Is The Sentinel the best game on the C64?

[Mr Creosote]

https://www.goodolddays.net/game/id%...-Sentinel.html

Definitely in my top 10 on that system!

[Seiya]

for me no, the best of the best is Turrican and Turrican II

[amigasith]

My definite answer is NO!

The best game on the C64 for me - by far! - is Last Ninja II. Perfect combination of graphics, music, story, and gameplay. Simply amazing. Have I mentioned that the music is the best one ever made on the C64 ?

[Mr Creosote]

Interesting answers I think my personal history in this forum makes it pretty clear that neither of those three are even close to my top 100 :P They show technical mastery, but bad game design/playability in my view.

[malko]

I am a huge fan of "The sentinel" (discovered and played it first on the C64), played it for hours, etc. but I wouldn't say that it is "The" best of the platform. An amazing one, yes, but does it makes it the best ?
Given already gave answers, as you noticed, answering such question as "The best game..." is really subjective and depend a lot of personal experience/background. "Elite", "The last ninja" and a lot of others could pretend to the title as well .

[Megalomaniac]

Assuming you wanted to discuss and celebrate The Sentinel, wouldn't "Isn't The Sentinel a great underappreciated game" or "Is The Sentinel Geoff Crammond's true masterpiece" have been a better title for this thread? With this title it'll just degenerate into bitching.

[trixster]

And also then mention that it came out on the BBC Micro first…

[malko]

The sentinel really deserves to be played. I like to say that it is a 3D platformer & puzzler.
Platformer because you have to "jump" from the lowest part of the level to the topmost part.
Puzzler because you have to find the correct path to do it given the available energy and vision of the sentinel.

[DisasterIncarna]

its a hell of a lot better with the cpu buff you can get for real or fpga/emulated systems, "back in the day" tho, i had zero clue wth i was even doing with the game.

[donnie]

Sams journey is the best game on c64.

Its the best 2d platformer on any home computer, and one of the best 2d platformers ive ever played.

I think its as good as dkc2 and mario world.

[Predseda]

Of course not, the best C64 game is Stroker.

[donnie]

there was sequel to sentinel on psone/pc
[ Show youtube player ]

[Adropac2]

certainly as good as the best on the system. It's such a wonderful concept

just too many to choose from of course

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by donnie

there was sequel to sentinel on psone/pc
[ Show youtube player ]

This looks really improper. Surprising Psygnosis released it.

[malko]

https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php...95#post1283195

It's available here but I would recommend playing the Amiga version.
If you want to install it, read the comments


Edit :

Originally Posted by donnie

Sams journey is the best game on c64.
Its the best 2d platformer on any home computer, and one of the best 2d platformers ive ever played.
I think its as good as dkc2 and mario world.

But it's not from BitD, it's a 2019 game...
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=89949

Edit 2 :
Talking about C64 2019's games, we can also mention : https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71262

[Mr Creosote]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

Assuming you wanted to discuss and celebrate The Sentinel, wouldn't "Isn't The Sentinel a great underappreciated game" or "Is The Sentinel Geoff Crammond's true masterpiece" have been a better title for this thread? With this title it'll just degenerate into bitching.

We live and learn I wouldn't called it underappreciated. After all, it was universally lauded at the time and continues to appear on "best x" lists to this day. I like the second suggestion!

Nevertheless, I would like to remind everyone that there is an 800+ word write-up behind the link which does, among other things, mention the BBC Micro heritage, discuss the technical issues with vector graphics on the C64, Geoff Crammond's further career and so on and so forth.

Keep your suggestions for "best game" coming nevertheless. Some fun mentions in here for sure already

[d4rk3lf]

Never played it before...
The best game on C64 I played is probably Elite, although I have few other favorites...

If I understood correctly from the youtube video, Sentinel actually always pre-render background, and let's you pan, and then prerender another location you choose, and let you pan around.. etc...
Did I get that right?

That's so cool man...and very clever solution... especially for C64.
I can't say I ever seen that approach in some game.

[Megalomaniac]

I've only played it briefly, but I like the idea behind it, and its one I'd like to put some time into really learning. I think its in the A500 Mini?

It's a contender for most impressive 3D game on the C64, certainly. Elite and Mercenary come to mind as well. Head Over Heels too - pretty much the only Spectrum isometric 3D game to get a playable (albeit monochrome) C64 version? Stuff like that wasn't the machine's strong suit. Great work from Colin Porch, his lost Parasol Stars conversion is perhaps the great C64 tragedy.

I didn't have a C64 BITD but I do have one now, only a tape deck though, and the Lemon64 Top Games list has a lot of adventure and RPG stuff, which feels a bit like how Amiga games that weren't ideal from floppies are overrepresented at the top of the LemonAmiga list. But then, I think everywhere except the UK mainly bought disks rather than tapes by about 1984.

[gimbal]

Gee, ask 10 people what the best C64 game is and you get 10 different answers Its almost like the system has thousands of games.

[grond]

I bought The Sentinel for C=64 back in the day. It was way too abstract and difficult to me, I think I never even completed the first level. A few years later when I had an Amiga, my best Amiga-friend played it a lot and showed me how to play it. And that was when I finally could appreciate the game. It really is such a unique game concept. Also those 10k levels which surely required some interesting algorithm to calculate were a great idea.