Icicle Works

It's getting cold outside, so must be time to tell Paul Weller that the river Nile flows through ten African nations and much of the continent follows Islam. We've done this every year since 1986 but he just doesn't listen!

And what better way to celebrate the festive season than Icicle Works for the Commodore 64, a game completely devoid of icicles... and work. Great stuff.

Madness

The kids are playing up downstairs.

More forgettable old games to give the false impression that this blog is regularly updated with meaningful content? That's madness!

No really.

The A-Team

It's a new year, and what better way to spend it then by looking at Commodore 64 tat from 1985. It's The A-Team, apparently.

Galaxibirds

I'm not making this up

1986 saw Sensible Software, usually a company known for making sensible... software (such as Sensible Soccer), release the not-so-sensible GALAXIBIRDS (or "Galax-i-birds") for the Commodore 64. Once more, man's most feared enemy, the birds, have got themselves into space, and its time to rid the galaxy of this evil once and for all.

Korea Karate

I don't know if you remember, but when I was younger I had some strange fascination with Korea. I didn't really read up on much of the politics behind it at the time, just expecting a reunified state under Seoul's control. That's ignoring the "space" bit, though I suppose the concept of invading the universe is just as plausible as Homefront's invasion of the US to jeopardise FREEDOMS.

Today, KOREA KARATE for the Commodore 64. This is a completely awful game, not even worth a jump link to describe it in any more detail. You play as the man dressed in white, you walk forward to the shoddily programmed man dressed in red, you attempt to punch him, get kicked in the face, and die.

Korea Karate. This was sold to people and claimed to beat IK+. Just think about that for a second.

Commando (C64)

This game's theme song has been stuck in my head for the best part of a week. An impressive feat for a twenty five year old Commodore 64 title I hadn't played until now.

Commando is regarded as some sort of C64 classic these days. I know very little about the C64 scene so I guess I better find out why.

Horace Goes Skiing

The gift that keeps on giving

"HORACE GOES SKIING", second in the "Horace" series of games. Highlighting the problems in modern day society Horace has decided to take up winter sports.

Hungry Horace

That's enough of tracking down Russian Mega Drive clones. Time to be mentally scarred with something closer to home.

HUNGRY HORACE, from 1983. Because graphics don't matter apparently. If you were a fan of my Player Adventure series of games (games made within a matter of hours and have purposely bad graphics) you'll love this one. And its sequels... which I might discuss later.

Turbo the Tortoise

While travelling across the far reaches of the internet, I came across this. Turbo the Tortoise, released for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in 1992. It was developed by a team called Visual Impact under orders from Codemasters, and features yet ANOTHER anthropomorphic character taking a page from Sonic the Hedgehog (and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the looks of things). Don't let the fact it has an empty title screen fool you - this one could still be interesting!

Kong Strikes Back!

The people of New York really need to work on keeping their giant apes locked up.

Yet another forgotten tale in the book of the Commodore 64. It also appeared in the book of the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, though they're not as good of a read. Kong Strikes Back, released by Ocean Software in 1985, is, I suppose, an "unofficial sequel" of Nintendo's Donkey Kong. It's not officially related (just like neither game is officially related to King Kong) but unlike most rip-offs at the time, this game actually does something new. Gone are the half finished industrial buildings, and in their place, a theme park!

Mario's Brewery

You wouldn't want this on Nintendo

Forget the old record set by BROS, this unofficial Mario game is six years older and six times as worse. Developed by a guy called Jeremy Thorne in 1983 for the Commodore 64, Mario's Brewery could potentially be the first Mario fangame of all time, suffering from awful build quality and lacking official Nintendo endorsement. Clearly inspired by Donkey Kong, our good friend Mario has decided to move into beverage production for some reason. A bizarre pixellated contraption throws an endless supply of barrels down a series of girders and it's up to Mario to... jump over them. Mario's an odd chap.

There's no beginning, there's no end, there's just Mario struggling to avoid barrels in a bland world with repetitive music. Though the game is generous enough to allow Mario to jump over numerous barrels at once, the increased jump distance means you're more likely to be killed by barrels rolling about above. There's no title screen or high scores and a lack of animation clearly gives the impression it was made by a fan. After all, the Commodore 64 fanbase was filled with programmers wanting to design games for the system (as were most of the other computer fanbases at the time).

It's barely playable, but it's interesting to see how far Mario fangames date back to. It was only a year after the "Mario" name had even been invented for the character.

Mario Bros. II

Can't get this on Nintendo... home consoles...

It's a sequel to the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros., cleverly and uniquely titled "Mario Bros. II". Released by "Thundersoft" in 1987 on the Commodore 64, it's another entry to the ever growing collection of forgotten and potentially illegal Mario titles that nobody seems know nor care about. It's actually the third Mario Bros. game for the Commodore 64 - the original game turned up twice in 1984 by Atari and 1987 by Ocean respectively. I have no idea who "The Riffs" are because as per usual, there's very little information about this title on the internet. TIME FOR THAT TO CHANGE.

One Man and his Droid

Commodore 64 time. It pushed its competition into near-bankruptcy, it had a sound chip that still manages to get used in dance tracks today, and it was superior to all other home computers at the time in almost every way. It also had a selection of games that sold for as little as £1.99, which is a bit mad when you consider these days it can be £20, £30, £40 or more for something fresh.

Here's two pounds worth of game - One Man and his Droid, released in 1985 by Mastertronic (who would later go on to successfully distribute the Sega Master System in Europe before being bought out and merged into Sega). Now strictly speaking this wasn't a C64 exclusive - ports appeared on the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari 800 and the elusive Commodore 16, but it's the Commodore 64 version that gets the spotlight because like in most cases, it has the best music.