In 1989 I got my first computer, a second-hand Commodore 64 along with a lot of software and books. This was the starting point of my fascination with computer graphics, programming, and games, all of which influenced large parts of my later life. This blog is about my experiences with the C64, past and present. Expect a lot of nostalgia, some humor, loads of old-school pixel art, and the occasional drift into rambling about the C64's inner workings.
I intend to look at the games, demos and other software titles which I encountered during my time with the C64. My main focus will be on the more obscure titles from German diskmags which aren't widely discussed on the web. Occasionally I'll also show off some of my own creations if I feel like embarrassing myself.
Rest assured that if I sometimes criticize or make fun of the art shown on this blog, it's never intended to be mean-spirited. I have the utmost respect for the artists, and I know how working under restrictions and time limits can sometimes affect the outcome. Also, it's important to understand that a lot of the art was done by teenagers who did this as a hobby and not (yet) professionally.
 If I happen to get overly excited about a technical aspect of a game and feel the need to examine it a bit deeper, I'll usually put the corresponding text into an Amateur Geekout box. This is to let you know that a) if you want, you can skip reading this part, and b) anything I say in here might be wrong, because I am not an expert on C64 programming.I'll add some basic facts about the C64 where I think them interesting to point out, and I'll link to websites where technical details are described more competently. |
 Whenever I think a game could be improved by tweaking some of its mechanics, I'll insert a Backseat Game Design box to describe and occasionally illustrate my ideas. That doesn't mean I feel like I'm the better game designer. In my opinion, it is generally easier to look at a finished product and point out its flaws than to create something new that works perfectly out of the box.I'll try to stay within the realm of what is technically possible on a C64, thus I won't suggest stuff like support for joysticks with more than one fire button or analog controls. |
There is a YouTube channel with the same name that runs parallel to this blog. I'll mainly use it to upload music tracks from the games I'm discussing here and maybe the occasional gameplay video.
In case you are wondering, the name Adventures in 16 Colors refers to the Commodore 64's color palette which consists of 16 predefined colors. The name is also a lie since most of the time my C64 was attached to a green monochrome monitor. Instead of colors, I saw different patterns which I soon started to associate with their actual colors. Aside from that, some of my favorite games on the C64 were adventures, so there is a bit of a double meaning.
About Me
If you are interested, you can also find me at www.hulub.ch where I documented my games and other related works. Unfortunately, I hardly have any spare time left to work on personal projects nowadays, thus I haven't updated the site in years.
If you want to get in touch, you can contact me at thonr2(at)hotmail.com. Any feedback is appreciated!
