C-64 coming to European Virtual Console in 2008 (joystiq)

[diskoboy]

Best Wii news in ages!! Bring it to the US, and I may just keep my Wii, after all.


http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/21/commodore-64-coming-to-european-virtual-console-in-2008/

[fishsandwich]

The £3.75 price point per game scares me.

[blue lander]

Meh, half the fun of C64 games are the little intros the crackers put on them. Now that I think about it, I probably enjoyed the intros more than most C64 games.

[diskoboy]

The £3.75 price point per game scares me.

Ouch - I think I paid $50 for games in my C-64's lifetime. And I had a bunch of games.

We all shared our games, back then...

[zektor]

Odd that they wouldn't bring the Speccy to the Europe first...

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Odd that they wouldn't bring the Speccy to the Europe first...

Why? The C=64 was huge in mainland Europe...the Sinclair Spectrum only really dominated in the U.K. You do have a point though, as it would be very easy to bring Spectrum games to the VC...all they'd have to do is port over some of the pea-soup green original Game Boy games and colorize them a bit. :p

[lendelin]

Can you play the games with the Wii mote as well? Would be awesome. Playing games of the past with the future standard control scheme perfected in 2018. WOW. N RULEZ, I'm telling you!

[j_factor]

It's about time... they announced this ages ago.

International Karate is pretty weak IMO. And what the hell is Uridium?

[Mayhem]

I believe it's actually IK+ (known in the US as Chop 'n Drop Karate) not the original IK. The sequel is one of the greatest (non special move) fighting games ever. Still we'll find out which one it actually turns out to be.

As for Uridium... another of the C64's more well known shooters. Ever play Last Starfighter on the NES? It's that but a hell of a lot better executed ;)

[scooterb23]

I like the idea, but I get the feeling that the games I loved would never get ported...I feel like I may be the only Skate Rock fan out there :)

Still, always good to see the Wii getting more interesting content.

[blue lander]

Why? The C=64 was huge in mainland Europe...the Sinclair Spectrum only really dominated in the U.K. You do have a point though, as it would be very easy to bring Spectrum games to the VC...all they'd have to do is port over some of the pea-soup green original Game Boy games and colorize them a bit. :p

Plus it doesn't seem like Amstrad has any interest in pimping out the Spectrum or CPC like whoever owns the C64 these days. I wonder if it'd be more difficult to license out popular Spectrum games, too, since most were published by companies that aren't around anymore. But even if they could get all the Codemasters, Hewson, and Ultimate PTG releases it'd be pretty sweet.

[Flack]

It's about time... they announced this ages ago.

International Karate is pretty weak IMO. And what the hell is Uridium?

World Karate Championships (which is a lot like International Karate) and Uridium were both on the 30-in-1 Commodore joystick that came out a few years ago. They're both pretty popular games. Here's my review of Uridium (http://review-o-matic.com/games/index.php?file=uridium-c64). (Summary: it's a really fast, side-scrolling Zaxxon.)

[Mangar]

heh - I just got done converting a ton of C-64 games to the PC, with period accurate "Cracker Intro's"

I love the idea of the Virtual Console, but with emulation - I've yet to buy a single game.

[scooterb23]

World Karate Championships (which is a lot like International Karate) and Uridium were both on the 30-in-1 Commodore joystick that came out a few years ago. They're both pretty popular games. Here's my review of Uridium (http://review-o-matic.com/games/index.php?file=uridium-c64). (Summary: it's a really fast, side-scrolling Zaxxon.)

This is my one concern with this. Are they going to be charging $5 a pop for each of those games to start with? Like they've done with the Sega Genesis collection (have all the games for $20 on the PS2...or $5 apiece on the Wii!!) Could be an issue, at least at the start.

[kaedesdisciple]

I don't know, somehow I think that a lot of the charm will be lost without the crack screens that precede many of my favorites. Then again, those crack screens contain lots of period humor and off color statements that probably wouldn't do well with the Nintendo crowd.

Think I'll stick with PC emulation on this one, the selection is far better anyways.

[Neil Koch]

This is my one concern with this. Are they going to be charging $5 a pop for each of those games to start with? Like they've done with the Sega Genesis collection (have all the games for $20 on the PS2...or $5 apiece on the Wii!!) Could be an issue, at least at the start.

Yep, they will be $5/500 points each. Way too much IMO. It should be something like 3 for $5.

[koster]

Since Uridium is on the list, hopefully Paradroid (http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=1888) and Heavy Metal Paradroid (http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=3066) (also by Andrew Braybrook) won't be far behind.

[Flack]

heh - I just got done converting a ton of C-64 games to the PC, with period accurate "Cracker Intro's"

Man, you and I are on the same page (http://www.robohara.com/tech/?p=8). I've been doing 10-20 disks a night, when I get the chance. Only 400 more to go! When I'm done I'm going to rearrange everything (sort the pictures, seq files, music files, etc) and share them to the world. The Flack collection will once again live -- and I won't be charging Wii points ...

[Flack]

Since Uridium is on the list, hopefully Paradroid (http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=1888) and Heavy Metal Paradroid (http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=3066) (also by Andrew Braybrook) won't be far behind.

If you're not into emulation but love Paradroid, also check out Project Paradroid (http://paradroid.ovine.net/), a freeware remake (with updated graphics) for the PC.

http://paradroid.ovine.net/screenshots/paradroid-04.png

Trevor Storey did a superb job on this remake by upgrading the graphics but not messing with the game play. An awesome remake of an awesome game.

[Flack]

I like the idea, but I get the feeling that the games I loved would never get ported...I feel like I may be the only Skate Rock fan out there :)

One of two, at best.

http://www.robohara.com/pix/junk/skaterock.jpg

[diskoboy]

The only 2 c-64 game I would actually pay for: Impossible Mission and Spare Change

[robotriot]

The best Paradroid version is Paradroid 90 imo, it's my favorite game of all time :)

I also really liked Uridium 2, would be cool if they added Amiga games in the future as well.

[blue lander]

Isn't that the Acorn version? Now that I have an A3000 I'm going to try to hunt it down.

My personal favorite "version" of Paradroid is Quazatron on the Spectrum. It's a little harder to navagate, but I like the isometric view.

[robotriot]

The Acorn Paradroid 2000 is a conversion of the Amiga/Atari ST version, and supposedly "not 100% perfect".