This is going to be far more difficult than my Megadrive and Intellivision lists, the C64 represents my golden age of gaming. It will also be quite interesting in the UK and US markets were quite different, both in games, genres and pricing. It’s also a list heavily influenced by the music, which still has a place in my heart as some of the best game music of all time. The size of the library in the UK was insane too, 2000 titles show on the wiki list., with a huge budget (£1.99) market appearing in the latter years.
Bruce Lee - This is interesting as it represents the difference between the earlier games and the latter, the graphics and sound on this are poor, especially if you compare it to say, the huge sprites and intricate backgrounds of Bangkok Knights. It did however, have some incredibly cool levels and platform challenges.
Commando - Great arcade conversion for one of the earlier games, FANTASTIC Rob Hubbard soundtrack, and a quick loader. It was hard to decide if to put this or the similar Rambo II in the list.
The Last Ninja - When gaming grew up. Quite astounding graphics for its time, a fabulous Daglish and Lees soundtrack, and insanely difficult pixel perfect gameplay. It took us weeks to get past the stepping stones on level one.
Mega Apocalypse - A sequel to arcade conversion Crazy Comets (which was memorable as it loaded in about 20 seconds), MA was an asteroid clone on steroids, and one of Hubbards best soundtracks.
Skate Or Die - the first decent skating game, much better than even than the similar era 720 was on the arcades. Another fantastic Hubbard soundtrack, and multiple games, the half pipe and street events were just as much fun.
Kikstart II - A brilliant £1.99 motorbike trials game, doing what Trials did decades before, but Kickstart II had split screen MP and a comprehensive map editor too.
Bubble Bobble - a great conversion of a brilliant game, this was a MP game that we played to level 100 more than a few times. I bet my fellow Bubble Bobble fans can hum the theme tune even now.
IK+ (International Karate +)- Archer McClean defines the fighting genre. Three players! Mini games, superb backgrounds that did things! Hubbard providing musical perfection
Leaderboard - a golf game, Im not sure if the best, but it was the one we obsessively played until the break of dawn and the list of great games is so long I had to choose some of our 200+ hours played games.
Wizball - Another stunningly original game, a shmup with a difference as you collect colours in a grey tone world, gradually breathing life and colour into a level, with the bonus of your friend playing the wizards cat. And yes, a brilliant soundtrack. Here’s a live version.
The C64 probably deserves a top 10 list per genre… and top 10 tunes. I’ve left out entire series of brilliant games, Dizzy, Monty Mole, Epyx’s * Games series, quality shmups like Armalyte. Imagine’s isometric platformers like Head Over Heels, Ultimates iso games including Underworlde and Knight Lore. The dawn of platforming with Manic Miner and the Jet Set Willy games. Ive left out godly authors like Andrew Braybrook. Ive missed the big sellers we all played a million times like Ghostbusters, Raid over Moscow and Beachhead. I wanted to put in more Hubbard, Galway, Tel and Dalglish music. I’ve avoided too many arcade conversions, as i could have populated the list with those alone. Ive missed genre defining games like Little Computer People or the 3D squad based strategy game Aliens. I had to trim Laser Squad and Great Giana Sisters because I didnt put as much time into those as others. I never played the Ultima series or many of the US RPGs or those more expensive big box things from the States but i bet they were excellent. I’ve missed quirky little wonders like Nebulous and Druid, so let’s see what you all played and loved.