Happy 30th Birthday: Commodore 64

[cartman]

It was 30 years ago this August that the Commodore 64 made its debut. For quite a few people, this was their introduction into the computing world. Ars Technica has a nice article with some of their editor's remembrances of the platform.

Three decades of the Commodore 64 | Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/08/three-decades-of-the-commodore-64/)

I was lucky. The C64 was the 3rd computer we had in the house. Growing up, my dad was a programmer for Tandy Corp., the parent company of Radio Shack, and we had a couple of TRS-80s around in the late 70s. In '82, I got a Commodore VIC-20 as a birthday present, and a year later we got the C-64. As I mentioned in the Olympics thread, one of the first games we got was the Epyx Summer Games, as well as EA's first offering, Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, One-on-One. We also used it for things other than games. I remember spending several days with my mom and dad typing in pages and pages of hex code from a book by Computes Gazette to get a crude word processor.

There are countless stories I can remember about that device. Who else was impacted by the C-64 as an early exposure to computing?

[molson]

I was a TI-99 kid. I admit it.

[sabotai]

The C64 was my first computer, and my introduction into computer programming.

[britrock88]

My family's first computer was a C64, too. I played it until we got a PC in '94 or so.

[Wolfpack]

My dad had good foresight in recognizing that computers were the coming thing and he learned how to program some basic things starting out on a TRS-80 back in the late 70s. Even had a crude blocky football game he got from somewhere, but as it was supposed to be mostly for his business use, it never was a game machine. Along came the Vic-20 which we had some games for. My neighbor and best friend when I was a kid had a TI-99/4A and we played games until the cows came home on that: Alpiner, football, etc. We did get one for ourselves, but it never got as much use. Then the C-64 came along and the whole world changed. Did everything from banner printing in Print Shop to Epyx's Summer Games and way too many other things in between. My brother and I destroyed a half-dozen Atari-type joysticks in the sincere effort to convince the C-64 that we really wanted something to go in a given direction and it just wasn't doing it far/fast enough (either by breaking the stem or else slamming down in frustration). Was the family computer until we got our first IBM clone, a 386/20.

All this computing time meant that three of the four of us ended up in a computer field after college (though my oldest sister actually graduated as an econ major, she eventually got a gig at Microsoft based on her experience being a sysop in a college computer lab among other things).

[A-Husker-4-Life]

The C64 was my first computer, and my introduction into computer programming.

This..

[cougarfreak]

Many a day and night were spent by me playing F-15 Strike Eagle bombing little triangle targets, Silent Service submarine, and a crude Midway campaign text sim of some sort. Dr. J and Bird was great, as were some crude fantasy games as well. All on my C64.

Load "*", 8 I believe was the command.

[larrymcg421]

So many memories...

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQky2fwPI691f-GOkQHboOG0T4axtprQw7f5AwUvspi9rvnJnLJ


https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTxr3cqoGg0nLl9rhIj5D-_0BC42I0iEuIX7hVEq5M7QdikgBS7

https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTIPiveHMZt-wSPMw-ey9om5DHLbzqiuNNM8UKk18LNdFpL8Yetfg

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT1FOVaI45K_wWbaRi1X6sXzglAPzLkzuQ8FuXu8xahKa_h-TC8pQ

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYPgqhgWUTmbn4BKg1fc_qjIDYyQ8K8n7iBfA5s6aQvnektCLTOg

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2LsPaH8dw6DbGVrzWP-mUxfIOvULCGMwNF31gChZSePv7QR3a

https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1O3xKjR1g2rPyNDjz4v3Y2Gpdt3bSjpp-AgbS1qFDpir1iAUXPQ

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS7ZQbEKO9SmT8P0l32si3qxnHdjRnR6X3_zqqJHm2sPEmXHfG8

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ26cwX5Ob9oLtOhE_RQ1xpJFQ6JKoL5evVRRr_jLC_S1nYO2pl

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSuH0qcg9J3G3orKIbgOrj6LI8Q5FBxHT2--hfy0RNERPk4JcM9

[lighthousekeeper]

my top 5:

Bard's Tale III
http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/931/Bards%20Tale%20III,%20The%20-%20Thief%20Of%20Fate_7.png

Gunship
http://www.lemon64.com/games/screenshots/full/g/gunship_04.gif

Pirates!
http://www.c64-wiki.com/images/5/5d/PiratesStadt2.gif

Ultima IV
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5s_QoBigL-g/0.jpg

Statis Pro Baseball
http://www.gb64.com/Screenshots/C/Computer_Statis-Pro_Baseball.png

[frnk55]

I hated everyone with a C64. I had the Vic20 and was very jealous.

[Alf]

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_zDwjctkF5w" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

Epic Epyx games !

[Alf]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xpZGD6m4xOg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
.

[Sweed]

Our first computer and loved it. Load "*",8,1 and wait as the disk drive whirred and you could hear the head knock and then the splash screen that stayed there forever.

Favorites, no particular order

1."Gunship" Apache attack helicopter with 3d modeling for buildings and armor. Strafing enemy infantry, using mountains as shields and popping up over the top to take out enemy armor. Great game.

2."Bard's Tale II" My introduction to RPGs.

3. "Superbowl Sunday"

4."Pure Sim Baseball" Actually had an add on disk with MLB stadiums

5."F-15 Strike Eagle"

6."Lance Haffner 3 in 1 Football" My intro to text sim sports

Many many more but these probably got the most play from me.

[HarryLime]

.. and 30 years later, still buying video games!

top C64 games for me :

1) Law of the West
2) Elite
3) California Games
4) Bruce Lee
5) The Last Ninja (1 and 2)
6) Rambo
7) Defender of the Crown
8) Power at Sea
9) Blue Max
10) Speedball

Overall though, my favorite games by a country mile : Street Rod (1 and 2) - still to this day have never found a driving game as good as this....

[larrymcg421]

Always loved simple and childish fun with C64 programming...

10 INPUT"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?";B
20 PRINT"YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE,";B
30 GOTO 20

[chinaski]

Skate or Die and Maniac Mansion ate many hours for me in the late 80's.

[sabotai]

Some of my favorite games

- Mail Order Monsters
- The Movie Monster Game
- 4th and Inches (w/ the Team Construction disk)
- Racing Destruction Set
- Shogun

[spleen1015]

Never had a computer until the 386s came around. I had an Atari, but my gaming really started with the NES.

[tyketime]

Commodore 64C was my first computer. Wow - Defender of the Crown. Haven't thought about that great game in many years.

[larrymcg421]

Omni-Play Basketball was my first introduction to career play. If I had never played that game, I probably wouldn't be on this board right now.

Racing Destruction Set was my first introduction to split screen two player racing. It also had a terrific track editor and tons of options for vehicles and gravity settings. I used to love designing tracks with lots of intersections and potential for crashes. I also would make tracks with hills and set it to Jupiter gravity. A really advanced game for its time.

[MizzouRah]

My first pc was a TRS-80 color computer, but I'll never forget my C64. I ran a Color 64 BBS called Message Express.. those were good times.

[cuervo72]

Commodore 64C was my first computer. Wow - Defender of the Crown. Haven't thought about that great game in many years.

The Cinemaware games were superb. Defender of the Crown and Rocket Ranger were ones we played a lot.

Others that were favorites:

- MicroLeague Baseball
- Maniac Mansion
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
- SportTime Ice Hockey
- Summer/Winter Games
- Street Sports series (had great music)
- 4th and Inches
- Hardball
- Lords of Conquest (allowed custom map creation!)
- MicroLeague Wrestling
- Skate or Die
- Paperboy
- Dr. J vs Bird
- Star Rank Boxing
- Impossible Mission (ok, not really a favorite, but deserves mention)

[HarryLime]

Defender of the Crown was re-made a couple of years ago.. I havent tried it out tho!

Mission Impossible had a version released on NDS, and there were rumors of California Games and Last Ninja also coming, but never materialized.. ( I think last ninja was released on Wii in like an emulator or some such..)

How could i have forgotten! the first boxing game i ever played, and still 1 of the best : Barry McGuigans boxing! I still have the music imprinted on my brain!

[weegeebored]

Load "*", 8 I believe was the command.Being an Atari guy I always thought that was a stupid thing to have to do just to load something on the Commode-door 64.

On a related note, a couple people here mentioned Defender of the Crown. It was the first game I saw on an Amiga 1000. I was so blown away I wound up buying a 500. The Amiga is still my favorite computer of all time. And yes, being an Atari guy I still can't call it a Commodore. <*cringe*><cringe></cringe>

[GrantDawg]

Commodore 64C was my first computer. Wow - Defender of the Crown. Haven't thought about that great game in many years.


Hours upon hours. That and Bard's Tale 1-infinity.

[sterlingice]

I was a TI-99 kid. I admit it.

I was, too, so I missed out on the C64

SI

[MizzouRah]

Many a day and night were spent by me playing F-15 Strike Eagle bombing little triangle targets, Silent Service submarine, and a crude Midway campaign text sim of some sort. Dr. J and Bird was great, as were some crude fantasy games as well. All on my C64.

Load "*", 8 I believe was the command.

LOVED F-15 Strike Eagle!

Lance Haffner were my first introduction into text sports games.

Wasteland is probably #1 on my list.

Hardball, 4th and Inches, Apache 64, just to name a few

[cougarfreak]

LOVED F-15 Strike Eagle!

Lance Haffner were my first introduction into text sports games.

Wasteland is probably #1 on my list.

Hardball, 4th and Inches, Apache 64, just to name a few

Hardball as well. Did anyone else play Silent Service, the submarine game? I loved that game. You could fire the torpedoes, and blow up shit with the deck gun. Good stuff.

[gstelmack]

Anyone else spend hours typing in hex numbers from magazines for games, and be very ecstatic when they finally added checksums to each line?

[Jughead Spock]

*raises hand*

[cadmus2166]

Although my first computer experiences were with the Commodore PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64, the first computer that was in my house and that I had full access to was the Atari ST. I learned how to program Basic on it, and spent hours on some of my favorite games, such as Dungeon Master, Superstar Ice Hockey, Brattacas, Balance of Power, The Bard's Tale, The Pawn, The Phantasie series, Rogue, Star Trek: The Rebel Universe, and of course, the Ultima games. Lots of good times!