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The first article I posted on this blog appeared on the 6th of January 2017, so I take that as the day of birth for Ai16C. The article was about The 16 Colors of the VIC-II. While not the most exciting of topics, it represents the fundament of this blog, as about 95% of the images that I post here use the C64's color palette (specifically, Philip "pepto" Timmermann's colodore version).
When I started writing about old (and mostly obscure) C64 games a year ago, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep at it for long. Turns out, this is something I really enjoy doing, even if the games are more often than not of rather poor quality. I think it helps that I have a connection with all of them because I played them as a kid. I restrict myself to software that got released on CP Verlag's three diskmags (Magic Disk 64, Game On, Golden Disk 64), and I'm going through the magazines in chronological order. To some extent, this approach dictates what I'll be writing about next, which lessens the agony of choice for me. I can still decide to skip certain titles, as I don't feel the numerous Pong and Breakout variants deserve entire articles.
So far I've managed to look at twenty-five games, three software tools, and one demo. I guess that's already enough to hand out some virtual, totally arbitrary awards. So, here goes:
BEST GAME
Of all the games I've played for this blog, Keyfinders is among the few that I can reliably complete in one go without encountering any overly frustrating parts or spots where I die over and over due to bad luck. If I lose a life in the game, it is entirely my fault. Also, despite its obvious Indiana Jones influences, the game has a unique feel to it, not least because of its strange conglomerate of enemies that range from spiders to bouncing eyeballs and miniature space shuttles.
WORST GAME
This one was surprisingly easy to pick, even though I've had to endure quite a lot of bad games. MegaParatrooper! is a collection of abysmal minigames loosely connected by a confused story. To win the first game you just have to keep the joystick's fire button pressed. That's it. The second game has you pick equipment for your ship based on a message you received earlier. There isn't much logic to it, and it absolutely doesn't help that whoever created this part couldn't decide if they wanted to write in English or German. Game three is a terrible Snake clone. And for the final minigame, which is touted as the Ultimate Fight, you have to figure out a safe combination within a time limit that is way too short unless you already know the correct numbers. Fittingly, the game doesn't have a conclusion and instead ends with a disk error. If I have to single out a game that I absolutely despised playing for this blog, my finger can't point fast enough at this piece of garbage.
BEST NON-GAME
Magic Disk 64 didn't just feature games but also included software utilities and, on occasion, C64 demoscene productions. Ecstatic Code was the very first demo I ever got to see. 27 years later, its neat collection of technical tricks lead me to write a pretty detailed article about how some of the visual effects were achieved. I had a lot of fun writing about raster interrupts and sine tables (even though my knowledge of assembly language is rather limited), thus I consider Ecstatic Code the best non-game I've come across in this blog's first year.
BEST MUSIC
This was another easy choice for me, even though I played a lot of games for Ai16C that had great music. Thomas Detert's epic 32 minutes soundtrack to Gordian Tomb is simply outstanding. Here's what past me had to say about it in the article:
"Thomas Detert went the full distance and composed an epic piece that moves seamlessly from one theme to the next without ever losing its overall cohesion. There is also a notable rise in tension the closer the tune gets to the end, just to remind the player that it's high time to finish the game. It's safe for me to say that this is one of my absolute favorite C64 soundtracks."
BEST GRAPHICS
While The Yawn's graphics consist exclusively of still images, their quantity and quality surpass anything else I've seen on this blog thus far. There are some occasional perspective issues, and some of the humans look a bit deformed, but overall this is a great collection of eye candy. The above slideshow should quiet anyone who still thinks the C64 isn't very good at displaying colorful graphics.
WEIRDEST USE OF AN UNLICENSED MUSIC COVER
Jungle Patrol is a side-scrolling action game inspired by the arcade classic Moon Patrol. There is only one piece of music playing in the background, and it is a remix of the theme tune to the 1987 movie RoboCop. Why? I have no idea. If I had to draw a Venn diagram of what you do in Jungle Patrol and what happens in RoboCop, I'd have a hard time getting those two circles to overlap. Well, there is driving involved in both, so there's at least that.
MOST BAFFLING IMAGERY
I mean, the picture speaks for itself. To this day, I don't know if this is based on some existing image or if it is a completely original piece. I even went to a C64 forum and asked around if anyone had seen something like this before but to no avail. In any case, horses in space are a rare occurrence and deserve a mention.
BEST MONSTER DESIGNS
There are some weird (and likely illegal) experiments going on in this tower, judging by the bizarre menagerie that roams its corridors. While you ascend the Tower of Terror, you meet monsters that got crossbred with wheelbarrows, literally big-boned skeletons, bipedal dinosaurs holding sticks in their uselessly tiny hands, and plucked chickens on roller skates. I'm not sure these creatures quite evoke the titular terror, but they're worth seeing anyway.
MOST DERIVATIVE MAGAZINE ARTWORK
Indiana Jones and the Ancient Key of Face Deformation.
And that's the first year of Ai19C in review. I have a lot more C64 games to go through. Some of them good, a lot of them quite bad, but since they were all part of my childhood, I don't mind taking them for another spin and then waffle about them here. Thank you for reading!
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