Your C64 Top 5 games?

[mmertes]

I’m finally getting back into the Commodore 64 after many years and was curious what everyone’s top 5 games were for the computer? I was very young when I played games on the C64, anywhere from 3 to 5 years old; but I loved every moment of it. Our unit eventually burned out due to someone spilling something in it, which was a sad day for us.

My top 5:

 

1. Forbidden Forest – This game terrified me, but I loved the game play, the music and the variety of monsters that came after you. The looming pressure of the final battle, always made me sweat; but I managed to beat it.

2. Impossible Mission – Stay forever! The game’s digital speech captivated me as a little kid and made me question why more games didn’t have it when my parents got me a NES years later. I was never able to solve the puzzles and complete the game, but the platforming was enough to keep me entertained for hours on end.

3. Bruce Lee – My dad was a martial artist and really looked up to Bruce Lee, so it was no surprise that he’d have a copy of a game that featured one of his influences. This was another one I could complete on my own, but I’d often have to play as the green sumo whenever my older sister wanted to play. The game was really more avoiding the enemies and traps then it was a fighting game, but my dad and I loved it.

4. Raid Over Moscow – My dad and my sister sucked at this game! They could never get the fighter out of the space station and would often either hit a wall or get nailed by the door as it closed. I kept at the game until I could get every ship out and was able make it all the way to the very end of the game. I could never defeat the robot at the end though.

5. Pit Stop 2 – I’m not a big racing fan, but the fact that you had to make “pit stops” to have your crew repair your tires and fuel your vehicle was a very cool concept to me. This feature put a lot a tension on players when they were competing head to head! This was another one I played a bunch of times with my sister.

 

Honorable mentions:

Conan

Kung Fu Master

Ninja

Beach Head

[rpiguy9907]

There were so many games for the C64 that people's experience is almost entirely based on what they had. Here is my list, but it is not because of the merits of the games, just sentimentality as I had these and loved them as a kid.

 

1. Knight Games

 

2. Impossible Mission

 

3. Lazy Jones

 

4. James Bond 007 (on Cartridge)

 

5. Might and Magic I

 

I remember seeing Might and Magic I on an Apple. So sad in those 4 colors. The trees actually had green leaves and brown trunks on the C64!

 

Honorable Mentions:

GI Joe

Transformers (the loading times, ugh...)

Qix

Frogger

[7800fan]

Ultima 5, Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars, Legacy of the Ancients and Elite.

[Mayhem]

Impossible Mission

Dropzone

Laser Squad

Paradroid

IK+

[rpiguy9907]

Ultima 5, Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars, Legacy of the Ancients and Elite.

 

 

I also had Legacy of the Ancients and Ultima 5. Ultima 5 should have been on my list somewhere, I forgot I had it for the C64 because I replayed it on the Amiga some years later.

[mmertes]

Impossible Mission

Dropzone

Laser Squad

Paradroid

IK+

Just took a look at Laser Squad and really want to check it out now! Looks like the roots that X-COM based itself on!

[Bill Loguidice]

Tough to come up with just 5, but absolute top of my head:

 

- Raid on Bungeling Bay

- Satan's Hollow

- Mancopter

- Phantasie

- Beach-Head II

 

Again, though, I'd probably struggle with working a dozen or so additional titles in there...

[mmertes]

For those of you who played RPG's like Ultima, Bard's Tale and other RPGs, have you gone back to them and find they still hold up? I wouldn't play my first RPG until Dragon Warrior on the NES and going back to that years later I found that it was pretty hard to enjoy

[mmertes]

Tough to come up with just 5, but absolute top of my head:

 

- Raid on Bungeling Bay

- Satan's Hollow

- Mancopter

- Phantasie

- Beach-Head II

 

Again, though, I'd probably struggle with working a dozen or so additional titles in there...

Satan's Hollow! Yes! Another favorite of mine. The C64 version was the first version of that game I played and I was glued to it. Anytime I run across the arcade version I have to play it. I regret not grabbing a cabinet of Satan's Hollow when it was cheaper.

[Bill Loguidice]

There were so many games for the C64 that people's experience is almost entirely based on what they had. Here is my list, but it is not because of the merits of the games, just sentimentality as I had these and loved them as a kid.

 

1. Knight Games

 

 

My friends and I played Knight Games a lot back in the day. It was audio-visually beautiful. Gameplay-wise, it's quite shallow, though, and I don't hold it in much regard today beyond that.

[Bill Loguidice]

For those of you who played RPG's like Ultima, Bard's Tale and other RPGs, have you gone back to them and find they still hold up? I wouldn't play my first RPG until Dragon Warrior on the NES and going back to that years later I found that it was pretty hard to enjoy

 

For me, it's been VERY hard to go back to (or start up as never played before) vintage RPGs, and I've certainly tried (and have a huge collection of them) many times with all manner of them. My favorite RPG series - even moreso than the Gold Box games - are the three Phantasie games (I also have the fourth Japanese-only game in my collection). As such, I've gotten quite close several times to playing them on platforms other than the C-64, where I beat them, but never got very far along. In fact, as we speak, I have the Apple II version of Phantasie I (the originating version) ready to go on my desk and may start in on it this weekend. I was going to play the Amiga or ST version, but was put off by the reliance on the mouse. I may start in on those variations in the future, though.

 

So, basically, I'm going to try and use my love for Phantasie to rekindle my very real enthusiasm for classic RPGs. After beating at least the first one again (although I'll probably go to II and III just because), I'll try some of my previous false starts, e.g., Wizard's Crown, The Magic Candle, The Bard's Tale I, etc.

 

The main challenge are the interfaces/pacing of these games. They were just fine back in the day as kids with a lot more free time, but now they can be a challenge to get into. The problem is, very few modern RPGs replicate that same type of wonderful experience, and the ones that do often overload on options. That's kind of why I'm keeping close tabs on homebrews like Nox Archaist and Lawless Legends, since they have the potential of properly merging classic gameplay with some of the modern improvement in UI/UX.

[Bill Loguidice]

Satan's Hollow! Yes! Another favorite of mine. The C64 version was the first version of that game I played and I was glued to it. Anytime I run across the arcade version I have to play it. I regret not grabbing a cabinet of Satan's Hollow when it was cheaper.

 

I'm with you. That too was the first version of the game I played and a brilliant conversion, particularly for such an early title. I had a similar love grow for Pooyan thanks to the C-64 port. Both arcade games are now my two favorites.

[landgraf]

In no particular order:

 

- Space Taxi

- Impossible Mission

- Paradroid (I played the Heavy Metal Edition the most, but TNT's Redux version is even better),

- Raid on Bungeling Bay

- Pirates!

 

Damn, it's really hard to select only five

[Bill Loguidice]

In no particular order:

 

- Space Taxi

- Impossible Mission

- Paradroid (I played the Heavy Metal Edition the most, but TNT's Redux version is even better),

- Raid on Bungeling Bay

- Pirates!

 

Damn, it's really hard to select only five

 

See, 5 is impossible. "Top of my head" I "forgot" about Space Taxi, Castle Wolfenstein, etc. All super fun. I definitely loved the games with speech just a bit more than many of the games without it.

 

I loved Impossible Mission too - in fact, it was the first game I bought when I got a disk drive (it was between that and Bruce Lee!) - but I was never able to beat it, so it doesn't stay in my personal top 5.

[mmertes]

 

I'm with you. That too was the first version of the game I played and a brilliant conversion, particularly for such an early title. I had a similar love grow for Pooyan thanks to the C-64 port. Both arcade games are now my two favorites.

Pooyan was another as well! I completely forgot about the game until I started playing Famicom games and found a port of it on the system! I'll have to fire that one up as well on the C64.

[mmertes]

 

See, 5 is impossible. "Top of my head" I "forgot" about Space Taxi, Castle Wolfenstein, etc. All super fun. I definitely loved the games with speech just a bit more than many of the games without it.

 

I loved Impossible Mission too - in fact, it was the first game I bought when I got a disk drive (it was between that and Bruce Lee!) - but I was never able to beat it, so it doesn't stay in my personal top 5.

When we re-acquired a C64 in the early 90's, Wolfenstein was a game I often played a lot. Another great example of speech in a video game. The only thing that bugged me was how long it took to search for items in boxes or however else you found items.

 

A few years later when I saw Wolfenstein 3D in a Best Buy for the first time on a IBM PC, I quickly realized that it was a adaption of the C64 and became glued to it.

[onthinice]

_{Pirates, Buck Rodgers Countdown to Doomsday, Three Stooges, Crusade in Europe and Test Drive.}

[Mayhem]

Just took a look at Laser Squad and really want to check it out now! Looks like the roots that X-COM based itself on!

 

Same guys, the Gollop brothers. They did Chaos and Rebelstar on the Speccy, the latter being the pre-cursor to Laser Squad. And yes, parts of Laser Squad were definitely then used as a basis for designing X-Com.

[BydoEmpire]

For those of you who played RPG's like Ultima, Bard's Tale and other RPGs, have you gone back to them and find they still hold up? I wouldn't play my first RPG until Dragon Warrior on the NES and going back to that years later I found that it was pretty hard to enjoy

I played through several Gold Box games in the last couple years and found them a TON of fun (it helps to have fast saving and loading via PC, though). A few years back I got Ultimate I-V (ish) through gog.com and those were tougher to enjoy - I only played a little bit of each, but not significant time. I was never really that into the Ultima series, though, so it's not necessarily a now-vs-then thing. I have enjoyed Alkalabeth on iPhone, though. I think it really depends on the individual game.

Edited May 19, 2017 by BydoEmpire

[BydoEmpire]

1. Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Kit

2. Pool of Radiance

3. Bruce Lee

4. Raid Over Moscow

5. Racing Destruction Set

[Mr SQL]

Arkanoid

That crazy orb game whatever it's called

Archon

Gauntlet, the first one with the music in the treasure room

Spy Vs Spy

Ultima IV

Chessmaster

Commando

Outrun

 

Modern homebrews:

PowerGlove

GPAC Dementia Defender

[Mr SQL]

For those of you who played RPG's like Ultima, Bard's Tale and other RPGs, have you gone back to them and find they still hold up? I wouldn't play my first RPG until Dragon Warrior on the NES and going back to that years later I found that it was pretty hard to enjoy

Good point; of the games I posted I'd have to say Ultima does not hold up, I could not play that for hours anymore.

[Bill Loguidice]

<snip>

So, basically, I'm going to try and use my love for Phantasie to rekindle my very real enthusiasm for classic RPGs. After beating at least the first one again (although I'll probably go to II and III just because), I'll try some of my previous false starts, e.g., Wizard's Crown, The Magic Candle, The Bard's Tale I, etc.

<snip>

 

Update to the above... I tried several of my Apple II Phantasie disks and they were having fits on one of my IIc's, so I gave up and pulled out the 128DCR to try the C-64 version again. I got that going, built a party, etc. (although, strangely, I couldn't get a Minotaur or some other random creatures I wanted to generate for my party no matter how many times I tried), but found even that relatively streamlined interface a bit frustrating. I probably have to be in a very different state of mind to get into these, so I'll try some of the modern RPGs I've been putting off like Wasteland 2, Torment Tides of Numera, and Legend of Grimrok 2. Hopefully one of those will hit with me and I can eventually go backwards again. We'll see.

[motrucker]

How can any best games list for the C-64 be without Wizball,?

Edited May 20, 2017 by motrucker

[Mayhem]

How can any best games list for the C-64 be without Wizball,?

 

It's in my top ten, I just find it a bit easy, that's all. Lovely to play mind you.