I worked at Epxy for 7 years as a programmer/game designer. I really liked this review. Among other things, I did the half pipe game in California games, and the sound department included the music I wrote for it as well. What I didn't realize was that they used another piece of my music for the background music in LA Crackdown.
@@BastichB64K soundcloud.com/chuck-sommerville/peters-twin?in=chuck-sommerville/sets/chuck-sommerville-early-works track 7 Peters Twin. I had a synth setup in my apartment at the time, and wrote music for fun. I presented many of the tunes to the sound department at Epyx, including the skateboard track, which was used in Cal games. I didnt realize they used Peter's Twin on a game though.
@@Stakkeroid I think part of the reason half pipe is so hard is because I actually skated half pipe in a neighborhood skatepark, so was trying to replicate my experience, with the limited control of a single joystick.
Ahh Epyx... so much nostalgia. in the mid to late 80s my after school routine involved starting to load a game on the C64, rush to pee, grab a soda/snack from the fridge, turn the tv on ( to see the latest Star Trek TNG episode) and then finally start playing (unless loading failed). My Epyx Fast Load cart spent so much time on the back of my C64c that it got stuck somehow and took some gentle whacking with a meat tenderizer hammer to get it loose.
I have to tell you, this is an ADMIRABLE feat of a documentary! The coverage is just ridiculous and awesome! I really have grown to love your videos more and more. Just the greatest.
Thanks a lot , I truly appreciate that. I basically make the documentaries the way I would love to see them made ... There's nothing more dissapointing IMHO than watching one about your fav game companies and then as per usual they skip 90% of the games and only mention a few of them in depth while wasting 20 minutes telling you every detail about how the founder spent their money 😐😐😐 😂 . Thanks again for watching , cheers
I was surprised at their early history ... I wasn't so familiar with the pre 1983 stuff so that was fun too research . As for anything else it stayed on course as planned although I did find some bits and pieces out about the Handy while I was far into the vid and added it in which made it much more comprehensive I feel .
Epyx is part of my childhood, and when the music to California Games started playing I teared up. "The Games" collection I played to death on my C64. But I played so many Epyx games like Imp.Mission 1 and 2, L.A. Crackdown, Jumpman, Barbarian 1 and 2 and 4x4 Off Road Racing.....and I'm surely missing a lot. Pitstop 1 and 2 were the first racing games I played ever. Incidentally I own a board game named Pitstop which I picked up used for €10. It's published in Italy (Editrice Giochi) in 2001 and if you work your way through the horribly translated manual there's actually good game there. I believe the designer played Pitstop 1 and 2 in his childhood because it's a really good conversion into a board game. Very good documentary!
I've waited till i finished work for 5 days to enjoy this. Firstly again can i just remind folks the work that has gone into this video, editing, voice over and the research that's gone into this production, absolutely outstanding. The content was outstanding and i really look forward to the follow up video concentrating on the games. You really are the current top retro content creator B. Stunning work.
What an interesting in depth review on one of the great old time developers. Broke many a joystick to there classic multi-sport titles. For a video at 74 mins, the time really flew by, great video.
Played many of those games as a teen in the 80's, most of them with a very good friend of mine, who was like a big brother to me who sadly passed away two years ago. So by watching this excellent documentary i shed a few tears... Thank you so much for this awesome review of one of the most important game companies that made so many great games for the Commodore 64.
Very new to your channel and have t checked out the rest of the videos yet. My c64 memories include epyx , ocean, thalamus, system 3, gremlin graphics etc. Like everyone else I moved from the c64 to the Amiga. Those were great times and a great job on the doc. The work involved must have been mega to piece this together. Top work man 👍
Not sure where my previous comment went (perhaps removed in case you thought I exaggerated?) 😅… But again. Such a GODLIKE Documentary!! I’m so happy for the rightfully increasing, new subscribers!! BRA-VO, BastichB for 64K! 🥳🎉🎊👏🏻
Thank you sir very much , as for any other comment I have no idea lol there have been so many 🤣👍 . The subs have boosted significantly in the past month .. it's pretty cool 😎 I'm very pleased 😄
Excellent documentary from Epyx, one of my favorite C64 companies. One of the best I've ever seen in a video, I hope that one day you will make one with the history of the old Activision with its protagonists, David Crane, the Kitchen brothers, etc ...
Thank you sir , yeah I usually don't cover companies that are still in existence but I am planning one covering the C64 years of another company so Activision would also be a great one to cover .... Up to a certain period (insert lots of later Activision jokes here )🤣👍
This was a fantastic video! The time you spent developing it is evident as the quality of information is bar none. I always wondered what happen to Epyx and now I know. I had no idea Epyx was responsible for the development of what would become the Atari Lynx. It’s a shame they did’t get to enjoy the fruits of all their time and money.
Thank you sir , it was a massive amount of work to say the least but very rewarding . I grew up with Epyx games and then one day they just weren't there .. as a kid I always wondered what happened ? Thanks to the internet all those secrets and stories are there now . I only found out in the mid 2000's that they make the Lynx ! I was shocked 😲 and yeah it's a real shame they never got to enjoy the system that they slaved away on .
I love these longform “documentaries”. I can kick back, relax, and just savor the goodness. Can’t fathom the amount of work put into this, but I’m grateful!
Wow, great memories of my then husband Scott Nelson (Fast Load creator, and our friends. Most of them came to Epyx through the Starpath acquisition. Great times. And yes, the Lynx was awesome. Thanks for the great job and detail in this video.
The quality of this video shouldn't be underestimated. Hats off mate, it's superb! I can imagine how much time and effort went in to making it - it shines through. Thank you so much, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved Epyx - everything was so polished. You did them justice mate 👍
@@markmacrae8158 yeah the Handy was the downfall which is a pity as it was a cool handheld ... Unfortunately it cost more to make than what Epyx had in the bank 😮
Great video. Been said 100 times already but my experience is the same as many have commented - grew up playing C64 and have great memories of Impossible Mission, and many other games.
@@BastichB64K - not just one of the best games of 1984, it's probably my #1 C64 game and still well worth playing today. Casual players might not fully appreciate it but anybody who took the time to finish it knows what a fine game it is, and very replayable too. Despite the name, it's one of the few C64 games I actually can beat...
@@AnthonyFlack it's a true classic and like you said if you actually put the time in to complete it and discover all the gameplay styles in it , it's even better .
Yeah I definitely wanna get one again ! I used to have one 😭 .. I still got a bunch of the games though like Bill &Ted , Dirty Larry and a few more . Thx for watching .
Having owned an Atari 800, C64, and a Lynx., I was lucky enough to play a lot of these games! Thanks you for the nostalgic trip through my childhood! Fantastic work!
I know that I’ve watched this video already because the like button has been pressed so I’ve probably already left a message saying how great these company history docos are.
I love your videos about the Atari 8 bit computer days. I was ages 8-14 in '79 to '85 and this period was the golden age of computing for me. Had the 400 in '79 as a family Christmas gift and got the 800XL for Christmas in '83. Spent so many hours pouring over Epyx gaming catalogues and drooling. Bought what I could with my chore/paper route money and shared games with my lone Atari computing friend from school in grade school and jr. high who had the 800. Doubled our library by pooling our funds.
Wow, what a quality and well researched piece of work. Randomly found this off the back of an old game (ballblazer) and watched in its entirety. Superb work. Bravo. Excellent production. Thankyou kindly.
Epyx was an excellent label. My favourite sports series was Winter Olympics as i never seen snow in real life and my older siblings always gave me a hard time over it. I would love to see a doco on SSI. Very talented programmers and passion for what they were creating.
Yeah SSI would be a good subject , most of their games unfortunately dont gell well with videos ... Tons of slow strategy games thats are hard to convey into a video if know what i mean ? Anyway I do love their stuff so maybe in the future 👍
Amazing video! In my childhood, Epyx Games was everywhere. Still remember the beginning of the Impossible Mission: "Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay forever!"
You covered the Fast Load cartridge, but Epyx also produced the "Vorpal Utility Kit" for C64, which converted files into a proprietary and optimized Vorpal format, which fast-loaded to -- if my memory is correct -- about 20 times faster than the default load speeds. It didn't need a cartridge, as the loader was embedded. But Epyx did incorporate fastloaders with copy protection on their disk-based softwares. And those Mattel releases, I think they had background loaders, too. Basically, Epyx was a tech leader for the C64 in their time.
Another great one, Bastich! A lot of these titles were close to my heart. Fargoal only got a mention, but that one was big in my childhood. Those SFX! I still play that one on occasion on an SX64. It’s one of the few that translates to that small screen so well. It was really neat to get such a great overview of the history of EPYX.
Thank you , glad it was informative . I've got a list of companies to do ... It's pretty long and Mastertronic is on it but when that'll be made I don't know , I enjoy bouncing around and doing episodes for all my shows for variety but Mastertronic will eventually be done .
Terrific video! I had no idea they released so many great games! Great memories of Epyx and Activision games back in the 80s! I hope someone does an in depth look at Cinemaware at some point!
A superb documentary. I can't imagine how much work this took to put together. You are moving from being a 'you tuber' to being a proper programme maker. Tremendous stuff, well done!
Cheers I appreciate that , it was a ton of work for sure 🤣😭😂 but I appreciate you watching and enjoying it , thank you . I just wanted to put something out there that really celebrated everything Epyx did ... All the games 🕹️
Excellent video good sir. I have always loved the Epyx lineup. Thanks for making a great, detailed and informative video on the history of Epyx. Now I just need to get my hands on an Epyx compilation and play for hours ... just like back in the day. (For the record, one of my favorite Epyx games was Gateway to Apshai. My friends and I would play this game for hours and hours and...) 😎
Hey B Man! Thanks for this Awesome Epic Doco. This one proves that you sir really are a master of your craft. Great footage,Real in depth and well researched information and honest to god reviewing of the games. This really shows just how much pasion and love you have for this system and for the channel overall. I'm really looking forward to your in depth EPYX games video coming up! Thank you so much for the hard work you do!! I'm really loving the content and quallity of your work!! YOU ROCK DUDE!!! 😁
Thank you sir that was real fun to make , I did that years ago so the other Epyx video covering the Games series in more detail is already out so check it out 🕹️👍👍👍👍👍
My parents bought the original IBM PC in 1981, so I grew up as a DOS gamer. However, Temple of Apshai was the first RPG I ever played and it started my lifelong love of them. I was also a Lynx owner... it was actually a great system; it's really unfortunate that it didn't take off.
Thanks for making this Bastich! Truly a wonderful look back on the outstanding Epyx! They were really one of the greatest software houses in the history of the C64. Sad they went down with the Handy/Lynx (never knew!) debacle before their time. But maybe, like the Amiga, the Lynx was a bit too advanced (hence expensive) for its time; but then of course, nobody messes with Nintendo. Once again, kudos for preserving and clarifying this important bit of gaming history, that's such a fundamental part of the C64's legacy. All in all it's kind of fitting that System 3 now own the rights I guess. Now off to see if I can jump over fifteen barrels... probably not 😂
No problem and thanks for watching and yeah the Handy was way ahead of it's time .. it's kinda like the Dreamcast of handhelds . Nice World Games reference at the end 😀
@@BastichB64K Those Atari/Amiga engineers were just too good! 💪 Unlike my (digital) sports prowess; yeah, somehow the barrel jumping event was a real favourite for us back in the day. The way you can embarrassingly crash no doubt helped! 😳 Though you can fail spectacularly in a lot of events, the cliff diving... man, that could look REAL painful! 😲
Excellent documentary... so many great games by Epyx. I think my all time favorite that I played the most was The Legend of Blacksilver.... love that game.
I am ZX Spectrum fanatic, and this was a great documentary ! Hard work pays off ! Hats off to you sir ! This comes from Greece ! Bravo ! I would say zx's version of Winter Games was a revelation as to what you can see and play on a computer..... Top Notch Video !
The first Epyx game I ever had on Commodore 64 was Impossible Mission. First thought was 'Wow, computer games take long to load'. Next thought was after the 1541 drive went CHUNGA-CHUNGA-CHUNGA-CHUNGA was 'WTF WAS THAT???'. Third thought was 'Holy crap, this is amazing'. Fourth thought was 'Maybe I should read the manual?'. Final thought was 'Are all C64 games this hard? I should have stuck with Colecovision!'. I did beat that game eventually to never ending pride.
There were a lot of games that were hard on the C64. Back in the 1980s, many games on the arcade made their way over to the C64 (typically with downgraded graphics), these games kept the level of difficulty intact.
One thing that always seems contentious is the year Impossible Mission was released. Lots of sources say 84 like yourself but my CBS cassette says 83 on the tape
Release dates are very subjective , they print on the boxes when they were manufactured but release dates could be later + depending on where in the world you are it could be even longer or shorter .
Nice documentary. I had of course all GAMES back then, JUMPMAN series, IMPOSSIBLE MISSION, etc. But never ever heard of EPYX FAST LOAD back in the days. In Germany it seemed very unknown, I only became aware of it decades later in the internet days that many said how famous it was. We used software loaded floppy speeders like ULTRALOAD etc., which where also much faster. The fast loader cartridge I eventually bought to not always have to load one in first was the ACTION REPLAY.
Thx , yeah my friend had an Action Replay he used for fast loads I got the Epyx one . Didn't realise they were so uncommon in Germany , probably because Epyx didn't have a strong enough hardware distribution set up then .
I had no idea they bought Starpath. I still have my super charger and all the games. I loved Escape from the Mindmaster but really played the heck out of Dragon Stomper. Great memories.
What a great video! I have never connected all these games together on a timeline. Never knew the history of the company either. Excellent pacing , editing and narration. I played the living crap out of my pirated Summer, Winter and Cali Games as a kid! Thanks! I can,t believe I pronounced Apshai - “ass-phy” my whole life.
Thank you sir , much appreciated . It was pretty fun to make and replay so many of those old games again . And yeah as a kid I pronounced a bunch of games wrong to trying them out now I just have to laugh 😂 I didn't even read it properly 😂👍
@@BastichB64K then what was the megadrive - ish sounding song that followed after the Phantasy Star 2. I heard it somewhere. Your vids all have great music. You should leave the musical entries in the credits somewhere. Vids with music always should. And you've got good taste.
Fastload was absolutely mandatory back in the day. In today's terms, it was like going from a terribly slow hard drive with a spinner platter to the fastest SSD money can buy. And it made loading games much EASIER as well!
Great video! One of my regrets was not visiting all the computer related companies in the San Francisco area when I was in the Navy. I was stationed in Alameda, (right across the bay from San Fran), from 83 till 91. 5 years on the USS Enterprise, (yes BastichB I saw you name your ship Enterprise in the video.. nice touch!), and 2.5 years on shore duty there. So many companies were right there including Epyx! By the Way the 500XJ is my all time favorite joystick, nice pick BastichB and also, I also have my original one. I had many of my Navy Friends break my 500XJ joysticks. (Mostly playing Archon/Archon 2 Adept). After many debates on who was abusing the joysticks, ( I would hand them a new joy stick, and they would break it an blame me). They confused my Rapid play with Pushing too hard on the joy stick. I finally labeled one with my name and no one was allowed to use it. That ended the debate and OF COURSE, I still have that 500XJ and it works perfectly! The Epyx Fast Load was really mandatory for an adult C64 owner. (And in America, the VAST majority of C64 users owned a Disk Drive).
I actually didn't have an Epyx FastLoad. I did however, own a Mach 5 cartridge from Access Software. Speaking of that, in case you haven't covered them, Access would be a pretty cool company to do a documentary on as well
Access have been on my list for a while now and was gonna do them before Epyx but was coming up empty on info for the company besides some basic stuff ...... If you know of any websites or sources lemme know plz 👌😀
Very well done! I loved many of the Epyx C64 games, like Destroyer, Impossible Mission. World Games, etc. Epyx 500XJ joystick - I tried one of these once while over someone's house and found it virtually impossible to get it to register diagonals. I've been told that they weren't all like this, although at least one other person online said he had the same experience with it. Pitstop - This was the second game I ever got for the C64 and the first one I picked out. It was OK, but to be honest, I got bored with it fairly quickly. Street Sports Baseball - I'm not into sports games, but I liked this one. I was always disappointed that they never ported it to the Amiga. Impossible Mission II - I found this game too confusing. The graphics make it much harder to tell what platforms you can reach, and I didn't like the idea of using music as a password, especially as I couldn't hum a tune if my life depended on it. Not that I ever got that far. Barbarian II - I HATED this game! Unlike the first game, all the hits had to be timed perfectly, or you'd miss and get pummeled by the enemy. California Games II - I didn't like this at all. I think a big part of what turned me off was the obviously EGA color palette. I know graphics aren't everything, but it just screamed "lazy port" to me. The Atari Lynx - I once read a funny story, although I don't know if it was true. Supposedly when he saw that the Lynx development kit was based on the Amiga, Jack Tramiel asked if they couldn't use Atari STs instead. Supposedly the designer replied "Sure, if they had 4096 colors, digital sound, multitasking..." :) Epyx also had one more notable release: The Vorpal Utility Kit. The Vorpal loader was Epyx's own disk-based turbo loader that they used on many (all?) of their later releases. Loading times with it were so fast that they made the Fastload cartridge look slow by comparison. Games would load in a matter of seconds. The Vorpal Utility Kit allowed users to save single file programs in a special format that could then be loaded just as fast. Since it used a special format, you couldn't copy the files with normal programs, so a special file copier was included. The company behind Super Snapshot ended up releasing something similar a few years later.
Cheers thanks it was a lot of fun to.make that one . I have a couple of the Epyx sticks and I never had any issues with them so I can only speak from my experience . And yeah I read that about the Lynx 😂👍 there was a lot of lynx stuff I had to simplify and shorten ....cause the video wasn't about an in depth look at it but I would be fun to do a single vid on that whole saga in more detail. That for watching .
I would like to add the Epyx logo is probably my favourite logo on the C64. Original and the "thinking man" helps present a quality game. The only thin i dont like is in Australia the packaging was redone with a plastic clamshell type that i was not fond of.
Great documentary. Anyone else feel sad though when the end turns out to be that the company was on its last legs. Kind of tinges the memory of them being great. Same with the Commodore story or even Zzap64 magazine. Maybe I should just remember them as the greats that they were.
DRAGONRIDERS OF PEEEEEEEERN This may actually be the Atari 800 game I played the most of. (With a friend, who loved it. Assisted by games taking so damn long, of course.) Damn, that music is etched into my nostalgiasoul.
Thx for watching 👍 and yeah I'm aware it's 4 by 4 it's a real bad habit as I got that game as a kid and called it 4x4 cause I didn't know any better and I naturally just call it that without thought 😂😂😂 my bad 🤣
Great video. I had to watch it in several parts. I havn't played many Epyx games, but I was aware of their stature in the 8-bit days. I never owned a C64 back in the day. I owned a Sinclair Spectrum which was probably more popular in the 80's here in the UK. I do have a breadbin now and you are my goto guy for everything C64.Keep up the great work and I look forward to all your work.
I worked at Epxy for 7 years as a programmer/game designer. I really liked this review. Among other things, I did the half pipe game in California games, and the sound department included the music I wrote for it as well. What I didn't realize was that they used another piece of my music for the background music in LA Crackdown.
Very cool 👍 great work sir much appreciated . Are you saying that the LA Crackdown tune wasn't written for that game then ?
@@BastichB64K soundcloud.com/chuck-sommerville/peters-twin?in=chuck-sommerville/sets/chuck-sommerville-early-works track 7 Peters Twin. I had a synth setup in my apartment at the time, and wrote music for fun. I presented many of the tunes to the sound department at Epyx, including the skateboard track, which was used in Cal games. I didnt realize they used Peter's Twin on a game though.
Interesting , thanks for the info 👍
Awesome! I always sucked at half pipe (and still do :-) but what an important classic title. Wasn’t that long ago we played it with some friends :-)
@@Stakkeroid I think part of the reason half pipe is so hard is because I actually skated half pipe in a neighborhood skatepark, so was trying to replicate my experience, with the limited control of a single joystick.
Ahh Epyx... so much nostalgia. in the mid to late 80s my after school routine involved starting to load a game on the C64, rush to pee, grab a soda/snack from the fridge, turn the tv on ( to see the latest Star Trek TNG episode) and then finally start playing (unless loading failed). My Epyx Fast Load cart spent so much time on the back of my C64c that it got stuck somehow and took some gentle whacking with a meat tenderizer hammer to get it loose.
😂👍👍 i think everyone had an Epyx fast load cart back then , still got one
I have to tell you, this is an ADMIRABLE feat of a documentary! The coverage is just ridiculous and awesome! I really have grown to love your videos more and more. Just the greatest.
Thanks a lot , I truly appreciate that. I basically make the documentaries the way I would love to see them made ... There's nothing more dissapointing IMHO than watching one about your fav game companies and then as per usual they skip 90% of the games and only mention a few of them in depth while wasting 20 minutes telling you every detail about how the founder spent their money 😐😐😐 😂 . Thanks again for watching , cheers
@@BastichB64K did you come across any surprises in your research, or did anything change your mind about the direction the film would go?
I was surprised at their early history ... I wasn't so familiar with the pre 1983 stuff so that was fun too research . As for anything else it stayed on course as planned although I did find some bits and pieces out about the Handy while I was far into the vid and added it in which made it much more comprehensive I feel .
Epyx is part of my childhood, and when the music to California Games started playing I teared up. "The Games" collection I played to death on my C64.
But I played so many Epyx games like Imp.Mission 1 and 2, L.A. Crackdown, Jumpman, Barbarian 1 and 2 and 4x4 Off Road Racing.....and I'm surely missing a lot.
Pitstop 1 and 2 were the first racing games I played ever. Incidentally I own a board game named Pitstop which I picked up used for €10. It's published in Italy (Editrice Giochi) in 2001 and if you work your way through the horribly translated manual there's actually good game there. I believe the designer played Pitstop 1 and 2 in his childhood because it's a really good conversion into a board game.
Very good documentary!
Cheers thank you , yeah i grew up playing their games too , epic stuff
@@BastichB64K I think I'm a year older than you. ^^👍
I've waited till i finished work for 5 days to enjoy this. Firstly again can i just remind folks the work that has gone into this video, editing, voice over and the research that's gone into this production, absolutely outstanding. The content was outstanding and i really look forward to the follow up video concentrating on the games. You really are the current top retro content creator B. Stunning work.
Damn! thank you sir , it's was quite a bit of work to say the least 😂. Glad you enjoyed it , share it up as much as you want 👍
This is phenomenal. Great to see another documentarian filling the TH-cams with.. invaluable efforts and stellar results.
Cheers and thx for checking it out
“Another visitor....stay a while...STAY FOREVER!”
First of your videos I found. This is great! brings back memories of Jumpman and Pitstop early favorites.
Cheers thx , i got quite a few classic game company videos so check the others out also if you like 😀👍
What an interesting in depth review on one of the great old time developers. Broke many a joystick to there classic multi-sport titles.
For a video at 74 mins, the time really flew by, great video.
Thanks , if it didn't feel like 74 min then that's great ... I didn't want it to go off the rails or feel like a drag so the pace was pretty fast ⏩
Winter games call day err day ftw
This obviously took a lot of time and effort. This is the documentary Epyx deserves. Great work!
Thank you sir much appreciated
You are welcome. If your next videos are as comprehensive, you have a bright future.
Played many of those games as a teen in the 80's, most of them with a very good friend of mine, who was like a big brother to me who sadly passed away two years ago.
So by watching this excellent documentary i shed a few tears...
Thank you so much for this awesome review of one of the most important game companies that made so many great games for the Commodore 64.
My pleasure , glad you got those good memories of your friend and the fun you had playing these classics 😀👍👍👍👍
Very new to your channel and have t checked out the rest of the videos yet. My c64 memories include epyx , ocean, thalamus, system 3, gremlin graphics etc. Like everyone else I moved from the c64 to the Amiga. Those were great times and a great job on the doc. The work involved must have been mega to piece this together. Top work man 👍
Cheers thank you , yeah it was a beast to put together. I got documentarys on Epyx , Thalamus , Datasoft , accolade and a few more if you interested 👍
@@BastichB64K definitely I will be checking them all out. Subbed to your channel as well 🤟
Thank you much appreciated 😃
Not sure where my previous comment went (perhaps removed in case you thought I exaggerated?) 😅… But again. Such a GODLIKE Documentary!! I’m so happy for the rightfully increasing, new subscribers!!
BRA-VO, BastichB for 64K! 🥳🎉🎊👏🏻
Thank you sir very much , as for any other comment I have no idea lol there have been so many 🤣👍 . The subs have boosted significantly in the past month .. it's pretty cool 😎 I'm very pleased 😄
Fast loader, the XXX series, PitStop II, Super Cycle, Internal Karate.. epic stuff
Epic software house of the 80's 👍
Excellent documentary from Epyx, one of my favorite C64 companies. One of the best I've ever seen in a video, I hope that one day you will make one with the history of the old Activision with its protagonists, David Crane, the Kitchen brothers, etc ...
Thank you sir , yeah I usually don't cover companies that are still in existence but I am planning one covering the C64 years of another company so Activision would also be a great one to cover .... Up to a certain period (insert lots of later Activision jokes here )🤣👍
This was a fantastic video! The time you spent developing it is evident as the quality of information is bar none. I always wondered what happen to Epyx and now I know. I had no idea Epyx was responsible for the development of what would become the Atari Lynx. It’s a shame they did’t get to enjoy the fruits of all their time and money.
Thank you sir , it was a massive amount of work to say the least but very rewarding . I grew up with Epyx games and then one day they just weren't there .. as a kid I always wondered what happened ? Thanks to the internet all those secrets and stories are there now . I only found out in the mid 2000's that they make the Lynx ! I was shocked 😲 and yeah it's a real shame they never got to enjoy the system that they slaved away on .
Outstanding Video!, I used to love Everything made by Epyx, back then I tought they would be bigger than EA
They probably would have if things had gone slightly differently .
They were one of my favorite developers for C64.
They were one of the best , top class
I love these longform “documentaries”. I can kick back, relax, and just savor the goodness. Can’t fathom the amount of work put into this, but I’m grateful!
It was a lot , glad you enjoyed it I've got plenty more of those to check out
Wow, great memories of my then husband Scott Nelson (Fast Load creator, and our friends. Most of them came to Epyx through the Starpath acquisition. Great times. And yes, the Lynx was awesome. Thanks for the great job and detail in this video.
Cool , nice bit of history there . The Lynx was pretty good 👍
Please tell us more about those days? Were you working in the field?
The quality of this video shouldn't be underestimated. Hats off mate, it's superb! I can imagine how much time and effort went in to making it - it shines through. Thank you so much, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved Epyx - everything was so polished. You did them justice mate 👍
Cheers thanks , poor old Epyx deserve some sort of spotlight ..they gave so much joy to so many and then where completely forgotten 😭
@@BastichB64K yeah they really got shafted by their directors blind desire to build a console!
@@BastichB64K they would have been better focussing on software for 16 bit
@@markmacrae8158 yeah the Handy was the downfall which is a pity as it was a cool handheld ... Unfortunately it cost more to make than what Epyx had in the bank 😮
Outstanding upload sir, how are you not exploding on TH-cam? You surely deserve a gigantic audience.
More like this please
All good things I guess 😉 I'll just keep going for it , plenty of vids on the horizon
Awesome video! Brings back lots of memories. Nice production, Subscribed.
Thank you sir , glad you enjoyed it .
Agreed, many memories as the wife and friend of many of the programmers.
4:17 - Jim and John look like basically the same person.
😂👍 it's that 80's geeky computer look 🤣
I saw that your video link was posted on Retro Games TheC64 "News" tab. Very nice work!!
Oh wow ! I'd love to know how that happened ? Thx for letting me know
So much nostalgia feels - thanks for such an in depth doc on these amazingly fun and memorable games from my youth. Awesome!
No problem 👍 thank you for taking the time to check it out
Great video. Been said 100 times already but my experience is the same as many have commented - grew up playing C64 and have great memories of Impossible Mission, and many other games.
Loved Impossible Mission ... Actually finished that thing ! What a challenge 😂👍
@@BastichB64K - not just one of the best games of 1984, it's probably my #1 C64 game and still well worth playing today. Casual players might not fully appreciate it but anybody who took the time to finish it knows what a fine game it is, and very replayable too. Despite the name, it's one of the few C64 games I actually can beat...
@@AnthonyFlack it's a true classic and like you said if you actually put the time in to complete it and discover all the gameplay styles in it , it's even better .
So fond of my old Lynx. Such an unusual (and kinda goofy) library. Still got it in the carry case and everything lol. Fantastic retrospective. Thanks!
Yeah I definitely wanna get one again ! I used to have one 😭 .. I still got a bunch of the games though like Bill &Ted , Dirty Larry and a few more . Thx for watching .
@@BastichB64K yeah slime world is surprisingly epic for a handheld. Oh and pretty good port of the Ninja Gaiden cabinet (Shadow Warriors EU).
Never tried Ninja on the Lynx although it looked good .... I need to get one again 😂
Having owned an Atari 800, C64, and a Lynx., I was lucky enough to play a lot of these games! Thanks you for the nostalgic trip through my childhood! Fantastic work!
Thats awesome , such cool games . Thx for watching
Epyx was always one of my favorites. Someone needs to do a Jumpman: Recharged...
I know that I’ve watched this video already because the like button has been pressed so I’ve probably already left a message saying how great these company history docos are.
Cheers thx for checking it out again 😀👍
The depth of research is amazing; I had to break it up into two sittings but enjoyed every moment.
Thank you , I know it's a bit long but cheers for checking it all out 👍
I love your videos about the Atari 8 bit computer days. I was ages 8-14 in '79 to '85 and this period was the golden age of computing for me. Had the 400 in '79 as a family Christmas gift and got the 800XL for Christmas in '83. Spent so many hours pouring over Epyx gaming catalogues and drooling. Bought what I could with my chore/paper route money and shared games with my lone Atari computing friend from school in grade school and jr. high who had the 800. Doubled our library by pooling our funds.
We used to do that with the C64 as well , pool our resources and games to get even more 😉👍 good times , thanks for watching.
Wow, what a quality and well researched piece of work. Randomly found this off the back of an old game (ballblazer) and watched in its entirety. Superb work. Bravo. Excellent production. Thankyou kindly.
Cheers and thank you for watching 👍
Epyx was an excellent label. My favourite sports series was Winter Olympics as i never seen snow in real life and my older siblings always gave me a hard time over it.
I would love to see a doco on SSI. Very talented programmers and passion for what they were creating.
Yeah SSI would be a good subject , most of their games unfortunately dont gell well with videos ... Tons of slow strategy games thats are hard to convey into a video if know what i mean ? Anyway I do love their stuff so maybe in the future 👍
Amazing video! In my childhood, Epyx Games was everywhere. Still remember the beginning of the Impossible Mission: "Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay forever!"
Thank you sir , they were super cool I loved their stuff 🕹️👍👍👍👍
You covered the Fast Load cartridge, but Epyx also produced the "Vorpal Utility Kit" for C64, which converted files into a proprietary and optimized Vorpal format, which fast-loaded to -- if my memory is correct -- about 20 times faster than the default load speeds. It didn't need a cartridge, as the loader was embedded.
But Epyx did incorporate fastloaders with copy protection on their disk-based softwares. And those Mattel releases, I think they had background loaders, too. Basically, Epyx was a tech leader for the C64 in their time.
Another great one, Bastich! A lot of these titles were close to my heart. Fargoal only got a mention, but that one was big in my childhood. Those SFX! I still play that one on occasion on an SX64. It’s one of the few that translates to that small screen so well. It was really neat to get such a great overview of the history of EPYX.
Cheers thanks for watching , yeah I'd like to do a more on depth look at Fargoal one day.
Very well made, good research, fun to look at and a trip down memory lane. I loved those Epyx games on me C128 (in C64 mode).....Well done !!!
Awesome thank you 😀👍
The epoxy logo makes me nostalgic and happy. And epyx had phenomenal games.
Yeah they did 🕹️👍
Brilliant doco! Your passion and effort is admirable. Thx 4 bringing back great memories & filling in the blanks.
Thank you and cheers for watching 👍👍☺️
Fantastic video! Absolutely some of my favorite games not just on the C64 but on all platforms!
Thanks for checking it out 😀
Amazing video. I wish you make video like this of Cosmi. Great work :)
Thank you for watching , I do have a profile video for Paul Norman and many Cosmi games are covered in it 👇
th-cam.com/video/YZyW1mc28Lc/w-d-xo.html
Awesome video mate. So much information, it must have taken you ages. I sure learned a few things! How about doing a similar video on Mastertronic?
Thank you , glad it was informative . I've got a list of companies to do ... It's pretty long and Mastertronic is on it but when that'll be made I don't know , I enjoy bouncing around and doing episodes for all my shows for variety but Mastertronic will eventually be done .
@@BastichB64K Nice :) Also Cinemaware... I spotted your copy of Rocket Ranger on your shelf! ;)
@@TheAgent4125 😂👍.... Cinemaware will be done later this year for sure so stay tuned , I'm a big fan of their stuff .
@@BastichB64K Subscribed :)
@@TheAgent4125 😁 yay!! 👍
Terrific video! I had no idea they released so many great games! Great memories of Epyx and Activision games back in the 80s! I hope someone does an in depth look at Cinemaware at some point!
Cinemaware is on the list ..hopefully I'll be able to do one at some point later this year 😁👍
A superb documentary. I can't imagine how much work this took to put together. You are moving from being a 'you tuber' to being a proper programme maker. Tremendous stuff, well done!
Cheers I appreciate that , it was a ton of work for sure 🤣😭😂 but I appreciate you watching and enjoying it , thank you . I just wanted to put something out there that really celebrated everything Epyx did ... All the games 🕹️
Excellent video good sir. I have always loved the Epyx lineup. Thanks for making a great, detailed and informative video on the history of Epyx. Now I just need to get my hands on an Epyx compilation and play for hours ... just like back in the day. (For the record, one of my favorite Epyx games was Gateway to Apshai. My friends and I would play this game for hours and hours and...) 😎
Gateway was pretty cool as was most of Epyxs games 🕹️👍 thx for watching
Man, another awesome video! Epyx used to be ubiquitous and was a sign of good stuff on the disk.
Yeah everytime I used to see their logo I knew I was in for a good time
Hey B Man! Thanks for this Awesome Epic Doco. This one proves that you sir really are a master of your craft. Great footage,Real in depth and well researched information and honest to god reviewing of the games. This really shows just how much pasion and love you have for this system and for the channel overall. I'm really looking forward to your in depth EPYX games video coming up! Thank you so much for the hard work you do!! I'm really loving the content and quallity of your work!! YOU ROCK DUDE!!! 😁
Thank you sir that was real fun to make , I did that years ago so the other Epyx video covering the Games series in more detail is already out so check it out 🕹️👍👍👍👍👍
My parents bought the original IBM PC in 1981, so I grew up as a DOS gamer. However, Temple of Apshai was the first RPG I ever played and it started my lifelong love of them. I was also a Lynx owner... it was actually a great system; it's really unfortunate that it didn't take off.
Yeah its a shame with the Lynx , although it does have a pretty big and impressive library so there's plenty to play on it 👍
Incredible video. And a great tribute to a great software house. It's obvious how much effort has been put into this. Thank you
Cheers thanks a bunch , It was a beast to make but I'm glad it's out there .. Epyx deserve it 🕹️👍
I remember playing invasion Orion on my old Atari 800. I loved that game back in the day.
Thanks for making this Bastich! Truly a wonderful look back on the outstanding Epyx! They were really one of the greatest software houses in the history of the C64. Sad they went down with the Handy/Lynx (never knew!) debacle before their time. But maybe, like the Amiga, the Lynx was a bit too advanced (hence expensive) for its time; but then of course, nobody messes with Nintendo.
Once again, kudos for preserving and clarifying this important bit of gaming history, that's such a fundamental part of the C64's legacy. All in all it's kind of fitting that System 3 now own the rights I guess.
Now off to see if I can jump over fifteen barrels... probably not 😂
No problem and thanks for watching and yeah the Handy was way ahead of it's time .. it's kinda like the Dreamcast of handhelds . Nice World Games reference at the end 😀
@@BastichB64K Those Atari/Amiga engineers were just too good! 💪
Unlike my (digital) sports prowess; yeah, somehow the barrel jumping event was a real favourite for us back in the day. The way you can embarrassingly crash no doubt helped! 😳
Though you can fail spectacularly in a lot of events, the cliff diving... man, that could look REAL painful! 😲
Excellent documentary... so many great games by Epyx. I think my all time favorite that I played the most was The Legend of Blacksilver.... love that game.
Cheers thx , Blacksilver was probably their most under appreciated published game , absolutely excellent RPG
I am ZX Spectrum fanatic, and this was a great documentary ! Hard work pays off ! Hats off to you sir ! This comes from Greece ! Bravo ! I would say zx's version of Winter Games was a revelation as to what you can see and play on a computer..... Top Notch Video !
Awesome thank you for checking it out , much appreciated
This level of documentary on Cinemaware would be awesome. So many massive hits and a tragic demise.
They are on my list , just a matter of time before i do them 👍
Great documentary of Epyx! Thank you and I love forward too see the followup!
Glad you enjoyed it! After i recover from Epyx Fatigue i'll get right on it :)
Great video! It brought back a lot of memories and I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for watching
An absolutely fantastic video about a fantastic game company! 10 out of 10!
Cheers dude 👌😀 thanks
Brilliant documentary. I absolutely loved many of these Epyx games for my C64
Thx a lot for watching , cheers 😀👍
The first Epyx game I ever had on Commodore 64 was Impossible Mission. First thought was 'Wow, computer games take long to load'. Next thought was after the 1541 drive went CHUNGA-CHUNGA-CHUNGA-CHUNGA was 'WTF WAS THAT???'. Third thought was 'Holy crap, this is amazing'. Fourth thought was 'Maybe I should read the manual?'. Final thought was 'Are all C64 games this hard? I should have stuck with Colecovision!'. I did beat that game eventually to never ending pride.
🤣👍 yeah I finished it as well , very memorable ending too
Mine was Jumpman Junior on cartridge.
There were a lot of games that were hard on the C64. Back in the 1980s, many games on the arcade made their way over to the C64 (typically with downgraded graphics), these games kept the level of difficulty intact.
This was REALLY great. Thank you for all the work.
No problems thank you for watching 😀👍🕹️
One thing that always seems contentious is the year Impossible Mission was released. Lots of sources say 84 like yourself but my CBS cassette says 83 on the tape
Release dates are very subjective , they print on the boxes when they were manufactured but release dates could be later + depending on where in the world you are it could be even longer or shorter .
Nice documentary. I had of course all GAMES back then, JUMPMAN series, IMPOSSIBLE MISSION, etc.
But never ever heard of EPYX FAST LOAD back in the days. In Germany it seemed very unknown, I only became aware of it decades later in the internet days that many said how famous it was.
We used software loaded floppy speeders like ULTRALOAD etc., which where also much faster. The fast loader cartridge I eventually bought to not always have to load one in first was the ACTION REPLAY.
Thx , yeah my friend had an Action Replay he used for fast loads I got the Epyx one . Didn't realise they were so uncommon in Germany , probably because Epyx didn't have a strong enough hardware distribution set up then .
Love The Sword of Fargoal, as a matter of fact I was just playing it through C64 Forever earlier tonight!
Great game 🕹️ I still slap it on every few years for a bit of a dungeon dive
Awesome game, although I prefer the VIC-20 version personally, runs a bit smoother
Incredible documentary!! I remember playing so many of these games 🎮
Thx , i appreciate you checking it out
I had no idea they bought Starpath. I still have my super charger and all the games. I loved Escape from the Mindmaster but really played the heck out of Dragon Stomper. Great memories.
Yeah i didn't know that either until i researched all the history... Its a pretty fascinating journey
Excellent video, brought back a lot of memories from my C64 days!!
Thx for watching , great company 👍
What a great video! I have never connected all these games together on a timeline. Never knew the history of the company either.
Excellent pacing , editing and narration. I played the living crap out of my pirated Summer, Winter and Cali Games as a kid!
Thanks!
I can,t believe I pronounced Apshai - “ass-phy” my whole life.
Thank you sir , much appreciated . It was pretty fun to make and replay so many of those old games again . And yeah as a kid I pronounced a bunch of games wrong to trying them out now I just have to laugh 😂 I didn't even read it properly 😂👍
G.I. Joe was awesome. The only thing that would have made the game better, is you had the option to play as Cobra
This deserves more views fantastic work sir!
Cheers thanks , story of my channel .. no views 🤣🤣
@@BastichB64K Well if it's consolation I found you through the almighty algorithm while watching Nostalgia Nerd.
@@50shadesofbeige88 well maybe there's hope then 🤣👍
Great Job Dude..Great memories and a few bizarre ones out there, and love the early D & D stuff :) Keep up the good work..
Thank you sir , yeah the early days are filled with some awesome and kinda strange titles 😂👍
Just on your video production alone you have gained a new subscriber. Awesome video!
Thank you sir and welcome to the channel 👍🕹️
Great documentary. Especially love the Phantasy Star II soundtrack when it played in the background.
Yay somebody noticed it 😀👍 I'm as much a classic Sega fan as I am a C64 fan so often I combine the 2 🎶🎶😀
@@BastichB64K then what was the megadrive - ish sounding song that followed after the Phantasy Star 2. I heard it somewhere. Your vids all have great music. You should leave the musical entries in the credits somewhere. Vids with music always should. And you've got good taste.
Really informative production and very well researched and really enjoyed it as I like many here have amazing fond memories of Epyx software.
Thank you very much for watching , glad it brought back some good memories 🕹️👍
Fastload was absolutely mandatory back in the day. In today's terms, it was like going from a terribly slow hard drive with a spinner platter to the fastest SSD money can buy. And it made loading games much EASIER as well!
😀👍👍
Wow! Very cool mate, enjoyed this!
Cheers thank you for checking it out 😀👍
Good stuff, it's like a documentary of my childhood:) Thanks for the memories:)
My pleasure , thanks for watching
Really fantastic, so much of my childhood was defined by Epyx
Thx for checking it out ✅
Great video! One of my regrets was not visiting all the computer related companies in the San Francisco area when I was in the Navy. I was stationed in Alameda, (right across the bay from San Fran), from 83 till 91. 5 years on the USS Enterprise, (yes BastichB I saw you name your ship Enterprise in the video.. nice touch!), and 2.5 years on shore duty there.
So many companies were right there including Epyx! By the Way the 500XJ is my all time favorite joystick, nice pick BastichB and also, I also have my original one. I had many of my Navy Friends break my 500XJ joysticks. (Mostly playing Archon/Archon 2 Adept). After many debates on who was abusing the joysticks, ( I would hand them a new joy stick, and they would break it an blame me). They confused my Rapid play with Pushing too hard on the joy stick. I finally labeled one with my name and no one was allowed to use it. That ended the debate and OF COURSE, I still have that 500XJ and it works perfectly!
The Epyx Fast Load was really mandatory for an adult C64 owner. (And in America, the VAST majority of C64 users owned a Disk Drive).
Cool , would have been interesting to visit those places then . Yeah thats my original 500xj as well still works perfectly
a ton of work went into that and it shows. great stuff.
Thank you 😀👍 it was a beast to make 😂
I actually didn't have an Epyx FastLoad. I did however, own a Mach 5 cartridge from Access Software. Speaking of that, in case you haven't covered them, Access would be a pretty cool company to do a documentary on as well
Access have been on my list for a while now and was gonna do them before Epyx but was coming up empty on info for the company besides some basic stuff ...... If you know of any websites or sources lemme know plz 👌😀
Very well done! I loved many of the Epyx C64 games, like Destroyer, Impossible Mission. World Games, etc.
Epyx 500XJ joystick - I tried one of these once while over someone's house and found it virtually impossible to get it to register diagonals. I've been told that they weren't all like this, although at least one other person online said he had the same experience with it.
Pitstop - This was the second game I ever got for the C64 and the first one I picked out. It was OK, but to be honest, I got bored with it fairly quickly.
Street Sports Baseball - I'm not into sports games, but I liked this one. I was always disappointed that they never ported it to the Amiga.
Impossible Mission II - I found this game too confusing. The graphics make it much harder to tell what platforms you can reach, and I didn't like the idea of using music as a password, especially as I couldn't hum a tune if my life depended on it. Not that I ever got that far.
Barbarian II - I HATED this game! Unlike the first game, all the hits had to be timed perfectly, or you'd miss and get pummeled by the enemy.
California Games II - I didn't like this at all. I think a big part of what turned me off was the obviously EGA color palette. I know graphics aren't everything, but it just screamed "lazy port" to me.
The Atari Lynx - I once read a funny story, although I don't know if it was true. Supposedly when he saw that the Lynx development kit was based on the Amiga, Jack Tramiel asked if they couldn't use Atari STs instead. Supposedly the designer replied "Sure, if they had 4096 colors, digital sound, multitasking..." :)
Epyx also had one more notable release: The Vorpal Utility Kit. The Vorpal loader was Epyx's own disk-based turbo loader that they used on many (all?) of their later releases. Loading times with it were so fast that they made the Fastload cartridge look slow by comparison. Games would load in a matter of seconds. The Vorpal Utility Kit allowed users to save single file programs in a special format that could then be loaded just as fast. Since it used a special format, you couldn't copy the files with normal programs, so a special file copier was included. The company behind Super Snapshot ended up releasing something similar a few years later.
Cheers thanks it was a lot of fun to.make that one . I have a couple of the Epyx sticks and I never had any issues with them so I can only speak from my experience . And yeah I read that about the Lynx 😂👍 there was a lot of lynx stuff I had to simplify and shorten ....cause the video wasn't about an in depth look at it but I would be fun to do a single vid on that whole saga in more detail.
That for watching .
I would like to add the Epyx logo is probably my favourite logo on the C64. Original and the "thinking man" helps present a quality game. The only thin i dont like is in Australia the packaging was redone with a plastic clamshell type that i was not fond of.
Yeah the Epyx logos are iconic , it always stood for quality every time i saw a game with it .
I had no idea, Epyx started as an D&D-based RPG producer. Interessting.
Yeah I wasn't that familiar with the very early stuff so it was fun and interesting to research and play ▶️
Great documentary. Anyone else feel sad though when the end turns out to be that the company was on its last legs. Kind of tinges the memory of them being great. Same with the Commodore story or even Zzap64 magazine. Maybe I should just remember them as the greats that they were.
They are still all great in a sense , circumstances just got in the way
Really well made documentary. Thanks!
Awesome 👍 thanks for taking the time to watch it
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching 👍
We got a lot of em on ehm non branded cassette tapes in the mail so i don't recognize the packaging,bit surely enjoyed every byte of them
Huge video. Wow! I played a lot of Epyx Rogue on MS-DOS when I was a kid.
Great version of the original , even better in my opinion .
DRAGONRIDERS OF PEEEEEEEERN
This may actually be the Atari 800 game I played the most of. (With a friend, who loved it. Assisted by games taking so damn long, of course.) Damn, that music is etched into my nostalgiasoul.
Yeah pretty good game 👍
74 minutes! I'm afraid it's too late tonight to finish watching this before going to bed :D
You did another great documentary!
Just kidding. Finished watching :)
😂👍 ... I know it's long but I hope you enjoyed it
Wow just seeing this now. Great vid and I'm sure a lot of hours put into the research!
Thank you sir for watching and yes it took a while to make 🤣👍
This was a tremendous video. Reminded me how much I loved the games from Epyx.
p.s. "4 by 4" not "4 times 4" when it comes to off-road :)
Thx for watching 👍 and yeah I'm aware it's 4 by 4 it's a real bad habit as I got that game as a kid and called it 4x4 cause I didn't know any better and I naturally just call it that without thought 😂😂😂 my bad 🤣
Great video. I had to watch it in several parts. I havn't played many Epyx games, but I was aware of their stature in the 8-bit days. I never owned a C64 back in the day. I owned a Sinclair Spectrum which was probably more popular in the 80's here in the UK. I do have a breadbin now and you are my goto guy for everything C64.Keep up the great work and I look forward to all your work.
Thank you sir much appreciated , hope you enjoying your C64 🕹️👍
Congratulations !! awesome work , full of info !!
Thank you for watching 😀👍
24:26 there was a disk version of Jumpman Junior as well which was the version I owned
I had the disk version as well .... It was a bootleg though 🤣👍
@@BastichB64K Mine was not a bootleg
LOL i just spent 16 hours listening to that asimov audiobook only to find out the game you reviewed had an entirely different story!! 🙂
🤣👍
Instalike!!! High quality stuff! You should have 1000000+ subs!
Cheers thanks glad you enjoyed it , feel free to share the vid maybe I'll get a few more subs 🤣👍
Great Job, Bastich!!!! 👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you sir 😀 I appreciate that a lot
Excellent coverage of the epyx history! 😁
Thx , glad you enjoyed it 👌