Just as there have been many knock offs of Asteroids since the original. Raid Over Moscow was basically a knock off of Beach Head. All which took elements from Zaxxon, Space Invaders, and even Pong. Many of these reboots are much improved versions of the original.

Raid Over Moscow is a great game in its own right. It consists of several stages (mini-games) following a common theme. To invade what was the USSR key cities and destroy their defenses.

While that may sound like a bold and ambitious game, remember this was 1983. Games were running on kilobytes, not megabytes. Incredibly exaggerating the gameplay and overstating the scope of the game was par for the course. Raid Over Moscow was basically a shooting gallery type game.

Raid Over Moscow starts off by getting aircraft out of the hangar. Who knew getting an aircraft out of a hangar is so dangerous? Pointing the aircraft toward a wall instead of the exit before launching is incredibly stupid. Still, I suppose it could be explained by them being in a hurry.

At any rate, the first stage is maneuvering an aircraft inside a tiny hangar to get through a small hangar door. After crashing several times into the walls, ground, and door frame you’ll be wondering why the aircraft weren’t just pointed toward the door in the first place.

Once you get the hang of not using too much thrust, it’s easy to get the rest of your aircraft out of the hangar. The next stage reminds me of Missile Command. Except you’re the missile. You have to direct your dot to a city while avoiding the four dots moving toward you. Spoiler, it’s easy.

The next stage has you flying an aircraft Zaxxon style through a city. You shoot buildings, busses, and enemies for points. All while avoiding obstacles. Gauging clearance can be tricky but this stage is a lot of fun. The main difference between Beach Head and this game is you’re flying left to right instead of right to left.

The next stage is similar to the shooting stage in Beach Head. You can only move left to right since up and down control the range of your shot. In this stage there are enemies on either wall flanking you plus a tank in front of the main building you need to destroy.

One of the best parts in this stage is when the tank is taken out by a falling tower from the building. This takes some practice to trick the tank into staying under the falling tower. Basically, as long as you keep moving none of the enemies will hit you.

The final stage is reminiscent of Tron. You’re in a nuclear reactor room with a robot firing at you. Of course, the weapon of choice here is a disc bouncing off the walls as opposed to the gun you were just using. The object here is to hit the robot firing at you from behind since it’s invincible to the discs from the front.

Overall, a fun stage. It takes some practice to get the timing right to hit the robot from behind. But once you complete this stage the game is over. The launch sites and defenses have been neutralized. Finally, Moscow is destroyed by an unstable nuclear reactor.

On a side note, this game was released in 1984, two years before the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl. Sort of an odd thing to find in a video game, huh? Or is it!

The theme of taking out launch sites and causing a nuclear disaster to destroy a city are corny compared to the actual game play. It’s a simple shooting gallery type game, not the end of the world. Games back then sure employed some exaggerated marketing….. Space Invaders? LOL

Overall, Raid Over Moscow is a combination of several games rolled into one. A shooting gallery, an obstacle course, and a Tron like fighting game. All which make it a fun game.

It isn’t a complex game. Nor one that anyone could play for hours. Raid Over Moscow is just a simple, light arcade game. Considering all the terrible games on the Commodore 64, the bar is so low Raid Over Moscow is actually one of the better ones.

Best of Commodore 64: Raid Over Moscow brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Some stages have you shooting at anything that moves. While other stages resemble Zaxxon. Where you navigate a ship or tank past obstacles and enemy fire. The goal being to rack up more points than the your opponent.

Released in 1985, Beach Head II was available for the Commodore 64 at the peak of it’s popularity. It offered two player head to head action. You could play against a friend or the computer. Either way the game offered a lot of fun.

Players began by choosing sides. There were the Allies or the Dictator. The Allies played the offense and the Dictator played defense. Depending on the side how the game played was different. One side did the shooting while the other did the dodging.

There were four stages: Attack, Rescue, Escape, and Battle. The Attack stage had the Allies dropping soldiers from a helicopter you controlled. The soldiers automatically ran for cover while the Dictator side shot at them.

Once all the soldiers were dropped the helicopter went away and the Ally side controlled the soldiers. They had to travers three walls before reaching the safe zone. The whole time being shot at by the Dictator side.

Once all the soldiers were shot or made it to the safe zone the next stage started. The Rescue stage involved a prisoner trying to cross the battle field to safety. During this stage the Allies side gets to do the all the shooting while the Dictator side tries to stop the rescue by controlling various obstacles.

By inputting up, down, left, or right various countermeasures were launched. A tank or armored vehicle could be launched which had automated attacks. The Dictator could control two attackers. One on top of a wall and the other from a trap door below. By moving certain directions they could control the placement of these two attackers.

In this stage, it’s up to the Allies to thwart all the attempts to stop the prisoner from reaching the other side. The Allies have to aim well to stop the tank, armored vehicle, and attackers.

The next stage is the Escape. The Ally side controls a helicopter again. You load up hostages and fly through the obstacles to safety. This part feels similar to Zaxxon. If you’ve ever played Zaxxon then you know it’s all about picking the right elevation to fly through obstacles in you way all while shooting enemies in your path.

There isn’t much for the Dictator side to control during this stage. The course isn’t any less difficult with the computer controlling all the enemies.

The last stage is the Battle. This is the only stage where each side has identical controls and action. It’s two people throwing knives at each other across a river. This is the where the iconic line, “You can’t hurt me!” comes from.

Even though there’s only one button, the characters can still jump, duck, and throw. It’s all done by sacrificing the left and right axis for actions instead of direction. The characters only need to move up and down, not forward or backward during this knife fight.

After completing all four stages, the score is tallied up and the winner is declared. The game gives the Allies a slight advantage since it’s so hard for the Dictator to score points during the Rescue stage.

It somehow never mattered much since the Dictator was the computer. Even when we played with two people, each player took turns playing either side.

One game could last 10-15 minutes, so we played several rounds taking turns as either side. We were more focused on having fun than keeping score.

Overall, Beach Head II is a combination of several games rolled into one. A shooting gallery, an obstacle course, and a fighting game. All which make it a fun game.

It isn’t as flashy as modern party games but it was a very popular two player game in the 80’s. It still holds up after all these years as a simple yet fun game with a World War II theme.

Best of Commodore 64: Beach Head II brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Bruce Lee for the Commodore 64 is an old side scroller video game, similar to Pitfall from Atari. In the game, you play as Bruce Lee and need to find your way through the bosses compound and defeat him. It has you punching, jumping, and jump kicking your way through dozens of screens to get to the final boss. Spoiler, the final boss is ridiculously easy.

The setting of the game is China. As the game progresses it looks less like China and more like a dungeon. There are two enemies who show up on almost every screen to attack you. They are fairly predictable and can be defeated easily.

The other obstacles are built into each screen. You have to dodge fire, electrical shocks, and projectiles. You can collect lanterns and other things along the way for points. If you touch any hazard it’s instant death. However, it takes 3 strikes from an enemy to finish Bruce off.

Bruce Lee is an incredibly simple game, yet, it’s very enjoyable to play. It can be completed in under 15 minutes.

Bruce Lee is dropped in a chamber which looks pleasant enough. At least until a ninja with a stick shows up. Fighting him off isn’t to difficult, but enemies continually respawn.

If you stand still and hit the button then Bruce throws a punch. Be sure to time it so your punch is first. If you’re running and hit the button then Bruce does a jump kick. Again, be sure to strike first. This game is all about timing.

You’ll find a standing jump, a jump kick, and simply jumping up all have different results for distance and air time. This is important for dodging the electrical shocks traveling along the comb-like floor in later chambers.

Learning the predictable moves of your enemies makes them a minor distraction on your way to the final boss. Figuring out the timing and distance of Bruce’s jumps is important for dodging obstacles.

Collecting lanterns opens up new areas to explore. You’ll find some chambers are connected by secret paths. Other chambers require you to go through them twice to advance.

It’s fairly straightforward, meaning it’s hard to get lost or sidetracked. Unless you consider all the crazy ways to dispose of your enemies.

Part of the fun is discovering how easy it is to punch or kick an enemy into a hazard. Or trick them into coming at you, only to be consumed by a fire hazard. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, either way it’s hilarious.

Spoiler alert, you don’t actually fight the final boss. Merely run across the screen and kick the lantern on the other side. If you hesitate for a second one of the projectiles gets you.

The screen flashes signifying your victory, then you’re dropped back at the beginning. Only this time the enemies spawn faster and some safe spots in the obstacle chambers are removed.

Overall, it’s a short simple game. Still, between the fighting and dodging obstacles it’s very appealing. It’s not a game you can play for hours, but after all these years I still enjoy playing it from time to time. A session may only last 15-20 minutes, but those are some fun sessions.

I’m not sure if it’s the antics of defeating the enemies or the challenge of timing all those jumps in that one chamber with all the electrical shocks traveling along the floor (very satisfying to complete). Whatever it is, Bruce Lee is a great game for being so old.

Best of Commodore 64: Bruce Lee brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

The first thing you’ll notice is it looks like chess. There’s a light side and dark side with characters lined up on either side. The goal is to eliminate all your opponents pieces, or take’s 5 specific squares on the board. While it has some similarities to chess, it’s mostly a fighting game.

There is some strategy involved, however, winning the game comes down to winning individual battles. Strategy means nothing if you lose a crucial fight. Fights happen when two pieces occupy the same square. The game ends when no more characters are left on one side, or one side occupies all 5 power squares.

The game starts by choosing whether you want to play a player vs player or player vs computer. Then you choose whether you want to play as the dark side or light side. Also, which side starts with the advantage.

The light side has extra health on light squares, and the same applies to the dark side on dark squares. It’s to your advantage to have as many fights as possible on squares of your color.

Many squares are fixed as black and white. However, there are several squares that shift back and forth from dark to light after each turn. At the start you choose whether you want to have the first move or have the tide shift in your favor.

As for choosing a side, the Wizard leads the light side and the Sorceress leads the dark side. Each side is balanced with two basic types of fighters: melee or shooters. A few characters have special abilities, but all still fall into those two categories.

While the characters themselves look different, most have basically the same attack and speed, even the Wizard and Sorceress. There are unique characters such as the Shapeshifter and Phoenix. The Sorceress and Wizard also have the same arsenal of spells.

After choosing a side and getting started, you pick a piece to control. You can move or cast a spell if you choose the leader. Whenever two pieces land on the same space there’s a battle.

Once two pieces land on the same square, a battle begins. The color of the square determines which side has the advantage (increased health). The two pieces are then moved to another screen to start fighting.

Each player starts on opposite ends of the screen. Two shooters or two melee fighters vs each other are preferable. Melee fighters have good speed but are at a disadvantage vs shooting characters.

The battle screen has obstacles that periodically move. Players can use these obstacles for cover but they can abruptly disappear. Players attack each other until one loses all their health. Then the winner is taken back to the board and gets to keep the square.

Each player takes a turn moving pieces or casting spells. Special characters have special abilities. The Shapeshifter assumes the form of whatever character it is fighting. Obviously if you’re the dark side attacking a fast shooter is preferable for the Shapeshifter. Conversely, attacking the Shapeshifter with a melee fighter is preferable to the light side.

The Phoenix is a melee unit but it also has temporary invincibility. Whenever it attacks it turns into a big fireball. During this attack, anything within range is damaged but any attack toward the Phoenix is harmless. The Banshee on the dark side has a similar melee attack field, but the Banshee can be damaged during its attack.

The Wizard and Sorceress are powerful shooters during battles. They also cast spells but not during battle. Spells are:

• Teleport – move one of your pieces to another square
• Exchange – swap any two pieces
• Heal – heals any piece on the board
• Imprison – renders a piece immobile until one full color shift occurs
• Shift Time – reverses the shift of time (light/dark)
• Summon Elemental – summons one elemental to attack piece of your choosing. Elemental can be Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water
• Revive – revives one piece from any of yours previously eliminated

Casting a spell takes a turn. Any fight as the result of Teleport or Summon elemental still takes place during your turn. Yet, any other spell ends your turn.

Archon might be from the 1980’s, but it still is a lot of fun to play today!

Best of Commodore 64: Archon brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Commodore 64 games were better than Atari games but still not quite as good as many games found in an arcade. R.O.B.B. is a good example of that difference. Neither the Atari or Commodore 64 were known for their impressive graphics. The main difference was the gameplay. ROBB’s gameplay more than made up for the poor graphics.

In an era where you shot at an endless supply of Space Invaders in Space Invaders, Asteroids in Asteroids, or Missiles in Missile Command, newer games such as R.O.B.B. offered something different: the ability to finish a game.

The idea was simple, you controlled an attack helicopter and your mission was to destroy 6 factories. There were jets, tanks, and ground positions shooting guns and missiles to stop you from completing your mission.

It wasn’t just a game of endless shooting, there was actually a goal in mind. The computer controlled jets and anti-aircraft guns weren’t easy pickings either. It wasn’t an easy game to finish. But it was fun to play.

It also got progressively harder as the game went on. More defenses popped up near the remaining factories, and attacks on your aircraft carrier came more frequently. A Battleship being completed was also a constant threat to your carrier. It also had to be bombed periodically to prevent it’s completion.

It was almost always chaos near the last factory. Which made completing the game and seeing the ending all the more satisfying. A game didn’t last more than 10 minutes, so you could play it over and over until you won.

Raid On Bungeling Bay was basically shooting game. You had a top down view of your helicopter. The helicopter had a gun with unlimited ammo and 10 bombs. Most of the game is scouting for a factory, eliminating its defenses, and bombing it.

Frequently landing and reloading back at your aircraft carrier. Or hilariously at an enemy airport. If you landed there it would resupply your bombs but not repair any damage to your helicopter.

You could also take out jets before they took off if you spotted them. Taking out enemy radar also kept down the frequency of jet attacks. In addition to the factories, there was a battleship that you could bomb. While the battleship was an optional target, once completed it was only a matter of time before it would sink your carrier.

Between the jets, radar, tanks, and gun turrets on the ground there was plenty to keep you occupied between bombing factories. If that wasn’t bad enough, the first factory you bombed would be rebuilt about the time the 6th factory was being bombed.

Winning the game was a percentage thing. For beginners, it might take 10 tries to win. Even for pros, they can’t win 10 out of 10 games. It takes some luck and a lot of skill to get all 6 factories before the game gets too overwhelming.

R.O.B.B. is not only progressive for a game in general, but that was also built in. The game gets increasingly harder for every factory destroyed. It isn’t a bad idea to scout out the location of each factory and hit the isolated ones first. Saving factories clustered together for last.

That way you could be begin bombing that last factory before more jets took off or the first factory was rebuilt. Or the dreaded battleship was complete. Scouting out the battleships location and progress is also a good idea after the 3rd factory is destroyed.

While there is no timer in ROBB, everything about this game was a race against the clock. From the first factory bombed to the last, once you started you had to be quick. If you were fast enough you could get away with not bothering about the battleship at all.

By the time it reached your aircraft carrier you could be dropping the last bomb to finish the last factory. But that was a calculated risk. It could pay off with your name in the paper and a parade in your honor for completing your Raid On Bungeling Bay.

R.O.B.B. didn’t win any awards for its graphics or cutting edge gameplay. It’s still a remarkably fun game to this day. Not unlike some minigames or mobile games minus the graphics. ROBB has you flying around shooting enemies and dropping bombs on enemy factories.

Even though Raid On Bungeling Bay might not sound so great, trust me, it’s worth checking out!

Best of Commodore 64: R.O.B.B. brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Text based role playing adventure games had been around a while when Ultima III came out. Still, Exodus Ultima III took role playing games to a new level. It combined 2D top view for city, land, and water adventure with 3d maze view to explore dungeons. The scope of the game was vast for a Commodore 64.

Part of the appeal of the game was figuring out how to win. Nowadays, there are so many walkthroughs, guides, and spoilers online this game doesn’t have the same appeal. When it came out, it was easy to put up with the clunky fighting mechanics, slow progress, and underwhelming graphics in hopes of finding just one new clue per gaming session.

Yeah, another thing about games on the C64, they were slow. Like, five minutes just to load the game slow. Saving the game took a disk change and 30-40 seconds. Entering a city, fight, dungeon, or Ambrosia also took time.

Finishing the game could take months of gaming sessions. Not just because the platform was slow, but also because there wasn’t any shortcuts. If you got hung up on a problem, you just had to figure it out.

The game involved a lot of searching and talking. Every new city found meant new opportunities. At the bottom level of every dungeon was new discoveries.

Dungeons were a whole adventure on their own. You had to map it out yourself, bring torches, food, and other supplies if you wanted to survive.

Exodus Ultima III starts by creating characters and assembling a party. Once formed the adventure started in Lord British’s castle. There isn’t much there beyond a healer and several interesting characters to talk to. Once you leave the castle to Sosaria there is an adjacent city. There you can get armor and weapons because once you start exploring you will run into enemies.

Fighting is Exodus Ultima III is not very exciting. Each player takes a turn either moving or attacking. Hits or misses are basically a roll of the dice by the computer. Better weapons and traits improve the chances of a hit. But improving your party takes a lot of time. Like many, many sessions to reach the maximum.

Which isn’t such a bad thing because along the way you’ll discover the cause of all the monsters: Exodus. Finding out what, where, and how to defeat Exodus is the whole game in a nutshell. This involves exploring every city, dungeon, and part of Sosaria you can. There’s even a hidden world of Ambrosia to explore. Ambrosia doesn’t have any cities or dungeons, however, there are mysterious temples to find and figure out their secrets.

While Ultima III has a lot of battle’s it involves just as much searching for clues. This involves talking to every person, even hidden ones, in every city. Plus a very special one at the bottom of a specially hidden dungeon.

Piecing together the clues and solving the game was incredibly rewarding when this game first came out. Since then many games have duplicated Ultima’s formula gameplay. Such as The legend of Zelda, Super Hydlide, Final Fantasy, and many more.

There made seven versions of Ultima plus an online version, but Ultima III remains my favorite. It dropped the time travel and space exploration and just focused on figuring out the solution to defeating Exodus. Hint, it didn’t involve a battle or talking, rather solving a kind of puzzle.

For Ultima III, the progress is slow and the graphics aren’t captivating. However, discovering all the clues, finding all the hidden areas, and figuring out all the secrets in this game is it’s main appeal.

Similar to Myst, once you know all the secrets you can win this game quickly. But that would defeat the goal. Which is to take you on a role playing adventure.

Exodus Ultima III starts slow but finishes strong. It’s worth getting a Commodore 64 emulator and giving it a try. Exodus Ultima III may be 40 year old game, but it still holds up as a great role playing adventure game!

Best of Commodore 64: Exodul Ultima III brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Impossible Mission for the Commodore 64 came out in 1984, it was ahead of it’s time. By today’s standards the graphics are not good, but they were remarkable for the Commodore 64. The fluid way the character moved was entirely new. It made up for the pixelated look of everything else.

The gameplay was relatively new. Instead of going for a high score in a game that never ended, this game had a way to finish the game. It was the original Escape room game.

The idea was to collect all the computer cards (a relic from the first computers), figure out how they fit together to reveal the password, and finally find the exit to win. All this had to be done before time ran out.

If it sounds basic, that’s because it is a simple game. But that doesn’t mean in wasn’t fun or rewarding to complete the game. Another innovative feature is the computer generated levels. No two games are the same. While each game uses the same 30 rooms, they are laid out differently every time. Each room has differently programmed robots too.

This means the game could be nearly impossible one time or fairly easy another time. It mostly comes down to how the robots acted in five or six rooms. The game included two power ups to compensate for those impossible rooms. The first item was a platform reset, and the other item temporary disabled all the robots in the room.

The robot disable item was worth it’s weight in gold for this game. Many times it came down to one stubborn robot getting between you and the last item in the room to search.

The game mainly involved entering a room and searching every item in it while dodging the attacking robots. You could either jump or use the moving platforms to get around the robot. Each room was different so you had to figure out how to search items without being hit by the robots. Each time you get hit you lose 10 minutes of time. Eventually, you will run out of time and lose the game.

Three hours sounds like a lot of time, but most games were over in less than an hour either way. The game included a “call a friend” feature where you call to find out if you have enough pieces for a solution or not. Which saves you from having to search every item in the game. Especially since a few items were almost impossible to get to without a robot snooze card.

Figuring out how each robot was programmed was part of the fun. You never knew whether a robot could move, shoot, or chase you until it happened.

The puzzle pieces aren’t terribly difficult once you grasp how you use the tools to fit them together. It takes four cards to complete one puzzle. All the cards need oriented and set to the same color to reveal a letter.

Without any guidance, putting together one puzzle can take a while. But once you get how it works, each puzzle goes together relatively quickly. .

It wasn’t terribly complicated. You searched for all the computer cards, solved the puzzles, and went through the exit to win. No hidden paths, secret traps, essential items to collect, or final bosses to defeat.

It isn’t the most complex game I’ve ever played, but it sure is a lot of fun even to this day. I still launch a Commodore 64 game of Impossible Mission every so often, complete it, and enjoy watching the end.

Best of Commodore 64: Impossible Mission brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Elite is a basically a game about exploring space. You travel between planet systems trading goods, fighting pirates, plus there’s a few built in missions. Mostly, the game is a flight simulator where you fight other space ships and dock at a satellite.

The graphics are as basic as they get. If you’ve played Battlezone then you have some idea. Ships, satellites, planets, and asteroids are all wireframe outlines. It isn’t glamorous, but it gets the job done.

There’s a main view, but it can be switched between front, rear, and either side view. Two mini maps are displayed. The larger one shows objects and their proximity to you. The yellow marks show whether an object is above or below your The V shaped dots represent your field of view.

The smaller mini map in the corner allows you to find the satellite or the planet when you’re farther away. In deep space it’s hard to see where any planets or satellites are. But don’t let the graphics fool you, Elite is a lot of fun.

Instead of moving up, down, left, and right. Elite employs pitch up, pitch down, roll clockwise, and roll counterclockwise. I’ve played many games involving flight, and I like these mechanics the best. It takes some getting used to and newer versions of Elite do offer the standard up, down, left, and right controls. Yet, these mechanics coupled with the speed controls feel most like flying in my opinion.

Fighting space pirates really feels like it’s taking place in a 3D space. It takes some practice to match the enemies pitch and roll. After some time picking off pirates gets easy.

Elite also includes many features to help you during your exploration. There are different weapons, gear, and upgrades for your space ship. The four different laser guns are:

• Standard laser – fairly weak and useless
• Beam laser – same strength as standard but extremely fast
• Military laser – expensive but worth every penny
• Mining laser – good for extracting minerals from asteroids but worthless for attacking enemies

The first upgrade should be a beam laser. They are fast and heat up quickly, but are a lot of fun to use. The military laser isn’t as fast as the beam laser but it’s stronger. Definitely worth the excessive price. The mining laser is for mining minerals from asteroids and not attacking.

Your Cobra Mark III ship is also equipped with four missiles, but they are expensive to use regularly. There are also several upgrades available for the ship. You can purchase an ECM system, escape pod, energy bomb, extra energy unit, docking computers, cargo expansion bay, and cargo scoops.

Every upgrade opens up new features. The cargo bay expansion allows more trade items to fit in your ship, thus making each trip more profitable. Cargo scoops allow you to get free fuel from any Sun. They also let you pick up cargo from destroyed ships or mined asteroids.

The ECM system damages nearby enemies but uses some of your energy stores with each use. An energy bomb takes out all enemies in range, however, it is expensive. The extra energy unit makes shields and power banks restore faster.

Docking computers automate the docking process. It can be a bit tricky to synchronize your ship with the satellite’s movements. Enabling it once you’re very close to docking is best.

An escape pod jettisons your cargo and immediately brings you to a satellite. It’s expensive way to avoid a game over. Not only do you lose your cargo but any upgrades are lost. Saving games often is a better solution.

Even better still is quickly destroying the space pirates before they get you. Trading goods for profit as you hyperspace from planet system to planet system is rewarding. But blowing up those enemies is the best part of this game.

As you destroy enemies your rank increases. Once you reach certain milestones, missions are triggered. Don’t be tricked into buying Trumbels. They eat all your food, multiply, and take up all the room in you cargo bay. The only way to purge these pests is with fire. Fly close enough to a sun long enough and the trouble with Truffles gous away.

The other missions are much better. Hunting down a stolen prototype and destroying it is a blast. It takes several hyperspace jumps and satellite dockings to complete this mission. Pay attention to the clues given after each docking.

The last mission is to transport blueprints halfway across the galaxy. This is also guaranteed numerous encounters with the Thargoids. They are harder to destroy than standard space pirates. Plus scooping up debris from their ships pays off as alien items at any satellite.

Between the fighting, trading, missions, galaxies, and upgrades it’s remarkable to think this game runs with only 64k of memory. It isn’t an action packed, beautiful modern game. Still, it’s a lot of fun for an almost 50 year old game.

Several versions of Elite have been made over the years but the original Commodore 64 game is still fire. Get an emulator or modern Commodore 64, and give Elite a try. You’ll be surprised how fun Elite is for such an old game.

Best of Commodore 64: Elite brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.

Why Barbie?

Released in 1984 by Epyx, Barbie for the Commodore 64 was one of the earliest video games aimed specifically at a young female audience. While it broke new ground in terms of demographic focus, the game itself is very much a product of its time—with both charm and limitations.

The premise is simple: Barbie gets a phone call from Ken inviting her on a date. The player’s goal is to help Barbie get ready by choosing an appropriate outfit and accessories for different activities—like going to the beach, dinner, or the movies. Or once annoyed by Ken saying almost every time “Sorry Barbie, plans have changed” you dress up for a formal dinner at the beach.

Gameplay consists mostly of choosing options and matching clothing items from a menu. After selecting the right outfit (or wrong), you drive Barbie’s convertible to the date location. The driving sequence is basic, mostly visual, with no hazards, the only challenge is it’s hard to stop at places, lol.

It’s a very light, cute and whimsical game. The player is rewarded with different endings or compliments from Ken, depending on how well the outfit matches the occasion or what time you get there.

Visually, Barbie looks decent for a 1984 game on the Commodore 64. Barbie, Ken, and their surroundings are drawn with bright colors and recognizable pixel art. The animation is minimal but serviceable.

The music and sound effects are nice and simple. A little tune plays when Ken calls or when you’re driving, adding to the charm.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

One of the first games designed specifically for young girls.

Simple, friendly interface for beginners.

Introduced basic fashion/dress-up mechanics.

Historical curiosity for collectors and retro fans.

Cons:

Very limited gameplay and can get repetitive.

Summary

Barbie on the Commodore 64 is a niche title that stands more as a cultural artifact than a must-play game. While it doesn’t offer much in terms of long term engaging gameplay, it’s fun for half hour or less of gameplay. For retro collectors or fans of Barbie history, it’s an great game.

Mario – Review brought to you by Gaming Chickadee

Chickadee loves to have family gaming days. She loves birds, unicorns, ponies She also likes the Nancy Drew Games. She loves to play as Princess Daisy in the Super Mario Games, Her favorite games change a lot but right they are: Mario Party Superstars, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Pretty Princess Party.

This was when Pac-Man was at it’s height of popularity. Games like Space Invaders, Q-bert, and Pitfall were all the rage. Spy vs Spy didn’t get as much attention as those other games but it was notably different from most games at that time. It’s one of the first two player games that was actually fun. Players actually went head to head on a split screen. I don’t count corny Atari games like pong.

Spy vs Spy was an incredible leap forward in video games. It wasn’t a side scroller, or shooting game. Players searched through different rooms for four items. The first to collect all four items and make it to the exit won.

It’s common to see games with maps, inventory, goals, and an ending. In 1984 this was new. Games like Among Us, Zelda, or other adventure games weren’t around yet. Spy vs Spy was only ten rooms, but incorporated many new features for video games.

It had a 3d layout. Meaning, it wasn’t a top view or side view. Rather like looking into a house that was missing a roof and front wall. More like a TV show type view. The graphics were high tech for the 1980’s. The music was also perfect for the game, considering they only had a few notes to work from.

Spy vs Spy not only looked and sounded great, the gameplay was top notch. The game was mostly about searching for items in a small house, however, it also included combat, traps, items, and a map.

Both the Black Spy and White Spy were searching for the same items in the same house. So, naturally you would run into each other in the same room. Which of course turned into a battle.

The loser would respawn in a different room and have some time removed from their countdown timer. Both players had to collect a key, money, passport, and map before time ran out. Once they collected everything in the briefcase they could go to the airport and win the game.

Not only could you fight each other during the search, You could set traps. This was the best part of the game. Each Spy had a bomb, a deadly spring, an acid filled bucket, and a gun with a rope.

You set the bomb and spring in places being searched, such as the desk, bookcase, wall safe, table, or chairs. The gun and bucket traps were set on doors. When a Spy, including yourself, came across a trap it was time to respawn.

The game also included a bag and umbrella to save you from a trap. Still, you had to search for those items and they only had a one time use. Needless to say, respawning was common. Eventually, respawning eats up so much time the game is over for that spy. The remaining spy can finish the game if they can find everything before time runs out.

Spy vs Spy included a map to help you on your quest to find the four items. It was rudimentary but useful. The map showed a block layout of the house. A dot meant there was an item in that room. The color of the block showed whether a room had been searched or not.

A map, inventory, and items were new concepts for video games back then. Spy vs Spy made good use of those features. Nothing was wasted or useless in this game.

Spy vs Spy incorporated so many new features I forgot to say how much fun it was! This game was a blast playing with friends. We enjoyed setting traps, fighting each other, and yes, even racing against the clock. There was usually plenty of time to find everything, unless you spent more time fighting than searching.

Spy vs Spy was a great game back in the 1980s. It even had a couple sequel games. Sadly, it’s not found on any modern gaming platforms. However, if you are looking for a great retro game, get an emulator or modern Commodore 64, and give Spy vs Spy a whirl.

Best of Commodore 64: Spy vs Spy brought to you by: David M.

I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.