Most advanced *early* C64 releases?

[eXeler0]

If you look at the C64 today, we know what can be achieved if you get the right people to really push all aspects of its hardware.. Of course today's retro devs have the benefit of looking back at everything else that has been done.. So now we get titles like Sam's Journey..
But there was plenty of great stuff in late 80's early 90s.
The evolution was quite clear, from the beginning you had games like "Wizard of Wor" -type of graphics with simple sounds, to stuff like "Hawkeye" about 5-6 years later..



But I was wondering, what were the most advanced / best looking /sounding C64 games from the early to mid 80s? say 82-85?

[volvo_0ne]

Hawkeye on the C64 was awesome at the time (IMHO)

Infact I have the end of level tune as my ringtone (sad eh?)

[Mrz]

fort apocalypse
popeye
gyruss
ghost busters
river raid
1942
bruce lee
archon
frantic freeddie
hunch back





all of them very old before 1985 are fantastic games with fantastic sound or music

[lantus360]

Impossible Mission - 1984

[DamienD]

Salamander, Slap Fight and Wonderboy (although these were all 1986).

[dirkies]

Buggy boy
Beach head and raid over Moscow
Transformers
Yie ar Kung Fu
Hyper Olympic
Summer games
Zaxxon
Blue max
HERO
Etc etc

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Mrz

fort apocalypse
popeye
gyruss
ghost busters
river raid
1942
bruce lee
archon
frantic freeddie
hunch back

all of them very old before 1985 are fantastic games with fantastic sound or music

Thanx for your list. Of the games above I agree to Gyruss feeling "fresh" and 1942 was a good conversion with a nice tune.. The rest kind of have that Intellivision look to them IMO. ;-) (Not to say they are bad games)
+ for sampled speech in Ghost Busters though..

So basically, Id say there is a farily distinct difference between early c64 game looks and later games.. It feels like that "break" came somewhere arount 1986-ish give or take a year.
If someone would have shown you The Last Ninja while you were playing Fort Apocalypse (although a fun game) youd have a hard time believing that both run on the same system.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by lantus360

Impossible Mission - 1984

Agreed, probably best animation on a c64 up until that point and even sampled speech which was only possible due to a DC offset bug in the 6581 SID chip :-)

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by dirkies

Buggy boy
Beach head and raid over Moscow
Transformers
Yie ar Kung Fu
Hyper Olympic
Summer games
Zaxxon
Blue max
HERO
Etc etc

Thenks for your list Dirkies,
Loved Buggy boy, but wasnt that released like 1987? Only 82-85 allowed here ;-)
Beach head - loved it, but looks like an Colecovision game.
Raid over moscow - hmm yes, ambitions game design..
Transformers - ye somewhat advanced gameplay concept
Yie ar Kung Fu - Ah yes an old favorite
Hyper Olympics - Had no memory of this one, looks fairly good
Summer Games - nice but not as impressive as Winter Game (85)
Zaxxon - ye c64 version was pretty good,

Blue Max, HERO - another couple of old favorites, though they don't look particularly advanced IMO.

[Foebane]

Doesn't Bruce Lee on the C64 have a glitch with the title character sprite, where his fist is detached from his arm when facing one direction? Whoops.

[Angus]

Elite
Thing on a spring
Zoids (awesome music)
Uridium

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

If someone would have shown you The Last Ninja while you were playing Fort Apocalypse (although a fun game) youd have a hard time believing that both run on the same system.

I never liked "the las ninja" there is no soundFX and the gameplay is very slow
I consider "fort apocalypse" a far superior game looked with today's eyes

looking at them 30 years ago it might seem like it was the other way around ,but it is an incorrect perspective

[Leffmann]

Cauldron, Heartland, Bounder, Blackwyche, Arc of Yesod, Fairlight, Robin of the Wood, The Sentinel.

[kamelito]

Many of those are not *early*

[LongLifeA1200]

Back when I thought no one was going to answer I wrote a draft post. I think I'll just quote it now since I don't want to change it.

I've been wondering the same thing. The new stuff has certainly got my attention and respect for the C64.

Before I go on, I thought I'd just mention Crank Crank Revolution

With regards to 1982-85, I don't think there were any C64 games that were pushing the graphical system on par with Sam's Journey. Profit margins were very slim in those early days so programmers had to pump out games quick. Same thing happened to the Amiga 1000 after it was released in 1985 - took a few years before games were taken "seriously" and started getting optimizations.

But honorable mention should go to Wizardry (1985) for its music. Masquerade (1984) had good artwork from Rick Incrocci and Blackwyche (1985) by the Thomas brothers, had better than average grahpics for the time. Way Out (1983) is a 3D game by Paul Allen Edelstein. Pitstop II (1984) is a favourite for many.

Later, though, is when you start to see games with C64's full potential being put to use such as:

1990 - Creatures
1991 - Another World
1992 - Enforcer Fullmetal Megablaster
1993 - Mayhem In Monsterland

That's not to say that games prior to 1985 weren't enjoyable. There are quite a few that get ranked highly.

[Predseda]

Crystal Castles (Thundervision, 1984)

[Leffmann]

Originally Posted by kamelito

Many of those are not *early*

Three of them are from 1986, but I think they are notable still.

[StingRay]

Law of the West (Accoloade, 1985).

[donnie]

park patrol is from 1984.

It has truly awesome 3d like graphics. There are not many games that pops like that on a crt screen. Really nice "paralax" perspective .

[ Show youtube player ]

[Retrofan]

Thanks for that game. I hadn't seen it and as you say it looks wonderful