Commodore 64 love

[SNKorSWM]

Used to play Montezuma's Revenge. Eventually there's a point where I have no idea what to do though.

 

[ki_atsushi]

I missed this post, what exactly is a PD game?

Public Domain. In other words, homebrew.

 

[roker]

Used to play a ton when I would visit my cousin in metro Detroit. Loved Aztek Challenge and pacman. We used to sit there and type up a shit ton of code to produce these horrible images. We used to think it was awesome.

Kind of miss it now, even though most games were pretty horrid. I think he had q Bert, street fighter, some text adventure games, karate champ, a really bad port of double dragon and ...this eludes me but there was this adventure game with a gnome. Can't remember the name.

Were there any good games for the system?

 

[Takumaji]

Woody,

the 1541 Ultimate is a nice piece of kit. I was looking into it for the 7-voice SID option but then went with MSSIAH instead. It's still a great solution for replacing two real 1541s, you can store your entire ROM collection on there and play it on the real thing.

I use a special parallel port cable and a software called OpenCBM to transfer stuff from and to C64 discs, it's not as convenient as the 1541 Ultimate but does the trick. This way, I can even use a real 1541 on a PC with Vice and play copy-protected discs. Back in the day I used to crack a lot of protections but now I'm too lazy for it, and if I want to, I could always use an unprotected D64 ROM.

1541s are not the most reliable piece of hardware, I'm on my third one now, bought it about ten years ago or so. The stepper motor and drive head positioning is the most fragile part but I'm not too worried about that since I'm not using my 1541 as frequently as I used to. There's not a lot you can do about broken 1541s, once I tried to replace a dead stepper motor and it was a real nightmare... it's better to buy another one or use other solutions like the 1541 Ultimate drive emu... or if you don't mind the loading, you can use a tape recorder and tapes as well, they're more reliable than 1541s. C2N Tape drives are easy to find and very cheap, btw.

Lagduf,

yeah, there still are turn-based boardgames but it's rather difficult to find people who could be arsed to play them with me.

Roker,

go here, search for games with a rating of 80% and up and make your choice: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/zzapbible.pl or check out lemon64's top-100 of C64 games: http://www.lemon64.com/games/votes_list.php . More goodness than you could shake a stick at.

 

[Gozer]

My parents had bought and setup a c64 on Christmas morning for me.

I played the shit out of Chicken Chase, Bards Tale, Sid Meier's Pirates, Dig Dug and Super Pac-Man that morning.

I may have lost my C64 and games during a move. I still hope it's just well hidden somewhere. Pisses me off that I can't find it.

 

[Xavier]

I had a C-64 , disk drive, modem (think it was 900 baud)
Mainly used to use it on a craptacular b&w tv.
Never had any real games for it, think Batman and some Richard Petty Talladega race car game. Mostly cheap PD stuff/demo's etc.
Target was about the only local place that had games for it and they had a crappy overpriced selection.
For whatever reason most of my friends wouldn't trade or let me copy thier games
I mainly used it for applications, quantum/bbs's and coding.

I just got a C-64 DTV yesterday, look forward to hacking it more than actually playing it I'm sure. Most of these games seem too dated for me to play anymore, we'll see.

 

[GutsDozer]

Not to long ago my buddy scored a new old stock C64 and disk drive in the boxes. He sold them on eBay before I even had a chance to ask him how much he wanted for it.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

A few years ago I found my family's old C64 while cleaning out my parent's house. The Ultimate 1541 is a wonderful device and I recommend it even though it's a bit pricey.

Couple it with JiffyDOS and those load times become much more tolerable. We sure put up with a lot of sitting around waiting for programs to load back then. But as a child you have nothing but time. No idea how you UK folks put up with the tape drive. Yeesh.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I had a C=128 that was always used in C=64 mode. In fact, I still have it. It's in the closet, though hasn't been used in twenty years. I don't know what happened to my floppies. The monitor was used for my video game consoles up through the PlayStation era.

I still have the map for The Last Ninja, which has been mentioned. We should post some awesome SID music for this thread!

One of my favorite games was GI Joe, great multiplayer game.

The screen you look at the most

 

[Cornerb0y]

I adore my 64! I grew up with the C64 and wouldn't have it any other way. I used to love watching my dad play it so much, that I learned how to load games by the time I was 3. I have so many fond memories of the C64, that I don't think I would have enough room to post about everything....that being said, here are some of my favorites!

Beyond the Forbidden Forest (gory horror at its finest)

Below the Root (Open World RPG)

Friday the 13th

Project Firestart (The FIRST true survival horror)

And of course Maniac Mansion (greatest game of all time)

I tend to do late night live streams on twitch from time to time...and the majority of it is Commodore 64 games. Check it out if you like!

www.twitch.tv/Cornerb0y

 

[WoodyXP]

The Demo scene is sick. Life would have been so much better if programmers could have pushed the hardware like this back in the 80's.

 

[Pasky]

I haven't seen any demo scene's for c64 so that was interesting. I've seen the one for the super grafx:

Found some cool ones for C64:

^ I love the Psuedo 3D effect @ 5:45

Been playing Impossible mission again too and remembering how hard that game can be haha. I remember for the longest time I called that game Mission Impossible as a kid and tried to find it as a teenager and never could until I realized I had it all wrong.

 

[Slugger]

I remember that International Karate + was tight. We also played a Snoopy game with friends which was kind of fun. The C64 really thought us kids a lot of patience back in the days.

 

[Tron]

I never had a C64 as a kid.Still i do have nostalgia for it,since i all ways knew some one that had it.The most i got to play was the last ninja,zorro,gauntlet,spy vs spy and kung fu master.There's been times i thought about finding a used one since i have a C64 1702 monitor.Any one have suggestion on what i need to know ?

 

[Takumaji]

I never had a C64 as a kid.Still i do have nostalgia for it,since i all ways knew some one that had it.The most i got to play was the last ninja,zorro,gauntlet,spy vs spy and kung fu master.There's been times i thought about finding a used one since i have a C64 1702 monitor.Any one have suggestion on what i need to know ?

First of all, make sure that you buy a model made for your region (US/NTSC). Basically there are two major models, the original brown "breadbox" version and the white C64II that came out later on. They both have the same hardware so which one you chose is only a matter of taste. The PSU of the original version tends to overheat but since most people don't play the ol' Commie hardcore anymore these days, this shouldn't be an issue. Mind you, there are some minor differences between the models, some of them come with a revised version of the SID (sound chip) that has different low-pass/high-pass filter behaviour but you won't notice it in 9 cases out of 10 if you don't happen to use it for making music.

Now for the mass-storage part: You could either use a Commodore C2N tape unit, 1541 floppy drive or one of those 1541-emu things (Ultimate 1541) that has been mentioned in this thread. If you want to be on the safe side, buy both a tape and floppy drive, this way you can play original games (if that is what you're after). There are various ways of transferring C64 tape or discs ROMs to real 5 1/4 floppies or tapes, this is what I do to be able to play the stuff on the real Commie, even though C64 emulation has been almost perfected over the past few years. My fave emu is Vice, I also use CCS64 for certain things that don't work on Vice (like machinecode monitor carts, etc.). Both emulators support online/network play.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I never had a C64 as a kid.Still i do have nostalgia for it,

I'm this way with Amiga.

 

[Takumaji]

I'm this way with Amiga.

Getting into Amiga isn't as simple as buying C64 hardware. There are various different versions, some of which are incompatible to certain games, and vice versa. If you mostly want to play older games, an A500 with 1MB RAM and Kickstart 1.3 and a proper RGB monitor (Commodore 1084S, Philips CM8833, etc.) would be the best choice. If you also want to check out the AGA games (games that use the new chipsets of later Amigas), an A1200 is the machine to look out for. However, not all of the old games will run on it.

IMO the best way to go at it is to use WinUAE (Amiga emulator) to try and see whether the games you're after will work on your preferred setup.

I bought my first Amiga (A1000) in 1987, then I switched to A500 for more convenience and compatibility. As much as I love those machines, I really wouldn't want to go back to the real hardware again, that's why I sold all my stuff a couple of years ago to a good friend of mine and never looked back. WinUAE gives me all I need to get my Amiga fix, feels just like the real thing if you use it with an USB version of the Competition Pro joystick.

 

[Late]

 

[Takumaji]

The demos of today have one thing in common, certain parts of it are only possible to achieve with external programs on PC, like Exomizer (a very efficient packer), etc. I like some of them but basically prefer the old stuff that was 100% C64 work.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Getting into Amiga isn't as simple as buying C64 hardware.

I think I'll be fine with the emulator. For some reason, it feels more appropriate to use emulators for home computer platforms than for consoles. I'll look into WinUAE, what's the preferred C=64 emulator now, I don't remember what I used to use.

My weird nostalgia for Amiga isn't just based on the games; I used to also drool over its audio-video features and tools. It's said that Amiga was the first "multimedia" machine before that term was even coined. Ahead of its time in many ways.

 

[NeoGeoNinja]

I had a C64 as a kid. It was the next gaming machine I received after having the 2600 beforehand.

I'll be honest when I say, I was never a fan of it really. I realise this is a thread dedicated to the opposite sentiments, but, although I never outright hated my C64, I couldn't wait to move on from it tbh.

However, I did enjoy the Cartridge titles that came out for the machine. I had a lot of those as my Mum bought me a load to go with the machine: Shadow of the Beast, Robocop 2 & 3, Chase HQ 2, Navy Seals, Batman, Pang, Space Gun, T2, Toki and that 4-in1 cart that came with my C64, which included the rather excellent Flimbo's Quest.

Outside of the Carts though, I was rarely impressed. Of the one's that did grab me, I enjoyed the Turrican series, Midnight Resistance, Catalypse, Cosmic Causeway & Trailblazer, Cauldron 2, Last Ninja series, Cyberdyne Warrior. probably some others.

Overall though, I couldn't wait to get rid and grab an SMS or NES instead.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

God I love the C64. My brother was part of the demo scene in the late 80's and I used to stay up with him late at night d/ling games and hanging out on bulletin boards. I used to play:

Legacy of Ancients
Skate or Die
D&D games
Dragon's Lair (two games in one!)
Pinball Construction Kit
Archon
... too many games to list.

LOVE the C64. I really need to get a good emu and relive the glory days.

 

[GregN]

Used to play Ultima IV, Yosagi Yojimbo (+Other Thunder Mountain games), Wheel of Fortune, and all kinds of pirated games and demos from a friend of the family. Of course I played Maniac Mansion and nuked the hamster.

 

[Takumaji]

Outside of the Carts though, I was rarely impressed. Of the one's that did grab me, I enjoyed the Turrican series, Midnight Resistance, Catalypse, Cosmic Causeway & Trailblazer, Cauldron 2, Last Ninja series, Cyberdyne Warrior. probably some others.

Overall though, I couldn't wait to get rid and grab an SMS or NES instead.

Fair enough.

I already had an Amiga when the SMS and NES hit the market so I wasn't too excited over them at first. What kept me from buying one of those consoles at first was the cart prices over here, you could get three or four C64 games on tape or two Amiga games for the price of one SMS/NES cart. This and the fact that the early SMS and NES games weren't all that advanced compared to my micros made me stick to my Commie and Amiga for quite a while longer.

Pinball Construction Kit

Man, can't count he many hours I put in this one, my friends and I used to create hilariously unplayable tables and had tons of fun with it. The ball physics and graphics were quite good for the time.

LOVE the C64. I really need to get a good emu and relive the glory days.

As I mentioned before, Vice is the emu to go for in my opinion, easy to use and very accurate.

The C64 fan scene still is alive and kicking. Not only can you get almost any game in ROM form, there also are several projects for scanning manuals and releasing them in PDF form. This way, you can also play the more complicated stuff like RPGs and simulations that otherwise would be near impossible to use because of all the key commands and other not-so-obvious options.

At the moment I'm playing Strike Fleet, it's a naval simulation where you command a fleet of war ships and have to complete several missions. The tons of gameplay and replay value this one has is amazing.

 

[Pasky]

Is there a way to get VICE to load .NIB's? Converting them in dosbox is becoming a pain. I'd even settle for a converter that works in x64 windows at this point.