How many games on cartridge for the C-64?

[simbalion]

How many games or programs were sold on cartridge for the Commodore 64 here in the US? I know the VIC-20 had a fair number of cartridges, so I am wondering if the 64 also had a decent amount or were they really pushing the diskettes by that time.

[BassGuitari]

How many games or programs were sold on cartridge for the Commodore 64 here in the US? I know the VIC-20 had a fair number of cartridges, so I am wondering if the 64 also had a decent amount or were they really pushing the diskettes by that time.

I'm glad you posted this because I was just thinking the same thing. Seems like cartridges were initially fairly popular on the 64 but went away in a hurry once the prices of disk drives came down.

 

The VIC, by contrast, was all about cartridges and tapes. But many C64 users never even owned any cartridges for their system, except maybe a FastLoad cart.

[7800fan]

Some games were made on both cart and disk format. I have Adventure Creator on cart for example and almost every time I look at ebay to find original manual, it's the disk version.

 

When disk drive were like $300 in early C64's life, it made sense to sell some games on cart and tape format instead. But when more people got disk drive, games on disk were cheaper. Pennies per disk vs a few dollars per cart.

[carlsson]

Mayhem has about 400 (more or less) unique C64 cartridges in his collection, and I don't know if his is the most complete one. So yes, there were far more game and utility cartridges than you'd normally imagine.

[+wongojack]

/\/\/\ http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/cart.htm

[BassGuitari]

Mayhem has about 400 (more or less) unique C64 cartridges in his collection, and I don't know if his is the most complete one. So yes, there were far more game and utility cartridges than you'd normally imagine.

Interesting, I would not have guessed there were that many since the Commodore 64 isn't generally known for its cartridges. It had some great ones, though, like Gorf and Wizard of Wor.

[SSG]

Mayhem has about 400 (more or less) unique C64 cartridges in his collection, and I don't know if his is the most complete one. So yes, there were far more game and utility cartridges than you'd normally imagine.

 

Interesting, I would not have guessed there were that many since the Commodore 64 isn't generally known for its cartridges. It had some great ones, though, like Gorf and Wizard of Wor.

 

I would of said a small amount but sheesh am I wrong.

[carlsson]

After a closer count on cartridges broken up by publisher, I get a little over 300 which still is an impressive number.

 

First generation 1982-1985

Activision: 12

Atari: 12

Broderbund: 5

CBS: 13

Commodore: 43

Commodore MAX: 15 (several different from C64 version)

Creative Software: 7

Epyx: 3

Fisher-Price: 10

Handic: 21 (some re-issues of Commodore carts)

HES: 13

HES Australia: 19 (some re-issues of Activision etc)

Maxion: 5

Mr Computer: 9

Parker Bros: 7

Romox: 6

Sega: 8

Sierra On-Line: 9

Spinnaker: 16

Turbo Software: 5

C64GS generation (1989-199X)

Dinamic: 5 (C64GS generation)

Domark: 3 (C64GS)

Ocean: 12 (C64GS)

Other publishers with < 5 releases, both first gen and GS generation: 56

As a comparison, Digital Press' online rarity guide lists C64 cartridges as followed:

US releases: 173

Non-US releases: 121

Homebrew: 14 (might be a little higher in real life)

Demos, samplers and non-games: 38

So if you consider re-issued games (in particular Handic and HES Australia), 300 cartridges clearly is within reach.

[SSG]

 

After a closer count on cartridges broken up by publisher, I get a little over 300 which still is an impressive number.

 

First generation 1982-1985

Activision: 12

Atari: 12

Broderbund: 5

CBS: 13

Commodore: 43

Commodore MAX: 15 (several different from C64 version)

Creative Software: 7

Epyx: 3

Fisher-Price: 10

Handic: 21 (some re-issues of Commodore carts)

HES: 13

HES Australia: 19 (some re-issues of Activision etc)

Maxion: 5

Mr Computer: 9

Parker Bros: 7

Romox: 6

Sega: 8

Sierra On-Line: 9

Spinnaker: 16

Turbo Software: 5

C64GS generation (1989-199X)

Dinamic: 5 (C64GS generation)

Domark: 3 (C64GS)

Ocean: 12 (C64GS)

Other publishers with < 5 releases, both first gen and GS generation: 56

As a comparison, Digital Press' online rarity guide lists C64 cartridges as followed:

US releases: 173

Non-US releases: 121

Homebrew: 14 (might be a little higher in real life)

Demos, samplers and non-games: 38

So if you consider re-issued games (in particular Handic and HES Australia), 300 cartridges clearly is within reach.

 

 

Out of all the time I have spent looking for games, I have never seen a commodore 64 cartridge game, but I knew they existed. I just didn't realize there are that many.

[carlsson]

Indeed, 300-400 cartridges still is a very small amount compared to the 10000+ games in total the C64 is said to have. Perhaps that number is a bit inflated with duplicates, hacks etc but even at 6000 unique titles, the number of cartridges would only represent 5% of the total library.

 

Chances are that when you do find cartridges, those will be from Commodore's own series. Currently I've only got a few handfuls of cartridges, most of them loose

 

Activision (3): Pitfall, Pitfall II, The Designer's Pencil

Atarisoft (1): Ms. Pac-Man

Commodore (5): Clowns, Kickman, Lemans, Star Post, Simon's Basic (sic!)

Commodore UK (1): C64GS compilation (Fiendish Freddy, International Soccer, Flimbo's Quest, Klax)

Sierra On-Line (2): Learning with Leeper, Mr. Cool

Spinnaker (6): Alphabet Zoo, Delta Drawing, Fraction Fever, Kindercomp, Story Machine (x2), Up For Grabs

plus 1-2 copies of The Final Cartridge 3, one Action Replay Mk VI, a few homemade cartridges including EasyFlash and loose boards for future development but the latter really don't count.

I used to have a couple more Commodore cartridges like Jupiter Lander and Frog Master, as well as Sega's Star Trek but that pretty much sums up what I've held onto through the years. Some of my friends have been collecting more actively so they've got more, including e.g. Epyx and HES releases.

Edited January 4, 2016 by carlsson

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Out of all the time I have spent looking for games, I have never seen a commodore 64 cartridge game, but I knew they existed. I just didn't realize there are that many.

 

I've been a Commodore 64 owner since roughly 1983. I have maybe a dozen or so cartridges in my collection, which is mostly games plus a few productivity, utility, and educational titles in the mix. As a Commodore owner in the US, after a few years, cartridges became scarce, with most titles available only on disk and really the only common cartridges being utility carts like the Epyx Fast Load or Access Mach 5.

[Lost Dragon]

There were some big plans for the C64GS, full-ish list of planned titles here:

 

http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/c64gs-cartridge-titles/

[carlsson]

I just learned that Home Entertainment Suppliers is an Australian video game distributor, unrelated to Human Engineered Software, the US video game publisher.

 

The Australian HES apparently was infamous (?) for releasing unlicensed NES games and multicarts, as well as distributing Activision games for Atari 2600 and C64, nowadays distributes Action Replay. That kind of explains the HES Australia releases and why they look so bland. Perhaps they were not all that officially licensed anyway, and from what I understand only sold within Australia.

 

Edit: This wiki claims some of the games indeed were licensed by Activision, while others may not have been. Hm.

https://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Cartridge#HES_Australia

Edited January 5, 2016 by carlsson

[Lost Dragon]

One of the C64GS Carts that improved on the awful tape version, was Double dragon, used the cart to load sprites from extra memory bank:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DGObMybfx-1o&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwifh6-PpZPKAhVB0hoKHWNUD54QtwIIFTAA&usg=AFQjCNEYcmZ6W-KfFGDp6vFQ4jvobqWQ2g

I don't think it ever saw a commercial release, sadly :-)

As to why tape version was so poor:

http://doubledragon.kontek.net/interviews/speakman-dd.html

[Seob]

I only got 2 cartridge games: ms. Pac-man from atarisoft. And After the war from dinamic. Cartridge games where not populair over here in the netherlands, since tape games where much cheaper.

[simbalion]

^{I'm actually surprised at how many games they put out on cartridge for the C64. I have a lot of games on disk, but the disks and the drives aren't getting any younger, hence the question about the cartridges. I have a working SX-64 along with a parts unit now and I'm thinking it would make a great little Commodore game system once I find more carts. I have more carts than I thought I did though.}

Edited January 8, 2016 by simbalion

[carlsson]

If you want to build a game system, you might consider some SD based device or at least EasyFlash or similar device. Of course if you're satisfied with the selection of 8-16K games you might find on actual cartridges, you're all good to go.

 

I think two of the main reasons software migrated to other storage devices were size limitations and costs. If you could sell a disk game for as much as a cartridge game, you probably had better margins even after considering the longer development times for more complex games.

[motrucker]

I only have about 30 cartridges, that are a mix of games, applications, and disk utilities like Fast Load, The Final Cartridge III+, and Super Snapshot, but I pick up carts when ever I see a fair deal.

I use a cartridge expander usually> I use both the Cardco Cardboard 5, and an old CMD expander that allows an REU to rest out the back, rather than up in the air.

As to the total number of what was made, Mayhem would be the person to ask.

Edited January 23, 2016 by motrucker

[Mayhem]

Somehow, I've completely missed this topic until now hah hah...

 

Yes, there's about 300 games cartridges available for the C64 (god knows how many utilities), split mostly in the US, but some in Europe, a handful in Japan, and the HES releases in Australia. The European ones break down to those specifically released for the C64GS (Ocean, System 3, Domark, Silverrock, Dinamic etc), Handic releases during the "first age" (1982-85), and a bunch of multicarts released by Atrax in Poland during the mid 90s.

 

After that point, there's a couple of releases by Alphaworx in Australia, and currently there's RGCD in the UK releasing homebrew cartridges. In fact RGCD are now the second biggest publisher of cartridges on the C64 after Commodore itself!

 

There's a cartridge article written by myself in the upcoming "Commodore 64 in Pixels" book that goes from the start to the present day. Had to chop it slightly due to space constraints, I may make the missing content available online once the book is out (I haven't been paid for the non-published content so there's no issue rights).

 

My website doesn't have everything, just what I own. And it needs a major redesign and overhaul! I am planning to make it for all C64 games carts down the line. And hopefully Vic20 too!

 

I've had 16 years of this research and collecting heh... so if you have questions, fire away!

[kelseya]

I would also note that Drean released at least 9 cartridge games in Argentina. I dont believe any of these were original games, but Drean changed the code in each game to translate the screens into Spanish and to add their name to the title screen.

 

The games that I am aware of are:

Choplifter (X)

Fort Apocalypse

HERO (X)

Lemans Joy (X)

Pit Stop

River Raid

Rock n Bolts

Stealth

Zaxxon (X)

 

Those marked with an (X) are ones that I personally have and the others Ive confirmed from pictures on Argentine web sites.

[Metal Jesus]

My god, I had no idea so many games were released on cart! And now I really, really want Last Ninja on cart!!

[Mayhem]

Yes, I hadn't really gotten into documenting the Drean cartridges yet. Considering Rock 'n Bolt wasn't release on cart by Activision, that's kind of an Argentinian exclusive heh.

[high voltage]

Always made me laugh. You gotta love those knowledgeable people from Future Publishing, here from Amiga Format Special number 4/ 1992:

 

 

I often wondered, why did Future Publishing bother with computer and gaming mags, their stuff was always full of mistakes

[high voltage]

My god, I had no idea so many games were released on cart! And now I really, really want Last Ninja on cart!!

There's ~400 carts for the Atari.

[+OLD CS1]

Always made me laugh. You gotta love those knowledgeable people from Future Publishing, here from Amiga Format Special number 4/ 1992:

 

I often wondered, why did Future Publishing bother with computer and gaming mags, their stuff was always full of mistakes

 

And the SX-64 has a 5" color screen. Pretty certain even the viewable size is better than 3.5".