Hunchback, Commodore 64

Well.Come. Back.

The Bells! The Bells!

Frankly, dear friends, I am unsure as to why the only discernible audio in the Commodore 64 version of Ocean’s “Hunchback” is the traditional 100+ year old ditty “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic”. Answers on a pike to: ouch, that’s my arse.

Hunchback then, at first glance, could almost (colour clash n00bs) be mistaken for a Spectrum game, however, the game itself is a joy to play and as simple as a flat cheese sandwich. You play Hunchback or Quasimodo from the literary pen of Victor Hugo, looking to emancipate your love, Esmerelda from the top of Notre Dame. Simple.

Well – not so, as you have to scale the merlons and run a gauntlet of agility, timing and youthfulness, all of which I fail in. Reminiscent of our friend from Pitfall, the game mechanics are straightforward, easy to pick up and a pleasure to enact. However – a walk in the park, it is not.

One of the most fun aspects of the game, as a whole, is that despite the clear and present simplicity of the entire premise, you remain steadfastly rubbish at it. Rather than frustrate you, this elicits continual glee from your stupid little headbox. It is genuinely fun to play, even, on the screens that have barely any adversaries, or obstacles at all. A feat of hook-ability, if I ever saw one.

For me personally, the nostalgia factor with Hunchback is so strong, I may well be verging on the Mega Bias, however, I will stick to my came to conclusion wot I did come to which is that Hunchback (with the benefit of Instaload) is a cracking game to fire up and have a 20 minutes blast at.

If you can get much further than level 8 – you’re doing very, very well.

It is clearly nothing complicated, but its worth its weight in bells.

Commodore User Issue 9: 4/5
YouTube: LogrusUK
Download: Hunchback

Rick Dangerous, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes..?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am as certain as Richard Burton’s curtains that all of you have heard of Rick Dangerous and almost all of you probably have fond memories playing the game on an 8-bit, or a 16-bit computer system back in the late 80s. It really was, frankly, a lovely little game, but baste me in a bucket of ham – it is frustrating!

Playing this again, to refresh myself with the game mechanics, I was struck by just how well the game overall has stood the test of time. It looks great, it sounds brilliant and importantly – it plays exceptionally on the C64. Indeed, being a Core Designs game, as you expect, it is packaged up and produced really, really tightly. The cinematic intros are a lovely touch, with a few bars of well put together classic tune-age; there is humour and nods to Indy all over the place; the death animations are hilarious and importantly – it doesn’t generally progress from being happily frustrating to bloody annoying – it remains fun to play, to remember the trap patterns and routes and to try and get past Egypt, for the love of Geoff!

Turbo Outrun, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Can you hear it? Can you already hear that SID tune..?

“One,” chick-chook-ka-chuck bu-dubbah-chack!

“Two,” chick-chook-ka-chuck bu-dubbah-chack!

“Three,” chick-chook-ka-chuck bu-dubbah-chack!

“Hit it! Ou- ou- OUTRUN!” -screeeeeech!-

Maniacs of Noise / Jeroen Tel take a bloody bow.

Spy Hunter, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

The C64 version of Spy Hunter kept me coming back for more for years and years. A lot of this was due to a) the theme tune (Peter Gunn Theme), b) the short load time and c) that I would have to play it at least until I got to the desert section, or at best until I got the missile launcher and shot a helicopter. What was imperative though, was docking with the lorry and/or driving down the embankment and morphing into a boat. Genius.

It was fast, it was buggy, it was slick, it was cu-chuck, cu-chuck, cu-chuck, it was basic – it was 1985 and the games being made near and around it that were anyway near as good, were few and far between. But most of all, the feeling when you managed to dock with the articulated lorry was, well, it made you feel like a shadowy flank into a dangerous world of a man that doesn't exist…

As I type this, I can still hear the noise the Switchblade made as it deployed its tyre scythes and the inertia involved in bumping those camper vans off the road. No points for cyclists...

Most C64 owners had Spy Hunter and to be honest, if and when they played the arcade original, they were mightily disappointed. It just didn’t ‘feel’ right – the car was too big, the colours too varied and the graphics too good – it also reminded you of Rush ‘n’ Crash (which was quite an interesting arcade game in itself…). But it wasn’t our Spy Hunter. It wasn’t us trying to sneak off onto the grass verge to cheese your way up the side of the screen, hoping not to explode. It just wasn’t Spy Hunter.

If you’ve never played the Commodore 64 version of Spy Hunter, you are really missing out, as frankly – it is just simple, addictive, bloody good fun.

Bridge Out Ahead.

Zzap64 Issue 1: 87%
YouTube: LogrusUK
Download: Spy Hunter

Pastfinder, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Back in time, my friends, to 1984, or should we say 8878? No - I was right the first time: 1984. A plucky chap, way back when created a game on one of the Atari 8-Bit computers called Explorer. Activision got hold of it and said - no chance - we're calling it PASTFINDER. Also, get someone to port it to the C64 – because we’re selling shed loads of them. And lo - they did.

David Lubar’s “Pastfinder” is an absolute gem of a game. Reviewed in the very first edition of Zzap64 it scored some 86% (it was reviewed many years later when released on Mastertronic’s MAD budget label and clocked up a whopping 93% - which is much more fitting!) earning itself a Sizzler to boot. It’s bloody brilliant. Bloody difficult. Bloody bonkers. But bloody brilliant.

A key contributing factor to this is simply the gameplay – it is so, so, so simple. Though, the background and actual thread of what you have to do always felt way more complicated in the 80s – I’m still not quite sure now. But the way your Pastfinder craft moves, with its vaguely arachnid-esque leg movements and stunning spinning horizontal movement - delightful; the frankly very basic, but excellently-designed planet surfaces and colour combos are interesting and some are dynamic: with moving parts causing terrain obstacles and forcing erratic avoidances; the limited SFX and repetitive noises – all add up to a cracking computer game steeped in that heavy metal / radiation / future gone tits up vibe. It is delicious.

Outrun on the Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Nothing makes this man go moist as much as hearing some decent retro-gaming music played out of a tri-channelled sound chip called SID. Wotcha!

"Splash Wave" and "Magical Sound Shower" are arguably (is anything not "arguably" nowadays?) two of the most well-known video game slices of aural delight out there and indeed, so is "Passing Breeze" which was scurrilously omitted from the C64 conversion. Sam is forever aggrieved.

We all likely recall seeing for the first time that huge arcade cabinet grounded on the barking mad arcade carpet and thinking - they've got an actual Ferrari in here!?!?!? I also remember never playing it, because it was 50p a go and not 10p a go (like Roadblasters or Bubble Bobble was), but I sure spent a good few minutes stood there standing, watching some other kid failing miserably at this glorious-looking SEGA racer.

Scorpius, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Now – just hold on a minute, alright? Some of you that read this are going to fling your arms up into the air and start huffing and puffing about horizontally-scrolling shooters and R-Type and Katakis and Armalyte and all the rest of it. Some of you, will be sagely nodding your head, thinking back to the Entropic Days of Elysium whence you and a friend spent many a moment, both ports plugged with joy, bobbing along blasting enemies in subaquatic glee. A few might be trying to remember the power-ups; select chunks of humanity will have a repetitive, though not un-kind SID in their head, timed to the back and forth bob of their craft. Do you remember the days, my friends? When computer games cost us £1.99?

For me, Scorpius was a Saturday Pocket Money Punt – I had enough for one game, as was often the case and devouring the rack of budget titles that I didn’t yet have, something grabbed me about Scorpius. Now, this was way before I realised the pedigree associated with the game and it wasn’t until much, much later, by happenstance, that I made the connection between Scorpius and The Rowland Brothers (now, what else did they do..?) – when you look, the links are so, so obvious now.

LED Storm, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

Dateline 1989: LED Storm, ladies and gentlemen is an absolute banging C64 game and arcade conversion from those plucky people at Software Creations. Now, I'll be honest, unlike other arcade conversions, I am pretty certain I never actually played (potentially even saw) LED Storm in the local arcade "Dusters" back in Plymouth as I was growing up in 1988. However, I absolutely, and with great fondness, recall getting a copy of and playing for some hours at a time the C64 version.

Who cares about the premise? Not I, m'lud, I hear you cry and I tend to agree and frankly, the 'story' behind LED Storm is immediately forgettable. Something, I am sure, about a "Red car and a Blue car had a race... But all Red wanted to do was stuff his face...", oh and the ability to transform your vehicle from a cool, squat fat-looking (hyper) sports car into some sort of motorised cycle. And "L.E.D."..? Laser Enhanced Destruction Storm - of course!

The Master of Magic, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

The Master of Magic was the first RPG I ever played on the C64 and whilst it isn’t as hardcore an example of the genre such as titles like Wizard’s Crown, The Bard’s Tale and Abandoned Places, it is certainly rock hard and it contains all of the elements and traits of the usual dungeon delve.

From one of the Darling Brothers: Richard, the man that brought us BMX Simulator, comes an extremely rich text and graphical adventure that is as challenging as it is engrossing. One of it’s crowning glories is its unique and innovative interface. The screen is split into four main sections: an overhead moveable playing map with ‘fog of war’; a localised graphical depiction in glorious pixel art detail of interactibles you can currently see; a horizontal “choices” bar; and the standard dialogue box and GUI. Every action you want to carry out within the game is available via a “pause” menu with a click of the joystick button.

Completing Bubble Bobble, Commodore 64

Well. Come. Back.

You know the tune, it dings and blings around in the back of your head as you vainly search for the yellow sweetie, narrowly missing the flung rolling pin of doom. Bubble Bobble on the C64 was fantastic, but not, as I had once believed, as good as I thought it was.

It’s a great conversion – no doubt there - and the C64 really does well with regard to collisions, colours, sprites and speed and there are even the hidden extras in there, but, well… Myself and a friend, fuelled with beer one evening set out, with our limited credits, to fully complete Bub and Bob’s quest. We loved the game, he didn’t mind playing blue and I PON’d for green. We had all night, no distractions, we were fed and watered and I should point out, around 24 years old and the game was nearly 15 years old (if not more) itself – and we’d never, ever done it, so, we shucked off another can and launched our crusade.

I unequivocally adore this game – the arcade, of course, is nigh sheer perfection (depending upon which difficulty level the board is set on…) and at still only 10p per credit, well, you’re mad for not hitting the arcade under the Palace Pier, Brighton every weekend back in the day; or Dusters in Plymouth way back in the 'olden days, but, with my beloved C64 conversion – I found faults…

Well: fault, really.

You see, we played that fateful night, taking turns to leap levels utilising the EXTEND function, umbrellas and more, we failed a few times around the 70s, sometimes earlier with our limited credits (one credit each – no rebuys), but we continued into the morning hours, relentlessly slogging back through the early levels, relentlessly playing Bubble Bobble on my C64, sitting, cross-legged on my old bedroom floor. Adults.

And..: we did it – we survived the hideous space invaders and the ridiculously evil later level design and we found ourselves facing a bloody super-huge rolling pin-thrower on LVL 100. Having never reached this point, it took a few moments to work out what to do and we struggled and muddled our way through the boss pattern until finally – he just disappeared!

We’d done it – we’d got to the top of Bubble Bobble! For the first time in our lives. Ever.

However, this was a short-lived elation, as even though we knew we had really completed the game, we also knew that we now had to fight our way back down the tower, as in the arcade, to get ourselves and our prizes back home again. We glanced sidelong at our lives/credits tally. Not too good.

Thing is, with the C64, that was that – Game Over.

Michael Finnegan.

Simultaneously one of the greatest achievements and absolute disappointments of my entire life. Second only to realising that they aren’t rolling pins – they are whisky bottles.

Download: Bubble Bobble
Youtube: LogrusUK