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Commodore 64 Games of Note

  • common available for: Commodore 64
  • schema: Video game

This is a list of video games of note that were developed specifically for the Commodore 64 and were not a port from another home system.

Street Surfer

screenshot

  • written by: David Barbour
  • published by: Mastertronic
  • genre: Racing
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • controls: joystick and 1 button
  • date released: 1986
  • entry @ lemon64
  • entry @ c64-wiki
  • video @ youtube
  • play online @ archive.org

In the mid-80's, when skateboarding became popular, a rash of such games appeared: Skate or Die, Skate Rock, and so forth. But this one made all of those look quite banal.

For one thing, Street Surfer was probably one of the first games based on recycling. The object is to collect and recycle as many glass bottles as possible.

Also notable for the fact that you could, on a skateboard, outpace cars on a highway.

Also notable for the fact that the theme music changes tempo to match your speed.

Fire Ant

screenshot

  • written by: Unknown
  • published by: Mogul Communications
  • genre: Graphic Adventure(?)
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • controls: joystick and 1 button
  • date released: 1983
  • entry @ lemon64
  • entry @ c64-wiki
  • video @ youtube
  • play online @ archive.org

Once I got used to the "tight handling" of the protagonist with the joystick, I liked this game a lot. The premise is cute. Each level introduces new things which you don't know what they do, and is not just a combination of known mechanisms.

Crossroads

screenshot

  • published by: COMPUTE! Publications Inc.
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • date released: 1987
  • entry @ lemon64
  • play online @ archive.org

This was a type-in game that appeared in Compute! Gazette Issue 54, December 1987.

This is possibly one of the best type-in games to ever have appeared in a magazine.

Zig Zag

screenshot

  • written by: Anthony Crowther
  • published by: Mirrorsoft(?), Spectrum Holobyte(?)
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • date released: 1986
  • entry @ lemon64
  • play online @ archive.org

Not to be confused with a different game called Zig Zag by DK'Troniks, which was also available for the C64.

Unclear if the publisher was Mirrorsoft or Spectrum Holobyte. Different sources suggest both. Likely it was first one, then transferred to the other. The Wikipedia article for Spectrum Holobyte lists it, and lists only C64 as the system released for. I haven't seen anything elsewhere that suggests it was ported to any other systems.

Big Mac

screenshot

  • subtitle: The Mad Maintenance Man
  • written by: Tony Kelly
  • published by: Mastertronic
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • date released: 1985
  • wikipedia: Big Mac (video game)
  • entry @ lemon64
  • play online @ archive.org

Nice use of character-mapped graphics. Well... reasonable use of character-mapped graphics, plus some nice gameplay (although the oversensitivity of the switches can admittedly be annoying).

Ultimate Wizard

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Obviously influenced by Jumpman. It's Jumpman with spells and a construction kit, really. Not that that's bad, at all.

Bubble Burst

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Well, it's got a dinosaur in a bathtub, that's for sure.

Lava Flow

screenshot

  • published by: COMPUTE! Publications Inc.
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • date released: 1988
  • entry @ issuu
  • video @ youtube
  • play online @ archive.org

This was a type-in game that appeared in Compute! Gazette Issue 63, September 1988.

It's interesting because the lava works like a cellular automaton, a bit.

Paradroid

screenshot

  • written by: Andrew Braybrook
  • published by: Hewson Consultants
  • available for: Commodore 64
  • date released: 1985
  • wikipedia: Paradroid
  • entry @ lemon64
  • play online @ archive.org

Perhaps a less good fit for this list; it's arguably a C64 classic rather than merely a game "of note"; and it did, eventually, get converted to other systems. But the systems were not "the usual contemporaries" of the C64, and as of this writing, Wikipedia calls it "a Commodore 64 computer game" rather than "an 8-bit game with ports to (insert set of systems which includes the C64 here)".

Alright, enough categorization-consternation. It's a notable game because you play a parasite robot. As a parasite robot, you can latch onto other hostile robots that you encounter and, try to take control of them.

The Castles of Dr. Creep

screenshot

Again this is perhaps a less good fit for this list, for it is more of a puzzle game than a video game. It was, however, somewhat suprisingly, released for only the Commodore 64 at the time.