Was this the best puzzle game for the Commodore 64? 😇🕹👌 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= More from 1984: tinyurl.com/1984-C64-GAMES My Top Picks: tinyurl.com/CCGS-BEST-GAMES
I’m in Newcastle, and I was chatting to guy from the office next to mine, and he mentioned he worked for Tynesoft in the early 80s Anyway, he was telling me a story about this musician guy called Rob, and half way through I was like wait a minute, Rob who? Turns out he had worked with Rob Hubbard on many an occasion, but had absolutely no idea how well known he was, not until I showed him on Google how many famous games he’d gone on to score :)
Haha awesome! Wow, Rob Hubbard is 'literally' my Commodore 64 hero! I would have been picking your work colleagues brains all day every day..... not in a strange zombie sort of way! Just to gather as much inside info as I could about what it would have been like to work with Rob himself. 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I did get a few good stories from him, He was an artist back then, and he told me about the Wheatabix game that Tynesoft were going to make, but then they lost the license , so they released it anyway still with a wheatabix looking character in it, and still collecting and growing wheat on the moon. Thankyou for making your channel btw, I really love watching you play those games, even though I was a Spectrum owner myself back then. Great work !
I believe, i still have this game for my Commodore 64 on one of the copied floppy disks. I even played it last time somewhere between 2022 and 2023. I'm still a big retrospective fan of the Activision games on the Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and Amiga 😺👍🕹️. If i ever find it from my game collection, i better replay it 😹😺👍🕹️.
Abstract puzzle games like this for the C64 seemed to be few and far between, at least in my recollection. Always liked this one though. The music starts to go faster when time is running out, which puts me into panic mode! Good times!
Yeah I always panic when I run out, or am running out, of time in games! Sometimes the 'against the clock' elements can spoil games for me... not all of them though. Zenji will always be superbly addictive and difficult to put down though 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Time limited games are generally not my favorite, but I don't mind this one too much. It is very well done. If he had to do it all over again, maybe he would have included an "Easy" mode that does not have a time limit. I'm sure a lot of programmers over the years look back on their creations and think of all the things they "should" have done differently. As the old saying goes, projects are not finished but abandoned. There is always one more thing that can be done, but if you go down this road you'll never publish your game, or at least not in a timely manner to be ready by the holidays etc.
Great game isn't it - I found that I ran out of time a little more than I'd expected, but then again... my older brain can't figure out these puzzles as fast as I used ot be able to! 😇🕹️👌
I got a good feeling you'll enjoy this one if you're a fan of Activision games - this has to be one of the best puzzlers for the C64 in my opinion! 😇🕹️👌
Yes, when I was a kid, I mostly had pirated copies of games. Thus, despite no investment, this was definitely a game that I had doubts about. There was no spaceflight, no aliens, no driving, it wasn't an arcade port, it wasn't an adventure game. Just a puzzle. Yeah, I'll try it for a few minutes then get rid of it. Well, maybe a few more minutes. And the music is kind of nice. Ok, I can get this, gonna try again. And so on and so forth until I wound up spending FAR more time playing it than I ever imagined I would. And now, it's a very fond memory. I'm not even keeping up with the modern games I've bought, and compared to most, my collection is pretty small, and I haven't bought anything new for a couple of years now. BUT - your videos are causing me to put together a list of Commodore 64 (or sometimes their Atari 800 variants) games that I want to play, or to replay. See what you've done??! 😁
I'm loving the fact that these videos are making you want to play them all again - and I also very much like this comment. These are similar to my memories of most games we had which were pirated/copied.... zero instructions, but if we could get into the game within around 5 minutes, we were hooked for life. The best times ever - happy nostalgic memories 😇🕹️👌
It's a great game too and although sometimes you run out of time a lot faster than anticipated, it's still difficult to put down the joystick as it's such an addictive game 😇🕹️👌
I absolutely love this game. I'd play this game all the time after coming home from school. Back then, I think I got pretty good at it (although I bet I'd suck at it now). I was just about the only person I knew who actually liked this game. It was such a neat and unique idea for a puzzle game. The music would get a bit repetitive after a while, though.
You wasn't alone... I loved this game too! Although I really wanted the cartridge version, all I had was the Firebird re-release... great game, I'd play this quite a bit when I was a kid 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I think mine was a rip of the original cartridge version on disk. I remember seeing Activision on the title screen, but not Firebird. I think it was on a disk with multiple arcade games... like Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong, Congo Bongo, and Moon Patrol. When I first got the disk, I jumped to those arcade games first because I was so excited to play them. I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to playing Zenji! LOL
The more I see modern games that are basically a dozen different iterations of the same idea with slightly prettier graphics, the more I appreciate games like "Zenji". It seems we've lost a lot of original concepts simply because it's very difficult for a single person to bring a game to market that has a chance of standing out.
True enough - I think those superbly talented bedroom coders managed to cover almost every genre of gaming between them. Now, all we see are either shooting games, or remakes/rethinks of concepts which we've already seen before! The 80s was a truly magic period in time for gaming and I'm proud to say I lived it 😇🕹️👌
It reminds me of the mini puzzle in Star Trek Elite Force II for the PC, it was for routing power to unlock doors and such like. EDIT: Ironically, Elite Force II was also developed by Activision. Coincidence or a homage?
Ahh interesting.... maybe they had the concept and ran with it for the Star Trek game as a sort of mini-game implementation. I like the connection though 😇🕹️👌
Lovely puzzle game from Activision - definitely one of the very best too. Its a shame it didn't get the publicity it deserved really as it genuinely is a great game 😇🕹👌
Was this the best puzzle game for the Commodore 64? 😇🕹👌
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
More from 1984: tinyurl.com/1984-C64-GAMES
My Top Picks: tinyurl.com/CCGS-BEST-GAMES
[The] Sentinel got a Zzap 64 Gold Medal, but i could never get into it.
I’m in Newcastle, and I was chatting to guy from the office next to mine, and he mentioned he worked for Tynesoft in the early 80s
Anyway, he was telling me a story about this musician guy called Rob, and half way through I was like wait a minute, Rob who?
Turns out he had worked with Rob Hubbard on many an occasion, but had absolutely no idea how well known he was, not until I showed him on Google how many famous games he’d gone on to score :)
Haha awesome! Wow, Rob Hubbard is 'literally' my Commodore 64 hero! I would have been picking your work colleagues brains all day every day..... not in a strange zombie sort of way! Just to gather as much inside info as I could about what it would have been like to work with Rob himself. 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I did get a few good stories from him, He was an artist back then, and he told me about the Wheatabix game that Tynesoft were going to make, but then they lost the license , so they released it anyway still with a wheatabix looking character in it, and still collecting and growing wheat on the moon.
Thankyou for making your channel btw, I really love watching you play those games, even though I was a Spectrum owner myself back then. Great work !
Appreciate that thankyou 😇🕹👌
That is so awesome.
I believe, i still have this game for my
Commodore 64 on one of the copied floppy disks.
I even played it last time somewhere between 2022 and 2023.
I'm still a big retrospective fan of the
Activision games on the Atari 2600,
Commodore 64 and Amiga 😺👍🕹️.
If i ever find it from my game collection,
i better replay it 😹😺👍🕹️.
Activision games were fantastic especially in the very early days... they were pumping out classic after classic 😇🕹️👌
This was one of the few games I had on cartridge!
Superb game too - a very addictive and original puzzler 😇🕹️👌
Abstract puzzle games like this for the C64 seemed to be few and far between, at least in my recollection. Always liked this one though. The music starts to go faster when time is running out, which puts me into panic mode! Good times!
Yeah I always panic when I run out, or am running out, of time in games! Sometimes the 'against the clock' elements can spoil games for me... not all of them though. Zenji will always be superbly addictive and difficult to put down though 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Time limited games are generally not my favorite, but I don't mind this one too much. It is very well done. If he had to do it all over again, maybe he would have included an "Easy" mode that does not have a time limit. I'm sure a lot of programmers over the years look back on their creations and think of all the things they "should" have done differently. As the old saying goes, projects are not finished but abandoned. There is always one more thing that can be done, but if you go down this road you'll never publish your game, or at least not in a timely manner to be ready by the holidays etc.
I used to play a ton of this game when I was a kid! Fun times! I just booted it up again and it's still as addictive (and frustrating) as ever.
Great game isn't it - I found that I ran out of time a little more than I'd expected, but then again... my older brain can't figure out these puzzles as fast as I used ot be able to! 😇🕹️👌
I like Activision games since the Atari 2600 times, but I haven't heard of this one. Thanks for sharing.
I got a good feeling you'll enjoy this one if you're a fan of Activision games - this has to be one of the best puzzlers for the C64 in my opinion! 😇🕹️👌
Yes, when I was a kid, I mostly had pirated copies of games. Thus, despite no investment, this was definitely a game that I had doubts about. There was no spaceflight, no aliens, no driving, it wasn't an arcade port, it wasn't an adventure game. Just a puzzle.
Yeah, I'll try it for a few minutes then get rid of it.
Well, maybe a few more minutes. And the music is kind of nice.
Ok, I can get this, gonna try again.
And so on and so forth until I wound up spending FAR more time playing it than I ever imagined I would. And now, it's a very fond memory. I'm not even keeping up with the modern games I've bought, and compared to most, my collection is pretty small, and I haven't bought anything new for a couple of years now. BUT - your videos are causing me to put together a list of Commodore 64 (or sometimes their Atari 800 variants) games that I want to play, or to replay.
See what you've done??! 😁
I'm loving the fact that these videos are making you want to play them all again - and I also very much like this comment. These are similar to my memories of most games we had which were pirated/copied.... zero instructions, but if we could get into the game within around 5 minutes, we were hooked for life. The best times ever - happy nostalgic memories 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Absolutely, 100%!
Looks like a great puzzler, thanks for highlighting!
It's a great game too and although sometimes you run out of time a lot faster than anticipated, it's still difficult to put down the joystick as it's such an addictive game 😇🕹️👌
I absolutely love this game. I'd play this game all the time after coming home from school. Back then, I think I got pretty good at it (although I bet I'd suck at it now). I was just about the only person I knew who actually liked this game. It was such a neat and unique idea for a puzzle game. The music would get a bit repetitive after a while, though.
You wasn't alone... I loved this game too! Although I really wanted the cartridge version, all I had was the Firebird re-release... great game, I'd play this quite a bit when I was a kid 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I think mine was a rip of the original cartridge version on disk. I remember seeing Activision on the title screen, but not Firebird.
I think it was on a disk with multiple arcade games... like Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong, Congo Bongo, and Moon Patrol. When I first got the disk, I jumped to those arcade games first because I was so excited to play them. I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to playing Zenji! LOL
The more I see modern games that are basically a dozen different iterations of the same idea with slightly prettier graphics, the more I appreciate games like "Zenji". It seems we've lost a lot of original concepts simply because it's very difficult for a single person to bring a game to market that has a chance of standing out.
True enough - I think those superbly talented bedroom coders managed to cover almost every genre of gaming between them. Now, all we see are either shooting games, or remakes/rethinks of concepts which we've already seen before! The 80s was a truly magic period in time for gaming and I'm proud to say I lived it 😇🕹️👌
@@sterling7 Same with movies and such. Just rehashing basically same ideas an so forth, just visually better.
Not sure what would be the best puzzler on the c64. I never played this one but it looks like something right up my alley.
I think once you've played this, it might become one of your favourites. Very responsive controls and good puzzle layouts 😇🕹👌
Somewhere...Zack Zimmerman is crying...
Apologies to all the Zack Zimmermans of the world, dont cry.... you'll get picked for something someday 😇🕹️👌
It reminds me of the mini puzzle in Star Trek Elite Force II for the PC, it was for routing power to unlock doors and such like.
EDIT: Ironically, Elite Force II was also developed by Activision. Coincidence or a homage?
Ahh interesting.... maybe they had the concept and ran with it for the Star Trek game as a sort of mini-game implementation. I like the connection though 😇🕹️👌
Is it the sequel to Benji? 😂😂
As I recall, that was a fun little lame with an absolutely absurd plot. Hmmm it could be you know! Haha 😇🕹️👌
Never seen this one before
Lovely puzzle game from Activision - definitely one of the very best too. Its a shame it didn't get the publicity it deserved really as it genuinely is a great game 😇🕹👌
Looks Good Dont know it
Very addictive, simple to learn but hard to put down 😇🕹️👌