@@davedogge2280 If I remember rightly, the disk version had a sort of strategy mini game when you attacked the towns from land, whereas the tape version omitted this and instead put you straight into a sword fight to take the fort.
@@MsOpportunity68 If I remember correctly, when attacking towns from land, you engaged in combat on the terrain in front of the fort, with forest, obstacles and such. Some towns were hard to attack from the sea side, since you only used one ship for attack with maxed out crew on that ship, and the fortification always had a lot of fire power. Havana, Panama and similar towns, needed to be attacked from land, because you get full crew compliment, easy to loose them in combat and reduce numbers to keep morale high after plundering, and also, quite important, attacking from land was a way to plunder a town without getting noticed beacause, sometimes - attacking from the seaside meant that the town hid most of the gold and other stuff before you conquered it. My personal fav on C64!
@@branimirbozak That was correct for the disk version of the game. One the tape version however this land battle section was missing so you would walk your crew into town from the landward side to attack the fort with the maximum number of men.
Yeah when i first saw franky goes to holliwood i thought for sure maniac mansion would be next and then he said there was nothing really quite like and i was like whaaaaa???? He probably never played it
Of course the quality of the tune depending on the quality of the musician. Listen to any SID from Jim Cuomo, and you wish there was a mute button. LMAO
Turrican II wasn't Trenz's last C64 game - he'd put out another shmup (Enforcer: Fullmetal Megablaster) a year later (on the German Golden Disk 64 magazine). Well worth checking out, as it is such a great improvement on what he did with Katakis - far more frentic, technically accomplished and oh so much fun.
Elite was a pretty boring game after a while and the c64 one was slower than the speccy one. Beautiful bit of coding considering the memory limitations though. I think starion on spectrum was a more enjoyable game, although it had a bug that Made it impossible to complete.
Elite was SLOW AS MOLASSES on the C64. Both the Spectrum and BBC versions were far better. The only games slower on the C64 were the Freescape games.. The Commodore 128 version was a TAD bit faster, but the original C64 version was utter pants. I perfer games that don't run at 0.000000000000006 FPS
@@scottbreon9448 The video was about the best games on the commodore 64 not it does not matter if better versions existed on other systems, and as for the Spectrum version the copy protection on that version was an abomination, to say the least, and please provide the evidence that the C64 frame rate was 0.000000000000006 FPS
Microprose Soccer was one of the best soccer games on the system. You could literally play an entire world cup including qualifying round robin groups and knockout rounds. You could play as any of 36 world teams each with varying degrees of strengths and weaknesses. And then you had arena soccer on the reverse side with the same formula only US cities and states. Gameplay felt good with a nice charge up kick, tackling, banana kicks and you could even curl the ball. It was the Sensible Soccer of the C64.
Also the players spinning around when trying to do sliding tackles in the rain. Also the replays with authentic video tape rewinding effects Also the cracking music
@@scottbreon9448 I loved international soccer as well. This one was unique in that you could make the computer play itself. As a kid I would run my own seasons and leagues using pen & paper using the CPU vs CPU mode to simulate games.
The sentinel is one of the most engrossing and unique games ever on any system. Easily a top 5. Very few games managed such an atmospheric setting and giving the player moments of pure panic.
that was touted as 3d chess, it was ok. But I think you could teleport to spots where you couldn't see anything around you i.e. you couldn't pan out and you got stuck I think
Great video, and I am very happy you included Montezuma's Revenge in this list. I personally would argue that a type in game from Compute!'s Gazette December 1988 magazine was better than half of the games that made your top 50. I think anyone who had the pleasure of playing Crossroads II: Pandemonium would agree with me as well! ..Still very good video, much respect for making this!
Action Biker (though on the Atari in my case) is the first and only game to make me ragequit so hard I tried to destroy the disk so I could never play it again. After several days of playing and slowly getting better and finally making it through and collecting all 100 items, I had no idea what "get to the race!" or whatever meant, and once I figured it out and nearly made it to the starting line of the track, I ran out of time and the game ended. I still feel some small amount of rage inside me when I think about that moment of complete cruelty, haha
How can you miss out Elite yet include the frustrating & repetitive Aztec Challenge ??? Also, no mention of Mercenary - another groundbreaking game for it's time, and any of the 3 'Freescape' games - Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse. Gauntlet ? Infiltrator ? Sentinel ? Some games you included were total rubbish even back in the 80's - Hover Bovver - LOL wut ??? Why put Deflector so high on the list ? It was a bit of fun but not exactly exceptional. C'mon , at least put some thought into these decisions. Your list seems so random.
Ok I very much enjoyed this, and it's an excellent list Here are a few that I'm really glad made it: --------- - Action Biker - Beach Head - Ikari Warriors and here are a few that I'd have in mine - Thrust - Creatures - Ninja Spirit - Enforcer - Navy Seals - Exile - Powerdrift - Slicks - Retrograde - Supremacy I know it's mentioned in the vid, but maybe the title should be "50 Greatest action games of all time" or something if we're excluding RPGs (Lords of Midnight, Bards Tale, Wasteland, Times of Lore would all make my top 50) [edit] Although it does already say "Kim Justice's top 50" so have what you want :D Also if you like defender clones - definitely check out RETROGRADE if you haven't already
So, being of 'that' age I had a pong machine followed by an Atari VCS. Then a Spectrum but my heart always belonged to Commodore prior to the Playstation era. The games I enjoyed included - Choplifter, Beach-Head, Dropzone, The Sentinal, Ghostbusters, Impossible Mission, Kennedy Approach, Leaderboard Golf, Speedking, Thrust, Pitstop 2, Buggy Boy and Falcon Patrol. Back in the day when it took maybe 10 mins to load a game and some serious imagination was required. Many, many hours lost to this system, then the Amiga arrived...................
I'm so glad that Wizball is at number one on the list. Such a timeless classic. I keep on thinking about the premise of this game and wonder why modern games developers don't try to reserrect this idea.
You are meant to be 'Clumsy Colin' from the mid eighties SKIPS crisps adverts in Action Biker, other than that bugger all to do with those horrible, smelly, soggy crisps.
Good video here. (Sir, I must contest your comment however, at 6 mins in for Trailblazer. The Atari 800 can do this type of game similar to the C64. Some of the Lucasfilm games are better on the Atari 800xl, e.g. Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblzer. Archer McClean thought his Dropzone was best on the Atari. People gave up on the Atari by 1985/6 mostly).
IMO Emlyn Hughes International Soccer is the best football game on C64. Although I played the actual International Soccer the most. Never got into Microprose Soccer.
Nice list. As an American C64 user I certainly have 20 or I think are missing, but so it goes; the cross-pond differences in gaming cultures is one of the C64's strengths IMO. Learned about a few games I've never played, so that should be fun. Keep up the excellent retrogaming work, Kim!
The C64 was a huge part of my childhood. My favourite game which I played to death as an 8 yr old was Barry Mcguigans Boxing. Great gameplay and longevity. Working your way up the world rankings. So addictive. Loved this video Kim, thank you!
I still remember the tunes from Law of the West by the rather unknown but great composer Ed Bogas. He also did the equally marvelous soundtrack to Murder on the Mississippi.
Great list, a few I would have added but that’s the beauty of this, It’s your own list, there are so many C64 games that everyone will have a different top 50, not much wrong with your list though, all solid games, Thank You Kim
Ahh... Many broken quickshot C64 joystick memories! Had a graveyard of dead joysticks building up behind my C64 and tv thanks to those brilliant games... and heavy handed mates breaking them!
Like the Amiga, Commodore put a lot of effort into the graphics and sound chips for this machine, made it stand out from the other 8-bit micro's, even against the NES and Master Systerm.
A good list with most of the essentials present and accounted for - and nice to see the underappreciated and truly original Frankie Goes To Hollywood featuring so high, although the not-at-all-impossible and still-brilliant-to-this-day Impossible Mission really deserves a top five spot (it's well worth your time even now, whereas the likes of Barbarian really aren't). It's certainly more of a jewel in the crown of the C64 than that ropey Super Mario clone IMO. C64 Commando is just far too short, if I was going to pick one of Elite's arcade conversions, the heart says Ghosts 'n' Goblins but the head says Buggy Boy. For quirky personal preference; games that I love that I don't expect others to necessarily see the appeal: Skate Rock and IBall are the ones I keep coming back to.
1:41 the C16/Plus 4 version of the C2N datasette being used with the C64? I'm wondering if this was possible with an adapter (or changing the connector) and if so did Commodore ever include the black version of the C2N with the C64 in an attempt to get shot of the units after the commercial failure of the C16/Plus 4 line? Or was it a simple case of the production staff for the advert cocking up and using the wrong tape deck?
You are correct in your assumption of an adapter, and most certainly the black version with the adapter was bundled with some C64C bundles. I remember my cousin having the C64C Light Fantastic bundle for Christmas '89 which had a black 1531 with the 7 pin din to card connector adapter required. Commodore were renowned for using whatever from their parts bin to use up supplies. Unusual that I have the reply to your query with an incredibly similar username too.
These are my additions to your list. Magical memories with these games. Emyln Hughes Soccer, Test Drive, Maniac Mansion, Stunt Car Racer, Kick Off, Summer Games, Defender of the Crown, Street Rod...
Simply don't understand how The Last Ninja is heaped with praise throughout the ages. The gameplay is simply game breaking. Yea, music is great, graphics look great but it's button mashing boiled down flickering kicks and punches with no positive feedback when you hit. Ive never made it past 4 or 5 screens as my health bar just evaporates in a fight. Karateka owns this game in every way.
It's your list Kim and i'm not here to judge ya. I guess platformers and star shooters like R-Type are more up your alley than any other games. And of course some games had so many ports it's hard to pick those that stand out on C64. From a C64 enthusiast like me here are some games you may consider for future top 100 update - i personally find them hard, gorgeous (for 8-bits), and rocking some great music: IO, Batman the Caped Crusader (both parts), Rastan, Outrun and Turbo Outrun, Diplomacy (tabletop adaptation), Stunt Car Racer, Castle Master, Shoot Out, Archon, Andy Capp, Rick Dangerous (also both parts), Bop'n Rumble, any Dizzy game, Defender of the Crown (best 8-bit iteration imo), Double Dragon (any part), Fort Apocalypse, Bride of Frankenstein, The Great Escape, Zig-Zag, Hans Kloss, Winter Games, The Train - Escape to Normandy, Antiriad, Usagi Yojimbo, Spy vs Spy (any part), Scumball, Sidewalk, Skate or Die, Kartateka, One on One (or Bird vs Eving). Thare are more, undoubtedly, but these are the ones i personally played and enjoyed - yea, many of them are just ports but good ports nonetheless :).
C64 Commando doesn't have 'all the gameplay intact' though, it only has 3 of the arcade's 8 stages. The more recent 'Arcade' version is much more accurate.
hmmm. A lot of cool games I used to play, BUT where are the simulator style which C64 also did so well, my #1 game is GUNSHIP - microprose, and yeah IK+ is awesome. Good thing about IK+ is that 2 people could vs each other, and still the 3rd guy in there too. hold on, could a third player use the keyboard to play??? Pitstop2 was cool too. Oh and PIRATES! hours and hours and hours of game time.........
Thanks for the trip down memory lane ! Weren't you a fan of Project Firestart ? One game I could play mindlessly for a while was that Donald Duck game where you worked various jobs to get money and pimp your playground !
What's with: - Maniac Mansion - Nebulus - Antiriad - To be on Top - David's Midnight Magic - Hypa Ball - Spy versus Spy - Infiltrator - Lazy Jones - Shadow of the Beast ?
Shadow of the beast was shit...on every platform. It was a technical achievement, but they left out ACTUAL gameplay. The only good game in the SOTB series in terms of gameplay was SOTB3
As someone who didn't grow up with the system I think you made a fantastic list, which clearly shows you put effort into it. And it's OK to keep mentioning the soundtracks to games, that was one of the great joys of growing up with the system (so to speak) anyway. Sometimes it was even the only redeemable feature. Yes, Knucklebusters, I'm looking at you.
As someone who didn't grow up with the system: that was one of the great joys of growing up with the system. You couldn't have more contradiction bozo clown
I would have chosen BoTH creatures games over Giana and Mayhem in Monsterland really. Mayhem in Monsterland was a technical achievement, but I always preferred the gameplay on the creatures games
Nice list but this ones are a must in a top50: Pirates, Samurai Warrior, Pitstop 2, Creatures 2, Maniac Mansion, Zack Mckracken and Enforcer. Long live the SID chip!
Very poorly arranged list with having several versions of the same game like International Karate, Leaderboard Golf or The Last Ninja while leaving out such titles as Pirates, Elite, Defender of the Crown or Street Rod just to name a few influential and very original ones. C64 was a lot more than just having tons of platform games.
@@ACanOfBakedBeans I am sure Elite ran better than that on C64, there were a couple of frames in each second. It wasn't as good as on BBC but still better than ZX Spectrum for instance. 1 frame per second would be really slow for a space or a flight sim, the C64 game "Spitfire 40" had such a frame rate and that was indeed hardly playable because of that.
@@patsfan4life Sorry but that's a bit cheap. If you go to a concert and do not really like what you hear are you being asked if you can play the piano any better?
I would have to add Thrust, Mercenary, Hyper Sports, Gunship as well as many of the Lucas Arts games. We missed out on some great games in the UK because the 1541 floppy drive was so expensive.
I agree, I love the music, but everything else about it is absolute SHITE Mayhem in Monsterland was also highly overrated. Sure it pushed the system to the limits at the time, but I always found the gameplay somewhat mediocre. The Creatures games were FAR better IMHO
Good list although Wizzball is pretentious rubbish. I would have included Sanxion, Delta, Mercenary, Frank n stein, Flash gordon, Forbidden forest, buggy boy, panther, human race & beachhead 2 (just for the sampled screams).
Indeed one of my Favourite Videos takes me back to the golden Era of gaming and to so much nice memories with many of these awesome games.Many of these tunes still around in my head after so many years
God, I love C64 music... Never had C64 back at the day, but countless hours of listening C64 tunes on my ST... Those Jochen Hippel conversions and later sampled versions are still on my mind. And of course, now I have 3 C64s... xDDDD
I've never found it since, but the Zzap64 demo of Creatures (one of THE best C64 platformers, bar maybe CJ's Elephant Antics) had a rendition of 'Hear the Drummer, Get Wicked' at the end and it was amazing.
Ah Kim, if you love single screen platformers, you should love Bruce Lee on the good old Speccy. I bounced straight from your top 100 Speccy games to this - and just realised that it was missing when I saw Jumpman on this list. If you haven't played it Kim - please do, even if it's a really, really short game. EDIT - and then I watched to the end and discovered that you had it here, right up there near the top, on the c64! WOOOT
Pretty much a definitive list of C64 classics! you missed a few of my favs but thats inevitable. I've played every one and they're all great, not really surprised with the top 5, Wizball deseveres the top spot totally, absolute classic. Great vid KIm :)
😱 You can’t call Action Biker shoddy?! It’s relaxing, but also challenging, and has that amazing tune playing! It’s one of the few c64 games I can go back to for more than a few minutes.
I like that you take time to show the game playback and I like long vids with lots of insightful commentary. Interesting selection, thank you! p.s. Bruce Lee, also that amazing cooperative mode, it's really nice...
My C64 Hall of Fame: 1. Mail Order Monsters 2. M.U.L.E. 3. Space Taxi (in the video) 4. Magic Johnson's MVP Basketball 5. Autoduel Fun Variety for the Whole Family: 6. Winter Games 7. Summer Games (in the video) 8. Summer Games II 9. World Games (in the video) 10. California Games Two Player Action Strategy: 11. Archon I 12. Archon II Worth a Few Rounds While Under House Arrest: 13. Bump N Jump 14. Spy Vs. Spy 15. Spy Vs. Spy II 16. Spy Vs. Spy III 17. Spyhunter 18. Ghostbusters (in the video) 19. Agent USA 20. Dig Dug 21. Karateka 22. Mario Bros 23. Moon Patrol 24. Grog's Revenge 25. Donkey Kong
some of theses i agree with and like, others i hate, Monty mole games for example, Bounder, Trailblazer for me are some of the worse games ever released on the c64.
I agree. I love the music in the Monty games, but the games themselves were terrible IMHO> Trailblazer was OK, but it was BROKEN. If you want to play Trailblazer, the C16 version was far superior. But the absolute worst C64 game I ever played was fucking Bionic Granny.
Oh my GOD! Im possible mission. I once read a gaming magazine interview with the creator of this true GEM! In it he told of his all time high score . i screamed when i realized i had massiveily beat the creator'sbest ever score. I was so addicted to that game it is not at all kidding to say i played it for months straight even in my dreams so thrilled this made your like. liked and subscribed the MOMENT i saw this.
This is an awesome top 50 Kim. I must have had 90% of this list and more. I remember the Way of the Exploding fist tape not working once so I loaded it again, turning the volume up sometimes got a game to work...and I forgot about the scream when it loaded...I crapped myself.
Aye, it was miserable on the CPC wasn't it. Not that I was surprised, but even so. Worse was what happened to the Amiga version; no excuses there. A few of these games like Wizball, Impossible Mission, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, it's really only the c64 version you want and don't bother with any others.
@@AnthonyFlack yes that too, you would think a 16 bit version would be better or at the very least equal of the C64 version and why didnt the music make it to any of the other conversions??!
I would put in this list the nightmare of all the players of the 80s, that is raid over moscow!!! and to be more precise the hangar level !, a real nightmare trying to get the plane out!
Hard to argue with any of these. I'd forgotten about the endless hours of enjoyment I'd got from blue max. I kept asking where Bruce Lee was ... and there it is. Didn't care so much for wizball, maybe I'll give it a spin soon. Thank you.
I'm VERY sad that Sam's Journey didn't make this list, it doesn't matter that the game was released late 2017, it's the best platformer the C64 has to offer. But I'm so very happy to see Hard 'n Heavy one of my favorite games from when I was a kid made it :) Please Kim and everyone reading this, give modern C64 development a bit more love, in fact I just received the cartridge version of MW Ultra in the mail a few days ago and have been playing the game since, it's INCREDIBLE. Don't get me wrong, the video has many of my favorites like Katakis/Denaris, it has Turrican II, Mayhem and so on, it's a fantastic video. I just I dunno when I saw there was a top 50 C64 game I somehow expected to see Sam's Journey on it :) I think Sam's Journey and many other modern titles such as Steel Ranger, MW Ultra (it's new so I understand why it wouldn't make it in a video like this), Knight 'n Grail, The Age of Heroes and many others deserve to be mentioned when the C64 is being discussed because the C64 is still a very much alive and active platform. EDIT: I just realized Enforcer isn't in the video either, it's THE best C64 shmup and another Trenz masterpiece.
One of my favorites that isn't on this list is Sid Meier's Pirates.
the only downer about that game is that the disk version had some extras that the cassette version didn't; or did I dream this ?
@@davedogge2280 Pirates in cassette ?? mmmm I dont think so.
@@davedogge2280 If I remember rightly, the disk version had a sort of strategy mini game when you attacked the towns from land, whereas the tape version omitted this and instead put you straight into a sword fight to take the fort.
@@MsOpportunity68 If I remember correctly, when attacking towns from land, you engaged in combat on the terrain in front of the fort, with forest, obstacles and such. Some towns were hard to attack from the sea side, since you only used one ship for attack with maxed out crew on that ship, and the fortification always had a lot of fire power. Havana, Panama and similar towns, needed to be attacked from land, because you get full crew compliment, easy to loose them in combat and reduce numbers to keep morale high after plundering, and also, quite important, attacking from land was a way to plunder a town without getting noticed beacause, sometimes - attacking from the seaside meant that the town hid most of the gold and other stuff before you conquered it. My personal fav on C64!
@@branimirbozak That was correct for the disk version of the game. One the tape version however this land battle section was missing so you would walk your crew into town from the landward side to attack the fort with the maximum number of men.
Hmmm, does Maniac Mansion get a mention? I always loved playing that.
Yeah when i first saw franky goes to holliwood i thought for sure maniac mansion would be next and then he said there was nothing really quite like and i was like whaaaaa???? He probably never played it
And Zack McKracken
That SID chip still sounding great , oh the memory’s !!!
memories.... wait... unless you meant the ROM on the SID itself?!? 😂
Of course the quality of the tune depending on the quality of the musician. Listen to any SID from Jim Cuomo, and you wish there was a mute button. LMAO
@Dalle Smalhals Look up the music for Intergalactic Cage Match, a shit tune for a shit game
It's really weird that a system from 1981 sounds so damn good, it sounds damn good!!
Turrican II wasn't Trenz's last C64 game - he'd put out another shmup (Enforcer: Fullmetal Megablaster) a year later (on the German Golden Disk 64 magazine). Well worth checking out, as it is such a great improvement on what he did with Katakis - far more frentic, technically accomplished and oh so much fun.
True! I was positively shocked when I bought the Golden Disk back then. Enforcer really is in a class of its own. Definitely recommended!
That's correct
Nice to see Frankie Goes to Hollywood so high here; I can still hear that beautiful soundtrack in my head.
Loved watching this so much. Brought back a lot of memories I didn't know I still had.
Missing out Elite and Kick Start 2 is criminal both phenomenal games.
ELITE was far better on the BBC model B or even the Spectrum, the slow CPU of the 64 did this particular game no favours at all.
Elite was a pretty boring game after a while and the c64 one was slower than the speccy one. Beautiful bit of coding considering the memory limitations though. I think starion on spectrum was a more enjoyable game, although it had a bug that Made it impossible to complete.
Elite was SLOW AS MOLASSES on the C64. Both the Spectrum and BBC versions were far better. The only games slower on the C64 were the Freescape games.. The Commodore 128 version was a TAD bit faster, but the original C64 version was utter pants. I perfer games that don't run at 0.000000000000006 FPS
@@scottbreon9448 The video was about the best games on the commodore 64 not it does not matter if better versions existed on other systems, and as for the Spectrum version the copy protection on that version was an abomination, to say the least, and please provide the evidence that the C64 frame rate was 0.000000000000006 FPS
@@blindtruth4614 The video was about HIS favorite C64 games, that's why is NAME was in the title
Microprose Soccer was one of the best soccer games on the system. You could literally play an entire world cup including qualifying round robin groups and knockout rounds. You could play as any of 36 world teams each with varying degrees of strengths and weaknesses. And then you had arena soccer on the reverse side with the same formula only US cities and states. Gameplay felt good with a nice charge up kick, tackling, banana kicks and you could even curl the ball. It was the Sensible Soccer of the C64.
The best soccer sim on the system! But no other decent competitors really..... none very playable
Also the players spinning around when trying to do sliding tackles in the rain.
Also the replays with authentic video tape rewinding effects
Also the cracking music
@@patsfan4life Emeyln Hughes and Commodore's own International Soccer were pretty decent
@@scottbreon9448 I loved international soccer as well. This one was unique in that you could make the computer play itself. As a kid I would run my own seasons and leagues using pen & paper using the CPU vs CPU mode to simulate games.
Top rank boxing
Boulder dash is my #1
a classic game, someone's mum around the Preston area got hooked on the game badly, so much that she negelected the household chores etc
@@davedogge2280 Poor you ;)
@@rondlh20 wasn't my mum !
The sentinel is one of the most engrossing and unique games ever on any system. Easily a top 5. Very few games managed such an atmospheric setting and giving the player moments of pure panic.
that was touted as 3d chess, it was ok. But I think you could teleport to spots where you couldn't see anything around you i.e. you couldn't pan out and you got stuck I think
The Sentinel is crying out for a modern day overhaul, especially with VR.
@@figurehead1971 I'd love to see a VR version of Stunt Car Racer myself
⁴
The Sentinel is the best game ever made full stop the end on any system ever and the C64 version of it is the best.
The Epyx "... Games" series destroyed many joysticks due to merciless waggling.
If space taxi and Paradroid wasn't here I would have rioted. I can now die happy. **Slowly fades out of reality and vanishes**
You do realise they did a PC version of Paradroid...project-paradroid.en.softonic.com
UP, PLEASE!
Hey, Taxi. ::hits fare:: HEY!
@@FrikinOSM There's something about the physics of the original that the PC clones doesn't capture.
Great video, and I am very happy you included Montezuma's Revenge in this list. I personally would argue that a type in game from Compute!'s Gazette December 1988 magazine was better than half of the games that made your top 50. I think anyone who had the pleasure of playing Crossroads II: Pandemonium would agree with me as well! ..Still very good video, much respect for making this!
Action Biker (though on the Atari in my case) is the first and only game to make me ragequit so hard I tried to destroy the disk so I could never play it again. After several days of playing and slowly getting better and finally making it through and collecting all 100 items, I had no idea what "get to the race!" or whatever meant, and once I figured it out and nearly made it to the starting line of the track, I ran out of time and the game ended. I still feel some small amount of rage inside me when I think about that moment of complete cruelty, haha
I raged too. Hard. That and LAST V8.
How can you miss out Elite yet include the frustrating & repetitive Aztec Challenge ???
Also, no mention of Mercenary - another groundbreaking game for it's time, and any of the 3 'Freescape' games - Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse.
Gauntlet ? Infiltrator ? Sentinel ?
Some games you included were total rubbish even back in the 80's -
Hover Bovver - LOL wut ???
Why put Deflector so high on the list ? It was a bit of fun but not exactly exceptional.
C'mon , at least put some thought into these decisions. Your list seems so random.
Because Elite was a far better game on the BBC Micro and the Spectrum. At least they didn't run at 0.0000000005 FPS, like it did on the C64.
Ok I very much enjoyed this, and it's an excellent list
Here are a few that I'm really glad made it:
---------
- Action Biker
- Beach Head
- Ikari Warriors
and here are a few that I'd have in mine
- Thrust
- Creatures
- Ninja Spirit
- Enforcer
- Navy Seals
- Exile
- Powerdrift
- Slicks
- Retrograde
- Supremacy
I know it's mentioned in the vid, but maybe the title should be "50 Greatest action games of all time" or something if we're excluding RPGs (Lords of Midnight, Bards Tale, Wasteland, Times of Lore would all make my top 50) [edit] Although it does already say "Kim Justice's top 50" so have what you want :D
Also if you like defender clones - definitely check out RETROGRADE if you haven't already
Wizard of Wor - simple yet just fun to play COOP action.
Used to love that me and my brother played it all the time
The C64 conversion of Gyruss would have made my list too
The golf commentator after the shot was made in number 29 was amazing use of the sound of the c64
Murder on the Mississippi :(
RPG
@@patsfan4life It's more of an adventure game than an RPG though.
So, being of 'that' age I had a pong machine followed by an Atari VCS. Then a Spectrum but my heart always belonged to Commodore prior to the Playstation era. The games I enjoyed included -
Choplifter, Beach-Head, Dropzone, The Sentinal, Ghostbusters, Impossible Mission, Kennedy Approach, Leaderboard Golf, Speedking, Thrust, Pitstop 2, Buggy Boy and Falcon Patrol.
Back in the day when it took maybe 10 mins to load a game and some serious imagination was required. Many, many hours lost to this system, then the Amiga arrived...................
Great video!
My omitted favourites : Rainbow Islands, Cloud Kingdoms, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.
I'm so glad that Wizball is at number one on the list. Such a timeless classic. I keep on thinking about the premise of this game and wonder why modern games developers don't try to reserrect this idea.
The satisfaction when you’d filled all the colours was off the charts 😂
You are meant to be 'Clumsy Colin' from the mid eighties SKIPS crisps adverts in Action Biker, other than that bugger all to do with those horrible, smelly, soggy crisps.
Good video here. (Sir, I must contest your comment however, at 6 mins in for Trailblazer. The Atari 800 can do this type of game similar to the C64. Some of the Lucasfilm games are better on the Atari 800xl, e.g. Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblzer. Archer McClean thought his Dropzone was best on the Atari. People gave up on the Atari by 1985/6 mostly).
I agree. I had an Atari 400/800 and then a 130XE. The likes of Blue Max, Bruce Lee, and Ballblazer were very good on the Atari 8 bits.
Brings back old memories:
Speed King
Emlyn Hughes International Soccer
Myth
Untouchables
The Wombles
Track Suit Manager
Emlyn Hughes soccer! What a game! I loved changing the names of the players etc my first taste of in game editing haha
IMO Emlyn Hughes International Soccer is the best football game on C64.
Although I played the actual International Soccer the most.
Never got into Microprose Soccer.
Nice list. As an American C64 user I certainly have 20 or I think are missing, but so it goes; the cross-pond differences in gaming cultures is one of the C64's strengths IMO. Learned about a few games I've never played, so that should be fun. Keep up the excellent retrogaming work, Kim!
The C64 was a huge part of my childhood. My favourite game which I played to death as an 8 yr old was Barry Mcguigans Boxing. Great gameplay and longevity. Working your way up the world rankings. So addictive. Loved this video Kim, thank you!
YES! I got Barry McGuigans boxing with the computer for my 8th birthday too! I forgot about that, great game.
I still remember the tunes from Law of the West by the rather unknown but great composer Ed Bogas. He also did the equally marvelous soundtrack to Murder on the Mississippi.
Great list, a few I would have added but that’s the beauty of this, It’s your own list, there are so many C64 games that everyone will have a different top 50, not much wrong with your list though, all solid games, Thank You Kim
Ahh... Many broken quickshot C64 joystick memories! Had a graveyard of dead joysticks building up behind my C64 and tv thanks to those brilliant games... and heavy handed mates breaking them!
Competition pro was the joystick way to go. Quickshot just looked good
@I Live In A 16-Bit Van Down By The 8-Bit River did you have a freeze frame cartridge? Awesome gadget.
Actually - I believe that Trailblazer was originally developed for the C16/Plus 4 and was then ported to the C64
That is correct. I prefer the C16 version too as you don't share the screen with the 2nd player.
The C64 version is also BUGGED
My favourite channel and my favourite machine. Awesome!!!
But, haha, creatures 1 or 2 was missing for me! Amazing video!!!
This wasn't your list bozo
@@ramrodbldm9876 I know that you spunktrumpet 🤦🏼♂️😂😂
IK+ was so playable and the controls response was instant.
A Kim Justice top 50? These are great. Always an amazing jumping off point for diving into micros.
I'm slightly disappointed there's no Project Firestart in that list. That game was so ahead of its time.
Not many rpgs on this list.....
Like the Amiga, Commodore put a lot of effort into the graphics and sound chips for this machine, made it stand out from the other 8-bit micro's, even against the NES and Master Systerm.
Last Ninja dispatches multiple enemies with ease then drowns in a pond.
A good list with most of the essentials present and accounted for - and nice to see the underappreciated and truly original Frankie Goes To Hollywood featuring so high, although the not-at-all-impossible and still-brilliant-to-this-day Impossible Mission really deserves a top five spot (it's well worth your time even now, whereas the likes of Barbarian really aren't). It's certainly more of a jewel in the crown of the C64 than that ropey Super Mario clone IMO. C64 Commando is just far too short, if I was going to pick one of Elite's arcade conversions, the heart says Ghosts 'n' Goblins but the head says Buggy Boy.
For quirky personal preference; games that I love that I don't expect others to necessarily see the appeal: Skate Rock and IBall are the ones I keep coming back to.
1:41 the C16/Plus 4 version of the C2N datasette being used with the C64? I'm wondering if this was possible with an adapter (or changing the connector) and if so did Commodore ever include the black version of the C2N with the C64 in an attempt to get shot of the units after the commercial failure of the C16/Plus 4 line? Or was it a simple case of the production staff for the advert cocking up and using the wrong tape deck?
You are correct in your assumption of an adapter, and most certainly the black version with the adapter was bundled with some C64C bundles. I remember my cousin having the C64C Light Fantastic bundle for Christmas '89 which had a black 1531 with the 7 pin din to card connector adapter required. Commodore were renowned for using whatever from their parts bin to use up supplies. Unusual that I have the reply to your query with an incredibly similar username too.
Here is one listed over at amibay to quell your curiosity www.amibay.com/showthread.php?52945-Commodore-1531-to-1530-adapter
@@figurehead1971 th-cam.com/video/oA4Zdpw5MN0/w-d-xo.html
@@figureheaduk Yep named after my favourite cure song too.
These are my additions to your list. Magical memories with these games. Emyln Hughes Soccer, Test Drive, Maniac Mansion, Stunt Car Racer, Kick Off, Summer Games, Defender of the Crown, Street Rod...
Street Rod was one of my all time favorites. I still don't think there is a modern car game that gives me the same feelings as that game did.
IT's sad there wasn't a single racing game good enough on the C64 to hit your top 50 Kim :(
I agree. There was one decent F1 game "Grand Prix Circuit", the arcade ports of "Super Off Road" and "Super Sprint" and the "Test Drive" releases.
@@bikingchad Buggy Boy, Turbo Outrun, Pitstop, Super Cycle...
@@paulbearer6426 loved buggy boy
Three words
STUNT
CAR
RACER
pole position 2
Simply don't understand how The Last Ninja is heaped with praise throughout the ages. The gameplay is simply game breaking. Yea, music is great, graphics look great but it's button mashing boiled down flickering kicks and punches with no positive feedback when you hit. Ive never made it past 4 or 5 screens as my health bar just evaporates in a fight. Karateka owns this game in every way.
Would have to agree
Yep, it was never a great game, just looked and sounded good.
Armalyte was inspired by Salamander/Life Force, not RType. Other than that, pretty good list :)
I've started exploring the c64 for the first time, but so far I like Project Firestart, Organism, and Aliens. I guess I just like Alien games.
It's your list Kim and i'm not here to judge ya. I guess platformers and star shooters like R-Type are more up your alley than any other games. And of course some games had so many ports it's hard to pick those that stand out on C64. From a C64 enthusiast like me here are some games you may consider for future top 100 update - i personally find them hard, gorgeous (for 8-bits), and rocking some great music: IO, Batman the Caped Crusader (both parts), Rastan, Outrun and Turbo Outrun, Diplomacy (tabletop adaptation), Stunt Car Racer, Castle Master, Shoot Out, Archon, Andy Capp, Rick Dangerous (also both parts), Bop'n Rumble, any Dizzy game, Defender of the Crown (best 8-bit iteration imo), Double Dragon (any part), Fort Apocalypse, Bride of Frankenstein, The Great Escape, Zig-Zag, Hans Kloss, Winter Games, The Train - Escape to Normandy, Antiriad, Usagi Yojimbo, Spy vs Spy (any part), Scumball, Sidewalk, Skate or Die, Kartateka, One on One (or Bird vs Eving). Thare are more, undoubtedly, but these are the ones i personally played and enjoyed - yea, many of them are just ports but good ports nonetheless :).
of course at that time you could get Trailblazer somewhere else, it's a C=16 original after all.
C64 Commando doesn't have 'all the gameplay intact' though, it only has 3 of the arcade's 8 stages. The more recent 'Arcade' version is much more accurate.
Super Pipeline II. CREATURES I + II. Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken.
Last Ninja gameplay is terrible, it's just a graphical showcase. It's a horrible game though. R Type was an amazing port.
hmmm. A lot of cool games I used to play, BUT where are the simulator style which C64 also did so well, my #1 game is GUNSHIP - microprose, and yeah IK+ is awesome. Good thing about IK+ is that 2 people could vs each other, and still the 3rd guy in there too. hold on, could a third player use the keyboard to play??? Pitstop2 was cool too. Oh and PIRATES! hours and hours and hours of game time.........
Thanks for the trip down memory lane ! Weren't you a fan of Project Firestart ? One game I could play mindlessly for a while was that Donald Duck game where you worked various jobs to get money and pimp your playground !
Kickstart 2 and Pitstop 2 would be in my list.
Pitstop II easily the best racing sim on the system......
@@patsfan4life To me it's a tossup between Pitstop II and Stunt Car Racer
@@scottbreon9448 Super Cycle from Epyx was pretty good too
Elite, and Jammin should be in there.
Jammin?
@@patsfan4life th-cam.com/video/ngw1Bq5VeDc/w-d-xo.html
tHE c64 PORT OF Elite was SLOW AS FUCKING MOLASSES I prefer games that run OVER 0.5FPS
@@scottbreon9448 Dunno I was a Spectrum person. Still am. I got the SD card adapter for it and soldered my Kempston on to the back of it :-))
What's with:
- Maniac Mansion
- Nebulus
- Antiriad
- To be on Top
- David's Midnight Magic
- Hypa Ball
- Spy versus Spy
- Infiltrator
- Lazy Jones
- Shadow of the Beast
?
Shadow of the beast was shit...on every platform. It was a technical achievement, but they left out ACTUAL gameplay. The only good game in the SOTB series in terms of gameplay was SOTB3
Manic Mansion ruled for sure! SOTB though... :-/
As someone who didn't grow up with the system I think you made a fantastic list, which clearly shows you put effort into it. And it's OK to keep mentioning the soundtracks to games, that was one of the great joys of growing up with the system (so to speak) anyway. Sometimes it was even the only redeemable feature. Yes, Knucklebusters, I'm looking at you.
As someone who didn't grow up with the system: that was one of the great joys of growing up with the system.
You couldn't have more contradiction bozo clown
Good list though I'd squeeze Pirates, Archon, Arnie, Exile, Lords of Chaos, Project Firestart, Creatures 2 and Below the Root in there.
Below the Root? In the top 50?
I would have chosen BoTH creatures games over Giana and Mayhem in Monsterland really. Mayhem in Monsterland was a technical achievement, but I always preferred the gameplay on the creatures games
@@patsfan4life For being one of the first metroidvania-style games, mainly
@@satan3959 - definitely. Mayhem in Monsterland is actually kind of dull.
Pirates and Micropose Soccer Could have been in the list. Maybe Maniac Mansion and Zak as well, though I only played those on Amiga :)
Ummm, Microprose Soccer actually DID make the list. It was the only football game that did. SMH
Aztec (Datamost) and Castle Wolfenstein are my all-time favourite C64 games and I still play today.
Some games i Couldn’t load for whatever Reason 😤 Ghostbusters was one of them 🕹 Bruce Lee was just Tremendous 🍷🕹🍷🎮🍷🖥
Nice list but this ones are a must in a top50: Pirates, Samurai Warrior, Pitstop 2, Creatures 2, Maniac Mansion, Zack Mckracken and Enforcer. Long live the SID chip!
I get excited any time i see Aztec challenge. A childhood favorite that holds up today.
What????
No Chuckie Egg
How very very dare you!
Lol
The amazing thing about the C64 is how no 2 people's top 50 would ever be the same.
I was thinking all the way through shes forgot wizball, then it was number 1 lol. I also loved Karateka, Myth and Psi-5 Trading Company
Very poorly arranged list with having several versions of the same game like International Karate, Leaderboard Golf or The Last Ninja while leaving out such titles as Pirates, Elite, Defender of the Crown or Street Rod just to name a few influential and very original ones. C64 was a lot more than just having tons of platform games.
While you have some good points, at least he tried....where’s your vid?
The C64 port of elite sucked. It ran at less than 1FPS
@@ACanOfBakedBeans I am sure Elite ran better than that on C64, there were a couple of frames in each second. It wasn't as good as on BBC but still better than ZX Spectrum for instance. 1 frame per second would be really slow for a space or a flight sim, the C64 game "Spitfire 40" had such a frame rate and that was indeed hardly playable because of that.
@@patsfan4life Sorry but that's a bit cheap. If you go to a concert and do not really like what you hear are you being asked if you can play the piano any better?
@@ACanOfBakedBeans It didn’t. It was around 5fps.
Deflektor was the basis for Horizon Zero Dawns laser puzzles!
No Wizard of Wor no good.
I would have to add Thrust, Mercenary, Hyper Sports, Gunship as well as many of the Lucas Arts games. We missed out on some great games in the UK because the 1541 floppy drive was so expensive.
yeah it narked me off that many of those SSI strategy games and D&D games were disk only for the c64
I had an Evesham micros disk drive, much cheaper and smaller than the 1541 but just as good.
@@meetoo594 yeah they were cheaper I remember. Wish I had bought an Evesham
Cough Stunt Car Racer Cough
Giana Sisters is absolutely atrocious - it's only famous for being a bit like Mario and being so 'good' that Nintendo had to ban it. It's shite.
I must admit, I always thought it was overrated to say the least.
I agree, I love the music, but everything else about it is absolute SHITE
Mayhem in Monsterland was also highly overrated. Sure it pushed the system to the limits at the time, but I always found the gameplay somewhat mediocre. The Creatures games were FAR better IMHO
Plus Sam's Journey has pretty much surpassed any previous C64 scrolling platformer anyway
I never got the hoo-ha with The Great Giana sisters too. Always thought it was bang average.
@@scottbreon9448 Just took a look. This is a new game? It looks amazing.
Good list although Wizzball is pretentious rubbish. I would have included Sanxion, Delta, Mercenary, Frank n stein, Flash gordon, Forbidden forest, buggy boy, panther, human race & beachhead 2 (just for the sampled screams).
Forbidden Forest is a c64 classic!
Loved Forbidden Forest, and Aztec Challenge, too. Still have my C64 and about 100 games, but the grandkids want to play XBox and PS.
@@freddieh5539 Can you play it on a modern telly?
@@Halbared - You sure can! Plug into the TV's RCA connectors.
Maniac Mansion, Zak Mckracken, The Train, Power At Sea , Project Firestart , Gran Prix Circuit, Rocket Ranger , where are those Gems????
RPGs....
@I Live In A 16-Bit Van Down By The 8-Bit River Yes, you play the role of a race car driver searching for the finish line😎
Indeed one of my Favourite Videos takes me back to the golden Era of gaming and to so much nice memories with many of these awesome games.Many of these tunes still around in my head after so many years
A perfect start to the week! Thanks Kim, I liked your Spectrum list too!
Pirates!
Maniac Mansion
Kaiser
Infiltrator
Mafia
They would all be on my list but I enjoyed the video.
Funny there's no Freescape games on here. Nor Head Over Heels, any White Knight games, or any Dizzy games.
She probably would have put them in if they sadly hadn't appeared on the Speccy first. Shame as HOH was a C64 classic
Perfect timing! Just finished re watching your top 100 of all time list and then this pops up! 👌
Hey Kim, you nailed it great list. 42 of these game are in my c64 collection and I have been on a c64 since the beginning of 1984.
God, I love C64 music... Never had C64 back at the day, but countless hours of listening C64 tunes on my ST... Those Jochen Hippel conversions and later sampled versions are still on my mind. And of course, now I have 3 C64s... xDDDD
I've never found it since, but the Zzap64 demo of Creatures (one of THE best C64 platformers, bar maybe CJ's Elephant Antics) had a rendition of 'Hear the Drummer, Get Wicked' at the end and it was amazing.
I'm putting the Ghosts'n'goblins and Spy versus Spy tunes on my running tracks on my phone.
Ah Kim, if you love single screen platformers, you should love Bruce Lee on the good old Speccy. I bounced straight from your top 100 Speccy games to this - and just realised that it was missing when I saw Jumpman on this list. If you haven't played it Kim - please do, even if it's a really, really short game. EDIT - and then I watched to the end and discovered that you had it here, right up there near the top, on the c64! WOOOT
Americans know that Space Taxi is at the very least a top 10 game all day long.
Dino Eggs is also a pretty underrated game
Pretty much a definitive list of C64 classics! you missed a few of my favs but thats inevitable. I've played every one and they're all great, not really surprised with the top 5, Wizball deseveres the top spot totally, absolute classic. Great vid KIm :)
I loved Impossible Mission! Such a fun game!
😱 You can’t call Action Biker shoddy?! It’s relaxing, but also challenging, and has that amazing tune playing!
It’s one of the few c64 games I can go back to for more than a few minutes.
It’s not shoddy. It’s shite.
Also Skips "Maize based?" What nonsense. The open world does make the game more appealing these days.
I like that you take time to show the game playback and I like long vids with lots of insightful commentary. Interesting selection, thank you! p.s. Bruce Lee, also that amazing cooperative mode, it's really nice...
My C64 Hall of Fame:
1. Mail Order Monsters
2. M.U.L.E.
3. Space Taxi (in the video)
4. Magic Johnson's MVP Basketball
5. Autoduel
Fun Variety for the Whole Family:
6. Winter Games
7. Summer Games (in the video)
8. Summer Games II
9. World Games (in the video)
10. California Games
Two Player Action Strategy:
11. Archon I
12. Archon II
Worth a Few Rounds While Under House Arrest:
13. Bump N Jump
14. Spy Vs. Spy
15. Spy Vs. Spy II
16. Spy Vs. Spy III
17. Spyhunter
18. Ghostbusters (in the video)
19. Agent USA
20. Dig Dug
21. Karateka
22. Mario Bros
23. Moon Patrol
24. Grog's Revenge
25. Donkey Kong
Which Mario Brothers, there were two
@@scottbreon9448 The original multiplayer one with luigi, where you flip over the animals by hitting the platforms beneath them
I could never create a top 50 C64 games, there's too many and how do you compare the greatness of one game against another completely different game?
You need to go by genre
Operation Wolf, captain blood and heroquest my personal favourites.
Operation Wolf was good, but I preferred the Amiga port since it had mouse/trackball support
Bruce Lee was an amazing game.
I prefer the ZX version but this one is also cool.
some of theses i agree with and like, others i hate, Monty mole games for example, Bounder, Trailblazer for me are some of the worse games ever released on the c64.
I agree. I love the music in the Monty games, but the games themselves were terrible IMHO> Trailblazer was OK, but it was BROKEN. If you want to play Trailblazer, the C16 version was far superior.
But the absolute worst C64 game I ever played was fucking Bionic Granny.
@@satan3959 Trailblazer, just makes my eyes bleed today.
Oh my GOD! Im possible mission. I once read a gaming magazine interview with the creator of this true GEM! In it he told of his all time high score . i screamed when i realized i had massiveily beat the creator'sbest ever score. I was so addicted to that game it is not at all kidding to say i played it for months straight even in my dreams so thrilled this made your like. liked and subscribed the MOMENT i saw this.
No Stroker?
Great games! But did I miss Oil's well? I love playing that. And think it is the best version. Plus better than the arcade anteater!
Paradroid is brilliant as is Dropzone
This is an awesome top 50 Kim. I must have had 90% of this list and more. I remember the Way of the Exploding fist tape not working once so I loaded it again, turning the volume up sometimes got a game to work...and I forgot about the scream when it loaded...I crapped myself.
Glad to see Wizball at number one. Cried inside when i bought the Amstrad version hoping to get the same experience. Stunning music too.
Aye, it was miserable on the CPC wasn't it. Not that I was surprised, but even so. Worse was what happened to the Amiga version; no excuses there. A few of these games like Wizball, Impossible Mission, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, it's really only the c64 version you want and don't bother with any others.
@@AnthonyFlack yes that too, you would think a 16 bit version would be better or at the very least equal of the C64 version and why didnt the music make it to any of the other conversions??!
I would put in this list the nightmare of all the players of the 80s, that is raid over moscow!!! and to be more precise the hangar level !, a real nightmare trying to get the plane out!
Hard to argue with any of these. I'd forgotten about the endless hours of enjoyment I'd got from blue max. I kept asking where Bruce Lee was ... and there it is. Didn't care so much for wizball, maybe I'll give it a spin soon. Thank you.
I'm VERY sad that Sam's Journey didn't make this list, it doesn't matter that the game was released late 2017, it's the best platformer the C64 has to offer. But I'm so very happy to see Hard 'n Heavy one of my favorite games from when I was a kid made it :)
Please Kim and everyone reading this, give modern C64 development a bit more love, in fact I just received the cartridge version of MW Ultra in the mail a few days ago and have been playing the game since, it's INCREDIBLE.
Don't get me wrong, the video has many of my favorites like Katakis/Denaris, it has Turrican II, Mayhem and so on, it's a fantastic video. I just I dunno when I saw there was a top 50 C64 game I somehow expected to see Sam's Journey on it :)
I think Sam's Journey and many other modern titles such as Steel Ranger, MW Ultra (it's new so I understand why it wouldn't make it in a video like this), Knight 'n Grail, The Age of Heroes and many others deserve to be mentioned when the C64 is being discussed because the C64 is still a very much alive and active platform.
EDIT: I just realized Enforcer isn't in the video either, it's THE best C64 shmup and another Trenz masterpiece.
Wow, some of the fondest memories of my childhood just flashed by.... thanks! ❤️👾🕹
Dare Devil Dennis is a great game to play.....and on later levels, hard as Dark Souls. I,Ball 1+2 are also great games. KOKO is a good 2 player game.