Sunday, February 15, 2009

Great Games of the Commodore 64 Era


I am lucky in that my dad was a techy sort of guy, and so was everybody he worked with, too. Back in the day, this translated into tangible benefits for myself, as our family had a Commodore 64, and so did all of my relatives. Software was easy to copy, and that meant lots of games for me. So here are my favorites:
1. Hardball - I can still remember some of the line-ups. I was the blue team, my friends were the Red team. Contos and Barnes were my big 3rd and 4th hitters. DeSoto was the speedy lead-off hitter. I spent many hours with my friends battling away on this baseball classic.
2. 4th and Inches - This was a classic and one of the predecessors of the Madden Franchise. The really only game of note between 4th and Inches and Madden was Tecmo Bowl, which came out a few years afterwards.
3. Summer Games - This was the Summer Olympics at its best. There were running games, diving, swimming, pole vaulting, gymnastics, skeet shooting. Of course, it was a bit dumb, in that you had to press buttons as fast as you could, and that would determine how well you would do. Pretty basic stuff, but nothing beat getting a gold, and a world record to boot!
4. Where in the World is Carmen Diego? - This game was a genuine geography caper! I learned lots of good info from this one.
5. Pitfall- This wasn't always my type of game, but I got into it for a while, and got pretty good.
6. One on One - Dr. J vs. Larry Bird
7. Pole Position - a classic formula one racing game
8. Test Drive - This is how I learned about high-end luxury vehicles. It also is the best driving-around-a-mountain driving simulator ever devised. Here you were expected to drive your Lamborghini, Porsche, or Lotus as fast as you could, while weaving in between traffic, and simultaneously being mindful of the giant brown wall to your right, and the never-ending cliff drop-off on your left. This game was mind-blowing in its graphics - at least that's what I thought as a kid. Now, it looks ridiculous.
9. Dig Dug
10. Law of the West - You the Sheriff of this stinkin' town? This game was great - nothing like watiting for the game to load, knowing all the while that lurking behind the stagecoach were the Daltons, guns a-blazin'.

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