Vintage Computer Gaming

[90snostalga]

I've toyed around with starting a Commodore collection. The Commodore 64 was my first game machine. But I look at the cost of games, and back out. Emulation makes a lot of sense to me. But I would be tempted to pick up a Commodore/Amiga collection if I found a lot at the right price.

Good games on Commodore are Hostage and Maniac Mansion (better on Amiga or Atari ST though). I have a lot of fond memories of Duck Tales for Commodore. That was my go to game as a little kid. I also died a lot on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That game was SUPER hard for a game that undoubtedly would be purchased for kids. But James Rolfe has talked about that subject enough.

You can also get all the old classic arcade games: Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Etc.

The Commodore had some damn good flight simulators too. F-14 Tomcat being my favorite.

Plus, you can get the classics that are not on consoles (at least well) such as Zork.

The Commodore 64 is classic. It is probably the NES of computing. The Amiga is amazing. And I mean that. Absolutely amazing.

Duck Tales was on the Commodore 64!?  Was it the same as NES version?  Do you know if the Apple 2 and Commodore can be hooked to the same monitor, or both have to use their model specific?

No it was completely different. This one is for smaller kids. It's got a game similar to Barnstorming on Atari. A mountain climbing game. And a game where you just take pictures of animals. A few others. But it is probably only a game a little kid would enjoy for the most part.

I remember playing it with my dad. I would take the pictures and do the Mummy game. He would take the barnstorming and mountain climbing (the two non little kid games). Hell, the mix of game types might have purposefully been put there for playing with kids... who know.

Bottom line: different game.

Awesome!!!!  This looks pretty cool.  Duck Tales for the  Commodore is going on my wish list

[kimimi]

I used to play the Amiga version of Duck Tales as a kid - that mummy game still gives me the creeps :S

[sin2beta]

I used to play the Amiga version of Duck Tales as a kid - that mummy game still gives me the creeps :S

Sweet! You are the first one I've seen who has played that game. I saw the Amiga version while finding that video. It looks really good! And the Mummy game gave me the creeps as a kid as well. That's why I always let my dad play it.

[kimimi]

I remember being huddled around the Amiga with my brother and my cousins playing it What made the mummy game so scary for me (IIRC, that is), is that you could see it moving around on the minimap they gave you, and that green goop that sometimes appeared on the rocks meant you were near a pitfall trap. Lots of tension there for a kids game if you ask me!

(Yes, I am scarred by a Duck Tales game  )

[atarileaf]

Aside from the Atari 2600 - my favorite system is defintely the Tandy Color Computer ( or Colour here in Canada ) Its the machine I grew up with and I have all 3 major revisions - Coco 1, 2, and 3 including a 512k model coco 3. I have about 60 carts but no disk drive unfortunately but I use a homemade piece of hardware called drivewire from a website called cloud9tech. It allows you to hook up a coco to a modern pc with a serial cable and use your pc as a virtual disk drive to load coco disk images on real hardware. Some awesome arcade ports came out on the coco which many outside of the coco scene have probably never heard of.

I'm also a huge fan of the atari 8-bit systems and own 3 800xl's. I had one of  these briefly in the 80's before getting the coco (since we had friends with a coco who would makes copies of games for free, as opposed to no one we knew who had an atari computer). Again, some fantastic arcade ports on this system and i love it.

Always thought about getting into the C64, used one in high school in the 80's (again, great arcade ports - that's what i'm all about)

[atariboy]

I've been trying to find a Tandy Computer for some time now. My friend from across the street had one when I was just a lad I think it would be cool just to have one.

[tpugmire]

I have a Atari 800XL that I fire up now and again. I'm hoping to find a cheap disk drive someday, so I can play more/different games. Right now I'm limited to cartridge games.

[90snostalga]

What are some great games for the Commodore 64, and what games do you play on the Commodore?

My favorites growing up:

-The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge (Action)
-B.C.'s Quest For Tires (Platformer)
-Blue Max (Early Shoot-Em Up, Isometric View)
-The Gianna Sisters (complete Super Mario Bros. rip-off, but still fun)
-Jumpman (Platformer)
-Lode Runner (Platformer)
-The Swiss Family Robinson (Graphical Text-Adventure (think Shadow Tower)) - I spent soooo much time on this game as a kid. Probably my favorite C64 game, ever. But nowadays, I'm sure the experience would not be the same at all with online walkthroughs and all.

And of course all those arcade classics are present on the machine including Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, etc.

Great list!  Thanks!  I looked up the gameplay on youtube and with the exception of lode runner and jumpman, I would like to play all these.  I got to find me some vintage pc's.

[90snostalga]

LOAD"MESSAGE",8,1

RUN

I used to, unfortunately I've burned through 3 C64s, 2 of them somewhat recently. I'm not paying for another one, with how crazy expensive they're getting lately.

Truthfully, though, between my Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES, and DOS-Box on my PC; I'm really not gonna miss it all that much; anymore. There are a handful of games I get nostalgic for, though, that weren't released on those other systems: Swiss Family Robinson, Blue Max, and B.C.'s Quest for Tires were my favorite C64 games as a kid and they aren't available on any other format (that I know of).

What actually happened to your C64 units?  Just stopped loading the games?

[burningdoom]

LOAD"MESSAGE",8,1

RUN

I used to, unfortunately I've burned through 3 C64s, 2 of them somewhat recently. I'm not paying for another one, with how crazy expensive they're getting lately.

Truthfully, though, between my Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES, and DOS-Box on my PC; I'm really not gonna miss it all that much; anymore. There are a handful of games I get nostalgic for, though, that weren't released on those other systems: Swiss Family Robinson, Blue Max, and B.C.'s Quest for Tires were my favorite C64 games as a kid and they aren't available on any other format (that I know of).

What actually happened to your C64 units?  Just stopped loading the games?

First one got thrown out by the parents, years back. It was given to me by my school when they (finally) upgraded to Windows systems. The next one I got ended up having a black screen everytime I'd power it on. And the last one I had, it's color chip went bad. It still worked, but you'd get this probably seizure-inducing shimmering effect on the text and some game graphics.