C64 scene back in the day had sooooooo much pirated software to enjoy, whereas NES was 100% locked down. I had the c64 with 1000+ games, my buddy had a NES with 4 games. But SMB and RC Pro Am were better than anything I had on the c64.
@@toPGnikoms420I actually wonder how many legitimate games were made for the C64. At least a rough estimate. I'm talking games that were made by at least some what well established developers/publishers and commercially released within it's lifespan. I wouldn't really say "licensed", since I doubt Commodore was licensing all games released on their platform I think they were more hands off. For the NES I think they have about 1,500 officially released games. For C64, I heard they have thousands of software (not only games so idk)
Hi, this is great. I was the Atari vs Intellivision kid. I would often point out that while Intellivision had some great stuff like Tron: Deadly Disks, Atari certainly was keeping up, especially with the Activision and M-Network games. Then I went to a friend's house and they showed me Excite Bike on the Nintendo and I was like, "Uh oh."
I had a Coleco Telstar, a Coleco Gemini (2600 clone), Vic-20, then a C-64. I kept playing the 64 for several years and never had any other console until the PS2. I did play on my sister's NES and my buddy's Genesis, but never really cared about them much at the time. Fast forward a few years I have pretty much every old console ever made. The Commodore 64 will forever be my favorite gaming system. Daisy chaining multiple disk drives with friends while copying disks, and hearing the buzzing and clicking of the disk drive while waiting forever for the games to load when playing them.... Ahhh. Great memories. I still have my original Vic and 64, and they still work.
I grew up with the NES but I had friends who owned the Commodore 64 so I never really felt like I "missed out", though I'll admit, there's a difference to playing on your friends system during a visit for a number of hours and owning one to yourself that you can play almost whenever you wanted. Then there's the choices of games and everyone having different tastes. I always loved visiting friends houses to play the Commodore for that different experience. Excellent video once again 👌
I got a C64 about 1983. I was at Montgomery Wards one day and saw some guy on a C64 demoing it. He talked about and showed all the things a computer could do. Then watched him program a sprite red balloon float across the screen and I was sold, had to have one, got one soon after. Turned out the guy was a local teacher who went there to show people computers, he wasn't asked, he volunteered. Then quickly got a 300 baud modem and learned about pirating. Best times ever, since you called into local BBS;s some had meetups. One of them we would go to the sysops house, bring our Commodores and apples along with boxes of disks of cracked games and spent all day copying each others disks. Played D&D talked Hitchikers Guide and Lord Of The Rings. Went for pizza at Round Table. Great days. Didn't get into consoles, had a couple, never held my interest. Went PCMasterrace in the early 90s, still don't console.
Wow, what an awesome story! It’s amazing how those early experiences with the C64, like seeing that red balloon sprite, could spark a lifelong passion. I can totally relate to those BBS days and the excitement of copying disks and sharing games with friends. Sounds like you had some great meetups and made some unforgettable memories. D&D, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and Lord of the Rings-those were the days! The shift to PC gaming in the early 90s was a big move for many, and it’s interesting how you stayed with the PC Master Race rather than moving to consoles. Thanks for sharing your journey-it really adds to the nostalgia of the era!
@@FloppyDeepDive Some of us learned to crack. I was 14 in 84, I remember driving with some guy older than me, we would go to Toys R Us, buy the newest game take it back to his place, crack it, return it for a full refund. Different times, luckily nothing ever happened. I was usually the youngest at those meetups, most were 16 to 20s, the sysop was mid 30s with a wife and kids and a damn Battlezone machine in his house. Think he worked for like JPL. Once we went on a camping trip to the mountains, then took our flashlights and walked to the middle of nowhere, sat down and played D&D. Really wish I had had a camera and been able to log those times. I still miss pinball machines everywhere, that was my thing to this day. Have a good one! Subscribed.
@@mikecarter8880 That sounds like an incredible time-those were definitely different days! Cracking games and returning them was quite the hustle, and it’s wild to think about the stuff we got away with back then. Being the youngest at those meetups must have been an experience, especially with a sysop who had a Battlezone machine in his house-talk about living the dream! Your camping trips, D&D sessions, and pinball memories really paint a vivid picture of those times. I bet it would’ve been amazing to capture it all on camera. Thanks for sharing your story, and I’m glad to have you as a subscriber. Have a good one!
Gyruss - I'd like to note that the sprite flicker was nowhere near as pronounced on a real C64 hooked up to a CRT television. Ghosts N Goblins - The status panel at the bottom of the screen shouldn't be flashing like that in the C64 version. Stuff like that was often the result of running a PAL game on an NTSC machine. Also, a few years ago, there was a fan-created "arcade" version that aimed to make the game more arcade accurate. Couple games you should compare: Elite - While the NES version was slightly faster, it was also saddled with an icon-driven control system that made accessing the ship's functions rather slow and cumbersome. Archon - While the graphics are nicer, the constant, looping music drives me insane. Spy vs. Spy - Personally, I like the C64 graphics more. The NES graphics look kind of squashed to me. Also, while the NES got the sequel, The Island Caper, it never got the third game, Arctic Antics.
Yes in Europe Ghosts and Goblins had no flickering on PAL, the fan created arcade version was excellent and is the game Elite should have put out at the time but cut costs to not do so. Recommend the fan Commando edition too on the C64 as all the missing levels from the original game are there.
MAN! Seeing that Gyruss screen on the C64 behind you really took me back. I used to love cranking up that classic music and turning out the lights for an immersive journey through space.
Hey Tom,! Good choices and no surprise but I would pick the same winners. Like you I skipped the NES going from C64/Amiga to Genesis. The Genesis was a major game changer to me. My little brother did have an NES so I did play some classic NES games in the late 80s and early 90s. Great video as always.
I didn't really go back to consoles after I had a VCS and Coleco because I wanted to be able to make my own stuff too with a computer until the PC Engine, mostly because the arcade ports on Amiga were too hit and miss and I spent a lot of time in the arcade too as a teen. Having said that Nemesis, Popeye and some of the racing games were really good but even so the £30 NES cartridge prices were more than what I was spending on games for my Amiga 1000 in 87/88 too and I got a PC Engine soon after that anyway.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time playing Questron. There was also a sequel Questron II, as well as spiritual sequels made by the same people - Legacy of the Ancients and Legend of Blacksilver.
I had C64 so obviously I am biased ;D 2-3 years ago I checked almost whole collection of NES, and I learnt few things: 1. Great titles on C64 are .... better on C64 than NES. Many times I checked NES game I knew from C64 (Green Beret, Ghost n Goblins, The Last Ninja) and I was ... dissapointed. Sure, the graphic seemed better but the gameplay AND music was day and night. 2. On the other hand, games not existing on C64 but only on NES were simply great. I love Abadox, Shatterhand etc. I would say that overall, NES had probably more games that were simply better, but on the other hand C64 was ... a computer. There were ie. Adventure / Text games, not suitable for pad. I started programming in Basic when I was 7 xD (because i wanted to create text game :D), I remember how proud I was with my older brother when the official C64 manual book / programming, we wrote some basic code that was displaying ghost sprite animation :D Or we "hacked" some basic game, so ie. you could change a name of the city (like Washington to some Polish city / my hometown ;p) Also, music wise - to be honest, as a kid amazing music was pretty often more immersive than graphics - Green Beret, Commando, Rambo, The Last Ninja. If you add VHS era to this then actually it was music that kind of made me feel like I'm a real Green Beret, Commando or Rambo :D But yea, now I know that NES has also amazing games library, probably better than C64. If I had a chance to play NES as a 8 year old kid, I would be absolutely amazed. BUT C64 in (almost) post communism country had one huge advantage - tapes instead of carts. At that point of time, people in Poland had a salary like 10 $ / month. Most of the computers were somehow "imported" from abroad by some uncle, "friend", sailors. If somebody is from US, please read somewhere about a history of IT in Poland - it is absolutely crazy xD Everybody was so poor (communism in the 80s was going to an end in Poland, so slowly people could bring / import some stuff from nearby countries), but at the same time, many people had ZX Spectrum, Atari, C64 because parents kind of knew that "the computers era is coming" (even if it ended up that 99,9 % kids / teenagers were just playing games only :DDD) so maybe when the kids will grow up they won't be poor etc. To some degree it worked. Whole IT Sector in Poland was build on top of pirate everything mentality. That's why ie. Commodore Amiga has a cult status in Poland because ... nobody could afford SNES, Megadrive etc. - everybody had Amiga (and later PC or PSX). Nintendo was absolute niche - probably less than 1 % (or 0,1 % - ok, there was a pegasus clone too, some people had it). Same actually applies to Sega. There were microcomputers, and later PC + Sony. There is a very high chance that ie. people who started CD-Project were very active on so called "giełda" (computer marketplace / exchange) spots, located usually in some random buildings (schools, etc.) where everybody pirated everything. Was it bad ? Honestly ? hard to tell. It was probably the only way to not be excluded from IT / technology (and we desperately wanted to at least experience a little bit a "western" technology / life etc.). Probably that's the reason why there are / were so many of Software Engineers / IT / Network Engineers in Poland.
It would maybe make more sense to compare Amiga 1000 or 500 vs NES as they were launched around same time as NES. Games weren't ported in 1980's and is why they are so different on all systems. Commodore 64 and Amiga were more lucky when it came to sound as they had Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Martin Galway, Mark Cooksey, David Whittaker and many other famous composers. This is why they had superior music vs NES and other systems on top of better sound chips.
still not quite a valid comparison, both the nes and c64 were tile/character mapped the amiga was purely bitmapped internally requiring blitter programming to emulate what both the c64 and nes as well as other arcade boards of the time had hard wired in
“Great points! Comparing the Amiga to the NES could definitely highlight some interesting contrasts, especially with the Amiga’s superior sound capabilities and the incredible talent behind the music on both the C64 and Amiga. However, the focus here was on what I missed out on as a C64 kid who didn’t experience the NES back in the day. It’s fascinating to see how different the same games could be on various systems, and I love diving into those differences. The Amiga vs. NES comparison could be a cool idea for a future video-thanks for the suggestion!”
@@FloppyDeepDive Your welcome. Looking at hardware, C64 were closest to NES of course. Epyx during their glory days had around 10 teams making the same game on 10 systems at the same time, and all 10 games were mostly different, partially because of hardware differences. Each system even had their own composers, and C64 and Amiga were the lucky ones. In "modern times" this also happened multiple times during 360/PS3 period. Bayonetta, Rainbow Six Vegas 1+2, Red Dead Redemption and lots of other games were made properly for Xbox 360. Then a different developer made the PS3 versions with watered down bland textures, had 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS, much slower loading etc. These poor PS3 versions hurt the console sales hard the first 3-4 years. I had both 360 and PS3 since launch, so i know both consoles well. Funny thing is that some of these 360 games ran better from Disc on 360 than they did from HDD on PS3. lol It's exactly like it were in 1980's.
I too had a C64, later an amiga. And missed out (initially) on the NES. While I have fond memories of many of the C64 games, after playing NES years later, that many versions and games in general were better. This is not surprising though because even though the hardware was around the same time as the C64, the C64 has a common bus that is shared between the cpu and vic 2 chip. That means slower access to shared ram, and both limited to 1mhz originally IIRC. While the NES was more based on early golden age arcade games, with separate cpu and video boards, meaning separate busses, both were tile mapped similar to many early 80's arcade boards too. And NES PPU also ran about twice as fast (3-4 times faster on the PPU I believe
“Thanks for sharing your insights! It sounds like we had a similar journey-starting with the C64, then later discovering what the NES had to offer. The technical details you mentioned are spot on; the C64’s shared bus definitely limited its performance compared to the NES’s more advanced architecture. The separate CPU and video boards on the NES allowed for faster processing and better graphics, which is probably why a lot of those games felt more refined. I still have a soft spot for the C64 though, especially with all those fond memories. It’s always fascinating to look back at how these systems stacked up against each other!”
@@FloppyDeepDiveThere are a couple of videos, of the PAL version, running on OG hardware on youtube, if you want to check it out. Great video btw, looking forward to more comparisons 😃👍
@@FloppyDeepDive Yeah unfortunately back in the day we got a lot of glitchy versions of games in NTSC land because they were just the PAL versions. They either ran too fast, had glitches, or both, and no one fixed them. Occasionally, a cracking group would have a fix or something like that. I can think of a few that were bad: 1942, Commando, Green Beret, The Great Giana Sisters, etc. Maybe an interesting idea to do a comparison at some point.
From gameplay videos and whatnot I find the graphics of the NES way more appealing but the audio of the C64, that SID chip is way beyond anything the NES could do
Oh, Tom, my friend... you never fail to make me laugh. @2:46 it's Inspector Clouseau not Inspector Caruso. Poor Peter Sellers is rolling in his grave...
Dude Good mornin You look like my buddy in 8th grade ! wow Op shirt!!!!!! man id go between the Nes n my C64.....but id be up all nite on the 128/64 i had a wired one
I had both, first the C64 and then the NES. The C64 held strong in some games, while others were better in the NES but it was weird as the releases were not all at the same time but over decades. Toward the end of the line I used the C64 for games like The Last Ninja series and a few flight sims like Project 19 Stealth Fighter(or FX19 in some localized versions.) for the NES some things stand invincible like Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania. The only game I did play as a kid on both systems is Ghost Busters, it was way better on the C64 IMO, but still not worth playing today. I mean missing out on the NES is missing out on like 5 top games ever made though. Not so much with the C64 but the sound was so gritty and old school and that SID chip was crazy too. Sound on the ^4 is a large win.
This is cool but what made the NES more interesting were the games that mixed more complex PC games with arcade action, like the 2600 and intellivision had started doing with some games like Adventure and Cloudy Mountain, but iterated and expanded upon. Zelda, Metroid, Crystalis, Guardian Legend, Blaster Master, Lolo, Metal Gear, SMB3, Ufouria, etc. Also compensating for worse visuals compared to arcades with more mechanical depth like in Mega Man, Bionic Commando and Ducktales 2 for example. If more Japanese developers had also developed for C64 it would've been really cool although I guess later games would've required the C128, which flopped.
If you fancy playing an unofficial Elevator Action give Gumshoe by A'n'F a go. I loved this game. And at the time didn't even know Elevator Action exists. I think it has a larger play area than the official conversion.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve actually never tried Gumshoe by A’n’F, but it sounds right up my alley, especially with the larger play area compared to Elevator Action. Definitely going to give it a go and see how it stacks up. Appreciate the tip!
@@FloppyDeepDive Gumshoe I first played on the compilation "Softaid". Back when Live Aid was happening Rod Cousens the owner of Quicksilva decided to raise money for Ethiopia by doing a games compilation on C64, Spectrum, not sure about Amstrad without looking it up. It was only £4.99 and all the games on the c64 were decent. The spectrum one contain Jack & the Beanstalk one of the worst/hardest games on the speccy.
That’s awesome! I didn’t know about Softaid-what a cool way to support a great cause! £4.99 for a compilation with some solid C64 games sounds like a great deal too. I’ve heard that Jack & the Beanstalk on the Spectrum is infamous for being ridiculously hard! Thanks for sharing this bit of history!
Not forgetting books of code for games. Youd spend days typimg code in, you'd try to run ot and find it wouldnt go. Youd spend hours looking through code for errors. If you were successful you'd have a 5 minute game
The C64 port of Gyruss is just incredibly fun even if it could have been better (the flickering sprites and low resolution 3 pixel flies in the distance could have been done better). In theory the NES could have done a similar port, but people would not have been happy, in 1988, with paying for an NES cartridge and only getting a straight port of Gyruss. The sheer size and scope of SMB and Zelda set expectations for what sort of experience you should get for the high price of an NES cartridge. The NES format didn't leave room for tiers of budget titles and multi-floppy mega-games. Also, the way Nintendo licensing worked, the system just wasn't open enough for clones to take advantage of poor official ports. The poor quality of the C64 Elevator Action port left an opening for superior clones like Mission Elevator or Gumshoe.
I completely agree! The C64 version of Gyruss is great fun despite some graphical limitations, and you're right about the NES. With titles like SMB and Zelda setting high expectations, a straight port wouldn’t have satisfied many players in '88. The C64 definitely had more room for budget titles and creative clones like Mission Elevator. Great insights!
Me too. C128, skipped the Nintendo and went to the A500 and Sega Genesis... mostly A500 into the mid 90s. I don't feel like I missed much. To this day I prefer PC over console. Thanks for the vid! Nice job!
The Amiga really was ahead of its time back then! It held its own well into the 90s, even when the 486 with VGA started taking over. Those were some great years for 16-bit computing!
@FloppyDeepDive I can't remember. I've been trying to look at old C64 games to find it. But there are so many variations could it have been one of those I remember? Is this where one of the enemy ships can steal your ship and you can get it back and have a double ship?
Even the Atari VCS version of Ghostbusters was better than the NES version! I don't know what Workss/Bits Laboratory were thinking with the gas and traffic systems, or the fact you started the game having to drive to the shop instead of shopping before the game started, but it didn't improve the game at all. Then there was the way Zuul worked, in the C64 game as well the VCS, you automatically warp to Zuul when the PKE meter hits 9999, and somewhere after 3000-4000, Mr Stay Pufft will threaten to destroy a building and cost you a hefty fine if you're unable to set ghost bait in time. Let a building get destroyed and it could set you back far enough to cost you entry into Zuul! As for the NES version, instead you have the _option_ to enter Zuul once you have the money, (but you may want to go to the shop to change your equipment beforehand), and Mr Stay Puft instead only appears if the PKE meter maxes out, regardless of how much money you have. And of course I don't need to talk about the infamous stair climb or the boss battle vs Gozer, the only addition the game makes that's kinda okay. Doesn't stop this version from sucking. Glad my cousin kept his VCS and his copy of Ghostbusters at grandma's house. It was one of my favorites.
You didn't miss out on much. 2kb ram, 40 kb cartridges, wimpy thin sound, can only play official games no abilities to go online or do computer things.
You make a good point-the NES was pretty limited in terms of what it could do outside of playing games. The C64 had way more versatility with its ability to run different software, access BBS, and handle more complex tasks. But for pure gaming, both systems had their strengths! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Didn't have a NES back in the day (have a NES Mini now) but did have the C64. It was many years of good gaming but I could not do it now in 2024. I have a C64 Mini with extra games via USB and most of the games are now awful and 2 minute of playing is too long. I play the hacked NES Mini much more so would just default to it to play its version of games.. NES Ghostbusters looks god awful. One game where I prefer the C64 version is Burger Chase as I prefer it to Burger Time by quite a bit. I hate the stuttering of the movement of Peter Pepper on BT but that was on the arcade version.
Excellent video. The NES broadly wins. I had the c64 in the UK - primarily difference was many 64 games could be had for 2 quid (and with piracy nil) whereas NES games were 25-50quid.
The C64 version of _Ghostbusters_ is better than the NES version. The NES version is kinda crappy actually whereas the C64 version with its synthesized voice is superb, among the best of all C64 games to play. "Ghostbusters! WaHAhaHAhaHA!" ruclips.net/video/SNJ3kY5gUyo/видео.htmlsi=gF5B_BBG7XRTsueG So good!
Check out the Playlist for all the C64 vs NES episodes! ruclips.net/p/PL70122o_bB72W_FBL9dcanR0_wjn9KRf0
Legend has it the c64 is still loading the first game but I bet it will be worth the wait.
😆
C64 scene back in the day had sooooooo much pirated software to enjoy, whereas NES was 100% locked down. I had the c64 with 1000+ games, my buddy had a NES with 4 games. But SMB and RC Pro Am were better than anything I had on the c64.
Nes had many bootlegs lol however not nearly as common as c64 has endless libray of content very true
Very true and that's why I loved my C64!
@@toPGnikoms420I actually wonder how many legitimate games were made for the C64. At least a rough estimate.
I'm talking games that were made by at least some what well established developers/publishers and commercially released within it's lifespan.
I wouldn't really say "licensed", since I doubt Commodore was licensing all games released on their platform I think they were more hands off.
For the NES I think they have about 1,500 officially released games. For C64, I heard they have thousands of software (not only games so idk)
Hi, this is great. I was the Atari vs Intellivision kid. I would often point out that while Intellivision had some great stuff like Tron: Deadly Disks, Atari certainly was keeping up, especially with the Activision and M-Network games. Then I went to a friend's house and they showed me Excite Bike on the Nintendo and I was like, "Uh oh."
LOL, Uh Oh is right! Thanks for Watching!
I had a Coleco Telstar, a Coleco Gemini (2600 clone), Vic-20, then a C-64. I kept playing the 64 for several years and never had any other console until the PS2. I did play on my sister's NES and my buddy's Genesis, but never really cared about them much at the time.
Fast forward a few years I have pretty much every old console ever made.
The Commodore 64 will forever be my favorite gaming system. Daisy chaining multiple disk drives with friends while copying disks, and hearing the buzzing and clicking of the disk drive while waiting forever for the games to load when playing them.... Ahhh. Great memories. I still have my original Vic and 64, and they still work.
Sounds great! Thanks for Watching!
Couple of other good comparisons would be Maniac Mansion and Pirates!
When I get to that letter, they will
Be included.
Good Morning from the Motor City!
Well Done Sir
I was an Atari 7800 Kid
I love the Atari 7800. Great system. Thanks for Watching!
The music in the C64 version of Ghouls and Ghosts is phenomenal.
The best!
I grew up with the NES but I had friends who owned the Commodore 64 so I never really felt like I "missed out", though I'll admit, there's a difference to playing on your friends system during a visit for a number of hours and owning one to yourself that you can play almost whenever you wanted. Then there's the choices of games and everyone having different tastes.
I always loved visiting friends houses to play the Commodore for that different experience.
Excellent video once again 👌
Thank you, sir! I thought the UK required a ZX Spectrum in every house. You rocked the NES.
I got a C64 about 1983. I was at Montgomery Wards one day and saw some guy on a C64 demoing it. He talked about and showed all the things a computer could do. Then watched him program a sprite red balloon float across the screen and I was sold, had to have one, got one soon after. Turned out the guy was a local teacher who went there to show people computers, he wasn't asked, he volunteered. Then quickly got a 300 baud modem and learned about pirating. Best times ever, since you called into local BBS;s some had meetups. One of them we would go to the sysops house, bring our Commodores and apples along with boxes of disks of cracked games and spent all day copying each others disks. Played D&D talked Hitchikers Guide and Lord Of The Rings. Went for pizza at Round Table. Great days. Didn't get into consoles, had a couple, never held my interest. Went PCMasterrace in the early 90s, still don't console.
Wow, what an awesome story! It’s amazing how those early experiences with the C64, like seeing that red balloon sprite, could spark a lifelong passion. I can totally relate to those BBS days and the excitement of copying disks and sharing games with friends. Sounds like you had some great meetups and made some unforgettable memories. D&D, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and Lord of the Rings-those were the days! The shift to PC gaming in the early 90s was a big move for many, and it’s interesting how you stayed with the PC Master Race rather than moving to consoles. Thanks for sharing your journey-it really adds to the nostalgia of the era!
@@FloppyDeepDive Some of us learned to crack. I was 14 in 84, I remember driving with some guy older than me, we would go to Toys R Us, buy the newest game take it back to his place, crack it, return it for a full refund. Different times, luckily nothing ever happened. I was usually the youngest at those meetups, most were 16 to 20s, the sysop was mid 30s with a wife and kids and a damn Battlezone machine in his house. Think he worked for like JPL.
Once we went on a camping trip to the mountains, then took our flashlights and walked to the middle of nowhere, sat down and played D&D. Really wish I had had a camera and been able to log those times. I still miss pinball machines everywhere, that was my thing to this day.
Have a good one! Subscribed.
@@mikecarter8880 That sounds like an incredible time-those were definitely different days! Cracking games and returning them was quite the hustle, and it’s wild to think about the stuff we got away with back then. Being the youngest at those meetups must have been an experience, especially with a sysop who had a Battlezone machine in his house-talk about living the dream! Your camping trips, D&D sessions, and pinball memories really paint a vivid picture of those times. I bet it would’ve been amazing to capture it all on camera. Thanks for sharing your story, and I’m glad to have you as a subscriber. Have a good one!
Gyruss - I'd like to note that the sprite flicker was nowhere near as pronounced on a real C64 hooked up to a CRT television.
Ghosts N Goblins - The status panel at the bottom of the screen shouldn't be flashing like that in the C64 version. Stuff like that was often the result of running a PAL game on an NTSC machine. Also, a few years ago, there was a fan-created "arcade" version that aimed to make the game more arcade accurate.
Couple games you should compare:
Elite - While the NES version was slightly faster, it was also saddled with an icon-driven control system that made accessing the ship's functions rather slow and cumbersome.
Archon - While the graphics are nicer, the constant, looping music drives me insane.
Spy vs. Spy - Personally, I like the C64 graphics more. The NES graphics look kind of squashed to me. Also, while the NES got the sequel, The Island Caper, it never got the third game, Arctic Antics.
Yes in Europe Ghosts and Goblins had no flickering on PAL, the fan created arcade version was excellent and is the game Elite should have put out at the time but cut costs to not do so. Recommend the fan Commando edition too on the C64 as all the missing levels from the original game are there.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing and watching!
@@Zen7658-i2u Yep, I just tested it out on my PAL C64, and you are right, no flickering. It's so slow now. lol
MAN! Seeing that Gyruss screen on the C64 behind you really took me back. I used to love cranking up that classic music and turning out the lights for an immersive journey through space.
Yes! The music is amazing! Thanks for Watching!
Hey Tom,! Good choices and no surprise but I would pick the same winners. Like you I skipped the NES going from C64/Amiga to Genesis. The Genesis was a major game changer to me. My little brother did have an NES so I did play some classic NES games in the late 80s and early 90s. Great video as always.
Thanks brotha! We definitely had a similar journey. Did you see my picture of all the Sega Genesis games I picked up this weekend?
@@FloppyDeepDive For sure. I just cheked out your Genesis haul. That is tottaly awesome. Good stuff there.
I only had a c64, then a Amiga.
Lucky man!
I didn't really go back to consoles after I had a VCS and Coleco because I wanted to be able to make my own stuff too with a computer until the PC Engine, mostly because the arcade ports on Amiga were too hit and miss and I spent a lot of time in the arcade too as a teen. Having said that Nemesis, Popeye and some of the racing games were really good but even so the £30 NES cartridge prices were more than what I was spending on games for my Amiga 1000 in 87/88 too and I got a PC Engine soon after that anyway.
So true. The computer aspect kept me busy which is why I never needed an NES. Thanks for Watching!
There was a game called questron on c64 that was the absolute best! Would love to get my hands on that game again
Yes, a classic!
Yeah, I spent a lot of time playing Questron. There was also a sequel Questron II, as well as spiritual sequels made by the same people - Legacy of the Ancients and Legend of Blacksilver.
This was great! I especially liked how you showed the arcade versions before the ports to get a good perspective.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for Watching! It was also good to get the audience's thoughts on how it was presented.
100% agree on your Ghostbusters take. The C-64 version was AMAZING!
Thanks for Watching!
I had C64 so obviously I am biased ;D
2-3 years ago I checked almost whole collection of NES, and I learnt few things:
1. Great titles on C64 are .... better on C64 than NES. Many times I checked NES game I knew from C64 (Green Beret, Ghost n Goblins, The Last Ninja) and I was ... dissapointed. Sure, the graphic seemed better but the gameplay AND music was day and night.
2. On the other hand, games not existing on C64 but only on NES were simply great. I love Abadox, Shatterhand etc.
I would say that overall, NES had probably more games that were simply better, but on the other hand C64 was ... a computer. There were ie. Adventure / Text games, not suitable for pad. I started programming in Basic when I was 7 xD (because i wanted to create text game :D), I remember how proud I was with my older brother when the official C64 manual book / programming, we wrote some basic code that was displaying ghost sprite animation :D Or we "hacked" some basic game, so ie. you could change a name of the city (like Washington to some Polish city / my hometown ;p)
Also, music wise - to be honest, as a kid amazing music was pretty often more immersive than graphics - Green Beret, Commando, Rambo, The Last Ninja. If you add VHS era to this then actually it was music that kind of made me feel like I'm a real Green Beret, Commando or Rambo :D
But yea, now I know that NES has also amazing games library, probably better than C64. If I had a chance to play NES as a 8 year old kid, I would be absolutely amazed. BUT C64 in (almost) post communism country had one huge advantage - tapes instead of carts. At that point of time, people in Poland had a salary like 10 $ / month. Most of the computers were somehow "imported" from abroad by some uncle, "friend", sailors.
If somebody is from US, please read somewhere about a history of IT in Poland - it is absolutely crazy xD Everybody was so poor (communism in the 80s was going to an end in Poland, so slowly people could bring / import some stuff from nearby countries), but at the same time, many people had ZX Spectrum, Atari, C64 because parents kind of knew that "the computers era is coming" (even if it ended up that 99,9 % kids / teenagers were just playing games only :DDD) so maybe when the kids will grow up they won't be poor etc. To some degree it worked. Whole IT Sector in Poland was build on top of pirate everything mentality. That's why ie. Commodore Amiga has a cult status in Poland because ... nobody could afford SNES, Megadrive etc. - everybody had Amiga (and later PC or PSX). Nintendo was absolute niche - probably less than 1 % (or 0,1 % - ok, there was a pegasus clone too, some people had it). Same actually applies to Sega. There were microcomputers, and later PC + Sony. There is a very high chance that ie. people who started CD-Project were very active on so called "giełda" (computer marketplace / exchange) spots, located usually in some random buildings (schools, etc.) where everybody pirated everything. Was it bad ? Honestly ? hard to tell. It was probably the only way to not be excluded from IT / technology (and we desperately wanted to at least experience a little bit a "western" technology / life etc.). Probably that's the reason why there are / were so many of Software Engineers / IT / Network Engineers in Poland.
Thank you for your comments! Such a great read and very interesting. Thanks for Watching!
Great video! I would have picked NES Gyruss over the C64 version. Had no idea NES Ghostbusters was so bad!
Thanks! Yep, GB is awful on NES! Thanks for Watching!
It would maybe make more sense to compare Amiga 1000 or 500 vs NES as they were launched around same time as NES.
Games weren't ported in 1980's and is why they are so different on all systems. Commodore 64 and Amiga were more lucky when it came to sound as they had Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Martin Galway, Mark Cooksey, David Whittaker and many other famous composers.
This is why they had superior music vs NES and other systems on top of better sound chips.
still not quite a valid comparison, both the nes and c64 were tile/character mapped the amiga was purely bitmapped internally requiring blitter programming to emulate what both the c64 and nes as well as other arcade boards of the time had hard wired in
“Great points! Comparing the Amiga to the NES could definitely highlight some interesting contrasts, especially with the Amiga’s superior sound capabilities and the incredible talent behind the music on both the C64 and Amiga. However, the focus here was on what I missed out on as a C64 kid who didn’t experience the NES back in the day. It’s fascinating to see how different the same games could be on various systems, and I love diving into those differences. The Amiga vs. NES comparison could be a cool idea for a future video-thanks for the suggestion!”
@@FloppyDeepDive Your welcome. Looking at hardware, C64 were closest to NES of course.
Epyx during their glory days had around 10 teams making the same game on 10 systems at the same time, and all 10 games were mostly different, partially because of hardware differences.
Each system even had their own composers, and C64 and Amiga were the lucky ones.
In "modern times" this also happened multiple times during 360/PS3 period.
Bayonetta, Rainbow Six Vegas 1+2, Red Dead Redemption and lots of other games were made properly for Xbox 360.
Then a different developer made the PS3 versions with watered down bland textures, had 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS, much slower loading etc.
These poor PS3 versions hurt the console sales hard the first 3-4 years.
I had both 360 and PS3 since launch, so i know both consoles well.
Funny thing is that some of these 360 games ran better from Disc on 360 than they did from HDD on PS3. lol
It's exactly like it were in 1980's.
My family had both, ended up using the NES for games, and the C64 for homework and bbsing
Nice! Thanks for Watching!
You guys didn't play commodore games??
@@stevenrosscarpenter not really…
I too had a C64, later an amiga. And missed out (initially) on the NES. While I have fond memories of many of the C64 games, after playing NES years later, that many versions and games in general were better. This is not surprising though because even though the hardware was around the same time as the C64, the C64 has a common bus that is shared between the cpu and vic 2 chip. That means slower access to shared ram, and both limited to 1mhz originally IIRC. While the NES was more based on early golden age arcade games, with separate cpu and video boards, meaning separate busses, both were tile mapped similar to many early 80's arcade boards too. And NES PPU also ran about twice as fast (3-4 times faster on the PPU I believe
“Thanks for sharing your insights! It sounds like we had a similar journey-starting with the C64, then later discovering what the NES had to offer. The technical details you mentioned are spot on; the C64’s shared bus definitely limited its performance compared to the NES’s more advanced architecture. The separate CPU and video boards on the NES allowed for faster processing and better graphics, which is probably why a lot of those games felt more refined. I still have a soft spot for the C64 though, especially with all those fond memories. It’s always fascinating to look back at how these systems stacked up against each other!”
Strange. That flicker on Ghost n Goblins, does not happen on my PAL C64 version.
Really, I will test that when I get my VIC-II Kawari. I have the NTSC Original Floppy.
@@FloppyDeepDiveThere are a couple of videos, of the PAL version, running on OG hardware on youtube, if you want to check it out.
Great video btw, looking forward to more comparisons 😃👍
@@FloppyDeepDive Yeah unfortunately back in the day we got a lot of glitchy versions of games in NTSC land because they were just the PAL versions. They either ran too fast, had glitches, or both, and no one fixed them. Occasionally, a cracking group would have a fix or something like that. I can think of a few that were bad: 1942, Commando, Green Beret, The Great Giana Sisters, etc. Maybe an interesting idea to do a comparison at some point.
@haysoos123 Great idea!
Yep, just played the PAL version with my new PAL C64 and no flickering. Very cool! Seems so slow. lol
From gameplay videos and whatnot I find the graphics of the NES way more appealing but the audio of the C64, that SID chip is way beyond anything the NES could do
I love the SID!
Oh, Tom, my friend... you never fail to make me laugh. @2:46 it's Inspector Clouseau not Inspector Caruso. Poor Peter Sellers is rolling in his grave...
It just comes naturally. Lol
Dude Good mornin You look like my buddy in 8th grade ! wow Op shirt!!!!!! man id go between the Nes n my C64.....but id be up all nite on the 128/64 i had a wired one
Had to rock the OP! Lol 😆
had no idea there was Gradius on c64 and how bad it was. fortunately there is also Salamander
Thanks for Watching!
I had both, first the C64 and then the NES. The C64 held strong in some games, while others were better in the NES but it was weird as the releases were not all at the same time but over decades. Toward the end of the line I used the C64 for games like The Last Ninja series and a few flight sims like Project 19 Stealth Fighter(or FX19 in some localized versions.) for the NES some things stand invincible like Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania. The only game I did play as a kid on both systems is Ghost Busters, it was way better on the C64 IMO, but still not worth playing today. I mean missing out on the NES is missing out on like 5 top games ever made though. Not so much with the C64 but the sound was so gritty and old school and that SID chip was crazy too. Sound on the ^4 is a large win.
Good stuff! Thanks for Watching!
Platoon and last ninja 2 on the c64 wiped the floor with the nes version..fun fact of the day
I love the fun fact! I'll check them and it when I get to that letter in the alphabet.
like the comparison thank you for showing the video tom :)
Glad you liked it!
This is cool but what made the NES more interesting were the games that mixed more complex PC games with arcade action, like the 2600 and intellivision had started doing with some games like Adventure and Cloudy Mountain, but iterated and expanded upon. Zelda, Metroid, Crystalis, Guardian Legend, Blaster Master, Lolo, Metal Gear, SMB3, Ufouria, etc. Also compensating for worse visuals compared to arcades with more mechanical depth like in Mega Man, Bionic Commando and Ducktales 2 for example.
If more Japanese developers had also developed for C64 it would've been really cool although I guess later games would've required the C128, which flopped.
Totally agree! Those NES games were the bomb! Imagine if more Japanese devs got in on the C64 action-would've been epic!
If you fancy playing an unofficial Elevator Action give Gumshoe by A'n'F a go. I loved this game. And at the time didn't even know Elevator Action exists. I think it has a larger play area than the official conversion.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve actually never tried Gumshoe by A’n’F, but it sounds right up my alley, especially with the larger play area compared to Elevator Action. Definitely going to give it a go and see how it stacks up. Appreciate the tip!
@@FloppyDeepDive Gumshoe I first played on the compilation "Softaid". Back when Live Aid was happening Rod Cousens the owner of Quicksilva decided to raise money for Ethiopia by doing a games compilation on C64, Spectrum, not sure about Amstrad without looking it up. It was only £4.99 and all the games on the c64 were decent. The spectrum one contain Jack & the Beanstalk one of the worst/hardest games on the speccy.
That’s awesome! I didn’t know about Softaid-what a cool way to support a great cause! £4.99 for a compilation with some solid C64 games sounds like a great deal too. I’ve heard that Jack & the Beanstalk on the Spectrum is infamous for being ridiculously hard! Thanks for sharing this bit of history!
@@FloppyDeepDive my pleasure. Think of me as your UK correspondent 🙂
You're hired!
Not forgetting books of code for games. Youd spend days typimg code in, you'd try to run ot and find it wouldnt go. Youd spend hours looking through code for errors. If you were successful you'd have a 5 minute game
I loved typing in the code out of the magazines!
gradius, im not sure if i have played it or something like it on atari?
Maybe, there are a lot of this style of game.
The C64 port of Gyruss is just incredibly fun even if it could have been better (the flickering sprites and low resolution 3 pixel flies in the distance could have been done better).
In theory the NES could have done a similar port, but people would not have been happy, in 1988, with paying for an NES cartridge and only getting a straight port of Gyruss. The sheer size and scope of SMB and Zelda set expectations for what sort of experience you should get for the high price of an NES cartridge.
The NES format didn't leave room for tiers of budget titles and multi-floppy mega-games.
Also, the way Nintendo licensing worked, the system just wasn't open enough for clones to take advantage of poor official ports. The poor quality of the C64 Elevator Action port left an opening for superior clones like Mission Elevator or Gumshoe.
I completely agree! The C64 version of Gyruss is great fun despite some graphical limitations, and you're right about the NES. With titles like SMB and Zelda setting high expectations, a straight port wouldn’t have satisfied many players in '88. The C64 definitely had more room for budget titles and creative clones like Mission Elevator. Great insights!
Sam's Journey is available for both. Win win no matter which way you go.
Sounds good!
Me too. C128, skipped the Nintendo and went to the A500 and Sega Genesis... mostly A500 into the mid 90s.
I don't feel like I missed much. To this day I prefer PC over console.
Thanks for the vid! Nice job!
Fair enough! Thanks for Watching!
I didn't have that flickering on Ghosts and Goblins on C64. Maybe your copy has issues?
Apparently, they never made a proper NTSC version. They are all PAL versions, even an original Floppy sold here in the US.
many like gauntlet, was one that suffered due to different regional releases. euro release (us gold ) was far superior.
Good point
I had the 16 bit Amiga when the 8 bit NES was a thing.
Awesome 👍🏻
@@FloppyDeepDive For nearly a decade. It was really good until 486 was out with VGA.
The Amiga really was ahead of its time back then! It held its own well into the 90s, even when the 486 with VGA started taking over. Those were some great years for 16-bit computing!
@@FloppyDeepDive Indeed - What a time to be alive.
luv this series, luv what your doing. the elevator action enemies always reminded me of Dastardly Whiplash from the wacky racers cartoon.
Awesome, thank you so much! Thanks for Watching!
Ghostbusters on the NES was a travesty
Amen!
Yeppers I had a C64 and my family had 8 bit Atari never owned a working NES during its life or afterlife lmao the 90s got weird.
It sure did! Thanks for Watching!
Ghosts 'n Goblins 2015 for the C= 64 is much better than the one from the 80s.
Thanks for the heads up. i’ll check it out.
I'm sure my version of Galaxian was way different to that.
This is Atarisoft. Who published yours?
@FloppyDeepDive I can't remember. I've been trying to look at old C64 games to find it. But there are so many variations could it have been one of those I remember? Is this where one of the enemy ships can steal your ship and you can get it back and have a double ship?
Ahh this looks like what I remember
ruclips.net/video/lD4y3gGOZao/видео.htmlsi=lDs-3mBGDY_XnDup
It probably was Galaxions, a far better version
Even the Atari VCS version of Ghostbusters was better than the NES version! I don't know what Workss/Bits Laboratory were thinking with the gas and traffic systems, or the fact you started the game having to drive to the shop instead of shopping before the game started, but it didn't improve the game at all. Then there was the way Zuul worked, in the C64 game as well the VCS, you automatically warp to Zuul when the PKE meter hits 9999, and somewhere after 3000-4000, Mr Stay Pufft will threaten to destroy a building and cost you a hefty fine if you're unable to set ghost bait in time. Let a building get destroyed and it could set you back far enough to cost you entry into Zuul!
As for the NES version, instead you have the _option_ to enter Zuul once you have the money, (but you may want to go to the shop to change your equipment beforehand), and Mr Stay Puft instead only appears if the PKE meter maxes out, regardless of how much money you have. And of course I don't need to talk about the infamous stair climb or the boss battle vs Gozer, the only addition the game makes that's kinda okay. Doesn't stop this version from sucking. Glad my cousin kept his VCS and his copy of Ghostbusters at grandma's house. It was one of my favorites.
Good stuff! Thanks for sharing and watching!
Nintendo has more instructions and hardly any sprite limitations
True
The one and biggest advantage the NES had over the C64 was zero loading time.
So true! Thanks for Watching!
NES brought the world Legend of Zelda. You had to buy a big strategy guide to play the game... but it was FUN. The original is still the best
Thanks for Watching!
Archon .... NES version was the best ... try Super Dodge Ball, lots of fun
Will do 👍🏻
You didn't miss out on much. 2kb ram, 40 kb cartridges, wimpy thin sound, can only play official games no abilities to go online or do computer things.
You make a good point-the NES was pretty limited in terms of what it could do outside of playing games. The C64 had way more versatility with its ability to run different software, access BBS, and handle more complex tasks. But for pure gaming, both systems had their strengths! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
C64 is king!!
Yes sir !
Didn't have a NES back in the day (have a NES Mini now) but did have the C64. It was many years of good gaming but I could not do it now in 2024. I have a C64 Mini with extra games via USB and most of the games are now awful and 2 minute of playing is too long. I play the hacked NES Mini much more so would just default to it to play its version of games.. NES Ghostbusters looks god awful.
One game where I prefer the C64 version is Burger Chase as I prefer it to Burger Time by quite a bit. I hate the stuttering of the movement of Peter Pepper on BT but that was on the arcade version.
Thanks for sharing!
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
NES is not keeping up!
Lol 😆 Thanks for Watching!
commodore 64❤ nes
Thanks for Watching!
The C64 is a fully fledged computer.
The NES is not.
Very true!!
Excellent video. The NES broadly wins. I had the c64 in the UK - primarily difference was many 64 games could be had for 2 quid (and with piracy nil) whereas NES games were 25-50quid.
Thanks! Agree, price was a huge player for me too.
The C64 version of _Ghostbusters_ is better than the NES version. The NES version is kinda crappy actually whereas the C64 version with its synthesized voice is superb, among the best of all C64 games to play. "Ghostbusters! WaHAhaHAhaHA!"
ruclips.net/video/SNJ3kY5gUyo/видео.htmlsi=gF5B_BBG7XRTsueG
So good!
Agree. Thanks for Watching!