Very few home computers have achieved the worldwide impact of the Commodore 64, which sold tens of millions of units during its 1982-1994 production run. This humble brown keyboard-in-a-box launched many programming careers, aided many book reports, and even handled small business accounting tasks on a budget.
But it is the Commodore 64's impressive gaming catalog that keeps retrocomputing fans coming back to the machine over 30 years after its original release. The machine's low price, console-caliber graphics capabilities, and ease-of-development (literally anyone could write a game for it) made it an ideal gaming platform for many during the 1980s and early '90s.
On a platform hosting thousands of entertainment titles, one could dig up literally hundreds of notable games to feature. So I've chosen a mere seven that I find interesting enough to serve as a starting gateway into the wider world of C64 games. These particular games are some of the lesser-known among the wider gaming world, but they are still worth playing today.
I'd like to thank Lemon64 and GameBase 64 for providing the screenshots used in this slideshow. When you're done reading, check out those sites for more wonderful Commodore 64 games, reviews, and information.
(This story was originally published on Dec. 31, 2015.)
1. Laser Squad (1989)
Fans of Laser Squad compare this turn-based squad strategy title favorably with the legendary X-Com series on the IBM PC. In this title, two players face off in a futuristic, turn-by-turn, unit-by-unit battle reminiscent of the best tabletop strategy games. Individual play-throughs can last hours, but with a high replay value, enjoyment of Laser Squad can last a lifetime.
2. Heart of Africa (1985)
Unlike its predecessor, The Seven Cities of Gold (1984), this Dani Bunten-designed exploration classic fell mostly under the radar in the U.S. Whereas Bunten set Seven Cities among the Americas during the Age of Discovery (often with a randomly generated world map every game), Heart of Africa takes place in the eponymous continent with a realistic game map during the late 19th century. You play as an explorer trying to uncover the lost tomb of a Pharaoh, visiting villages and uncovering resources as you go along. Fans of Seven Cities -- or the exploration genre -- should not miss it.
3. MicroProse Soccer (1988)
MicroProse soccer is well known and appreciated among Commodore 64 fans. But not many other people know of this charming and timeless arcade soccer title. As a precursor to the later Sensible Soccer series, MicroProse Soccer gained renown for its smooth animations and its simple control scheme, which made it simple for anyone to pick up, play, and enjoy.
4. Sword of Fargoal (1982)
You're looking at one of the great-grandfathers of all procedurally generated dungeon crawling games (commonly called "roguelikes" after a similar pioneering title, Rogue). Sword of Fargoal combines addictive D&D leveling gameplay with endless replayability thanks to its randomly generated levels, monsters, and loot spawns. Despite its primitive graphics, Fargoal is just as fun today as it was when Epyx published it in 1982.
5. Sim City (1989)
Let's be clear: No one has forgotten SimCity. But Do you remember "Sim City," the original version of the city-building simulator (and progenitor of all current Sim games) for the Commodore 64? Before SimCity rocked the world as a Maxis-published title for the IBM PC, creator Will Wright tested the waters with this version for Commodore's famous 8-bit platform. Unsurprisingly, despite its slightly clunky interface, it's just as fun as the later versions of the game. If you have a C64 (or an emulator), this interesting gaming history milestone should not be missed.
6. Orion (1988)
Orion is a little-known action-adventure shooter with a sci-fi theme and an engrossing world that reminds some fans of Metroid on the NES (although don't get your hopes up too much; it is not nearly that deep). Still, on a platform where famous anthropomorphic shooter games like Turrican get all the attention, Orion is a dynamic game with good graphics, nice sound, and smooth animations that is still worth a run-through today.
7. Mayhem in Monsterland (1993)
Near the end of the Commodore 64's commercial lifespan, intrepid programmers devised ways to squeeze ever more graphical and gameplay capability out of the aging platform. Exhibit A of this trend is Mayhem in Monsterland, one of the final prominent commercial C64 releases. Mayhem combines smooth-as-butter scrolling platform gameplay with a graphical polish that easily matches anything else on the C64, and it very nearly equals the best platform titles on the Nintendo Entertainment System, a console that could utilize specialized hardware packed into game cartridges to achieve that goal.
Even from this small selection of games -- a list that does not even include the typical top games for the platform -- it's easy to see why so many fell in love with the Commodore 64. What are some of your favorite C64 games?
8. Other Forgotten Worlds
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