Favourite C64 games

I love the C64 and I still play my C64 and games the colours, graphics, sound and music are so good on C64 you dont get games like this anymore.

I use to go to the paper shop go to a little corner alclove and stand staring at a shelf of tapes ranging from under £1 upwards.

CJ Elephant Antics, Cops and Robbers, The last ninja games, Bomb Jack and Back to the future 2, Flimbos Quest, Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, and citadel, Dizzy games are some of my most favourite C64 games.

I also had and still do have an Acorn electon with all my games Last Ninja on Acorn electron was and is one of the best versions i have seen.

What were your favourite C64 games.

There are so many, I'll list only 3:

- Bruce Lee
- Paradroid
- Racing Destruction Set

As some of you know I didn't have a C64, but instead was the owner of the Amstrad CPC464.

The two systems did share a lot of games so I probably got to play many of the same titles as C64 owners. Some of my favourite Amstrad CPC games were:

- Spin Dizzy
- 1943: Battle of Midway
- California Games
- Winter Games
- Summer Games
- Gryzor
- Gauntlet II
- Knight Lore
- Marble Madness
- Operation Wolf
- Pipe Mania
- Rygar
- Renegade
- Target Renegade
- Sabre Wulf
- Robin Hood (digitized speech on the CPC!)
- The Way of the Exploding Fist
- Pulsator
- ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter)
- Alien Break-In
- Xevious
- Sorcery Plus
- Q-Bert
- Cauldron
- Chiller
- Commando
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There was also a big compilation of CPC games I bought at the time that contained some great games, but I cannot remember the name of most of them. I think Spin Dizzy was part of the collection though so I will have a search later and see what compilations contained that.

Did anyone play Ranarama? I never got to play this on any 8-bit system, but it came free on the welcome disk of the Atari ST when I bought one and it was a great game that I know originally came out for the C64 and CPC.

And there is another game I'm trying to remember the name of. It was originally a ZX Spectrum game, but was then released on the CPC and Atari ST. It was a platform game where you started at the top of the level and had to drop down into cave systems. You you find rocket pads that you could use to move around thrust style and land on docking pads to refuel them. There was also a lot of objects you could collect around the levels, and I remember a telephone booth being used to teleport between different booths you had already visited. The graphics were very ZX Spectrum like with each sprite being a single colour. Does anyone know what the game could be?

You named also a few arcade games, which I don't really count as C64 games, as they just were ported to other computers/consoles.

Spindizzy was a great game, and very tough to play through, and guess what, the ending is one of the crappiest ever seen, once you have collected the final jewel, a message appears, which says, "YOU HAVE COMPLETED 100% of screens, 100% of jewels, 100% of game. SURVEY COMPLETE". That's it?

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It was a platform game where you started at the top of the level and had to drop down into cave systems.

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I immediately thought of Hero, but when reading further, it isn't Hero.

It is true that some of the games I listed are originally arcade games and therefore inferior to the originals, but for me the first time I got to experience these games as on the CPC, so for me this is the version I remember of them the most fondly.

I'm sure the game I'm trying to remember is two words, if that helps.

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but for me the first time I got to experience these games as on the CPC, so for me this is the version I remember of them the most fondly.

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I played them all first in the arcades, because that was before the C64 was even released, so I already knew the games when they were converted.

Out of my list the games I played in the arcade include:

- 1943: Battle of Midway
- Gryzor (as Contra)
- Gauntlet II
- Operation Wolf
- Rygar
- Xevious
- Q-Bert
- Commando

So OK, there were quite a few I did play in the arcades, but I'm not sure if I managed to play them all before the CPC versions, or because I knew them from the CPC versions at a later date. It is hard to remember. But due to a lack of money in those days I mostly only played the arcade versions a couple of times each at most.

I do remember waiting for the home version of Operation Wolf to be releases as all my friends and I loved that game in the arcades and played it a lot. The 8-bit versions of it were not so great though as the joystick control hampered the gameplay badly. The 16-bit mouse controlled versions were much better.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

As some of you know I didn't have a C64, but instead was the owner of the Amstrad CPC464.

The two systems did share a lot of games so I probably got to play many of the same titles as C64 owners. Some of my favourite Amstrad CPC games were:

- Spin Dizzy
- 1943: Battle of Midway
- California Games
- Winter Games
- Summer Games
- Gryzor
- Gauntlet II
- Knight Lore
- Marble Madness
- Operation Wolf
- Pipe Mania
- Rygar
- Renegade
- Target Renegade
- Sabre Wulf
- Robin Hood (digitized speech on the CPC!)
- The Way of the Exploding Fist
- Pulsator
- ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter)
- Alien Break-In
- Xevious
- Sorcery Plus
- Q-Bert
- Cauldron
- Chiller
- Commando
-

There was also a big compilation of CPC games I bought at the time that contained some great games, but I cannot remember the name of most of them. I think Spin Dizzy was part of the collection though so I will have a search later and see what compilations contained that.

Did anyone play Ranarama? I never got to play this on any 8-bit system, but it came free on the welcome disk of the Atari ST when I bought one and it was a great game that I know originally came out for the C64 and CPC.

And there is another game I'm trying to remember the name of. It was originally a ZX Spectrum game, but was then released on the CPC and Atari ST. It was a platform game where you started at the top of the level and had to drop down into cave systems. You you find rocket pads that you could use to move around thrust style and land on docking pads to refuel them. There was also a lot of objects you could collect around the levels, and I remember a telephone booth being used to teleport between different booths you had already visited. The graphics were very ZX Spectrum like with each sprite being a single colour. Does anyone know what the game could be?

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Some of the games on your list were some of my favourite games on C64 espcially The Way of the Exploding Fist it is one of my favourite games the music the and the graphics are awsome and couldron was excellent there was a spin off sequel to cauldron on Mega CD called wiz and liz.

Whe I got C64 new it included C64, 3D Glasses, a light gun and a few games to use the 3D glasses and Light gun with such as Jail break were the prsion wall blasted open and you had to shoot all the prisoners so they dident escpae using the light gun and I got alot of other games with it like this including Xevious the 3D galsses were good but they give you headakes. Preadtor was a excllent game aswell.

Does anyone remeber the Atari ST advert it featuired the Song "Sun shine on the rain again"

I remember Rana Rama Atari ST game and the intro the music was good but I never had the game.

The was an awsome game on C64 called Vindaloo which actually means find the loo, you had a little man and you had to go up and down lots of levels and floors using lifts and ladders to get to the toliet.

Was the game you were trying to think of solar Jet man or Jetpac.

Horace Goes Sking was one of my most favourite ZX Spetrum games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3s0...elated&search=

Also Jet Set Willy.

Here's a short list of my C64 favourites:

- California Games
- Commando
- 1942
- Operation Wolf

I didn't own the C64 when it was at its height, as I had an MSX Spectravideo. That's why the list is so short. ;)

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Originally Posted by P G

Here's a short list of my C64 favourites:

- California Games
- Commando
- 1942
- Operation Wolf

I didn't own the C64 when it was at its height, as I had an MSX Spectravideo. That's why the list is so short. ;)

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Californian Games is a great game and Operation wolf was great for under a £1 we could have Operation wolf for C64 you dont get the guns that the arcade cabinet has though.

Commando and 1942 are neat games.

I never had an MSX spectravideo but there are some good remakes of games for it there is an awsome MSX spectravison remake of the Gonnies here http://goonies.jorito.net/
I prefer the Nes version of goonies if you like the Nes version of gonnies its exactly the same only based on the MSX spectravideo version.

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Was the game you were trying to think of solar Jet man or Jetpac.

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Nope, it wasn't either of those, but thanks for the suggestions.

I thought it might contain Lunar in the title but doing a quick search didn't reveal anything similar. It definitely isn't anything like Lunar Landing or Lunar Rescue.

Did anyone else own a CPC at the time? When developers actually coded directly for the CPC range the quality of the games could turn out looking exceptional, and graphically beat the C64 easily. But sadly most were poor ports of Spectrum games and made the CPC look much less capable that it really was.

Obviously it did fall short of the C64 in terms of audio as the CPC audio chip was nearly the same as that found in the Acorn BBC range with three channels and a noise generator, outputting to three channels in mono, compared to the far superior C64 SID chip.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

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Was the game you were trying to think of solar Jet man or Jetpac.

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Nope, it wasn't either of those, but thanks for the suggestions.

I thought it might contain Lunar in the title but doing a quick search didn't reveal anything similar. It definitely isn't anything like Lunar Landing or Lunar Rescue.

Did anyone else own a CPC at the time? When developers actually coded directly for the CPC range the quality of the games could turn out looking exceptional, and graphically beat the C64 easily. But sadly most were poor ports of Spectrum games and made the CPC look much less capable that it really was.

Obviously it did fall short of the C64 in terms of audio as the CPC audio chip was nearly the same as that found in the Acorn BBC range with three channels and a noise generator, outputting to three channels in mono, compared to the far superior C64 SID chip.

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I never owned an Amstrad CPC at the time but it was very good and even had better graphics than C64 for some games and most of Oceans games were only available on an Amstrad.

If it had Luna in the title then it was definately Lunar Lander many versions of it are available I think it even got released for amstrad and C64 but I could not find it on Youtube.

The only version I found on Youtube was the commodore Pet version and a vector version.

Commodore Pet Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwiMojFHLoo

Vector Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kd19GZ_WjQ

No it isn't Lunar Landing. The gameplay is completely different. I know Lunar Landing well as I used to play it on the BBC.

Goonies has one of my favorite sid tunes by John A. Fitzpatrick. It's just awesome.

My god, that is a hard one.
Will have to look at my collection to jog the memory.
Some absolutley top games on the 64.
Off the top of my head.
Commando
Rambo
Yie Ayr Kung Fu
Way of the Exploding Fist
The Hobbit
Lord of The rings
Ranarama
Paradroid
Delta
The Blue Max
Wizball
Jetset Willy
Manic Miner
Monty on the Run
Beach Head
Raid Over Moscow

There will be loads more.
Everyone my absolute favourite.

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Originally Posted by TiredOfLife

My god, that is a hard one.
Will have to look at my collection to jog the memory.
Some absolutley top games on the 64.
Off the top of my head.
Commando
Rambo
Yie Ayr Kung Fu
Way of the Exploding Fist
The Hobbit
Lord of The rings
Ranarama
Paradroid
Delta
The Blue Max
Wizball
Jetset Willy
Manic Miner
Monty on the Run
Beach Head
Raid Over Moscow

There will be loads more.
Everyone my absolute favourite.

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Excelent list of games there all of them are excellent games way of the broken fist is a C64 classic and Jet set willy, Manic Miner were good on zx spectrum and C64 also Commando, Rambo are the stand out titles from your list.

Yie Ayr Kung Fu is available on Xbox 360 live aracde they have added the C64 version and also added a remake.

I still prefer to play games on there origonal system its more enjoyable.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

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Was the game you were trying to think of solar Jet man or Jetpac.

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Nope, it wasn't either of those, but thanks for the suggestions.

I thought it might contain Lunar in the title but doing a quick search didn't reveal anything similar. It definitely isn't anything like Lunar Landing or Lunar Rescue.

Did anyone else own a CPC at the time? When developers actually coded directly for the CPC range the quality of the games could turn out looking exceptional, and graphically beat the C64 easily. But sadly most were poor ports of Spectrum games and made the CPC look much less capable that it really was.

Obviously it did fall short of the C64 in terms of audio as the CPC audio chip was nearly the same as that found in the Acorn BBC range with three channels and a noise generator, outputting to three channels in mono, compared to the far superior C64 SID chip.

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As I never used a C64 i cannot comment on the quality of the games, but I can comment on the CPC as I also owned one.

I agree with Harrison (Now there's a surprise... me agreeing with my clone (or is it the other way around)). There were certain games on the Amstrad that just looked so good, considering the machine's specs: Gauntlet; Renegade; Vindicators; Driller (Now that was a ground-breaking game); Captain Blood; and even a damn fine conversion of The Bard's Tale. The sound, however, was lacking, for the reasons Harrison listed, but also because it had a rubbish speaker.

I kinda miss my cpc, i loved doing graphics on there. My main hobby was drawing Atari ST screenshots on it, my favourite being an amalgamation of Dungeon Master, with the two-headed dragon from The Eidolon creeping up behind a character called Ludicrus (taken from an Amiga game). I used to take photes of the artwork... but I never got round to developing the film (oh for digital cameras).

Either way they were both good machines... and both urinated on the Oric-1 (ducks to avoid the flak from Oric fans.)

Another CPC game that looked great was Gryzor. I think that had to be the best 8-bit version of the game.

v85rawdeal do you still have any of the CPC graphics of Atari ST screenshots i think Atari ST is awsome.

Gryzor also know as Contra on CPC was awsome they have the C64 version Gryzor contra on xbox live arcade I think the CPC version was awsome.

Nearly all the best versions of Ocean games were on Amastrad CPC.

C64 had the best versions of codemaster games.

I finally remembered what the game was I was trying to think of. It was Star Quake.

Sorry it didn't actually contain the word Lunar in it at all in the end. :lol:

Did you know that an Amiga version of Star Quake was going to be released but got scrapped before it ever was. An Atari ST version was released though. I wonder if the Amiga version was actually finished and if anyone has it? :hmmm:

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Originally Posted by Harrison

I finally remembered what the game was I was trying to think of. It was Star Quake.

Sorry it didn't actually contain the word Lunar in it at all in the end.

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Nor was it two words (at least if we go by the spelling at Wikipedia). We would have been guessing forever :lol:

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Did you know that an Amiga version of Star Quake was going to be released but got scrapped before it ever was. An Atari ST version was released though. I wonder if the Amiga version was actually finished and if anyone has it? :hmmm:

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Quite possibly, a fair few Amiga games were finished but unreleased (Putty Squad being the most famous example).

I always thought it madness to actually finish the production of a game and then never release it commercially. It would have made some money back regardless of the number of sales. Putty Squad sold quite well on the SNES for example.

I'm going to see if I can track down a copy of StarQuake for the Amiga.

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Originally Posted by AlexJ

Nor was it two words (at least if we go by the spelling at Wikipedia). We would have been guessing forever :lol:

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Well, I don't like to make it too easy. ;)

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Originally Posted by Harrison

I always thought it madness to actually finish the production of a game and then never release it commercially. It would have made some money back regardless of the number of sales. Putty Squad sold quite well on the SNES for example.

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I suppose there's the costs of production and distribution, but these wouldn't have been that big and as you say would have easily be recuperated even with fairly poor sales. Promotion costs would have been tiny as they were already promoting the SNES version so adding 'Amiga' to the advert would have costed nil.

I think the main reason might have been piracy, and how having a cracked version on the Amiga would have affected sales on the SNES.

Do you think so? I remember at the time that most SNES and Megadrive owners looked down on the Amiga as not being as good as their consoles because they each claimed the Amiga wasn't as good for various reasons. Mostly Megadrive owners sighting that the Amiga didn't have a game that could scroll as fast as Sonic, and the SNES owners saying the Amiga didn't have a platform game to match Mario.

I don't remember anyone I knew owning both an Amiga and SNES (other than myself ;)).

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Originally Posted by Harrison

I don't remember anyone I knew owning both an Amiga and SNES (other than myself ;)).

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Thinking about it, if piracy was a concern they could have just released it on the CD32.

I had also had a SNES as well as an Amiga. I feel that the A1200 was every bit as good as the consoles at the time, however most games were written to cater for the vast A500 market and the AGA versions were often just graphical updates to use more colours with perhaps a new level or two. There were too few A1200-only games which could be written from the ground up to take advantage of the hardware. In the case of Putty Squad, it was originally written for Amiga as AGA only and then ported to SNES so would have played very similar and been as good as the console version I'd imagine.

When it came to platformers, the consoles did have the edge but things like flight & driving simulators the Amiga definitely had the edge.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

I finally remembered what the game was I was trying to think of. It was Star Quake.

Sorry it didn't actually contain the word Lunar in it at all in the end. :lol:

Did you know that an Amiga version of Star Quake was going to be released but got scrapped before it ever was. An Atari ST version was released though. I wonder if the Amiga version was actually finished and if anyone has it? :hmmm:

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I remember Star quake not being relased but never got to play it i must try and get it.

I think ot is a shame games got scrapped there was alot of games for C64 and amiga and other consoles and systems that got scrapped.

Happens all the time of every platform. It not too mad if a game is still only in pre-production or in early development, but when a developer has been working on a game for a couple of years and suddenly told the project is shelved that must really be upsetting for them. And to actually let a developer complete a project and then never release it commercially just doesn't make good business sense as the publisher would have been funding the developers expenses during the development so would be in negative equity by that point. Mad.