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Ultimate C64 Chiptunes

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C64_breadbox

In all honesty, picking my favourite C64 chiptune is like finding a needle in a haystack – it’s impossible. With maestros like Hubbard, Dunn, Follin, Dalglish, Maniacs of Noise, Tinman, Tel, Galway to name a few, the task is all the more daunting.

Like any ‘best of’ list, it is all subjective and down to personal taste. I had the pleasure in narrowing my all time favourite chiptunes to my ultimate top 25.

Let the nostalgic SID sounds wash over you!

#25 Paperboy [composer: Mark Cooksey]

source: gdreyband

Operation Wolf [composer: Jonathan Dunn]

source: NOTHING

Super Monaco Grand Prix [composer: Jeroen Tel / Maniacs of Noise]

source: cheetahman91

Hawkeye [composer: Jeroen Tel / Maniacs of Noise]

source: comppi

Bubble Bobble [composer: Peter Clarke]

source: PeyserCommodore

Run The Gauntlet [composer: Jonathan Dunn]

source: lordtrumpy

Golden Axe [composer: Jeroen Tel]

source: lordtrumpy

Ocean Loader 4 [composer: Jonathan Dunn]

source: PeyserCommodore

WEC Le Mans [composer: Jonathan Dunn]

source: Hans Perters

R-Type [composer: Chris Hülsbeck & Ramiro Vaca]

source: th3l3fty

Parallax [composer: Martin Galway]

source: gdreyband

Sanxion [composer: Rob Hubbard]

source: CaseOfGlass

Comic Bakery [composer: Martin Galway]

source: gdreyband

Red Heat [composer: Jonathan Dunn]

source: NOTHING

The Great Giana Sisters (Menu Theme) [composer: Chris Hülsbeck]

source: PeyserCommodore

Myth [composer: Jeroen Tel]

source: cheetahman91

Last Ninja 2 [composer: Matt Gray]

source: Manialt

Cybernoid [composer: Jeroen Tel / Maniacs of Noise]

source: inphanta

Skate or Die [composer: Rob Hubbard]

source: Darcal2

BMX Kidz [composer: Rob Hubbard & Jori Olkkonen]

source: Manialt

IK/IK+ [composer: Rob Hubbard] – these could not be split! Absolute classics!

source: manialt


source: cheetahman91

Mega Apocalypse [composer: Rob Hubbard]

source: Luzifer217

L.E.D. Storm [composer: Tim Follin]

source: NOTHING

Turbo Outrun [composer: Jeroen Tel / Maniacs of Noise]

source: cheetahman91

Zamzara [composer: Charles Deenen / Maniacs of Noise]  – wait till you get to 1:55 !

source: inphanta

There you have it – the ultimate 25 C64 chiptunes. Controversial list? You be the judge.

Like with any pleasure, there is the agony – the agony of leaving out music from: Arkanoid, Bionic Commando, Robocop, The Untouchables, Rastan Saga, Dragon Ninja, Dan Dare 3, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Midnight Resistance and most agonising of all, Commando – sorry Mr Hubbard.



C64: Ode To Thee

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 Commodore64_banner“Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with you.” – the famous jingle from the 1980’s TV advertisements for the C64 is still stuck in my head. As it turned out, millions of computer gamers were keeping up with the jewel in Commodore’s crown.

The affinity we have with the C64 spans more than three decades. It has seen us grow from that awkward shy kid to a charismatic adult (well, for most of us!).

The trusty 8-bit from Commodore was released on this day (August 9, 1982) at a cost of $595 (almost $1500 in today’s money!). What you got for this price was “A computer that’s light years ahead of its competition”.  At the time, the C64 was pitched as an office computer, which threw it up against the likes of the Apple II+ ($1530), IBM PC ($1565), Tandy TRS-80 III ($999) and Atari 800 ($899) computers. With hindsight, we know that the C64’s success came from those budding kids coding and playing the latest video games in their bedroom – I should know, I was one of those kids.

C64_keyboard

The C64 went through a number of hardware and cosmetic revisions, with the original breadbox being our sentimental favourite. The C64 enjoyed a fruitful existance, but with the emergence of the 16-bit era, the end was nigh for the brown/beige Commodore – the C64 was officially discontinued in 1994.

Everyone’s memory of the C64 is filled with fondness. The C64 had the power to lure you to it and use it – especially for gaming! It also kickstarted a lot of coding and music / chiptune maestro careers. The C64’s rivalry with Amstrad and Spectrum were (still are) legendary, with school-yards becoming the arguing battlegrounds. Just for the record, the C64 was and still is the king!

The C64 will forever be remembered for the joy and fun it brought to the masses, myself included. The C64 still remains in use in our household with the view to passing it on to the next generation to enjoy and appreciate. Long live the C64!

For those of you keen to know what was under the hood of the C64, read on:

Microprocessor: MOS 6510 – a beefed up 6502 with additional input/output lines

Memory:

  • RAM: 64K
  • ROM: 20K (containing the OS and Commodore BASIC language)

Keyboard: Full size typewriter style with 66 keys

Display: VIC-II chip

  • 40 columns x 25 lines;
  • 16 colours;
  • 320 x 200 pixels;
  • TV out (RF)

Sound:  6581 Sound Interface Device (SID) chip

  • 3 independent voice
  • 9 octaves
  • 4 waveforms (sawtooth, triangle, variable pulse and noise)
  • Programmable ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) generator

Connectivity:

  • 2 x Joystick ports
  • Power
  • Cartridge (ROM) port
  • TV Out (RF)
  • Printer
  • Digitial Tape
  • GPIO/RS-232 (Serial)

C64_strip

 

Review A Bad Game Day: Street Fighter

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Welcome aboard the Crapsville Express. Last year, Hard Drivin’ was served up as a turd for Review A Bad Game Day – this year the gong goes to another coin-op conversion.

street_fighter__coverGame: Street Fighter
Genre: Fighting
Format: C64
Year: 1988
Publisher: GO!
Developer: Tiertex

 

Prior to the sublime ‘Street Fighter II: The World Warrior’ SNES home conversion, there was the abhorrent C64 fighting game’ Street Fighter’.

Where does one even start with this game? For those of you not familiar with the series, ‘Street Fighter’ made its debut in the arcades in 1987. On the back of its success, the home version quickly followed on all conceivable platforms of the time, including the C64.

Tiertex brought this foul stench of a fighting game to our trusty and much loved 8-bit home computer. I suspect the coding was done by a drunk programmer or their pet monkey. How this passed any quality assurance testing is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, on with the review…

Street_Fighter_1

‘Street Fighter’, as you may have guessed, is based on Capcom’s 1987 arcade game. You enter the worldwide martial arts tournament as Ryu and fight opponents from across the globe in order to become the street fighting champion. Ryu’s fighting arsenal is made up of various punches and kicks – that’s it (no special attacks!). Each battle has timed rounds; the winner being the last fighter standing. After each battle, Ryu competes in bonus rounds, smashing bricks to earn extra points.

street_fighter_2a

If you manage to bribe a friend to play ‘Street Fighter’, you could have yourself a two-player grudge match – Ryu vs Ken. The winner proceeds to take on the computer-controlled fighters, while the loser is subjected to watching this dreadful game being played – even the CIA plays by fairer rules of torture!

The graphics are childish and messy – they do nothing to show off the C64’s abilities. The fighters tend to clash with the background. I reckon I could have drawn better sprites and backgrounds with crayons! ‘How about the sound?’ you may ask – let’s not even go there if you like your hearing the way it is. The effects and tunes are better suited for an Atari 2600 game, not a game that should be taking advantage of the C64’s SID chip. The clincher of this turdfest is the control – before there was button mashing, there was joystick and wrist breaking. The control is absolutely abysmal, by the time you attempt to pull off an attack; it is already too late, game over (which is probably a good thing!).

street_fighter_3

The C64 had quite a few poor arcade conversions in its time, and sadly ‘Street Fighter’ makes this list. Had it not been for the stinker Hard Drivin’, this would have been number 1 in Crapsville. Play it at your peril!

Graphics Crappy sprites with even crappier backgrounds.

15%
Sound Turn down the volume on your TV, I am warning you!

10%
Playability Laughable. Apart from the terrible look and sound of this game, the controls let it down big time.

5%
Lastability It will last as fast as you can turn off your C64.

2%
Overall Stay away! This is another poor C64 arcade conversion. If you want to play a great fighting game on your C64, try International Karate!

9%

 

 

turd_ribbon

 

Top 5 Games Charts: September 1987

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Do you recall what you were bopping to in September of ’87? Let me remind you – “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Don’t even try to deny it! Perhaps you were more of a Pet Shop Boys fan? Whatever your music tastes were, I bet that you would have been playing a number of the following chart toppers either on your Amstrad, Spectrum or C64:

Amstrad_CPC464 1) Paperboy (Elite)

2) Barbarian (Palace Software)

3) 6 Pak (Elite)

4) Exolon (Hewson)

5) Ball Crazy (Mastertronic)
ZXSpectrum48k 1) BMX Simulator (Codemasterts)

2) The Milk Race (Mastertronic)

3) Barbarian (Palace Software)

4) Road Runner (US Gold)

5) Destructo (Bulldog)
C64b 1) Last Ninja (System 3)

2) Barbarian (Palace Software)

3) Enduro Racer (Activision)

4) Road Runner (US Gold)

5) World Class Leaderboard (US Gold)

 

 

 

Top 5 Games Charts: May 1987

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Back in May 1987, Mannequin was released and Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” was rocketing to number one on the music charts. On the video games front, the Spectrum, C64 and Atari XE/XL computers were lavished with quite a few awesome games.

These were the top five games on each platform for the month of May 1987:

 

C64 1) Park Patrol (Firebird)
2) BMX Simulator (Codemasters)
3) Gunship (Microprose)
4) LA SWAT (Mastertronic)
5) Micro Rhythm (Firebird)

 

ZXSpectrum48k 1) Leaderboard (US Gold)
2) Bomb Jack II (Elite)
3) Paperboy (Elite)
4) Olli and Lissa (Firebird)
5) Gauntlet (US Gold)

 

atari_xe 1) BMX Simulator (Codemasters)
2) Colony (Bulldog)
3) Green Beret (Imagine)
4) Gun Law (Mastertronic)
5) Silent Service (Microprose)

 

Top 5 Games Charts: August 1985

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While Madonna’s “Into the groove” was rocking the number one spot on the music charts in August 1985, there were some awesomely great games in the charts of that month for the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad. Here is a hit of nostalgia:

 

C64 1) The Way Of The Exploding Fist (Melbourne House)
2) Elite (Firebird)
3) Hyper Sports (Imagine)
4) Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Ocean)
5) Tour De France (Activision)

 

Amstrad_CPC464 1) Dun Darach (Gargoyle Games)
2) Beach Head (US Gold)
3) Red Moon (Level 9)
4) Alien 8 (Ultimate)
5) Knightlore (Ultimate)

 

 ZXSpectrum48k 1) Frank Bruno’s Boxing (Elite)
2) Hyper Sports (Imagine)
3) Jet Set Willy 2 (Software Projects)
4) Spy Vs Spy (Beyond)
5) Glass (Quicksilva)

 

 

LeMans: Start Your Engines

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LeMans_Box_ausretrogamerFormat: Commodore 64 (C64)
Media: Cartridge
Year: 1982
Developer: HAL Labratory, Inc.
Publisher: Commodore
Game Mode: Single Player

 

 

Gentlemen, start your engines! How apt that I pull out the LeMans C64 cartridge on this day, the start of the 2013 Formula 1 (F1) Grand Prix season. I am aware LeMans and F1 are two separate sanctioned sports, but hey, it is a racing game, and that is all there is to it. Perhaps I should have ripped out Checkered Flag on the Atari Lynx. I just have to stop second guessing myself and stick with this old game.

LeMans_screen1

LeMans on the C64 is a top-down up-the-screen driving game, where you as the driver, must hit the pedal to the metal and drive to a never ending finish line. The goal of the game is to pass as many cars as you can. The more cars you overtake, the more points you earn. It’s not about the finish line in this game, it is all about accumulating the highest points score.The faster you go, the more points you earn – 2 points per metre to be exact. Every 10 cars passed you earn 1000 bonus points. Keep an eye on the countdown timer, as you will only get time extensions every 20,000 points. This is old school tough.

LeMans_Night_ausretrogamer

The strategy to doing well in LeMans is to drive as fast as you can for as long as you can, passing computer drivers (watch out as they veer in your path!) and traversing all kinds of terrain. The terrain sections in LeMans is what makes the game quite interesting – there are icy roads (your car slides as if it’s on skates), divided highways (squeezing into 2 lanes), night driving (relax, you have headlights) and the famous “LeMans Esses”.

Every time your car is hit by another vehicle or if you steer into the walls, your car turns into a wreck and you must “Pit” to the left as the on-screen message tells you to. This kills off precious seconds, so try and avoid hitting or being hit by cars and stop steering into walls. If you can avoid damage to your vehicle, then you will be well on your way to that precious high points score.

Paddles_ausretrogamer

The only (fun) way to play this game is with the ‘Commodore Paddles’. The Paddles add to the playability of the game as you hold the accelerator button with your left thumb and steer with your right fingertips. There were no “steering wheel” contraptions for the C64 back in the day. The Paddles did (and still do) the job just right.

Well, enough of my ranting, I am off to play another game before the F1 race kicks off.

December 1984: C64 Top 20 Games Chart

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Ever wondered what the top 20 games were on the Commodore 64 back in December 1984 ? What do you mean no ? Of course you do ! Some peer pressure never hurt anyone. Gaze below to the games chart, courtesy of ‘Your 64 & VIC20’ magazine, edition number 5. I bet the chart brings back memories (for us older retro gamers). [Read more…] about December 1984: C64 Top 20 Games Chart

Chiptune: L.E.D. Storm

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Being avid C64 gamers, we often get asked (quite often actually) if we have a favourite C64 chiptune from that era.

Picking one favourite out of a sea of fantastic chiptunes is literally like finding a needle in a haystack. C64 music from maestros like Rob Hubbard, Matt Gray, Jeroen Tel, Ben Daglish, Steve Rowlands, Martin Galway and Tim Follin spring to mind immediately.

Who could forget the mesmerising IK+ tune by Mr Hubbard or Matt Gray’s aural pleasure in Last Ninja 2. There is one chiptune that does stand out for us (sorry Zamzara by Charles Deened), which is Tim Follin’s L.E.D. Storm riff based on Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’ – so, sit back, relax and take in this awesome 8-bit SID tune.

If you have a favourite chiptune, please share it with us via Twitter or Facebook!