Good games for c64

[The Mr. Video]

Hi, today I got an NTSC c64 breadbox/breadbin model. It probably wont be delivered until sometime next week. But in the meantime, what kind of good games are there for it? And also, what kind of PAL games will work with an NTSC c64?

[+wongojack]

Lemon64 has a very vetted list of top games. Point and click adventures (Maniac Mansion etc) are usually near the top. Pirates! happens to be my favorite game of all time and the Bard's Tale series almost always gets mentioned. The Turrican series originated here and the Summer Games family by Epyx really brings back positive memories. C64 was also where I first encountered HERO.

[+Random Terrain]

I loved Toy Bizarre:

 

youtube.com/watch?v=q2o4IGHi4Ww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2o4IGHi4Ww

[RobertB]

The frenetic Crossroads and Crossroads II from Compute's! Gazette magazine. Great for one player or two players!

 

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[7800fan]

If you liked sci-fi exploration, Starflight is pretty good. That game and Ultima series were responsible for my poor school grade (a measly 2.5 GPA)

 

I also had lots of fun with Dragon Wars. It's rather difficult game to solve back in the day when the only way to find hint outside the game was to find a clue book or have a local BBS that had people who knew the game. My book store never had DW hint book, refused to order it (maybe it was OOP?) and the local BBS were mainly filled with people who were more interested in education than gaming. (Arbornet and 300bps modem sucks BTW)

[adam242]

Bruce Lee II.

 

http://kollektivet.nu/brucelee2/

[Bill Loguidice]

Mancopter is always a favorite I still enjoy. It's like a race-based Joust variation. Impossible Mission is another classic, as is Bruce Lee. Archon is another favorite. Etc. The good thing is that there are probably hundreds of good games for it, so finding stuff to play won't be an issue.

[BassGuitari]

Some favorites of mine of the top of my head:

Blue Max

Ghosts 'N' Goblins

Leather Goddesses of Phobos

Street Fighter (yes, seriously, lol)

Beach Head II

Space Taxi

Threshold

Ms. Pac-Man

Defender

Gorf

 

As you can see, I have an inclination toward arcade games that involve shooting stuff, but there is an absolute wealth of great games (of most genres) for the Commodore 64.

[+save2600]

Soooo many great games to list... if you're into classic arcade games, anything by Atarisoft, Parker Bros., CBS, etc. - the stuff originally released on cartridge are excellent for what they are. Wizard of Wor stands out as particularly good. Pinball Construction Set, Ghouls 'n Ghosts/Ghosts and Goblins also.

Then there's the multitude of RPG's, space exploration, point and click adventures, text adventures, sims, driving games - C64 really is a great little system.

Oh and I don't have the links handy, but an improved Ultima with enhanced graphics was recently released as was a DK Jr. conversion and Ghosts N Goblins.

[carlsson]

On the question which PAL games will work with NTSC, the general answer is that early games and simple games tend to work. There is no region lock on the C64, instead the difference is purely technical and relates to number of lines on the screen. NTSC has a total of 525 lines per frame, PAL has 625 lines.

 

If a PAL game is set to change graphics mode at a certain raster line, when run on a NTSC machine it might happen at a different position on the display than intended. Many games also will wait for the raster beam to be outside the visual area and do calculations, and if the number of lines are fewer, the routine might not be finished until a new frame has happened, causing disturbance. On the good side, NTSC with fewer lines per frame gives a faster frame rate so games will play faster, perhaps more commonly observed on consoles than computers.

 

Generally a good idea is to try games in emulation, where you can switch between PAL and NTSC. See if the game behaves well in your desired mode, and if it does, you can transfer it to the real machine. Some games are available in separate versions, at least the more complex ones. Sometimes games need quite heavy reprogramming to work in the other mode, I remember the European release of Epyx Pitstop II was delayed by quite a while when converting from NTSC to PAL, and there probably are plenty of examples of the opposite.

 

When it comes to favorite games, you already got plenty of suggestions and I confirm that the Lemon64 top lists are fairly accurate, in particular if you adjust the number of votes required.

[BillyHW]

Ms. Pac-Man

Ghosts'n Goblins

Ghouls'n Ghosts

The Last Ninja

Impossible Mission

Space Taxi

Bruce Lee

Summer/Winter/California/World Games

 

http://www.gamebase64.com/is a good site for C64 stuff.

[BillyHW]

Some more:

 

Deceptor

Donkey Kong Jr. (this is a recent homebrew though, excellent)

Bruce Lee II (recent homebrew)

Sword of Fargoal (slow dungeon crawler, if you're into that, otherwise don't bother)

Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade (recent homebrew remake, superb but the original is still amazing)

I think there were sequels to the Last Ninja you should check out

Pitstop II

Test Drive

[BillyHW]

OMG and how could I forget:

 

Airwolf!

[Chris++]

Raid on Bungeling Bay (Broderbund)

Airborne Ranger (MicroProse)

Dino Eggs (Micro Fun)

Oil's Well (Sierra On-Line)

Wizball (Ocean)

Archon (Electronic Arts)

Z [AKA Z-Pilot] (Rino)

Montezuma's Revenge (Parker Bros.)

Demon Stalkers and its sequel, Fire King (Electronic Arts)

Miner 2049er and its sequel, Bounty Bob Strikes Back! (Big Five)

 

...as well as the superb arcade translations; the following are better on the C64 than on any other '80s platform:

 

Zaxxon (Synapse)

Mr. Do! (Datasoft)

Q*Bert (Parker Brothers)

Wizard of Wor (Commodore)

Crystal Castles (Thundervision)

Battle Zone, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man (Atarisoft)

 

...and finally, you've got Activision's amazing conversions of Atari 2600 originals, specifically H.E.R.O. and Pitfall II: Lost Caverns.

 

Also, what everyone else said.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Chris++

[RobertB]

save2600 wrote:

 

> ...an improved Ultima with enhanced graphics was recently released...

 

After Ultima IV Gold was released several years ago, Per Olofsson released the even more improved Ultima IV Remastered at

 

http://magervalp.github.io/2015/03/30/u4-remastered.html

 

FCUG celebrating 34 years this month,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[chuckwalla]

Even though I enjoy the C64 purely on emulation in modern times (using WinVice 2.1 that offers load and save states), here are many of my favorite games for the last 30+ years:

 

Dino Eggs

Raid Over Moscow

Donkey Kong

Telengard

Zaxxon

Beach Head I, II

Jumpman

Sargon III Chess

Wasteland

Who Dares Wins I, II

Commando

Winter Games

Summer Games I,II

Choplifter

Bandits

Mr. Robot & His Robot Factory

Pinball Construction Set

Star League Baseball

Boulderdash

Gyruss

Uridium

Zone Ranger

Wizard of Wor

 

 

 

 

[high voltage]

EA Project Firestart classic. Mindscape The Halley's Project absolute great, Origin's Omega 100% strategy gameplay, Activision's Portal is an underrated classic, Plundered Hearts from Infocom, lovely game, Grand Prix Circuit by Accolade. and all of the Gold boxes from SSI.

 

There's a few good UK made games too, like The last Ninja trilogy, Level 9 adventures (Snowball, The Worm in Paradise), System 7 games generally are good, some Jeff Minter stuff has great gameplay, Hewson's Stormlord 1 and 2 are good.

Edited November 26, 2015 by high voltage

[BillyHW]

Racing Destruction Set.

[+wongojack]

I asked a question in the Lemon64 chat about being able to do more with the rankings on the site (view by publisher, year, genre, etc). I don't think you can do that, but someone did link me to this post where it seems someone manually figured out the top 500 C64 games of all time (as of 2013): http://gamescollection.forumcommunity.net/?t=53800849

[carlsson]

On this link, you can at least adjust the number of votes required: http://www.lemon64.com/games/votes_list.php

 

It'd be nice to have lists of top 50 of each genre, or top 50 of games published before 1986 but then again voting is subjective even if the number of voters hopefully is large enough to get a fair result.

[+OLD CS1]

Trolls and Tribulations

Satan's Hollow

Ghost 'n' Goblins

Cybernoid I and II

DuoTris

Bump 'n Jump

Gyruss

Shadow of the Beast

Blackhawk

Gunship

Super Pac-Man

Bruce Lee

Mutants

Thing on a Spring

Vixen

 

In no particular order.

[karokoenig]

Did anyone already mention Paradroid yet?

[SSG]

I enjoy Qbert on the C64.

[+OLD CS1]

I enjoy Qbert on the C64.

 

Actually Q*bert is very well done on the C64, as well as most other platforms (the TI-99/4A conversion is surprisingly good.)

 

I also forgot about Arkanoid and Arkanoid II, Aztec Challenge, and Lazy Jones.

 

And

 

[carlsson]

I'll see your Ballblazer and raise the bid with Trailblazer and Hypa-Ball!