A trip down memory lane--who else got their start with this?

[KiwiHopeful]

Gallery: Looking Back at 25 Years of the C64, the Ultimate '80s Computer



Can you believe the C64 is 25 years old?!?

When I was 14, I worked all summer to save up for a disk drive to replace the tape drive that my dad bought me when he bought the computer. Remember how the disks were single sided and you had to put the little notch on them to make them double sided? Then flip them?

Ahh, memories.

[Taffy]

We had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the computer that started it all!! Then we moved up in the world to a Commodore Amiga 500 - man was that a mind blowing experience!!

[KiwiHopeful]

Actually, my first was the TI99/4A ... but I didn't really use it for much other than playing this crappy pac-man clone.

Those Amiga's were sweet. As nice as the graphics were on the C64 & C128, nothing could touch an Amiga. I would say it must have been, what, about 1992 or so when PC's finally could push graphics anywhere near what even an old Amiga could produce.

[Taffy]

Yeah, those Amigas were so far ahead of the game, I'm amazed that Commodore isnt around anymore. They should be at the forefront of gaming technology! But, someone spent all the money so they went down the pan.

I remember fierce battles in school between Amiga owners and Atari ST owners. We knew we had the superior product, but they wouldnt accept it!

[KiwiHopeful]

Yeah, it was too bad about Amiga.

IIRC, the same chips were used in the Silicon Graphics computers. The SGI stuff was used for pretty powerful graphics stuff. My dad was a draftsman for General Dynamics--he created 3D models of submarines on those chips.

For what it's worth, this made me look up my favorite game from that time:

Lemon - Commodore 64, C64 Games, Reviews & Music!

I've been looking for it for *so* long ... I couldn't remember it's name.

[pleccy2000]

I joined gaming in the 8-bit era (loved my spectrum and NES).

The Amiga is a special machine and I still use my emulator regularly (winUAE, with Lemonade as front end).

I remember playing SoB II for the first time. The music and the graphics were somethign else!

ahh.. the memories.

[KiwiHopeful]

I realized the link didn't actually show the game, Demon Stalkers. It was like a better version of Gauntlet (if you can imagine anything better than Gauntlet).

I also spent many hours playing the Bard's Tale, Lode Runner, One on One; Larry
Bird and Michael Jordan, Super Boulder Dash ... ahh, those were sad, lonely times.

I think I played about 1/2 the Infogram games and 1/2 the EA role playing games, especially Wasteland.

[Taffy]

Bards Tale!! Oh the hours spent on that game! You know whats really bad though, is when you get to play on those games again in this day, and you can't believe how bad they are. Really destroys the illusions of happier times!

Some other classics though:

Spectrum:
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy
Atic Atac
Lunar Jetman
The Hobbit (this was a really hard game!!!)
The Way of the Exploding Fist (Loved this!)

Amiga:
Shadow of the Beast
Lombard Rally
Prince of Persia

Ahh bless

[Banjo.Jon]

Taffy, The Hobbit on the spectrum had to be impossible. I got hold of a walk-through book for that and still could no complete it. I started off on a Spectrum 48 with the old rubber keys and then moved on to spectrum +2a. My Mum and Dad still have them in the loft. I have many fond memories of trying to install games from the tape drive and after a 30 min wait, the darned thing crashed.

[KiwiHopeful]

Originally Posted by Banjo.Jon

I have many fond memories of trying to install games from the tape drive and after a 30 min wait, the darned thing crashed.

I've never seen anyone use the words 'fond memories' and 'tape drive' in the same sentence.

Isn't it funny how now we get impatient if a download takes more than a few seconds and filled with jealousy when we hear about people in Korea or Sweden who have connections so fast they can download entire DVD's in less time than it takes to microwave a frozen burrito?