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Commodore C=64, ZX Spectrum, Atari XL/XE, etc.


Sorrow

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I know. I'm playing on emulator nowadays.

 

I have smashed my C=64 after my mother bought a PC. I had too much traumatic experiences with it.

I had a cassette recorder, so loading any game lasted up to few minutes and I had to calibrate its header before playing most of the games. Horrible stuff.

 

The worst part was that there weren't original versions of most of C=64 hits, like Ultima series, Wasteland, Laser Squad, Gunship, Silent Service, etc.

9/10 of original games sold in Poland was so bad that games reviewed by AVGN seem to be awesome in comparison.

Most of them were horribly unbalanced masochistic shooters and platformers. I managed to beat only two of them - Midnight Resistance and The Spy Who Loves Me.

 

On the other hand, there were lots of pirated games, but they were sold on cassettes with 20-30 games on one cassette.

Of course strategic games, simulators, etc. were usually unplayable because there was only one level, which often didn't work correctly.

 

I wonder what are other people's experiences with 8-bit computers.

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Had a ZX Spectrum, which was how I first got into computer games. Many memories of long summer evenings playing Jet Set Willy, Jetpac, Fairlight and lots of other wonderful titles. My favourites were:

 

-Lords of Midnight/Doomdark's Revenge - turn based strategy, but with the relatively unusual approach of it being in first person perspective. Really made you feel you were "there" in the lands of Midnight & Icemark.

 

-Tir Na Nog/Dun Darach - arcade adventure games set in lands from Celtic legend. Wonderful atmosphere (for the time) and interesting puzzles to solve.

 

-Elite - possibly the first proper sandbox game. Fly around shooting pirates, stealing cargo, trying to dock, trading narcotics...amazing.

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Had a ZX Spectrum, which was how I first got into computer games. Many memories of long summer evenings playing Jet Set Willy, Jetpac, Fairlight and lots of other wonderful titles. My favourites were:

 

-Lords of Midnight/Doomdark's Revenge - turn based strategy, but with the relatively unusual approach of it being in first person perspective. Really made you feel you were "there" in the lands of Midnight & Icemark.

 

-Tir Na Nog/Dun Darach - arcade adventure games set in lands from Celtic legend. Wonderful atmosphere (for the time) and interesting puzzles to solve.

 

-Elite - possibly the first proper sandbox game. Fly around shooting pirates, stealing cargo, trying to dock, trading narcotics...amazing.

 

Ah...Fairlight, LoM, Doomdark's Revenge, Tir Na Nog, Dun Darach and Elite; fantastic games on the ZX Spectrum!

Other favourites were Out of the Shadows and Heavy on the Magick. I tried playing HotM on an emulator a few years ago and I don't understand how I managed to finish it when I was a kid...

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Do you still play them? Are they still as good as they used to be back then?

 

 

My favourites were:

 

Laser Squad - the game that introduced me to individual-level tactical wargames.

 

I love it's graphics - it's a very weird graphics style - it's simple but it perfectly expresses the nature of the objects it represents. There's something very weird about it - it's something I would expect from an early graphic OS, not from a computer game.

 

It has a very good combat system - IMHO the best of all X-Com games, despite that it doesn't allow changing stances. Especially it's automatic fire is great - unlike in X-Com games, it allows the player to choose a number of rounds fired and allows to fire them between two points, making it one of the few tactical wargames that allows area fire with automatic weapons.

 

I have tried playing Amiga and PC versions, but I didn't like them - C64 graphics style gives it unique looks and C64 sound effects are very expressive and great at supporting the atmosphere of suspense. In comparison, PC and Amiga versions look and sound very generic. I still play it on emulator. The only things that I don't like it is a clunky interface and a limited number of missions.

 

Gunship - It was the first flight simulator that I have played. I was fascinated with it and I managed to figure out controls, but the game version that I had was very limited - it had only one mission. I'm still playing it on Amiga emulator - mainly because the C=64 version is rather slow.

It's pretty easy to control due to lack of analog joystick and easy to start playing but requires some learning of helicopter tactics.

The main thing that I don't like about it is that the player is alone in the air except for enemy Hind helicopter that appears in some missions. Also, other units don't fight with each other.

 

I remember really liking several other games like Combat Lynx - a shooter with simulation elements, Legions of Death a wargame where the player controls Roman or Carthaginan navy, Strike Fleet , etc.

I liked mainly simulators, tactical wargames and weird combinations of simulators and shooters.

 

I couldn't fully experience them, though due to the poor quality of the pirated copies.

 

These were the good games. Now, let's get to bad ones:

 

There's a company that is responsible for some of my traumatic experiences during my childhood.

It's name is Zeppelin Games.

 

They have created games that could be cool, but had horrible artificial difficulty created by poor controls or unbalanced level design.

 

Some examples:

Blue Baron. This game is horrible. Its premise is cool - you fly a biplane and get a mission of bombing a ground target.

You have to start by taking off an airfield.

You can land on airfield and tank fuel and repair damage and load more bombs.

The plane can endure 4 hits (just as most of enemy planes).

Destroyed enemy planes leave upgrades, like repair or additional bombs.

 

The main problem is that there is too much enemy planes in the air and it's very difficult to not fly into one of them.

The game seems to not be able to decide if it's a typical shoot-em up with hordes of enemy planes and bonuses or a more serious game that includes arcade elements, like Wings of Fury or Jet Strike.

Also, fuel runs out too fast. The plane is usually out of fuel before it reaches the target.

Then there are airfields. For some weird reason, airfields become shorter and shorter in each next mission. Sometimes one loses more lives when taking of than getting shot down.

This game is very difficult and it doesn't really bring satisfaction, like mastering tactics in flight simulation, but only frustration.

 

Another their game that I was unfortunate to play was Frankenstein. It was a platformer when one controlled a dude named Igor. He was sent to collect dead bodies. The general premise and atmosphere was good but for some weird reason they had to make it horribly difficult, with tons of enemies and lack of directions. I don't think I have ever managed to deliver a single body despite playing it with friends many times.

Again, it's exceedingly difficult and frustrating.

 

Almost all the games from that company were like that.

 

Then there's a horrible game from Piranha - Gunboat. It's one of these shooters that try to add simulation elements and fail horribly.

Almost everything is bad about this game. Controls are very awkward and non-responsive, there's too much stuff on screen, the boat moves faster than the screen scrolls, etc.

It's very, very frustrating.

 

There was only one original game from that genre that I have liked - Operation Hormuz. Basically, it was a cheap version of Wings of Fury - it's a sidescroller where aircraft can rotate, has 4 weapon systems with limited amount of ammo and can land on an aircraft carrier for repairing, refuelling and rearming.

Player not only has to destroy enemy migs and bases but also has to destroy Exocet rockets that try to sink the carrier.

It had some weird stuff like being able to hit the ground and not crash. Sometimes one crashed, sometimes not.

Also, I don't know why, but it was advertised as a "realistic flight simulator".

Still, I find it very playable.

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Oh yeah. First programming experience came on my old C64 (and later the C128, and then an Amiga). I still fire up Gamebase--favorites are mainly Forbidden Forest, Mail Order Monsters, Realm of Impossibility, Impossible Mission II, Theatre Europe, 4th & Inches... I recently went through and player Maniac Mansion again. I forgot just how good that game is, and it's really amazing considering it was on the C64.

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I think that a most of games that were really good back then are still good today.

Most of games that got old were the ones that relied on technological gimmicks or were downright horrible and were played only because there wasn't anything better to play in that moment.

Interfaces have aged considerably, though. Giving orders in most C64 wargames is horribly tedious.

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