A-Z of Commodore 64 Games , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Kieren Hawken

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

111 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

The A-Z of Commodore 64 Games features reviews of three different games for each letter of the alphabet. The games range from the very earliest releases in the early 80s to the modern homebrew games of today. This book shows you just how diverse the library of titles is for the Commodore 64 computer and how it became one of the most popular computers of all time.

Sujets

Indoor games and sports

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	14 novembre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785389764
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The A-Z of
Commodore 64 Games
Volume 1

Kieren Hawken

Published in 2018 by
AG Books
www.agbooks.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© Copyright 2018 Kieren Hawken
The right of Kieren Hawken to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
The opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AG Books or Andrews UK Limited.
Game screenshots are included in this publication legally under applicable fair use law which allows such material for the explicit purposes of commentary and criticism.

Introduction
Although the firm foundations of Commodore had already been created years before with the Pet and VIC-20 it was the Commodore 64 that really took the world by storm and became the company’s greatest success story. First released in 1982 and not discontinued until some 12 years later in 1994, the Commodore 64 soon became the world’s best selling home computer and wasn’t displaced from its record breaking spot until the recent debut of the Raspberry Pi. The computer was responsible for many innovative features upon release that very much set it apart from the competition including multi-colour sprites, super smooth hardware scrolling and the famous SID sound chip, the very first use of a synthesiser in a home micro. An aggressive price war saw the machine see of its rivals in both North America and Europe where it was supported by every major games publisher and became home to many all-time classics. This enormous success means the machine is still extremely well remembered with vibrant community and this nostalgia also led to a new version of the computer being released in 2018 in the form of TheC64 Mini, a plug and play console with 64 built in games.

In this first book in the series I take you through the life of the Commodore 64 looking at a varied cross section of the 10,000+ games available with a small review and screenshot of each one. This is not a list of the best games, a list of the worst or indeed a complete guide to what’s available. The A-Z of Commodore 64 Games: Volume 1 is just that, the first volume of my look at a selection of C64 games in alphabetical order. There are three games featured for each letter and these range from the earliest ones released at the start of the eighties, to modern homebrews and even unreleased prototypes. Hopefully this book gives you some inspiration to try games you’ve never played before, bulk up your personal collection or just replay some of those all-time classics. You might even find it that brings back happy memories of unwrapping Christmas and birthday presents or inviting your friends round after school for a bit of multi-player madness. Most of all though I hope you enjoy reading it and remember what makes the Commodore 64 computer such great system to own.
Kieren Hawken
Author

A
Arkanoid
Imagine - 1987

While Atari’s Breakout , programmed by Apple founders Jobs and Wozniak no less, was the very first bat and ball brick breaker it was Taito’s Arkanoid was the game that revolutionised the genre. It took the basic gameplay of Breakout and added a host of new features like enemies, different formations, multi-hit bricks and of course power-ups! Collecting these coloured icons allows you to do stuff like shoot the bricks with a laser, aim the ball where you want, expand your bat and even skip a level. The new level formations are interesting too with some even based on other popular Taito arcade games such as Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble ! There are also different types of bricks including ones that require numerous hits to destroy and others that can’t be removed at all. All these features added so much more to the game and made it much more than just another Breakout clone. In fact Arkanoid has since been cloned hundreds of times itself and can still be seen in some shape or form in many games of today. Arkanoid is not about graphics or sound, although both are very good here actually, it’s just pure playability, and there is loads of it here. I have always been a real sucker for these types of games and this is no exception, Arkanoid remains one of my most played video games over the years. It’s also worth checking out the equally excellent sequel Arkanoid 2: Revenge of Doh too.
9 /10
Alien
Argus Press - 1984

In this game based on the ever popular film you take the role of the now legendary Ripley (along with other crew members), who has awoken from a deep sleep to find the cargo ship she is serving on diverted from its homeward course. It seems the ship’s route has been changed to investigate a strange new planet, the source of a mysterious distress beacon, where the crew find a crashed alien spacecraft. While they are poking around in the crashed ship an alien thing attaches itself to one of the crew members. This unfortunate crew member is brought onboard where the alien dies (or does it?). I am sure you have all seen the film and remember the now classic moment where we find that alien life has not been wiped out and somebody is suffering from a stomach ache that can’t be fixed by taking a couple of Rennies! Like the rest of the film, the game is concerned with hunting down the Alien that has escaped into the vast ship. This horrifying xeno starts slaughtering the crew so you must stop the creature before it finds you. This game plays a bit like a turn based strategy game with you moving the crew around, trying not to get them killed, picking up the objects and using them to stop the alien. You are never going to be blown away by either the graphics or sound in Alien but you’ll certainly find yourself getting pretty gripped by the gameplay and that’s what really counts.
8 /10
Advanced Pinball Simulator
Codemasters - 1988

Codemasters is a company I have almost limitless nostalgia for, I purchased more of their budget games than I care to count and this was not only one of the very first I bought it was the game that ignited both my love for video pinball and the label itself. These simulators are one of the things Codemasters became best known for, in fact co-owner David Darling was once quoted as saying that their simulator games sold ten times as many copies as their regular titles. In my opinion, of the many sim games that Codemasters produced, Advanced Pinball Simulator is without doubt one of the best. This game was originally designed for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by legendary Dizzy creators the Oliver Twins then later ported over to the C64. Pinball has always been a concept that has translated very well into video game form, and this effort is no exception. You have all the things you would expect from this genre including bumpers, flippers, score multipliers, chutes and even a multi-player mode so you can compete with your friends for bragging rights. Graphically the game is nice and colourful and there is some great music and sound effects too. Although it only features one table (The Volcano), it’s so addictive and playable that it will keep you chasing your high score for a long time to come. There are few budget games that stick in my mind better than this one!
9 /10

B
Batman: The Movie
Ocean - 1989

This was actually the third Batman game to be produced by Ocean but the very first to be based on a movie, in this case the iconic Michael Keaton/Tim Burton reboot that famously starred Jack Nicholson as The Joker. It also followed on from two highly successful Ocean movie licenses in Platoon and Robocop , which had previously defined a template for all futures titles to follow. So with Batman: The Movie this tried and tested template is followed once again. For those of you that are unaware of just what the Ocean Movie Template is, it basically means that each level in the game plays out like an individual mini-game based on a key scene from the film. So you will find multiple genres and game styles covered within one title. Batman: The Movie mixes things up with side scrolling arcade-like levels where you duff up the bad guys and use your Bat Rope to swing from platforms. A driving game, where you steer the Batmobile around Gotham City and swing it around corners and also a shoot ‘em up style level in the Batwing. All in all Ocean made a really good job of using the source material and capturing the look and feel of the original film. Graphically it’s pretty nice, but I hope you really like purple and black! The audio is magnificent however with one of my favourite soundtracks of any Ocean game out there. Without doubt this is the definitive Batman game for the Commodore 64.
9 /10
Bubble Bobble
Firebird - 1987

What is there left to say about this iconic game? Bubble Bobble is widely regarded as one of the best platform games ever made, and rightly so too. The game was so successful that it saw conversions to a number of different machines and spawned several sequels. I am sure everyone reading this has played Bubble Bobble on one platform or another but for those who somehow haven’t it’s an ad