c64 Game Night

[Vigo]

The space game I am looking for had much better graphics than cosmic tunnels. 
I think I didn't express myself very well concerning the end of level 2: You actually land on the planet and then play as the pilot, exploring the station on the planet.
There've been those doors openening with this "swosh" sound... 

Parallax? Only other game I can think of where you get out of your ship. That was an awesome game with an amazing soundtrack.

[eds1275]

eds1275, how can it be Bubble Booble is not on that list!?

Because Bubble Bobble plays way better in Mame. Believe me, I gave it a whirl the other day.

[DaveMMR]

How many of your remember making a 5 1/4 inch floppy double-sided by using a hole punch? 

Even though I knew it would screw up your drive's heads in the long run (or rumor had it that it would) I still did it to save money.  (P.S. - My 1541 drive never died).

DeLuSioNaL29

I have disks right now with notches made by large scissors and with extra towards the bottom made by one of those two-hole punches (they sound funny when spinning.) And even to this day, they all still work (along with the 1541.)

[Benzinbruder]

Parallax? Only other game I can think of where you get out of your ship. That was an awesome game with an amazing soundtrack.

Nope, not it. 

The second level has definitely been a vertical shooter, the third level on the base / station was seen from the side. You could move to the left as well as to the right, as far as I remember.
And did I tell you about the swoosh sounds when opening doors alread? 

Because Bubble Bobble plays way better in Mame. Believe me, I gave it a whirl the other day.

Oh, ok. Gotta remember that...

[JeffB13]

Archon and Beach Head.  Oh and there was a 1 on 1 basketball game with Dr J and Larry Bird.  I remember you could break the backboard on that one.

[RandyT]

How many of your remember making a 5 1/4 inch floppy double-sided by using a hole punch? 

Even though I knew it would screw up your drive's heads in the long run (or rumor had it that it would) I still did it to save money.  (P.S. - My 1541 drive never died).

Meh.  That was just a rumor started by the disk manufacturers to keep you from doing it.  The 1541 would go out of alignment mainly from the copy protection used by commercial games, which would bash the head into the stop for some reason.  Any self respecting c-64 nut could do an alignment on their 1541 themselves, thanks to the good utilities which were available to assist.  They claimed a special disk was necessary, but it really wasn't.  Any good quality, commercially produced disk without copy protection worked fine.

I used to go to the computer shows of that era, and the bulk disk sellers always sold the good punches.  Slipped over the corner of the disk and made perfect square notches in exactly the right spot for less than $10.  I probably still have it around here somewhere   

[ark_ader]

How many of your remember making a 5 1/4 inch floppy double-sided by using a hole punch? 

Even though I knew it would screw up your drive's heads in the long run (or rumor had it that it would) I still did it to save money.  (P.S. - My 1541 drive never died).

Meh.  That was just a rumor started by the disk manufacturers to keep you from doing it.  The 1541 would go out of alignment mainly from the copy protection used by commercial games, which would bash the head into the stop for some reason.  Any self respecting c-64 nut could do an alignment on their 1541 themselves, thanks to the good utilities which were available to assist.  They claimed a special disk was necessary, but it really wasn't.  Any good quality, commercially produced disk without copy protection worked fine.

I used to go to the computer shows of that era, and the bulk disk sellers always sold the good punches.  Slipped over the corner of the disk and made perfect square notches in exactly the right spot for less than $10.  I probably still have it around here somewhere   

Nope nice try.  The reason for advising against notching the discs was to do with manufacturers that incorporated a dust protector sleeve in the disc jacket, where if reversed could damage the disc and the read head of the disc drive.  Obviously not many disc manufacturers incorporated the sleeve design, to keep costs down.   

[RandyT]

Nope nice try.  The reason for advising against notching the discs was to do with manufacturers that incorporated a dust protector sleeve in the disc jacket, where if reversed could damage the disc and the read head of the disc drive.  Obviously not many disc manufacturers incorporated the sleeve design, to keep costs down.

Never had an issue with a head being damaged.  Thousands of disks (am I giving myself away here?) and many hundreds of hours on the drives, many different brands of floppies, all notched.  Those drives were built like tanks.  Then again, they were always in sleeves, and not left to collect stuff which might contaminate the insides.  But as the saying goes, YMMV.

Since we are deep in C-64 territory....Against my better judgement, if anyone wants to have a laugh at some really early stuff by me, check out the attachment.  Remember, I never said I was a musician    But I wasn't too bad with C-64 assembler.  Interesting note about the graphic I made for "digidrumdelivery":  This crappy little demo was released into the wild a few months before an OMNI magazine cover appeared with a strikingly similar concept.  Coincidence?

[ark_ader]

Nope nice try.  The reason for advising against notching the discs was to do with manufacturers that incorporated a dust protector sleeve in the disc jacket, where if reversed could damage the disc and the read head of the disc drive.  Obviously not many disc manufacturers incorporated the sleeve design, to keep costs down.

Never had an issue with a head being damaged.  Thousands of disks (am I giving myself away here?) and many hundreds of hours on the drives, many different brands of floppies, all notched.  Those drives were built like tanks.  Then again, they were always in sleeves, and not left to collect stuff which might contaminate the insides.  But as the saying goes, YMMV.

Since we are deep in C-64 territory....Against my better judgement, if anyone wants to have a laugh at some really early stuff by me, check out the attachment.  Remember, I never said I was a musician    But I wasn't too bad with C-64 assembler.  Interesting note about the graphic I made for "digidrumdelivery":  This crappy little demo was released into the wild a few months before an OMNI magazine cover appeared with a strikingly similar concept.  Coincidence?

Sorry I made a mistake there.  The dust protector sleeve was inside the plastic jacket of the floppy to clean off dust that could touch the head.  Not the sleeve that you stored the floppies in. My bad. 


I dug out this little fella and now I can play Paradroid without messing around with Vice.  Its like a Jakks, and has loads of games on it.  I would love to know how to get more games in it. 

[Fastrucken]

One of my all time favorites is Racing Destruction Set. It suck all of my free time. You could build your own track or modify your car and even change the gravity

[RandyT]

I dug out this little fella and now I can play Paradroid without messing around with Vice.  Its like a Jakks, and has loads of games on it.  I would love to know how to get more games in it. 

There's a full c-64 implemented in ASIC in that joystick.  You might find this site interesting.

[DaveMMR]

I used to go to the computer shows of that era, and the bulk disk sellers always sold the good punches.  Slipped over the corner of the disk and made perfect square notches in exactly the right spot for less than $10.  I probably still have it around here somewhere   

Still have mine. I forgot where I bought it. 
I think by the time I bought this I had little use for it, having moved onto the NES and Genesis. But I keep it around as it may come in handy. I've been screwing around with a PDF of one of those old type-in program books with some interesting stuff on it.

[eds1275]

The space game I am looking for had much better graphics than cosmic tunnels. 
I think I didn't express myself very well concerning the end of level 2: You actually land on the planet and then play as the pilot, exploring the station on the planet.
There've been those doors openening with this "swosh" sound... 

This really sounds like a loose description of Raid over Moscow.

[eds1275]

Here's another "What is this game called?" question. I believe the game took place on one screen, or the map was fairly small. Top down game, and you were an ambulance or firetruck or some other support vehicle. You'd drive around and save people from buildings.

[Benzinbruder]

The space game I am looking for had much better graphics than cosmic tunnels. 
I think I didn't express myself very well concerning the end of level 2: You actually land on the planet and then play as the pilot, exploring the station on the planet.
There've been those doors openening with this "swosh" sound... 

This really sounds like a loose description of Raid over Moscow.

Yep, that's what the internet came up with for me as well. But it's not it. My game is IN SPACE! :-)

Don't think I have played the rescue mission game you mentioned. I'll think about it a little longer though. 

[vidmouse]

Wow, great to see this much love for the C64!

I can't recall the space game or rescue game offhand.
I did make an adventure like the space game once
with the "Adventure Construction Set" but of course
it was never a released thing.

My top picks for a C64 game night (some already mentioned):
Adventure Construction Set (I spent hours/days on this, making my own stuff... probably
      seven or eight full-blown 9+ region adventures w/ this)
Mail Order Monsters
Epyx Movie Monster game
Skyfox
Racing Destruction Set
Intrigue!
Bruce Lee
Beachhead II
Epyx World Karate Championship
M.U.L.E.
Archon
Seven Cities of Gold
Bards Tale I, II, III (more for the nostalgia than for the fun)
Batty
Street Surfer
Defender of the Crown
Sidpic (not exactly a game, but fun to play around with)
Pirates!
Gunship
Druid
Gateway to Apshai
H.E.R.O.
Hardball
Farmer's Daughter
Leaderboard
Impossible Mission
California Games
World Games
Law of the West
Karateka
Knight Games
Little Computer People
Mission Elevator
Uridium
Parallax
Pitstop II
Frank Bruno's Boxing
Rad Warrior
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Ghostbusters
Times of Lore
Stellar 7
Skate or Die
Spy Hunter

[chopps]

Wow does this bring back some memories.  Just played some Miner 2049er and Jumpman jr. Best part is, my 6 year old son loved them! 

[kiwasabi]

Unfortunately I never had a Commodore 64, nor have I even played one, but I've tried out quite a few games on VICE (plus I have that Joystick with games built-in).

I found Aztec Challenge really addicting, the music was perfect. Forbidden Forest is another classic. Ultimate Wizard was a really cool early platformer. Realm of Impossibility absolutely needs to be remade, it still plays well today except for the awkwardness of moving within the isometric graphics. The only game I can add to the list would be Gandalf the Sorceror, which is an interesting game where you're a wizard protecting a castle. I found it in a review from an old magazine, Electronic Games maybe.

Going through all the C64 games made me wonder how many DOS games I surely missed out on. My attempts at emulating DOS games via DOS Box hasn't ever turned out well since it seems they all want to run based on the clockspeed of your actual CPU instead of the emulated CPU, so way too fast. I know you can alter the speed at which they run but that's a really imprecise way to go about it. Is there something I missed here? Maybe just PM me so as to not hijack the thread! 

[eds1275]

Hijack away, because tonight is the night of the c64 gaming marathon!

[DeLuSioNal29]

Archon, definitely one of my favorites.

Question:  What emulator are you guys using for this that's arcade friendly?  (Which one is the best all around that you prefer?)

A quick story to share:  Back in the day I remember having the money to buy an Atari 2600 system and a buddy in school told me that I'd be better off buying a C-64 since it had better graphics and tons of games.  I headed to his house and he showed me the graphics on that thing and I was sold!  (Plus the appeal of buying floppies and getting "free" games by trading    ).  I also liked the fact that it was a computer and that I could mess around with programming as well.

DeLuSioNaL29

[eds1275]

I don't plan on setting it up on my arcade, but I read somewhere that people are getting by after setting it to load a quick-save of each game (loaded to the title screen.) VICE lets you have up to 4 "discs" in the drive, and I am not sure but it's possible that those get saved in the quick saved files.

[Kier]

A couple years back had all my sibs up and over, and we played Summer Games, the go-to game back in the day. I will say that for us was 1 game we missed the loading times. Without the load times, it went too fast. Not enough time to trash talk, lol.

[ark_ader]

I fired up coinops 5 last night and was pleasently surprised BP included some of my favourite c64 games.  You might want to check it out as it saves time fiddling with Vice.

[eds1275]

Guess what I'm doing? Airborne ranger!

[wp34]

A couple years back had all my sibs up and over, and we played Summer Games, the go-to game back in the day. I will say that for us was 1 game we missed the loading times. Without the load times, it went too fast. Not enough time to trash talk, lol.

Summer Games was awesome.  Especially the diving. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

I recall having a fast load (Kwikload?) disk too.  Which you needed to load first so that games would load quick.  It only worked on 80% of the games.

[RandyT]

Question:  What emulator are you guys using for this that's arcade friendly?  (Which one is the best all around that you prefer?)

I'm curious about this one as well.  I really hope there is something out there which uses a well emulated core, but dispenses with the extra steps required to load the software.

All this talk about the 64 has me feeling nostalgic for the real thing, and I found that there are a few solutions for using disk images from flash media with original hardware.  Looks like this one is the cream of the crop.  Not cheap, and there's a waiting list, but oddly I'm really itching to get one...

[DaveMMR]

All this talk about the 64 has me feeling nostalgic for the real thing, and I found that there are a few solutions for using disk images from flash media with original hardware.  Looks like this one is the cream of the crop.  Not cheap, and there's a waiting list, but oddly I'm really itching to get one...

It's annoying that the solutions I found for loading disk images onto the C64 have left me unsatisfied (either too expensive, the aforementioned lack-of-availability and/or too many drawbacks.) I think I may be turning my attention to hooking the actual 1541 up to the PC and copying images to actual floppy disks instead.  Something like this:
http://www.go4retro.com/products/zoomfloppy/

Not the best solution by a mile if you're interested in having easy access to all the games (plus you have to hop on the internet to buy floppies) but I don't need to play every single game on the actual hardware, just the faves.

[RandyT]

I've heard good things about the ZoomFloppy for accomplishing that, but I think the real speed increases require the parallel cable. Probably not a factor if you are just transferring a couple dozen floppies.

The 1541 Ultimate II is supposedly a "true" 1541, fully implemented in hardware on a plug-in board, using images on flash media instead of floppies.  Apparently one of the more recent updates includes a nice transfer utility to very quickly turn an image back into real floppy when an external drive is attached.   The ability to emulate the popular "freezer" and fast load carts is also a great feature.  It's too bad the unit is so difficult to come by and costly, but I suppose that's to be expected with such a niche item.

[Felsir]

On the contrary, there's also been this game where a guy had to escape (?) a house full of traps, like rays that made your head explode...

I'm guessing it is Castles of Dr. Creep:
Which is a very nice two player cooperative game (speaking of cooperative: The C64 version of The Goonies!)

[Felsir]

I don't plan on setting it up on my arcade, but I read somewhere that people are getting by after setting it to load a quick-save of each game (loaded to the title screen.) VICE lets you have up to 4 "discs" in the drive, and I am not sure but it's possible that those get saved in the quick saved files.

I do this on my setup. I've made ini files for each game (since one game uses the port1 and the other game the port2 joystick etc. also mapping of "special" keys- for example some games use 'spacebar' or F1/F3 for single/twoplayer games). This combined with a snapshot saved right after the decrunch/intro garbage makes an good arcade setup.
I made a selection of games I wanted and configured each. For some games you can simply copy the ini files and reuse them.

[nipsmg]

I have to add a couple that I didn't see that would be on my list:

Hunchback
Lazy Jones
Henry's House
Pogo Joe
Space Taxi
Paperboy
Hot Wheels
Crystal Castles
The Goonies
Ghostbusters

[stigzler]

Scarabaeus.
Bonkers.



One of those fantastically abstract "wtf is going on" games.

[Benzinbruder]

I'm guessing it is Castles of Dr. Creep:
Which is a very nice two player cooperative game (speaking of cooperative: The C64 version of The Goonies!)

Hmm, could be. But I didn't find a screenshot with the deadly waves making your head explode... 
Also, I don't remember the game I was thinking of being a 2 player game. It may just be my diluted memories though...

[Benzinbruder]

You're a knight and have to collect pieces of a door on the screen. As soon as you have all the pieces, you can enter the door and andvance to the next level.

Found it: Cavelon

[eds1275]

OK, here's the long-awaited review of the c64 game night. If you'd like the short, short version, I can sum it up in one word: Success.

The long.

We fired up some Airborne Ranger to begin, and played half a dozen missions being victorious each time including the dreaded Destroy an Enemy Aircraft - the one where you must be quiet or else the aircraft will leave before you can get it. I plan on going back and running through each mission. SO MUCH FUN. Even though the controller only runs one button, having the keyboard there to select different weapons was a nice feature. There's like 15 buttons for that game. AR was my favourite game back in the day - when I got to play it. See, there was no internet... and the label on my copy was written in felt. That left choosing the medals a guessing game.

Test Drive was next, and it drove my brother insane that he couldn't reach the first gas station after several attempts, yet I made it to the third. He's a car nut and his passion is driving. But I'm the older one so that makes me a champ by default, right?

Maniac Mansion. I read online about an ending I hadn't seen before, where you launch the edsel into space and then grab the meteor, run upstairs, and feed it to the man-eating-plant. After about an hour it asked to switch discs, and I accidentally used the key-combo to reset the computer instead of opening the disc drive! FAILURE!!! We decided to come back another time.

California Games - not as good as the memories. I should have left it well alone.

Winter Games. Getting a little tipsy by this point, and my wife came home from her ladies night. We got her in on the action. It got so competitive. And then there was the free-style ice skating/dancing competition. I won by far with an insane 1.4/10. None of us could figure out the controls.

Western Games - another one we couldn't figure out 3/4 of the time

Paradroid. I cleared all the decks and lost on the final one. Another great game that would be amazing if it were re-made to todays standards... perhaps a top-down with a first person option for searching?

Impossible Mission II - we were both really tired by this point, at about 2am. I had worked a night shift the night before, and slept for 3 hours. Him, a 330-1130 am shift with no sleep. We packed it in. My wife went to bed calling us inbred hillbillies halfway through Western Games. I told her she was my long-lost sister.

We're gonna have another one! I will post some pics tomorrow. Here is the part that blows my mind - my brother and I were well-prepared in the liquor department, but neither of us touched more than 1/4 of what we had. Too busy playing and enjoying the games!

[Kier]

Dude, sounds great. Absolute blast. Yeah I remember that mission on Airborne. It was a ---smurfette---. Still laughing at you trying to figure the figure skating controls out, thats the best part of those games years later, how do you stick the landing, etc.

Awesome. So many memories.

OK, here's the long-awaited review of the c64 game night. If you'd like the short, short version, I can sum it up in one word: Success.

The long.

We fired up some Airborne Ranger to begin, and played half a dozen missions being victorious each time including the dreaded Destroy an Enemy Aircraft - the one where you must be quiet or else the aircraft will leave before you can get it. I plan on going back and running through each mission. SO MUCH FUN. Even though the controller only runs one button, having the keyboard there to select different weapons was a nice feature. There's like 15 buttons for that game. AR was my favourite game back in the day - when I got to play it. See, there was no internet... and the label on my copy was written in felt. That left choosing the medals a guessing game.

Test Drive was next, and it drove my brother insane that he couldn't reach the first gas station after several attempts, yet I made it to the third. He's a car nut and his passion is driving. But I'm the older one so that makes me a champ by default, right?

Maniac Mansion. I read online about an ending I hadn't seen before, where you launch the edsel into space and then grab the meteor, run upstairs, and feed it to the man-eating-plant. After about an hour it asked to switch discs, and I accidentally used the key-combo to reset the computer instead of opening the disc drive! FAILURE!!! We decided to come back another time.

California Games - not as good as the memories. I should have left it well alone.

Winter Games. Getting a little tipsy by this point, and my wife came home from her ladies night. We got her in on the action. It got so competitive. And then there was the free-style ice skating/dancing competition. I won by far with an insane 1.4/10. None of us could figure out the controls.

Western Games - another one we couldn't figure out 3/4 of the time

Paradroid. I cleared all the decks and lost on the final one. Another great game that would be amazing if it were re-made to todays standards... perhaps a top-down with a first person option for searching?

Impossible Mission II - we were both really tired by this point, at about 2am. I had worked a night shift the night before, and slept for 3 hours. Him, a 330-1130 am shift with no sleep. We packed it in. My wife went to bed calling us inbred hillbillies halfway through Western Games. I told her she was my long-lost sister.

We're gonna have another one! I will post some pics tomorrow. Here is the part that blows my mind - my brother and I were well-prepared in the liquor department, but neither of us touched more than 1/4 of what we had. Too busy playing and enjoying the games!

[Benzinbruder]

Absolutely awesome! 

Where are the pictures!?

[RoyalScam]

Sorry for the hijack, this pertains to RandyT and DaveMMR's sidebar.

I still use real hardware as well as emulators for my Commodore fix.  I've got too many 64's an SX-64 a 128D a couple of Vic20's and Plus4's.  I'm currently transferring files between PC and 1541/71 via XU1541, which is a USB transfer cable I believe to be running the same firmware as Zoomfloppy. Yes it's slow by PC Standards, but it's not that bad, anyway, those that have the ZoomFloppy are thrilled with it.  Also the http://store.go4retro.com/uiec-sd/ uIEC get raves.  It's not true 1541 emulation, but can handle most cracks and one filers.  I'm very impressed with the 1541Ultimate, you get true drive emulation,  32Meg SD, ram expansion  to 16 meg and usb file trasfer.  It's a deal at 150.00, just not for me as I use the expansion port for other things and I don't want to tie it up.  My ideal item would be a true emulation SD card solution using the IEC bus. I know it's slow, but it'd work better for me.  I should also note that I also have 1581 drives.  Omniflop running on an XP box writes directly to a 3.5 floppy that can be read by the 1581.

Regards,
Scam

[Vigo]

Good choices for a game night. 

Maniac Mansion. I read online about an ending I hadn't seen before, where you launch the edsel into space and then grab the meteor, run upstairs, and feed it to the man-eating-plant. After about an hour it asked to switch discs, and I accidentally used the key-combo to reset the computer instead of opening the disc drive! FAILURE!!! We decided to come back another time.

Too bad it didn't work out. I never heard of that ending. The ending that I know of that I didn't do was give the contract to the meteor then call the meteor police. I might have to start up another game to test both of those endings. Although, I play the deluxe PC version these days, Looks good and has no loading time.