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C64 game suggestions for an Atari 800XL enthusiast?


ldelsarte

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I am a very loyal Atari 8-bit fan with cubic meters of hardware, kits, boxes and software. However, out of curiosity, I also have a TI99/4A, Apple IIe (& platinum), CBS ColecoVision (& all the add-ons), very old MS-DOS laptops, and ... since very recently, I got cheaply 2x C64, 1x C128, a 1541 drive. I bought a Kung Fu Flash cartridge (very handy)


I know the Atari 8-bit games very well, I've been playing with my 800XL since I was 13, in 1984. And I still play today thanks to my FujiNet to Boulder Dash, Montezuma's revenge, The Goonies, Burger Time, Mr TNT, Drop zone, Bruce Lee, Galaxian, The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, etc, etc. But the C64 is brand new to me. I don't know where to start the exploration.
I'm just looking for some advice: if you are familiar with Atari 8-bit and C64 games, which C64 games do I really need to play?
Good C64 games that don't exist on the Atari 8-bit...

Good C64 games that are really better made than their Atari 8-bit counterpart... (the opposite also exists, I know some)...

Do you have any suggestions for me?

After this escapade, I promise, the Commodore hardware will be back in the basement. ;-)

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Good is one of the issues... and ones that don't require add-ons is another.

so  great giana sisters, impossible mission, last ninja(s), bubble bobble, maniac mansion, operation wolf, oh don't forget the flipside and check out the cream of the crap.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M9dMTjiXCk

because they're fun too :)

Edited by _The Doctor__
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1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Good is one of the issues... and ones that don't require add-ons is another.

so  great giana sisters, impossible mission, last ninja(s), bubble bobble, maniac mansion, operation wolf, oh don't forget the flipside and check out the cream of the crap.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M9dMTjiXCk

because they're fun too :)

I so lusted after Impossible Mission on my cousin's C64 in the '80s. But we have Hans Kloss, right? And Operation Wolf = Operation Blood.

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Project Firestart

Supremacy

B.A.T.

Amnesia

Bard's Tale

Diplomacy

P0 SNAKE

Sentinel Worlds

Wasteland

The Untouchables

Sydney Hunter and the Sacred

Summer Camp

Bomb Uzal

Battletech

Bop'n Rumble

Creatures

Piracy

Rick Dangerous

Space Taxi

The Detective Game

...

Edited by zbyti
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I like Sanxion for it's eye candy, Delta is good.  Zaxxon (synapse conversion - not the Sega one) is the best? 8-bit conversion done for any system?  Armalyte.  I like to revisit the C-64 myself - but just haven't gotten around to doing it.

 

Harvey

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1942
After Burner
Airborne Ranger
Alien Storm
Aliens
Altered Beast
Armalyte
Arnie
Aztec Challenge
Batman - The Caped Crusader
Bubble Bobble
Cabal
Chase HQ
Combat School
Contra
Creatures
Cybernoid
Double Dragon
Dragon's Lair
Elite
Final Fight
Frankie goes to Hollywood
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Golden Axe
Hard n' Heavy
Hawkeye
Impossible Mission
Katakis
Krakout
Kung Fu Master
Little Computer People
Mayhem in Monsterland
Microprose Soccer
Midnight Resistance
MYTH: History in the Making
Nebulus
Out Run
Platoon
Power Drift
Project Firestart
R-Type
Rainbow Islands
Rick Dangerous
Robocop
Rodland
Rolling Thunder
Salamander
Saint Dragon
Samurai Warrior - The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo
Sanxion
Shadow of the Beast
Shinobi
Sidearms
Silk Worm
Skate or Die! 
Space Taxi
Target Renegade
Terra Cresta
Test Drive
The Great Giana Sisters
Tiger Road
Turbo Outrun
Turrican
Tusker
Uridium
Vendetta
Vigilante
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

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The only C64 game I know that really goes all out to make the best of the weird compromises of VIC-II and SID is Law of the West on the C64 (which uses the 8kb hi-res bitmap mode, very rare for C64 games to use bitmap modes). Fun game on disk, had a real blast when I played through it a while back for the first time in decades. Probably the most fun I had making C64 videos this year for youtube.

 

Sky Fox was an excellent 3D type game on the C64. Not played that on a real C64 for 3 decades, liked it so much I went out and got a brand new Quickshot Turbo joystick.

 

X-29 Fighter Mission, almost as impressive as Sky Fox

 

Accolade's Grand Prix Circuit is amazingly playable considering the 1mhz CPU (the controller input and screen update is asynchronous unlike most '3d racing games' on 8bit micros). This game defies logic.

 

Max Torque is a pretty cool Hang-on knock off on the C64.

 

F1GP Circuits is quite nice, sort of like a cut down version of F-1 Spirit on MSX 1.

 

Salamander is my fav' 2 play simultaneous shoot 'em up on the C64.

 

Who Dares Wins II was a lot of fun but only 8 short levels. Slower paced Commando knock-off.

 

R I S K (Rapid Seek Intercept Kill) is an awesome strategic shoot 'em up. One of the last games I bought before it was ST and Amiga game purchases only from 1988 for me.

 

Jumpin' Jack (AKA 3D Jumpin Jack) is an isometric Frogger clone with properly coded collision detection.

 

Buggy Boy is better than the Amiga version for me (I had both!)

 

Way of the Exploding Fist for early slower paced fighting games, IK+ if you want a more modern faster paced beat 'em up on C64.

 

BMX Kidz is a cool budget game with elements of NES Excite Bike.

 

Wizardry is not bad for an arcade RPG style game. 

 

Eagle Empire, Phoenix blatant illegal but excellently coded conversion....if you liked Phoenix......

 

Moon Cresta, again a really nice conversion I thought back then.

 

New Zealand Story and Rainbow Islands were also nice conversions.

 

Sky Shark - awesome conversion of the arcade.

 

International Basketball, fun game and the only basketball game on C64 worth a crap.

 

Rocket Ranger and Defender of the Crown are my two favourite Cinemaware games on C64.

 

I was going to do some 'perfect gift ideas for the retrogaming nutter in your life' type videos with the actual items under the tree for Xmas 2021 on Youtube but due to poor health I don't think that's going to happen. I did do an exhaustive list of C64 games I thought were worth getting someone as a present (some of these are better on the Atari 800 back then of course so this list is not totally relevant on this forum)

 

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2 hours ago, Yautja said:

1942
After Burner
Airborne Ranger
Alien Storm
Aliens
Altered Beast
Armalyte
Arnie
Aztec Challenge
Batman - The Caped Crusader
Bubble Bobble
Cabal
Chase HQ
Combat School
Contra
Creatures
Cybernoid
Double Dragon
Dragon's Lair
Elite
Final Fight
Frankie goes to Hollywood
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Golden Axe
Hard n' Heavy
Hawkeye
Impossible Mission
Katakis
Krakout
Kung Fu Master
Little Computer People
Mayhem in Monsterland
Microprose Soccer
Midnight Resistance
MYTH: History in the Making
Nebulus
Out Run
Platoon
Power Drift
Project Firestart
R-Type
Rainbow Islands
Rick Dangerous
Robocop
Rodland
Rolling Thunder
Salamander
Saint Dragon
Samurai Warrior - The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo
Sanxion
Shadow of the Beast
Shinobi
Sidearms
Silk Worm
Skate or Die! 
Space Taxi
Target Renegade
Terra Cresta
Test Drive
The Great Giana Sisters
Tiger Road
Turbo Outrun
Turrican
Tusker
Uridium
Vendetta
Vigilante
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

C64  Chase HQ WTF? Are you on drugs or something? lol

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I recently got put onto Wasteland, which is the RPG precursor to the Fallout series of games apparently. The game is spread across about eight disks (.D64's) and for some obscure reason it uses it's own DOS called ProDOS (whether that's got anything to do with Apple I don't know). What I found was that I could mount the first .D64 and load it, but subsequent .D64's were invisible to the software even though they were mounted - So the .D64's are essentially useless, and it seems I'm not the only one to pick up on this after a quick Google search.

 

I managed to find a 1MB .D81 image of the game that loads fully into the REU which runs great, better than the original - But it's a really involved game, the manual is an absolute necessity (which I found online). The problem is you need an REU.

 

I also bought Planet X2.1 which is fantastic, you can get it for a very reasonable price via the Protovision store as a digital download which is nice - Totally recommended.

 

Another older title people forget is the original 'Speedball', a very good Amiga port, as good an Amiga port as Defender Of The Crown.

 

The Ghosts'NGoblins Arcade port is outstanding, but you'll need a 16MB REU to run it. It dumps all over the original. Bear Essentials is another good new release, I believe it's freeware. As is Frantic Freddy II with it's soundtrack by Queen.

Edited by Mazzspeed
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I'm not going to add more titles, as I think you have a veritable feast to try out so far. Loads of excellent choices but a few pretty awful games as well, but hey, you might like them.

 

When it comes to things like this I suggest getting Gamebase V17 from Lemon 64, it's such a treasure trove of titles, and it has a genre search (amongst many search types) where you can look for shooters , platformers etc etc.

 

As a rule of thumb, titles out on the Atari and then ported to the C64 are not much better, many much worse but there are some cracking system only ones... Have fun, and ignore Emkay, he has no clue...

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