A-Z of Commodore 64 Games , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Kieren Hawken

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111 pages

English

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Description

The A-Z of Commodore 64 Games: Volume 3 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	31 juillet 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781789821161
Langue	English

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 3

Kieren Hawken

Published in 2019 by
AG Books
www.agbooks.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2019 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 1988.
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 3 is just that, the third 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
Action Fighter
Firebird - 1989

This game is a very nice conversion of Sega’s little known arcade sequel to the seminal Spy Hunter , which they originally released in conjunction with Bally/Midway. Keeping all of the original coin-op’s fast paced gameplay, but adding some new elements to the mix, it retains much of the same appeal. The action is still viewed top down and the theme of the game is still very reminiscent of James Bond but instead of a car, in Action Fighter , you climb onto the seat of a high powered motor bike. That’s not the only form of transport in the game though as one of the best new features is when you jump into the cockpit of a plane for a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up style section that is very reminiscent of Namco’s classic arcade blaster Xevious . There are also some new gadgets and special weapons to get your hands on too that include rockets, fighter jets that fly over head and the ability to transform into the original Spy Hunter car! The levels vary nicely as you make your way through built up cities, jungles, deserts and even over the ocean too. The Commodore 64 conversion of Action Fighter looks and sounds pretty good for the most part, although I do wish it featured some in-game music. It might get a little samey at times and definitely isn’t the best known coin-op conversion out there for the machine, but Action Fighter is a more than worthy follow-up to the classic Spy Hunter .
8/10
Armalyte
Thalamus - 1988

Now we all know that when it comes to C64 games Thalamus are widely considered to be the best of the best. But real the question is, which of their many terrific games reigns supreme? I think many people out there would put a very convincing argument in for this one - Armalyte . Although it was created by a totally different programming team, Armalyte was marketed by Thalamus as the sequel to the hugely popular Delta . This is most likely because the gameplay is very similar with it being a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up very much in the style of Konami’s classic Gradius . Unoriginal it may be but that doesn’t stop it from being very accomplished at what it does. We have intelligent attack waves, large end of level bosses and an upgradable power-up system. A crucial difference between Amalyte and Gradius , and indeed many of it clones, is that any weapons upgrades gained during a level are not lost if the player’s ship is destroyed. However, at the start of the next level your ship loses all these upgrades except for the batteries and generators. As well as the standard weapon upgrades there are also three different types of super weapon too, particularly useful for taking out those large bosses I mentioned. The graphics here are terrific and the sound is good too, although I do wish it had in-game music. Overall this is right up there among the C64’s very best shoot ‘em ups.
9/10
Alien Storm
U.S. Gold - 1991

The original arcade version of Alien Storm used the same engine as Sega’s classic Golden Axe and had many similarities in the gameplay department too despite its alien invasion theme. It’s a scrolling beat ‘em up at heart, although the characters do sport weapons, where you can select one of three characters and go around kicking some alien butt! Like Golden Axe you also have a “magic” of sorts that must be built up to be unleashed to maximum effect. Where this game does differ from Golden Axe is that it has some brilliant Operation Wolf style bonus stages where you not only shoot aliens but also shoot bonus objects to rack up more points and grab things such as extra lives and health too. These are particularly fun and destructive, especially the one that takes place in a supermarket. Each level is spilt into parts with a particularly ugly boss at the end of each one. I always loved all the little comedic touches such as the mailbox aliens that wake up and chase you and the animations of the aliens themselves. The graphics are reasonable but suffer from being a bit too brown and some of the sprites are poorly defined. The sound is pretty decent with some nice in-game music. Best of all though, it actually retains the superb two-player co-op mode from the arcade original! If you love Golden Axe then you will love Alien Storm too, it’s like a cheesy B movie in video game form!
8/10

B
Buggy Boy
Elite - 1987

Originally developed by Tatsumi the game was licensed to Taito for the west and went on to become a big hit, more so on the computers of the time than in the arcades. This was mainly thanks to a number of very fine conversions of which many consider this C64 version to be the best. The original arcade game actually used three screens to portray the action and a custom cabinet to house them, so it makes it even more impressive what a great job Elite did with this game. The idea of Buggy Boy is to drive your buggy along a series of courses going off ramps, collecting bonus flags, avoiding the obstacles and, most important of all, completing the course within the time limit. There are a total of five different tracks and these are all selectable from the title screen. As well as the flags that give you bonus points there also ones that give you extra time, but these are often harder to get and hidden behind large obstacles. Buggy Boy is quite unlike any other driving game of the time as there are no other cars, it’s about having lots of funs doing tricks and trying to get a high score. There is one huge difference between this C64 port and all the others - the visuals. Gone are the humungous buggies and giant obstacles and in their place are much more sensibly sized sprites. This means that C64 Buggy Boy is much faster with a better frame rate and much more fun and exciting for it!
9/10
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Capstone - 1990

There was a time back the late eighties and early nineties when everyone was repeating lines from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure . In classrooms and playgrounds all round the world you could hear cries of “Totally bodacious!”, “No way - yes way!” and “Party on dude!”. Even today the adventures of Bill & Ted continue to have a profound effect on our lives, I mean who hasn’t seen o