Arkanoid's introduction music is undoubtfully the C64 music that impressed me the most when I first heard it. It was so rich that it gave me the impression to go beyond the Commodore 64 capabilities. As a reminder, this computer could only produce 3 notes at any given time. But here was a music where you could hear 4, 5 or even 6 sounds at the same time. Impossible! Actually, the composer intelligently created alternated sounds (and samples) and mixed them in such a way that it sounded incredibly rich. And he also used the 4th voice of the C64, a white noise generator that produced a noise similar to that of a primitive drumbox. As a result, you get a wild rythm music, very innovative at the time in the video game field.
As for the game itself, it was a port from a Taito arcade game, a brick game like the good old Breakout, which was one of the very first arcade games ever (along with Pong!). The genre is renewed, though. Arkanoid is colorful, fast-paced, with catchy tunes and very nice soud effects. More importantly, it brings new elements: bonuses. Some bricks will release colored capsules that upgrade your racket when you catch them. Multiple balls, sticky racket, laser fire, extra life, skip to the next level, slow racket, large racket, slow ball... Let's not forget the the ennemies that fly through the levels and interfere with the ball trajectory. The game is difficult, intense, stressful, a real arcade game. Simple yet effective. And this kind of game ages very well, as it does not require great graphics to be fun.
Musics and sound effects are very good, nicely crafted. Martin Galway is the composer. He is one of the best composers for Commodore 64 games.
Game published in 1987 by Imagine, adapted from Taito's arcade game.
Barbarian was one of the first combat games and probably one of the best. Two barbarian warriors fight with a sword. The ultimate attack is the beheading of the opponent. That had never been seen before. The game was really good, although quite repetitive for one player. The two player version was perfect between friends!
The music was a jewel, reminding me of the great music from the movie Conan the Barbarian (this music was inspired from the classical Carmina Burana by Carl Orff), a military music. Some composers have made covers from the Barbarian music, using classical instruments that are simply perfect for that purpose.
Richard Joseph is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1987 by Palace Software.
Bruce Lee was a very good platform game, certainly one of the best known and appreciated on Commodore 64. Yet graphically, it isn't striking, the sound effects are very limited and far from impressive, there were only two enemies, but in spite of these technical limitations, the gameplay made Bruce Lee very addictive. This game dates back from 1984, at a time when the C64 was not fully mastered yet. The best games, the most beautiful and technically impressive games were released in the following years.
Bruce Lee is not particularly difficult either, but some parts required good timing and some skills. The learning curve is progressive, the level design is very good, so the game was very attractive. Of course, the very name of Bruce Lee certainly helped to make it famous.
Like all the games presented here, Bruce Lee's introduction music is excellent. Short and simple, it is the kind of music that you cannot forget, Cauldron's. You can hear below a very good cover by Hazel, a very nice piece of work, that also plays during the Bruce Lee video below.
John A. Fitzpatrick is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1984 by Datasoft.
Cauldron was an extremely difficult game with great graphics. At least, the graphics were great in some areas of the game, and not so good in some others. The forest background at the beginning of the game was awesome, though.
In Cauldron, the player controls a witch who flies on her broomstick. The aim is to find ingredients for a magic potion. I have never succeeded in completing the game. Despite its difficulty, it's still a good game for patient and persevering players.
The game music is a very simple, yet attractive music. It has that little something that makes you remember it (like the Bruce Lee game music). Here you can find a very good cover made by some guy named DJ Mitch.
Richard Joseph is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1985 by Palace Software.
Cauldron 2 was of course the sequel to Cauldron. In the first game, the player controlled a witch. In the second coming, the player takes control of a bouncing pumpkin. Technically, the game is good, although the background is entirely black. The pumpkin animation is very good, there are many different kinds of enemies. All of this is quite convincing.
What is not convincing is the difficulty of the game. The first Cauldron was already particularly difficult, but Cauldron 2? The controls are soooo hard to master! The pumpkin can bounce at various heights, but it bounces all the time. It's painful to position it where it should be in order to reach a specific spot, a platform, or an item, while avoiding enemies!
The principle of the game is fun, but the playability is too hard to keep the fun. Still, I saw some videos on the Internet where players could complete the whole game in about 25 minutes without losing a single life! Yet, I never could achieve that myself. I guess I'm just bad! The player is supposed to collect 7 items and I think I could never get more than 3... only because the random starting point placed me at a convenient spot! Anyway, the game is fun if you take your time, it's not so common and it's worth the try. But be warned, it can quickly become frustrating... and stressful!
Richard Joseph is the composer of the game's original music. The introduction music, more complex than the one in the first Cauldron, is pretty good as well.
Game published in 1986 by Palace Software.
Comic Bakery is a game I did not play at the time. I found out about it when I heard the music cover made by Instant Remedy, a band that made several excellent C64 game covers. I then tried the game with an emulator on PC circa 2004, 18 years after the game was first released! Unfortunately, the game is really uninteresting. Plus, it isn't linked to any memory so it doesn't ring a pleasant bell. Nevertheless, the introduction music is fabulous. The game itself offers another music, not as good but very decent anyway.
Martin Galway is the composer of the game's original musics.
Game published in 1988 by Imagine and Konami.
Commando was ported from a Capcom arcade game. The player controls a soldier who kills everyone in his path. I don't know whether there is a scenario to back that up, but it really doesn't matter. It's just a shooting game, difficult enough so it doesn't allow the player to finish the game the first time, but rather easy after a while.
Rob Hubbard's music is a piece of art, one of the best musics ever composed on Commodore 64, by one of the most talented musicians who worked on this computer.
Rob Hubbard is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1985 by Elite.
Ghosts'n Goblins is a platform game, ported from a Capcom arcade game created in 1985 (Makaimura is the original Japanese name). The player controls Arthur, whose mission is to free a princess captured by a demon. This highly original scenario is the base for one of the best and most difficult action games of the 80's.
I spent a lot of time and money with the arcade game, so when it was ported to the Commodore 64, I was delighted. I was about to play that game at home! And good news, the port was great. Well, of course, the graphics were not as beautiful as those of the arcade version, but they were good nevertheless, the animation was smooth, all the monsters and creatures from the arcade game were present and very recognizable. Technically, it was flawless.
But... first disappointment: the music. The great arcade music had not been adapted. Too bad, I loved it. Fortunately, the C64 music was great. Composed by Mark Cooksey, it starts quietly with slightly frightening intonations, then suddenly becomes much more swinging. It's a delight and perfectly matches the modd of the game.
Second disappointment, and contrary to the first one, this is hard to forgive, the game is incomplete. The final levels are missing from the arcade game. The very last levels, in the dungeon where you fight skeletons and demons with a vertical scrolling have not been made at all! So, yes, it's only a small part of the game, but still... it's very frustrating.
In spite of that flaw, the Commodore 64 version of Ghosts'n Goblins is an excellent game, difficult enough to keep the player on the alert.
Mark Cooksey is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1987 by Elite.
Lightforce is a shoot'em up type of game where you control a spaceship and have to eliminate all enemies. The action takes place in space, with a sky full of stars and planets scrolling in the background. Gaphics were pretty limited, but my imagination made up for the lack of realism. The game was OK, though not highly addictive. But he music was mind-blowing and urged me to play this game rather often.
Rob Hubbard is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1987 by Faster Than Light.
Spy vs Spy is an action game that you can play alone, but designed to become much more entertaining if played against a human opponent. It is one of the first games to offer a split-screen action. Two players can thus play simultaneously, each being able to see what the opponent does in the other half of the screen.
Each player controls a spy, Agent White being in the upper screen, Agent Black in the bottom screen. They have infiltrated an embassy, looking for secret documents in a limited time. The documents are concealed in the furniture of the various rooms of the embassy. You have to find four items before you can leave the place and win the game. The four items are: a passport, money, a key and secrets maps.
The game is very simple to play, but offers a large variety of possible actions.
First of all, the agents cannot carry more than one item at a time, unless they possess the fifth item, a brown briefcase that allows them to carry all other items at once.
When both spies enter the same room, they automatically lose the items they were carrying. The items are randomly dropped in one of the furniture in the room. The spies can either leave the room (leaving their items behind) or choose to fight each other with a knife. The combat control are simplistic, but it isn't the main point of the game. The loser of a fight will turn into an angel flying towards the skies, then he gets eliminated for a few seconds. he also gets a time penalty, depending on how many damages he received. He then has less time available to find the documents and escape the embassy. The winner benefits from a few seconds of peace to find the items his opponents may have possessed before dying. This kind of confrontation is the least graceful and fun way of getting rid of the enemy.
The game offers several efficient traps:
- The bomb: you can place it in any piece of furniture. When your opponent searches the furniture to find an item, the bomb will kill him and send him back to the starting room, taking a few seconds off his clock.
- The spring: place it in a piece of furniture and it will violently push back the searching spy against a wall, thus killing him. And bam... back to the starting room with time taken from the clock!
- The bucket of water: you can place it on top of doors to electrocute the spy that will unknowingly open the trapped door.
- The gun with a string: it must also be placed on closed doors, and will shoot dead anyone who opens the door.
- The time bomb: you start it in a room and it will explode after a feww seconds. So you must first locate your opponent, estimate his route and hope he will reached the trapped room at the time of the explosion. It's a question of luck, especially since you can see what your opponent is doing by watching his screen. One vicious tip: even though this is highly unfair, you can set the time bomb in the starting room, right after your opponent died. If you do it on time, the bomb will explode when your opponent comes back to life and kill him again. You can then do that until his clock reaches zero and you can then quietly complete your collecting mission, now alone in the embassy. But frankly, this takes off a lot of the fun, and no need to tell you that your fellow player will be pretty angry about this method. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to stop playing with you (been there, done that...).
Each trap can be countered by the use of a specific object, except the time bomb. And be careful, you can be the victim of your own traps, so try to remember where you place them if you don't want to die miserably.
There are 8 different levels, each one offering a different embassy. The first embassy has only 6 rooms. You will often meet your opponent and you only have 6 minutes to complete the mission. The most complex embassies have 36 rooms, several floors (accessible through ladders you can trap like doors) and grant you 24 minutes to complete the mission. You don't often get to meet your opponent, but you will often be the victim of traps.
Spy vs Spy is addictive, graphically simple but clear, the characters' death animations are funny and the music, although repetitive is rather nice and discreet. It's naturally much more fun playing against a human player.
Nick Scarim is the composer of the game's original music.
Game published in 1984 by First Star Software.
The Way of the Exploding Fist was one of my all-time favorite games on the Commodore 64. it was a fabulous martial arts game, with two guys in a kimono fighting each other. One player against the computer, the purpose being to reach 10th dan, or one player against another player. Although the animation was a bit slow, the game allowed to make various types of kicks and punches, and it was way better than any similar game of the time. Gaphics, gameplay, sound effects (with digitized "Kiaiii" screams) were excellent and once again, the music was great. There were actually several tunes, my favorite one being the demo mode tune, very lively, with sounds reminding of the kung-fu movies. Here it is...
Neil Brennan is the composer of the game's original musics.
Game published in 1985 by Melbourne House.
Here, you can download a Commodore 64 emulator for Windows, as well as games.
WinVice 2.2 for Windows 32 bits (6.44 MB)
WinVice 2.2 for Windows 64 bits (6.70 MB)
Games
Arkanoid
Barbarian
Bruce Lee
Cauldron
Commando
Comic Bakery
Ghosts'n Goblins
Lightforce
The Way of the exploding fist
Games collection (1.1 MB)
(Arkanoid, Beach Head 2, Bombjack, Bruce Lee, Cauldron,
Comic Bakery, Commando, Druid, Eureka, Game Over, Ghostbusters,
Ghosts'n Goblins, Great Giana Sisters, Impossible Mission,
International Karate, International Soccer, Leaderboard 3,
Lightforce, One on One, Spy vs Spy, Summer Games 2,
Tapper, Trailblazer)
Grebz C64 Collection
Demo compilation
C64 demo compilation
Some games, especially those on Commodore 64 and Amiga had a strong influence on me because of their music. Sometimes, the game itself could be rather dull, but the music made it interesting. I would load some games just to listen to their main theme. It would take 5 to 10 minutes to load, but I thought it was worth it.
Of course, by today's standards, these musics sound synthetic, maybe even poor, but you have to take into account the technical limitations of those computers. The Commodore 64 was the most musically capable computer of its time and it could only produce 3 notes at any given time. The composers had to deal with it and be creative and talented in order to generate a stimulating sound atmosphere for the player.
Thinking about it, it's obvious that these technical limitations were also a strength. Nowadays, video games offer musics that are just as complex as any other music recorded in a studio. But in the micro-computer era, composers had to get down the brass tacks. And some of these old game tunes have an intrinsic quality that makes them still worthwhile today. Just imagine them being played with modern techniques and you will see that their melodies are addictive, simple and yet varied. Of course, the sound is tinny and metallic, but for those like me who heard them back in the time, they remind us of childhood memories and fun games.
Some composers still make covers of these old tunes, and many stand the test of time. Covers are generally made in a techno/dance genre, which matches well the original sounds of the 80's computers, but some try to play them with electric guitars or even symphonic instruments. When the original melodies are good, covers with a good re-orchestration just make them sound modern and reveal their full potential.
Of course, the Commodore 64 was not only a fantastic sound design tool. Its graphics and animation capabilities were also ahead of their time. It remained the best for a long time, even though some serious competitors claimed the position of number 1. Well programmed, it would stand up to all its challengers: Atari 800XL, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum, Thomson, Oric, Apple... and the first PCs. The two latter were not really considered as gaming machines because of their high price, although the Apple II computers had a very impressive software library with thousands of games, especially rich in the adventure and role-playing genres (Ultima, Wizardry...).
The Commodore 64 ruled in the fields of action and action-adventure games. Its software library was huge since it was, and remains the best sold micro-computers in the world, with about 25 million computers sold. Very popular in the USA, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, it wasn't very successful in France, the leader being the Amstrad CPC. The Amstrads were cheaper, sold with a screen and the quality of the games was often comparable to the C64. Except in the sound domain, where the Amstrads were light years behind. Anyway, I was lucky enough to start my journey in the computer world with the great Commodore 64, which impressed me even more than the Atari VCS 2600, although the Atari was my very first video gaming experience.
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commodorehdcovers,
le 05/11/2011 à 20h18
Salut Grebz !
Super ton site, plein de souvenirs rien qu'en lisant tes tests ! J'ai trouvé sur YouTube ton excellent test de The Way of the Exploding Fist, j'ai adoré, moi aussi j'ai plein de bons souvenirs avec ce jeu !
Je t'envoie mes respects commodoristiques !
Et si tu as quelques minutes à perdre, tu peux toujours venir faire un petit tour sur mon site www.commodorehdcovers.com (il y a aussi un forum).
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Merci de ta visite ! À bientôt sur ton site.
Grebz
Dge Be,
le 30/03/2011 à 09h37
Et en plus tu joues !
Et oui, c'est encore moi, perso je suis sur PS3 maintenant et principalement des jeux de sport (golf, fifa, gran turismo, nhl, nfl, baseball...).
J'en ai eu assez de devoir sans arrêt updater mon PC (comme pour la musique d'ailleurs) alors les consoles m'ont paru plus utiles.
Merci pour ton site complet, on se sent moins isolé, même en pleine Cévennes.
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Mais tu es partout :-) ! Ravi de voir que mon site t'a plu et que tu y as trouvé des choses qui t'intéressent.
Grebz
kromagnon1664,
le 27/01/2011 à 14h06
merci pr ta page, que de souvenirs... :)
Palermo183,
le 17/01/2011 à 17h24
Franchement excellent et que de souvenirs me reviennent en memoire. Combien de joysticks explosés, de crises de nerfs et de délires entre potes.
C'était pas toujours du gâteau de terminer les niveaux.
Punkito,
le 07/01/2011 à 07h22
Au clavier, Punkito, un des graphistes du groupe Yankees. Le C64 a été une révélation pour moi. Ce site me rappelle d'énormes et très bons souvenirs, toutes mes félicitations à son créateur ! Il manque juste Cybernoïd :D et notre démo 45.2 Light Years (yks) :D
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Merci !
Oui, il manque plein de jeux, parce que je manque de temps pour m'en occuper. Alors j'ai mis en priorité ceux qui m'ont laissé le souvenir le plus vif... Et encore, ils n'y sont pas tous. J'ai passé du temps sur les jeux Epyx (summer games, winter games, etc...), il faut absolument que je prenne le temps de me replonger dedans ! Un jour prochain !
Grebz
