"Blast from the Past" - Disks #001 - #005 (C64)

Sometimes you just pick a way you want to play some videogames and go for it.  You might try to play all the games from a certain year for a certain system, or attempt a game series, or go for a full library on a console, etc. But, in this case, I decided to go through a complete Commodore 64 computer collection titled the "Blast From the Past" collection.

ALRIGHT, so here's the deal overall with this collection. It seems like being a Europe-oriented compilation, we're going to run everything in PAL and do all our captures in PAL, unless the game is completely borked -- in which case, we'd give it a try in NTSC. However, not ALL these games were native to PAL. Some are going to be USA releases, which means proper timing would be 59.94 hz instead of 50hz. That's okay, this quick-look project I'm on isn't trying to get the "definitive" capture of each game, this is a chance to go through a huge compilation, digest it, and talk about it. For individual games, I recommend finding the original country of release, and running a computer that matches that release. It can definitely make a difference in the speed these games run at, as an NTSC game will run about 20% faster than PAL natively!

Also... this being a EUR release, I'm thinking let's experience it as the Europeans would -- on a PAL-based Commodore 64 running 50fps. :-)

Finally… this is fun way to get exposure to a bunch of games, but if at all possible I would search for the original, or complete version of these games. There are quite a few where title screens have been removed, or extra graphics stripped… that's how they fit so many games on one disk. You might be short-changing yourself if you play any of the larger games direct from the collection instead of finding complete versions elsewhere.

 

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BLAST FROM THE PAST #001 -
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=108195   - Oct. 14, 1995

Intro Text: (all caps):

… SCI 666 PRESENTS A NEW SERIES IN CLASSICAL COMPUTER FUN …

… 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' IS THE COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL THE CLASSIC CBM-64 GAMES EVER…

… NOW READY FOR BOTH THE 64 AND THE C64S EMULATOR ON THE PC…

… SELECTING A GAME IS VERY EASY, ON EVERY 'BLAST' YOU GET 5 TO 9 GAMES COMPILED, BY PRESSING THE NUMERIC KEY IN FRONT OF THAT GAME, YOU WILL LOAD AND RUN IT…

… SOME OF YOU 64 FREAKZ MIGHT REMEMBER THE 'GAME-CLASSICS' ON THE OLD COMMODORE …

… YES, THAT WAS ALSO A PRODUCT BY SCI 666 ...

… THIS SERIES REPLACES ALL GAME-CLASSICS DONE SO FAR …

… NOW WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO COMPILE AND CRUNCH GAMES IN A MUCH FASTER WAY, SCI 666 FOUND IT NECESSARY TO START ALL OVER AGAIN TO PLEASE EVERY 64 FAN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD …

… READ THE OTHER 'BLASTS' FOR MORE INFORMATION …

… ENJOY! …

… SIGNED: REVOLVER ON THE 14TH OF OCTOBER 1995 …

 

1. *Ghostbusters (1984) - total classic. Definitely worth playing. Charming and fun. And ghostbusters was such a cultural phenomenon… the movie, the games, TV show… it was everywhere and it was a big deal. Game is part action, and sorta build your own business up over time.  Buy bigger stuff, save your account and grow into a huge business with every ghost-fighting thing you could want! (8/10)
   
   
   
2. Grab a Crab (1983) - an arcade game, Pac-man variant with crabs. Very sensitive hit detection… seems "square" sprites even what you can't see - a touch and you're toast.  So, you can't really corner, or get away easily. (4/10)
   
   
   
3. Night Driver (1982) - This 1976 arcade game can now be yours at home!  Only took 6 years in the making.  J/k It's not a bad home conversion.  C64 does make it seem like you're going really fast, kudos.  Of course, hard to control anything when you hit top speeds, not sure how you're supposed to react in time. (5/10)
   
   
   
4. *Pitstop 2 (1984) - Another fantastic game on the C64. Pole Position with a little strategy and pit action. (7/10)
   
   
   
5. Skramble (1984) - arcade conversion. Good one!  Never thought the game is stellar, but this home version plays very well! (6/10)
   
   
   
6. Space Invaders (1982) - arcade conversion… NOT on MobyGames or UVLIST that I can find. A near-perfect clone of the gameplay, if not quite in sound & graphics… but very good.  Includes ability to count # of shots to get 300 points value on the saucer. Invaders do seem to shoot still on bottom row, I didn't test. (7/10)
   
   
   

7. Trenchfire (1984) x - apparently a type-in game from Compute's Gazette?  In any case, rudimentary, too easy… choppy like a BASIC game, not smooth enough. NOTE: the Blast from the Past compiled version is NOT a good version… doesn't draw the full screen correctly! I had to load up a different TAP image to see the correct version with both sides of the trench properly drawn in. (3/10)
   
   
   
8.  Annihilator 2 (1983) x - So once again, the version on the Blast from the Past disk is corrupted. It has strange scaling errors, collision detection and shot placement issues, etc. I switched to another version of it and was way better. This is a mutli-stage defender-like game. Scroll left & right, shoot enemies, pickup fuel tanks and eventually little men. Even has a smart bomb to deploy by tapping space bar. Not bad… just not anything amazing. (4/10)
   
   
   
9. *Blagger (1983) - now here we have a decent game!  I'd never heard of this growing up, but it's a puzzle platformer… similar to a manic miner game. Have to figure out how to get through the various puzzles in each level - dissolving platforms, things that kill you all over, getting keys, robbing banks, staying alive.  Cool stuff. (7/10)

 

SISID TRACKS!!

 - Ghostbusters has great digital sound samples, "He Slimed Me!" as well as the signature song.

 

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BLAST FROM THE PAST #002

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=108215   - Oct. 15, 1995

INTRO Text: (all caps)

… SCI 666 PRESENTS THE 2ND BLAST FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT ….

… NOW THAT ALL CRUNCHING HAS BEEN DONE, THE BLASTS WILL BE RELEASED ASAP …

… AS SAID ON THE 1ST VOLUME, THIS LOADER PROGRAM IS READY FOR BOTH THE C64 AND THE C64S EMULATOR …

… MIHA PETERNEL INCLUDED DETECTION ROUTINES FOR HIS EMULATOR, SO IT WAS EASY TO DETERMINE WHETHER TO USE THE FAST-LOADER (C64) OR NORMAL LOAD (C64S) …

… THE C64S EMULATOR IS A BRILLIANT PIECE OF SOFTWARE, ALTHOUGH THE SCROLLING AND SOUND EMULATION COULD BE IMPROVED …

… ANYWAY, ENJOY THESE 5 CLASSIC GAMES! …

1 - Bazooka Bill (1985) x  EUR - this one crashed WinVice 3.1 and CCS3.93 in both PAL & NTSC modes, so they really screwed this archive up.  I can load the game from elsewhere… and the game itself -->   it's like a side-scrolling beat-em-up of a sort, but the enemies shoot so fast and approach so fast that I'm not sure exactly the "strategy" of how to survive. You get weapons power-ups and are supposed to navigate a bunch of different secret paths in order not to just loop each screen.  I think I'll stick with Rambo on the NES - far superior. (5/10)

2 - *Auf Wiedersehen Monty (1987) x EUR - Another one that crashed the emulator trying to load from blast volume.  But launching the game shows a platform-puzzler much like the manic miner games (this is a popular genre at the time).  Different mechanics, more forgiving, built-in trainers are kind of fun to see the full game.. But definitely reduce your challenge level.  Fun but not a must. (6/10)

3 - *Soldier Of Fortune (1985) USA - Cool, loaded up well, great music… a variant on the platform puzzler where you have to pick the right type of weapon to determine how to kill the bad creatures and varmints. The most powerful weapons kill any creature, but you might have to learn the order of how fierce the creatures are to pick appropriate weapons if choices are limited.  Pretty cool.  Worth playing. (6/10)

4 - *Gridrunner (1982) USA - Man, I remember this one!  From LlamaSoft… pure action-arcade. Commodore does this well. Great sounds, lots of challenge, bullets coming at you from the side and bottom as well as missiles dropping as the "mushrooms" grow.  It's a bit like centipede with some added elements of fun & chaos.  Love it. Definitely worth checking out! (7/10)

5 - Spike (1983) - Compute's Gazette magazine type-in!  This is a cool pac-man-ish game of the type where you try to fil in all sides of a square to fill in the space.  But it has one really cool catch which is there is a random hidden thingy on each level. All you have to do is fill in the square where this hidden object is, and you collect bonus and go on to the next level.  Much less tedious than filling in all the grid space!  Not huge depth, but this is a fun game - especially for a magazine type-in. (5/10)

 

SID TRACKS!

• Bazooka Bill has SID songs…  but they are a little odd.  Not my favorite.
• *Auf Wiedershen Monty -- Good music! Mixture of patriotic, original, classical, "O Christmas Tree", etc.  All sound shots from the game.
• Soldier of Fortune - music, about 4 tracks plus sound effects

 

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BLAST FROM THE PAST #003

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=108216  - Oct. 15, 1995

INTRO Text: (all caps)
… AND NR 3 IS READY ON THE 15TH OF OCTOBER 1995 …

… IT'S LOVELY WEATHER OUTSIDE FOR AN AUTUMN SUNDAY! …

… I (REVOLVER) HOPE TO RELEASE A FEW MORE 'BLASTS' TODAY ..

… WITH THE C64S EMULATOR IT'S FAIRLY EASY TO CUT AND PASTE CLASSIC GAMES ON THIS SERIES …

… I'LL HAVE TO GET AJAX TO WRITE SOME SCROLLIES TOO …

… NOW THAT HE HAS MOVED TO AMSTERDAM, HE DOESN'T GET AROUND THE SCI HEADQUARTERS VERY OFTEN, SO PROBABLY I HAVE TO TAKE SOME 'BLASTS' TO THE MUSICAL PALACE …

… MAYBE I EVEN WILL INVITE SOME OTHER PALS TO WRITE A PIECE OF SCROLL FOR THE 'BLASTS' …

… THIS IS THE FIRST 'BLAST' FEATURING A GAME CRACKED BY SCI 666 …

… YES, SPITFIRE 40 WAS DONE BY US A LONG, LONG TIME AGO …

… WELL, NOTHING MUCH TOO SAY, REALLY …

… PLAY 'EM PARTNER! …

 

1 - Cobra (1986) EUR - ugh. A movie tie-in by Ocean Software?  Sylvester Stallone movie doesn't mean a good game, and a good game this is not. I can see how getting the knife really helps you out… but I think I keep dying at least 2 of my 4 lives just to even go across the screen to pickup the darn knife.  This is not a good start to the game. Supposedly it might get better… I got a lot further in my last life. Really doesn't seem play-tested at all.  Skip it. (4/10)

2 - Spitfire 40 (1985) USA/EUR - This looks like a very detailed simulator… and as such, I feel like I definitely don't have the time to put into learning it.  I'm typically not going to rate the simulation games, because it's not one of my favorite genre's and I also at this point just trying to get overview of the landscape… not deeply play every game. (not rated)

3 - RMS Titanic (1986) - USA/EUR - aka. Titanic: The Recovery Mission. Another strategic/simulation type of game from what I can tell.  Got high ratings in the magazine…  and would appreciate somebody deep-diving.  But for me, at this point, I'm not that guy. (not rated)

4 - Plumb Crazy (1984) EUR - Little action game where the task at hand is to lay a relief pipe from the left side of the screen, to what appears to be a water boiler on the right. The thing is gonna explode unless you can build some long-ass pipe to the opposite side of the screen, avoiding rocks of course.  Makes no sense.  If you could simply pick your pipe "piece" by hitting f1-f7 buttons or something this game would be way better.  But running down to the bottom to "select" piece type every single time is a real chore. The music is also in-your-face obnoxious. Not worth playing. (5/10)

5 - Sooper Froot (1983)  - not on Moby, is on UVL.  Basically a four-cylinder slot machine… of that odd variety that at various times you can select to "HOLD" certain reels or respin for free.  Or sometimes you're given a set amount of "nudges" you can do where each nudge is one reel bump up or down a space.  The idea, of course, to allow you to move a big win into position.  Admittedly it's kinda fun… for a slot-machine game. Virtual money doesn't have the same allure of winning real $$ of course.  But the added variety of hold & nudges and respins make this at least more of a game, and not entirely just watching reels randomly land. (5/10)
 

SID TRACKS!

• *Cobra - might be the SID track is better than the game itself
• RMS Titanic - 2 interesting tracks!  Not going to play the game, likely… so impressive tracks.
• Plumb Crazy - oof!  This is an annoying piece of music.  No thanks.
   

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BLAST FROM THE PAST #004

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=108217  - Oct. 15, 1995

INTRO Text: (all caps)
… SCI 666 PROUDLY PRESENTS THE 4TH VOLUME IN THE 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' SERIES …

… EVERTYHING IS GOING WRONG AT MY WORK, BUT I DON'T CARE, THIS PROJECT IS GOING ALONG VERY WELL …

… LET'S SEE HOW MANY 'BLASTS' I CAN CREATE IN A DAY …

… IF MY CALCULATIONS ARE OKAY, I HAVE ENOUGH CLASSIC MATERIAL TO FILL A 100 (!) VOLUMES WITH CBM-64 GAMES …

… THAT OUGHT TO KEEP YOU 64 FREAKZ BUSY FOR A WHILE …

… IF I'M THROUGH WITH ALL MY 64 GAMES, I WILL PROBABLY RELEASE A HANDY GAME INDEX, SO YOU CAN FIND YOUR FAVORITE GAME INSTANTLY …

… MORE ABOUT THAT ON OUR NEXT VOLUME …

… CIAO! …

 

1 - Super Sprint (1987) EUR - I think the graphics are great, and you know exactly what game you're playing -- very good arcade port. However, the controls are not quite so easy. Turning with a joystick is never gonna be great… but getting all turned around or even "exploding" when you crash into a wall is serious punishment.  I didn't even win my first race…  2 attempts. That's not like the ramp-up difficulty you find in the arcade.  So, poor controls tend to hurt this otherwise well done version of an arcade classic. (6/10)

2 -* Buggy Boy (1987) EUR/USA - aka "Speed Buggy" on Mobygames. This is a fun, impressive driving game. The controls are easy to learn, work well, and give you a nice fluid sense of driving even with just a joystick. Lots of tracks, obstacles and challenge here.  I really enjoyed this one - going on the ones you MUST play to see how a C64 can deliver a good driving-game experience. (8/10)

3 - Howard The Duck (1986) EUR/USA - I'm old enough to remember this movie… and Lea Thompson in her undies. But I digress… what the heck game is this?  It's by Activision and looks great. But I literally jumped one puddle, picked up one thing, and then got stuck trying to figure out what to do next.  I know, read the manual. I probably will need to revisit this to be fair to it. It's by Activision, so it might have more depth than at first glance. But the initial gameplay did not lend itself to quick play. (5/10)

4 - Turmoil (1983) USA - Quick and simple action game. One problem is that the joystick up & down control is WAY to fast. Just simply tapping up or down and I'd often jump 2 or 3 spots. You can't play a shooter game without precision controls. Simple game… even if control was dialed in doesn't seem to be much more than single-screen shooter. (4/10)

5 - Ground Gobeler (198x) ? - INDIE game.  Actually spelled "Ground-Gobeler" and it's not on MobyGames.  Only on UVList.  Simple fast-paced action game.  You're un underground-dwelling creature… looks like a little lobster. Your goal is to find cheese and escape from the strange creatures chasing you - which look like masks. You can cross over two rocks and then you turn RED (confirms you're a lobster and all) - but if you eat a cheese slice, you reset and can run over two more.  Simple… a little quick to really feel like you're ever in control.  But…  there ya go. (4/10)

 

SID TRACKS!

• Super Sprint - 5 tracks.. Not bad, mostly trying to mimic some arcade tracks.
• Speed Buggy - one main music track, otherwise sound effects. Bubbly and upbeat. Some decent sounds in there
• *Howard the Duck - the game may not be great, but the music tracks are. Cool stuff, variety - 2 main songs to listen to, with some rich output.

 

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BLAST FROM THE PAST #005

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=108218  - Oct. 15, 1995

INTRO Text: (all caps)

… NUMBER 5 IS ALIVE! …

… YES, THE SAME SHIT JOKE AS 'GAME-CLASSIC'S 5 …

… ANYWAY, WE'RE BACK AND WE'RE FOR REAL! …

… ON THIS VOLUME, YOU'LL FIND A GAME WHICH WE ALL LOVED AND PLAYED FOR HOURS AND HOURS : PAPERBOY! …

… THE 64 VERSION WAS CRACKED BY THE LEGENDARY 1001 CREW …

… WONDER WHAT THOSE GUYZ ARE DOING NOWADAYS …

… MOST LIKELY THEY TAKE A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE AND PLAY THE GAMES FEATURED ON THE 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' SERIES …

… AFTER ALL, THIS IS BECOMING THE MOST COMPLETE 64 GAMES SERIES EVER …

… WHEN THE SERIES HAS BEEN COMPLETED, I'LLL DO MY UTMOST BEST TO GET IT RELEASED ON CD-ROM, THAT WOULD REALLY MAKE IT A COLLECTORS ITEM …

… ENOUGH OF DAYDREAMING, HIT A NUMERIC KEY TO PLAY ONE OF THOSE GOLDEN OLDIES! …

… SEE YA' …

 

1 - Arcana - (1986) EUR - This is different.  Seems like a bit of side-scrolling action, but also has elements of exploration and discovery. I certainly would need to peek at the manual to get more info and figure it out. The graphics and sound look pretty amazing for a C64 game. Definitely will investigate more someday. (6/10)

2 - *Paperboy - (1986) EUR/US - the arcade classic is given a pretty decent, if quite difficult, home computer port. They've stripped out some of the things by necessity - you can't just hit every object and get points (breaking windows, knocking over tombstones, all those fun things).  But the basic mechanics of play are here, and the same perspective of gameplay is all here. NOT an easy game. Took me a few attempts even to make it down the street one time. So if you want a challenge… here ya go!  Arcade is always my first choice, but this is a fun conversion. (8/10)

3 - Hollywood Or Bust - (1986) EUR - Another WTF is going on here?  I know, probably oughta read the manual… but again, just throwing these disks in here one-at-a-time and discovering a lot of this as a FIRST TIME player!  I'm amazed how many games on the C64 I've never heard of, and IT WAS MY THING growing up.  But there is also a VAST library, and being in the US we definitely didn't get all the European/UK games.  And this is one of those… a Mastrtronic (aka. Budget title) --> seems a little like the 3 Stooges Cinemaware game… a story of sorts, told in vignettes. I just stumbled upon the same dumb one a couple times and stopped. Bu
t there's probably a lot more here under the surface. It's well-themed as a movie-shoot in-progress, and a good job too. (5/10)

4 - Bonka - (1983) EUR - This is just Apple Panic, more or less, for the C64. Grab a hammer… then dig hole, trap the meanies, and hit 'em on the head (Bonka!?) to knock'em into free fall and hopefully their doom.  I tried dropping one level through one of those holes, and it not only took me out… but my timing was impeccable and where I respawn'd was right on top of an enemy who then proceeded to take me out 2 more times.  Game over man, Game over!  (4/10)

5 - Rollin' - (1983) EUR - Here's a version of Amidar, where you take on the task of completing all the grid by paint-rollering over all the lines. There are two boards, the first is more free-flow.. Just go over every line and fill in the grid. The alternating board limits you to buildling one square out at a time - you have to keep lines connected to an immediate square, and to a previously filled in square.  So, it's a little tricker to be sure.  Good arcade fun… pick up & play!  (5/10)

 

SID TRACKS!

• Arcana - 1 long song track..
• *Paperboy - nice conversions to SID chip from some of the Arcade tunes.  Fun to listen to.
• *Hollywood or Bust - some fun tracks here by one of the masters of Mastertronic music: Ron Hubbard!
• Rollin' - actually plays a SID version of "Ode to Joy" I believe

 

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And that's a long enough post for now, dontcha agree?  Thanks for reading.

Spacewar! - (1962)

Programmer: Steve Russell
Original Platform: PDP-1 mainframe
Best: PDP-1 mainframe

SHROT REVIEW:

As I embark on a quest to find over 2000+ video games worthy of a future book that I'm thinking of...  Spacewar! might be just about the best place to start. To me its the first true "game" in all of video game history that feels like the beginning.  There were simulations and games before to be sure... but this was something new, something different.  

Spacewar is partly responsible for starting an industry. Maybe not directly… but it's influence on other luminaries like Nolan Bushnell is almost a direct through-line to the beginning of the video-game industry. Where else but on a powerful mini-computer could you get a space-shooter video game in 1962?  If you were one of the privileged college students at MIT… then you might have been lucky enough to have seen or even played this ground-breaking game.

It didn't burst into existence fully formed... but various programming efforts kept refining the play mechanics. The heft of the gravity, the look of the ships, a central sun with gravity, the random starfield being updated with an actual map of real stars (including relative brightness)... these were all steady improvements made to the game. You see, the entire process wasn't just "programming a video game"… this was a learning experiment. There were no attempts at creating a commercial product, it was just experimenting with the tech, having a good time, and proudly showing off your creation.

When Nolan Bushnell tried to create a commercial arcade video-game in 1971, he was trying to recreate the Spacewar! experience he found so fascinating. Computer Space was his attempt at bringing this classic to the coin-op arcades in an affordable manner (more on that once we get there). The point being that this game was one of the big inspirations to Nolan, and others.

Many who enjoy video games have experienced that "Aha!" moment when they first got that happy buzz... a first hit of wonder & fascination with videogames. For a rare few back in the 60's… Spacewar! WAS that spark.  So for this and many reasons I feel it's an appropriate beginning on the journey we're about to embark across the galaxy of games worth highlighting from the last 50+ years.

My goal is to keep the reviews short but meaningful. Almost everything I want to highlight has probably been covered more in-depth elsewhere... but I hope to present more like a highlight reel with this blog.

VIDEO: