

Theres not even instructions to (or explainations for) the game on the inlay card for the original tape either!

Theres a bunch of versions at :
http://www.nostalgia.pl/download/commodore64/games/n/
if anyone wants to have a quick go at tring to work out what you're supposed. I'd appreciate any suggestions. In particular I seem to remember getting stuck at a kind of electrical fence so if anyone works out what to do there I'd apreciate your comments.

TinCool · 23-02-2003 1:41pm

Yes I had Cauldron all right and yes it was bastard hard. I completed many games on my C64 and Cauldron was definitely not one of them.

Anyone ever finish The Last V8 ? Apparently there were only 3 levels in it but I never got past Level 2. Music was great though. Good old Rob Hubbard.

hamster · 23-02-2003 4:15pm

Did you ever finish Parallax or Scarbarbeus? Scarbarbeus had a good start but I never could finish... it was moderately difficult but it was only the last level that stumped and all over a puzzle too. :eek:

What was "The Last V8" about? Heard a lot of this Nonterraqveous in the past even seen the screenshots but never played it... sound like a meatgrinder alright.

Ste- · 23-02-2003 5:27pm

Originally posted by hamster
What was "The Last V8" about?

Had this on the atari 800xl
assume it's the same
twas sorta difficult (I was 8 at the time)
but I kept crashing due to going to fast around corners.
took a day off school one time and played it for large portions of the day. deffo worth a replay IMO.

hamster · 23-02-2003 10:27pm

Ok, so I was a little harsh there on Cauldron. There. There. Palace Software nice....

But I did like mapping these games... Cauldron, Cauldron 2, Starquake (badly) and Zoids... so much satisfaction in finding your way around.

bugs · 24-02-2003 12:26am

Red heat, based on the movie with arnie in it.
Promised so much in further levels like car chases and whatnot. Course, i'll never know cos the first level was totally impossible.
Involved walking to the right in a russian sauna trying to off the ruskies...course, theres about a million of 'em and all you can do is headbutt and punch, i think i got about halfway thru the level once.

hamster · 24-02-2003 12:33am

Another difficult one that was actually completed (:eek:) was Green Beret. I can't even begin to imagine trying that now... but the game was a good horizontal stab' em up (litterally!). Again a crap ending.

Krusty_Clown · 24-02-2003 1:29pm

I reckon the most frustrating game I played was Commando.
I loved playing it, but it had some nasty bugs, which more often than not prevented you from progressing...

It was an upwards scroller (a la Rambo), where quite often, you found yourself stuck behind a piece of earth, and unable to move up the screen = reboot & restart. Argh!

The other game, which wins second prize was the marble-madness-alike.. Can't remember what it was called.. Something like 'Spinner'? It was a very difficult game.. Sometimes, because of the perspective and weird shading, it was very difficult to make out whether a particular slope was pointed up or down...

Most rewarding game in my book was The Sentinel..
Magic!

Quigs Snr · 24-02-2003 1:32pm

The Goonies, why I oughta........

X-Out also. Grrrr.

Mr E · 24-02-2003 7:36pm

Originally posted by Krusty_Clown
The other game, which wins second prize was the marble-madness-alike.. Can't remember what it was called.. Something like 'Spinner'? It was a very difficult game.. Sometimes, because of the perspective and weird shading, it was very difficult to make out whether a particular slope was pointed up or down...

Spindizzy! I remember getting this game free with ACE magazine, and I was fascinated by it. Just couldn't finish it, though. I always ran out of time. Ended up poking it for infinite time just to see all the screens, and never went back to it. Some of the jewels were impossible to get (you had to be going at a very precise speed to hit some platforms). Very good game, though.

- Dave.

LoGiE · 24-02-2003 8:00pm

I hated the way the c64 version of The New Zealand story came minus the warps. Other then that a class game but impossible to finish on the number of credits provided:( I suppose almost all games released on the c64 were impossible to complete with only Six credits:)

DiscoStu · 24-02-2003 9:26pm

im not sure if Saint Dragon ever appeard on the c64 but it was an utter bastard. the most ridiculously difficult game ive ever played.

LoGiE · 25-02-2003 1:21am

Originally posted by DiscoStu
im not sure if Saint Dragon ever appeard on the c64 but it was an utter bastard. the most ridiculously difficult game ive ever played.

Yup it did get a release:D

*Ronan|Raven , Kairo This game was released in 1989 by Jaleco and is now abandonware for the c64 along with pretty much every title available on the system:)

hamster · 25-02-2003 1:32am

Originally posted by Krusty_Clown
I reckon the most frustrating game I played was Commando.
I loved playing it, but it had some nasty bugs, which more often than not prevented you from progressing...

It was an upwards scroller (a la Rambo), where quite often, you found yourself stuck behind a piece of earth, and unable to move up the screen = reboot & restart. Argh!

The other game, which wins second prize was the marble-madness-alike.. Can't remember what it was called.. Something like 'Spinner'? It was a very difficult game.. Sometimes, because of the perspective and weird shading, it was very difficult to make out whether a particular slope was pointed up or down...

Spinner? Yep, as TmB pointed out I think that was Spindizzy? An upside pyramid collecting diamonds. I didn't like that because a) I kept falling off the edges and b) No atmosphere at all! Total silence except the odd beep and smash.

Most rewarding game in my book was The Sentinel..
Magic!

Way to go! I'm playing this again. Up to level 0308 today. Seems easy now than it was then (usually with C64 games it's the other way around). Now this game had atmosphere and pretty nice 3D for the time. A bit of a Cult game Really. Remember Geoff's Challenge ? on level 11, where you had to create a meanie on the Sentinel Plinth ? Absorb the Sentinel and place a Tree on it and wait for the sentry that could only half see you.

About Commando, an easier one is who dares wins II. Loved that one... like very a walking SEUCK game. Loved that game.

hamster · 25-02-2003 1:51am

Oh go on.. go on.. go on.. go on.. go on.. go on.. go on.... have some scrshots... Oh go on.. go on.. go on.. go on..........

LoGiE · 25-02-2003 1:52am

Krusty_Clown as bugs mentioned in another thread getting hold of the arcade version of a game you played on the c64 is class. Commando runs well under MAME and doesn't suffer from glitches either.

Who Dares Wins II c64

Commando c64

Commando Arcade

hamster · 25-02-2003 1:58am

Hey LoGiE! You just reminded me about a crazy situtaion in Who Dares wins II. Remember at several points in the game you try to stop an execution ? A blue guard if I remember who is lined up to shoot a POW ? Well shoot the guard first for ooooh.. 100 points? Then shoot the prisoner anyway for a further 10 pts.

Loved that game. Remember the way the guards came out of the barracks at the end of each level lining up to be just shot. They'd make one step out the door and then bang. Arrgh!

LoGiE · 25-02-2003 8:06pm

It's funny how all these games were "cloned" from commando:)
Ikari warriors was released in 1986 a year after commando. Anyone who's played it would agree it's similar.
Nice improvements however...
-simultaneous two player
-weapon power ups
-DRIVE TANKS:)

It was also released on the c64 by Elite and is another favorite of mine.

hamster · 25-02-2003 9:04pm

Ikari Warriors... another nice one... but you could go back a whole screen buffer. Nasty ambushes too.

Ikari warriors 3 was rubbish though.... 3D-ish I think.

TenLeftFingers · 06-03-2003 3:20am

WWF (II?) on the c64. I think there were 2 cassettes. The first time I waited about 45 mins for it to load, then rebooted. The 2nd time it loaded in 20 mins, I got knocked out, and was asked to insert another cassette.

GOD where I'd love to insert that cassette!!!!!!

Never played it again. Never watched WWF again. Never spoke to my mother again (she bought it).

LoGiE · 06-03-2003 8:14pm

Behold!! Good old Ocean bring the excitement of WWF to your home.
WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

ERrr...Didn't Mr.Perfect have blond hair?

WWF European Rampage Tour

I don't remeber havin to switch the tape? you should grab the Disk version. 174kb each:D

TenLeftFingers · 06-03-2003 8:37pm

I've sold my c64 since BUT I was down at the market about a year ago, and I saw an old trolley with a c64, 2 tape decks, two floppy drives, a printer and LOOOOOAAAAADDDDSSS of games, including my all time c64 favourite....

Spy vs. Spy!

I was going for 60 yoyos, BUT the guy wouldn't guarantee that it was working. He finally agreed to let me come back with an extension lead and see if at least the power LED' lit up, but when I came back he was gone. Haven't seen him since

I have an emulator. I'll probably get that going after my exams in may.

LoGiE · 06-03-2003 11:43pm

It just wouldn't be worth buying unless your a collector. That or you had the know how the fix it yourself if something went wrong. Just download WinVice or CCS64 and use them:)

Lemming · 07-03-2003 12:19am

Green Beret was rather frustrating to say the least, as was:

Ninja Dragon
Predator
Robocop

and er ... I can't remember any others (considering I've over 600 iof the beasties - NOT emulated)

Two c64s, a 1541 mk.1 5.25 floppy drive, two printers, etc, etc, etc.

Most FRUSTRATING game on the C64 and WHY?

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