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Lunar Ronin

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Holy crap. A GHacks article today pointed out that the Internet Archive just launched a Commodore 64 video game library, with over 8,000 Commodore 64 video games available.

GHacks said:
Classified as software, interested users find C-64 games, applications, and demo scene releases added all together in the collection.

The emulator that the Internet Archive uses is Vice, the Versatile Commodore Emulator, that is also available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, and other operating systems.

As far as games are concerned, the archive seems to have most of the popular ones and lots of games that even veteran C-64 games may have never heard about.

To name just a few: Airborne Ranger, The Last Ninja, Bubble Bobble, Castle Wolfenstein, Zak McKraken, Maniac Mansion, Burger Time, The Bard's Tale, Sim City, Summer Games, Little Computer People, Elevator Action, Boulder Dash, or M.U.L.E.

[...] What works considerably well though is to select the C64 Games sub-collection so that only games are displayed. Collections for demos, music disks, diskmags, and other content are available as well.

The archive stores more than 8800 C-64 games at the time of writing. I'm not entirely sure how this works with multi-part games that are listed individually. Whether other game sides -- C-64 games were released on cassette and floppy disks -- are automatically picked up or not is not clear at this time.

Controls are mapped to the keyboard but you may also use a connected joypad. Joypad use is probably the better option when it comes to games as most C-64 games made use of the joystick and the single button that it had.

I'll see y'all in a couple of years. Take care.
 
The new c64 is out in stores too I believe for $79.95
 
Cool addition to the IA, but I wonder how complete a lot of the sets are. There was only one d64 image for Bard's Tale 1 listed, for example. At the minimum, that game required boot, city, and dungeon disks; assuming you were willing to overwrite the city disk with character saves. I'm a little out of the loop on that side of emulation these days, but I'm not aware of a way to compress that much data into a single 170k d64.
 
So many games from my childhood. Fun at the time, but not likely to want to try them again.
 
So many games from my childhood. Fun at the time, but not likely to want to try them again.

I find well designed games stand up well even if very, very old. It just reminds you how many games aren't that well designed then or now.
 
I find well designed games stand up well even if very, very old. It just reminds you how many games aren't that well designed then or now.
I find a lot of early 3D games have controls that I can no longer wrap my head around. A few years ago, I bought Ultima Underworld from GOG to play it again. I loved it at the time, but the movement scheme just made it a chore, and I didn't get far.
 
I find a lot of early 3D games have controls that I can no longer wrap my head around. A few years ago, I bought Ultima Underworld from GOG to play it again. I loved it at the time, but the movement scheme just made it a chore, and I didn't get far.

Ditto. A lot of those early 3D games feel unplayable now, DOOM is still awesome though.
 
Ditto. A lot of those early 3D games feel unplayable now, DOOM is still awesome though.
Doom is Eternal (pun intended). it is one of those games that will hold up to the tests of time. I really need to play it and Doom II again. It has been a month after all.
 
Someone in my childhood had a Commodore 64 but I can't remember who it was.

What are your picks for the best Commodore video games? I've never played Citadel but heard good things about it. Bubble Bobble and Ulitma IV are obviously great as well.
 
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Starflight was good.
Adventure Construction Set was good because you could build your own world's with it.
Racing Destruction Set build your own maps and race on them. Also build your own cars.
Lode Runner
Questron

To be continued...
 
Someone in my childhood had a Commodore 64 but I can't remember who it was.

What are your picks for the best Commodore video games? I've never played Citadel but heard good things about it. Bubble Bobble and Ulitma IV are obviously great as wellm
Let me qualify my list by stating that these are all games that I loved at the time. I make no promise that they hold up.

I never played Bubble Bobble, but Ultima IV is easily on my list. Sticking to RPGs The Adventure Construction Set, Bard's Tale and Wasteland were great. Related to ACS, the Racing Destruction Set and Mail Order Monsters were both fun. Seven Cities of Gold and Pirates also.

Jumpman has already been mentioned, and I loved that along with Space Taxi. Raid on Bungling Bay and Raid over Moscow, Gunship, Stealth Fighter, Airborne Ranger, Flight Simulator II were all favorites. Red Storm Rising was a fantastic modern submarine combat game. Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Maniac Mansion, Defender of the Crown were also classics.

The C64 was the reason I never developed a taste for console JRPGs. After playing Ultima IV, they just seemed so limited in comparison.
 
Starflight was good.
Adventure Construction Set was good because you could build your own world's with it.
Racing Destruction Set build your own maps and race on them. Also build your own cars.
Lode Runner
Questron

To be continued...
Starflight goes on my list as well. I can't believe I missed that.
 
Bounces was an oddly satifying game. Two knights with rubber bands on their backs tossing balls from their swords against reflective walls. Object is to knock the other over.
 
And I just realized that I forgot Pool of Radiance. Wizard's Crown was also a must-play for people who like their RPG combat good and gritty, with bleeding to death always a possibility. So many games...
 
Yah, I wonder if I would still like these now. I used to play platformers quite a bit, as they were kinda the thing, but I rather loathe them now - I have other sources of frustration in my life, thank you ...
 
  • The Amazing Spider-Man
  • Batman
  • Batman: The Caped Crusader
  • Battle Chess
  • BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception
  • Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday (obviously)
  • The Cosmic Balance (Star Fleet Battles with most of the serial numbers filed off)
  • Ghostbusters
  • Ghostbusters II
  • The Hunt for Red October
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom
  • Neuromancer (based on the William Gibson novel)
  • Pac-Man (duh)
  • Questprobe featuring Spider-Man
  • Sim City (the original)
  • Starflight
  • Star Trek: The Computer Game
  • Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative
  • Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy
  • Star Trek: The Rebel Universe
  • Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
  • Superman: The Game
  • Superman: The Man of Steel
  • The Three Stooges
  • WarGames (movie tie-in)

It's been decades since I've played most of these, so I can't tell for sure if they'd be any good now. But at the very least I recommend Neuromancer, Starflight, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday, Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy, and both Ghostbusters games.
 
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Let me qualify my list by stating that these are all games that I loved at the time. I make no promise that they hold up.

I never played Bubble Bobble, but Ultima IV is easily on my list. Sticking to RPGs The Adventure Construction Set, Bard's Tale and Wasteland were great. Related to ACS, the Racing Destruction Set and Mail Order Monsters were both fun. Seven Cities of Gold and Pirates also.

Jumpman has already been mentioned, and I loved that along with Space Taxi. Raid on Bungling Bay and Raid over Moscow, Gunship, Stealth Fighter, Airborne Ranger, Flight Simulator II were all favorites. Red Storm Rising was a fantastic modern submarine combat game. Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Maniac Mansion, Defender of the Crown were also classics.

The C64 was the reason I never developed a taste for console JRPGs. After playing Ultima IV, they just seemed so limited in comparison.

Love Pirates and Wasteland. I have them on GOG and want to see how they play today.

And I just realized that I forgot Pool of Radiance. Wizard's Crown was also a must-play for people who like their RPG combat good and gritty, with bleeding to death always a possibility. So many games...

Interesting enough I see the Dragonlance game Champions of Krynn on one of the lists of best Commodore 64 games. Anyone played it? I think I may have got it in one of those GOG D&D bundles.
 
  • The Amazing Spider-Man
  • Batman
  • Batman: The Caped Crusader
  • Battle Chess
  • BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception
  • Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday (obviously)
  • The Cosmic Balance (Star Fleet Battles with most of the serial numbers filed off)
  • Ghostbusters
  • Ghostbusters II
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom
  • Neuromancer (based on the William Gibson novel)
  • Pac-Man (duh)
  • Questprobe featuring Spider-Man
  • Sim City (the original)
  • Starflight
  • Star Trek: The Computer Game
  • Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative
  • Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy
  • Star Trek: The Rebel Universe
  • Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
  • Superman: The Game
  • Superman: The Man of Steel
  • The Three Stooges
  • WarGames (movie tie-in)
It's been decades since I've played most of these, so I can't tell for sure if they'd be any good now. But at the very least I recommend Neuromancer, Starflight, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday, Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy, and both Ghostbusters games.
Ah, Neuromancer. That was a good one, back when cyberpunk was still pretty obscure, I was really excited to pick that up.

Interesting enough I see the Dragonlance game Champions of Krynn on one of the lists of best Commodore 64 games. Anyone played it? I think I may have got it in one of those GOG D&D bundles.
I never picked that one up. That came out the year I started college, which really cut into the number of nights I spent at home alone playing computer games.
 
I played the Amiga version, but it's identical except for the graphics. Nice little platformer, always loved knocking Napier into the vat of acid at the end of the first level.
 
Guess it's time for another ride down that Oregon Trail. Hopefully less Dysentery this time....
 
8000 seems like a lot. I wonder if the educational software in BASIC is included in that. There was a Star Trek game in there that I really liked.
 
I played the Amiga version, but it's identical except for the graphics. Nice little platformer, always loved knocking Napier into the vat of acid at the end of the first level.
If you're talking Amiga games, it has to be Flashback.
 
This just became available for pre-order:


commodore-64-hoodie-1165591.jpeg



It's a $65 hoodie, but it will be mine. Oh yes.
 
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