There was a joystick from this era where the stick plugged in to the base using a glorified coaxial connector & I wish I could remember the name of it because it was always fun to give someone that stick for stick-waggler sports games like Track & Field & watch their frustration as the stick detached mid race. 😈 I’m pretty sure you know “Kaiser“ is a derivation of of the latin word “Caesar” (as in Julius) but given cheese’s place in good food I’m happy to call it Kaiser, even if cheese gives me weapons grade gas as I’m getting old. What really came across from this video for me is how sophisticated most of this list is. Even some games that have primitive graphics have sophisticated mechanics & game play. Also Mancopter is clearly the product of hard drugs. You don’t like Spy Vs. Spy? You are dead to me! Don’t worry it never lasts long. 😄 Great video, thanks. You’ve done well to pack so many games in to this video, no wonder it took a while to put together. Bruce Lee be with you.
Ah, a fellow lactose intolerance sufferer... The World is "fun" when you add another thing you can't do to the already slowly but steadily growing list, right? :) Yep, 1984 was surprising on many levels. And the sheer volume of quality games was one. I'd say that the memory and medium it held games on (which at the very least here in Europe as you know in majority of cases were the tapes) were the reason there weren't many more really expansive and advanced games on Graphics were acceptable and there was really nothing to complain about in regard to the sounds. I'm not saying that it could've slowed down the 16-bit era if it had more memory and better (faster) storage. But, it could definitely serve more of those serious really expansive games, like Sid Meier's Pirates - which is a freaking masterpiece on C64.
I grew up with an Apple IIe and would have been floored by the comparative graphical power of the C64 if I had ever encountered one. Sadly, my only experience with a Commodore machine was a second-hand VIC 20 I acquired from a garage sale along with some neglected golf clubs. Thank you for sharing this look back at some astonishing games as well as your own experiences. Keep up the great work!
Thanks a bunch! You know how it is, the grass is always greener... You would've loved to have C64, I would've loved to have a NES when it came out, so... But, thankfully, today, we can have any systems we'd like or emulate them for a fraction of or even no cost whatsoever. Btw. Many of the greatest ancient RPGs originated on Apple before they were ported to C64. :) Btw. I see that you're on 1984... It was a good year, but just you wait till you get to 1987... In my opinion easily the best year for C64.
I love watching these videos to find games I would have otherwise forgotten. I never would have remembered 'The Castles of Doctor Creep" nor been drawn in by the familiarity of the name... but watching it I was hit by a wave of nostalgia... Thanks for another great video!
Happy to provide that trip ;) And exactly what you described is a reason behind this and also the earlier two 10 Years of series... because there are games that we don't even know now that were important to our lives at some point in the past.
"Dropzone doesn't look or sound good..." WTF? Are you kidding?? At the time, this looked and sounded AMAZING. Detailed lunar landscape, blazingly smooth scrolling and animation, beautiful particle-effect explosions - and fabulous sound effects. This was - and is - one of the most technically impressive games on the C64.
7:45 Maniac Mansion was not the first full fledged point-and-click adventure, it was released in 1987. "Below The Root" is 1984. I see "Planet Mephius" listed as the first true point-and-click adventure (1983) but that wasn't on the C64. Hunger mechanics were probably inspired by Rogue, which was notorious for it's excessive starvation fatalities...
One of my 1984 favorites that is perhaps less well known outside North America is Toy Bizarre. It's a Mario Bros or Joust type game, but with a moody spooky haunted toy factory theme. The janky animation is particularly compelling.
WOW! It looks pretty cool. When I saw the first screenshot on Lemon64 I thought it's gonna be Mario Bros clone, but it's hardly just that. You're right that it's an odd mix of few other games. I should really try it out as it may be really a hidden gem (for us Europeans at least).
Nice pick and I'd also like to mention another "missing" Activison title: Zenji. A fun arcade puzzler where you have to connect a pipe system. It has a nice atmosphere but can become a bit frustrating. Still, Activision was a reliable software house for the C64 in the early days.
@@OperationPhantom Yep, cause they got no recognition at Atari. The big A wanted to keep them anonymous and all games released as by Atari and not made by specific individuals. Pretty awful practice, but if you look at what's happening today, it's not much better. ;)
We are in 1984 - not the great C64 year, but the George Orwell one! NATO Commander... The first of the Microprose strategy games... And so many great ones after! I was SO poor because of Microprose!
Wow, I'm also surprised how many great games were from 1984. I'm in the Spy vs Spy fans camp. It's so fun to play with somebody. Against CPU not so much. Football Manager is the game of my youth and a reason why I follow a team with number 6. I love decathlon type of games even though I'm not good at them. Track & Field is my fav one, I don't know why. Maziacs is a game I've learned about only few years ago. I was so impressed with it that I uploaded a video on youtube with me playing it (I don't have any videos on yt anymore). New York City is another game that I like but never really knew how to play it well as I'm not into arcade games really.
It was 1985 when at my friend's house he showed me the latest glorious arrival for his C64: a great video game about egyptian tombs, treasures, mummies, and even a whip (that made me think of the movie Indiana Jones). I did not have a computer at that time, and so when I went home I recreated (at best as I could) on pen, paper, and colored markers this "egyptian" video game but as a boardgame. Then only recently I was able to find out the name of this glorious game: Entombed. ruclips.net/video/BbXkUDQMHOE/видео.html
You seem to know a lot about old games. I remember playing a little bit of a game on the ZX Spectrum (It may have been 128k) it was a post apocalyptic postman game that is all I mainly remember and the year was roughly the late 80's but no later than 1991 I'd say. I'm just wondering if by chance you know of it? I am pretty sure it was a demo game from a computer magazine and I am not sure if a full game ever got released. I have searched many lists but cannot find it and it drives me half mental.
Do you remember anything else? Like what was the viewpoint? Was it a side-view, top-down or maybe a text-based game? A genre perhaps? I'm sure we can try to figure it out with more details... "Mailstrom" comes to mind but not sure if that's post apo...
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yes it is Mailstrom. I am possibly wrong about the post apocalyptic thing but I remember a postman game with shooting. You nailed it in one. Thank you :)
@@mantovannni Glad that I could help. ZX Spectrum was never my strong suit as I didn't own one in the 80's but I played some games here and there, so I remember some games. :)
I played Boulder Dash back in the days so many many times that my Friend and i started to compete about speed ... how fast one can clear a level without beeing smashed ^^ Good times, lots of fun
And there were so many of them. And if you read about them, they were released in such a stupid way it's just unthinkable today. For instance official second game used modernised version of the first's engine, but third, also official used the engine from first. With all its quirks and bugs. And there were a whole list of unofficial ones too. Often better than those that were made by original dev.
Glad I could help! :) There's a lot of those games that are easy to miss within thousands of other titles. And that's partly why I've made the series, to make sure to highlight the best games for each year. :)
Yesterday, i played a Frogger clone 🐸, ROAD TOAD, on my Commodore 64. I even made a gameplay video of it 😺👍🕹️. BRUCE LEE is one of the best 1984 games, I have ever played on my Commodore 64. I had it as a tape version in a compilation called KARATE ACE. I had GHOSTBUSTERS as a budget priced Ricochet tape version. I still have HENRY'S HOUSE as a tape version in a compilation called 10 COMPUTER HITS VOL. 2. MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE is so legendary, I still have it as a Databyte tape version 😺👍🕹️. PITSTOP II deserves to be the best racing game, Epyx have ever released 😺👍🕹️. TRACK & FIELD may be a legendary classic sports game, but HYPER SPORTS is definitely the best 😺👍🕹️. Thank you 😸😺👍.
And yet, back then, you sat there with a joystick in your hand playing for hours on end... As all of us had. It sounds weird when I put it like that. Not changing it though. ;)
Yeah, back in the day they did what they do now even more often. They ported all games to all systems that were theoretically capable of running them. Exclusives were not as common as they are now (on micro computers, not on consoles as these always had exes).
1982 to 1984 was the era of Atari/Apple ports, due to the multi-year head start of the Atari 400/800 and Apple ][, and the ease of porting their games to the C64. But in 1983, C64 software sales skyrocketed while Atari software sales nose-dived. That's what made numerous game developers switch their focus to the C64, and to start taking advantage of C64 specific abilities. Epyx in particular went all-in.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the C64's superior chips aside, is that true that 8bit Atari micro computers (XL/XE specifically, so 400/800 I think) were capable of displaying many more colours from a bigger pallet then Commodore could? And yes, do we know why so often devs decided to pick a colour and just release games using various shades of it?
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Even the first Atari 400/800s had a better palette than the C64, but this rarely made much of a difference due to various other limitations of the Atari 8-bit graphics hardware. Specifically, the monochrome sprites and four color in a scanline limitations really prevented the palette from shining. This problem would be exacerbated by the fact that developers deprioritized Atari 8-bit software after 1983. So, games would be designed with the C64's limited palette in mind, knowing it would be easy to port that part over to Atari 8-bit. And if they had to maul the sprites to fit in the limitations of the Atari hardware, then so be it. I know what you mean about picking a color and just using various shades of it. It's a lazy choice, but it's a lot easier than trying to figure out a more interesting color scheme of only 4 colors. Even 8 colors might have resulted in far more creative use of colors. The C64's various graphics modes had color attributes providing much more flexibility in using more colors in a scanline. They had there own frustrating limitations, but when C64 software sales are pulling in more revenue than everything else you're selling combined ... you put in the effort to deal with it.
@@IsaacKuo 4 colors per scanline, you say. I suppose there's been ways to overcome the issue. Maybe halfing the refresh rate and switching between one 4-color palette and another in alternating frames to create 8 color scanline? If mixed well and fast, they could theoretically give illusion of even more colors. I may be shooting blanks here but I read about something like that (not in anything related to Atari) as a solution for a color issues. Don't remember when and where though. Well, game devs may make games cause they love gaming but in most cases it's for the money so now wonder, they went for C64.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yes, that's one possible technique, although I'm not sure if any Atari 400/800 games used it. Perhaps the big problem with it is that it doubles the RAM required, and the Atari 400 was already pretty constrained. Oh, you could also get more colors in a scanline using sprites, but that of course comes with its own design limitations.
@@IsaacKuo Sure, but if you look at the scene demos on any system really, not only Atari and C64, those artists and coders often found innovative and incredible solutions to use the machines in a way that was theoretically impossible by design. Like 256 simultaneous colours on Amiga 500 in games with moving sprites. Supposedly impossible, as at most HAM mode allowed for 64 and in most cases because of many limitations it was 32 only. But some have done it. True that it was only in point'n'click adventure games (afaik) without any fast moving objects, very basic scrolling and limited sprite scalling, but it _was_ possible even though it shouldn't be. I'm sure same, maybe not to the same degree obviously, could be done on smaller 8bit machines.
Falcon Patrol and Blue Max, Zaxxon and Spy Vs. Spy I think were the first games I played on the C64. And Summergames and so on. I started playing on the C64 from a comrade from school I think in 1984. And it was so great. Before I had played on the Atari 2600 with another friend from school. And the C64 was quite a step up and so fascinating to me back then. In 1984 there also came more and more games with really "great" graphics and music/sound for its time for this machine. Ghostbusters was technically brilliant but to me a little boring after a while. Mission Impossible was legendary with the dying sound of the character you played and a very good game but it never got me so much. Bruce Lee of course is an absolute classic to. I sadly never played Pitstop 2 and Raid on Bungeling Bay. And also sadly not Seven Cities Of Gold or Hearts of Africa or how it was called. I was too young to understand them and only had my own C64 in 1987 or 1988 I think and before that since 1986 or so a C16. When I see your games selections I missed some interesting eartly Titles from 1983 and 1984 because I didn't play them.
Well, you can try them out now... Unless time is the issue. Then I kinda understand that. There's a lot of games I would like to try (old and new) or come back to, but one thing I seem to never have enough is time. Also, many of the games I talk about in particular years I played later on too, most actually as I was born in 1981, so in 1984 I wasn't playing anything yet. ;)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames I know. The first Emulators I played games on with a PC were C64 Emulators. And that was in 1999 onwards. When it comes to tryings out very old games I like to play Amiga games, DOS games from the early to mid 90's or old Arcade games with emulation still nowadays when I have the time to. Some games (like the first XCOM or UFO game from 1994 I think) or Colonization from the same period, Warlords (part 1) and TV Sports Basketball I even played in the last years for days or weeks. But I think it wouldn't "kick" me anymore to play the old C64 games, so I think it's better to watch them here and there... . Maybe I would give some of them a try in the future.
@@DerDude1977 I kinda get that. You feel (I presume) that there may not be enough substance there with C64 titles to keep you interested today and that your melancholic memory of some of them would be crushed and the ones you haven't played yet, wouldn't live to your expectations. And I get that cause I often feel the same. Fortunately some titles are timeless, like River Raid, regardless if I play it alone or with someone, it's always good. Same with Sid Meier's Pirates, whichever system it runs on, it's great. But on the other hand we have games like Dune 2, which I liked in the 90's and today, it's just not something that I enjoy. So yeah... X-Com/UFO was/is amazing and I loved it every time I completed it, and it was numerous times, I must add. Colonization is great every few years, especially its music is something that never got old. I preferred Warlords 2 to 1 but I don't think I'd like it as much today as I did then...
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yeah, sometimes I like to let it be just good memories when it comes to many games on the 64, but there are also games for the system I still would play again for sure. When it comes to Pirates! you are absolutely right in my opinion. I also play it here and there until today and back then I played it very often together with a friend on the C64, but I later prefered the Amiga version until today. In my opinion that was the best one and it's timeless and still very much fun. I even like it much more than the "remakes" of this game that startet with Pirates Gold!. All MicroProse games in the 80s for the C64 were pure quality and one of my alltime favourites on the 64 was Airborne Ranger, for example. Maybe I will try it again. I haven't played it for maybe 34 to 35 years. Sadly the Amiga version of Airborne Ranger was very dissapointing.
@@DerDude1977 I'm sorta mixed on the Pirates! front cause while I firmly believe that Pirates! on Amiga is amazing, it's only second greatest for me. First being Pirates Gold! on PC. Amiga's Gold! is much worse. And I'm keen on what you think about Airborne Ranger after so many years. Cause I did play it after a while, maybe not as much as 35 years and I... Well... Let me know how it was when you do re-play it. :)
@@EvilStreaks I'm sorry. It didn't even cross my mind. I've placed a warning in the first line of video description and in the future ones I will place a warning in the video if there will be any bright or flashing lights.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames lol i just hit it in the '86 video. it has been a great way to spend a sick night. I wish the systems, even groken, weren't so expensive here in Australia! I grew up on a c128 in c64 mode (c128 mode was honestly bad)
@@mistwolf Well, I hope you get better soon! :) I hope it's not the c...-19! I suppose they may be more expensive than anywhere over there as Australia's so remote but if that's any consolation, they are actually quite expensive everywhere. And while couple of years before pandemic they could be purchased for a pretty reasonable (if not low) price, today they're luxury items. Amiga is even worse offender in pricing than C64.
This is a really well-done series and I'm really intrigued to discover the gaming history of the C64. There seems to also be something special about most of the games in this episode.
Thank you very much! :) I'm really glad that you like those. My C64 series has recently been on a hiatus (I have to get back to it at some point), but it's because they were not very popular. And while I enjoyed making them, I got to talk to more interesting folks while working on others. :)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames It's really nice though. You also give some technological historical background, which is always welcome. If you want to get back to this series, you could sprinkle a C64 video among several others if they're not that popular. I'm surprised though that they aren't.
@@TeaAndFloppyDisks C64 was popular in the same time NES was, and while it was the single best selling single model computer for years, it was not NES. Which offered no-nonsense super easy gaming. And with C64 you either had to adjust your tapedeck's header with a little screwdriver, or get a very expensive disk drive. Also, a cartridge with a fast loader and additional functions, it was a lot of work. Mind you, work I enjoyed, but most probably wouldn't. xD
@@OldAndNewVideoGames But the NES was just for games, while C64 was a computer. You could compute things on it. And even write your own games. Also, the console people didn't have it too easy either, with all the blowing into cartridges they had to do until they were blue in the face...
@@TeaAndFloppyDisks True, true... I remember watching a video about a car repair shop somewhere still using C64 for all of its computing. C64 *and* dot matrix printer, no less! ;)
I started watching these videos of yours to find a few hidden gems that I may have missed, and pick up on some interesting lore. Instead I'm finding out something new to almost every game you've covered. There are so many of these titles I've skimmed over, tried maybe once, and never looked back. I now have a list of old games to re-try instead of new gems. Thanks again for being so thorough, and making 8-bit games fun to watch. My 128 thanks you as well!
First of all, 128, amazing system, always wanted one of these. :) Secondly, but more importantly in fact, thank you for your kind words! That was the idea, to show games, say a word or two about them, and not only stick to the seemingly default youtube's formula of presenting a set number of games in a hard-capped number of minutes, for just a few seconds each with no commentary. It's way too short to not only see what the game is about but to even learn if it's worth your time. So, that's why I made the series. Also, not sure if it's the case with you, but I learned that it was far more fan rediscovering the oldies with a friend. It's easier to give a game a bit more time, if there's at least two of you, each giving it a shot or two. Then you get to not only try it a couple of times but to witness someone else do that too. Which may be eye opening as we are often predetermined to act (play) in a particular way, and someone else may have a different gaming defaults and may play the game in a (more) correct way.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Absolutely, and it goes both ways as well. I usually need someone to tell me to move on when I get in the zone playing some random card game or Tetris clone. I know my gaming homie and I always start out with a arm-long list, and usually find something halfway though that gets played all night... or BOFH. Surely with emulation getting better and better, network play will maybe make it even easier to share the experience one day. I got a c128 back in 89 for birthday/Christmas so I'm quite partial to them. I don't still have that one, but I can't complain about what I've got. Especially with prices like they are now...
@@theuglycamel8122 Oh, I get that. I want a C64 with a tapedeck and disk drive and Amiga600 with a decent turbo card. But given the prices now, I'm not getting either any time soon.
There was a joystick from this era where the stick plugged in to the base using a glorified coaxial connector & I wish I could remember the name of it because it was always fun to give someone that stick for stick-waggler sports games like Track & Field & watch their frustration as the stick detached mid race. 😈
I’m pretty sure you know “Kaiser“ is a derivation of of the latin word “Caesar” (as in Julius) but given cheese’s place in good food I’m happy to call it Kaiser, even if cheese gives me weapons grade gas as I’m getting old.
What really came across from this video for me is how sophisticated most of this list is. Even some games that have primitive graphics have sophisticated mechanics & game play. Also Mancopter is clearly the product of hard drugs.
You don’t like Spy Vs. Spy? You are dead to me! Don’t worry it never lasts long. 😄
Great video, thanks. You’ve done well to pack so many games in to this video, no wonder it took a while to put together.
Bruce Lee be with you.
Zip tick..? With them yellow buttons..? I loved those and were the only deacent ones for track and field etc :)
Ah, a fellow lactose intolerance sufferer... The World is "fun" when you add another thing you can't do to the already slowly but steadily growing list, right? :)
Yep, 1984 was surprising on many levels. And the sheer volume of quality games was one. I'd say that the memory and medium it held games on (which at the very least here in Europe as you know in majority of cases were the tapes) were the reason there weren't many more really expansive and advanced games on Graphics were acceptable and there was really nothing to complain about in regard to the sounds. I'm not saying that it could've slowed down the 16-bit era if it had more memory and better (faster) storage. But, it could definitely serve more of those serious really expansive games, like Sid Meier's Pirates - which is a freaking masterpiece on C64.
I grew up with an Apple IIe and would have been floored by the comparative graphical power of the C64 if I had ever encountered one. Sadly, my only experience with a Commodore machine was a second-hand VIC 20 I acquired from a garage sale along with some neglected golf clubs. Thank you for sharing this look back at some astonishing games as well as your own experiences. Keep up the great work!
Thanks a bunch! You know how it is, the grass is always greener... You would've loved to have C64, I would've loved to have a NES when it came out, so... But, thankfully, today, we can have any systems we'd like or emulate them for a fraction of or even no cost whatsoever. Btw. Many of the greatest ancient RPGs originated on Apple before they were ported to C64. :)
Btw. I see that you're on 1984... It was a good year, but just you wait till you get to 1987... In my opinion easily the best year for C64.
I love watching these videos to find games I would have otherwise forgotten. I never would have remembered 'The Castles of Doctor Creep" nor been drawn in by the familiarity of the name... but watching it I was hit by a wave of nostalgia... Thanks for another great video!
Happy to provide that trip ;)
And exactly what you described is a reason behind this and also the earlier two 10 Years of series... because there are games that we don't even know now that were important to our lives at some point in the past.
"Dropzone doesn't look or sound good..." WTF? Are you kidding?? At the time, this looked and sounded AMAZING. Detailed lunar landscape, blazingly smooth scrolling and animation, beautiful particle-effect explosions - and fabulous sound effects. This was - and is - one of the most technically impressive games on the C64.
Technically speaking it may be incredible. But it just wasn't the graphics I was looking for. Sorry. xD
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Sorry isn't good enough. Prayer and fasting is necessary.
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 LOL
Rather fantasic stuff here. Thanks for covering 1984 c64 respect!
Thanks for watching! And yeah, C64 was truly an amazing little system that could. ;)
Thanks for indulging my request of "NYC: The Big Apple!"
No worries. I checked it out and it seemed like an interesting title and a good fit. Not many games like that have been released since. If any at all.
7:45 Maniac Mansion was not the first full fledged point-and-click adventure, it was released in 1987. "Below The Root" is 1984. I see "Planet Mephius" listed as the first true point-and-click adventure (1983) but that wasn't on the C64. Hunger mechanics were probably inspired by Rogue, which was notorious for it's excessive starvation fatalities...
Oh, I know of Below the Root. But I believe Maniac Mansion to be the first modern point'n'click adventure.
One of my 1984 favorites that is perhaps less well known outside North America is Toy Bizarre. It's a Mario Bros or Joust type game, but with a moody spooky haunted toy factory theme. The janky animation is particularly compelling.
WOW! It looks pretty cool. When I saw the first screenshot on Lemon64 I thought it's gonna be Mario Bros clone, but it's hardly just that. You're right that it's an odd mix of few other games. I should really try it out as it may be really a hidden gem (for us Europeans at least).
Nice pick and I'd also like to mention another "missing" Activison title: Zenji. A fun arcade puzzler where you have to connect a pipe system. It has a nice atmosphere but can become a bit frustrating. Still, Activision was a reliable software house for the C64 in the early days.
@@OperationPhantom Back in the day Activision used to make great games overall, not only on C64.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames True. They formed out of ex-Atari employees after all.
@@OperationPhantom Yep, cause they got no recognition at Atari. The big A wanted to keep them anonymous and all games released as by Atari and not made by specific individuals. Pretty awful practice, but if you look at what's happening today, it's not much better. ;)
Those videos are always the highlight of the week!
Thank you very much! :) Comments like that are a highlight of mine. :)
Bruce Lee, Dropzone, Football Manager, Impossible Mission. Good times ☺
You know, I never really completed either Bruce Lee or Impossible Mission on C64.
We are in 1984 - not the great C64 year, but the George Orwell one! NATO Commander... The first of the Microprose strategy games... And so many great ones after! I was SO poor because of Microprose!
LOL :)
Wow, I'm also surprised how many great games were from 1984. I'm in the Spy vs Spy fans camp. It's so fun to play with somebody. Against CPU not so much. Football Manager is the game of my youth and a reason why I follow a team with number 6. I love decathlon type of games even though I'm not good at them. Track & Field is my fav one, I don't know why. Maziacs is a game I've learned about only few years ago. I was so impressed with it that I uploaded a video on youtube with me playing it (I don't have any videos on yt anymore). New York City is another game that I like but never really knew how to play it well as I'm not into arcade games really.
Yeah, I'm not so great at those sports games either. But good thing is most people aren't, and that's why they're so fun in a group. :)
Jesus never did anything for me, but you did. I feel undeserving of such good content. Thank you good sire
Jesus? You mean the middle aged balding convenience store clerk down my street? ;)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames baldness is a sign of maturity and wisdom. lol
@@MarquisDeSang And also coincidentally the balder one gets, the better they drive. I've seen Fast and Furious movies, and they don't lie! ;)
It was 1985 when at my friend's house he showed me the latest glorious arrival for his C64: a great video game about egyptian tombs, treasures, mummies, and even a whip (that made me think of the movie Indiana Jones). I did not have a computer at that time, and so when I went home I recreated (at best as I could) on pen, paper, and colored markers this "egyptian" video game but as a boardgame. Then only recently I was able to find out the name of this glorious game: Entombed.
ruclips.net/video/BbXkUDQMHOE/видео.html
Yeah, for the time it looked truly lush. And the fact it played great was just a cherry on top.
Sometimes it's the experiences and not the game itself, isn't it? Although, in this case, it can be both as Entombed was great.
You seem to know a lot about old games. I remember playing a little bit of a game on the ZX Spectrum (It may have been 128k) it was a post apocalyptic postman game that is all I mainly remember and the year was roughly the late 80's but no later than 1991 I'd say. I'm just wondering if by chance you know of it? I am pretty sure it was a demo game from a computer magazine and I am not sure if a full game ever got released. I have searched many lists but cannot find it and it drives me half mental.
Do you remember anything else? Like what was the viewpoint? Was it a side-view, top-down or maybe a text-based game? A genre perhaps? I'm sure we can try to figure it out with more details...
"Mailstrom" comes to mind but not sure if that's post apo...
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yes it is Mailstrom. I am possibly wrong about the post apocalyptic thing but I remember a postman game with shooting. You nailed it in one. Thank you :)
@@mantovannni Glad that I could help. ZX Spectrum was never my strong suit as I didn't own one in the 80's but I played some games here and there, so I remember some games. :)
Another solid vid :)
Thanks a bunch! I was really surprised how many of my absolute faves on C64 were actually that old... xD
I played Boulder Dash back in the days so many many times that my Friend and i started to compete about speed ... how fast one can clear a level without beeing smashed ^^ Good times, lots of fun
And there were so many of them. And if you read about them, they were released in such a stupid way it's just unthinkable today. For instance official second game used modernised version of the first's engine, but third, also official used the engine from first. With all its quirks and bugs. And there were a whole list of unofficial ones too. Often better than those that were made by original dev.
I love your C64 series. You got me hooked on Mr. Robot and his robot factory on the C64 mini. A fun game I might have missed without you.
Glad I could help! :) There's a lot of those games that are easy to miss within thousands of other titles. And that's partly why I've made the series, to make sure to highlight the best games for each year. :)
Yesterday, i played a Frogger clone 🐸,
ROAD TOAD, on my Commodore 64.
I even made a gameplay video of it 😺👍🕹️.
BRUCE LEE is one of the best 1984 games,
I have ever played on my Commodore 64.
I had it as a tape version in a compilation called KARATE ACE.
I had GHOSTBUSTERS as a budget priced Ricochet tape version.
I still have HENRY'S HOUSE as a tape version in a compilation called 10 COMPUTER HITS VOL. 2.
MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE is so legendary,
I still have it as a Databyte tape version 😺👍🕹️.
PITSTOP II deserves to be the best racing game, Epyx have ever released 😺👍🕹️.
TRACK & FIELD may be a legendary classic sports game, but HYPER SPORTS is definitely the best 😺👍🕹️.
Thank you 😸😺👍.
Yeah, most of my C64 games also came on "compilation" tapes. Don't know about yours but mine came straight from the pirates. ;)
Like all the same games, but I was lucky, I had a floppy drive, so enjoyed the games even more!
I still play the original Commodore 64 games on the tapes and disks 😺👍🕹️.
@@gamingtonight1526 Floppy drive cost as much as the C64 did here, so I stuck to tapes for the most part.
@@ArttuTheCat I do too, occasionally.
When I look at those games now... I sometimes ask myself... How the hell could I actually have played this 🙈
And yet, back then, you sat there with a joystick in your hand playing for hours on end... As all of us had. It sounds weird when I put it like that. Not changing it though. ;)
Beamrider is one of my first games together with Crossfire.
It's a surprisingly good shooter :)
a lot of those games were on colecovision too, or intellivision
Yeah, back in the day they did what they do now even more often. They ported all games to all systems that were theoretically capable of running them. Exclusives were not as common as they are now (on micro computers, not on consoles as these always had exes).
1982 to 1984 was the era of Atari/Apple ports, due to the multi-year head start of the Atari 400/800 and Apple ][, and the ease of porting their games to the C64. But in 1983, C64 software sales skyrocketed while Atari software sales nose-dived.
That's what made numerous game developers switch their focus to the C64, and to start taking advantage of C64 specific abilities. Epyx in particular went all-in.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the C64's superior chips aside, is that true that 8bit Atari micro computers (XL/XE specifically, so 400/800 I think) were capable of displaying many more colours from a bigger pallet then Commodore could? And yes, do we know why so often devs decided to pick a colour and just release games using various shades of it?
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Even the first Atari 400/800s had a better palette than the C64, but this rarely made much of a difference due to various other limitations of the Atari 8-bit graphics hardware. Specifically, the monochrome sprites and four color in a scanline limitations really prevented the palette from shining.
This problem would be exacerbated by the fact that developers deprioritized Atari 8-bit software after 1983. So, games would be designed with the C64's limited palette in mind, knowing it would be easy to port that part over to Atari 8-bit. And if they had to maul the sprites to fit in the limitations of the Atari hardware, then so be it.
I know what you mean about picking a color and just using various shades of it. It's a lazy choice, but it's a lot easier than trying to figure out a more interesting color scheme of only 4 colors. Even 8 colors might have resulted in far more creative use of colors.
The C64's various graphics modes had color attributes providing much more flexibility in using more colors in a scanline. They had there own frustrating limitations, but when C64 software sales are pulling in more revenue than everything else you're selling combined ... you put in the effort to deal with it.
@@IsaacKuo 4 colors per scanline, you say. I suppose there's been ways to overcome the issue. Maybe halfing the refresh rate and switching between one 4-color palette and another in alternating frames to create 8 color scanline? If mixed well and fast, they could theoretically give illusion of even more colors. I may be shooting blanks here but I read about something like that (not in anything related to Atari) as a solution for a color issues. Don't remember when and where though.
Well, game devs may make games cause they love gaming but in most cases it's for the money so now wonder, they went for C64.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yes, that's one possible technique, although I'm not sure if any Atari 400/800 games used it. Perhaps the big problem with it is that it doubles the RAM required, and the Atari 400 was already pretty constrained.
Oh, you could also get more colors in a scanline using sprites, but that of course comes with its own design limitations.
@@IsaacKuo Sure, but if you look at the scene demos on any system really, not only Atari and C64, those artists and coders often found innovative and incredible solutions to use the machines in a way that was theoretically impossible by design. Like 256 simultaneous colours on Amiga 500 in games with moving sprites. Supposedly impossible, as at most HAM mode allowed for 64 and in most cases because of many limitations it was 32 only. But some have done it. True that it was only in point'n'click adventure games (afaik) without any fast moving objects, very basic scrolling and limited sprite scalling, but it _was_ possible even though it shouldn't be. I'm sure same, maybe not to the same degree obviously, could be done on smaller 8bit machines.
Falcon Patrol and Blue Max, Zaxxon and Spy Vs. Spy I think were the first games I played on the C64. And Summergames and so on. I started playing on the C64 from a comrade from school I think in 1984. And it was so great. Before I had played on the Atari 2600 with another friend from school. And the C64 was quite a step up and so fascinating to me back then. In 1984 there also came more and more games with really "great" graphics and music/sound for its time for this machine. Ghostbusters was technically brilliant but to me a little boring after a while. Mission Impossible was legendary with the dying sound of the character you played and a very good game but it never got me so much. Bruce Lee of course is an absolute classic to. I sadly never played Pitstop 2 and Raid on Bungeling Bay. And also sadly not Seven Cities Of Gold or Hearts of Africa or how it was called. I was too young to understand them and only had my own C64 in 1987 or 1988 I think and before that since 1986 or so a C16. When I see your games selections I missed some interesting eartly Titles from 1983 and 1984 because I didn't play them.
Well, you can try them out now... Unless time is the issue. Then I kinda understand that. There's a lot of games I would like to try (old and new) or come back to, but one thing I seem to never have enough is time. Also, many of the games I talk about in particular years I played later on too, most actually as I was born in 1981, so in 1984 I wasn't playing anything yet. ;)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames I know. The first Emulators I played games on with a PC were C64 Emulators. And that was in 1999 onwards. When it comes to tryings out very old games I like to play Amiga games, DOS games from the early to mid 90's or old Arcade games with emulation still nowadays when I have the time to. Some games (like the first XCOM or UFO game from 1994 I think) or Colonization from the same period, Warlords (part 1) and TV Sports Basketball I even played in the last years for days or weeks. But I think it wouldn't "kick" me anymore to play the old C64 games, so I think it's better to watch them here and there... . Maybe I would give some of them a try in the future.
@@DerDude1977 I kinda get that. You feel (I presume) that there may not be enough substance there with C64 titles to keep you interested today and that your melancholic memory of some of them would be crushed and the ones you haven't played yet, wouldn't live to your expectations. And I get that cause I often feel the same.
Fortunately some titles are timeless, like River Raid, regardless if I play it alone or with someone, it's always good. Same with Sid Meier's Pirates, whichever system it runs on, it's great. But on the other hand we have games like Dune 2, which I liked in the 90's and today, it's just not something that I enjoy. So yeah...
X-Com/UFO was/is amazing and I loved it every time I completed it, and it was numerous times, I must add. Colonization is great every few years, especially its music is something that never got old. I preferred Warlords 2 to 1 but I don't think I'd like it as much today as I did then...
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yeah, sometimes I like to let it be just good memories when it comes to many games on the 64, but there are also games for the system I still would play again for sure. When it comes to Pirates! you are absolutely right in my opinion. I also play it here and there until today and back then I played it very often together with a friend on the C64, but I later prefered the Amiga version until today. In my opinion that was the best one and it's timeless and still very much fun. I even like it much more than the "remakes" of this game that startet with Pirates Gold!. All MicroProse games in the 80s for the C64 were pure quality and one of my alltime favourites on the 64 was Airborne Ranger, for example. Maybe I will try it again. I haven't played it for maybe 34 to 35 years. Sadly the Amiga version of Airborne Ranger was very dissapointing.
@@DerDude1977 I'm sorta mixed on the Pirates! front cause while I firmly believe that Pirates! on Amiga is amazing, it's only second greatest for me. First being Pirates Gold! on PC. Amiga's Gold! is much worse.
And I'm keen on what you think about Airborne Ranger after so many years. Cause I did play it after a while, maybe not as much as 35 years and I... Well... Let me know how it was when you do re-play it. :)
Epilepsy warning for "Beamrider"
I should really add it there, shouldn't I?
And Dropzone :P
@@OldAndNewVideoGames I managed to look away in time, no harm done, but the next epileptic might have worse luck ;/
And Raid on Bungeling Bay (I'm still watching, just have to pause for breaks :P )
@@EvilStreaks I'm sorry. It didn't even cross my mind. I've placed a warning in the first line of video description and in the future ones I will place a warning in the video if there will be any bright or flashing lights.
What. Ultima 1 very much did come out on C64!
Yes, you're right but in 1986. :)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames lol i just hit it in the '86 video. it has been a great way to spend a sick night. I wish the systems, even groken, weren't so expensive here in Australia! I grew up on a c128 in c64 mode (c128 mode was honestly bad)
@@mistwolf Well, I hope you get better soon! :) I hope it's not the c...-19!
I suppose they may be more expensive than anywhere over there as Australia's so remote but if that's any consolation, they are actually quite expensive everywhere. And while couple of years before pandemic they could be purchased for a pretty reasonable (if not low) price, today they're luxury items. Amiga is even worse offender in pricing than C64.
This is a really well-done series and I'm really intrigued to discover the gaming history of the C64. There seems to also be something special about most of the games in this episode.
Thank you very much! :) I'm really glad that you like those. My C64 series has recently been on a hiatus (I have to get back to it at some point), but it's because they were not very popular. And while I enjoyed making them, I got to talk to more interesting folks while working on others. :)
@@OldAndNewVideoGames It's really nice though. You also give some technological historical background, which is always welcome. If you want to get back to this series, you could sprinkle a C64 video among several others if they're not that popular. I'm surprised though that they aren't.
@@TeaAndFloppyDisks C64 was popular in the same time NES was, and while it was the single best selling single model computer for years, it was not NES. Which offered no-nonsense super easy gaming. And with C64 you either had to adjust your tapedeck's header with a little screwdriver, or get a very expensive disk drive. Also, a cartridge with a fast loader and additional functions, it was a lot of work. Mind you, work I enjoyed, but most probably wouldn't. xD
@@OldAndNewVideoGames But the NES was just for games, while C64 was a computer. You could compute things on it. And even write your own games. Also, the console people didn't have it too easy either, with all the blowing into cartridges they had to do until they were blue in the face...
@@TeaAndFloppyDisks True, true... I remember watching a video about a car repair shop somewhere still using C64 for all of its computing. C64 *and* dot matrix printer, no less! ;)
I started watching these videos of yours to find a few hidden gems that I may have missed, and pick up on some interesting lore. Instead I'm finding out something new to almost every game you've covered. There are so many of these titles I've skimmed over, tried maybe once, and never looked back. I now have a list of old games to re-try instead of new gems. Thanks again for being so thorough, and making 8-bit games fun to watch. My 128 thanks you as well!
First of all, 128, amazing system, always wanted one of these. :)
Secondly, but more importantly in fact, thank you for your kind words!
That was the idea, to show games, say a word or two about them, and not only stick to the seemingly default youtube's formula of presenting a set number of games in a hard-capped number of minutes, for just a few seconds each with no commentary. It's way too short to not only see what the game is about but to even learn if it's worth your time. So, that's why I made the series.
Also, not sure if it's the case with you, but I learned that it was far more fan rediscovering the oldies with a friend. It's easier to give a game a bit more time, if there's at least two of you, each giving it a shot or two. Then you get to not only try it a couple of times but to witness someone else do that too. Which may be eye opening as we are often predetermined to act (play) in a particular way, and someone else may have a different gaming defaults and may play the game in a (more) correct way.
@@OldAndNewVideoGames Absolutely, and it goes both ways as well. I usually need someone to tell me to move on when I get in the zone playing some random card game or Tetris clone. I know my gaming homie and I always start out with a arm-long list, and usually find something halfway though that gets played all night... or BOFH. Surely with emulation getting better and better, network play will maybe make it even easier to share the experience one day.
I got a c128 back in 89 for birthday/Christmas so I'm quite partial to them. I don't still have that one, but I can't complain about what I've got. Especially with prices like they are now...
@@theuglycamel8122 Oh, I get that. I want a C64 with a tapedeck and disk drive and Amiga600 with a decent turbo card. But given the prices now, I'm not getting either any time soon.