So many great memories. I used to play video games a lot from 7 to 15. First C64 and then Amiga. And then started the PC era and I totally lost interest. I didn't find the games and the platform as enjoyable. What kind of games do kids like to play nowadays? is there the same diversity of games as there used to be?
Recently, I was at a museum in New Zealand (I think it was in Dunedin) and they had a C64 there. I was pleased to see a bunch of young kids enjoying playing it! They didn't seem to think it was outdated.
Digital distribution has brought back the feeling of the older computer games in a big way. Steam has some titles, but it still puts up some barriers. itch.io [0] is the hotspot for stuff too small to notice these days. Just last night I was linked to a homage to the ICOM adventure games [1] and it was hosted on itch.
Kids don't really seem to care too much about a high fidelity experience. Everything is new and different to them to begin with, so that stuff is just window dressing.
Maniac mansion, world games, pirates!, the last ninja and impossible mission were some of my favorites.
I actually managed to beat impossible mission, and I can't even imagine the amount of time I spent wandering aimlessly in last ninja and pirates! not having a clue where to go or what to do.
I recently hooked up a C64 to my stereo for the first time. Hearing things through a decent system (instead of my old crappy tube-TV speakers as a kid) - a can't believe how great it sounds: all that huuuuge base wasted on me!
I also am surprised I never noticed as a kid the limitations of only having 3 channels of sound for music AND effects. It's amazing how well it's hidden, but still - long notes abruptly chopped because I decided to shoot at a bad guy, or notes falling out of chords: I never heard this at all when I was younger!
I recognize and played a lot of them all back in the day. Only things missing are Commando and Ghost & Goblins (I can still hum the tune!).
Amazing what they could do with the SID chip back then. Most PC's and homecomputers in the early 80's had to make do with bleeps and bloops. Literally.
There's a quite a subscene for those interested in SID music. You can find a lot of new C64 cover versions (some by the original musicians) and new work at Chris Abbott's www.c64audio.com. He's done a lot of work in keeping the C64/SID scene alive.
Me too, this was my favourite of the countless Gauntlet clones, given that it added some cool ideas: element magic which affected enemies differently, a sidekick you could conjure, and probably more cool things I can't recall at the moment.
I think that exact capability also attracted a lot of great musical talent to it, who used crazy techniques and experimented with it continuously to get new sounds out of that breadbox.
It had a sense of evolution where you started with a beeping machine, then a game gets released with such a great soundtrack that you'd simply leave it running just to listen to it (Ninja, Traz, International Karate, Giana Sisters, ...), and then you get a demo that manages to play back the stoning scene of The Life of Brian - all that's still stuck in my head from my C64 days.
Recently, I was at a museum in New Zealand (I think it was in Dunedin) and they had a C64 there. I was pleased to see a bunch of young kids enjoying playing it! They didn't seem to think it was outdated.