Ah yes, that old gem “Everyone’s a Wally”, wherein every kid got to live out their fantasy of being a, uh, Wally.
Oh, believe me, I remember…
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I loved that game. There’s an iOS version of it, and supposedly an android version, too, but I couldn’t find it in the play store.
As for the others, I remember the amazing packaging EA had, more than I remember the actual games.
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Great ads, too. In one, the first set of EA designers were dressed up like rock stars, slouched on a set.
I only got a chance to play Archon a few times. Chess played with fantasy creatures, and you had to fight the battles arcade style.
Seven Cities of Gold was a supreme time-waster. Just brilliant. There were a couple of feeble remakes, but nothing was like that game on the Atari or C64.
(Years after I packed up my Atari system, I was doing work at trade shows . . . CES and the like. At one, I found a demo of Sid Meir’s “Colonization.” “Man,” I said to no one in particular, “This is like someone finally remade ‘Seven Cities of Gold’ and got it right!”
“That was what I had in mind,” comes a voice at my shoulder.
Yeah. Sid Meir. Squeee!)
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Archon
M.U.L.E.
Seven Cities of Gold
Yes, yes, and yes.
Also: Commando, Forbidden Forest, Aztec Challenge, Karateka, Ghostbusters, Mail Order Monsters, Skyfox, Racing Destruction Set, Spy vs. Spy, Raid Over Moscow, Cinemaware (any), Maniac Mansion, Hacker (either), Bruce Lee, Way of the Exploding Fist, Outrun, Beach-Head (either), Pirates!, Prince of Persia, One On One, Star Control 1, Raid on Bungeling Bay, Rescue on Fractulus, Friday the 13th… etc. (Let alone games that require a keyboard: Bard’s Tale, Ultima, everything by Infocom and Telarium…)
It’s an okay collection. Impossible Mission, Jumpman, Pitstop, Speeball, and Sword of Fargoal are all solid picks. But there’s a lot of filler - including a significant number of games I don’t even recognize - and that’s unfortunate.
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This takes me back. Didn’t have to play the video, just seeing the first screen of Impossible Mission had that scratchy voice saying “Stay awhile… Stay Forever!” in my head.
The Commodore line was integral to my start in computers. I had already taught myself to program BASIC on a Timex/Sinclair ZX-81 by the time I got a used VIC-20, but that machine really started my exploration. Taught myself to program in assembly language using the Programmer’s Reference Guide, then later wrote my own assembler for the C64. I stuck with Commodore as long as I could, even using a painfully-slow modem and an Amiga as a home terminal to do programming assignments in my college years.
Too bad they couldn’t include some of my favorite games, but I’m sure there were rights issues. “Bruce Lee” was a fun platformer, ported from the Atari line. “One on One - Dr J vs Larry Bird” was one of the first enjoyable basketball games (although you could goaltend without penalty by standing at the corner of the backboard and timing your jump just so.) And “Will Harvey’s Music Construction Set” introduced me to the joys of creating music with a computer.
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Many, many hours were spent playing Sacred Armour of Antiriad, Attack of the Mutant Camels and Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future on my C64 as a kid. These were excellent games.
Do you remember if you ran your palm over the vents of the disk drive it would make a high pitched sound? I still don’t understand why.
I liked Beachhead and Karateka the most.
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They could offer 100 save states and my sibling would still save over my newest or best save state. : (
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Wow. This was my second PC, after their PET. Does one out of three shipped not work out of the box, like the original, lol?
Yep. The YouTube reviews show the C64 BASIC interpreter. PEEK & POKE to your heart’s content.
I suggest poisoned darts.
How long until Skyrim is ported to it? From the video, the Creation Engine is already there.
I tried building a C64 emulator with a Raspberry Pi. It worked, as did most of the games, but the lack of an original keyboard and/or joystick was sometimes a problem.
So I recently bought a very decent (2nd hand) original C64 for about $50. It came with two Arcade Joysticks, an original tape deck and 2 cartridges: “Simon’s Basic” and “KCS Power Cartridge”…
On the wonderful internet I then found this 1541-diskdrive-emulating SD-card reader:
https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/sd2iec-c.html - it even looks the part!
Pure fun and nostalgia!!
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I have the C64 Mini.
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Yes, it has Basic and you can use it to write code
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updating the firmware allows you to load games from a USB stick via the “File Loader” program.
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with a powered USB hub you can add a second joystick, USB stick, and yes even a keyboard.
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But this one is little-er!
Racing Destruction Set! And Bruce Lee! So many hours…
F15 Strike Eagle was one of my favorites. I mastered it.
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Another visitor… Stay a while… Stay FOREVER!!!
