retroputing

[Flack]

I am working on a project to compile my own list of the best, and worst, games on the Commodore 64.

What would be on your list? Coming up with a list of great games is pretty easy. Coming up with the worst games is a little more difficult, mostly because there are so many horrible ones.
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Ze_ro]

Wow, that IS going to be tough... with so many games to pick from, when I found one I didn't like, I generally just never played it again and eventually forgot about it. You might want to take a look through the Worst 100 list at Lemon64.

--Zero

[Gapporin]

Let's see here...

The Best
Gateway To Apshai
How To Be A Complete Bastard (you have to love a game where the object is to annoy other people)
Jumpman
Law Of The West (One of the best games on the C64, IMO)
Lazy Jones
Krakout
Montezuma's Revenge
Realm Of Impossibility
Scramble Spirits
Space Taxi
Trashman (fun, quirky, British)

The Worst
Bazooka Bill
Elite (I know I'll be outvoted in this. Calling it "the worst" may be too harsh, but I could never get into it)
The Evil Dead (not as cool as the movie series, sadly)
Infocom text adventures (good games, but having to load from the disk after every action was excruciating)

If I think of any more, I'll come back.

[Flack]

[Gapporin]

[Flack]

Here's one of the first reviews I've written for the project, a review of the game "Aaargh!". This isn't completely edited yet, but you'll get an idea of what I was going for.

---

Rarely do video game developers provide their own reviews within a game’s title, but Melbourne House did just that with their 1988 release, “Aaargh!” And, demonstrating great literary efficiency, they managed to achieve this feat with a single word.

Aaargh! was originally developed for the Arcadia system, an arcade platform developed by Mastertronic subsidiary Arcadia and built on Amiga hardware. The system never gained any real-world popularity, but its Amiga-based hardware allowed for an arcade-perfect version of Aaargh! to also appear on Amiga home computers. The following year, Mastertronic-owned Melbourne House ported and published the game on multiple home computing platforms, including the Commodore 64 -- and while the Commodore version is better than many of the other 8-bit versions, that’s really not saying much.

Aaargh! is monster beat-‘em-up game, similar to Rampage but without any of the charm, humor, or fun. Players can choose to play either a giant lizard who can punch and breathe fire, or a giant one-horned ogre who can punch and breathe fire. Hey, wait a minute ...

The ultimate goal in Aaargh! is to obtain a golden egg, which can only be accomplished after obtaining five regular eggs hidden among multiple locations. This is never explained within the confines of the game, by the way -- you’d have to read the manual to know any of this. Similar to Rampage, each location you visit contains multiple buildings which must be destroyed by attacking them. The buildings can contain a power-up, one of the eggs, or could be empty (like your soul after playing this game for more than five minutes).

Each level is inhabited by multiple enemies designed to make your stay in each location an unpleasant one. Giant hornets will sting you, giant birds will poop on you, cannons will fire at you, and little dots will swarm around you (oh wait; those are people, not dots). The wasps fly horizontally, the birds poop vertically, and the cannon can fire in any direction. If there’s one good thing about this game it’s that the suffering won’t last long.

If you do manage to survive the attacking swarms and find an egg, you’ll be whisked away to a mini-game in which the lizard and ogre must fight one another to maintain ownership of the egg. Unfortunately in face-to-face combat your monster loses the ability to breathe fire (by far your most powerful weapon), but the good news is you magically gain the ability to jump -- yes, jump. And let’s be honest, who wants to breathe silly old fire in a fight when you can jump straight up and down repeatedly? Unfortunately all the jumping in the world won’t help you much, because every time you land your opponent will be waiting there to punch you in the face. Of course the poor lizard’s arms are so short that he couldn’t possibly pick his own nose much less punch anybody, but if you’re the ogre somehow he manages to pop you every time -- and if you’re the lizard, it’ll be the ogre punching you in the face. I’m not sure that in twenty years I’ve managed to win a single one of these fights.

Using invincibility cheat codes I played through every level of this game half a dozen times and I regret to inform you that there appears to be no end. I’ve destroyed buildings, found eggs, and fought for those eggs over and over again. Every so often the volcano stage appears and I capture the golden egg, but the game doesn’t end ... you just go back to more smashing, more egg nabbing, and more fighting. By the time I stopped playing I was holding more eggs than an Easter basket, and still the game continues. Eggscrutiating!
Aaargh! lost whatever charm it had during the conversion process from the 16-bit Amiga platform to the 8-bit Commodore 64. Without the humor or detailed graphics of Rampage, Aaargh! winds up being one lizard short of a Land of the Lost reunion.
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[98PaceCar]

Hmm, gonna have to fire this one up!

I tried to think of some bad games I played, but I think I was willing to forgive just about anything back then as long as I was able to actually play it. Might be a bit different now, but I dont' spend a whole lot of time on the C64 outside of the more memorable games. So I'm looking forward to the bad recommendations!

[Flack]

Last night I started on my Transformers review. I should have it done pretty soon ... maybe tonight.
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Flack]

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
Denton Designs/Ocean Software (1985)

1984 marked the debut of Hasbro’s Transformers, intelligent robots that could transform at will from robots into a number of different machines. Originally, good Transformers (the Autobots) converted into wheel-based vehicles while evil Transformers (Decepticons) changed into flying jets and airplanes, but before long Autobots and Decepticons were converting into everything from boom boxes and cassette tapes to giant guns and dinosaurs. The Transformers were a huge success, which exploded into public consciousness simultaneously through comic books, television cartoons and a successful line of transforming toys. Riding the wave of Transformer-mania, Denton Designs developed the first official Transformers video game in 1985, and the game was published by Ocean Software shortly thereafter.

The object of Transformers is to find and collect the four pieces of the Autobot Energon Cube and return them to the Autobot Center. Nothing in the documentation or the game itself actually explains what exactly Energon cubes are or why you must perform this task, so unless you read a lot of Transformer comic books as a kid or actually paid attention during the 2007 Transformers movie, you probably won’t know either. For what it’s worth, it doesn’t matter all that much -- just do what you’re told, robot.

To accomplish this task, players can control one of the “five remaining Autobots”: Optimus Prime, Hound, Jazz, Mirage and Bumblebee. Those familiar with the Transformers license probably recognize some or all of those names. Each Autobot has slightly different levels of shields, firepower and strength, but the differences are so slight as to be negligible in terms of game play. Instead, think of it as having five lives. Each Autobot can only die once, and the game ends after all Autobots have been destroyed. Be sure not to blink, or you could miss the whole thing.

Unlike how the Transformers have been portrayed in comic books, cartoons and movies, the Autobots in this game appear to have been made from some combination of delicate china and nitroglycerin. Forget those movie scenes of Transformers fighting, leaping and smashing things in their way; these 8-bit look-alikes break easier than your average Go-Bot from the dollar store. The playfield consists of multiple screens worth of ramps, stairs, and platforms, and the game scrolls (quickly) in every direction. If you touch a playform while flying, you will explode and die. If you drive into a wall, you will explode and die. If you touch any of the barrels or pillars that make up the background, you will explode and die. If you land on a sloped platform, you will explode and die. If Optimus Prime, the most powerful Autobot in the history of the universe, stands on a slightly sloped platform and jumps one inch, upon landing he will explode and die. It seems to me that the Autobot manufacturing plant has some serious, serious quality control issues that need to be addressed. The Autobots need to spend a little less time looking for Energon Cubes and a little more time investing in duct tape.

While searching for Energon Cubes you must also constantly fend off attacks from the Decepticons, including Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Buzzsaw, Skywarp, Lazerbreak, Ravage, Frenzy, and Rumble, all of which are contructed not of antique egg shells such as yourself, but rather using traditional metals. Considering the fact that you can only control one Autobot at a time, that’s nine-to-one odds -- fortunately, you’ll only have typically two or three Decepticons shooting at or smashing into you at any given time. The manual states “the Decepticons have perfected ROBO-CLONING, reproducing any of their number which you destroy,” which is a nice way of saying that no matter how many times you kill them, they’ll keep coming.

Each player-controlled Autobot can transform (thus the name) between his robot and vehicular form. For what it’s worth, the in-game representation of the characters actually resembles their cartoon counterparts. Optimus Prime looks like a semi truck, Mirage resembles a Formula One race car, and so on. In their robotic forms, Autobots can run, fly and shoot. Each Autobot has a limited amount of shots, which can be replenished by hiding under a Defensa-Pod. You or I might call them garages, but the game refers to them as Defensa-Pods. A Defensa-Pod is like a garage except ... well, there is no difference. In fact, I’m going to start referring to my three-car garage as a three Transformer Defensa-Pod, which I’m pretty sure will raise my property value. I should point out that the documentation also states that “the length of the conflict has increased the level of radiation on the planet’s surface and the Autobots cannot survive in close proximity to each other. To operate one, you must shield the others beneath the Defensa-Pods.” I wish they had just said, “you can only operate one Transformer at a time,” because now I’m left wondering things like why the radiation levels don’t affect the Decepticons, or more importantly, if the radiation levels on the planet’s surface are too high for freaking robots, how are the Earthlings faring??

You can also zip around the playfield in your Transformer’s vehicular mode. To put this in perspective, imagine how useful a car would be in Super Mario Brothers that can’t jump and explodes every time you touch something -- yeah, exactly. If you thought your Autobot was hard to control while running or flying, try it on wheels (they move three times as fast while on all fours). You honestly cannot drive three seconds in any direction without exploding, you can no longer shoot, and touching basically anything or driving off the end of a platform (you guessed it) makes you explode.

To transform, you must turn and face the screen and then press simultaneously press either up and the fire button, or down and the fire button. If you press up or down without hitting the fire button at the same time, the cursor jumps down to the menu system, where you can pick a different Autobot. Note that you would NEVER WANT TO DO THIS as the Autobot you were just controlling is now standing there staring at you while the Decepticons continue shooting you in the face. Yes, the game DOES NOT PAUSE when you jump to the menu. WHAT A GREAT FEATURE! Hopefully you will be able to quickly pick the same Autobot and resume play before the Decepticons send your fragile robot ass off to Autobot Heaven.

In issue 36 of Crash Magazine, Steve Cain of Denton Designs said that Transformers “was the worst game [Denton Designs] ever did. I designed it, so I take all the blame for it.” When Denton Designs co-founder Ally Noble was asked which game she was least pleased with, she said “definitely Transformers,” following with “I think Transformers was an embarrassment. We were a bit over a barrel and we had to do it.” Fellow co-founder John Gibson added, “There wasn’t much you could do with the subject matter of the program. We did our best.”

As one of my ex-girlfriends once told me, “Sometimes your best just isn’t enough.”
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[le geek]

Hey Rob,

Here is my list after browsing Lemon 64 to jog my memory...

Great Games:
Beach Head II
Blue Max
Buggy Boy
Centipede
Choplifter!
Defender
Fast Tracks
Forbidden Forest
Frogger II
Ghostbusters
Gyruss
Hardball!
Hover Bovver
Little Computer People
Lode Runner
Master of The Lamps
Pinball Construction Set
Rocket Ranger
Skate or Die!
Space Taxi
Stunt Car Racer
Summer Games
Test Drive
Times of Lore
Tower Toppler
Toy Bizarre
Turbo Outrun
Ultimate Wizard
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego
Who Dares Wins II
Winter Games
World Games
Zenji


Good Games:
10th Frame
Action Fighter
Arkanoid
Arkanoid II
Batman Caped Crusader
BC's Quest For Tires
BC II: Grog's Revenge
Beach Head
Bop'n Wrestle
Bruce Lee
Crossroads II Pandemonium
Defender Of The Crown
Devon Aire In The Hidden Diamond Caper
Fetris
Final Assault
Fort Apocalypse
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Goonies
Great American Cross-Country Road Race, The
Hacker
Hard 'n Heavy
Impossible Mission
International Soccer
Island of Dr. Destructo, The
Juno First
Kickman
Kung-Fu Master
Lazy Jones
Marble Madness
Moon Patrol
Mr. Mephisto
On Track Racing
Quasimodo
Road Runner
R-Type
Satan's Hollow
Saucer Attack!
Sky Shark
Spy Hunter
Spy vs. Spy
Star Wars ('88 )
Super Cycle
Super Huey
Super Pipeline (& II)
Super Zaxxon
TechnoCop
The Three Stooges
Up 'n Down
Web Dimension
Yie Ar Kung Fu

Bad Games:
Almost Anything by Mastertronic?
1985 The Day After
After Burner
Barbie?
Castlevania
Crazy Cars
Dragon's Lair?
Fight Night
Frankie goes to Hollywood
Ghouls
Howard the Duck?
Kid Niki Radical Ninja
Rygar
Save New York
Shogun
Spitting Image: The Computer Game
Stocker
Transformers: The Battle to Save the Earth
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"oh nooo!"

[Flack]

Out of curiosity, what are the bold ones?
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[scooterb23]

I'll throw just a couple out here:

Favorite C64 games

Indoor Sports
Eliminator (by Hewson, a really underappreciated game IMO)
Accolade Comics
Skate Rock (I may be the only one, but I LOVE this game)
Stunt Car Racer

Bad C64 games

To tell the truth, I can't remember too many BAD C64 games I ever played. I suppose I either blocked them from memory, or just found something to enjoy out of them. But there is one that sticks in my memory...

The Human Race. Yes, it's a Mastertronic game...but I thought it was a cool concept. To try and race across some platforming type screens in order to evolve. The problem was that your ape could never move fast enough, or jump high enough to avoid ANYTHING. In all the time I played this game, I never once passed the first screen.

I hate this game. Unless someone has hints on how to pass this screen... in which case I might like it again.

[Flack]

Hey Geek, I already had a couple of those bad ones in my sights, including Dragon's Lair and Transformers. I actually thought about doing Barbie too, except it would reveal the fact that I've played it.
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[le geek]

The Bold Ones are just ones that stand out in my mind. Ghouls seems like it should be fun, a side view jumping Pac-man like game. I liked it well enough when it came out, but man is it brutally hard now, with really fast movement AND requiring near pixel perfect jumps.

Dragon's Lair, I actually played through and beat it (or near beat), great example of TRYING to adapt something that should never have been done. A few stages are pretty decent and the music was great though...

And yeah, BOTH Transformers games are really horrible...

Shogun may be the worst Mastertronic Cheapie I ever bought.
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"oh nooo!"