Activision on C-64, middle 80s

[tom]

Wow, I am just reading my ZZap! magazines (UK) and Activision turned out some rubbish for the C-64:
Enduro Racer, Wonderboy, Quartet, Howard the Duck, Knightmare, Galactic Games, Transformers, etc.... all low scoring games indeed. What happened there????

And they even had an ad saying (in the line of) 'don't go with the crowd, follow the leader...Activision the number one software house'

I guess even the leaders have an off-day

[NeoZeedeater]

Activision's computer games always seemed inconsistent in quality to me. They just published games from a ton of different developers .

Also, in the mid-late '80s the quality of arcade ports on the C64 dropped considerably because the hardware wasn't powerful enough to handle them any more. It wasn't just the Activision ports.

[Mayhem]

If you want to read an article about Activision for the C64 in the early to late 80s, then I did one several years ago ;)

http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/activisn.htm

Activision may have published Howard the Duck, but that was a certified Lucasfilm turkey LOL

There were some great arcade conversions for the C64 in the late 80s and early 90s, but any machine that relied solely on the graphics "wow" factor would obviously suffer. First example of that was Space Harrier... though Chris Butler's later attempt at Powerdrift was terrific by comparison.

[NeoZeedeater]

Yeah, I was blown away by Power Drift. I didn't think the C64 could do something that smooth with the changing elevations.

[chuckwalla]

I'll never understand why River Raid for the C64 was probably the worst port (the Atari 2600 was the best, despite good tries for the Atari 8-bit and Colecovision) while HERO for the C64 tied with Colecovision for best port (to me at least).

[Flack]

I haven't played a couple of those, but I always thought the C64 version of Wonderboy was pretty good! I never saw the original in arcades, and later when I discovered MAME I was suprised to see how accurate the C64 version really was!

Now Transformers ... talk about feeling like you had just blown your birthday money on a piece of dookie. :/

[Ed Oscuro]

I thought Knightmare was a pretty good game..? At least on Spectrum...so I've read.

[tom]

Alter Ego, Portal, LCP, Power Drift, TGACCRR, Master of the Lamps, most excellent stuff, but Transformers, written by David Crane too, urgh, just bad. Hacker (and II) was pretty bad in my opinion. But I also liked Gee Bee Air Rally for some reason.

[Beefy Hits]

I thought the game Toy Bizarre was pretty good on the C64.

[Mayhem]

The two Hacker games I've always seen as being a bit Marmite.

For the benefits of non-UK people, Marmite is a spread, a bit like Australia Vegemite but made with beef yeast extract instead (so defo NOT for vegetarians!). As you can see, people either love it or hate it. Hence the term LOL

Anyhow, I like Hacker but didn't get on with Hacker 2. C'est la vie. Funny how it works out.

Toy Bizarre was terrific, a BETTER version of Mario Bros with more variety and strategy needed, just sadly without the 2 player mode.

[Sniderman]

Had a C64 and played a LOT of the Activision stuff.

Hacker - Genius. A game WITHOUT instructions - what a concept! You were actually encouraged to figure out the controls, the keyboard, the game's plot, and how to win. I loved it. Hacker 2 - not so much....

Toy Bizarre - Great little platform game. Played the hell out of many of the smaller Activision games. This, Zenji, Park Patrol, etc.

Little Computer People Project - The Sims before "The Sims." Amazing.

Ghostbusters - C'mon. Speech synthesis ("He slimed me!"), the rockin' theme, trying to keep your franchise running from game to game. Great fun.

Howard the Duck - Dammit, I *love* the movie and I *loved* the game. Sure, it was chessy and kind of crappy. But I actually played through and won at it several times.

Activision had its share of C64 turkeys, but they also released some bright, cutting-edge stuff too.

[Griking]

Alter Ego, Portal, LCP, Power Drift, TGACCRR, Master of the Lamps, most excellent stuff, but Transformers, written by David Crane too, urgh, just bad. Hacker (and II) was pretty bad in my opinion. But I also liked Gee Bee Air Rally for some reason.


Alter-Ego was one of my favorite games from my 80's computer days. I owned it for the Apple II (and still have it) but it was really the same game as the C64 version from what I hear. It may be a little dated in comparison to a lot of today's games but I definately recommend giving it a try on your favorite C64 or Apple II emulator (http://www.tomcharlesworth.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/)

[tom]

Just reading on with ZZAP!:
Activisions Afterburner was voted 'Worst Game of the Year for C-64'

Ghostbusters was excellent but:
Ghostbusters 2 got a bad review, and I think Activision was quite miffed about this, threatening legal action.

[tom]

As for Rampage on XL, I think all capable programmers had left Activision for this conversion

[Steempy]

Pastfinder was an awesome game for C64 (think it also made Atari 800, and was planned for ColecoVision) - check it out.

[Mayhem]

Pastfinder was one of many that started on the Atari and was ported to the C64. Terrific conversion though, one of my early Activision favourites.

[tom]

Actually, I remember playing Hacker on the XL, and finishing it, but Hacker II on the C-64 was too confusing for me.

[Sanriostar]

I'll never understand why River Raid for the C64 was probably the worst port (the Atari 2600 was the best, despite good tries for the Atari 8-bit and Colecovision) while HERO for the C64 tied with Colecovision for best port (to me at least).

C64 River Raid is almost the Chuckwagon of C64 carts.
I'm sooooooo close to a complete C64 cart set that I wanna scream. Missing:

Space Shuttle
Designer's Pencil
River Raid

...and that's it.

[devilman]

I'm surprised to see Enduro Racer mentioned. Was the the C64 version that bad? It was a great game on the Spectrum.

[Steempy]

The C64 version was unfortunately lousy, yeah. Poor graphics to say the least, and the gameplay wasn't really there either.

[tom]

Hey Sanriostar,
look here for Designers Pencil on cart, Telegames UK ships overseas and takes PP.

http://www.telegames.ltd.uk/index.php?cPath=323_352&osCsid=bf3ae94951e65480a60063587b636701

[Mayhem]

C64 River Raid is almost the Chuckwagon of C64 carts. I'm sooooooo close to a complete C64 cart set that I wanna scream. Missing:

Space Shuttle
Designer's Pencil
River Raid

Designer's Pencil is almost the Combat of C64 carts ;)

Go look at Australia, absolutely shit loads of them there. Or you could get one from me, as I have it spare! Okay the box is rather damaged, but it is also signed by Gary Kitchen the programmer :)

As for Space Shuttle and River Raid, yeah they don't turn up very often. The boxes turn up even less. Impressed you have a Pastfinder cart though, that's the hardest of the C64 Activision carts imo to get...

http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/activision.htm

[googlefest1]

talking about not being able to make good arcade ports -- i thought altered beast came out pretty good

activision wasnt the only company with crap games

ive got to find this transformers game and see what all the buzz is about

[Steempy]

There was a Transformers game by Ocean as well as the one by Activision.. the Ocean one isn't all that flash either, but it's better than the Activision one :)

[Flack]

activision wasnt the only company with crap games

There were a lot of crappy C64 games. Of course, there were a lot of C64 games period. When there are 20,000 programs available for a platform, yeah, it's going to seem like there's a lot of dookie!

[Ed Oscuro]

I'll never understand why River Raid for the C64 was probably the worst port (the Atari 2600 was the best, despite good tries for the Atari 8-bit and Colecovision) while HERO for the C64 tied with Colecovision for best port (to me at least).
Off the beaten track, but the '85 My Card port of H.E.R.O. to the SG-1000 is great.