underrated c64 jems that arent in the top 100 list worthy to invest time in

[+wongojack]

The C64 sure has a wide library. I've been playing on mine for more than 30 years, yet I can only confirm that I've played 1 of the first 10 you list.

 

Mario Bros exists in at least two ports, Atarisoft and Ocean. When it comes to Pitstop, I must strongly say I prefer its sequel which for at least 4-5 years was unparalleled when it comes to C64 first person perspective racing games.

 

Which one was it? Gotta be Fort Apocalypse right?

 

I dunno which Mario Bros I had, but I definitely remember playing it a bunch. It was a disk based version included on a compilation disk that we got from friends. Same with Pitstop. It very well may have been Pitstop II, but I can't be completely sure now. The hand written disk label only said Pitstop when I copied it down a few years ago - LOL.

 

Edit - Just to be clear, whatever version of Pitstop I had, I played it a ton. I just don't remember the specifics now.

[carlsson]

Bingo. Somewhere I've got a POKE written down how to get maximum number of helicopters on Fort Apocalypse.

[motrucker]

I find it rather sad that the only "jems" thought of are games, but I guess that's how C-64 users roll today...............

 

[thetick1]

I find it rather sad that the only "jems" thought of are games, but I guess that's how C-64 users roll today...............

 

 

Huh? Certainly wasn't any different in the 80's or the 90's. I bet I could list a couple of hundred games I enjoyed. I can't name a single educational program from my C64 days or even now. Note I did have Visible Solar System on my VIC-20.

Edited June 19, 2018 by thetick1

[+wongojack]

The topic even references the top 100 games list - undoubtedly on Lemon64. What other top 100 could the OP have meant?

[youxia]

I'm currently playing through the entire collection, every single game. I heartily recommend this method, it's just so much fun (especially combined with Gamebase's Extras & old magazines). Even the alleged "crappy" ones can be quite charming or curious. Plus, you obviously get to discover a %$ton of the, ahem, "jems".

 

I've just started on "A". So here's a few from the "123" directory:

 

1000 Miglia - old-timey road race. Not the arcade port, more of a "sim".

1985 - The Day After - one of the best Lunar Lander clones I ever played. Super tight controls & nerve wracking gameplay

1917 - Cute homebrew. Russian Revolution as a side shooter. Super short but can be played for hi-score

3D Pinball - Pinball Power - very solid pinball table, good looking too

3-D Skramble - awesome Zaxxon clone

3D Tunnel - you fly in a 2D tunnel. If released today it'd be hailed as a "minimalistic aesthetic and clean design make this an instant indie classic"

4 Soccer Simulators - only tried one and it was fun, you play on a street, around cars and such, just as we did as kids

5 Wochen Im Baloon - Flappy Bird prequel?

64 Nuclear Power Plant - allegedly one of the first c64 games ever. Have fun breaking a nuclear plant

[carlsson]

All ~25,000 entries? Brave soul! I hope you take notes which ones are duplicates of an already played game in order to get past the collection a little bit faster.

[youxia]

Yeah, 25700 to be exact But, I don't think there are any duplicates. At least not in the Gamebase set I'm using. There are of course things like 15 3D Tic-Tac-Toe or 57 zillion Boulder Dash versions, which I might - or might not - skip, depending on a mood, but these are from different coders/companies. There are also lots of type-ins or some totally homebrew/scene efforts but quite often these are fun too.

[carlsson]

I mean things like Chop 'n Drop is the US version of IK+ and that Africa Nera is an Italian version (hack) of Congo Bongo. When it comes to the nearly 1200 entries in the category (!) Boulder Dash, some of them will be unique games, others are level hacks of the original game which may be worth playing through but after the first 200 you might have grown tired of Boulder Dash.

 

Actually as a rule of thumb when I'm discussing the C64 library with someone who is critical about its size, I usually take the GB64 figure and divide it into two, which would mean about 12000 unique games for certain. That way I have a good error margin upwards for how many unique games the library really contains.

Edited June 19, 2018 by carlsson

[slab0meat]

 

Digging this up again . . .

 

I keep a list of all the games that I owned from bitd. Here are some others that may fit the intent of the thread:

 

Accolade's Comics

Fort Apocalypse

GI Joe

Hardball

Jeopardy

Law of the West

Lords of Conquest

Motocross

Star Trek - The Computer Game

Train

Possibly overlooked ports:

Beamrider

Kung Fu Master

Mario Bros

Moon Patrol

Pitstop

Quix (I think there are multiple versions, but mine was spelled with a 'u')

River Raid

Spyhunter

Zaxxon

 

 

 

The C64 sure has a wide library. I've been playing on mine for more than 30 years, yet I can only confirm that I've played 1 of the first 10 you list.

 

Interesting list, I'm surprised I've played as many as I have from your list (ones in bold)... some real good ones in there.

[Bill Loguidice]

I find it rather sad that the only "jems" thought of are games, but I guess that's how C-64 users roll today...............

 

 

I don't get this statement. Games are what drive most uses of vintage computers today, and were a huge part of their identity in their primes. Vintage computers are not exactly the best options for word processing, spreadsheets, accessing the Internet, etc., today.

[youxia]

I mean things like Chop 'n Drop is the US version of IK+ and that Africa Nera is an Italian version (hack) of Congo Bongo. When it comes to the nearly 1200 entries in the category (!) Boulder Dash, some of them will be unique games, others are level hacks of the original game which may be worth playing through but after the first 200 you might have grown tired of Boulder Dash.

 

Actually as a rule of thumb when I'm discussing the C64 library with someone who is critical about its size, I usually take the GB64 figure and divide it into two, which would mean about 12000 unique games for certain. That way I have a good error margin upwards for how many unique games the library really contains.

 

Well, what can I say. I like retro games.

I'm not in a rush, it's not about "finishing" something. I've also just started on Atari/Amstrad/ZX Spectrum this way, so that's another +20K in the mix, plus there's most of other pre-PS1 systems on my SD card. Plus I have a script to sort roms "by year" and sometimes switch to this classification, starting at the bottom and watching games evolve.

 

About the unique number, yeah, I'm also curious and for a second thought about taking notes...but nah, too much hassle. Guess we will never know for sure. I'd like to think it's a bit more than a half, though it all depends on a criteria you employ. For example I'm not too keen on educational titles myself.

[carlsson]

I've also just started on [..] ZX Spectrum this way,

 

A friend of mine begun to play through the entire WOS library 5.5 years ago. While he has had a lot of downtime from that project, so far he is on letter F.

 

http://www.dasse.se/w.-o-.-s/f-24830095

[+wongojack]

I'm currently playing through the entire collection, every single game. I heartily recommend this method, it's just so much fun (especially combined with Gamebase's Extras & old magazines). Even the alleged "crappy" ones can be quite charming or curious. Plus, you obviously get to discover a %$ton of the, ahem, "jems".

 

I've just started on "A". So here's a few from the "123" directory:

 

1000 Miglia - old-timey road race. Not the arcade port, more of a "sim".

1985 - The Day After - one of the best Lunar Lander clones I ever played. Super tight controls & nerve wracking gameplay

1917 - Cute homebrew. Russian Revolution as a side shooter. Super short but can be played for hi-score

3D Pinball - Pinball Power - very solid pinball table, good looking too

3-D Skramble - awesome Zaxxon clone

3D Tunnel - you fly in a 2D tunnel. If released today it'd be hailed as a "minimalistic aesthetic and clean design make this an instant indie classic"

4 Soccer Simulators - only tried one and it was fun, you play on a street, around cars and such, just as we did as kids

5 Wochen Im Baloon - Flappy Bird prequel?

64 Nuclear Power Plant - allegedly one of the first c64 games ever. Have fun breaking a nuclear plant

 

Interesting - I totally remember trying to play Nuclear Power Plant with a friend as a kid. I don't think we really tried very hard, but I've at least booted that one up before.

 

AND . . . a few years ago, I went looking for pinball games on the 64, but I don't think that I played 3D Pinball - Pinball Power. I'll have to find some time to play that one.

[motrucker]

 

Huh? Certainly wasn't any different in the 80's or the 90's. I bet I could list a couple of hundred games I enjoyed. I can't name a single educational program from my C64 days or even now. Note I did have Visible Solar System on my VIC-20.

There were some great programs that were not games. Sky Travel, Doodle, Koala paint (and pad), Advanced Art Studio, Music Studio, The Fun Graphics Machine, DFile 64, Super Base, Microsoft Multiplan, GEOS 2.0, and all of the good DTP and word processor programs, and all of the many programming languages, utilities, environments, etc.. That's just off the top of my head right now.

It's all how you look at it, but I still use the C-64 (and specially my C-128) for a lot of thing besides games. To say the C-64 isn't any good for data management, spreadsheets, or even word processing is very short sighted. BTW - I use Sky Travle on a weekly basis, still.

Also - I have a copy of Donald Duck's Playground that a friends daughter just loves. Where is there is modern equivalent of that for Windows or Apple?

[thetick1]

There were some great programs that were not games. Sky Travel, Doodle, Koala paint (and pad), Advanced Art Studio, Music Studio, The Fun Graphics Machine, DFile 64, Super Base, Microsoft Multiplan, GEOS 2.0, and all of the good DTP and word processor programs, and all of the many programming languages, utilities, environments, etc.. That's just off the top of my head right now.

It's all how you look at it, but I still use the C-64 (and specially my C-128) for a lot of thing besides games. To say the C-64 isn't any good for data management, spreadsheets, or even word processing is very short sighted. BTW - I use Sky Travle on a weekly basis, still.

Also - I have a copy of Donald Duck's Playground that a friends daughter just loves. Where is there is modern equivalent of that for Windows or Apple?

 

Geos 2.X is barely usable on a standard C64. It's just painful to do anything. It's even painful with multiple 1541s, SD expansion , extra memory or souped up emulated C64 or C128.

 

Seriously there are no good data management, spreadsheets, or word processors. They are just crap for 8-bit machines. Even for their time they were awful. I never used 8-bit machines for these tasks as I had access to high end UNIX workstations during the late 80's and the 90's. Next are you going to claim how great the 22x23 character set is for Vic-20 word processing?

 

Note I still like to use my TRS 80 model 100 and my Atari Portfolio because they are portable but obviously any modern phone is still much better for taking notes. I will take one of these reto laptops to retro gaming/computer shows to take notes but that is about it.

 

Outside of games, demos, and programming (assembler, Basic) 8-bit computers are not of any value other than historic preservation.

 

Now with that said I did have Visible Solar System on Vic-20 which was pretty cool. I actually played it the other night. Glad to see Pluto as a planet!!! Anyway Visible Solar System was available for C64 but I never tried it. I'll have to emulate it to see if it's any different than the Vic-20 version .. well besides slightly better graphics.

Edited June 23, 2018 by thetick1

[thetick1]

Also - I have a copy of Donald Duck's Playground that a friends daughter just loves. Where is there is modern equivalent of that for Windows or Apple?

 

It runs fine on modern Windows 10 machine with DOSBox:

https://www.howtogeek.com/104725/how-to-use-dosbox-to-run-dos-games-and-old-apps/

 

Donald Duck's Playground (PC-DOS) 1986, Sierra On-Line/Walt Disney

 

Edited June 23, 2018 by thetick1

[motrucker]

 

Geos 2.X is barely usable on a standard C64. It's just painful to do anything. It's even painful with multiple 1541s, SD expansion , extra memory or souped up emulated C64 or C128.

 

Seriously there are no good data management, spreadsheets, or word processors. They are just crap for 8-bit machines. Even for their time they were awful. I never used 8-bit machines for these tasks as I had access to high end UNIX workstations during the late 80's and the 90's. Next are you going to claim how great the 22x23 character set is for Vic-20 word processing?

 

Note I still like to use my TRS 80 model 100 and my Atari Portfolio because they are portable but obviously any modern phone is still much better for taking notes. I will take one of these reto laptops to retro gaming/computer shows to take notes but that is about it.

 

Outside of games, demos, and programming (assembler, Basic) 8-bit computers are not of any value other than historic preservation.

 

Now with that said I did have Visible Solar System on Vic-20 which was pretty cool. I actually played it the other night. Glad to see Pluto as a planet!!! Anyway Visible Solar System was available for C64 but I never tried it. I'll have to emulate it to see if it's any different than the Vic-20 version .. well besides slightly better graphics.

If you think the Commodore 8 bit machines are only good for historic preservation, I feel sorry for you. There are many of us who love to tinker with the hardware, and still use some of the software.

Man, why do you even play games on the 64 if you think its such a bomb?

GEOS works very well on the C-64, if you know how to use it. Granted an REU is needed, and I prefer the 128 version for the 80 column display, but it works quite well. I gather you never tried Sky Travel - this is a program you can use, rather than play with.Oh, You forgot to bash the graphics and music software, what happened?

You might be shocked to find out how many people still use a C-64!

[motrucker]

 

It runs fine on modern Windows 10 machine with DOSBox:

https://www.howtogeek.com/104725/how-to-use-dosbox-to-run-dos-games-and-old-apps/

 

Donald Duck's Playground (PC-DOS) 1986, Sierra On-Line/Walt Disney

 

With all due respect, that's not a "modern equivalent", that's the same program. The C-64 and DOS versions are remarkably similar.

[thetick1]

Man, why do you even play games on the 64 if you think its such a bomb?

GEOS works very well on the C-64, if you know how to use it. Granted an REU is needed, and I prefer the 128 version for the 80 column display, but it works quite well. I gather you never tried Sky Travel - this is a program you can use, rather than play with.Oh, You forgot to bash the graphics and music software, what happened?

You might be shocked to find out how many people still use a C-64!

 

I like the games as I grew up with many of them and still many C64 games. Most of the games are great. But sorry GEOS was never usable. I still have my original copy of GEOS from back in late the 80's and it was absolutely terrible with a base C64 and one 1541. The only cool feature were all the fonts with GeoWrite. I will repeat the C64 was complete crap for non-gamers and non 6502 programmers while at the EXACT same time being the best game machine of the mid to late 80's.

 

I'm not bashing the C64 games at all as many were revolutionary. Impossible Mission, Ghostbusters, California Games, Beach Head II and Forbidden Forrest are some of my favorite games of all time. Impossible Mission animation was amazing. Forbidden Forest music is still amazing to this day. These games were revolutionary in game design and game play.

 

I'm not shocked at all as I'm one of those C64 users. I last powered on my C64 a few hours ago as my son wanted to play Three Stooges .. another very good C64 game.

Edited June 24, 2018 by thetick1

[motrucker]

 

I like the games as I grew up with many of them and still many C64 games. Most of the games are great. But sorry GEOS was never usable. I still have my original copy of GEOS from back in late the 80's and it was absolutely terrible with a base C64 and one 1541. The only cool feature were all the fonts with GeoWrite. I will repeat the C64 was complete crap for non-gamers and non 6502 programmers while at the EXACT same time being the best game machine of the mid to late 80's.

 

I'm not bashing the C64 games at all as many were revolutionary. Impossible Mission, Ghostbusters, California Games, Beach Head II and Forbidden Forrest are some of my favorite games of all time. Impossible Mission animation was amazing. Forbidden Forest music is still amazing to this day. These games were revolutionary in game design and game play.

 

I'm not shocked at all as I'm one of those C64 users. I last powered on my C64 a few hours ago as my son wanted to play Three Stooges .. another very good C64 game.

Perhaps because I am older than you, I used my C-64 for some serious work back in the 80s. You keep harping on GEOS, I repeat it was fine, if you knew how to use it (that means using 2.0, and a large REU. I also used a laser printer for really great print outs!) I didn't only try the C-64 - I moved to it from a TI 99/4A, and my brother had an Apple ][.. I felt the C-64 was better for all software.

Don't get me wrong, I do (and did) play some games on the 64. Once again Wizball is a great time waster. I also enjoy working with hardware in and for the C-64. Just assembled my first Pi1541.

I think it's a shame to waste the C-64 on nothing but games. I didn't mean that many people use the 64 for games - but rather applications that worked for you.

Guess I'm in the minority here - but on all forums.

Edited June 24, 2018 by motrucker

[Bill Loguidice]

I never had an issue using GEOS, GeoWrite, and GeoPaint on my stock C-64c back in the 80s. I wrote several papers for school with it, etc., as a teenager. With that said, I have little interest in using it anymore. I suspect like most people who are into classic computers like the C-64 these days, I'm primarily interested in games and programming activities. My productivity needs are served infinitely better by modern computers and related devices.

[thetick1]

Perhaps because I am older than you, I used my C-64 for some serious work back in the 80s. You keep harping on GEOS, I repeat it was fine, if you knew how to use it (that means using 2.0, and a large REU. I also used a laser printer for really great print outs!) I didn't only try the C-64 - I moved to it from a TI 99/4A, and my brother had an Apple ][.. I felt the C-64 was better for all software.

 

I had a VIC-20 when my older brother got the first PC. When I got my C64 the PC was still years ahead of C64 for productivity packages and well my C64 was years ahead for gaming. Once I was in college I used UNIX workstations most of the time as I wrote much more code than papers in college.

[carlsson]

Also remember that:

 

1) The original poster is a newble looking for suggestions

2) The original poster was looking for underrated "jems" outside of the top 100

 

Many people keep returning to mentioning their favorites, games that rather are staples than rare finds. Since productivity software is less often mentioned, I suppose any word processor, spreadsheet, database, compiler, drawing program, music composing program etc are "jems" in the respect few people still are considering those.

 

I would agree that for making graphics and music, using the native C64 software still is useful although modern cross development tools are more advanced. Assemblers and compilers, I would use in case of emergency but not seriously. Anything else in terms of word processors etc, it would be for kicks and to remember what it used to be like, not for productivity.

 

GEOS is something I never got to use back in the days though I was highly active at the time. In recent years when it was released as a free download, I have briefly tested it but today I don't see the reason to use it as I've got plenty of modern Windows, Linux, even Amiga systems that do the same tasks, just better and with more compatibility. It probably made sense to some people in the end of the 1980's, but for a newbie user 30 years later, you would need very strong selling points to have him or her cut their teeth into GEOS.

[youxia]

Mission Elevator - it's an awesome Elevator Action clone, less arcade and more action-adventure though. The main mechanics are unchanged, you still move/shoot/ride elevators same as in the original, only now you can search the surroundings, find items and solve some simple puzzles.

 

I've played as a kid on Amstrad CPC and I think this version is still my favourite. Gfx not as good as Amiga but better than C64. Still, very playable and fun across all formats.