By Teague Bohlen
Once the Atari 2600, Colecovision, and Intellivision all started to fade, and everyone realized the Atari 5200 was pretty much a disaster, the Commodore 64 was the machine to have. There were other computers around at the time—Apples, IBMs, TRS-80s—but the Commodore 64 was king. It’s still the best-selling personal computer ever, at over 17 million units; Commodore 64 built itself a nice little corner of the game-platform market for a while.
And, of course, if you build it, they will come. That’s games, not the ghost of your Dad’s old ball team. (Commodore 64s didn’t so much bring you closer with your family as much as it did, you know, the exact opposite, making you want to skip having a catch with your Dad to find that Moongate from Ultima II.) What follows, then, is a list of the twenty most awesome games from the Commodore 64 era—maybe not the best games, or the most important—but these were the ones you traded on 5 ¼ floppies with your friends after school.
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20. Return of Heracles (Quality Software, 1984)
A role-playing precursor to Electronic Arts’ Adventure Construction Set, Return of Heracles let players control any one of many Greek heroes and heroines in completing twelve divine tasks. Though many of these are based on the actual Twelve Labors of Hercules, some are not…which is a really bad thing to discover when you thought you could ace a Mythology mid-term because you’d played this game. Trust me on this.
19. Karateka (Broderbund, 1984)
One of the many martial-arts games that would become a standard of video gaming, Karateka was known primarily for its animation and fluidity of motion. (Which makes sense, considering that the game designer would go on to produce Prince of Persia, which was known for the exact same thing.) But the game, which was otherwise just the usual chop-socky, save-the-princess set-up, had one other claim to fame: if you approached the princess in a fighting stance in the endgame, instead of kissing you in gratitude, she’d kick you in the head and kill you. (The lesson: manners still count, Crazy 88.) Cruel? Sure. But also a little awesome.
18. Elite (Firebird, 1985)
Elite had two things going for it when it was released; one, a unique visual style produced by its wireframe 3D graphics, and two, a built-in audience from the then-popular space RPG Traveler, upon which it was loosely based. In turn, the game went on to inspire a whole genre of space-faring, fighting, and trading games, from Wing Commander to Privateer to a host of others. At least, this is what my friends tell me; I always died trying to dock with the space station.
17. Loderunner (Broderbund, 1983)
Maybe it was the fact that it resembled Jumpman in terms of graphics and level-layout, but I was always frustrated by the fact that you couldn’t leap even a little in Loderunner. But at least you could fall from any height and survive. That’s something, I guess. What made this game hit so big wasn’t so much the gameplay, which was just fun, but the fact that there was a level editor, meaning you could plan deathtrap levels for your friends. Which was really, really fun.
16. Pool of Radiance (SSI, 1988)
Dungeons & Dragons finally made it to the computer with this licensed game based on the D&D ruleset. And fans flocked to it. Even if it was a bit overpowered (you could find a longsword +5 near the end of the game, when your fighter was only level 8, max), it was still a good to see wizards casting magic missiles and clerics turning undead without having to gather a bunch of friends and buy pizza, Doritos, and Dr. Pepper. One last thing Pool of Radiance is remembered for: the copy protection. The clumsy “decoder wheel” technology didn’t so much stop piracy as teach teens with no money how to disassemble, photocopy, and rebuild the wheel at Kinkos.
15. Castle Wolfenstein (Muse, 1983)
Maybe it’s more a legend now that it’s been remade so many times (with yet another version due out soon), but Castle Wolfenstein was well-known in its time for good reason. It wasn’t that the game-play was all that great (all that sneaking around made for some glacial pacing), but the fact that you could actually hear speech (“Achtung!”) and hear death-screams (“EEEYAGH!”) was pretty amazing. Sure, maybe games weren’t to the point at which you could take on a robotic Hitler, but killing a Nazi and then dressing in his uniform? That’s Indiana Jones U-boat cool, brother.
14. Zork (Infocom, 1980)
Sure, text-based games seem like the horse-and-buggy of computer games, especially in this World of Warcraft world. But in its day, Zork and most other Infocom games (notably the Enchanter series, the mystery Deadline, and the game version of Douglas Adams’ Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) were industry leaders and perennial best-sellers. Elvish swords, brass lanterns, and grues in the darkness; in 1980, that was all you needed.
13. Forbidden Forest (Cosmi,1983)
Long before there were Fatalities and Flawless Victories, there was Forbidden Forest. This game was blocky and poorly rendered, but the blood flowing from the monstrous victims of your arrows was among the first of its kind for American gaming. And as you progressed in levels, and the beasties got faster and more dangerous, you’d eventually fall…and the sight of your little archer wiggling on the ground as a giant spider feasts? Shudder-worthy.
12. Summer Games (Epyx, 1984)
Maybe it’s the leftover charge from the Beijing games that lands this game on the list, but anyone who was around for this joystick-killer in 1984 loved it. And maybe that had something to do with the contemporary Olympic spirit at the time, which not only were being held in Los Angeles, but were also the USA’s moment to really shine, given the Soviet boycott that year. Two running events and two swimming events were a bit much, for sure, but the platform diving and gymnastics rocked. And this was back before the scoring changes—when your own little Mary Lou Retton could get that perfect 10.
11. Sex Games (Landisoft, 1985)
(Click here for the NSFW screenshot—it's too pixelated to be pornographic, exactly, but anyone who catches you looking at it will think you're a pervert with horrible taste.)
Okay, so this, as a game, sort of sucked. There was no real gameplay to it, it was all pretty much about moving back and forth until a bell rang, and it was over in about ten minutes. (Wait…maybe it was more realistic than I thought…) But it was still a legend, despite the end-game left turn into group bisexuality (I’d go more deeply into this, but my therapist has suggested that perhaps I shouldn’t), and every guy who owned a C64 had it, saw it, laughed at it, and probably loaded it up again later on when no one was around.
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