When I launched the TH-cam app on my TV, it came up with only one recommended video, this one. Like it knew that this would be the one video I cared about more than all others, and it was right! I wish there was a like button for every order of magnitude that I like this video. I would press them all. Some GREAT recommendations on this list I hadn’t considered before. I collect games that support the 1351 mouse, and it’s worth noting that Centauri Alliance is one such game. Great to see Keys to Maramon on this list! I remember buying that game and having to take it back. I’ll have to revisit it! Just a great video all around. So glad there’s someone else out there with the same fondness for C64 RPGs. Did you own Bard’s Tale on tape? I didn’t even know there was a tape version until recently. I can’t imagine playing from tape, as crucial as saving your game is to success. As always, great work on the production of the video too. I wish every video on TH-cam was this video. Gonna rewatch.
Thx a lot 👍 really glad you liked it , I wasn't aware that Alpha Centauri supported the mouse thx for the info . I played Bards Tale on disc , I hardly played any RPGs on tape but other styles of games I played a ton of tape versions . Lots more C64 videos ahead focusing on new and old C64 releases and many more Top 10 as well 👍👍👍
You can save your games in the tape versions of most games...it just saves to a separate tape instead of separate disk. I have a single save game tape, which unlike disk I can use the same tape for every single game. This is due to the fact that it won't need to format or anything like that. The tape just saves them in order and you can write down where you put your save on the sleeve. If I can, I try to get a copy of games on tape where possible, because you can fit so many games on a tape, and never have to worry about reliability problems. Several times my disk drive has failed for one reason or another, and I never have had a problem with my datasette. So, in such times, I just soldier on with my cassette copies of games. Some games can be a bit irritating on tape, like defender of the crown. Since it requires loads to switch between parts of the game. Also, that particular game I don't think you can save your progress, but even games like Mercenary: Escape from Targ on tape make provision for saved games. Most RPGs didn't come out on tape, although a handful did. Here is a list: 2D RPGS Arena Battle Khaos I & 2 Dungeon Crawl Dungeons of Mugoolie Penultimate Fantasy (I think I patched that to tape, and I have the only copy) Quest Wizard's Tower 3D RPG: Bard's Tale I (Takes 2 cassettes on both sides to conveniently access all the parts of the game, just like defender of the crown.) Text based RPGs (more like a MUD) Crystal Orb, The Lord of the Balrogs (very cheesy...) There is an actual MUD style game speaking of which, called MicroMUD which takes two sides of a disk if you want to get some more MUD action. I guess it would be more like a SUD (single user dungeon, heh)
@@peterlamont647 Wow, that's actually quite a lot more than I would have imagined. You make good points here about the unreliability of disks. Wow, I can't imagine playing Defender of the Crown on tape. Ha, you patched Penultimate Fantasy on tape? I actually played that one on my channel. I've never heard of most of these games, except Bard's Tale and Penultimate Fantasy. So even today, your C64 medium of choice is the tape? I had plenty of Vic-20 cassettes as a kid, but the only C64 game I've ever owned on tape was an original Bruce Lee I found in a used datasette I bought off Craigslist. It wouldn't load.
@@pacbilly Ya, I forget why I patched penutlimate fantasy...I think its because I was moving, and my drive came out of alignment. I eventually opened it up and fixed it. The irony is that the disk drives seem to work for a long time, but when they go, you can't just take them to the commodore shop. Hence why I have tape backups. The other irony is that even disks with corrupt data are often just fine after a format. I have a program called DISCAN from the first issue of loadstar. It can flag bad sectors on disks, so often even bad disks can be used. That said, I just think _long_ _long_ term wise, tapes are going to be around another 40 years. Disks? maybe. No one thought they would last this long, but if reformatted/rewritten, they are fine even after 30-40 years. Tapes are just that much more durable though. Having the rigid cover and leader tape. You can also re-lubricate them if they become sticky after too many years by adding silicone oil
@@peterlamont647 There's definitely a reason why tapes are said or experienced to be more reliable or at least durable then other storage media, why an attempt was made to release a digital cassette (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Compact_Cassette ) and why servers store seldom used data in "slow" cassette or tape drives, it wouldn't astoun me if those slow tape servers were also with digital cassettes. Just some thinking to that topic, i'm not an expert about this.
Ah The Bard's Tale, I must have spent 8 months on that hardcore rpg. I loved all that map making with graph paper and pencil. Watch out for those Fred's.
I love Wasteland! When I finished it, I searched for something similar and came across Mars Saga. Couldn't get into it at first but when you do, it is really an excellent game. Not as good as Wasteland but excellent nonetheless. Give it time. It does not hook you the first time you play it like Wasteland but when it gets going, it really gets going!
I got originals for both (c64 version).. I cheated a bit creating two "citadel" disk sides, I could attack + loot citadel infinite times.. just pop the fake disk in when leaving it.. I just recently played through the remaster on Stream, can't cheat in it.. but that's alright; didn't really need to anyway. :D In mars saga I remember gambling addiction at the casino.. :_D
Phantasie series from SSI was probably their most famous prior to the Gold Box in terms of RPGs. I know you didn't play them but for many of us who did it was one of the best RPGs...simple graphics but ahead of its time in terms of what it brought to the table (Overhead full party overland view, multiple unique races like Pixies/Sprites/Trolls/Minotaurs for use as Player characters, D&D amount of items and monsters. It was truly the closest to a D&D tabletop game at the time. Of course Might and Magic/Bards Tale were way more polished but Phantasie has a special place. Best ending for an RPG probably has to go to Questron. You can't describe the ending it has to be experienced. That haunting piercing alarm that gets louder and louder like a countdiown timer has to be experienced. Ultima IV for its unique for the time non "Kill Foozle (Bad guy)" ending is another gem. I could go on but understand this was YOUR list :) Just sharing some of mine!
I replayed Questron and the first two Phantasie games multiple times...so much depth and fun in those. How many games can you get strong enough to fight a god in, like Phantasie?
@@rikk319 So true! Killing your first Zeus in Phantasie I was a special experience. I loved how non linear the game mostly was (some minor exceptions). You could challenge your party at any time almost anywhere. If you did kill Zeus you hoped you would get for your first "God Item" the sword and not the dagger although the dagger was just fine as well ;)
Great list! Never got into Wasteland, but was a SSI AD&D fiend, finished Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, all 3 Dragonlance games and both of the Buck Rogers games.
My favourite was The Dragon Wars. I loved the graphics, the atmosphere, the different areas. I remember spending countless time to map the game, looking for hidden areas. Thanks for the video!
That was just a very fond walk down memory lane. I've played many of these RPG's on the C64 from the earliest Temple of Apshai and Telengard to grand daddy's like Pools of Radiance. At the time of release, Ultima3 was a highly polished RPG that took the genre to the next level. And, I do agree, Wasteland was my favorite! I loved the modifiable world and they way the storyline evolved from killing rats with 6 shooters to help out some high school kids to eventually fighting off robots with high powered laser weapons. So many great memories. Thanks!
Thank you for watching , It was really fun to dabble back in with all these games on the list again to make the vid , I had to leave a lot of great ones off it but glad it brought back some good memories 🕹️👍
Okay so the list in the video info DOES NOT name even close to all the games he lists in the video. Infact, there arent even 10 in the top 10 listed(they are in the video though) so I made A complete list of all the games and honorable mentions. They are not in order because frankly, they are ALL worth playing. Bards tale I-III Hillsfar Sentinel Words Space Rogue
I remember playing Pool of Radiance on my C64. Loved how they took images from the Monster Manual. My friend slept over once and we stayed up all night playing, taking turns controlling the party. Went to bed some time around 6am! Those were the days!
Thats the way we played RPGs as well as a team until my friends mom found us awake at 5 in the morning having played the whole night and shouted at us to go to bed 😂😂😂
LotA and Pool of Radiance were the two games that really launched me in to CRPG's back in the day. From then on, went on to discover many of the games mentioned here, and more. Tough to narrow them down to 10, but, I think you did a pretty good job of it really. A respectable top 10.
I have to agree with you on Wasteland. Superb game with a setting that was remarkably fresh and new in a genre dominated by fantasy. I also agree on Tass Times in Tonetown, and was gratified to see it get a mention. It's a very underrated game with the finest atmosphere I've ever seen on the Commodore.
In December I built a new 64 based on the ultimate 64 and have been working my way through old rpgs, some I played but never finished. I’m going to give keys of maramon a try. One that I would add that some may not consider a rpg is Below the Root. Excellent game that is still very playable today. Thanks for the video.
Cheers thanks for watching , yeah below the root is a cool game .. I wouldn't label it an RPG bit I'm gonna try and get it on some sort of list in the future 👍
Christina and Patch, Snake Vargas, just classic. I recommend you try to get the official guide book, it's a walkthrough written like a novel, it was amazing, probably really rare now.
@@DrGarfink hahaha , well the #1 was a difficult choice .. it was almost Ultima 6 but I changed it late into production of the video .. I think it turned out to be the right choice at least in my opinion 😉👍
Questron was also made by the same guys, but as it was earlier, it was something of a harder find. Still a great RPG with the same style, just not as polished.
Yeah there's a lot of really excellent ones , this video only stretches the surface . I think the C64 version of Times of lore is by far the best beating the NES and PC versions in my opinion
@@BastichB64K I was a fan of 'The fairy tale Adventure' on the Amiga and was surprised to see a port to the C64. GFX and sound was OK and near to the Amiga version but the process of constantly loading data from a floppy made the C64 version unplayable.
@@stelleratorsuprise8185 I totally agree that's why I didn't include it ... The loading was insane ..even just walking into a house took ages to load , what a shame 😭
You know what is the most underrated C64 game of all time?? Also, it is the largest game ever made for the C64, spanning 15 disks. I just found out about it yesterday! It came out in 2001 by protovision. 2001 was around time before the mass wave of retro-game/computer fever set in, and after the Commodore was no longer a main computer for most users. As a result, no one knows about it. It is like a demo made into a game(something I have often heard people say they want). Imagine a 2000's demo made into an RPG with animated FLI bitmap scenes and an interesting back story. Anyway, it is 'Newcomer' by protovision (c) 2001. It stands as a monument to software engineering at a time when few were ever going to even see it. I hope now it gets it's rightful place in history as the most epic game ever made for the C64.
I actually downloaded many versions of this to review and every single one had issues from disks that didn't work to the insane in game load times ... so in the end I just gave up . It's starts good is all I can say for sure
There is in fact an Ultimate version in the making, since many years. Hopefully it'll be finished one day. Will be even bigger then - and hopefully as crt, so no loading involved anymore.
Great, Commodore 64 stuff again. I can not believe I have never played any of these games on the C64, and I had my C64 for many years in the 80's. I still have it, by the way. I guess I was playing other games. I guess I was not paying attention to other games. Thanks
Yeah you're not the only one! I've found that a lot of C64 owners never embraced RPG'S all that much so that's why I wanted to do this video . Thx for watching 👍
Great episode! It did not disappoint. a lot of these came out after I migrated from the Commodore 64 up to the Amiga in 1988, so I never had a chance to look at them. Now that I am having a great time with my Commodore 64 equipment again, I need to get some of these! Thanks for the continued great work.
One's I played was Curse of the Azure Bonds, Bard's Tale, Apshai, Phantasie, Ultima 3 and 4. I miss all the maps and instruction manuals and cool extras you would get with these games.
Yeah there were so many great ones it was hard to ommit some of those . And the extras were the best ! They just don't make quality game boxes or extras like that anymore
Great list! Was waiting for Wasteland to be mentioned all through the video, lol. Finally I could only agree! You mentioned some SSI titles that were pretty obscure and hard to come by here in Germany. I’ll definitely check those out! Thank you for doing this awesome list! Makes me wish I was 14 again and had time to sink into one of those titles. That was the perfect escapism of my youth. Everyone else was worrying about the cold war and a possible nuclear war while I was tied to my 8bit home computer trying to save the remains of humanity after that war in the post apocalyptic world of wasteland 😅...
I remember when Fallout (the original) came out and I was thinking how similar the games were. It took me some digging to find out the creators worked on Wasteland. If you have a console, and free time, Wasteland 2 and 3 are on Xbox game pass. Its just an amazing experience for someone who loved the original Wasteland.
Wow, wasn't aware that the C64 had such a rich selection of RPGs! An exceptional video as usual; informative, engaging, and superbly structured and presented.
Don't forget about "TELENGARD!" Without Telengard, we wouldn't have modern AD&D dungeon crawlers. RIP Daniel Lawerence (the developer of the original TELENGARD)
Great list. My gaming must have mirrored yours. There was a certain excitement to visiting stores that sold games back in those days. You never knew what would be on the shelf, so it was always a surprise and I would come home with a new game and be so excited to escape into a fantasy world. Great video and great lineup of games. Space Rogue and Auto Duel with the mentions... brilliant.
Love this! Recently started the remastered The Bard's Tale Trilogy on Steam. First time I've played anything like it and I love it - the challenge, the atmosphere, and the fact that I'm about 10 hours in and have only explored a couple dungeons so far has me excited for everything else the series has to offer! I'll save this list for when I'm done with that and hungry for more!
Thanks for this list! I just recently got the C64 mini and needed to know what games to play. Enjoying tangled tales and wasteland right now for the first time.
One I haven't seen mentioned yet is Rings of Zilfin. It was a copy from a friend, who got it from a friend, etc. No manual, and I was never able to progress very far into it, but it mesmerized me. I've since watched a playthrough on TH-cam and gotten my itch for it satisfied. There were so many games like it that fell through the cracks, with poor or no advertising for them.
Yeah that was one of the games I couldn't find a good working version of for this list unfortunately , I played it too back in the day ... didn't get far as well as it was a crack but it seemed pretty cool .
Of all the RPGs I played on my C64 back in the day, my favorite is The Magic Candle: a brilliant, almost unknown, gem (thanks for at least mentioning it!). Pool of Radiance's (and its follow-ups') combat system is definitely my favorite, as it allows for huge tactical, battles (the fight against the horde of monsters in the Sokal Keep area was REALLY epic!). I'll try Tangled Tales sooner or later :-)
Cheers thank you for watching , I really enjoyed Magic Candle but I honestly could not get a working version of the game for the list otherwise it would have been on there 👍
Some rare gems there. There was one 3d maze dungeon craweler that I remember on cartidge only. I found it a couple of years ago as a TH-camr did a playthrough. C64 was a cracking machine. Didn't have a floppy drive at the time so my choice for RPGs was restricted at the time.
I can't quibble too much with your choice of Ultima VI over IV, but to me, IV is, by far, the best of the Ultima games. It had a soul and depth that really sets it apart from any other game I've ever played.
Great List. I enjoyed a lot of these as well. For me, Ultima 2 and The Bard's Tale is what really started my RPG craze in the early 80s. There just wasn't anything like it. Being a tabletop D&D player too, and having that translate over to a video game was just magical. So many titles, so much fun. Have came a long ways from the Adventureland, Zork, Telengard days til now :)
The SSI RPG games in the US were fairly easy to find, we had Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, and Secret of the Silver Blades in a local Sears (RIP!) near the house back in the 80s/90s
@@BastichB64K - life was different back then I guess.... i enjoyed that video, it took me back in time. My only regret was that Road War 2000 wasn't in the list.... 😅
Didn't realise how many top quality releases there were RPG wise back in the day on the C64. Only ever played Master of magic and Times of lore. Look forward to Eye of the beholder, surely the game of the year if it comes out before 2022.
Great picks. I remember when I was a kid I did not make backups of my Wasteland disks, (bad idea, cause the game writes the world status on the disk, so never play with the originals) cause I immediately jumped into the game without reading the manual. Many years later I completed the full game on the PC.
Legacy of the Ancients was the first game that you could get the sense of dread because they played the monster sounds volume based on proximity, so you could hear that you were close to something, but you had no idea where it was going to jump-scare you as you turned a corner. I think that was my first favorite RPG. Bard's Tale and Might & Magic were all great. I like the modern auto-map feature, but there was just something about having to use graph paper if you wanted to know how to get through a dungeon.
Legacy was definitely something special , i had so many drawn maps for RPGs it was so much fun mapping those worlds .. wish i still had all the maps i made .
I like this list, but it really, really needs to include Battletech, the Crescent Hawk's Revenge - at least on the honourable mentions. I loved the SSI D&D games and used to play through them all the time in high school.
I agree...it doesn't get much better than Battletech! (The crescent Hawks Inception). Future battle RPG with a great story and lots of character interaction without too many classes and attributes to weigh down the fun. Instead it is more story/action based...with MECHS!!! Nothing like blowing up a Draconian with an SRM 2 either. Love that game. See you in the arena free birth! Oh and I also love the customized builds you can do on your mech to make it more deadly even with the light tonnage you get.
It's great that someone has finally made a video on role playing games on the Commodore64, but how, HOW did you miss Origin's Space Rogue, Infocom's BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Inception, and up until the Eye of the Beholder port showed up for the Commodore64, Pandora's Xenomorph? I mean, Xenomorph is practically on par with Dungeon Master on the ATARI ST and Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga, it pushed the Commodore64 to the limit, and yet, somehow, you've completely missed it, not even a mention, let alone putting it at more than well deserved #1 spot?
Awesome choices. I would also give an honorable mention to Demon's Winter (another SSI game, although not connected to the AD&D series). It was actually a sequel to an earlier game called Shard of Spring, which wasn't that bad in it's own right. Also the Alternate Reality games, especially The Dungeon. So many great RPGs on this system. That was actually one of my biggest criticisms of the C64 mini when it came out, the complete lack of RPGs... Well technically The Apshai games are RPGs, but I mean more "modern" RPGs
Yeah there were so many to try and mention ..too many for one list lol . Yeah I think the reason the mini had no RPG'S is cause the UK was more dominated by arcade style games and the C64 in the US was much more RPG centric ... But yeah the mini needed more RPG representation for sure
Hard to say maybe Indie Retro News covers a lot of new C64 stuff , checkout my new video covering all my favorite C64 games of 2019 for tons of info on cool titles to check out
no love for Knights of Legend anywhere in these lists... odd, if you ask me - it might involve a whole bunch of disk-swapping, but it is without a doubt one of the finest and most detailed cRPGs of the 8-bit era; IMO it surpasses even the Goldbox engine in terms of (strategical) combat.
Thanks for watching , the simple answer is I couldn't get a single version of the game to work properly to capture footage ... I tried so many 😭 , I played it in the early 90s and enjoyed it despite the insane loading and disc swapping .
I've never played it before , I do know about it and looks cool . I simply made the list up of games I played back in the day . I might do a review for Newcomer in the future . Thx for watching .
At least my first two computer games got name checked (Questron and BArd’s tale 2). Had never heard of the entry level ones you mentioned but played a lot of the others
Love this list. A few I hadn't heard of before which look like exactly what I want. Interesting that both Bard's Tale and Ultima glommed on to Skara Brae. Maramon is misspelled in the timeline, looking up Keys to Merriman is... quite the different rabbit hole I don't need.
Keys to Maramon is one of those games I got particularly into as a kid that never seems to come up nowadays. Probably because it only had moderately positive reviews and being a spinoff of the Magic Candle meant it was never going to be seen as important in and of itself; kind of like Hillsfar being overlooked too, though I think Keys to Maramon played better and had a better story overall too.
@@BastichB64K Weird that it was so problematic, but it makes me think of when I tried to play the game as a kid. The game would randomly crash on me, making it hard to get very far into it. Frustrating with the long load times and having to start over most of the time. But one day I took my computer to a friend's house and it worked fine. I eventually figured out that my printer being plugged in (through the 1541 drive) that was causing the crash. Maybe it's just cursed, lol.
@@jimwright2318 yeah I had so many issues on my original C64 playing it as well ... Insanely long load times , crashes .. starting over .... But I still loved it . If somebody could do this game in a CRT file with no loads it would be amazing 🙌
@@BastichB64K Yop, seams it's only in french but i found a link to a translation of the manuel and i saw someone talking of google translate (not the best translation but perhaps it's enough for this game). I spoked about it because i remembered seeing its great art cover when i was a kid. Damn i wanted to play this game (but hard to do it without a c64). manual translation www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38569&sid=0868fda8dd0c5342b44ad6e43056e272 cover in an article www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/danse-macabre/ the game rom is findable (but i didn't tested it yet)
Never played any of these in my C-64 because I din't have floppy disk (I had heroes of the lance and dragons of flame but I don't consider those rpgs). Anyway I have played some of them in other platforms (PC and Sega Genesis/Megadrive) and I can only say... What a time to be alive 😀
Wow. Yes. I agree wholeheartedly with this list, Wasteland is #1. I would have added Starflight though since I would say it's and RPG. Impressive Video. Thanks for making it. Subscribed.
I was wondering if Mars Saga was a sequel to Mines of Titan which was on the Apple II? I played the hell out of Mines of Titan. Such a good game for its time.
Hey, great list. Would love to see a video on the space adventure games you mentioned. One of my favourite genres, and it's really difficult to find videos for the C64 versions of the three games you mentioned, esp. Starflight and Sentinel Worlds - I can only find footage of the DOS versions (and MD for Starflight). P. S. One of my favourites in the genre is ASCII Sector, which I understand is heavily inspired by Wing Commander: Privateer, which I unfortunately haven't played yet.
Thx for watching , yeah you're right it's like the C64 versions never existed but I played and loved them . Fear not Starflight and Sentinel worlds will definitely be featured . Not sure when I'm gonna make that vid but it's on the list and thanks for mentioning Ascii sector .. I've never heard of it so I'm gonna check it out for sure , I loved privateer so if it's the inspiration then it should be cool .
Such wonderful little list, with open pearls of (black)magic and hidden gems,glimmering in the dark... Sooo many old treasures I will try again ....And thanx for the FIRST GERMAN WORDS! AT HE BEGINNING!!!! "Hey, beste Spiele für 64k !!! Or is it something about your name?!?! It sounds like "beste Spiele für 64k" (best games for 64k)
I loved all the SSI Gold box games. Played on the C64 and the Amiga. Need to play shadow sorcerer as i never had it back in the day. Dragon wars i think was an exceptional game. It was what bards tale series should have been with advanced graphic interface and full world. A friends original had a disk error so we didnt finish it. I have an original copy now though WITH THE CLUE BOOK! :D Some games not on your list. Road war series by SSI. Heavily influenced by max max where you have to assemble a party of vehicles, soldiers and scientists so that you can find a cure for a virus. Came out when B grade apocalyptic were all the go. Phantasie series by ssi. I played the third one and its heaps of fun. You chop limbs off opponents etc that affect stats during turn based combat. Original at the time. It will be fun to go back to these games to see if you can beat them. Particularly text heavy games where being a 10 year old often was not enough to understand fully what was going on.
Might and magic and wasteland should have swapped places...i mean i only played the genesis version but that game had endless content! Great review man!
The Genesis version is way more slick and plays much better than the c64 one just bear that in mind , its a bit slow and clunky on the C64 thats why Wasteland wins. Thanks for watching 🕹️👍
Nice collection! We played many of the same games. They don’t make them like this anymore :( . I’d have to say phantasy star was my favorite but that was a sega mastersystem. They have a remake of it on pc now I’d recommend you play!
Also a big trilogy made by SSI, Phantasie. I liked it because it had a built in map function. I tried going back to if a few years ago but I found it a little too primitive. One of the lesser SSI RPGs briefly mentioned was Shard of Spring which is one of the few RPGs I actually finished! It had this interesting mechanic where you could decide how many spell points to use above the minimum required for each spell. I killed the main villain by throwing the first spell I learned but using all my spell points on it, she was toast! Sadly, good luck finding a good rom dump of the game, every time I have tried it crashes. However the good news is that the rom dump for the sequel, Demon's Winter, works just fine. I also love the Gold Box series by SSI, I have finished almost all of them several times. To be fair, I usually play them on Amiga or PC for better graphics and performance.
Yeah SSI made some great stuff , I played a lot of the D&D games and really loved Buck Rodgers . Messed around with the Phantasie games and id love to play them more time permitting
What a great vid. Big c64 but didn't know a couple of these, e.g. buck rodgers. What accent is that? Thought you might be Australian at first, like me, but is it South African??
@@BastichB64K Wooo, I guessed South African halfway through the video, so I'm 1 in 1000! I admit, I never could've guessed before seeing Neill Blomkamp movies. Thanks a lot for the great video!
@@jasoneverett yep now a days its hard to escape any spoilers or info using the internet. I tried real hard to keep Cyberpunk 2077 a mystery...and failed.
Actually i am not a rpg gamer but my no. 1 would be Times Of Lore. I think it has the best graphic and it was also released on tape. I got my C64 in 1988 and i also have a magazine with the test of Times Of Lore.
Great list. I think my number one would be Ultima V. I played it for months and tbh I never did really like the isometric view of VI. I had Wasteland too but jeez that was brutally hard and it put me off.
Yeah Ultima V is great too , I try to only choose one game from a series for these vids so it's not just too much of the same . Wasteland is a hard nut , if you can survive enough to get decent equipment and supplies then you're on your way but yeah it's is hard initially.
When I launched the TH-cam app on my TV, it came up with only one recommended video, this one. Like it knew that this would be the one video I cared about more than all others, and it was right! I wish there was a like button for every order of magnitude that I like this video. I would press them all. Some GREAT recommendations on this list I hadn’t considered before. I collect games that support the 1351 mouse, and it’s worth noting that Centauri Alliance is one such game. Great to see Keys to Maramon on this list! I remember buying that game and having to take it back. I’ll have to revisit it! Just a great video all around. So glad there’s someone else out there with the same fondness for C64 RPGs. Did you own Bard’s Tale on tape? I didn’t even know there was a tape version until recently. I can’t imagine playing from tape, as crucial as saving your game is to success. As always, great work on the production of the video too. I wish every video on TH-cam was this video. Gonna rewatch.
Thx a lot 👍 really glad you liked it , I wasn't aware that Alpha Centauri supported the mouse thx for the info . I played Bards Tale on disc , I hardly played any RPGs on tape but other styles of games I played a ton of tape versions . Lots more C64 videos ahead focusing on new and old C64 releases and many more Top 10 as well 👍👍👍
You can save your games in the tape versions of most games...it just saves to a separate tape instead of separate disk. I have a single save game tape, which unlike disk I can use the same tape for every single game. This is due to the fact that it won't need to format or anything like that. The tape just saves them in order and you can write down where you put your save on the sleeve. If I can, I try to get a copy of games on tape where possible, because you can fit so many games on a tape, and never have to worry about reliability problems. Several times my disk drive has failed for one reason or another, and I never have had a problem with my datasette. So, in such times, I just soldier on with my cassette copies of games. Some games can be a bit irritating on tape, like defender of the crown. Since it requires loads to switch between parts of the game. Also, that particular game I don't think you can save your progress, but even games like Mercenary: Escape from Targ on tape make provision for saved games. Most RPGs didn't come out on tape, although a handful did. Here is a list:
2D RPGS
Arena
Battle Khaos I & 2
Dungeon Crawl
Dungeons of Mugoolie
Penultimate Fantasy (I think I patched that to tape, and I have the only copy)
Quest
Wizard's Tower
3D RPG:
Bard's Tale I (Takes 2 cassettes on both sides to conveniently access all the parts of the game, just like defender of the crown.)
Text based RPGs (more like a MUD)
Crystal Orb, The
Lord of the Balrogs (very cheesy...)
There is an actual MUD style game speaking of which, called MicroMUD which takes two sides of a disk if you want to get some more MUD action. I guess it would be more like a SUD (single user dungeon, heh)
@@peterlamont647 Wow, that's actually quite a lot more than I would have imagined. You make good points here about the unreliability of disks. Wow, I can't imagine playing Defender of the Crown on tape. Ha, you patched Penultimate Fantasy on tape? I actually played that one on my channel. I've never heard of most of these games, except Bard's Tale and Penultimate Fantasy. So even today, your C64 medium of choice is the tape? I had plenty of Vic-20 cassettes as a kid, but the only C64 game I've ever owned on tape was an original Bruce Lee I found in a used datasette I bought off Craigslist. It wouldn't load.
@@pacbilly Ya, I forget why I patched penutlimate fantasy...I think its because I was moving, and my drive came out of alignment. I eventually opened it up and fixed it. The irony is that the disk drives seem to work for a long time, but when they go, you can't just take them to the commodore shop. Hence why I have tape backups. The other irony is that even disks with corrupt data are often just fine after a format. I have a program called DISCAN from the first issue of loadstar. It can flag bad sectors on disks, so often even bad disks can be used. That said, I just think _long_ _long_ term wise, tapes are going to be around another 40 years. Disks? maybe. No one thought they would last this long, but if reformatted/rewritten, they are fine even after 30-40 years. Tapes are just that much more durable though. Having the rigid cover and leader tape. You can also re-lubricate them if they become sticky after too many years by adding silicone oil
@@peterlamont647 There's definitely a reason why tapes are said or experienced to be more reliable or at least durable then other storage media, why an attempt was made to release a digital cassette (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Compact_Cassette ) and why servers store seldom used data in "slow" cassette or tape drives, it wouldn't astoun me if those slow tape servers were also with digital cassettes. Just some thinking to that topic, i'm not an expert about this.
Ah The Bard's Tale, I must have spent 8 months on that hardcore rpg. I loved all that map making with graph paper and pencil. Watch out for those Fred's.
So much fun , yeah i had tons of hand drawn maps
I love Wasteland! When I finished it, I searched for something similar and came across Mars Saga. Couldn't get into it at first but when you do, it is really an excellent game. Not as good as Wasteland but excellent nonetheless. Give it time. It does not hook you the first time you play it like Wasteland but when it gets going, it really gets going!
Yeah it's in the honorable mentions list , it definitely takes a lot longer to get into but it's great I agree 🕹️👍
I got originals for both (c64 version).. I cheated a bit creating two "citadel" disk sides, I could attack + loot citadel infinite times.. just pop the fake disk in when leaving it.. I just recently played through the remaster on Stream, can't cheat in it.. but that's alright; didn't really need to anyway. :D In mars saga I remember gambling addiction at the casino.. :_D
I did the same thing. Mars Saga starts slow. Unfortunately I wrecked the disk after it started to get good.
Phantasie series from SSI was probably their most famous prior to the Gold Box in terms of RPGs. I know you didn't play them but for many of us who did it was one of the best RPGs...simple graphics but ahead of its time in terms of what it brought to the table (Overhead full party overland view, multiple unique races like Pixies/Sprites/Trolls/Minotaurs for use as Player characters, D&D amount of items and monsters. It was truly the closest to a D&D tabletop game at the time. Of course Might and Magic/Bards Tale were way more polished but Phantasie has a special place.
Best ending for an RPG probably has to go to Questron. You can't describe the ending it has to be experienced. That haunting piercing alarm that gets louder and louder like a countdiown timer has to be experienced.
Ultima IV for its unique for the time non "Kill Foozle (Bad guy)" ending is another gem. I could go on but understand this was YOUR list :) Just sharing some of mine!
Thx for sharing , some good info ... There are so many great RPGs on the C64 that I think no 2 peoples list would ever be remotely the same .
I replayed Questron and the first two Phantasie games multiple times...so much depth and fun in those. How many games can you get strong enough to fight a god in, like Phantasie?
@@rikk319 So true! Killing your first Zeus in Phantasie I was a special experience. I loved how non linear the game mostly was (some minor exceptions). You could challenge your party at any time almost anywhere. If you did kill Zeus you hoped you would get for your first "God Item" the sword and not the dagger although the dagger was just fine as well ;)
Great list! Never got into Wasteland, but was a SSI AD&D fiend, finished Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, all 3 Dragonlance games and both of the Buck Rogers games.
Nice , they were a great selection of RPG'S .. I really loved the first Buck Rogers game a lot
My favourite was The Dragon Wars. I loved the graphics, the atmosphere, the different areas. I remember spending countless time to map the game, looking for hidden areas.
Thanks for the video!
Thx for watching , I lost many hours to Dragon Wars , time well spent I think 😁👍
I got original for Amiga for Dragon Wars, did play it though.. really well made game..
That was just a very fond walk down memory lane. I've played many of these RPG's on the C64 from the earliest Temple of Apshai and Telengard to grand daddy's like Pools of Radiance. At the time of release, Ultima3 was a highly polished RPG that took the genre to the next level. And, I do agree, Wasteland was my favorite! I loved the modifiable world and they way the storyline evolved from killing rats with 6 shooters to help out some high school kids to eventually fighting off robots with high powered laser weapons. So many great memories. Thanks!
Thank you for watching , It was really fun to dabble back in with all these games on the list again to make the vid , I had to leave a lot of great ones off it but glad it brought back some good memories 🕹️👍
Okay so the list in the video info DOES NOT name even close to all the games he lists in the video. Infact, there arent even 10 in the top 10 listed(they are in the video though) so I made A complete list of all the games and honorable mentions. They are not in order because frankly, they are ALL worth playing.
Bards tale I-III
Hillsfar
Sentinel Words
Space Rogue
I remember playing Pool of Radiance on my C64. Loved how they took images from the Monster Manual. My friend slept over once and we stayed up all night playing, taking turns controlling the party. Went to bed some time around 6am! Those were the days!
Thats the way we played RPGs as well as a team until my friends mom found us awake at 5 in the morning having played the whole night and shouted at us to go to bed 😂😂😂
LotA and Pool of Radiance were the two games that really launched me in to CRPG's back in the day. From then on, went on to discover many of the games mentioned here, and more.
Tough to narrow them down to 10, but, I think you did a pretty good job of it really. A respectable top 10.
Thx for watching , it's tough doing these but a lot of fun
I have to agree with you on Wasteland. Superb game with a setting that was remarkably fresh and new in a genre dominated by fantasy. I also agree on Tass Times in Tonetown, and was gratified to see it get a mention. It's a very underrated game with the finest atmosphere I've ever seen on the Commodore.
Cheers thx for the comment , I'm definitely gonna do a review of Tass Times on the channel as well
In December I built a new 64 based on the ultimate 64 and have been working my way through old rpgs, some I played but never finished. I’m going to give keys of maramon a try. One that I would add that some may not consider a rpg is Below the Root. Excellent game that is still very playable today. Thanks for the video.
Cheers thanks for watching , yeah below the root is a cool game .. I wouldn't label it an RPG bit I'm gonna try and get it on some sort of list in the future 👍
Tnx for reminding me of this one. Stumbled across it in the late 90s and thought this is a must play. Perhaps now is the time 😄
You've got my respect with your choice of Wasteland. My favorite game on the C64 ever.
It's so epic ! It had to be #1 👍 thx for watching
Christina and Patch, Snake Vargas, just classic. I recommend you try to get the official guide book, it's a walkthrough written like a novel, it was amazing, probably really rare now.
It was funny, when you reached the honorable mentions... I was waiting to flip the table if you said Wasteland. I was so relieved!
@@DrGarfink hahaha , well the #1 was a difficult choice .. it was almost Ultima 6 but I changed it late into production of the video .. I think it turned out to be the right choice at least in my opinion 😉👍
I found a copy of the hint book: mocagh.org/ea/wasteland-hintbook.pdf
Times of Lore and Legacy of the Ancients are 2 of my absolute favorites! Really dug this video, thanks!
Cheers thx for watching 🕹️👍
Questron was also made by the same guys, but as it was earlier, it was something of a harder find. Still a great RPG with the same style, just not as polished.
Nice list, I never knew a lot of 2D RPG games on the C64 and was surprised by the quality of GFX on 'Times of Lore'
Yeah there's a lot of really excellent ones , this video only stretches the surface . I think the C64 version of Times of lore is by far the best beating the NES and PC versions in my opinion
@@BastichB64K I was a fan of 'The fairy tale Adventure' on the Amiga and was surprised to see a port to the C64. GFX and sound was OK and near to the Amiga version but the process of constantly loading data from a floppy made the C64 version unplayable.
@@stelleratorsuprise8185 I totally agree that's why I didn't include it ... The loading was insane ..even just walking into a house took ages to load , what a shame 😭
Times of More is mindnlowingly good considering it's a C64
You know what is the most underrated C64 game of all time?? Also, it is the largest game ever made for the C64, spanning 15 disks. I just found out about it yesterday! It came out in 2001 by protovision. 2001 was around time before the mass wave of retro-game/computer fever set in, and after the Commodore was no longer a main computer for most users. As a result, no one knows about it. It is like a demo made into a game(something I have often heard people say they want). Imagine a 2000's demo made into an RPG with animated FLI bitmap scenes and an interesting back story.
Anyway, it is 'Newcomer' by protovision (c) 2001.
It stands as a monument to software engineering at a time when few were ever going to even see it. I hope now it gets it's rightful place in history as the most epic game ever made for the C64.
I actually downloaded many versions of this to review and every single one had issues from disks that didn't work to the insane in game load times ... so in the end I just gave up . It's starts good is all I can say for sure
There is in fact an Ultimate version in the making, since many years. Hopefully it'll be finished one day. Will be even bigger then - and hopefully as crt, so no loading involved anymore.
The master of magic was also a budget title. You could buy it with a weeks pocket money and still have some left over for sweets and pop.
Hahaha yeah ! There were some really great budget titles back then
Great game
Great, Commodore 64 stuff again. I can not believe I have never played any of these games on the C64, and I had my C64 for many years in the 80's. I still have it, by the way. I guess I was playing other games. I guess I was not paying attention to other games. Thanks
Yeah you're not the only one! I've found that a lot of C64 owners never embraced RPG'S all that much so that's why I wanted to do this video . Thx for watching 👍
Great episode! It did not disappoint. a lot of these came out after I migrated from the Commodore 64 up to the Amiga in 1988, so I never had a chance to look at them. Now that I am having a great time with my Commodore 64 equipment again, I need to get some of these! Thanks for the continued great work.
Cheers thx , hope you found some gems to give a try .. there's a ton of other good RPGs as well
One's I played was Curse of the Azure Bonds, Bard's Tale, Apshai, Phantasie, Ultima 3 and 4. I miss all the maps and instruction manuals and cool extras you would get with these games.
Yeah there were so many great ones it was hard to ommit some of those . And the extras were the best ! They just don't make quality game boxes or extras like that anymore
Great list! Was waiting for Wasteland to be mentioned all through the video, lol. Finally I could only agree! You mentioned some SSI titles that were pretty obscure and hard to come by here in Germany. I’ll definitely check those out! Thank you for doing this awesome list! Makes me wish I was 14 again and had time to sink into one of those titles. That was the perfect escapism of my youth. Everyone else was worrying about the cold war and a possible nuclear war while I was tied to my 8bit home computer trying to save the remains of humanity after that war in the post apocalyptic world of wasteland 😅...
Cool thanks for sharing that story 👍 and I appreciate you checking out the video thx
I remember when Fallout (the original) came out and I was thinking how similar the games were. It took me some digging to find out the creators worked on Wasteland. If you have a console, and free time, Wasteland 2 and 3 are on Xbox game pass. Its just an amazing experience for someone who loved the original Wasteland.
Wow, wasn't aware that the C64 had such a rich selection of RPGs! An exceptional video as usual; informative, engaging, and superbly structured and presented.
Thx 👍😊 , yeah there are a ton of great RPGs .. I had to leave so many off the list but it's a cool underappreciated genre on the C64 I think
Trying to think of a home PC that had a better selection of RPGs at any point in the 1980s.......
Check out Newcomer as well, It's a relatively new one (and by new I mean 2001ish)
Don't forget about "TELENGARD!" Without Telengard, we wouldn't have modern AD&D dungeon crawlers. RIP Daniel Lawerence (the developer of the original TELENGARD)
I never forgot about it , its simply not in my top 10 favs
I can get behind this list.
Great list. My gaming must have mirrored yours. There was a certain excitement to visiting stores that sold games back in those days. You never knew what would be on the shelf, so it was always a surprise and I would come home with a new game and be so excited to escape into a fantasy world. Great video and great lineup of games. Space Rogue and Auto Duel with the mentions... brilliant.
Cheers thank you , check out my Space Trading Top 10 as well for more on Space Rogue and a few other RPG hybrids
Love this! Recently started the remastered The Bard's Tale Trilogy on Steam. First time I've played anything like it and I love it - the challenge, the atmosphere, and the fact that I'm about 10 hours in and have only explored a couple dungeons so far has me excited for everything else the series has to offer! I'll save this list for when I'm done with that and hungry for more!
Those remasters are very nice , I messed around with them a while back 👍👍
The Bard's Tale is absolutely brilliant. I played it to death in 1987 and I play the inexile remasters today.
Yeah it was excellent ✅✅
Loved Wizards crown and eternal dagger, but bards tale trilogy was the best of them all
Thanks for this list! I just recently got the C64 mini and needed to know what games to play. Enjoying tangled tales and wasteland right now for the first time.
No problem , have fun
One I haven't seen mentioned yet is Rings of Zilfin. It was a copy from a friend, who got it from a friend, etc. No manual, and I was never able to progress very far into it, but it mesmerized me. I've since watched a playthrough on TH-cam and gotten my itch for it satisfied. There were so many games like it that fell through the cracks, with poor or no advertising for them.
Yeah that was one of the games I couldn't find a good working version of for this list unfortunately , I played it too back in the day ... didn't get far as well as it was a crack but it seemed pretty cool .
Of all the RPGs I played on my C64 back in the day, my favorite is The Magic Candle: a brilliant, almost unknown, gem (thanks for at least mentioning it!). Pool of Radiance's (and its follow-ups') combat system is definitely my favorite, as it allows for huge tactical, battles (the fight against the horde of monsters in the Sokal Keep area was REALLY epic!). I'll try Tangled Tales sooner or later :-)
Cheers thank you for watching , I really enjoyed Magic Candle but I honestly could not get a working version of the game for the list otherwise it would have been on there 👍
I hope you do a video on your favourite C64 budget games in the future
That's actually a very good idea 👍 I hadn't thought of a list for that ... At some point that'll happen 😂
Great idea for a video. Had so many different friends who worshipped a different vast multidisk RPG.
So many good old ones i loved back then 👍
Thanks for the Times of Lore music! Never played but the music stayed with me :)
Cheers , thx for watching
Fun Fact: the Might and Magic II C64 conversion was John Romero's first commercial programming project in his later teenage years.
Interesting 🤔, i never knew that 😀👍
Very cool. Thanks for introducing some of these.
No problem , thx for watching 😁👍
I played and loved Wasteland, Legacy of the Ancients, Bard's Tale, Pools of Radiance, Wizardry . Many happy hours...
Good times🕹️👍
Some rare gems there. There was one 3d maze dungeon craweler that I remember on cartidge only. I found it a couple of years ago as a TH-camr did a playthrough. C64 was a cracking machine. Didn't have a floppy drive at the time so my choice for RPGs was restricted at the time.
Yeah without a disc drive there were hardly any RPG'S to choose from . Thanks for watching 🕹️👍
I can't quibble too much with your choice of Ultima VI over IV, but to me, IV is, by far, the best of the Ultima games. It had a soul and depth that really sets it apart from any other game I've ever played.
Its cool no doubt i agree i simply played the other one more , both are brilliant . Thank you for watching 👍
This is great information for someone just getting into the C64! Thanks!
No problem , glad it was helpful 🕹️
Great List. I enjoyed a lot of these as well. For me, Ultima 2 and The Bard's Tale is what really started my RPG craze in the early 80s. There just wasn't anything like it. Being a tabletop D&D player too, and having that translate over to a video game was just magical. So many titles, so much fun. Have came a long ways from the Adventureland, Zork, Telengard days til now :)
Awesome thanks for watching , yeah those early Ultima games were something special they just sucked me into their world's for days on end 😀🕹️👍
Great list. I played a ton of 64 back in the day but never had any RPGs might have to add some of these to my mini.
Thx , yeah a lot of people never played the RPGs on the system which is a pity because there are so many gems
@@BastichB64K Thanks your video has definitely set me in the right direction.
The SSI RPG games in the US were fairly easy to find, we had Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, and Secret of the Silver Blades in a local Sears (RIP!) near the house back in the 80s/90s
Yeah that was definitely not the case for anyone outside of the US ... Rpgs were very difficult to find on the C64
@@BastichB64K - life was different back then I guess.... i enjoyed that video, it took me back in time. My only regret was that Road War 2000 wasn't in the list.... 😅
@@VBGamer thx for watching I appreciate it . Check out my D&D video covering all the C64 releases 🕹️👍 you may like it
Didn't realise how many top quality releases there were RPG wise back in the day on the C64.
Only ever played Master of magic and Times of lore.
Look forward to Eye of the beholder, surely the game of the year if it comes out before 2022.
There were so many ...I left tons out ...just too many 😂👍 I think Beholder is coming out pretty soon according to a recent article I read .
Great picks. I remember when I was a kid I did not make backups of my Wasteland disks, (bad idea, cause the game writes the world status on the disk, so never play with the originals) cause I immediately jumped into the game without reading the manual. Many years later I completed the full game on the PC.
Thx , glad you enjoyed it
Legacy of the Ancients was the first game that you could get the sense of dread because they played the monster sounds volume based on proximity, so you could hear that you were close to something, but you had no idea where it was going to jump-scare you as you turned a corner.
I think that was my first favorite RPG. Bard's Tale and Might & Magic were all great. I like the modern auto-map feature, but there was just something about having to use graph paper if you wanted to know how to get through a dungeon.
Legacy was definitely something special , i had so many drawn maps for RPGs it was so much fun mapping those worlds .. wish i still had all the maps i made .
Newcomer is greatest RPG ever released on C64 IMO. Sadly missing from here!
Could not get a single version of that to work (and i tried many ) properly without crashing , errors or some sort of issue etc..
I like this list, but it really, really needs to include Battletech, the Crescent Hawk's Revenge - at least on the honourable mentions.
I loved the SSI D&D games and used to play through them all the time in high school.
Thx for watching , there were just too many RPG's to mention everything . Battletech was pretty good though 👍
I agree...it doesn't get much better than Battletech! (The crescent Hawks Inception). Future battle RPG with a great story and lots of character interaction without too many classes and attributes to weigh down the fun. Instead it is more story/action based...with MECHS!!! Nothing like blowing up a Draconian with an SRM 2 either. Love that game. See you in the arena free birth! Oh and I also love the customized builds you can do on your mech to make it more deadly even with the light tonnage you get.
Yeah, was going to mention that as well.
Excellent choices! I have most of them, but I learned about some new ones to look for now!
Cheers thx 👍 I hope you enjoy the new ones . Thx for watching
I loved Legacy of the ancients, and that it included Liar's Dice as a subgame, and that it had stinging nettles that would kill you.
Great game 🕹️👍
Very excellent video! Very fun, thorough, and informative! Well done!
Thx 👍 it took a lot of time to make that one lol , glad you liked it
@@BastichB64K Your welcome! i can tell, the effort was worth it! You really nailed that game genre!
It's great that someone has finally made a video on role playing games on the Commodore64, but how, HOW did you miss Origin's Space Rogue, Infocom's BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Inception, and up until the Eye of the Beholder port showed up for the Commodore64, Pandora's Xenomorph? I mean, Xenomorph is practically on par with Dungeon Master on the ATARI ST and Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga, it pushed the Commodore64 to the limit, and yet, somehow, you've completely missed it, not even a mention, let alone putting it at more than well deserved #1 spot?
These are simply my favs thats all , as for Space Rogue its in my Space Trading Top 10 as its not a full on RPG and its #1 . Thx for watching
Love this video dragon wars and wasteland and starflight are my favorites now those were happy times
Cheers thx , check out my C64 Space trading top 10 for more on Starflight 🕹️👍
Awesome choices. I would also give an honorable mention to Demon's Winter (another SSI game, although not connected to the AD&D series). It was actually a sequel to an earlier game called Shard of Spring, which wasn't that bad in it's own right.
Also the Alternate Reality games, especially The Dungeon. So many great RPGs on this system. That was actually one of my biggest criticisms of the C64 mini when it came out, the complete lack of RPGs... Well technically The Apshai games are RPGs, but I mean more "modern" RPGs
Yeah there were so many to try and mention ..too many for one list lol . Yeah I think the reason the mini had no RPG'S is cause the UK was more dominated by arcade style games and the C64 in the US was much more RPG centric ... But yeah the mini needed more RPG representation for sure
That's true. RPGs never really caught on until the 16 bit era in the UK anyway. Except for maybe Master of Magic that is.
Awesome list! Was looking for some games to add to my mini.
Cheers , thx for watching
Its interesting they seem to cluster around a similar style of RPG. You dont see any that look like Dragon Warrior 2 for example.
Yeah that's the way classic CRPG's were made back then 😄👍
@@BastichB64K I was wondering, does C64 have a homebrew scene?
@@usedx115x yes! It's massive .. new games been released every month for free and full retail physical releases
@@BastichB64K Oh wow, what is a good place online for information on it?
Hard to say maybe Indie Retro News covers a lot of new C64 stuff , checkout my new video covering all my favorite C64 games of 2019 for tons of info on cool titles to check out
no love for Knights of Legend anywhere in these lists... odd, if you ask me - it might involve a whole bunch of disk-swapping, but it is without a doubt one of the finest and most detailed cRPGs of the 8-bit era; IMO it surpasses even the Goldbox engine in terms of (strategical) combat.
Thanks for watching , the simple answer is I couldn't get a single version of the game to work properly to capture footage ... I tried so many 😭 , I played it in the early 90s and enjoyed it despite the insane loading and disc swapping .
I had a Commodore 64 and 128.
The rpgs I had were:
1. Bards Tale
2. Ultima
3. Legacy of the Ancients
4. Pool of Radience
Those were some heavy hitter cool titles 😀👍
Nice list. What's about 'Newcomer'?
I've never played it before , I do know about it and looks cool . I simply made the list up of games I played back in the day . I might do a review for Newcomer in the future . Thx for watching .
At least my first two computer games got name checked (Questron and BArd’s tale 2). Had never heard of the entry level ones you mentioned but played a lot of the others
Mars Saga was one of my favorite games as a kid.
Pretty good game , lost a lot of hours too it 👌😂
loved your show sir. keep up the good work.
Thank you much appreciated 👍
Love this list. A few I hadn't heard of before which look like exactly what I want. Interesting that both Bard's Tale and Ultima glommed on to Skara Brae. Maramon is misspelled in the timeline, looking up Keys to Merriman is... quite the different rabbit hole I don't need.
Keys to Maramon is one of those games I got particularly into as a kid that never seems to come up nowadays. Probably because it only had moderately positive reviews and being a spinoff of the Magic Candle meant it was never going to be seen as important in and of itself; kind of like Hillsfar being overlooked too, though I think Keys to Maramon played better and had a better story overall too.
Both overlooked gems imhop , thats why i included them in the list
Yup - Wasteland. Still prefer this to any Fallout game or Wasteland 2. And the C64 is THE way to play it. It just "fits"
I agree 100% 🕹️👍
Great list! Another that I enjoyed was Knights of Legend by Origin. Great graphics and massive depth to it.
Yeah that was gonna be in the list .. I loved it but I couldn't get any version of that game to run to capture footage ... And I tried many 😭
@@BastichB64K Weird that it was so problematic, but it makes me think of when I tried to play the game as a kid. The game would randomly crash on me, making it hard to get very far into it. Frustrating with the long load times and having to start over most of the time. But one day I took my computer to a friend's house and it worked fine. I eventually figured out that my printer being plugged in (through the 1541 drive) that was causing the crash. Maybe it's just cursed, lol.
@@jimwright2318 yeah I had so many issues on my original C64 playing it as well ... Insanely long load times , crashes .. starting over .... But I still loved it . If somebody could do this game in a CRT file with no loads it would be amazing 🙌
Loved Dragon Wars, and still play the AD&D stuff to this day.
Its a great game even now 🕹️👍
@@BastichB64K Try the cartridge remake of Ultima IV with the newly done intro and improvements. The definitive version of the game, on any platform.
@@C64_Mat thx i did a big video on all the C64 Ultima games 👇
th-cam.com/video/UX9vNNTRIh8/w-d-xo.html
heard of "danse macabre" only on c64 but i don't know if it 's in english (french only perhaps)
No I haven't , if it was french language only then I wouldn't have played it because of the language barrier
@@BastichB64K Yop, seams it's only in french but i found a link to a translation of the manuel and i saw someone talking of google translate (not the best translation but perhaps it's enough for this game).
I spoked about it because i remembered seeing its great art cover when i was a kid. Damn i wanted to play this game (but hard to do it without a c64).
manual translation
www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38569&sid=0868fda8dd0c5342b44ad6e43056e272
cover in an article
www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/danse-macabre/
the game rom is findable (but i didn't tested it yet)
@@domlesombred6844 thx for the info , I'll take a look
Never played any of these in my C-64 because I din't have floppy disk (I had heroes of the lance and dragons of flame but I don't consider those rpgs). Anyway I have played some of them in other platforms (PC and Sega Genesis/Megadrive) and I can only say... What a time to be alive 😀
Such great games , quality stuff ✔️
Wow. Yes. I agree wholeheartedly with this list, Wasteland is #1. I would have added Starflight though since I would say it's and RPG. Impressive Video. Thanks for making it. Subscribed.
Thx for watching and subbing , cheers 👍
This video could be called "A beards tale" as well. Your beard is vanishing over the time...hilarious! Thx for the fun and the memories ;)
😂👍 I took a while to put that one together hence the different looks 😂
I played Hillsfar so much back in the days
Brilliant game so underated 👌
amazing games in this list, the c64 had some of the best, Great video mate, big thumbs up :o)
Thanks , there were so many good RPGs that I had to leave out as well
Great video! You talk about ssi, one of my favourite games ever is theirs Storm Across Europe! Very good strategy games about second world war!
Cool I never got to play that but I am planning a turn based strategy C64 top 10 so I'll add that to the list of one I need to try out , thx 😁
That's more of a strategy game than an RPG though.
Well.. Wasteland was on the list.. Master of Magic got a mention. I'm happy :)
Thx for watching 👍
Fun stuff. Still one of my favorite things to do with my free time.
Nice list. Neuromancer would have been my #1.
Thx , I'm actually putting Neuromancer on another list that I'm putting together and it's gonna rank pretty high 🕹️👍👍
@@BastichB64K Subscribed! Can't wait!
Cheers thx 👍
I was wondering if Mars Saga was a sequel to Mines of Titan which was on the Apple II? I played the hell out of Mines of Titan. Such a good game for its time.
Mines of Titan is an updated remake of Mars Saga 👍
I LOvED Bard's Tale. And even Zork, text based adventure games. Do you remember the text only games?
Yeah totally, played a lot by Infocom such Leather Goddesses and Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy
Hey, great list. Would love to see a video on the space adventure games you mentioned. One of my favourite genres, and it's really difficult to find videos for the C64 versions of the three games you mentioned, esp. Starflight and Sentinel Worlds - I can only find footage of the DOS versions (and MD for Starflight).
P. S. One of my favourites in the genre is ASCII Sector, which I understand is heavily inspired by Wing Commander: Privateer, which I unfortunately haven't played yet.
Thx for watching , yeah you're right it's like the C64 versions never existed but I played and loved them . Fear not Starflight and Sentinel worlds will definitely be featured . Not sure when I'm gonna make that vid but it's on the list and thanks for mentioning Ascii sector .. I've never heard of it so I'm gonna check it out for sure , I loved privateer so if it's the inspiration then it should be cool .
I have not played on a Commodore 64 since my age was in the single digits.
Loving your videos but I must ask.... where is your accent from??
Thx 👍 , I'm originally from South Africa and moved to Canada in the late 90's so that's it 😂
@@BastichB64K Ah that's it... certainly a unique combo! Great videos mate :)
Such wonderful little list, with open pearls of (black)magic and hidden gems,glimmering in the dark... Sooo many old treasures I will try again ....And thanx for the FIRST GERMAN WORDS! AT HE BEGINNING!!!! "Hey, beste Spiele für 64k !!! Or is it something about your name?!?! It sounds like "beste Spiele für 64k" (best games for 64k)
Thx for watching ,. Glad you enjoyed it
I loved all the SSI Gold box games. Played on the C64 and the Amiga. Need to play shadow sorcerer as i never had it back in the day. Dragon wars i think was an exceptional game. It was what bards tale series should have been with advanced graphic interface and full world. A friends original had a disk error so we didnt finish it. I have an original copy now though WITH THE CLUE BOOK! :D
Some games not on your list. Road war series by SSI. Heavily influenced by max max where you have to assemble a party of vehicles, soldiers and scientists so that you can find a cure for a virus. Came out when B grade apocalyptic were all the go.
Phantasie series by ssi. I played the third one and its heaps of fun. You chop limbs off opponents etc that affect stats during turn based combat. Original at the time.
It will be fun to go back to these games to see if you can beat them. Particularly text heavy games where being a 10 year old often was not enough to understand fully what was going on.
So many great rpgs ... So little time 😂👍
Might and magic and wasteland should have swapped places...i mean i only played the genesis version but that game had endless content! Great review man!
The Genesis version is way more slick and plays much better than the c64 one just bear that in mind , its a bit slow and clunky on the C64 thats why Wasteland wins. Thanks for watching 🕹️👍
@@BastichB64K oh i still have the fat book that came with it...i photocopied and enlarged the whole thing so not to ruin it while i played lol
Yeah i used to have that too ! Massive manual lol
Nice collection! We played many of the same games. They don’t make them like this anymore :( . I’d have to say phantasy star was my favorite but that was a sega mastersystem. They have a remake of it on pc now I’d recommend you play!
Thx for watching , Phantasy Star is epic , my fav was Part 2 played that too death back in the 90's
Alot of memories coming back. The smell of opening a new game box. 😊
Those old RPG boxes were packed with coolness 😀👍
Mars Saga is such an epic underrated game.
Yeah it is , im gonna cover it in detail in a future episode of a RPG series im starting this month
@@BastichB64K Cool! Looking forward to it!
I never knew Legacy of the Ancients had a sequel! Also, Ultima VI for the C64?! Amazing. Thanks!
Yeah there are some fantastic RPGs for the C64 to find , enjoy
Fantastic video, can I please ask what the outro music is? It’s very familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it. Thanks.
Oh damn i made that video so long ago i honestly dont remember 🤣 might have been a newer C64 game at the time .
@@BastichB64K thanks! If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated. It’s a great tune.
I remember there being a mission with a time limit pretty early on in Buck Rogers that got me so frustrated that I ditched the whole game.
Its not the easiest game to get into initially
@@BastichB64K Back in the days when you couldn't just google for a walkthrough :)
Also a big trilogy made by SSI, Phantasie. I liked it because it had a built in map function. I tried going back to if a few years ago but I found it a little too primitive. One of the lesser SSI RPGs briefly mentioned was Shard of Spring which is one of the few RPGs I actually finished! It had this interesting mechanic where you could decide how many spell points to use above the minimum required for each spell. I killed the main villain by throwing the first spell I learned but using all my spell points on it, she was toast! Sadly, good luck finding a good rom dump of the game, every time I have tried it crashes. However the good news is that the rom dump for the sequel, Demon's Winter, works just fine. I also love the Gold Box series by SSI, I have finished almost all of them several times. To be fair, I usually play them on Amiga or PC for better graphics and performance.
Yeah SSI made some great stuff , I played a lot of the D&D games and really loved Buck Rodgers . Messed around with the Phantasie games and id love to play them more time permitting
What a great vid. Big c64 but didn't know a couple of these, e.g. buck rodgers. What accent is that? Thought you might be Australian at first, like me, but is it South African??
Thank you for watching and yeah it's South African 😀👍 I currently live in Canada
@@BastichB64K ha, I now live in UK and some people here think my accent is South African!
@@marcusmalone hahaha out of a 1000 people usually one gets South African the rest think I'm from Australia 😂
@@BastichB64K Wooo, I guessed South African halfway through the video, so I'm 1 in 1000! I admit, I never could've guessed before seeing Neill Blomkamp movies. Thanks a lot for the great video!
@@slowbro13215 hahahah i thought you were South African because like you said 1 in 1000 get it right , well done sir well done :)
I miss the c64 days, the games just had an aura of mystery lacking today
Totally agree 👍
It's the internet really. We just had to figure things out for ourselves and it made it more rewarding.
@@jasoneverett yep now a days its hard to escape any spoilers or info using the internet. I tried real hard to keep Cyberpunk 2077 a mystery...and failed.
Hahahaha, I love your hat, "street fighter" I remember that game.
Great beat em up 👌🤣
Actually i am not a rpg gamer but my no. 1 would be Times Of Lore. I think it has the best graphic and it was also released on tape. I got my C64 in 1988 and i also have a magazine with the test of Times Of Lore.
Excellent game , managed to finish it as well back in the day 🕹️👍
We can't figure out your accent. Australian-British-Mississippian? Love the vid!
🤣🤣🤣👍 none of them , it's South African & Canadian mix 🤣🤣👍
My 3 favourites all made the top 10, my favourite being #1. :)
You have good taste sir 😄👍 thanks for watching
Great list. I think my number one would be Ultima V. I played it for months and tbh I never did really like the isometric view of VI. I had Wasteland too but jeez that was brutally hard and it put me off.
Yeah Ultima V is great too , I try to only choose one game from a series for these vids so it's not just too much of the same . Wasteland is a hard nut , if you can survive enough to get decent equipment and supplies then you're on your way but yeah it's is hard initially.