Retro – the way forward??
Back in the day when a flux capacitor was the must have gadget alongside a cd player churning out repetitions of the number 19, the only gaming entertainment was Pac man or Space invaders down your local arcade. Except when you live in the West Midlands, and the nearest arcade was Weston super Mare.
I’m referring to the milestone year that was 1985. Back then everything was different, there were 22 teams in footballs top flight league, Lead male singers wore more makeup than their groupies and you were considered ‘weird’ if you
didn’t wear odd coloured fluorescent socks. But one of the main differences is where video games were played. The thought of blasting aliens or eating pellets while being chased by ghosts for free in the comfort of your own home was as amazing as finding One Eyed Willy’s Pirate ship and all his worldly treasures underneath your home town.
This all changed however for me. Christmas 1985, I actually found the treasure map left by Chester Copperpot. Seriously though, I was greeted Christmas morning by something which changed the way we enjoyed home entertainment for ever:
For those of you born after Cd’s were invented, or thought that the Premiership was always the top league or even had no idea that food wasn’t always Microwaved, the Commodore 64 was the elite home computer of its time. An estimated 30 million units have been sold since it release in the early eighties making it the best selling home computer of all time (source: wikipedia). But I would guess 90% of owners, never used the ‘computing’ capabilities but the fantastic array of games that could be played on it instead.
You simply insert the ‘cassette’ into the C64 ‘datasette’, pressed shift+run-stop on the keyboard followed by ‘press play on tape’ All you have to do then is go on a two week holiday while it loads. I’m exaggerating of course, but in reality, the loading times were quite long. (Approx 45 mins on average). But it was well worth the wait. Of course today the graphics leave a little to be desired, but at the time, they were top notch.
The software backing that the machine had was phenomenal. Ocean, Elite, Codemasters, Mastertronic and Epic were just a few software houses that constantly ploughed their efforts into every increasing genre. From the fighting stages on International Karate to the music creation of ‘Music master’ from the speech analyzer generator to the genius puzzles of the Last ninja, there was guaranteed to be title you would love. (The latter of which boasted one off the finest game soundtrack ever).
There were, as today, rival machines in the form of the Spectrum ZX 48 and 128k variants and also Alan Sugars Amstrad CPC464 (on board cassette unit and green monitor as standard
) but neither machines matched up to the offerings of the mighty Commodore. Of course there was the Atari range on ‘games’ only consoles, but the lack of software range, support and influence, in my opinion, led to the downfall of the console and the rise of the ‘home Computers’.
We all have a history of ‘consoles’ in our lives, I have certainly had my fair share: Commodore 64 > master system > megadrive > Game gear > Psone > Dreamcast > Ps2 > Xbox > PSP and finally my very first Nintendo outing, the Wii. Obviously I’m going to big up the Wii as in my opinion it’s the concept of the console that attracts me the most. But no other gaming console has every matched up to the enjoyment and hours upon hours of game time spent on the Commodore C64. Perhaps it’s because it was the first home gaming experience I ever had? One could say you never forget your first one, This is so true for me in this instance.
Of course in hindsight, to compare to the high powered console of today would be ridiculous, but given the chance to relive the classic moments - Trying to solve that puzzle in ‘The Last Ninja’, performing the head chop move in ‘Barbarian 2’ and creating your own course in ‘Kikstart’ would be the dream of any retro gaming fan. What goes around comes around people say – how true. Almost 25 years to the day that the Commodore 64 was launched and it’s now going to get relived on the Wii VC Channel. Yes I totally agree the prices leave much to be desired (new games on the C64 used to retail from just £1.99) but to play all those gems on my Wii without the need for that ridiculous loading speed or ‘Syntax Error’ nightmare appearing is something I will welcome with open arms.
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Retro - The way forward??
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