Airman Doors, USAF’s thread about beating old games got me reminiscing about my C64 again, and some of the great games it had. I dug out my old box of floppies and looked over some of my favorite games.
I didn’t want to hijack his thread, so I thought I’d start this up. Here’s some of the games that I loved (that I didn’t mention in the other thread):
Leather Goddesses of Phobos (I’m naughty :D)
Infidel
Knight Games
Defender of the Crown
Heart of Africa
School Daze
G.I. Joe II
Kennedy Approach
Spy vs. Spy I and II
Zorro
Kung Fu Master
Jet Set Willy II
Plundered Hearts
Karateka
Apple Cider Spider
Spare Change
Strangeloop
Winter Games & Summer Games
Boulder Dash
Equestrian Showjumper
Jumpman 1 & 2
Blueprint
Drol
Booga Boo (My brother was afraid of the pterodactyl as a kid)
Congo Bongo
Pooyan
Barbarians (delightfully gory)
Spy Hunter
Dino Eggs
Masters of the Lamp
Paperboy
Ghostbusters
Dynamite Dan
Jungle Hunt
Choplifter
High Noon
Kokotoni Wilf
Dungeons of Ba
Space Taxi
And that’s just SOME of the ones I like.
Anyone else who enjoyed these? Would like to reminisce about them? Want to bring up some games I didn’t mention that you like?
“Montezuma’s Revenge” was a lot of fun, and the C64 had a really nice version of Defender going for it. Also enjoyed playing some of the Scott Adams text adventures on it – TerrorCotta and I actually beat Pirate’s Cove.
Also loved Adventure Writer, which let you write your own text adventures. Which reminds of “Mallagor” a text adventure set on a planet a lot like Gor, written in Adventure Writer (but not by me).
Adventure Writer sounds awesome. I wish I would have had that one.
I liked Montezuma’s Revenge but got frustrated a lot with it - would get really far and then die horribly.
Spy Hunter and Burger Time were my favorites. There was also some Dungeon adventure game that came off the Commodore Pets. It may have been called Wizard’s Quest and it was hopelessly addicting.
Speaking of the C64, did anyone else get Compute magazine? It had sample programs and games printed in the magazine in the form of pages of four- or six-digit numbers you had to type in by hand. And I had a cassette tape drive for storage. I used the ten-minute tapes I bought at the local computer store.
The games I best remember are Boulder Dash and Impossible Mission, but that might have been for the Atari 800 that a roommate had.
I remember Compute! Actually, my most-used program outside of games was one I typed up from a Compute issue. It was a music editor that created sounds by sending instructions directly to the C64’s SID chip. I must have had hundreds of music files that were entered through that program. They are, in fact, the one category of programs I miss the most from the C64 days. If I could find my old (audio) tapes of the music I had, I’d be in heaven.
Seven Cities of Gold was great, but I ended up getting lost on the sea too much and my whole crew died, so I eventually gave up on it.
Yeah, Compute rocked! I lived for the little programs they’d give you, even if it was just something like a little bouncing-ball sprite.
I didn’t get real heavy into making sound/music, but occasionally I would poke and peek random numbers just to see what kind of sound it would produce.
There was a Star Trek inspired game for my VIC-20 that was quite complex and strategy driven. You could warp around the star chart (complete with warp distortion star scene and genuine warp sound) and confront different classses of enemy ships. Shield damage!
I got tapes of games and early programs including this one through the mail for my VIC-20 from a Public Domain co-op. There was an underground and people would trade their programs and make compilation tapes all for the cost of the tape and S&H.
I didn’t get Compute, but I got 3-2-1 Contact as a youngin’. Every issue at the time had a BASIC program that I’d run on the ol’ C64. Me, I loved Double Dare (based on the Nickelodeon gameshow of yore).
Jumpman
Jumpman Jr.
Drelbs
Necromancer
Uridian
Blue Maxx
Aztec Challenge
Wizball
BC’s Quest For Tires (hated the comic, had fun with the game)
Grog’s Revenge
California Games
Summer Games
Winter Games
World Games
Dig Dug
Miner 2049’er
Gauntlet
the Goonies
H.E.R.O.
Kikstart
Ninja
Bruce Lee (what was up with that little green man?)
Impossible Mission
Leviathan
Law of the West
Murder On the Mississippi
Trailblazer
Yie-Ar Kung Fu
Raid Over Moscow
Paradroid
Pitstop
Jungle Hunt
Mario Bros (the one with only one screen, non scrolling, and you bumped the floor under the enemies to make them flip over and you ran up and kicked them off the ledge)
Saracen
Street Beat
Spitting Image (Ronald Reagan used to scare me)
Farenheit 451 (there was nothing creepier than waiting for that disk drive to finish churning, only to find yourself face to face with the MECHANICAL HOUND!)
Wizard’s Lair
Speed Racer
Exploding Fist
Bagit Man
Ghostbusters
Spindizzy
Burning Rubber
And there’s one more I used to play constantly, and the name escapes me. You would run from room to room, I think you had a gun… sometimes these long, scary looking black dogs would chase after you. It was as if you were in a tomb. Sometimes you had to be careful because some rooms had no floor, and you would run in, fall, and die. The dogs could move from room to room, as well. You could go up stairs or downstairs, and eventually find your way out to a bigger map, then enter another tomb-like place. ARGH!
I beat the HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Zork III at the ripe old age of ten. I also loved the original Flight Simulator. I played around with Adventure Writer as well.