Commodore 64 Games Now Compute On US Wiis

By Spencer . February 23, 2009 . 1:06pm

Commodore 64 Games Now Compute On US Wiis

Starting today Nintendo is supporting a “new” Virtual Console platform. And by “new” I meant new for us since Commodore 64 games have been trickling into Europe since March of last year.

 

To kick off the Commodore 64 celebration Nintendo released three downloadable Commodore 64 games for 500 Wii Points ($5) a piece. Three games may not sound like much, but that’s three times more Virtual Console content in a single week than we’ve been getting this year. Seeing the Commodore 64 stuff instead of treasures from other consoles already supported by the Virtual Console gets a “meh” from me. Maybe I’ll change my mind when Jumpman inevitably gets released, but right now Nintendo could be using these slots to release more Virtual Console imports, rarities like Final Fight III, and/or tons of other titles.

 

Take a look at the Commodore 64 line up in video form and see if you’re satisifed. If not you can get Onslaught, Hudson’s light gun meets FPS WiiWare game for 1,000 Wii Points ($10).

 

The Last Ninja

 

Pitstop II

 

International Karate


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  • EvilAkito

    You see, this is the big difference between the NES and most other game consoles/computers at the time. I play NES classics like Contra, Castlevania, and Mega Man because they're awesome games that still hold up pretty well today. Every now and then, I even play an NES game that I've never heard of before and have a blast (gotta thank Mark Bozon from IGN for bringing up Vice: Project Doom). With the NES, it's more than just nostalgia, it's the library of quality games.

    The same just does not appear to be true about the Commodore 64. I've never owned or even played a C64, but every game I've seen so far has looked incredible bland. Without the nostalgia factor there, I just don't see any reason to download and play these titles. But if anyone else here is a C64 expert and wants to prove me wrong, I'm willing to listen.

    Onslaught looks okay though. Who would have thought that we'd see an online FPS on WiiWare?

  • ReturnOfSomeDude

    I know why you don't like the C-64. It's because it doesn't say “Nintendo” on it anywhere.

    The C-64 offered games that were every bit as impressive as the original NES, if not better. These games here? They're kind of crap. (Except for Last Ninja, which was decent.) I can't, for the life of me, think of why anyone would pay for Pit Stop II when they could buy any other racing game, ever. It's not like Pit Stop does anything that newer games don't. (except for making your tires explode.)

    However, games like Racing Destruction Set absolutely owned anything that was on the NES. Build your own tracks, set up gravity, oil slicks, ramps, the works. Incredible game for its time.

    Epyx's Summer Games/Winter Games series were fantastic at the time, and hell, the C-64 probably birthed the first real bridge to other media. While there were tie-ins like Cloak & Dagger, the first game that I know of to canonically advance the plot of a non-game license was Below the Root. The author of the books wanted to rectify/expand upon something she wished she hadn't written and decided to correct it via the game, which picks up where the book left off.

    Mail Order Monsters is another game that was worlds beyond anything had on my NES. Customize your monster's fighting abilities, and pit them in battle against your friends. It's Pokemon's grandfather.

    To this day, I haven't quite played anything other than Civ that matched the sheer exploration and discovery of Seven Cities of Gold. Add to that the incredible old-school LucasArts adventure games Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, and you'd have to either be a rabid fanboy or insane to simply dismiss the C-64 as an “also ran”.

  • EvilAkito

    Well, if C64 does indeed have quality software, then that's cool. But I must admit that I'm a bit biased here since the NES offered the kinds of games I love the most: character-driven action/adventure games. I mean, C64 could be home to the best racing game in the world, but that wouldn't really matter to me since racing games aren't really my thing.

    I'm not even really that big on vintage DOS/Windows PC games either. And from your list, it sounds like C64 offered a similar kind of experience. I guess I'm just too deep-rooted in the more arcade-inspired console gaming experience to care much for the C64's offerings.

  • Aoshi00

    I was going to say the exact same thing, since my first console is the NES and I've never played the Commodore 64, so there's no nostalgia factor for one. Most of my favorites on the NES were also platformers too like Contra, Castlevania, etc. And even for those classics, I'd be hard pressed to buy them again on VC. I doubt I would spend $5+tax on these, they might be awesome for a kid back in the days, but they're just too archaic by now. Like River City Ransom, I remember it was an awesome game, I bought it on VC and kind of regret it, it just doesn't really hold up and is better off left as fond childhood memories.

  • Mazen

    Even thought my early childhood was all C64, games were pirated and really cheap, the only nearly good games were the arcade ports others I play one time and I forget about only games I played several times and not arcade ports were a soccer, Mission Impossible, Manic Mansion and maybe Spy vs Spy with friends,
    When I got the SMS and NES later I was surprised its like C64 games were by some fans and NES SMS games were by huge amazing companies and everything was welldone and then I become really addicted to games,

    Nintendo shouldn't add C64 untill it releases all the games for the systems already in VC because C64 is not worth it.

  • Nyanyaan

    Will be most interested to see how broad the C64 selections will be because so many of their strongest titles do indeed follow more along the PC path. The Microprose of Sid Meier, Bruce Shelley and others produced a great selection of hex-based wargames as well as early flight sims that even had split screen head to head action. It was also the place where Pirates! got its start along with the early Tom Clancy title Red Storm Rising.

    EA was still Electronic ARTISTS a group of guys like Bill Budge and Dan/Dani Bunten who got together because they wanted the 'freedom' to develop new and interesting game concepts (remember this is the early 80s) that they were not being allowed to create elsewhere. An update of Pinball Construction Set could be HUGE with unlimited ideas to design with. The C64 was also the platform of SSI — another wargame developer who would parlay C64 success into the DnD gold box adventures and other titles that are the prototypes of most modern western RPGs.

    Speaking of RPGs, the C64 also had a little title known as Wasteland……which when the developers of it left EA and couldn't keep the name, had to settle for calling their sequel Fallout.

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    Thanks for the info about the notable games. I'll keep a look out for them! Maybe I'm missing out on something since I didn't have a C64 as a kid. :)

  • Nyanyaan

    The system had a broad range of genres for the time — very much the result of it being seen as an early PC rather than just a game system. Commodores HUGE strength in Europe also served to develop many of the production houses there as well.

    The noted above Below the Root was just one of several text/graphic adventures with a strong literary focus. Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was developed into a game as was the Amber series and Perry Mason mysteries. These were several steps up from Zork style adventures, in the case of the Perry Mason games, you had to explore for clues and turn them into questions and evidence at a trial. They were largely still straight parser-text games (with all the limitations that went with them) but certainly are akin to todays graphic novel games.

  • ReturnOfSomeDude

    Archon was awesome. You're missing Bard's Tale on your list of classics, as well.

    People still rabidly love the C-64 and they've had absolutely nothing to feed it. No 4 times re-ported nonsense. Most gamers who aren't our age have never even HEARD of these games. Hell, most people don't even know the companies these games are from even though the companies are still around. EA used to be ECA, and they were probably THE best developer back then, both in terms of graphical quality and game quality. Mastertronic was what would eventually become Virgin Mastertronic, which would eventually become Virgin, and would swallow up Westwood and Interplay (only to spit them out again.). LucasArts was still around, SSI, as was previously mentioned.

    This machine is where the roots of modern gaming spawned from. The complexity and depth all stems from the additional space for saving and loading that the disk drive provided. Now there's hard drives and gigs of RAM to replace that space, but this system and the other PC gaming platforms of the time are where games go from platformers and side-scrolling shooters to complex pieces of entertainment software. Nintendo and Sega platforms eventually follow, but literally every genre you love comes from the the early PC days, and by not seeing these games, you've missed out on some of the key points in the timeline.

    Of course, not everything's going to stand the test of time to everyone, but I owned both systems, and there were games on the C-64 I loved more than anything I ever played on the NES. Hell, I found an emulator to play Seven Cities of Gold 4 years back, and I showed it to one of my friends, and he was up playing it until 3am.

  • matty

    Ghouls N' Ghost had AWESOME music on C64!
    Tim Follin, kids – look him up!!
    I'm clueless about other C64 games, but a Ghouls C64 game on VC is an easy purchase from me. 1000 points, right here!

  • Mazen

    I want to note that some Commodore games had amazing music especially from Rob Hubbard like Monty, and the genius Tim Follin ( he made music for Ghouls n Ghosts even better than the Arcade) and the one who shined more on Amiga Chris Huelsbeck Turrican etc It was the golden age of western gaming music everything went downhill since, I still think Nintendo shouldn't have released Commodore now, maybe after two years from now.

  • jarrod

    Pretty disintersted in C64, but it's addition hopefully means we'll see MSX down the line…

  • ReturnOfSomeDude

    Archon was awesome. You're missing Bard's Tale on your list of classics, as well.

    People still rabidly love the C-64 and they've had absolutely nothing to feed it. No 4 times re-ported nonsense. Most gamers who aren't our age have never even HEARD of these games. Hell, most people don't even know the companies these games are from even though the companies are still around. EA used to be ECA, and they were probably THE best developer back then, both in terms of graphical quality and game quality. Mastertronic was what would eventually become Virgin Mastertronic, which would eventually become Virgin, and would swallow up Westwood and Interplay (only to spit them out again.). LucasArts was still around, SSI, as was previously mentioned.

    This machine is where the roots of modern gaming spawned from. The complexity and depth all stems from the additional space for saving and loading that the disk drive provided. Now there's hard drives and gigs of RAM to replace that space, but this system and the other PC gaming platforms of the time are where games go from platformers and side-scrolling shooters to complex pieces of entertainment software. Nintendo and Sega platforms eventually follow, but literally every genre you love comes from the the early PC days, and by not seeing these games, you've missed out on some of the key points in the timeline.

    Of course, not everything's going to stand the test of time to everyone, but I owned both systems, and there were games on the C-64 I loved more than anything I ever played on the NES. Hell, I found an emulator to play Seven Cities of Gold 4 years back, and I showed it to one of my friends, and he was up playing it until 3am.

  • http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

    Ghouls N' Ghost had AWESOME music on C64!
    Tim Follin, kids – look him up!!
    I'm clueless about other C64 games, but a Ghouls C64 game on VC is an easy purchase from me. 1000 points, right here!

  • Mazen

    I want to note that some Commodore games had amazing music especially from Rob Hubbard like Monty, and the genius Tim Follin ( he made music for Ghouls n Ghosts even better than the Arcade) and the one who shined more on Amiga Chris Huelsbeck Turrican etc It was the golden age of western gaming music everything went downhill since, I still think Nintendo shouldn't have released Commodore now, maybe after two years from now.

  • jarrodand

    Pretty disintersted in C64, but it's addition hopefully means we'll see MSX down the line…

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